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October 12, 2022
Misguided Foreign Policies Against Russia And Others Damage The U.S. And Its ‘Allies’

Political corruption, a lack of knowledge, and irrational foreign policies have brought the U.S. to a point where it is losing its primacy in the world.

In response to the 2014 U.S. coup in Kiev the Russian Federation supported ethnic Russian rebels in the Donbas region to resist that anti-Russian progroms with which the Nazi-controlled Kiev regime threatened them. This blocked U.S. plans to move Ukraine into NATO and to station U.S. missiles directly at the Russian border.

In 2016 the Democrats sought revenge by pushing fake claims of Russian interference in U.S. elections. To justify her loss in the presidential election Hillary Clinton created 'Russiagate', the false claim the Trump was somehow directed by Russia. She was supported by high ranking officials throughout the deep state and especially within the FBI. In hindsight their behavior was beyond belief:

An FBI supervisor repeatedly testified Tuesday that agents did not corroborate an explosive allegation from a former British spy of a “well-developed conspiracy” between the Kremlin and Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign before citing the claim as a reason to initiate surveillance of a former Trump campaign official.
…
The FBI used the unconfirmed report, Auten testified, to seek court approval of a secret surveillance warrant to monitor Carter Page, a Trump campaign adviser, and then successfully got that warrant reauthorized on three occasions, based in part on the same, uncorroborated claim.
…
Auten told the jury that shortly after receiving the first batch of Steele documents in the fall of 2016, a group of FBI officials met with Steele and offered him “anywhere up to $1 million” for information that would corroborate the claims in his reports. But Steele never did provide corroboration, Auten said in response to Durham.
…
Steele had been hired to produce reports by research firm Fusion GPS, which had been retained by a law firm that represented Trump’s opponent, Hillary Clinton, and the Democratic National Committee.

'Russiagate' created a feverish anti-Russian atmosphere especially within the Democrats and their followers.

Adding to this was a serious ignorance of Russia economic and technological capabilities. U.S. politicians rely on biased media which created a false picture of Russia. I did my best to debunk that as often as I could:

The rest of the NYT piece is not any better than its very first paragraph. It simply repeats false stereotypes about Putin as an "autocratic leader" or about the non-existing Russian influence on U.S. elections.

Nearly thirty years ago when the Soviet Union broke apart Russia had a deep fall. The liberalization of its economy had catastrophic consequences. But it has since reformed itself. It is now back to its traditional position in the world. A large Eurasian power which is in nearly all aspects independent from the rest of the world and able to protect itself. It must therefore be taken into account when one thinks of global polices. That is simply a fact and not the effect of a "mindgame" that Russia allegedly plays with the "west".

That the U.S. still has problems to understand that is not Russia's fault but the result of the skewed descriptions of it.

I wrote the above in December 2019(!). Ten month later I revisited the issue:

Over the last years the U.S. and its EU puppies have ratcheted up their pressure on Russia. They seem to believe that they can compel Russia to follow their diktat. They can't. But the illusion that Russia will finally snap, if only a few more sanctions ar applied or a few more houses in Russia's neighborhood are set on fire, never goes away.
…
Russia does not accept the fidgety 'rules of the liberal international order'. Russia sticks to the law which is, in my view, a much stronger position. Yes, international law often gets broken. But as Lavrov said elsewhere, one does not abandon traffic rules only because of road accidents.

Russia stays calm, no matter what outrageous nonsense the U.S. and EU come up with. It can do that because it knows that it not only has moral superiority by sticking to the law but it also has the capability to win a fight.
…
Russia is militarily secure and the 'west' knows that. It is one reason for the anti-Russian frenzy. Russia does not need to bother with the unprecedented hostility coming from Brussels and Washington. It can ignore it while taking care of its interests.

As this is so obvious one must ask what the real reason for the anti-Russian pressure campaign is. What do those who argue for it foresee as its endpoint?

The answer to my question was revealed in mid of last year when the U.S. and the EU threatened Russia with 'crushing sanctions'. The idea was to destroy Russia's economy to then breakup the country. It was a very stupid one:

Russia is the most autarkic country in the world. It produces nearly everything it needs and has highly desirable products that are in global demand and are especially needed in Europe. Russia also has huge financial reserves. A sanctions strategy against Russia can not work.

To use the Ukraine to gaud Russia into some aggression to then apply sanctions was likewise a rather lunatic attempt.
…
Instead of splitting Russia from China the U.S. has unintentionally done its best to push them into a deeper alliance. It was the most severe strategic error the U.S. could make.

Instead of a taking a new strategic posture that would support a pivot to Asia strategy the U.S. is now moving troops back to Europe.

The narrow-minded bigotry of U.S. decision makers, fed by a belief in U.S. exceptionalism while lacking any conception of real power, has led to this defeat.

The U.S., through NATO, had build up the Ukrainian army with the intent to use it against Russia. As NATO General Secretary Stoltenberg proudly claimed:

As you know, NATO Allies provide unprecedented levels of military support to Ukraine. Actually NATO Allies and NATO have been there since 2014 – trained, equipped and supported the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

The recent war was launched by Ukraine on February 17 with artillery barrages against the Donbas republics. Massive sanctions against Russia were introduced. The Russia army finally marched into Ukraine.

It took only a few weeks to recognize that the sanctions, as I had expected, utterly failed. In the first days the Rubel fell only to come back much stronger. There were no shortages for Russian consumers. Russia's industries kept buzzing along.

But the sanctions did crush the 'west' and especially its consumers.

Over the years the U.S. and the EU have held up sanctions against the oil producers Iran, Venezuela and Russia. They also destroyed parts of Libya's oil industry. In total the sanctions have kept some 20% of global oil production either off the markets or made them more difficult to buy and sell. On top of this U.S. relations with major Middle East producers, especially Saudi Arabia, have cooled down.

In late 2021 consumer prices for hydrocarbon products exploded. When they threatened to derail the Democrat's chances in the mid terms President Biden used tax payer money, in form of the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, to subsidize gasoline prices:

The United States and five other world powers announced a coordinated effort to tap into their national oil stockpiles on Tuesday, attempting to drive down rising gas prices that have angered consumers around the world.

The move appeared to underwhelm oil traders, who had been expecting President Biden to announce a larger release from America’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, which is the biggest in the world with 620 million barrels.
…
The concerted effort, the largest ever for a release of strategic reserves across multiple countries, is meant to address fluctuations in supply and demand for oil, administration officials said. And it was a shot across the bow of OPEC Plus, the name for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries as well as Russia and other countries. Mr. Biden has pushed those countries to increase production, but has been rebuffed.

The move could bring a response next week when the group holds its monthly meeting. While it could prompt those countries to increase production, it could just as easily push the cartel to restrict supply further and push global prices higher.

The SPR voter bribe has since continued:

Since 2021, the nation’s SPR has diminished by about 35%, with 2021 starting with 638 million barrels in inventory. By the end of the year, that figure had dropped to 594 million barrels. Today, there are 416 million barrels—and even more are set to be released.

The U.S. has not only sanctioned major oil producers, it also instigated a war against the third largest (Russia) and pissed of the second largest one (Saudi Arabia).

The peak of such stupidity was the idea to limit the price 'allowed' to be paid for Russian oil:

A sane actor would conclude that the sanctions were a mistake and that lifting them would help Europe more than it would help Russia. But no, the U.S. and European pseudo elites are no longer able to act in a sane manner. They are instead doubling down with the most crazy sanction scheme one has ever heard of:

[T]he European Union pushed ahead on Wednesday with an ambitious but untested plan to limit Russia’s oil revenue.
…
Under the plan, a committee including representatives of the European Union, the Group of 7 nations and others that agree to the price cap would meet regularly to decide on the price at which Russian oil should be sold, and that it would change based on the market price.

How do you make a big producer of a rare commodity sell those goods below the general market price? Unless you have a very strong buyers cartel that can also buy the product from elsewhere you can not do this successfully. It is an economic impossibility.
…
Russia has declared that it will not sell any oil to any party that supports the G7 price fixing regime. That is why neither China nor India nor any other country besides the EU and U.S. will agree to adhere to it.

A month ago OPEC+ finally fired back by decreasing its output aim by 2 million barrels per day. To some of them a price of oil around $80 per barrel is simply a budget requirement:

The quiet understanding emerging from [Biden's] trip was that Saudi Arabia would increase its production by about 750,000 barrels a day, and that the United Arab Emirates would follow suit with an additional 500,000, pushing down gas prices and worsening President Vladimir V. Putin’s ability to fund a war that was stretching much longer — and with much higher casualties — than Mr. Biden had expected.

But the production increases were fleeting. While Saudi Arabia boosted production significantly in July and August, it backed away from their promise to sustain those levels over the rest of 2022. Its leaders, and all of OPEC, worried that the specter of global recession was driving prices down, from $120 a barrel over the summer to below $80. Below that level, they fear, budgets have to be cut and social stability is threatened. So the Saudis decided they had to act.

The sanctions and the bad relations with Saudi Arabia mark a major failure of U.S. foreign policy writes M. K. Bhadrakumar:

The Biden Administration tempted Fate by underestimating the importance of oil in modern economic and political terms and ignoring that oil will remain the dominant energy source across the world for the foreseeable future, powering everything from cars and domestic heating to huge industry titans and manufacturing plants.
…
The Western powers are far too naive to think that an energy superpower like Russia can be simply “erased” from the ecosystem. In an “energy war” with Russia, they are doomed to end up as losers.

Historically, Western nations understood the imperative to maintain good diplomatic relations with oil-producing countries. But Biden threw caution into the wind by insulting Saudi Arabia calling it a “Pariah” state. Any improvement in the US-Saudi relations is not to be expected under Biden’s watch. The Saudis distrust American intentions.

The congruence of interests on the part of the OPEC to keep the prices high is essentially because they need the extra income for their expenditure budget and to maintain a healthy investment level in the oil industry. The International Monetary Fund in April projected Saudi Arabia’s breakeven oil price — the oil price at which it would balance its budget — at $79.20 a barrel.

The budget point is an obvious one. But more important is that all of OPEC+ recognize the new sanction scheme as a potential attack on each of them:

Meanwhile, a “systemic” crisis is brewing. It is only natural that the OPEC views with scepticism the recent moves by the US and the EU to push back Russia’s oil exports. The West rationalises these moves as aimed at drastically reducing Russia’s income from oil exports (which translates as its resilience to fight the war in Ukraine.) The latest G7 move to put a cap on the prices at which Russia can sell its oil is taking matters to an extreme.
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No doubt, the West’s move is precedent-setting — namely, to prescribe for geopolitical reasons the price at which an oil-producing country is entitled to export its oil. If it is Russia today, it can as well be Saudi Arabia or Iraq tomorrow. The G7 decision, if it gets implemented, will erode OPEC’s key role regulating the global oil market.

Therefore, the OPEC is proactively pushing back. Its decision to cut down oil production by 2 million barrels per day and keep the oil price above $90 per barrel makes a mockery of the G7 decision. The OPEC estimates that Washington’s options to counter OPEC+ are limited. Unlike in the past energy history, the US does not have a single ally today inside the OPEC+ group.

Due to rising domestic demands for oil and gas, it is entirely conceivable that the US exports of both items may be curtailed. If that happens, Europe will be the worst sufferer. In an interview with FT last week, Belgium’s prime minister Alexander De Croo has warned that as winter approaches, if energy prices are not brought down, “we are risking a massive deindustrialisation of the European continent and the long-term consequences of that might actually be very deep.”

All this is the consequence of U.S. 'Russiagate' phobia, originally raised for purely domestic policy reasons. It is a consequence of misrepresenting and misjudging the size and importance of Russia's economy. It is consequence of believing that Russian (and Saudi) interests can be ignored.

Russia's aim is to de-NATO-size Europe. It will do this by using the sanctions against it to deprive Europe of cheap energy. Sustained over months or years it is all that is needed to make NATO fall apart.

The sanctions will finally split Europe from the U.S. and its failed foreign policy.

Some U.S. politicians still think they must continue to pile onto the mountain of failure that U.S. foreign policy has become:

The congressional backlash against Saudi Arabia escalated sharply on Monday as a powerful Democratic senator threatened to freeze weapons sales and security cooperation with the kingdom after its decision to support Russia over the interests of the US.

