Subject: Re: The TACOrettes keep coming
Goofyhoofy:

Nonsense. Closing the Strait means gas prices are elevated for Americans. (Worse for those in Asia, of course, but so what?) Higher gas prices hurt Trump at the mid-terms, and even with his gerrymandering he may not overcome that.

albaby1:

I know you have this theory that Trump wanted oil prices to rise sharply, but I think that's false.

We shall see, "in the fullness of time". How long do you guys wish to wait, to render a verdict? Six months? A year? Two years?

Trump doesn't benefit from high oil prices, and he doesn't care whether oil companies do.

I have posted links before, persistent chatter about a $1B bribe paid to Trump by big oil, two years ago. How do you insure more bribes will be paid? By delivering for the bribes you have already received.

His personal grift is in making lots of deals in the fantabulously wealthy Gulf states,

And, besides US big oil, who else has profited? His buddies MBS and Putin. Saudi can ship 7Mbpd via the Red Sea. Aramco reported a 25% profit gain last Q, and that included only one month of the Strait being closed. And he has suspended sanctions on Russian oil, so Putin can profit too.

And high gas prices are poison to his popularity, and he knows that.

Trump said it out loud: he doesn't care about how much USian Proles pay for gas. I posted a link, today, quoting Burgum explaining why it would be bad for the US to restrict exports of crude and refined products, to insure US Proles are amply supplied at relatively reasonable prices. He says it out loud, must not crimp big oil profits.

Everything about the prosecution and discussion of this war indicates that they thought it would be a low-cost and quick win.

That is what Bush #43 claimed about Iraq too. Remember the claims the war would be essentially free, as the US would recoup all the cost from Iraqi oil revenues? How much blood and treasure did it cost us? Meanwhile oil markets were pinched, to the benefit of US big oil.

That's why they kept predicting a 4-6 week timetable, and why they kept insisting they were on schedule with that 4-6 week timetable.

That was also Trump's COVID playbook: it's a hoax. It's no worse than the flu. It will all be over in a few weeks, Hydroxychloroquine will save us. Ivermectin will save us. Mainlining bleach, while shoving a UV light up your kazoo will save you. It will go away on it's own. Same routine as Trump's weekly "peace is at hand" blather now.

It's always more comforting to think that things are going to plan, even if the plan is terrible (I think that was the Joker in TDK, but I can't remember). But that's not what's happening here. This is an unintended outcome, not the objective.

As suggested before, seizing control of Venezuelan oil and the Panama Canal, *before* attacking Iran, was no coincidence. Yes, it is more comforting, to think the US government would not stoop to such levels, but, we have seen all this play out in real time. As noted before, I worked for dickheads like Trump, for years. I know how low a "JC" will stoop, to push his agenda, and enrich himself.

Steve