In football there's a phenomenon called ‘parking the bus’. If you're winning a match, you just bunch up in front of your own goal and stop the other team from scoring. This is boring to watch, but effective enough. This is what Iran is doing in Iran. They just have to stay there and they win, home-field advantage and so on. 'America's' the one that has to dislodge them, but they think football is played with your hands and this is not going well for them.

So when people ask what is happening with Iran? this is the wrong question. The question is what is not happening. Shipping is not moving through Hormuz. The US bases in the Gulf are not being used. Gas prices—especially in America—are not reducing. The power of not is that it denies White Empire a lot. The center of their global empire, for starts.

The Shock Is Not Abating

This is the biggest energy shock in history and it's still growing. We don't even know how big it will be, only that it's bigger than anything we've been knowing. The slow-motion nature of this shock means that the effects take a while to reach 'America', but also that the effects will take an even longer time to blow over, if they ever do.

It doesn't matter what Iran fires today. Shots been fired months ago. Iran unloaded hollow-tipped shells and they're only expanding. There is a void at the heart of the imperial economy that there's no avoiding. Energy, fertilizer, helium, precursors for everything imaginable, it all goes through Hormuz. 'America' used to control it all without firing a shot, but now Iran is charging tolls and it's a brave new world. This shock will blow over for the world, as it reorients, but it's fatal for the White Empire. What's an empire without control of trade routes?

The Strait of Hormuz is the most vital trade route in the world and Iran owns it now. Again, the ball is in 'America's' court to win it back, but we all know they don't have the balls. And they're not just losing their empire, this hits home. The last pre-war ships just reached California, and there's no more behind them. This is a bigger oil shock than the 1973 Arab oil embargo and the 1978 Iranian Revolution combined, which is basically what's going on. The Arab oil is involuntarily embargoed and the Iranian Revolution has got more volunteers than ever.

Remember then, that the 1970s recession started after the embargo was lifted. And that and those economic effects took decades to unwind. Stable oil prices basically never recovered, they've been spiky ever since. This Hormuz shock is bigger than what happened in the 1970s, and we don't yet know how big. The pressure is just building and building up, and the Trump regime artificially pumping the stock market only brings a worse reckoning. There's a Greatest Depression coming and I, for one, feel fine. This imperial world needs to burn for a free world to emerge. And all of its bases are belong to us now.

The Bases Are Not Returning

Iran surgically destroyed 'American' bases in the Gulf and the cancer has been cut out. 'America' is never returning to these bases, they're done and dusted. All of those radar and all of those facilities are never being rebuilt, they were one of one. 'America' can't build them anymore, China won't supply the necessary ore, and Iran simply says no. Iran has cleared all the imperial bases from the Gulf. This has been obvious for weeks, but if you prefer to get your news from serial liars, the Washington Post reports on it now. As Marc Cancian of the ISIS of think tanks, CSIS, said, “The Iranian attacks were precise. There are no random craters indicating misses.” And “A U.S. official said that damage at the Naval Support Activity [Bahrain] is “extensive” and that the headquarters there relocated to MacDill Air Force Base in Tampa, Florida, the home of U.S. Central Command. It is unlikely that troops, contractors or civilian employees will return to the base “anytime soon,” the official said.”

The Gulf bases were never defensible, and 'America' had to operate its 40-day war against Iran using Saudi, Jordanian, and 'Israeli' bases. The only places they could safely park were Cyprus, Diego Garcia, and, really, Britain. They had to operate using refueling planes over huge, hostile distances which severely limited their operations, especially when their refueling planes and airborne radar were targeted. Just as every rich man's house has a servant's entrance, every stealth fighter had a lumbering refueler, and those planes weren't that stealthy anyways.

In the same way, US aircraft carriers became floating liabilities with no place safe to replenish themselves. The Fifth Fleet Base in Bahrain is gone, they have to go back to Tampa, which is quite far away. The entire Gulf basing structure was important but ultimately impotent. As 'America's' own internal reports acknowledged, this basing structure was a Soviet-era relic, they were all way too close to Iran, which was not couped anymore. The only way they could maintain these bases was by not using them against Iran, but now they have, and they're gone.

And it's not like 'America's' retreat bases are much more sustainable either. Saudi, Jordan, and 'Israel' are well within missile range and Iran has said that if they get hit again, all of the region's energy infrastructure will go up in smoke. It's mutually assured economic destruction and the Gulf States do not want that smoke. Trump tried to test their mettle and they already choked. During the 36-hour Project Freedumb, Saudi Arabia denied the US basing rights rather than get their sand castle blown up. Thus 'America' hasn't just lost its bases in the Middle East, it's lost the region entirely. Forever. They can't rebuild a bridge in Baltimore, there's no way they're building anything in Bahrain. This is a historic event buried in the news because it's something not happening. But it's happening.

The Prices Will Not Go Down

'Americans' make a big show about not understanding what matters to the rest of the world, like football. They have 'American Football', which is basically a slave game (especially the college players, who don't get paid) which incorporates all the fouls of football (using your hands, tackling, wasting time). They act like they can ignore what matters to the world, but as an Empire, they're hosting the World Cup now, and this shitshow belongs to them.

The Trump regime is acting like this oil crisis is oceans away, but oil is a liquid commodity and a lowering tide sinks all boats. They can pump up the fake markets for a while, but eventually reality will have a word. Gas prices within 'America' are going up and this will not stop. Because the source of the problem (the blocking of Hormuz) hasn't stopped, and oil is a global commodity. Among things that are not happening, gas prices in the US core are not going down.

It's important to understand that 'America' isn't actually energy independent, they export what they can't refine and import refined products. But even if they were, 'Americans' do not own their oil! Oil companies do, and they are beasts of no nation. 'American' oil companies do not care about 'Americans', they will sell to the highest bidder and sell 'American' people out. It doesn't matter if 'America' is a net energy producer if its people don't own the means of production!

As you can see from a recent JP Morgan report, 'Americans' actually have some of the highest fuel price increases in the world. They're not insulated at all! 'Americans' are just dumb consumers whose ruling oligarchs do not care about them at all. They're using the national strategic reserve to manipulate the market. Petrol is cheaper ($5.05 a gallon) in Sri Lanka than California ($6.33) and it costs $0.11 in Iran. 'Americans' drive gas-guzzling, child-killing trucks and 'America' is a gas-hustling, child-killing truck, and they're both shit out of luck.

The Power Of Not

Like parking the bus in football, Iran has parked the bus in Hormuz and is simply running out the clock. The ball is in 'America's' court, and they have to score many times to even get back to where they were. Remember that before the 40-day war Hormuz was open, the bases were operational, and gas was affordable. And none of that is happening. Forget winning, 'America' can't even eke out a draw.

And as far as anybody can tell, they don't even know what game they're playing. Trump is blockading the blockade, scoring an own goal for the ages. This gives the appearance of agency (to the idiot markets) but makes the underlying problem much worse. Iran can take much more pain than the Empire, and their stuff is still getting through. This game is already over, 'America's' trying to win a few side bets for consolation.

This is the boring power of not. All the things that are not happening go in Iran's favor, and all the things that have to happen for 'America' are implausible to impossible. As time goes on their supply lines get more and more stretched, their economy gets more and more bubblicious, and their political will was never there to begin with. Remember that Iran just has to do Iran. 'America' has to undo Iran, and that's not happening.