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It’s so hard to keep friends when you’re a psychotic terrorist.
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is no longer on Donald Trump’s good side after criticizing his remarks against Pope Leo XIV.
On Tuesday, responding to Meloni’s comment the day before, Trump told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera that he was “shocked by her. I thought she was brave, but I was wrong.”
Meloni had said it was “unacceptable” that Trump called the pope “weak on crime” and “terrible on foreign policy.”
“The Pope is the head of the Catholic Church, and it is right and proper that he call for peace and condemn all forms of war,” Meloni said in a statement. Trump told the newspaper that “it’s her who’s unacceptable, because she doesn’t care if Iran has a nuclear weapon and would blow up Italy in two minutes if it had the chance.”
The war in Iran is unpopular in Italy, and Meloni announced on Tuesday that her government has suspended a defense cooperation agreement with Israel. Italy’s continued refusal to join the war has left Trump fuming.
“They pay the highest energy costs in the world and are not even ready to fight for the Strait of Hormuz.… They depend on Donald Trump to keep it open,” Trump said. – newrepublic.com
Oh man! There’s more than dainty BS in that statement. Iran would blow up Italy in two minutes if they had the chance? Any proof whatsoever that such might, maybe, could be the case? Naw! The mob boss is just having another psychotic episode of thinking of himself as Jesus Christ and that all mortals should adore him for the heavenly host he thinks he is.
Trump claims the Jesus-like image he posted was meant to depict him as a doctor – cnn.com
What a piece of shit!
Well, whether doctor, or in some kind of demented fantasy land, the Son of God, the Agent of Chaos is always looking to send along his special brand of healing:
The already fragile two-week ceasefire between the United States and Iran appeared to give way over the weekend, after talks in Islamabad collapsed and President Donald Trump ordered a U.S. naval blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, a critical node for global energy and commodity flows.
Trump said in a Saturday Truth Social post that he was “watching fertilizer prices CLOSELY during our FIGHT FOR FREEDOM in Iran.”
“The United States will not accept PRICE GOUGING from the fertilizer monopoly! American Farmers, we have your back,” he added.
For the global fertilizer market, uncertainty is already baked in. Even if an agreement is eventually reached and shipping resumes, industry analysts and market participants see little hope for a complete reversal of the sharp price increases and supply disruptions triggered by the war.
The six-week-long closure of the Strait of Hormuz has had widespread effects across the global economy, contributing to an energy crunch that pushed up oil and gas prices and disrupted supply chains. Among the industries most directly affected is fertilizer, which depends heavily on both energy inputs and steady global shipping flows.
The disruption is acute for nitrogen fertilizers such as urea. Nearly half of global urea exports originate in countries west of the Strait of Hormuz and depend on the route to reach global markets.
Fertilizers like these make up somewhere between 33% and 45% of operating expenses for major American corn and wheat crops, according to nonprofit Farm Action. – responsiblestatecraft.org
Good Lord! He’s “WATCHING” fertilizer prices “closely”? Hey Dumbshit….has it dawned on you yet that you wouldn’t have to be watching the prices of fertilizer so closely if you hadn’t started your war of choice to begin with?
For more on this:
Blockading the Blockade?
President Trump was presented with a great opportunity on Saturday to take the off-ramp from his war on Iran. After threatening Iran that “a whole civilization will die tonight,” Trump managed to get a two week pause in the war with the intervention of the Pakistani government.
A window opened to end this illegal war. Vice President Vance traveled to Pakistan to negotiate with a high-level Iranian delegation and from press reporting progress was made on many issues.
Unfortunately, after a month and a half of war, where tens of billions of dollars have been spent, every US base in the region is either damaged or destroyed, and dozens of military aircraft have been lost, President Trump did not take the off-ramp. He hit the accelerator.
After 21 hours of negotiations, the talks blew up, reportedly because the US side again insisted that Iran turn over its enriched uranium, destroy its nuclear facilities, and never enrich uranium again. This may be the “maximalist” approach favored by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, but there is no reason for the US to make such demands.
So the Pakistan meeting was a waste of time – and likely the whole ceasefire was a ploy to buy time for the US and Israeli side to re-group and re-load.
Immediately after the talks ended in failure, an increasingly volatile Trump increased his threats against Iran. Over the past weeks he has alternated between insisting that the Strait of Hormuz is unimportant to the United States and demanding that the Strait be opened immediately.
Then yesterday he announced – via his social media account – that the United States military would start blockading Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz. Any ship departing from an Iranian port would risk being boarded, inspected, and possibly seized.
Iran’s restricting traffic in the Strait of Hormuz has sent oil prices soaring, along with the price of fertilizer and other related products. Inflation is increasing in the US. Global markets are reeling. Trump further restricting traffic in and out of the Persian Gulf with his own blockade will only accelerate this process. It is like fighting a fire with gasoline.
And if the Houthis in Yemen close the Red Sea in response to Trump’s blockade of Iran’s blockade, we could even see a global economic depression.
There is a feeling that President Trump is flailing around while becoming increasingly volatile. He expected that the Europeans, the Japanese, and the South Koreans would join his efforts to force open the Strait, but instead they decided to make their own deals with Tehran and pay the transit fee. The rest of the world does not want war with Iran. Only the Trump Administration and Netanyahu want the war.
The petrodollar is taking a hit, as payments for Strait of Hormuz passage are paid in Chinese yuan. The dollar is being challenged as the global reserve currency as the US global empire itself is being challenged in real time.
This is time to look for and take that off-ramp. However, the US President seems to be moving in the opposite direction. Military equipment is being rapidly airlifted to the Middle East and another US carrier group is nearing the region as well. China has warned the US against interfering in its trade with Iran.
A major escalation is brewing and Congress still cannot find its voice.
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Tonight’s musical offering:
Mozart: Die Zauberflöte – Ouvertüre ∙ hr-Sinfonieorchester ∙ Tarmo Peltokoski
Dispatches from the Asylum 