The Matt Walsh Show - Ep. 1842 - Gas Prices Are Out Of Control. Here's What No One Is Telling You.

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00:00:48.260 Conventional wisdom is that high gas prices

00:00:51.240 are the result of the war in Iran,

00:00:53.700 that they're gonna result in heavy losses

00:00:55.500 for the Republicans in the midterms, and that the cost of living is going to remain high for

00:00:59.840 the foreseeable future. But this consensus view, while not entirely wrong, is actually a simplistic

00:01:05.780 and very optimistic version of events. The truth is actually worse than what conventional wisdom

00:01:11.720 says. The truth is that we're now careening towards a potentially historic energy crisis,

00:01:17.060 and solving it won't be easy because it's a physics problem, not simply an economic one.

00:01:23.580 there are a lot of theories about where this potential energy crisis is coming from. We just

00:01:27.980 spoke to a White House official off the record who posited one theory, which we'll talk about

00:01:32.440 in just a moment. But before we get to that, we need to establish that as hysterical as it may

00:01:38.660 sound and as depressing as it is maybe to hear on a Monday, it is indeed the case that a full-blown

00:01:44.940 catastrophic energy crisis could be on the horizon. In fact, that is actually becoming

00:01:51.000 something of a mainstream opinion if you know where to look. According to analysts at major

00:01:55.780 financial institutions, including JP Morgan, we could soon realistically hit the operational floor

00:02:01.100 for the global energy system, which in the worst case scenario could lead to the point where

00:02:06.340 pipelines lose pressure, refineries have to shut down to protect their equipment,

00:02:10.760 and gas stations run out of fuel to sell. Now, nobody really talks about this, but as it turns

00:02:16.400 out fuel infrastructure requires a certain minimum amount of fuel to function. So think of it like

00:02:22.260 your body, you know, requires a certain amount of blood running through the veins or else it will

00:02:26.780 shut down completely. When it comes to our oil infrastructure, that buffer is now in danger of

00:02:32.200 failing. And it's not entirely because of the war in Iran, which becomes clear when you realize that

00:02:37.400 the vast majority of oil exports from the Middle East are sent to Asia, not the Americas. But there

00:02:44.780 is a supply shock, and we need to talk about it because the magnitude of the risk can't

00:02:50.680 be overstated. Every civilization requires energy to function. Without energy, we go

00:02:57.660 back to the Stone Age. I mean, look what's happening right now in Europe. It was just

00:03:02.340 a few years ago that Germany, the biggest economy in Europe, got rid of all of their

00:03:07.120 nuclear power plants. They shut them all down in favor of renewables, and they laughed

00:03:12.300 at anybody, including Donald Trump, who said that they were making a fatal mistake, even though they

00:03:16.620 obviously were. And around the same time, Germany ran out of firewood completely. The price went up

00:03:21.940 100% and then nobody could buy it anymore. Loggers put GPS trackers on their firewood because theft

00:03:29.160 became so rampant. People began using wood chips in desperation in neighboring Poland. Instead of

00:03:35.140 lining up outside, you know, the Apple store for the latest iPhone, people were queuing for days

00:03:40.220 outside of coal mines, hoping for some fuel. Now, this statistic sounds too insane to be true,

00:03:46.620 but it is true. Every year in Europe, more than 360,000 people die from cold-related excess

00:03:55.380 mortality, otherwise known as cold temperatures. And that includes many elderly people living in

00:04:00.380 their homes, which don't have adequate heating and other causes. Now, that's more than eight

00:04:05.380 times the number of Europeans who die from heat-related causes, which is pretty inconvenient

00:04:09.940 if you're a big believer in global warming. Turns out the problem is maybe, you know,

00:04:14.880 the opposite. In the United States, by contrast, we only have around a thousand hypothermia deaths

00:04:19.920 per year, mostly drunk people, you know, who get lost in the woods during the winter,

00:04:24.860 homeless, you know, drug addicts and that sort of thing. But even by the most liberal estimates,

00:04:30.260 only around 40,000 Americans die annually for a reason that can be linked in some tangential way

00:04:36.120 to cold temperatures. So here's another way to measure the distinction, to put it in perspective.

