Mark Hodder retweeted
Finally we can post more than 4 photos at once on X!
Here’s 20 original pieces by Professor Tolkien himself to celebrate the occasion:
Mark Hodder retweeted
The United States says economic warfare is crippling the Islamic Republic so effectively that a full-scale military offensive is unnecessary.
Marco Rubio said the sanctions campaign and naval blockade are inflicting “extraordinary” economic pain that is intensifying every day.
“We don’t need to conduct military strikes if we’re achieving the same objective through economic means and economic pressure.”
The numbers support his assessment.
The Islamic Republic loaded no crude or condensate onto tankers throughout September, the first full month without loadings since modern tracking began. No new cargo has been loaded since approximately August 25, while tankers filled since mid-July remain trapped inside the blockade zone.
Iranian oil stored at sea outside the blockade has fallen from nearly 89 million barrels in July to zero. Another 43 million barrels remain stranded inside the restricted area.
Without functioning export routes, production has reportedly fallen from pre-war levels of approximately 3.3–3.6 million barrels per day to around 2 million or less.
CENTCOM estimates the blockade has already prevented more than $25 billion in crude exports.
Because Chinese buyers normally pay weeks after receiving shipments, the regime is still collecting delayed revenue from earlier deliveries. If the blockade holds, however, its crude and condensate income could approach zero by mid-December.
This is succeeding where conventional sanctions repeatedly failed.
Sanctions could be circumvented through shell companies, falsified documents, ship-to-ship transfers and shadow fleets. The physical blockade prevents tankers from leaving Iranian ports and transporting oil through the Persian Gulf and Gulf of Oman.
The Islamic Republic has also failed to sustain the global energy crisis it expected would force the United States to retreat.
Other Persian Gulf producers have increased exports, regional oil flows have recovered and Brent has fallen toward $90 after recently approaching $118.
The regime is losing its oil revenue while the international market adapts around it.
The United States is now expanding the pressure beyond maritime routes.
Task Force Iron Gate is targeting weapons, dual-use technology, sanctioned materials and illicit revenue moving across Iran’s land borders and the Caspian Sea.
It is not a physical ground blockade, but it is designed to disrupt the alternative routes the Islamic Republic needs to finance itself and rebuild its missile, drone and military capabilities.
This does not eliminate the risk of escalation.
A regime losing its primary source of foreign currency could retaliate through shipping attacks, cyber operations, proxies or direct military action.
But launching a wider offensive while the existing strategy is steadily draining the regime’s revenue would create enormous military, economic and political risks before the blockade has reached its full effect.
The strategy is working because it forces the Islamic Republic to absorb compounding damage while denying it the oil shock, American casualties and regional chaos it needs to fracture the coalition against it.
The Islamic Republic expected energy disruption to become its ultimate weapon.
The United States is turning the regime’s dependence on energy exports into the weapon being used against it.
The Islamic Republic says fake negotiation headlines are part of a deliberate campaign to lower oil prices and dismantle its remaining Hormuz leverage.
Kayhan, a newspaper closely aligned with the regime’s leadership, is now sounding the alarm.
It describes elevated oil prices as “our strong weapon” because they impose economic and political costs on the United States and other energy-consuming countries.
Brent crude has fallen toward approximately $90 per barrel, well below recent highs, as reports of Qatari mediation and possible de-escalation calm global markets.
Kayhan portrays the process as a manufactured “show of negotiating with Iran through mediators.” It argues that negotiation headlines are reducing the conflict’s risk premium, lowering energy costs and making it easier for the United States to maintain its blockade.
The Islamic Republic is already losing most of its direct oil income.
Before the conflict, Iran exported approximately 1.5–1.7 million barrels of crude per day, briefly exceeding two million in February 2026.
After the American naval blockade:
▪️ Exports collapsed toward approximately 209,000–260,000 barrels per day in May.
▪️ Some later months recorded almost no seaborne loadings from the country’s main terminals.
▪️ Production fell from more than three million barrels per day toward approximately 1.9–2.2 million.
