patrick.net

The_Deplorable says

RWSGFY says

".... hitting a Nazi bioWEAPONZlab."

No. It hit an Iranian girls school, killing 180. And 40 minutes later, they hit it
again.

Says who? Ayatollah?

The next global threat will be disenfranchised Radical Leftist, Marxists and Commies, when they are all replaced by Nationalists in elections.

"Says who? Ayatollah?... Bagdad Bob"

Oil dips below $90.

Iran's point-to-point (YoY) inflation hit 62.2% in Feb 2026 per Central Bank data (Statistical Center: 68.1%), with food prices up ~110%. It averaged ~46% over the prior 12 months to mid-Feb 2026 amid ongoing pressures.

TheAntiPanicanLearingCenter says

Oil dips below $90.

When the hyperpower acts, it's an excursion.

Now China knows and Russia knows.

There is no Multipolar World, it was all BRICS propaganda BS.

I look back on all the scary pronouncements and laugh. The only thing that wasn't a joke was a nuke combined with ballistic weapons and the Chinese connection. The attempt to make a Persian North Korea is toast.

Iranians do vote. Candidates do campaign. Presidents serve four-year terms and run domestic and economic policy.

But here’s the catch: every candidate must first be approved by the Ayatollah’s Guardian Council. They are pretty picky. In the 1997 presidential election, for example, only 4 of 230 candidates made the cut. Nor can the president override the Supreme Leader on security or foreign policy. Parliament can pass laws, but the Guardian Council can —and regularly does, often enthusiastically— strike them down.

The result is an ingenious psychological pressure valve. Iranians get the sensation of democratic participation, while the Ayatollah’s IRGC-enforced network retains a permanent veto over every lever that matters. ‘Reformist’ presidents come and go, giving Iranians hope for change that never comes. Meanwhile, the Supreme Leader and the IRGC never change. ...

In 1979, the first Ayatollah Khomeini didn’t just overthrow a king— he overthrew the very idea of kings. His foundational text, Islamic Government, couldn’t have been clearer: “Islam does not recognize monarchy and hereditary succession; they have no place in Islam.” Khomeini sneered at the previous Pahlavi dynasty as a “sinister, evil system of government” and then built an entire republic on the promise that no man would ever again inherit power by blood.

Two years ago, now-deceased Ayatollah Khamenei —Mojtaba’s father— flat ruled out his son ever becoming Ayatollah. ...

This morning, forty-seven years after the ‘revolution’ to overthrow hereditary succession, the Islamic Republic’s military junta held a rushed election by Zoom under active bombardment and installed the dead Supreme Leader’s son. ...

It’s an 80/20 issue there. Reports say 79% of Iranians in Iran opposed Mojtaba’s selection. But the IRGC nominated him anyway. It was an unforced error. ...

Like all Swamp Creatures, Mojtaba has a well-honed sense of self-entitlement. Euronews recently revealed his shadow extends across a European luxury property empire —over $138 million in London real estate alone, including a $46 million mansion, plus hotels in Frankfurt and Mallorca and a villa in Dubai, all buried in shady offshore firms in Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the UAE.

The man who just inherited the Islamic Revolution’s throne against his own father’s wishes has been quietly stashing the revolution’s money in Western super-luxxe real estate. You can’t make it up, but you’d believe it, since it always seems to be this way. ...

Beyond the threat posed by the rapidly disappearing Iranian navy, the world’s maritime insurance provider —Lloyd’s of London (since 1688!)— announced at the start of the war it would refuse to re-insure any vessel traveling through the Strait of Hormuz.

On February 28th, coalition strikes hit Iran, and the IRGC ‘announced’ the Strait of Hormuz was closed. Within seventy-two hours, seven of the twelve International maritime insurers —Gard, NorthStandard, Skuld, Steamship Mutual, the American Club, the Swedish Club, and the London P&I Club— collectively insuring roughly ninety percent of the world’s ocean-going tonnage, executed identical cancellation notices for war-risk coverage in the Persian Gulf.

The reason for the collective action was that their second-tier insurer, Lloyd’s of London, had notified them that it was refusing to reinsure Hormuz traffic.

The cancellations took effect at midnight on March 5th. Tanker traffic through the Strait collapsed from around 138 transits per day to zero. It wasn’t the IRGC’s mines or missiles that shut down the world’s most critical oil chokepoint— it was the actuaries. No insurance means no voyage— it’s that simple. No bank will finance a cargo, no port will accept a tanker, and no charterer will book a vessel that isn’t covered.

The same day the insurers issued their cancellations, Trump posted on Truth Social: “Effective IMMEDIATELY, I have ordered the United States Development Finance Corporation (DFC) to provide, at a very reasonable price, political risk insurance and guarantees for the Financial Security of ALL Maritime Trade, especially Energy, traveling through the Gulf.”

In other words: if Lloyd’s won’t insure the ships, the United States Treasury will. One day later, on March 6th, the DFC had formalized a $20 billion reinsurance facility covering hull, machinery, and cargo for vessels transiting the Strait— rolling coverage, backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government.

Lloyd’s blinked.

Within days, Lloyd’s Market Association CEO Sheila Cameron assured the Wall Street Journal that the market was “willing to work with the White House on a joint public-private venture to provide cover for shipping in the region.” ...

Trump essentially threatened to put Lloyd’s out of business, or at least, to start competing with it. The last thing Lloyd’s needs is for the U.S. government to get into the maritime insurance business.

Patrick says

Attacking Iraq was far more destabilizing than anything Iran ever did.

And attacking Iran feels like a replay.

Iraq did not sponsor state terrorism like Iran has since the early 1980s.

.

But I do have an illiberal idea: declare the state religion of Iran to be Zoroastrianism once again, and ban Islam entirely.

Zoroastrianism is rumoured to be making a comeback amongst Iranian youth, as a repudiation of Islamic mind-control via conscious reconnection with their deep ethnoreligion. I have no idea how widespread Zoroastrianism really is in Iran; my suspicion is that it’s a very niche phenomenon, that adoption of the Faravahar in preference to the Crescent is the Iranian analogue to young Westerners abandoning the Cross and the Rainbow for the Mjölnir.

Don't they have the assets for body doubles like the West? He looks like a gazillion other Muslim clones. It should be easy peasy to find a sub avatar. LOL! The new ayatollah is literally a cutout.