The joke
Biden Sells Alaska Back To Russia So We Can Start Drilling For Oil There Again
Babylon Bee
ANCHORAGE, AK—The deliberate and premeditated invasion of Ukraine by brutal dictator Vladimir Putin has forced the US to reassess the importance of energy independence. With this new resolve, the Biden Administration has taken its first step toward increasing oil production for Americans by selling Alaska back to Russia so we can start drilling for oil there again.
Jen Psaki praised Biden’s brilliance in finding a solution that would prevent an energy crisis while also preventing new drilling on American land. She pointed out succinctly to journalists, “You see, it’s not American land anymore; it’s Russian land.”
The truth
Joe Biden needs to stop buying oil and gas from the Russian dictator, but rather than getting it from the US or Canada he’s talking to a dictator in Venezuela.
President Biden is scrambling to contain soaring oil prices, which closed at more than $123 a barrel on Monday. It speaks volumes about this Administration that it’s seeking help from Vladimir Putin’s client in Venezuela and our estranged Saudi allies rather than U.S. shale producers or our Canadian friends.
The Saudis and UAE are the only OPEC members that appear to have spare capacity, but they’ve rebuffed Mr. Biden’s pleas to increase supply. One reason is they don’t want to alienate Mr. Putin, who has become a power broker in the Middle East. Mr. Biden should never have alienated the Saudis, but we’d be much better off if he simply encouraged U.S. energy production.
Ed Morrisey explains why the Democrats keep getting blamed for high gas prices:
The problem isn’t that “Big Oil” wants to keep production low. It’s that Joe Biden, Hassan, and the rest of Senate Democrats have made it clear for years that they want to force “Big Oil” out of business entirely. They’d rather put money in the hands of Iranian terrorists and Putin’s imperial army than put it on the household tables of American oil workers. Even the sight of Russians targeting civilians in Ukraine hasn’t changed their calculus on their opposition to American production of fossil fuels as a necessity for strategic leverage in a very dangerous world.
The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board slams Biden and Democrats for seeking oil from malevolent dictators in Tehran and Caracas rather than in the good ol’ USA. It makes no sense from a security perspective, nor from an economic perspective:
Easing Venezuelan sanctions would be a strategic blunder that provides a financial lifeline to Mr. Maduro while doing little to ease the oil price spike. Venezuelan oil companies say they can increase production by several hundred thousand barrels a day in eight months. The war in Ukraine may be over by then. …
Shale producers can increase production twice as fast as Venezuelan oil companies, and the profits would go to U.S. workers and shareholders rather than another dictatorship.
The anti gas and oil thing was never about the weather, and not about CO2 either. It’s not about the workers, the voters, or the environment either. Just power and money.
Joe Biden’s Response to Exploding Gas Prices Will Have You Punching Walls
The last few days have been a whirlwind for normal Americans as gas and energy prices have skyrocketed. Some of that is due to the invasion of Ukraine by Russia. Most of the price increases occurred prior to that point, though, with gas going up over a dollar per gallon during Joe Biden’s first year in office.
When gas prices go up, everything goes up. Grocery prices have exploded and you can bet the prices of non-perishable goods and services will be rising precipitously now as well.
Yet, instead of trying to help Americans, Biden is busy shifting the blame and refusing to take basic steps to mitigate their financial pain. On Tuesday, he attempted to blame Putin for the totality of the energy price increases, which is just an insulting bit of gaslighting.
But this is who Joe Biden is. He’s a coward who can never admit when he’s wrong, even when the writing is on the wall in black sharpie. He’d rather let the working class be crushed by his policies than even consider changing course. Case in point? During this same speech, instead of hearing the calls for more domestic energy production and the green-lighting of pipelines from Canada to increase supply, the president once again pushed Green New Deal “solutions” that are anything but.
So Biden’s big solution to the gas price crisis is to tell middle-class Americans to go buy electric cars that they can’t get, that they can’t charge, and that cost so much that it’d take decades to realize the cost savings. Again, it’s enough to make you want to go punch a wall.
For a long time, I looked at Biden as an aloof, incompetent, doofus, and sure, he’s absolutely that. But his presidency has made clear that he’s also a vindictive, stubborn old man who would see Americans driven into abject poverty if it meant realizing his leftwing utopia. It’s disgusting to witness such a lack of empathy.
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Which left one supporting warfare or one supporting welfare?
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The so called Green New Deal is a ruse. What amuses me is how so many people haven’t realised it, not yet.
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The ones who support the Green New Deal are the same economic illiterates who think national wealth is created by the Federal government, the tooth fairy and tinker bell.
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First and foremost, Biden and the Dems are politicians. The first rule of politics is not to lose your own money. I like to think this is the beginning of the end for renewables and the sustainable energy industry, so before creating a market panic with superannuation/401k companies dumping renewable energy stocks en masse, first create some breathing space for fellow politicians to get their money out too.
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Joe Biden Has a Problem With Facts – We Produce LESS Oil Not More Than Under Trump
Joe Biden is having one helluva historic presidency, and if it continues to go the way it has the first 13 months, he is going to make Jimmy Carter look competent by a country mile.
81 million voters my…
Here is also a breakdown per state also from EIA.
So even in the last full year of President Mean Tweets and the most atrocious forced shutdown of our economy that began with the nonsensical ask of “15 days to slow the spread,” we still produced 47,085 more barrels than in Joe’s first year. Is anyone using a calculator over at the White House or are they just spitballing everything they do?
Bigger government always creates a bigger mess for those they are trying to help.
The most experienced person ever to hold the office of President sure seems like he has never watched a School House Rock’s video on how the whole process works. I guess 81 million people voted for this dumpster fire of a White House and I think we are owed 81 million apologies.
I bet you can’t find 8 million people who will admit to it.
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Biden Administration Bans Russian Oil, Tells Hurting Americans to Jump in a Lake
Are you ready to pay even more for gas than the extremely high prices you are currently paying? That’s what’s about to happen now that the Biden administration has finally made its move on Russian oil.
Per multiple sources, the White House has flip-flopped and now plans to ban Russian oil imports into the United States, driving the cost of the essential commodity even higher.
Of course, as expected, the Biden administration is not going to do what’s necessary. Yesterday, Jen Psaki snarkily responded to questions about reauthorizing the Keystone XL pipeline or increasing federal oil and gas leases on lands that are actually profitable to drill on.
In short, Americans are completely screwed, ruled by a hateful administration that does not care about them. It would be incredibly easy to mobilize America’s energy production, even if it takes some months to make up the gap. Instead, because Biden is so beholden to a Swedish teenager and the greater climate change lobby, he is going to sit idly by while you pay $5 a gallon for gasoline and 50 percent more for home heating and electricity.
The White House is essentially telling hurting Americans to go jump in a lake. Elections have consequences I suppose, but I think even the most ardent Biden opponents didn’t expect it to be this bad. Far from the “empathizer in chief,” the president has continually shown himself to be a shallow, spiteful old man who spits on the middle-class in the name of far-left ideology.
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Joe Biden Could Be the End
Captain? Captain? Where’s the captain? His name is Joe Biden. He’s been AWOL for over a year. The conning tower is without direction. The wheelhouse is empty. The ship will run aground, and every crew member can see that except for the executive officers. If America was a ship, brace for impact. We’re all over the place—literally. And for the idiots who thought Trump’s foreign policy was chaotic—it wasn’t—I hope you’re happy. We’re a step away from funding state-sponsored terrorism.
Afghanistan was the beginning of the end of this presidency. America was in disarray. We left in a despicable and shameful fashion. It was one of the most ignominious moments in recent memory—and Joe Biden and his team thought it was fine. Don’t forget that the media, for once, did their job and shamed the man and his crew into returning to Washington when Kabul fell to the Taliban. It was later revealed that US officials knew the situation was abysmal and that a Taliban takeover was not out of the question. Biden ignored it. He said Kabul would not fall. It did. Once again, Joe Dementia was wrong on foreign policy. He has a 40-year track record in this department. The man cannot be trusted with our national security needs; he will get more of us killed.
Now, in Ukraine, Biden got played again. He tried to get Beijing to stop Russia from invading. This was a three-month effort. What happened? China rebuffed us and shared classified information we had on the Russian buildup near Ukraine with Vladimir Putin. It was truly stunning stuff. A weak president with morons leading foreign policy can get played like that. China would only make a move like this if it could see the weakness emanating from this JV squad. China and Russia agreed to a 30-year energy contract weeks before the Ukrainian invasion as well. Beijing’s silence on this war signals who it stands by right now. And yet, somehow, we have American media figures, like The New York Times’ Thomas Friedman, wondering what side China is on during this crisis. Does he read his publication?
They reported on Beijing stabbing us in the back.
Iran? Seriously, Joe?
America will directly be funding Iran’s terrorist operations. This is worse than the pallets of cash Obama paid as a ransom to get four Americans out. Obama-Biden emboldened America’s enemies. And our enemies knew their playbook, all their moves. So, when this oatmeal for brains assumed the president’s office, they knew how to outmaneuver this slow, weak, and painfully stupid man. Jill probably leads him everywhere by the hand; otherwise, he would get lost. The White House is no longer where the leader of the free world lives. It’s the most secure nursing facility in the world.
Joe is the face of American decline, and with Joe, it’s also the face of rapidly deteriorating mental capacity.
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From Hanover, Virginia, thank you.
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Trump had America self sufficient with oil and gas , Biden fixed that .
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Even better, President Trump made America a net oil and other petroleum product exporter.
https://www.heritage.org/coal-oil-natural-gas/commentary/us-worlds-largest-oil-and-natural-gas-producer-despite-bidens
But Biden is “fixing” that. The Left hate inexpensive, reliable, life-giving and civilisation-giving energy (except for the Elites).
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Donald Trump on National Average Gas Price Breaking Record High: ‘Miss Me Yet?’
Former President Donald Trump released a statement on Tuesday reacting to the news that the national average price of gas has reached an all-time high under Democrat President Joe Biden.
“BREAKING NEWS,” the 45th President said in all caps. “HIGHEST GAS PRICES IN HISTORY! DO YOU MISS ME YET?”
In 2020, Trump notably predicted that gas prices under Biden would reach $7.00 per gallon, which came true this week.
The price of gas in Gorda, California, reached $7.59 on Sunday. Fuel stations in Los Angeles County were also selling premium gasoline for more than $7.00 a gallon. One gas station in Los Angeles was advertising gas for $6.99. The average price for gas in California is $5.343. Nationally, the average price of gas is $4.065, up over one dollar from last year.
Trump made the prediction on November 3, 2020, right before election day, and doubled down in May. It took just over a year after Biden assumed office for Trump’s prediction to come true.
“Gasoline is going to stop at six, seven dollars, I think, based on what I’m seeing,” he said before pooh-poohing renewable energy as impracticable.
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Hard not to like this man.
In time I expect conspiracy theorists will see Covid as a ploy to undermine confidence in the Trump presidency resulting in a the Biden disaster.
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In time, maybe in less than a year, that particular conspiracy theory will been seen as fact.