00:04:41.420 In America, around 44,000 people die from so-called gun violence every year. That includes

00:04:48.500 mass shootings and suicides. That's a whopping 12% of the total number of people who die in Europe

00:04:56.460 every year from cold weather. So anytime you hear Europeans claim that America is dangerous because

00:05:02.980 of all the quote-unquote gun violence. Tell them that Europe is dangerous because people freeze to

00:05:08.200 death all the time. And these are numbers that are unthinkable in the United States, but if we

00:05:13.440 continue on this trajectory, they're not going to be unthinkable forever. We've taken our energy

00:05:19.820 production for granted, and that could be a fatal mistake in a very literal sense. And before I go

00:05:26.660 into detail about how exactly we might see a failure of global energy infrastructure, I want

00:05:31.780 to start with this communication that I just mentioned that we just received from a former

00:05:35.680 White House official. Now, I don't normally share communications with Washington insiders for the

00:05:41.220 simple reason that I don't know any Washington insiders, nor do I have any interest in knowing

00:05:45.700 any Washington insiders. Most people in conservative media go to great lengths to cultivate relationships

00:05:51.480 in Washington. My approach is essentially the opposite of that. But this former White House

00:05:56.480 official, got in touch with one of my producers over the weekend while talking about high gas

00:06:02.280 prices. And I thought this statement was interesting, so I'll pass along what the

00:06:06.880 official said. Quote, it's Zelensky. It's literal Western civilization suicide. Europe and the

00:06:13.240 United States are funding their own energy crisis. Now, at first when I heard that, it sounded like

00:06:19.440 typical White House messaging to me. Obviously, they want to distract attention from the war in

00:06:24.460 Iran, which does also play a part, is a factor in this whole picture, obviously. And they want to

00:06:32.460 blame Ukraine for high gas prices. But let's take the claim seriously for a second. So this is

00:06:37.620 footage of President Trump speaking at a golf tournament just a week ago. Listen.

00:06:44.280 Mr. Zelensky has to do one thing. He has to stop knocking out diesel fuel in Russia. Let him go

00:06:51.780 after targets, but not diesel fuel, because he's causing a shortage of diesel fuel. This isn't done

00:06:57.360 by the Middle East. This is done by what's happening with Russia and Ukraine. So we spoke

00:07:02.080 to Mr. Zelensky about it. There are plenty of other targets. Don't hit diesel fuel, because

00:07:06.920 that's hurting the world. We don't want him to hit diesel fuel. He's hitting diesel refineries.

00:07:15.040 Okay, so one day after those comments, Trump posted the following message on Truth Social.

00:07:21.220 He said, quote, Ukraine has agreed not to hit Russian energy targets.

00:07:24.640 Russia has agreed to do likewise.

00:07:27.060 Now, we have no reason to think that Trump was lying about this.

00:07:29.860 It would certainly be a strange thing to make up.

00:07:31.920 And indeed, if true, it would be a major breakthrough. 0.95

00:07:35.760 Ukraine has been bombing Russia's fuel infrastructure, their fuel depots, storage tanks, pumps and so on for a long time now. 0.80

00:07:43.160 They've reportedly taken out roughly a third of Russia's refining capacity, which has led Russia to ban the foreign sale of its diesel, which is no small thing since Russia is or was the second largest diesel exporter in the entire world.

00:07:57.480 This is why diesel is now more expensive than it's ever been in recorded history at more than six dollars a gallon.

00:08:04.160 Yes, diesel is right now more expensive than it has ever been.

00:08:08.020 so there's the chart just to prove it if you were uh if you didn't believe it and how does this

00:08:14.020 affect you well i think that should be pretty obvious it affects you obviously but there are

00:08:19.020 two main ways first of all pretty much everything you buy was transported on a semi-truck or a

00:08:24.120 cargo ship or a freight train at some point all of which run on diesel and when diesel supply goes

00:08:30.760 down price goes up which means the costs are passed along to you when you buy things at the

00:08:35.860 grocery store or Amazon or anywhere else. And secondly, refineries outside of Russia are now

00:08:40.680 yield switching to diesel to maximize their profits, meaning they're refining less regular

00:08:45.820 gasoline as a result, which drives up the price of regular gasoline. Remember, diesel and regular

00:08:50.980 gas come from the same barrel, but many refineries are capable of switching their output to some

00:08:56.620 degree. According to Goldman Sachs, the price difference between diesel and gasoline in the

00:09:00.820 United States is now over $60 per barrel when it was just $3 a barrel one year ago. So there's

00:09:07.880 much, much more money to be made refining diesel right now. And because refineries are already

00:09:13.740 operating at full capacity, any effort to refine more diesel means that less gasoline will be

00:09:19.840 refined. And that's why global exports of gasoline have dropped 24% in the past year. Everyone's

00:09:24.620 switching to diesel, if they can swing it. From March to August of this year, diesel yields in

00:09:29.740 the United States are well above their historical averages, while gasoline yields have been cut.

