Sam Meilach

@shanaka86 If Iran is not blocking ships from Russia and China, then the U.S. should block them.

BREAKING: NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte flew to Washington to discuss Ukraine’s $60 billion defense requirement for 2026. He spent over two hours being dressed down about Iran. When he emerged, he told CNN the meeting was “very frank” and acknowledged that “some allies failed the test.” Trump posted in all caps that NATO was not there when the US needed them and would not be there again. Here is the part of this story that should stop everyone cold. Russia is earning an extra $150 million per day in oil revenue because of the Iran war. The Guardian reported $8 billion in additional fossil fuel revenue in just the first two weeks of the conflict, $900 million above normal. Carnegie Endowment estimates the windfall at tens of billions per annum if the disruption persists. The Swedish armed forces commander said publicly that Moscow is “pouring” that revenue directly into its war effort in Ukraine. Russian state television propagandist Vladimir Solovyov told audiences on March 2: “For our budget, the attack on Iran is a big plus.” And on April 7, Russia vetoed the UN Security Council resolution that would have reopened the Strait of Hormuz. The resolution was sponsored by Bahrain alongside Jordan, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE. It had already been diluted three times, stripped of all offensive authorization, reduced to purely defensive coordination, narrowed to the strait alone. Eleven countries voted yes. Russia and China voted no. Pakistan and Colombia abstained. Russia’s ambassador said the resolution presented Iranian actions as the sole source of tension while ignoring US and Israeli strikes. China’s ambassador said it failed to capture root causes. They killed the only multilateral mechanism that could have reopened the strait without a bilateral US-Iran deal, ensuring the disruption continues, ensuring the windfall continues, ensuring the war funding continues. So the structural loop is this. Trump started the Iran war. Hormuz closed. Oil prices surged. Russia began earning an extra $150 million every day. Russia pours that money into its Ukraine campaign. NATO needs $60 billion to counter Russia in Ukraine. Trump demands NATO simultaneously support the Iran effort AND fund Ukraine. But the Iran war is financing Russia’s Ukraine campaign at a rate that dwarfs NATO’s incremental spending. And Russia just vetoed the resolution that could have ended its own windfall, because keeping Hormuz closed is worth more to Moscow than any amount of diplomatic credibility at the Security Council. Iran also exempted Russia from the Hormuz blockade. On March 26, Foreign Minister Araghchi announced that ships from five nations, including Russia and China, would be allowed to transit freely. Russia’s tankers move. NATO’s do not. Russia sells oil at tightened discounts. NATO buys oil at war premiums. Russia funds its army with the proceeds of a war that NATO is being punished for not joining. Rutte knows all of this. Which is why his post-meeting statement included a line most outlets buried: NATO’s security and Ukraine’s are “interlinked.” That word, interlinked, is doing the heaviest lifting in transatlantic diplomacy right now. It is Rutte’s way of telling Washington that the alliance cannot be tested on Iran and Ukraine simultaneously when the Iran war is funding the adversary that the Ukraine commitment exists to contain. The alliance is not failing because of freeloaders. The alliance is trapped inside a feedback loop where the war meant to demonstrate American resolve is generating the revenue that funds the threat the alliance was built to deter. And the country profiting most from that loop just vetoed the only vote that could have broken it. Full analysis - open.substack.com/pub/shanakaans…

@sheewaass There has to be a plan, at least I hope there is, where the Iranian people fight back and take their country back. That's the only way.

من یه نکته رو برای اکانت خودم روشن کنم: بعد از آتش‌بس، یه عده فکر میکنن همه‌چی تموم شد و خیانت شد و باید برگردن به زندگی. یه عده هم میگن هنوز تموم نشده و پشتش نقشه‌ست. اگه واقعا نقشه‌ای باشه، عالیه و مسیر خودش رو میره. ولی سیاست قطعیت نداره. حتی اگه ۱٪ احتمال بدیم این‌طور نیست، باید همچنان بگیم این خیانت به مردم ایرانه و رژیم باید تموم بشه. پس لطفا زیر کامنت‌های انگلیسی ادم نیاید با لحن تمسخر بگید «نقشه‌ست، ساده‌ای، اعتماد کن، پنیکن نباش و ….». این حرفا کمکی نمیکنه. من برای فعالیت مفید اینجام. با اینکه اعتماد و امیدم به این مسیر از خیلی‌ها بیشتره، دست روی دست نمیذارم ببینم چی میشه. برای مثال، من از خیلی‌ها بیشتر امیدوارم که ترامپ میدونه داره چیکار میکنه و بچه نیست که با طناب جی‌دی ونس بره تو چاه. اما توی فعالیت‌هام همچنان تفکر مذاکره‌ای ونس رو برای مخاطب خارجی نقد میکنم؛ که اگه مرحله دوم جنگ شروع شد، همینا مثل دو هفته اول، جلوی ترامپ نایستن و فضا رو نبندن Thank you for your attention to this matter.

