Category Archives: Energy

The Goldilocks War, by Dmitry Orlov

Posted on December 3, 2022 | Leave a comment

Dmitry Orlov explains the needle the Russians are threading in the Ukraine. From Orlov at thesaker.is:

Are you happy with the way the war in the former Ukraine is going? Most people aren’t—for one reason or another. Some people hate the fact that there is a war there at all, while others love it but hate the fact that it hasn’t been won yet, by one side or the other. Bounteous quantities of both of these kinds of haters are found on both sides of the new Iron Curtain that is hastily being built across Eurasia between the collective West and the collective East. This seems reasonable; after all, hating war is standard procedure for most people (war is hell, don’t you know!) and by extension a small war is better than a big one and a short war is better than a long one. And also such reasoning is banal, trite, platitudinous, vapid, predictable, unimaginative and… bromidic (according to the English Thesaurus).

Seldom is to be found a war-watcher who is happy with the progress and the duration of the war. Luckily, Russian state television shows a very significant one these almost daily. It is Russia’s president, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Having paid attention to him for over twenty years now, I can confidently state that never has he been so imbued with calm, self-assured serenity leavened with droll humor. This is not the demeanor of someone who feels at any risk of losing a war. The brass at the Ministry of Defense appear dour and glum on camera—a demeanor befitting men who send other men to fight and possibly to be wounded or to die; but off-camera they flash each other quick Mona Lisa smiles. (Russian men don’t give stupid American-style fish-eyed toothy grins, rarely show their teeth when smiling, and never in the presence of wolves or bears).

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Winter in Central Europe and for the dollar, by Alasdair Macleod

Posted on December 3, 2022 | Leave a comment

Economic realities may drive the West to the bargaining table with Russia on Ukraine. From Alasdair Macleod at goldmoney.com:

In this article I examine the current state of the fight for hegemonic control between America on the one side, and Russia and China on the other. It is being fought on two fronts. Ukraine, the one in plain sight, is about to endure a winter without power and adequate food potentially leading to a humanitarian crisis.

The other front is financial with America facing a coordinated attack by Russia and China on its dollar hegemony. The Russians are planning a replacement trade settlement currency, which if it succeeds, could unleash a flood of foreign-owned dollars onto the foreign exchanges.

We have no way of knowing how advanced this plan is, but the indications point perhaps to a gold-based digital currency. Moscow establishing a new gold exchange, Asian central banks accumulating additional gold reserves, and Saudi Arabia seeking non-dollar payments for oil sales are all circumstantial evidence.

As well as these plans, there has been an underlying shift away from a long-term everything financial bubble, with the prospect of higher interest rate levels in time. The reasons for foreign ownership of fiat dollars are diminishing, and a successful new Asian trade currency will only add to the dollar’s woes.

Could this pressure compel America de-escalate Ukraine and sanctions against Russia? The argument to do so has become compelling. It is also a way to lower energy prices, giving central banks needed room for interest rate manoeuvre. 

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Electric War, by Pepe Escobar

Posted on November 24, 2022 | Leave a comment

Russia is methodically wiping out Ukraine’s infrastructure, particularly its electric grid. From Pepe Escobar at strategic-culture.org:

Current Russian tactics are the absolute opposite of the military theory of concentrated force developed by Napoleon, Pepe Escobar writes.

Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know.

T.S. Eliot, Burnt Norton

Spare a thought to the Polish farmer snapping pics of a missile wreckage – later indicated to belong to a Ukrainian S-300. So a Polish farmer, his footfalls echoing in our collective memory, may have saved the world from WWIII – unleashed via a tawdry plot concocted by Anglo-American “intelligence”.

Such tawdriness was compounded by a ridiculous cover-up: the Ukrainians were firing on Russian missiles from a direction that they could not possibly be coming from. That is: Poland. And then the U.S. Secretary of Defense, weapons peddler Lloyd “Raytheon” Austin, sentenced Russia was to blame anyway, because his Kiev vassals were shooting at Russian missiles that should not have been in the air (and they were not).

Call it the Pentagon elevating bald lying into a rather shabby art.

The Anglo-American purpose of this racket was to generate a “world crisis” against Russia. It’s been exposed – this time. That does not mean the usual suspects won’t try it again. Soon.

