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I have nothing to add to the first part of the above headline, other than:
What could go wrong?
As to “MAGA-Land’s “You don’t want to lose half your audience” phenomenon has reached its apotheosis with the Iran War!!!”…..
In the below audio message, as regards Bannon, no, he and his cohosts and guests have not suddenly gotten smart.
They all want unicorns—sorry, I mean, Federal immigration police—at the voting sites this November. That is their Holy Grail at present. Some of them even want the army to take over. They are all floating out in space, some flavor of Bolshevik freakazoid (remember I called this out even at the end of 2024), not speaking to anything that normies can relate to.
And yet, they are smart enough to realize that it’s all gone south, and the problem is Caligula.
They have not slid their heads up his rear passage, as Bongino has done, just to get on (or to get back on) Fox News. They maintain just a little distance. If the ship goes down, they want to be close to the lifeboats, able to hitch their Careers of Bloviation to some other savior.
So, what have they been talking about lately?
Well, this month, to the maximum extent possible, about “Iranian sleeper cells” and other deflection nonsense that no one is going to argue with them about, because yeah, sure, if sleeper cells exist, then, they are bad.
Of course, they won’t ask WHY these sleeper cells have not been deported over the last 14 months, hahaha. Again, deflection.
No, Bannon and his cohosts and guests are not excited for the war, but they are very careful to subtly portray Caligula as a bystander, or as barely there (same as how Russian media portray Putin), warning of the risks and downsides while never, ever directly criticizing Caligula’s decisions, words, or actions.
And then Caligula briefly glances at their shows/podcasts and Twitters, and sees that he’s not being criticized at all, and he figures he is still golden.
NOT a constructive feedback loop!
Folks, the reason that regular unleaded gasoline has spiked by a dollar per gallon in the last four weeks, is because too many people still “do not want to lose half their audience.”
I have been talking about this for a while, and nothing has changed.
I even find tacit understanding from three “conservatives” or “rightwingers” whom I know well, who agree with this take, and in fact, with most of my takes, but still cannot bring themselves to ever vocalize or verbalize any sharp (direct, personal, non-equivocating) criticism of Caligula, IF any hint of criticism at all, as they would have done (and DID!!!) for even a fraction of much of the same crap coming out of Democrat governments.
They all have their own unique ways of tiptoeing around it, but ultimately, they are all the same.
And if millions of the mice are still censoring themselves “so as not to sabotage the tribe, not to give the shitlibs an inch, because there’s no one yet who can replace Caligula”… and putting up with total pap in their preferred corners of the infosphere…..
Then, what can you expect of a big cat such as Bannon?
OF COURSE, some of these types whom you probably know, are among that “half of the audience” which would be lost. Because EVEN IF they are capable of thinking, they remain addicts in need of a daily rah-rah fix of tribal belonging. Otherwise, sayonara! They may find someone else. After all, not all of them are “Joe Rogan conservatives” with some “tolerance threshold.”
And this is not mere philosophical psycho-babble, AS IT DIRECTLY IMPACTS U.S. GOVERNMENT POLICY, AND IN FACT, AS IS NOW QUITE CLEAR, ALL OF HUMANITY!!!
Folks, I find new ways to say it… and new ways to say it… depending on what’s in the news. Here and below is another one.
Please listen, below.
(Audio file duration: 5:24.)
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Regarding the Ukrainian strikes against Russian oil export facilities:
How badly could this impact Russian oil revenues and Russian state finances given the much higher oil price?
I would not worry about it. The pattern is, there is some surprise attack, then mitigation to avoid such damage in the future, then some other surprise of some other type.
ALSO, with oil even more short because Russia can’t export so much for a few days, it will only get more expensive, or this will keep the price up, anyway, even if you don’t see the effect directly.
This begs the question:
Why did the Baltic staates/Europe allow/support such a risky action?
Is it merely due to their toxic elite’s Anti-Russia fervor or am I mistaken in believing these attacks to be risky for the Baltics/Europe?
“Allow”? Holy moly. Why would they be asked??? They are irrelevant.
Do you remember Nord Stream?
If you have been sentient since 2022, you should know that the Fourth Reich eventually gets around to doing whatever it can… and then its various patrons will either ignore or excuse those actions, or the USA will step in with a non-public warning such as “Stop attacking this Black Sea oil terminal used by Kazakhstan.”
But otherwise, for the Reich, it’s open season, reminiscent of the saying, “It’s better to ask forgiveness than permission.”
Man, I thought this was all pretty obvious. Glad you are willing to pay me to state the obvious, haha.
Seems I had unterestimated how much of a loose cannon the Ukraine is.
This brings to mind the quote from НашаRussia: “понять и простить”
Even if you had not caught all of the details… After Nord Stream, and four years of Z-Man’s antics, and the nasty games with Hungary and Slovakia, if you have not realized that the YooKrayne is a loose cannon, man, you must really have your head deep in Russian state media. And perhaps the living god Dreizin has failed you.
