RantWoman is probably going to skip a daily posting from What's going on with Shipping and related is the strait open / is it closed back and forth.
It is all Silly. DANGEROUS but silly. President #StableGenius is demonstrating more and more signs of dementia, lack of orientation to time and space, inability to stay anywhere near the topic at hand. He apparently had to be kicked out of the situation room during the Easter weekend pilot rescue. General Cain refused an order just to launch nuclear weapons. Even comparison with parodies dating from 2020 show how stunningly he has deteriorated.
Instead, comments on the situation from other angles.
UAE wants US weapons and bases out, as well as financial support or else if they run out of dollars they will trade oil in yuan.
(RantWoman had predicted durimg Trump 1.0 that oil might not be traded in dollars by the end of that administration. RantWoman's timeline was just off.)
RantWoman wants desperately to believe that no one is beyond the mercy of God.
President #StableGenius keeps testing that hope, beefing with the Pope, among other apparently ludicrous babblings.
RantWoman would be thrilled, THRILLED if #GrandpaSleepyhead were simply to get tired of the endless hassles, resign and settle into genteel retirement full of golf and napping. RantWoman would consider that such an act of mercy, Divine or otherwise that RantWoman might be able to bypass the temptation on everyone's lips to try to charge him again and again for many crimes and misdemeanors. But if the dude is not competent to be President, he also is not competent to stand trial.
RantWoman thinks she has said this before, but is stuck on the idea. Set him up with a constant AI feed of over-the-top adulation. Don't let him travel anywhere except between his own properties. As long as his hands are off the nuclear codes and the world does not have to fret about his decrepitating body and deteriorating mental capacity, he can have all the sycophants he wants assuring him he is the greatest ever, without too many specifics about greatest at what.
Instead, RantWoman's media streams keep bringing more evidence that the President is just bonkers. Here a few examples.
Malawi has no official ship registry is the ship in question is legally stateless. The ship in question was spoofing location for days.
Able to load Iranian product at an Omani Port
Part of the global shadow fleet
China and Iran have been working on the technologies and plans of evasion for decades.
Gap between what CentCom says and what the US navy can enforce
The ship did turn back but the gap is plain to see.
RantWoman's interpretation: Ha. Ha. US is being told the strait is blockaded but there are big legal holes. Both shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz are Iranian territorial waters. US ships going there would be an act of war. Multiple paths to escalation, but de-escalation? Who blinks first? Don't bet on Iran / China
And from Iran:
"No port in the Gulf is safe unless all ports are safe"
Iran is not talking to the US. It's talking to every gulf state with some kind of oil activity on the Gulf.
Saudi Arabia pressing the US to end the blockade and return to negotiations.
You do not need big boats to blow up an aircraft carrier.
Iran is also threatening the Red Sea. Houthis have not stood by so far.
US is managing 5 things at once: US silence is strategic but has risks. Iran trying to split the US from regional partners.
Sales to China greater than before war.
China used shadow tankers and second tier banks not in the SWIFT network. Iran is getting paid in yuan, not dollars. So Iran has economic oxygen to sustain itself.
China preparing to send shoulder-launched weapons to Iran.
The confidence ladder
Iran threatened every port because confident of Chinese moves.
US treating China and Russia as spectators.
RantWoman has not checked the sources cited as part of this interpretation.
And for different scenarios, different interpretations
One of RantWoman's favorite YouTube voices, esteemed for packing a lot of punch into few words and for taking on lots of questions politely and with solid information.
Interests: Digital Inclusion, Languages and language access, walkability, accessibility, disaster preparedness.
When in doubt, laugh about something!
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