Back to Iran. The White House gave a briefing to the Senate today on the original strike, and it was apparently such a shit show that Mike Lee (R) changed his opinion on supporting Kaine's war powers resolution.
Really? Because I filled up today, and the price was the same as it has been for awhile: $2.79 for 93 octane.
SHHHHHH!!!! Don't you be talkin about them cheap oil. Then even more of em librul commiefornians will come ruin our great state with their crazy ideas and fake mescan food!!! Spoiler sarcasm obviously implied, but seriously, Texas is an anomaly with gas prices. Yeah our beaches may look like shit because of it, but you can thank that entire Gulf Coast area for keeping our prices low and our supply high.
It's my understanding that gasoline refineries buy oil contracts, so changes to oil prices won't hit you at the pump until weeks after the fact.
If Iran continues along it's path to develop nuclear weapons I feel like a coalition invasion would 100% be the right decision. The mistakes of the Bush regime need to be fully taken into account and well remembered, but at the same time we need to acknowledge the realities of the people who govern over there. Nearly all of the other major powers, even some in the middle east would support an invasion in this scenario. We're not there yet and hopefully it doesn't come to that. There is no other conceivable reason in the short term future I can see coming up that would justify further escalation. The Iran deal was already dying before Obama left office. It was a signature foreign policy accomplishment for him, and a major election issue for 2016 dems in general so he didn't want to admit this publicly, but the deal was already looking increasingly fragile. Anyone thinking we'll quickly hop back into one, regardless of how 2020 shakes out is wrong. Trump's rhetoric over the last week is reason 896,293 he'll hopefully be gone by the end of 2020. I don't know if it has anything to do with the impeachment proceedings, but whatever. The news cycle could only follow an impeachment confirmation in the senate everyone knows isn't going to happen for so long.
Key word: "coalition" If everyone else is on board, rumor has it that Canada, Britain, France, Spain, Italy, all those guys have some mighty fine soldiers as well. A coordinated, multi-nation strike against Iran would not be a bad idea under the right conditions. But I think things would have to get a lot worse in order for that option to look like a good one, let alone countries having an appetite for such an invasion.
If you see today's speech from him, someone has already smacked him on the head and made him read from the teleprompter... he's sounding like a rational human being looking for peace... .in words that are totally not his normal manner of speaking. It sounds like some people in the inner circle have had enough shit and are dealing with it.
At least for now it looks like he's embracing the "break it, tape it back together, take credit for fixing it" strategy.
Yeah, it's starting to come out that some scrutiny into that initial strike is pissing off even some Republicans... sounds like he went a little over the line.
China is the single largest customer of Iranian oil and accounts for about 5% of China’s annual oil import. Iran’s oil is low quality, though. It’s heavier, thicker and full of impurities like sulfur, and is a pain in the ass to deal with. Both the US and Canada each export far more oil than Iran, even if it’s a very different kind. Yup, its usually about a month (if ever).
Best case: After two weeks of acting like complete idiots both leaders pat themselves on the back for making the other back down. Worst case: The glorious leaders of our two great nations resume calling each other faggots and launch a few more missiles. Diplomacy!
So it looks like Iran told Iraq who of course told us about the attack before it happened, allowing the US to move all troops in the base into a bunker before it hit. It's a good sign for a best case scenario where both sides can walk away feeling like a 'winner'. Iran can pretend to be tough and Trump can continue to look insane enough to launch unwarranted excessive military strikes.
While watching it with our oldest son, I told him it looked almost as if someone was holding him at gunpoint to make sure he stayed on script.
So... looks like the Iranians may have shot down that flight after all. https://www.newsweek.com/iranians-shot-down-ukraine-flight-mistake-sources-1481313 Pisses me off that Trump instigated this shit needlessly. Sure, it is Iran's fault for fucking up, but if Trump hadn't rattled their cages none of those civilians would have been killed. Fucking moron.