Sott Radio Network

Deferred due to the US-Israeli war against Iran, Trump finally visited China last week, where he received an apparently 'warm' welcome from Xi Jinping, along with a stern warning: do not mess with Taiwan, and let us work to avoid the 'Thucydides Trap', wherein a dominant power inevitably wars with a rising power. Whether Trump understood the finer points of Chinese diplomacy is unclear, but it's clear he intended to 'do big business deals' by bringing 'our finest' captains of industry in...

Caught in a trap by Iran, the gulf between what US president Trump wishes were true, and what is actually real, continues to grow. While the Strait of Hormuz remains impassable to the US Navy, its distant "blockade of Iran's blockade" is apparently taking effect, with billions of dollars' worth of oil shipments failing to leave Iran and thus reducing the country's cash flows. Iranian officials remain steadfast, however, denying dodgy Washington outlet Axios' repeated claims that a peace deal...

Typically, the American president has blurted out 'the plain truth' about what his government is doing around the world - from the Caribbean to the Arctic to the Black Sea and Indian Ocean: behaving like pirates. This week we review, taking into account Richard Medhurst's excellent dot-connecting in his documentary 'The Petrogas-Dollar: The Secret US Strategy Behind the Iran War', the string of US and Israeli government moves this year to effectively 'ring-fence' the global flow of oil and...

Three aircraft carriers in the Arabian Sea for the first time since March 2003 suggests another 'shock and awe' campaign is being considered. The 'ceasefire' between the US and Iran is holding, but for how much longer? Trump talks up his 'blockade of their blockade', but it's clear what is suffering most from Iranian defiance - Trump's reputation and American 'prestige', which the Americans are itching to salvage. Meanwhile an armed nutcase attempted to barge his way into the annual White...

It's not easy to do, and it's tempting to just 'turn it off', but we're all unfortunately doomed to have to endure Trump's erratic statements on Iran and wider geopolitics for the duration of this crisis (which he himself caused). For now a tentative ceasefire is holding, and further talks are scheduled in Pakistan this week, but from one hour to the next no one can tell which way things will go: towards a 'deal', or back towards hot war? Trump, though manifestly not presidential material,...

If you were writing this for a Hollywood script, it would be rejected for being unrealistic. Trump's latest scheme to 'unblock the Strait of Hormuz' is almost certainly not going to work, but more importantly, what is the likelihood that hostilities will recommence between the US and Iran? Also, what really happened during that so-called 'rescue mission' south of Isfahan last week? And should we have sympathy for Trump? He seems to be at the mercy of forces he can neither placate nor...

A month into his "little excursion" in Iran, Trump's campaign of sustained airstrikes is yielding preposterous results: significant damage in Iran, but also in America's regional client-states, and also in key global supply chains. Every Monday he calms 'the markets' with assurances that the war is won and "very nearly over," and every Friday, when markets close, he threatens "TOTAL DEATH AND DESTRUCTION!" In the meantime, non-stop rumors of American troop movements suggest Trump is...

Trump's "short-term excursion" in Iran is going from bad to worse. And so are his incoherent positions on the situation and what to do about it. With gas prices jumping the world over, humanity is staring down the barrel of global food shortages and severe energy disruptions, while the US military is seriously considering direct military confrontation with Iranian forces to "free the Strait of Hormuz." In the midst of all this, rumors are flying about Netanyahu's whereabouts, and 'someone'...

Something's gotta give. Iran is being practically carpet-bombed, resulting in widespread civilian destruction. Despite near-total regional censorship, satellite imagery and some video footage is documenting mild-to-strong 'hits' on US bases and other assets across the whole region. Trump assures us Iran's military is 'destroyed', yet he acknowledges Iran's de facto closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the high risks this presents for the regional and thus global economy. The heavy criticism...

One week into the US-Israeli attack on Iran, the mission has been extended from "4 days" to "4 weeks" to "4 months" to "as long as it takes." But what IS the mission? It was "regime change," but Iran is not "surrendering" despite its leadership being assassinated. In fact, surviving Iranian leadership is conveying that its counter-strikes will continue until ITS mission is accomplished. So, a war of attrition until one side blinks? In the meantime, damage to neighboring countries in the...