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!
Billy: Daniel Solomon has mentioned many times, that Saudi Arabia owns some of our refineries, I guess yo don't read all comments.
And Guess who has a lions share in the ownership of Exxon Mibil? Saudi Arabia.
Oil is a resource vital to our national defense, selling it to any country or person that is not American is treason, what's next selling our Defense Department to the Saudis, maybe Putin if Trump is elected.
They also own alfalfa fields in Arizona that are sucking up a huge amount of the water needed for other agriculture. I believe that contract is up this year, and the Democratic governor is not going to renew it. Let them grow their alfalfa somewhere else like in Russia. This is why getting off fossil fuels asap is in our national security interest. Of course Treacherous-treasonous-traitor-Trump is colluding with our enemies. We also should be cutting off all military support and sales to Saudi Arabia. I realize it is easier said than done, but let us get it started.
Thanks I didn't know that Linda. It looks like Saudi Arabia has bought up America, and our politicians with our own dollars (petro dollars) and it is the fault of our own greedy institutions and politicians, the oligarchic billionaires and financial institutions whose only concern is profits for investors.
John Oliver had a scary program last night on Last Week Tonight about Boeing the founder would rather close the door than let an unsafe airplane fly, however the corporate structure now is that the only thing that matters is return on investment, profits and stock buy backs to increase share holder profitability. To get there they have outsourced production of planes, and the contractors have sub contractor, and the parts don't fit when assembled and the materials are not up to standards
An under cover investigator interviewed factory workers and contractors and asked if they would fly on a Boeing plane, and almost to a person they said no.
And that is only Boeing, the whole American capital system of manufacturing and finance are the same, they are all driven pell mell, head over heels, to produce the greatest possible return, if they do they are rewarded with raises and bonuses, if they don't they are fired.,that is the executives.
It is the system that is at fault, and the system is that created by jurists and legislatures from state to federal and of course the every corrupt and corruptible Supreme Court.
I also listened to this NPR discussion on the Booker Prize winning book, Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. It is the new dystopian novel of our times. https://one.npr.org/i/1236050224:1236050237
We see things happening to others in the world, but it is happening here and we need to have books that help us recognize it.
Linda it is a testament to the willing blindness of Americans that they don't see what is happening in front of our eyes. Myopia or tunnel vision seems to be common quality among Americans, maybe it is a human defect. What ever fears and needs we have, we focus on the nearest, loudest bright shiny object,like less sentient and perceptive creatures.
Humans demand predictability and conformity and they don't know how to deal with exceptions perhaps one reason that persons of transgender identity are so threatening and confusing. We have this need for certainty, or they friend or foe, male or female, sexually attractive or not, members of my ethnically or outsiders. Long o short, fat or skinny, attractive or ugly, Christian or infidel, Muslim or infidel, if you ain't with me then you are against me.
People have this need to categorize and put in boxes.
All of the ink print all of the 1's and O's of the computational world, are not going to change human behavior or their minds, Only experience can do that, and I am an expert in that.
I do not see the world through the same eyes as I did when I was 50, not because of books, I am very, very well read. I have given away and moved away from more books than most people will read in a lifetime. As a teen I exhausted a public library of all books that interested me, including over 160 books deemed the classics.
The first full book I read was at the age of 8, it was Homer's Odyssey, the next full book I can remember reading is the Bible at age 12, and I devoured everything I could, even labels on cereal packages and canned goods.
But it was real world experiences that caused me to see the world in a different light.
These ignorant, outraged, self absorbed, self righteous types won't see the light and change their ways and minds, until reality comes crashing down upon them, and then it is too late, for them, for you and for me.
The only thing we can do is try and warn people, which has proven thus far to be a fruitless endeavor, and take actions and measures that will secure our own safety and survival, we have saved a lot of money, paid off our debts and mortgages, made out wills and related documents and most importantly have current passports (renewed in the last year)
You and I, we gnash our teeth (well mine are false, so no), we kvetch, we write, we comment, we bitch and moan, and our audience is very small, of no effect, and is only half listening.
