Clark Beattie

[Emoluments Clause @Emolclause]

#BREAKING: Legendary #Maddow: “Headline: ‘Donald Trump can’t open the Strait of Hormuz, so instead he’s blocking the Strait of Detroit.’ It’s a headline from The Globe and Mail, the Canadian newspaper. The big beautiful new bridge that Trump is not allowing us to use, is a bridge that crosses the Detroit River. It goes from…Detroit…to…Ontario. Canada fully financed and paid for this bridge. It is ready to be opened, it will be the biggest U.S. border crossing in Canada, it will be one of the most important routes for trade in the entire world, the single most important one with one of our two most important trading partners, Canada, but Trump won’t let anybody use it, even though it’s ready, ready to be driven on.” 🤦‍♀️

[Clark Beattie @jcbtedm]

@Berber_Doris_ People are forgetting that the invasion started in 2014. So the Russians have been killing Ukrainian citizens at will since then.

[Clark Beattie @jcbtedm]

@deAdder Cause Trump’s buddy isn’t going to get any revenue from the tolls so it’ll probably stay closed. It’s the only deal left.

[Clark Beattie @jcbtedm]

@FoodProfessor Trump’s buddy isn’t getting any revenue from tolls so there it sits.

[Adam Kinzinger (Slava Ukraini) 🇺🇸🇺🇦 @AdamKinzinger]

If Ukraine ceases firing, Ukraine ceases to exist. IF Russia ceases, the war ceases

[Chad Scott @cpscott16]

Just a reminder: in 1982, when Great Britain was attacked by Argentina, starting the Falklands War, the United States did not come to their aid because the Falklands are not in the North Atlantic and the British did not bitch about it.

In 1956, when the French and British attacked Egypt, causing the Suez Crisis, despite the fact that France and Great Britain are in NATO, the United States not only refused to assist, but went to the United Nations to condemn them for attacking Egypt.

In 2019, when Turkey decided to attack Syria, the Trump administration had the Pentagon send out an official notice that they did not support the campaign and would not send troops.

So kindly shut the fuck up, everyone in the White House.

[Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ @shanaka86]

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 - https://t.co/0fIdGsM5qH

[Republicans against Trump @RpsAgainstTrump]

Soon after the deadly attack that caused thousands of Hezbollah pagers to explode in September 2024,Viktor Orban’s government offered its assistance to Iran, the key sponsor of Hezbollah:

“Our secret service has already contacted your services and we will share all the information we have gathered during the investigation,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto told his Iranian counterpart, Abbas Araghchi, by telephone
https://t.co/ec0vKdZQa9

[Clark Beattie @jcbtedm]

@globalhalifax Lock them up

[Clark Beattie @jcbtedm]

@deAdder Right on as usual

[Garry Kasparov @Kasparov63]

Trump remains completely detached from reality when it comes to Russia and Ukraine. Putin can do no wrong, and is never criticized. Ukraine and Zelenskyy, always attacked. The only deals Putin is willing to make would enrich him and Trump and destroy Ukraine.

[Clark Beattie @jcbtedm]

@CTVAtlantic More tail wagging the dog

[Clark Beattie @jcbtedm]

@sunlorrie @nspector4 Best option is the one I took 25 years ago, I don’t watch CBC.

[Tymofiy Mylovanov @Mylovanov]

Bill Browder: Putin is a historic liar, but he’s honest about one thing.

He believes Ukraine should not exist as a sovereign state. He hasn’t deviated from that for a minute.

He doesn’t want compromise. He wants total and absolute victory.

[Vatnik Soup @P_Kallioniemi]

Never forget

[Klitschko @Klitschko]

The Olympic Committee (IOC) doesn’t want you to see this.
So, here it is: a helmet honoring Ukrainian Olympic athletes killed defending their country against the barbarian russian invasion that is now entering its fifth year.
The Olympic Games have always been Political Games.
In 2022 Olympics, China asked putin to wait until its Games were over before invading Ukraine. So let’s stop the hypocrisy.

@iocmedia @heraskevych

[Їne Back Їversen @IneBackIversen]

🧵The best response to the bogus decision by the IOC @Olympics to ban the helmet of @heraskevych and silence the memory of Ukrainian athletes murdered by russia, is to see their faces, learn their names and share it with the world!

They want it gone, we’ll show it everywhere!🇺🇦

[D.Radka, #NAFO 🇨🇿🤝🇺🇦 @DakdaR22]

Sounds like good Peace plan, what do you think?🤫

1. Complete deoccupation of all territories.

2. Payment of reparations.

3. Punishment of those responsible for the outbreak of war, the genocide of Ukrainians and the commission of war crimes.

4. Demilitarized zone 500 km deep into russian territory.

[ProudCanRobz 🇨🇦 @RMapleCan]

The Alaska Highway serves mostly Americans and US military driving to and from Alaska.
And yet the Country of USA never contributes to its maintenance!!!! Canada pays for it!
PM @MarkJCarney we should shut down the highway and start negotiations IMMEDIATELY until we are treated fairly.
Thank you for your attention to this matter.

[Clark Beattie @jcbtedm]

@raghu_venugopal Personally not a CBC fan having stopped watching/listening to them 30 years ago. Good riddance.