freshmintcut retweeted
Isn't it nice that the American military convoy is spending about $100 million per day to get oil through Hormuz, and China is the top destination and beneficiary of flows.
This upcoming US-China summit is quite important for the oil market.
Assuming nobody is still delusional enough to deny the surge in Hormuz transits (if you are, just unfollow me), let’s assume Tehran fails to choke the Strait.
That puts the burden entirely on demand—and mostly on China. Pushing Brent north of $100 was great, but landed values are already trashing teapot margins.
Headline cracks are rolling over and physical netbacks look even uglier. We all know this buying spree was state-mandated via SOEs, and while they can absorb the pain on Beijing's orders, Trump sounding desperate to please China has desks rightfully terrified of a backroom deal—market has to price in the tail risk of a dirty compromise.
The May summit analog still haunts this market(though in reality, China had already withdrawn from the market before that). If this sit down looks like a public nothingburger, that’s your cue to be paranoid. A buddy laid out that exact inverse framework for US-China macro theater last week, and it resonated hard.
Both sides need to bark for domestic cameras, but behind closed doors? A quiet pact to nuke flat price wouldn't shock me at all. Inverse the public theater.
Watch the physical China bid post-meeting.
#oott #iran
freshmintcut retweeted
Some will see this photo and see it as evidence of assimilation - Indians celebrating their school's football win. But if this was true assimilation, you'd see one or two Indians surrounded by non-Indian friends.
Immigrants have always clustered in enclaves with their fellow co-ethnics, but public institutions - especially elite public institutions like universities - existed to break that loyalty and to Americanize them, to - in effect - make them auxiliary whites. And that was the path of previous generations of immigrants.
But the problem with MASS IMMIGRATION is that these ethnic enclaves that are able to re-create themselves in suburban developments, in the workplace, in universities, etc. so that they can enjoy all the material comforts of American life while still seeing themselves as part of a ethnic clan rather than as Americans.
Immigration works in small numbers when newcomers can be overwhelmed and absorbed into the native culture. Mass immigration has broken the assimilation model.
freshmintcut retweeted
When the flags of Spain and Mexico flew over Texas, there were many Josés, but scarcely a Pooja to be found.
When the flag of France flew over Texas, there were many Jeans, but scarcely a Pooja to be found.
When the Lone Star flew over the Republic of Texas, and later the flag of the Confederacy, there were many Johns, but scarcely a Pooja to be found.
Then came the Stars and Stripes. Beneath it, Josés and Jeans and Johns lived together — some rooted in the soil for generations, others more newly arrived — each with a different claim upon the land and its history.
Then, five seconds ago, Pooja arrived.
She surveyed the descendants of all those who had come before her, announced that she was every bit as Texan as they were, and informed them that if they didn’t like it, they were free to leave.
freshmintcut retweeted
As reporting is circulating this morning about potential discussions for a new deal between the United States and Iran, I want to discuss one of the core problems to what I am seeing.
Trump isn’t being realistic… at all…
Based at least on the initial reporting, President Trump is trying to essentially strike a deal that reverts back to the terms of the original Memorandum of Understanding. Put nicely… that’s ridiculous.
Unfortunately for Trump, unfortunately for everyone, the Trump Administration took guidance from the Lobby and Hawks that called for Washington to revoke the oil sanction waivers (General License X) that were issued under the MOU. Even worse, during the 10-day wind down period, Treasury added an escrow account mechanism. This means that any oil sold during this window would be controlled by the United States. Of course, Iran would never willingly do that, so it was essentially torched without notice.
This is significant because the oil waivers were the only real concession that Iran received up front in the original MOU. Because the Trump Administration revoked them without notice, they cannot simply “reissue them” again in a future MOU. This is because countries that MIGHT have purchased Iranian oil under the original deal know that the US is willing to revoke them without notice. Therefore, there is no durability anymore, and they effectively lose all value as a future concession.
On top of this, the United States also never released any of Iran’s frozen assets during the 27 days the MOU was in effect, and this only further degraded any trust that the United States will hold up their end of the bargain in any deal.
To take it a step further, before the MOU was “officially” destroyed, the United States imposed new sanctions on Iran, which explicitly breaches Article 9 of the MOU.