Push come to shove, after all our efforts, the only thing we can do is vote, cross our fingers, and make preparations for our own survival.
After the invention of cannons, and Europeans discovered gunpowder, castle walls no longer attacked as a bulwark against the enemy besieging,
As the cannonade smashed a hole in the wall, the first troops through the hole we known as the forlorn hope.,it was rare that any survived.
Considering the pig pigheadedness of those would or should ostensibly be allies, my hope is forlorn indeed, like the idiot 100,000 in Michigan that are showing their rear ends to the Democrats and thus electing Trump who will in turn round them up and deport or concentrate them until he deports.
Fools like Ayman Mohyeldin try to blame Biden, for the making of their own dilemma,but blame doesn't matter, not when you are being rounded up and deported or placed in concentration camps, and it can happen here, because it already happened in 1942
I taught at the School of John Dewey who wrote Experience and Education. I am a firm believer in experience as a teacher. It helps one to imagine more scenarios. I feel the limits of this with the NYT staff covering elections, and I feel it in the decision making of people who do not even know what most of the questions posed to them mean, who are voting for Trump, with totally blind stupidity. I am also someone who has lived in more than one country, and I would love if that were a high school requirement. To live abroad and adapt to another culture.
As you know the peninsula of Arabia is a bone dry desert, but it sits atop a 10,000 year old aquifer. In the quest for food independence, the kingdom tried to imitate
the center pivot irrigators that are used so succesfully in America (you can see them from the air as green circles that cover a quarter section.
What they did though is cause the land to sink, and their attempt at self sustaining food production was a failure and they have no choice but to import. Their water needs have apparently exhausted the aquifer, and they spent millions building the worlds largest reverse osmosis plant on the shores of the red sea, and billions to maintain it and replace the salt clogged filters.
All it takes to bring the Kingdom to it's knees is for a hacker to destroy the desalinization plant.
For awhile it was a righty thing to be paranoid about "rag-heads" and "slant-eyes" buying up America. Now I think you are right to wonder, huh, how come even Fox is mum about Saudi ownership of not only US, but world distribution infrastructure?
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?
The only reason that America exports oil, is to subsidize those regimes that don't have refining capability, like Iran and even the Kingdom, but mainly it is to profit the international oil trade, OPEC.
America produces more oil than it exports, selling the Pt Arthur oil refinery to MBS was not only an act of treason, but put our own economy on the backfoot.
Trump bends over for MBS, Trump has a Jewish daughter, grandson and son in law. Jared is te only Jew in the world that has been gifted billions by the Saudis, the Saudi's will not permit anyone to enter their country that has a passport with an Israeli stamp.
Saudi Arabia is an ethnostate, and the reigning ethnicity is Wahhabiyah, which is a salafist (extremely fundamentalistic) version of Sunni Islam. Talk about intolerant, it is more rigid and intolerant than Iran and that is saying something.
Iran has has driving schools for women, and female cab drivers (their only customers are females), Iran requires wearing of the hijab, wrap around head scarf, older women wear the chador, and the chador comes in many colors. In Saudi Arabia women have to wear the Abaya (the abaya and chador are the same thing, and black in the Mideast heat is horrible (think of the Gazan women, who also have o wear a black abaya
On the other hand Iran stones atheists and adulterers and forces gays into a sex change operation and in Saudi Arabia, they haul them to chop chop square, in front of the mosque and behead them after Friday prayers.
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.
A grammatical correction friend Daniel in all due respect.
The sentence that starts with "Thom didn't say that Saudis also control Exxon and several other oil companies, reads differently as intended.
I would say that. omitting a reference to Thom, as it appears as a criticism, that: The Saudis, besides owning oil refineries also own Exxon Mobil and several other oil companies, and I strongly suspect that goes for the bin Laden family as well.