▪️ Much of the regime’s estimated $2–3 billion in monthly oil-export revenue disappeared.
Some oil continues reaching markets through Iraq and other workarounds, but the regime’s main export system has been physically throttled.
This leaves the Islamic Republic dependent on a different form of leverage.
If it cannot profit from Iran’s oil, it can still try to make everyone else’s oil more expensive by restricting the Strait of Hormuz, threatening shipping and sustaining fear of further escalation.
Negotiation headlines weaken that weapon.
Qatar says mediation is continuing and that both sides have delivered positive messages. Its prime minister has met President Trump and Vice President JD Vance while carrying proposals between the United States and the Islamic Republic.
Kayhan fears that the appearance of diplomatic progress is benefiting the United States before the regime receives sanctions relief, access to frozen assets or an end to the blockade.
Lower oil prices reduce inflationary and political pressure, strengthen America’s ability to sustain the economic siege and make renewed military action less economically disruptive.
Kayhan therefore argues that negotiations must remain secondary to intensified pressure.
Its preferred strategy is to keep energy markets frightened, preserve uncertainty around Hormuz and convince the United States that continuing the blockade will carry unbearable costs.
The disagreement exposes a growing division inside the Islamic Republic.
Some officials see Qatar’s mediation as a possible escape from mounting economic and military pressure.
Others fear the process is dismantling their remaining leverage before they receive anything in return.
The most revealing part is Kayhan’s admission that the Islamic Republic’s strongest remaining “weapon” is not economic strength or military victory.
It is the ability to frighten markets, disrupt shipping and increase energy costs for the rest of the world.
The American blockade has crushed the regime’s ability to profit from Iran’s oil, while diplomacy is now weakening its ability to weaponize global oil prices.
Mark Hodder retweeted
There aren’t words in the English language to sufficiently describe the loathing I have for @RepThomasMassie
He is a reprehensible traitor to this Republic.
Life is complicated, yes.
Politics is dirty, no doubt.
But this conclusion is simply true.
Eternal shame.
Mark Hodder retweeted
Lots of you want the security and benefits of the US being the dominant superpower on earth while you gripe about the US doing what is necessary to remain it.
Mark Hodder retweeted
Jesus FUCKING Christ, Massie. Every time I think Congress has finally scraped the absolute bottom of the barrel of useless, self-important, backstabbing assholes, you come crawling out from underneath it like a syphilitic fucking sewer rat with a superiority complex and a desperate need for somebody, ANYBODY, to give a shit what you think.
You’ve spent your entire worthless career as a preening, self-righteous little bitch who never actually did a goddamn thing except clap for the cameras, cash the checks, and jerk yourself off about how principled you are while the rest of the party actually tried to win. You're a walking participation trophy with a congressional pension, the political equivalent of a wet fart in an elevator who somehow convinced himself he's Thomas fucking Jefferson.
And now, for your grand fucking finale, you’re counting “eight impeachable acts” like some pious little altar boy with a hard-on for losing, because Pete Hegseth is effective, the war is going the way your voters wanted, and your colleagues aren’t stupid enough to follow a lame-duck loser into a political suicide pact.
Eight! EIGHT! Congratulations, you sanctimonious dipshit. Did you count them all by yourself, or did you need your Democrat buddies to take your shoes off so you could get past ten?
And since you've suddenly appointed yourself the nation's supreme authority on military accountability, let's revisit Lloyd fucking Austin.
The Secretary of Defense vanished into a hospital for days, the President wasn't informed, his own deputy didn't know the full circumstances, and the Pentagon's chain of command looked like a goddamn Three Stooges reunion.
WHERE THE FUCK WAS CAPTAIN ACCOUNTABILITY THEN, YOU SPINELESS, TWO-FACED LITTLE SHITSTAIN?
No impeachment crusade. No constitutional sermon. No theatrical outrage. Apparently your principles were buried somewhere between your pinecone collection and whatever Democrat's ass you were kissing that week.
