kscarbel2

The “Maverick Act” https://www.twz.com/air/my-god-the-f-14-tomcat-may-actually-fly-again-over-the-united-states

The U.S. attacked Qeshm Port and Bandar Abbas, but a senior U.S. official says this is NOT a restarting of the war [even though it obviously is]. We're wasting effort, time and money. After 47 years, it's time to get the job done. https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15799875/Trump-unleashes-midnight-strikes-crucial-Iran-oil-port-officials-frantically-insist-ceasefire-holding.html https://www.twz.com/news-features/iranian-island-port-in-strait-of-hormuz-attacked-state-media-claims

This just in: Three U.S. Navy destroyers transiting the Strait of Hormuz came under attack on Thursday, enduring what American officials described as a fiercer and more sustained Iranian assault than the barrage that two of the warships faced only days earlier. The Arleigh Burke-class destroyers USS Truxtun (DDG 103), USS Mason (DDG 87) and USS Rafael Peralta (DDG 115) were attacked by missiles, drones and small boats. The U.S. military responded by targeting Iranian facilities, including drone and missile launch sites in what Central Command described as "self-defense strikes." [Should be "obliterate the enemy" strikes] The destroyers came under an intense Iranian assault as swarms of Iranian fast-attack boats maneuvered close enough that American warships opened fire to keep them at bay. Over several hours, the American destroyers and supporting aircraft mounted a layered defense, firing their 5-inch guns and their close-in weapon systems. Small-caliber gun teams on deck also engaged the attacking boats. U.S. Army Apache helicopters fired Hellfire missiles, and .50-caliber machine guns were fired from the decks of the ships. Iranian forces also launched drones and missiles during the confrontation. On Monday, the USS Truxtun and USS Mason transited the Strait of Hormuz and entered the Persian Gulf after navigating an Iranian barrage. During that engagement, Iran also launched small boats, missiles and drones against them in a sustained barrage.

Today, the WSJ reported that Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have lifted restrictions on the US military's use of its airspace and military bases, citing U.S. and Saudi officials, and ‌that the Trump administration was looking to restart Project ⁠Freedom, its operation to guide/escort vessels through the strait. Iran on Tuesday created the Persian Gulf Strait Authority to exert total control of the strait (all the way to the UAE's and Oman's beaches per Iran's new map) and charge tolls for transits. And yet we're negotiating with these people? Seriously?

Nothing adds up. March 1, 2026 President Trump's decision to launch Operation Epic Fury against Iran on Saturday in a joint operation with Israel followed weeks of behind-the-scenes pressure from Israel and Saudi Arabia, the Washington Post reported on Sunday, citing accounts from officials and regional sources. https://www.jpost.com/middle-east/iran-news/article-888328 March 24, 2026 Saudi Arabia’s de facto leader, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has been pushing President Trump to continue the war against Iran, arguing that the U.S.-Israeli military campaign presents a “historic opportunity” to remake the Middle East, according to people briefed by American officials on the conversations. In a series of conversations over the last week, Prince Mohammed has conveyed to Mr. Trump that he must press toward the destruction of Iran’s hard-line government, the people familiar with the conversations said. https://www.nytimes.com/2026/03/24/us/politics/saudi-prince-iran-trump.html May 6, 2026 President Trump’s abrupt reversal on his plan to help ships go through the Strait of Hormuz came after Saudi Arabia suspended the U.S. military’s ability to use Prince Sultan Airbase and airspace to carry out the operation. [Allegedly] President Trump surprised Gulf allies by announcing “Project Freedom” on Sunday afternoon, angering leadership in Saudi Arabia. In response, the Kingdom informed the U.S. it would not allow the U.S. military to fly aircraft from Prince Sultan Airbase southeast of Riyadh or fly through Saudi airspace to support the effort. A call between Trump and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman did not resolve the issue, forcing the president to suspend Project Freedom in order to restore U.S. military access to the critical airspace. A Saudi source said Saudi Arabia was “very supportive of the diplomatic efforts” by Pakistan to broker a deal between Iran and the U.S. to end the war. https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/trump-abrupt-u-turn-plan-220241765.html First SA wants the destruction of the Iranian regime. But now SA is supportive of a diplomatic solution that allows the regime to continue. It makes no sense.

