Real News

This is the really important news of the moment. Trump is battling Saudis and Russians who want to raise oil prices. He has two chips in his hand: fracking and Khashoggi.

Basically, it’s all about whether your personal budget will suffer so that Putin’s corrupt regime can survive and invade more countries. (Everybody here understands that even if you don’t drive, you lose money when global oil prices go up, right?)

We all saw Putin making googly eyes at the Saudi prince the other day, right? And we all understand that this is about oil, don’t we? I’ve been a little MIA because of the end of semester, so I don’t know if it was covered. Putin is trying to get the Saudis to raise oil prices to $100 per barrel. Google it and you’ll see that it’s not just me making it up. $100 per barrel is Putin’s sweet spot. It’s the price that lets him start invading again.

Now. Oil prices are going up no matter what because that’s what the Saudis decided. (And that’s precisely why it’s the worst idea on the planet to annoy the Saudis. Do you want the prices of consumer goods and food to shoot up? No? Then shut up and smile at the Saudis. That’s global economy for you.)

The only question is to which extent Russia will be allowed to benefit from the oil price hike. Saudis are trying to massage the Russians into accepting a cut in production, which will raise the global prices but won’t let Russia make as much money from the hike. Russians are resisting. Trump is screaming that if the oil prices go up, that will be bad for the global economy and might cause another global recession. (You’ve heard the word recession being floated around this past week, right? This is why.)

The Saudis keep the whole world dangling on a string because they regularly decide to mess with the oil prices. The only thing that gives the US a voice in this debate at all is fracking. Without fracking, we’d sit silently on the sidelines and wait for Saudis and Russians to decide together what our family’s budget will look like next month.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, maybe one day alternative energy will, blah blah. Are you going grocery shopping at all before alternative energy makes oil irrelevant? Planning to buy any clothes? Electronics? Books? Travel at all? Then this is extremely relevant to your life.

Sorry for a long post but I often encounter such depths of ignorance on the subject that it scares me. And it’s an enormous failing of our dumbass fourth estate that all they do is cluck like stupid hens over idiotic things and fail to cover really important issues.

16 thoughts on “Real News”


    I think U. S. fracking greatly reduces Saudi Arabia’s power to control prices, and since the fracking companies are privately owned and controlled, Trump has limited control over U. S. oil production. The playing field is not what it was a decade ago for Saudi Arabia.


    1. Thank you, that’s exactly what I said.

      I’m stunned at the people who simultaneously rant against fracking and insist that Saudis should be shunned. The ignorance is terrifying.


      1. Well, I’d rather really step up the alternative energy initiatives rather than plan to continue indefinitely with what we’re doing. Unless the planet really is going to die in 20 years, in which case I suppose it does not matter…


        1. I’m all for that but the current reality is what it is. I think it’s important to know about it.

          God, wouldn’t I want to see alternative fuels take away the power from the Saudis and the Russians. It would mean the world for Ukraine. It would change everything. But it’s not happening yet.


  2. On a related note, I was quite surprised when gas prices in CO touched almost $3.00/gallon and there was not a squeak in the media. IIRC, the last time $3 was hit, there was quite a lot of outrage.


    1. It angers this so much. People need to know these things. This impacts all of us. But we hear endless coverage of utter ridiculousness and nothing about what really matters.

      People are mentioning the possibility of a recession but nobody is saying why.


      1. “People are mentioning the possibility of a recession but nobody is saying why.”

        That’s because they want to blame it 100% on Trump… I’ve read that the financial sector (a democratic bailiwick) wants/hopes to crash the economy close enough to 2020 to unseat him.


        1. People want to see everything in terms of Trump. He’s like their God and he circumscribes their worldview completely.

          But this isn’t about Trump at all. He’s trying hard to prevent the recession. Not because he’s good or bad but because he wants to get reelected in 2020. The last thing he needs in that sense is a recession. In this respect, he’s on our side not because he’s the second coming of Jesus but because his political future is still tied to the national economy.

          It almost seems like people are cheering for a recession. Dumbasses. Fuck Trump, I care about my personal finances, my school, and the people I know. I don’t want a repeat of 2008. Trump will be fine no matter what but we will all suffer if there is a recession of that magnitude.


