Former National Security Advisor John Bolton reportedly left the White House because he opposed President Donald Trump opting to soften his administration’s pressure campaign against Iran.
Makes me wonder if Bolt-on attacked the Saudi refinery?
That report is bullshit: Bolton left because he was fired and he had absolutely no idea it was coming.
This “report” comes from a “leak” which is probably Bolton himself.
The odds that he might try to go rogue and actually speak out critically against Trumpian “appeasement” (in his mind, that’s what he’d call it) suddenly look a lot better…
Bolton left because he never should have arrived.
His huge ego up against another huge ego was not a marriage made in Heaven or Hell.
They should kiss and say goodbye.
Bolton will only push so far. He won’t risk getting cut off from the Right Wing Money Tit.
If true, this speaks very poorly of Trump’s management skills. One thing about John Bolton -he’s never hid his desire to bomb Iran into oblivion (and almost every other nation as well). Trump had to know this and hired him anyway, perhaps because he looked “good” spouting pseudo intellectual babble on Fox.
So either Trump changed his mind on Iran from hawk to dove, was a dove to begin with and hired Bolton anyway, or, and most likely, never really thought about it, except wanting to get Obama.
I agree. That’s why I’d still take the under in a bet about whether he goes rogue 
But if he’s leaking–the odds are a little better.
The easiest explanation is usually the correct one.
The Houthis may well have done the bombings, but they had inside help from Saudis (they’ve already mentioned this). Would have needed that to know where to target in these vast complexes.
And the Saudi government likely knew of the plans, and just let them run anyway, plays massively to their advantage on a couple of fronts:
Have you seen any info on oil price spikes since the attack?
Or any more detailed info about how much damage was done?
But aren’t they trying to take Aramco public? How does that fit into your theory? Seems to me it would lower its valuation.
This “administration” has never had a foreign policy - or policies of any kind - other than enriching “dear leader”. So all hiring has never been more than a knee-jerk reaction to the views and opinions of Faux News and their ilk.
Dunno how close you’re tracking, but that went off track and has been delayed for now (was supposed to have already happened), haven’t seen any word on when it might/might not happen. Ties into the financials, they weren’t going to get enough for it.
This is just fine for them-- they shut down half of the capacity for a length of time, which just means that more oil stacks up, it’s not like it’s lost, so with higher price points Aramco will be sitting on lots of reserves and a better financial position if they do IPO.
We’ll see when the markets open tomorrow. It’s expected to be big. As to the extent of damage, nobody can really say, other than that Saudi announced that they were cutting production in half. So that could be that 1/2 of their equipment is toast, or that it’s more minorly damaged and can be rapidly repaired, who knows.
The Saudi Government involved in planning a terrorist attack?
Well, that’s certainly a first…
Will this also give Trump an excuse to open up more sensitive land for drilling in the U.S.?
Pompeo is blaming Iran. Most agree that lifting of oil sanctions on Iran are now at a very low probability.
The also want and need an oil price of between 70- 80 dollars a barrel to do their giant IPO of Aramco.
I’ve been consistently struck at how reluctant Trump is to really go to war. Certainly for me and lots of folks it was our greatest fear, that he’d bluster and posture us into one, that it would escalate, the diplomacy would break down and we’d have a nuclear exchange. Even before the inaugural he was going out of his way to infuriate the Chinese in ways they might have chosen not to tolerate. And yet here we are; he backs down, always. Anything can happen but this is certainly an established pattern. The greater danger now is the passivity itself sets us up by emboldening someone (someone named Putin) to some destabilizing adventure.
They are talking up war… Israel defense agreement, Ms Lindsey saying attack, Pompeo saying Iran… Sounds very much like Bush II lead-up to Iraq, when do we hear about Yellow Cake and other lies.
WAG - THE - DOG, we got an election to win, must look strong, determined, even if I am a YELLOW FUCKING COWARD.
Edit: OH YEA forgot the we can win a nuclear war comments. Idiots don’t believe no one wins at that type of war, no one.
Hell, he has to hide in the bathroom to tweet-fire someone… No guts whatsoever.
And I wouldn’t disagree at all. They’re backing the Houthis, and an op this deep in Saudi Arabia without their approval and assistance is highly unlikely.
It’s just that everyone in this has a net positive to look at from the attack, all sides benefited.
I’ve been imagining a scenario where trumPP continues to rage tweet post-presidency even in prison. Garry Trudeau agrees.