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How much will gas prices rise before Trump backs down? His only other alternative is to put boots on the ground to open the Gulf of Hormuz, which will result in enormous American casualties and is unlikely to succeed in the short term.
He took credit for the lower gas prices. Will he take credit now that they’re jumping back up? Three weeks ago, regular gas here in AZ was $2.99. Yesterday it jumped to $4.15.
5.19 in my part of California. It will continue to get worse unless the bombing stops. Maybe Trump will try to get gas out of Venezuela. I feel like he is trying to establish his own evil empire.
Linn, it will take years to get the infrastructure in shape to export any appreciable amount of oil from Venezuela. What he got from them so far is all they have and its a drop in the bucket of American oil consumption.
Like it or not, God put Persia along the Gulf of Hormuz, and gave all that crude that almost bubbles to the surface purified to the majority Muslim countries, not the Europeans, American, or Israelis. “Call me Ishmael.”
Robert F -I was trying to be sarcastic when I mentioned Venezuela. Their petroleum production was already severely curtailed when I lived in Colombia from 1985-1992. In 1992 Hugo Chavez also staged his first coup attempt before finally being elected president of Venezuela. Fun times in Colombia. I actually loved it there, but I had to come home due to a family issue, and then my mission group pulled out because it got too dangerous.
If Trump orders a large scale invasion of Iran the slaughter of American soldiers will be enormous. The Iranian authorities and military have been planning for decades for the eventuality of just such an invasion. It would make Vietnam look like a picnic by comparison. Yet this man who was a draft dodger multiple times in his youth has the power to order such an invasion to happen. The gods are crazy.
What happened to the moral outrage and defending of the weak?
The oppressed Iranian and Venezuela peoples, with who knows how many killed, murdered and jailed by their evil leaders and ideology.
And unless anybody forgets, Ukraine! The cry was stay the course no matter what the cost or time it takes to defeat Putin.
And now we are back to our pocket books and the price of gasoline, not to mention our 401ks and retirement accounts.
I think I heard Trump say there would be a price to this battle, but I could be wrong.
I do know this one thing, I’m along for the ride no matter where it ends up.
TH,
This war will not lead to a better situation for the Iranian people. Trump is not even interested in that; he just wants the new dictator to be his dictator, just as in Venezuela. No regime change, just change of loyalty. As far as a price to this war, it will cost Trump and his billionaire friends nothing.
Sadly, the American people care about the price of gasoline more than the lives of Iranians, Venezuelans, and Ukrainians all put together. They care more about the economy than decency in the conduct of foreign affairs or the health of their own democracy. The only thing that might reorder their priorities is if large numbers of American soldiers start coming back from Iran in body bags, and Trump might be just the person to make that happen. Until then, the price of gasoline is topmost in the American mind.
TH,
And, as far as I can see, no one in the comments was complaining about the price of gasoline; they were noting that Trump took ownership of the economy a while ago, however much he still blames Biden for the things that are wrong with it, and claimed as a major victory in the lower price of gasoline. Well, that victory was evaporated, and we all know he will refuse ownership of the current price of gasoline as a defeat.
A statement by the Archdiocese of Chicago regarding the United State’s war against Iran, with which I concur, except that I don’t know that the American people are better than this– I’m afraid that a large percentage, and maybe even a majority, of the American people are fine with war as entertainment and the administration’s packaging of it as such:https://www.archchicago.org/statement/-/article/2026/03/08/statement-of-blase-j-cupich-archbishop-of-chicago-a-call-to-conscience
Robert F
The implication in this thread was about the high gasoline prices, yes no one likes them.
But again, where is the moral outrage about the oppressed peoples across the region and the world? And the outright evil in the men who teach and reward such!
I think hatred too often leads the way and rather is called righteousness to defend our inner being.
BTW, I believe there are no wars which can be called “just,” however justice can be accomplished in war. Good thing I am not the Judge.