President Trump putting forth an “offer” that essentially reverts back to the prior terms of the original MOU… that’s simply delusional. He knows it. Iran knows it.
It’s not a serious offer.
The problem with this though, is it fundamentally guarantees that if Iran holds the cards, which I think most everyone understands that they do, President Trump WILL be forced to agree to far worse terms under a future deal than he received in the original MOU.
As much as I hate to say this… the odds the Iranians accept these terms are zero. Nada. Zilch. It’s an entirely unrealistic set of terms from Trump, and this will only signal to Iran that the United States is not serious, and not willing to make a real deal to end this war.
freshmintcut retweeted
Maybe not a popular take but I am calling for this guy to be pardoned. Unless the DOJ plans on going after all the crooks in congress currently insider trading, this is simply skewed justice. There is no “justice” when guys like this get the book thrown at him yet members are illegally profiting every day.
I don’t agree with what he did and he should be required to disgorge all the profits however, unless the DOJ plans on doing Congress next, this is not justice.
DOJ releases more information about the U.S. soldier who won more than $400,000 by betting on Maduro's removal.
Gannon Ken van Dyke could face up to 60 years in prison on all charges. Prosecutors are also seizing the money he won.
freshmintcut retweeted
I really do love Europe.
But we have to be realistic.
Who protects the freedom of Taiwan 🇹🇼? The U.S., not Europe.
Who protects the freedom of Japan 🇯🇵? The U.S., not Europe.
Who protects the freedom of Australia? The U.S., not Europe.
Who protects the freedom of South Korea 🇰🇷? The U.S., not Europe.
Who frees the people of Venezuela 🇻🇪 ? The U.S., not Europe.
Who gives Iranian women hope 🇮🇷? The U.S., not Europe.
Who defended Israel for decades 🇮🇱 ? The U.S., not Europe.
Who is safeguarding the Arctic and the seas? 🇺🇸
Who was the biggest supplier of weapons for Ukraine? 🇺🇸
Which country has the biggest military capacities in Europe? 🇺🇸
Europe must act together. But don’t fool ourselves. We need America.
freshmintcut retweeted
In 1917, the US bought the Virgin Islands from Denmark for $25 million…
Danish leaders resisted the sale, so Sec of State Lansing warned that if they didn’t sell, we would simply take them to prevent Germany from gaining a foothold in the Western hemisphere.
They soon sold.
freshmintcut retweeted
Not sure if Trump is consciously playing 5D Chess, or just accidentially - but he definitely IS.
1. Greenland is not for sale and Denmark is likely not going to cave.
2. If they do, US gets Greenland = wins.
3. But if they DON'T, the US also wins. Here is why:
The great crisis of the West is less the result of a conspiracy, or suicidal / genocidal empathy, and more a function of simple degeneracy.
Civilizational degeneracy, when reduced to its first principle, occurs when societies lose their will to win.
If you don't want to win, why not open the borders? Why not become climate delulus? Why not dismantle your industrial base and blow up your power plants?
None of this matters if you don't want to win. You just lose - so what?
So what do you do with allies who don't want to win? You turn it back on them:
The FASTEST way to force countries to stop being degenerates is to start taking over their territory.
You want wokeness? DEI? Open borders? Destroy your economy? Friday for Future?
Sure - you can have it. But we will take Greenland. And then Scotland. And then Belgium. And every other country that doesn't want to win. And since you are degenerate, you won't do nothing about it.
THAT'S the true genius of this move.
Now, I personally believe that Denmark is not THAT degenerate - we will see - and in the course of this exercise will revive its will to win, which is all it takes to prevent this.
With some luck, others will follow and we see a great turnaround.
Either way, Trump wins:
he either gets Greenland and probably the rest of Europe shortly thereafter, or he turns his degenerate allies into countries that want to win again - which is even better.
5D Chess.
freshmintcut retweeted
I'm a Brit but I love America. I have never had any time for anti-Americanism. America is a brilliant country with brilliant people who've given the world so much - not least their cultural exports which are integral to Western culture. It's certainly been central to my upbringing. I still haven't forgiven them for Friends, but this is the country of Star Trek, Tour of Duty, South Park, Breaking Bad, Slayer, Metallica, Indiana Jones, Ghostbusters... the list is endless. A wonderful country of great intellect, talent and humour.
