High Plains Fella

@RKMajer @TrentTelenko What’s downstream of the crude oil that ships there? What other products originate in the gulf that need to transit?

@TrentTelenko Who buys the oil the comes through Hormuz? Chyna and India and Europe. Not the USA. Who benefits from oil moving through the Straights? Gulf states, Saudi and Iran. Maybe Europe can help keep it open. I do hope the best for the Persian people. The mullahs are crazy.

The closure of the Strait of Hormuz is a “Strategically revealing moment“ for Europe akin to Pres. Obama’s assassination of Osama bin Ladin inside a Pakistani resort town. Both moments revealed to the American people the true natures of the regimes they were dealing with.

@Bricktop_NAFO Along with Afroman @wonkjunkie posted, this series won the rest of internet: x.com/catfusolana/st…

I havent been around for a whole week, i have kept away from all news, completely closed myself off. This is so overwhelming. I don't even know where to start.................... Please tell me the important things i have missed below...

I’ve been very supportive of POTUS on Iran & believe getting rid of Maduro was good. But I’ve been appalled by this Admin's tone, rhetoric, tactics & strategy toward Europe. Denigrating our allies has been terrible. Weakness communicated to Putin has caused grave damage. Passive-aggressive communication toward President Zelenskyy is embarrassing. I hear from our allies about the damage this has done & it’s going to take time to repair.

@glennbeck ...and he's failing at it. Nice job.

After I saw President Trump call out Israel for striking the South Pars gas field, something clicked for me. He didn't join Israel's war with Iran because he was duped. He stepped in to control the OUTCOME of the war.

The US now views Lukashenko as "a strong leader", and is preparing an official White House visit. Good lord.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

@freeonis_ shape of the ice cream in the cone = priceless 🤣

ZELENSKYYYYYYYYYYY! (animation)

@Een_Benjaminiet @syedmohdmurtaza And the SU-57....still ain't done shit, all 12 of them.

The United States Axis has no magical weapon left. The STEALTH F-35 has been brought down (and it is NOT the first one), Iranians also brought down a B-2, another “radar invisible stealth bomber”, close to 10 refueling tankers, & at least 10 F-15s. They have also destroyed the indestructible THAAD, and the RADAR early warning system with 5,000km coverage. What else is remaining? Oh, the mighty mobile Naval Bases; USS Abraham Lincoln and Gerald Ford were struck and rendered obsolete; they limped out of battefront without a fight, all while Washington kept us busy with how degraded the Iranian military capabilities had been rendered. And the publicised iron dome was just a myth. And the US has no capability whatsoever to detect or intercept hypersonic missiles

Hitting F-35 during a combat mission over Iran is going to change many things for this stealth aircraft. IRST lock gave heat detection range of F-35. It showed at which speed & altitudes, the stealth coatings failed against infrared sensors. F-35's infrared fingerprint is a priceless record for Iran now. This would be transferred to friendly countries. It will help in developing sensors to identify & target it. After 19th March 2026, the pilots of F-35 will fly defensively. This will degrade their effectiveness. They are no more invisible.

@RepMikeLevin Throwing Ukraine funding under the bus as he went. "oh, it's because a year and a half ago Biden sent Ukraine some old weapons that CONGRESS VOTED ON AND APPROVED and that we're not even using in our little excursion"

$200 billion. No briefing, strategy, or end game. No respect for Congress. I sit on the Appropriations Committee. I have received zero justification. Hegseth’s entire case to the American people is “it takes money to kill bad guys.” That’s an insult. To Congress and the Constitution. And most of all, to the men and women putting their lives on the line right now. Our service members are the best this country has. They are brave, skilled, and they deserve leadership worthy of their sacrifice. They deserve a clear mission. A defined objective. A strategy that someone in this administration has actually thought through. They are not props for a policy that nobody can consistently explain. Yes, a nuclear-armed Iran is a threat. I believe that. But how we confront that threat matters. The path we take matters. The cost in lives and dollars matters. And who gets to weigh in on all of that matters. That’s not weakness. That’s the Constitution. First the reports were $50 billion. Then $100 billion. Now $200 billion. With no breakdown, no timeline, no accountability. Where the hell are my Republican House colleagues? Collins and Murkowski are asking questions in the Senate. The House is silent. That silence is a dereliction of duty. We are a co-equal branch of government. The power of the purse is ours. This is not a technicality. It is the last line of defense against exactly this kind of reckless blank-check governance. Our troops deserve better. The American people deserve better. nytimes.com/2026/03/19/wor…

For the record, Biden administration assistance to #Ukraine totaled $130 billion, not $350 billion. Much of that assistance was sending older munitions to Ukraine (eg, ATACM missiles) and using $ to buy new weapons for US military (eg, Precision Strike Missiles).

It's always and only about money and doing Putin's bidding. Orban and now Lukashenko, two corrupt autocrats crushing their own countries in Putin's service, and now Trump is joining them.

The same country who kidnapped Ukrainian children paraded them on TV and then refused to give them back. Also they have such extreme human trafficking, that several nations have suggested they intentionally cause border disputes just to human traffic. When you read the reports of their human trafficking it is from their highest leader down to the loneliest patrol officer in their police that are making money off of human trafficking. Not only is this a disgusting nation that allows russian forces to build up and attack Ukraine, but make no mistake, that is where Wagner retreated.

