Khamenei, One of Most Evil People in History, is Dead
POSTED BY: 6ixStringJack
UPDATED: Wednesday, September 2, 2026 05:42
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Little Changes With US-Iran
The only thing that seems to have changed over the last few weeks is that Trump’s threats are getting a little less extreme. After weeks of trying to frighten the Iranian regime and impress his US supporters by talking about committing historic war crimes against the Iranians, to destroy their bridges, power plants, indeed their national life, the threats are getting a touch more coy and do indicate that he really is running out of options.
https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/p/midweek-update-10-little-change
s
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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What Did The Bombing Campaign Accomplish?
By Phillips P. OBrien | May 13, 2026
https://phillipspobrien.substack.com/i/197347744/what-did-the-bombing-
campaign-accomplish
The Trump administration has spent a massive amount of time telling the American people how amazingly destructive and effective the US bombing campaign before the ceasefire was. On April 7, when Trump declared the ceasefire, he stated directly that the Iranian military had been destroyed, that the US had “already met and exceeded all military objectives” and had achieved “total and complete victory. 100%. No question about it”.
Secretary of Defense Hegseth was even more explicit about how long it would take the Iranian military to rebuild. He said: "Epic Fury decimated Iran's military and rendered it combat-ineffective for years to come."
Well, turns out that years might have been days, or to be honest, no time at all. US intelligence reports have been leaking lately, and they do not paint a picture of an Iranian military that has been damaged in the way that Trump and Hegseth are claiming. The Washington Post published a story five days ago that said Iran was in a strong position to outlast US pressure, partly because its military was in better shape than Trump administration sources were claiming openly. In particular, when it came to its mobile missile and missile launch capacity, a key part of the Iranian military threat, the reports are the 75% of these remain intact.
The New York Times backed all this pessimistic reporting up yesterday by publishing a very alarming story from the US perspective about both how much of the Iranian military was left intact by the strikes, and moreover, how things have improved for Iran since. Here is how that article started:
Quote:The depth and pessimistic nature of these reports were reportedly why even Republican members of Congress were pushing back yesterday on the administration.
The Trump administration’s public portrayal of a shattered Iranian military is sharply at odds with what U.S. intelligence agencies are telling policymakers behind closed doors, according to classified assessments from early this month that show Iran has regained access to most of its missile sites, launchers and underground facilities.
Most alarming to some senior officials is evidence that Iran has restored operational access to 30 of the 33 missile sites it maintains along the Strait of Hormuz, which could threaten American warships and oil tankers transiting the narrow waterway.
People with knowledge of the assessments said they show — to varying degrees, depending on the level of damage incurred at the different sites — that the Iranians can use mobile launchers that are inside the sites to move missiles to other locations. In some cases they can launch missiles directly from launchpads that are part of the facilities. Only three of the missile sites along the strait remain totally inaccessible, according to the assessments.
So the Iranian military might not have been so damaged by US strikes as claimed and has now had a period to reconstitute itself, particularly in strategic areas such as the Strait of Hormuz. Every day this continues, it means that restarting military action becomes a riskier choice.
The US military, as I said Monday, has demonstrated worrying signs of failing in this war. The rot might be worse than expected.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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The numbers that show why Trump will struggle to restart his war
By Kieron Monks | May 14, 2026
https://inews.co.uk/news/world/numbers-show-trump-struggle-restart-war
-iran-4407506
The Iran war has depleted America’s weapons stockpile, leaving Donald Trump vulnerable and constraining his ability to resume hostilities, military analysts say.
The majority of Iran’s missiles and launchers, meanwhile, are believed to remain intact.
Research from US military think tank the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) found that many of the most advanced offensive and defensive munitions in the US arsenal were burned through during six weeks of high intensity warfare, which could leave the Pentagon short in future conflicts. https://www.csis.org/analysis/last-rounds-status-key-munitions-iran-wa
r-ceasefire
More than 1,000 Tomahawk and JASSM long-range cruise missiles were used in the bombardment, almost a third of the total available, while more than half of Patriot and THAAD (Terminal High Altitude Area Defence) missiles were deployed. The timeline to replace the munitions is about four years, according to CSIS.