00:09:34.100 And meanwhile, demand for gasoline has not gone down. In fact, it's gone up, especially in Russia,

00:09:39.940 since many of their oil refineries have been blown up. So if Ukraine agreed to stop bombing

00:09:45.080 Russian refineries and allowed the world's number two diesel exporter to get back to refining diesel,

00:09:50.960 that would be good news for the American consumer unequivocally. And that's what Trump said was

00:09:56.500 happening on Monday. But that night, Ukraine's leader, Zelensky, spoke to reporters and

00:10:01.320 contradicted the president. He stated that, quote, there's now a strong U.S. proposal for a mutual

00:10:05.380 halt to strikes on critical infrastructure. And Zelensky said that Ukraine is ready to

00:10:10.280 support de-escalation, but only if Russia would agree in turn to stop bombing Ukraine's

00:10:14.820 infrastructure. Okay, fast forward six more days to last night, and Zelensky has clearly given up

00:10:22.060 on that whole plan. He posted this footage of burning Russian refineries, demonstrating quite

00:10:28.160 clearly that Ukraine has actually doubled down on their strategy of destroying Russia's fuel

00:10:32.760 infrastructure. On social media, Zelensky then bragged about what he had done. Quote,

00:10:38.920 our long range responses had a very significant impact in the Moscow region last night. One of

00:10:43.200 Russia's key oil industry facilities and the aggressors logistics facilities were hit.

00:10:47.660 These are billions of dollars that sustain the war machine. I thank our warriors for their accuracy, the security service of Ukraine, together with the unmanned systems forces, the special operation forces, the defense intelligence of Ukraine and the foreign intelligence service. I thank everyone who is strengthening Ukraine's long range capabilities. I'm grateful to everyone who compliments our long range responses with responses through sanctions. Glory to Ukraine.

00:11:12.080 now remember when we were supposedly arming ukraine with defensive weapons and gave them 0.90

00:11:18.400 explicit instructions not to escalate the war by bombing russian infrastructure shortly before the

00:11:24.520 biden administration left power they rescinded those restrictions and apparently under the trump

00:11:28.840 administration zelensky is happy to say one thing and do another no one is stopping him so now he is

00:11:35.460 openly celebrating a military campaign that in addition to raising the possibility of world war

00:11:40.040 three in a very direct way is also making day-to-day life much more miserable for millions

00:11:46.740 of Americans. So why would he do that? Why in a million years would he dream of doing such a thing?

00:11:54.760 Let's go through the numbers, if only to provide some historical context. By some estimates this

00:11:59.120 year, we've seen the largest surge in gas prices in percentage terms from January to the summer

00:12:04.820 peak of any midterm election year in the past century. And it's not even close. So gas has now

00:12:11.400 reached $4.48 a gallon on average, which is roughly $1.20 more than last year. The typical

00:12:20.120 sedan is now around $20 more expensive to fill up as compared with 2025. And if you drive an SUV

00:12:25.740 or a truck, you're easily paying $30 or $40 more than you used to. You're paying around 52% more

00:12:32.220 for gas at the moment compared to January. The previous record in a midterm election year was

00:12:37.780 dramatically lower, just a 27% increase in the price of gas all the way back in 2002.

00:12:43.360 So we have doubled the previous record when it comes to the increase in the price of gas.

00:12:50.480 This is uncharted territory in the modern history of this country. And don't take my word for it,

00:12:56.920 CNN brought out the nerd with the totally unnecessary smart board thing to tell you

00:13:01.600 the same thing. Watch. During the course of a midterm year, but never this high. This is

00:13:07.080 record-breaking. We are talking record-breaking for a midterm this century. Changing gas prices

00:13:12.180 from January 1 to September 14th. The average for a midterm cycle this century is 18%. But look at

00:13:18.560 this on the right side of the screen. 52% rise this year. 52% rise this year. Up like a rocket,

00:13:24.780 right? Look at that. My goodness gracious, by far the highest on record. The prior high was just

00:13:29.240 27%. This is nearly double the prior record high. We are talking really, really large jumps.

00:13:39.140 As always, it's a good thing to have him there circling the big number, the big red number,

00:13:43.620 52%. It's in huge red block letters. And it says 52%. And then there's an arrow pointing up.

00:13:51.960 But if you didn't notice it, then he's there to circle it also, in case you didn't see it.

00:13:56.520 Anyway, that's not even getting into the cost of groceries or heating oil, which is a pretty big deal for the millions of Americans who would prefer to survive the winter.

00:14:04.860 Home heating oil prices just came out, and they've increased by around 75% year over year in parts of the Northeast, including in Maine, where several very important races are going to be decided in November.

00:14:17.780 Control of Congress could very well come down to how people vote in Maine, and as it stands, it's not looking very good.

00:14:24.020 In fact, it's not even looking good in Kansas anymore, where Republicans have won every Senate race since 1932.

00:14:31.320 The incumbent Senator Roger Marshall was just booed by a large crowd at the state fair.

00:14:36.740 And the chair of the Kansas Republican Party, in an interview with The Wall Street Journal, is publicly asking national Republican groups to spend more money in the state, which is never a good sign.