Recall that in the days following 9/11m Dubya closed off airspace, however he did allow the Saudis and bin Ladens, whose families financed 9/11 to escape back to the Kingdom, And the bin Laden family loaned or gave him he money to buy the Texas Rangers, and were partners with the Bush family in the oil business.
There is no doubt in my learned mind, that Saudi's were behind 9/11 and there connection with Bush and their control over OPEC and the oil trade is why they have not been indicted, charged or punished for their involvement in 9/11
Muslims play the long game, the kaffir (infidels) play the short game, demanding immediate satisfaction. Muslims will give a little, equivocate and even form alliances with kaffir's like Trump, because they are playing the long game, and use western greed and blindness to their advantage.
If Gaia doesn't rid herself of the parasites, Islam will rule over all, because westerners are feckless, ignorant, and gullible.
Dubai has built the tallest building in the world, created islands,buildings and homes out of sand dredged from the sea.
And in the U.S. we feel it is a major accomplishment to fill a pot hole.
Suggest that everyone learn the Shahada in Arabic, not English, and get mentally prepared to flop down a rug and pray to Mecca five times a day., because we are having our culture, democracy, way of life sold out right under our feet.
If the Christian white nationalists of Trump take over America, they will have a field day taking revenge on their enemies, but when they finally settle down, they will be faced with a stark reality, that they have destroyed America to save white Christian patriarchalism.
And we will be very vulnerable, with no allies in the world, except Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, and Arabs owning and controlling our oil and refineries, not even our vaunted MIC can come to the rescue,
What idiot westerners can't get through their thick skulls, is that once upon a time Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and North Africa were once Christian before they were Muslim.
It was the scimitar of Islam that converted them. Islam has new scimitar, oil.
I didn't say, as I usually do, that Russia and Iran are beneficiaries of high prices, and fund the war in the Ukraine, and proxy wars like Hamas/Gaza. This is a national security issue.
Re 9/11. I lived in Franconia VA on or about 9/11 where the madrassas that taught the all infidels must die were located. Some of my neighbors wore complete burkas prior to the attack. A couple of days later I had hearings and Reagan Airport was closed so I had to fly out of Dulles. Lines , all the staff looked like my ex-neighbors. I flew to Chattanooga via Pittsburgh. All the staff, pilots, stewardesses, etc were Arab. When I made it home, most of my former neighbors had moved, never to return.
I knew some of the victims.
Later, I ran into Bob Graham, who was on the senate committee investigating. He couldn't say much, but nobody was cooperating. To this day, they still haven't.
Separately some victim families sued. Lawsuits against The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were permitted to proceed pursuant to the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JATSA), which gives federal courts subject matter jurisdiction to adjudicate cases against foreign nations even without the nation being formally designated by the U.S. government as a state sponsor of terror. JASTA, according to many commentators, has caused additional strain to the already complex and complicated U.S.-Saudi relationship.
However, in Havlish v. bin Laden, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Hezbollah were found to have directly and materially aided al Qaeda in the 9/11 attacks. A default judgment was entered against Iran and Hezbollah for billions of dollars. See Dkt. Nos. 294, 295, 316, Havlish v. bin Laden (In re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2011), Case No. 1:03-cv-09848-GBD-SN (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York).
IMHO some of the aiders, abettors and even some of the perpetrators have not been caught. I know a number of the military judges and prosecutors -- come colleagues -- and some defense counsel. My former colleague Moe Davis was the Guantanamo chief prosecutor who refused to use the product of torture.
I felt that the GWB administration gave them a pass and the Obama and Trump administrations were distracted. Its incredible that Kushner, who has no experience and is probably legally conflicted is the money manager of a $2 Bil Saudi investment fund.
Meanwhile more than 2,000 family members of people who died in the Sept. 11 terror attacks signed a letter to Biden protesting a potential plea agreement between the government and five suspected masterminds held at Guantanamo Bay.
Biden had two sons who served and he should be responsive.
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.
Right you are Doc. We produce more oil,than we use. Our oil is refined by the Saudis at Pt Arthur and then exported overseas, we then import oil to make up for the exported oil, and in this way we keep the oil cabal running.
