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A part of the problem is that the complicit media and politicians diverts the public's attention and energies away from relevant things like weapons-transfers, monetary flows, technology transfers, intelligence-sharing, foreign lobbying, legal and media cover for child-sex-trafficking and honeypot operations and onto minimally impactful elements like song and dance competitions.

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Interesting. Speaking of propaganda, I'm pretty sure that most Hacker News comments are not funded by AIPAC.

https://www.trackaipac.com/

If they control the mass media narrative as alleged, they're not doing a very good job of it.

plans change… :)

I doubt it was anyone's plan. However it is likely the effect - you can build more wind and solar anywhere. Asia is finding it hard to get oil which means anyplace in Asia that gets power from wind/solar (or coal - but not where the investments will go although there are a number of things like that in play) instead of oil/gas will have no problems. People unable to get gas who see EVs still working will want one - those with money will buy them. People who see EVs stranded too (because the local power is oil/gas) will still be mad - but they will ask what can change, and wind/solar are right there are cheap answers and so they will get it.

Of course the open question is how long will this last? If this situation ends this week (seems unlikely but...) people will go back to what they did before and forget about this until the next oil crisis - just like every other one. However if this drags on a few years expect major changes in energy mix as people find other answers. Either way, wind/solar are cheap and so utilities around the world are looking to get some installed because it is generally a great investment.

"Trump started the war in Iran to make green energy and EVs more desirable" is an actual conspiracy theory that is going around, although, ya, definitely an unintended consequence.

Even at $100 oil is the cheapest it's ever been historically. OPEC nations don't measure inflation in terms of U.S. CPI. They use gold as their benchmark. In 1969 a barrel of oil was worth $400 in today's money. What's incredible is even with the recent price rally, you can still buy oil at $71/barrel if you're willing to wait a few years to get your oil, due to the extreme backwardation of oil futures. That's an 82% discount over the historical norm. Also in real terms oil was worth about $500/barrel in the 2000s.

Its going to get a *lot* worse.

Yeah, any kind of aid (e.g. food or medicine) allows the people you're aiding to spend more on the military if they want. I guess the only way around it is to set limits on someone's military capability and make aid conditional on not crossing these limits.

Because they're the ones that poured water onto the burning pan of oil. Nobody is claiming that they created the problem in its entirety, but they have made it significantly worse this month.

There are vague allegations of Iran being the "leading state sponsor of terror" on one scale, and then Israel openly doing a genocide and starting wars of aggression and assassinating countless civilian and military leaders on the other scale, with a growing number of American bodies as cannon fodder.

It is up to you to decide where justice lies.

And netanyahu funded Hamas, seems like Israel should target him.

and why do we care? we elected “America First” President, not “Isreal First, America who gives a hoot”

I give a lot of the blame to the government of Israel because it seems (according to the Trump administration) there was no real reason to attack except for Israel was going to attack and we would become targets if they did.

High ranking people in Trump's own administration (or at least until very recently) have openly stated Israel was the main reason why we got involved.

Sure seems to me in terms of our current situation, Israel really wanting to get involved in a strike is the but-for cause. At least according to what the Trump administration has stated.

The plans to destabilize Syria and Iran have existed since the Obama administration. Trump is just the hatchet man.

> Nothing this administration ever does is planned.

You are joking, right? Project 2025 has achieved 50% of its goals in record time[0]. Trump disavowed both it and invading Iran, but make no mistake. Both were “the plan”.

[0] https://www.project2025.observer/en

Popularity doesn't matter. The only thing that will remove Trump from office is Jan 20th 2029.

Nixon method of ejection indeed.

He did say he wanted regime change after all

> EU has had a lot of time to recognize the situation they have been in regarding energy.

There is no case of they just needed to pay attention earlier. The problem is known. There is just no good solution. Drastically scaling back energy consumption isn't going to happen any time soon and would harm the economy. So we can choose between Russia, the Middle East and the USA. Best would be of course to reduce fossil use, but that is orthogonal.

Trump? The same Trump that threatened Greenland while the EU is relying on US LNG? Indeed the EU should not rely on US energy.

Trump is completely inconsistent anyway. First he blamed the EU for wanting to continue the Ukraine war. Then he periodically floats lifting Russia sanctions. But if the EU were to lift Russia sanctions, that of course would lead to severe repercussions.

Trump is about economic suppression of the EU.

If you say "nuclear energy". The US has imported Russian uranium to at least 2025.

You could do this whole plan without needing to do the assassination part, as long as you are willing to throw Ukraine under the bus. Conversely, even if the assassination scheme goes exactly as planned, there is no way of guaranteeing that the new Russian leader would be willing to restart gas deliveries until the war in Ukraine has wrapped up. Given that especially the eastern EU countries have absolutely no intention of allowing Ukraine to lose, this seems like a very tall order.

Finally, both Nordstream 1 AND Nordstream 2 still have a gaping holes in them from the bombings so restarting deliveries will probably take several years at least.

