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Sep 9
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Kelly Donivan's avatar

As a librarian, I am always appreciative of a good book list. As a patriotic American, I'm always looking for a good history book. Thank you!

Three Big Lies's avatar

Love these two lists. But a question for you. Why did oil prices spike to $100 a barrel yesterday just because there were a few skirmishes in the straight of Hormuz? I’m hearing that we’re getting between 7 million and 12 million barrels a day through the straight and that there’s 6 to 8, million barrels traveling through other means, and on top of that there’s more oil coming out of the western hemisphere. So why haven’t oil prices stabilized at least around $75? It seems to me like somebody else’s controlling these prices and that somehow we need to get that Control.

Rod D. Martin's avatar

Tankers blowing up gives the market jitters, and also increases maritime risk premiums. It'll come back down.

In the meantime, for all the people who said, "yeah, right: what will Trump really do if you run the blockade," we now have the answer. He'll sink your ship.

Ditto if you attempt to attack an American warship. "Attempt" is all you'll manage, and we'll sink several of yours. Every. Single. Time.

Those are hulls the Iranians can't get back and can't afford to replace, especially while we seal all their ports.

In any case, you're absolutely right about getting control of pricing, something we have lacked since the early 1970s. And that's happening, but it's going to take a minute. Trump is the first president to even try (a bit unfair to Reagan given his deal with the Saudis to crash the price of oil and thus dry up the Soviets' hard currency earnings, but still).

Grant's avatar

Love this. Thanks Rod! I'm sharing with family and friends.

Noah Otte's avatar

A stupendous list of twenty-five more of President Trump's accomplishments while in office! Thank you, Dr. Martin! Joe Biden's presidency was an utter disaster and a total embarrassment for this country. Biden was 78 years old and in cognitive decline when he was elected in 2020 and should NOT have even been allowed to run let alone get elected and serve in office. But it's not just that, Biden's policies were horrendous. Joe Biden tried to set up a government disinformation board, weaponized the DOJ to go after his political enemies, lied about Donald Trump nonstop, lied about Kyle Rittenhouse, abandoned Israel when our best ally in the Middle East needed us most, gave Iran six billion dollars for American hostages (thus incentivizing them to do it again), saber rattled with China over Taiwan, alienated Saudi Arabia, pushed China and Russia closer together, waged all-out war on parents, injected wokeness into every level of the federal government, abused his pardoning power, totally mishandled COVID-19, Build Back Better and the Student Loan Forgiveness Plan both fell flat on their face, ballooned the national deficit, did nothing to stop the crisis on the Southern Border, couldn't find a solution to the record high inflation we were facing, unemployment skyrocketed as he sat on his hands, prices on stuff like gas and groceries went through the roof for consumers while he twiddled his thumbs, he allowed Russia to invade the Donbass with zero pushback, allowed the murder of Laken Riley to happen, allowed terrorist groups to flourish, allowed the Mexican drug cartels to do whatever they wanted, and fired competent military personnel because they wouldn't take an experimental vaccine among other things.

Donald Trump came in and restored America and cleaned up Biden's mess. He restored American patriotism, successfully hosted the 2026 FIFA World Cup, reformed our military and achieved record recruitment levels, secured the Southern Border, deported over three million illegal immigrants, negotiated eight peace treaties, wrote the Gaza Peace Plan, stood by Israel all the way in the Gaza War, brought home the remaining Israeli hostages, took over the Kennedy Center and did away with all the woke garbage they were doing, reviewed American history museums for balance, forced NATO members to rearm and spend more on defense, destroyed Iran's nuclear facilities, bombed the Houthis in Yemen into oblivion and got them to surrender, negotiated a historic trade deal with Europe, cut down Fentanyl deaths significantly, fed millions in Gaza with the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation, brought crime way down in Washington D.C., made Columbus Day a national holiday, saved taxpayers fifty billion dollars with the DOGE, killed Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, killed El Mencho, started the MAHA initiative, initiated the building of the Golden Dome, sent man back to the moon, banned DEI, banned the barbaric and inhumane practice of gender-affirming care for minors, protected women's sports, made sure TSA workers got paid during the recent government shutdown, and revived and modernized the Monroe Doctrine to keep the Russians, Chinese and Iranians out of the Western Hemisphere among many other things. I'm an independent moderate who votes not based on party or ideology but based on merit. I've always voted for a mix of Democrats and Republicans. I vote for who I think is the best person for the job. Between Trump and Kamala Harris there was no comparison. Trump had plan and stood for something. Kamala had no plan and stood for nothing. Trump offered hope, change and a better future for America. Kamala offered more of the same we got from Biden. Trump was genuine and a great campaigner, Kamala was fake and a horrific campaigner.

