Act in haste (propelled by Israel?), repent at leisure . . . It is more than a little careless for Trump to hurl the Middle East into chaos without first filling up the US strategic petroleum reserve.  . . The war threatens to set off the worst oil supply crisis of the modern age, outstripping even the Arab oil embargo of 1973 or the first Gulf War in 1990.  Energy markets will force Trump to end his reckless war very soon. The president promised to fill the US strategic petroleum reserve ‘right to the top’ when he took office. He didn’t. . . It is astonishing that Trump precipitated this energy crisis so badly prepared at home. [Is it really?]. . . . For the 80% of the global population living in countries that depend on net oil and gas imports, this wild episode is an unanswerable reminder of why it is folly to rely on a costly and technologically obsolete source of energy from the least stable region of the world. China will accelerate its push for renewable and nuclear power and the total electrification of land transport. So will much of Asia. So will most of Europe, since it does not wish to depend on Trump’s LNG for a moment longer than it has to. The biggest casualty of all is going to be the global oil and gas industry. [Of course, this has been obvious for years. Possibly decades. Hence the stupidity of turning away from nuclear power. There will be a volte-face now, for sure.]

Nothing new under the US sun . . . America First and Nativism. When it began, how it developed and where it is now.

• Podcast
• Video

John Bolton on how Trump operates. Or doesn’t. Who’d have guessed . . Trump prefers talking to listening. 

• Podcast
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Quotes

Doublespeak from a Republican politico: It’s not a war. It’s a special operation. We haven’t declared war. Iran declared war on us. [Which to normal folk would mean you are now involved in a war, not just a special operation. Given the situation in Ukraine, one is compelled to ask: How long does it take for a special operation to turn into a war. 4 years? 4 days?]

Trump: I love Europe. My mother was born in Britain and my father was born in Germany. [He was actually born in the USA].