Dear Gulf Arabs: Send Your Own Kids to Die For Your Oil

Gulf allies of the United States, led by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are urging President Donald Trump to continue prosecuting the war against Iran, arguing that Tehran hasn’t been weakened enough by the monthlong U.S.-led bombing campaign, according to U.S., Gulf and Israeli officials.
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Officials from Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain have conveyed in private conversations that they do not want the military operation to end until there are significant changes in the Iranian leadership or there’s a dramatic shift in Iranian behavior, according to the officials, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity.

They can fuck all the way to off. They want this war to continue, then they should have their planes do some bombing. Send their own ground forces into harm's way.

But, knowing Trump, some freshly-created golden bauble and some cash will get him to send American soldiers to die for the white-robed cowards.

Rich man's war...

Once Again, War Gets Fought on the Backs of the Poor, Working and Middle Classes

Republicans are considering reductions in federal health spending to help pay for a budget bill containing as much as $200 billion to fund the Iran war and immigration enforcement.

Because it's unthinkable to increase taxes on big corporations and billionaires, the Republicans are going to push the cost of this war on those at the bottom of the pyramid.

Once again, the costs of war are folling on those least able to bear the burden.

The Unspoken Problem With Ending Trump's War

It is this: He cannot be trusted to keep his word. He tore up the last deal with Iran because he didn't like it. He'll tear up this one if some clown on Fox says that he should.

The Iranians are well aware of this.

There is a way around that, and that is by exchanging hostages. Trump could send Barron and Ivanka as hostages to the deal. Or he could send something he really values: The deed to Mar-a-Lago.

Welp, This Will Be Interesting

France's Finance Minister Roland Lescure revealed on Wednesday that between 30 and 40 per cent of Gulf refining capacity has been damaged or destroyed by Iran's retaliatory strikes following attacks by the United States and Israel, France 24 reports.

According to him, this has left a shortage of 11 million barrels a day on global oil markets. Lescure warned it could take up to three years to restore damaged facilities, and several months to restart those that were urgently shut down.

Which means that even if Bibi and Donnie's Most Excellent War stopped today, the ramifications will continue for years.

The best is yet to come, as the last ships that had left the Persian Gulf before the war started arrive at their delivery ports. This map shows global oil imports from the Guld and when the deliveries from the Gulf will end:

In a month, the globe will go from just feeling the price of oil rise to having actual shortages. In the US, we don't import a lot of oil from the Gulf, so we're not going to see much in the way of shortages. But oil is a global commodity and so is the pricing.

It's not just oil, of course. It's also aluminum, helium, natural gas and fertilizer. All of which will be in somewhat short supply, thanks to this war.

Meanwhile, the Orange Sundowner is blathering about attacking electrical generation and desalinization plants if Iran doesn't knuckle under. To say that doing that would be a war crime is beyond obvious. It's the sort of thing that his boss would do, another perpetrator of war crimes en masse.

That's Not Going to Buff Out

An E-3 "AWACS" was apparently destroyed in an Iranian missile attac on Prince Sultan airbase:

I don't know if it's an honest mistake, Gen. Sedgwick-grade arrogance or utter stupidity to put very high-value airplanes at a base within reach of Iranian missiles.

Wikipedia claims that the Air Force had sixteen E-3s in service. Losing one isn't good.

Protesting These Down, Here

Lots of signs from yesterday:

Your Sunday Morning Really Old Prop Noise

WW1 warbirds:

In Case You’re Stupid Enough to Install the White House App

This is what it'll do to your Google/Android phone.

in short, it's spyware.

Caturday

"Lemme outta here, see! I wanna see my mothpiece, see!"

Blonde Bimbo Bondi Has Never Read the Constitution

This is what she said:

For someone who went to law school, she is remarkably ignorant about what is in the Consitution. Particularly the 14th Amendment, Section 1:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

There you have it. Citizenship is a motherfucking right guaranteed by the Constitution.

So fuck you, Pam. I hope they yank your law license, let alone your law decree. You're not qualifieid to possess either.