Washington’s anger with its Saudi allies has intensified since last week’s Opec+ decision to cut oil production by 2m barrels, which was seen as a slight to the Biden administration weeks ahead of critical midterm elections, and an important boost to Russia.
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Hitting out at Mohammed bin Salman’s decision to “help underwrite Putin’s war through the OPEC+ cartel”, Menendez said there was “simply is no room to play both sides of this conflict”.

“I will not green-light any cooperation with Riyadh until the Kingdom reassesses its position with respect to the war in Ukraine. Enough is enough,” he said.

Another Democratic senator and a member of Congress – Richard Blumenthal and Ro Khanna – expressed similar sentiments in an opinion piece for Politico that also accused Saudi Arabia of undermining US efforts and helping to boost Russian president Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The senators want to block weapon sales to Saudi Arabia. Mohammed bin Salman will rather happily buy Russian air defense system. In contrast to U.S. systems they have the advantage of actually functioning. Saudi Arabia's Intermediate Range Missiles are from China. It will be happy to add more of those too.

Pissing off Russia, China and the whole Middle East – all at the same time – while condemning its 'allies' to a systemic economic crash and utter poverty, is the result of an irrational U.S. foreign policy.

I find it unlikely that the Biden administration with its librul ideology will be able to correct its own errors. The failures and mistakes will stay uncorrected and their consequences will multiply. It will take a regime change in Washington, and a change in its deep state ideology, to find back to some realistic view on foreign policies.

Posted by b on October 12, 2022 at 16:06 UTC | Permalink
Comments

Posted by: js | Oct 12 2022 21:40 utc | 88
“More renewable energy means more investments in electric grids to manage loads and demands,” outlined Ignacio Sánchez Galán, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Iberdrola, Spain. Over the next 25 years, energy demand will increase by more than 80% globally, he added…”
So, in 25 years energy demand is going to grow 80% globally.
Hmm… after Ukraine’s infrastructure is taken out and all these kinetics are over, perhaps she will be the first totally new state showcasing all these nifty improvements. They are already way ahead in social credit system research (I read somewhere). So the Marshall Plan model will happen there first. Once the new global order is in place that is, after the collapse then Reset….

Posted by: Scorpion | Oct 12 2022 22:09 utc | 101

Regarding the SPR:
The decline in the crude held by the SPR has returned its state to about what it was in 1985.
Literally an entire generation of US policy – erased in less than a year.
Posted by: c1ue | Oct 12 2022 20:44 utc | 72
Why shouldn’t they use it now? They’ve already eaten the seedcorn. The American ruling class is now little more than a looting party, all signs point to them trying to grab everything they can while the going’s still tolerable.
It’s not normal for the entire governing strata of a society to throw a six-year hissy fit, openly plot insurrection, and gaslight half of its own public into believing Literally Hitler had seized power through some sort of illegitimate means because a loudmouth Boomer with the same views as average Democrats in 1992 won an election.
Nothing these people do, including the trillion dollar printing sprees, Biden’s crazy public threats against his own uh, you know, the thing… *subjects* and deliberately provoking Russia and China, indicates these people have any intention of being around to take the consequences in years to come.
Rulers who allow their own cities to burn down to appease criminals and dipshits incited by feds working for the aforementioned rulers aren’t in the civilisation game, with its annoying long term thinking and ‘rule of law’ hindrances and whatnot. The USA as a federal republic with functioning oversight of its own government via meaningfully democratic processes is, basically, already dead.
Yes, the Russia fixation began with the “Clinton home mail server scandal” and all the Huma Abedin bullshit, and the dead Clinton tech help guy.
Since then it has been a rolling snowball, heading downhill, picking up steam.
Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 12 2022 18:51 utc | 50
I think it began sooner, but there’s been some kind of behind the scenes power struggle over Russia policy in DC, and the neocons eventually won.
When everybody’s favourite Hilldawg had her lame “reset button” photo opportunity with a visibly embarrassed Sergei Lavrov in 2009, the US was already locked onto a path of conflict with Russia – the 2008 declaration that Ukraine and Georgia would join NATO.
The goofy “reset button” stunt seems like the kind of idea Hillary would come up with all on her own, while cackling at her own imagined cleverness. But the message to Russia: here’s some smoke we’re gonna blow up your asshole, Russkies was, I think, received.
Russkies don’t care about reset buttons. They care about American missiles parked on their lawn. Hillary knew this, and she knew Sergei Lavrov knew she knew this, and she went in there with a massive shit-eating grin anyway because the finest minds in Washington DC assumed blatantly empty gestures that a child could see through would help their cause somehow.

Posted by: ZX | Oct 12 2022 22:10 utc | 102

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 12 2022 21:44 utc | 93
“Not only is Uncle Sam’s head filled with rotten teeth that are now infected, his extremities are all afflicted with gangrene, while his heart suffers from congestive failure. In other words, Uncle Sam is on his Death Bed…”
Brilliant!
Ghastly!
True!

Posted by: Scorpion | Oct 12 2022 22:14 utc | 103

Posted by: Tom UK | Oct 12 2022 21:42 utc | 89
In which case please remind us how the UN voted on the unconstitutional coup that changed the Ukrainian government in 2014. Or did they somehow “miss” that one?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 12 2022 22:19 utc | 104

If the Confederacy had been able to win Southern independence, the U.S. would be much less of a world power. Would the world have been better off?
Posted by: Lysias | Oct 12 2022 21:54 utc | 96
With the Money Power already lording it over any important development or player from the early colonialist get-go, one way or another the end result would always have been a centralized Union with, more importantly, a credit cartel posing as a state-run ‘Central Bank.’ The rest, as they might have then said, would be history. And we are all still following their scripts and spending the money they wrote with them, each transaction netting them more wealth and power.
Time to shred it.

Posted by: Scorpion | Oct 12 2022 22:21 utc | 105

“More renewable energy means more investments in electric grids to manage loads and demands,” outlined Ignacio Sánchez Galán, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Iberdrola, Spain. Over the next 25 years, energy demand will increase by more than 80% globally, he added…”
Posted by: js | Oct 12 2022 21:40 utc | 88

I wonder who feeds him his talking points.
80% is very unlikely, birth rates are declining to below the replacement rate almost everywhere, population increases are due to people living longer.
ERIO is declining for all types of liquid fuels, meaning they will become more expensive relative to everything else.
There are not enough of the critical elements needed for renewable energy storage to be implemented world wide.
A rational conclusion is that those with the means to do so will be able to maintain their energy consumption while a large swath of those born to the middle class will experience downward mobility. The trend has started already.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Oct 12 2022 22:29 utc | 106

Re: the Pfizer admission about “transmission” – is it possible that there was a misunderstanding of the word “transmission” in that exchange? I’m really just playing devil’s advocate here – I didn’t get any Pfizer vaccine and won’t be taking any more mRNA stuff for the foreseeable future, but could they have meant that a vaccinated person can still transmit the virus despite claimed extra immunity or reduced symptoms among vaccinated people?

Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 12 2022 22:30 utc | 107

The US should go back to Trump energy policies, and start from there.
A transition to cleaner, more efficient energy sources needs to be backed up by the obvious math of carbon fuels.
How the fuck is the US, the west, and the world, supposed to underwrite a fundamental energy transformation, when the technology, economies, and infrastructure is still carbon centric?
Cart before the horse, and the US is playing the bitch when it should be leading the way.
Disgraceful and disingenuous policies from the US led west, right now.
Be the great nation, US. Or shut the fuck up, stop bombing countries, and get out of the way.

Posted by: Theodore Roosevelt | Oct 12 2022 22:32 utc | 108

Russia funds the war with Rubles
Pretty sure Russians get paid in Rubles to produce stuff

Posted by: paulmeli | Oct 12 2022 22:41 utc | 109

Russia and China do not want dominant World Reserve Currency status since the Triffin Dillema would ruin the basis of their export driven economies, as it did for the USA.
If IMF and World Bank reserve currencies (there are currently 8 plus gold) were set in approximate proportion to annual trade surpluses (average prior 5 years), the problems of:
1. Too many useless USD reserves
2. An artificially strong dollar vs other currencies
3. Sustained trade surpluses/deficits
would all self-correct.
Manufacturing would gradually return to the USA, almost everyone would benefit. The FinTech class would still have currency arbitrage to sustain their lifestyles. 😉
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Oct 12 2022 17:08 utc | 20
Very interesting comment. I’d never heard of the Triffin Dilemma before, so I read up on it.
If I understand it correctly, any national currency that becomes a global reserve currency will become unsustainable in the long run, as the incentives at a domestic level run opposite incentives at an international level. Over time, this inevitably creates a crisis between domestic needs (Trumpite industrial sovereignty) and the needs of the state itself as global hegemon (haha printer go brrr) – the two will drift apart until they cannot be reconciled.
Except, maybe, by demonizing half your own population as racist extremists and jailing their leaders, or at the very least manufacturing a reason to stop the Orange Bastard from running again… maybe that would resolve the tension. By shutting domestic interests – y’know, voters – out of the decision making process entirely. A No Homers Club, where only CEO’s, financiers and people connected to CEO’s and financiers may apply. You can vote for whichever candidate we let you, and you will be happy.
As for the other half of the gullible booboisie, I dunno… tell them racism and climate change are stalking the land, or something. Get them highly selectively worked up about gun violence. The distraction doesn’t matter, what matters is that they’re distracted and anxious.
Anxiety and hate are thus useful to the regime while it’s in its “fortifying democracy” stage. A polis that’s successfully convinced the other half are evil, woman-hating racists / insane perverts who hate America is far too bamboozled to even articulate the right questions.
“If we broke up the big banks, would that end… (duh duh duuuuuuhhh!) racism?” smirked Hillary C. And isn’t it interesting how those corporations all started pushing “woke” stuff immediately after the Occupy Wall Street protests briefly alarmed the wealthy?
Anyway.
It also means that global reserve currency status is a cursed gift. It’ll allow you to live high on the hog, for potentially a long time, but eventually the massive, structural deficits will beggar you and destroy the value of your currency. Industrial, blue collar America was hollowed out in the 1980’s and shipped off to China in the 2000’s. A lot of its inner heartland is dying, demographically and literally – from cheap drugs bought to ease the boredom and ennui of a life without meaningful employment.
Who would want such a thing?
The same people who would’ve taken up Sauron’s ring. Which is to say, the “elites” of any nation, none of whom are immune to the lust for power and easy money.
And now we find ourselves in ’22.
The US is lashing out at Russia and China. Bombing pipelines and senselessly insulting Beijing doesn’t seem like the behaviour of a hegemon secure in its rule. It’s a little bit Fall of Rome, but with dumber, weaker, and horribly older people at the helm.

Posted by: ZX | Oct 12 2022 22:50 utc | 110

Posted by: jayc | Oct 12 2022 17:18 utc | 21
Freeland. Canada’s Ukrainian answer to liberal democracy. What’s fascinating about this screed is the absolutely unrelenting projection; everything she says describes her own aims and ideology. It’s a great shame that Canada, which once produced real political leaders like Lester Pearson, is lumbered with the ineffectual Justin Trudeau who seems to take dictation from Freeland.

Posted by: T Paine | Oct 12 2022 22:57 utc | 111

Russkies don’t care about reset buttons. They care about American missiles parked on their lawn. Hillary knew this, and she knew Sergei Lavrov knew she knew this, and she went in there with a massive shit-eating grin anyway because the finest minds in Washington DC assumed blatantly empty gestures that a child could see through would help their cause somehow.
Posted by: ZX | Oct 12 2022 22:10 utc | 101
They do, as others have mentioned before, seem to have infinite faith in the efficacy of bullshit. It’s like they never met anybody who does not like being conned before.
I infer that American consumers are easy.

Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 12 2022 22:59 utc | 112

More and more immigrants come to western economies from the Southern Hemisphere.
The West can’t even afford to run its own, current, power demands for its economies.
Millions added every year, and though they may be crowded into slums, the demands on power, water, sanitation increase beyond what western nations can provide.
I firmly believe that plan isn’t to kill off the middle classes.
I used to think that.
That there is a plan by “them” or “they” to cull the western middle class.
The plan is to control the world.
The middle class is just collateral damage.
The culling is just a natural result.
Nothing personal, and no class warfare ideology by “them”.
People will suffer and die, and that’s the nature of world domination.
Sucks to be us.

