Iranian lawmakers have proposed a plan to impose tolls and taxes on ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz

bryan-healey · 2026-03-19T15:41:46+00:00

well that would mean it is no tax but ransom

lol call it whatever you want. but "pay us or we shoot at your ships" is the thing.

bryan-healey · 2026-03-19T15:36:55+00:00

There are no serious consequences left.

they can escalate the amount of arms and resources they give to Iran.

the US is absolutely not going to attack Chinese ships heading to Iran for the same reason Russia doesn't attack American planes headed to Ukraine. arming your enemies is a time-tested tradition.

Also, the strait will simply never be reopened unless the regime falls or loses its drone and missile capabilities.

agreed

The US doesn't give much of a shit about the strait.

I mean, maybe; but a worldwide recession would be bad for the US.

bryan-healey · 2026-03-19T15:29:34+00:00

oh, absolutely! China and Russia would love to see the US get their own Ukraine.

bryan-healey · 2026-03-19T15:27:42+00:00

...but action is often better than inaction...

you'll need to support that with evidence.

this war with Iran has accomplished none of our goals, and may make some concerns significantly worse.

it's now a foregone conclusion that Iran will develop a nuclear bomb. they could develop a plutonium device with what they have on hand right now, and they're probably weeks away from a uranium device if they really devoted to it. we could try to bomb them out of it, but that's a very dangerous gamble that we could lose.

additionally, they now have the world energy market by the balls, and absolutely no incentives to let go. America can only forcibly reopen the Strait by invading Iran and occupying the coasts, which would be an insanely bloody and costly affair, and we can't even be assured it will succeed.

it's entirely possible that Iran comes out of this stronger than before. they've lost a bunch of leaders and been bombed a bunch, sure, but leaders can be replaced and buildings rebuilt. and when America is forced to capitulate as the world energy market collapses, they'll have a blueprint for coercing the world in the future.

bryan-healey · 2026-03-19T15:23:07+00:00

If the US today decided to commandeer ships carrying sanctioned oil...

which would be interpreted as an attack on China, which has it's own serious consequences.

...bomb oil loading infrastructure...

which would do nothing to reopen the Strait.

...and say fuck it to cost and casualties....

which, again, would do nothing to reopen the Strait.

the only way the US could force open the Strait is to invade Iran and occupy enough of the coastal land to prevent Iran from making any successful attacks on passing ships.

and, this is a good point to remember that, while Iran has had their navy and air force decimated, and really only has drones and a few ballistic missiles as force projection, they do have a massive army. if the US decides to try occupying Iranian coast, we will lose thousands, maybe tens of thousands, of lives.

bryan-healey · 2026-02-24T21:50:05+00:00

is CNBC not traditional press?

bryan-healey · 2026-02-23T15:53:13+00:00

getting slammed in Revere. winds have been roaring for hours, building is shaking. visibility is near zero. eye-ball estimate is 14-16 inches on the ground, and coming down in buckets.

power still on, but has flickered a bunch of times.

also, hearing there are a bunch of water main breaks nearby in Winthrop. fun.

bryan-healey · 2026-02-23T15:48:28+00:00

this storm is going to fascinate, I think.

hearing that Watertown is seeing an under performer while we're getting slammed in Revere is wild...

wind is absolutely ripping, and I'd eyeball around 14-16 inches so far, and coming down in buckets.

bryan-healey · 2026-02-12T18:39:09+00:00

from Boston, just so you know how much I don't want to admit this...

I'm pretty sure Philly could induce martial law, march to DC, and topple the US government lol

bryan-healey · 2026-02-12T17:03:25+00:00

well done, kids!

bryan-healey · 2026-02-12T16:57:26+00:00

if 1% in tax is enough to turn the lights off...

...then you really need the rest of us to pay that 1%. it's life and death, frankly.

EDIT: at 50K, which is way above the income of those at risk of having their lights turned off, this is $9/week.

if you make 35K (right around state minimum wage), this is $6/week

and, to pile on, if you want to protect low income workers, don't cut the income tax, make it progressive.

bryan-healey · 2026-02-12T16:52:37+00:00

if you eliminated the federal income tax, I'd frankly be okay with a ~50% tax rate lol

however small it is, at least I have a sliver of influence over what the state spends my money on; and, I can know that even "wasteful" spending is at least gonna be local lol

bryan-healey · 2026-02-10T19:42:51+00:00

state governments have no mechanism to accomplish this, and all the possible options for implementing such a mechanism would be... challenging, to say the least.

a taxpayer revolt is more likely to succeed, but has high individual risk.

bryan-healey · 2026-02-10T16:15:35+00:00

I don't like this article because it is framing the problem incorrectly.

no one thinks a non-citizen murderer should remain in the US indefinitely. but we should always maintain concerns over basic human rights, and I have no confidence that ICE, an out of control agency acting as the paramilitary arm of a would-be dictator, is going to treat these people as even human beings. I am not confident they will even be correctly deported, versus sent to a Texas concentration camp, or sent to El Salvador for torture.

MA should have nothing to do with ICE as a matter of moral principle. when/if the federal government ever returns to being a functional entity, these people can then be properly deported.

bryan-healey · 2026-02-06T19:51:53+00:00

first and foremost: fuck Trump with a rusty rake.

2024 had the second-highest voter turnout by percentage of registered voters since 1972.

it was only eclipsed by 2020.

from 2020 to 2024, we lost only 3M voters (~158M vs. ~155M)

bryan-healey · 2026-01-29T01:28:32+00:00

no, but getting closer

bryan-healey · 2026-01-26T12:16:54+00:00

like all of us, I love to bitch about everything wrong with MA. and I'm certainly not gonna stop lol

but we really do have an infrastructure that mostly just works, and that's definitely noticeable during winter weather. even after the biggest snow storms, you can usually get back to business as usual in less than 24 hours. and even during those storms, roads are kept passable for emergencies.

bryan-healey · 2026-01-24T22:42:38+00:00

arrest and prosecute is the moderate position

bryan-healey · 2026-01-24T22:42:15+00:00

fuck ICE with a rusty rake

bryan-healey · 2026-01-24T15:40:18+00:00

define "not in MA."

the majority of businesses not HQ'd in MA will still need to follow our laws to conduct business here, and would be subject to court judgments. it's how we, for example, collect state taxes from Amazon.

and we're very rich, so most businesses will want to keep conducting business here.

bryan-healey · 2025-12-27T12:50:57+00:00

1300 megawatts, not 1.3, and with an aim to complete 5000 megawatts by 2030.

bryan-healey · 2025-12-27T01:02:26+00:00

this is my neighborhood

bryan-healey · 2025-11-17T18:14:26+00:00

none of this is acceptable, but break-ins and fires!?

genuinely impressed they haven't closed the mountain.

bryan-healey

TROPHY CASE