I also do not forget that Europe owes it a great debt. For sure, America had its own imperial interests first and foremost, but America has been our security umbrella against fascism and communism for a century - and as a small country, it has always been in our best interests for America to be the top dog - because America stands on the fundamental principles of liberty and free speech.
That is what makes America the innovation engine of the world. A place where people are free to just do things. As such, it is not a coincidence that America leads the way into space. America invents, Europe regulates, China steals, Russia invades, India swindles. So as the the old order collapses, you have to pick a side. I choose America every single time. I want America to win, not least because their survival is our survival.
But America is not a happy country. America is teetering on the brink of civil war because it has allowed its enemies to prosper. The degenerate American left is anti-Christian, anti-capitalist, anti-white, anti-freedom and anti-democracy. The shitlib left are attempting to destroy America by holding the door open for parasites and enemies. This is what gives rise to MAGA and Trump.
The European mind sneers at Trump. He's brash, unapologetic, impulsive and unpredictable. For me, that's all the more reason to love him. I don't mind that he's antagonising Europe because Europe is no longer an ally to America. Europe is occupied by a Malthusian suicide cult that would sell out to China in a heartbeat. Europe has wound down its armed forces, destroyed its own industrial base, exported its economic power to China and India, and is now suppressing and replacing their own people.
I have no loyalty to the regimes of Britain and Europe. They are as much the enemy as the American shitlib left. The same can be said of Canada whose moral fabric is so warped that they'd rather go cap in hand to Communist China than secure and enforce their own borders as requested by the USA.
Meanwhile, A failing, decrepit Europe, on the brink of cultural and ethnic extinction, wags the finger at America even while enjoying the security of US defence umbrella. Europe funds lavish welfare systems - throwing money at sub-literal third worlders while its major countries can't even field a squadron of combat aircraft or deploy a functioning armoured brigade without American logistical support.
The only countries in Europe taking the social, economic and defence threats seriously are Poland Hungary, and the EU uses its full bureaucratic weight to blackmail them into adopting gay race communism and relaxing their borders. Meanwhile Germany outlaws democratic opposition and Britain throws citizens in jail for tweeting. The same miserable shitlib countries can't even give a full throated defence of Israel for defending its own borders from Islamists because our politicians are electorally in hock to Pakistanis in the post-industrial hinterlands who rape our kids on an industrial scale.
So yes, on balance, I don't give a fuck if ICE agents shoot shitlib leftists in the face, or if Trump invades Greenland for resources. It's not as though Europe has the good sense to exploit them. Britain is wilfully impoverishing its own people by not exploiting its fossil fuel resources and the EU will come up with equally bullshit reasons for not exploiting Greenland.
EU member states can mewl about territorial sovereignty but they'll happily hand over their political sovereignty to the death cult in Brussels, while our own feckless prime minister hands over the Chagos Islands to China - and allows the EU to squat in Northern Ireland. If America can use Greenland's resources to its own advantage, they can fill their boots for all I care. American prosperity and security has never been more pivotal to the survival of the values (and people) the Western alliance has turned it back on.
freshmintcut retweeted
Greenland 🇬🇱 belongs to Denmark 🇩🇰 for completely absurd reasons.
It is the geopolitical equivalent of a hamster owning a mountain range or claiming sovereignty over the Sahara Desert because a curious squirrel once buried a nut there.
The sheer physical disproportion is a punchline that we all politely ignore, as 5.9 million Danes continue to act as the absentee landlords for a frozen behemoth inhabited by only 56,000 people.
The historical "logic" behind this arrangement is even more farcical, rooted in a missionary’s mid-life crisis and a legal system that rewards just showing up. In 1721, Hans Egede set sail to find "lost Norsemen" who had been missing for centuries; upon finding only ghosts and ice, he simply decided the whole place belonged to Copenhagen. This claim was later solidified during the 1814 Treaty of Kiel, where Denmark lost the actual country of Norway but somehow walked away with the participation trophy of a giant iceberg. By 1933, international lawyers essentially ruled that because Denmark had a "continuous presence"—meaning they hadn't completely forgotten where they left their giant island—they could keep it. It is a colonial flex that has survived purely because the Danes were the only ones willing to stay in a place that is 80% ice just to say they had a "real estate portfolio".
