The Reserve Currency?

Years ago, I read the book Paper Money by Adam Smith (the author, a professional Wall Street gossip columnist, didn't want to use his real name, or the people who spilled Wall Street beans would stop talking to him, so he took the pen name Adam Smith).

Smith tried to explain that, at Bretton-Woods in 1944, the US dollar was declared the world's Key Currency. 

The correct definitions are that a 'reserve currency' is one of the currencies used in international trade, and so must be kept in reserve by international banks.

Before WWII, most of the world were colonies of the European imperial powers. International trade between British colonies and Britain were in £ sterling, so the £ was a reserve currency, and so were the ₣ and a few more currencies of the major European imperial powers. After WWI, the US$ became a reserve currency, and, a few years after WWII, when Japan had rebuilt and re-industrialised, the ¥ became a reserve currency. Today, the ₣ is no longer a currency, so it is off the list, which now consists of the "U.S. dollar, Euro, Chinese renminbi, Japanese yen, Pounds sterling, Australian dollar, Canadian dollar, and Swiss francs," according to the International Monetary Fund. (The renminbi is a very recent addition to the list, since 20 years ago, the PRC had a tiny economy and was not much of a monetary power.) Some of these currencies can be used in SWIFT exchanges (I know the US$, the £, the €, an the renminbi can all be used, and I think there are a few others.)

So yes, the US$ is a reserve currency, but it is one of at least eight reserve currencies.

After WWII, the French ₣ had collapsed, and the British £ was weak. The £ had always been worth at least $5, but had dropped to $4.75 and the UK were panicking over that tiny drop (the first of many). The US had banned ownership of gold by US citizens and permanent residents during the Great Depression, but, to ensure that the US$ could be used in international transactions, any foreigner living outside the US could buy one ounce of gold for $35. The British and French had borrowed huge amounts of those US dollars during the war to buy matériel, and owed the US, plus Germany owed war reparations, so most of the world's gold ended up in Fort Knox, where it stayed, so having a US$ was a good as gold, and your gold backing your dollars was safe in Fort Knox.

So, in 1944, with no one having any trust in any other currency, at Bretton-Woods, the US$ was declared the 'Key Currency,' the main currency for all international trade (this is not mentioned in Wikipedia, but it was emphasised by Adam Smith in Paper Money). All nations other than the US were ordered to price their currency in US dollars, which was worth 1/35 ounce of gold, making all currencies priced in gold, then believed to be the only real measure of the value of a currency.

The US spent lots and lots of US$, first on rebuilding Europe, then on buying oil. During WWII, the US was the main producer of oil in the world, so the Allies had plenty of petrol for their planes and ships and tanks, while the Axis was very short of oil, and had a hard time keeping their planes and ships and tanks running. But after WWII, most Americans were able to buy cars, and the US demand for oil soon exceeded the domestic supply in the US, so the US$s flowed out, and other countries began to get nervous and used their US$s to buy the gold in Fort Knox, until the gold was running out, so, on 15 August 1971, President Nixon announced that the US would no longer redeem a US$ for gold, a US$ was just a US$. The value of the US$ in terms of gold fell slowly at first, but then faster and faster, then settled a bit, and then fell rather slowly until about a year ago, when the US$ began to fall quite rapidly against gold.

Judge Napolitano starts each of his podcasts saying, 'Buy gold!', but there's a problem: a lot of the gold for sale ain't what it's cracked up to be. They'll say 'It's 24 carat,' when it's really 12 carat, so you paid twice as much as you should have paid. To be safe, one must pay to have the gold assayed, and then, when one wants to sell, the buyer will insist you pay to have an assay prove your gold is what you say it is (as the small guy/gal in the transaction, you have to pay all the expenses of the transaction, the big guy/gal don't pay). And after you buy the gold, you have to think of Silas Marner, who earned lots of gold weaving and had it all stolen. So where will you put it? In the bank? The government can seize it anytime they want. At home? A thief could steal it. There is no good place to keep that gold where you can't be robbed or cheated (not to mention taxed).

So the US$ ain't a good place to put your money, gold has lots of problems, and the Chinese 元 looks like the safest place to keep your money, but the Chinese don't make it easy for foreign barbarians to buy their  元.

What will happen with Iran????

