Russia’s attack on Ukraine represents a demand for a new world order that, over the long term, will support higher prices for fossil fuels, especially oil. Such an economy would probably be centered on Russia and China. The rest of the world economy, to the extent that it continues to exist, will largely have to get along without fossil fuels, other than the fossil fuels that countries continue to produce for themselves. Population and living standards will fall in most of the world.
If a Russia-and-China-centric economy can be developed, the US dollar will no longer be the world’s reserve currency. Trade will be in the currency of the new Russia-China block. Outside of this block, local currencies will play a dominant role. Most of today’s debt will ultimately be defaulted upon; to the extent that this debt is replaced, it will be replaced with debt in local currencies.
As I see the situation, the underlying problem is the fact that, on a world basis, energy consumption per capita is shrinking. Energy consumption is essential for creating goods and services.
The shrinking amount of energy per person means that, on average, fewer and fewer finished goods and services can be produced for each person. Some countries do better than average; others do worse. With low fossil fuel prices, Russia has been faring worse than average; it wants to remedy the situation with long-term higher energy prices. If Russia can start transferring its energy exports to China, perhaps the new Russia-China economy, with limited support from the rest of the world, can afford to pay Russia the high prices for fossil fuels that Russia requires to maintain its economy.
In this post, I will try to explain what I see is happening.
[1] It appears that Russia now fears that it is near collapse, not too different from the collapse of the central government of the Soviet Union in 1991. Such a collapse would lead to a huge drop in Russia’s living standards, even from today’s relatively low level.
If we look back at the Soviet Union’s energy consumption, we see a strange pattern. The Soviet Union’s energy consumption rose rapidly in the period after World War II. It became a military rival of the US, as its energy consumption grew in the 1965 to 1985 period. Its energy consumption leveled off before the central government collapsed in 1991. In fact, energy consumption has never gotten back to its level in the late 1980s.
[2] The thing that seems to have been behind the 1991 collapse is the same thing that seems to be behind Russia’s current fear of collapse: continued low oil prices.
When we look back at inflation-adjusted oil prices, we see that a long period of low prices preceded this collapse. These low prices were harmful in many ways. They reduced funds for reinvestment, which led to the collapse in oil supply. They reduced the funds available to pay wages. They also reduced the tax revenue that the Soviet Union could collect.
I believe that these chronically low oil prices ultimately brought down the top layer of the government of the Soviet Union. This is because of the physics of the situation. It takes energy to provide the services of the top level of the government. As the total energy that could be purchased by the system fell because of low prices received for exports, it became impossible to support this top level of governmental services. This top layer was less essential than the lower levels of government, so it fell away.
In recent times, there has also been a long period of low prices, since about 2013:
Unless this pattern of low prices can be reversed quickly, Russia as a political entity could collapse. Exports of all of the goods it now produces would likely fall.
[3] While oil prices depend on “supply and demand,” as a practical matter, demand is very dependent on interest rates and debt levels. The higher the debt level and the lower the interest rate, the higher the price of oil can rise.
If we look back at Figure 4, we can see that before the US subprime housing bubble popped in 2008, inflation-adjusted oil prices were able to rise to $157 per barrel, adjusted to the 2020 price level. Once the debt bubble popped, inflation-adjusted oil prices fell to $49 per barrel. It was at this low point (and correspondingly low prices for many other commodities) that the US started its program of Quantitative Easing (QE) to lower interest rates.
After two years of QE, oil prices were back above $140 per barrel, in inflation-adjusted prices, but these soon started sliding down. By the time oil prices dropped to $120 per barrel, oil companies started to complain that prices were falling too low to meet all of their needs, including the need to drill in ever less productive areas. Now we are at a point where interest rates are about as low as they can go. Short-term interest rates are near zero, which is where they were in the late 1930s.
The quantity of funds in people’s checking and savings accounts is at an extraordinarily high level, as well. This is partly because of the availability of debt at these low interest rates.
Thus, even before the Ukrainian invasion, oil prices were raised about as high as they could go, through low interest rates and generous debt availability. With all this stimulus, Brent Spot Oil prices averaged $86.51 in January 2022. Even now, with all the disruption of the attack by Russia against Ukraine, oil prices are below the $120 threshold that producers seem to need. This price issue, plus the corresponding low-price issues for natural gas and coal, is the problem that Russia is concerned about.
Prices for imported coal and natural gas have bounced very high in the last few months, but no one expects these high prices to last. For one thing, they are too high for the European manufacturers that use imported coal or natural gas to stay in business. For example, producers that create urea fertilizer using natural gas find that the price of fertilizer produced in this way is way too high for farmers to afford. For another, the electricity produced by burning the high-priced natural gas or coal tends to be too expensive for European households to afford.
[4] The fundamental problem behind recent low oil prices is the fact that the current mix of consumers cannot afford goods and services produced using the high oil prices that producers, such as Russia, need to operate, pay high enough wages, and do adequate reinvestment.
When the price of oil was very low, back before 1970 (see Figure 3), it was relatively easy for consumers to afford goods and services made with oil. This was the period when the world economy was growing rapidly, and many people could afford to purchase automobiles and buy the oil products needed to operate them.
Once the cost of oil extraction started rising because of depletion, it became more and more difficult to keep prices both:
- High enough for oil producers, such as Russia, and
- Low enough to make affordable goods for consumers, as was possible prior to 1970
To try to hide the increasingly difficult problem of keeping prices both high enough for producers and low enough for consumers, central banks have lowered interest rates and encouraged the use of more debt. The idea is that if a person can buy a fuel-efficient car at a low enough interest rate and over a long enough term, perhaps this will make the vehicle more affordable. Similarly, interest rates on home mortgages have fallen to very low levels. All of this, plus the fact that debt is used to finance new factories and mines, leads to the relationship we saw in Figure 4 between oil prices and debt availability, related to interest rates.
[5] No one knows precisely how much oil, coal and natural gas can be extracted because the quantity that can be extracted depends on the extent of the price rise that can be tolerated without plunging the economy into recession.
If prices of these fossil fuels can rise very high (say, $300 per barrel for oil, and correspondingly high prices for other fossil fuels), a huge amount of fossil fuel can be extracted. Conversely, if energy prices cannot stay above the equivalent of $80 per barrel oil for very long without a serious recession, then we may already be very close to the end of available fossil fuel extraction. Both oil and gas producers and coal producers can be expected to go out of business because prices do not leave a sufficient margin for the required investment in new fields to offset the depletion of existing fields. Renewables will falter, as well, because both building and maintaining renewables requires fossil fuels.
The amount of resources of any kind (fossil fuels and minerals such as lithium, uranium, copper and zinc) that can be extracted depends upon the extent of depletion that the economy can tolerate. Depletion of any kind of resource means that a bigger effort (more workers, more machinery, more energy products) is required to extract a given quantity of each resource. It is clear that the entire economy cannot be transferred to the extraction of fossil fuels and mineral resources. For example, some workers and resources are needed for growing and transporting food. This puts a limit on how much depletion can be tolerated.
What Russia (as well as every other oil producer) would like is a way to get the tolerable oil price up significantly higher, for example, to $150 per barrel, so that more oil can be extracted. The hope is that a Russia-and-China-centric economy might be able to do this. Ideally, the tolerable maximum price for coal and natural gas would rise, as well.
[6] Europe, in particular, cannot afford high oil prices. If interest rates are increased soon, this will make the problem even worse. China seems to have definite advantages as an economic partner.
Europe is already having difficulty tolerating very high prices of imported natural gas and coal. Rising oil prices will add even more stress. Central banks are planning to raise interest rates. These higher interest rates will make loan payments more expensive. These higher interest rates will tend to push Europe’s economy further toward recession.
Given the problems with Europe as an energy importer, China would seem to have the possibility of being a better customer that can perhaps tolerate higher prices. For one thing, China is more efficient in its use of energy products than Europe. For example, many homes in the southern half of China are not heated in winter. People instead dress warmly inside their homes in winter. Also, homes and businesses in northern China are sometimes heated with waste heat from nearby coal-fired electricity plants. This is a very efficient approach to heating.
