larry johnson has some concerns about the oil transporting machinery; 

 

Yesterday, at the opening of ADIPEC in Abu Dhabi, ADNOC’s CEO Sultan Al Jaber told the world that energy security now comes down to getting the oil to the customer, not just producing it. He wants storage, redundancy and diversified routes to market. He noted that shipping and logistics have climbed from less than 5 percent of the cost of a barrel to more than 30 percent. All true. But he skipped one small detail about routes to market. They require ships.

Karl Miller, who has been annoyingly right about the Gulf all year, supplied that detail in a November 1 assessment of the Persian Gulf tanker fleet. If Al Jaber’s speech was the diagnosis, Miller’s report is the X-ray. It shows why a barrel now costs a third of its value just to move.

The butcher’s bill, maritime edition

Miller counts 79 named tankers in the Gulf damage and casualty record. Thirty-five of them are VLCCs, the 2-million-barrel workhorses of the crude trade. That works out to 70 million barrels of carrying space caught up in the damage, for each loading. Together the 79 ships represent more than 14 million tonnes of rated deadweight. His assessment rates the physical damage and replacement burden as “catastrophic,” which is the sort of word that is hard to soften in a press release.

The worst cases make the point:............more............

 the hobbit no longer trusts his benefactors; 

 

In what will be remembered for a remarkable set of geopolitical statements that cover roughly four-minutes, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy decrees the administration of President Trump, Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio no longer represents a nation who believe in the advancement of global protection and the responsibility to protect smaller nations.

Whoever inside the Zelensky administration is writing these speeches, is purposefully antagonizing the United States and trying to create further division internally.  These are very strategically written works of snark from a very particular psychology.  I strongly urge everyone to listen to these remarks as they highlight the disturbing intent of a Machiavellian deceiver.  [Video and Transcript Below]

Zelenskyy, framing himself as the global judge of all things virtuous and victimized, notes the importance of the American mid-term election happening today, then uses that American context to cast aspersions toward statements made by President Trump, JD Vance (Berlin security conference ’25) and Marco Rubio (Acropolis in Athens). Zelenskyy then states vision behind the Statue of Liberty -which he cites- is no longer available as a guiding light of optimism to the world.......more...........

 russia is talking to ukraine. its a surprise to me. wonder if it goes anywhere; 

 

While Zelenskyy is in Berlin firming up support from Germany, France the U.K and EU allies around the concept of expanded conflict with Russia, while Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney shares his support from the sidelines of the Commonwealth in the Caribbean, the Kremlin has announced their representative for upcoming talks in Abu Dhabi.

In a slight change from previous discussions, President Vladimir Putin’s primary aide Vladimir ​Medinsky will serve ⁠as Moscow’s chief negotiator ​at the organized talks in Abu Dhabi Nov. 10-11.........more............

the publisher of appalachian renegades offers this thought train; 

 

I was reading through the comments and decided to give some thoughts concerning the state of the union.

1. There is no state of the union. The last description of our country in my mind is “union. As I have written before, the antonym of unity is diversity. And diversity has divided, weakened and is now destroying the Republic.
2. A corollary to the first point is that getting mad about the situation is not a solution. People write that they are mad or “pissed at” Trump. I am disappointed in Trump but being mad is not a solution for any issue or problem.
3. Posting content that may be controversial or true on this site should not be considered based on who posted the content on X. As I have stated before, my intent for this site is to provide information which will make the readers think and allow them to make intelligence in order to protect and provide for their family, friends and community.
4. I remember words of wisdom from Glenn Beck a few years ago. He said that if he receives information which makes him mad, he will not report or remark on it until he cools off. This is great advice because most of our “news” is designed to enrage us against each other.
5. This may sound bad but we have to grade people based on their actions and words. The grading system for information runs from Source Reliability (A–F).........see........... 

 matt bracken posted this meme; 

 

This is something that I have spent some time considering over the past 20 years. It started even earlier in Charleston, SC where I first realized that everything I was taught about the Civil War was written by the victors. I learned about Lincoln’s treachery and the true causes of the War of Northern Aggression. While this simmered, the pot began to boil in 2008 and exploded in early 2009. My “education” concerning the foundation of our Republic was woefully negligent. Reading the writings of our founding fathers was enlightening. And then I came to see how the Republic was manipulated and eventually became overthrown by evil. Our children have become propaganda slaves and our “Democracy” is being sold to us as a Socialist dystopia.

Our food supply is tainted with chemicals, our medical community is little more than a shop of horrors, our culture has fallen and our faith is ridiculed.

How do we know when the truth will be revealed? The people will be in the streets demanding another Revolution against tyranny and lies.............see..........

 oblivious;

see........ 

 caitlin gives us the newest 'burning issue' presented by the zionists, of course;

 

The New York Times has published a story about a supposed Iranian plot to use chemical weapons which nobody actually believes.

Not even the perpetually war-horny New York Times tries to frame this as a real news report, presenting it instead as a subject of tense division inside the Trump White House. Here’s an excerpt:

“Israel has shared intelligence with the United States asserting that Iran is considering the use of chemical weapons against its adversaries, information met with alarm by some American officials and deep skepticism by others, according to U.S. and regional officials.

“Some American officials see the Israeli intelligence as part of a pressure campaign by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to persuade the Trump administration to return to major combat operations against Iran.

“Other officials believe the threats should be taken seriously, given the recent array of warnings about Iran’s preparations to attack American interests.”

To be clear, not one single person anywhere on earth believes this is true. Israel doesn’t believe it. Washington doesn’t believe it. Nobody reading about it in the New York Times believes it. But we’re hearing about it anyway like it’s a real thing, because too many powerful people want more bombing in Iran.......more............