I knew right away who I was going to vote for and who I had to vote for. None of this is to say I don't have my criticisms of the Trump administration or strongly disagree with some of his policies. But he is a competent commander-in-chief for this country who has gotten stuff done, while Biden was totally incompetent and left us in a state of paralysis. If Republicans want to win the midterms they need to get educated on his accomplishments and sell them to the American people. The Democrats will be easy as pie to beat if only they would do this. The Democratic Party is a trainwreck right now. They've been captured by the DSA who want to turn America into Red China. They're running people like Angie Nixon, Abdul El-Sayed, Francesca Hong, and others. If the Democrats win, it'd be because the GOP allowed them to. On another note, Byron Donalds will be excellent Governor of Florida when he's elected. He wiped the floor with anti-Semite, racist and groyper James Fishback in the Republican primaries. In the special Senate race in the Sunshine State, I expect Ashley Moody will destroy Nixon. I think Mike Rogers has a good chance to win against El-Sayed in Michigan. Don't you miss the days of a sane Democratic Party? Don't you miss respectable Democrats like Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Henry A. Wallace, Hubert Humphrey, Lyndon B. Johnson, the Kennedy Brothers, Stuart Symington, Adlai Stevenson, Birch Bayh, Edmund Muskie, George McGovern, Pat Brown, Averrill Harriman, Mario Cuomo, Ed Koch, Harold Washington, Barbara Boxer, Tom Daschle, Harold Ford Jr., John Kerry, Al Gore, Michael Dukakis, Walter Mondale, and Tom Harkin? Man, those were the days huh? Thomas Jefferson, Andrew Jackson, James K. Polk, and Grover Cleveland would be absolutely dumbfounded and gob smacked by the modern-day Democratic Party! At this point, the Democrats could run God as their candidate for President, and they'd find a way to totally screw it up!

c Anderson's avatar

Dan Bongino praised the first list on his podcast, and I’m sure that he is going to love this list even more.

Michael G. Venaccio's avatar

Look no further than the quarterly profits of the oil companies to find out where the manipulation of the oil prices are coming from. When the profits for the second quarter of 2026 are nearly double of what they were in 2025 the oil companies are using the Iran issue to raise their prices as much as they can and then blame it on Mr. Trump.

Do not mind companies making a fair return on their investments, but this is predatory pricing, profiteering in time of conflict, excessive greed, gouging, whatever you wish to call it. No one in congress wants to hold them accountable since the congresspeople are beholden to the oil companies for the campaign contributions they receive.

The greed factor probably accounts for 75-80% of the price increases.

Rod D. Martin's avatar

Actually, the reason gas prices are high is because we haven't built a refinery in this country since 1977, even while we added 100 million people.

As a result, refining is a needless bottleneck and gasoline is increasingly untethered from actual crude fluctuations. The price can easily go up, but can't as easily come down.

This is a construction problem, not an oil company problem or a Trump problem. Decades of increasingly stupid "environmental" regulation is the cause. Trump is getting rid of the needless parts of that too.

Michael G. Venaccio's avatar

True enough, but look at the quarterlies and tell me the oil companies are not using the Iran situation to raise prices as much as they can. But you are correct in what you say about the lack of refining capacity.

Have a great week.

Rod D. Martin's avatar

I think if that were true, we'd have the $250 oil that the entire media told us we were certain to have back in March.