China also uses more coal in its energy mix than Europe. Historically, coal has been much less expensive than oil. What is needed is a low average price of energy. A small amount of high-priced oil can be tolerated in an economy that uses mostly coal in its energy mix. When all costs are counted, wind and solar are very high-priced energy sources, which contributes to Europe’s problems.
In recent years, China’s consumption of energy products has been growing very rapidly. Perhaps, in the view of Russia, China can use high-priced fossil fuel better than other parts of the world.
[7] Russia realized that the rest of the world is utterly dependent upon its fossil fuel exports. Because of this dependency, as well as the physics-based connection between the burning of fossil fuels and the making of finished goods and services, Russia holds huge power over the world economy.
The world economy should have known about the importance of fossil fuels and the likelihood that the world economy would face depletion issues in the first half of the 21st century, ever since a speech by Rear Admiral Hyman Rickover in 1957. In this speech, Rickover said,
We live in what historians may someday call the Fossil Fuel Age. . .With high energy consumption goes a high standard of living. . . A reduction of per capita energy consumption has always in the past led to a decline in civilization and a reversion to a more primitive way of life.
Current estimates of fossil fuel reserves vary to an astonishing degree. In part this is because the results differ greatly if cost of extraction is disregarded or if in calculating how long reserves will last, population growth is not taken into consideration; or, equally important, not enough weight is given to increased fuel consumption required to process inferior or substitute metals. We are rapidly approaching the time when exhaustion of better grade metals will force us to turn to poorer grades requiring in most cases greater expenditure of energy per unit of metal.
. . . it is an unpleasant fact that according to our best estimates, total fossil fuel reserves recoverable at not over twice today’s unit cost are likely to run out at sometime between the years 2000 and 2050, if present standards of living and population growth rates are taken into account.
I suggest that this is a good time to think soberly about our responsibilities to our descendants – those who will ring out the Fossil Fuel Age. Our greatest responsibility, as parents and as citizens, is to give America’s youngsters the best possible education [including the energy problem of a world with finite resources].
Many people today would conclude that world leaders have done their best to ignore this advice. The likely problem with fossil fuels has been hidden behind an imaginative, but false, narrative that our biggest problem is climate change caused primarily by fossil fuel extraction that can be expected to extend until at least 2100, unless positive steps are made to hold back this extraction.
In this false narrative, all the world needs to do is to move to wind and solar for its energy needs. As I discussed in my most recent post, titled Limits to Green Energy Are Becoming Much Clearer, this narrative of success is completely false. Instead, we seem to be hitting energy limits in the near term because of chronically low prices. Wind and solar are doing very little to help because they cannot be depended upon when needed. Furthermore, the quantity of wind and solar available is far too low to replace fossil fuels.
Few people in America and Europe realize that the world economy is entirely dependent upon Russia’s exports of oil, coal and natural gas. This dependency can be seen in many ways. For example, in 2020, 41% of world natural gas exports came from Russia. Natural gas is especially important for balancing electricity from wind and solar.
North America has historically played only a very small role in natural gas exports; it is questionable whether North America can ramp up its total natural gas production in the future, given the depletion problems being experienced with respect to the extraction of oil and the associated natural gas from shale formations. Continuously high oil prices are necessary to justify ramping up production outside of sweet spots. If drillers consider long-term prospects for oil prices to be too low, the associated natural gas will not be collected.
Europe is especially dependent upon natural gas imports (Figure 9). Its imports of natural gas exceed the exports of Russia and its affiliated countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States, referred to as Russia+ in Figures 8 and 9.
Without the natural gas exports of Russia and its close affiliates, there is no possibility of supplying adequate natural gas exports to the rest of the world.
Diesel fuel, created by refining oil, is another energy product that is in critically short supply, especially in Europe. Diesel fuel is used to power trucks and farm tractors, as well as many European automobiles. An Argus Media report indicates that Russian supplies account for 50% to 60% of Europe’s seaborne imports of diesel and other gasoil, amounting to 4 to 6 million tons of fuel per month. It likely would be impossible to replace these imports, using supplies from elsewhere, without bidding the price of these imported fuels up to a much higher price level than today. Even then, countries outside Europe would be left with inadequate diesel supplies.
[8] Russia’s attack on Ukraine seems to have been made for many reasons.
Russia was clearly frustrated with the current situation, with NATO becoming increasingly assertive within Ukraine itself, even though Ukraine is not itself a NATO member. Russia is also aware that in some sense, it has far more power over the world economy than most people realize because the world economy is utterly dependent on Russia’s fossil fuel exports (Section 7). Sanctions against Russia will likely hurt the countries making the sanctions as much or more than they hurt Russia.
There were also several concerns that were specifically Ukrainian giving rise to the attack on Ukraine. There had been long standing conflicts about natural gas pipelines. Was Ukraine taking too much natural gas out as a transit fee? Was it paying the correct fee for the natural gas it used? Ukraine also seems to have mistreated quite a few Russian-speaking Ukrainians over the years.
Russia has become increasingly frustrated with the small share of the world’s output of goods and services that it receives. The way the economic system works today, those who provide “services” seem to receive a disproportionate share of the world’s output of goods and services. Russia, with its extraction of minerals of many kinds, including fossil fuels, has not been well compensated for the great wealth that it brings to the world as a whole.
Over the years, Russia’s great strength has been its military. Perhaps Ukraine would not be too large a country to do battle over. Russia might be able to eliminate some of its irritations with Ukraine. At the same time, it might be able to make changes that would help to raise what have become chronically low fossil fuel prices. The sanctions that other countries would make would tend to push the required changes along more quickly.
If the sanctions really did push Russia down, the result would tend to push the whole world economy toward collapse, because the rest of the world is extremely dependent upon Russia’s fossil fuel exports. In Figure 1, the laws of physics say that there is a proportional response to the quantity of energy “dissipated”; if a greater output of goods and services is desired, more energy input is required. Efficiency changes can somewhat help, but efficiency savings tend to be offset by the higher energetic needs of the more complex system required to achieve these savings.
If energy prices do not rise high enough, we will somehow need to get along with very little or no fossil fuels. It is doubtful that renewables will last very long either because they depend upon fossil fuels for their maintenance and repair.
[9] If higher energy prices cannot be achieved, there is a significant chance that the change in the world order will be in the direction of pushing the world economy toward collapse.
We are living in a world today with shrinking energy resources per capita. We should be aware that we are reaching the limits of fossil fuels and other minerals that we can extract, unless we can somehow figure out a way to get the economy to tolerate higher prices.
The danger that we are approaching is that the top levels of governments, everywhere in the world, will either collapse or be overthrown by their unhappy citizens. The reduced amounts of energy available will push governments in this way. At the same time, programs such as government-funded pension plans and unemployment plans will disappear. Electricity is likely to become intermittent and then fail completely. International trade will shrink back; economies will become much more local.
We were warned that we would be reaching a time period with serious energy problems about now. The first time came in the 1957 Rickover speech discussed in Section 7. The second warning came from the 1972 book, The Limits to Growth by Donella Meadows and others, which documented a computer modeling approach to the problem of limits of a finite world. The Ukraine invasion may be a push in the direction of more serious energy problems, emerging primarily from the fact that other countries will want to punish Russia. Few people will realize that punishing Russia is a dangerous path; a serious concern is that today’s economy cannot continue in its current form without Russia’s fossil fuel exports.
My Mam happily got her Spring top up jab today. 4 jabs in, fit as a fiddle and still no Covid!
But yeah. Poison. Whatever.
not an orphan yet then
My Dad easily beat that record. He’s on his 48th Jab, drinks a six pack of beer a day and says Fast Eddy is a li.ar and i’m still not an orphan.
“Oil exports by Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) may fall by around 1 million barrels per day (bpd) while it repairs two of three mooring points damaged by a storm in Russia’s section of the Black Sea, RIA news agency quoted Russia’s energy ministry as saying.”
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-exports-caspian-consortium-may-drop-by-1-mln-bpd-during-equipment-repair-ria-2022-03-22/
All kind of interruptions are possible.
Well, we do keep voting for Tory governments largely funded by very wealthy and secretive individuals.
Further to what Mirror was reporting the other day about the UK censorship legislation:
This week the long-awaited Online Safety Bill was published, which aims to make the UK the ‘safest place to be online in the world’ – in other words, the country with the most strictly regulated and censored internet of any liberal democracy. This mammoth piece of legislation was five years in the making, and those five years show. The bill is vast in scope, and terrifying in its implications for free speech.
