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June 12, 2019
Unconstricted Twisted Filaments Of Fiber
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I posted this off-topic in the last blog. But here it is again. I strongly feel this is a threat to our national security and liberties in general.
https://www.mintpressnews.com/neocon-billionaire-paul-singer-driving-outsourcing-us-tech-jobs-israel/259147/
They are selling our jobs, information and our sovereignty to this miserable pathetic country piece by piece.
And our politicians and the corporations have sold out their country a long time ago. They should all be charged with treason and placed in custody.
Posted by: Uncle Jon | Jun 12 2019 16:58 utc | 1
@1 uncle jon… i think when american politicans say ‘america first’ they mean ‘israel first’… maga is really mig… money, money, money… singer is just another guy playing in the private finance world, obsessed with money.. he needed another focus, so israel first is it i suppose…
Posted by: james | Jun 12 2019 17:12 utc | 2
@Bernard
It says a lot about the information that you provide that even on days when “you have nothing”, your silence speaks volumes…. and stands up against whatever news for the day is being fed to the rubes from the usual suspects in the media.
Keep up the good work and stay safe.
Posted by: Skeletor | Jun 12 2019 17:19 utc | 3
Renewable Energy Costs Take Another Tumble, Making Fossil Fuels Look More Expensive Than Ever
A volume at google books doesn’t have the preview feature, so all I have is a snippit from the search itself.
In 1955, the price of single crystal silicon PV cells was about $2/cm’ (in 1955 dollars) for 10% efficient cells
We’re talking expensive! A square centimeter is a very small area, and two 1955 dollars are now worth more than $19. Modern solar cells also have a higher efficiency.
That the publisher of this story is Forbes is significant to me. Perhaps it has been dawning on the well-off folks who aren’t named Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk that access to the human colonies on Mars or the Moon will be limited to the billionaire class. When the Earth starts to become an uninhabitable hellhole the “ordinary” Rich People will be in the same boat as the rest of us.
We can start installing the square miles of solar farms NOW. If a Presidential Candidate says anything else, forget him. If you have a damnfool congresscritter, ditch him.
Side note: the story doesn’t even mention nuclear power. The cost figures of the most dangerous of the ‘alternative’ energy sources are so bad I’m guessing the authors saw no point of bringing them up.
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jun 12 2019 17:30 utc | 4
See the face of Western impotency:
If Trump Wants to Take On China, He Needs Allies
–//–
Beijing tells it like it is:
Mainland cares more about Hong Kong than outsiders do
Hong Kong is a difficult place to do a Color Revolution because of its geography: it doesn’t have any source of fresh water and the city is very water stravagant; China has a capable Navy and can easily besiege it. Outside help won’t come, the bill will pass, Hong Kongers will have to swallow the pride and take another L.
–//–
Boris Johnson Promises to Protect Britain From ‘Red-Clawed Socialism’ Under Jeremy Corbyn
This part wasn’t mentioned by neither The Guardian nor The Independent. It seems it is valid to vulgarize and demonize socialism in the UK. Suddenly, movements to make Keir Starmer and Yvette Cooper relevant again have already begun. Suddenly, Ed Milliband was a good candidate after all. Suddenly, Boris Johnson is a moderate. Suddenly, Tony Blair’s crimes weren’t crimes after all.
The Lib Dems would be ideal solution for the British liberals, but, to their despair, it seems the world doesn’t revolve around Brexit.
Big story at the moment
Mobile phone hacking by U.K. MI5 found to have unlawfully
Hacked phones and kept information on basecaly all the public. High court judge ruled.
Plus very informative
on last night 8 pm bbc radio 4
(That will be them covering there arse for not reporting it sooner)
It also has wider implications here on this blog and world wide. You do need to see this, yes you !
Also Israel private firm fronting its creation.
As an inside I use an iPhone the moment trump landed in U.K. my iphone went on a go slow and started heating up (Two classic symptems you’v been hacked)
When he left it stopped !!
Eny one else had similar ? Apparently among others they like to target political activists! That’s me.
Posted by: Mark2 | Jun 12 2019 17:55 utc | 6
When US Navy and Marine F-35 pilots most need performance, the aircraft becomes erratic
This thing may have some valid uses, but to peddle it as an all-purpose “Swiss Army Knife” type of aircraft is insane. And so are the sums of money being thrown at this modern version of the Brewster Buffalo of WW2.
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jun 12 2019 18:04 utc | 7
ZS @ 4; Thanks for the link. It confirms, without a doubt, that renewable energy is the way forward. As significant change always challenges the status quo, It’ll be an uphill battle, but, it’s one that must be fought, and won…
Posted by: ben | Jun 12 2019 18:10 utc | 8
– No comments (yet) on what is happening in Hong Kong ?
Posted by: Willy2 | Jun 12 2019 18:12 utc | 9
Some sites I bookmark and sometimes check are mostly clickbait. The reason I don’t dump them is because they have a genuine nugget every now and then. People can decide for themselves in which category the link story belongs. MY opinion is that the folks who stand to make a pile of money on the upcoming 2020 election must maintain the illusion it’s a real contest. That’ll enable donors to keep throwing money at the election profiteers who will in turn invest some of that money in advertising and under-the-table payments to authors.
Despite Unpopularity, Trump Can Win 2020. Here’s How.
Trump’s approval ratings show that he has the strongest base in historical times.
People lie to pollsters, and much importantly, pollsters can craft their ‘results’ to have anything at all as the outcomes. I realize an awful lot of Trump groupies have 2-digit IQs, but I’m no longer under the delusion that as a group they’re significantly dumber than Hillary-bots. Russia-gate was an eye-opener by revealing the slobbering stupidity of an awful lot of Dems.
Read it and rejoice, or to have a good laugh, or just skip the link entirely. This is stuff I could easily label “election fantasy” – if not “election porn”.
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jun 12 2019 18:26 utc | 10
b:
There is a good article in al-Monitor on what’s going on in the Sudan. It appears to be an attempt to realign Sudan to the Egypt/KSA/UAE axis away from the Turkey/Qatar/ Muslim Brotherhood axis.
Egypt’s role in Sudan
The last paragraph is telling:
“I think the Egyptian regime is advising the military council to stall, as stalling guarantees more tension among the revolution forces,” the political scientist said, adding, “It seems work is underway to foil the popular revolution in Sudan and empower a military rule with no Brotherhood presence.”
Posted by: TheBAG | Jun 12 2019 18:26 utc | 11
@ Willy2 | Jun 12, 2019 2:12:32 PM #9
The Hong Kong situation is one where 1) I don’t know the language and 2) don’t trust the sources.
What I fear is that the US and others are setting up a lot of Chinese people for a big fall. Whatever the validity of those protests, I suspect they’re being at least partly driven by outside money just to raise hell with our recently defined new enemy.
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jun 12 2019 18:32 utc | 12
No comment from Hillary, either.
…just kidding…
As they say, “accuse your enemy of what you yourself are guilty of”.
The Obama administration was full of such things. Zionists, the ‘Pentagon Bowel’ and Neocons do it constantly.
A website (blog) could be dedicated to the theme of examples of “Goebbelism”
https://research.calvin.edu/german-propaganda-archive/goeb59.htm
Goebbels at Nuremberg — 1934:
The cleverest trick used in propaganda against Germany during the war was to accuse Germany of what our enemies themselves were doing.
I know that you are tuned-in as you are wise enough to come here to MoA. Thus you know how the FBI/CIA/DoJ and Obama and the Clinton campaigners ran a coup against Trump before and after the 2016 election (and how it is going to boomerang on the latter).
Thus it comes as no surprise to hear these very recent words from the Glorious Galloping Gal, Hillary Clinton:
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-12/hillary-circumstances-trumps-america-more-dangerous-hitlers-germany
“There is nothing normal about undermining the rule of law. There is nothing normal about attacking the press. There is nothing normal about trying to undermine another branch of government. There’s nothing normal about trying to use the legal system to go after your political enemies,” Clinton, who lost the presidential election to Trump in 2016, said.