But Hegseth starts kicking ass, and suddenly the mighty Thomas Massie emerges from his woodland fucking monastery, clutching his impeachment articles like Moses descending Mount Sinai, ready to lecture everybody about constitutional responsibility.
Spare me the sanctimonious horseshit, you gutless fraud.
You've become the Democrats' favorite useful Republican, a pompous, backstabbing jackass who mistakes sabotaging his own party for some grand demonstration of moral superiority. You're the political equivalent of a hemorrhoid that learned to quote the Federalist Papers.
And the funniest fucking part? Kentucky finally saw through the act.
After years of listening to you congratulate yourself for being the smartest, bravest, most principled man in Washington, your own voters apparently decided they'd rather have an empty fucking chair than another term of your insufferable bullshit.
Imagine possessing an ego so catastrophically inflated that getting your ass handed to you at the ballot box only convinces you the country desperately needs MORE of your unsolicited wisdom.
You're the drunk asshole being thrown out of the bar who keeps screaming that HE'S the one who decided to leave.
And now, with the clock running out on your miserable congressional career, you're spending your remaining political oxygen trying to kneecap an administration your own party elected. What an extraordinary fucking achievement. Years in Congress, and your farewell performance is practically indistinguishable from something written by the Democratic National Committee.
You had an opportunity to leave Washington with whatever scraps of dignity you had left. Instead, you've chosen to spend your final days as a bitter little political cockroach, desperately scrambling for relevance while the lights go out.
So here's some advice, Tommy.
Go clear out your empty office, go fuck yourself with that pinecone on the way out, and take your resume full of nothing with you.
You're a pathetic, irrelevant, treasonous clown who peaked as a meme, and your greatest congressional accomplishment was demonstrating just how fucking unbearable one self-important asshole can become.
Now take your persecution complex, your worthless political legacy, and your bottomless reservoir of self-righteous horseshit, shove it all straight up your ass, and FUCK ALL THE WAY OFF, you pinecone-sucking, zero-accomplishment, traitor-ass motherfucker. 🖕
unavailable
Mark Hodder retweeted
I don’t think there’s ever been someone as much a piece of shit as Thomas Massie.
Mark Hodder retweeted
Don't blame Tucker. He was trying to help Republicans when he abandoned the party, then fabricated a story on the eve of the election that Trump wants to drop a nuke and start WWIII, destroying the entire world.
And don't say this influenced anyone. It was only viewed 100 million times.
Under pressure from Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the Trump administration may be within days of launching a nuclear strike on Iran. The target would be Pickax Mountain in central Iran, where Israeli intelligence claims the Iranian government has restarted its nuclear enrichment program. No conventional weapon in the American arsenal can penetrate 300 feet of solid granite to destroy the tunnels where enrichment is supposedly taking place. The only military option is a nuclear strike. Netanyahu has been pushing hard for one. “Bibi calls Trump about it every day,” says an informed observer.
Netanyahu is cornered and desperate. After last week’s election results, he can’t form a government unless Trump intervenes directly in Israeli politics and brokers a deal with other parties that gives Netanyahu 61 seats in the Knesset. Otherwise, he is out as prime minister and on his way to ignominy, investigations and possibly jail. Netanyahu must stay close to Trump. He needs this war.
To that end, he’s applied maximum pressure to his closest allies in the administration, including Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth and CENTCOM commander Brad Cooper. Both oppose a negotiated settlement to the war they’ve so grievously mismanaged; both are pushing to restart major combat operations. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and CIA director John Ratcliffe are also following Netanyahu’s lead, as are leaders of the Democratic Party. In a recent meeting on the subject, former president Barack Obama said he opposes the current Iran peace deal being drafted in Doha.
The rest of America’s longtime allies in the Middle East are terrified by the prospect of more war. On September 27th, Netanyahu flew secretly to Abu Dhabi to enlist the UAE in his lobbying effort for a final attack on Iran. The Emiratis refused. After eight months of conflict, Gulf economies are teetering. So are global energy and fertilizer markets. They won’t recover soon. Globally, there are a total of about 850 supertankers used to transport oil from producers to the rest of the world. In October alone, 11 of them were badly damaged in Hormuz. At this pace, a global depression is imminent. A nuclear strike would radically accelerate the destruction. Fallout from a ground explosion at Pickax Mountain would contaminate the Persian Gulf, poisoning the water supply for 100 million people.