Most significant is the ‘duty of care’ the bill imposes on social-media firms. Tech platforms will be legally required to prevent users from seeing both illegal content and ‘legal but harmful content’.
https://www.globalresearch.ca/end-free-speech-online/5774673
‘…most strictly regulated and censored internet of any liberal democracy.’
Thats nice. Should keep the conversation civil and strictly within the bounds required by the group to function nicely.
Lovely dovely. No disruptive people.
Eddy consider yourself excluded!
You will have to pull your head back out as well; no more questioning the magic of rainbows and unicorns.
Any more posts from you on renewable energy not being good enough will also disrupt the functioning of the group.
You are the weakest ink; goodbye
but my entire income is derived from the pots at the end of rainbows
be reasonable
Its all about being reasonable can’t you see. We have to ban free speech to save it…. from those alternate… oops, conspiracy theories.
Maybe you can come out a night and lurk behind the e-bike shed and whisper sweet nothings to sweet nobodies?
have tried that
both my gf’s get jellus
and as you might imagine, it gets me nowhere
One domain I have questions about is /t.me/
My impression that this domain shows videos that others won’t show. I have trouble finding enough time for videos, as it is. When I tried to install it on my computer, it wanted more privacy requirements than I was willing to give it. So I have never installed it.
Is this one of the things that UK censors are trying to get rid of?
I suppose they want to get rid of anything that doesn’t correspond to the approved narrative, whether legal or otherwise.
From the telegram.org website –
“Q: How does t.me work? Once you’ve set up a username, you can give people a t.me/username link. Opening that link on their phone will automatically fire up their Telegram app and open a chat with you. You can share username links with friends, write them on business cards or put them up on your website.”
I don’t use Telegram, but it’s extremely popular around the world. Do some research about its pros and cons before you sign up.
I don’t have anything to hide from other people. I don’t really want a lot of people trying to chat with me.
I grudgingly installed it because a couple of bloggers said they were just doing Telegram…. so I did.
If you use it as a read only platform, you wont get much or any traffic. However, its worth reading how wealthy the creator is of the website… and for what reason I have no idea, as I can’t see how its monetized.
Maybe this will help you better understand Telegram – an article comparing it to Twitter –
https://tecvalue.com/difference-between-twitter-and-telegram-2/
Somebody needs to do something!!
‘safest place to be online in the world’
Goodbye cruel world, welcome to ‘ Big Aunty Cuddles’ coming to you from the Govt that cares sooooo much about your feelings.
Fragile
Satanist?
🤣👍👍
If I recall correctly that’s the dude who leads mankind into temptation and then *boof* – send the loonie suckers straight to hell, but first transition through the purgatory of burning nuke ponds and exploding warheads forming clouds of radioactive ash maiming, contaminating and killing basically all higher life forms on earth.
Quite sophisticated I must say when stringing up a donut on the business end of a toxic jab would do the trick just fine. Trollol. Trollop, ‘Oorah, halfwits everywhere.
Yes; the “bottleneck” will be beautiful. If you’ve got a few too many a screws loose, that is. Not too uncommon these days of unfettered effortless egotistical fantasy masquerading as prophets and sages.
🤦♂️
I have interacted with plenty of people who have taken the jab, ranging from those who rarely watch TV/news to those could not go without YouTube.
One thing that is common across geographical, cultural, education level – the cannot accept reality and when you tell them about the adverse effects, like robots completely shut off. It is just like a program to me.
Yes I notice the same … almost an algorithm. They give the same response every time! Then when they are completely spent they say “I believe in science “
The more you delve into it, the more “unreal” it becomes besure it is just too consistent…. too consistent to the point where you can predict with 100% accuracy when across two very diverse person thousands of miles apart
Captain obvious corrects, ” I believe in authority ” ( As long as it is subtle enough)
Some of the commenter here on OFW behaves exactly like what my close family and relatives would behave
I had a chat with my fried. I purposely talked about Nadal the tennis player having difficulty breathing. My friend replied. Lately a lot of sportsman get this issue and heart attack. So, it is normal. I am almost certain you will face similar situation no matter which country you are residing.
Perhaps like what FEbsaud, the war in UKR is not real because it is really not real. It is just news from the Matrix perhaps we are all living in our own reality and only connected via Internet or news. It never really happen, all are just news reporting from the Matrix. It is just not possible to have such high level of synchronicity. People are just not that smart or efficient if you have worked in large companies you definitely experienced it. Top level people just dumb and like the subordinates to suck up. Politicians are also just greedy and brain matter is very less. Rich people are the same but they have extra large egos. So who is coordinating all the “MSM having the same script to talk”? I can synchronicity that I am extremely efficient in doing my work when I was working in a large factory but for me to coordinate that hundreds of MSM gets the same news and script to talk, it is extremely hard for me to do it even if I have a team of similarly efficient people working on it. Furthermore I have to content with the time sensitivity of the co tent or script.
Perhaps that is a clear sign that we are in a simulation or Matrix.
There is a scripting process going on with MSM news. It is sometimes hard to see but at other times it is painfully or comically obvious as professional wrestling. The scenarios trickle down from the higher levels of the hierarchy to the levels below. It is child’s play to get journalistic compliance. And if the children don’t want to play the game, they are soon kicked off the team.
We saw this across the West and even here in Japan on the subject o Trump, and then on the subject of COVID-19 and and now on the subject of Ukraine.At our house, we take two different Japanese language dailies and they have almost identical takes on a wide range of international political stories. And bingo! Both are filled with advertorials (or “lavatorials” as I prefer to call them) extolling the wonders of all pursuing the SDGs together. And the biggest group of advertisers besides the UN agencies are the pharmaceutical companies.
Going back to nine eleven, we saw the same homogenized MSM narrative propagated throughout the West. Some of it was pre-scripted and much more was a process of different media outlets falling into line and getting with the program in the days and weeks following the attacks.
Barrie Zwicker’s Towers of Deception is a very good analysis of this phenomenon. You can get the gist of it from the Amazon Reviews.
https://www.amazon.com/Towers-Deception-Media-Cover-up-11/dp/0865715734
Nice. First review could be written for Covid-mind.
‘Zwicker does a fine job examining how official stories take hold in the popular imagination, how reporters resist questioning them, and how even many “leftists” become gatekeepers to restrict debate. The chapter on Noam Chomsky is distressing, but not a surprise to those who have witnessed his defense of the official JFK assassination story. He also delves into the psychological reasons for human denial and self-deception about disturbing issues like this one. There is also a nice tribute to the research of David Ray Griffin.
Strangely, his chapter on historical false flag events does not include the USS Liberty attack, which apparently was done with the intention of blaming Egypt so the US could jump into the Six Day War on Israel’s side.’
The wokesters could substitute for the leftist in this regard for our demented society’s descent into officialdom and public service dysfunction.
Validated
Going forward
My truth
The science
blah de blah blah
Here in NZ where the MSM was handed $54of my tax money because… it’s even more obscene… frequently they will actually share stories – attributing to another media source that under different ownership…
That’s like Apple and Samsung teaming up ….
And like everywhere else — if you look at a range of msm sources the vast majority of the stories are the same… they are edicts distributed from the PR Team — quickly rewritten so as to appear original .. and dumped on the web sites…
This is a comprehensive global propaganda machine … notice how the major global players all have the exact same covid and Yukraine stories.
There are information chokepoints / hubs like Reuters and AP that distribute ready-to-go stories. Control there dictates what news networks everywhere show and how they show it, because news networks do not have the budget or interest to create constant new content for a 24-hour news cycle.
I understand the choke points but coordinating it on a 24-7 basis, if you look and think about it carefully on the managerial aspects of it is very hard
‘I had a chat with my fried.’
Perfect!
They are fried, flipped, and fried again.
The Pfizer scramble with chips on the inside!
