Joe Biden has lost the respect of the world. He ascended to the presidency with the help of far-left media and social platforms that lied and suppressed the truth and failed to properly vet this president, leading to one of the biggest foreign policy debacles in American history. Biden's reckless and irresponsible withdraw from Afghanistan has hurt our standing with our allies and emboldened our enemies. He promised to bring respect back to America but he has done the opposite. His actions in Afghanistan as well as his nonsensical energy policies have made the country less safe and hurt America's standing in the world.  Our allies around the world now question whether or not the United States can be trusted ever again. Our NATO partners were horrified at Joe Biden's plan and by the fact that he failed to even consult them. He ignored their advice and even failed to take their phone calls as Afghanistan fell.

Secretary of State Anthony Blinken was warned last month that Kabul would fall. Diplomats sent a confidential memo to Blinken on July 13th telling him that the Taliban was rapidly gaining ground and the city was vulnerable to collapsing, yet Biden claims he had no idea that this could happen so fast and was not warned by his intelligence. It seems that the president was more interested in a photo-op so he could take credit for ending the war on the anniversary of the September 11th attacks.

The far-left media in this country that spent years viciously attacking the last president by reporting false narratives to the American people should now take some responsibility for this president's actions. The media as well as major social media platforms helped cover for Joe Biden's incompetence and scandals that clearly made him unfit. Whether it was Burimas or Hunter's laptop or just asking real questions that would put on display Joe Biden's leadership abilities or lack thereof. The media's willful blindness helped Joe Biden get elected so I guess you can say the media lied and now people die. This is why in a democracy there has to be an honest media that does its best to report the news instead of taking talking points and marching orders from one of the nation's political parties. 

It may sound harsh but I can tell you the Gold Star families of soldiers that died in Afghanistan and other soldiers that worked along with the Afghanistan people are horrified at the mess that Joe Biden has created. The U.S. military, our NATO partners, and the Afghanistan people risked their lives and fortunes, to create a better future. Now they are slapped in the face by this president’s reckless, heartless and inept policies. Biden left behind Afghan Air Force pilots, translators, and teachers, that worked with us and now are pleading to get out and looking to the United States for help. ABC reported that several Afghans who had worked with the U.S. military said they would be killed if the Taliban found them. They said they felt abandoned by the Americans. 

Now the United States is going to have to spend years, if not decades, rebuilding the trust that has been lost by this administration's actions. We have lost the respect of our friends and enemies. We will also have to prepare for a world where terror groups can once again find safe-haven in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.

The impact on U.S. financial markets by this epic failure of foreign policy has been muted. Yet one must now really question any economic policies that this president puts forth. Right now the dollar continues to ride high as the market prices increased taper expectations in the aftermath of the Fed minutes this week. There are also, of course, oil demand destruction fears as covid causes more lockdowns and is potentially going to slow demand. Yet OPEC plus is not taking Joe Biden seriously. Not only are they not going to respond to Biden's call to raise oil output, but are talking about delaying the three last agreed-upon production increases. In another world, if demand drops because of covid, OPEC plus will act and that should limit any major downside move. 

On top of that, the demand destruction so far from covid has been muted. Data from high-frequency data suggest that for the first 2 weeks of August, global demand is holding stable at 98.6 million barrels a day month over month.

ZeroHedge reports that, "On Thursday Secretary-General of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, for the first time gave specifics in terms of a timetable for the Iranian fuel shipment to crisis-hit Lebanon, saying a tanker is now set to sail to Lebanon "within hours".The Hezbollah leader also indicated more shipments from Iran will follow, while warning the United States and Israel against interfering. I am not sure how the Biden administration will respond! I assume if Biden is asked, he will say  “come on man.”

Natural gas is shaking off a bearish weekly supply report as the longer-term supply situation remains tight. And even before Joe Biden's dream of millions of electric cars driving on our roads are realized, we're already seeing electricity demand hit record highs. The Energy Information Administration reported, "Electricity demand in Lower 48 states reached a high of 720 gigawatt-hours on August 12. The EIA reported that, "Working gas in storage was 2,822 Bcf as of Friday, August 13, 2021, according to EIA estimates. This represents a net increase of 46 Bcf from the previous week. Stocks were 547 Bcf less than last year at this time and 174 Bcf below the five-year average of 2,996 Bcf. At 2,822 Bcf, the total working gas is within the five-year historical range. Use weakness to lock in prices on natural gas for the long term.