Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Thursday, August 13, 2026

The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is becoming more pressing as the International Energy Agency warns that global oil stockpiles are diminishing at a rapid clip.

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I'm old enough to remember when 367m barrels was considered a complete disaster and Joe Biden was a reckless dictator for getting the reserves that low. Today, crickets from the GOP (and most of the news media)

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-- Joe Adalian (@tvmojoe.bsky.social) 11:36 AM · Aug 10, 2026

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So Much Winning

#1 | Posted by LegallyYourDead at 2026-08-12 10:37 PM | Reply

US SPR is at it's lowest level in 43 years and is burning through it's reserves fast.

#2 | Posted by Nixon at 2026-08-13 07:48 AM | Reply

"global oil stockpiles are diminishing at a rapid clip."

Republicans have been stroking each other for a few years, saying we're Energy Independent now.

Why should America care about global stockpiles when we're energy independent?

Hopefully a Republican, who is naturally an economic genius and also very good-looking, can explain it to me.

#3 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-08-13 08:15 AM | Reply

Piggy is floating reducing our reserves to below 70 million barrels
The statutory minimum is like 240 million barrels
The problem is that the oil is stored in salt caves that will collapse if the oil is drawn down that low
We are at around 295 million barrels now

Why don't we just increase refining capacity?cause we are maxed out already

#4 | Posted by truthhurts at 2026-08-13 10:27 AM | Reply

Just Give the Mullahs 500 Billion Dollars in Reparations and Slink Back to North America.

Close the Bases in the ME and leave Israel to the Mercies of the Shia.

That's the way out, Cut and Run.

Like the Poltroons we Really Are.

Israel deserves no Better.

#5 | Posted by Effeteposer at 2026-08-13 10:57 AM | Reply

we're Energy Independent now.

Not when you still have to import 6 million barrels per day.

#6 | Posted by REDIAL at 2026-08-13 12:14 PM | Reply

we're Energy Independent now

But not independent of global energy prices and price fluctuations. Apparently.

#7 | Posted by donnerboy at 2026-08-13 12:23 PM | Reply

Energy Independence is Republican feel-good marketing.

America can't be energy independent.

Because America sells off our energy resources to be developed by multinational corporations for pennies on the dollar.

#8 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-08-13 12:28 PM | Reply

America can't be energy independent.

Not without finding a domestic source of heavy crude.

#9 | Posted by REDIAL at 2026-08-13 12:34 PM | Reply

"America can't be energy independent."

A country that allows another country to run its foreign policy can never be even remotely close to self-sufficient.

#10 | Posted by NerfHerder at 2026-08-13 12:36 PM | Reply

Not without finding a domestic source of heavy crude.
#9 | Posted by REDIAL

We have plenty of sources of crude oil.

We keep giving them away to energy companies.

If we didn't do that, all Americans could be significantly wealthier, like the people living in Alaska who get a dividend check for a few thousand dollars every year.

#11 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-08-13 12:42 PM | Reply

We have plenty of sources of crude oil.

But not heavy crude. Not enough to meet needs, at least. Hence all the importing.

#12 | Posted by REDIAL at 2026-08-13 12:51 PM | Reply

"Heavy Crude" is a good code name for a fat President who enjoys raping children.

#13 | Posted by snoofy at 2026-08-13 03:45 PM | Reply | Newsworthy 1

Starting to think this is just the play part of Trump's pay to play scheme with billions of donations from energy cos.

They're making money hand over fist while having plausible deniability for depleting supply globally. Even if the straight opens tomorrow, they'll continue to make bank for years.

#14 | Posted by jpw at 2026-08-13 05:02 PM | Reply

Good shot.

#15 | Posted by C0RI0LANUS at 2026-08-14 12:25 AM | Reply

Recently posted ... Part 1 of 2 parts ...

by Allen Clifton

I apologize for some of the language, but I really need to vent for a bit - can we please just f*cking have a president who isn't a complete, unhinged, embarrassing, childish idiot?

At this point, I don't even care if I agree with their policies, I just want an adult leading this nation. Not an emotionally stunted, 80-year-old toddler.