“There is nothing normal about any of that.”
Posted by: librul | Jun 12 2019 18:35 utc | 13
In regard to “fossil fuels” and so called renewables. The means to access materials and process them is guarded by the usual suspects, as is the narrative. Free is a dirty word, and manufactured scarcity is the tool to keep inexpensive self reliance and interdependent sufficiency from gaining traction. I recall sometime in the latter part of the 90’s when the environmental movement was hijacked. It was likely noted from some lofty perch in the social engineering realm that the plebes were massing and that the narrative needing some tweaking. You see it’s not the billions of barrels of bunker fuel used to keep wage slavery profitable for the multinational shell corporations in the form of transoceanic shipping, oh no. It’s your carbon footprint, silly!
But wait, dioxide, monoxide, or just carbon in general? Let’s obfuscate the issue by over simplifying the definitions so they cannot be reasonably debated. Anyone who dares question the narrative is tarred and feathered as a ‘climate denier’, which interpreted literally means: one who denies that we live in a climate of any kind..? And who coined the phrase ‘fossil fuel’ in the first place anyway? Was it an oil baron perhaps? One who might profit on duopoly and manufactured scarcity? Just how many peer reviewed science papers support this hypothesis? What WERE those pesky Russian geophysicists tinkering with right after the second world war..?
Everyone at the bar know the Hegelian Dialectic. The sky is falling! 12 years and we are doooooomed!! Let’s ratchet up the control mechanisms with something like, oh letseeeeeee Agenda 21 or is it 30? In the meantime let’s reinforce the notion that lowly humans cannot possibly be relied upon to manage their own affairs. Guilt them mercilessly until they beg to be told what to do.
But wait why DO we have to make consumer plastics out of frozen petroleum?! “Ooooooh no we couldn’t possibly retool our factories to make them out or plant material, just think of the costs! Of course they would be handed down to the consumer and you don’t want THAT do you?” Ok then why not just make everything super efficient to the point where it requires on fifth the energy? “Truth be told young fella, our profit margins are really based mostly on waste. We simply have to keep making shit that falls apart and needs to be replaced, or we cannot amass the astronomical wealth we like to. Of course we will always have good ole usury to the blood flow going”
You see there really is no substitute for total control. Of course we could have local sustainable quasi-agrarian mutually interdependent societies, but is to be prevented at all costs. I recall one of the themes presented in The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson: The concept of The Seed vs. The Feed. It’s somewhat self explanatory. A real life example of the idea would be the sale of plant seeds which are not capable of generating fertile seeds themselves. You must return to The Feed to get more or else…..no other option.
Sure humans are trashing the planet, but the directed history and meme promotion surrounding the complexity of planetology is designed to protect the offenders and corral whats left of the human spirit into it thousand year prison.
Posted by: Chevrus | Jun 12 2019 18:39 utc | 14
Per Never Mind The Bollocks @ 5
The British people did not vote the way Obama wanted during the Referendum, and they do not take kindly to being told how to vote in their own country by the blustering proconsul of a foreign power no matter how ‘friendly’ they say they are. For the avoidance of doubt, Jeremy Corbyn is a traditional socialist, which is some way short of being an all-out Marxist, but I don’t expect Pompeo to recognise that nuance. He is also a man of principle who has stood up for Palestinian rights when it was a deeply unpopular subject, and objects greatly to the stste of Israel carrying out Warsaw Ghetto type attritions in Gaza. That does not make him an anti-Semite, but it does make him a critic of Israeli conduct. Pompeo should be very careful. what he has done is put the entire US diplomatic mission in the UK on notice. One hint of a ‘colour revolution’ and he may not get the outcome he wants. The US playbook is well known, after all we’ve seen them use it enough times….
Posted by: Emmanuel Goldstein | Jun 12 2019 18:46 utc | 15
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jun 12, 2019 2:04:35 PM | 7
(F-35 glitches)
Boeing have been designing aircraft on computers, for 25+ years, and the prototypes perform withing a few percentage points of the predicted envelope. The long-range, highly fuel-efficient 787 is but one example. If the F-35 model in this story can’t perform extreme dogfight or evasive maneuvers then it wasn’t designed to do those things. The ‘qualifications’ in the DefNews article (all but) spell that out.
I search regularly for news on Japan’s crashed F-35 and there’s been no news on the cause of the crash nor the fate of the pilot, since the initial news reports.
If nothing else, Lockheed Martin seems to be winning the race to be named creators of the 21st Century’s first Widow Maker.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jun 12 2019 18:49 utc | 16
@ Hoarsewhisperer | Jun 12, 2019 2:49:53 PM #16
A story I saw yesterday said they’d recovered the pilot’s body, and that they’re giving up on trying to fish out the wreckage. It’s a spread-out mess over three miles deep, and I doubt if there is anything worth trying to retrieve.
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jun 12 2019 18:55 utc | 17
@ Chevrus | Jun 12, 2019 2:39:00 PM #14
But wait, dioxide, monoxide, or just carbon in general? Let’s obfuscate the issue by over simplifying the definitions so they cannot be reasonably debated.
That tidbit tells me you either don’t understand a thing about the issue, or that you’re very cleverly throwing sacks of **** at the fan so as to keep the pretense there is a monstrous “liberal” conspiracy or “debate” going on.
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jun 12 2019 18:59 utc | 18
The ‘Extradition Protest’, with its thousands of protesters seemingly instantly mobilized, appears to have a startling resemblance to the ‘Umbrella Protests’ that were backed by the CIA/NED.
Keep a close watch on whether the organizers are shown to have studied in the US and if the most vociferous media are known to have had connections to the CIA/NED.
Posted by: chet380 | Jun 12 2019 19:04 utc | 19
Surprised to see no post or comments made about the recent incident in Saudi Arabia.
Posted by: ninel | Jun 12 2019 19:04 utc | 20
willy2 #9
Hong kong? thats part of China. Now why aren’t people out in the strees in Alabama or Hawaii demonstrating against extradition to Washington? Because all one nation.
Now secret rendition or kidnapping and rendition without legal appeal, why that’s all USA.
Forget about HongKong do some research on the biological weapons facility in Georgia (eastern europe that is or western Russia if you prefer). Maybe you could tell us a little about African Swine Fever or ghe distribution of Fall Army Worm from the USA and how those two were spread in China.
I have a news item from South Front for you where those lovely Kurds SDF, thats the israeli proxies that USA is funding, are burning farmers crops unless they sell to to the SDF monopoly. I recall the same stand over tactic was developed in the USA many decades ago.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jun 12 2019 19:07 utc | 21
@ ninel | Jun 12, 2019 3:04:44 PM #20
Why didn’t you post a link or headline? Depending upon the slant of the story, the Houthis smashed many valuable supplies at a Saudi airport and their drones flew away untouched – or was it they did no damage at all because the drones were all shot down? First there was zero Saudi comment, yet today the news is full of tales of many innocent civilians being killed.
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jun 12 2019 19:12 utc | 22
They keep underestimating those Houthis …
Missile attack on Abha airport could be game changer for Yemen’s army: Analyst
PressTV(Iran)
Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 12 2019 19:32 utc | 23
Perhaps the most emblematic scene that encapsulates the anti-human spirit of TrumpCo and its GOP allies was displayed by this article, accompanying video and Twitter thread:
“Do Your Jobs: Sick and Dying, They Brought Themselves Down Here to Speak – To No One.”
I’ve faulted the writer for wrongheaded hyperbole, but in this case I don’t think her words were strong enough:
“For a scathing, potent, gut-punching look at the efficacy of righteous rage in the name of change, look no further than Jon Stewart’s blistering testimony to an almost empty House Tuesday on the shameful failure of Congress to adequately compensate 9/11 First Responders, dying of cancer and other ills at horrific rates even as glib lawmakers continue to spout ‘Never Forget’ bullshit.”
