Bernie Mantay

The Pentagon’s most IMPORTANT missile defense system can’t be built without parts from China. This is Pentagon data. This chart traces the supply chain of America’s most critical weapons: Patriot missiles, B-2 bombers, nuclear platforms, long-range strike systems. It follows the components from weapon system to approved supplier to the actual source of the semiconductors inside. The final column is a wall of Chinese companies. Dozens of them, feeding directly into the chips that guide, control and operate American weapons. More than 40 percent of the semiconductors in US weapon systems come from China. Between 2014 and 2022, American dependence on Chinese electronics for defense surged 600 percent. The number of Chinese suppliers in Pentagon supply chains quadrupled from 2005 to 2020. The missile defense sector is the most exposed, 11.1 percent of its primary contractors are Chinese firms. That means the nation most likely to fire missiles at us is also the one supplying our missile defense. And it gets worse. China now controls roughly 70 percent of global rare earth mining and 90 percent of rare earth processing. In 2025, Beijing imposed export bans on rare earth magnets for any military end-use. An F-35 was grounded because a magnet inside its engine came from China. It passed through five layers of suppliers before anyone noticed, it had been there for years. CSIS ran two dozen war simulations against China over Taiwan. In every one, America’s long-range missile stockpile was gone in a week. Rebuilding those missiles requires the very supply chains China controls. This is a present-tense national security crisis hiding in plain sight inside Pentagon procurement data. The country we are arming against is the country we cannot arm without.

I hope you aren’t drunk and took your staff’s advice, Rashida and I don’t know this man and feel confident he didn’t care about us. Please restrain from drinking too much as you have been warned from your staff and stay off social media when you are drunk. I pray in his holy month you find peace and respect for your self,

Maersk just shut down the most important shipping lane on Earth. Because Iran is sinking ships. Here's what happened. On Saturday, the US and Israel launched the largest joint military strike in modern history against Iran. Iran's Supreme Leader was killed in his office in Tehran. Iran's response was immediate and terrifying. Missiles launched at US bases in six countries. Drones fired at Israel and then the big one, Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed. The Strait of Hormuz is a 21 mile wide chokepoint between Iran and Oman. 20 million barrels of oil pass through it every day. That's 20% of the world's entire oil supply. There is no alternative route They attacked an oil tanker called the "Skylight" near the Strait. It's on fire and sinking and then a second ship, the "MKD VYON" was hit. Two vessels burning and zero ships getting through. Now look at who's running. Maersk, suspended all Hormuz crossings. Hapag-Lloyd, suspended all transits. CMA CGM, ordered every ship to take shelter. Marine insurers, refusing to cover any voyage in the region. The world's largest shipping companies just abandoned the Persian Gulf. 100+ oil tankers are now sitting dead in the water near UAE and Oman. Dozens of cargo ships are parked off Iran, Iraq, and Kuwait. LNG tankers are making U-turns mid-voyage. Global trade through the Gulf has effectively stopped. Oil already jumped 10% to $80 a barrel. Analysts are warning it could hit $100 this week. The worst case scenario from ING, $140 a barrel. China gets HALF its oil imports through the Strait of Hormuz. India, Japan and South Korea, all massively exposed. If this drags on, you're looking at an energy bidding war across Asia that crashes the global economy. The last time oil supplies were disrupted at this scale was during the 1970s Arab oil embargo. Analysts say this could be three times worse. The Supreme Leader is dead, Iran is firing back and ships are burning. And the Strait of Hormuz, the jugular vein of the global economy is closed. This is the crisis.