And those are just some of the immediate consequences for the region. The rest of the world is every bit as exposed. No country other than the United States has ever used a nuclear weapon in war. Some would like to. An American nuclear attack on Iran would set a new precedent. The Russians have already told at least two other governments that an American nuclear strike on Iran would free them to use nuclear weapons against Ukraine. Pakistan and India would be tempted to do the same against each other, as would North Korea against Seoul. After the first nuclear strike, World War Three is inevitable. That war would be short and final.
We’ve been sleepwalking toward this moment for months. Since February, the administration has quietly rewritten America’s nuclear doctrine to make first use of so-called “battlefield nukes” easier and therefore more likely. No one in Washington in either party seems bothered by this. Now we’re on the brink of it.
Close observers say Trump is likely to decide by next weekend whether or not to use nuclear weapons. That would be November 7, six days from now. To his credit, he’s hesitating. At the moment, Trump is listening to his vice president, JD Vance, and to his envoy and friend Steve Witkoff, both of whom argue a deal with Iran can be made.
They’re right, though it won’t be simple. The Iranians are famously frustrating to negotiate with under any circumstances, and elements of that government have become more radical since Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and his family were killed in February. After decades of isolation, even relatively moderate Iranian leaders seem confused by how decisions are made in the West. (There is a widespread belief in Tehran, for example, that the United States government controls Israel.) But overall, people who have spoken to decision-makers in Iran say there is consensus there that more war is bad for everyone and a deal is worth making.
One group that hasn’t been consulted so far is the global population — the hundreds of millions of people who will be killed along with their children if Trump is pushed by Netanyahu into launching a nuclear strike next week. Now would be the time for them to speak up.
Mark Hodder retweeted
The most black-pilling thing about the Iran ‘war’ is the very fact that it’s taken seriously & considered *as* a war,
despite very constrained rules of engagement, limited scope, exclusive reliance on air power, unwillingness to risk American lives or equipment.
The fact that it’s on the public’s radar at all as a ‘war’ & suitable object of protest gives me very little hope that there is anything at all left of America, its will to live & fight, its men, its historical purpose & self-understanding.
It’s the most vicious condemnation of the American body politic & electorate one could think of—that we can’t stomach a nearly casualtyless sideshow action without crying, throwing up, & turning against the president & his party.
America has no hope of winning the wars to come… just a self-defeating, exhausted, blown out country riddled with mental & physical AIDS.
No appetite for bloodshed whatsoever. Old, rich, risk-averse, spineless.
[Don’t construe this post as being in favor of the war for this or that reason. I am making an observation about America based on ‘what counts as war’ & how seriously this particular conflict should be have been taken.]
Mark Hodder retweeted
Nick Fuentes is the only person on the right who sounds like the insane version of the right the left holds in their minds
And that is because Nick Fuentes is a leftist pretending to be on the right and is acting on the same mental model
Mark Hodder retweeted
The thing that disgusts me about the "We lost because of Iran, MAGA is over, tear it all down" crowd is that I cannot find a single one of them who acknowledges that stopping a nuclear Iran might be more important than any midterm election.
Have the decency to acknowledge these facts:
1. Iran declared war on the USA in 1979.
2. We have been dealing with this reality fecklessly since that time.
3. The Iranian mullahs are not rational actors. They want nukes so they can USE THEM to precipitate Armageddon and bring forth the Twelfth Imam who will miraculously arise from a well in Qom and forcibly unite what is left of humanity under Shia Islam.
4. Trump may have had intel that said he needed to act before it was too late, midterms be damned.
I ACKNOWLEDGE that the Iran War likely cost us the election.
Why can't YOU acknowledge that Trump may have had no choice and acted bravely for the greater good of humanity?
WHY DO YOU REFUSE TO ACKNOWLEDGE THIS POSSIBILITY?