Today, the relationship has evolved into a masterclass in the sunk-cost fallacy. Denmark maintains its hold by paying a massive annual "block grant" to Greenland, effectively paying their tenant’s rent so they can keep the Danish crown on the letterhead. Even after the United States offered a cool $100 million to buy the island in 1946, Denmark refused, preferring to keep their expensive, frozen hobby.
It remains the most expensive, most ironic, and most geographically nonsensical long-distance relationship in history.
freshmintcut retweeted
Here's the dilemma, you can't. You're the skinny guy in prison. You're going to belong to someone. You have no way to protect sovereignty. If you don't want to be Americans or Europeans, then someone else is going to lay claim to your land. Choose wisely.
You don't have a country if you can't defend it. You exist through the good grace of others, but you won't remain sovereign. You don't have to like it, but it still won't change the fact that this is a universal truth.
freshmintcut retweeted
Powell says if he can’t pay banks to hold reserves the Fed would “lose control over rates.” That’s because the Fed has flooded banks with so many reserves they don’t trade federal funds anymore. The Fed just sets the rate wherever it wants. It’s “Price Fixing.” There is no real market anymore. If the Fed stopped paying interest on reserves it would be forced to reduce its balance back to a level where there were no excess reserves. The supply and demand for reserves and bank trading desks would once again influence rates. Powell says doing this could be disruptive. So, here is what I hear. We grew our balance sheet so much that we can’t unwind it without screwing up the system. This is exactly what Democrats are saying about COVID-era Obamacare subsidies. Now that they are in place we can’t take them away without causing pain. This is no way to run a government. Keep making it bigger and more powerful and then say dismantling it will cause harm. Just stop. Stop it all.
freshmintcut retweeted
Denver Shooter: TRANS
Aberdeen Shooter: TRANS
Nashville Shooter: TRANS
Philadelphia Shooter: TRANS
Colorado Springs Shooter: Non-Binary
Iowa Shooter: Gender Fluid
Minneapolis Shooter: TRANS
Charlie Kirk Shooter: TRANS-partner
The TRANS ideology is demonic and creates deadly radicals. The legacy media knows this and pours kerosene on the Trans movement to create more radicals. They are partly to blame, as are the politicians like Tim Walz who puts tampons in the boys bathrooms.
We must treat the TRANS ideology as domestic terrorism and route the entire ideology out of our country.
I miss Charlie.
freshmintcut retweeted
Hot take: Europe is a bunch of third-world countries with better branding. No A/C. No dryers. Ice is a luxury. You’ll sweat through dinner while the waiter ignores you for 2 hours. Say what you want about America, but at least eating out doesn’t feel like hot yoga with bread.
freshmintcut retweeted
Yes this country was born through colonization and conquest. And I am very proud of that fact.
freshmintcut retweeted
I know I'm late to this conversation, but I think a guy whose family has been in America for 8 generations should get priority when it comes to access to American jobs over someone who has never set foot in America.
Call me woke right idc, but the H1-B visa program is just a revolving door scheme for foreigners with no love nor allegiance to this country to continue to flood America with millions of other foreigners while displacing America’s native stock and Christian peoples. And most of this is happening from Indian Hindus.
American jobs should be for AMERICANS first.
"Aren't you an immigrant Kangmin?"
Yeah but I didn't choose to move here, my family did when I was young. But I also understand that my people did not build this nation and I am a non-native inhabitant of this country. I don't believe it's right for me to try to displace my host country with millions of foreigners and try to change its demographics, culture, and language. It's patently absurd to say I'm just as American as someone who can trace his ancestry back to America's founding just because I have legal documents that declare me an American. It's like if a random Frenchman moved to South Korea and started claiming they're just as Korean as my cousins in Korea. It's so absurd flat on its face, yet if you point this out in the West, you're incessantly berated as racist and bigoted.