Regardless of where the guilt actually lies, Stewart was absolutely correct to verbally assassinate the AWOL GOP members of the panel, which today voted to approve the bill be voted on by the entire House. Further reporting shows this isn’t over by any means:
“The bill will now go to the floor for a full vote in the House of Representatives, where it is likely to pass. It’s unclear whether Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will take up the bill in the Senate, although Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of New York said Wednesday that he was ‘imploring, pleading, even begging’ McConnell to bring the bill to the floor as soon as it passes in the House.”
Millions of people have watched the C-SPAN video while many more have watched MSM news videos of the same testimony while the related Twitter thread’s gone viral. This callousness ought to become an election issue tied to all the other inhumane aspects of TrumpCo and GOPism.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 12 2019 19:42 utc | 24
Well B., you get out and have Rouladen with red cabbage, and potato dumplings, with a nice bottle of Dornfelder. Cheese cake with Grand Marnier for dessert. Be my guest, invite your squirrel for company.
Cheers.
Posted by: Taffyboy | Jun 12 2019 20:01 utc | 25
As to Yemen and Houthi exploits, this map displays areas that are now within Saudi that were once Houthi lands. I’ve read speculations that the offensive drive into the depicted region aims at repatriating those lands. There’s talk of the unveiling of a new air defense system, while the following provides credence to the offensive’s aims:
“Also, Yemeni Defense Minister Major-General Mohammad Nasser al-Atifi visited his country’s armed forces in Southern Saudi Arabia’s Najran region for the first time, a move believed by experts to be a humiliation of Riyadh.
“While visiting the [within] Saudi forces, Major-General al-Atifi congratulated the Yemeni Army and popular forces on their high morale to face the Saudi aggressors.
“The Yemeni defense minister underlined that the Yemeni Army and popular forces are very close to the city of Najran in Southern Saudi Arabia, and said that more victories are imminent.
“‘The Yemeni forces are just a few kilometers away from Najran city and its airport,’ al-Atifi said.”
Clearly, the Saudis and their advisors didn’t expect an assault such as this aimed at recapturing Houthi tribal lands. If Najran falls, MbS will be supremely humiliated.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 12 2019 20:13 utc | 26
@Zachary Smith #4
There are situations where solar PV or wind energy make sense, but as a mass replacement for fossil fuel or nuclear power…no.
There are numerous scams embedded in the type of article you quote.
1) Capacity factor. For coal, natural gas or nuclear, the capacity factors range from 60% to 80%+. Solar PV capacity factor is in the teens.
In other words, you would need 4 to 5 times as much Solar install in order to generate the same amount of electricity as fossil fuel based. Trying to show that 1 megawatt of Solar PV is comparable in cost to 1 megawatt of coal or natural gas or nuclear is pure propaganda.
2) Reliability. People don’t like when power goes on and off at a system level. Solar and wind are not reliable – which means every single watt of solar or wind generation requires some form of backup. Generally it is coal or natural gas – but being backup means the backup fossil fuel is even less efficient than normal.
Sure, you can theoretically store the energy in dams or batteries, but again the costs and scale are enormous.
There’s a reason why any state or nation with a high renewable generation content also has the highest electricity costs…
3) Creation costs. Solar PV and wind both require a lot of exotic inputs. Semiconductors aren’t clean at all – there’s a reason why Silicon Valley has a significant number of Superfund sites…
Wind generators require lots of rare earths for the magnets – again, besides China being a source, any rare earth product is enormously energy intensive and polluting.
4) Overcapacity vs. market forces. States that have installed large wind energy capacity have found themselves in situations where they have either too much or too little. The inelasticity of electricity consumption means too much wind causes the spot price to go negative while too little causes the spot price to skyrocket. This is a serious problem from the utility perspective, although possibly an opportunity to get around public utility price controls.
Quite frankly, a lot of the hype around “renewable” energy is on par with Uber style hype: outright lies.
Posted by: c1ue | Jun 12 2019 20:19 utc | 27
@ c1ue | Jun 12, 2019 4:19:29 PM #27
You’ve put a lot of words out there which mirror the talking points of the professional denier sites, but I want to focus on your conclusion.
Quite frankly, a lot of the hype around “renewable” energy is on par with Uber style hype: outright lies.
That implies you have access to non-hype “truth”. What is that truth? And what do you propose to do to halt and reverse the Earth’s slide into irreversible disaster?
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jun 12 2019 20:27 utc | 28
Bernie Sanders is delivering a major speech on Democratic Socialism. Further down his Twitter page, Bernie proposes to finish the job FDR began, where the thread shows just how silly and uneducated opposition is to Bernie. I suggest they all read the Preamble to the Constitution, which one might call collective communitarianism–the idea of all to uplift all at the expense on none that’s the GDMFSOB basis for Christianity–the Golden Rule and such! When will people pull their heads out of their asses, think for themselves and define their own interests instead of tweeting the equivalent of cannon-fodder “thoughts.”
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 12 2019 20:31 utc | 29
29 Cont’d–
Indeed, with regard to what is shown in the graphic here, what is there for anyone to oppose?! What he’s for ought to be fundamental Conservative goals–that’s sure what my Conservative forbearers strove to provide/achieve. WTF makes such a proposal radical? Just how twisted and immoral have people become?!
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 12 2019 20:37 utc | 30
My little burg uses communist electricity (municipal owned utility) and over the last few years has been installing solar farms. They got a little carried away and we now have 2.5 times the capacity that we need. I suppose that is useful for when one side of the city is cloudy. Anyway, the solar farms were cheap which is why we have so many now in town. Of course, the coal plants still need to run at night, but they end up idling during the daytime, which save a ton (or many tons, actually) of coal. The town power utility is now rolling in cash, and for now they are plowing that back into infrastructure rather than lowering rates. Eventually they will run out of utility poles to replace with shiny steel or concrete ones and streetlights to upgrade to LEDs, though, so rates will drop at some point.
That said, c1ue is right. Renewables cannot replace traditional baseload power generation in a capitalism-friendly manner. People need to think outside the box prison cell of markets economics to solve this problem.
Posted by: William Gruff | Jun 12 2019 20:42 utc | 31
karlof1 @26:
The Houthis are a puzzle, I’ve been watching them for a long time, the news environment is so polluted now that it’s difficult to see what is going on. I’ve always felt that the Houthis would win, but it’s hard to argue that based on the apparent matchup with their enemies. They show technical abilities and resources beyond what I would expect. The usual explanation for that is they had a lot of shit left over from the Cold War era and Saleh’s rule, having been an object of dispute among meddlers for a long time now, the curse of a geostrategic location (plus some oil).
This latest bit with the “ballistic cruise missile” is an example of that. “The Mouse that roared.”
Nevertheless, I will not be surprised to see them take Riyadh one of these days.
Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 12 2019 20:44 utc | 32
@ William Gruff | Jun 12, 2019 4:42:32 PM #31
1) Renewables cannot replace traditional baseload power generation in a capitalism-friendly manner.
2) People need to think outside the box prison cell of markets economics to solve this problem.
Those are the choices, so which will it be? Coddle Big Power Generation and die? Or build the things that’ll save us? This is an either/or situation, with the human civilization and life on earth as the stakes of the wager.
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jun 12 2019 20:52 utc | 33
@ Bemildred | Jun 12, 2019 4:44:04 PM #32
I’m seeing no reports of the growing famine in Yemen, so either it is still going on and the news suppressed, or Iran is smuggling in food. Yemen has certainly become a proving ground for Iranian weapons, for it’s darned unlikely the Houthis can do more than assemble crated supplies. If even that.
