Hate to have to say it, but Trump is an idiot, and he’s screwing the pooch by the numbers.
Trump: No Need to Rush Anything With Iran
Frankly, I would rather see action rather than talk
I would like to see oil prices and inflation back down
And I am sick and tired of Iran poking us in the eye on the world stage, and making it look like we’re desperate for some sort…
— John Betts (@JohnFromCranber)
Here’s the ugly truth of the matter, via Lakeside Joe. 
That penultimate line—“The regime can only be stopped by force” et al—assumes something not so far in evidence, namely that “At some point, Trump will be convinced of this reality.” It’s my considered opinion that Trump, being at heart a basically decent sort who derives no pleasure from killing people in job lots, would vastly prefer to make some kind of deal with the Mullah regime, even though any deal the howling Western infidel makes with the Mullahs won’t be worth the paper it’s printed on.
Which in turn means that Trump, having an entirely unrealistic view of the opponents he is confronting—ie, a far too charitable one regarding their willingness to deal fairly and honestly with “the Great Satan,” among other things—should never have dragged us into the Iran quagmire in the first place. His Presidency will be regarded by future historians, if any, as a catastrophe, one this piss-poor excuse for a nation will be paying for for generations, possibly even centuries. Sorry, but IMO that’s the long and the short of it.
Update! Just got off the phone with my brother Jeff, who just minutes ago shelled out $1100.00 at a truck stop to fill up his Freightliner with diesel fuel, but won’t make anything close to that much this week. He says another month or so of losing money like this and he’ll be out of business, and the truck will be up for sale. No need to rush anything, eh, Donald? *spit*
It begins update! Jeff called back to tell me that a friend and co-worker of his just gave the company his notice and put his truck up for sale. He’s taken a job driving a dump truck, for just slightly more than minimum wage. For as long as THAT lasts, anyway. He says thanks a pantload, Donald!
- Entries
We finally have a president, Trump, that does what other presidents are afraid to do or are actively on the enemy side, and so called “conservatives” get their panty’s in a big fucking wad because they think they know what to do with respect to Iran.
Iran’s navy is on the bottom of the sea. Iran’s army has been scuttled. Iran’s missile capability has been diminished to the point they are a nuisance, not a threat. Iran’s intercontinental ballistic missile program that could threaten Europe and eventually the USA is DEAD. Iran’s nuclear program is dead, but they do have buried under rubble enriched stockpiles that we want out of their hands. THE HEAD MULLAH is DEAD, DEAD, DEAD. As are the 2nd and 3rd and 4th and almost the entire government power structure.
By the luck of geography Iran can create a problem that Lloyd’s of London is afraid of. That is about it. The IRGC that are left create minor problems and waiting them out is prudent. Save the Americans.
Weak kneed folks are now all bent out of shape over oil prices that have risen temporarily while Trump takes out the trash that the entire republican presidential line going back to Ike allowed to build and has been aided by every democrat in the office – but you blame Trump for this.
Trump didn’t create the problem, but he is handling it. How many American deaths have occurred taking down Iran?
I know, you’ll have to look it up because it is so damn inconceivably low you don’t know the answer. I’ll save you the trouble, thirteen. That is 13.
Trump has taken Iran to the ground with only 13 American military deaths. And now you complain because the price of diesel has risen to what? The same damn price it was in April of 2024. Did you sell your trucks then? Biden and obama have done everything in their power to cause the price of fuel to go up. Did you sell your trucks then?
I’m genuinely sorry that the Iranian conflict impacts fuel prices. I drive a lot, 1500 miles at 15mpg in the last week, that’s a 100 gallons for the math impaired. It is a small damn price to pay for ending the iranian stranglehold on the ME oil movement. When this shit is over the price of fuel will be lower than water. But it takes time and the Trump administration is handling it PERFECTLY. Strangle the bastards with very little loss of American life. Perfect!
Seconded. Inflation sux like an Electrolux, but this ain’t exactly London during the Blitz. Every sixty seconds, a minute passes in Iran!
Also, my hunch is the insurance companies who won’t insure ships that have had no major problems (and were handsomely compensated all these years for the increased risk of Iranian attacks) is more a deliberate intent to Stop Trump than any prudent business decision.
One question; why doesn’t the US simply step in and insure the tankers temporarily?
Agreed. The London based insurance industry is in alignement with the british and American left, and more than happy to try and influence people against Trump.