The main reason is panic. Collective West intel sees how Moscow is finally mobilizing their army – ready to hit the ground next month – while knocking out Ukraine’s electricity infrastructure as a form of Chinese torture.

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Unhappy Marxist Thanksgiving, Everyone! By Thomas DiLorenzo

Posted on November 24, 2022 | Leave a comment

The pilgrims didn’t have much to be thankful for until they discovered that capitalism and free markets work well. From Thomas DiLorenzo at lewrockwell.com:

In recent years the unhinged Marxist Left in “higher” education along with the hard-Left pop communists in the teachers’ unions have been preaching that Thanksgiving is a celebration of genocide, mass murder, and imperialism.  The Pilgrims murdered all the Indians, they say, and then sat down and treated themselves to big feast to celebrate their feat.  They even invented the elementary schoolish word “Thankskilling” to describe it.  (Send your kid to a university and he, too, can learn to sound like an uneducated Marxist moron for the rest of his life).

In reality, if the Pilgrims had anything to celebrate it was the destruction of an early form of socialism that allowed them to survive and prosper.  When the first settlers arrived in Jamestown, Virginia in May of 1607 they found incredibly fertile soil and a cornucopia of seafood, wild game, and fruits of all kinds.  Nevertheless, within six months all but 38 of the original 104 Jamestown settlers had starved to death.  Two years later the Virginia Company sent 500 more settlers and within six months 440 of them were dead by starvation and disease.  This became known as “the starving time.”  The Massachusetts Pilgrims fared no better.  About half of the 101 people who arrived on Cape Cod in November of 1620 were dead within a few months.

In 1611 the British government sent Sir Thomas Dale to serve as the “high marshal” of the Virginia colony.  He immediately recognized the problem:  The Virginia Company had adopted a system of agricultural socialism under which everything grown or produced would go to a “common store” and divided equally among all  the family groups.  The man who worked hard sixteen hours a day would be given the same remuneration as the man who did not work at all.  Dale’s solution was to establish property rights by allotting three acres of land to each man, who was still required to pay a fee to the Virginia colony (most early American immigrants were indentured servants) but then could keep everything else for himself and his family.

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How Blackrock Investment Fund Triggered the Global Energy Crisis, by F. William Engdahl

Posted on November 20, 2022 | Leave a comment

The current retreat from fossil fuels is not an organic, market-driven change, it is imposed, top-down diktat. Like virtually all such diktat, this is a step backward, and its being supported by corporations and investment houses. From F. William Engdahl at globalresearch.ca:

Most people are bewildered by what is a global energy crisis, with prices for oil, gas and coal simultaneously soaring and even forcing closure of major industrial plants such as chemicals or aluminum or steel. The Biden Administration and EU have insisted that all is because of Putin and Russia’s military actions in Ukraine. This is not the case. The energy crisis is a long-planned strategy of western corporate and political circles to dismantle industrial economies in the name of a dystopian Green Agenda. That has its roots in the period years well before February 2022, when Russia launched its military action in Ukraine.

Blackrock pushes ESG

In January, 2020  on the eve of the economically and socially devastating covid lockdowns, the CEO of the world’s largest investment fund, Larry Fink of Blackrock, issued a letter to Wall Street colleagues and corporate CEOs on the future of investment flows. In the document, modestly titled “A Fundamental Reshaping of Finance”, Fink, who manages the world’s largest investment fund with some $7 trillion then under management, announced a radical departure for corporate investment. Money would “go green.” In his closely-followed 2020 letter Fink declared,

“In the near future – and sooner than most anticipate – there will be a significant re-allocation of capital…Climate risk is investment risk.” Further he stated, “Every government, company, and shareholder must confront climate change.” [i]

In a separate letter to Blackrock investor clients, Fink delivered the new agenda for capital investing. He declared that Blackrock will exit certain high-carbon investments such as coal, the largest source of electricity for the USA and many other countries. He added that Blackrock would screen new investment in oil, gas and coal to determine their adherence to the UN Agenda 2030 “sustainability.”