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Mr. rosicka: Yes, but in this context I think “fixed” should be spelled with a “u”, a “c” and a “K”.
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Biden Announces Ban on Russian Oil Imports, Simultaneous With US Gasoline Prices Hitting Record High
March 8, 2022 – Sundance
Against this backdrop, Joe Biden announced today that his administration is banning the import of oil, liquified natural gas (LNG) and coal from Russia. [We do not import LNG or coal from Russia, so that political point is moot.] You can read the executive order HERE.
The executive order also bans any U.S. entity from investing or facilitating the investment of Russian energy development. That section explains why there were earlier reports of Oil companies withdrawing from Russia. They were obviously given a heads up.
The way the order is currently written, and a lot of it has to do with extremely generous interpretations by the U.S. Treasury Dept., it would appear that any energy company currently operating in the U.S. cannot simultaneously be operating in Russia (or be part of the subsidizing and insurance network that supports energy development in Russia). The Treasury interpretations here are fraught with complexity.
The part that matters is boiled down in this section:
The White House is looking to replace Russian oil by purchasing from Venezuela, Iran and, to a lesser extent, Saudi Arabia. In some ways, you can look at this oil purchase shift as a continuation of President Obama’s intent to exfiltrate American wealth. Iran and Venezuela become the favored nations again, as they were in the Obama-Biden administration 2009-2017.
Ideologues who have always operated in the background of Biden are working on the same program to consign the U.S. economy as a permanent “service driven economy.” The difference now is the rapid speed of their policy outcomes, because Biden is disposable.
Biden-Obama, and all that come with them, are working through an ideological plan. All of these consequences and outcomes are features, not flaws.
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Putin Signs Countermeasure Decree Limiting Russian Exports After Biden’s Russian Oil Import Ban
Within hours of Joe Biden announcing a far-reaching ban on all US imports of Russian oil – while warning Americans that gas prices are about to “go up further” – Vladimir Putin is reported to have signed his own counter-measure decree.
Russia’s RIA news agency is reporting that the new decree blocks all exports and raw materials from Russia “of certain materials” – with state media reports noting the specific list will be made public in two days.
Details remain vague and murky, with the below rush machine translation of the RIA story reading as follows…
Meanwhile the speculation begins over just what the ban will encompass…
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Start with Urea. Go Putin.
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This is becoming insane. Al Jazeera was reporting that the US is considering a rapprochement with Iran re nuclear development restrictions on that country in order to obtain oil from Iran! Surely this is a bad joke.
No, the bad jokes are apparently the truth – Poland wants their Air Force to be used as assisting Ukraine via the US! And how will that be accomplished?
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Vicki. Poland will send their aircraft to the Ukrainians, and then the US will give the Poles replacement aircraft. here it’s explained on Tucker Carlson https://video.foxnews.com/v/6299953110001#sp=show-clips
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I saw on the new script on the bottom of the screen that the Pentagon nixed that deal.
Fighter jets are only as good as the skill and experience of the people flying them, anyway. Inexperienced novice fighter pilots have little chance in air combat. Who would fly those jets? Polish pilots? That would be whole other rabbit hole.
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There is also a requirement for spare parts, special tools, and training for ground crews.
The parts and tools can be supplied rather quickly. Training – not so much.
That’s probably only the tip of the iceberg.
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I just a saw a news story and in it they said the plan was for Ukraine pilots to fly F-16s from polish airspace into the Ukraine (to dispersed air fields?) exchanging Mig-29’s
The F-16 is a tremendous fighter plane. The only flaw is that it is not stealth. But in the context of being short of stealth it is probably the best ever. But pilots unfamiliar in the F-16 would need to learn it regardless of how skilled they are at flying Mig-29s. What’s wrong with the Mig-29s, which they are already trained up for? Or are they trying to get western pilots in there?
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And now I just heard the plan is actually for Ukraine pilots to get Mig-29s from the Poles but to replace the Polish Mig-29s with F-16s. A definite upgrade for the Polish Airforce, so a win, win, but the Pentagon refuses.
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Biden is probably talking to Venezuela because Hunter told him about the great products he gets from South America. Or maybe Hunter is on the PDVSA board…
The USA could ramp up production fast enough to be useful if they wanted to. I am pretty sure smaller players are already hiring rigs, and increasing production based on the oil price alone. The oil industry in US Land is an extremely dynamic industry.
During the US shale/unconventionals drilling boom a few years ago, there were 2 main bottlenecks to production – access to hydraulic fracturing hardware, and ways of getting the oil and gas to a processing facility. Drilling is ok, you can drill a well and come back to it later to do whatever you want. You don’t need an actual drilling rig to get it into production either.
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Is Australia any better?
There are restrictions on oil and gas exploration across most of Australia, approval of new leases is painfully slow, and fracking bans exist in several States. LNG import terminals are being planned for SE Australia as Bass Strait production declines.
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Santos has been “stimulating” wells to improve production from tight sands, and they’ve been doing it for decades. No one knows, and no one cares.
Mention doing essentially the same thing to shales, and suddenly it’s an issue, but no one can really explain why it’s an issue, except “fracking bad, oil bad”. It’s bizarre, and shows how easy it is to mobilise a horde of useless idiots.
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Just a matter of a name change and carry on as usual, the left do it all the time.
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In Vicdanistan the State Constitution was amended to ban fracking permanently. Insane, but true.
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If it could be changed at all, why cannot it be changed back?
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Maybe Gee Aye, Ian or Peter Fitzroy can help you with the answer?
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Why us? Can’t you help? Do you not help because – you know, freedom?
Here is a page. https://earthresources.vic.gov.au/projects/onshore-conventional-gas-restart
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If it was changed by a vote, it can be changed by a vote.
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State constitution requires a referendum for change. How did you vote DM?
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Hi DM… it seems that the addition of the ban was made to the constitution as you state as it is an amendment that can be made by parliament. Apologies for my snark.
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Why are gas prices so high?
Last Friday, my local paper, the State Journal Register, had the following headline and byline:
“Area gas prices hit $4 per gallon” by Royale Bonds, SJR, USA Today network
The first sentence says:
Uncertainty in the oil market because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine as well as increased demand and inflation have caused prices to skyrocket.
Not once in the article did the writer mention how much Biden’s policies have caused the energy prices to skyrocket. We had high demand and a strong economy throughout Trump’s first three years, before the virus, and we did not have high oil prices because we achieved energy independence.
On day one of Biden’s presidency, he blocked a pipeline and sent a message that one of his main goals was to destroy the fossil fuel industry in America. That sent a message to OPEC, Russia, and oil traders that the U.S. would not be a major competitor, and that sent prices soaring. OPEC and Russia are pleased and much richer, more powerful, and more dangerous because of Biden’s and other Democrats’ policies, which most journalists support. That is clearly why we rarely see supposed reporters blame Biden for the high prices. They are complicit.
But the skyrocketing cost of energy is the major culprit for inflation flowing through almost every product we buy or service we use. Cost-push inflation or stagflation is extremely harmful, short-term and especially long-term.
The media become more pathetic purveyors of misinformation every day as they campaign for Biden and his leftist policies.
They never blame Biden or Obama for anything, no matter what the facts are.
Biden, Obama, and NATO repeatedly appeased Putin and became dependent on Russia for oil.
Putin invaded Crimea during Obama’s term, and they did nothing to stop Putin.
Putin did not invade Ukraine while Trump was in office, but this war, according to many in the media, is somehow Trump’s fault.
Trump lectured NATO to spend more on defense and how stupid it was to depend on them for oil.
Trump put sanctions on the Russian pipeline to Germany. Biden lifted those sanctions.
A honest headline would be “Biden’s appeasement of Putin, and the world’s relentless move towards becoming dependent on countries like Russia for oil, view is tested by war.”
The media become more dangerous to America’s survival every day as they campaign for leftists and their radical policies.
Heaven forbid that we think of “America First.”
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Cost of energy will “skyrocket” – Obama, ~ 2012.
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Here’s The Full List Of Every Lie Joe Biden Has Told As President: 140 And Counting
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It’s not a lie if you can’t remember what you just said. 😉
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No, I think it goes… you need a good memory to be a good liar.
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Biden Plans To Ban Russian Oil Imports But Buy It From Moscow’s Allies Instead of Producing It At Home
Already, the White House sent a delegation to Trump-sanctioned Venezuela to discuss pumping the nation’s state oil into the U.S., and as President Nicolás Maduro said, “for the stability of the world.” Venezuela produces 500 percent more methane than U.S. producers, but Biden, who justified his war on U.S. oil by claiming he wanted to prioritize green energy, seems to have turned a blind eye to that fact and appears to be willing to strike a deal anyway. The White House also seems unbothered that just a couple of years ago, the United States tried to overthrow the Maduro regime but is now hoping it will sell Americans oil.
While most of the West was quick to denounce Putin’s actions in Ukraine, Venezuela and Iran both have boosted their relationships and support for the disgraced nation in the last couple of weeks. In the past year, Russia, communist China, Venezuela, and Iran have all signaled their willingness to team up and exploit the Iran deal against the United States.
The Biden administration previously sought Moscow’s assistance in reviving the Iran nuclear deal, and despite the war in Ukraine, Moscow is still involved in those negotiations.
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The problem is that the Left are so insane that it is not always obvious whether items about them are a joke, parody or real.
Never say to a Leftist, “How stupid can you get?”. They see it as a challenge.
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— Amen.
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“I’m Off to Texas” – Biden Shuffles Away and Ignores Reporters After Announcing Ban on Russian Oil Imports (VIDEO)
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The sad thing is that even if Venezuela did start selling loads of oil to the USA, the Venezuelan people will probably never see the benefits of any of that wealth.
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IIRC Venezuelan oil is heavy, which most US refineries have trouble handling
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As they say in the classics:
“Oils ain’t oils, Sol.”
Crude from Venezuela, most of the middle-East, etc, have a relatively low proportion of “light fractions”, which are what you need for fuels.
Therefore it is more expensive to produce a given quantity of these light fractions.
Then there is the problem with sulphur content Most of these “treacles” have a high sulphur content. Some of this inevitably ends up in fuels like Diesel, Jet-A, “petrol”, etc. Sulphur compounds like Sulphur Dioxide are less than desirable in the air we breathe.
Australia, on the other hand, has among the LOWEST-Sulphur oils on the planet. Additionally, most of the deposits are of the lightest fractions. The stuff coming out of the ground near Eromanga is like water, but highly flammable. Filter it through an old sock and you can run engines on the stuff, (and the locals do). Probably not a good idea in the “S Class, though. The more observant will notice multi-coloured “Christmas-tree” well caps dotted across South West Queensland. How long would anyone guess that these resources will stay in the hands of the current “owners” in the event of a REAL global fuel crisis?
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Wasn’t there a small refinery near Eromanga?
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there are a few compressor and basic processing facilities scattered around, yes. in SW QLD, the larger places are Balera, and Jackson (for Santos), but other places too, but my mind has gone blank as it has been 10+ years since I worked on drilling rigs in this area.
