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You are here: Home / Foreign Affairs / Fixed, Overnight

Fixed, Overnight

by | 83 Comments

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No more lines at the gas station in Egypt:

The apparently miraculous end to the crippling energy shortages, and the re-emergence of the police, seems to show that the legions of personnel left in place after former President Hosni Mubarak was ousted in 2011 played a significant role — intentionally or not — in undermining the overall quality of life under the Islamist administration of Mr. Morsi.

And as the interim government struggles to unite a divided nation, the Muslim Brotherhood and Mr. Morsi’s supporters say the sudden turnaround proves that their opponents conspired to make Mr. Morsi fail. Not only did police officers seem to disappear, but the state agencies responsible for providing electricity and ensuring gas supplies failed so fundamentally that gas lines and rolling blackouts fed widespread anger and frustration.

It’s either a conspiracy, or a demonstration of the eternal truth that there’s no win in pissing off a bureaucrat, or a bureaucracy.

Reader Interactions

83Comments

  1. 1.

    Betty Cracker

    Well see an analogous breaking of the legislative logjam in the US House of Reps the minute another Republican is sworn in as president (dog forbid). All the sudden, they’ll decide it’s a good idea again to confirm judges and heads of agencies and even to provide stimulus funds to head off economic downturns.

  2. 2.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    I’m sure Goldman Sachs is already trying to figure out how to get in on their gasoline action.

  5. 5.

    OzarkHillbilly

    As a buddy of mine likes to say, “You can fwck with your employees, but your employees can fwck you.”

  9. 9.

    Tom Levenson

    Re this:

    It’s either a conspiracy, or a demonstration of the eternal truth that there’s no win in pissing off a bureaucrat, or a bureaucracy

    It’s a dessert topping and a floor wash.

    Obviously.

  10. 10.

    red dog

    The entire middle east should sink into their ocean of oil and sand. In my 72 years on this planet nothing nice has come from that whole section of the earth. harumph

  12. 12.

    Rosalita

    so the cost of our gas, which supposedly increased because of Egypt will now go back down the .20 it jumped up over two days? nah, I didn’t think so…

  15. 15.

    Emma

    @red dog: Just several massive empires that laid a sizable portion of the foundations of our civilization, all? the major monotheistic religions…. ok. harumph.

  20. 20.

    Cacti

    @Emma:

    Just several massive empires that laid a sizable portion of the foundations of our civilization, all? the major monotheistic religions…. ok. harumph.

    And invented algebra, created modern pharmacology and the pharmacy system (including state regulation), and made significant contributions in the fields of botany, chemistry, and astronomy.

    Other than that, nothing at all.

  21. 21.

    Corner Stone

    Kind of lame politics to do it so quickly. They should have stretched it out for weeks and sent crews of men into the field wearing jumpsuits with their logo emblazoned loud and proud on them.
    The crews could have sweated and cursed and worked overtime for a couple weeks then *magically* all the repairs would have been done!
    It would have been worth months of constituent service and goodwill.
    Now they just look like asses.

  22. 22.

    C.S.Strowbridge

    “…the Muslim Brotherhood and Mr. Morsi’s supporters say the sudden turnaround proves that their opponents conspired to make Mr. Morsi fail.”

    Or it is proof Morsi was a failure. He created a system that didn’t work, because he was focused on making the country into a theocracy instead of making sure the country ran efficiently.

  24. 24.

    Sgaile-beairt

    ….religious nutjobs cant actuslly run anything after they take over, hoocoodanode!?

  25. 25.

    scav

    Well, even Antarctica throws up some tricky international problems, so why shouldn’t the ME go catch up with the Balkans, the Deep South, Indiana, Texas, AZ, Ireland, the German-French-Belgian border, those tricky little uninhabited islands controlling valuable international waters, greater StanisStan, most teenagers bedrooms, . . . with that final orange slice, we may finally have collected the whole set!

  27. 27.

    Sibling Nonspecific Firearm of Random Adjective Followed by a Noun That Describes a Mental State (fka AWS)

    OT, but diid anyone see General Stuck’s obit in comments a couple of posts down? Any clue if that was him?

  28. 28.

    Cacti

    @C.S.Strowbridge:

    Or it is proof Morsi was a failure. He created a system that didn’t work, because he was focused on making the country into a theocracy instead of making sure the country ran efficiently.

    I don’t see it as an either/or. One can be critical of Morsi and the MB while still acknowledging that the utilities were probably actively undermining him.

    It’s not exactly without precedent either. See Enron/California/Gray Davis.