 It is now well known, since Secretary Bessent admitted it, that the US deliberately crashed the Iranian currency in late December 2025, starting peaceful protests, to which Mossad, the CIA, and MI6 (and maybe other intelligence agencies) sent about 40,000 well-armed, violent protesters with Starlink terminals, directed by their Mossad, CIA, MI6, and other handlers to riot and kill, and tie up the Iranian government so that a US attack on 14 January 2026 would be able to easily overthrow the Iranian regime and enable a pro-US regime to take power.

Only the Russians and Chinese might have helped the Iranians by giving them the technology to block Starlink, cutting the rioters off from their handlers and also leading Iranian security forces to the locations of the Starlink terminals and the rioters using them, and quenching the riots before the planned 14 January attack by USAF bombers. The US had the refuelling planes in the air, the Qatar military base emptied of vulnerable troops and assets, and plenty of bombers flown in from US bases as far away as the US and Europe (with the refuelling planes, those bombers could stay in the air for a week or more).

But with the riots quenched, the Iranian government in complete control, and all the Iranian defensive and offensive weapons ready, the Iranian government announced that, if attacked at all, even with a single bomb or missile, it will not be at all like the 12-Day War, but Iran would fire many more missiles and drones, including some much more advanced missiles, at every US asset and at Israel, utterly destroying every US base and most of the Zionist parts of Israel, so Benjamin called Trump and said, 'Don't do it!!!'

Trump announced that he was sending an Armada to Iran, a huge Armada that could and would utterly destroy Iran, but he would give the Iranians a little time to completely surrender, agreeing to the US that inspectors could enter Iran and ensure that Iran have no uranium, no equipment that can enrich uranium, no missiles, no military, and probably all the stolen BP oil in Iran returned to the rightful owners. Trump keeps saying that Iran had better submit quickly, since his patience is wearing thin, and the attack will start soon if Iran does not submit. But Trump never said what he meant by 'soon'.

I listened to the Judging Freedom podcasts on Monday, 2 February, and the guests had two opinions: 1) Israel, the US, and Trump know that any attack on Iran, even a very limited one, would be a complete disaster for Israel and the US, most of the Zionist parts of Israel would be completely destroyed, as would much of the US Armada (about like that Spanish one in the history books) and all the US bases in the region, plus Iran would close the Strait of Hormus cutting off 25% of the world oil supply (sort of, the PRC have a new, high-speed rail line that could transport oil from Iran to the PRC without needing the Strait), so Trump will try threats (which won't work) but will not be stupid enough to actually attack Iran; and the alternative: 2) that with advanced US weapons, the US know that they can block Iranian attacks from damaging any US military bases, ships or Israel, so the attack will probably happen within the next two weeks, or next two months, or maybe next two ???

And there is one more possibility: Israel might decide to just carpet nuke Iran, leaving no threat to Israel (and also leaving no usable oil in Iran, so no profits for BP).

Best analyses say that the US have no non-nuclear weapons that could totally disable Iran's ability to retaliate and do massive damage to all US assets and all of Israel, and the US would not dare to use a nuke given that Russia, the PRC, and Pakistan are nuclear powers who would be furious, but Israel are under no such restrictions, so Israel using a nuke, knowing that is the only way they can  completely and permanently eliminate the threat from Iran, seems possible, maybe likely, and if Israel did that, they would still be protected by the US nuclear umbrella, so why not? 

Friday Night Chat with Jordanian-American

 As Secretary Bessent said, it was the US that destroyed the Iranian currency in December 2025 by dumping and shorting huge quantities on the monetary exchanges where the currency is traded, starting about three days of peaceful protests.

Meanwhile, Mossad, the CIA, and MI6 (that we know of, there may have been other, EU intelligence agencies helping) gave money, weapons, and 40,000 Starlink terminals to some foot soldiers of the rebellion to overthrow the evil Iranian regime that have been stealing the American oil in Iran since 1980 and replace that regime, as the US did in Venezuela, with a good regime that will return every drop of that oil to the rightful owners, US oiligarchs. The NCOs and officers of the rebellion remained in Israel, the US, and the UK (and maybe some European countries, but we're not sure about that), and directed the rebellion for about three days.

The US was supposed to start bombing Iran on 14 January 2026 to help the rebellion, so they'd be bombing Iranian government and pro-Ayatollah forces to help the anti-government protestors with the 40,000 Starlink terminals. Sadly, the evil Russians and Chinese put a minor crimp in Plan A: they gave the evil Iranian government equipment that could: a) make Starlink terminals unable to communicate or be turned off; and b) enabled the evil Iranians to track down every single Starlink terminal and arrest the people using it. So, by 10 January, the anti-government protests against the collapse of the Iranian currency had been completely stopped, and the Iranians had been warned, so they were ready at their anti-aircraft batteries and missile batteries. Iran said they would never start a war, but if the US attacked Iran, Iran would launch thousands of missiles at Israel and all the US bases in the region and close the Strait of Hormuz, raising the price of oil from the current $60 - $80 up to $600 - $800 per barrel.