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jun 12 2019 20:56 utc | 34
Zachary Smith @34:
Hodeida port seems to be working now, UN says no Houthis there for a few months, maybe they sent those guys up North to help out.
They have also been acting offensively down around Aden, they seem to be going on offense.
Right, not much starvation now, still some stories about medical care and cholera.
I suspect the port being operational has something to do with the Houthis offensive operations, and they do have a long history of smuggling in all directions. Also the Iranians may have thought it a good time to distract the Saudis and UAE.
Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 12 2019 21:04 utc | 35
The idiots in DC are literally talking about nuclear war with Russia right now in a defense spending/policy hearing on CSPAN. Sickening. I’m not sure why I even turned on the TV. The “premise” is that Russia launches a “tactical” low yield weapon, and the consensus is that we would not “measure” it and respond in kind, but start an all out nuclear war. Everyone knows that actual discussions regarding policy are done in closed door meetings(and several reps have referred to this happening at a later time).
So are we at that point in Idiocracy, where we believe our propaganda has some effect on our enemy? Is it 1950? FFS
Posted by: sejomoje | Jun 12 2019 21:10 utc | 36
The Unipolar Moment is Over by Pepe Escobar
Second paragraph:
First they met in Moscow, signing multiple deals. The most important is a bombshell: a commitment to develop bilateral trade and cross-border payments using the ruble and the yuan, bypassing the U.S. dollar.
Way on down in the text:
His message to the EU, in this case, would be to cut them off, and link with China for good. That way, Russian oil would be completely redirected from the EU to China, making the EU completely dependent on the Strait of Hormuz.
My take on this is that the Russians and Chinese are definitely cutting ties to the dollar for trade between themselves. If the US goes ahead and tries to use the SWIFT system as a club, the Russians will give the Europeans the choice of doing the same or buying their oil from a distant supplier which could be cut off entirely by some violent activity in Hormuz. What about the gas pipelines? The Russians can’t afford to lose the income, but for now the Europeans can’t do without the methane in those lines. Seems to me for the at least the gas the Euros would be forced to dump the dollar.
Does author Escobar know this for a fact or is he speculating? Forcing the Europeans out of the dollar would be a really big deal, should it happen.
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jun 12 2019 21:12 utc | 37
renewable is mostly a scam… and it avoids the simple and real answer: USE LESS
Posted by: Tom66 | Jun 12 2019 21:13 utc | 38
@ Tom66 | Jun 12, 2019 5:13:10 PM #38
It’s impossible to say whether this poster is one of the back-to-the-earth hippies who wants everybody to go vegetarian and shiver in the dark, or if he is peddling the message of Big Deniers that saving the world means we will suffer horribly.
Another person was pushing the line that Evil China has us by the plums with their Rare Earth Monopoly and for that reason we can’t build wind turbines. Yes, what the Deniers lack in honesty they more than make up for in ingenuity.
Rare earths and wind turbines: A problem that doesn’t exist
Other talking points about the turbines is how they drive people insane with their noise and they kill all the little birdies which Big Right-Wing Propagandists suddenly love with all their being.
Making Solar Cells is SO very polluting that they’re unthinkable. We’re much better to stick with the coal plants which belch out tons of vaporized mercury and tiny particulates. Not to mention the megatons of filthy ashes.
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jun 12 2019 21:28 utc | 39
Between the sun and the planet, there’s more than enough renewable energy to power humanity. What we cannot do is have a political-economy that requires endless, infinite growth to maintain stability, which means the current paradigm must change and with it many bad habits must end.
Most agree with psychohistorian that finance needs to be converted into a public utility, but that’s just one realm of the political-economy that needs to become a public utility. Power generation utilities that aren’t already publicly owned must become so they can totally serve the public interest. This ezine’s issue covers many of the topics that must be addressed as we try to get to zero carbon emissions. The process must be done in a holistic fashion; for example, workers from an industrial process to be phased out must be retrained in such a fashion that they remain continually employed. What this process also demands for the USA is an actual Industrial Policy, not the wasteful, corrupted crappola of a “non-system” that now amounts to Corporate Socialism.
Politics is the #1 inhibitor to dealing with the Climate Crisis. Internationally we’ve watched Putin flip his position thanks to Xi’s influence and their SPIEF speeches display their focus and determination to doing the Right Things. TrumpCo and the Science Deniers need to become extinct along with the idea of controlling the planet for limited gain at the expense of everything. IMO, such a realization is growing and becoming the dominant planetary feeling.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 12 2019 21:29 utc | 40
>>>> karlof1 | Jun 12, 2019 3:42:52 PM | 24
Why didn’t the Democrats press for this when Obama was president? Let me guess, corporate Democrats like Obama and Clinton were warned off by their fund manager overlords.
Posted by: Ghost Ship | Jun 12 2019 22:07 utc | 41
Liburl @ 13 said in part;”Thus you know how the FBI/CIA/DoJ and Obama and the Clinton campaigners ran a coup against Trump before and after the 2016 election (and how it is going to boomerang on the latter).”
IMO, the Clinton and Obama folks, are, part and parcel, the same class as DJT. Working for the dominance of the elite and avariced uber-wealthy.
The FBI/CIA/ & DOJ all serve the same masters as the afore mentioned families.
The golden rule; They, who have the gold, rule…
Posted by: ben | Jun 12 2019 22:09 utc | 42
@ 41 said;”Let me guess, corporate Democrats like Obama and Clinton were warned off by their fund manager overlords.”
Exactly….
Posted by: ben | Jun 12 2019 22:11 utc | 43
The key to renewables being efficient 24/7/365 has always been storage. For those truly interested in this issue, I suggest using solar storage as search terms for your favorite search engine to get the overwhelming number of returns it generates. In the beginning, it was a massive bank of 12V lead-acid batteries that needed replacing numerous times over the life of the panels. Battery technology has markedly advanced to the point where the storage issue is effectively solved. And of course, storage also applies to wind and most other geosolar power generating systems; although, there are altitudes at which the wind flows always but at differing velocities. The power we use is a mixture of hydro and wind. I can take a short walk down to the ocean and observe many terawatts of energy being produced by the ocean’s waves that beg to have a portion captured.
If you closely follow events in the Cryosphere like I do, then you’ll understand that the politics surrounding energy generation and distribution must change along with a great many other things to properly deal with the Climate Crisis. Naysaying doesn’t cut the mustard; all that does is reduce you to the status of Eeyore.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 12 2019 22:18 utc | 44
All this stuff is anti-capitalist. Capitalism needs predators AND prey.
Also, whomever succeeds in exhausting non-renewable resources the quickest, while concurrently despoiling non essentials, wins the game.
We’ve got the King of Capitalism for President of the USA. He knows the game and he knows it well. Money is the end all. And the end justifies the means.
More and faster! King Greedhead says, “We’re doing better than ever. Just like Poland.”
Posted by: fastfreddy | Jun 12 2019 22:21 utc | 45
“Nothing” is a vague concept, I wonder what is really behind the missing post. Oh, Russia probably it always is, or no, North Korea.
Posted by: Babyl-on | Jun 12 2019 22:27 utc | 46
I check many news sites daily and find the same thing…. from nothing to insane or just plain stupid. But we all know there are many things going on corpgov and it’s presstitutes don’t want you to know. So they just throw out some ‘entertainment’
Posted by: ken | Jun 12 2019 22:37 utc | 47
Bemildred @ 32:
I’m sure a lot of Saudi soldiers have defected to the Houthis’ side and have brought over weapons, ammunition, electronics know-how and skills, and even drones and tanks to assist them.
There had been some online news that entire units in the Saudi army had switched sides and were fighting for the Houthis. But all of this news has now been drowned out so I cannot cite any sources or links that would support my hunch.
The Saudis have lost huge amounts of equipment and weapons during their war against Yemen. Defections of Saudi soldiers to the Yemeni side would account for much of those losses.
