So, get ready: it’s coming this fall. And unless the administration acts quickly, there will be nothing they can do about it. Gas at $6 a gallon could easily throw the election to Trump…
I did not know that the Saudi’s owned the largest refinery in the United States. Why hasn’t this been written about in our major news institutions? Crazy! We always discuss election interference as being propaganda through social media, but not actual manipulation of American economic infrastructure. Thank you for your insights Thom as always!
Thanks for sharing this important information with us. I was wondering what was going on. Saturday gas was at $3.19 a gallon, Sunday it was $3.49/gal and Monday it was $3.69 a gallon! Now I know. I don’t know why anyone in USA would think that SA cares about us. They and other authoritarian regimes want us to fail.
Biden needs to only export about two and a half million barrels a day instead of 4 million barrels a day. Then, nationalize that Port Arthur refinery and use his bully pulpit constantly. It will be a good issue for the voters to mull over. Maybe next year the Port Arthur refinery could be nationalized?
Thom, since Trump's call during his term as President, for Saudis to drastically cut oil production, it has been of concern to me that he may have quite deliberately at the time lured masses of leading GOP politicians into an investment... entanglement... in Saudi oil production. Is that the piano wire he holds, the tool of blackmail he uses as a threat to choke and gag any republican resistance to his evil madness? It reads like a cheap comic book, just like Trump!
Thom didn't say that Saudis also control Exxon and several other oil companies. Not only do they fix prices through OPEC, they probably are also gouging us. The fossil fuel industry is still raking in massive profits despite lower oil prices and the sharp decline in gas demand. Exxon Mobil was the leading oil and gas producing company worldwide by net income as of data from June 2023.
When he was in office the Saudis gave Trump one of their very high medals, Collar of The Order of Abdulaziz al Saud, “For meritorious service to the Kingdom". At the time that struck me as a direct violation of the Emoluments Clause, although it does seem to be quite common for U.S. government officers to get foreign decorations today. Clinton (and Putin) received this one.
Anyway, most Americans don't seem to understand how the oil industry works, and imagine that "drill, baby, drill" or a new pipeline from Canada means that they will soon get cheaper gas at the pump. Until the economic facts--refineries, international markets and so on--are explained to them in very simple terms they stay uninformed. And then will do what my father said, "Vote their pocketbooks." Biden could take a page from FDR by giving simple and clear explanations about how such big topics affect their lives. And even if few people are glued to their radios waiting for Fireside Chats today, a concentrated effort could get the word out. It will take vision and courage, but he has nothing to lose by showing these characteristics to the public.
As the gas prices rise, the media goes nuts reporting on it. People in general should have figured out that they are being gouged, that is if you stay off FOX. If the Dems are going to buy some ads on the subject it might be good to place them there and on CNN.
We have to get the point across that this manipulation hurts everyone but most of all the people already struggling. It then must be followed with the fact that this proves that Trump and his friends, the Saudis, do not give a shit who they hurt. Throw in that 2 billion Jared got and Trump's cozy deal with those weapons. It won't play with the MAGA crowd, but it is the undecided folks we should be going for.
So glad you pointed to the insanity of import/export, Thom.
I wonder what the Founders would think of a foreign adversary owning our energy availability.
I wonder also, as a ten year old might, how a foreign nation hostile to the US could legally own anything WITHIN the US. I wonder how it is that the brokers of such a deal are somehow not committing treason.
What I do not wonder is who benefits from these ridiculous realities. It is none of us - regardless of party - save for the catastrophically unwell few fighting for the death of democracy. It is the GOP+
Something else that is interesting---Facebook, Instagram, and Threads are down (in many places) and it is Super Tuesday. Things that make you say hmmm. I wonder what will happen with social media this fall.
It's so sad that most Americans care only about their pocket/pocketbooks and disregard human rights, racism, homophobia, anti-semitism promoted by the MAGA-ites. I suppose other countries are like this, as well. Hence the rise of fascism all over the world.
Right on the money, you only heard it here . . . thanks Thom ! That traitorous sale and its continuing treachery should be a headline every day until it is reversed! — best luck to US, b.rad
Can we temporarily seize Port Arthur as a national security issue if the Saudis try this. I assume the majority of the plant’s employees are Americans.
I did not know that the Saudi’s owned the largest refinery in the United States. Why hasn’t this been written about in our major news institutions? Crazy! We always discuss election interference as being propaganda through social media, but not actual manipulation of American economic infrastructure. Thank you for your insights Thom as always!