The US President has called the shaky ceasefire between the two adversaries “unbelievably weak” and on “massive life support”, with negotiations proving difficult. Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesman accused the US of being “unreasonable” and “one-sided” with its most recent demands, after Trump branded Iran’s response to a previous peace proposal “totally unacceptable”.
The diplomatic war of words will worry some in the White House who believe a return to war could put further pressure on US stockpiles.
US pilots at extra risk
The depletion of key weapons is likely to be a “factor” in whether Trump acts on repeated threats to resume bombing of Iran, said Mark Cancian, a former US Army colonel who co-authored the study.
“I think it would be a factor because of concerns regarding future conflicts, particularly China and the Western Pacific,” he said. “We could continue operations if the fighting restarted [with Iran], but one area I think would be a particular concern, where the US might actually run out is THAAD.”
Senior figures in the Trump administration such as Vice President JD Vance have reportedly raised serious concerns over weapons depletion, while War Secretary Pete Hegseth faced questions over the issue at a congressional hearing on Tuesday.
Democrat Senator Mark Kelly said on Sunday that classified briefings had revealed serious shortages and raised concerns about US readiness for future conflicts. “It’s shocking how deep we have gone into these magazines,” he said.
The report by CSIS showed a shift toward cheaper, more plentiful weaponry as a result of the diminished US arsenal, requiring US bombers to be closer to their targets and take greater risk. Cancian said the US could seek to rely on cheaper munitions but “the big capability you lose is range”. While a Tomahawk has a range of more than 1,000 miles, with cheaper bombs, US pilots would “have to get right up” to the target.
The Pentagon is likely to seek to influence any future action to safeguard stocks, said the retired serviceman. “I’m sure that the Pentagon will raise it as an issue,” he said. “They won’t say ‘you can’t do this’. But they will put it in the construct ‘if you do this, then this will be the effect.’”
Cancian added that long lead times to replace weapons were unlikely to be shortened by much in the coming years, despite Trump’s plans to scale up production.
Michael Mulroy, a former senior war department official who served under Trump, agreed that depleted weapons would be a factor in whether the US resumes the war with Iran. “We have other weapons, but they are more of a risk to use,” he said, warning that a new approach was needed. “We essentially manufacture for peace time activities. That has to change. Our adversaries are watching.”
According to the New York Times, the reports of drained US munitions stocks has also caused anxiety from European allies. These
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Trump is very rattled by any hint that the war isn’t going as well as he’s claimed. He erupted on Truth Social saying this: “When the fake news says that the Iranian enemy is doing well militarily against us, it’s virtual treason.”
Trump continued that the media is aiding and abetting the enemy. And he called the media “American cowards that are rooting against our country.” He called them losers, ingrates, and fools.
On Monday, as everyone has heard by now, Trump admitted that he doesn’t think about the economic impact of his war on Americans at all when thinking about the situation. Let’s listen to how Republicans tried to spin their way out of this. Here’s JD Vance.
Reporter (voiceover): Do you agree with the president’s position that Americans’ financial situations should not be a consideration in that decision-making process?
JD Vance (voiceover): Well, I don’t think the president said that. I think that’s a misrepresentation of what the president said. But look, I agree with the president that Iran should not have a nuclear weapon.
Here’s Mike Johnson.
Mike Johnson (voiceover): I don’t know the context in which he made that comment, but I can tell you the president thinks about the American financial situation. I talked to him on average twice a day, sometimes three or four times a day.
Here’s Senator Roger Marshall.
Roger Marshall (voiceover): I would have to find out the context of it. I’m sorry.
Here’s Senator Cynthia Lummis.
Cynthia Lummis (voiceover): Did he say that? Yeah, I don’t have a comment about that. Mostly because I think he actually does care.
Sargent: Nick, I’ve got to say, a lot of them are claiming they don’t know the context, but the context is not exonerating in the least, is it?
Grossman: No. And it’s a very typical Republican move to pretend that they haven’t heard what he said or that they don’t understand the context as a way to try to duck being tied to it or some responsibility for it. But the weird thing about this one is—while I think it is almost certain that Trump personally does not care about the finances of the American people except in a way that it might be a political liability for him, which of course he thinks he could lie his way through and just say it’s great and that it’s not an issue—I think that one’s actually tied up in his understanding of and misunderstanding of negotiations, and why he was berating the media.