Posted by: Jen | Jun 12 2019 22:54 utc | 48
A new national poll shows former Vice President Joe Biden surging to a “landside” margin over President Donald Trump, and five other Democrats also leading in head-to-head contests.
For starters, I don’t believe this poll. Biden is easily the weakest of the Democratic candidates, and that’s one reason.
Next are motives by various figures to ‘fix’ the numbers. The Biden campaign wants to ‘bigfoot’ the primaries and show he is the best candidate to take down Trump. Whatever else you say about the Republicans, they can handle themselves in an election, and they know that Biden’s skeleton closet is the size of a small school gymn. The neocons who shill for the apartheid Jewish state can cover their bets with candidate Biden, for if the election goes for Trump, they can continue to lead him around by the nose just as they’ve been doing since he took office. If Biden wins, he’s at least as good as Trump for them. There is at least one more group I can see with motives for turning up these “landslide” numbers, but I’ll skip sharing my paranoia for now.
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jun 12 2019 23:30 utc | 49
Bemilderd @32–
Yes, following events in Yemen is difficult. This news site I recently happened upon and this new Twitter acct are two I see cited by many others on Twitter. According to this source, the campaign against Saudi airports is in retaliation for the 5yrs closure of Yemeni airports, which is what I’d assumed. The terrain in Southern Saudi/North Yemen is akin to Afghanistan.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 13 2019 0:05 utc | 50
UEFA European Championship qualifying, Serbia–Ukraine, June 7, 2019, Lviv, Ukraine:
https://twitter.com/dnrpress/status/1138428528930762757 (vid)
Translation:
Glory to Ukraine! To heroes glory!
Glory to Ukraine! To heroes glory!
Glory to Ukraine! To heroes glory!
Glory to Ukraine! To heroes glory!
Glory to Ukraine! To heroes glory!
Glory to the Nation! Death to enemies!
Glory to the Nation! Death to enemies!
Glory to the Nation! Death to enemies!
Glory to the Nation! Death to enemies!
Ukraine above all!
Ukraine above all!
Ukraine above all!
Ukraine!
Posted by: S | Jun 13 2019 0:32 utc | 51
“A Houthi military spokesman promised the group would target every airport in Saudi Arabia and that the coming days would reveal “big surprises”.”
https://www.google.ca/amp/s/amp.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/12/yemen-houthi-rebel-missile-attack-injures-26-saudi-airport
Posted by: Ninel | Jun 13 2019 0:51 utc | 52
Karlof1@40
“Most agree with psychohistorian that finance needs to be converted into a public utility, but that’s just one realm of the political-economy that needs to become a public utility.”
I have always believed this to be true, until I realized that the public is owned by private interests. The government is controlled by these same interests so why would a public utility fare any better than the privately owned Fed?
As an example, after WWII the British nationalized the BOE. It is a public utility. Nothing has changed.
Posted by: Pft | Jun 13 2019 1:06 utc | 53
Oregon Wave Energy Project Moves Forward (“The university plans to create a wave energy testing facility about 6 miles off the Oregon Coast. The idea is that energy developers will be able to by-pass the permitting and just pay the University to test their wave energy converters in the water”).
Posted by: Paul Merrell | Jun 13 2019 1:31 utc | 54
@Zachary Smith #28
Irreversible slide into disaster? That’s also very unclear.
If temperatures go up 4 degrees C or more, there *may* be a net overall negative.
However, there is no indications at all – outside of the computer models that have been consistently wrong (warm) for 2+ decades – that this will happen.
There also has been no rational look at what warmer temperatures and higher CO2 levels mean. A visible percentage of the “Green Revolution” in the past 2 decades is directly linked to higher CO2 levels: higher CO2 levels are a boon to plant growth – it is the primary reason why the Sahara is greening in particular and the planet is greening overall.
So, the premise that we *must* go renewables is not clear.
Looking at renewables themselves – I didn’t see any refutation of the facts I put forward.
People who actually deal with electrical grids have substantiated the problems that large amounts of variable renewable energy cause.
The capacity factors, actual amounts of electricity consumed, need for storage, etc are also realities.
So while it is a good thing that research is being done to try and address these problems – the notion that slapping solar PV and windmills everywhere will fix the problem, is utterly false.
Economically, the primary beneficiaries of renewables have been rich people. Rich people gain the most from tax subsidies and are most able to afford “prepaying” energy costs – which is what solar PV installations really are. The feed-in tariffs are just plain theft – subsidies which are paid for by everyone else, otherwise known as socialism for the rich.
Posted by: c1ue | Jun 13 2019 1:33 utc | 55
@karlof1 #40
I have no problem with the goal of reducing fossil fuel usage.
I do have a problem with replacing fossil fuel usage with renewable technologies that are more expensive, unreliable, potentially equally damaging to the environment, and which provide vehicles to pass money to already wealthy people.
The notion that “something must be done” is not automatically correct. Even the IPCC says that it is too late to prevent the majority of damage – so why then must zero emissions happen tomorrow?
I further note that the US has more pressing problems than carbon emissions. The health care waste is so enormous, that fixing that alone would fund any manner of Green New Deal desired.
Instead of fixing that most egregious problem, it seems the liberati are screaming about climate.
How convenient for the health care and military/industrial profiteers.
Posted by: c1ue | Jun 13 2019 1:38 utc | 56
@karlof1 #44
Sure, storage. Unfortunately, storage is not economical nor is there any indication that true massive electricity storage is economically feasible.
The lithium battery banks being installed are outrageously expensive – but more damning, they cannot fulfill more than literally minutes to hours of full service area wide demand.
Given that solar never works at night – unless you’re a Spanish subsidy farmer – and wind has frequent and days long outages, the choice is either a fully parallel fossil fuel plant which will be much more polluting/less efficient because of start/stop, or intermittent service such as you might see in a 3rd world nation.
Posted by: c1ue | Jun 13 2019 1:42 utc | 57
from todays usa daily propaganda briefing… https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-june-12-2019/
can someone explain to me how the usa rips up the jcpoa and yet wants iran to abide by it? what kind of crazy logic is the usa using at this point? it is too confusing to follow… thanks..
“QUESTION: Okay. And then secondly, related to that, yesterday at the IAEA your ambassador said that Iran was out of compliance, or in violation of the JCPOA, of the nuclear deal, and that it should get back into compliance, and that the other – the remaining parties to the deal should make that a priority. This suggests to me that even though you guys say that this is the worst deal ever negotiated and a horrible failure, that you actually see some value in it. Why would you call for Iran to comply with a deal that you think is essentially garbage if —
MS ORTAGUS: Well —
QUESTION: Is it better than nothing? Is that what the position of the administration is?
MS ORTAGUS: Our position on the JCPOA has not changed. But we, of course, do not want Iran to get a nuclear weapon. We also want them to stop their malign activities, supporting terrorists. There’s a lot of news in the Middle East today, as you saw the Houthis – of course, with more potentially reported missile attacks on civilian Saudi infrastructure. So we look at – whether it’s the JCPOA or our maximum pressure campaign towards Iran – holistically. It’s not – it’s certainly about a nuclear weapon, and I know that our European counterparts would like the Iranians to stay in the JCPOA. We certainly do not want them to have a nuclear weapon.
But more broadly, I mean, can you imagine if all of you were getting ready to fly to Miami airport and there was a group like the Houthis, a militia like the Houthis, that were using – reportedly using missiles in order to attack an airport before you flew in?”
Posted by: james | Jun 13 2019 1:43 utc | 58
Jen @48: yes I’ve seen those stories, they seem plausible, lots of underpaid mercenaries with lots of fancy equipment.
karlof1 @50: thanks for the links, I’ll check them out. Those mountain people are tough, I hear they look down on the Saudis as newcomers.
