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PaperclipPerfector  3mo ago (text post)   26971 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of April 13, 2026

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Alternative idea, forcing this vote makes Republican representatives have to tie themselves to the war at a time where gas prices are over 4 dollars, there's an upcoming 8% surcharge on shipping, and airlines are increasing their prices with some even slowly shutting down routes. One of the major reasons why Trump won is because of the COVID era inflation crisis. You could see tons of those "Trump low prices, Kamala high prices" signs around and voters consistently put economics as one of their biggest concerns. Now Republican representatives are having to say "yes, this war is worth fucking up your wallets". There's not much room for them to win even if things resolve tomorrow cause foreign policy is not a major focus of most voters and a lot to lose.

gas prices are over 4 dollars

Not disagreeing with your lived experience, but locally gas has dropped $0.40 in the last two weeks. Still up from pre-Iran debacle but closer to the summer-increase margin.

Mostly I'm pointing this out to say: this market's crazy and whether this affects voters this fall will be decided, mostly, in the last few days before the midterm.

Mostly I'm pointing this out to say: this market's crazy and whether this affects voters this fall will be decided, mostly, in the last few days before the midterm.

Only if early voting gets banned, which I think isn't on the table.

gas prices are over 4 dollars, there's an upcoming 8% surcharge on shipping, and airlines are increasing their prices with some even slowly shutting down routes.

The irony is that this is what the "reduce dependency on fossil fuels/get rid of oil" crowd want, and we see now what it means in action. Not a tidy "everything now runs on wind and solar power" but "you can't get goods in, you can't get a flight to where you want to go" and advice like that from my government to do chores at night when running electrically powered items like washing machines, and walking to work instead of driving.

In the US, we didn't so much reduce dependence on fossil fuels as we did reduce (but not eliminate) dependence on Middle Eastern fossil fuels. That's why gas is only $4.15 near me in New Jersey, and there's no serious worry about domestic supplies.

If Europe had actually reduced dependence on fossil fuels, they wouldn't be being hit so hard. But they didn't, not nearly to the extent they often claim to have.

The funny thing is that the economy was generally doing well pre-war. Dow was over 50k as someone pointed out, employment was good. Tariffs were paid for by Americans but weren't as big a drag as expected either, although core goods inflation would have been negative without them? He really could have done nothing, toned down ICE's retardation, and coasted.

DJIA is up since the start of the war especially now that the blockade is in place. The economy is doing fine so far and has priced the war in. The only lingering consequence is the high price of gas (which has not quite hit 2022 highs and is nowhere close to 2008 highs).

I don't know if he could have coasted.

Wasn't it Israel which launched the first strikes without asking America for permission? Refusing to help an ally is a political risk, and if Israel managed to start winning heavily enough the strait might have been blockaded anyway.

Per NYT, Israel told the US that they had intel about a meeting between Khameini and other IRGC leaders in a few days time and pitched it as the best time to strike. If the US had declined to get involved, Israel probably would not have gone ahead.

That's my understanding as well. The strikes were coming, one way or another, but Israel saw a hell of a great chance if they started things off early.

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