This Carbon Based Life

By David Glenn Cox

A funny thing happened on the way to the war in Iran. If you ask the Trump junta or any of the major American mutated media outlets. “Gee, what’s going on with the war in the Persian Gulf?” You’ll get one story, one answer, no matter who you ask. A story of American military dominance and efficiency against an Iranian adversary, just barely managing to hang on. Ask any of them.

Thanks to the mighty US Navy the Strait of Hormuz is open and traffic is flowing normally. But somewhere between larceny and insanity, not everyone got the message. MS. Now will tell you, and so will OX News, the US struck missile launchers on Larak Island in retaliation for the Iranians striking ONE cargo vessel in the Strait of Hormuz. One, as in Uno! One single unfortunate vessel hit by a dastardly errant Iranian missile. But in the end, we sure showed them who was boss!

But the propaganda stream was channeled only in one direction. The mongrel media lapped up the story and regurgitated it to a waiting public unreservedly. But they forgot one. One tiny little outlet that doesn’t point outward towards the general public. A trade paper (website) pointing inward geared towards those actually in the maritime business. The Shipping News says at least FIVE tankers have been hit with Iranian missiles. Or the US is only admitting to 20% of the actual losses.

The strait is currently a shooting gallery. Travel at your own risk, because when asked if anyone has seen the mighty US Navy recently? The answer was a resounding “No!” No sign of them. You see? What they tell the waiting, gullible public is a different story than what they say in the trades. Could it be true? Would the Trump regime mislead a gullible public about an unpopular war? You bet they would! Oil prices just keep ticking up incrementally about three-tenths of a percent per day. And if the full scope of the war ever became common knowledge. It could be Katy bar the door.

At least FIVE ships, not one, that are in the Persian Gulf in various states of damage and or on fire. Now add in the two of the at least twenty-five MQ-9 Reaper drones recently shot down by the Iranians and the picture begins to morph and look different. From American military and media dominance to an out of control free for all. The news from Pearl Harbor: Everything’s fine. No problems here! But there is still significant traffic moving in the Gulf. The price of oil on the spot-market is soaring, no matter what that nice man in the fancy clothes and funny haircut on TV says.

A hazard premium of up to $650,000 can be earned per day if the shipowners are willing to take a few chances. It’s not just the price of the oil; it’s also the cost of transportation as well. It’s the fog of war, that’s what it is. No, it’s the fog of Trump. When the going gets tough, the tough lie about it. What war? Oh, you mean that little skirmish? That little three-day special military operation? No problem! Everything is under control. You boys and girls can settle down now; Uncle Donnie has things well in hand. Ask our Duh fence secretary Peterless Pete. Gee, where did he go all of a sudden? He was here just a second ago, promoting truth, justice, and the American way. With that arrogant, proud certainty he’s becoming famous for. But someone might ask him a question, someone doesn’t want to answer.

Now add in the Houthi strikes in the Red Sea and suddenly the war looks begins to look different. I know, I know, big news flash. The Trump regime lied! Think of the lengths they went to hide something as mundane and meaningless as the deflecting pool scandal. Now consider the lengths the misadministration would go to in attempting to hide something as serious as a war. A war that they are losing! But they can still win it on cable TV! The professional propaganda merchants ask innocent, naïve little questions. “Now that we’ve stolen Venezuela’s oil reserves, how long before my gas prices come down?” Not long. The second Tuesday of next week maybe, or sometime before the twelfth of never. Some future decade down the road.

The whole Venezuela announcement was about creating the smoke of propaganda. See! See! There’s good news everyone! Maybe they even thought they could fool a few insiders and stop oil’s relentless march towards real economic hardship. No luck; nobody bought the cover story, and the price of oil just keeps creeping higher.

But the Trump regime has a plan. No, wait, they had a plan, but it didn’t work out. Now the plan is to lie repeatedly and pretend the war is not really there. And until they can figure something out, they will impose harsh sanctions on innocent third parties! There! That’ll fix it! We’ll sanction China and teach Iran a harsh lesson they won’t soon forget.

You can see the administration is torn. They want the oil to flow, but don’t want to risk any bad news headlines. Officially, under a Trump pronouncement, the US Navy is enacting a counter-blockade to starve out the Iranians. But according to the Shipping News, no one has seen any US Navy vessels recently, so the Iranian blockade is a myth of questionable merit. The administration dare not risk any super-expensive military assets to negative headlines, too large to be kept from the public. They also serve who run away and hide.

You see, we don’t have to really patrol the Persian Gulf. We can just say that we are, and who will be any the wiser? Just add a little spin control and stir. The administration has told us ad nauseum about how they’ve crushed the Iranian air force at least three times over. Yet Iran bombed our airbase in Saudi Arabia with jets. Obsolete jets, no less.

Two trains left the station at approximately the same time. One train was headed east, driven by the Federal Reserve, calling for higher interest rates to fight inflation. The other train headed west, driven by China, calling for higher interest rates to spur investment. Investment in China, and not in the US. Where is the safest place to invest their money now? China under Xe or the United States under Donald Trump? China is slowly backing the US bond market into a corner. And the kicker is China didn’t even need to lie about it. Invest here, for stability! Or trust your money to the whims of Donald Trump.

“Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind. ” ― George Orwell