@cecegkh What's stopping 20 homeless people walking in and making themselves a sandwich, eating it, and then walking out ?

A woman in a California supermarket walks in to the bread aisle, tearing open a packaged loaf of bread, eating most of it on camera while smiling. She then casually discarding the empty packaging and leaving the store without paying. She calls it a “lifestyle” tip for getting food for free by exploiting loopholes. Consequences like arrest depend on whether the specific store reviews footage, identifies the person, and decides to involve police many grocery chains treat minor in-store consumption as a loss-prevention rather than a criminal. This is absolutely disgusting behavior. Unless there are consequences to this animalistic behavior, you and I will pay the tab for her to get fatter and fatter! 🤬

@NiohBerg They're affecting everyone now with gas prices going up. I say, put boots on the ground and eliminate this evil regime.

The regime in Iran doesn’t only threaten the safety of every country in the region, let alone the world. The mullahs are a danger to global trade and stability by placing everyone at the mercy of their doomsday cult ideology. Even if you live far away and think you are unaffected by this regime surviving year by year, you’d be dead wrong. Their chaotic, irrational nature will eventually threaten your daily life economy especially if you work with trade or do business. There are so many layers to how this dictatorship threatens the entire world, not only the Middle East. To remove this regime is to remove the constant deterioration of world peace and stability.

@marklevinshow Iran feels emboldened now. They think Trump is desperate to make any deal so to get in an off ramp.

In other words, if Iran continues firing missiles into Israeli cities via its surrogate Hezbollah, and the Israelis unilaterally agree not to defend themselves by attacking Hezbollah, Iran will allow ships to pass through the international waters of the Strait of Hormuz.   Suicide is not in Israel’s DNA.

@NiohBerg Iran is more emboldened now because they think that Trump is desperate for an off ramp deal

There has been no regime change. I will not stop repeating this fact until the Trump admin either stops lying, or prove they are bluffing because they have bigger plans.

@TLNewmanMTL How ? Look at any gifts she's going to get

How does someone go from being this animated against the Liberals so recently to crossing the floor and joining them?

@B7frankH Justice in the Hood

Grown man clocks a little girl in the face, gives her a nasty black eye. Dad shows up and turns the guy into modern art on the pavement. Society: "Omg that's illegal We must let the courts handle it fairly!" Courts: Probably a stern talking-to and community service. Real talk—when the system's too busy protecting the puncher, what's a father supposed to do? Stand there and clap? What do you think? Right move or "two wrongs don't make a right"? Drop your take below 👇

@ItsDecado I think you're right. Trump freaked out the Iranian government with his threat that they cant think straight. I feel he's planning something

I do not want to sell false hope. I just want to lay out the puzzle pieces the way they look from here. I do not think this ceasefire is a ceasefire. I think it is a Trojan horse. Trump spent Monday, more than once and in different ways, talking about Iranians fearing the bombing would stop and they would be abandoned with the regime. Nobody dragged that out of him. He volunteered it. Then before any ceasefire even existed, he said that if one happened, Iranians should come to the streets. Then he suddenly started talking about weapons meant for Iranians that were stolen. Maybe true, maybe not. But none of that sounds random. Then look at the board. Right in the middle of the deadline drama, while Trump was threatening infrastructure, the Crown Prince called on the military. In the last 24 hours before the pause, bridges, rail lines, roads, oil, and power nodes were hit. That did not look like punishment for punishment’s sake. It looked like shaping the board, slowing transfers, choking movement, and complicating the regime’s ability to move suppression forces. Now Ghalibaf is publicly saying even their own so called workable 10 point framework was violated before talks began, Lebanon, a drone over Lar in Fars, and Iran’s claimed right to enrichment. That tells me Tehran itself did not read this as a clean peace landing. It read it as a contested pause before the next fight. And the core issue is still sitting there. The 440 kilos of uranium enriched to 60 percent are still part of the story, still enough in principle to become bombs if pushed further. So what exactly is “resolved” here. And please spare me the fantasy of a new regime. What fucking new regime. The four main names have not changed. Khamenei became Khamenei Junior, and the rest are still the same bastards as before, Pezeshkian, Qalibaf, Ejei. Then there is the rescue mission, 48 hours of activity deep inside Iran, deception, jamming, roads hit, aircraft destroyed. And the assassination pattern. Trump pushed the line that around 50 high level figures were gone. Public names are already out there, but I would bet a large part of the real list is still being held back. So no, I do not think this means the war is over. I think it means a lot is happening behind the curtain. This pause serves Washington and Jerusalem more than it serves the terrorist Islamic Regime occupying Iran, buys time, steadies markets, preserves escalation control, and prepares the next phase. Pāyandeh Iran Javid Shah

@AmarjeetGill What did they promise you ?