It's pretty bad when I find myself sometimes missing the Republican days of George W. Bush's leadership *** - someone who, at the time, we all thought was a pretty low bar to set for Republican presidents..

Oh, how naive we all were. When people said, "They can't get any dumber than Bush," Republicans clearly took that as a challenge.

The headlines I come across nearly every single day... Jesus Christ.

The Strait of Hormuz is "open"... wait, now it's closed again - no, actually, it's open, but only closed by the United States, which now "completely controls it," but then Iran is shooting at ships trying to cross it, and it's closed again, seemingly by Iran.

Yet we fully control it!

But wait - no, Iran's military and navy no longer exist, right? Isn't that what we've been told?

The war is "over," we "won," and Iran has been "obliterated," but then we're negotiating a deal, but then we're not because, according to Trump, Iran isn't "ready" to make a deal - but then he says they're also desperate to make one.

Because all that makes total sense.

All the while, gas has been over $4 a gallon nationally for months and inflation is at three-year highs.

Oh, and now there's the ongoing possibility that when this disaster finally ends, there's going to be a toll charge to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, when it was previously free.

But then who really knows, because that story changes every hour.

Yet we totally control the strait!

This all comes after we were told, repeatedly, all last year, that Iran's nuclear capabilities were also "totally obliterated." Anyone who said anything other than that Trump's first strike had "totally obliterated" their nuclear program - setting them back years - was "fake news."

Except just a few months later, apparently, their impending nuclear weapon was why we had to go to war with them.

So, was the news "fake" or not? Shouldn't Trump have to answer for that, considering he told all of us last summer that their nuclear program had been set back years? Especially when the "fake news" he attacked was that we had only marginally set the Iranian government back "a few months," and here we are, a few months later, at war.

... to be continued in Part 2 of 2 parts (along with the *** footnote).

#16 | Posted by A_Friend at 2026-08-14 06:14 PM | Reply

Recently posted ... Part 2 of 2 parts (link to Part 1 (opens in a new window)...

Who cares, right? Screw it - why should the meaning of words or statements from a president matter? None of that's important.

No one takes this president seriously anymore anyway. Which isn't a massive issue or anything.

It's fine... everything's fine.

I want a president who doesn't view war like it's something meant to give him the ability to "make things go boom" and posture tough on social media.

I want a defense secretary who doesn't embarrass the country by trying to cite a Bible verse, only to actually quote a Samuel L. Jackson character from Pulp Fiction, stage asinine stunts to show him failing at working out while trying to look "tough," or neglect our military to such an extent that sailors are literally trying to jump off ships due to the horrendous nature of their living conditions.

I want a Secretary of State who doesn't constantly look like a neutered dog, making an absolute fool of himself in the desperate hope that Trump will anoint him as the next GOP presidential candidate.

I want a vice president who isn't a walking diaper stain - someone nobody, including Trump, can stand being around. A loser who stands for absolutely nothing other than whatever is most convenient for him at the moment.

I want a leader of Health and Human Services who isn't legitimately an insane, conspiracy-pushing whack job who doesn't believe in science and goes off on incoherent rants about "data" where he's literally just making sh*t up that isn't backed by any credible scientific data.

I want a president who isn't spending hours every week on social media lashing out at people, whining, pushing conspiracies, telling the world how great he is, and going on multiple 30-40-post posting sprees of mostly AI-generated slop of him in a military uniform or depicted as Jesus Christ like an unhinged lunatic.

This piece of sh*t has the most important job in the world, and yet he seems to have more time than someone who's retired to watch cable news, to b*tch and whine about what he sees on social media, and play golf.

For f*ck's sake - I just want adults in charge.

That's all I'm asking for. Functioning adults who don't embarrass this country every single damn day of the week, month, and year.

Adults who aren't running a nonstop sh*tshow of an administration that's so unbelievably inept I literally don't know if the headlines I'm reading are satire or, sadly, reality.

I'm so sick of stupidity. It's exhausting.

I just want adults back in charge of our country.

*** - StopTheBoxItch

#17 | Posted by A_Friend at 2026-08-14 06:14 PM | Reply

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