Ivan Miller

Smart man learns from his mistakes. Wise one learns from the mistakes of others. The two of the mightiest militaries of the 20th century both stumbled into an unwinnable war. First, Russia, dove head first into its own imperialistic quagmire. No concrete strategy. No premise or international backing. No long-term objectives. Only brute force and overconfidence. Results: shunned by international community, acquired ruins are now a liability, loss of human capital, etc. In short - a dismal loss. USA ignored all those lessons and jumped in Iran. No strategy. No premise or international backing. We still don’t know objectives, as they change weekly. We won how many times now, according to Trump? Can we at least define victory? Same brute force and overconfidence as the Russians. Now we are in a predicament. Raise the stakes? How so, ground invasion? 90 million people in a mountainous region is a suicide. Currently on the table - naval blockade? Asymmetrical capabilities of Iranians could make it even costlier for us, than it already was. Results: Iran war is a loss. Question is - “When and under what terms.” We emboldened Iran and made them stronger. We gave them major power leverage and a source of income they didn’t have before. They now have no restrictions on nuclear development. Instead of supporting freedom and aiding Iranians in an organic regime change many craved, we strengthened the regime. Just like the Russians - we went in with no strategy. No goal. Who wins in both cases? Clearly, it’s China. Russia, shunned by the world, is turning into a vassal country exploited by the Chinese. USA, buried in debt and entangled in quixotic adventures is losing our global leadership to a rising autocratic superpower which quietly fulfills its own manifest destiny of Middle Kingdom - center of the world - after series of humiliation from the West in previous centuries. This is global chess. China is playing. Quietly and professionally. Are we going to continue bickering over nonsense or should we start playing on par?

@andrewmichta @Delta Bipartisan deregulation for decades which led to oligopoly of 4 giants controlling majority of the public service industry. In short.

I’m boarding @Delta in Atlanta for Amsterdam. Simply this: this airline is a disgrace. I never experienced this lousy customer service-rude gate agents, indifferent staff, my request prior to travel completely ignored. What has happened to this country’s airlines? Where is pride?

Teddy Roosevelt said “Let’s bust some trusts” 100 years ago. Today our government says “Trust the process, bro.” Laissez-faire failed before. What do we know about history? It repeats itself.

It was a bandaid that could’ve temporarily resolved the issue, true. But the underlying problem leading to monopolization of the entire industry was a bipartisan effort since Carter. Going to war with Iran with no plan or strategy only expedited the death of an already weakened company.

@ivan_getsreal @Houseofyogi So you agree, the demise of Spirit, and the loss of a competitive low-cost airline, was due to the fact they could not be purchased by Jet Blue, and not the recent spike in fuel costs, which airlines pass on to customers anyway.

Spirit Airlines died tonight at the hands of the socialist crusader, Elizabeth Warren She must be so proud to add another casket to her achievements. Tonight at 3am, Spirit turns off the lights. 14,000 jobs gone. 30+ smaller airports lose service. JetBlue offered $3.8 BILLION in cash to buy Spirit in 2022. Shareholders, flight attendants union, literally everyone voted yes. The combined company would have held 9% of the US market against a Big 4 that already owned 80%. For anyone who understands numbers: 9% isn’t a monopoly against 80%. Warren said no. She wrote letters. She pressured Buttigieg. Biden’s DOJ sued. A federal judge killed the deal in January 2024. Her argument: the merger would cost consumers $1 billion a year. Now look at her collateral damage she dusts under the rug. 510 pilots gone in the months after. 1,800 flight attendants furloughed in December. 14,000 jobs in 2023. 7,500 last week. Zero tonight. And that’s just the people in Spirit uniforms. Catering goes. Fuel guys go. Baggage crews, gate agents, airport coffee shops, hotels and rental cars in 70 cities Spirit flew to. Every airline job carries 3 more on its back. 40,000 people out of work because of one woman’s moronic crusade against the market. And the math ain’t mathing. Spirit abandoned 90 routes during the death spiral. Fares on those routes are up 14% on average. Oakland to Newark: $135 to $288. Fort Myers to San Juan: $92 to $219. Kansas City to Newark up 66%. That’s reality. Not some BS number from a “study.” So @SenWarren tell me how this saves the consumer money? Cheap carriers in a market drop fares 21% across the board. Southwest did this in the 90s and saved Americans $68 BILLION over 20 years. Warren killed it. That’s what moronic politicians led by socialism do. Then with her own blind arrogance, she tweeted Spirit’s collapse is “a Biden win for flyers.” A win. 14,000 people are reading termination letters tonight. And she’s taking credit. This is socialism in 2026. A senator who’s never made payroll thinks she knows how to run a market better than the people who own and work in the company. She saved you a billion on imaginary paper. She cost you ten times that in real life. She didn’t protect consumers from anything. 14,000+ will go from working to welfare. She will make sure to blame billionaires, hardworking tax payers, AI, capitalism and whatever monster they will make up tomorrow hiding under your bed. Higher taxes. Fewer jobs. More expensive everything. She called it a win. I hope you enjoy winning.