Over the past few weeks, I have been approached by the Liberals and encouraged to cross the floor. I have firmly rejected their offer.

@w_terrence Go and paint some more pictures

Hunter Biden says he’s drowning in debt — and doesn’t see a way out. “I’ve got, I don’t know, $14–$15 million in debt that I have no idea that I’m going to be able to pay off.” He points to massive legal fees, falling income, and mounting financial pressure. Biden also pushed back on the idea that his family has wealth to fall back on: “We have no generational wealth.”

@TheBritishIntel It's almost like he swooped in to take credit for the ceasefire

🚨 WHAT A CLOWN Watch this. Keir Starmer - the man who didn’t lift a single finger to help with Iran - is now proudly boasting: “We’ve just reached a ceasefire.” Literally no one is listening to this irrelevant idiot anymore. Absolute national embarrassment.

@liberal_party You STOLE a majority government. This is democracy?

#LIB2026 kicks off tomorrow, with 4,500 Canadians joining Mark Carney and our Liberal team in Montréal for a record-breaking convention. See you soon!

@SKYRIDER4538 How can America arm the citizens so they rise up ? Thats the only way. And where's the Iranian Army ?

There has been NO REGIME CHANGE in Iran. What happened is that the worst rabid animals and notorious murderers now sit in the highest positions of power. If this truly is the end to this war, the regime won. Iranian people received their death sentence and will be executed in massive numbers and the U.S. became a bigger target for after @POTUS leaves office. There will never be peace in the Middle East. In fact the region became less safe because now they have their eyes on the UAE too. They will become the ME’s North Korea only with more resources and more determination. Sone of the most demonic and radical individuals are now in charge of the government now. The Iranian people did not ask for this, they asked for help to level the playing field so that they could remove this regime entirely. They did not ask for a militia run state with Dushkas operated the regime’s proxies on every corner of the streets. Not to have executions ramped up. Not to have radical Afghans screaming and celebrating on the streets of Iran. @marcorubio

@KirkLubimov What's the point of voting if our vote doesn't count ? This is just so wrong!

Canadians gave the Liberals a minority government. Conservative MPs gave the Liberals a majority government. There is no voting your way out of this. It's over. Canada is cooked.

@marklevinshow The history programs about America that are on Fox Business at night are great. I've recorded a whole bunch on my PVR.

This isn’t just about history—it’s about what’s happening today. I break down why we’re not teaching real American history anymore—and what that means for the future of the country. From the Articles of Confederation and the failures of early government to the creation of the U.S. Constitution, I walk through the ideas, debates, and realities that shaped America’s founding. Our founding principles, the Enlightenment, and core American ideas are being replaced or ignored, and why that shift matters for education, assimilation, and national identity. If we don’t understand how this country was built, we can’t understand where it’s going. This is a deeper look at history, education, and the battle over America’s story. RUMBLE: rumble.com/v786hnk-ep022-… YOUTUBE: youtu.be/WDLR8xSX-Vo

@NiohBerg Why would Trump surrender when he was winning big time? He didn't. Let's see what happens next.

Trump can keep repeating this all he wants, but all regime media outlets including IRIB, Tasnim and Fars News are declaring that Trump has accepted a big list of insane demands. I repeat: The regime in Iran genuinely believes that America has accepted their terms.

@MarilynGladuSL So what's the point of voting for a party or even voting? Our votes mean nothing. Resign and run again and let the people decide.

Proud to be the newest member of our new Liberal Government.

@AriFleischer Maybe there's a bigger plan we don't yet know abour

The one reason I can think he said this is it’s a classic Trump bluff, with China being the target. One of the huge consequences of the Iran war is the undermining of China’s oil imports. Trump wants to keep his hand on the spigot. Other than that, I don’t get it.

Iran is not Venezuela. Unless there is a popular uprising and the IRGC is removed from power, no "joint venture" with Iran makes sense.

@marklevinshow If this is true, America basically surrendered

These 10 points are an absolute disaster