That absolutely is a gas turbine variant. .

There had better not be any truth to this news. Every country in Iran's neighborhood, plus the world at large, wants regime change. https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15794867/Trump-set-lift-US-sanctions-Iran-free-billions-stunning-proposed-peace-deal.html

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/How-China-Killed-Every-Rare-Earth-Competitor-Before-It-Could-Get-Started.html

The man tries to kill the president of the United States and he gets a Muslim judge who apologizes to him. https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15789467/Judge-slammed-apologizing-Trump-WHCD-shooter-complained-mediocre-jail-conditions-Stop-coddling-killers.html

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15784757/former-fbi-deputy-director-dan-bongino-fear-warning.html

The New York Times Editorial Board / April 30, 2026 On paper, the war in Iran should not be much of a contest. The United States spends around $1 trillion a year on its military, more than 100 times as much as Iran. That money buys a vastly larger Air Force and Navy, as well as advanced weapons technologies that Iranian generals can only dream about. In the war’s early days, the mismatch played out as one might expect. American forces destroyed much of the Iranian military. Now, however, the contest looks less one-sided. Iran has taken control of the Strait of Hormuz, and its missiles and drones still threaten America’s allies in the region. While President Trump seems eager for a negotiated truce, Iran’s leaders do not. Somehow, the weaker nation is in the stronger negotiating position. That reality exposes the vulnerabilities in the American way of war. Tactical success has not yielded victory. Mr. Trump’s recklessness in conducting the war is one reason. But the problem is bigger than any single commander in chief. The United States has left itself unprepared for modern war. America has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on ships and planes that are good at defeating competitors’ ships and planes but ineffective against cheaper, mass-produced weapons. The American economy does not have the industrial capacity to produce enough of the weapons and equipment it does need. And the country has struggled to fix these problems because of a sclerotic government and a consolidated defense industry that resists change. Three months before Mr. Trump attacked Iran, we warned that the United States was at risk of being overmatched in the wars of the future. The last two months have shown that alarm was justified. The war in Iran, unwise as it is, should serve as a warning about the rising threats to American security and an incentive to fix them. “Never in recorded history has a nation’s military been so quickly and effectively neutralized,” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth claimed on March 26. The next day, Iran launched a drone and missile attack on an American base in Saudi Arabia that wounded more than a dozen service members, destroyed a radar surveillance plane and damaged at least two refueling tankers. The immediate debunking of Mr. Hegseth’s bombast points to the reform agenda that America’s military needs. There are four main priorities. First, the United States needs to invest in counter-drone technologies, like those that Ukraine has developed in its war against Russia. The lack of such defenses is one reason that the vaunted U.S. Navy has been unable to prevent the closing of a vital waterway, the Strait of Hormuz. Second, the United States needs more of its own cheap, disposable weapons like one-way attack drones and unmanned ships. Although much of the war in Ukraine has been fought by mass-produced drones, the Pentagon is pouring money into much more complex equipment, including pilotless “wingmen” that can fly alongside a piloted plane. Third, the country needs larger and more flexible industrial capacity. Until recently, a single factory made all of America’s Tomahawk cruise missiles, and there is a constant shortage of Patriot missile interceptors. Congress should pass laws that help the private sector build up its manufacturing capacity. The Pentagon, for its part, needs to stop buying so many of its weapons from just five big weapons makers and start betting on dynamic tech companies that can quickly adapt. Lastly, the United States needs to collaborate with other industrialized democracies. Mr. Trump’s pleas for help in reopening the Strait of Hormuz from the very allies he spurned at the start of the war is just the latest proof that America can’t go it alone. In the years ahead, keeping pace with China’s economic and military expansion will require collaborating with like-minded democracies. All of these steps are not merely about winning the next war. They also can help prevent it — by making our enemies believe they would lose any war they start. Instead, the war in Iran has provided a road map for any country that wants to resist the United States in the future, including Russia and North Korea. For China, the country with the greatest potential to challenge American military might, the war validates its focus on new forms of warfare such as drones, cyberweapons and space power. The picture for the American military is not entirely grim. The Iran war has shown that it has an astonishing ability to find and destroy enemy targets. In the conflict’s first six weeks, the U.S. military hit over 13,000 military and industrial targets. American losses in the war, while tragic, have been limited, considering the scale of the attack and Iran’s resources: at least 13 service members killed and more than 300 wounded. The Trump administration has taken several steps to break the hold of major contractors on the supply of weapons to the Pentagon and has pressured some of them to increase production of much-needed missiles. The Army secretary, Daniel P. Driscoll, has moved to cancel outdated and failing programs. Congress, the administration and the Pentagon can all now see our military shortcomings. The bad news is that our adversaries can see them too. Washington can no longer just talk about reforming the military. It has to do it, or risk making the disappointments in the Iran war become a preview of far worse.

