Many of you will have already read about the arms buildup in the Indian Ocean and the mounting tensions between US forces and Iran. About a week ago, Iran threatened to strike the island where the US was massing stealth bombers
Diego Garcia is a British-controlled island in the Indian Ocean that houses a strategic US-British military base. Located about 3,800 kilometers (2,360 miles) from Iran, the island is beyond the estimated range of Iran’s conventional ballistic missiles, which are believed to have a maximum range of approximately 2,000 kilometers (1,240 miles).
Iran’s state media added that Tehran would strike the Diego Garcia facility with ballistic missiles and suicide drones in response to any “hostile action by the US against the Iranian nation.” According to the reports, “Iran has the necessary weapons for such an attack from its own territory, including newer versions of the medium-range Khorramshahr missile and the Shahed-136B kamikaze drone, which has a range of 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles).”
These statements follow the publication of recent satellite images over the weekend showing that the US strategic base in the Indian Ocean now hosts at least five B-2 strategic bombers. The deployment is part of increasing reports of a US military buildup in the region. Simultaneously, the military news site Defense News reported that the aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson has left Guam in the western Pacific and is headed to the area.
Since then, the United States has deployed a second aircraft carrier and its associated group to the area, bringing more than 50% of the total Stealth Bomber fleet to the region.
A LOT of us have a pretty well-established and well-justified “nothing ever happens” attitude when it comes to geopolitics. Mass Media organizations have demonstrated enormous willingness and proficiency in wielding reports of terrifying global developments to manipulate and control huge swaths of the population. In the smartphone and social media era they’ve really come a long way since the Bush Era instituted the color-coded Homeland Security Advisory System and advised us that under a yellow threat level it was okay to shop normally, but under orange and red threat levels we should do most of our shopping online.
The sophistication and effectiveness of “WAR IS COMING”, “RECESSION RECESSION RECESSION”, and “HOT PLAGUE-RIDDEN SINGLES IN YOUR AREA” propaganda makes a certain casual dismissal of advanced warning a psychological necessity for the dissident on the go, but the major media organizations seem to be displaying uncharacteristic restraint regarding the standoff over the island Diego Garcia and its reminiscence to the fictional Fernando Poo Incident.
Shit got real interesting today and so far mainstream sources are completely mum about it.
Back in October, when Iran/Israel tensions were at their highest, Iran launched 180 ballistic missiles at Israel.
Iran said the barrage was retaliation for a series of devastating blows Israel has landed in recent weeks against the Iran-backed militant group Hezbollah in Lebanon, which has been firing rockets into Israel since the war in Gaza began. Earlier Tuesday, Israel launched what it said is a limited ground incursion in southern Lebanon.
One week later there was an unusual and suspicious 4.5 magnitude earthquake in the Iranian dessert 100 miles southeast of Tehran. ZeroHedge.com reported on the possibility of this seismic signature matching an underground nuclear test better than it matched a real earthquake
The speculation that Iran carried out a nuclear test comes just days after the Heritage Foundation, a right-wing think tank in the US, published a report stating that “Iran can produce nuclear weapons far more rapidly than expected.”
Published on October 1st, the report noted that in late April 2024, a senior Iranian lawmaker stated that there is only a “one-week gap from the issuance of the order to the first test” of a nuclear bomb.
In May, an adviser to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei warned that Iran may be forced to change its nuclear doctrine, which until now has called only for using nuclear technology for civilian purposes. “We have no decision to build a nuclear bomb, but should Iran’s existence be threatened, there will be no choice but to change our military doctrine,” Kamal Kharrazi stated.
The Heritage Foundation report added that in July, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken seemed to corroborate this claim when he stated that “instead of being at least a year away from having the breakout capacity of producing fissile material for a nuclear weapon, [Iran] is now probably one or two weeks away.”
The statements accompanied a significant increase in Iran’s stockpile of Uranium enriched to the 60 percent level between May and August 2024, according to a report by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).
But that shit was half a year ago, and Israel’s been slaughtering their own population and invading their neighbors with seemingly total impunity. The “Nothing Ever Happens” set and their callus of justified skepticism has been right for the billionth time.
AND YET… there was another 4.5 magnitude earthquake in the Iranian dessert TODAY.
Geopolitics this decade has kinda taken on an “all bets are off” approach, and while traditional wisdom is that Iran doesn’t have nuclear bombs and even if they did, that they would never dare to use them, if anything does ever happen, SOMEBODY (maybe you!) will be in a world of shit.
Sound off like you got a pair!
– Freeman Tao
I cannot speak with certainty about the future, especially about what Trump (Colonel Bombast) will do, but there are some things which seem quite guaranteed.
If (when) the missiles begin flying and the bombs start exploding, the price of gasoline in the US will probably double in price, going from just over $3.00/gallon to $6-7.00/gallon virtually overnight. It could easily go to $10.00 and if that happens, the US economy will implode and collapse like a wet, soggy cardboard box. As it is right now, my daily commute to/from Missoula costs me about $12/day and increasing that by two or three times would be intolerable. I would simply retire earlier than anticipated and start drawing Social Security sooner than planned. That is, if there is anything left in the barrel to draw out, which, like my predictions, is not guaranteed.
It seems to me that the current economic/political system we are living in today is on its death bed, on life support, and gasping for every next breath, trying to stave off the inevitable instead of simply succumbing to it and passing peacefully into that good night. I have been waiting for and anticipating the “Final Moment” for a long, long time and now that it is (seemingly) within arm’s length, all I can do is to trust that my own personal affairs are in relatively good shape and ride out the storm as best I can. Certainly, there is nothing I can do on a global or even national scale to turn the Ship of State in a better direction. We have reached the end of the line and I may survive the Crash (and its aftermath) or I may not. I’m not too concerned about it either way and will not live in fear over what might or might not happen.
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At the end of June, I can (and intend to) fill out the forms to start drawing full retirement “benefits” from Social Security. After a lifetime of paying into The System, it is going to start producing fruit, although what I get back will never come close to what I have “invested”. It will also only pay half of what my take-home pay is now which means that I will have to find some form of paid work to make up the difference. Does Wal-Mart have any openings for a greeter?
Nevertheless, if I could go back in time and change anything about that in a substantial way, I would restructure The System to offer younger people a way out of the trap by allowing them to keep their hard-earned money and invest it on their own. Forcing them to pay into a government-mandated Ponzi scheme is a dead end and the generation following mine (Boomer) will be the one holding the bag on this issue. Pay in for your entire lifetime, get nothing back for your efforts and pain.
It would not be out of line for the younger generations to simply do what the Eskimos (Inuits) are purported to do when one of their tribe becomes too aged and frail to keep up–leave them by the side of the trail with a small pile of sticks for a fire and a little chunk of whale blubber, then move on.
I don’t doubt this will happen to Social Security. More power to those who make the hard choice.