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the reason China was using stockpiles is they want to time the gasoline price shock right to the midterm elections. The moment they stop using stockpiles and st

the reason China was using stockpiles is they want to time the gasoline price shock right to the midterm elections. The moment they stop using stockpiles and start purchasing the prices will jump

DrScientist 15d ago
Blaming the current situation on the actions of China is beyond bizarre.
- bluGill 15d ago
  China has some influence. They did do what was said - but only if you take the absolute most charitable reading (which is a expected here).
  - DrScientist 15d ago
    Eh? They didn't/aren't using their stockpiles to anywhere near the extent the US has! There reserves are much bigger - they have about a years supply - yet they used less in absolute terms than the US! What they did was aggressively reduce demand by accelerating the switch to EV's and firing up a few more coal powerstations. In terms of influencing the midterms - I suspect China isn't anywhere near the front of the queue in hoping Trump get's a beating given the chaos he is causing. Complaining about foreign interference is ironically straight from the Hillary playbook.
    - bluGill 15d ago
      They are strategically using their stockpiles. There are a lot of factors in their strategy and some of them conflict. This has an effect on the world market. How much of their strategy is to change elections vs other concerns I don't know.
      - DrScientist 12d ago
        Frankly if I was China, I'd be conflicted about the mid-terms - Trump is currently leading the US to disastrous wars - kinetic and trade, pissing off his closest allies, under-mining the dollar, and making China look a sane and stable partner. On the other hand the world might be better off if he was more constrained post mid-terms. Frankly, in terms of countries wanting Trump to take a beating in the mid-terms, I'd put countries like Canada and most of Europe way ahead of China there. And in terms of China's energy strategy - China is the worlds biggest net importer of crude therefore China's strategy is going to be focussed on managing that first and foremost. I think it's the US who hoped that the oil crisis would impact China much more - this is the US making, not China.
softwaredoug 15d ago
Well roughly now would be when you’d time a huge shock OTOH midterm generic ballots are much more stable than top line presidential horse race polling. So it might only matter at the margins.
deleted 15d ago
[deleted]
lowbloodsugar 15d ago
lol. The orange man is doing more damage to the USA than China could ever do short of actual war. He is destroying the US militarily, economically and politically. They emphatically support his efforts.
- kadoban 15d ago
  At some point they might prefer stability and sanity. I would bet that at this point they don't care much either way. China is playing long, most of the ~unchanging things are in their favor and the US already proved that they're unreliable. People won't forget that soon even if Trump is gone.
  - LarsKrimi 15d ago
    Stability and sanity is not happening whether the conflicts stop in Yemen+Hormuz or not. At that point it's just going to go back to tarriff wars and new terror campaigns that the US admin will start somewhere else
    - kadoban 15d ago
      The context of this is which party China would prefer to win the midterms. The dems winning would distract Trump from being able to fuck up the rest of the world a bit. My bet would be that China doesn't care much either way, they win regardless.
      - LarsKrimi 15d ago
        We agree that China won't care long term. They cannot lose in the current setup In my view the worst that can happen for China is that Trump gets limited by anything. He's hurting US relations more than he's hurting China short or long-term. Relations take longer to build than trade "Don't interrupt your opponent when they're making a mistake"
        kadoban 15d ago
Frieren 15d ago
> time the gasoline price shock right to the midterm elections. Donald Trump can end this at any time if he wants. It would have been better to not have started it, thou. Less killing of innocent people, less spending on weapons, better mental health for USA soldiers... And why is China suddenly at fault for America's actions?
- LtWorf 15d ago
  He can't. Bibi is in charge.
  - sentientlaserbe 15d ago
    Partially true. Seems most likely that Trump didn't like the Iranian provisions for reparations to end the war. A hard stance they've taken, one Trump would never go for (because of how incompetent it would make him look), and here we are.
- toast0 14d ago
  > Donald Trump can end this at any time if he wants. I'm not really sure that's true. The US is no longer a credible negotiator. I'm not sure negotiating a peace would necessarily end the situation immediately.
  - oblio 14d ago
    > The US is no longer a credible negotiator. The US isn't even negotiating. Fairly sure they don't have a full negotiating team and they're doing it via 1-2 Trump flunkeys and Pakistan intermediating.
cmrdporcupine 15d ago
It's so amazing to watch people (presumably Americans) over and over make everything about American domestic politics. That the only way to explain Trump's behaviour is on the domestic terms that Americans know and are comfortable with. I see this over and over again with the Canada stuff. Or Greenland stuff. Not taking it seriously because "oh that's just Trump deflecting cuz of [Epstein|Midterms|etc]." Meanwhile the actual blast radius here is far far far outside of the domestic arena. When will people just take this guy at his word? He says he wants to conquer or do X Y and Z. That's it. He said those things. Believe him. Stop trying to make it about yourself. (And also he wants to make personal money off manipulating the stock market and oil prices.) It's not a good look, esp to the victims of Trump outside the US who have no power to vote in American elections and yet are victims of American power.
- toast0 14d ago
  > He said those things. Believe him. He says a lot of things he doesn't do though. Beleiving him is a bad heuristic and so is disbeleiving him.