Ninel @52: they do seem to be full of surprises:
Former U.S. Navy HSV-2 Swift wrecked in Yemen missile attack
Posted by: Bemildred | Jun 13 2019 1:47 utc | 59
The farce of India’s GDP growth:
India’s GDP Mis-estimation: Likelihood, Magnitudes, Mechanisms, and Implications
“…after WWII the British nationalized the BOE. It is a public utility. Nothing has changed.” @53
The Bank was re-privatised under Blair’s government.
Regarding the Houthis: they inherited the mantle of the Imams who ruled Yemen until the coup in the early 60s. In opposition then to the Nasser backed revolutionary government their guerrilla warfare was supported by Saudi Arabia, the UK, the US and Israel.
It is one of the key pieces of evidence that Israel was not attacked in 1967 that Egypt’s military-accused of readying an attack on Israel- was heavily involved at the time in Yemen.
The constant factor here is that imperialists strive to keep Yemen weak.
Posted by: bevin | Jun 13 2019 2:10 utc | 62
chet380 @19:
The organizers of the ‘Extradition Protest’ and those of the ‘Umbrella Protests’ are pretty much the same, except that a few organizers of the ‘Umbrella Protests’ are in jail.
The most vociferous newspaper in both protests has been Apple Daily. Its owner Jimmy Lai is a friend of the neoconservative Paul Wolfowitz’s.
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1536527/my-meeting-paul-wolfowitz-not-sinister-says-jimmy-lai
https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/article/1557390/jimmy-lai-paid-paul-wolfowitz-us75000-help-myanmar
Posted by: TN | Jun 13 2019 2:15 utc | 63
Pft | Jun 12, 2019 9:06:37 PM | 53
Posted by: c1ue | Jun 12, 2019 9:42:22 PM | 56
Nice try to play on words. Maybe that is true in Britain but I doubt it.
This energy engineer worked for the municipal utility of a small town. My bosses were citizens who volunteered for the municipal utility board.
Staff participated in resource projects with other municipal utilities and signed purchase power contracts (PPA) with private contractors to deliver energy under contract. I helped put together 38MW ($250M) of renewable energy over the last 15 years. While the all resources are 100% GHG neutral (large hydro and renewables), the average rates are in the middle of costs for electric utilities in California.
The Forbes article is right about renewables. Things are rapidly changing:
1. When we were looking for new renewables 15 years ago, solar was $150/MWh vs many new solar contracts in the $30-40/MWh with no energy sources such as coal or natural gas;
2. Calpine shut down a 15 year old 543MW combined base cycle natural gas plant because is wasn’t economic;
3. Combustion turbines to meet peaking load are not likely to be replaced. A 262MW NG combustion turbine (CT) isn’t going to be built in the Ventura area because a 100MW / 400MWh solar and storage facility will be built for the same cost. A CT takes 5-10 minutes to come up while storage is almost instantaneous;
4. Biogas will likely not become as cheap as solar or wind but it is baseload using manure, food waste, green waste, etc that needs to be disposed. AgStar estimates that 16% of California’s electricity could come from bio sources;
5. Offshore wind is in the $115/MWh currently but the floating turbines are moving from 6MW per turbine to 12MW per turbine by 2021. Almost all of Calfornia’s electricity could come from 5,000 12MW turbines (there are about that many on land currently) at a 50% capacity factor!
6. etc etc.
Almost half of the coal generators will be shut down by 2022 (EPA?). There are some problems that need urgent Green New Deal approach such as the Four Corners plant. This is a large employment source for Navajo’s and new jobs need to be developed/found. Renewables aren’t a magic bullet but solutions can be found to their problems.
Posted by: heresy101 | Jun 13 2019 2:33 utc | 64
@karlof1 #40
“Power generation utilities that aren’t already publicly owned must become so they can totally serve the public interest.”
Not necessarily owned just answerable to a government administrator.
The UK has a system where all the privately owned utility companies prepare 5 year plans. New schemes, replacement and emergency, all costs to the utility, are budgeted.
The government agency sets the overall budget/allowable utility charge rates, for all the utility companies for a 5 year period.
The companies are compared with each other to ascertain which companies have spent their government set, last 5 year plan, the most efficiently
Where the most efficient/best is measured by the benefit to the consumers supplied by that particular.
The best then becomes the yardstick for all utilities to aim for. Of course there are always differences in a particular utilities expenditure but there is now and for the past decade or direct pressure from a government agency, monitored by citizens, to deliver/spend the citizen’s billed monies in the most efficient ways.
The ranking, by the government agency, has shown to have a direct link to the privately owned share price. Which ultimately impacts on the utilities access to capital and shareholders pockets.
Posted by: OhOh | Jun 13 2019 2:35 utc | 65
@ c1ue | Jun 12, 2019 9:33:30 PM #54
Irreversible slide into disaster? That’s also very unclear.
…there *may* be…
…no rational look at what warmer temperatures and higher CO2 levels mean.
…higher CO2 levels are a boon to plant growth…
…is not clear.
…of the facts I put forward…
…good thing that research is being done…
Thank you. I’ll try not to trouble you again.
Posted by: Zachary Smith | Jun 13 2019 2:47 utc | 66
“the choice is either a fully parallel fossil fuel plant which will be much more polluting/less efficient because of start/stop, or intermittent service such as you might see in a 3rd world nation.”
You may wish to read a post at Club Orlov. “Nuclear Meltdown At HBO”
It is initially about the latest movie on Chernobyl.
However it progresses into an interesting suggestion regarding the demonisation of nuclear power generation.
By whom and targeted at whom.
Posted by: OhOh | Jun 13 2019 2:48 utc | 67
Posted by: OhOh | Jun 12, 2019 10:35:10 PM | 64
This 5 year regulated plan DOES NOT work. Look at PG&E in California which develops integrated resource plans (IRP) that look out longer than 5 years but they are only plans. PG&E rarely follows them since they are busy blowing up towns, burning down cities, killing citizens, but keeping the profit rate up.
The utilities need to be owned and controlled by citizens as municipal utilities such as SMUD, LADWP, BPA, and small municipal utilities where profit isn’t the driving factor. Utilities need to be reliable, cost effective, renewable, and responsive to citizens (unlike PG&E).
For offshore wind, here is a video that shows the current state of the art using 6MW turbines:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUlfvXaISvc
Posted by: heresy101 | Jun 13 2019 2:54 utc | 68
@ Pft who wrote in regards to my wan’t to make finance all public instead of mostly private
”
I have always believed this to be true, until I realized that the public is owned by private interests. The government is controlled by these same interests so why would a public utility fare any better than the privately owned Fed?
”
It is true that currently many elected and paid members of governments around the world are “owned” by private interests. That said, I posit that if no more private finance/inheritance then ownership of governments goes away.
I keep writing the making all of global finance a public utility is the existential nut that the West has to crack to evolve beyond the dark ages we live in. It will change the value we have been told exists on everything
@ heresy101….add Tacoma Power to your list of American socialism at work.
Posted by: psychohistorian | Jun 13 2019 3:24 utc | 69
james | Jun 12, 2019 9:43:22 PM | 57
much appreciation for bringing us the usa daily propaganda briefings!
DR
Posted by: Desolation Row | Jun 13 2019 4:05 utc | 70
I don’t know where I heard it but I read that the universe is a giant hologram. So does this mean that geopolitics is irrelevant when we become conscious that our brains are somehow locked into a holographic projection. Is any of this actually real?
Posted by: Jezabeel | Jun 13 2019 5:10 utc | 71
maybe if more straight folks dropped acid it would help answer your question jezabeel..
listening to george duke feel right now.. the cover sort of takes you there, lol..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-JyW6VXXNo&list=RDpvHrMLKio88&index=2
from 1974.. the 70’s were an interesting time…
Posted by: james | Jun 13 2019 5:24 utc | 72
@ heresy101 #67
“This 5 year regulated plan DOES NOT work”
The UK plan has and is working to improve the the utilities planning and cost control. The UK regulator, OFWAT”, has teeth and uses them.
