Contrariantimes

Junior Miners, Nuclear Energy and Uranium investor since 2018. Emerging Markets

[Contrariantimes @Contrariantimes]

@SecRubio Huh?

[Erik Townsend 🛢️ @ErikSTownsend]

The hyperscalers have bet big on reactors. Next they'll have to lock up the fuel, and the first one to move gets the last good price. https://t.co/QbBSUl4kBB

[theleahfiles @leahfiles]

People keep saying Trump term II is the most corrupt administration ever, so I built a model to find out if it was true.

I took the UN's definition of corruption, turned it into eight criteria and 100 points, and scored the leaders history remembers for looting their countries: Marcos, Suharto, Mobutu, Abacha, Obiang, Putin.

Then I put every president since Eisenhower on the same scale, both parties, with every exoneration counted right alongside the convictions.

Nixon scored 41 and no other American President scored over a 25.

Trump's second term scored a 91, which ties him with Suharto and Mobutu and puts him above Marcos and Abacha.

So he is not only the most corrupt president in American history. At this pace he finishes his term level with the most corrupt rulers of the last hundred years.

PSA: don't come in my comments arguing about the results if you haven't read the full article, because ignorance is a choice.

Full article is up now on my Substack (link in bio) and it's free.

[Maria Shriver @mariashriver]

And so here we are. This statement from Trump blows my mind. That a sitting president would not let any renovations to a public building go on unless he gets to first put his name in the said building… What a sad state of affairs. What a tragedy. Actually, how small minded, how narcissistic. Actually
great men, devoted to public service and the public good do not act like this.

It seems that this man will not rest until his name is permanently connected to the name of a great president, whose memory this building was dedicated to. Imagine spending your time and your days focused on this, as everyday Americans struggle with healthcare, gas prices, rent, and food. Imagine spending your days focused on this, while a war rages under your leadership.

Enough said. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

[Ilan Goldenberg @ilangoldenberg]

Social media has accelerated the trend, but let’s be clear: the collapse of Israel’s standing in the United States didn’t just “happen” to Israel. It was the direct result of a series of catastrophic political decisions by Benjamin Netanyahu over the past decade.

1. Netanyahu chose to drag Israel directly into partisan American politics.
Opposing the JCPOA was not itself unique. The Gulf states also disagreed with the deal. But Netanyahu went far beyond policy disagreement. He organized a speech before Congress behind the back of the sitting American president in order to directly confront Barack Obama and align Israel with one side of America’s political divide. That moment, ten years ago, was the beginning of the end of bipartisan consensus around the US-Israel relationship. It planted the seeds for Israel becoming a partisan issue in American politics.

2. Netanyahu chose to empower extremists like Itamar Ben-Gvir and Bezalel Smotrich in order to maintain power. He helped engineer alliances with them, brought them into the center of Israeli politics, and handed them real authority over national security and settlement policy. The images Americans now see almost daily on social media — violent settler attacks in the West Bank, Ben-Gvir celebrating with a noose cake, a Palestinian journalist emerging from prison emaciated and abused under systems overseen by Ben Gvir’s ministry and being interviewed on CNN. All of that has done enormous damage to Israel’s image.

Those outcomes were not inevitable. They were the direct consequence of Netanyahu’s political choices.

3. Netanyahu chose to prolong and prosecute the Gaza war in a way that maximized devastation.

After October 7, there was overwhelming sympathy for Israel in the United States. Americans broadly agreed Israel had the right to respond to Hamas’ atrocities.
But the war did not need to continue for so long, nor did it need to be prosecuted this way.

A year before it ended, most Israelis were prepared to support ending the war in exchange for the hostages. Netanyahu repeatedly extended it because ending the war threatened his coalition and his political survival. At the same time, he refused to seriously empower or work with alternative Palestinian leadership that could replace Hamas. So Israel fought a devastating war while ensuring Hamas would still remain part of Gaza’s future afterward.

The images coming out of Gaza more than anything else have transformed global and American opinion. Had the war ended earlier after Israel had achieved what military objectives it realistically could, Israel would not be facing anything close to this level of backlash today.

4. Netanyahu played a major role in pushing the United States toward war with Iran.

That war is deeply unpopular in the United States. It directly cuts against what Donald Trump promised much of his own political base, namely, avoiding getting bogged down in another Middle East war with no clear strategic rationale and no plan for how to win. It has dramatically driven up oil prices, and will have long term direct economic impacts that Americans will feel every day.

And now, just as the JCPOA fight a decade ago began the fracturing of Democrats on Israel, this Iran war is beginning to fracturing of conservatives. It will take time but you already see it. 

So no — this is not fundamentally about social media. It is not simply a mysterious surge of antisemitism, a lack of hasbara, or genius social media of Iran and Qatar. And it is not primarily the result of advocacy groups or messaging campaigns.

At its core, what we are witnessing is the cumulative consequence of a series of disastrous decisions by Benjamin Netanyahu — decisions that have been bad for Israelis, bad for Palestinians, bad for the United States, and bad for the broader Middle East.

[Object Zero @Object_Zero_]

The UK is 51-55° North, it is on the same latitude as Siberia, and Alaska.

In the UK, 26.6 million of the 28 million households are heated with natural gas.

The British government is concerned about the country’s vulnerability to natural gas shocks.

The government’s solution is that the UK must produce less natural gas domestically. So a 70% windfall tax is applied to domestic gas production.

British voters agree. 🤔

As a result, there now isn’t enough gas for electricity generation. Electricity prices are rising.

The British government is concerned about the country’s vulnerability to electricity price shocks.

The government’s solution is that the UK must produce less electricity. A 55% windfall tax is now applied to electricity generation.