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.
The will to survive is strong. When an economic system allows a very few to have almost all the wealth the peasants are left fighting amongst each other for the crumbs. That is what unlimited greed, capitalism does. And a lot of the dunderheads on the bottom support it? Misery loves company apparently.
Not so much "disregarding" as wishful-thinking complacency. The famous poem: First they came for...." But it's not just pocketbooks. What's scary is our fellow citizens who really think "human rights" are only for select humans.
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.
Nationalization might put a long term chill on foreign investments in the US. Temporary control is another matter; Truman did it with the railroads. Temporary control would send a very strong message to the Saudis on top of just preventing a spike in the price of gasoline.
We don''t need foreign investments. They use American labor and keep the profits for themselves. Saudi Arabia is wealthy because of American dollars, and the American Military Industrial complex.
The Constitution mentions the general welfare twice, just another term of the common good.
Anything that serves the public, regardless of class, income, gender, race, religion is the commons, be it utilities, transportation. national defense, land (parks), and oil production and refinement.
The problem with government control is bureaucracies, conservatism, and politics. Government departments or bureaucacies are notoriously conservative and resistant to change, change means loss of power, authority, and jobs.
The problem with private ownership is the same, on top of which is that they are profit driven and that means reducing labor, reducing or eliminating investment in R&D, and deferred maintenance which leads to outages, breakdowns, deterioration of infrastructure, as has happened to privately owned toll roads.
The question is which is the lesser of two evils. I go for government control and private ownership in the form of co ops.
But yes, we should nationalize the oil refineries like yesterday. The problem is our politicians and jurists are the best that money can buy.
Saudi Arabia is a major stockholder in Exxon.
The deluded Hugo Chavez had the temerity to think that Venezuelan oil belonged to Venezuela and not Exxon, and had the audacity to nationalize the oil fields and production.
Well, Exxon, was outraged, how dare he do something so audacious, so they showed him, they pulled the strings they have with the U.S. Government, and embarked upon a campaign to destablize Venezuela and install an Exxon friendly puppet via a coup and actual CIA action.
An unrelenting campaign, finally in 2019 with Trump in power, the U.S. embargoed Venezuelan oil.
CITGO Headquartered in the Energy Corridor area of Houston, it is majority-owned by PDVSA, a state-owned company of the Venezuelan government (although due to U.S. sanctions in 2019, they no longer economically benefit from CITGO.
When the Saudis and the oil cabal were extorting us, CITGO undercut them to drive the price down, and Trump stepped in to sanction Venezuelan oil.
Google is your friend. Do some wisely worded searches like SABIC, Exxon and you will find a number of joint venture projects,in Texas, between Exxon and SABIC (Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation).
They are buying up and monopolizing America, with our money, when they aren't buying multi million dollars properties from Trump, or financing Donald and Jareds ventures and legal penalties
Not sure you're right about not needing foreign investment. A whole lot of the world's wealth is tied up in US dollars and dollar denominated securities. Probably not a good thing if it all freaked out and left.
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!
Billy: Daniel Solomon has mentioned many times, that Saudi Arabia owns some of our refineries, I guess yo don't read all comments.
And Guess who has a lions share in the ownership of Exxon Mibil? Saudi Arabia.
Oil is a resource vital to our national defense, selling it to any country or person that is not American is treason, what's next selling our Defense Department to the Saudis, maybe Putin if Trump is elected.
They also own alfalfa fields in Arizona that are sucking up a huge amount of the water needed for other agriculture. I believe that contract is up this year, and the Democratic governor is not going to renew it. Let them grow their alfalfa somewhere else like in Russia. This is why getting off fossil fuels asap is in our national security interest. Of course Treacherous-treasonous-traitor-Trump is colluding with our enemies. We also should be cutting off all military support and sales to Saudi Arabia. I realize it is easier said than done, but let us get it started.
