Who is or is not the President of the USA has so little to do with the price oil that it is dumb to bring up.
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2026 Midterm Elections
- Thread starter ZiprHead
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Harry Bosch
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Trump is extremely relevant. We need a real congress that won't skirt its responsibility. Congress has ceded power to the Presidency (tariffs and etc) that is causing chaos for companies. We need a congress with the balls to investigate Trumps shading business ventures. We need a congress willing to stand up to Russia. We desperately need a real separation of powers. Having a strong corrupt president and a congress with no balls is a very bad recipe.
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We here regularly bounce down into the upper 2 80's then bounce back up into the low 3 30's. No reason offered or explained.
Gospel
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A citation isn’t needed when millions of Americans are literally getting priced out of housing because of skyrocketing property taxes, insane insurance premiums, and homes being valued like they’re made of unobtanium. Everyone living through it is the citation.
- High property taxes
- Exploding insurance costs
- Severely overvalued homes
- Wages not keeping up
- Housing affordability at record lows
So yeah, the housing market is absolutely in flames. Trump’s housing policies overwhelmingly benefit investors, developers, and landlords – not families trying to keep a roof over their heads. His whole playbook is just deregulate and
. But deregulation doesn’t reduce the actual costs of building anything.You can scrap a zoning rule all day, but it won’t lower land prices, labor costs, material costs, or the permit fees states charge when taxing for each individual blade of grass. And developers don’t even look at looser zoning and say, “Wow, let’s build cheap homes for working families!” They say, “Sick dude, let’s build more luxury condos with infinity pools and valet dog-walking.”
Gospel
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I agree that the GOP platform is very unpopular right now, although some of your points are overstated, like energy costs.
Gasoline prices, for example, are lower than they were during most of Biden's administration:
Awww that's so cute. Gasoline is only one part of the energy picture. The bigger issue is natural gas, because natural gas is the backbone of the US energy grid. Around 43% of all US electricity is generated from natural gas, and both heating and AI data centers use it too. So when natural gas prices rise, nearly everything in the energy economy gets more expensive.
Trump is proposing a major increase in natural gas exports. That is the part you are not mentioning. I wonder why. Ok I lied, I really don't.
When you take a domestic energy source and start selling more of it overseas, you shrink supply at home and push US prices upward. So, if the plan is to expand LNG exports, Americans will not get cheaper electricity or heating. We will be competing with Europe and Asia for our own fuel supply. Investors and exporters benefit. US households pay more. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
The GOP is out here blabbing about lower energy bills on TV while pushing policies that actually make natural gas more expensive. And honestly, this probably won’t move the needle in the midterms at all, because Americans will be too busy arguing about Epstein, war crimes, UFOs, celebrity scandals, or whatever the for-profit media machine is serving as the “outrage special” of the week.
And here’s the part I guarantee will happen: When energy prices spike because of Trump’s policies, half the country will blame “Democrat clean energy mandates” instead of connecting the dots right in front of them. The correlation is obvious, but nobody’s going to stop doomscrolling long enough to make it.
SLD
Contributor
There are a variety of voices now claiming that Trump is trying to subvert the 2026 mid term elections. He will likely use troops near polling places, pressure local election workers, claim massive voting fraud and hen have federal agents seize voting machines and stop the ability of local officials to do the count in swing districts. He has a blueprint from 2020 but he didn’t execute it. In part because he didn’t have the backing of Milley who told him that seizing voting machines was insane.
The problem will be how to stop him. Obviously it will be in swing districts in swing states. Here is a picture from 270towin showing about 2pm swing districts spread around.
So how do we stop him from doing so?
I think the most obvious way is to ensure that there are too many districts around the country shifting party to the Democrats. I’ve read some places that the Republican attempts to gerrymander more districts could actually backfire and make it harder for republicans to win in those seats. This would be especially true if the economy goes south quickly.
Democratic leaders in these states could effectively stop Trump by mobilizing their guards. That would be possible in Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Wisconsin, Washington, California and New Mexico, a few others. But Ohio, Iowa and Texas are in Republican hands. That of course potentially sets up a violent confrontation between federal officials and state officials, but it might cause Trump to pause. I don’t know.
The other way is to be massively organized to stop any military takeover of the vote. Be prepared to make it impossible for federal authorities to get anywhere near polling places to take them over. Massive strikes and out right rebellion. That’s a scary thought but it might be necessary.
Thoughts?
The problem will be how to stop him. Obviously it will be in swing districts in swing states. Here is a picture from 270towin showing about 2pm swing districts spread around.
