News To Ponder About (If You Can Get Past Donald Trump)

Today one of those articles that was designed to make for long-term pondering was printed in The Wall Street Journal.  Saudi Arabia and the price of oil on the world market is more than just about the price of gas at the local station.  This is world economics and geo-political nuts and bolts that impacts everything we read about on a daily basis.  The impact of any decision that does or does not get made to stabilize oil prices is stuff we need to be talking about in the presidential elections.

On Monday, Iran, another OPEC member, said it would welcome an emergency meeting of the group, even as it restated vows to boost its own production as soon as international sanctions are lifted, possibly later this year.

Those calls are aimed directly at Saudi Arabia, the only country capable of leading an effort to restrain production. Even Saudi Arabia’s short-term fortunes are taking a beating. The country is now expected to run a budget deficit as large as $150 billion, or about 20% of its gross domestic product, this year, compared with only 3% last year, according to the International Monetary Fund.

Saudi Arabia’s determination to keep pumping away had largely been focused on how the resulting lower prices would whittle away at supply as higher-cost projects are delayed and canceled. That is happening, though far less quickly than many predicted.

But the other pillar of the Saudi strategy is that demand would increase steadily in response to lower prices. That, so far, has been taken almost for granted. The International Energy Agency this month said total demand accelerated almost sixfold from the first half of last year to the same period this year, as the global economy expanded and consumers used more of the cheaper fuel.

The world’s largest exporter of oil accelerated a decline of crude prices last November when it decided to aggressively pump even more oil into an already oversupplied market. That set off a global production race, further expanding supply and filling storage tanks around the world.

The strategy was deliberate: Scramble for market share now, so when supply tapers off later as high-cost producers cry uncle the kingdom, and any others left standing, reap the rewards of increasing demand. The problem now: Demand, at least in the world’s biggest consumer of oil, China, may not increase anywhere near as fast as expected.

The New York Times Obit For Osama Bin Laden

On days like this we turn to the newspapers for obituaries that are written of the ones who have shaped the world for good or evil.  This is a day for newspapers akin to the times when the death of Stalin or Hitler were announced.  There is no where else that so many words of this nature can be shared than within the pages of a newspaper.  Radio and television can talk endlessly about the death of Osama bin Laden, but it is only the long-form spaces of the printed page where an obit of the type The New York Times penned can be printed.

On days like this we understand better why newspapers still matter in our world.

 I do not have a word count on this obit, but word counts of New York Times obits amuse me.

From the lengthy obit of Osama bin Laden I ripped a few paragraphs.

Long before, he had become a hero in much of the Islamic world, as much a myth as a man — what a longtime C.I.A. officer called “the North Star” of global terrorism. He had united disparate militant groups, from Egypt to Chechnya, from Yemen to the Philippines, under the banner of Al Qaeda and his ideal of a borderless brotherhood of radical Islam.

Terrorism before Bin Laden was often state-sponsored, but he was a terrorist who had sponsored a state. For five years, 1996 to 2001, he paid for the protection of the Taliban, then the rulers of Afghanistan. He bought the time and the freedom to make Al Qaeda — which means “the base” — a multinational enterprise to export terror around the globe.

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Bin Laden began traveling beyond the border into Afghanistan in 1982, bringing with him construction machinery and recruits. In 1984, he and Mr. Azzam began setting up guesthouses in Peshawar, which served as the first stop for holy warriors on their way to Afghanistan. With the money they had raised in Saudi Arabia, they established the Office of Services, which branched out across the world to recruit young jihadists.

The men came to be known as the Afghan Arabs, though they came from all over the world, and their numbers were estimated as high as 20,000. By 1986, Bin Laden had begun setting up training camps for them as well, and he was paying roughly $25,000 a month to subsidize them.

To young would-be recruits across the Arab world, Bin Laden’s was an attractive story: the rich young man who had become a warrior. His own descriptions of the battles he had seen, how he lost the fear of death and slept in the face of artillery fire, were brushstrokes of an almost divine figure.

But intelligence sources insist that Bin Laden actually saw combat only once, in a weeklong barrage by the Soviets at Jaji, where the Arab Afghans had dug themselves into caves using Bin Laden’s construction equipment.