Thanks I didn't know that Linda. It looks like Saudi Arabia has bought up America, and our politicians with our own dollars (petro dollars) and it is the fault of our own greedy institutions and politicians, the oligarchic billionaires and financial institutions whose only concern is profits for investors.
John Oliver had a scary program last night on Last Week Tonight about Boeing the founder would rather close the door than let an unsafe airplane fly, however the corporate structure now is that the only thing that matters is return on investment, profits and stock buy backs to increase share holder profitability. To get there they have outsourced production of planes, and the contractors have sub contractor, and the parts don't fit when assembled and the materials are not up to standards
An under cover investigator interviewed factory workers and contractors and asked if they would fly on a Boeing plane, and almost to a person they said no.
And that is only Boeing, the whole American capital system of manufacturing and finance are the same, they are all driven pell mell, head over heels, to produce the greatest possible return, if they do they are rewarded with raises and bonuses, if they don't they are fired.,that is the executives.
It is the system that is at fault, and the system is that created by jurists and legislatures from state to federal and of course the every corrupt and corruptible Supreme Court.
William, Matt Stoller in his anti-monopoly Substack Big, has been discussing what is wrong at Boeing. It is really scary. https://www.thebignewsletter.com/p/its-time-to-nationalize-and-then?utm_source=substack&publication_id=11524&post_id=140583367&isFreemail=false&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=email-reaction&r=f0qfn&triedRedirect=true
I also listened to this NPR discussion on the Booker Prize winning book, Prophet Song by Paul Lynch. It is the new dystopian novel of our times. https://one.npr.org/i/1236050224:1236050237
We see things happening to others in the world, but it is happening here and we need to have books that help us recognize it.
Linda it is a testament to the willing blindness of Americans that they don't see what is happening in front of our eyes. Myopia or tunnel vision seems to be common quality among Americans, maybe it is a human defect. What ever fears and needs we have, we focus on the nearest, loudest bright shiny object,like less sentient and perceptive creatures.
Humans demand predictability and conformity and they don't know how to deal with exceptions perhaps one reason that persons of transgender identity are so threatening and confusing. We have this need for certainty, or they friend or foe, male or female, sexually attractive or not, members of my ethnically or outsiders. Long o short, fat or skinny, attractive or ugly, Christian or infidel, Muslim or infidel, if you ain't with me then you are against me.
People have this need to categorize and put in boxes.
All of the ink print all of the 1's and O's of the computational world, are not going to change human behavior or their minds, Only experience can do that, and I am an expert in that.
I do not see the world through the same eyes as I did when I was 50, not because of books, I am very, very well read. I have given away and moved away from more books than most people will read in a lifetime. As a teen I exhausted a public library of all books that interested me, including over 160 books deemed the classics.
The first full book I read was at the age of 8, it was Homer's Odyssey, the next full book I can remember reading is the Bible at age 12, and I devoured everything I could, even labels on cereal packages and canned goods.
But it was real world experiences that caused me to see the world in a different light.
These ignorant, outraged, self absorbed, self righteous types won't see the light and change their ways and minds, until reality comes crashing down upon them, and then it is too late, for them, for you and for me.
The only thing we can do is try and warn people, which has proven thus far to be a fruitless endeavor, and take actions and measures that will secure our own safety and survival, we have saved a lot of money, paid off our debts and mortgages, made out wills and related documents and most importantly have current passports (renewed in the last year)
You and I, we gnash our teeth (well mine are false, so no), we kvetch, we write, we comment, we bitch and moan, and our audience is very small, of no effect, and is only half listening.
Push come to shove, after all our efforts, the only thing we can do is vote, cross our fingers, and make preparations for our own survival.
After the invention of cannons, and Europeans discovered gunpowder, castle walls no longer attacked as a bulwark against the enemy besieging,
As the cannonade smashed a hole in the wall, the first troops through the hole we known as the forlorn hope.,it was rare that any survived.