British voters agree. 🤔

It’s difficult to be sympathetic here, maybe a sympathetic approach is that the UK is a good case study for mass delusion? Maybe people have been manipulated to feel this way?

If they haven’t, then it’s difficult to be sympathetic.

[Willem Middelkoop @wmiddelkoop]

So, today Trump lied about Iran, Israel and NATO members

[Contrariantimes @Contrariantimes]

https://t.co/lpBMWwTzTB

[Rep. Melanie Stansbury @Rep_Stansbury]

Why were the President and Secretary of State at a UFC fight tonight—while two real estate bros and the VP were trying to negotiate ending a war?

And we’re wondering why it failed…?

[Contrariantimes @Contrariantimes]

@Jesse_Livermore You could say that about quite a few other places too. Some closer to home.

[Contrariantimes @Contrariantimes]

@MarinaMedvin Completely choosing to ignore rather important other facts aren’t you …

[Saud Almalki @almalkisau]

والله العظيم إن اللي صار اليوم يخلي الواحد يحس بالغيظ والعار في آن واحد.

ترامب يعلن وقف إطلاق نار مع إيران لمدة أسبوعين، بشرط يفتحون مضيق هرمز، والنفط يمشي زين، والأسعار تهبط، والأسواق تبتسم... وفي الثانية نفسها، إسرائييل تشن أكثر من 100 غارة على بيرووت والضاحية والجنوب والبقاع، وتققتل مئات المدنييين وتجرح ألف وشي، وتقول لبنان ما هو داخل الاتفاق، وأمريكا تسكت وتقول صح كلامكم.

والحكام في خليجنا الحبيب... وينكم؟!
كلكم طلعتم بيانات ترحيب ونشكر الوساطة الباكستانية ونأمل التهدئة الشاملة، وكأن اللي يمووت في لبنان مو عرب ومسلمين زين! النفط يهمكم، والدولار يهمكم، والاستقرار الاقتصادي يهمكم... أما ددم إخواننا اللي ينززف تحت الركام في بيروت، فما يهمكم إلا في الكلام الفاضي.

والله إنها عاار علينا كخليجيين. سنين ونحن ندفع الفلوس ونفتح القواعد ونبيع النفط بأرخص الأسعار عشان الحماية الأمريكية، وفي النهاية عندما يجي الاختبار الحقيقي، يتركون إسرائييل تذذبح المنطقة ويقولون لنا خلاص، هرمز مفتوح والنفط ماشي، ارتاحوا.

إحنا صرنا مجرد محطات بنزين كبيرة، نهتم بـأمن الملاحة أكثر ما نهتم بأمن الددم العربي، لو كان فيه كرامة وعزة، كان لازم نوقف ونقول يا ترامب، يا إسسرائيل، إما تهدئة شاملة تشمل لبنان والمنطقة كلها، وإلا والله ما فيه نفط يمر ولا صفقة تمشي بس الفارسي اللي سيقولها.

لكن نحنا لا... نرحب ونبتسم ونقول خطوة إيجابية، ونترك إخواننا يُذببحون،هذا مو موقف رجال، هذا موقف تابعين، والتاريخ ما راح يرحم اللي باع كرامته عشان برميل نفط.

الله يرحم الشهدداء في لبنان، ويفتح عيون أهل الخليج قبل فوات الأوان
والسلام.

[Contrariantimes @Contrariantimes]

@ModernCeasar Talleyrand by Duff Cooper

[sarah @sahouraxo]

Apocalyptic scenes in Lebanon’s capital right now.

Israel has launched 100 airstrikes on Lebanon in 10 minutes.

Striking South Lebanon, Beirut and the Bekaa Valley simultaneously.

This isn’t a ceasefire.

It’s mass bombardment of civilian areas.

[Contrariantimes @Contrariantimes]

@PressSec Genuinely curious as to whether you believe your own BS or at least you secretly acknowledge how farcical this is? 🧐

[Brian Allen @allenanalysis]

🚨Congressman Salud Carbajal to Pete Hegseth in a congressional hearing:

“You are an embarrassment. You are unfit to lead. Get the hell out.”

This is a sitting congressman. On the record. In a hearing. To the Secretary of Defense.

The same Pete Hegseth who:

— Refused to give a casualty count when asked directly
— Hid 30 wounded soldiers in Kuwait from their families
— Told his 13-year-old son Americans died to stop a nuclear Iran that didn’t exist
— Banned cameras from military funerals
— Said consumer pain is “the last of our concerns”
— Drew maps of “Greater North America”
— Asked for $200 billion in weapons while accusing Iran of choosing weapons over people

Bipartisan members of Congress have called for his resignation.

[Arnaud Bertrand @RnaudBertrand]

Make no mistake: destroying world-class universities, like the US just did with Sharif University of Technology in Tehran, isn't just an attack on Iran but it's literally an attack on all of us, on all of humanity.

It's not Iran that "won" when Maryam Mirzakhani made her discoveries that won her a Fields Medal: it's all of mathematics, and everything mathematics is used for. Human progress won, technology won, we all won.

It's the same type of stuff the Mongols did during the sack of Baghdad and their destruction of the House of Wisdom: we ALL lost something irreplaceable back then, entire fields of human knowledge set back.

That's what bombing a university does. It doesn't just destroy buildings. It destroys us, all of us.

[Ron Paul @RonPaul]

Trump: "We're gonna bring them back to the stone ages where they belong."

90 million Iranians are expected to believe they're being "liberated"?

[Christiane Amanpour @amanpour]

Talk of bombing Iran “back to the stone ages where they belong” angers Iranians deeply proud of their 2,500-year history. And by targeting reform-era foreign minister Kamal Kharazi, where is the diplomatic off-ramp? Or is America heading for a constant war footing?