Posted by: Theodore Roosevelt | Oct 12 2022 22:59 utc | 113

Excellent information @Gully Foyle #95.
Thanks.
There clearly is a long running split in the US Deep State between a dominant psychopathic Financial Elite Faction and a lesser but more moral Civil Industrial Elite Faction.
This explains Trump & Russiagate.
Trump calls the Financial Elite “the Corrupt Establishment”, “Globalists”, “Deep State”. But Trump wasn’t a lone actor. Allegedly he was asked to run against Hillary by a military faction aligned with Civil Industrial Elites who aimed to “make America great again” via tariffs and reinvesting into US infrastructure. Both anti-globalist policies.
Something would have to be done with the US$ Reserve Currency status and debt bomb (loss of status means hyperinflationary collapse of USA) and end to exporting the inflation abroad so USA can keep printing money like there’s no tomorrow. The MAGA crowd needed to negotiate their way with other major nations through that and keep their military might to do so from a position of strength and incipient threat.
The Financial Elite of Wall Street are not patriots but they own the US$ printing press and free money tree. They link with the City of London crowd, Davos Mob, & Swiss backing elites. They are the Globalists. They can only rest secure if there is NO credible sovereign opposition on our planet. All must be subservient. Russia is not. Via BRICS and the quietly cheering from sidelines Developing Nations onlookers, Russia is leading the charge against the US$ and therefore is an existential threat to the Financial Elite Globalists.
The Globalists clearly own the Mainstream Media. Historically via the Rockefeller Foundation 1947 restructuring of the US National Security Apparatus – they run the non-military 3-letter agencies especially the CIA & FBI. Both were heavily implicated in the Russiagate fabrications which Trump correctly calls treason.
The Globalist Financial Elites use wars for more money printing and power over the world economy and to secure control of oil & gas and thus the Petrodollar system that underpins the vitality of their Money Tree. They influence the Pentagon war-hawk generals who become corrupted by the Military-Industrial Complex with its need for eternal wars.
They control the Democrat Party and the Establishment Republicans. Tulsi Gabbard’s recent public leaving of the Democrats symbolises the Party is completely lost to this financial war-mongering elite.
The Globalist Faction’s Media crucified Trump and demonised Putin & Russia. Just as they ridiculed and slandered Tulsi Gabbard. The war-hawk faction in the Pentagon undermined Trump’s attempts to withdraw from Syria.
The big question relevant to everyone personally & existentially is “Are these psychopaths, who are in charge of the NATO, G7, IMF, BIS, Media, and with tentacles deep into most Western governments, of a mindset that cannot compromise at all? Even if it means Nuclear Armageddon for humanity?”
But they don’t control the majority of the US Military nor the military intelligence agencies. Hence the covert civil war the signs of which are apparent if one cares to look.
We have to hope and pray the non-psychopathic non-globalists Faction in the USA prevails. These mid-terms are important.

Posted by: PJB | Oct 12 2022 23:00 utc | 114

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 12 2022 21:44 utc | 93:

Much of what I just described is today’s Russia–the genuine Russia, not the propagandized Russia. There are several successful alternative political-economic models along with Russia’s. Time to trade in the old decrepit vehicle for a new modern one.

Thank you for your reply. I don’t know enough about the Russian model of governance to comment whether it would suit the United State better than the one that we have now. But I kind of believe that one important factor of Russia nascent success in governance has to do with Putin’s personal stature with the citizenry. If Medvedev is the top leader, I doubt that Russian polity would enjoy the same unity and conformance as it is now. Such potentate leadership stature is actually a good thing in any political model, provided the leadership is one of benevolence and kindness, as Putin so far has appeared to me (as has Xi, by the way). Come to think of it, John Kennedy, for his short presence, had garnered the same adoration and respect of his citizenry, and could have made the American model work well had he not been assassinated. My point is, I am not sure if the American model is inherently wrong. I am quite sure, however, that the ones presently navigating this American model are patently evil and corrupt.
The best political model differs from culture to culture, and from era to era. That’s why China insists that each nation must construct its own political structure based on its culture and present environment. China has made its governance successful not because the Socialism With Chinese Characteristic model is superior, but because it is under enlightened leadership.

Posted by: Oriental Voice | Oct 12 2022 23:02 utc | 115

@Posted by: Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 12 2022 22:30 utc | 106
Probably Mrs. Small was meaning what you say, and that was becuse the Dutch parlimanet member was making a precise question, and asking for a precise anwer regarding what debunks on the part of Pfizer the imposition of a Covid passport with got with the basci rights and liberites od millions od European taapayers cercenated during a whole year.
Time has proved that neither immunity nor safety were in any way proved either by any substantial and meaningful essay.
This has been an alibi for a huge trsavase oof Eurpean ta`xayers money to the US funds which are behind the curtains managing the Biden administration so that to capitalize the falling US economy. A kind of gtrobute to the imeprial master on whatever benefits the perpetrators of this greatest corruption scandal were promised.
Other goals for the future landing of US funds to take over of everything public and private in a devastated Europe I have mentioned above…You know, sick crippled people do not usually defend themselves well by fighting back as hard as needed…Less they will do the army of dead…

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Oct 12 2022 23:07 utc | 116

Posted by: gully foyle | Oct 12 2022 20:42 utc | 71
Mr. Robot Sophocles is not.
The blindness of Western governments is ideological, a deep structured almost molecular entanglement with liberalism. We ask ‘why can’t they see their folly?’. The answer can only be that they and their folly cannot be disentangled. This is the myth of liberal democracy, that it is a neutral system that can adapt rationally to the demands of a situation. But it is the product of a social and historical conjuncture: the rule of the propertied classes which depends on an international order supporting their exceptionalism. The USA inherited this order from 19th century Britain and the states that got rich after ww2 under their hegemony fervently believe that it was won through entitlement. The victory over fascism and communism confirmed for them that the liberal order was the correct one (‘The End of History’).
Everything that is happening today is the unravelling of the structural contradictions of this liberal order. Those in control of that order cannot stand outside of history to understand the folly of throwing good money after bad. They can only follow their belief, which is held with all the certainty of the medieval crusader.
Financialization phases (M1 > M2), which Hudson eloquently explains, are phases of decline in a world-historical capitalist phase. There have been 4 since the end of the 14th century—the Genovese, the Dutch, the British and the American. Each has arisen from, and fallen into, the ashes of the destruction capitalism needs when it has exhausted itself—the First European Civil War (1618-48), the Second (Napoleonic wars), and the Third European civil war (1914-45).
This is the beginning of the Fourth. It will be long and brutal, like all of them.

Posted by: Patroklos | Oct 12 2022 23:09 utc | 117

Any comments on the passing of a law on linking the dollar to a certain ammount of gold again?
I read over there some lawmakers had proposed…

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Oct 12 2022 23:14 utc | 118

“Oriental” is a term originally used to describe where the rising of the sun occurs.
Before magnetic compasses, the world was “oriented” to the east.
The rising of the sun, and the location of valuable, foreign commerce points, were always to the East.
The primary aspects of western, high end, trade economy and astronomy were “oriented” to the East .
That’s why it’s called the orient, or oriental.

Posted by: Bo Bo | Oct 12 2022 23:15 utc | 119

“the Nazi-controlled Kiev regime”
Ridiculous. They were a small minority. And they didn’t get to run the government, they got to be part of the military instead, far away from the capital. There is only a single nationalist seat in the parliament – belonging to the more mainstream Svoboda.
“the 2014 U.S. coup in Kiev”
Also ridiculous. It was done by Ukrainian organizations. But they got FINANCING from Washington, BY BIDEN. Who got money in return via Burisma. But would mentioning Biden get in the way of “Nazi-controlled”?
It was overseen by Biden’s henchwoman Victoria Nuland – a Jewish leftist. Of course, Jewish leftists love the Ukraine regime as it is a tool against the conservative, pro-White Putin. But you still call the Ukraine regime “Nazi”? You turn reality completely upside down.

Posted by: Tenet | Oct 12 2022 23:22 utc | 120

During the panel session after Putin’s speech, Gazprom CEO Miller says for ANY gas to flow through NS2 or 1 to Europe, ALL the political blocks must first be removed, even before any repair work would begin. The discussion then shifted to expansion of Turk Stream, which would be easier and faster to accomplish and is a project already in Gazprom’s planning stages. The Turkish energy minister Donmez was next on the panel and said such an energy terminal would be welcomed by Turkey, although the usual legal and technical issues would need to be resolved but they should present no problem, at least from Turkey. How European nations would respond is currently unknown. Several currently would surely be interested–Hungary and Serbia, perhaps Austria and Bulgaria as well. Italy and France with their problems might also be tempted.
IMO, more strings for Turk Stream will be constructed and a system of sentries will be established to provide security.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 12 2022 23:26 utc | 121

I think it began sooner, but there’s been some kind of behind the scenes power struggle over Russia policy in DC, and the neocons eventually won.
—
Posted by: ZX | Oct 12 2022 22:10 utc | 101
Well yeah. I guess I would go back to when Hezbollah threw the Izzies out of Lebanon around 2000. That was right around when Putin came to power, so no wonder the Neocons got confused. After that you had the Second Lebanon War (2006), which the Izzies lost too. Since then its been much more focussed on Syria, Iran & Russia. The GHW Bush faction, which got us into Iraq & Afghanistan, would be the people who wound up supporting Trump, they were stupid enough to move our industry overseas, but not stupid enough to think picking a fight with Russia is a good idea. Main difference between them.

Posted by: Bemildred | Oct 12 2022 23:30 utc | 122

I see the manic overposter has returned. Same shit under a new name, easily recognisable by the complete dearth of original thinking contained in his posts, just the same old faux-libertarian tosh.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Oct 12 2022 23:31 utc | 123

@Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Oct 12 2022 23:07 utc |
4.5 billion doses x 30 $/ dose = 135 billion dolars of European taxpayers money was transferred to the US in exchange of kool aid in the best case, but daily experience after a year is proving it was moreover snake poison.
This is the money which has kept the US economy afloat at the price of harworking European being betrayed by the European Comission elites and most of the European Parliament.
This will end badly for each and every actor in this scam.
I will not discard that his ends with the blowing up of NATO and the EU as we know it by the European citizenry which is witnessing all this with their immune sytems and helath intact.
The US and its offensive arm NATO wanted to place their nukes in Ukraine to one day plunder and dismantle Russia, but they highly likely could end with no base in European soil when the masses awake, that they will do, to the crude reality of how “our allies” really are and how much they love us…

Posted by: Ghost of Mozgovoy | Oct 12 2022 23:31 utc | 124

Scorpion
It could be worse.
As Groucho Marx stated, I would not want to be a member of a club that would have me as a member.
Or as someone once regarding trials, would yu want twelve random strangers on a bus to decide your fate?

Posted by: Gully Foyle | Oct 12 2022 23:32 utc | 125

Oriental Voice @114–
Thanks for your reply. Yes, benevolence is required, but not just from the leader but from the entire system. Both Russia and China have systems made to promote People-centered Development–upgrading the nation’s human capital as I’ve described for the past several years, which forms the basis of the Win-Win model. That isn’t done within the Outlaw US Empire’s universe as it promotes a winner-take-all, Zero-sum, system which is essentially the Roman system with the addition of new technology–the ideology is the same. There’s no promotion of the nation’s human capital, so it can no longer advance as it once did when that promotion existed for the short period after WW2. The education system’s condition is very indicative of the Empire’s future direction, which will continue downward since there’s no priority given to human development. What is given priority is the maximization of exploitation of anything that can be monopolized and have a toll placed onto it and provide a free lunch to the monopolist, a situation that’s supported by federal and some state government’s policies. And that’s only one negative facet of many.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 12 2022 23:46 utc | 126

Scorpion
https://www.edgarcayce.org/about-us/blog/blog-posts/out-of-russia-will-come-hope/
In Reading 3976-10, given on Feb. 8, 1932, the suggestion to the sleeping Cayce included a request for a “plan for establishing peace on earth and good will among men.”
(Q) What should be the attitude of so-called capitalist nations toward Russia?
(A) On Russia’s religious development will come the greater hope of the world. Then that one, or group, that is the closer in its relationships, may fare the better in the gradual changes and final settlement of conditions as to the rule of the world.
(Q) Should the United States recognize the present government in Russia?
(A) Many conditions should be considered, were this to be answered correctly. You could say yes and no, and both be right, with the present attitude of both peoples as a nation, and both be wrong; for there is to come, there will come, an entire change in the attitude of both nations as powers in the financial and economical world. As for those of raw resources, Russia surpasses all other nations. As for abilities for development of same, those in the United States are the farthest ahead. Then these united, or upon an equitable basis, would become – or could become-powers; but there are many interferences for those already investments, those already under questions, will take years to settle.