Netanyahu called Trump and ordered, 'Don't attack Iran!' so the attack planned for 14 Jan 2026 had to be postponed.

My Jordanian friend said the US have the Armada and refuelling tankers ready, so the attack should happen in the next week or two. Iran are really very weak, and the US will use the device they used in Venezuela that disabled all the Venezuelan anti-aircraft batteries and also paralysed all the Venezuelan defenders on the military base where Maduro was staying, thinking he was safe there, so Iran will have absolutely no defences against the American attack which will take out all the Ayatollahs and let the Shah take over as head of state.

If the Jordanian is correct, and the arrest of Maduro was made possible because the US have such an advanced military that they can easily take out any head of state (Putin and Xi should be worried), then the attack should indeed take place in a week or two.

If, however, the arrest of Maduro relied on the Almighty US$, paid to most of the defenders who were in on it, except for the Cubans who were kept out since they would have told Maduro what was coming and been ready to try and defend him, so only about 100 people had to be killed, the rest were all on the side of the US, happy to get lots of US$ for helping get rid of Maduro, then the attempt to use that Almighty US$ has been tried and failed miserably in Iran (thanks to the help of the evil Russians and Chinese), so the attack by the USAF and US Navy is likely to be postponed indefinitely.

US Armada in the Gulf with Two Names

For about as long as there have been people on both sides of a certain, rather well-known Gulf, it has had two names. On the northeast side of the Gulf, it is the Persian Gulf, while on the southwest side, it is the Arabian Gulf. About 27% of world oil and 22% of world gas (LNG) that is transported by ship goes from the Gulf with Two Names through the Strait of Hormuz to the Oman Gulf, which connects to the Arabian Sea, then ships can sail northwest up the Red Sea to the Suez Canal and then west to Europe and the Americas, or eastward through the Strait of Malacca to the Pacific Ocean and supply nations on the Indian and Pacific Oceans with oil and gas.

Iran has promised that, if they are attacked, they can and will close the Strait of Hormuz, but my Jordanian friend who lives in the US says, 'Look at the US attack on Venezuela. The US military have devices that destroyed all the Venezuelan air defences and knocked out all the people in the military base where the evil terrorist Maduro was sleeping, so the US military were easily able to arrest the narco-terrorist Maduro and bring him to the US for trial, conviction, and punishment, leaving Venezuela in the hands of people who have returned all the oil and other resources stolen by Chavez and Maduro to the rightful owners, American oiligarchs. And the US military can do the same to Iran, destroying all their air defences, then landing and arresting or killing all the Ayatollahs and putting Iran back under the Shah who has promised to return all Iranian oil to the rightful owners, British Petroleum (owned by the US and UK), with no danger that the US military will lose a single US soldier or marine in this operation. Iran have nothing that can withstand an attack by the US.'

The US now have one Aircraft Carrier Battle Group (ACBG) in the US Armada that will do to Iran what they did to Venezuela. Commentators other than my Jordanian friend said it was not advanced US weaponry that enabled the arrest of Maduro, but the Mighty US$, paid to people who agreed to stand down and let the US military land, kill the Cubans and other guards–a total of about 100 people–and capture Maduro.

 The original plan for an attack on Iran involved about 40,000 people who want to get rid of the Ayatollahs, some Iranians, and some invaders. Iran have several ethnic groups that were stuffed into Iran against their wishes, e.g., Arabs and Kurds pushed from native Arab and Kurdish lands into Iran by the Ottomans, the British, and the French, and there are some other Iranian minority groups who joined the 40,000. There were also Arabs, Kurds, and others living outside Iran who wanted to help Iranians of their ethnicity break free of the Ayatollahs. Mossad, the CIA, MI6, and other EU intelligence agencies gave the 40,000 peaceful protesters Starlink terminals, money, and weapons to facilitate a riot that would start the overthrow, and then the US and Israel would help them finish the job.

Sadly, with help from the evil Russians and Chinese, the Iranians tracked down all 40,000 Starlink terminals and arrested or killed the people holding them.