I actually don’t watch much if any Russian state media and I have completely stopped listening/watching the Resistards (Mercouris, The Duran, etc..)somewhere around the first months of the Israel/Gaza conflict and the Russian Avdiivka offensive.
I had just thought that the Europeans weren’t complete and utter cucks and had at least some minor influence over the Ukraine(enough to prevent such a low yield yet dangerous attack)
Then again only the Europeans would steal Russian shadow fleet ships during an oil crisis.
(To think Caligula was the “rational” one seems quite funny).
I unfortunately don’t remember the Tard’s prayer otherwise I would have written it.
The Euros have some influence (IF they speak with one voice, more or less), but they may or may not care to use it. What’s their incentive? Depending on the issue, there may not be one. In fact, letting Hungary and Slovakia twist in the wind, may be desirable as those governments are a problem.
As for attacks on Russian oil/gas, stopping these should now be top priority, but things are moving so fast, and the EU system is not set up for rapid decisions or actions, and furthermore, can they un-cuck themselves enough to hold up all YooKrayne aid until they can force a change in behavior, when any sanction to the $90 billion loan aid must be agreed to by everyone, while each country provides its own military material aid at its own discretion?
The YooKrayne moves so much faster than these people. The main supervision is from the USA… which is distracted at the moment.
Question for anybody: everybody talks about oil: WTI, Brent, Urals, whatever, but nobody talks about gasoline futures. When the war started (I mean excursion, sorry) the RBOB gasoline April futures contract took off from about $2 and a few days ago it hit $3.40, more than double the January 5th low of $1.60. RBOB dropped Monday just like oil, but is still up over 88 percent from the January low, at about $3.03 tonight. I thought gas futures might matter just as much as oil, or more, especially re: gas prices. But I haven’t seen anyone talking about it. Yes? No? Thanks.
It’s likely a combination of geopolitical risks (Iran) and refinery constraints (crack spreads, west-coast refinery shutdowns and summer-blend switching maintenance). That’s about all I’ve got.
Good point. RBOB probably matters more than crude if the question is near-term pump prices, because it’s closer to the actual product people buy. Oil is the feedstock, but gasoline futures capture refining and supply issues as well.
So yes, I’d say it deserves a lot more attention than it gets. Watching oil alone can miss a big part of the story.
How are the russian resistards coping with the fact the Iran got the sanctions removed within 2 or 3 weeks of fighting and it took Russia more time than to win the great patriotic war. Perhaps if Iran spreads its wings it will tell uncle Sam to remove the sanctions from the junior lol. Yes I know Russia is a big winner here regardless of how this war turns out and yes Iran doesnt have to do combat with ukranian zombies but the russians had a hard time coping with Israel’s successes.
Also, things move so fast in the middle east. 2 weeks ago the winners were Israel and Russia. Today Russia and Iran. Is Israel still in the mix? I remember you saying that once USA are out of the picture, the cultural and language ties between Israel and Russia will not be able to be ignored. Israel has no friends but I wonder what the future looks like without America.
I think you are right on Iran. Seems to me that Iran was seen as weak by the empire so it felt emboldened to make war directly and openly seek destruction of the regime. That gave Iran every incentive to grab the empire by the jugular at the Strait (plus whatever else it could do) and not worry about downside risk. It has no incentive to do much else. Especially if you are a leader whom the U.S. seeks to kill.
Paradoxically, Russia is (I think…) intrinsically stronger and has had less incentive and inclination to go for broke in the same way. This is having not been attacked by the U.S. directly and being a full nuclear power. I do wonder too how the various Russian bloggers are rationalizing this though, as well as the Duran and so forth, LOL. Probably better for them to ignore it……?
I think this one is not that had to grasp. The Iranian regime sees this war as existential, after their supreme old fart was killed, together with other top officials. So they have nothing to lose from going berserk, and don’t care much about the population. Russia still has much to lose, and Putin tried to make the war as remote from the Russians’ minds as possible (and failed at that). If the war goes catastrophically for Russia, and by that I mean it will threaten the state’s existence in a very direct and obvious manner, plunging it into civil war, and the lives of the leaders, then MAYBE Putin will agree to sending some drones to hit a NATO base or two, lol.
As for the Russian bloggers and the Duran, as I remember they used to complain that the Russian leadership is too cucked to react more vigorously, but who cares about how a peanut gallery rationalizes anything? Many of them have to satisfy an audience to get their paycheck. You can’t trust (too much) someone whose main income depends on what they are saying. This blog is different because Jacob has no problems in shitting on anyone, or kicking people out of here and, by that, losing some paying customers. This is costly signaling. But I guess I don’t have to tell you that, since you’ve been here for a long time.
This is for sure a pander free zone, LOL. It’s also objective. I suspect that very few of us are sympathetic to the Iranian government (and far more inclined to Israel). But the blog addresses the world as it is not as we might wish it to be.
Great audio, would be better a video stream too so we can see you, our Guru
Indeed. I have lost a few more pounds, I can show myself in public again.
Yeah!!! You rock Jacob