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Bruce, you are right, it is possible to run a Diesel engine off the Aussie crude from the Cooper/Eromanga basins, generally after centrifuging, but it is definitely not every well that can provide this. From my days on drilling rigs in NE SA / SW QLD, I have many samples taken from “drill stem tests” and some are liquid at room temp, others are not. As a geologist, it is always interesting to see how the reservoirs would have the same formation names, but the oil would be very different in character.
As for current owners, Santos operates like a government run company (not a compliment), and the other players are stakeholders in pretty much every field, even if it’s a small percentage. none of them work completely alone, though they are in competition with each other.
Unlike the US, there are no private owners of wells (that I know of), it’s an extremely expensive exercise, and all the rigs capable of doing the work are contracted for years. Even when you have a rig available, 1 basic vertical well costs a few million dollars to drill and get online, and that’s not including the target selection, planning and approval process.
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Interesting that you noted different oils from the same formation.
A couple of years ago, I was talking to a mate who was an actual geochemist and who had worked on oil fields around the globe. (the Big C got him0. No, not chemically related; liver cancer. The biopsy identified the feral cancer cells as skin cells. This is why you NEVER scratch a melanoma. melanoma cells get torn off and enter the bloodstream. The liver is the blood “filter”. If the melanoma cells lodge there they multiply rapidly, impeding liver function and usually resulting in a fatality; Either from liver failure, or more likely, because the liver expands to the point that it distorts the diaphragm and applies pressure so the heart, neither of which are “good things”.
He had been reading up on RUSSIAN geo. papers which proposed a whole different oil story: “Abiogenesis”. This theory posits that petroleum is not the product of some creative microbial processing of prehistoric swamps, but cooked in the big “retort” deep in the crust, with the hydro-carbon “feedstock” being fed in by crustal subduction .
Interesting case study is Pennsylvania, where you can find coal mines and oil wells not far from each other. The catch is the utterly different formations containing the different deposits. So, it would appear that petroleum IS a renewable resource, just at the pace of continental drift!
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Interesting; and a reminder to stop scratching all my surface encrustations and get checked out by a doctor.
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US refineries in the Gulf Coast area (Texas, Louisiana, etc) were designed around the molecular weight and sulfur content of oil found in West Texas and the Gulf of Mexico. The distillation units were optimized for that specific “mix” of hydrocarbons. Thus, the Canadian oil which is high in volatile fractions, must be mixed with heavier oils to be within the operating limits of the refineries in Texas. High Sulfur crude is called “sour crude” and requires several additional steps to make it useful and to remove sulfur from products so that they meet air emission requirements. The Chemical Engineering governs this process. All oil is not the same when it comes to catalytic cracking towers and distillation units or sulfur content. Oil from various places are NOT interchangeable without blending or refinery modifications.
Let’s just say that all things are not functionally equal, although they might be, with enough money, time, effort, etc.
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That’ll Help! – Warren: ‘We’re Going to Be on’ Oil Companies
Lieawatha Pushes Conspiracy ‘Gouging’ Causing Bidenflation
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Could that be read as a declaration of what she would have done?
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A few days ago I was thinking along the same lines, or even that Russia started to invade Alaska after war is declared.
The pattern is becoming somewhat clearer as the jigsaw pieces keep on falling into place. The West some time ago decided to adopt a net zero emissions policy, due to the ever-increasing infiltration of our major parties by hard core socialists. Then came along the WEF’s Great Reset to embrace that policy and take it to the next level; to clamp down even harder on our freedoms so that we are subjugated into a NWO and have no choice in the matter. Russia and China refuse to be a part of all that much to the disgust of the West. So, the West tries to force Russian down to its knees by goading Russia to war but not actually fighting one, or fighting one by proxy. First the West supports Ukraine to attack the eastern sectors who are populated by pro-Russian Ukrainians. Putin tries to assist that sector by trying to negotiate a deal with Zelenskyy for the sector or two to become independent but fails thanks to pressure by the West to stop any such deal. So, Russian invades Ukraine, which the West was hoping for anyway to give them the excuse to apply sanctions and collapse the Russian economy and then make them join the NWO.
The West is playing with fire since China is also against the West’s NWO and so will side completely with Russia. In that case I suspect the West will not succeed but they won’t give up so easily. It will escalate to a point where the threat of a world war alone will damage the economies of both sides and a stalemate situation is reached with no world war (hopefully). If that happens, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens next. In any case the world economy will be smashed as trade wars and the like become inevitable.
This is very reminiscent of what it is like to live in an Orwellian society as depicted in the novel 1984. In the novel the endless war with other nations, real or fake enables the ruling class to remain in power without elections. That’s the sort of future we might be facing as the West keeps going down the same path as they are now, holding hands with the socialist left who love so dearly to bring down the West to a point where we are no better than the likes of the regimes in China and Russia. Good luck in supporting our major parties in the West, be it UK, US, Australia, NZ, etc..
I don’t find it odd though that the majority of voters are so blind they can’t see that all major parties are hell bent on subjugating their own citizens “for the common good” and in many cases are welcoming it! The reason is more and more people are losing the will to think and act accordingly. It’s all too hard for them so they leave it totally up to the ruling class governed by despot parties working with big business – a sort of fascist state, and “be happy” while doing so where obedience to authority is supreme. One need not look any further than what happened with the vaccination coercion of late to see how the vast majority of the public have given away their will to fight back and instead give into the demands to be vaccinated. Imagine how the public by and large will continue that behaviour as more draconian measures are forced upon us. We’ve seen just the start. Still, it’s not too late to turn back but that would require a significant proportion of the population to wake up and stop voting for the major parties forthwith. Time will tell if that is to be, but I doubt it.
I will need more jigsaw pieces to fall into place to see if all that analysis is on the money. I’m basing much of it on the article below mixed in with some of my own interpretations.
The End of Cryptocurrency Coming? …
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In 1871 Helmuth von Moltke wrote an essay about military strategy that included a lengthy statement that was essentially equivalent to the concise adage.
The NWO might think they have a plan but Putin/Xi did not sign up to it. Plus, history is replete with murderers that take their own lives. Putin might be of the same mindset and use nukes, knowing that he would/may not survive the aftermath.
Dangerous times with billions of lives at stake
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Correct, Putina and Xi will never sign up to the Western version of the NWO. They rather form their own version. The only way that Russia and China would ever seriously consider joining the West’s NWO is for both Putina and Xi to be “replaced” with tow leaders who are “in the pockets” of the Western cabal, much like why Trump was ousted. Is that even possible? Only time will tell. Of course it could happen the other way around. Western leaders might be “replaced” with certain types that would be happy to join Russia and China to form a somewhat different and just as sinister NWO together. Is that even possible? Again only time will tell.
50
Now wouldn’t it be “fun” if there were two opposing “NWOs”
Right out of scifi movies. !
10
John in Oz:
That Moltke quote is paraphrased in “Murphy’s Laws of Combat Operations, along with a swag of others, like:
“Incoming friendly fire is more effective than incoming enemy fore”
“Never forget that all your equipment was made by the lowest bidder”.
More here:
https://www.itstactical.com/intellicom/mindset/murphys-laws-of-combat-operations/
Finally, a general rule:
ALWAYS remember that Murphy was an optimist!
00
Biden is a green sock puppet.
80
W.H. Nat’l Economic Council Head: Ukraine Crisis Shows We Need ‘True Energy Independence’ by ‘Reducing Our Dependence on Fossil Fuels’
60
12 months into the Trump presidency the propaganda arm of the Democratic Party (US mainstream media) were creating articles about who was actually behind all the Trump policies. Steve Bannon was a favourite along with Kushner etc. Clearly there is a small group of people behind all these Biden policies. It’s not Joe, he’s just the figurehead. Or as you so eloquently put it – a sock puppet. It cant just be the advisors. Its definitely not Kamala. So, why haven’t we had stories from the media about who is actually driving the present US government and their policies? I suppose my answer lies in the first sentence. The US media wouldn’t cover the story anyway.
130
Would that “sock puppet” be senile, corrupt, morally bankrupt, treasonous, ill tempered, vengeful, angry, and dementia ridden?
If so, you have a perfect match. 🙂
70
Putin must already know that.
30
The anti gas and oil thing was never about the weather, and not about CO2 either. It’s not about the workers, the voters, or the environment either. Just power and money.
And let’s not forget there’s also a smattering of aggrieved, self-loathing individuals who are drawn to leftist politics because they see it as a means to take revenge on society for having values and standards against which they measure themselves as being unworthy.
200
It’s all about the NWO. We already knew that years ago. We are slowly but surely getting closer to that state one way or another.
81
BHP Sees Inflation Dragging on Global Economic Growth in 2022
(Bloomberg) — BHP Group Ltd. has revised down its expectations for global economic growth this year, with activity likely to be constrained by accelerating inflation.
The global miner expects world growth will be below its forecast of a 5% expansion made last month, Mike Henry, BHP’s chief executive officer, said at a conference in Sydney Tuesday. Surging commodities prices are likely to have “spillover effects” on inflation, while the conflict in Ukraine has added a further headwind, he said.
50
Why oil surge won’t send electric vehicle sales soaring
The fuel’s rocketing price should be good news for environmental cars. But supply shocks are hitting that market, too.
Warwick McKibbin reckons Vladimir Putin might be the best thing that’s ever happened to the energy transition.
Speaking at The Australian Financial Review Business Summit on Tuesday, the economist, academic and former Reserve Bank board member argued that surging commodity prices caused by the war in Ukraine could force the urgent shift to clean energy to accelerate.
With oil, gas and even thermal coal going through the roof, solar, wind and other forms of renewable power would suddenly look very attractive indeed.
An example of this appears to be playing out in San Francisco, where car dealers are reporting that buyers are offering up to $US2000 ($2700) over the sticker price for electric vehicles.
Tony Behari, from a car dealer called San Mateo Auto Sales, told CNBC he is seeing 10 times the normal interest in electric and hybrid cars.
“A lot of the people I’ve been speaking to are all thinking the gas prices are going to go to $US7 or $US8 a gallon, and they don’t want to be in that situation,” he said.
That price would be equivalent to $3.16 at Australian fuel bowsers. We’re clearly a long way from that at the moment, but with oil leaping above $US120 a barrel on Tuesday and up 20 per cent in the space of a few weeks, it’s not surprising consumers are getting worried.
Fears of further sanctions on Russian oil and gas exports have grown in recent days and an effective buyers’ strike on cargoes from Putin’s regime appears unlikely to ease.
RBC commodities strategist Helima Croft says the scramble to fill the gap left by Russia’s production – which is somewhere between 3 million and 4 million barrels a day – is intensifying and likely to see the United States approaching some suppliers it would probably rather not deal with, including Saudi Arabia, Iran and Venezuela.
She says the best short-term hope is OPEC nations with spare capacity, including Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait and Iraq, open the taps a touch more. But RBC estimates those nations could only bring on between 2 million and 2.5 million barrels a day in the next two months.
In other words, filling the gap in the global oil market left by Russia won’t happen quickly.