And without those 40,000 helping with the overthrow, experts other than my Jordanian-American friend say the US need at least 3 ACBG in the US Armada to have any chance of success.

Of course, my Jordanian-American friend says the new devices that worked so well in Venezuela will work just as well in Iran, who use the same Russian and Chinese defence systems as the Venezuelans, so the US ACBG already in the Gulf with Two Names can easily disable all Iranian defences and kill all the Ayatollahs without any threat that Iran can strike Israel or US bases in the region or block the Strait of Hormuz.

But Iran is not Venezuela. On the first night of the 12-Day War, Israel had the names an locations of every top Iranian general and every nuclear scientist, and they knew the official residence of Ayatollah Khamenei, so they sent drones to destroy the homes of all the senior generals and nuclear scientists and the Ayatollah, killing every single senior general in the Iranian Army and all the nuclear science professors (but the Ayatollah wasn't home). Israel also used an EMP pulse to totally destroy the computer that ran all the Iranian air defences.

Within hours, Iran had named the successors to all the top generals, who took over management of the Iranian military, and the evil Russian repairmen had a computer running and the Iranian air defences were fully operational (so Israel had to fire rockets and drones into Iran from outside Iran where the anti-aircraft batteries could not reach).

But, starting late on the first day of the 12-Day War, Iran began firing missiles at Israel, and, during the 12-Day War, managed to kill 24 Israeli Zionists with a missile that struck before they could reach their bomb shelter. According to Israel, no other missiles got through, no one else was killed, and no real damage was done, but after 12 days, Israel had run out of ammunition for the Iron Dome air defence system, so the US bombed Iran, totally destroyed all the Iranian nuclear facilities, and the war ended. Israel placed an urgent order for a massive amount of replacement ammunition for the Iron Dome but their order has not yet been filled, so they wanted the 40,000 peaceful protesters with their Starlink terminals to overthrow the Ayatollahs and disable all Iranian air defences and missiles before the next war starts.

My Jordanian friend figures the US Armada can take out the Ayatollahs as easily as they took out Maduro, but Israel don't think so and asked for a delay until their order for replacement ammunition for their Iron Dome is filled.

Trump says the Armada will go ahead with the next War on Iran as soon as the Armada are ready, unless Iran surrenders before then, and Iran better surrender or the Armada will do major damage to Iran. Trump says that Israel have nothing to fear, the US military can take out all Iran's military capability, leaving them with no ability to attack Israel or US bases in the region, and the Armada can easily stop Iran from blocking the Strait of Hormuz.

Of course, while the US/UK/EU mainstream media all agree the 12-Day War did major damage to Iran and only minor damage to Israel, the Russian and Iranian propaganda channels say that war did major damage to Israeli military facilities, and the Iranians promise major damage to Israel and US military bases in the region if the US and/or Israel start a second war, but, since the CIA, MI6, and EU intelligence agencies, whose hard work give them more than 100% of all the information in the world and they then give this information to the US/UK/EU mainstream media, we can all be sure the US/UK/EU mainstream media is 100% correct in their descriptions of world news, and we can discount everything on the Russian and Iranian propaganda channels (available on Telegram if it's not blocked where one lives). 

As a fallback, of course, Israel have at least 100 nukes, so if the Armada starts something they cannot finish, Israel has a way to finish everything for them.

With US protection, no one would dare attack Israel if they nuked Iran totally off the map.

(Pakistan have already promised that, if Israel nukes Iran, Pakistan will nuke Israel, but neither the Israeli nor the American leadership can speak Urdu.) 

The US Carrier Force is nearing Iran

Trump announced that, after Iran murdered many innocent, peaceful protestors, he was sending an armada that might or might not attack Iran and replace the evil Ayatollah with a good Shah, but the newspapers only report that the carrier strike group is 'on their way' to Iran, no idea where, or when they'll get there.

The UN reports that Iran had a protest after Iranian government incompetence wrecked the Iranian currency, making it worthless, so no one could buy anything, and Iran responded by killing more than 20,000 of the peaceful protesters. This is supported by all the US/UK/EU mainstream media.

As usual, the social media like Telegram have posters (like the Iranian propaganda outlet, PressTV) that say the UN/US/UK/EU mainstream media are all lying, that the actual death toll during the protests was 3,117, where 2,427 were security forces and civilians and 690 were armed terrorists shooting at the security forces and peaceful protestors until they were killed by the security forces.