“Afghanistan, the jihad, was one terrific photo op for a lot of people,” Milton Bearden, the C.I.A. officer who described Bin Laden as “the North Star,” said in an interview on “Frontline,” adding, “There’s a lot of fiction in there.”

Donald Trump Is Dangerous, Unstable, Wants To Take Over Middle East Oil Fields With Military Force

If this story does not make you embarrassed to be an American tonight….

I stated last night that Donald Trump is not prepared to be President of the United States.

I offer this as Exhibit 1…2…and 3 to make my case.

I am sure that if we followed the outrageous proposal offered by Donald Trump the nations in question would greet us as liberators…right?!!

Let us understand one thing before we go further.

There is a sick perception within the minds of people like Trump that America somehow is at the center of the world, and whatever is good for us should be fine for everyone else.  Well NUTS to that!

We do not own the oil fields, and if those nations want to ratchet the price up to the heavens, so be it.  That the oil-producing nations have no interest in world-wide economic decline means they also have no desire to make the price of oil beyond the world’s ability to purchase.    OPEC is not crazy, or out-of-line.  They are no different from the corporate types that Republicans love to defend in America. 

America has had more than one chance to make a serious move away from oil but chose each time to duck the hard choices and take the easy route.  Now things are getting more dicey and Trump wants to take over oil field in the Middle East.

Trump tries to somehow make it seem the oil fields would just be in America’s hands by magic.  There is no way the oil fields could be taken and safeguarded without U.S. military force, and Trump knows that. 

There is no way to paint this whole story as anything but a very sick attempt at making a headline for Donald Trump.

I had a feisty 35 minute sit-down with Donald Trump today in which he dug in on the “birther” controversy, answered Club for Growth’s charge that he is a “liberal,” talked about a possible independent run and answered your questions.

But we began with his get tough approach on gas prices:

Trump: Look at what’s going on with your gasoline prices. They’re going to go to $5, $6, $7 and we don’t have anybody in Washington that calls OPEC and says, “Fellas, it’s time.  It’s over.  You’re not going to do it anymore.”  I don’t know if you saw yesterday, Saudi Arabia came out and said very strongly there’s plenty of oil.  “We’re going to cut back.”  You know what cutting back means?  They’re going to drive up the price even further.

Stephanopoulos: So, what would you do to back up that threat?

Trump: Oh, it’s so easy George.  It’s so easy.  It’s all about the messenger.  They wouldn’t even be there if it wasn’t for us.  If it weren’t for us, they wouldn’t be there.  These 12 guys sit around a table and they say, “Let’s just screw the United States.”  And frankly, the rest of the world.
…
Stephanopoulos: And so finish this sentence.  “If you don’t produce more oil…”

Trump: Look. I’m going to look ‘em in the eye and say, “Fellas, you’ve had your fun.  Your fun is over.”

…
Stephanopoulos: So, you would threaten to take away that [security] protection?

Trump: Oh, absolutely.  Absolutely.  Let’s– let me tell you something.  Oil prices might go down.  Because there’s plenty of oil, all over the world.  Ships at sea.  They don’t know where to dump it.  I saw a report yesterday.  There’s so much oil, all over the world, they don’t know where to dump it.  And Saudi Arabia says, “Oh, there’s too much oil.”  They– they came back yesterday.  Did you see the report?  They want to reduce oil production.  Do you think they’re our friends?  They’re not our friends.

And Trump was even more specific on what he would do with the Iraq oil fields: seize them.

Trump: George, let me explain something to you.  We go into Iraq.  We have spent thus far, $1.5 trillion.  We could have rebuilt half of the United States.  $1.5 trillion.  And we’re going to then leave.  So, in the old days, you know when you had a war, to the victor belong the spoils.  You go in.  You win the war and you take it.
…
Stephanopoulos: It would take hundreds of thousands of troops to secure the oil fields.

Trump: Excuse me.  No, it wouldn’t at all.
…
Stephanopoulos: So, we steal an oil field?

Trump: Excuse me.  You’re not stealing.  Excuse me.  You’re not stealing anything.  You’re taking– we’re reimbursing ourselves– at least, at a minimum, and I say more.  We’re taking back $1.5 trillion to reimburse ourselves

Don’t Blame OPEC, Blame Americans

There seems to be gathering disgust against OPEC for the rising price of oil.   As the barrel price nears $100, gas pumps reflect the climb.  Soon the cost of other products that rely on oil and its byproducts will also follow suit.