TH,
Again, the comments on this thread were about whether Trump would be quick to take responsibility about high gasoline prices as he was quick to take credit for low ones, and how much the prices would have to go up before he would back down.
I disagree with your analysis of the nature and causes of the current war of aggression being waged by the U.S. I don’t see how we can discuss it further since we disagree about the facts involved.
Robert F
“I don’t see how we can discuss it further since we disagree about the facts involved.”
I’m not nor have been discussing “the facts involved.” I am just commenting on what I observe about the posts here.
What I do see again and again is a hatred for Trump and how this hatred overrides all other subjects/topics at hand. Personally I see such hatred as extremely unhealthy in many ways and only brings misery and despair to the person.
And just to bring clarity to your statement, “I disagree with your analysis of the nature and causes of the current war of aggression being waged by the U.S. ” You are incorrect, I never made any analysis of the nature and causes of these attacks. You have made the implication that I have done such.
Moving on.
Imagine living in the world we live in right now and thinking that the people who hate Donald Trump are the ones who have something wrong with them 🤣
In one of your comments above there is an implied assumption that the U.S. at the direction of Trump is currently in some way trying to free the people of Iran by the prosecution of this war: “What happened to the moral outrage and defending of the weak?….The oppressed Iranian and Venezuela peoples, with who knows how many killed, murdered and jailed by their evil leaders and ideology.” If that is your position, I adamantly disagree with your understanding of the prosecution of this war. Trump and the U.S. are in no way trying to liberate the people of Iran from tyranny.
I for one don’t hate Trump, anymore than I hated Saddam Husein or Osama bin Laden; I just want to see him removed from power and made accountable for his crimes against the people of the U.S and humanity.
The thing we’re doing right now, is seeing how thin a veneer they can put on atrocity and manage to get buy in from the American people. If you are bought in at this point, you have joined at “you had me at massacring people in the Middle East, but give me a little bit of plausible deniability.”
Robert F – I get it, we don’t “hate” people, but also there is no holding him accountable. It won’t happen and watching daily as the lawlessness seeps deeper and deeper into our society, all you can really do is open up a thesaurus to pretty words that maybe don’t quite mean that… or just grow numb to it.
“What I do see again and again is a hatred for Trump and how this hatred overrides all other subjects/topics at hand.“
I am not seeing this. What I see is deep concern for our country who’s President who is under the influence of a false theology of Christian Nationalism and the repercussions that come with it.
“James Talarico Is a Christian X-Ray”
by David French, NY Times
Talarico isn’t just making arguments. He’s giving people hope, and I think I know why.
Put simply, if the primary American divide is between right and left, then Talarico isn’t that interesting. There’s a long history of progressive religious activism in the United States, just as there is a long history of conservative religious activism.
White evangelicals might be overwhelmingly Republican, but American Christians are remarkably diverse politically, and we’ve been arguing with one another for a long time.
Yet if the primary American divide is between decent and indecent, then the equation changes. Talarico shines.
if the primary American divide is between decent and indecent, then the equation changes. Talarico shines.
Or, to put it another way, Talarico is one of the few openly Christian politicians in the United States who acts like a Christian, and by acting like a Christian he reveals a profound contrast with so many members of the MAGA Christian movement that’s dominated American political life for 10 years.
For too long we’ve evaluated Christians in politics primarily through their policy positions. Are you pro-life or pro-choice? Do you support same-sex marriage? What’s your position on immigration enforcement? Yet this is exactly backward.
If you were to crack open Scripture today and start reading, one of the first things you should notice is that the Bible contains remarkably few political mandates. You can read it from cover to cover and not know the definitive biblical tax rate, welfare program or foreign policy.
But the next thing you’ll notice is that there is an immense amount of guidance describing how Christians should behave. Indeed, in the book of Galatians, the Apostle Paul says that the fruit of the spirit is a set of virtues — “love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.”
Absent from that list is a single theological or ideological proposition.”
The American people do not want war.