@AVindman First balanced opinion I’ve seen today, bravo! Only thing I’d add as a huge factor is deregulation spanning decades which led us to a 4-way oligopoly. Limited competition kills any industry and we should actively resist monopolization of public services.

Spirit Airlines employs thousands of Floridians and its collapse lands squarely on Washington’s failures. The Biden Administration blocked the JetBlue merger, and the Iran war has sent fuel prices skyrocketing. Now 17,000 workers are losing their jobs and families have fewer choices and higher fares. Florida is screaming for help and being ignored.

Fair point on Warren’s framing. The merger block is genuinely debatable. But Spirit was already in structural decline from decades of deregulation that handed 80% of the market to four carriers. Iran war fuel spike was the finishing blow to an already weakened company, so it’s quite apparent that the merger would’ve been a bandage, not a cure.

Spirit customers today may have a difficult time seeing how the blocking of a merger to save the airline was what Elizabeth Warren called "a Biden win for flyers!" Rather than "fewer flights and higher fares" cited by Warren at the time, they now have no flights and no jobs...

Parroting, instead of actual critical thinking on your own. Sad social media reality with herd mentality. Couldn't have possibly been a casualty from the spike in fuel prices caused by an unplanned war with no clear goals or strategy that we bogged ourselves in again, right? Or the decades of deregulation that led to monopolization of the whole industry? Nah. Full, objective narrative doesn’t pay, does it?

Democrats are spending all day deflecting from reality: Spirit Airlines is shutting down because Biden, Harris, @PeteButtigieg, and @SenWarren fought tooth and nail to block its merger with JetBlue a couple years ago. The airline was already struggling. That merger would have saved the company and protected jobs for its 15,000+ workers. Democrats killed the deal anyway. Now the airline is dead and those people are losing their jobs. The Democrats are sick people!

Decades of deregulation created a race to the bottom - eroding margins, quality and competition simultaneously. The Iran war fuel spike was the final nail, not the only one. The underlying structural problem was always consolidation of an essential public service into four dominant carriers. An oligopoly, which eventually will turn into monopoly, things being consistent.

@ivan_getsreal @Houseofyogi What do you attribute the bankruptcies, which happened long before Iran war, to?

@C1sc0CC @Houseofyogi Thank you for proving my point. Long time coming indeed. Keep on trolling!

@ivan_getsreal @Houseofyogi A guy with a BA in finance should be able to read 10-Q's and other SEC filings to figure out this was a long time coming. But please, go on... we'd like to hear more of your Soviet-flavored shit takes.

Social media makes people easily fall into narrative trap without the need for thought effort. People, do you not think a spike in fuel prices caused by an unplanned war with no clear goals or strategy that we bogged ourselves in again has something to do with that nail in the coffin? Or maybe decades of deregulation that led to monopolization of the whole industry? Think, people. Two dimensional thinking needs to stop.