00:14:46.600 As the chair put it, quote,

00:14:47.940 Kansas gets overlooked a lot because we are reliably red, but this is a weird cycle.

00:14:54.280 Yes, this is a weird cycle.

00:14:57.160 Now, even taking into account that the incumbent party usually loses seats in a midterm election,

00:15:02.740 this is shaping up to be a very weird cycle indeed.

00:15:07.460 And that's very good news for Zelensky, who has obvious reasons to prefer a Democrat-controlled Congress.

00:15:13.480 Ever since the war in Ukraine began, Democrats have been unanimous in their support for writing blank checks to Zelensky.

00:15:20.700 As recently as this summer, the House passed a $9 billion aid package for Ukraine by a vote of 226 to 195 with near unanimous Democrat support.

00:15:29.760 The only no vote was Ilhan Omar, who didn't like the sanctions against Russia that were included in the bill.

00:15:35.260 A grand total of 18 Republicans supported the aid package.

00:15:38.340 And so there's no question that for Zelensky, it would be very beneficial for Republicans to suffer a massive defeat in the midterm elections.

00:15:46.140 He wants to flood Congress with Democrats who will vote to send Ukraine even more money. 0.50

00:15:51.180 And one way to do that, of course, is to give Americans a reason to despise their incumbents.

00:15:56.880 Destroying the world's fuel supply is one way to achieve that.

00:15:59.260 hike up our gas prices in a midterm election and that will help him get rid of the people that he

00:16:04.640 doesn't want in Congress, in our Congress, so he gets the people that will write him the blank

00:16:09.680 check. You don't have to be a conspiracy theorist to connect the dots here. And by the way, even if

00:16:16.220 you put aside these strategic political considerations, a lot of Democrats, by their

00:16:20.640 own admission, want higher gas prices because they think it will hasten our transition to a

00:16:25.820 so-called green economy. This has been a long-term ideological objective of the left, and you should

00:16:31.760 keep that in mind whenever you see Democrats going on television pretending to care about

00:16:36.060 high gas prices. They spent the last decade telling us again and again that expensive gas

00:16:40.880 is good for the environment. We should want it. The Seattle Times even published an article during

00:16:46.980 the Biden administration entitled, High Gas Prices? They're Just What We Need. And in case you forgot

00:16:53.080 not that. Here's what they said at the time. Quote, the biggest paradox of the moment is

00:16:56.320 Americans complaining about high gasoline prices when climate change is growing worse.

00:17:00.480 Carbon needs to be priced high enough to keep it in the ground instead of burning it into the

00:17:04.960 atmosphere. This is essential to preventing global catastrophe. The AP ran a similar article

00:17:11.600 quoting experts as saying that, quote, fuel prices that are high have a long term ability to cut

00:17:16.360 demand and the administration wouldn't mind seeing that. Another expert at Berkeley said, quote,

00:17:23.080 High gas prices are unequivocally good for fighting climate change because people use less fossil fuel and emissions go down.

00:17:30.980 Just this year, the United Nations expressed excitement that the war in Iran would accelerate our transition to renewable energy.

00:17:37.780 This is from Reuters, quote,

00:17:39.420 The Iran war is supercharging the world's shift to renewable energy as countries scramble to reduce their exposure to volatile oil and gas markets, the U.N. climate secretary said.

00:17:49.180 Early signs indicate the war, which began two months ago,

00:17:51.540 is speeding up some countries' low-carbon transition.

00:17:55.280 Renewables offer safer, cheaper, cleaner energy

00:17:57.460 that can't be held captive by narrow shipping straits or global conflicts.

00:18:03.380 So this is a very long-term goal for the left.

00:18:06.700 They've been very explicit about it,

00:18:08.800 and now they're closer than ever to achieving it.

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00:20:31.900 growth, fast funding, Cardiff. Borrow better. Here's the worst case scenario for how this

00:20:40.240 will all play out. And I can't help it. I'm just the optimistic type. Or to put things

00:20:45.240 in terms the Lindsey Clancy jury could understand, I'm a Sagittarius. Or I don't know what I

00:20:52.220 am. I'm something. The main risk at the moment, even aside from the midterms, is that Republicans

00:20:58.940 will embrace an energy stopgap measure that makes the problem significantly worse than it already

00:21:05.060 is. This is from Bloomberg from a few days ago. Quote, Senate Majority Leader John Thune said

00:21:09.760 he's open to exploring an export ban for diesel fuel as average national prices surge past $6 a

00:21:15.560 gallon. We'll be looking at any proposal that is a viable solution. But I do think if we have the

00:21:20.520 supply in this country and we're exporting it right now, that might be one way of getting at

00:21:24.720 it. If that would take pressure off of prices, you know I'm open to exploring it. Thune said

00:21:29.620 an export ban probably makes more sense to him than suspending the diesel tax in action

00:21:34.040 recommended by Democrat James Tellarico. Oil industry executives have warned that while an

00:21:38.760 export ban would initially lower prices for U.S. consumers, it would ultimately backfire. Energy

00:21:42.900 companies would likely respond by cutting crude production and fuel refining. Ultimately, prices

00:21:48.260 for gasoline could increase 15 cents or more per gallon. Meanwhile, Chuck Grassley just posted this

00:21:54.680 message on X when he attacks, where he attacks Big Oil and proposes more government regulation.

