Nation

Sometimes my brain works in strange ways; it draws connections between disparate things to come up with possibilities that are, sometimes, fascinating.

Take the recent observation by many people about a "shortage" of lumber and an almost TRIPLING of lumber prices.

While the lumber industry is telling folks that COVID caused manpower shortages, which caused supply shortages, people started noticing that the storage yards at lumber mills were overflowing with lumber.  Other folks started noticing that rail yards were also seemingly over-flowing with lumber.  No shortage, but lumber isn't getting to the retail level and prices keep going up.

Next, take a look at the "cyber-attack" and subsequent "outage" of the Colonial Pipeline which carries refined gasoline, diesel, and aviation fuel to fourteen states, a number of major airports, and to upwards of NINETY U.S. Military bases.

The pipeline, we were told, suffered a ransomware cyber-attack which caused it to shut down.

Here we are, a week later, several states have had to declare emergencies over fuel shortages, aircraft are having to set down along previously non-stop routes to get fuel, and prices are going through the roof for gasoline.

Seems straight-forward enough; supply and demand.  

But is it?

We later found out that only the Business systems of Colonial Pipeline were hit by ransomware, and that the systems which control the pipeline itself WERE NOT AFFECTED.  So the pipeline itself . . . still works just fine.

Because the BUSINESS SYSTEMS were affected, Colonial could not accurately BILL for the fuel its pipeline carries.  So they shut off the pipeline!  Over a billing issue????

Now here's where my mind goes into dark places.

What is one of the largest lumber companies in the world?   Georgia-Pacific.   And who owns much or all of Georgia Pacific?

The Koch Brothers (i.e. Koch Industries); the multi-billionaire(s) who were big backers of RINO Republicans.   

The Koch's didn't seem to like Donald Trump very much.  They opposed his crackdown on illegal immigration, opposed building the border wall, and funded a number of what I like to call "RINO" (Republican in name only) politicians, who also opposed Trump.

And who owns Colonial Pipeline? 

Well, it turns out that Koch Industries (those Koch Brothers again?) owned/own a large stake in Colonial Pipeline.

Gee, what a coincidence.  Two industries whose absolute MAJOR players are owned/controlled by the same people . . . both seeing "problems" that stifle shipment of product resulting in major price increases.  

Could it be that these two industries are NOT being affected by market forces, but instead are being manipulated by certain Billionaire-types?

Maybe some Billionaire-types that want to punish "the People" for daring to inflict Trump upon their Billionaire-Utopian-control?

Now, while certain Billionaires CALL themselves "Republican" they seem to advocate for policies (like unlimited immigration) that are clearly against what a majority of actual Republicans want.

And these same Billionaire-types financially back RINO Republicans.

Could it be these Billionaire-types maybe think that we "little people" need to be under their absolute control via . . . . oh, I dunno . . . Communism . . .  while they - the oh-so-educated - are the ones with the real power?

It just strikes me as odd that both the lumber industry and the oil/gas industry are having such dire problems that just so happen to result in much larger profits due to price increases, and that huge players in both those industries just happen to have the same owners.

I'm not saying that the Koch Brothers or Koch Industries are doing anything illegal - or even that they're doing anything at all.   It just seems very odd to me that their name keeps popping up when certain industries suffer "problems" resulting in massive price increases.

Curious thing to me.