All of which should be terrific news for makers of electric vehicles. But the Russian sanctions are also exacerbating supply problems holding this market back from easing the world’s petrol squeeze.
Nickel prices, for example, have doubled in two days due to a combination of tight supply (Russia produces about 17 per cent of the world’s high-grade nickel) and an epic short squeeze, whereby holders of substantial short positions are being forced to cover at a moment when liquidity is unusually low.
80
CEOs warn of dangers of rushing the energy transition
Leading business figures have talked up the benefits of the transition from fossil fuels to renewables, while warning of the need to keep the community on board.
Macquarie Group chief executive Shemara Wikramanayake and Morgan Stanley chief executive James Gorman have hailed the financial opportunities from the energy transition, while warning of the dangers of a rapid shift to renewables.
Wikramanayake and Gorman told The Australian Financial Review Business Summit on Tuesday the social mandate for shifting to renewables could be threatened by a transition that pushes up energy prices.
Cannon-Brookes and Brookfield triggered an alarmist response from federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor when they revealed a plan to shut AGL’s coal-fired power stations in Victoria and NSW 10 to 12 years earlier than scheduled.
Taylor predicted energy prices would rise and there would be instability in the national electricity network, despite contrary advice in the integrated system plan published by the Australian Energy Market Operator.
Gorman prefaced his remarks by declaring he was the only CEO of a Wall Street financial institution to say the United States should not have pulled out of the Paris Accord on climate change.
He said he supported the agreement because it was a forum for discussing decarbonisation, and the only parties who were not in it were Nicaragua and Syria. “It didn’t feel like the right club – you want to be in the other club.
Their comments have added another layer of complexity to the intensifying debate over the pace of Australia’s energy transition, which went ballistic last month when Mike Cannon-Brookes and Brookfield Asset Management bid for AGL Energy.
Transition mandate at risk
Wikramanayake says Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has the potential to make the energy transition more difficult.
“I think there is risk of losing the mandate. We’re seeing at the moment other shock factors push energy up.
“We talked about the Ukraine/Russia situation and how important Russia is in terms of commodity supply. But coming out of COVID as well, we had the huge surge in demand because people couldn’t absorb services, and demands are more energy-intensive.
We all know there hasn’t been certainty on energy policy, which has caused us this problem of what we actually invest in.
— Alan Joyce, Qantas CEO
60
And where will the electricity for these electric vehicles come from?
40
Europe in scramble to keep the lights on
Europe is embarking on a reluctant flurry of preparations to curb its dependency on Russian oil, gas and coal.
The European Commission is on Tuesday set to issue a plan to combat surging energy prices. European TTF gas prices have more than doubled since the war began, and are up tenfold in the past 12 months. The bloc buys 40 per cent of its gas from Russia.
Brussels is likely to call for more rapid action towards its energy efficiency goals and renewable energy targets, and will hold talks with Asian LNG buyers to try to avoid bidding wars.
European Commission vice-president Frans Timmermans told the EU Parliament late on Monday (Tuesday AEDT) that the plan would “substantially reduce our dependency on Russian gas already this year, and within years will make us independent of the import of Russian gas”.
“I think that’s possible. It’s not easy, but it’s feasible,” he said.
That came after the White House dispatched officials to Venezuela to talk about easing oil sanctions there, while Poland’s Prime Minister continued urging a ban on the coal imports from Russia that power German homes and industry.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Monday warned that his country simply could not move at breakneck speed into a gas boycott.
“All our steps are designed to hit Russia hard and to be sustainable over the long term,” he said in a statement.
“Europe’s supply of energy for heat, mobility, power and industry cannot be secured in any other way at the moment. It is therefore of essential importance for the provision of public services and the daily lives of our citizens.”
Coal conundrum
Gas is only one of Europe’s headaches. The coal price rose 13 per cent on Monday, and has climbed 77 per cent in a month to a record high of almost $US420 a tonne.
EU countries collectively get almost half their coal from Russia, and three-quarters of German steaming coal, used in power generation, is Russian-origin.
Two-thirds of Poland’s energy is powered by coal, and two-thirds of its imports come from Russia. Supplies are already drying up, as coal reaches Poland on trains operated by Russian Railway, which is now under sanction.
Many Russian coal suppliers are reportedly declaring force majeure – a no-liability clause in their supply contracts that is activated in exceptional and unavoidable circumstances.
“Already there really is very little coal coming from Russia at the moment,” said Brian Ricketts, secretary-general of trade body Euracoal.
40
In a word I would say that Europe, and Germany in particular, are cooked. In the last week I have learned that you physically cant ship any more LNG to Europe if you tried. There’s only 1 port able to receive that product. So, if for some reason, old Vlad squeezes the nuts of Europe by reducing gas supply through the Nordstream pipeline – its game over. Turning around infrastructure decisions made years ago is not practical. You cant just walk into a nuclear reactor and hit the “on” switch. Trump made a presentation to the UN during his presidency about this very subject. Energy security. There is vision, which looks authentic. of the German delegation laughing and giggling during his talk. I’m not sure they’re laughing now.
170
I just heard on the radio that the next possible Prime Minister of Australia, Anthony Alba-sleazy said if elected he would consider cutting gasoline taxes. This was on the prediction that Australian gasoline prices are supposedly heading toward A$3 per litre. At least that’s the price point we are being conditioned for.
But by all means Australia, keep up your restrictions on domestic oil and gas exploration, shale oil extraction and fracking!
Just keep building those windmills and solar subsidy farms!
191
‘Build back stronger’: Albanese promises to govern like Hawke
Anthony Albanese says he will govern for business in the same fashion as fabled reformers Bob Hawke and Paul Keating, as he buries once and for all the “top-end-of-town” rhetoric that hurt Labor in the run-up to the last election.
In a keynote speech to open day two of The Australian Financial Review Business Summit on Wednesday, Mr Albanese will pledge to “build back stronger”, with a post-COVID-19 agenda that includes reviving regulatory reform to increase productivity.
To drive the process, which would focus on federation reform, Mr Albanese says there will be a vehicle that will replicate the functions of the Council of Australian Governments which Prime Minister Scott Morrison abolished upon the formation of national cabinet.
“The great Labor reformist governments of the 1980 and 1990s used reform in areas like competition to deliver huge productivity gains,” he will say.
“But the current Prime Minister abolished the Council of Australian Governments, the key vehicle for reform.
“This will end under a Labor government. We’d move quickly to revive the process of regulatory reform.”
Mr Albanese, who will be prime minister within three months if Labor wins the election, is at pains to reassure the nation’s corporate leaders that the anti-business rhetoric Labor employed in the run-up to the 2019 election is not his style.
Instead, he will promise a style of engagement that was the hallmark of the Hawke-Keating era, saying “consensus lights the way forward”.
“We must rediscover the spirit of consensus that former Labor prime minister Bob Hawke used to bring together governments, trade unions, businesses and civil society around their shared aims of growth and job creation,” he will say.
“He brokered reforms that yielded benefits for all parties – not just better wages for workers, but stronger profits for businesses, along with the introduction of landmark reforms adding to the social dividend, such as Medicare and universal superannuation.
“The result was three decades of continuous economic growth.
“If Labor is successful in the coming federal election, I will take my lead from Bob Hawke and his successor, Paul Keating.”
40
It will be little different to what’s happening now under the LNP. Do so many people really have such short memories? Of course the answer is yes. See the following link to prove it.
they got money 💰 for wars 💣 but can’t feed the poor
70
I don’t doubt that Albo would govern like Hawke. Hawke ensured that Australia made its full contribution to the crash of 1987, which was deliberately planned and executed for the purpose of destroying capitalism.
The Marxists, of whom Hawke was a leader, who set up that crash expected a return to the scorched earth of the 1930s, on which they would be able to install their New World Order. But they were outsmarted, as the people on top of the pile could still remember the 1930s, there is but little fun to be had on top of a pile that is flat. So they took losses sufficient to endure that the pile did not collapse, leaving them still on top of the pile, and the Marxists/Hawkes still on the outer.
Having failed to gain control with the 1987 crash, the Marxists set into running up public debt. Public debt must be funded by private capital. More public debt = less private capital.
10
Wow… glad the internet was not around then. So many Marxists could have done us all in.
02
A broad brush applied. They go by a number of titles, identifiable by a policy of abolishing private management of industry. And it’s not for want of trying that they haven’t done us all in.
And Hawke? It’s a long story. If you read the newspaper reports of Hawke’s annual budgets you should get the message. The trick is to remember past budgets as you read each one. Not everybody can do that.
20
Yes David, heard that, but he seemed to qualify it by saying depending on how the economy looks, that’s govspeak for nah, won’t happen, he also said he would like to emulate Bob Hawke and John Howard, I still remember Krudd telling us he was an economic conservative.
50
Albo summed up in One Cartoon by Johannes Leak
00
MID-WEEK IN PICTURES: GAS PAINS EDITION
60
like the first 2
1 – “Gas Prices are higher than Jerry Nadler’s Pants Now”
2 – “Domestic Oil – The New Ivermectin”
100
Actually for us here in Australia nuclear energy has been and still is the new ivermectin. Both are on the banned list for what they can be used for, namely reduce emissions to zero without destroying the nation with unreliable and costly “renewables”, and saving lives wrt to victims of the COVID-19 virus.
60
Apart from the Elites who are profiting from the “green” energy scam, it is difficult to understand how even a moderately intelligent person seems incapable of not understanding the non-viability of such expensive and unreliable energy generation for an industrial civilisation.
Surely, even some of its proponents must be having some doubts?
110
The explanation is simple. As I pointed out in my earlier comment above, the majority of voters are so blind they can’t see that all major parties are hell bent on subjugating their own citizens “for the common good” and in many cases are welcoming it! The reason is more and more people are losing the will to think and act accordingly. It’s all too hard for them so they leave it totally up to the ruling class governed by despot parties working with big business – a sort of fascist state, and “be happy” while doing so where obedience to authority is supreme. One need not look any further than what happened with the vaccination coercion of late to see how the vast majority of the public have given away their will to fight back and instead give into the demands to be vaccinated. Imagine how the public by and large will continue that behaviour as more draconian measures are forced upon us, such as net zero emissions.
Every time I now bring up the topic about the vaccination coercion, the Russian-Ukraine war or net zero emissions, most roll their eyes and shut down the conversation because it’s too hard for them and they much prefer to talk about something else, like some TV soap opera, sport or how wealthy someone they know has become making it sound that’s the only purpose for living in this world. It makes me sick just being around such people who not only don’t have a clue as to what is happening, they really don’t give a damn.
201
I have had the same experience, they just dont want to listen. Or they adopt a “there’s nothing you can do anyway” attitude.
130
I suppose it’s coincidental that the pandemic has been replaced by war.
I would’ve appreciated a break, like maybe a week.
So many people around that refused to make physical contact with each other for two years for the sake of a single life, now want to send ammo to the Ukraine.
I carry around a kittle world map and ask them to point to Ukraine.