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-15782443/minnesota-flag-somalia-racist-walz-omar.html

President Trump said ‌on Friday he would increase tariffs on cars and trucks from the European Union to 25%, saying the bloc had not complied with its trade deal with Washington. "Based on the fact the European Union is not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal, next week I will be increasing Tariffs charged to the European Union for Cars and Trucks coming into the United States. "It is fully understood and agreed that, if they produce Cars and Trucks in ⁠U.S.A. Plants, there will be NO TARIFF. We have a trade deal with the European Union. They were not adhering to it. So I raised the tariffs on cars and trucks to 25%, that's billions of dollars coming into the United States, and it forces them to move their factory production much faster." The Trump administration last year imposed a 25% tariff on global automotive imports under a national security trade law, but reached a deal with the EU in August to lower those duties to a net 15%, inclusive of prior duties. In exchange, the EU agreed to eliminate duties on U.S. industrial goods, including autos, and accept U.S. safety and emissions ‌standards ⁠on vehicles. Although EU lawmakers advanced legislation in March to implement the tariff reductions, they continue to drag their feet.

The war hits its 60th day on Friday, which under the 1973 War Powers Act is the deadline for the White House to secure congressional authorization for hostilities. The law allows a limited 30-day extension to wind down operations, but lawmakers are divided over whether that provision gives Trump more runway or forces Congress to step in. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth says an ongoing ceasefire “pauses” the countdown toward that May 1 deadline.

This is classified information that no media should present. It should remain secret at least until the conflict has ended. Regardless of how CNN obtained the information, every CNN employee with a hand in making this public should be arrested for endangering national security. They may have obtained it from Iran and Russia. If it came from Pentagon sources, those individuals should be charged with treason and sent to Leavenworth. https://edition.cnn.com/2026/05/01/world/video/us-military-bases-iran-strikes-images-invs-digvid

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Irans-Oil-Industry-Faces-a-Geological-Time-Bomb.html

No. Escape (Kuga) sales continue in the global market.

I suspect Ford will finally bring the mid-sized Ford Transit van to the states now that Stellantis is bringing back the Promaster City as a more useful mid-sized van. https://www.caranddriver.com/ram/promaster-city file:///C:/Users/Robert%20Doub/Downloads/MY25-Everest-Spec-Sheet-EN.pdf

The car-based unibody Explorer is for the soccer mom who doesn't want to be seen in a minivan, while the Everest is a body-on-frame man's SUV. https://www.me.ford.com/en/sau/suvs/everest/ file:///C:/Users/Robert%20Doub/Downloads/MY25-Everest-Spec-Sheet-EN.pdf

Iran's Deputy Defence Minister Reza Talaei-Nik said on Tuesday that Tehran was ready to share defensive weapons capabilities and experiences gained from "America's defeat" with "independent" nations including those of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. That bloc includes Iran, Russia, China, India, Pakistan and Central Asian states.

https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/us-iran-clash-un-after-tehran-gets-nuclear-non-proliferation-role-2026-04-27/