All in all, this plan gets only a 2 out of 10 for being impractical, too slow AND depending on factors outside our control. 1 point because it does at least sound spy-ish and proactive.

That could work really well, or it could fail in a humiliating public way and totally confirm+legitimize that regime's paranoia. Huge downsides.

The West is getting very cavalier about murdering the government officials of other countries.

Wouldn't they reciprocate the tactic instead?

A terrible idea, you think the Russians are going to appreciate you killing their leader?

A better idea is to try to get Russia to join the EU and use an open market to exert control over the more extreme behaviors and tendencies in Russia. A lot of Russian behavior is based on paranoia (completely justifiable paranoia when you see the way the US is behaving) so perhaps having them in the European fold will chill them out a bit - obviously this is far fetched but it's at least a way to fix this long term.

Putin is not a mad dictator ruling against everyone’s wishes. He’s a leader of a large establishment elite which shares his views and gets very rich. If you replace Putin, most likely outcome is his replacement will not be very different (and probably worse, since the country will be even more anti-Western after the assassination)

Real life isn't a James Bond movie. The next guy in line is more belligerent than Putin

These "decapitation" strikes can't be much more than narcissistic projection. Trump and Netanyahu are "unilateralists" (de facto dictators) and narcissists, and think everyone else must be as well, ergo decapitation strikes must be successful.

It may have been true in the case of Maduro, but the jury is out (we also "decapitated" Hugo Chavez in the early 2000s but he came roaring back).

It is emphatically not true in the case of Iran, Russia, China, DPRK or any state that has been truly sovereign for a couple generations. These states have deep political power structures that don't rely on the whims of one individual.

I I where the EU, I would send ops teams to assassinate Bibi.

The demand for oil will likely never truly go to zero; too many products (outside of energy generation) rely on their byproducts.

As for the bigger picture — yes, higher prices for oil might spur extraction in regions outside of the middle east, but that's a local only viewpoint. Globally, higher oil prices reduce consumption and make green alternatives more attractive on net.

There are only 2 ways oil goes to 0:

1. We stop using oil because we have better, cheaper alternatives, as you already said. Alternatives are cheaper if they become cheaper, but also if oil becomes more expensive. Higher oil prices may stimulate some oil exploration in the short term in the places that have oil. Everywhere else it's going to cause a scramble to renewable alternatives.

2. We stop using oil because we have technologically regressed to the Middle Ages

I prefer option 1.

> Relax, go outside, touch grass. The sun will rise again.

Yeah, and don't forget, this is all about helping the environment and the Iranian people, freeing them from that pesky and unnecessary for life energy by releasing some much needed smoke. /

That 'touch grass' phrase is interpreted differently outside of America. It is yet another detestable Americanism. Just saying.

Besides, grass is part of the problem, particularly for the arid South West, where these ecological deserts known as lawns, golf courses and landscaping are grass, which is the only plant that grows when the place is covered with RoundUp.

I digress. However, man has a point. It would be easy to say Trump is a clown without a clue or a plan, however, we as I see it, we are switching over from the empire controlling the world with the petro-dollar, to controlling the world with bombs.

The empire can't blockade China directly as that would be an act of war, and the Chinese would have a right to respond with force, sinking all of Uncle Sam's battle ships with hypersonic missiles before you get to touch your beloved and utterly toxic HOA-approved grass.

However, just blow up the entire Middle East and cut the Chinese off from the oil that is needed for their manufacturing requirements. China has a lot of coal, solar and nuclear going on, plus they are best buddies with Putin, but we have a lot of the Russian shadow fleet going up in flames at the moment.

The grand plan has been going on from PNAC and 9/11. Iran is the last one to be ticked off in the Middle East, so you can see it as the finishing line. Iran just has to be destroyed and it seems that Satan and his little Zionist helper have plenty of experience at that.

The EU has been fully Stockholm Syndromed, so there is a true Iron Curtain between Russia and Europe now, only Hungary are allowed some of the good Russian hydrocarbons, Germany and every other country in Europe now has to pay in dollars for American LNG, or Qatari LNG, but that latter option has just gone.

Yes, the sun will rise again. Americans will be touching grass for the 'gram once again. Everything will be fine in the USA, although it won't be petrodollar dominance giving the exorbitant privilege, instead it will be bombs all the way. Note that Cuba is next, and DJT is going to Chy-naaa soonly and bigly. They should arrest him for war crimes, but you know they won't.

Any objectors or rabble rousers will be Charlie Kirked. It will just be another era of terror. This is the normal state of affairs.

Meanwhile, we have crazies in the WH wanting some Biblical End Times outcome to this. They are serious about Jesus coming back, which is not exactly likely, and, even if he did step foot on planet earth again, do you think he would save a single Zionist? As if!

Anyway, we will see if touching grass works out. I mean, in the UK, during the Blitz, people were touching grass all the time. I think the Andy Groves quote applies, 'only the paranoid survive'.

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