I've warned for months that a @JetBlue-@SpiritAirlines merger would have led to fewer flights and higher fares. @JusticeATR and @USDOT were right to stand up for consumers and fight against runaway airline consolidation. This is a Biden win for flyers! apnews.com/article/jetblu…

@Houseofyogi Couldn't have possibly been a casualty from the spike in fuel prices caused by an unplanned war with no clear goals or strategy that we bogged ourselves in again, right? Or decades of deregulation that led to monopolization of the whole industry? Cool narrative though, Bro

Few things to add: 1) This post is about blocking the merger and how its bad for consumer. Socialists love to say they want to help people and it only hurts everyone. They only thing they've done consistently well is kill millions and send ppl to poverty and hunger. 2) This isn't justifying a bailout or even about that. Learn to read. 3) If you are making this post about Republican vs. Democrat or about Trump, you've lost the plot and god can't even help you. 4) Gas prices were higher on average under Biden. Iran war has shocked oil prices for higher but the company has been in a death spiral since the blocked merger. Cherry picking arguments or deflecting to false flags is not helpful. Low cost carriers help low income ppl more than you would understand and keep fares competitive in markets. Less airlines is bad. Its simple. Get your head out of your a$$ and try to take a step back and understand what I am communicating rather than being a political monkey.

@SecDuffy Couldn’t have possibly been a casualty from the spike in fuel prices caused by an unplanned war with no clear goals or strategy that we bogged ourselves in again, right?

🚨IN MINUTES: An update for passengers and Spirit Airlines employees after Spirit announces it is ceasing operations effective immediately foxnews.com/video/63944187…

@bennyjohnson I remember propagandists in Russia just like you saying the same thing about Ukraine few years ago. Enjoy contributing and making money off of America’s collapse of hegemony.

President Trump appears to be trolling Iran with memes:

@AnnCoulter Surprisingly, spot on.

It was high fuel costs that was the final death knell for Spirit -- caused by a pointless war that has left everyone worse off.

26 years of autocracy. Here’s what it produces. Putin’s promises to Russia: -GDP per capita to surpass Portugal. Still a distant dream. Never mind that Russia has one of the biggest wealth disparities in the world - the richest 1% hold 56.4% of all wealth, highest concentration on the planet - bumping that GDP per capita figure to make it more palatable than a third world country. -Diversify the economy off the “oil needle.” Still fully dependent on raw resources. -Infrastructure development in rural regions. Still waiting. -Freedom of press. Freedom of expression. Gone. -“Make Russia Great Again”, respected, a global player. Instead he sent hundreds of thousands of Russia’s youngest to die or be maimed in Ukraine while 700,000 more fled rather than follow. Military led by Yes-Men and kleptocrats got exposed for their incompetence in the first 3 days of “SMO” -Squandered inherited soft power in the entire region for a liability/ruins in the closest ethnic nation to Russia - Ukraine. A nation that won’t forgive the invasion anytime soon. -Fight corruption. He became the corruption. -Control inflation. Try 9% in 2025 with a central bank rate that hit 21%. The reserves are being burned, not built. The Duma is doctoring the numbers to hide that the budget is cooked - deficit projections missed every single year since 2022, always worse than announced. Even pro-government Russian economists called it “totally out of touch with reality.” Пыня сделал страну изгоем. How will our American aspiring autocrat pan out? History is not subtle. Photo source: NBC

@WhiteHouse New hypnosis beat just dropped. 🤘 Defining a victory is still optional.

President Trump saying WINNING for 1 hour. 🔁 Can't stop, won't stop.

@SpiritAirlines Expect prices to rise. Another industry heading towards monopoly with less reasons to compete.

@elonmusk In other shocking news, the NRA supports Republicans. Lazy distraction, Elon.

🤔

@GeraldoRivera Well, Vlad asked Donny politely to dismantle it. You don’t just refuse Bro a favor because of some weak sauce alliance or some peace or whatever. Bro called Bro a genius, that’s Bro Code. Bro.

President Trump is unraveling NATO, the Alliance that has kept the world safe from malignant Communism since WWII. Slava Ukraini

@BakeBake1111 @AdamKinzinger @theliamnissan What about him, he was a true patriot, no?

@ivan_getsreal @AdamKinzinger @theliamnissan Mueller.🤣

Trump, after having a 90 min phone call with Putin, puts out a truth social that he is considering withdrawing all troops from Germany. Something sinister is going on between them. It’s time for “concerned” Republicans to speak out