Iran’s leverage over the United States comes from the economic damage that it’s causing. And when asked, effectively, so does Iran have leverage over you because of all this economic damage, he very quickly defaults to, no, no, no, I don’t think about that, I don’t care about it. But in the process, it’s probably revealing some of his personal beliefs and looking absolutely terrible politically, given that prices are rising in various ways.
Gas prices—this is one of the only times in history where the gas price rise is directly the fault of the president and is very easy to understand as the fault of the president. And that statement from Trump seems like it is tailor-made for Democratic ads.
https://newrepublic.com/article/210415/transcript-trump-iran-tirade-ra
ttles-gop-leaks-expose-new-blunders
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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World Burns Through Its Oil Safety Net at a Record Pace
By Georgi Kantchev | May 15, 2026
https://www.wsj.com/business/energy-oil/the-world-is-burning-through-i
ts-oil-safety-net-ebf9d4fa
An underappreciated surplus of crude oil, sloshing around storage tanks and aboard ships, cushioned the global economy when the Persian Gulf closed 2.5 months ago.
That excess supply is now dwindling at a record pace, with oil executives and analysts predicting that a harsh reckoning is set to upend the relative calm in energy markets. Acute shortages of key fuels and soaring prices could emerge within weeks if the Strait of Hormuz remains shut.
The drawdown in private storage and government strategic reserves, along with a fall in demand because of the higher prices, has bought time and prevented oil prices from exploding. But it has left little margin for error in the months ahead.
“You can only decrease consumption so much, and when inventories run out, they are going to run out,” said Ellen Wald, senior fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Global Energy Center. “At some point, the market is going to collide and prices are going to shoot up.”
Global oil inventories—which include onshore tanks and oil floating on tankers at sea, and are a measure of the slack in energy markets—have fallen at a record pace since the start of the war. They plunged by 250 million barrels over March and April, according to the International Energy Agency, a Paris-based club of energy-consuming nations. That is equal to around 2.5 days of global oil use.
The runway to avoid reaching critical levels—known as tank bottoms in industry parlance—is vanishing rapidly.
In a report titled “The illusion of plenty,” JPMorgan Chase estimated that if the strait remains blocked, stockpiles in a group of wealthy nations could plunge to “operational stress levels” in early June, and to system-straining “operational floor level” by September. The bank said it doesn’t expect inventories to actually reach those levels because history suggests demand would be curtailed first.
The implications of an oil-supply shortage are vast. Prices at the gas pump are touching their highest levels in years in the U.S. and could shoot higher when stocks run low. Airlines are reorganizing flights to adapt to potential shortages of jet fuel. Central bank decisions over whether to raise interest rates will depend in large part on whether oil markets remain well supplied.
The chief executive of Saudi Aramco, Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company, said this week that global stockpiles for refined products such as gasoline and jet fuel could reach “critically low levels” ahead of the summer driving and travel season.
The oil market’s saving grace was the remarkable surplus it carried into the conflict, which cushioned the blow far better than some analysts predicted when the Strait of Hormuz first closed. Iran and Russia had millions of barrels of oil floating at sea, looking for buyers. U.S. Treasury waivers on sanctions of Russian oil unleashed a gusher of supply onto the market.
Another major part of the emergency backstop is coming from the U.S. and other Western governments. The 32-member nations of the IEA deployed roughly 164 million barrels through May 8, helping to offset the 10 million barrels a day lost in the Gulf. The IEA expects its members to release an additional 210 million barrels of government stocks through the end of July.
But releasing stocks isn’t the same as replacing supply. It shifts the shortage problem into the future, when governments and companies will eventually have to rebuild depleted reserves. The IEA estimates that replenishing the cumulative deficit, including strategic reserves, would require roughly an extra one million barrels a day of supply for three years.
As a result of the inventory depletion, U.S. stocks of diesel are likely to fall below 100 million barrels, the lowest level since 2003, by the end of May, according to consulting firm Eurasia Group. Even-sharper declines are hitting Asia, the region most relia
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The TDS on display here is simply amazing.
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Be Nice. Don't be a dick. 
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Quote:The Iran War Is Crippling One of the World’s Wealthiest Nations
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
The TDS on display here is simply amazing.
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Be Evil. Be a dick.
Iranian attacks have paralyzed Qatar’s vital gas exports and are stalling the tourism and business pivots that were intended to anchor its future growth.