Considering the pig pigheadedness of those would or should ostensibly be allies, my hope is forlorn indeed, like the idiot 100,000 in Michigan that are showing their rear ends to the Democrats and thus electing Trump who will in turn round them up and deport or concentrate them until he deports.
Fools like Ayman Mohyeldin try to blame Biden, for the making of their own dilemma,but blame doesn't matter, not when you are being rounded up and deported or placed in concentration camps, and it can happen here, because it already happened in 1942
First they came for.... and you know the rest.
I taught at the School of John Dewey who wrote Experience and Education. I am a firm believer in experience as a teacher. It helps one to imagine more scenarios. I feel the limits of this with the NYT staff covering elections, and I feel it in the decision making of people who do not even know what most of the questions posed to them mean, who are voting for Trump, with totally blind stupidity. I am also someone who has lived in more than one country, and I would love if that were a high school requirement. To live abroad and adapt to another culture.
As you know the peninsula of Arabia is a bone dry desert, but it sits atop a 10,000 year old aquifer. In the quest for food independence, the kingdom tried to imitate
the center pivot irrigators that are used so succesfully in America (you can see them from the air as green circles that cover a quarter section.
What they did though is cause the land to sink, and their attempt at self sustaining food production was a failure and they have no choice but to import. Their water needs have apparently exhausted the aquifer, and they spent millions building the worlds largest reverse osmosis plant on the shores of the red sea, and billions to maintain it and replace the salt clogged filters.
All it takes to bring the Kingdom to it's knees is for a hacker to destroy the desalinization plant.
Doggonit, Daniel Solomon is not "major news institutions," Billy is righteous!
????
For awhile it was a righty thing to be paranoid about "rag-heads" and "slant-eyes" buying up America. Now I think you are right to wonder, huh, how come even Fox is mum about Saudi ownership of not only US, but world distribution infrastructure?
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.
We are a market. They want Biden 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?
The only reason that America exports oil, is to subsidize those regimes that don't have refining capability, like Iran and even the Kingdom, but mainly it is to profit the international oil trade, OPEC.
America produces more oil than it exports, selling the Pt Arthur oil refinery to MBS was not only an act of treason, but put our own economy on the backfoot.
Trump bends over for MBS, Trump has a Jewish daughter, grandson and son in law. Jared is te only Jew in the world that has been gifted billions by the Saudis, the Saudi's will not permit anyone to enter their country that has a passport with an Israeli stamp.
Saudi Arabia is an ethnostate, and the reigning ethnicity is Wahhabiyah, which is a salafist (extremely fundamentalistic) version of Sunni Islam. Talk about intolerant, it is more rigid and intolerant than Iran and that is saying something.
Iran has has driving schools for women, and female cab drivers (their only customers are females), Iran requires wearing of the hijab, wrap around head scarf, older women wear the chador, and the chador comes in many colors. In Saudi Arabia women have to wear the Abaya (the abaya and chador are the same thing, and black in the Mideast heat is horrible (think of the Gazan women, who also have o wear a black abaya
On the other hand Iran stones atheists and adulterers and forces gays into a sex change operation and in Saudi Arabia, they haul them to chop chop square, in front of the mosque and behead them after Friday prayers.
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/
A grammatical correction friend Daniel in all due respect.
The sentence that starts with "Thom didn't say that Saudis also control Exxon and several other oil companies, reads differently as intended.
I would say that. omitting a reference to Thom, as it appears as a criticism, that: The Saudis, besides owning oil refineries also own Exxon Mobil and several other oil companies, and I strongly suspect that goes for the bin Laden family as well.
Recall that in the days following 9/11m Dubya closed off airspace, however he did allow the Saudis and bin Ladens, whose families financed 9/11 to escape back to the Kingdom, And the bin Laden family loaned or gave him he money to buy the Texas Rangers, and were partners with the Bush family in the oil business.
There is no doubt in my learned mind, that Saudi's were behind 9/11 and there connection with Bush and their control over OPEC and the oil trade is why they have not been indicted, charged or punished for their involvement in 9/11
Muslims play the long game, the kaffir (infidels) play the short game, demanding immediate satisfaction. Muslims will give a little, equivocate and even form alliances with kaffir's like Trump, because they are playing the long game, and use western greed and blindness to their advantage.