          Um what? Have you read the Wall Street Journal opinion page lately? They are all for Trump except when it comes to things like tariffs and tinkering with NAFTA. Anything your basic Chamber of Commerce Republican is for, the Wall Street Journal is for. Jeez. They love the new tax law which definitely benefits them more than say… independent contractors.

          They keep blabbering about interest rates. Consumer spending is buttressed by the low low interest rates because very few people have gotten a real raise in years.


  3. Wait, when did the Saudis decide to stop pricing oil at lower prices to throttle the fracking industry in the US? People in the oil, gas and coal industries
    in the US want energy prices to go up, not down. Or at least at a happy medium.

    Unless you meant to say the rest of OPEC automatically says “How high?” when Saudi Arabia says “Jump.”

    Also why the heck is Qatar leaving OPEC in 2019? I haven’t checked Al Jazeera in months.


    1. US fracking is not a threat to the Saudis. It’s a threat to the Russians. The Saudis want to raise prices for their own reasons.

      The US economy is different in that oil isn’t its only component. We are doing great when oil is cheap. Russians (or Venezuelans), on the other hand, begin to starve because they have nothing else. Why they don’t try to create something else, is another issue.


  4. Canada’s Justin Trudeau is yet another politician intent on signaling his “virtue” to the world by destroying the oil industry in Alberta. First it was the Keystone pipeline which was first blocked by Obama and then finished off by Trudeau. Next Canada’s Liberals made sure that the Trans Mountain pipeline never got off the ground as well as killing off the Energy East pipeline. Add to that a regime of carbon taxes and Canadians are being impoverished across the board.

    The net result of all of this virtue is that capital is fleeing Canada for friendlier climes, and to add to the disaster we now have a brain drain to the U.S.

    Say what you will about climate change, but the reality is that only rich nations have the resources and brain power to usher in a more environmentally friendly regime. Impoverishing the people of our lands will in the end accomplish nothing.


  5. Ah, Clarissa, you turn more Republican everyday!

    Obviously, you’re vastly more intelligent than 90% of your academic colleagues. 🙂



    It would mean the world for Israel too with our enemies (and enemies of the West too) having less money to spend on terror and spread of radical Islam even in the West itself.

    I want to ask a stupid question on the level of “why are higher oil prices bad for me?” , so excuse me in advance. The question is why could America f.e. invade Iraq under WMD excuse but doesn’t seem to control any oil sources in the Middle East? Why let Saudis control the world economy? Haven’t they done more than Iraq ever could to distabilize the Middle East? Why not invade them then? Why have Americans pulled away from developing Iraqi oil production?

    “Petroleum industry in Iraq” on wiki :

    // Iraqi oil production has surged after years of disorder.
    Iraq was the world’s 12th largest oil producer in 2009, and has the world’s fifth largest proven petroleum reserves after Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Canada, and Iran. Just a fraction of Iraq’s known fields are in development, and Iraq may be one of the few places left where vast reserves, proven and unknown, have barely been exploited.
    As of June 30, 2010, the United States had allocated $2.05 billion to the Iraqi oil and gas sector to begin this modernization, but ended its direct involvement as of the first quarter of 2008. According to reports by various U.S. government agencies, multilateral institutions and other international organizations, long-term Iraq reconstruction costs could reach $100 billion or higher.


    1. Saudi Arabia not only can’t be invaded but can’t even be mildly annoyed.

      First of all, it would be a blood-bath because these are devout religious people who won’t fold easily. But before that even happens, they will stop the world economy by holding back the oil. I’m sure you know about the 1970s oil crisis. Everybody learned their lesson since then. And the economy grew even more interconnected since then.


      1. I knew nothing about the 1970s oil crisis, but after googling found out something interesting:

        // In October 1973, the members of Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries or the OAPEC (consisting of the Arab members of OPEC) proclaimed an oil embargo “in response to the U.S. decision to re-supply the Israeli military” during the Yom Kippur war; it lasted until March 1974. OAPEC declared it would limit or stop oil shipments to the United States and other countries if they supported Israel in the conflict.

        And some people told me not to be so worried if a future Palestinian state attacks us, claiming America and the world opinion would support Israel then. Now I want to find alternative energy sources more than ever.

        Do you know something about Iraqi oil and American (lack of?) control of it?


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