Fink made clear the world’s largest fund would begin to disinvest in oil, gas and coal.  “Over time,” Fink wrote, “companies and governments that do not respond to stakeholders and address sustainability risks will encounter growing skepticism from the markets, and in turn, a higher cost of capital.” He added that, “Climate change has become a defining factor in companies’ long-term prospects… we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance.” [ii]

From that point on the so-called ESG investing, penalizing CO2 emitting companies like ExxonMobil, has become all the fashion among hedge funds and Wall Street banks and investment funds including State Street and Vanguard. Such is the power of Blackrock. Fink was also able to get four new board members in ExxonMobil committed to end the company’s oil and gas business.

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Did They all “Cheat”? By Eric Peters

Posted on November 19, 2022 | Leave a comment

Why is the U.S. government so hostile to diesel cars? Because they pose a strong competitive challenge to electric cars. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:

Why is that every major automaker who was – past tense – selling diesel-powered passenger cars in the United States no longer is?

Apparently, it is because all of them “cheated” on government emissions certification tests. Including Mercedes-Benz, which just recently “agreed” – that’s the word used by government when it successfully forces a target to submit by using threats of worse repercussions if the target refuses to “agree” – to hand over $6 million as punishment for “falsely advertising” the cleanliness of its diesel-powered passenger cars purchased by people in the state of Arizona.

At the federal level, Benz has “agreed” to hand over $2.2 billion, including $875 million in civil penalties assessed under the Clean Air Act and $546 million that went toward “fixing” the “affected” vehicles.

Mercedes no longer sells diesel-powered passenger cars in this United States, having been given a strong incentive not to.

Nor, of course, VW – which used to sell a lot of them. Toyota – which sells a lot of them outside the U.S. – may shortly be forced to stop selling them, too. All on the basis of the same claims.

But these claims were always just the excuse. Very much as the claim by a cop that he “smells marijuana” after he pulls you over becomes the excuse to search your vehicle. After he uses the excuse that you were “speeding” to pull you over in the first place. It’s really because he – or rather, the government he works for – wants your money. 

And something else.

The excuses aren’t reasons – in the morally meaningful sense – for no harm has been caused by your driving 43 MPH in violation of a sign that says you are not allowed to drive faster than 35 MPH. Nor your having “smoked marijuana” – even if you actually have smoked it.

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Ukraine – Switching The Lights Off, by Moon of Alabama

Posted on November 19, 2022 | Leave a comment

How Ukraine intends to win a war without power is perhaps a question that hadn’t entered the minds of Ukraine’s primary backer, i.e. the U.S. As they’ve done everything else, the Russians are methodically destroying Ukraine’s grid. From Moon of Alabama at moonofalabama.org:

The careful destruction of energy systems in Ukraine continues.

From today’s clobber list as provided by the Defense Ministry of Russia:

On 17 November, the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation launched a concentrated strike, using high-precision long-range air-, sea- and ground-based weapons, at the facilities of military control, defence industry, as well as related fuel and energy infrastructure of Ukraine.The goals of the strike have been reached.

All the missiles have accurately stricken the assigned facilities.

I have no idea if the last line is true but it does not matter much.

The targeting of 330 kilovolt transformers in various switching stations has cut some 50% of the distribution capability of Ukraine’s electricity network. These transformers weigh up to 200 tons. There are no replacements. You do not buy them at the next corner but will have to order them with years of lead time. As far as I can tell Russia is currently the only producer of transformers of that type.

Isn’t it a war crime to destroy the infrastructure that supplies civilians?

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Scarcification, by Eric Peters

Posted on November 17, 2022 | Leave a comment

If you thought the electricity required for electric cars was bad, wait until you see what it is for electric 18-wheelers. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:

What will it mean when most everything that is hauled by truck is hauled by electric truck? It will mean less stuff is hauled by truck, which is probably the point of the thing – in case you hadn’t noticed.

“Electrification” is about scarcification – my neologism.

The making of less. The making do with less – which will cost more, too.

All in the name of a false cause – that being the saving of a planet that doesn’t need saving – by reducing the number of people on it. Less to eat. Less heat. It all ends up in the same place, or so they hope:

Less of us.

Of course, not of them.

What they are bent on “saving” is the planet, alright.

For themselves.