New paper on Iron-Air/Oxygen Batteries
https://www.cell.com/action/showPdf?pii=S2590-3322%2822%2900102-6
looks like this company starting to staff up to develop grid storage attempting 10x cheaper than Li-ion and looking to partner w/ Georgia Power for demonstration project
https://formenergy.com/form-energy-collaborating-with-leading-georgia-electric-utility/
lets hope this ‘works’
but it still doesn’t address the problem, that even with ‘unlimited energy’ our economic ‘system’ depends on producing, transporting, selling, and replacing more and more ‘stuff” in order to payv ourselves every increasing wages
Oh, Norman, not to worry, David claims the ice coverage extent is OK!
Arctic sea ice maximum at tenth lowest in satellite record
March 22, 2022
Arctic sea ice has likely reached its maximum extent for the year, at 14.88 million square kilometers (5.75 million square miles) on February 25. The 2022 maximum is the tenth lowest in the 44-year satellite record. On the same day, on the other pole, Antarctic sea ice reached a record minimum extent, at 1.92 million square kilometers (741,000 square miles).
http://nsidc.org/arcticseaicenews/
We’ll be just fine!
We live in a world ecosystem that is constantly changing. We should not be alarmed if a new maximum or minimum is reached. This is the way the system is designed to work. We have been falsely taught that it needs to stay the same and that it is our “fault” if it doesn’t.
Too many people don’t get the idea that homeostasis is a dynamic process/system.
homeostasis, >>>>any self-regulating process by which biological systems tend to maintain stability while adjusting to conditions that are optimal for survival.<<<<
humankind (and all our works) have evolved to exist within the median we know now.
we cannot ''adjust to conditions'' while maintaining our current mode of living.
unless your implication is that 90% of us will have to die.
Which is going to make the next 50 years rather unpleasant
Good point.
i was just reading that the Antarctic has been 70 deg above normal for the time of year
both ends of our global candle burning at the same time?
https://www.livescience.com/arctic-and-antarctica-simultaneous-heatwaves
(plus other refs)
but not to worry
But snowing in Japan, where it should be warmer.
we have disturbed the weather pattern
unpredictably it seems
Antarctica is huge, much bigger than Australia. So when you see “Antarctic has been 70 deg above normal for the time of year”, you can be fairly sure that it refers to one tiny part of Antarctica, and usually it is the Antarctic Peninsula or thereabouts, the bit that extends towards the southern tip of South America. It is late summer down there at the moment. Do you have a link?
there are several links if you google it
my point was that N and S poles we overheating at the same time
I should have looked properly, there was a link.
“In Antarctica on Friday (March 18), the average temperature was 8.6 degrees Fahrenheit (4.8 degrees Celsius) warmer than average, according to the Associated Press (AP). The highest recorded temperature was 44.6 F (7 C) at the coastal Zucchelli Station on Terra Nova Bay. The biggest temperature difference was recorded at Concordia Research Station, located more than 10,000 feet (3,000 m) above sea level, where researchers measured a peak temperature of 10 F minus 12.2 C), which is 70 F (nearly 40 C) above the seasonal average at the station.”
I don’t think an average increase in temp by 4.8 deg C for one day is too bad.
The 70 deg F was 40 deg C at one spot, and was above the seasonal average. Again, I suspect that is not really too bad.
Right! It’s like those who espouse alternative farming, saying it’s healthier and more organic. No doubt but then how do you feed close to 8 billion mouths on the planet? Industrialized farming was designed for sheer volume, not quality. So how did we achieve industrialized farming? Oh yeah, we’re back to cheap fossil fuels.
yup
8bn can’t be fed on horse and cart economics
We are trending more and more back to horse and cart economy in the village around here. I am only concerned with at most 80 people however; the future economy won’t allow for the extravagance of caring for the entire world.
its possible to do that with 8o people
nobody thinks that a city of 8m people 50 miles away will be any problem at all
A good plan takes that into account. Nothing bigger than 100,000 people for 200+ miles.
We live simple, we just wish to continue to live simple. When you live in the far north the zombies don’t go north, they go south.
“Ukraine crisis on top of Covid-19 pandemic is one shock too many for the global economy.
“…the age of peace and prosperity enjoyed by most major nations since the end of World War II is suddenly under threat… The world may be on the verge of a new phase of potential market strife where output, trade and price stability will be less certain and subject to greater volatility.”
https://www.scmp.com/comment/opinion/article/3171232/ukraine-crisis-top-covid-19-pandemic-one-shock-too-many-global
“Global economy on the brink of recession, economists warn…
“The war’s impact on an already pandemic stricken economy shows that “the path for a soft landing is narrow.””
https://www.arabnews.com/node/2047256/business-economy
It is hard to imagine a soft landing. There no longer are enough goods and services to go around, because population has risen faster than energy supplies. We are playing a game of musical chairs, without enough chairs.
seems to me that pandemics are released when we trespass too heavily on the planet’s support system—that critical yet abstract factor that keeps the global system in harmony.
the current one is just the latest, they stretch back millennia.
we crowd ourselves and other species into tightly confined spaces, giving microbial life the opportunity to jump from one life form to another.
the effect is always the same.
economic systems crash–the bigger and more complex the system, the bigger the crash is.
we have never had an economic system as globally interlocked as this one.
Th virus this time seems to be the last straw.
unlike previous pandemics, this time no part of the planet is immune to it.
Earth time is different to human time.
What better way to cull our numbers than to panic us all into destructive behaviour patterns? Maybe the intelligent Earth has been working this out for 000s of years
“seems to me that pandemics are released when we trespass too heavily on the planet’s support system—that critical yet abstract factor that keeps the global system in harmony.”
Or when we have crazed lunatics like Tony Fauci who has too much time on his hands with his gain of function research in different parts of the world while he’s trying out research on sandflies biting the faces off defenseless Beagle puppies. There are times pandemics appear not because nature trying to balance things out but because of humans with the wrong intentions.
no way of knowing whether you are right or wrong
only that the world has had pandemics for millenia–of one disease or another
the universal base seems to be that we crowd ourselves and animals into confined spaces, and disease erupts. It crosses into humans and we have no protection against it.
before this outbreak, (I’m thinking 1921 here) there were no Fauci’s, no chinese laboratories, no elites hell bent on decimating the global population, and in particular no mass media to spread conspiracies and plots. No vaccinations either of course.
1921= 50m died out of 2bn
2021= we have 8bn. The obvious arithmetic resulted in panic.
No idea where the sandfly thing originated. Animal research is very tightly controlled. I would need to check that out. Have you checked it out?
Outbreaks in the middle ages resulted in a few witches getting burned, which is precisely the same as conspiraholism in our time, only localised. Think of a few crack pot religions, and we are not so far removed from that.
Well, we do know for a fact that Tony Fauci had ties to the Wuhan Lab GOF research. We also know for a fact that the US Gov’t sets up Bioweapons Labs in different parts of the World. Victoria Nuland even admitted as much that the US Gov’t has Bioweapons Labs in Ukraine. Those are ALL FACTS, no C.T. there.
I will agree that yes, Pandemics can happen on their own by way of Nature. However in this day and age of totally incompetent and nefarious leaders on the world’s stage, I would not for a minute rule out Covid 19 as an act of Nature. So put me in the group of raising an eyebrow perhaps both when it comes to the events surrounding Covid 19.
Poor old Norman’s – and CTG’s friend’s – line of reasoning:
‘People have been dying for millennia, it’s normal. Therefore, this corpse, found face down with a kitchen knife embedded in its back, is likely just another natural occurrence, not murder as some loonies are suggesting. And the same goes for their neighbour, found in the same condition, and the family across the street…..etc. There are no obvious suspicious circumstances and this is just the natural order of things.’
‘
Xabier
trying to find similarities between pandemic disease and isolated acts of homicide is a concept so weird, that i must decline further exchange of views on the subject with you
That has been noted before regarding civilizations; it seems a solid civilization can withstand one shock, but more become very challenging to the point of failure.
Eric Cline, “1177” as I recall wrote about such events in the Mediterranean .
Forgot about that one until you brought it up.
What is the third crisis? Any guesses?
Dennis L.
but there’s still some happy in the world
https://twitter.com/TheStephenRalph/status/1506240841635012611?s=20&t=IVU7A6y1m9bkZ2bGsTrxoA
“Spain’s truckers strike expands, prompting food shortages.