I used to ask them if they think greenhouse gases are bad.
102
I don’t believe it’s coincidental. In any case don’t be fooled into believing the use of a pandemic scare is never going to be repeated. If necessary the globalists will engineer a far more serious one just to convince the sleeping public to take their new “vaccines” without any questions. Notice too that ivermectin is still on the banned list for the treatment of COVID-19 although the pandemic is now considered to be over and we just have to “live” with it?
110
Peter summed up in One Cartoon – The Shift Change from below
10
I wonder what they’d think about this little doozy from Rebel News – loads of people needing help from the SES in the floods, but don’t turn up if you aren’t vaccinated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=puxs3nDt3Eg&t=399s
40
What if the flood victims are not vaccinated? Are they left to die? Oh what crooked lot of people we have in governments at all levels.
70
It’s be fine. Just crank up those 57,000 US based windmills. And make those millions of solar panels work harder. They get lazy in winter. And increase carbon taxes. Now!
And Australians, we need to prepare to export our Green energy by air or sea and release our vast reserves of hydrogen in a fleet of hydrogen tankers. And deploy those killer nuclear submarines after we make a decision after the next election.
In this new fantasy world of Green energy, we can only be energized by the steely resolve of the Biden White House which sees Green energy as their economic weapon against World Tyranny, after doing backdoor business with Iran and Venezuela and China.
This is the first time in history that the United States has used crippling oil sanctions as an economic weapon against its own people. And in favor of America’s declared enemies, Iran and Venezuela.
190
In fact the Science ignorant Socialists at the Biden White house have used this crisis to double down in the war on the sixth element of the Periodic table, carbon. Know your enemy. It’s not the communists. It’s carbon. (Chinese carbon excluded)
At the same time, home grown billionaires Andrew Forrest and Cannon-Brookes have done the same. Soon they hope that Hydrogen will replace Carbon as the preferred atom, ending carbon’s evil planet threatening rule. Soon we will have Green steel, green concrete, green fertilizers, green electricity and hopefully green weapons against our Red enemies.
Electric Green cars will save us. And Green electric aircraft and trucks according to Kamala Harris. Electric scooters too.
Which is just in time because otherwise we are in a lot of trouble with utterly inadequate, random, unreliable, unaffordable Green energy.
I put it all down to a total collapse in science education. And the invention of the periodic table by the evil Russian Chemist Dmitri Mendeleev in 1869. Since then we have known all about the evils of Carbon. And done nothing. Carbon must be banned.
160
Green steel
Green concrete
Green fertilizers
Green electricity
Green weapons
Green cars
You forgot the most important Green dream product … Solyent GREEN
150
Considering they have no oil, perhaps Joe or Hunter Biden could buy missile parts from North Korea? Why leave them out of the free for all?
110
And this just in:
Nation Wishes We Had Our Own Oil We Could Dig Up With Big Machines And Then Transport Around With Some Kind Of Pipeline
March 8th, 2022 – BabylonBee.com
https://babylonbee.com/news/nation-wishes-we-had-our-own-oil-we-could-dig-up-with-big-machines-and-then-transport-around-with-some-kind-of-pipeline?utm_source=Gab&utm_medium=link&utm_campaign=Gab
50
An essential perspective:
a great last paragraph;
and the executive summary;
“Just power and money”
We Must realise that we are trapped in the midst of UnJust actions by our “elected” leaders who have subjected us to Lies, Misrepresentations, Theft of our national wealth and endless deceit through Media Wokeism.
My only uncertainty is whether the response from “we the people” should be the noose or guillotine.
When our P.M. can sign off on $444 million dollars to “save the reef”, or something, and that money just evaporates from sight, we are in Big Trouble.
KK
130
I still want to know how the recipient company of six people calculated spending an incredible $134 million on ‘administration’, even without knowing what you are going to administer. That’s the budget of the city of Melbourne. And still no one in government says anything. It remains the biggest robbery in Australian history, committed in plain sight with government approval after the fact. And that it was to the Prime Minister’s wife important friends and their private committee seems to be of no consequence? Why?
140
Yes,
and then there’s the other one and a half billion that has been “allocated” to the Saving of The Great Big Barrier Reef.
But, I suppose that if just one small patch of coral is kept White then it will all have been worth it.
Oops, can I say that?
KK
110
No, you will get a Black mark on your Green record. Words are racist. In fact the entire French language is sexist as all objects are either male or female. The French are the problem.
110
Mais oui.
Vraiment noire ou noir.
50
Probably the fact that there is a word called ‘reef’ somewhere in the wording protects it from any scrutiny.
40
OUR PRESENT BEWILDERMENT
The Spectator has published Peter Wood’s witty column “Bewilderment.” The Spectator has kindly made it accessible at our request.
In his Spectator column Wood takes on the shibboleth of “sustainability.” He observes that the shibboleth has become the watchword of a cult or fundamentalist religion.
The nauseating Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg is something like an altar boy in the cult. Listen to the tone of voice in which he lards his insipid inanity below.
It would be charitable to say that these people are nuts. It’s worse than that. But they are nuts too. There is so much wrong with the gospel it’s hard to pick a shot.
80
Greta Thunberg-style eco-apocalypse ranting is now common sense on the left
Russia’s little green men are swarming across an eastern European border; America’s leaders are forcing journalists to plunder the pages of Roget’s for synonyms of “dither” to fill in their descriptions of President Biden’s leadership; and Canada is whirling like a top from protest to dictatorship and back. Anyone who is not bewildered is either comatose or lying.
Theo and his scientific partners fret about their federal funding, and with good reason. For in this version of history a Trump-like president of the US rallies his ignorant evangelical base against academic science, rejects the results of a presidential election and installs himself permanently in office. It is bad news for Big Science — and bad news for Planet Earth as the regime goes full speed ahead with its environmentally heedless policies.
It isn’t hard to see how this fantasy delighted Oprah, Barack and the NPR crowd. But Powers doesn’t present it as satire. It is his dead serious, mournful depiction of the world he believes we actually live in.
Within hours of his inauguration on January 20, 2021, President Biden “canceled the permit allowing the Keystone XL pipeline to cross the border from Canada into the United States.” The quote is from the New Yorker’s celebratory account. Biden promptly took the United States back into the wretched Paris Climate Accords and attempted to ban fracking on federal lands. Why would a president of the United States go to war against America’s energy independence? Because he was beholden to the real-life Robin Byrnes in his constituency. Fanatical opposition to fossil fuels is the sacrament of the Church of the Left.
If we listen to Robin Byrne and his grown-up counterparts, the real endgame is a remnant human population on a vegan diet perhaps supplemented with insects; the restoration of Earth’s landmass to animal-friendly wilderness; and small-scale cooperative (socialist) societies living in harmony with nature. Less utopian versions of this vision are available, but properly understood, all of them rule out modern life as we know it. People like Biden don’t take any of that seriously. Their interest is in the political game, not the endgame, but it is important to understand the premises and the motives of the activists who are driving the politics. They may never get their utopia, but they can cause profound misery in their attempts to reach it. And we are seeing some of that now.
60
Thank you very much for requesting that article from the Spectator – well worth a read. Nuts in power indeed.
20
Huh! Fancy those poor Americans having to pay $7 a gallon. Unthinkable isn’t it?
Maths again comes to the fore I suppose.
Here in Beenleigh (A southern suburb of Brisbane) we’re paying $2 a litre for Unleaded Petrol.
Do the conversion for currency. Do the conversion from litres to gallons. Do the conversion from our Gallons (Imperial) to their gallons. (U.S.)
The equivalent for what we are paying here and now when converted to the U.S. equivalent is $7.97 a Gallon.
Now while it is that $2 per litre here in the State Capital, virtually everywhere outside of Brisbane has been paying $2 per litre ….. forever. Huh! When we lived in Blackwater (coal central in Queensland) back in 2004/5, the average then was $2 per litre, and that was 18 years ago. We lived in Rockhampton from 2010 till 2018, and it was around that $2 a litre for nearly all that time.
Tony.
PostScript – Go on now, how many of you didn’t know that there was a difference between a gallon here in Oz and a gallon in the U.S. Their gallon is less than ours. (1.2 Gallons U.S. to 1 gallon here in Oz.
130
Huh, even when it’s in the ‘cheap phase’ here at $1.70 per litre, (I wish) well, even that’s still $6.80 per Gallon in the U.S.
Tony.
100
Sorry but one US gallon is 3.78 liters
At $AU2/liter and one AU$ = US$0.73
that is locally US$5.51/US gallon
Of course that is before Tuesday’s price increases……
10
I always have to use a calculator to work out the true $$$ comparison between what the yanks are paying and here in OZ.
Some stations in Brissy are now at $2.21 litre for 91. That is very close to $10 per gallon!
80
When 98 is the same price per litre here in Queensland as a bottle of single malt, I’m going to have to make some tough decisions.
50
(Yeah, off topic I know, but hey)
I found a really good one over Christmas.
Cardhu.
Get the one labelled Single Malt, and NOT the one labelled Pure Malt.
Tony
30
Tried it Tony…a nice drop.
20
Laphroig!
00
Probably 30 years back now, my father had a Falcon. One winter’s might he ran out of petrol about 5 km out of town. He had a bottle of Scotch in the car. He put it in the petrol tank and made it to town. Which I thought remarkable mileage from fuel that was 60% water.
Next day he thought it a shame to waste the last drop and upended the bottle. Yuk! Petrol fumes!
I can think of an explanation for the good mileage from the water. Perhaps the fuel pick up wasn’t quite in the bottom of the tank.
00
Australian petrol prices last week averaged 184 cents/litre.
The raw material, crude oil, was about 90 cents/litre.
Add about 15 cents for refining and shipping costs.
Add 42 cents/litre for government excise and 18 cents for GST.
That leaves about 20 cents/litre for local distribution, marketing and retail costs plus profit.
80
I suppose US prices seem “cheap” to many countries.
Consider that in the US, the Oil refiners: Explore, Develop, Produce, Transport, Refine, Distribute, petrol and diesel/parrafin, at a profit of 6.8% of sales price, or 1.8%/Liter. Federal Government and State taxes comprise USD 0.15/Liter.
For the “cheap price of USD 6/gallon, or 2 AUD / Liter” , the “bad oil industry” earns USD 0.1, the Govt “gets” USD 0.15 / Liter.
Taxes cost 150% more than the profit of the producer. The Govt did not find the oil, develop the field, pump the oil, transport it, refine it, deliver it, or sell it. But the Govt “takes” 50% more than the entities that “did all the work”.
It is ever so much worse for the AU, EU, etc. I’d call it extortion, really.
If the US Govt could tax Americans at the rate EU/AU tax their citizens for fuel, they would. The only thing preventing that is Political Oblivion and Riots in the streets or very messy civil strife.
50
Oh, references, sorry for that:
https://www.investopedia.com/ask/answers/012015/what-average-profit-margin-company-oil-gas-drilling-sector.asp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_taxes_in_the_United_States
20
Thanks Lance, it needs to be emphasised.
Our governments are “grabbers”.