Posted by: Gully Foyle | Oct 12 2022 23:49 utc | 127

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 12 2022 16:32 utc | 4

“If empire cannot say the Reserve Currency is the petrodollar and it isn’t linked to gold anymore, then just what is its intrinsic value?”

After making a serious proposal for a golden African dinar, a resurrected Muammar Gaddafi would tell you that accepting worthless scraps of American paper is good insurance against bullet in the brain syndrome.
The standard American answer to any proposal that threatens the dollar is all options are on the table.
BRICS+Global South overthrowing dollar hegemony will result in the USA nuking everyone in a blaze of glory. The world will find out we have more than the 5500 advertised and that all those strategic arms reductions were lies. If we can’t have it, no one will.

Posted by: Average Joe | Oct 12 2022 23:51 utc | 128

karlof1
Boondocks season 1, Adam West voiced the attorney.
“R. Kelly’s Lawyer: (making an opening statement) The ancient Greeks, the architects of western civilization, would regularly indulge in sexual activities with children. Were they perverts? In Puritan America, the forefathers of this great land would take wives who were 12 or 13 years old, much younger than the alleged victim. Were they sickos? In Tokyo, you could buy teenage girls’ panties in vending machines. Do we call them disgusting? Of course not! What do all those things have to do with Robert Kelly? Nothing. Let’s get to the point. Now some people see this so-called mountain of evidence — these video tapes, photographs, eyewitnesses, and DNA — and see a guilty man, but some of us can see that mountain of so-called evidence for what it really is: racism.”

Posted by: Gully Foyle | Oct 13 2022 0:03 utc | 129

Russia’s aim is to de-NATO-size Europe. It will do this by using the sanctions against it to deprive Europe of cheap energy. Sustained over months or years it is all that is needed to make NATO fall apart.
The sanctions will finally split Europe from the U.S. and its failed foreign policy.

Agree with this B.
I see there is a new Government in Bulgaria forming – that is not a crazy anti-Russian Government.
Boyko Borisov is back as Prime Minister – perhaps a deal can be done by Russia (via Turkstream).
Boyko – if you take Bulgaria out of NATO we are willing to do a great deal on cheap gas for Bulgaria.
Your move Boyko – or would you rather Bulgarians freeze this winter?

Posted by: Julian | Oct 13 2022 0:05 utc | 130

Re: Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 12 2022 23:26 utc | 120

The discussion then shifted to expansion of Turk Stream, which would be easier and faster to accomplish and is a project already in Gazprom’s planning stages. The Turkish energy minister Donmez was next on the panel and said such an energy terminal would be welcomed by Turkey, although the usual legal and technical issues would need to be resolved but they should present no problem, at least from Turkey. How European nations would respond is currently unknown. Several currently would surely be interested–Hungary and Serbia, perhaps Austria and Bulgaria as well. Italy and France with their problems might also be tempted.

I’m certain the new Government in Bulgaria would be interested.
Russia should offer PM Borisov a deal. Today.

Posted by: Julian | Oct 13 2022 0:07 utc | 131

Pepe Escobar welcomes us all to “life at doom’s doorstep” in his latest, “The Thin Red Line: NATO Can’t Afford to Lose Kabul and Kiev”. It appears Medvedev’s line is gaining acceptance within Russia’s Security Council.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 13 2022 0:10 utc | 132

@ Tom_Q_Collins | Oct 12 2022 22:30 utc | 106 with the OT about Pfizer and transmission
I suggest you go read my comments # 113, 114 in the latest Week in Review Open Thread where you will also learn that mRNA jab effectiveness turns negative after a while
To the various commenters about the coming Reserve Currency with intrinsic value.
The new one will not just be one country but a group and so “real-time” management of the punch bowl by all having skin in the game
I expect the new money to have a broad FOOD/Resource base along with nations currencies to spread the risk management.
I hope that Average Joe | Oct 12 2022 23:51 utc | 127 is wrong in his conclusion but it is time for humanity to evolve or go extinct, IMO
The current Western, God of Mammon social order is a cancer of the Cosmos and is being challenged, hopefully successfully by the Russia/China axis.

Posted by: psychohistorian | Oct 13 2022 0:14 utc | 133

Pretty much.

Posted by: Josh | Oct 13 2022 0:26 utc | 134

I like poster 122, noticed right away the obvious three letter narrative push by the previous post 119, under a new name most likely. You can tell, just from the perusal of the first paragraph whether they are under the auspices of an agency, based just on the “language” used. LOL.
Just another name to put on my list of unreadable posts.
I also check out the books like other posters, to develop a more complete understanding of political issues being bandied about by the many intellectuals who post on MOA, although for some threads that means constant appraisals of “new” posters from the usual gang.
I was also intrigued by the observation in the remark about the global military alliance with the orange man. Thanks for your balanced analysis as always, b.

Posted by: Arcticman | Oct 13 2022 0:31 utc | 135

Kant | Oct 12 2022 17:47 utc | 36
“……any sane strategy would have been to make Russia and China frenemies”
That was the Kissinger success of the mid Cold War. The Sino-Russia split.
Today an internet forums + twitter chitter you’ll see US (predominately) comments stating with confidence that Russia cannot work with China because of ancient border disputes, and that Russia needs to fear China more than the US.
The delusion is that once US decides to patch things up with Russia, they can be BFF and together “git” China.
U$ foreign policy in the minds of its controlled media consumers is frozen in the 70-80s.
Udkanten | Oct 12 2022 17:49 utc | 38
Frightening. In that Borrell gets it, almost. He sees the connection between European prosperity and cheap Russian energy. But then gulps the koolaid. Russia wasn’t “reliable” (if Russian supply had not been reliable, the GermoEU prosperity would not have emerged). He then takes another gulp. Thinking any western government has been “democratically” elected….or that western “democratic” governments deliver what their constituents want (and need). The unelected EU, of which Borrell is a significant skintag, has removed the cheap (and reliable) Russian energy. And the voters are revolting.
Eoin Clancy | Oct 12 2022 18:18 utc | 43
We’re ruled by cokeheads….. you know. I hadn’t considered that. But yep. Being part of the “in” crowd…. Being kool for school… our political class are the same narcissistic class from every country.
alek_a | Oct 12 2022 18:36 utc | 48
Saw your comment after I’d written mine… so, yep.
ian | Oct 12 2022 18:34 utc | 47
alek_a | Oct 12 2022 18:44 utc | 49
A buyer’s cartel can’t work (for long), because oil+gas (energy) is as necessary as oxygen and water to our world.
Energy production requires investment… and as karlof has posted Putin’s speech… the industry is *already* deficit trillions in investment.
As Putin has previously said, (paraphrase) energy (and food) are tangible. You can’t conjure energy and food with printing paper money or “policy”.
A buyer’s cartel can’t function if there’s a shortage…. That’s when market forces…..capitalism… prevails.
BrianM | Oct 12 2022 19:20 utc | 55
……\ spectacle of U$ and western failure….
It’s happening. Ukraine. The west went “all in” following every U$ diktat. Every sanction. Every instruction to deliver weapons. And it’s failing hard.
“The Rest” is watching the west flounder. And within the west, we feel the breeze just as does the Road Runner, once he’s raced over the cliff, and the descent is inevitable.
unimperator | Oct 12 2022 19:29 utc | 56
Today I’ve seen zelensky’s green screen posted everywhere… Twitter, telegrams. Blogs.
A Zelensky insider took that pic. And someone leaked/released it.
Zelensky needs to be very careful…. His days as a “useful” idiot are running short, this pic tells me. Up to now he’s been protected. Now he’s being exposed. Why? By whom?
Yep.
Oriental Voice | Oct 12 2022 19:38 utc | 58
Yep. Good point.
Gully Foyle | Oct 12 2022 20:03 utc | 61
Good posts since you arrived. Curious as to how you found this bar?
We are located not on “Main Street”. ?
Oriental Voice | Oct 12 2022 20:27 utc | 68
………Soviet Union wasn’t taken down externally. “
Oh. But it was. Yes. It had internal challenges (as does every polity), but it was attacked on multiple fronts across the Cold War. It was suckered into an ideological struggle with the U$ it couldn’t afford…. The playing field was not “even” as the U$ emerged with a strong intact manufacturing base post 1945, where the SU was devastated (and lost 30? Million) including the valuable cohort of mid aged males.
No one knows or remembers the sanctions on the SU… it was locked out of markets back then.
Along with the external pressures on the SU, the internal pressures were seized on and sponsored by the west also.
You can’t make a cake with just flour….. a lot of ingredients went into the disintegration of the SU……And. The Soviet people were never consulted. They woke one day to discover they’d been signed away by their masters…..
c1ue | Oct 12 2022 20:44 utc | 72
The strategic petroleum reserve….. Trump wanted to top it up while oil prices were low.
Nope. The controlled media howled. That Bad Orange Man.
Part of the SPR gamble includes the Buyers Club price cap of oil below $80 to replenish the reserves…. (Ain’t gonna happen)
Altai | Oct 12 2022 21:17 utc | 80
Brilliant post. Thanks. And yeppity yep to what you wrote.
unimperator | Oct 12 2022 21:23 utc | 83
Hungary, Austria, Italy can ……”get the band back together”? Austro-Hungarian “empire” redux?
[it’s actually fascinating. How the ancient alliances and conglomerates form and reform over history. ]
Brian | Oct 12 2022 21:38 utc | 87
Brussels *was * involved. Yep. It was a dumb move. Which is why we know they are dumb as rocks.
js | Oct 12 2022 21:40 utc | 88
Yes. The internet of “things”….”we are all *connected*”…. It’s a horrific dystopian future looming… and Gen itoy just doesn’t care…wants to embrace it…
António Ferrão | Oct 12 2022 21:48 utc | 94
Hmmm. Is France “imposing” a buyers price cap on U$ LPG?
“We demand we will only buy at this price!!!!”.
Lol.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Oct 13 2022 0:39 utc | 136

Dan Ferrand@85 defends Trumpery by ignorant and bigoted superstitious twaddle about demoniacs combined with invoking ancestor worship of the God-written Constitution. The Electoral College was an incompetent gimcrack scheme to base the President on some sort of popular election instead of election by the states, but compromising the principle to get the document ratified in the first place. The compromise is usually represented as a struggle between big states and little states, but it didn’t take too much hindsight for people, at least intelligent ones like James Madison, to see the real issue was between slave states and the free states. The Constitution was designed to prevent majority rule that threatened property, to the greatest extent possible, while preventing one faction of property from oppressing another faction of property, like slave plantations versus commerce and manufactures. The first election caused political strife because Hamilton “intrigued” to make sure Washington wasn’t tied by John Adams. The third election caused a major political crisis, requiring the incompetent fix of the Twelfth Amendment. The whole apparatus crashed and burned within a “mere” seventy years, leading to the Civil War/Second Revolution. The Framers were not even the Founders of the country (those were revolutionaries, unlike the Framers who were much more like the Directory in France than anything else.) They were just people, and not really people with an extraordinary amount of common sense, much less common decency.
Farrand also throws in some crank economics about urban areas exploiting rural ones, falsifying the facts. Rural areas suck more benefits through things like misuse of federal lands, exploitation of water rights, and most of all, farm price supports, and have for decades. But those imaginary hard-working citizens are property owners, thus qualifying as people, unlike the devil spawn without property in the cities. Probably doesn’t know the difference between suburbs and cities, either. Mindreaders can tell I suppose if this is all racist code.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Oct 13 2022 0:40 utc | 137

Call me crazy… But I am not going to say the folks in the US with the money, the elite are crazy too. In fact they are Frankenstein genius’ I believe the oil problem has a lot more behind the curtain that we’re not seeing. Why did the US have to boost the price of oil to make it profitable for fracking? Why does the US insist always on other countries to produce more oil? Why band oil exploration on your own land and offshore? Why drain the strategic oil reserves that are vital to US security? Why import oil to the US if we are swimming in it? Why push a green agenda that is half baked at this point? All of these questions only make sense if the US knows it’s own oil reserves are being depleted and the prospect of being able to pump more oil in the future is at risk. In short I am thinking the US is running out of oil! I believe we have hit the bottom of the oil barrel. What other answers could there be? Any other answer does not make sense to these questions.