00:22:00.180 Quote, Big Oil is telling us we can't embargo diesel. If true, they still don't have to make

00:22:05.720 some profits off U.S. farmers and truckers that they make in foreign sales. America first.

00:22:13.460 So he's also floating an embargo of diesel or alternatively some kind of price control on

00:22:17.960 domestic sale of diesel, he says, and I quote, they don't have to make the same profit off of

00:22:23.200 U.S. farmers and truckers. This is exactly the kind of rhetoric you expect from Bernie Sanders

00:22:28.760 or Elizabeth Warren. Here we have a government bureaucrat, someone who's held political office

00:22:34.440 for all 5,000 years of his life, saying private businesses don't have to earn profit. Therefore,

00:22:43.320 he wants to take over one of the most important markets in the world, which is the market for

00:22:47.240 diesel fuel, where the United States is the top exporter. Well, actually, Chuck Grassley,

00:22:52.680 you know, well, here's the reality. The oil companies, like any other company,

00:22:57.840 you know, they make profits. They're entitled to whatever profits they can get. That's how it

00:23:02.720 works in the market. That's not because they're good people or because they deserve it or anything

00:23:08.040 else. It's because once you let the government take over the market, then everyone will be

00:23:14.180 totally screwed in very short order. That's always what happens in every single case when

00:23:19.020 government bureaucrats start implementing price controls, especially in very complicated markets

00:23:24.240 they don't understand. Has any Republican actually thought about the effects of an

00:23:29.360 export ban or the effects of price controls on diesel in the U.S. market? Do any of them remember

00:23:36.360 the shortages in gas lines from the last time the U.S. attempted an export ban like this back in the

00:23:40.580 1970s, which aggravated the shortages caused by the Arab oil embargo. Put aside how many problems

00:23:47.800 we'd be causing for our alleged allies in Europe, we'd have to go back to stealing firewood to stay

00:23:52.720 alive. Logically, if we impose an export ban and price controls, then profit margins for domestic

00:23:59.400 suppliers would collapse overnight. And that means less diesel production and more expensive goods

00:24:04.700 that you buy from Amazon or anywhere else. And guess what? As we said, gasoline, jet fuel,

00:24:09.860 and diesel all come from the same barrel. There are no diesel factories. If you manipulate the

00:24:15.160 market so that diesel is suddenly unprofitable, they're going to scale back on their refining,

00:24:19.280 and that's going to affect regular gasoline as well. It'll affect the price of airline tickets.

00:24:24.120 It'll affect everything. Now, it's true that China has restricted diesel and gasoline exports,

00:24:29.920 although nothing on the scale that Republicans are talking about right now, but there's a catch,

00:24:33.400 which is that China has spent a long time ramping up their coal production

00:24:36.700 as an alternative fuel supply.

00:24:38.960 China now accounts for something like 50%

00:24:40.980 of all global coal production,

00:24:42.820 which they use for two purposes,

00:24:44.420 creating synthetic natural gas

00:24:45.940 and substituting for natural gas power plants.

00:24:50.160 And meanwhile, our coal production is down

00:24:52.060 something like 50% since 2008.

00:24:54.560 So that's a big distinction.

00:24:57.320 At the same time,

00:24:58.180 China has been pushing electric vehicles

00:24:59.860 on its population,

00:25:00.580 which naturally reduces the demand for gasoline.

00:25:03.160 In other words,

00:25:04.100 if we implement Chinese-style export controls,

00:25:06.700 We're running several risks that they aren't taking, at least not to the same degree, and no one in Washington, in either party, has apparently considered any of this.

00:25:17.440 Along the same lines, evidently, no one considered the fact that the Saudis have a very vulnerable east-west pipeline that stretches for around 750 miles from the east where they produce the oil to a port in the Red Sea.

00:25:28.680 This is the pipeline they're using now that the Strait of Hormuz is compromised.