If Gaia doesn't rid herself of the parasites, Islam will rule over all, because westerners are feckless, ignorant, and gullible.
Saudi Arabia is building a 110 mile long city, called Neom, or the Line, it will have no vehicles, carbon emissions and be totally green https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Line,_Saudi_Arabia#:~:text=The%20Line%20(stylized%20THE%20LINE,cars%2C%20streets%20or%20carbon%20emissions.
Dubai has built the tallest building in the world, created islands,buildings and homes out of sand dredged from the sea.
And in the U.S. we feel it is a major accomplishment to fill a pot hole.
Suggest that everyone learn the Shahada in Arabic, not English, and get mentally prepared to flop down a rug and pray to Mecca five times a day., because we are having our culture, democracy, way of life sold out right under our feet.
If the Christian white nationalists of Trump take over America, they will have a field day taking revenge on their enemies, but when they finally settle down, they will be faced with a stark reality, that they have destroyed America to save white Christian patriarchalism.
And we will be very vulnerable, with no allies in the world, except Russia, China, Iran and North Korea, and Arabs owning and controlling our oil and refineries, not even our vaunted MIC can come to the rescue,
What idiot westerners can't get through their thick skulls, is that once upon a time Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt and North Africa were once Christian before they were Muslim.
It was the scimitar of Islam that converted them. Islam has new scimitar, oil.
Ok.
I didn't say, as I usually do, that Russia and Iran are beneficiaries of high prices, and fund the war in the Ukraine, and proxy wars like Hamas/Gaza. This is a national security issue.
Re 9/11. I lived in Franconia VA on or about 9/11 where the madrassas that taught the all infidels must die were located. Some of my neighbors wore complete burkas prior to the attack. A couple of days later I had hearings and Reagan Airport was closed so I had to fly out of Dulles. Lines , all the staff looked like my ex-neighbors. I flew to Chattanooga via Pittsburgh. All the staff, pilots, stewardesses, etc were Arab. When I made it home, most of my former neighbors had moved, never to return.
I knew some of the victims.
Later, I ran into Bob Graham, who was on the senate committee investigating. He couldn't say much, but nobody was cooperating. To this day, they still haven't.
My office took some of the 9/11 compensation cases. https://www.justice.gov/archive/victimcompensation/#:~:text=On%20January%202%2C%202011%2C%20President,at%20www.vcf.gov.&text=New%20%2D%20Closing%20Statement%20from%20the%20Special%20Master%2C%20Mr.
Separately some victim families sued. Lawsuits against The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia were permitted to proceed pursuant to the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JATSA), which gives federal courts subject matter jurisdiction to adjudicate cases against foreign nations even without the nation being formally designated by the U.S. government as a state sponsor of terror. JASTA, according to many commentators, has caused additional strain to the already complex and complicated U.S.-Saudi relationship.
However, in Havlish v. bin Laden, the Islamic Republic of Iran and Hezbollah were found to have directly and materially aided al Qaeda in the 9/11 attacks. A default judgment was entered against Iran and Hezbollah for billions of dollars. See Dkt. Nos. 294, 295, 316, Havlish v. bin Laden (In re Terrorist Attacks on September 11, 2011), Case No. 1:03-cv-09848-GBD-SN (U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York).
The U.S. Victims of State Sponsored Terrorism Fund did not make disbursements until I had retired. Established in 2015, “The Fund has collected more than $2 billion in deposits from forfeiture proceeds, penalties, and fines arising from violations of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act or the Trading with the Enemy Act,” https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/justice-department-announces-total-distribution-over-6b-victims-state-sponsored-terrorism
IMHO some of the aiders, abettors and even some of the perpetrators have not been caught. I know a number of the military judges and prosecutors -- come colleagues -- and some defense counsel. My former colleague Moe Davis was the Guantanamo chief prosecutor who refused to use the product of torture.