Posted by: Dferg | Oct 13 2022 0:40 utc | 138

Arcticman | Oct 13 2022 0:31 utc | 134
@Deds
Good catch.
ADowney. Still has a job!

Posted by: Melaleuca | Oct 13 2022 0:48 utc | 139

steven t johnson | Oct 13 2022 0:40 utc | 136
Read again. Dan Ferrand@85
Is not defending “trumpery”.
He’s explaining the US electoral system.

Posted by: Melaleuca | Oct 13 2022 0:53 utc | 140

karlof1@ 19
The US DOE fails to mention that most of the hydrocarbon recovered via fracking is condensate and hydrocarbon liquids rather than actual crude oil!
Of the annual average of 10.8 million b/d of petroleum liquids extracted in 2021 only 4 million b/d is defined as crude oil. Another 4 million b/d was recovered in the form of light crude oil. The remaining 2.8 million b/d was condensate.
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=54199
https://energyrogue.com/crude-and-condensate/
The US also produces some 6 million b/d of hydrocarbon gas liquids (e.g. propane), mostly from fracking.
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/hydrocarbon-gas-liquids/
The remaining US oil consumption consists of about 2-3 million b/d of imported crude oil.
https://www.eia.gov/outlooks/steo/report/us_oil.php
This imported heavy crude is necessary for diluting light crude and condensate before processing through the refineries. The US must rely on the Middle East and Nigerian sources without Russian oil.
Ironically the US is exporting the Alaska North Slope oil to Japan and the SPR oil to Europe.

Posted by: Krollchem | Oct 13 2022 0:53 utc | 141

Posted by: Dferg | Oct 13 2022 0:40 utc | 137
“In short I am thinking the US is running out of oil! I believe we have hit the bottom of the oil barrel. What other answers could there be? Any other answer does not make sense to these questions.”
Plausible. But I remember when the early Peak Oil debates started that some detractors cited results from the deep wells that Russia was beginning to develop which were catapulting her into being world #1 oil extractor. And the discovery of those wells was related to the abiotic theory (that oil doesn’t come from squashed corpses, rather is an inherent part of the sub-surface world and regularly generated down there). I also read that many of the fields closed in Texas in the 70’s having run dry were in the 90’s found to be filled again, presumably from lower reservoirs which had filled these surface pockets in the first place.
So possibly the US is running out. Possibly they need to drill deeper like the Russians.

Posted by: Scorpion | Oct 13 2022 0:54 utc | 142

@25 rjb1.5 Rjb: you’re a tough dude. Hat’s off to you, and thanks for staying in the fray when the bod’s not all the way up to snuff. Takes guts. To the others @ the bar that are playing hurt, I say “power to ya”.

Posted by: Tom Pfotzer | Oct 13 2022 0:57 utc | 143

And the discovery of those wells was related to the abiotic theory (that oil doesn’t come from squashed corpses, rather is an inherent part of the sub-surface world and regularly generated down there). I also read that many of the fields closed in Texas in the 70’s having run dry were in the 90’s found to be filled again, presumably from lower reservoirs which had filled these surface pockets in the first place.
Posted by: Scorpion | Oct 13 2022 0:54 utc | 141

If abiotic oil was a real thing, it would be a fairly simple scientific exercise to replicate the pressure, temperature and chemical components in a lab and prove it. To the best of my knowledge no one has done so.
Oil does not come from “squashed corpses”, it is mostly decayed algae, zooplankton and other plant material cooked under high heat and pressure.
The refilling of abandoned previous wells is due to the negative pressure resulting from the removal of the oil the first time. No drilled well will extract 100% of the material present in a reservoir.

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Oct 13 2022 1:15 utc | 144

He talks tough.
Damn near everyone here is playing hurt, so to speak.
There’s what? A dozen posters who have the wherewithal to
not “work”? Real work, not academics or “writing”.
I’d post an erudite and brainy link to the algebra behind bar patron
intelligence, but I’m too dumb to google such a thing.
Get up at 5, pull your overalls and boots on, and go scrape up a few shekels.
It’s good for ya.

Posted by: Teemo Jusldrenkabrl | Oct 13 2022 1:17 utc | 145

If abiotic oil was a real thing, it would be a fairly simple scientific exercise to replicate the pressure, temperature and chemical components in a lab and prove it. To the best of my knowledge no one has done so.
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Oct 13 2022 1:15 utc | 143
“Oil does not come from “squashed corpses”, it is mostly decayed algae, zooplankton and other plant material cooked under high heat and pressure.”
A. Distinction without a difference. Moreover an 18th century speculation which has never been verified.
“The refilling of abandoned previous wells is due to the negative pressure resulting from the removal of the oil the first time. No drilled well will extract 100% of the material present in a reservoir.”
A. The negative pressure differential theory sounds neat but does not really explain how empty underground lakes become full again. Good try but not good enough. The replenished oil was not simply something that expanded due to pressure changes rather something that came up slowly from below over many years. Most likely they can empty them again and then wait twenty years again. Perhaps they have already done so?
Russians drill MUCH lower down and get huge finds. Whether it is from squashed whatever or abiotic planetary substrates doesn’t matter; what matters is that they have found and keep extracting from huge wells found very deep down, far deeper than other extractors.

Posted by: Scorpion | Oct 13 2022 1:25 utc | 146

If abiotic oil was a real thing, it would be a fairly simple scientific exercise to replicate the pressure, temperature and chemical components in a lab and prove it. To the best of my knowledge no one has done so.
Posted by: Opport Knocks | Oct 13 2022 1:15 utc | 143
Ooops, forgot that one.
A. Sez you. I wonder if that’s because since these things happen deep down nobody has been able to determine what those processes might be nor for how many thousands of years they take place etc. That sounds like people who say it’s a ‘relatively simple scientific exercise’ to put in the major inputs of global climate and figure out how it all works. Nope.
Can they replicate the creation of gold or silver?
Or lava?
The creation of sea water?
A single celled life form?
Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.

Posted by: Scorpion | Oct 13 2022 1:29 utc | 147

Thanks for your work b. However, I am not sure the following statement is true or that it is a problem that the United States can’t work around.
“It will do this by using the sanctions against it to deprive Europe of cheap energy. Sustained over months or years it is all that is needed to make NATO fall apart.”
The sanctions will lead to a depression in the European Union, one that will likely make Europe even more dependent on the US while decreasing the economic and military power of those same European powers. NATO as constituted now could also disintegrate. However, these (EU and NATO) are simply tools of US power and are fungible. I don’t think that a NATO/European devolution will stop the US from continuing its policy of attempting to ‘decolonize’ and disassemble the Russian state. The US military complex will continue to ramp up its production and will supply any country that the US wants to use to achieve its foreign policy aims. Currently, Ukraine, which is not in NATO, is the tip of the spear, and other countries could become willing tips as well. Poland seems to be more than willing to thrust itself into the den of the Russian bear. We know that the idea of a new alliance of Eastern European and Baltic states has been floated. Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, Armenia, Azerbaijan – many of these countries could be formed into a new alliance that will suit the goals of the US. The US will continue to manipulate governments in Latin America to keep them firmly in the US orbit – keeping the Monroe Doctrine and Roosevelt Corollary firmly in place – solidifying a pool of resources, land, and people to use to support its aims.
So, NATO may fall apart, but that doesn’t mean that the US will not be able to push its foreign policy goals. It will simply mean that the US has used all the arrows in one quiver and will find another.

Posted by: Objective Observer | Oct 13 2022 1:32 utc | 148

Excellent article B! Analysis worthy of a high-level statesman. I would have said worthy of Kissinger, but you may not like the comparison. 🙂
“Pissing off Russia, China and the whole Middle East – all at the same time – while condemning its ‘allies’ to a systemic economic crash and utter poverty, is the result of an irrational U.S. foreign policy.”
A perfect summary.
We wish people in Washington read your piece and come to their senses, but as you conclude, that is unlikely unless there is a regime change in Washington, including especially a change in thinking of the ‘establishment’. That will only happen when they lose so decisively that it cannot be denied any more.

Posted by: KenKam | Oct 13 2022 1:38 utc | 149

thanks b for the thoughtful analysis…
@ Objective Observer | Oct 13 2022 1:32 utc | 147
a lot can happen in a stretch of time.. it is hard to predict the future…
i liked how @ Patroklos | Oct 12 2022 23:09 utc | 116 articulates where we are at here – “Financialization phases (M1 > M2), which Hudson eloquently explains, are phases of decline in a world-historical capitalist phase. There have been 4 since the end of the 14th century—the Genovese, the Dutch, the British and the American. Each has arisen from, and fallen into, the ashes of the destruction capitalism needs when it has exhausted itself—the First European Civil War (1618-48), the Second (Napoleonic wars), and the Third European civil war (1914-45).
This is the beginning of the Fourth. It will be long and brutal, like all of them.”
thanks patroklos……

Posted by: james | Oct 13 2022 1:39 utc | 150

» This blocked U.S. plans to move Ukraine into NATO and to station U.S. missiles directly at the Russian border. «
Actually, a key ambition was to get Sebastopol.
Plans to redevelop Sebastopol as a Nato port were in circulation before the whole Maidan demonstration ever got under say.

Posted by: Webej | Oct 13 2022 1:48 utc | 151

» Auten told the jury that shortly after receiving the first batch of Steele documents in the fall of 2016, a group of FBI officials met with Steele and offered him “anywhere up to $1 million” for information that would corroborate the claims in his reports. But Steele never did provide corroboration, Auten said in response to Durham. «
THE MISSING LINK
Steele was connected to Skripal through his partner Pablo Miller at their company, Orbis.
Pablo Miller was the ex-MI6 bureau chief in Moscow, and was Skripal’s handler in Salisbury.
British papers were ordered by a D-Notice (protected classified national security secrets) not to mention Pablo Miller.
It seems obvious they used Skripal as a resource to make the Steele report look & feel like authentic Russian intel.
When it started to go sideways, they needed a creative way to make sure a disloyal Skripal couldn’t cause a stir.

Posted by: Webej | Oct 13 2022 2:00 utc | 152

A great summation of the American Empire’s insane alternative reality

Posted by: My Comment | Oct 13 2022 2:00 utc | 153

Can they replicate the creation of gold or silver?
Or lava?
The creation of sea water?
A single celled life form?
Nope, nope, nope, nope, nope.
Posted by: Scorpion | Oct 13 2022 1:29 utc | 146

Silly talk:
1. Gold and Silver are stable elements of the periodic table and cannot be created. Oil is a variable compound of mostly Carbon and Hydrogen:
Composition by weight | Element by Percent range
Carbon 83 to 85%
Hydrogen 10 to 14%
Nitrogen 0.1 to 2%
Oxygen 0.05 to 1.5%
Sulfur 0.05 to 6.0%
Metals < 0.1% Chemists manipulate hydrocarbons all the time. 2. Molten Lava is regularly created by man, I suggest a visit to a local iron refinery to watch the process. 3. Sea water is just regular water plus dissolved salts, you can do it in a bathtub. 4. Abiotic means "not a cellular life form", so this is a meaningless comparison. However, it was done recently. https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2021/03/scientists-create-simple-synthetic-cell-grows-and-divides-normally

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Oct 13 2022 2:02 utc | 154

Agreements to uphold intellectual property rights are based upon what exactly?
Posted by: too scents | Oct 12 2022 17:44 utc | 33
International agreements. That’s all.

Posted by: SeanAU | Oct 13 2022 2:13 utc | 155

Posted by: Opport Knocks | Oct 13 2022 2:02 utc | 153
Silly talk:
A. You are right!
1. Gold and Silver are stable elements of the periodic table and cannot be created. Oil is a variable compound of mostly Carbon and Hydrogen:…
Chemists manipulate hydrocarbons all the time.
Yes but: have they made it from scratch in the ‘relatively simple scientific’ manner indicated earlier?
2. Molten Lava is regularly created by man, I suggest a visit to a local iron refinery to watch the process.
A. Fair enough. I didn’t realize lava was simply molten iron. I thought it was molten rock.
3. Sea water is just regular water plus dissolved salts, you can do it in a bathtub.
A. Yeah, but how did it get to be all over the planet and the source of all life? I shouldn’t have had it on the list.
4. Abiotic means “not a cellular life form”, so this is a meaningless comparison.
However, it was done recently.
https://www.nist.gov/news-events/news/2021/03/scientists-create-simple-synthetic-cell-grows-and-divides-normally
A. Yes but they started off with living bacteria; what was synthetic was genetic material which is an informational system using proteins. Without the living cells they would have nothing to communicate with. So: No, they haven’t.
My main point is: if it was scientifically so straightforward then they would know exactly what oil is and how it is made. They don’t. I personally don’t care at all if it’s squashed plankton or abiotic (though I suspect the latter is a better explanation than the ‘fossil fuel’ speculation. My point was that the Russians have had great results going very deep. They did so because of the abiotic oil theory but even if the theory was wrong the results are what matter not the theory: there is much more down there if you go deeper.
So again I say: maybe the US is running out; maybe if they go deeper they will find more. Operative word: maybe.