“Three Spanish truckers unions on Tuesday dismissed a government aid package and joined a spontaneous one-week strike against rising fuel prices that is likely to aggravate a shortage of food products in supermarkets across the country.”
https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/spains-truckers-strike-expands-prompting-food-shortages-2022-03-22/
“High energy costs trigger unrest in parts of Europe…
“French road haulers and fishing crews have set up temporary barricades in recent days, using their vehicles and burning palettes to block roads. And truckers drove through Berlin and other German cities Friday, honking their horns in protest at high fuel prices.”
https://journalrecord.com/2022/03/21/high-energy-costs-trigger-unrest-in-parts-of-europe/
The honk cult.
What makes it a cult?
Believe it will ease the fuel situation ?
Rising oil prices lead to the need for higher food prices. The wages of truck drivers don’t rise enough to cover both the higher cost of fuel and the higher cost of food.
Not just wages but for independents there is higher part and repair prices, parts on hand surcharges (hard to get parts are starting to command a premium), higher fuel cost, higher DEF costs, rising interest rate on truck loans, higher daily costs for food and parking, longer turn around times at ports and loading facilities… it is almost assured to be a money losing venture to be an owner/operator in this environment.
Lots of things going wrong at once!
“Sri Lanka deploys troops as fuel shortage sparks protests.
“Sri Lanka has ordered its military to post soldiers at hundreds of petrol stations to help distribute fuel after a sudden rise in prices of key commodities and the accompanying shortages forced tens of thousands of people to queue for hours.”
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/22/sri-lanka-deploys-troops-fuel-shortage-protests
“Nigerians Groan As Fuel Shortage Worsens … Daily Activities Increasingly Crippled.
“Despite the country’s huge reserves and production of about two million barrels of crude oil per day, much of its fuel are imported due to a lack of refining capacity. Nigeria is dependent on imported petroleum products.”
https://www.naijanews.com/2022/03/21/nigerians-groan-as-fuel-shortage-worsens-daily-activities-increasingly-crippled/
“This Monday, independent media reported that gasoline, like food and medicine, is starting to become scarce in Cuba, specifically in Havana and Mayapic.
“The mentioned media indicated that most gas stations in Havana do not sell fuel, and there are a few Cupet stations where some derivatives are sold, but with long queues.”
https://www.smallcapnews.co.uk/gasoline-shortages-have-been-reported-in-havana-and-mayapic/
Cuba again needs a miracle to save its economy.
Working for the military would seem to be one place for employment in Sri Lanka. But the working conditions are likely to go downhill, as people become increasingly unhappy with the situation.
“Fertilizer prices just hit a record high sparking fears of global starvation and the worst food insecurity level since World War II.
“The high prices might lead to severe bottlenecks, severely reducing agricultural production and aggravating what economists have already designated as a global food crisis.”
https://fortune.com/2022/03/21/fertilizer-prices-record-high-food-crisis-middle-east-starvation/
“French foreign minister warns of global famine…
“”We must take charge of this new situation quickly,” Le Drian said when arriving at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels Monday. But he gave few details about what the EU should do, bar working closely with international agencies, partners and NGOs.”
https://www.politico.eu/article/french-foreign-minister-warns-of-global-famine/
More sign of the problem hitting MSM.
“Crops Extend Gains With Looming Ukraine Shortfalls in Focus.
“Wheat futures gain more than 4% in Chicago, soybeans top $17; Ukraine may only plant half normal sunflower crop, less corn.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-22/wheat-extends-gains-as-top-importers-seek-alternative-supplies
Perhaps the main stream media is starting to see what the problem might be, if inadequate fertilizer is available. Fertilizer is produced and transported using fossil fuels. Wind and solar are poor substitutes for this type of use. (I understand that ammonia can be made, using unneeded wind energy, but a huge upfront investment of steel and concrete (using fossil fuels) is needed to obtain this result.)
“Weaning the world off Russian grain means letting farmers decide how to use their land…
“The EU’s “food to fork” strategy explicitly forecast a 13pc reduction in production across the continent in the cause of sustainability. It is a very similar story to oil and gas production, except played out in slow motion.
“The “green blob” is more worried about hitting environmental targets than actually supplying basic needs such as food and heat, so just as we outsourced drilling for oil to Russia so we have outsourced growing food as well.”
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2022/03/21/weaning-world-russian-grain-means-letting-farmers-decide-use/
“”The energy market shock following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could tip the world into an economic recession, especially if the war drags on, Vitol’s chief executive said on Tuesday.
“Even before Russia launched its invasion on Feb. 24, energy markets had little spare capacity…”
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/commodity-markets-shock-after-russias-ukraine-invasion-vitol-ceo-2022-03-22/
“Saudi Arabia ‘will not bear responsibility’ for global oil shortages.
“The statement came as European countries considered another round of sanctions on Russia that could include a ban on buying Russian oil. The Kremlin has warned such a boycott would affect the global oil market and Europe in particular.”
https://www.ft.com/content/e84a0a90-58b2-42e3-ab0c-540255e4ad6b
“Why U.S. oil producers aren’t jumping to fill the world’s energy void.
“U.S. oil prices rose 70% over the last year. Meanwhile, U.S. oil production rose by just 6%… There’s no indication that an investment boom is underway to significantly boost American oil production in response to the emerging energy price shock.”
https://www.axios.com/why-us-oil-producers-arent-jumping-to-fill-the-worlds-energy-void-ddaf048f-5dbd-4d29-a72b-d2c1fa3867fb.html
“Oil Workers Aren’t Seeing Bigger Paychecks as Prices Surge.
“Most oil workers around the world have yet to cash bigger paychecks despite the run up in crude prices, with many ready to leave the oil patch. Less than a third of surveyed oilfield employees report receiving a pay bump in the past year…”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-22/oil-s-workforce-open-to-job-switch-as-pay-bumps-in-short-supply
Points out details, like not enough fracking sand, and capacity for shipping this sand is limited as well.
A bizarre response!
“Little spare capacity” before February 24–It was a lot worse than that. Spot prices were very high for coal and natural gas. China had been having rolling blackouts.
Right. OPEC+ struggling to meet quotas…
“Oil rises towards $116 as EU weighs Russian ban.
“Oil rose towards $116 a barrel on Tuesday, adding to a 7% surge the previous day, supported by supply risks from a potential European Union oil embargo on Russia and concern about attacks on Saudi oil facilities.”
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/oil-opens-higher-eu-members-weigh-russian-oil-ban-2022-03-22/
“Russian Oil Refiners Are Cutting Back Production, Gunvor Says.
“Russian refiners are trimming their output, threatening to exacerbate a European diesel market already in short supply, Gunvor Group Chief Executive Officer Torbjorn Tornqvist said.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-22/russian-oil-refiners-are-cutting-back-production-gunvor-says
“EU Lawmakers Point to Russia in New Bid to Block ‘Green’ Gas.
“European lawmakers from across the political divide said a proposal to brand gas a “green” energy source can no longer be taken seriously, given the urgency of weaning the bloc off Russian oil and gas.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-22/eu-lawmakers-point-to-russia-in-new-bid-to-block-green-gas
“Albania dims lights as drought, price spike spark energy crisis.
“Albania has instructed all cities to turn off the lights in public buildings and streets whenever necessary to address an energy crisis that has been caused by high power prices and drought.”
https://www.eureporter.co/world/albania/2022/03/22/albania-dims-lights-as-drought-price-spike-spark-energy-crisis/
This will be a relief for moths
The IEA reports that 100% of the electricity that Albania produces is from hydroelectric.
A cutback in diesel production seems to be precisely what European countries have been asking for.
“Steel Is the Other Big Commodity Shock from the War in Ukraine…
“…steel is a foundation of the modern economy. The ubiquitous commodity underpins the world as we know it, a key material in everything from skyscrapers and cars to washing machines and railways. Now Russia’s invasion threatens to turn steel into a luxury commodity.”
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2022-03-22/ukraine-war-steel-is-the-other-big-commodity-shock-from-russia-s-invasion
“Lithium Prices Have Nearly Doubled In 2022 Amid Insane Commodity Rally…
“After more than quadrupling in value last year, lithium carbonate continues to soar in 2022, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.”
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Lithium-Prices-Have-Nearly-Doubled-In-2022-Amid-Insane-Commodity-Rally.html
Too many commodities are in very short supply.