There needs to be an immigration moratorium in America for at least 2 generations until America can figure out what the heck its identity and unifying culture is. Right now, America does not have any coherent national identity or social cohesion. And muh capitalism and muh meritocracy is the thinnest foundation to form civic society on, which will inevitably devolve into rampant avarice and degeneracy. There is no unifying culture to assimilate to anymore because of the onslaught of multiculturalism.
Nations are a HOME to a shared people of shared history, culture, and ancestry. They are an extension of your own home and community, not an economic zone or just mere plots of land to plunder. Immigration should be highly exclusive, selective, and rare if it happens for cases of generational talent/skills or true asylum, but it's gotten so out of hand in America that unless there's an immigration moratorium, America will just become enclaves of drastically different people groups with different religions & value systems inhabiting the same plot of land (which it kinda already has become).
I want America to be America. I want Korea to be Korea. I want India to be India. I don't want America to be India. I don't want Korea to be America. I don't want India to be Korea.
The preservation of your home is not born from irrational hatred of others but a genuine love for your people and nation.
Globalism is a cancer and Satanic. Stop letting materialism and muh GDP become your only metric of what is good and necessary. Love for your people and your nation means more than just new inventions and more money. But if every other group is allowed to have in-group preferences, I don't see why Western Europeans and Americans can't either.
"Citizenship is a spiritual experience, not a legal relationship." - Michael Oakeshott
freshmintcut retweeted
In 1754, Ben Franklin pointed out that America was the happiest place on earth, with the highest wages and lowest land prices, and thus the highest homeownership and marriage rates, because it was the least crowded.
He recommended preserving this by restricting immigration.
freshmintcut retweeted
Here's Vivek Ramaswamy in 2015, scamming the public on his Alzheimer drug that had already failed drug trials four times before he bought it for pennies.
He rebranded it & took the company public in an IPO. Then he & his family dumped $2 billion of stock before it failed again.
The reason top tech companies often hire foreign-born & first-generation engineers over “native” Americans isn’t because of an innate American IQ deficit (a lazy & wrong explanation). A key part of it comes down to the c-word: culture. Tough questions demand tough answers & if we’re really serious about fixing the problem, we have to confront the TRUTH:
Our American culture has venerated mediocrity over excellence for way too long (at least since the 90s and likely longer). That doesn’t start in college, it starts YOUNG.
A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, or the jock over the valedictorian, will not produce the best engineers.
A culture that venerates Cory from “Boy Meets World,” or Zach & Slater over Screech in “Saved by the Bell,” or ‘Stefan’ over Steve Urkel in “Family Matters,” will not produce the best engineers.
(Fact: I know *multiple* sets of immigrant parents in the 90s who actively limited how much their kids could watch those TV shows precisely because they promoted mediocrity…and their kids went on to become wildly successful STEM graduates).
More movies like Whiplash, fewer reruns of “Friends.” More math tutoring, fewer sleepovers. More weekend science competitions, fewer Saturday morning cartoons. More books, less TV. More creating, less “chillin.” More extracurriculars, less “hanging out at the mall.”
Most normal American parents look skeptically at “those kinds of parents.” More normal American kids view such “those kinds of kids” with scorn. If you grow up aspiring to normalcy, normalcy is what you will achieve.
Now close your eyes & visualize which families you knew in the 90s (or even now) who raise their kids according to one model versus the other. Be brutally honest.
“Normalcy” doesn’t cut it in a hyper-competitive global market for technical talent. And if we pretend like it does, we’ll have our asses handed to us by China.
This can be our Sputnik moment. We’ve awaken from slumber before & we can do it again. Trump’s election hopefully marks the beginning of a new golden era in America, but only if our culture fully wakes up. A culture that once again prioritizes achievement over normalcy; excellence over mediocrity; nerdiness over conformity; hard work over laziness.
That’s the work we have cut out for us, rather than wallowing in victimhood & just wishing (or legislating) alternative hiring practices into existence. I’m confident we can do it. 🇺🇸 🇺🇸
freshmintcut retweeted
~$500B was added to the national debt in just the last 3 weeks…
Half a TRILLION in 3 WEEKS.
Front running the election.
The government is out of control.