I do not have an answer to the insurance question. I suspect there is no authority to insure foreign tankers destined for someplace other than the USA. Of course, the feckless europeans might do so with tankers headed to europe…
Bu then, that might help Trump, so nooooo.
Can I ask how truckers survived basically 4 years of Biteme’s higher than this prices?
Damn good question
Dupe comment
Can you sideline your truck instead of selling it?
This is exactly how investors who have a long term view get assets cheap.
Not and continue making the mortgage on the place I’m currently living in, no. Not to even mention paying the insurance on the truck, the taxes and fees (several thousand a year, no less), etc. Which is why I’m already looking for someplace else to live. All just more anti-Trump “whining,” I suppose.
And yet you’ll be soooo shocked when, after rupturing the economy and destoying hundreds of thousands of lives and livelihoods by refusing to finish the job in Iran, the Repukes will get their heads handed to ’em in 2028. How odd.
Hey it’s not like we don’t have sympathy.
But Diesel was far higher at its peak under Biteme and averaged for several years well higher than this.
Why is it suddenly a killer at lower levels and how did they make it through essentially 3 YEARS of way higher diesel prices than we’ve seen for 3 MONTHS?
And why haven’t freight rates risem as a result?
And why haven’t freight rates risem as a result?
Basically, there’s hardly any freight coming in in the first place, meaning that, unlike a few years ago, the amount of work one could get is no longer enough to offset the fuel expense for the guys hauling containers out of the Charleston and/or Savannah seaports.
Plus, in my brother’s case, the rise in fuel costs in the Biden era ate up the nest egg he maintained to help deal with road emergencies, which invariably involve thousands of dollars in towing expenses, parts, repairs, etc.
Having spent 27 years in the biz myself (my brother is the one who taught me how to drive an 18-wheeler and enabled me to get my class A license, by the by), I can tell you for absolute certain that, as the central government’s meddlesome grip on the trucking industry has grown stronger, the ability to actually eke out a living as an owner/operator has proportionately shriveled. And since, as the saying goes, “if you have it, a truck brought it” is by no means hyperbole nowadays, it’s only a matter of time before the effects of the bad economy for truckers start to ripple through the entire thing.
Which brings us all right back around to my central “whine” in this post: if Trump didn’t intend to finish what he started in Iran then yes, he definitely should never have gone in at all. We’d all have been better off; just because the overall economy hasn’t yet begun to feel the knock-on effects of dicking around sitting on our thumbs in Pock-ee-stawn waiting to “negotiate” with people who have no interest in negotiating in the first damned place doesn’t necessarily mean that it ain’t ever going to. We have to hope not, but as they say in the military, hope is not a strategy.
” if Trump didn’t intend to finish what he started ”
Mike, what business has Trump failed to finish in the past? Political realities do not always allow one to proceed in the way considered to be the best, but I see no reason to think Trump is backing off here. He is simply using the full array of war making in this context, and economic warfare is working. Iran isn’t sinking ships, the ships are not getting through because of fear. That level of fear is gettng nuked as we speak, OPEC is being brought to it’s knee’s and the straight will be moving normally very soon. It takes time.
The result is going to be the lowest fuel prices in history and I belive we will see that occur by the end of the year, or shortly into the next.
Truck tonnage is not really down since Trump took office nor since the beginning of the current “war” against the terroranians. It is off it’s peak from 3 years back or so, but currently increasing.
None of that helps if your personal situation is bad, I get that.
https://ycharts.com/indicators/us_truck_tonnage_index
Well, now I’m just all twisted up inside. It’s easy to talk tough when your own ass isn’t a casualty.
The other day, President Trump spoke to the effect of, “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situations… Iran can’t have a nuclear weapon.” If we stipulate that Trump loves the American people and wants us to be happy, then we shouldn’t take this to heart. Trump said it so the Iranians would hear it, and so would anyone inclined to truck with the enemy. It’s wartime. Diplomacy. Leadership.
For all I know, Trump is taking the surest, shortest route to victory in Iran. People keep calling on him to end it. End what, exactly? End our stockpiles of smart bombs? End our policy of not putting boots on the ground? End our geopolitical reach in other strategic places?
It’s possible that the current impasse is the best position we could be in right now, and every other timeline ends in nuclear terrorism or a boots-in quagmire. That being the case, we should be very grateful to have bold, strategic, traditional diplomacy from a White House aligned with American interests.
It’s also possible that Trump will reign down hellfire on Iran and totally decimate all their bridges. I really, really worry when he talks like that.
Trump said…
Trump said…