I felt that the GWB administration gave them a pass and the Obama and Trump administrations were distracted. Its incredible that Kushner, who has no experience and is probably legally conflicted is the money manager of a $2 Bil Saudi investment fund.
Meanwhile more than 2,000 family members of people who died in the Sept. 11 terror attacks signed a letter to Biden protesting a potential plea agreement between the government and five suspected masterminds held at Guantanamo Bay.
Biden had two sons who served and he should be responsive.
Biden
Hello to "this used to be a bipartisan issue."
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.
Right you are Doc. We produce more oil,than we use. Our oil is refined by the Saudis at Pt Arthur and then exported overseas, we then import oil to make up for the exported oil, and in this way we keep the oil cabal running.
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.
The will to survive is strong. When an economic system allows a very few to have almost all the wealth the peasants are left fighting amongst each other for the crumbs. That is what unlimited greed, capitalism does. And a lot of the dunderheads on the bottom support it? Misery loves company apparently.
Not so much "disregarding" as wishful-thinking complacency. The famous poem: First they came for...." But it's not just pocketbooks. What's scary is our fellow citizens who really think "human rights" are only for select humans.
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.
No but we can nationalize he oil refinery as a national security necessity, just as FDR commandeered industry
Nationalization might put a long term chill on foreign investments in the US. Temporary control is another matter; Truman did it with the railroads. Temporary control would send a very strong message to the Saudis on top of just preventing a spike in the price of gasoline.
We don''t need foreign investments. They use American labor and keep the profits for themselves. Saudi Arabia is wealthy because of American dollars, and the American Military Industrial complex.
The Constitution mentions the general welfare twice, just another term of the common good.
Anything that serves the public, regardless of class, income, gender, race, religion is the commons, be it utilities, transportation. national defense, land (parks), and oil production and refinement.
The problem with government control is bureaucracies, conservatism, and politics. Government departments or bureaucacies are notoriously conservative and resistant to change, change means loss of power, authority, and jobs.
The problem with private ownership is the same, on top of which is that they are profit driven and that means reducing labor, reducing or eliminating investment in R&D, and deferred maintenance which leads to outages, breakdowns, deterioration of infrastructure, as has happened to privately owned toll roads.
The question is which is the lesser of two evils. I go for government control and private ownership in the form of co ops.
But yes, we should nationalize the oil refineries like yesterday. The problem is our politicians and jurists are the best that money can buy.
Saudi Arabia is a major stockholder in Exxon.
The deluded Hugo Chavez had the temerity to think that Venezuelan oil belonged to Venezuela and not Exxon, and had the audacity to nationalize the oil fields and production.
Well, Exxon, was outraged, how dare he do something so audacious, so they showed him, they pulled the strings they have with the U.S. Government, and embarked upon a campaign to destablize Venezuela and install an Exxon friendly puppet via a coup and actual CIA action.
An unrelenting campaign, finally in 2019 with Trump in power, the U.S. embargoed Venezuelan oil.
CITGO Headquartered in the Energy Corridor area of Houston, it is majority-owned by PDVSA, a state-owned company of the Venezuelan government (although due to U.S. sanctions in 2019, they no longer economically benefit from CITGO.
When the Saudis and the oil cabal were extorting us, CITGO undercut them to drive the price down, and Trump stepped in to sanction Venezuelan oil.
Google is your friend. Do some wisely worded searches like SABIC, Exxon and you will find a number of joint venture projects,in Texas, between Exxon and SABIC (Saudi Arabia Basic Industries Corporation).
They are buying up and monopolizing America, with our money, when they aren't buying multi million dollars properties from Trump, or financing Donald and Jareds ventures and legal penalties
Not sure you're right about not needing foreign investment. A whole lot of the world's wealth is tied up in US dollars and dollar denominated securities. Probably not a good thing if it all freaked out and left.
Correct, and it is too late to do anything about it. It really is