We were already at limits before the Ukraine invasion. But the Ukraine invasion pointed out the perilous state the world economy is in.
Vaccine Effectiveness Hits as Low as Minus 300% – as UKHSA Announces it Will No Longer
Publish the Data
https://dailysceptic.org/2022/03/20/vaccine-effectiveness-hits-as-low-as-minus-300-as-ukhsa-announces-it-will-no-longer-publish-the-data/
oh look! that is science!
will the strawman lovers comment?
oh noes, let’s talk about Bill Gates and one ivermectin study and look over there somebody mentioned Elites and cabals.
now that the latest science shows the vaccines have negative efficacy against Omicron BA1 and BA2, all of a sudden discussing the science has fallen out of favour.
trust the science.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r9F3DPgUuE
Trust equals believe, no questioning
The Science equals ‘our science’, not theirs
Science is the never ending search for the truth.
There are a set of dogmas that are really personal beliefs that are accepted as truth.
Any person should be able to test hypotheses.
https://t.me/robinmg/17581
hahahahahahahahahahha…. how many billion injected the experiment – I think we are heading for 6B….
And these f789ing fools should have a say in governing the world…
hahahahahaha — now that would immediately result in IDIOCRACY.
This is how stoooopid the MOREONS are:
When the series returned in 2011, MTV allowed Beavis to use the word “fire” once again uncensored.[23] During the first video segment, “Werewolves of Highland”, the first new episode of the revival, Beavis utters the word “fire” a total of seven times within 28 seconds, with Butt-Head saying it once as well.[24]
In February 1994, watchdog group Morality in Media claimed that the death of eight-month-old Natalia Rivera, struck by a bowling ball thrown from an overpass onto a highway in Jersey City, New Jersey, near the Holland Tunnel by 18-year-old Calvin J. Settle, was partially inspired by Beavis and Butt-Head.[25] The group said that Settle was influenced by the episode “Ball Breakers”, in which Beavis and Butt-Head load a bowling ball with explosives and drop it from a rooftop.[25] While Morality in Media claimed that the show inspired Settle’s actions, the case’s prosecutors did not. It was later revealed by both prosecutors and the defendant that Settle did not have cable TV, nor did he watch the show.
In “Lightning Strikes”, the show parodies the desire to blame things on youth culture. When a reporter asks the duo why they had been flying a kite in a thunderstorm, they explain that they had been inspired by a documentary about “some old dude with long hair and glasses”. The interview continues until they mention having watched rock music videos earlier in the day; the reporter concludes (on the air) that the videos are to blame for their actions.
MTV also responded by broadcasting the program after 11:00 p.m. and included a disclaimer, reminding viewers:
Beavis and Butt-Head are not real. They are stupid cartoon people completely made up by this Texas guy whom we hardly even know. Beavis and Butt-Head are dumb, crude, thoughtless, ugly, sexist, self-destructive fools. But for some reason, the little wienerheads make us laugh.
This was later changed to:
Beavis and Butt-Head are not role models. They’re not even human. They’re cartoons. Some of the things they do would cause a person to get hurt, expelled, arrested, possibly deported. To put it another way: don’t try this at home.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beavis_and_Butt-Head#Controversy
Sign the petition http://www.bringbackbeavisandbutthead.org
Hahahaha… too bad she died… the ShadenFreud is so much more satisfying when the CovIDITOS linger and suffer….
https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/what-killed-dr-sarahbeth-hartlage
KARMA
IRONY
SCHADENFREUDE is here!
What killed Dr. SarahBeth Hartlage?
The city of Louisville’s Covid vaccine coordinator – and a vocal proponent of mRNA shots – “died unexpectedly” last week. She was 36. The city doesn’t seem to think it needs to say more. It’s wrong.
https://alexberenson.substack.com/p/what-killed-dr-sarahbeth-hartlage
Italian bike champion almost died of a heart attack today: https://www.msn.com/en-us/sports/cycling/sonny-colbrelli-revived-after-major-health-scare-in-spain/ar-AAVku1E
Rafael Nadal experienced ‘worrying’ breathing difficulties during Indian Wells final defeat
“Decisions have consequences”, Rafael Nadal Jan 2022, commenting on Novak Djokovic not being allowed to play in the Australia Open for refusing to get vaccinated.
Sorry, I see now Fast Eddy beat me to that one.
A former world Taekwondo champ had a leg amputated recently….amputations are also one of the horrific “adverse events”….
https://www.stamfordmercury.co.uk/news/man-lost-leg-weeks-after-covid-vaccination-9198171/
“It has put me off having the second one.”
Funny how that works.
Toes, legs: but you know ‘Covid would be even worse!’
And we have two to ten of each of those, so any losses are sustainable!
A necrotic limb is a treatable condition!
Once removed, you can go home and lead a full and happy life, knowing you are Vaxx-Safe (TM)!
Don’t forget to get the next shot, or lose your job, home and sanity!
Pfizer offered me $1 million & $50,000 month wage; essentially to stop writing & hammering them/Bourla; I have had limited patchy broken income due to being cancelled, smeared; I said NO!
I joined McCullough, Malone, Vanden Bossche, Oskoui, Rische, Tenenbaum, Trozzi, Wolf, Urso et al. willingly, to wage battle for society & our children as doctors & scientists & governs failed, evil
https://palexander.substack.com/p/pfizer-offered-me-1-million-and-50000?s=r
Does he have children? People with children are hard to keep their beliefs for too long
Ontario Hapless Lying Gets Better of Them
It seems they have more and more to hide now. We have more receipts.
https://live2fightanotherday.substack.com/p/ontario-hapless-lying-gets-better
when you account for all post booster risk instead of accepting the “booster +12 days” definition the reported efficacy of this study not only vanishes, it inverts.
90%+ VE becomes negative 50-90% for most outcomes.
you cannot trust any study or outcomes assessment that uses these definitions.
and we can demonstrate it here using just their own study data.
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/nejm-proves-that-covid-vaccine-study
The twelve days post after the vaccine, or after the booster, seem to lead to really poor outcomes. Trying to keep track of this is difficult.
Igor’s Newsletter
StackerHacker replied to your comment
Are you the same “thefasteddy” on instagram? (swimsuit model)
LikeReplyViewMute thread
After talking so much smack on Djokovic’s decision to not be vaccinated (or even reveal his status), we have “Rafael Nadal beaten by Taylor Fritz in Indian Wells final”; so should I shed a tear?
https://palexander.substack.com/p/after-talking-so-much-smack-on-djokovics
conserves energy
SANCTIONS ARE THE NEW LOCKDOWNS
Bloomberg disinformation.
We will see this pattern everywhere.
They are blaming war for inflation, national debt, and soaring oil prices.
Those are all results of central bank and government policies, and all exacerbated by lockdowns first and sanctions second, both are designed to backfire.
Yes, they want to destroy the food stability of as many countries as possible to push as many people as possible into poverty and then “save” them through loans with digital ID linked UBI as condition.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-17/shock-waves-from-the-war-in-ukraine-threaten-to-swamp-sri-lanka
Ok Eddy. You promised that girl you were going to curl up on the love seat and watch faces of death videos with her. Dont you dare try to deny it. Over and over “i Like to watch”. Then when the time came you not only no showed but denied her satisfaction by questioning the genuineness of the schadenfreude. You sir are a cad! No wonder she tried to key your car and have her crazy ex beat you.
It’s 10pm Monday in California where Nadal is … he would have had a full battery of tests earlier in the day and should have a preliminary diagnosis by now…
His world will be crashing as he comes to grips with how he f789ed himself…
But, but. If he didn’t get the jab, he may have died from the Kung Flu 😷🤧, at least he’s still breathing for now….remember, this is very very rare and it is unfortunate risk one takes to keep one and others safe from the Pandemic …we all must pull together and see this through and we’ll be stronger tomorrow for it.
Hopefully, we will only need a yearly booster shot to protect us all in the future and get back to normal as the Pfizer commercial promotes.
Get with the program…
If you are overdosing on Shadenfroid — breath through a plain paper bag…
Careless Swab of the WEF must be smiling like the cat that got the cream.
The pied Piper Celebs are virtue signalling everyone to the booster jab cliff face, with the great reset trio of Trudeau, Macron and Ardern still holding fast to their leadership positions.