the reason China was using stockpiles is they want to time the gasoline price shock right to the midterm elections. The moment they stop using stockpiles and start purchasing the prices will jump

DrScientist 15d ago

Blaming the current situation on the actions of China is beyond bizarre.

bluGill 15d ago
China has some influence. They did do what was said - but only if you take the absolute most charitable reading (which is a expected here).
- DrScientist 15d ago
  Eh? They didn't/aren't using their stockpiles to anywhere near the extent the US has! There reserves are much bigger - they have about a years supply - yet they used less in absolute terms than the US! What they did was aggressively reduce demand by accelerating the switch to EV's and firing up a few more coal powerstations. In terms of influencing the midterms - I suspect China isn't anywhere near the front of the queue in hoping Trump get's a beating given the chaos he is causing. Complaining about foreign interference is ironically straight from the Hillary playbook.
  - bluGill 15d ago
    They are strategically using their stockpiles. There are a lot of factors in their strategy and some of them conflict. This has an effect on the world market. How much of their strategy is to change elections vs other concerns I don't know.
    - DrScientist 12d ago
      Frankly if I was China, I'd be conflicted about the mid-terms - Trump is currently leading the US to disastrous wars - kinetic and trade, pissing off his closest allies, under-mining the dollar, and making China look a sane and stable partner. On the other hand the world might be better off if he was more constrained post mid-terms. Frankly, in terms of countries wanting Trump to take a beating in the mid-terms, I'd put countries like Canada and most of Europe way ahead of China there. And in terms of China's energy strategy - China is the worlds biggest net importer of crude therefore China's strategy is going to be focussed on managing that first and foremost. I think it's the US who hoped that the oil crisis would impact China much more - this is the US making, not China.

softwaredoug 15d ago

Well roughly now would be when you’d time a huge shock OTOH midterm generic ballots are much more stable than top line presidential horse race polling. So it might only matter at the margins.

deleted 15d ago

[deleted]

lowbloodsugar 15d ago

lol. The orange man is doing more damage to the USA than China could ever do short of actual war. He is destroying the US militarily, economically and politically. They emphatically support his efforts.

kadoban 15d ago
At some point they might prefer stability and sanity. I would bet that at this point they don't care much either way. China is playing long, most of the ~unchanging things are in their favor and the US already proved that they're unreliable. People won't forget that soon even if Trump is gone.
- LarsKrimi 15d ago
  Stability and sanity is not happening whether the conflicts stop in Yemen+Hormuz or not. At that point it's just going to go back to tarriff wars and new terror campaigns that the US admin will start somewhere else
  - kadoban 15d ago
    The context of this is which party China would prefer to win the midterms. The dems winning would distract Trump from being able to fuck up the rest of the world a bit. My bet would be that China doesn't care much either way, they win regardless.
    - LarsKrimi 15d ago
      We agree that China won't care long term. They cannot lose in the current setup In my view the worst that can happen for China is that Trump gets limited by anything. He's hurting US relations more than he's hurting China short or long-term. Relations take longer to build than trade "Don't interrupt your opponent when they're making a mistake"
      - kadoban 15d ago

Frieren 15d ago

> time the gasoline price shock right to the midterm elections. Donald Trump can end this at any time if he wants. It would have been better to not have started it, thou. Less killing of innocent people, less spending on weapons, better mental health for USA soldiers... And why is China suddenly at fault for America's actions?

LtWorf 15d ago
He can't. Bibi is in charge.
- sentientlaserbe 15d ago
  Partially true. Seems most likely that Trump didn't like the Iranian provisions for reparations to end the war. A hard stance they've taken, one Trump would never go for (because of how incompetent it would make him look), and here we are.
toast0 14d ago
> Donald Trump can end this at any time if he wants. I'm not really sure that's true. The US is no longer a credible negotiator. I'm not sure negotiating a peace would necessarily end the situation immediately.
- oblio 14d ago
  > The US is no longer a credible negotiator. The US isn't even negotiating. Fairly sure they don't have a full negotiating team and they're doing it via 1-2 Trump flunkeys and Pakistan intermediating.

cmrdporcupine 15d ago

It's so amazing to watch people (presumably Americans) over and over make everything about American domestic politics. That the only way to explain Trump's behaviour is on the domestic terms that Americans know and are comfortable with. I see this over and over again with the Canada stuff. Or Greenland stuff. Not taking it seriously because "oh that's just Trump deflecting cuz of [Epstein|Midterms|etc]." Meanwhile the actual blast radius here is far far far outside of the domestic arena. When will people just take this guy at his word? He says he wants to conquer or do X Y and Z. That's it. He said those things. Believe him. Stop trying to make it about yourself. (And also he wants to make personal money off manipulating the stock market and oil prices.) It's not a good look, esp to the victims of Trump outside the US who have no power to vote in American elections and yet are victims of American power.

toast0 14d ago
> He said those things. Believe him. He says a lot of things he doesn't do though. Beleiving him is a bad heuristic and so is disbeleiving him.