Posted by: Scorpion | Oct 13 2022 2:16 utc | 156

Posted by: Scorpion | Oct 13 2022 2:16 utc | 155
I gather that re oil creation there is a method for artificial oil creation, from CO2 and I guess water. I imagine it is quite energy intensive, but easily possible.
Yo realise I assume that your body is making oil all the time – or mine is when I eat too much. The oil we make may not be exactly the same but it is similar in many respects. Recall that before the discovery of petroleum oil, we used whale oil for lighting in many cases and I guess also boiled down animal fat- tallow candles which I think were cheaper.
Essentially butane- the natural gas you burn and which is the lightest end of the oil spectrum is CH3-CH2-CH2-CH3. To make it you need simply to join for methane molecules together, which gives off some hydrogen which instantly reacts with oxygen to form water. Methane is produced all the time by biological processes which are often now harvested for energy eg pig farm waste.
Obviously creating heavier oil fractions is a little more complex but quite possible- it is just a matter of cost.
Re god and silver the answer is obviously NO. This is what the ancient alchemists tried to do but other than in a massive nuclear fusion even – perhaps in the sun it is impossible. it was this discovery that has lead to atomic weapons and most advanced nuclear science.
Regarding water, it is created whenever molecules of hydrogen meet molecules of oxygen. so when the earth was created from some sort of a spin off from the sun, there was continuing nuclear fusion reaction creating all the known elements. as the planet cooled, the reactions ceased and the hydrogen mixed with oxygen and bingo- water. the scary thing is just how Mars was stripped of its water and probably oxygen. That is a hideous risk for earth.
While I am not aware it has been done yet, i feel sure that synthesis or simple artificial dna or rna is just around the corner. We know in absolute detail the exact components of many simple virus dna/rna, so synthesis while complex is more than possible. It is just a matter of time.
Obviously

Posted by: watcher | Oct 13 2022 3:09 utc | 157

fyi
this is what de-industrializing a modern advanced industrial society looks like. See the map:
https://twitter.com/squatsons/status/1580246778686844928
2600 stations without fuel and 1400 with partial shortages in France due to fuel shortages.

Posted by: michaelj72 | Oct 13 2022 3:55 utc | 158

A few years ago, about the time of the Brexit vote, I predicted that Russia could enter into a treaty and economic relationship with england eventually. Everyone pooh -poohed that notion here at MoA straight away but that seemed to me more about revulsion at the notion of a nemesis (england) hooking up with a nation most people here regard as heroic (Russia) i.e. wishful thinking.
Whilst it is true that england now has a competitor for that role (germany) – whose form of pr voting would make a new alternative political movement much faster and easier, the fact remains that the primary motive for england leaving the EU was to save ‘The City’ from the hassle of the euro central bank plus the EU interfering with england’s well established tax haven system and now that appears to have been largely wasted as Russian oligarchs who were some of the city’s best laundry customers can no longer partake as easily, thanks to sanctions.
Obviously the odds of england & Russia hooking up are negligible in the short term, but longer term say the better part of a decade by when a major shake up of england’s political structure will be close to impossible for the current mob of no-hoper bludgers to avoid, a change in england’s voting system is likely.
It would be great to imagine that a genuine left movement takes off but given that is nearly as unlikely as a successful left/right meld where no one was assassinated/imprisoned, it is unfortunately rather more likely that the political movement will be some bastard form of non-Nazi fascism. Just because all nazis are fascists that doesn’t make all fascists nazis.
A good example of that for me would be englander labour’s figure-in-the-shadows Margaret Hodge, the Oppenheimer heiress who was the architect & financier of the Labour conspiracy to oust Mr Corbyn. For her subjecting england plus Scotland & Wales to another five years of incompetent, corrupt tory government was a feature of the plan, not a bug.
Her job within Labour has always been to ensure that the Labour Party protects the plutocrats even better than the original plutocrat protectors, the englander tory party.
I dunno how many here are familiar with the board game Diplomacy a strategy game where up to 7 players are made a ‘european power’ on a map of europe comprising its 1901 borders, but if you do play it many of the occurrences of WW1 seem natural obvious moves. This is particularly true concerning Russia and england who make natural long term partners. The combination of england’s sea power, russia’s army and the considerable distance between the two nations makes it apparent that treaties with other states on the euro mainland will be short term only for Russia and england but the most durable & successful partnership for both is a long term treaty between the two. Preferably an alliance which only Russia & england are aware of. The exigencies of how one goes to war (with fleets and/or armies) makes both england & Russia enormously difficult to invade & hold but a co-ordinated spring offensive by the two against France or Germany is successful.
So even though my initial reason for considering it is well off the wall – right out there and tho england no longer has the biggest navy, nor Russia the largest army a joint alliance will still be a go. England’s money laundry allied with Russia’s weapons systems still makes a tough, viable proposition.
Of course Russia & Germany would also make great allies however the combo of escaping the EU, Nato and amerika’s occupation is a huge ask, especially when one considers how Germany’s post WW2 constitution is predicated upon amerikan occupation.

Posted by: Debsisdead | Oct 13 2022 4:05 utc | 159

Posted by: watcher | Oct 13 2022 3:09 utc | 156
Thanks for the interchange!
Am no scientist. I think maybe I over-reacted to the notion of simple scientific process to recreate something that arises in nature. My rebuttal left much to be desired but that’s where it was coming from.
As far as I know (from reading 20 years ago), they still don’t know the origin of oil. So even though it may be chemically simple as you say, how come they don’t know? Because there is much we don’t know and Science is over-hyped as some sort of contemporary High Priest principle able to answer all sorts of questions which it cannot actually answer. Hence scientism notion etc.
But whatever it’s origin, it’s a heckuva great fuel. Again from old reading: because of the fossil fuel theory the notion of deep drilling was dimissed as unreasonable. Because of the later abiotic theory, the notion of deep drilling was deemed reasonable and, when they tried it, they hit pay dirt. I don’t care which theory is right or wrong, but if in the US they are married to fossil fuel theory and insist that abiotic theory is wrong and consequently are not experimenting with the deep drilling that the abiotic crowd espouse, that seems like a mistake. Who cares about the theories more than whether or not they can get more somehow? That’s the bottom line.
Also, frankly, the fossil theory is pretty weird. And it’s a little like the evolution theory: if it was accurate you would find both living and fossil intermediates. But we don’t. We haven’t. If oil came from squashed animal and plants, we would find evidence of this both in the oil and presumably in some not-yet-ready-to-be-oil deposits. But we don’t. The theory was a speculation made several centuries ago so not even scientific. The abiotic theory makes far more sense but because the other one has been invested in by experts for some time it is regarded as an unworthy interloper. However most objections are not based on science per se.
It seems to be, generally speaking, that either the scientific method is not all it’s cracked up to be or far too many scientists stray beyond its purview and attempt to postulate all sorts of things they and their methods are not qualified to address. I suspect a bit of both. For example, I don’t regard either evolution or climate as fields which can be properly addressed by the scientific method. There are far too many unfalsifiable elements within both fields, far too many variables as well, far more speculation than actual material, factual subject matter.
Silly indeed.
But in terms of deep drilling: if it works, they should study it more rather than arguing about origin theories.

Posted by: Scorpion | Oct 13 2022 4:14 utc | 160

Posted by: Debsisdead | Oct 13 2022 4:05 utc | 158
“Of course Russia & Germany would also make great allies however the combo of escaping the EU, Nato and amerika’s occupation is a huge ask, especially when one considers how Germany’s post WW2 constitution is predicated upon amerikan occupation.”
A. You are right. But that’s the natural next big move on the geopolitical Diplomacy board. Which is why UK has been preventing it for many a century. Most likely this whole mess arose out of a desire to prevent Germany from joining Belt and Road as a valued, lead member.
Karlof1 has identified a key issue viz UK-US etc, namely the plundering principle, for which he substitutes some fancy greek word. (Plunder, plunder, plunder! A great word!!) The UK especially is a sea-faring pirate nation, a Viking nation. They don’t do long-term alliances rather temporary marriages of convenience in order to help them plunder somebody else and store all the loot in their independent City of London, or BIS in Zurich, or underground bunkers in Manhattan, or most likely now endless front corporations in Shanghai. In any case, plunderers do not good allies make nor just, prosperous and happy polities.
It’s time for a little peace and plenty. It’s time for Eurasia to renew what the Great Khan started whose empire – which enjoyed surprising longevity after his death even though the family leaders instantly squabbled – was based on a profoundly well thought out rule of law. It’s time to make it happen, finally.
I hope this Ukraine business breaks the back of the plunderers ability to keep force projecting their tawdry, venal agendas on others. It feels like it. But reality is notoriously hard to predict, much as we try, and good does not always triumph over evil. And even when it does, often the price is high and the cost in blood and treasure truly awful. Time will tell.

Posted by: Scorpion | Oct 13 2022 4:34 utc | 161

@ steven t Johnson 22
US government advisors ‘s job is to give the Potus the available political , but contradictory advice. It’s up to the President to see the contradictions emanating from different lobby groups , sort them, trash them or ignored them if necessary, and do the right thing for the US.
The idea that the think-tanks run the Potus, without any electoral accountanility is criminal interference in government. I go back to that cunt Chris Donelly of the Institute for Statecraft said, whose pathetic explanation for himself is that politicians don’t understand the complexities of international politics.” So we do it for them.” That is a criminal, illegal , intolerable warping of democratic government.

Posted by: Giyane | Oct 13 2022 4:40 utc | 162

Krollchem @140–
Thanks for your reply and its info! Supply chains indeed.

Posted by: karlof1 | Oct 13 2022 5:01 utc | 163

Dissolving the Union is at this point the most sensible thing that could be done.

Posted by: Rhinoskerous | Oct 13 2022 5:16 utc | 164

@ Tenet 119
What?
Nuland might or might not be Jewish, does it matter in the context of Ukraine? But she is an alt right fascist neocon not a leftist and Putin is not a white supremacist. Trump has an inquisitive mind in spite of being incredibly rich but rightwing neocons like Nuland are purely motivated by Ukranian land and corruption.
We know now that Nazism has never died in the thinktanks of Western and Israeli politics as a tool for murder and illegally obtaining land.

Posted by: Giyane | Oct 13 2022 5:48 utc | 165

Trump made covid , yeah? And Biden has made Armaggeddon. Who do I vote for if I had a choice, based on this completely biassed
disinformation?

Posted by: Giyane | Oct 13 2022 5:56 utc | 166

Scorpion | Oct 13 2022 4:14 utc | 159
“Also, frankly, the fossil theory is pretty weird. And it’s a little like the evolution theory: if it was accurate you would find both living and fossil intermediates. But we don’t. We haven’t. If oil came from squashed animal and plants, we would find evidence of this both in the oil and presumably in some not-yet-ready-to-be-oil deposits.”
The Earth was far more geologically active billions of years ago and could muster the energy to crush the organic material into oil (it took vastly more energy to create the oil deposits than is compressed in the oil itself). That hasn’t been the case since then, so there’s no reason to expect the finding of “intermediates” (although heavy oil could be the typical result of more recent, not-fully-baked compressions).
It’s all a moot point anyway and pointless to argue about. Even if oil was generated “abiotically”, that process still would happen over geological time scales. So from the point of view of hominid civilization it’s still a non-renewable resource every bit as much as if it comes from primeval algae and zooplankton.

Posted by: Flying Dutchman | Oct 13 2022 6:28 utc | 167

Loosing or losing?

