(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Kitchen Table Kibitzing: Idiot Wind [1] ['Greg Dworkin'] Date: 2026-09-19 You cannot have a prolonged, radical disruption in fuel and energy costs without expecting inflation in nearly every consumer sector. The reason is simple: that which costs more to transport, grow and/or manufacture always ends up costing more for the consumer. We now supposedly have a 3.4 % rate of inflation according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. I think those statistics are suspect through undercollection of data and the selective omission of key sectors, simply because every administrative extension of this Executive habitually and reflexively lies, and there’s no reason to suspect they wouldn’t apply that same ethic — or lack thereof — to the dissemination of economic data. Whatever my beliefs about that, however, the reality on the ground, at the gas pump and in the grocery stores is what ultimately will control, and with diesel prices approaching $7 per gallon in many areas of the country the coming downstream effects (at least in my view) are well-nigh inevitable. Trump’s minions in the right-wing media, bankrolled and sustained in large part by the fossil fuel industry, instinctually recognized this early on, which is why they immediately sought to soothe their audiences with counter-narratives about the one thing that no massaged statistics or repeated promises of success in the Trump/Netanyahu “excursion” in Iran could possibly refute: the duration of this artificially created, wholesale disruption of the world’s oil supply and the infrastructure that delivers it. From Allison Fisher, writing for Media Matters: Jesse Watters, Fox News: Watters: “You can’t keep prices high too long, especially going into Memorial Day. When the operation winds down, energy does go lower and the president can ride that drop through the summer and be set up better for the midterms this fall.” [Fox News, Jesse Watters Primetime, 3/11/26] Charles Payne, Fox Business: In June, Payne said on America Reports, “I think where gasoline prices were about two or three weeks ago, that’s going to be our peak. We’ll start to come down pretty rapidly. … Certainly people will start to feel it and see it during the so-called summer driving season.” Later that month he predicted, “Gasoline, I think, you know, well under $3.50 by the election — maybe even lower.” Carl Higbie, Newsmax [March 2026]: “Hold on for like two to three tanks of gas for — it will be an extra 10 to 12 bucks a tank — while Trump wraps this up. I’m asking you to trust the guy here.” [***] “I know it stinks, but please bear with the $10 to $20 more for a tank of gas for another week or two.” Stephen Moore, former Trump economic advisor, on Fox Business (March 2026): [A]s the price of crude “comes down, whether that’s going to be in three days or three weeks or three months when the straits are open, then we will see a resumption of oil back in the $55 to $60 range, and that’s very, very bullish for markets.” Larry Kudlow, Fox Business (April 2026): Fox Business’ Larry Kudlow claimed on America Reports, “This is a temporary thing. … How fast does it come down? I don’t know. But it will come down quite a bit this spring and summer as this develops.” Fisher provides many other examples, all of which reveal a right-wing establishment cognizant of the potential calamity and haplessly trying to ward it off with happy talk, disingenuous prognostications and outright lying. All of them were wrong. Because you can’t bluster or spin away reality. The country is (literally and figuratively) barreling towards an economic hit that has already made itself felt around the rest of the world and is coming to our shores no matter what efforts this administration and its fossil fuel allies expend to try to mask it or slough it off until after the election (which is what they’re attempting now). This pointless war on Iran has simply created an irreversible situation that cannot be adequately planned for. JPMorgan’s (JPM) commodities team has formally abandoned its baseline forecast for oil markets, marking an unprecedented admission from one of Wall Street’s most influential energy desks that the Iran conflict, now in its seventh month, has become impossible to model. “For the first time since the start of the Iran conflict, we don’t have a baseline view,” wrote Natasha Kaneva, head of global commodities strategy, on Thursday. “We simply don’t know how to model the endgame.” [***] JPMorgan has flagged the September 24 Trump-Xi summit in Washington as the last near-term inflection point before markets begin treating the supply disruption as structural rather than temporary, a shift that could push fourth-quarter prices significantly higher and deepen the global economic damage already underway. It’s almost quaint that JP Morgan views this week’s China “summit” as a “last-near-term inflection point.” That suggests the ball is in China’s court to somehow convince its Iranian allies to re-establish some degree of normalcy in the Straits of Hormuz and (now) Bab el-Mandeb, and also that America’s role at this point is anything more than that of a passive supplicant to this process. But that is exactly what this utterly failed enterprise has reduced us to, and it’s not clear whether this administration has the bargaining power or even the wherewithal to change it, let alone whether China has any interest or real incentive to do so. Well, they really don’t have any such incentive. They understand by now they are dealing with an easily distractible, malleable buffoon, surrounded by utter incompetents, who is bringing the economic house down on his own country through his own obstinance and insatiable ego, with the nodding, bobble-headed assent of one of that country’s two major political parties. One who has, in the process, committed the most unpardonable offense of all — revealing the glaring strategic flaws of its vaunted military establishment for the whole world to witness. China is not going to lend a helping hand to ameliorate such a grotesque collapse of its chief economic rival, no matter what lengthy, staged handshakes or other cotton candy is trotted out for the television cameras next week. The cake is already baked. The idiots have had their moment, including the 77 million who voted for this, and those who were too busy to bother to vote in the first place. But Iran was a huge mistake they can’t recover from or spin away. Now, we only have the consequences of that idiocy to look forward to. ALL Republican elected officials are responsible for this. They all signed onto it, and none of them lifted a finger or raised their voice to stop it, when it mattered. Vote them out. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2026/9/19/800099835/community/kitchen-table-kibitzing/ Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/