The dog barks, but the caravan moves on — Biden travels to Arabia to beg for oil, and he's DOA
/And it wasn’t a complete bust: he was allowed to play in a sandbox set up especially for him.
After shutting down the Keystone XL pipeline and issuing 30-some regulations to halt domestic energy production, Joe Biden went to Saudi Arabia, hat in hand, to beg the Arab sheiks to pump more oil for him.
Result? They laughed him out of the park.
They not only rejected a proposed security alliance between the U.S., Israel, and the Saudis, likely not wanting to take orders from military geniuses like Gen. Mark Milley on matters of their own security, they also told Joe to go fly a kite on the extra oil production:
Reuters: Biden came to Saudi Arabia hoping to reach a deal on oil production to help drive down gasoline prices that are driving inflation above 40-year highs and threatening his approval ratings.
He leaves the region empty-handed but hoping the OPEC+ group, comprising Saudi Arabia, Russia and other producers, will boost production at a meeting on Aug. 3.
"I look forward to seeing what's coming in the coming months," Biden said.
And why should they? Biden has shut down America's energy production and its logical stable suppliers such as Canada, and now wants Saudi Arabia to pull his chestnuts out of the fire as prices at the pump drive his poll numbers down.
The Sauds, who are clever bastards on the matter of oil, quite unlike the socialist clown-states such as Venezuela, understand perfectly how oil dynamics work and have made themselves quite rich over the decades with their mastery of the resource. They also understand their national interests about the same way Israel does, knowing that nations that do not go the way of Libya, Iran and Syria must carefully consider and defend their interests because predators are out there. They know that what they see as their national interests don't mesh with Joe's idea of their national interests, so no dice on Joe's Tin-Man-style plea for more oil.
A smart Saudi official noted a few days earlier than even if Saudi Arabia does pump more oil, it's not exactly going to solve Joe's big problem, which is inflation. Inflation is a monetary, not an energy, phenomenon, as Milton Friedman, spiritual author of the Reagan Revolution noted, and many nations thrive with low inflation even if the price of oil is high.
The Saudis know this. Biden does not. The Sauds may run a medieval state but they know what they were looking at as bumbling Joe gaffed and stumbled through the region (Howie Carr has a choice curation of Biden quotes here.)
The Saudis are smart the way medieval warlords are smart, and bumbling, senile Joe is no match for them. Saudis have never been mistaken for anyone's fools, and can see plain as the noses on their faces that Joe is begging them for a political bailout, a foolish request, given that Joe has demonized them as human rights violators before the world (giving Cuba, China, Iran, and Venezuela a pass), succored their mortal enemy Iran, which is intent on overthrowing them, and trashed his own oil production capacity in the states. They can remember that not too long ago, America was energy sufficient, and that commanded respect from them. When they saw that happening, they went along and made peace with Israel for the first time ever. Saudis understand the world very well through the lens of oil.
Now Joe Biden waltzes in and wants them to pump more in exchange for saving Joe's political hide.
Why are they going to submit to a request like that? They are natural traders, they like making deals, some of them have that Inner Rug Merchant - would that sound like a good deal to them?
Joe assured two days ago that Saudis would bring prices down at the pump. Well, that didn't happen -- and such a failure could be seen from a mile away.
Now his Plan B is to get Putin to pump the oil, the same Putin he blamed for the rising prices at the pump. Putin will pump for him. Good luck with that, chump