Don Surber
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Thursday, October 06, 2022
Biden turns gold into lead
Throughout my life, Democrats have hated the oil industry. They have never understood it. Maybe they hate oil because Rockefeller — the original one, not Jay — was a Republican. Maybe they hate oil because cheap gasoline let the middle class escape polluted and corrupt cities for suburbia. Maybe they hate oil because plastic made products safer and cheaper.
At any rate, Democrats do not understand oil which is why gasoline prices doubled since Donald Trump left office.
Democrats oppose drilling for oil in America because most oilmen are Republicans. They prefer foreign oil from countries run by socialists (Canada and Mexico) or flat-out dictators (Venezuela).
(Odd thing about Venezuelan oil. After Mexico nationalized William Buckley’s oil holdings, he pioneered oil drilling in Venezuela.)
Bloomberg UK reported, “Biden May Buy Oil Just Below $80; Democrats Stymied Trump at $24.
“Trump proposed filling strategic reserve at rock-bottom prices.
“Democrats had crowed about blocking an oil industry bailout.”
Trump wanted to fill up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve with $24-a-barrel oil. Democrats said no. Now under Biden they are depleting the reserve. He offered the Saudis $80 a barrel.
They refused.
Biden’s trip to Saudi Arabia in August was to beg Prince Mohammad bin Salman to sell him oil for $80 a barrel, after calling him a murderer. Such a smooth talking man.
This followed Biden’s imposition of economic sanctions on Russia, which plunged Europe into a recession and helped send oil prices higher. Unable to work with the West, Putin is working with Red China, Brazil, India, Saudi Arabia and Iran whose combined populations are roughly 10 times all of Europe’s.
Oil is power. The Saudis have known this for 80 years. Russia, Saudi Arabia and the rest of OPEC+ agreed to cut production by 2 million barrels a day, a symbolic gesture as it is only 2% of the world’s daily consumption of 99.4 million barrels.
The move, however, pantsed Biden on the world stage.
Michael Every of Rabobank wrote, “Yesterday was all about oil, geopolitics, and geostrategic errors; and, in the background, domestic politics, accepting past errors, and trying to make amends for them. Ironically, it all happened on Yom Kippur, the Jewish Day of Atonement, which back in 1973 jump-started a Middle East war, and then the energy crisis that led to the collapse of the post-WW2 Western political-economy model, and ushered in global neoliberalism.
“OPEC+ lined up with Russia to slash output by 2 million barrels a day from November and through 2023, pushing energy prices up, and seeing a slew of calls for oil to again top $100 in the near future. That was as US gasoline inventory data dropped 4.7 million barrels to the lowest level since November 2014 despite apparent demand destruction.
“The White House response was furious. The official statement said President Biden was ‘disappointed by the short-sighted decision’ to cut production. The White House Press Secretary accused OPEC+ of ‘aligning with Russia.'”
[Russia is a member of OPEC+. That’s like saying NATO aligns with Germany.]
Michael Every continued, “Off the record the response was probably blunter given such a cut had been flagged as a hostile act. Yet Saudi Arabia’s message to the White House also couldn’t have been blunter.
“The Saudis have moved from swing producers who help the US at times of trouble to ones who cut to keep prices high; under a leader building Western-style tourist resorts and holding raves(!) That’s testimony to a staggering U.S. geopolitical and geoeconomic error, compounded by its multi-layered domestic energy policy failures. The longer-term question is if it will prove to be the same kind of massive error for OPEC+ to have made itself a geostrategic problem for the U.S.”
The Democrat reaction was angry and emotional as they comically waved their toy sabers.
Newsweek reported, “Democratic Reps. Tom Malinowski of New Jersey, Sean Casten of Illinois and Susan Wild of Pennsylvania have introduced legislation asking for the withdrawal of all U.S. troops from Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, after OPEC announced its decision to curb oil production on Wednesday.”
We are going through all this turmoil because of Ukraine. We are supporting Ukraine because it gave Hunter Biden a no-show job that paid a million bucks a year. Ukraine also bribed John Kerry’s stepson, Nancy Pelosi’s son and many other politicians and their progeny. Republicans have kin on the take, too.
An oil war is preferable to a nuclear war but I really prefer no war at all. Ukraine wants to be part of NATO in order to tap billions in aid. Ukraine is a racketeer influence corrupt organization that has laundered money throughout its post-Soviet era.
What does this have to do with the price of oil? Everything because unfortunately Democrats have retarded the American oil industry and made us dependent on others for oil.
The price of gasoline reflects many things but it mainly reflects Democrat ignorance.
Gasoline averages $6.42 a gallon in California, and $3.15 in Mississippi.
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Posted by Don Surber at 10/06/2022 03:00:00 PM