That’s a mix of grubs, grabbers and thieves.
20
Yes. But.
Fuel/Energy would be an efficient base for taxation if you were not running a comparatively luxurious economy funded by cheap energy.
Furthermore, raising the price of fuel promotes conservation. If the US had imposed a tax on fuel even comparable with ours, we might never have had those “oil shocks”.
10
Governors from several US States are pushing for a suspension of the Federal fuel taxes and a reduction or suspension of State fuel taxes. at least some of the Governors are Democrats. This could get very interesting for F. JB.
10
PostScript – Go on now, how many of you didn’t know that there was a difference between a gallon here in Oz and a gallon in the U.S. Their gallon is less than ours. (1.2 Gallons U.S. to 1 gallon here in Oz.
Nope always worked on basis 4l per US Gallon, 5 Litres per Imperial Gallon
40
It’s why the same Corolla (only using that because that was my first car back in 1969, when I first came across the anomaly wrt fuel consumption) that gets 40MPG here in Australia only gets 33MPG in the U.S.
Same car.
Tony.
60
A USA gallon is 3.784 Litres
An Aus gallon is 4.546 Litres
At Aus $ at 0.73 US $ they almost cancell.
To convert the USA $ price per gallon to Aus $ price per Litre multiply by 1.057
So US$ 4 per (USA) gallon = $4.22 per litre in Australia
13
Umm!
20
no no no
US$4 per US gallon = 4/3.784 = US$1.057 per litre.
US$1.057 / 0.73 = A$1.45 per litre
40
I gallon(US) = 3.785Litres
1 litre = 0.264 gallons(US)
42 gallons (US) = 1 barrel = just barely under 159 Litres
Just for good…measure… and to add to the confusion, 1 “oilfield” foot is 10 inches.
if you want to calculate the capacity of a cylinder relatively fast – diameters in (normal) inches:
inner diameter^2 * 0.5067 to get Litres per metre
inner diameter^2 / 24.51 to get gallons(US) per foot
if you want to do the same to calculate the volume of (for example) steel in a circular pipe:
(outer diameter ^2 – inner diameter^2) * 0.5067 to get Litres per metre
(outer diameter ^2 – inner diameter^2) / 24.51 to get gallons(US) per foot
20
Never heard of the oilfield foot before.
Four of those should be close to a metre.
🙂
10
it’s actually the same length as a normal foot, but instead of being divided into 12, it’s divided into 10 inches, and tenths of inches. Not exactly sure who did it, but it’s a lot easier for everyone to read off a tape measure, thus, 32′ 5″ would be 32.42′.
I never had to deal with “imperial” units in any serious way until I started in the oil industry, and this 10inch foot really threw me when I was still recalibrating my brain to think in feet, barrels, gallons, etc – to the point where I compared the tape measure to a 30cm/12inch ruler to see what was going on.
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Ahaaa
00
So it’s actually a big inch.
00
Under Secretary Victoria Nuland Admits U.S. Funded Biological Research Labs Exist in Ukraine
March 8, 2022 – Sundance
Earlier today, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, was testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (SFRC) on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee is the legislative branch body who works with the executive branch State Dept to launder money through foreign nations. The Senate is the bank, the State Dept is the collection agency.
One of the members of the SFRC is Marco Rubio, also the vice-chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence (SSCI). Keep this point at the front of your reference. Senator Rubio has a specific intent when he asks Ms Nuland publicly about biological weapons labs in Ukraine.
Don’t get so caught up with the nervous admission by Under Secretary Nuland, that you miss the purposeful intent of Rubio in getting out in front of a story that could be more troublesome for the Fourth Branch (intelligence apparatus). Rubio would not make this public remark, if he wasn’t ¹intending to dilute a bigger issue. WATCH: 03:35 prompted
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EU announces plan to slash Russian gas imports this year
The European Commission has announced a plan to reduce gas imports from Russia by two-thirds this year.
The European Commission has revealed plans to reduce European Union member states’ dependency on Russian energy sources amid the Ukraine war, proposing to cut gas imports from Russia by two-thirds this year.
The EU’s executive arm said it could erase a huge share of its dependency on Russia by tapping new gas supplies, ramping up reserves for next winter and accelerating efforts to be more energy efficient.
“By the end of this year, we can replace 100 billion cubic metres of gas imports from Russia. That is two-thirds of what we import from them,” EU Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans told reporters in Strasbourg, France on Tuesday.
“This will end our over-dependency and give us much-needed room to manoeuvre,” added Timmermans, who leads EU policy-making on energy and climate change.
In its plan, the EU said the bloc could become fully independent of Russian gas, oil and coal by 2030.
Timmermans, however, urged caution.
“The reality is that there’s quite a number of our member states who would get into real trouble if overnight, all the energy would no longer be provided from Russia,” Timmermans told members of the European Parliament earlier.
“So we need to make sure … we don’t do more harm to ourselves than we do to Putin,” he added.
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Biden’s ‘posturing’ on Russian oil risks wider conflict: Analysts
The global economy could be facing one of the largest energy-supply shocks ever, oil experts warn.
The US’s European partners followed with pressure of their own. The United Kingdom said it would phase out imports of Russian oil and oil products by 2022, while the European Union said it would slash Russian gas imports to Europe by 66 percent by the end of the year.
Russia plays a pivotal role in the global energy supply and destabilisation could send shock waves through the global economy – one that is already reeling from supply shortages, bottlenecks, and price pressures caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The US imported an average of 209,000 barrels per day (bpd) of crude oil and 500,000 bdp of other petroleum products from Russia in 2021, according to the American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers.
Only one percent of Russia’s oil exports went to the US market in 2020, according to the US Energy Information Administration. For the US, that volume makes up 8 percent of its total oil consumption. But analysts warn that this could have deeper consequences.
“This is mostly US posturing,” Jim Krane, an energy fellow at Rice University in Houston, Texas, told Al Jazeera. “But it does risk a wider conflict within oil markets and higher oil prices for American consumers.”
On Tuesday following Biden’s remarks, global benchmark Brent crude soared 7.35 percent to $132.27 a barrel while US West Texas Intermediate spiked 7.26 percent to $128.07.
“Russia could retaliate by reducing exports further or cutting exports to US allies,” Krane said.
Russia’s oil and gas industry was omitted in the initial sanctions the West imposed on Moscow, aimed at crippling Russia’s financial and tech sectors and pressuring a shift in the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Oil giants British Petroleum and Shell had said last week that they were pulling business out of Russia. Shell took it a step further on Tuesday, announcing that it would stop buying Russian oil.
‘Biden has been unsuccessful at encouraging partners in the Gulf’
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Kuwait could potentially ramp up production by 2.1 million barrels per day from current levels within a couple of months, Goldman Sachs estimates.
But other analysts say “Don’t count on it.”
“Biden has been largely unsuccessful at encouraging partners in the Gulf – the Saudis, the UAE, to put more barrels on the market,” Blakemore said.
“It’s going to take a lot more than anybody expects to get Saudi Arabia to put more barrels on the market because it’s going to have to tap into its spare capacity, which Riyadh has treated as a national security priority,” he added.
Also there’s oil-rich Iran and Venezuela, adversaries the US has turned to in recent weeks.
Reaching a nuclear deal with the Iranians could bring extra barrels to market. The US lifting sanctions on oil imports from Venezuela could also help plug the crude hole.
For Russia, China could end up playing a crucial role in absorbing oil the US has barred, analysts told Al Jazeera. “The pipeline infrastructure from Russia to China exists, but whether or not it can handle that much additional supply flow, we just do not know. Physically shipping oil from Russia to China will take some time,” Blakemore said.
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“The global economy could be facing one of the largest energy-supply shocks ever, oil experts warn.”
Are we all being forced into EVs.
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More like bikes and handcarts…
30
Done. Any other requests?
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Yes but he, FJB, needs to consult with Hunter B. (the rap star) for advise on the “family” investments.
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I see. Did I mention planes on the moon?
010
I see. You are one of those conspiracy supporters. Maybe read and enlighten yourself. The author is not a supporter of planes on the moon. Silly of you.
Search: Laptop from Hell By Miranda Devine.
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Bozo, Miranda is one of the best conspiracy supporters going
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You mean she backs what says with data and actual real facts !.
Denial of facts seems to be your meme. !
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Not you again
013
really, care to name these ‘facts’
013
Read the book!
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Will Hunter’s friend get a “Presidential” pardon?
That laptop holds a lot of “conspiracy” theories 😉
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what are these conspiracy theories? – so far you have asserted that I am unfactual, but offered no examples, now you are asserting that a laptop contains all sorts of information, but have not offered the tiniest fragment. you are all sizzle but no steak
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The conspiracy theories are your idea, Peter.
The facts are starting to come out.
Jail time for some.
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Peter Fitzroy and Gee Aye
suggest you read Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win by Peter Schweizer
Book came while I was in Hospital – Excellent Read
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OO – late stage capitalism in a book, trying to blame one group is just silly, China used Walmart as its distribution network, making walmart and china a tidy profit. This could only happen if the American population were wholehearted supporters. In short, the USA did it to themselves, no conspiracy required
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Nicaragua has been ignored by the American elites, so they have jumped on the Beijing bandwagon.
https://www.silkroadbriefing.com/news/2022/01/16/nicaragua-joins-chinas-belt-and-road-initiative/
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Peter Fitzroy
March 9, 2022 at 4:24 pm
OO – late stage capitalism in a book, trying to blame one group is just silly, China used Walmart as its distribution network, making walmart and china a tidy profit. This could only happen if the American population were wholehearted supporters. In short, the USA did it to themselves, no conspiracy required
Peter suggest you read the book Red-Handed: How American Elites Get Rich Helping China Win by Peter Schweizer
Peter Schweizer covers all sides re American Elites
1. The Rope
2. The Bidens
3. Capitol Hill
4. Silicon Valley
5. Wall Street
6. Diplomats
7. The Bish and Trudeau Dynasties
8. Higher Education
9. Fighting Back
That the Chinese government seeks to infiltrate American institutions is hardly surprising. Schweizer shows that a number of American elites are eager to help the Chinese dictatorship in its quest for global hegemony. He reveals the secret deals wealthy Americans have cut to help China build its military, technological, and economic might. Equally as astonishing, many of these elites quietly believe the Chinese dictatorial regime is superior to American democracy.
Sundance Conservative Treehouse always give the best exposure of the UniParty – ie. both Democrats and Republicans
10
Cheap shares in fossil fuels and cheap seaside realestate.
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Russia-Ukraine war by the numbers: Live Tracker
As the Russian offensive enters its thirteenth day, we track where battles are taking place and the human cost of war, as more than 2 million refugees stream out of Ukraine.
Ukraine and Russia explained in eight maps and charts
Below are eight infographics that break down the history, politics and economics of the Ukraine-Russia crisis.
Excellent Summary
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Lebanese fearful as fuel and wheat shortage deepens
The war in Ukraine has left cash-strapped Lebanon scrambling for alternative sources of fuel and wheat.
