Isaac PM

Hormuz closed until May, folks.

“Hits areas not in Hezbollah’s control” What a weird way to say Israel attacks civilians.

US nat gas at 6-month low (!!!) While the rest of the world worries about the impact of the US-Iran war on energy costs, American gas consumers enjoy a bonanza. Benchmark US nat gas (Henry Hub) just ended the day at $2.819 per mBtu, the lowest settlement price since September.

It’s been 297 weeks since Donald Trump said he’d release his healthcare plan in “two weeks,” just in case you were wondering how long “two to three weeks” is in Trump time.

"Iran wants to have nuclear weapons. Of that there is zero doubt." Well, except for the fact the US intelligence community explicitly and repeatedly determined that Iran hasn't made a decision to pursue or build nuclear weapons. Rubio is lying and it is a Bush/Cheney-level lie.

Again, per the NYT today - not the Electronic Intifada the New York Times - the IDF is calling up leaders of Christian and Druze villages in Lebanon, and ordering them to ethnically cleanse their villages of Shiites. They comply to avoid IDF attacks on their villages.

hearing Guardians radio discuss how eminent domain was used to clear out the Mexican-American community of Chavez Ravine in order to eventually build Dodger Stadium is probably the closest I've heard to this tweet in real life

What is happening now in the northern Gaza Strip is the advancement of the “yellow line” along the entire eastern border of the Gaza Strip, along with a return to demolition and bulldozing, under full artillery cover.

Markets today reflected a deep irrational faith that Trump grasps the war roughly the same way that markets do. But Trump is convinced he's winning, and he's surrounded himself with sycophants. He thinks the bad polls are lying like in 2016/24. The war is going to get v dangerous

Reuters reports that Chinese firms are reselling Russian LNG at two to three times the purchase price, re-exporting record volumes to Asian buyers including Japan... which has sanctioned Russia.

Gaza is now under intense and relentless bombardment that has not stopped for hours, with ground incursions advancing near the displaced camps, and new waves of displacement are happening across different areas of Gaza. Please talk about Gaza.

"This hospital is haunted by all these stories of people that were killed, and then all of the stories that are now being told, because we have a little bit of space and time to hear them, about what happened to people. It’s not just the campus in Al-Shifa. It’s everywhere in Gaza." wired.com/story/gaza-war…

💢 Strikes destroying Iranian pharmaceutical facilities have cut off life-saving treatment for hundreds of thousands of patients with severe and chronic illnesses, including for cancer patients, with independent experts warning the attacks constitute war crimes under international law, according to Deutsche Welle Persian. Iran sees roughly 150,000–200,000 new cancer cases annually. IFRC speaks about the humanitarian conditions in Iran in this interview below ⬇️

@_carlbeijer I remember thinking about the traditional strength of Israeli lawfare at the ICJ and how poor their showing was. The case was strong but part of it was they really couldn't see "outside" enough to see how they came off. No more liberal zionism to give cover. Just fash.

Propaganda takes a lot of discipline and a refined ability to see the world from everyone else's perspective so that you can tailor your messaging accordingly. Zionists are just utterly incapable of either. They want to revel in Palestinian blood and assume that we do, too.

This is one of the things that really convinced me that we're dealing with full-blown fascism - not just imperialism or neo-colonialism. They're bad at it because they're overcome with bloodlust, contempt for everyone else's intelligence, and have zero self-awareness.

If we assume that Hormuz remains closed for the next month, which now seems like a pretty solid bet, the barrels not produced by Gulf states thanks to production shut-ins in **April alone** will be roughly equivalent to the entire largest-in-history 400 MMbbl IEA SPR release

Astute observation by @HamidRezaAz re: Israel's targeting of steel plants and pharmaceutical factories in Iran: "Current retaliation against Israel is seen as too calibrated to alter Israeli behavior...At the same time, analysts note a structural limitation: strikes on Gulf Arab infrastructure may influence US calculations but have limited direct deterrent impact on Israel."

The President of the United States is once again inviting China to control the Strait of Hormuz. What a time to be alive.

Energy market so bad we're going to need to rediscover fire.

I knew Dr. Kamal Kharazi from my time in cognitive science. He has a PhD in industrial psychology from the University of Houston, and he used his connections to build something like an NIH for cognitive science in Iran — funding research, founding institutes. Today, his home was bombed. His wife was killed. He is critically injured. Either this was indiscriminate — bombing residential neighborhoods — which is terrifying. Or it was targeted — assassinating an 80-year-old academic-diplomat in his home — which is also terrifying. There is no good version of this story. And now I'm thinking about my other colleagues still in Iran.

@idkijustthibk If your interested in how some of these changes happened this is as up to date as it gets. press.princeton.edu/books/hardcove…

@idkijustthibk transformation/disruption from a few years of capitalist colonialism.

The “Arab colonization never existed” talking point is kinda funny. I don’t think people organically change their religion, their mother language, their culture, etc. without some to another existing external one without some coercive mechanisms. That’s not a thing.