So how do we stop him from doing so?
I think the most obvious way is to ensure that there are too many districts around the country shifting party to the Democrats. I’ve read some places that the Republican attempts to gerrymander more districts could actually backfire and make it harder for republicans to win in those seats. This would be especially true if the economy goes south quickly.
Democratic leaders in these states could effectively stop Trump by mobilizing their guards. That would be possible in Arizona, Colorado, Michigan, Wisconsin, Washington, California and New Mexico, a few others. But Ohio, Iowa and Texas are in Republican hands. That of course potentially sets up a violent confrontation between federal officials and state officials, but it might cause Trump to pause. I don’t know.
The other way is to be massively organized to stop any military takeover of the vote. Be prepared to make it impossible for federal authorities to get anywhere near polling places to take them over. Massive strikes and out right rebellion. That’s a scary thought but it might be necessary.
Thoughts?
Elixir
Made in America
Absolutely. If they overplay their hand, by assuming current healthy margins can be safely trimmed to provide votes elsewhere, it follows that if those current margins become any less healthy and are also trimmed, they could lose kit and kaboodle. But surely the DOGE nerds will do the math for them and let them know where not to tread.
It matters not anyhow, if Trump goons are allowed to interfere in the electoral process. And of course that's why he is currently training National Guard (and other) troops and local LE personnel to obey his illegal orders. If he's not impeached and removed, or dead, it's foregone that American democracy is dead. Welcome King Pedo the First, and Stephen Miller, Prime Minister.
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SLD
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20 swing districts. Arrrgh
Blue is Democrat, red is Republican. The tans are the ones too close to call.
Jimmy Higgins
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The GOP's best shot at holding majorities in 2026 is stopping the seating of California's representatives. The DoJ has already begun that process. As long as this flounders in court, the GOP can use it as pretext to hold off on swearing in the members, they only need a majority of those remaining to pass legislation. It sounds extreme, but we seem to be at this point now.
Swammerdami
Squadron Leader
You don't understand the QAnon mindset. Many commodity prices fluctuate so much that a MAGAt can toss out a dozen examples and then smirk like he should win a Prize.
Elixir
Made in America
Yes. But only if you’re trying to transact real estate, which you’re obviously not, so don’t worry about it.
A piercing insight from our resident Trumpapoligist…
But these prices are not nearly so low as they were during Trump 1 when the price of oil was LITERALLY less than zero. Remember how great THAT was? No?
Quelled surprise! Ah, the glory days … killing over a million Americans, and not a word of thanks from The Haters!
But remember: GAS PRICES ARE DIWN IN REAL TERMS!!!
Gas prices being the same as a year ago means they’re down by over 12% in real terms because that is how much less every dollar is worth.
THANKS, DONALD!!
FUCKING MORONS think gas prices are down, and that’s all that counts. Virtually everything else going through the roof is beyond their Ken to understand.
Shadowy Man
Contributor
And yet only gas prices were offered up as an example.
Elixir
Made in America
Confirmation bias can stand on a lily pad, and it serves as solid ground.
Derec
Contributor
Point comparisons are not that useful with a fluctuating commodity.
That's why I posted a graph covering several years.
A bit lower, apparently.
Derec
Contributor
No, your obsession is not the most important midterm issue. Not by a long shot.
And you still owe me any evidence for your assertion in post #11. But please offer it in the appropriate thread, not here.
He is not my friend, there is no evidence that he is a "pedophile" or had sex with any minors, and I am not covering. I am just saying that there is a thread for this particular issue, and that it is off topic here.
I am as opposed to Trump as you. But what you have to realize is that such hyperbolic attacks is part of why he got reelected again.
Derec
Contributor
They are very volatile in the short term, which is why I posted a chart over several years.
Gospel brought up energy prices, and I offered gas prices as an example of an energy carrier that is traditionally seen as an important barometer of price levels by the public.
My point was not so much that things were worse under Biden, as that is not generally true, but that Gospel's "sky is falling" narrative is not accurate.
Derec
Contributor
The hush money prosecution actually made him more popular, because it was such a blatantly political prosecution. That paved the way for his return to power.
One does not have to support or like Trump to see fault with your approach here. We all know that if there was actual evidence of what you claim, Bragg et al would not hesitate to prosecute. The only reason he prosecuted him for recording a hush money payment improperly (a misdemeanor past the statute of limitations, which is why he had to invent "novel legal theories") is because he did not have anything real to prosecute him for.
Now, can we get back on topic?
Derec
Contributor
Duh! That's what makes it an example, and not an exhaustive list.