WTI 114
Brent 118
nice, was 130s, dipped into the 90s, now back in a sweet spot.
a fun action packed Q1 2022 is almost in the history books!
the Great Russian Reset has shaken the world, but the centre is holding.
it will get ever more horrrrible in the Periphery, but the Core is rolling along.
though the Core will be shrinking this year.
who loses at musical chairs?
I think I can see 2023 on the horizon…………..>
So you think the Core is merrily rolling along? With food inflation alone running >20% and soon to be 30-40% I would not say it is running along, or at least will be for much longer.
There is no doubt that our “neo-liberal” democracies are completely hijacked and do not care about the common people, but this merrygoround is going to run aground somewhere.
I recently had a customer complain about a quote for a build to print that was maybe 50% higher than an actual build 7-8 years ago. He said the increase was more than inflation would account for. Of course, the inflation number he was using was the worthless US government inflation figure, which does not include energy and is not real.
These geniuses think this ship will keep sailing no matter what. Sooner or later, the Masters of the Universe in Washington can’t afford anything anymore.
Fuel price increases are already hitting city police and fire department services, and school bus operations hard. Expect the pain to be felt hard in the cities and local areas first.
I wonder if at some point, everything rolling, just comes to a stop.
That’s what I don’t get about these land grabs. Why invade Ukraine now? What benefit does it give you? A broken country with destroyed infrastructure. It seems like retrenchment would have been a better plan.
It isn’t a land grab, but the creation of a security buffer in the legitimate zone of influence of Russia.
And clearly efforts are being made by the Russian armed forces to limit infrastructure damage and civilian deaths.
If you look at what is happening on the ground, it makes sense: this is not the unbridled destruction of total war – which would I agree be senseless.
Say what you like about Mr. Putin. Even when he invades he lets the trains run on time, the electricity stays on, the gas keeps flowing, the water and sewage are working…..
By contrast, I remember the Americans spent over ten years prior to invading Iraq wrecking the countries water distribution system and making sure it stayed wrecked. They led the UN sanctions regime that is estimated to have killed half a million Iraqi children.
Madeleine Albright in a moment of unguarded honesty about the need for decent people to commit genocide. Totally ruthless, but at least she didn’t cackle like Hilary or Kamala.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iFYaeoE3n4
And Madeleine seems to have thought a a bit about good and evil. She once said:
“I think that we all know what evil is. We have a sense of what’s evil, and certainly killing innocent people is evil. We’re less sure about what is good. There’s sort of good, good enough, could be better – but absolute good is a little harder to define.”
Kinda sorta Good?
Humanity yearned – in theory – for the wise rule of Philosopher Kings for centuries, and ended up with Madelaine Albright…….
Yes I get that but they were in position to do it monetarily. Squeeze Europe gradually while making more deals with China etc.. I don’t understand the security especially with nuclear weapons. Russia could retaliate very quickly. It just seems like too big of a capital risk with too little reward. The U.s invaded Iraq for their oil and to destabilize the region.
Seems like Putin is playing into the hands of the west. Just as the U.S did going Into Afghanistan.
Boost or you don’t graduate
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FObVSSWWUAI0bm-?format=png&name=900×900
Strange! Keep the pharmaceutical industry profitable?
https://t.me/TommyRobinsonNews/33882
It would not be right … to laugh at Nadal’s misfortune… especially give it’s Nadal Day on OFW.
https://t.me/TommyRobinsonNews/33880
BTW – good news for serial injection addicts…
UK just announced that if you survive a 5th shot you get a spot on the UK Russian Roulette Team. This will be a full medal sport at the next Olympics – the world championships will be held in Rio in June.
The pro circuit (similar to the ATP Tour that Nadal is… was….) will be launched in August with prize money for teams exceeding 20M USD per event – there will also be a share of the PPV available to the teams.
Organizer Klaus Snob said he expects that participants should be able to earn as much as an F1 driver ….
norm.. we’re hoping to see you as part of Team UK….when you are rich and famous don’t forget about OFWers….
Before you read the rest of this article, please watch this brief video about China’s desperate and obviously non-working attempts to keep Covid at bay. Try to watch the whole thing.
This is a crowded line of screaming and heavily breathing people with useless masks on, jammed together for mandatory daily Covid tests:
https://igorchudov.substack.com/p/is-chinas-fear-of-covid-justified
hahaha – if you want to infect as many as possible — that’s what you would do
They seem to have left off handing out lottery tix. Why aren’t they ramping that up?
Are you holding out for the free chicken burgers, Lidia?
Interesting article. It makes the point that the Chinese may be significantly more affected than other races by COVID. This may be the reason for trying to keep the virus out. Hong Kong has an enormously high death rate from Omicron. This might support the view that the death rate in Chinese is much higher.
Meanwhile in China, a testing time for everyone.
In its way this is as horrific as any of the visions of hell painted by Hieronymus Bosch.
https://twitter.com/songpinganq/status/1505437895720521729
good thing China doesn’t have many people.
Pretty awful!
Unfortunate accident by poopy pants in Poland leaving Kamala in charge of the Kabuki playbook?
say it.
You know you want to
poopy
pants
poland
kamala
kabuki
Elvira moved 500 billion of Russian assets and gold to where they could be “frozen” by the west just before russia invaded. Putins cool with that tho…
Which team is this? THE TEAM.
Gots to keep their brother banks liquid while Kabuki episode Ukraine gets played out.
The oil spigots got turned down a bit. Get used to it. More coming.
WAR IS HELL!
https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2022/03/18/putin-reappoints-russian-central-bank-chief-who-handed-over-russias-reserves-to-russias-enemies/
It was worse (or at least more dramatic) than I was led to believe in the press stories.
Nadal was on the ground being given life-saving treatment.
https://www.bitchute.com/video/7J7XTSI5ZQOR/
sure, looks like CPR while lying face down!
is that a new technique?
I think the world is probably overdue for somebody really famous to be severely damaged by the toxic vaccines.
I mean, Celine Dion was months ago.
davidinbillionyears… you must be Celine’s old boyfriend. You seem to have a massive crush on her. 😉
we fans are suffering along with her!
and no news that she is getting better.
it’s almost unbearable!
they are hiding something.
I am fearing the worst.
I am feeling Schadenfreude welling up again … I always feel that when a famous person gets wrecked and does not speak against the injections… they could warn others and some might listen… but they don’t
So hahahaha… suffer Celine .. and no poutine for you! (liquid food only now!)
Here’s one for the fans!
And another one especially for you, David. Celine says she’s going to make a full recovery, and is still planning a tour in Europe in May. But…… what with Putin…..
I am sure massage will fix him! Maybe a bit of acupuncture….
If that fails.. a heart transplant?
‘But they never told me this could happen’ (famous last words… literally)
Yes. The new technique first trialled by the Canadian riot police, for public safety ….
The comments are worth a look; not too much sympathy for the virtue signalling ball boy.
Game, set, boost!
the comments are excellent
Alex On Life
I really like seeing this sort of thing. It gives me pleasure and I will not apologize for it.
We need more of it. A lot more.
me68
hope he has a massive heart attack, deserves it for his vileness towards novac, he knew he would have lost to novac so its poetic justice for being a big mouthed moronic hero !!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Alex really needs to learn the word Schadenfreude.
Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hagita issued the “electric power supply and demand tight warning” for the first time because the power supply and demand in the Tokyo Electric Power Company’s jurisdiction was extremely severe. After showing the outlook, he called for cooperation in maximizing power saving.
Among them, Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry Hagiuda said, “Eastern Japan does not generate electricity due to bad weather, the temperature during the day is much lower than normal, and the electricity demand is at an exceptionally high level for this period.” I showed the prospect of becoming.
On top of that, Minister Hagiuda said, “Please cooperate in maximizing power saving by lowering the set temperature of heating and turning off unused lights,” and cooperated with households and companies in 1 metropolitan area and 8 prefectures under the jurisdiction of TEPCO.
The government is calling for cooperation from 8:00 am to 11:00 pm, and says that a stable supply can be secured if the amount of electricity used decreases by about 10%.
https://www3-nhk-or-jp.translate.goog/news/html/20220322/k10013544751000.html?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en-US&_x_tr_pto=wapp
“Please cooperate in maximizing power saving by lowering the set temperature of heating and turning off unused lights,”
I’ve been pleading with Mrs Tim to do just that for nearly forty years. But every day it’s the same. She goes around turning them on and I go around turning them off.