It seems someone managed to get about 40,000 Starlink terminals into Iran and also there was also an Iranian Royalist website, and both provided instructions to the terrorists on where to find weapons, where to go to join other terrorists, and told them to shoot security forces and peaceful protestors. Mossad, the CIA, and MI6 (that we know of, other Western intelligence agencies may also have helped) paid Iranians and others to riot and kill and gave them their Starlink terminals and lots of weapons: pistols, incendiary devices, etc. 

Iran has many minorities, Kurds, Arabs, Royalists, etc., some of whom want to get rid of the Ayatollahs, and who together are about 10% of the Iranian population. Also, Kurds and Arabs living outside Iran might have entered Iran (the border is not well guarded) to help the Kurds and Arabs living inside Iran try to overthrow the Ayatollahs.

It started when the US worked hard to destroy the Iranian currency, dumping and shorting rials on the various currency exchanges until the Iranian rial lost more than half the value, so shopkeepers could not buy replacement stock and went out to peacefully protest. Then Mossad, the CIA, MI6, et al. paid people and provided them with weapons so they could go out and join the shopkeepers and start shooting security forces and the shopkeepers, getting detailed directions from their Starlink terminals.

All was going well until Iran shut off the Internet, then used devices provided by the evil Russians and Chinese to track down every Starlink terminal in Iran and arrest the people who had them, and 690 innocent, armed Starlink holders, who shot at and killed some of the forces trying to arrest them, were then brutally murdered by the Iranian police (which means about 39,000 other Starlink holders were probably arrested).

So the US are sending a Carrier Task Force. Not clear what for.

Iran is not Venezuela, they have a rather impressive arsenal, some home-built, some sold to them by the evil Russia and PRC. Sayed Marandi says that Iran can easily destroy Israel, the Carrier Task Force, and all US bases in the Arab states near Iran, and will do so if attacked. Of course, if one reads the US/UK/EU mainstream media, Iran only managed to get a single missile past the Israel Iron Dome, David’s Sling, Arrow and Thaad missile defences, and that missile killed 24 Israelis who did not go to the bomb shelters in time. But if one reads Sayed Marandi, Iran destroyed many of Israel's military and government facilities (but only killed 24 civilians, since the government and military personnel were all in bomb shelters), so the 12-day war ended because Israel had suffered too much damage to continue, and they were out of ammunition for their air defences.

If Israel and the US use conventional forces,  it is almost certain that Iran will be able to destroy much of the carrier task force and do massive damage to Israel and to US military facilities in the region. They can also close the Strait of Hormuz, killing the Western economies that desperately need Middle East oil.

But Israel has a massive nuclear arsenal that could take out all Iranian defences (and many Iranians), but will they use it?

That's something we might find out very soon.

When will the US and Israel attack Iran again???

The prediction of my Arab friend who is living in the US that there would be a successful US/Israeli attack on Iran within days, maybe hours, of last Friday has not yet come to pass.

As I told him, several US Arab allies and Netanyahu all asked Trump not to bomb Iran, yet, but my friend said that was just to keep the Iranians off guard, and, in any case, US policy does not depend on US Arab allies or Netanyahu, it is about repeating 1953 and getting our stolen oil back from the Iranians (and cutting off the PRC).

But I only talk with my Arab friend on Fridays, and I'm sure he'll tell me on Friday that the US overthrow of the Ayatollahs and installation of the (now, not so young) Shah will be very soon.

In fact, Israel wants time to upgrade their Iron Dome/David's Shield/Thaad/Arrow defense systems and replace all the munitions used defending Israel during the 12-Day War.

Of course, if one reads the mainstream US/UK/EU news, the Iranian attacks only killed 24 Israelis who were too slow in responding to the warning sirens and didn't bother going into the bomb shelters, and one missile (and only one) made it past the Israeli defences and killed 24 people who were outside where the missile landed. Israel suffered no other damage. And Trump easily and totally destroyed all Iranian nuclear bomb development, leaving them nothing except conventional weapons, but now they are building factories to build ballistic missiles, and these must all be totally destroyed, along with all the Ayatollahs, and the Shah must get his country and throne back (and the US must get all that stolen BP oil back). 

If one reads Iranian/Russian propaganda channels on Telegram (RT, PressTV), or watches the Judging Freedom channel on YouTube, the Iranian missiles did a lot of damage to Israel, and Iran only used their older missiles. Also, the Israeli defences did stop a lot of incoming Iranian missiles, but they used up almost all the ammunition needed for their air defence systems to operate, and need time for suppliers to manufacture and ship new ammunition. And, of course, Netanyahu asking Trump to delay the attack on Iran fits much better with this narrative than the narrative in the mainstream US/UK/EU media that my Arab friend assures me is 110% correct.