Toward that end, the first of Tesla’s over-the-road electric big rigs will leave the factory, shortly. They will not travel very far from there, though – notwithstanding the lies being told about their ability to pull a 40 ton load 500 miles, which is about what a diesel-powered big rig can pull, just a fourth as far (a fully-fueled big rig can typically go more than 2,000 miles on 300 gallons of diesel before needing to refuel).

And it’s actually a lot less than that.

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Germany Preparing For Emergency Cash Deliveries, Bank Runs And “Aggressive Discontent” Ahead Of Winter Power Cuts, by Tyler Durden

Posted on November 17, 2022 | Leave a comment

Germans are in for a rough winter and they know it. They’re likely to stockpile good old-fashioned cash. From Tyler Durden at zerohedge.com:

While Europe has been keeping a generally optimistic facade ahead of the coming cold winter, signaling that it has more than enough gas in storage to make up for loss of Russian supply even in a “coldest-case” scenario, behind the scenes Europe’s largest economy is quietly preparing for a worst case scenario which include angry mobs and bankruns should blackouts prevent the population from accessing cash.

As Reuters reports citing four sources, German authorities have stepped up preparations for emergency cash deliveries in case of a blackout (or rather blackouts) to keep the economy running, as the nation braces for possible power cuts arising from the war in Ukraine. The plans include the Bundesbank hoarding extra billions to cope with a surge in demand, as well as “possible limits on withdrawals”, one of the people said. And if you think crypto investors are angry when they can’t access their digital tokens in a bankrupt exchange, just wait until you see a German whose cash has just been locked out.

Officials and banks are looking not only at origination (i.e., money-printing) but also at distribution, discussing for example priority fuel access for cash transporters, according to other sources commenting on preparations that accelerated in recent weeks after Russia throttled gas supplies.

The planning discussions involve the central bank, its financial market regulator BaFin, and multiple financial industry associations, said the Reuters sources most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity about plans that are private and in flux.

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Fourth Turning Winter of Death, by Jim Quinn

Posted on November 15, 2022 | 2 comments

Anything that is true these days about current conditions is tough to read. Jim Quinn’s article is tough to read, but every word rings true. From Jim Quinn at theburningplatform.com:

“Reflect on what happens when a terrible winter blizzard strikes. You hear the weather warning but probably fail to act on it. The sky darkens. Then the storm hits with full fury, and the air is a howling whiteness. One by one, your links to the machine age break down. Electricity flickers out, cutting off the TV. Batteries fade, cutting off the radio. Phones go dead. Roads become impossible, and cars get stuck. Food supplies dwindle. Day to day vestiges of modern civilization – bank machines, mutual funds, mass retailers, computers, satellites, airplanes, governments – all recede into irrelevance.

Worst Storms of All Time - The Ground Blizzard of 1977 - WorldAtlas

“Picture yourself and your loved ones in the midst of a howling blizzard that lasts several years. Think about what you would need, who could help you, and why your fate might matter to anybody other than yourself. That is how to plan for a saecular winter. Don’t think you can escape the Fourth Turning. History warns that a Crisis will reshape the basic social and economic environment that you now take for granted.” – Strauss & Howe – The Fourth Turning

It was less than a year ago on December 16, 2021 when our dementia patient in chief was instructed by his handlers to lie, obfuscate and demonize critical thinking Americans who refused to become victims of the Big Pharma, Fauci promoted, untested, unsafe, ineffective gene therapy by declaring “we are looking at a winter of severe illness and death for the unvaccinated — for themselves, their families and the hospitals they’ll soon overwhelm”. Biden’s vaccine mandates were overturned in the courts. The unvaccinated did not die from Covid. Very few people died from Covid. Some really old and infirm people on death’s doorstep died with Covid. Some very unhealthy obese people died with Covid. But even 95% of the old and unhealthy survived Covid.

Virtually no one under 70 years old died from Covid. Biden was lying. Fauci was lying. Walensky was lying. Gates was lying. Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla was lying. Their paid-off medical industry was lying. Their highly compensated corporate legacy media talking heads were lying. Captured politicians were lying. The entire Covid scheme was nothing more than weaponizing the annual flu through fear propaganda, a billion-dollar advertising campaign, and enacting totalitarian measures on the world as part of the Great Reset Build Back Better New World Order plot orchestrated by our globalist oligarch overlords.

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