frontpage.world: sun oct 11

Well, looking at The New York Times this morning, they have this massive report on the US Senate race in Maine, and that one race could basically decide the control of the entire Senate.

Wow.

But right now, it is hanging entirely on the price of heating oil.

Because temperatures are dropping into the 40s right now, and the cost to fill the standard home heating oil tank has hit $1,650.

Wait, 1,600? That is an 80% spike from just last year.

I mean, think about that for a second.

Yeah, it's brutal.

If you are a voter in Maine, you are suddenly paying nearly double just to keep your house from freezing.

But the wild part is that this has absolutely nothing to do with local economics, right? Or even domestic oil production.

No, not at all.

The mechanism driving this is entirely foreign policy.

So The Times attributes this massive price surge directly to President Trump's conflict with Iran.

Oh, right, because of the shipping lanes.

Exactly.

It has severely clogged a vital global oil shipping corridor.

So you have a bottleneck thousands of miles away, and that means a sudden supply crash in the US Northeast.

It's just crazy how connected it all is.

It is.

You have vulnerable politicians facing an electorate that is literally shivering, furiously checking their bank accounts and, you know, demanding a fix to a macro level geopolitical situation that state politicians have zero control over.

Right.

So to fix that domestic anger ahead of the midterms, we are seeing some incredible maneuvers on the world stage.

Several papers today, uh, Le Monde in France, Italy's Corriere della Sera, and then NYT, they're all reporting that President Trump has struck a, well, a diesel pact with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Yeah, and the specifics of the deal are that Moscow is committing to immediately supply 300,000 tons of Russian diesel to US and global markets.

That's a massive influx.

It is.

Well, looking at The New York Times this morning, they have this massive report on the US Senate race in Maine, and that one race could basically decide the control of the entire Senate.

Wow.

But right now, it is hanging entirely on the price of heating oil.

Because temperatures are dropping into the 40s right now, and the cost to fill the standard home heating oil tank has hit $1,650.

Wait, 1,600? That is an 80% spike from just last year.

I mean, think about that for a second.

Yeah, it's brutal.

If you are a voter in Maine, you are suddenly paying nearly double just to keep your house from freezing.

But the wild part is that this has absolutely nothing to do with local economics, right? Or even domestic oil production.

No, not at all.

The mechanism driving this is entirely foreign policy.

So The Times attributes this massive price surge directly to President Trump's conflict with Iran.

Oh, right, because of the shipping lanes.

Exactly.

It has severely clogged a vital global oil shipping corridor.

So you have a bottleneck thousands of miles away, and that means a sudden supply crash in the US Northeast.

It's just crazy how connected it all is.

It is.

You have vulnerable politicians facing an electorate that is literally shivering, furiously checking their bank accounts and, you know, demanding a fix to a macro level geopolitical situation that state politicians have zero control over.

Right.

So to fix that domestic anger ahead of the midterms, we are seeing some incredible maneuvers on the world stage.

Several papers today, uh, Le Monde in France, Italy's Corriere della Sera, and then NYT, they're all reporting that President Trump has struck a, well, a diesel pact with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Yeah, and the specifics of the deal are that Moscow is committing to immediately supply 300,000 tons of Russian diesel to US and global markets.

That's a massive influx.

It is.