But Israel ordered replacement munitions last summer, and, sooner or later, their air defence systems will be fully restocked and upgraded with newer and more effective components, and then Netanyahu will tell Trump that it's time to finish the job in Iran, but that might be much later in 2026, or even 2027, because it will take quite some time to restock and upgrade Israel's air defence systems. We know the attack on Iran by the US and Israel is coming, but no one knows when, just that it won't be too soon.

*** 

Netanyahu's question, now, is whether to do the Big Thing: Nuke Iran!!! As best we know, Israel has about 100 (maybe more) nukes, and that could take out Iran so they would be unable to shoot back. It would also annoy the US, sort of, or the US might be very happy that Iran is gone and all the oil is radioactive so the PRC can't use it. The total oil from Venezuela and Iran is somewhere between 18% and 25% of the PRC's oil consumption, making a serious dent (but, of course, Russia and the PRC are working hard to move more and more Russian oil to the PRC).

So the US are certainly thinking, 'Maybe letting Netanyahu nuke Iran wouldn't be such a bad thing?'

If Netanyahu decides he can't wait, he has to go nuclear, that could happen almost any time. Not clear if he will coordinate on such a strike with the US, and not clear if the US would (or could) give an effective veto if he did.

So a conventional attack on Iran must wait months, maybe years, but a nuclear attack would be just as effective tomorrow as two years from now, with no chance of any Iranian response, and no one would dare nuke Israel if they nuked Iran. (Of course, Pakistan have already threatened to do just that, but the US and Israel don't speak much Urdu.)

Is the US about to destroy Iran and put a Shah as ruler, just like 1953???

An Arab friend sent me a bunch of screenshots of some Flight Radar or Flight Aware displays of all the aircraft in the air over Qatar, and then showed another screenshot of one of those Qatari planes flying near San Diego, CA and said this shows the US will destroy the Ayatollah regime in Iran and put in the Shah in a day or two. He also had a screenshot showing a US military refueling plane over Iraq, and an unidentified flying object (information blacked out by whoever sent it) flying over the Gulf with Two Names that lies between Qatar and Iran, and said this was an armed drone of some kind. I asked, 'Predator?' and he said, 'No, but I can't say any more.'

He said Iran are very weak, the entire Army will desert as soon as the first American bombs start falling, then something like the Venezuela raid, but taking out the government, not abducting it, and most of the Iranian people will gleefully welcome the return of a Shah.

I noted that those same sources say Russia are losing badly in the Ukraine, that Russia have no supply lines, so the Russian soldiers in the Ukraine have nothing to eat but their dead comrades, killed by the advanced NATO weapons that the Ukrainians are using to demolish the Russian army which only have old Soviet weapons from WWII, patched together with washing machine parts. Since he is Orthodox, he says those sources are obviously wrong, and no one believes them, but the sources reporting that Iran are on the verge of defeat are obviously correct.

I tried to point out that his two distinct sources, one completely reliable and the other completely unreliable are, in fact, the same source: basically, the mainstream media in the US/UK/EU all say that Iran are very weak, a US/Israeli attack will kill all the Ayatollahs and do a repeat of 1953 when the US gaoled Mossadegh for stealing British oil and installed the Shah, who promised that all the oil in Iran belongs to BP, with half the profits going to the UK and half to the US and none to Iran; they all also say that Russia are very weak, most of the Russian army have been destroyed, and the Ukrainians are winning easily. He  replied that I obviously don't know anything, anyone can just look at the pictures he sent me and Iran's immediate return to the Shah is obviously just a few days, maybe just a few hours away, while Russia's victory is obvious and probably very soon.

 I have not seen a single mainstream media source that does not agree that Iran were badly damaged in the 12 day war, and will quickly and totally lose the next war, and that Russia is only a few months from total defeat and having to accept being broken up and paying all their energy and mineral resources as war reparations.

On social media, one can find anything, from more extreme, more graphic versions of what the mainstream media are saying (but with poorer production values), or a complete denial of what the mainstream media are saying.

It was an interesting Friday night chat. I can't say that I learned anything, except that reading two stories from the same source, he figures they are either two completely different sources, or one source that have some accurate reporters and some totally inaccurate reporters.