Food for thought. Trump, Hormuz and the End of the Free Ride For half a century, Western strategists have known that the Strait of Hormuz is the acute point where energy, sea power and political will intersect. That knowledge is not in dispute. What is new in this war with Iran is that the United States, under Donald Trump, has chosen not to rush to “solve” the problem. In Hegelian terms, he is refusing an easy synthesis in order to force the underlying contradiction to the surface. The old thesis was simple: the US guarantees open sea lanes in the Gulf, and everyone else structures their economies and politics around that free insurance. Europe and the UK embraced ambitious green policies, ran down hard‑power capabilities and lectured Washington on multilateral virtue, secure in the assumption that American carriers would always appear off Hormuz. The political class behaved as if the American security guarantee were a law of nature, not a contingent choice. Their conduct today is closer to Chamberlain than Churchill: temporising, issuing statements, hoping the storm will pass without a fundamental reordering of their responsibilities. Trump’s antithesis is to withhold the automatic guarantee at the moment of maximum stress. Militarily, the US can break Iran’s residual ability to contest the Strait; that is not the binding constraint. The point is to delay that act. By allowing a closure or semi‑closure to bite, Trump ensures that the immediate pain is concentrated in exactly the jurisdictions that have most conspicuously free‑ridden on US power: the EU and the UK. Their industries, consumers and energy‑transition assumptions are exposed. In that context, his reported blunt message to European and British leaders, you need the oil out of the Strait more than we do; why don’t you go and take it? Is not a throwaway line. It is the verbalisation of the antithesis. It openly reverses the traditional presumption that America will carry the burden while its allies emote from the sidelines. In this dialectic, the prize is not simply the reopening of a chokepoint. The prize is a reordered system in which the United States effectively arbitrages and controls the global flow of oil. A world in which US‑aligned production in the Americas plus a discretionary capability to secure,or not secure, Hormuz places Washington at the centre of the hydrocarbon chessboard. For that strategic end, a rapid restoration of the old status quo would be counterproductive. A quick, surgical “fix” of Hormuz would short‑circuit the dialectic. If Trump rapidly crushed Iran’s remaining coastal capabilities, swept the mines and escorted tankers back through the Strait, Europe and the UK would heave a sigh of relief and return to business as usual: underfunded militaries, maximalist green posturing and performative disdain for US power, all underwritten by that same power. The contradiction between their dependence and their posture would remain latent. By declining to supply the synthesis on demand, and by explicitly telling London and Brussels to “go and take it” themselves, Trump forces a reckoning. European and British leaders must confront the fact that their energy systems, their industrial bases and their geopolitical sermons all rest on an American hard‑power foundation they neither finance nor politically respect. The longer the contradiction is allowed to unfold, the stronger the eventual synthesis can be: a new order in which access to secure flows, Hormuz, Venezuela and beyond, is explicitly conditional on real contributions, not assumed as a right. In that sense, the delay in “taking” the Strait, and the challenge issued to US allies to do it themselves, is not indecision. It is the negative moment Hegel insisted was necessary for history to move. Only by withholding the old guarantee, and by saying so out loud to those who depended on it, can Trump hope to end the free ride.

what opinion about men do you have that makes people feel like this???

Actually real women do it for their own pleasure.

every woman has 10 backup options just waiting when a woman says “i’m sorry i’m dating someone,” most men hear “let me know when that changes” and the second it does, they’re ready as soon as she’s available, they’ll show up women end up owning more of the rebound outcome than they think

皆様、メッセージありがとうございます！ 旦那は16年間片思い 私に彼氏がいようと諦めず それでも割り込むこともせず 私に何かあった時ちゃんと話を聞いていつもそばにいてくれました 全てを知ってもなおずっと思っていてくれた旦那の完全粘り勝ちですw 10年前から好きな事知ってたので一生いじります

If I was deployed and fighting a war, and my wife did this while I was gone…she wouldn’t be my wife anymore. I feel sorry for the poor schmuck who married to this bitch. I imagine he does too.

If Donald Trump is serious about stopping insider trading in Congress, let’s pass a bill right now that truly bans lawmakers from owning and trading stocks.

"Immigrants are going to replace our culture!" What culture is that, exactly? Is it the Iowa State Fair? Seeing the Hawkeyes play the Cyclones on Saturday night? Eating pork chops on a stick? Church choirs volunteering to help rebuild homes after a tornado? Is it barbacoa on Sunday morning before mass and your little girl's quinceañera? Or accordion-driven Tejano music playing from a pickup truck? Is it moms dropping their kids off for Calabasas ballet in Range Rovers and Teslas? Lululemon and Vuori? Angry meetings about fence heights at the HOA? Is it salsa coming through open windows on hot days? Folding chairs gathered around a domino game? Puerto Rican and American flags everywhere to honor Marines coming home? Is it Southern comfort food at Mary Mac's Tea Room? Morehouse and Spelman grads meeting to network? Southern rap blasting at Magic City? People afraid of being "replaced" have too narrow a view of what America is about. And yes, America can include a statue of the Hindu god Hanuman in Houston. (Because, c'mon, what is more over-the-top Texan than a 90-foot golden statue of a dude wielding a huge bad-ass club?) My American culture doesn't discriminate based on ethnic background. My American culture is one that can deal with immigrants because it embraces their myriad varieties. My American culture holds dear democracy, freedom, and independence. My America believes in self-governance, from jury rooms, where 12 strangers gather to decide a fellow citizen's fate, to town halls, to local elections, to national campaigns. It's watching locals grill an annoyed city council about a new park or too much crime downtown. My America believes in free speech so much that we put it at the top of the Bill of Rights. I get to call my leaders idiots and feel no fear of prison or punishment. I believe in allowing marches and protests, from the good ones (Selma and Stonewall) to the ones I dislike (Proud Boys or Antifa). My America is proud to see rows of new citizens lined up at city hall, with many different skin tones but the same expression of hope and anticipation. Because my America is Ronald Reagan's America, "still a beacon, still a magnet for all who must have freedom, for all the pilgrims from all the lost places who are hurtling through the darkness, toward home." So it's ok if some people march in a St Patrick's Day parade while others celebrate the Vietnamese (Tet) New Year, as long as they are all committed to freedom, democracy, the Constitution, and this amazing thing called "America." 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸

The only thing hit is the phone he is holding. He is completely on his feet, stands to the side, and kills her. The video shows she clearly has no intent to hit him. The agent is psycho, swearing at her and then killing her point blank.

"Small group" may be a tad optimistic. >"We found 23–33% of women surveyed had engaged in a foodie call." researchgate.net/publication…

🚨 Here is the full 42 minutes of my crew and I exposing Minnesota fraud, this might be my most important work yet. We uncovered over $110,000,000 in ONE day. Like it and share it around like wildfire! Its time to hold these corrupt politicians and fraudsters accountable We ALL work way too hard and pay too much in taxes for this to be happening, the fraud must be stopped.