Beirut, Lebanon – Saheer Ghazzaoui, a 24-year-old graphic designer, was already spending the majority of her income helping to provide for her family.
But now, with fuel prices surging in Lebanon, and fears of wheat shortages as a result of Russia’s war in Ukraine, the money she brings in each month is no longer enough.
“We struggle to get gas, and we’re already paying so much for food, medicine, and tuition,” Ghazzaoui told Al Jazeera. “[Now] all our salaries are going just to the necessities, and sometimes it’s not even enough so I have to [take out money] from my savings.”
Up to 90 percent of Lebanon’s wheat and cooking oil imports come from Ukraine and Russia, as well as a large proportion of grain imports. The fighting in Ukraine has engulfed the country’s southern ports, putting a stop to shipments, and imports from Russia have been hampered as a result of financial sanctions imposed on Moscow.
The impact means that Lebanon now has only one month’s wheat reserves left, deepening an already-existing food security crisis in the country.
Additionally, due to the sharp increase in global oil prices, official prices of fuel in Lebanon have increased by a staggering 33 percent since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine less than two weeks ago.
These ongoing developments have worsened Lebanon’s economic crisis, which has already pulled more than three-quarters of the country’s population into poverty, and devalued the Lebanese pound by about 90 percent against the US dollar since August 2019. Lebanon’s food inflation is now among the highest in the world, with food prices rising by 1000 percent.
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This is what happens when your govt is corrupt.
30
The Shift Change
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Jo, cartoon would look good as part of the thread
00
Maybe needs an old ticket belonging to “climate change” as waste paper on the floor. 🙂
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Briefing by Russian Defence Ministry
The grouping of troops of Lugansk People’s Republic, continuing offensive operations, took control of Pudovka and Nizhnee.
The units of the People’s Militia of the Donetsk People’s Republic took control over Olenovka, Pol’noe and Yuzhno-Donbass.
In Mariupol, after the end of cease-fire, the units of the Donetsk Republic advanced another 800-900 meters.
The units of the Russian Armed Forces took control of Peredovoe and Kariernaya.
During the day, bomber and assault aircraft of the Russian Aerospace Forces destroyed 32 military facilities.
Among them: 4 command posts, 3 radar station, 2 fuel depots and 11 areas of concentration of weapons and military equipment.
In total, 2,581 military infrastructure facilities of Ukraine were destroyed during the operation.
Among them: 90 command posts and communication centres of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, 123 S-300, Buk M-1 and Osa anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as 81 radar stations.
Destroyed: 897 tanks and other armored combat vehicles, 95 multiple rocket launch systems, 336 field artillery and mortars, 662 units of special military vehicles, 84 unmanned aerial vehicles.
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It’s happening: Poland to send MiG-29 fighters to U.S. for Ukrainian transfer in return for F-16s;
Update: U.S. rejects
Why the hesitation? Fear of Russia, mainly. The Kremlin warned recently that a neighboring country agreeing to host Ukrainian aircraft on its bases could be deemed to have joined the conflict, exposing it to retaliation. Similarly, Polish pilots couldn’t fly the MiGs to Ukraine or else they’d be on the battlefield. If Ukrainian pilots instead traveled to Poland to pick them up, that might be regarded by Russia as the Poles hosting Ukrainian fighters.
There were other logistical issues. Poland would want to remove any classified technology from the jets before transferring them to Ukraine for fear that downed aircraft would be salvaged and analyzed by Russia. The U.S. would also want to remove its own classified avionics from the F-16s before sending them abroad. And, as is true in so many industries in 2022, there’s a supply-chain issue: “There is also an F-16 production backlog, which means the countries that potentially give away their MiGs and Su fighters to Ukraine would need to wait for the backfill for some time.”
Poland isn’t transferring any jets to Ukraine. It’s transferring them to the United States, at one of its bases in Germany. The United States will then transfer the jets to the Ukrainians, who’ll presumably travel to Rammstein and fly the jets back to Ukraine themselves.
That’s no different in substance from the Ukrainians traveling to Poland and flying the jets out of Warsaw. They’re simply taking a longer route, from Poland to Germany and then from Germany to Ukraine. The expectation — or hope, rather — is that Putin might have been tempted to swipe at Poland if they allowed the Ukrainians to use one of their bases to pick up the planes but he won’t dare swipe at the U.S. for letting them do it at Rammstein.
Update: My god, what a fiasco.
This afternoon Victoria Nuland, a top official at the State Department, surprised everyone by saying that Poland’s statement about the MiGs wasn’t “preconsulted” with the U.S. Which seemed … unimaginable. How could the two sides not be coordinating on this?
Now comes a statement from the Pentagon dismissing the Poles’ plan to transfer the MiGs to Rammstein. Evidently the U.S. also has cold feet about letting the Ukrainians take off from one of their bases:
Did the Kremlin call up the White House and warn them that the Polish plan would amount to an act of war?
What a colossal humiliation to have two NATO allies now in a public spat, with each side seemingly afraid to equip Ukraine with jets despite having openly discussed the idea for days. If the U.S. and Poland weren’t prepared to let the Ukrainians pick up the jets from any NATO airbase, why was this plan ever floated in the first place?
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Biden Tries to Call Saudi Arabia and UAE and They Refuse to Answer the Phone
According to a scoop (I can’t use the term anymore without mental images of Joey SoftServe with face buried in a waffle cone) by the Wall Street Journal, the Biden White House has tried to arrange calls with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the U.A.E.’s Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al Nahyan to convince them to pump more oil. U.S. gas prices are skyrocketing, we’re nearing hyperinflation, and only the dimmest bulbs in the media are going to believe that Russia invading Ukraine has diddly squat to do with either.
Saudi Crown Prince M@hammed bin Salman and the U.A.E.’s Sheikh M@hammed bin Zayed al Nahyan both declined U.S. requests to speak to Mr. Biden in recent weeks, the officials said, as Saudi and Emirati officials have become more vocal in recent weeks in their criticism of American policy in the Gulf.
“There was some expectation of a phone call, but it didn’t happen,” said a U.S. official of the planned discussion between the Saudi Prince Mo@hammed and Mr. Biden. “It was part of turning on the spigot [of Saudi oil].”
The Saudis have signaled that their relationship with Washington has deteriorated under the Biden administration, and they want more support for their intervention in Yemen’s civil war, help with their own civilian nuclear program as Iran’s moves ahead, and legal immunity for Prince M@hammed in the U.S., Saudi officials said. The crown prince faces multiple lawsuits in the U.S., including over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018.
The Emiratis share Saudi concerns about the restrained U.S. response to recent missile strikes by Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen against the U.A.E. and Saudi Arabia, officials said. Both governments are also concerned about the revival of the Iran nuclear deal, which doesn’t address other security concerns of theirs and has entered the final stages of negotiations in recent weeks.
If you want to see what kind of a brain trust runs our diplomacy, McGurk was sleeping with a W.S.J. reporter while failing to negotiate a Status of Forces Agreement with Iraq. He also was scr@wing his way through the female talent at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad (I suppose I should commend the fact that his liaisons were with women, that is something of an accomplishment in the State Department). Along the way, he apparently ended up starring in an inadvertent p@rn flick recorded by a rooftop security camera at the embassy; you can read the details in Vote No On The McGurk Nomination.
I don’t think there has been a time in my life where a President of the United States could make a call and the recipient just refused to take it. Something like this might have happened with Jimmy Carter during the Arab Oil Embargo, but I don’t think so.
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Brett McGurk, the National Security Council’s Middle East coordinator, and Amos Hochstein, the State Department’s energy envoy, both traveled to Riyadh late last month to try to mend fences with Saudi officials. Mr. McGurk also met with Sheikh M@hammed in Abu Dhabi in a bid to address Emirati frustrations over the U.S. response to the Houthi attacks.
Last month, Gen. Frank McKenzie, the head of U.S. Central Command, flew to Abu Dhabi for a series of meetings with Emirati leaders to discuss ways to beef up security in the wake of the Houthi missile strikes. Gen. McKenzie wanted to meet with Sheikh M@hammed, but was unable to get time with the Emirati leader, according to a Middle East official.
Last week, Yousef Al Otaiba, the U.A.E. ambassador to the U.S., said that relations between the two countries were strained.
30
Blinken and Biden Fold, Pentagon Rejects Poland Offer for United States to Start World War III
Ha-Ha-Ha… Oh, the Biden administration is not happy with Poland. Not happy at all.
Earlier this afternoon, Poland called Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s bluff, over the U.S. claims that Poland was going to send fighter jets into Ukraine. This followed Sunday’s announcement where Poland said the U.S. State Dept was lying.
Earlier today, Poland said they would give the U.S. the planes if Blinken and Biden wanted to start World War III, but Poland wasn’t going to help the U.S. create a war with Russia. This put the U.S. in a ‘put up or shut up’ position. Well, Blinken and Biden just folded, per the Pentagon:
Pentagon – We are now in contact with the Polish government following the statement issued today. As we have said, the decision about whether to transfer Polish-owned planes to Ukraine is ultimately one for the Polish government. We will continue consulting with our Allies and partners about our ongoing security assistance to Ukraine, because, in fact, Poland’s proposal shows just some of the complexities this issue presents.
The prospect of fighter jets “at the disposal of the Government of the United States of America” departing from a U.S./NATO base in Germany to fly into airspace that is contested with Russia over Ukraine raises serious concerns for the entire NATO alliance. It is simply not clear to us that there is a substantive rationale for it. We will continue to consult with Poland and our other NATO allies about this issue and the difficult logistical challenges it presents, but we do not believe Poland’s proposal is a tenable one. (read more)
Well played Team Poland, well played!
60
So how long would it take to transition pilots from flying Mig29s to flying US F16s.
30
Sounds like more to it than that
“Blinken and Biden Fold, Pentagon Rejects Poland Offer for United States to Start World War III
March 8, 2022 | Sundance | 422 Comments
Ha-Ha-Ha… Oh, the Biden administration is not happy with Poland. Not happy at all.
Earlier this afternoon, Poland called Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s bluff, over the U.S. claims that Poland was going to send fighter jets into Ukraine. This followed Sunday’s announcement where Poland said the U.S. State Dept was lying.
Earlier today, Poland said they would give the U.S. the planes if Blinken and Biden wanted to start World War III, but Poland wasn’t going to help the U.S. create a war with Russia. This put the U.S. in a ‘put up or shut up’ position. Well, Blinken and Biden just folded, per the Pentagon:”
More at
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/03/08/blinken-and-biden-fold-pentagon-rejects-poland-offer-for-united-states-to-start-world-war-iii/
“Well played Team Poland, well played!”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/03/08/poland-calls-secretary-blinkens-bluff-refuses-to-help-the-united-states-start-world-war-iii-against-russia/
And a mention of “The Top Trio” – “Winken, Blinken and Nod”
20
Things going “super gasp” eh?
