Russia Invades Ukraine. Again
POSTED BY: captaincrunch
UPDATED: Sunday, September 6, 2026 21:09
VIEWED: 562266
PAGE 1103 of 1104
Imperialist Delusions and the Price of Fuel
Trump and Bessent tried to betray Ukraine. Now they don’t have any cards.
Paul Krugman
Sep 03, 2026
https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/imperialist-delusions-and-the-price
During the 2024 campaign Donald Trump promised to cut energy prices in half. He has, instead, presided over soaring prices at the pump, which have played an important role in his collapse in the polls.
Some might attribute this disaster to Trump’s decision to go to war with Iran, ignoring what appear to have been near-unanimous warnings by experienced military and intelligence officials that such a war would, in addition to disrupting oil supplies, overstretch the U.S. military and dangerously deplete stocks of munitions — which is exactly what happened.
But Scott Bessent, Trump’s Treasury secretary, has found someone else to blame: Ukraine.
Yesterday Bessent went on “Fox & Friends,” where he pinned the blame for high energy prices largely on Kyiv:
We are going through an energy shock right now due to both the war in Ukraine, because Ukraine has decided that they want to blow up Russian energy assets and refined properties, so that is creating upward price pressure on a global basis, and the conflict in Iran.
Now, Bessent isn’t wrong to say that bottlenecks in refining capacity are playing a major role in the current energy shock. The chart at the top of this post shows changes in the price of crude oil and diesel, both measured in dollars per barrel, since the beginning of this year. Crude oil is up a lot, although off its peak in early April. But diesel is up much more (so is gasoline, although not quite as much.) And Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil facilities are certainly playing a role in reducing global refining capacity.
But note Bessent’s wording: Ukraine “has decided that they want to blow up Russian energy assets.” Gosh, why would the Ukrainians want to do such a thing? Might it have something to do with the fact that they are engaged in an existential struggle against Vladimir Putin’s regime, which is in its fifth year of a war aimed at destroying their nation, and they need to hit back at Putin’s military and economic base?
Notice, also, that Bessent didn’t point out that these attacks on Russian oil would end if Russia were to end its attempted war of conquest. But far from demanding an end to Russian aggression, the Trump administration infuriated the democratic nations of Europe by inviting Russia’s finance minister, for the first time since the Ukraine war began, to Monday’s meeting of the Group of 20 major economies.
But wait: There’s more background here. Bessent, as much as or more than Trump, has been effectively an enemy of Ukraine from the beginning.
Right at the beginning of the Trump II administration Bessent flew to Kyiv to demand that the Ukrainian government in effect hand over a large share of its mineral resources to the United States. I described it at the time as a “Belgian Congo” deal:
What Trump suggested was that Ukraine give the United States half of the revenue it gets from resource extraction, as far as I can tell in perpetuity. Trump suggested that this would amount to $500 billion, although this seems like a wildly exaggerated sum.
In return, Trump offered, well, zero. No additional aid, no security guarantees, no nothing.
Maggie Haberman and Jonathan Swan’s book Regime Change: Inside the Imperial Presidency of Donald Trump offers more, damning detail. There was apparently a shouting match between Bessent and Ukraine’s president Zelenskyy, in which Zelenskyy correctly described Bessent’s proposal as a shakedown unenforceable under Ukrainian law.
Bessent then returned to Washington and urged Trump not to even meet with Zelenskyy until he signed the minerals deal:
“I’ve dealt with this little fucker,” Bessent would say to associates about Zelensky. “He’s tricky. He’s like the special-needs child for the Europeans. And he’s acting like Mr. Bean on crack.”
Nonetheless, Trump did meet with Zelenskyy — a
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T
Russia DEVALUES Ruble! CASH PANIC IN RUSSIA! | Anna from Ukraine
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Oh noez!!! This is like the twelfth dozenth time you've said so!
Russia is really fucked now! Ted's bullshit brainrot sayeth so!!!!
We've even got AI generated pictures of Russians panicking at the bank for our bullshit clickbait thumbnails now too!!!!!
My favorite is the guy who is holding his right hand over his chest while also holding his 2nd right hand to his cheek, just to the left of your dumb bitch and her dead eye stare.
loser.
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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Quote:
Originally posted by 6ixStringJack:
My favorite is the guy who is holding his right hand over his chest while also holding his 2nd right hand to his cheek, just to the left of your dumb bitch and her dead eye stare.
Allow me to explain that to Ted again in the only language he understands...
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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Or how about the grunt that Ted makes every time he's presented with another hit of that sweet, sweet brainrot dopamine?
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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Ukrainians know another hard winter is coming. Their government isn’t ready
As the summer comes to an end, Ukrainian authorities are still a long way off preparing for an inevitable energy crisis.
by Dominic Culverwell, Tania Myronyshena
September 3, 2026 8:47 PM
https://kyivindependent.com/ukrainians-know-another-hard-winter-is-com
ing-their-government-isnt-ready/
Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Aug. 31 the country is prepared to go into winter with 19.6 gigawatts (GW) of generation planned by November and strong gas and coal reserves. But most people on the beach expect this winter to be worse or at least the same as the last one, when Russia wiped out 9 GW of energy generation.
Behind the government’s positive messaging, authorities have made little progress tackling the core issues of the energy crisis over the last seven months, despite an "Energy Resilience Plan" announced in March, several energy officials told the Kyiv Independent.
. . . cash-strapped local governments, particularly in front-line regions, are struggling to implement the plans because they are overwhelmingly reliant on the national budget for funding.
Meanwhile, disputes between the government and Kyiv’s city authorities over financing meant the capital’s plan was only just approved on Aug. 31. Critics have also called into question the quality of the plans themselves with some saying they were little more than a PR stunt.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Russia Burned Down Huge Coca-Cola Plant Near Kyiv—A Clear Signal to US, Zelenskyy Says
By Katherina Popilnichenko | Sep 03, 2026 21:14
https://united24media.com/war-in-ukraine/russia-burned-down-huge-coca-
cola-plant-near-kyiv-a-clear-signal-to-us-zelenskyy-says-22218
Russian forces launched a drone strike on a Coca-Cola production plant in the Kyiv region on September 3, causing a major fire at one of the largest beverage manufacturing facilities in Europe.
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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India’s Double Game with Russia: Peace Rhetoric vs Record Oil Trade
While Modi urges Putin to end the war, India is quietly deepening energy, trade, and transit ties that help Russia’s economy withstand sanctions.
https://www.kyivpost.com/videos/83668
The Joss Whedon script for Serenity, where Wash lives, is Serenity-190pages.pdf at https://www.mediafire.com/two
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Fuck Coca-Cola. Fuck Zelensky.
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Those who dance always seem crazy to those who can't hear the music.
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