00:25:33.140 and but but for years we've known that this pipeline is vulnerable to another choke point 0.69

00:25:38.080 at the red sea where the houthis terrorists from yemen who are backed by iran are now using drones

00:25:44.280 and missiles to disrupt shipping they've just conducted a lightning offensive to seize a vital

00:25:50.140 maritime choke point in the region so the warlords are basically in control of shipping traffic in

00:25:56.560 the area of param island which is how you get into the red sea and as a result there's now

00:26:02.380 another problem to worry about, which is a shortage of tankers. This is from the Wall Street

00:26:06.940 Journal, quote, drone attacks that shut Saudi Arabia's bypass pipeline earlier this month have

00:26:12.280 forced more crude back through the strait and onto a tanker fleet already stretched thin. The impact

00:26:19.060 has spread worldwide as longer voyages and shuttle runs around Hormuz tie up ships and push the daily

00:26:26.040 rate of hiring oil tankers to records. The sudden supply crunch among oil supertankers

00:26:32.380 known as Very Large Crude Carriers, or VLCCs, has boosted the cost of hauling oil through the

00:26:38.580 strait to the highest on record. Earlier this month, the cost of hiring an oil supertanker

00:26:43.200 to load inside the Persian Gulf and transit the Strait of Hormuz topped a million dollars a day,

00:26:49.200 according to maritime intelligence firm Windward. That works out to $26 a barrel, or roughly a

00:26:55.160 quarter of the crude's value based on the current market price. Normally, shipping costs are a

00:27:00.520 fraction of the value of a crude cargo. So somehow no one foresaw this development when the war

00:27:07.300 planning was going on. We were told that Iranians would, if you remember, they would rise up and 0.99

00:27:13.320 take their country back, which hasn't happened. But we weren't told that there would be a shortage

00:27:19.600 of oil tankers, as well as oil in general. You know, there used to be a category of clothing

00:27:25.680 called dressing like an adult. You weren't wearing a suit. You weren't going anywhere particularly

00:27:30.720 formal. You just put on decent clothes because you were leaving the house. We've mostly abandoned

00:27:35.940 this concept, I'm afraid, but I'm trying to keep it alive. And Tecova's is helping. I like their

00:27:41.800 boots. I wear them myself. They're classic. They're understated. They're very comfortable. And they

00:27:46.180 look just as good with a normal pair of jeans as they do when you need to dress things up a little

00:27:49.940 bit. And more importantly, like I said, they're actually comfortable. Tecova's handcrafted their

00:27:54.620 boots, and more than 200 steps, but there's no mandatory period where you have to limp around

00:27:59.460 for two weeks regretting your purchase. Mine felt broken in right out of the box, and Decova's isn't

00:28:05.220 just boots. They make denim, they make shirts, they make belts, wallets, shoes, plenty of other

00:28:10.360 things for men who would like to look put together without looking like they're trying too hard. It's

00:28:15.380 a surprisingly difficult balance, but Decova's, they get it right. Right now, get 10% off at

00:28:20.380 Tekovas.com slash Matt. When you sign up for email and text, that's 10% off at T-E-C-O-V-A-S.com

00:28:27.900 slash Matt. Tekovas.com slash Matt. See cipher details. Tekovas. Point your toes west.

00:28:34.680 The midterms are not just one national race. There are dozens of individual contests,

00:28:39.360 each reacting to its own headlines and developments. In Maine, Troy Jackson and Susan

00:28:43.500 Collins are competing in one of Calci's most actively traded Senate markets. Track the race

00:28:48.160 live in CalShi's midterms hub

00:28:49.920 and trade the outcome

00:28:50.800 you believe will happen.

00:28:52.580 A correct contract is worth $1 at settlement. 0.96

00:28:55.480 Don't just watch the race.

00:28:56.460 Take your position on CalShi.

00:28:58.240 Use code DAILY, D-A-I-L-Y,

00:29:00.820 to get up to $25 when you trade at $25. 0.90

00:29:03.960 It's CalShi, K-A-L-S-H-I, CalShi.

00:29:07.520 Trade on anything. 0.79

00:29:08.880 18 plus only.

00:29:10.380 Restrictions and eligibility requirements apply.

00:29:12.580 Event contract trading involves risk

00:29:14.160 and may not be suitable for all investors.

00:29:16.360 CalShi products are not available

00:29:17.580 in all jurisdictions. Prices, values, and available markets may differ from those mentioned.

00:29:22.320 For more information, see calci.com slash regulatory. And while this might not be a big

00:29:27.820 deal in normal circumstances, the thing is, we've already exhausted our own emergency stores of oil.

00:29:34.820 The Strategic Petroleum Reserve was 638 million barrels when Biden took office

00:29:39.640 and dropped to under 400 million barrels when he left. That's a drop of roughly 40 percent.