  33. 33.

    catclub

    @Emma: You missed the ‘in my 72 years’ bit. I would point out all the oil that has powered our lifestyles over those past 72 years.

  34. 34.

    Pococurante

    @C.S.Strowbridge: Agreed.

    This is the guy who declared himself above the law, pushed a theocratic constitution that ignored over half of the populace, and refused even the appearance of compromise.

    Pretty much what a Huckabee administration would have looked like. :P

  37. 37.

    red dog

    @Emma: I prefaced my remark with “in the past 72 years” no great civilizations have happened in that time so your remark is pointless. Nothing but terrorism or war have developed in that insanely religious part of the world in the last few centuries.

  38. 38.

    catclub

    @Pococurante: I put more blame on the Mubarak holdovers.
    They had been there 40 years and had no interest in helping. Morsi decreed that judicial rulings did not cover him AFTER holdover judges screwed with his appointees pretty heavily.

  41. 41.

    Sibling Nonspecific Firearm of Random Adjective Followed by a Noun That Describes a Mental State (fka AWS)

    @Violet: It wasn’t my post, I just saw it way after the fact. Others said they thought it was him. I was just looking for a confirm. Love him or hate him, he was a consistent voice around here, and i just wanted him remembered.

  42. 42.

    Emma

    @Cassidy: Darn. Now I’m thinking mudardara, falafel on pita or manakeesh for lunch. Maybe tabbouleh… [scurries off to the kitchen]

  43. 43.

    Citizen_X

    @C.S.Strowbridge:

    Or it is proof Morsi was a failure. He created a system that didn’t work, because he was focused on making the country into a theocracy instead of making sure the country ran efficiently.

    Hmm. That sounds so familiar, for some reason.

  51. 51.

    Sibling Nonspecific Firearm of Random Adjective Followed by a Noun That Describes a Mental State (fka AWS)

    @Paul in KY: that’s a physical obit. he hasn’t been seen here in a while and many have been wondering what happened to him.

    ETA, and Sister Machine Gun is still around. I’m not him/her.

  52. 52.

    Botsplainer

    Enron in California during the Gray Davis Administration. Energy companies under Obama. Financial services sector under Obama. Lending institutions under Obama. The House of Representatives under Obama. Republican Senators under Obama.

    I’m no fan of Islamists, but this kind of “fucking with the economy for political gain” thing is bullshit – real people suffered, and some died.

  55. 55.

    becca

    The NYT article mentions Egyptian billionaires sympathetic to Mubarak financing opposition groups.

    Kinda like American billionaires, becoming too innumerable to list easily, mucking around, undermining our own democracy?

    Power gained through private wealth is waging war with governments around the world.

  56. 56.

    LarryB

    @red dog:

    The entire middle east should sink into their ocean of oil and sand. In my 72 years on this planet nothing nice has come from that whole section of the earth. harumph

    Baklava. Thus, I refute thee.

  58. 58.

    Comrade Dread

    @Cacti: Yeah, which I would still blame on a lack of leadership. Generally speaking, I thought it was common sense that you want to make people happy who have the capacity to make your life miserable.

    Sort of the ol’ “Be nice to the employees that handle your food” taken to a national scale.

  59. 59.

    Ms. D. Ranged in AZ

    Not to be a negative ninny, but wasn’t the US criticized for getting rid of all the Hussein supporting bureaucrats in Iraq? And didn’t Iraq experience many of the same problems with power outages, etc, etc?

    I mean, it makes sense to get rid of them, to a certain degree because you know they’re motivated to not work with the new government. But on the other hand, if you do get rid of them, you lose a lot of knowledge and know-how that replacement employees won’t have. Either way, things aren’t going to go smoothly and important government services won’t be delivered.

    Maybe there’s some kind of magic ratio of old to new bureaucrats that needs to happen in a regime change so that the government “works”. Of course, in the U.S. we all know that government is one monolithic representative of Satan so there’s no reason whatsoever to separate out the elected reps from the bureaucrats when we play the “blame game”.

  61. 61.

    Tone in DC

    If Morsi wasn’t such a rectal passage, I’d almost feel sorry for him, getting hosed like that.

    In this vein… amazing how dysfunctional, adversarial and downright crazed Congress, Wall Street and the energy sector became when BHO/That One/Sheriff Cleavon Little/That Uppity NiCLANG took office.