That there is growing resentment against the oil-producing nations that make up OPEC is not justified.  That Americans have been content to allow for no new innovative means to replace our reliance on oil should be the focus of the ire that it now percolating.  If we want to find someone to grouse about when it comes to the effect oil prices have on this nation take a look in the mirror.

We are all responsible.

For too long American lawmakers of both parties have not engaged the energy issues in the manner they need to be addressed.  Voters have to share the blame as we did not force lawmakers to find solutions, and sadly were in no mood to be inconvenienced with new ideas or higher taxes. 

The solution lies not in opening the arctic for careless large business interests, or planting ever more environmental disasters in the  form of oil rigs in the Gulf Of Mexico.  To pretend that there is not a limited supply of oil, or that the whole idea of replacing our reliance on oil can be stalled for another decade or so is pure folly.

To pretend in that fashion only pushes the day of reckoning further down the road.  That thinking is why once again there is a growing level of angst against OPEC as oil prices climb.

Instead we need to break the mold of old thinking and aim for new means of transportation, seek better and more efficient motors in cars, demand higher standards from auto makers, and help create a new way of thinking about social needs.

Instead of buying fuel-efficient cars the idea of bigger and more costly SUV type of sales lured customers to auto dealers for years.    At the same time there was no real incentive from Washington to force car makers to increase mpg in any meaningful way.  Instead of fostering high-speed and commuter trains short-sighted political interests worked feverishly to undermine new modes of transportation.

So as oil prices surge on the open market, and economic growth creates more demand for oil making even more pressure for higher prices, think about what we might have done in America over the past decades to blunt OPEC.

The problem is not OPEC.

The problem lies at what reflects back from your mirror each morning.

Saudi Arabia Making Profit From ‘House Of God’

This is why newspapers matter.  Stories likes this are not found on the CBS Evening News.

By far the best story in this morning’s paper is the article on Mecca.   It is a fascinating read, and I suggest the whole story.

It is an architectural absurdity. Just south of the Grand Mosque in Mecca, the Muslim world’s holiest site, a kitsch rendition of London’s Big Ben is nearing completion. Called the Royal Mecca Clock Tower, it will be one of the tallest buildings in the world, the centerpiece of a complex that is housing a gargantuan shopping mall, an 800-room hotel and a prayer hall for several thousand people. Its muscular form, an unabashed knockoff of the original, blown up to a grotesque scale, will be decorated with Arabic inscriptions and topped by a crescent-shape spire in what feels like a cynical nod to Islam’s architectural past. To make room for it, the Saudi government bulldozed an 18th-century Ottoman fortress and the hill it stood on.

The Royal Mecca Clock Tower and a half-dozen luxury high-rises are being built, and more land has been cleared for development in the Saudi city; some critics see this as a capitalist makeover. More Photos »

 

The tower is just one of many construction projects in the very center of Mecca, from train lines to numerous luxury high-rises and hotels and a huge expansion of the Grand Mosque. The historic core of Mecca is being reshaped in ways that many here find appalling, sparking unusually heated criticism of the authoritarian Saudi government.

It is the commercialization of the house of God,” said Sami Angawi, a Saudi architect who founded a research center that studies urban planning issues surrounding the hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, and has been one of the development’s most vocal critics. “The closer to the mosque, the more expensive the apartments. In the most expensive towers, you can pay millions” for a 25-year leasing agreement, he said. “If you can see the mosque, you pay triple.”

Saudi officials say that the construction boom — and the demolition that comes with it — is necessary to accommodate the ever-growing numbers of people who make the pilgrimage to Mecca, a figure that has risen to almost three million this past year. As a non-Muslim, I was not permitted to visit the city, but many Muslims I spoke to who know it well — including architects, preservationists and even some government officials — believe the real motive behind these plans is money: the desire to profit from some of the most valuable real estate in the world. And, they add, it has been facilitated by Saudi Arabia’s especially strict interpretation of Islam, which regards much history after the age of Muhammad, and the artifacts it produced, as corrupt, meaning that centuries-old buildings can be destroyed with impunity.