Guest Post by Eric Peters
Trump says:
One of the things I am going to do with the Venezuelan Oil is fill up the Strategic National Reserves which, because of Sleepy Joe Biden, has been virtually emptied. The “topping out” process will begin very shortly, and is a Gift from Venezuela to the People of the United States. Thank you! President DONALD J. TRUMP
The oil he used the U.S. military to seize, he means.
It passes with insouciance. Of course. Theft is policy. The government just takes whatever it wants and has been doing so for more than 100 years, ever since theft of people’s earnings got legalized via what they call the “income tax.” You earn it, you “owe” it.
Theft was normalized, which led to it being expanded. The government says we “owe” it money because we own things – in the figurative sense. It says we must “contribute” to Social Security for as long as we work, so that when we are no longer able to work, the government will dole out a pittance of what was taken from us by taking it from others to pay for it.
So why not just take Venezuela’s oil? Many Americans probably support this – or at least don’t get especially exercised about it – because they’re been conditioned to regard theft as policy. They perhaps do stop to consider that if they’re ok with the government stealing Venezuela’s oil then they really have no sound basis for complaining about the government stealing their income.
Trump says that “Sleepy Joe Biden” – who fell asleep less than Trump does – “virtually emptied” the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. In fact, Trump emptied it – to offset the effects of his catastrophically stupid and evil decision to attack Iran, which resulted in about 20 percent of the world’s oil supply as well as supplies of other very important commodities being shut off. Trump drained the SPR as a way to dampen the shock of that; to prop up the world market for oil by exporting our oil to offset the loss of oil leaving the Strait.
Now the war Trump has been saying is won for months is back on again. An Iranian sea mine reportedly disabled a supertanker attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz without permission, “bringing the vessel to a halt and igniting a fire on board,” according to a statement quoted Monday by Reuters. Iran also targeted U.S. military bases in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, according to the latest news from the Malabar front (Orwell reference).
Il Magnifico – as Trump likes to think of himself – is either lying to himself or to us. Or both. The oil that’s in Venezuela isn’t going to be in the SPR for a long time – months, if not years – because it’s not like there’s a spigot that can be just turned on. The oil has to be gotten out of the ground first. Then it’s got to be shipped – by tanker – to the U.S. The oil may begin to dribble our way over the next couple of years or so. Fall is just a month or so from now. The “gift from Venezuela” – as Il Magnifico (who is no Lorenzo de Medici) – puts it is a “gift” in the same way that a “contribution” to Social Security isn’t extortion. It’s also a “gift” that is largely imaginary – and will be, for some time to come, if it ever comes at all.
Meanwhile, Trump is likely to do something even more catastrophically stupid and evil than start this war that has wrecked the economy, riven MAGA and likely assured the ascendance of something even worse than he is, come 2028. Possibly even sooner than that, if gas goes up to $6 per gallon and diesel and heating oil goes up even higher than that.
It is likely he will because he is a petulant, fragile-ego’d pathological narcissist who is also manipulative and sociopathic/psychopathic. He is the Dark Triad with a bad pompadour and a spray tan. As he disintegrates (mentally and physically) before our eyes, expect a spectacular Götterdämmerung.
Only without the Wagnerian nobility.
It will be something like Yucko the Clown doing a mic drop after he shits his pants.
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[ H/T The Burning Platform ]
Trump says:
One of the things I am going to do with the Venezuelan Oil is fill up the Strategic National Reserves which, because of Sleepy Joe Biden, has been virtually emptied. The “topping out” process will begin very shortly, and is a Gift from Venezuela to the People of the United States. Thank you! President DONALD J. TRUMP
The oil he used the U.S. military to seize, he means.
It passes with insouciance. Of course. Theft is policy. The government just takes whatever it wants and has been doing so for more than 100 years, ever since theft of people’s earnings got legalized via what they call the “income tax.” You earn it, you “owe” it.
Theft was normalized, which led to it being expanded. The government says we “owe” it money because we own things – in the figurative sense. It says we must “contribute” to Social Security for as long as we work, so that when we are no longer able to work, the government will dole out a pittance of what was taken from us by taking it from others to pay for it.
So why not just take Venezuela’s oil? Many Americans probably support this – or at least don’t get especially exercised about it – because they’re been conditioned to regard theft as policy. They perhaps do stop to consider that if they’re ok with the government stealing Venezuela’s oil then they really have no sound basis for complaining about the government stealing their income.
Trump says that “Sleepy Joe Biden” – who fell asleep less than Trump does – “virtually emptied” the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. In fact, Trump emptied it – to offset the effects of his catastrophically stupid and evil decision to attack Iran, which resulted in about 20 percent of the world’s oil supply as well as supplies of other very important commodities being shut off. Trump drained the SPR as a way to dampen the shock of that; to prop up the world market for oil by exporting our oil to offset the loss of oil leaving the Strait.
Now the war Trump has been saying is won for months is back on again. An Iranian sea mine reportedly disabled a supertanker attempting to transit the Strait of Hormuz without permission, “bringing the vessel to a halt and igniting a fire on board,” according to a statement quoted Monday by Reuters. Iran also targeted U.S. military bases in Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, according to the latest news from the Malabar front (Orwell reference).
Il Magnifico – as Trump likes to think of himself – is either lying to himself or to us. Or both. The oil that’s in Venezuela isn’t going to be in the SPR for a long time – months, if not years – because it’s not like there’s a spigot that can be just turned on. The oil has to be gotten out of the ground first. Then it’s got to be shipped – by tanker – to the U.S. The oil may begin to dribble our way over the next couple of years or so. Fall is just a month or so from now. The “gift from Venezuela” – as Il Magnifico (who is no Lorenzo de Medici) – puts it is a “gift” in the same way that a “contribution” to Social Security isn’t extortion. It’s also a “gift” that is largely imaginary – and will be, for some time to come, if it ever comes at all.
Meanwhile, Trump is likely to do something even more catastrophically stupid and evil than start this war that has wrecked the economy, riven MAGA and likely assured the ascendance of something even worse than he is, come 2028. Possibly even sooner than that, if gas goes up to $6 per gallon and diesel and heating oil goes up even higher than that.
It is likely he will because he is a petulant, fragile-ego’d pathological narcissist who is also manipulative and sociopathic/psychopathic. He is the Dark Triad with a bad pompadour and a spray tan. As he disintegrates (mentally and physically) before our eyes, expect a spectacular Götterdämmerung.
Only without the Wagnerian nobility.
It will be something like Yucko the Clown doing a mic drop after he shits his pants.
Tweet
Continue reading...
[ H/T The Burning Platform ]
