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https://x.com/sentdefender/status/2035504529794277839

President Donald J. Trump has posted to his Truth Social platform warning that if Iran fails to reopen the Strait of Hormuz within 48 hours, the US will begin targeting Iranian power plants. The message was posted at 7:44pm EST.

Frankly astonished Israel hasn't already done that. They surely have the ability to put Tehran in a permanant blackout in the course of just one night. A city to follow each night.

The US can do it, without question. Those are Big Boys' Rules, Tehran. You block world oil flows, that is what you can expect.

What, targeting civilian infrastructure of the people you're claiming you're assisting whilst the Iranian military and wider regime has access to generators? Yes, I'm surprised Trump/Hegseth haven't done that yet too - sounds like the kind of frat boy "Big Boys Rules" they'd understand.

Where was the warship, 100 miles from Chagos, 500 miles, 1000 miles, was the warship in the Pacific or was (as seems most likely) the old near obsolete old North Korean rockets in early flight stage in an Easterly direction???

The shootdown was by an SM-2 from the Lincoln CSG off the coast of Oman, a loooong way from DG...

The timing is highly sus if you ask me. Trump asks the UK for help pulling his cock of out the wasps' nest into which he inserted it. The UK demurs and THE NEXT DAY (these boomer capitals are good, might start using them all the time) 'US Sources' report that Iran has fired ballistic missiles toward Britan's prized and precious Indian Ocean possession. You'd have to be the sort of simple minded dickhead who takes casualty figures, from either side, in the SMO seriously to believe that's just a happy coincidence.

I’m honestly feeling really depressed about what this war is doing

@BatteryCorrectHorse i agree with you. Given you have mentioned your mental health in the past, I hope it is not presumptuous to give a bit of advice.

As wonderful as PB is, it can fuel the depression that our current global situation stimulates (in me as well as you).

Get off here for a bit. Limit your participation. Go do something in the sunshine that will make you feel like life is wonderful (I am throwing myself out of planes on my back whilst the drop zone can still afford the fuel).

Because life still is wonderful, in many, many respects. Most of what you are worried about is in the future, not today.

PB is wonderful for keeping us informed, and keeping us sane in the face on insanity around us. But being very informed and very powerless is a pretty toxic combination for mental health.

This isn't to say that we shouldn't be doing anything about the chaos around us, but posting on PB is not anything useful in this context.

Hope you have a good day x

There are positives from this war, even if we do see energy prices go gaga.

We could be pretty self-sufficient as a nation. And have made huge strides forward in recent years. Reform fuckheads smashed the Milliband / Cameron / May / Boris / Sunak consensus on renewables. But "lets get rid of wind and solar and use more oil and gas" looks not just really stupid but practically traitorous.

Whilst I wholly agree with the voices saying lets drill more oil / gas, those same voices also lean towards "instead of renewables". It should be "in addition to renewables"

Not sure I have seen many people on here say Iintead of renewables.

Most of the commentary has been instead of importing oil and gas. Something with which I think you agree.

The fuckhead - to use your rather florid term - is Miliband who somehow thinks importing hydrocarbons is more climate friendly than using our own.

I didn't say on here. But out there in politics world Reform fuckheads - and they are fuckheads - have filled people's head with all kinds of guff about renewables.

Milliband is a dick, but he is less wrong than Tice et al who want us to turn our energy security over to Putin.

There is a lot of guff spoken about renewables - the biggest piece of guff about them being that they are cheaper than gas. This is a provable untruth, but it is still repeated with the same enthusiasm as a North Korean ovation for Kim Jong Un.

A 2025 Substack by David Turver has this useful table (you may have to blow it up if PB does a micropic):

https://davidturver.substack.com/p/renewables-are-more-expensive-than-gas

Now, granted, this was in May 2025.

The current gas price has shot through the roof - AI has it currently at £126 per megawatt hour. That makes it still cheaper than any renewable bar solar on CFD.

Is Gas cheaper to produce? No, renewable energy is consistently cheaper to produce than gas-fired power.
Why is Electricity expensive? Because the price is set by expensive gas-fired generation, not the cheaper renewables.

Generation Costs: Renewables are Cheaper
Cost of Production: New onshore wind and solar projects are among the cheapest forms of electricity generation in the UK. Once built, the fuel (wind/sun) is free.
Gas Expense: Gas-fired power plants have high and volatile running costs because they must purchase fuel, often setting the highest price in the market.
Contracted Prices: New offshore wind projects have seen costs drop significantly, often delivering power at prices below new gas plants.

Despite renewable generation being cheaper, gas often makes electricity more expensive due to the UK's market structure:
The Marginal Price Mechanism: The UK electricity market operates on a "marginal pricing" system. This means the price of all electricity is set by the last and most expensive source needed to meet demand, which is frequently gas.
Gas Sets the Price: According to recent data, gas sets the wholesale price of electricity around 98% of the time. Even if the majority of electricity comes from wind, the final, expensive unit of gas determines the price for everything.
Green Levies: A significant portion of electricity bills (roughly 23% in some estimates) includes "green levies" to fund renewable projects, adding to the cost compared to direct gas, which has much lower levies.

Hope these facts help you get the big picture right, Lucky 🙂

Opinium for the Observer, changes from a fortnight ago

Ref 27 (-2)
Lab 21 (=)
Con 17 (+1)
Grn 15 (+1)
LD 12 (+2)

Starmer best rating for 6 months at -38

He must be having a good war...

I think he's has a better war than might have been anticipated despite the negative press for his anti-Trump treason. His opponents have also been all over the place. Farage has been in hiding, Badenoch has been even more inconsistent than Starmer, Davey has been unusually less surefooted than normal and Zack is downright dangerous on the World stage.

It all goes South for Starmer of course when the lights go out, and if Kemi can persuade the voter that it is entirely Starmer's fault because of (she can just make stuff up).

Badenoch accusing Starmer of a U-turn was hilarious.

She took an extremely bad decision. Up until then she’d been doing a solid job.

She could still redeem. Some decent policy ideas in there.

Badenoch is a poor politician and completely without empathy. I would be more than happy if she remains in post. The BBC aren't impressed with Starmer and Laura says neither are the Labour Party.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwyxy54pv9po

Laura Kuenssberg has a brass neck to make negative comments about anyone.

She's god awful in every respect.

Gutted you didn’t do that hilarious and clever thing again by calling her “KuenSSberg”.