Oil shock

Owners of electric vehicles must be feeling pretty smug right about now. With the Strait of Hormuz closed thanks to the American President irrationally ordering an attack on Iran, petrol prices have climbed significantly in the past month. And it’s only going to get worse until there’s truce.

I’m so glad I do not have a car commute. Though if I did, I would have purchased a fully electric vehicle a long time ago. EVs are the perfect commuting appliance. The lack of combustion engine means a super quiet cabin. The torque innate to electric motors makes zipping in between traffic gaps a cinch. There’s far less maintenance items for an EV compared to an internal combustion car. The only negative is that, for those who can’t charge at home, you’ve got to wait a bit long to “refuel”.

But you’d rather have that, wouldn’t you, than paying for stratospheric gas prices. If your livelihood is car-dependent - ride share and delivery drivers - and your car uses petrol, it is currently not a very good time. Fix cost per mile has shot straight up. Another smug feather to the cap of Waymo. Their fleet of self-driving taxis is fully electric, therefore insulated from the inflating gas prices. I reckon the human taxi driver as a profession is slowly going towards extinction.

The taxi driver that drove us to the airport in Guangzhou was not feeling the gas price pinch. Because his car is fully electric. China has successfully weened itself from internal combustion vehicles. Can’t have an oil chock if you’re not dependent on oil! Perhaps it will prove shortsighted for the United States government to roll back on its EV incentives and infrastructure spend. If not for air quality, do it for oil independence.

That said, even if you drive an EV, this turmoil in the oil markets will touch you and all of us eventually, one way or another. Way too many things are dependent and correlated on the stable availability of petroleum. Gas prices is only the tip of the iceberg we can easily and initially see. There’s surely more pain to come in many other areas. I should book that flight for my fall vacation before airlines raise ticket prices…

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Good luck charm.

Liquid gold

Say what you want about the ongoing Iran war (or not war), but it’s doing major devastation to gasoline prices. Those of us in California suffer even more due to a dependence on imported crude, and State environmental refining laws. Didn’t this President promise to lower petrol prices? Candidates in the CA governor race should promise to do something about this…

Thankfully I don't have a car commute. What I won’t enjoy however is the bustling lines at Costco gasoline - typically the cheapest available. I never get gas at my local Costco, but unfortunately it’s all filtered through the same road. The logjam of cars waiting for a fill up will absolutely hamper shoppers that only wish to park and get into the warehouse. This will be the reality until the war (or not war) is over.

First world problems, eh?

Speaking of privileged problems, I’ve been though many a Keurig device since 2020. For some reason, the K-Slim model that I buy cannot seem to last. And I think I’ve found the reason: the control panel is right on the lid. A lid that opens and closes constantly for loading and disposing of coffee cups. This inevitably causes irreparable stress on the electrical connections. The one I currently have has an annoying tendency to stop dispensing mid-stream like a man with a colon problem.

The definitely of crazy is doing the same thing and expecting different results. So once this K-Slim - embarrassingly, my third - dies completely, I am going to buy a model with controls that isn’t on the lid. The venerable original K-Classic should suffice nicely. The unit my parents have is going strong on eight years now.

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I declare… bankruptcy!

And another one

So the United States went into a foreign country and kidnapped the sitting President. Seems like we all just forgotten about it. When you are one of the few preeminent super powers on this planet, they just let you do it. Grab them by the Maduro. The Russian Federation is drowning itself in celebration because there’s now another direction for the finger to point at. The war in Ukraine is de-facto justified because, well, what are you going to do about it?

And if there’s nothing consequential you can do about it, is that not a de-facto sanction to continue? America certainly understands that message. Kidnapping a foreign President is tables stakes now! We’ve gone into Iran and essentially assassinated the country’s supreme leader. The rest of the world can only put out statements. Let’s see what the U.S. Congress does in terms of wrestling back their sole right to declare war, but let’s not hold our breaths.

At least we used to be subtle about this sort of stuff. History is allegedly littered with the CIA covertly influencing leadership changes in foreign countries. Should agents get captured in the act, there’s plausible deniability from the reigning administration. I know this because I’ve watched all of the Mission Impossible movies. Regime change is the United States’ speciality.

You mean to tell me Khamenei couldn’t have been knocked off more silently than what transpired? A Jason Bourne type wasn’t available?

Because what Americans don’t have the stomach for is yet another war in the Middle East. It’s partially why Trump was voted into office. The messy withdrawal from Afghanistan during the Biden administration was supposed to be a bookend to billions wasted and thousands of American lives lost in Mesopotamia. That didn’t last long because now the current administration just put us into direct armed conflict with Iran. American lives are already on the lost tally. Who voted for this? Congress certainly did not.

You know who looks the most ridiculous right now - not that they care? FIFA. The peace prize that already looked stupid is now downright comedic.

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At the speed of feet.

Life in peace

Man did I pick a good year to delete the twitter app off my phone. I could have easily spent hours death-scrolling through the timeline when Russian invaded Ukraine last week. Not to say I don’t care about the well-being of Ukrainians. But checking up on the the minute-to-minute news is just not a productive use of time. What the heck can I do anyways? The happenings of the other side of the globe is something I have zero control over.

"Imagine all the people living life in peace."

It is interesting to see NATO refusing to intervene militarily on Ukraine’s behalf. Simply because Russia is a nuclear power. No one wants to risk an escalation towards nuclear war - for very good reason (San Francisco is often a nuclear target in movies). But that means if you’re a nation with nukes, you can invade another country with somewhat impunity. The United States knows this well, of course. We went into Iraq with nobody’s permission. Seal Team Six went into Pakistan to kill Osama Bin-Ladin clandestinely.

What NATO and rest of the world can do in response is to levy huge economic and social sanctions. Innocent Russian citizens - yes, even the rich oligarchs - will have to suffer the consequences of the actions by their President Putin. In this interconnected, globalized world we have today, I think sanctions should work in theory. Russia ultimately won’t risk a turn towards the situation of North Korea - utterly isolated from the world. You’d think at some point, Putin will capitulate and strike a deal.

The problem is: Ukraine and its citizens will have to suffer through a war to get there. Sad and tragic.

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Don’t forget to hydrate, kids!