Posted by: hestroy | Oct 13 2022 6:36 utc | 168

B ends with this quote-
“I find it unlikely that the Biden administration with its librul ideology will be able to correct its own errors. The failures and mistakes will stay uncorrected and their consequences will multiply. It will take a regime change in Washington, and a change in its deep state ideology, to find back to some realistic view on foreign policies.”
Indeed. Regime change in Washington is the only way this madness now starting WWIII will come to an end. The problem is that the neocons Nuland, Biden, Lindsey Graham, Jake Sullivan, Robert Kagan, etc are in total control of U.S. foreign policy. The CIA and State Dept are totally neocon. Until these ideologues are removed from office things will remain as they are indefinitely for decades to come. They would much prefer WWIII with nukes to facing their arrogance and stupidity and accepting a multi-polar world.

Posted by: Deschutes | Oct 13 2022 6:51 utc | 169

M.K. Bhadrakumar is often very good, and sometimes downright brutal with his straight shooting language, his calling bread bread and wine wine, about the decrepit and moronic american Elites – here he calls them “Neanderthal men”. lol
this piece, regarding the recent visit of the head of the UAE to St. Petersburg to chat with Mr. Putin, mostly about the crisis in Ukraine, and OPEC+ of course
https://www.indianpunchline.com/two-potentates-meet-up-at-st-petersburg/
…..In geopolitical terms, Sheikh Mohammed’s decision to travel to Russia to meet with Putin comes in the backdrop of the temper tantrums of the American political elites threatening to “punish” Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The Democrats have brashly called for the withdrawal of US troops in the UAE and Saudi Arabia and cutback on arms supplies.
These Neanderthal men ought to have become museum pieces by now. They do not comprehend that the West Asian elites have a cosmopolitan mindset and know these hollow men well enough, having interacted with them in their pristine years and watched stoically more recently as they began ageing, showing signs of exhaustion and senility….”

Posted by: michaelj72 | Oct 13 2022 6:54 utc | 170

Thanks b ! For still working here, giving a root “Space” for all commentators posting here.
We still have to “wait a little” before announcing any final results acc.to this “conflicts”, so we’ve to be ear-opened further in – Just Like “here”.
Some have said the RU “Sources” will or won’t go out of any “ideas” to strengsten Forward Theke Targets .. so let’ wait about in a middle-timed issued.
Hope today, UKR Energy may remain as dropped 30%, that’s a good “restart” for ElendSki, EkelLensky to his Media fireworks, Nazi prop for the Nest dass ..
Bye – let’s wait 3 dass … You’ll Wonder ..
Thanks for reading.

Posted by: ramsteen_tom | Oct 13 2022 7:24 utc | 171

What do you think are the prospects of OPEC+ refusing to sell oil to any buyer that imposes a price cap?

Posted by: Ian | Oct 13 2022 8:13 utc | 172

Posted by: Brendan | Oct 12 2022 17:45 utc | 34
One of thoughts (in truth, guesses) will be that they activate ‘kill-switches’ on many of the Saudi’s ‘made in USA’ military hardware at inopportune times.
I have long assumed that this is a built-in feature of most high-end (read: of highly destructive capability in normal operation) military hardware.
Just my penny’s-worth.

Posted by: Jon_in_AU | Oct 13 2022 8:21 utc | 173

@Ian 171
Is that a serious question?

Posted by: Goingo | Oct 13 2022 8:22 utc | 174

🇵🇱🇷🇺Polish Prime Minister Morawiecki – that the Druzhba pipeline was most likely damaged by Russia: “Many clues point to the Kremlin, but we want to be very responsible and only then confirm all assumptions.”
https://twitter.com/AZgeopolitics/status/1580280561171542018
That’s a sign of impotency – Poland/USUK has nothing left except sabotaging their own gas and oil pipelines. There will be no direct connection for gas and oil pipes, most will move to limited shipping capacity, bought through intermediator states.
It’s obvious those price cap plans will not work and the price through buying intermediator states will result in higher prices, something which no one in EU-rope can afford.
By the way, 6/7 French oil refineries are shut down currently.

Posted by: unimperator | Oct 13 2022 8:59 utc | 175

@ unimperator 174
In Syria, the US tried to console its defeat with appointing itself exclusively as the ones to rebuild Syria.
So it is conceivable that Russia would prevent the US weasels from trying to rebuild the Ukraine they have taken 20 years to destroy with Nazism, and the Europe they are working on destroying now.
But conceivability is not evidence . More likely it is a projection of their own malice against Ukraine, because they have
been promised some of the spoils of war in Ukrainian Territory in exchange for assisting in the Neo nazi project.
Not only has US not won its nazi project, nor got any land booty to give, I cannot see how this absurd exporting of food from US farms in Poland to Britain can continue while there are fuel shortages in Europe.

Posted by: Giyane | Oct 13 2022 9:36 utc | 176

Breaking – Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has confirmed Joe Biden tried to force them to delay oil production cuts until after Midterm elections.
https://twitter.com/KimDotcom/status/1580400741453176832

Posted by: unimperator | Oct 13 2022 9:44 utc | 177

In Syria, the US tried to console its defeat with appointing itself exclusively as the ones to rebuild Syria.
Posted by: Giyane | Oct 13 2022 9:36 utc | 175
There is no plan “to rebuild Syria”. That was the whole point of the war, not even for the Kurds.

Posted by: laguerre | Oct 13 2022 10:10 utc | 178

@ laguerre 177
China wanted to rebuild Syria,so the US mouthed off about that.
Trump wants to rebuild America, but the funds for that have already gone on destroying Ukraine, Russia and Europe.
If the neocons carry on, they’ll probably all end up living in wigwams.

Posted by: Giyane | Oct 13 2022 10:35 utc | 179

The decline of the American Empire started with the assassination of JFK and has continued from that point with various ups and downs but ultimately it is a downward path greased with greed and fear.

Posted by: countryrds | Oct 13 2022 12:38 utc | 180

This statement >>To justify her loss in the presidential election Hillary Clinton created ‘Russiagate’,<< is not quite correct. The 'Russiagate' dossier was created well before her election loss. In fact, the dossier was initiated first by the Republicans and GPS Fusion (and spread by McCain) and later was acquired by Hillary's law firm/DNC/HRC. HILLARY WAS NOT GOING TO LOSE! She was a sure thing...remember those polls? Hillary's MO is to destroy the lives of her opponents. The dossier was going to be the planted 'evidence' that would destroy Trump and his supporters after her election. After she was elected she would do what she did after the Clinton 1992 election, change all the law enforcement and judiciary to personnel that she controlled. Trump would be charged with treason and Hillary would achieve her goals. It is only AFTER her loss that the dossier was re-employed. This, and other criminal activity, is why the Uniparty is so obsessed with Trump.

Posted by: Richard Whitney | Oct 13 2022 13:28 utc | 181

@Opport Knocks | Oct 13 2022 1:15 utc | 143

If abiotic oil was a real thing, it would be a fairly simple scientific exercise to replicate the pressure, temperature and chemical components in a lab and prove it. To the best of my knowledge no one has done so.

Abiotic hydrocarbons is a thing. If you want to claim that hydrocarbons come only from biotic origins (i.e. life forms), you need to prove what kind of life forms existed on Saturns moon Titan, where there are large oceans of methane and a methane rich atmosphere.
Hydrocarbons require only hydrogen, carbon and sufficiently high pressure and temperature to be created. All of this exists in abundance in the Earths crust, as well as in other planets and moons.

Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 13 2022 14:29 utc | 182

Hydrocarbons require only hydrogen, carbon and sufficiently high pressure and temperature to be created. All of this exists in abundance in the Earths crust, as well as in other planets and moons.
Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 13 2022 14:29 utc | 182
Interesting. So what is causing it to come into being? Some sort of interaction between air from above, heat from below and pressure of being in the middle (the core and the surface) presumably from heat’s tendency to rise but the core’s tendency to exert gravitational downward pressure?

Posted by: Scorpion | Oct 13 2022 15:31 utc | 183

@Norwegian #182
Abiotic oil does exist, but the vast, vast majority of all hydrocarbons mined by humanity is not abiotic.
I have noted this before: every single oil, natural gas well or coal deposit is fingerprinted. As such, the industry people know full well the chemical/isotopical properties of said hydrocarbons from any given source – and they are almost all not abiotic.
It is equally invalid to say that oil and natural gas are literally the deposits of past biomass. Yes, but also no. In reality, the actual biomass deposits sink into the deep Earth over time, are liquefied/gasified by heat and pressure at depth and then trickle up and are captured by geologic formations.
So the professionals exploring/drilling for various geologic era “zones” of rock are actually looking for 2 things: a source deposit which is a geologic era and a capture formation that was formed later on.
In order for abiotic oil to form – you have to have significant “natural” as in non-biological carbon mass, at depth, and still have to have the capture formation above it. There are producing examples in nature but they are rare not least because there is no way, whatsoever, to economically find them without the geologic basis nor is there either a good theory to explain or predict such accumulations.
The lack of near-surface examples of abiotic (i.e. seeps or other surface evidence) is pretty telling and makes it unlikely that there is lots of abiotic oil just waiting to be found.

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 13 2022 15:55 utc | 184

@c1ue | Oct 13 2022 15:55 utc | 184
So what in your opinion created the methane lakes on Titan. It is enough to show a single example of abiotic hydrocarbons to prove it exist, and and it does.

https://boingboing.net/2020/12/02/the-deep-methane-lakes-of-titan.html
Saturn’s moon Titan is bigger than Mercury, and so far as we know, it’s the only body in the solar system besides Earth that has surface liquid. Near Titan’s north pole, there’s an entire system of lakes filled with liquid methane. These lakes show tributaries that hint of a weather system in which methane evaporates and then rains over the land. We know this because the Cassini probe scanned Titan with radar, which bounces off land but is absorbed by liquid. The rate of absorption indicates depth.

There are examples of oil deposits under granite here on earth. We have abiotic oil as well.

Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 13 2022 16:19 utc | 185

@Scorpion | Oct 13 2022 15:31 utc | 183
Here is one paper
Synthesis of heavy hydrocarbons at the core-mantle boundary

Abstract
The synthesis of complex organic molecules with C-C bonds is possible under conditions of reduced activity of oxygen. We have found performing ab initio molecular dynamics simulations of the C-O-H-Fe system that such conditions exist at the core-mantle boundary (CMB). H2O and CO2 delivered to the CMB by subducting slabs provide a source for hydrogen and carbon. The mixture of H2O and CO2 subjected to high pressure (130 GPa) and temperature (4000 to 4500 K) does not lead to synthesis of complex hydrocarbons. However, when Fe is added to the system, C-C bonds emerge. It means that oil might be a more abundant mineral than previously thought.

Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 13 2022 16:29 utc | 186

Posted by: Norwegian | Oct 13 2022 16:29 utc | 186
“Concluding, we demonstrated that formation of a hydrocarbon mixture is highly probable under reducing conditions at the core-mantle boundary. Such a formation might contribute to the explanation of abiotic oil formation, mechanism of ascending hot plumes, ultra-low velocity zone at the CMB and amount of oxygen in the liquid outer core.”
+++++++++++++++++++++
Thank you – though a bit above my (non)scientific paygrade! I note from the conclusion words like ‘probable’ and ‘might.’ Nothing wrong with an educated guess but part of my beef with various topics is that ‘science’ is often referenced as being something which has established a truth or fact whereas in fact it’s just an intelligent deduction based on a limited set of facts or data and far from any sort of proven knowledge. Which again is fine, it just shouldn’t be thought of as anything more.
Again viz abiotic oil etc.: if the Russians have demonstrated that drilling much deeper gets crackerjack results, surely that is argument enough for others taking a crack at it too rather than insisting that it doesn’t fit Theory X or Theory Y? I seem to recall that they also had a developed method for reading maps and determining where they would be most likely to find these deep sources.
On reading your paper I was drawn to the notion that some of the components of oil come from the core itself. Intuitively, I find that makes sense; if true it would hint that the supply is continually replenishing and most likely we have tapped into only a tiny fraction of what is down there. But ???
In any case, it seems we have no idea really how much is down deep, nor how much is being made every year, or if it is a finite substance as some believe. Personally, am equally open to either possibility but would prefer that the entire world is not restructured based on no more than an intelligent, but unsubstantiated, guess.
I also like green hydrogen (if that is the term for extracting hydrogen as fuel from H20) because water is ubiquitous and doesn’t require centralized distribution. But of course centralization is the main prerequisite for an energy system (for reasons of taxation and control) and perhaps why electric cars are now being favored despite the severe limitations put on them by the need for batteries to facilitate independent locomotion.