I have no idea what the PG&E plan/regulatory control it operates under, if any.
Possible you can outline it for us here?
Posted by: OhOh | Jun 13 2019 6:21 utc | 73
The war in the region between SW Saudi Arabia (illegally taken in the 1930s) and the people in NW Yemen has been going on for decades, based on tribal and religious ground. The Saudis have kept sending to this region people supposed to Wahhabize it and locals do not like it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%27Asir_Region
In NW Yemen, capital Saada, tribal war is part of daily life and has been so for ever. But incursions by Saudis and meddling in local politics via tribal proxys has made it worse in the last thirty years as more petrodollars were available.
No time to read these now but they look interesting surveys
https://www.crisisgroup.org/middle-east-north-africa/gulf-and-arabian-peninsula/yemen/huthis-saada-sanaa
https://www.ecfr.eu/mena/yemen
Posted by: Mina | Jun 13 2019 6:53 utc | 74
On Sudan thanks for the article. Egypt is always involved when Sudan is concerned and now more than ever, since Egypt has been reduced to a KSA/UAE pawn. It has almost 100 millions mouths to feed and is close to zero tourism. KSA/UAE pay the checks.
For the Sudanese opposition, it means that whoever they deal with: the militias killing and raping them like last week, or the so-called politics (and actual military) they are actually facing the same people, namely KSA/UAE. And the red line is that KSA/UAE needs the Sudanese army to continue supporting their war in Yemen.
That KSA/UAE takes the chance to get rid of the MB elements in Sudan politics makes sense and Egypt is particularly happy to participate on that. But notice that before that, the MB in powers had no problem supporting KSA/UAE with their troops.
Posted by: Mina | Jun 13 2019 7:12 utc | 75
To be cynical, one must notice that the current situation makes the EU a de facto ally of a coalition in which people convicted for crimes against humanity appear. The current vice president is a former Janjaweed commander
https://www.france24.com/en/20190605-sudan-military-protest-janjaweed-dagalo-future
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Janjaweed
https://foreignpolicy.com/2019/05/14/man-who-terrorized-darfur-is-leading-sudans-supposed-transition-hemeti-rsf-janjaweed-bashir-khartoum/
The ICC is mute.
Posted by: Mina | Jun 13 2019 7:22 utc | 76
Just 10% of Shale Oil companies are cash flow positive, according to Rystad Energy.
Read the full Press Release here:
https://www.rystadenergy.com/newsevents/news/press-releases/Just-10-percent-of-shale-oil-companies-are-cash-flow-positive/
Posted by: John Doe | Jun 13 2019 7:33 utc | 77
Red Is The New Black: Shale Industry Has Produced 170 Bankruptcies Since 2015
By David Stockman. Posted On Saturday, June 8th, 2019
They argue that the consistent failure for the sector as a whole to generate positive free cash flow amounts to an indictment of the entire business model. Sure, a few companies here and there are profitable, but more broadly the industry is falling short. The “sector as a whole consistently fails to produce enough cash to satisfy its voracious appetite for capital,” the report said. The 29 companies surveyed by IEEFA and Sightline Institute burned through a combined $184 billion more than they generated between 2010 and 2019, “hemorrhaging cash every single year.”
A ‘’Gusher Of Red Ink’’ For U.S. Shale
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/A-Gusher-Of-Red-Ink-For-US-Shale.html
Posted by: John Doe | Jun 13 2019 7:39 utc | 78
@ Zachary Smith 4:
Dream on Zach! And while you’re dreaming, perhaps you can dream up some – actually workable – solution to the critical problem with all the so-called ‘renewables’: that none of them can be created, maintained and run without constant – that’s CONSTANT – energy subsidies from fossil hydrocarbon sources. Mediaeval wind-mills and water-mills could be so built and maintained, whilst doing useful work; modern hitechy ones, not. Not one. EROEI suckers them every time. Study Charlie Hall’s work for more insight:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__CCBI1K3Ro
Posted by: Rhisiart Gwilym | Jun 13 2019 8:24 utc | 80
Jezabeel @ 70, James @ 71.
James – thanks for the steer towards George Duke.
I can’t remember where I came across the following.
“Good morning. Here is the day’s news.
Today, a young man on acid realised that all matter is merely energy condensed to a slow vibration and that we are all one consciousness experiencing itself subjectively; there is no such thing as death, life is only a dream and we are the imagination of ourselves.
Now, here’s Tom with the weather”
Posted by: Montreal | Jun 13 2019 9:16 utc | 81
Montreal @ 80
Come on man, that’s BIll Hicks!
“How do you know the Iraqis have incredible weapons?”
“We checked the receipt… as soon as that cheque clears we’re going in!”
Posted by: Jezabeel | Jun 13 2019 9:20 utc | 82
WSJ attempts to reboot the Kim Jong Nam murder with dead and flogged Skripal plot twist. Cites the omniscient Knowledgeable Person to name him as CIA source. Clickbait article devoid of content, tries to sell a book by a WaPo employee that will likely say the same thing in more words:
https://www.wsj.com/articles/north-korean-leaders-slain-half-brother-was-said-to-have-been-a-cia-informant-11560203662
Posted by: Tongkat Ali | Jun 13 2019 9:38 utc | 83
It is just about to kick off with the gulf of oman incident. A special false flag to tell Shinzo Abe not to talk to Iranians. Bolton has gone too far this time:
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/jun/13/oil-tankers-blasts-reports-gulf-of-oman-us-navy
Posted by: Dolores P Candyarse | Jun 13 2019 9:55 utc | 84
Zachary Smith says:
It’s impossible to say whether this poster is one of the back-to-the-earth hippies who wants everybody to go vegetarian and shiver in the dark, or if he is peddling the message of Big Deniers that saving the world means we will suffer horribly
or perhaps he’s just an informed realist unwilling to hype your delusive theory that our very survival depends on producing ever more electricity. this deranged theory, combined with your gratuitous belittling of ‘hippies’ and your disparaging the importance of the migratory paths of ‘little birdies’ pretty much tells me where your head is.
brush up on the 2nd law of Thermodynamics dude, ’cause your pipe-dream of ever expanding economic growth driven by renewables(or anything else) is dead.
even the Germans have all but admitted defeat.
in just two words Tom66 @ 39 is right on the money:
USE LESS
Posted by: john | Jun 13 2019 10:19 utc | 85
To all my thinking comrades: on solar and renewable futures in Australia and the world https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=_Lk3elu3zf4
To the unbeliever Tom 66. Do your research. Human progress requires clear minds and diligent analysis. Watch the video and many others from UNSW SPREE.
Posted by: uncle tungsten | Jun 13 2019 10:37 utc | 86
@ Zach 19:
“That tidbit (Making a distinction between monoxide and dioxide) tells me you either don’t understand a thing about the issue (how does it tell you that?) or that you’re very cleverly throwing sacks of **** at the fan so as to keep the pretense there is a monstrous “liberal” conspiracy or “debate” going on. (How exactly do I appear to be doing that?)
To be clear: Pointing out that the official narrative reduces and oversimplifies terms and concepts in order to obfuscate does not equate throwing sacks of shit at a fan or anything else. There is quite a bit of sweeping assumption and swift policy movement centered around Catastrophic Anthropogenic Climate Change, and I am merely making reference to that. What you appear to be doing is what I have come to know as a fairly typical knee-jerk reaction to a perspective that strays from a narrative that you accept as true. In short, you are simply behaving like nit picking SJW. It’s amusing but inevitably tiresome.
Posted by: Chevrus | Jun 13 2019 15:25 utc | 87
James@73:
Big UP for the Duke!
Zappa does a cameo on this album: Sister Abdulah X on guitar!
Posted by: Chevrus | Jun 13 2019 15:42 utc | 89
@heresy101 #65
The data you provide is interesting, but incomplete.
