shiftyandquick said:

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We're in a war, and the Hegseth is going around the county participating in political rallies to aid GOPers in their primary elections.

Bizarro-world.

I guess running a war is a part-time job.

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At least he's not calling Tehran or Beijing to promise he'll give them a heads up if we plan to go hot again.

We gathered at the Pentagon for our monthly prayer service.

“Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.” — James 4:8 pic.twitter.com/oz9Yq9u63Q

— Secretary of War Pete Hegseth (@SecWar) August 20, 2026

I've been pleasantly surprised how well he has done in his job, frankly. "I particularly liked 'defend the homeland from communists.'"

This 👇 https://t.co/fCFD9mL3Q6

— Pete Hegseth (@PeteHegseth) August 19, 2026

Are we though? We haven't launched any strikes in almost a month.

Could argue it actually is part-time.

shiftyandquick said:

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We're in a war, and the Hegseth is going around the county participating in political rallies to aid GOPers in their primary elections.

Bizarro-world.

I guess running a war is a part-time job.

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They do have things called "phones" nowadays. It's crazy what you can do now without having to be in one specific place.

It's the art of delegation. Just make sure competent people are doing their job. And you, as the boss, can go do political rallies, tiktok exercise videos, and play golf during the workday. Not all the time, but part of the time. A little signal chat here and there to tidy up loose ends.

If Pete had magic underwear.

bobbranco said:

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If Pete had magic underwear.

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Didn't think he was Mormon. I know he has a lot of kids though.

UTExan said:

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Keyno said:

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Phatbob said:

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Quote:

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I'm not a fan of our current strategy but that's quite the take. You really think an Iran with nuclear weapons would make the region they've already destabilized almost solely by themselves for decades while not having nukes.....more stable?

So Iran getting nukes would suddenly mean they no longer fund multiple terrorist proxy groups all over the M.E. and they would just focus on making Iran better and leave all of their neighbors alone? They would leave Lebanon and let the Lebanese run their own country? They would leave Yemen and let them run their own country?

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These people think that Israel is the destabilizing force in the area, and so in their minds, yes, a nuclear Iran would stabilize the region. Take out Israel, take out the problem.

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History shows that since Israel was founded in 1948, basically every country in the region has been at war with them at various/multiple times. Sometimes many of them at once. Lebanon notably has been at war with them since the beginning.

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Stop killing Israelis and they stop killing you. Egypt and Jordan figured this out.

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That is rich that you brought that one up. Egypt is guaranteed something like 1.5 billion in yearly foreign aid from the United States which began right AFTER Egypt made peace with Israel in 1979 with the "Camp David Accords". Furthermore, Jordan is guaranteed something like 1.5 billion in yearly foreign aid from the United States which began right AFTER Jordan made peace with Israel in 1994 with the "Wadi Araba Treaty".

To this day, both Egypt and Jordan are the top earning guaranteed recipients of US foreign aid (behind Israel and Ukraine, of course).

Back when Trump first got in in this second term, when he was campaigning on ending all foreign aid because it was "America First", guess who was exempt. Yep, you guessed it- Israel, Egypt, and Jordan

So its a little more nuanced than how you are trying to describe.

Imagine how much faster this would have happened if Democrats hadn’t been siding with Iran for 5 months. https://t.co/vz1aEGh82R

— David Marcus (@BlueBoxDave) August 23, 2026

Needs to keep going, of course.

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Iran appears to be losing its grip on the Strait of Hormuz while traffic through the critical waterway has exploded by nearly 400% over the last two weeks as ships increasingly use a US-backed corridor to cross.

Nearly 200 ships navigated the strait last week, up from 150 the previous week and just 40 two weeks earlier, according to data from the UK Maritime Trade Operations Center.

The surge brings total traffic along the passage route to about 20% of pre-war levels, through which roughly 20% of the world's seaborne oil flowed in peacetime.

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Many of the comments at the thread made me laugh.

The latest from the Joint Maritime Information Center - which is run by the @CMF_Bahrain - on ship transits. https://t.co/1KjquXqOHD pic.twitter.com/lKMpIPfJq8

— Sal Mercogliano (WGOW Shipping) 🚢⚓🐪🚒🏴‍☠️ (@mercoglianos) August 23, 2026

23 AUG 2026#LANDSAT 🛰️📷
Strait of Hormuz
(thx @eos_da) @UK_MTO Joint Maritime Information Center (JMIC) update as of 22 AUG:

1. First Chart: Inbound & Outbound Cargo ships & Tankers.
These are essentially overt, "non-facilitated" transits. Direction and vessel type is… https://t.co/uaDgtxZt0Y pic.twitter.com/f1Hr40EZhj

— Charlie B (@supbrow) August 23, 2026

Bessent just gave a lengthy press conference announcing Operation Economic Outcast to basically shut down anything and anyone doing business with Iran. And there is going to be sanctions against a major bank to be named this week.