By River Akira Davis, Reporting from Doha, Qatar
May 17, 2026, 5:01 a.m. ET
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/17/business/qatar-economy-iran-war.htm
l
In Qatar, a desert peninsula protruding into the Persian Gulf, natural gas turned the country from a pearl-diving backwater into one of the world’s wealthiest nations.
Qatar spent three decades building supply lines, shipping tens of billions of dollars of liquefied natural gas each year through the Strait of Hormuz to ports across Asia and Europe.
The state, which derives more than 60 percent of its revenue from gas and gas-related exports, used that money to transform the peninsula into a gleaming metropolis. Unpaved desert roads were replaced by monolithic corporate skyscrapers, at the base of which irrigation systems water perennial blankets of grass and fuchsia flowers.
Gas wealth funded a metro system linking the capital, Doha, to Lusail, a northern city that is home to a Parisian-style mall and a theme park with artificial snow. The riches were also funneled into the world’s most expensive World Cup, and a $600 billion sovereign wealth fund with stakes in everything from Heathrow Airport in London to the Empire State Building in New York.
Then, in February, Qatar’s door to the world slammed shut.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz means virtually no gas has left Qatar’s shore for more than two months. The nation is also cut off from the sea routes through which it imports everything from vehicles to produce. Fears of regional instability have hurt tourism and eroded business sentiment.
Ras Laffan, Qatar’s industrial center for gas production, is shuttered, and roads are blocked. In this vast port south of Doha, loading cranes stand paralyzed. Throughout the capital, hotels and boutiques sit in noticeable silence. Qatar’s growth forecasts have been slashed amid the cessation of L.N.G. trade.
For Qatar, gas shipments “are nothing short of foundational,” Ahmed Helal, a managing director at the Asia Group, a strategic advisory firm, said in an interview in Doha recently. “Nothing you see here would have been possible without the wealth of energy,” he added. “That is why Qatar is quickly falling into a very challenging fiscal situation.”
Qatar’s economic transformation started in the 1990s. It made a large bet on supercooling gas from the North Field — the world’s largest natural gas reservoir, in Qatar’s northeast — to minus 162 degrees Celsius. This turned the fuel into a liquid, allowing Qatar to bypass regional pipelines and ship gas to every corner of the globe.
It was the birth of an energy superpower. Kicked off by its first shipment of 60,000 tons to Japan in 1996, Qatar’s production capacity had jumped to 77 million tons by 2010. For most of the next decade, Qatar was the wealthiest country in the world per capita.
Locals remember this as a period of rapid change. North of Doha and carved out of the desert, the industrial city of Ras Laffan spans more than 100 square miles of gas-processing and liquefaction facilities.
South of the capital, miles of industrial facilities stretch along the coastline, churning out ammonia and fertilizer made from gas piped down from Ras Laffan. Towering gas flares shoot orange flames into the sky, punctuating a landscape otherwise blurred by sand and smog.
From the 1990s to the 2010s, the economy boomed, growing at an average annual rate of roughly 13 percent. To power this build-out, Qatar relied on an influx of foreign workers. Today, about 90 percent of its 3.2 million residents are noncitizens.
Seeking to build on that momentum, Qatar said in
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Don't reply to me.
Your TDS has nothing to do with me.
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Quote:Trumptards think Trump won and don't realize the war continues. Just like Trumptards don't realize how very likely it is that Libtards will kill a Trumptard at any time -- bang, bang, two bullets in the back of the Trumptard's head. But because they are opposed to the death penalty, Libtards choose at this time not to kill evil Americans who well deserve it. In other news, Iran sends Trump a little message reading: "You Have Not Won. Wanna Find Out What We Can Do? Here Is An Example."
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
Don't reply to me.
Your TDS has nothing to do with me.
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Be Evil. Be a dick.
A drone strike sparked a fire at the United Arab Emirates’ Barakah Nuclear Power Plant on Sunday, raising fresh fears over the fragility of the current U.S.-Iran truce and the risks posed to critical infrastructure across the Gulf.
The four-reactor site, which is the Arab world's first nuclear power plant, generates about a quarter of the country's entire electricity supply.
https://www.newsweek.com/nuclear-power-plant-struck-drone-attack-opera
ting-normal-uae-11960772
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Don't reply to me.
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Archived.
https://archive.ph/WXb2h
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