Welcome to The Now

 Ben Norton on the ins and outs of the new trade war between the United States and Canada, and why Canada may have an advantage:  But yeah, pretty sure most Americans don't realize that we're pumping oil from Alberta, Canada:

We'll start with this clip from Ben Norton explaining why the US is losing against Iran (at least by traditional, measurable metrics):   The latest "phase" or gambit coming out of the United States is " Economic D-Day ," which I posted about earlier. China has basically laughed this off: Iran, by all accounts, is either prepared or is preparing for the fallout (after all, they have been heavily sanctioned even before the war): But why the switch from missiles to bank accounts? Ben Norton clarifies: This has lead to unfortunate military consequences for the US military: The long-range weapons are either in low supply or spent, Iranian capabilities have been massively underestimated, and the re-supplying locations (aka, the US military bases in West Asia that Iran has destroyed) are no longer an option, forcing the US to pivot.   We've seen examples of how these conditions have impacted military morale . And that's not all: the weapons that America rely on...

  My take is that President Trump is more upset that he can't spin the war the way he wants than anything else. He can't just walk away (Iran is in a better position than they were before the conflict started), he can't keep fighting (see Ben Norton's reasons for the pause), and he can't make a deal with Iran because of Israel.  And while I understand that the Policy Papers are still considered a geopolitical blueprint and relatively independent of whoever's in the White House, Trump's ego, insecurity, ignorance and arrogance will only allow him to be perceived as the sole person deserving all the credit for any kind of success. Sure, his donors own him, but they're not likely to claim political victories (at least to the media), so it doesn't matter much when they give him marching orders. But to give credit to any previous administration for something that happens under his term is a different matter. The agencies can quote chapters and sections u...

 

 

 Ben Norton exposes the hypocrisy of supporting certain outliers:

 

 Sell-outs indeed: 

 According to the planet Earth: Ben Norton has more:

 

 Short Answer: Nope! Slightly longer answer, courtesy of Ben Norton:

 

 Just about every move that the United States is making is not just about Iran or even Russia, but their "final boss" opponent China. Whether it's the Strait of Hormuz: or using Taiwan as a Ukraine-like proxy: But it's not like China is just sitting around while this is going on:   

 Ben Norton discusses:

 

 

 

 

 

  To recap: The government of Venezuela is still in tact, and not likely to bend. US oil companies believe that the situation in Venezuela makes it too dangerous and expensive to properly extract/refine their oil ( yep ). China gets most of their oil from nations closer to them. Venezuela and the United States are export competitors so forcing Venezuelans to purchase US goods makes little economic sense. Side Note: much as Americans are seeing the actions taken against Gaza beginning to seep it's way domestically via ICE (ICE, like other law enforcement/government officials, were partially or fully trained by the IDF), we can expect this brand of gangster collusion to eventually make it to the United States (picture ICE agents forcing themselves into people home's on election day to "entice" them to vote).