Going for the kill shot now.

I prefer a military solution directed solely at Iran

U.S. SQUEEZES IRAN BUT SPARES CHINA

The U.S. launched “Operation Economic Outcast”, sanctioning more than 60 entities tied to Iran’s oil, nuclear and missile activities.

However, Washington avoided targeting major Chinese banks and companies, despite China buying over 80% of…

— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) August 25, 2026

everyone except china, apparently?

Rewards! We were just discussing/lamenting why we weren't doing that last week I think. $10 million for information on Vahidi and Abdollahi IRGC leadership. More sanctioned entities.

Quote:

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They also named seven individuals allegedly "responsible for Iran's military activities and procurement efforts, including directing the use of conventional weapons against U.S. forces and neutral neighboring states" and "advocating for defense partnerships with Iran's international partners that would contravene U.S. sanctions."

Quote:

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MOHAMMAD BAQER ZOLQADR (ZOLQADR) was the Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council [....]
ALI ABDOLLAHI (ABDOLLAHI) is the commander of Khatam ol Anbia Central Headquarters, a U.S.-sanctioned Iranian government entity responsible for joint and wartime operations. [....]
AHMAD VAHIDI (VAHIDI) is the Commander-in-Chief of the IRGC [....]
SAYYED HOSEIN MAJID MUSAVI EFTEKHARI (EFTEKHARI) is the Commander of the IRGC Aerospace Force, the entity responsible for the IRGC's unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) program. [....]
SEYYED MAHDI FARAHI (FARAHI) is the Deputy Defense Minister for Industrial and Research Affairs at MODAFL (Ministry of Defense and Support for Armed Forces and Logistics)
AMIR HATAMI (HATAMI) is the Commander of the Artesh, Iran's conventional military.
REZA TALAEI-NIK (TALAEI-NIK) is the spokesperson for Iran's Ministry of Defense and Armed Forces Logistics.

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Those are the big names.

They were also sanctioning multiple companies that they said engaged in the illicit trade of Iranian petroleum and petrochemical products, including the "dark fleet" that has helped deliver millions to the regime. Cutting that off is a critical thing. "Today's action targets all the nodes of this illicit trade," the State Department said.

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About time.

sts7049 said:

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U.S. SQUEEZES IRAN BUT SPARES CHINA

The U.S. launched “Operation Economic Outcast”, sanctioning more than 60 entities tied to Iran’s oil, nuclear and missile activities.

However, Washington avoided targeting major Chinese banks and companies, despite China buying over 80% of…

— *Walter Bloomberg (@DeItaone) August 25, 2026

everyone except china, apparently?

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I would wait for another source but it wouldn't surprise me. That account throws **** at the wall all day every day and many times is wrong.

yeah, it's hard to tell what the details are exactly. we have named china broadly in this but hard to tell to what level this goes with them.

any real sanctions would almost certainly have an immediate response by them no doubt

In listening to Bessent live yesterday on CNBC when this was announced, he was pretty absolute and definitive on this including everyone. So, carving out China after the fact would be a divergence from the announcement but not unexpected.

United Arab Emirates cuts off trade with Iran, nixing billions — why it could have ‘crippling effect’ on Tehran. Read today's cover here: https://t.co/tzhRTpltDO pic.twitter.com/i3sToWxf6v

— New York Post (@nypost) August 25, 2026

Pretty funny cover.

Fretty punny cover you mean.

The approach here would be to hit minor Chinese players first before going after a big fish / coi.

***** slapping as major bank in China would cause a global disruption and though it may come, it's probably not the best first move.

Bessent and Trump are clear this applies to everyone.

Satellite imagery shows at least 15 simultaneous ship-to-ship oil transfers happening in the Gulf of Oman today, moving roughly 25 million barrels of crude from nearly every regional producer except Iran.

The transfers are part of the workaround system that emerged after the… pic.twitter.com/WUiKYZseYt

— Clash Report (@clashreport) August 25, 2026

Progress, even though it's just a work-around.

Ship to ship transfers are SOP in gulf of America out of Corpus Christi.