  62. 62.

    catclub

    @Botsplainer: Also the Treasury Department under Obama ;)

    I suspect that most of the businesses you listed were able to simply waffle, because waffling while the economy is not very good does not have huge costs. If the economy were good, and there were opportunities, they would be acting on them, no matter who was president.

    Plus, the energy companies have been busy making the US more energy independent, there is a boom
    going on in natural gas and they are not holding back on that.

  64. 64.

    balconesfault

    @catclub: In fact, the energy companies are right now actively trying to get the permits in place and infrastructure built to start shipping a lot of that natural gas abroad.

  65. 65.

    catclub

    @balconesfault: And Obama frequently mentions our increasing energy independence ( which is occurring during his presidency) without mentioning that the energy companies hate him, and would be doing the same under any other president.

  67. 67.

    Roger Moore

    @catclub:

    And Obama frequently mentions our increasing energy independence ( which is occurring during his presidency) without mentioning that the energy companies hate him, and would be doing the same under any other president.

    And without mentioning the lead time to get production on line. Given that it can take the better part of a decade from new permit to full production, it’s a good bet that most of the increased hydrocarbon production under Obama is a result of the anything-goes attitude of the Bush administration. It wouldn’t be the first time a president took credit for a previous administration’s policies.

  69. 69.

    Paul in KY

    @Ms. D. Ranged in AZ: In ther Iraq case, it was stupid as all the competant people had been members of Baath Party, like being in Linkedin or something like that.

    Vast majority were not ‘dead enders’.

  70. 70.

    Roger Moore

    @Paul in KY:

    In ther Iraq case, it was stupid as all the competant people had been members of Baath Party, like being in Linkedin or something like that.

    This is pretty common in one party states. In Communist countries, it was basically impossible to rise very far if you weren’t a Party member. Same thing in fascist countries. It’s a good guess that the Muslim Brotherhood would have done about the same thing if they had stayed in power for very long.

  71. 71.

    sparrow

    @Cassidy: Ugh. Maybe you were joking, but it really grates on me that in the US at least, what is called ‘multicultarilism’ is equated to “we have lots of different kinds of food in this city!” or “we went to this festival from [random country] and the food was really great! oh and they did some weird dances and stuff too”… no, guys, just… no. That is not it.

  72. 72.

    catclub

    I have the strangest ad: “Top Electricity Providers” “Compare Low Rates” “Great Electricity Deals”

    Huh? isn’t your electricity monopoly determined by where you live?

  73. 73.

    Morbo

    I dunno about the power outages, but according to twitter at least the demise of the gas lines has been greatly exaggerated.

  75. 75.

    MattR

    @Morbo: re power outages – this quote from the NY Times article smells like complete BS to me.

    On Wednesday, Al Ahram, the flagship newspaper, said the energy grid had had a surplus in the past week for the first time in months, thanks to “energy-saving measures by the public.”

  76. 76.

    burnspbesq

    @Cacti:

    Well knock me over with a feather. Rand Paul won’t be firing his neo-confederate aide.

    Butbutbut … He’s going to put a hold on the Comey nomination until he gets answers to a new round of questions about droooooonnnnnez. So it’s like totes obvs that he and Greenwald are the true defenders of freedom!

  77. 77.

    Roger Moore

    @sparrow:
    Food and festivals are the gateway drugs of multiculturalism. Some people never get past the Americanized version of the food and the watered down version of the festival, but plenty of them go past that point. The next thing you know, they’re learning a second language and dating One Of Them.

  78. 78.

    catclub

    @MattR: That was kind of the point. Economic Sabotage is ok if it harms the Muslim Brotherhood ( and democratic traditions.).

  79. 79.

    Gravenstone

    @Emma: You’ll note he specified the lack of positive events within his own lifetime. Not the events of several thousand years previous.

  80. 80.

    MattR

    @catclub: Yeah. For some of the other issues like gas shortages, I can see an argument made for Morsi’s incompetence causing problems and for economic sabatoge from suppliers or distributors being the cause. It is hard to know for sure rom this distance. But the power outages sound like they were purely the result of businesses fucking around.

  82. 82.

    xian

    I was in Egypt during the runoff (“the spare tire” vs. “the shoe”), and even then there was chatter that gas lines suddenly got bad in that period, interpreted by most as a warning from the powers that be to vote for the old regime.

  83. 83.

    Corner Stone

    @burnspbesq:

    He’s going to put a hold on the Comey nomination

    I don’t give a shit who does it. Someone needs to put a hold on the Comey nomination.
    Fuck James Comey. It’s a fucking disgrace Obama ever nominated him for FBI.

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