The NREL published a report on solar PV costs in December 2018.
According to this report – solar PV costs at utility scale have achieved SETO goals of $0.06 per kwh = $60/Mwh, close to what you say, but excludes backup and additional distribution/utility infrastructure buildout.
Most importantly, the costs include the massive subsidies being paid out for renewable installs.
If you add in backup capacity – costs escalate dramatically. NREL data shows a renewable install with a 4 hour backup – the cost doubles vs. just the generation alone. Given that solar requires backup for at least 12 hours a day – more like 36 – real world, truly core generation solar PV is ridiculously expensive. Wind is comparable – interruptions aren’t quite as frequent but they tend to be much larger scale, geographically.
So while the renewable industry trumpets its lowering generation costs (and continue to push for ongoing subsidies), the actual real world performance, both cost and electricity output, leaves a lot to be desired.
Posted by: c1ue | Jun 13 2019 16:06 utc | 90
Translation from Russian analyst Ivan Danilov of Putin’s SPIEF speech: “The Technology War I: Why Putin declared it first.” You won’t read anything like this in any Western publication. Obama and the Orcs he worked for had an opportunity in 2009 to do the right thing, refused, and like their neocon kin, doubled-down in a manner Trump now whines about trying to blame others.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 13 2019 16:13 utc | 91
@Zachary Smith #67
You said: “…there *may* be…
…no rational look at what warmer temperatures and higher CO2 levels mean.”
We had higher global temperatures in human history – the Roman Warm period. You know, when people were growing things in Greenland and wine in Britain?
Disaster? Not so much.
You said” …higher CO2 levels are a boon to plant growth…
…is not clear.”
Greenhouses pump Co2 in order to promote plant growth. If you won’t admit that higher CO2 levels mean better plant growth, then you’re clearly a denier.
You said:” …of the facts I put forward…
…good thing that research is being done…”
Well, it is quite clear that you neither do in-person direct research or attempt to sift through marketing propaganda.
As I noted earlier – IPCC itself sees 4 degrees C or higher as being unlikely. Given that IPCC has consistently been over-estimating temperature trends, since literally Katrina, the notion that disaster would happen at 4 degrees C or more is less than unlikely. The notion that 4 degrees C will even happen is also less than unlikely.
Again, I have no issue with research to produce truly economically beneficial renewable energy.
But that’s not what we have been, or are, installing now.
Posted by: c1ue | Jun 13 2019 16:14 utc | 92
> Sanders supporters, several posts above:
In the last election, the Dems did everything they could to block Sander’s candidacy, some would say even acting shoddily, contrary to Dem rules, etc. If so, nothing has been changed or ‘fixed.’
Dems preffered to lose rather than court the danger(s) of choosing Sanders as their candidate. As he might just have won. Scary stuff!
The Dems arranged (2016) with the MSM and others to compete against what they judged was the least favored candidate in the opposition, a sleazy TV persona and kinda failed RE mogul, a clownish figure. Didn’t work, and thus lead to **extreme** hysteria.
The US is an oligarchy and the two-party system is by now obviously a fiction to divide and rule and keep ppl quiet. Sanders cannot compete or win, he, like others e.g. Gabbard are allowed to parade on the TV stage to demonstrate that plurality of opinion, free speech, und so weiter, are alive and performing well. Ppl can love them! Contribute! Feel the Bernie feels! Love Tulsi, her war experience, her Hawaii flowers..
These minor / major opposition figures are smilingly accepted, tolerated by the PTB, rewarded with some minor goodies, at least not attacked, etc. because they keep the fiction chugging along.
Why on earth would the ‘Dems’ in the sense of those in charge of manipulating the plebs change their position from 2016? Sanders cannot ever be their candidate. They will prefer to lose, once again. To Trump.
Posted by: Noirette | Jun 13 2019 16:17 utc | 93
Jezebel @ 83
Well you live and learn. Many thanks – I had never come across him (knowingly) before.
Posted by: Montreal | Jun 13 2019 16:58 utc | 94
Noirette @94–
I’m not going to argue as much of what you say is correct. Rather, I’ll say what I’ve been saying since 1992 when I voted for Perot–I’ll vote for the candidate that comes closest to the values/issues I want to see pursued. And I’ll do the same in 2020 regardless. I have no illusions about the state-of-affairs within the Outlaw US Empire; I know why it is and where it’s eventually going to end, although the path to the latter can be altered. I can’t run away either, so I must stand and fight. IMO, I’m in the right, so I have no reservations as to my actions–they are true and genuinely patriotic. The alternative–violent revolution–I’ve discussed before at this venue, and as proven through debate is pointless currently. There are many areas in which the Empire is failing, and IMO it has no chance of regaining its previous degree of hegemonic power–it’s unipolar moment’s over. As an historian, I take the long view and have previously commented about its dual temporal nature–circular, a la Vico, while also linear, a la Newton. If Humans manage to avoid Nuclear Suicide, then the Climate Crisis will be overcome with a very large dose of adaptation, and by 2500, humanity and its digs will look quite different from today.
It would be appropriate for someone from the actual audience you address @94 to respond–that would be someone from the D-Party faction of the Current Oligarchy. I’d be curious to hear what justifications are used for their position; they may be insane yet still be logical. Odd how that’s possible!
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 13 2019 17:39 utc | 95
Huawei is far more powerful than Trump the Witch could have possibly imagined! Yeah, check out what The Strategic Partnership has in store for TrumpCo. It would appear that Putin/Xi were ready and waiting for TrumpCo to launch Technology War I. Seems the drawer of Dilbert, Scott Adams, has had it correct all along as to who the Elbonians are, which Pepe Escobar just revealed–and they don’t live in Eurasia if you need a hint.
Posted by: karlof1 | Jun 13 2019 17:47 utc | 96
@ desolution row.. thanks for the encouragement in posting those infrequent usa daily news briefings.. it is one way to get a window into how the empire is thinking or framing its info…
@90 Chevrus… george duke played with frank zappa for a time as well.. i guess they are california connections!
Posted by: james | Jun 13 2019 18:17 utc | 97
Talking about the creator of Dilbert, the Brits have held a pre-runoff runoff for a replacement PM. The field has now narrowed to 1 and 6/7ths.
Boris scored more than 3x the votes of his nearest rival.
We’re now in the era of the stand-up comedian Leader. If Tulsi wants to win in 2020, she’ll need to hire a Comedy Coach or she’ll be dead meat.
Ppl are fed up and pissed off with sincerity – real and fake.
Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Jun 13 2019 18:45 utc | 98
James@98: Indeed. I’m a huge Zappa fan as well…There is a great concert from Philly’76 where this woman Bianca sits in on vocals and it’s superb!
Really the only example of a dynamic lead female vocalist I’ve heard of with a Zappa band.
Posted by: Chevrus | Jun 13 2019 18:47 utc | 99
Posted by: c1ue | Jun 13, 2019 12:06:57 PM | 91
Being retired I don’t stay really close to energy prices, but remember the Xcel energy request for proposals (RFP) of EIGHTEEN months ago.
https://www.energy-storage.news/news/incredible-low-prices-for-renewables-plus-storage-in-xcels-solicitation
“Wind with battery storage: 11 bids were received, representing 5,700MW across eight projects, for a total 5,097MW minus duplicate bids. Bids were priced at US$21 per MWh.”
“Wind and solar with battery storage: 7 bids were received, with 4,048MW, with a corresponding number of projects and megawatts. Bids were priced at US$30.60 per MWh.”
“Solar PV with battery storage: 87 bids, for 16,725MW, for a total 59 projects and 10,813MW minus duplicates. Bids were priced at US$36 per MWh.”
Many solar/wind/storage RFPs have been reported since then. The problem with compiled cost numbers is that they are normally at least two years old.
Posted by: heresy101 | Jun 13 2019 19:24 utc | 100