And whatever he does always somehow ends up helping Russia.

They were struggling with gas prices being low and sanctions.

Now he removed sanctions and blocked any other source of oil.

You seem to be under the mistaken impression that Trump wants this blockade and war to end. If that were the case, why would he have started it? The fact that we are stuck here is entirely the point. Do you REALLY think its an accident that the fourth largest producer of oil in the world accidentally started a war that simultaneously raised the price of oil AND blockaded the top three oil producers on earth?

Unless he's working for our enemies.

The goal is to put the US in disarray so that he can declare it's too dangerous to have elections this November.

You think it's a mistake? This was done on purpose. Trump may be stupid, but the people pulling the strings aren't.

That's what happens when you assume you're always smarter than those so-called "experts". You just take whatever they say is a good idea, and do the opposite. Works every time.

And then factor in Venezuela….

Yeah it doesn’t take a conspiracy theorist to see what’s happening.

The US imports raw oil and exports refined oil. The US has great interest in keeping raw oil prices low. This isn't 5d chess, our leaders are genuinely incompetent.

The United States is also the world's biggest market for trade. All trade depends on oil for transport and energy, directly or indirectly. Oil profits will be high but every other industry will suffer. The balance of winners and losers will be what's known as a recession.

Was this war so hastily planned that this was overlooked?

Planned isn't the term that I think should be applied to what the US is doing. Iran has been planning how to make an attack on their land as painful for the world as possible for a long time. They know their military can't compete, so they utilize strategy to make an outsized impact. There is no "mine facility" to bomb, they have thousands of mines in decentralized storage. All of this, including Iran's plans to make this painful, is public information that the US military had access to.

The unfortunate reality is the civilian leadership in charge of planning this are fucking idiots. Pete Hegseth, Steve Witkoff, Jared Kushner, and Donald Trump are fucking morons. They know jack shit about any of this but are running our foreign policy.

The Trump Admin is doing the bidding of Israel here, hands down, as influenced by Israel's assets within the US government, such as certain members of Congress, who have plainly stated as much. Israel doesn't care about oil prices, they care about destroying Iran and an ancillary goal: As we speak, Israel has displaced almost a million people in Lebanon and is clearly about to annex Lebanese land. This is a footnote in the news because of Trump's actions in Iran, but would have garnered international condemnation otherwise.

What I read today is that Iran deployed twelve mines. Twelve.

Presumably the US was striking their missile launches, and a couple more than twelve were launched... it's consistent with all that that their ability to lay mines is heavily degraded.

You think America, one of the largest oil producers in the world, really cares all that much that Saudi Arabia and Iraq can't get their oil out? You realize they are making money on this, right? The US has no interest in opening the straight. Why do you think they started a war to close it?

Yeah, this seems like kind of a nothingburger. I get the desire to hit Trump on everything and anything, but you generally don't put minesweepers in the middle of active combat zones.

I'm also pretty confident that the rumours about Iran deploying mines aren't even true, because if they are then their recent offer to allow safe passage doesn't make any sense.

Also, gotta love the LCS catching strays here. Canada has plenty of issues with ship-building, mostly thanks to our sourcing all the work to a monopoly corp that couldn't give two shits, and even we look competent compared to the US navy's steadily growing graveyard of failed projects.

And he has all the cards. The best cards.

He should have played Minesweeper.

Due to AIDS

Yeah after reading this I'm honestly wondering how much oil futures he has invested in. Like, what can the Federal Trade Commission do if the President buys oil commodities then starts a war to drive the price up in order to make a billion dollars?

I think a sea mine is a bit big for a drone