There is no war between the shorts and longs who are engaged in the manipulation of the spot price of silver.

We'll have to disagree about that. If one side takes a short position, another side takes a long - that's what a contract is. It's a war in the sense that they both can't win. That futures conflict in any commodity (including PMs) is orders of magnitude greater than the underlying physical. Seems to be about 100x in silver. Which is why that tussle is effectively setting the spot. That game is basically about who has the deeper pockets/bigger balls. HOWEVER, if the underlying physical begins to run into short supply, it tilts the odds in favour of the longs. That exposes who is weak handed on their futures.

All I'm suggesting is that if the point of this is to force short sellers out by restricting physical supply, wouldn't you like to know if it's having an effect yet? Or do you believe it's being manipulated downwards, but for some irrational reason you don't want to wait for them to get on with the job and enable you to buy for a really good price?

Don't bother answering, I don't like your shitgibbon attitude, so you can fuck off too.