Royal Pain

It was once said that there would come a day there would only be five kings that would matter - the king of clubs, the king of hearts, the king of spades, the king of diamonds, and the king of Great Britain.  King Charles III may matter somewhat, having just assumed the British throne at a time when Britain is undergoing an economic crisis and the Commonwealth is getting restless, but there is a sixth king that matters, a king that matters more than Charles.

Actually, Mohammed bin Salman isn't the king of Saudi Arabia yet, but as the country's crown prince and prime minister and the regent in light of his father's frailty,  he is king in all but name.  And his lust for power is becoming more apparent before he's even assumed the throne.

Mohammed bin Salman has already attacked rebels in Yemen, cracked down on feminists, assassinated Jamal Khashoggi, tapped Jeff Bezos's phone, and entered into an alliance with Russia.  Now, as a key player in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), in concert with OPEC+, a consortium of non-OPEC oil exporters that includes Russia, the crown prince has kicked the United States in the fanny.  After President Biden met with Mohammed bin Salman this past summer to maintain high oil production to keep prices low, Saudi Arabia has moved to cut production drastically - by two million barrels a day - and thus increase gasoline prices.

The Saudis and OPEC say that this production cut is meant to stabilize prices after radical swings back and forth, and that may be part of it.  But it also noncoincidentally allows Vladimir Putin to bring in more oil revenues to fund his war in Ukraine and, as MSNBC's Ali Velshi noted, hurts President Biden and the Democrats going into 2022 midterms.  The Saudis made out like bandits when Trump was President, making a lot of sweetheart deals with Trump and his family, and they also profited handsomely during George Walker Bush's administration despite the fact that Saudi nationals, including the late and decidedly unlamented Osama bin Laden, were involved in 9/11.  Biden is no friend of Big Oil, as his administration moves to supplement and eventually replace gasoline-powered vehicles with electric ones and cut back on fossil-fuel consumption to slow climate change.

And if and when the Republicans win back power in Washington, they're likely to crate a repressive, authoritarian society not unlike what Saudi Arabia has now.       

Congressional Democrats have had enough of trying to please Saudi Arabia with arms sales and military protection and are ready to pull the plug.  That will help weaken the Saudis, but until we have more plentiful alternative forms of energy for transportation, we have to do something about rising gas prices.  Biden has already said he'll release ten million more barrels of oil.  American oil companies, the same Big Oil Biden has demonized, have offered to increase production to offset OPEC production cuts. Kevin McCarthy has encouraged people to vote Republican as a sure way to make that happen.

No one dares suggest dumping our SUVs and getting automakers to supply the market with small cars like, ahem, the Volkswagen Polo.    

Uh, Mary Barra, doesn't GM still make small cars in China that you could bring over here in a pinch? Jim Farley, didn't Ford say it could being the Focus and Fiesta back here if the situation called for it? Toshihiro Mibe - yeah, you, pal! - how about re-introducing the Honda Fit here?  My mother has one and she loves it!  😡