00:29:45.000 It was widely reported at the time as a betrayal, because that's exactly what it was. It was

00:29:50.780 deliberate sabotage. By the time the Iran war began, the reserve was back up around 415 million

00:29:56.740 barrels, still a fraction of what it used to be before Biden. And then since this latest war

00:30:02.360 began, the White House has announced plans to release around 170 million barrels, which brings

00:30:06.840 the reserve down to its lowest level since 1983. So now we're down to between 240, 280 million

00:30:12.640 barrels, which is significant because according to the federal government, around 100 million

00:30:17.320 of these remaining barrels cannot be deployed at all for any reason due to a mixture of construction

00:30:24.260 outages and cavern outages, according to a government watchdog. So really, we're running

00:30:28.860 on fumes, in other words, and there's no backup. That's part of the reason why even mainstream

00:30:34.960 analysts, particularly JP Morgan, have been modeling a worst case scenario lately. So I'm

00:30:41.020 going to read from one of their reports from May of this year. This is what it says. If the

00:30:47.700 strait is not open by September, global inventories could hit an operational stress floor of 6.7 to

00:30:54.160 6.8 billion barrels, after which demand destruction would occur at a faster pace, mostly in Asia and

00:31:01.560 Europe. Now, this disaster scenario hasn't come to pass yet because demand has been lower than

00:31:10.060 they forecast. But it's still a possibility. And more recently, in a note this week, JP Morgan

00:31:15.980 announced that they've given up on trying to predict oil prices, saying, quote, we simply

00:31:20.340 don't know how to model the end game. So what's the operational stress floor, quote unquote, of

00:31:27.980 global inventories of oil exactly? Well, here's what it could mean in practice. Once oil hits the

00:31:35.160 operational stress floor and stays there for a sustained period of time, it becomes very difficult

00:31:40.220 for any buyer to purchase oil, no matter how much he's willing to pay. That's because the pipelines

00:31:45.640 and the refineries and the storage tanks are not allowed to go below a certain level of oil. If

00:31:50.020 they go below the operational limit, then the machines themselves break. The result, as JP

00:31:55.880 Morgan put it, is demand destruction, which is a polite way of saying rationing. The market can't

00:32:02.720 provide any more oil, so governments have to use force to prevent people from using it.

00:32:08.920 The global economy would in all likelihood crash. Many people would die. Inflation would reach

00:32:15.420 historic levels. And we would enter in all likelihood an economic death spiral.

00:32:21.800 Now, that's not a risk that I'm inventing, you know, just to get your intention.

00:32:27.460 It's from J.P. Morgan, which is one of the most established mainstream financial institutions

00:32:31.960 in the world. Did you hear about this? Has anyone told you about it? Probably not, because if they

00:32:39.500 did that, then you'd demand solutions. An energy crisis is one of the worst things that can happen

00:32:46.000 to a civilization. We are currently careening towards one. To the extent that our politicians

00:32:52.600 do anything, it should be their number one goal to prevent something like that from happening.

00:32:59.160 So what are they doing about it?

00:33:02.060 Well, as far as I can tell, they aren't really doing anything.

00:33:05.320 But that's not because they don't have options.

00:33:08.520 The first thing they should do is tell Zelensky, not ask, tell Zelensky to stop bombing Russian refineries immediately.

00:33:18.820 Because of the incredible harm it's doing to us.

00:33:22.360 It's not about Russia.

00:33:23.400 And if he refuses, if he continues to lie to us while he brags about destroying Russian fuel

00:33:29.820 infrastructure, then we should bomb Ukraine until Zelensky is removed from power.

00:33:35.960 We cannot tolerate this anymore. He's taken billions of dollars from U.S. taxpayers and

00:33:42.120 now he's deliberately tanking the global market for diesel. It's unconscionable.

00:33:47.000 He is a threat to us. We aren't simply wasting our money on Ukraine. The return on investment 1.00

00:33:53.000 has been overwhelmingly negative. We are suffering for it. And we need to shut these con artists down

00:34:00.060 immediately. The second thing we need to do is end this ridiculous war in Iran. Some of us warned 0.98

00:34:07.000 that the war would have this result when it first started. We were shouted down by many on our own

00:34:12.120 side. But we were right. And we've been proven right every step of the way. And now here we are. 1.00

00:34:18.300 And it has to end. And next, we need to ramp up the oil exports from our newest puppet state,

00:34:24.300 Venezuela. This should be the advantage of having it as a puppet state, which we do. 0.93

00:34:30.720 And we should make manifest destiny real again, make it great again and take over all the oil 0.92

00:34:37.060 we can get in Cuba and Africa as well, which is significant. If we need to, we can move on to

00:34:43.020 Canada. All these countries are right next door. They're all communist and dysfunctional. They're

00:34:47.560 not using their resources to any significant degree. And so we should take what we need

00:34:52.940 for the good of our own people. The alternative is too unthinkable.

