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Donald Trump’s Presidency 2017 - 2021 AND 2025-202X

Pesqueeb

Pesqueeb

bicycle in airplane hangar
Feb 2, 2007
41,746
19,040
Riding the baggage carousel.
Pesqueeb said:
When the Reichstag burns, Broadway actors will be the first into the camps.
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Nick said:
http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/2017/02/trump-desperate-search-reichstag-fire-170207082840828.html
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Just came here to post this. :tinfoil:?

Also, there was this horrifying post in a reddit thread about the article.

I have a hypothesis that pulls this all together: oil.

It is one of the few valuable commodities that Russia has. Russia benefits tremendously from higher oil prices.

Destabilization of the Middle East and disrupting oil supplies from that region will aid in raising prices of oil, helping improve asset values and cash flow for Russia as well as oil interests for guys like Rex Tillerson and cronies.

Oil is the end game.

.......

All the pieces seem to align.

  • Lifting Russian sanctions?
  • Bringing in oil and Wall Street guys into his cabinet?
  • Roiling extremist groups throughout the world?
  • Dismantling the intelligence leadership council and installing Bannon?
  • Undoing Obama's actions on Keystone XL?
  • Various proposals to open more federal land to private sale?
  • Threatened repeal of NAFTA (BTW, you know that both Mexico and Canada also have vast oil assets, right)? Removing NAFTA makes those assets more expensive and in turn makes American oil assets more valuable. Removing NAFTA certainly isn't pro-business (businesses big and small rely on migrant labor -- both legal and illegal) so it doesn't fit into traditional Conservative narrative of free trade and capitalism.
  • Threatened weakening of NATO alliance. If oil prices increased 1.5x or 2x, back above $100/barrel, Russia would be able to grab the EU by the balls and impose whatever agenda they want.
  • Russia's acts the last few years have been to secure ports. Syria, Crimea, and even their now seemingly warm relationship with Turkey. What do they all have in common? Ports. They are priming the channels for export of Russian oil.
  • Threatening Iran, who just recently was able to sell their oil back on the open market?
It seems like a priming of the conditions for oil assets to skyrocket.

In contrast, the Obama administration strategically crushed the price of oil:

  • Negotiating with the UN for strict financial and import/export sanctions on Iran when the price of oil was high to strip them of economic power?
  • Then negotiating with Iran to create conditions which allowed lifting of sanctions and Iranian oil back on the market once the price of oil was dirt cheap?
  • No federal checks on fracking? To the chagrin of many liberal environmentalists, the Obama EPA largely left fracking as a state level issue.
  • US became a net exporter of oil under Obama.
  • Remember when he opened the strategic oil reserves to shock speculators?
  • Push for improved fuel economy standards
  • Focus on global warming even going so far as to shift NASA's focus to Earth sciences (to the chagrin of many liberals, again).
  • Investment in alternative energy sources; Obama DOE gave Tesla a lifeline loan in 2010. Wind and solar have boomed under Obama.
  • I would not be surprised to find out one day that he negotiated some terms with the Saudis to keep pumping in return for weapons deals. Now just three weeks into Drumpf admin, we are seeing OPEC decrease output.
Obama viewed the price of oil as a strategic tool to weaken our enemies. Lower the price of oil and lower the influence of countries like Venezuela, Russia, and oil producing countries in the Middle East. When he took office, the price of oil was $102/barrel. When he left, it was in the mid-thirties. By crushing the price of oil, it would naturally slow down demand for "Drill baby, drill". What happened to ANWR, the topic du jour of 2008? Nothing because the glut of oil in the world destroyed the need for ANWR drilling. Crushing the price of oil and adding sanctions to Russia weakened Russia tremendously from a geopolitical and financial standpoint.
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I become increasingly convinced that electric cars/alt transportation, isn't just the hippie/environmental thing to do, but is patriotic duty.
 
JohnE

JohnE

filthy rascist
May 13, 2005
13,536
2,153
Front Range, dude...
I watched "Machete" last night for like the 400th time (I love Rodriguez' films...) and it struck me while watching that the base plot is eerily similar to what is happening in this country today. Rich guy wants to build a wall to keep immigrants out. In the film he wants to do it to control over the border drug traffic via a series of choke points...the Senator in his pocket whips up anti immigrant fervor through his inflammatory rhetoric aimed at red blooded 'muriKKKan™ types...vigilantes patrol the border with high powered assault weapons...kinda made me wonder...

If only we had Michelle Rodriguez and her taco truck.
 
Adventurous

Adventurous

Starshine Bro
Mar 19, 2014
10,835
9,863
Crawlorado
jonKranked said:
:dirol:

http://www.rawstory.com/2017/02/he-doesnt-like-this-sht-trump-reportedly-hates-his-job-and-his-staff-after-less-than-a-month/
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Who didn't see that one coming? He has the attention span of a 3 month old chimpanzee. To think that he would buckle down once he became president was a foolhardy notion and I really hope those who voted for him are seeing that now.

He's not a business genius or a guy who makes incredible tremendous beautiful bigly-league deals. He was a guy who, in his personal life, was given a massive advantage and has miraculously not managed to fuck things up too badly for himself. He's never been about anyone but himself and his fragile, overinflated ego.
 
jonKranked

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
88,676
26,917
media blackout
Adventurous said:
Who didn't see that one coming? He has the attention span of a 3 month old chimpanzee. To think that he would buckle down once he became president was a foolhardy notion and I really hope those who voted for him are seeing that now.

He's not a business genius or a guy who makes incredible tremendous beautiful bigly-league deals. He was a guy who, in his personal life, was given a massive advantage and has miraculously not managed to fuck things up too badly for himself. He's never been about anyone but himself and his fragile, overinflated ego.
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JohnE said:
SHOCKED! SHOCKED I AM!!


No wait...thats the breakfast burrito I had coming back to haunt me...
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not saying i'm surprised at all. just confirms what we've long suspected.
 
AngryMetalsmith

AngryMetalsmith

Business is good, thanks for asking
Jun 4, 2006
22,013
12,687
I have no idea where I am
And so it begins, the inevitable collapse of the food industry in the US. Without migrant workers to pick the crops and undocumented Mexicans to staff kitchens, food cost will skyrocket. Add to that Trump's desire for isolation and we may not even be able to import food goods from China.

I'm certainly no economist but it seems to me that this could trigger another recession.
 
jonKranked

jonKranked

Detective Dookie
Nov 10, 2005
88,676
26,917
media blackout
Westy

Westy

the teste
Nov 22, 2002
55,944
21,980
Sleazattle
A friend's Italian fiance was recently detained and questioned for three hours flying into Seattle. Out of ten or so trips she has never experienced such a thing nor have I ever heard of such a thing happening.
 
Toshi

Toshi

butthole powerwashing evangelist
Oct 23, 2001
39,657
8,696
Westy said:
A friend's Italian fiance was recently detained and questioned for three hours flying into Seattle. Out of ten or so trips she has never experienced such a thing nor have I ever heard of such a thing happening.
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I was detained and questioned by CBP assholes at Logan Airport, coming back from England in the summer of 2001, iirc. Assholes have been assholes for longer than the history of recent events.

"So you claim you're a Harvard student, eh? Why were you on tour in England with MIT then? Huh?"

"Why are you such an idiot? Where's your supervisor?"

...
 
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