Posted by: Scorpion | Oct 13 2022 17:41 utc | 187

“As long as we continue to indulge these politicians by allowing them to continue their five star production of ‘Dumb versus Dumber’, they will just keep doing it.”,
He calmly and politely explained…

Posted by: Josh | Oct 13 2022 17:43 utc | 188

Melaleuca@140 is wrong. Ferrand was pretending the US Constitution was intended to prevent majority rule of the people, in favor of majority rule of the states and doing so under cover of law, i.e., the letter of the document but ignoring all precedent and principle as to meaning. The President is not elected by the state legislatures but by the people. Further, the principle that the Electoral College is meant to carry out the will of the people was manifested as early as the first election, when John Adams was furious that Alexander Hamilton “intrigued” to prevent a tie with Washington. After the second election, the opposition party, headed by Jefferson, raved about this, swearing that their electors would faithfully express the will of the voters. And they did, leading to a constitutional crisis as the idiotic Electoral College tied Jefferson and Burr. Contrary to accepting the letter of the law, that whoever won in the House of Representatives was the true winner, Jefferson’s more excitable people threatened rebellion if the House—according to the literal words of the Constitution—elected Burr. The idea that a mere twelve years after the Constitutional Convention none of the living Framers remembered that they meant for the Electoral College to serve as a device to prevent majority rule of the people in electing the President would be stupid, were it not so clearly dishonest.
Further, Andrew Jackson, the Trumpers’ favorite president and one of the exemplars of Trumpery, was enraged that the Electoral College elected John Quincy Adams, instead of himself, the popular vote winner. This was one of the rare occasions when Jackson was correct. The Republicans, the Trumpers’ party, in 2000 of course issued a fasle judgment in Bush v. Gore to do away with an election in the House, despite the fact that was the literal Constitutional procedure! The obligatory pretense by Trumpers that none of this matters and their tin God reall did win, is simply contemptible. I doubt any of them wouldn’t rave about a criminal defendant “getting off on a technicality,” the very same thing.
Lastly of course, the repulsive bigotry in calling people “demoniacs” also gives away the bad faith of Ferrand and Melaleuca. The gross lies about how cities get more taxes from rural areas is just more Trumpery, which the OP inflicted enough of already.
Giyane@162 complains about the lack of electoral accountability for “think-tanks.” There is a sense in which they are accountable, which is in the legal privileges extended to the foundations that generally fund them, and the special preferences for the rich who establish and control those foundations. The thing is, most Trumpers adore Trump for one thing because he’s rich, which is the sign of divine favor apparently. Trump, who gave the rich huge tax breaks, apparently won the hearts of his worshippers for such devotion to the people. One of Trump’s forerunners in presidential style, Andrew Jackson, was notorious for taking advice from his cronies, his so-called “kitchen cabinet,” as opposed to the legal, electorally accountable Cabinet. I’m uncertain whether Giyane is just confused or Giyane is one of the rare MoA commenters who isn’t a Trumper.

Posted by: steven t johnson | Oct 13 2022 17:48 utc | 189

Wow this thread has defo gone sidewayz but Ill jump on it as an oil and gas engineer. The means of creation of oil is a valid argument but is nonsensical in that it hydrocarbons were for sure created by Nature over millions of years. You could probably recreate the process in a well equipped lab but economically why spend 10gigajoules of energy to harvest maybe 3 gigajoules worth of oil. The reason we love oil so much is that Nature has already done the hard work and its economical to drill it up from great depths and sell cheaper than a bottle of Coke or water in some countries. Coal is made the same way as oil but with different pressures and temperatures
We are already making artificial diamonds but here its viable because someone is willing to pay for it and they are still cheaper than the real thing, such is the rarity of diamonds. If it was the other way it would be a no goer
The other thing to note is that Hydrogen is the building block of the Universe. Everything we see, every element and chemical is made up of a Hydrogen atom which has some added protons, neutrons or electrons. Every element and compound is made of an alchemy of Hydrogen therefore. Mother nature is an alchemist….or a Witch

Posted by: DaVinci | Oct 13 2022 17:57 utc | 190

@Norwegian #185
The methane lakes on Titan exist because there is no life, plus it is so cold that they don’t break down from chemical processes.
That abiotic hydrocarbons existed in Earth’s past is not in question – the question is if they exist now after billions of years of life, temperature and other forms of breakdown.
To say that abiotic hydrocarbons exist in large quantities – greater than the biotic hydrocarbons – requires assumptions that said carbon accumulations exist at depths both unexplored to date; without having already been broken down into natural gas/oil and leaking onto the surface.
As I have noted – the worldwide fossil fuel industry has spent tens to hundreds of billions drilling for oil and natural gas, and have found literally a handful of large abiotic accumulations to date.

Posted by: c1ue | Oct 13 2022 18:15 utc | 191

Demonizing Putin’s Russia
At NATO Bucharest Summit in April 2008, VP Cheney forced through the decision to offer membership to Georgia and Ukraine. Everyone was aware this crossed Russia’s red lines. The latter saw no other choice but to distance itself from NATO partnership.
Ivo Daalder and John Kerry both advocated making Russia a pariah state in speeches @Atlantic Council.
Demonizing Putin Endangers America’s Security | The Nation – 2012 |
Putin-bashing on the left and the right must stop in the interest of US national security.
By Stephen F. Cohen
American efforts to isolate Russia …
Are US Gen. Breedlove and NATO SG Rasmussen imposing policy on its European members? This seems to be new policy designed by the Obama administration as advocated by former NATO Ambassador Ivo Daalder at the Atlantic Council.
“Isolate Putin’s Russia so it will become a pariah state.”
Worse than the White House are members of US Congress, United across the aisle.one dissident is Paul Rand who has faith in isolationism of America and Cold War policy of containment. No more wars on foreign soil.

Posted by: Oui | Oct 13 2022 19:00 utc | 192

Atlantic Resolve and Renaissance for Eurasian Affairs
Victoria Nuland laying out the White House, and by extension NATO, anti-Russia strategy in presentation at Brookings in 2015 …

Remarks by Assistant Secretary Victoria Nuland, Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs: Unity in Challenging Times: Building on Transatlantic Resolve | Jan. 27, 2015 |

Ukraine Goes On Anti-Russia Pipeline Offensive As Europe Goes Nuts | Forbes – June 20, 2017 |
With Washington’s blessing, Ukraine is going on the offensive against a Baltic Sea pipeline it deems a death knell to state controlled Naftogaz. Naftogaz is one of the most important companies in the country, and the gateway between Russian gas fields and the European market. This is the ultimate fight. Only this time, it pits Ukraine and the U.S. on one side with the Europeans and Russians — oddly enough — on the other.
Some history is warranted here. Naftogaz and Gazprom have been going through a bitter divorce with the Europeans as mediators since at least 2014.

Posted by: Oui | Oct 13 2022 19:02 utc | 193

For god sake, they even considered Oprah at a given moment.
Oprah would be easily better than Biden or Trump. Oprah knows suffering, she knows oppression, she knows pain and that other’s suffer. Oprah came up against the old boys network and the power structure of America in her quest for success just as Russia and China are now. She created her own companies to champion herself and blacks and women like herself. She has a more realistic idea of America’s foibles and greatness than either Trump or Biden, two entitled old white guys.
The reality of America is that white guys rule, they have power for wealth, prestige, privilege . Money rules the system, its the only value its buys everything. Whether its Biden or Trump that system must triumph they are a part of the club. To them the Russians and Chinese are inferiors and cannot ever be order givers and they threaten their power and if need be must be fought in a hot war to subjugate them. Oprah doesn’t think that, Biden and Trump DO.

Posted by: Bakunin | Oct 13 2022 20:05 utc | 194

@Norwegian #186 and scorpion
Debunking peak oil posted by Mike Rubbert around 2005 The links there show how the specialists explain the difficulties with abiotic theory.
I advice everybody to listen to both sides and the specialists are not stupid.
For example that even if long hydrocarbon chains would be created very deep down they would dissociate on the way up
https://web.archive.org/web/20150222181142/http://fromthewilderness.com/free/ww3/index.shtml#abiotic

Posted by: petergrfstrm | Oct 13 2022 20:05 utc | 195

@Norwegian and Scorpion
My #195 looks cluttered but I didnt paste it like that. One has to copy the coloured part and paste into the browser to see the doc.
Another aspect:
William Engdahl has explained why he changed his mind about peakoil and just like I expected he was concerned about how the belief in peakoil may have contributed to the Iraq war etc.
Thus even though I have no right to assume that he doesnt really believe it one must be prepared that the above concern may have weighed in beyond the mere scientific merits of the abiotic theory.
And maybe he isnt alone in allowing this aspect to weigh in like that.

Posted by: petergrfstrm | Oct 13 2022 20:27 utc | 196

steven t johnson @ 189
Constitutional arguments get muddied quickly. Referring to the Framers and “original intent” is important, but not dispositive.
In deciding to assent to the Constitution, quite at variance from the revision to the Articles of Confederation that was the original purpose of the now famous “Framers”, the various colonies/members of the Articles of Confederation were agreeing to give away quite a bit of true sovereignty. The Senate was one of the compromises which allowed each state an allotment of power not commensurate with its population but with its ceded sovereignty. Along with other compromises, including the 3/5ths and the Bill of Rights itself, these were necessary in order to get what amounted to separate nations in a confederation to become part of a centralized state in which each former nation was now subordinated to a federal authority. Since we’re 230 years removed from the process, and since the Civil War subordinated state power even more, not to mention tainting the idea of state’s rights with slavery, most Americans do not understand the importance of the Senate to those agreeing to the original Constitution.
You say, “The President is not elected by the state legislatures but by the people.” Then you give a variety of examples that contradictory examples and explanations. These examples simply show that words can be interpreted according the the political expedient of the moment – the is the double edge sword we call the ‘rule of law’. These words both protect us against tyranny and allow it. The entire concept of the “the will of the people” is convoluted. Had the Framers wanted the President to be elected by the “will of the people” then they would have decided that the President would be directly elected just as the members of the House were directly elected. They did not do so. James Wilson, in debates about the Constitution in 1787, stated that the “president is to be chosen by electors, nominated in such manner as the legislature of each state may direct.” James Madison wrote in the Federalist 39 that the “immediate election of the President is to be made by the states in their political characters.” Hamilton, in Federalist 68, stated that the electors would be “men most capable” and “selected by their fellow citizens” because they “possess the information and discernment requisite” to elect the President. Keeping the electors in each state would also prevent “cabal, intrigue and corruption” in the election of the President. The purpose was to abstract power away from the people at large so as to prevent “tumult and disorder” as Hamilton feared.
I think your broadbrushing of Trumpers is misguided and achieves the same thing as Clinton calling Trump supporters “deplorables”. Yes, Trump gave the rich tax breaks, but what did Obama give the big corporations when he took office? While Biden has given some college debt relief, did he roll back Trump tax breaks? No – out of political expediency, he let them stay in place. You act as if only ‘Trumpers’ worship wealth – it’s not just them, many Democrats worship wealth, too…just different wealthy people.

Posted by: Objective Observer | Oct 13 2022 22:16 utc | 197

Bernhard, will you get it right please. It’s the Donbass with 2 ‘s’, and it is NOT ‘Russian rebels’, that sounds just like the cr@p western msm, it’s the Donbass Defenders.

Posted by: Ralph | Oct 13 2022 22:38 utc | 198

Further, Andrew Jackson, the Trumpers’ favorite president and one of the exemplars of Trumpery, was enraged that the Electoral College elected John Quincy Adams, instead of himself, the popular vote winner.
Posted by: steven t johnson | Oct 13 2022 17:48 utc | 189
huh.
Am I to understand that ol’ hillbilly was the last whig and not the first Democratic Party icon, because he was a certified RE speculator like TRUMP; or am I to understand he he did not campaign to burn, figuratively, the Second Bank of the United States to the ground with Biddle in it in order to liberate private bankers’ from hard money reserves on the western frontier?
Please, tell me something I don’t know. Write a post at UNZ under the pen name Mike Hudson.

Posted by: sln2002 | Oct 13 2022 22:42 utc | 199

Posted by: petergrfstrm | Oct 13 2022 20:05 utc | 195
Cannot use that link

Posted by: Scorpion | Oct 13 2022 23:09 utc | 200

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