Trump is, again, lying about shortages of ammunition for the war against Iran due to some imaginary supplies to Ukraine. Here are some facts: The kinds of weapons we are using to strike Iran were NEVER sent to Ukraine: PrSM (entered service in 2024), LUCAS drones (brand new), Tomahawks (Trump talked about sending some, never did), and of course B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, F-22 Raptors, and F-35s -- obviously none were ever transferred to Ukraine. The only weapons one might plausibly refer to would be ATACMS: the entire stock we deigned to send Ukraine was about 50 rounds (we had used 800 in the opening days of the Iraq invasion). The US used over 20 weapons systems to hit over 1,000 targets simultaneously during the opening hours of Operation Epic Fury. An estimated 300 Tomahawks were used and the Pentagon ordered... 57 new ones in the current fiscal year. There have been no deliveries of THAAD interceptors since 2023 and no new orders were placed this year. The military will get 39 in 2027, six years after ordering them. If we are running short on ammunition, it's because the people ordering this war did not plan adequately for contingencies and spent like drunken sailors, not because of our (really nonexistent for the past year) aid to Ukraine. Our big problem is that right now, we are still using extremely expensive systems like Patriots ($3-4 million per missile) and NASAMS/AMRAAM interceptors ($0.8-1.2 million per missile) to combat mass-produced $20,000 Shahed drones. This asymmetric exchange ratio between offense and defense is what kept analysts at night during the Cold War and why eventually defense systems would be scrapped for being too easily overwhelmed by numbers despite being technologically superior. Ukraine has been fighting and innovating precisely to deal with the asymmetric offense capabilities of Russia for years, and they have learned how to do it. But when they offered to help us last year, the Trump administration arrogantly brushed them aside. Now we are squandering premier weapons designed to stop ballistic missiles on cheap drones. And we can't keep doing it no matter how wealthy we are. Missiles take months, sometimes years, to make, while drones can be mass produced in weeks. You lose wars not when the offense peaks --- as the current bombing afficionados at the White House have you believe with their nonstop meming about raining destruction on Iran -- but when your defense capacity is stretched to its limits and cannot cope with things that keep coming at it.

Irrefutable evidence of China's supply of electronics and dual-use components used in military production to #Russia. Sources claim that #China was forced to soften its demands and abandon its strict terms for the supply of microchips and electronics, which were crucial for the special operation in #Ukraine. Until recently, China had effectively been issuing an ultimatum: component prices had risen sharply, and supply terms had become increasingly stringent, putting Russia in a difficult position. But the situation changed dramatically amid the escalating conflict in the Middle East and the risk of disruptions to oil supplies. According to sources, Beijing quickly revised its position and expressed a willingness to return to more acceptable terms—even to previous prices—in exchange for guaranteed volumes of Russian oil supplies. Sources claim that a de facto "oil for technology" trade has begun. Faced with the risk of energy shortages, China has become noticeably more accommodating, while Russia has been able to partially equalize terms that until recently seemed downright onerous. The interlocutors claim that negotiations are currently proceeding at an accelerated pace: the parties are seeking to solidify new agreements, while the global market situation plays into Russia's hands. INSIDER BLACK

@ArtemisLynn @BohuslavskaKate Quite a fair point. I still think he's a total dick, though 🥰

@HighPlainsFella @BohuslavskaKate Yes. My point is, when we argue against Hegseth, we should NOT argue “We didn’t send 🇺🇦 anything of value so you’re lying about needing to increase the military budget.” We should argue “🇺🇸 people overwhelmingly want to support 🇺🇦. It’s what’s best for 🇺🇸 security and (etc).”

Hegseth: "We're still dealing with the environment Joe Biden created—depleting our stockpiles and sending them to Ukraine instead of our own military. Every time we face a challenge, it traces back to 'Well, sent it to Ukraine.'" It looks like they’re just going to blame Ukraine whenever anything goes wrong now, doesn’t it? It’s depressing to watch because while this administration will eventually leave office, a segment of Americans will keep hating Ukraine without even remembering why.

@ArtemisLynn @BohuslavskaKate The subtext is “if we didn’t send it to Ukraine we would have it”, and given his previous statements, it’s easy to infer that he thinks we shouldn’t have

@BohuslavskaKate He’s not blaming 🇺🇦. He’s blaming Biden - implying Biden gave things as charity which we needed ourselves. The flaws: - it’s not charity. 🇺🇦 is fighting on behalf of all of us. We owe them, not the other way around. - 🇺🇸 people overwhelmingly supported sending aid to 🇺🇦 1/2

@DarthPutinKGB Very.

Qatar bribed Donald with a $400 million jet in the belief he would do what they wanted. How stupid must they feel now?

🤡Shoigu admitted that the Kremlin has left the regions unprotected.Secretary of the Security Council Sergei Shoigu stated that no region in #Russia can feel safe from the threat of drone attacks.Even the Urals, previously considered out of reach, has found itself in the threat zone. Instead of strengthening defenses and ensuring the safety of citizens, the government continues to discuss space ambitions and ignore problems on the ground.The regions are abandoned to their fate, while the #Kremlin trades away their future and resources, without regard for the real security of the people!

Shoigu admitted that the Kremlin has left the regions unprotected. Secretary of the Security Council Sergei Shoigu stated that no region in Russia can feel safe from the threat of drone attacks. Even the Urals, previously considered out of reach, has found itself in the threat zone. Instead of strengthening defenses and ensuring the safety of citizens, the government continues to discuss space ambitions and ignore problems on the ground. The regions are abandoned to their fate, while the Kremlin trades away their future and resources, without regard for the real security of the people! #CaptiveNations #nations 📺t.me/League_FN/5255 Website: freenationsleague.org Instagram: instagram.com/freenationslea… Telegram: t.me/League_FN Youtube: @freenationsleague77?si=Hnzwufx-a-mfnZs_" target="_blank" rel="nofollow noopener">youtube.com/@freenationsle…

but Tulsi said…. #RussiaIsWinning but there is a nuance…