Thanks for sharing this important information with us. I was wondering what was going on. Saturday gas was at $3.19 a gallon, Sunday it was $3.49/gal and Monday it was $3.69 a gallon! Now I know. I don’t know why anyone in USA would think that SA cares about us. They and other authoritarian regimes want us to fail.
Biden needs to only export about two and a half million barrels a day instead of 4 million barrels a day. Then, nationalize that Port Arthur refinery and use his bully pulpit constantly. It will be a good issue for the voters to mull over. Maybe next year the Port Arthur refinery could be nationalized?
I'm sick of America being manipulated by the energy sector. I wish I had more time before work to get into it.
Of Course I’ve seen the prices coming up. It is another Trump/Maga/Putin/Saudi corruption tactic.
Trump and his evil cohorts must be stopped.
I don’t know what Biden’s going to do but it must happen now.
Do not wait. These people are diabolical.
Thom, since Trump's call during his term as President, for Saudis to drastically cut oil production, it has been of concern to me that he may have quite deliberately at the time lured masses of leading GOP politicians into an investment... entanglement... in Saudi oil production. Is that the piano wire he holds, the tool of blackmail he uses as a threat to choke and gag any republican resistance to his evil madness? It reads like a cheap comic book, just like Trump!
Tell me what I say.
Been happening since 1973. This used to be a bipartisan issue. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/No_Oil_Producing_and_Exporting_Cartels_Act
Thom didn't say that Saudis also control Exxon and several other oil companies. Not only do they fix prices through OPEC, they probably are also gouging us. The fossil fuel industry is still raking in massive profits despite lower oil prices and the sharp decline in gas demand. Exxon Mobil was the leading oil and gas producing company worldwide by net income as of data from June 2023.
Apparently California and other states are taking them on but not for price gouging. https://www.gov.ca.gov/2023/09/16/people-of-the-state-of-california-v-big-oil/
When he was in office the Saudis gave Trump one of their very high medals, Collar of The Order of Abdulaziz al Saud, “For meritorious service to the Kingdom". At the time that struck me as a direct violation of the Emoluments Clause, although it does seem to be quite common for U.S. government officers to get foreign decorations today. Clinton (and Putin) received this one.
Anyway, most Americans don't seem to understand how the oil industry works, and imagine that "drill, baby, drill" or a new pipeline from Canada means that they will soon get cheaper gas at the pump. Until the economic facts--refineries, international markets and so on--are explained to them in very simple terms they stay uninformed. And then will do what my father said, "Vote their pocketbooks." Biden could take a page from FDR by giving simple and clear explanations about how such big topics affect their lives. And even if few people are glued to their radios waiting for Fireside Chats today, a concentrated effort could get the word out. It will take vision and courage, but he has nothing to lose by showing these characteristics to the public.
As the gas prices rise, the media goes nuts reporting on it. People in general should have figured out that they are being gouged, that is if you stay off FOX. If the Dems are going to buy some ads on the subject it might be good to place them there and on CNN.
We have to get the point across that this manipulation hurts everyone but most of all the people already struggling. It then must be followed with the fact that this proves that Trump and his friends, the Saudis, do not give a shit who they hurt. Throw in that 2 billion Jared got and Trump's cozy deal with those weapons. It won't play with the MAGA crowd, but it is the undecided folks we should be going for.
So glad you pointed to the insanity of import/export, Thom.
One more reason to go electric!
I wonder what the Founders would think of a foreign adversary owning our energy availability.
I wonder also, as a ten year old might, how a foreign nation hostile to the US could legally own anything WITHIN the US. I wonder how it is that the brokers of such a deal are somehow not committing treason.
What I do not wonder is who benefits from these ridiculous realities. It is none of us - regardless of party - save for the catastrophically unwell few fighting for the death of democracy. It is the GOP+
Think - this is a very great insight. I will pass this along to many.
Something else that is interesting---Facebook, Instagram, and Threads are down (in many places) and it is Super Tuesday. Things that make you say hmmm. I wonder what will happen with social media this fall.
"Arguably, they got a Republican-controlled House of Representatives out of that effort."
And a highly effective one at that.
/sarcasm.
It's so sad that most Americans care only about their pocket/pocketbooks and disregard human rights, racism, homophobia, anti-semitism promoted by the MAGA-ites. I suppose other countries are like this, as well. Hence the rise of fascism all over the world.
Right on the money, you only heard it here . . . thanks Thom ! That traitorous sale and its continuing treachery should be a headline every day until it is reversed! — best luck to US, b.rad
Can we temporarily seize Port Arthur as a national security issue if the Saudis try this. I assume the majority of the plant’s employees are Americans.