00:35:00.120 It just shouldn't be an option on the table.

00:35:03.920 Now, we elected this administration to come up with solutions like this, solutions to problems

00:35:08.460 that could realistically destroy this country and civilization. This is why Donald Trump beat

00:35:14.380 Kamala Harris. You know, she was talking about racial equity and making sure black people didn't 1.00

00:35:20.260 lose their Bitcoin or whatever. Donald Trump won because he said he would make life better for

00:35:26.180 everyday Americans in a real tangible way. And he now has an opportunity to do that.

00:35:31.740 If it doesn't happen, if the GOP doesn't step up, then they deserve everything that's going

00:35:38.500 happen in November. We have one chance now to stabilize a situation that is rapidly spiraling

00:35:45.560 out of control. We can take that chance or we can become Germany or Poland. And instead of waiting 0.99

00:35:54.040 outside the Apple store for the latest iPhone or whatever, we'll be lining up outside the coal mine

00:35:59.240 begging for some fuel so our children don't freeze to death. It sounds unthinkable, but every great

00:36:06.600 tragedy seemed unthinkable before it happened. Every great empire thought it was untouchable

00:36:11.160 before the fall. And with every day this war drags on, as even alleged conservatives openly

00:36:18.320 embraced the rhetoric of communists, our own fall, not simply the fall of the GOP, but

00:36:22.600 of the entire country, becomes more and more likely.

00:36:28.960 That'll do it for the show today. Thanks for watching. Thanks for listening. Talk to you

00:36:31.380 tomorrow. Have a great day. Godspeed.

00:36:36.600 Every significant movement in history has started with protesting. 1.00

00:36:42.900 You're a traitor! 1.00

00:36:43.900 Uncle Tom! 1.00

00:36:44.900 This is our generation's civil rights!

00:36:46.200 I have no idea what the protest is about.

00:36:48.200 Bingo!

00:36:49.200 Given the current climate, we should have figured as polarizing as Clay Saunders even

00:36:53.200 be allowed on campus.

00:36:54.200 Ah, can you hear me okay?

00:36:55.200 Saunders is a close personal friend of Chancellor Friedman.

00:36:57.900 This is a decision I cannot find. 1.00

00:36:59.400 Islam will conquer the West. 1.00

00:37:01.200 Assalamualaikum. 1.00

00:37:04.200 Are we paying attention?

00:37:07.200 They've taken over the building.

00:37:09.200 They're downstairs and they've blocked the doors.

00:37:12.200 I seek forgiveness from Allah the Almighty.

00:37:16.200 We cannot run and hide.

00:37:18.200 Mohammed is the messenger of God.

00:37:21.200 There is no God but Allah. 0.99

00:37:24.200 What do you say? 1.00

00:37:26.200 You turn those SOBs into a fine red mist. 1.00

00:37:30.200 As we move, one man will cover 1.00

00:37:33.200 While the other guys go, they call that leap project.

00:37:35.600 Stretch them out and listen.

00:37:38.340 You need a course in safe weapons handling.

00:37:46.860 Well, polls tell you what voters said at one moment.

00:37:50.440 But Kalshi gives you another way to follow a race.

00:37:52.460 A live market that moves as traders respond to new information.

00:37:56.400 In Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed and Mike Rogers are competing in one of Kalshi's most traded midterm matchups.

00:38:02.080 You can visit CalShe's Midterms Hub to track how the market views the race and then trade an event contract on the outcome you think is going to happen.

00:38:09.880 If you're right at settlement, each winning contract is worth $1.

00:38:13.600 See the market. Make your call.

00:38:15.720 Trade what happens next on CalShe.

00:38:17.780 Use code DAILY, D-A-I-L-Y, to get up to $25 when you trade $25.

00:38:23.080 That's CalShe, K-A-L-S-H-I, CalShe.

00:38:26.560 Trade on anything.

00:38:27.920 18 plus only.

00:38:28.900 Restrictions and eligibility requirements apply.

00:38:31.440 Event contracts trading involves risk

00:38:33.060 and may not be suitable for all investors.

00:38:35.280 CalShe products are not available in all jurisdictions.

00:38:38.080 Prices, values, and available markets

00:38:39.680 may differ from those mentioned.

00:38:41.440 For more information, you can go see calshe.com

00:38:43.740 slash regulatory.

00:38:45.420 Who says Halloween only lasts one day?

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00:38:59.260 feel like magic all in one place because the best Halloween memories aren't made in just one night

00:39:04.960 they're made all season long shop Halloween decor now at wayfair.com that's w-a-y-f-a-i-r dot com

The Matt Walsh Show - September 21, 2026

Ep. 1842 - Gas Prices Are Out Of Control. Here's What No One Is Telling You.

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