“Leaders of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates Refuse To Take Biden Phone Calls, Both Spoke to Vladimir Putin
March 8, 2022 | Sundance | 230 Comments”
https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2022/03/08/leaders-of-saudi-arabia-and-the-united-arab-emirates-refuse-to-take-biden-phone-calls-both-spoke-to-vladimir-putin/
30
“We’re all in this together” – remember?
“Biden’s “Caspian Pipeline Consortium” exemption – 24% owned by Russian Govt, 15% by US Chevron”
https://www.michaelsmithnews.com/2022/03/bidens-caspian-pipeline-consortium-exemption-24-owned-by-russian-govt-15-by-us-chevron-.html
50
How much oil is sitting in Australias’ outback, there are capped off wells drilled in the 60’s sitting all through the Simpson desert, and there’s oil in the Great Australian Bight, could maybe angle drill for it, it was uneconomic in the past but now might be a goer.
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Good question to which I don’t have an answer. Ironically, this CSIRO report declares that…
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A reserve the size of Saudi Arabia lies under Coober Pedy.
233 billion barrels is a whole lot of oil
Brisbane company Linc Energy says independent studies have confirmed a major shale oil source in South Australia’s far north, which officials have estimated could be worth $20 trillion.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-01-24/major-oil-discovery-in-outback-sa/4481982
https://www.thesized.com/trillions-of-dollars-oil-australia-outback/
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Then again, with only two refineries left to process the oil and oil likely to be at world parity prices, are we that far ahead.
Just watch for all the lefty nummies to come out of the woodwork and put bans on everything.
50
Even if Australian oil exploration were allowed to happen in promising areas, which are some of the areas banned from exploration, and even if Saudi or Venezuela-like deposits were found and proven and economical to extract, most Australian Governments would be against such extraction.
It just wouldn’t happen.
We’d just keep building more windmills and solar subsidy farms and now hydrogen farms.
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We really do need a New Australia; a place that is free and a place where people in public office who show a lack of respect for the people they serve get swift punishment.
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Why Obama Didn’t Arm Ukraine
He misunderstood Putin and the reality of military force in foreign affairs.
By The WSJ Editorial Board
Wars have a way of altering reputations, even in retrospect. Two leaders whose legacies look much worse in light of the war in Ukraine are Angela Merkel and Barack Obama.
The former German Chancellor made her country hostage to Russian energy, badly misjudged Vladimir Putin, and contributed far too little to NATO’s defenses. Her successor has repudiated her legacy in a week.
As for Mr. Obama, he should be remembered as the President who refused to sell lethal defensive weapons to Ukraine—even after Mr. Putin seized Crimea in 2014. He wouldn’t even sell Javelin antitank weapons of the kind that are now helping Ukraine’s military slow Russia’s invading army.
That was bad enough, but his logic for doing so reveals his misunderstanding of both Mr. Putin and world affairs. Here’s an excerpt from a 2016 interview with Mr. Obama in the Atlantic, which often served as his Boswell:
“‘Putin acted in Ukraine in response to a client state that was about to slip out of his grasp. And he improvised in a way to hang on to his control there,’ [Mr. Obama] said. ‘He’s done the exact same thing in Syria, at enormous cost to the well-being of his own country. And the notion that somehow Russia is in a stronger position now, in Syria or in Ukraine, than they were before they invaded Ukraine or before he had to deploy military forces to Syria is to fundamentally misunderstand the nature of power in foreign affairs or in the world generally. Real power means you can get what you want without having to exert violence. Russia was much more powerful when Ukraine looked like an independent country but was a kleptocracy that he could pull the strings on.’”
20
“Banning Russian oil”
Except the oil from the Caspian Sea that Russia owns 24% of!
30
It does not matter what anyone says on this site without direct action. No one in control is listening………..
00
A bit off topic,
I just got sent a link to NEM Watch and I noticed that Qld was using significantly more electricity than NSW (9.8GW to 8.4GW)
Is this usual ?
I always thought NSW was the biggest user of electricity.
30
We usually run second to NSW but when it’s hot in QLD and wet in NSW like yesterday, we use more.
30
Hmmmmm!
I haven’t seen this in the mentions of the Holodomor
“More Googlin’:
http://static.producer.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Ukraine_Wheat_Web_Area_Map.jpg
Whaddya know?
The Holodomor happened in the Wheat Growing areas in Eastern Ukraine, where the people either are Russian, speak Russian, or want to be part of Russia.”
In a comment at
https://newcatallaxy.blog/2022/03/09/cool-heads-needed/#comments
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[…] Biden Sells Alaska Back To Russia So America Can Start Drilling For Oil There Again […]
00
Oh please. Be quiet! Don’t give them ideas.
10
Good news buried in Breitbart on the shuttle diplomacy of the Israeli Prime Minister given that Israel has 1.5 Million Russians and is an ally of both Russia and Ukraine plus the tricky situation in Syria. Russia can withdraw if the Crimea is recognized as Russia (which means Ukraine turns the water back on), Eastern Ukraine is demilitarized which ends the civil war and Ukraine drops their intention to join NATO. Or hostilities would ramp up massively because no matter how the press have played up deadly Russian attacks, they are often collateral damage in a relatively restrained attack well short of a scorched earth full invasion.
But this proxy war does not have just the two players, or it would not have started in the first place. The US, Germany, Britain, France, EU, NATO. Especially the US since Biden was given special responsibility for Ukraine under Obama and personally threatened the Ukraine President. And Europe became dependent on Russian gas, a direct action of Biden and stopped by Trump and restarted by Biden. On the other hand if Russia takes over all of Ukraine, all the dirty secrets will come out like gain of function research, kickbacks, Hunter Biden’s involvement, so Biden may have to settle.
It is to be hoped that somehow the people in the sandwich, the Ukranian people, the poorest and sickest in Europe by far, could be freed from the tyranny of the world’s most corrupt government, something which is rarely mentioned.
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And the Biden administration and their supporting media are now blaming the Ukraine war for rocketing fuel prices. Nothing to do with Joe Biden, either the fuel prices or the war. And pigs will fly. Special envoy Kamala Harris says all the six million US trucks should be electric. It’s hard to get an intelligent and competent VP. Ask Obama.
50
And I always wonder if Barack Obama is gob smacked that his geriatric hopeless VP is now US President? I wonder what he really thinks?
40
Re Obama, the document I linked below mentions that:
The point being the deeper one digs into the background in all this the more one realises that the US is not the good guy most people in the West believe it to be. Having said that Putin is not the good guy either – far from it.
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Although everyone needs to read this as it gives a good overview of what’s happening on a number of important topics (MSM, COVID, NATO, China, US, Ukraine, Russia, Biden, Zelensky, WEF, IMF, etc.) this religious appeal for an anti-globalist alliance to unite peoples of the world against the tyranny of a NWO sounds sincere but I would be very cautious and want more evidence to show it’s not a ruse. Alternatively, even if it were an honest and sincere attempt to fight the establishment of a NWO, it would inevitably be infiltrated and hijacked to establish the NWO of even greater devilish proportions than the one currently being established by world governments as it would become a religious war, and we all know how such wars end up. Time will tell, at least for those with ears to hear, eyes to see and a brain to think.
This statement pricked my ears and as such is the first piece of evidence the appeal may not be so sincere as it is made out to be:
According to other sources, it’s not that simple. Apparently, Putin tried that approach on at least one occasion but Zelensky refused to budge from his stance with the behest of the West. Now, whether that is true or not is impossible to know for sure as none of us are privy to the discussions between Putin and Zelensky. What I would say though is for Putin to publicly offer an olive branch for the whole world to see and then engage (or re-engage as the case may be) negotiations, not privately but publicly so the whole world knows the truth about the issues surrounding the Ukraine-Russian conflicts, warts and all. It might not be successful but it might be our only hope to avoid a world war as I can’t see Biden offering such an olive branch. He and his cohorts are too busy trying to escalate the conflict with Russia and China, and according to recent reports India and Israel are becoming more concerned about Biden’s real intentions.
ON THE RUSSIA-UKRAINE CRISIS: A Message from Abp. Viganò, Former Apostolic Nuncio to the U.S.
Written by Carlo Maria Viganò
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“Flash: Russia Won”
https://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=245363
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The legacy fake news media mafia refuse to broadcast Donald Trump rallies but you can watch them live on or via Newsmax.
Go to https://www.newsmaxtv.com/trumprally for details.
I don’t think the text message reminder mentionef will work outside the US.
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A quote from an article WUWT. If you have ADHD go down to points 4 and 5!
“I have seen so much misunderstanding of how oil works online this week.
1) You don’t just “open a valve” to increase oil production.
It is extremely capital & time-intensive to extract hydrocarbons.
You have to get permits approved, construct locations, drill the well, frac the well, build production infrastructure etc.
You are talking a 6-month cycle at best.
Then you layer other constraints on top of that:
-labor shortages cause a limited supply of oilfield services so you can’t bring wells on as quickly
-steel shortages make sourcing pipe difficult
2) Now you’re asking O&G companies to ramp up capex to increase production.
It’s a very tough ask when the feds have created so much uncertainty from a regulatory perspective with rhetoric and actions such as banning drilling on federal lands, pulling pipeline permits, etc.
Essentially the message is:
“There isn’t a place for oil and gas in this world, you’re being phased out.”
It’s hard to make investments with those headwinds, but now that’s what’s being asked.
3) Americans have become addicted to cheap oil and gas.
That was enabled by investors subsidizing the costs over the last decade and incinerating their capital.
Now investors want O&G companies to focus on sustainable free cashflow and return capital.
Shocker.
This has caused O&G companies to go into maintenance mode and limit production growth.
4) Activists have been pushing for the divestment of fossil fuels.
Countless endowment funds, institutions, banks and other entities have announced their withdrawal from O&G.
(Preventing the ability to finance energy and support humans isn’t looking so noble now)
5) Now oil and gas companies are being painted as the bad guys for not producing enough oil.
Despite years of capital being sucked out of the space, increasing hurdles to build infrastructure and activists attacking the industry, it’s now the O&G companies who are at fault.
They are at fault for something that they can not physically do in such a short amount of time.
They operate at low prices and give Americans an extremely prosperous life, the response:
“You’re killing the planet, we’re going to end you, leave it in the ground”
They stop chasing production growth and leave it in the ground, the response:
“Greedy oil companies only care about profits, they don’t care about human suffering or else they would increase production”
People in the O&G industry have every right to be upset right now.
They wake up and work hard to power the world and support human flourishing, just to be told by critics on twitter that they’re evil.
Now those critics are in desperate need of help and the only people that can save them are the ones they have been demonizing for the last 10 years.
Bad energy policy and misguided activists have led to this problem.
Full stop.
People are getting a hard dose of reality on energy production and realizing how critical it is to society.
The oil companies didn’t cause this.”
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2022/03/08/there-are-9000-approved-oil-leases-that-the-oil-companies-are-not-tapping-into-currently/
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Why should the oil co’s strive to increase production when they can sit back, keep producing at the current levels and rake in 3+ times the profit.
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This is nitty gritty on the ground war in Ukraine. He makes more sense than endless news flashes, or recycled videos.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FDKH_FxFdrw&t=338s
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