By the way, it snowed in Tokyo today — a rare event for this late in March.
Wobbal Gorming … of course
Pfizer Worker Knew About Covid Attack: Doctor Knew About Covid, Says “Far More is on the Way”
https://rumble.com/vxi429-pfizer-worker-knew-about-covid-attack-doctor-knew-about-covid-says-far-more.html
Oil prices jump again on Russia-Ukraine fears, as IEA calls for cut in energy usage
PUBLISHED MON, MAR 21 202212:11 AM EDTUPDATED MON, MAR 21 20221:58 AM EDT
Weizhen Tan CNN
Crude futures were up more than 3% on Monday morning during Asia trading — international benchmark Brent crude was at $111.46, and U.S. futures at $108.25.
Oil prices have been volatile in recent weeks – soaring to record highs in March before tumbling more than 20% last week to touch below $100. They jumped again in the latter half of last week.
Ukrainian and Russian officials have met intermittently for peace talks, which have failed to progress to key concessions.
Tight supply continued to worry markets, sparking a call by the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Friday for “emergency measures” to reduce oil usage.
In a 10-point plan, the IEA’s suggestions to reduce oil demand included reducing speed limits for vehicles, working from home for up to three days a week, and avoiding air travel for business.
“We estimate that the full implementation of these measures in advanced economies alone can cut oil demand by 2.7 million barrels a day within the next four months, relative to current levels,” the IEA said Friday
“The industry’s apparent inability to fill any potential gap has seen calls for consumption to be reduced,” the ANZ Research analysts said.
CEP..the solution….right Mister Ed?
Man, this is getting real, real FAST…
Psaki tight-lipped on White House preparations for Russian nuclear attack
White House press secretary Jen Psaki provided no details Monday when asked what the United States is doing in terms of stockpiling iodine pills and other “protective gear” as Russia’s threat of a nuclear attack looms amid the war in Ukraine.
Reports surfaced over the weekend that the European Union is stockpiling potassium iodine tablets, protective suits, and other medicines as the U.S. and other Western nations have warned the global stage to be on the lookout for Russian chemical and nuclear attacks.
Psaki was asked Monday if the U.S. is “taking the lessons learned in the pandemic and,” similar to the European Union, “applying it to this challenge,” but she did not return a straight answer.
“It’s a good question. Let me check with our national security team and see if there’s any details I can get into,” she told reporters during Monday’s White House press briefing. “We are always prepared even as we aren’t making predictions at this point in time. I don’t have confirmation of that report by the Europeans, but I will check and see if there’s more to report out to all of you.”
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/white-house/psaki-tight-lipped-on-white-house-preparations-for-russian-nuclear-attack
Would anyone be surprised if just as the Titanic started to sink — it was hit with 10,000 nuclear war heads?
The Elders have zero desire to be skinned alive and roasted…. if I was them I’d want everyone dead real good 10x over
Rafael Nadal sick and tired of Novak Djokovic sideshow
Spaniard takes swipe at rival but dismisses fears that saga could threaten Australian Open’s future
https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/novak-djokovic-saga-has-been-unwelcome-distraction-says-emma-raducanu-s3fgr2vrk
It’s Nadal Day on OFW – have you heard? We are celebrating the end of his long career.
I’m hoping for the “best”.
https://nz.news.yahoo.com/tennis-2022-fans-devastated-rafa-nadal-revelation-195624978.html
“I had pain, honestly,” Nadal said. “I have problem to breathe. I don’t know if it’s something on the rib, I don’t know yet.
“When I’m breathing, when I’m moving it’s like a needle all the time inside here.
“I get dizzy a little bit because it’s painful. It’s a kind of pain that limit me a lot.
“Is not only about pain, I don’t feel very well because affects my breathing.”
I’m not totally convinced yet.
such as, there are chest muscle injuries, I’ve had it, where the muscle is partially torn off the ribs, very painful and even feels like it could be deep down, not just an injury on top of the ribs.
so “old” (35) Nadal played a lot of tennis this week.
we’ll see.
in the long run, I think Djokovic will have judged correctly by refusing the toxic vaccines.
Does anyone know if lung fibrosis is one of the conditions associated with the vax? A vaxxed friend came down with it. He did have a career in a very air-polluted place though. Nadal having trouble breathing is most probably due to damaged lungs.
world famous footballer Sergio Aguero retired in December at age 33, two years younger than Nadal.
“… he was taken to hospital with chest discomfort diagnosed as cardiac arrhythmia… It was reported in November 2021 that he would be out of action for at least three months, but on 15 December 2021 Agüero announced his retirement from football on the advice of doctors…”
obviously the toxic vaccines are damaging millions of people, and the damages will only increase.
it’s too early to say for Nadal.
every “famous” victim of the toxic vaccines signifies many multiples 1000s or tens of 1000s of victims who are not famous.
the list of side effects is just under 2000… so almost certainly
Pfizer’s Law… if something goes wrong after the injection … it was caused by Pfizer
I read a comment from a fan suggesting this was caused by breathing in sand from the desert. hahahahaha
Operation Snail https://t.me/VigilantFox/3487
Covid spring boosters begin in England TODAY:
‘Thanks to the NHS for rising to the challenge yet again to get people boosted. Please come forward as soon as you are contacted.’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10634131/Covid-spring-booster-invitations-start-Monday.html
Hahaha.. aussie just kicked off a 13M dollar ad campaign for boosters…. you spend enough and make the product free and you can convince a MOREON to take as many shots as are on offer… even though the previous shots failed..
The Power of Marketing!
Very interesting to read the many posts about the degradation in quality of the comments section of this blog as time goes by.
What is the use of 6000 comments per article if (say) 4000 of them are irrelevant to the topic at hand and just concentrate on personal attacks on other commentators? This is tedious in the extreme.
I think the solution to this issue is for all people who comment on this site to self censor. Surely it is not that hard to be polite and respectful, even in this sort of anonymous and unregulated forum? Imagine you are in a meeting room face to face with like minded peers, so you make your point in an intelligent and respectful way and then make space for others to do the same thing. Last resort is for the Chair to intervene and get things back on track.
Apparently, people who suffer from coviditis tend to suffer from ukranitis as well!!
Why doesn’t this surprise me?
https://postimg.cc/grGWGqSQ
The chart shows how anti-Russian Canadians with three or more COVID vaccine shots were in a survey. Those who didn’t take the vaccine weren’t nearly as anti-Russian.
Herd stooopidity .. is fungible.
Let’s pay a visit to the mind of Fast Eddy and have a listen…
https://youtu.be/GNdZsBQJteY?t=119
If one is available to be manipulated once, one will be manipulated twice and so on 🙂
We can generalise, perhaps, and see them as those people who are happiest with total conformity to the prevailing narrative. whatever their ‘intelligence’, level of formal education, background….
It broke 5,000 finally
went over 6,000 a few(?) months ago.
man, try to keep up.
😉
Biden on Russian cyberattack: “It’s coming.”
https://twitter.com/disclosetv/status/1506042504793272325
“We all know, but still pay insufficient attention to, the frightening scenario of a comprehensive cyber attack, which would bring a complete halt to the power supply, transportation, hospital services, our society as a whole” — Klaus Schwab, Cyber Polygon 2020
“The COVID-19 crisis would be seen […] as a small disturbance in comparison to a major cyber attack” — Klaus Schwab, Cyber Polygon 2020
“A cyber attack with COVID-like characteristics would spread faster and farther than any biological virus” — World Economic Forum, 2021
uhu, they deleted all our accounts in the Bank For International Settlements and the FED on top.
Luckily we just have created a new money for you.
The only question the people should have asked themselves after 2008 is:
“What should I do without money”
That could actually have been a question that is a bit older than 14 years…
Quite a bit of Apple’s software was down this afternoon. I was driving to an appointment and found that the company’s mapping software didn’t work. It was a little disconcerting. Fortunately, I remembered the route I had taken two weeks earlier. The software was back up, not too much later. I presume this was an internal problem and not a cyberattack. It was easy to imagine the problem we would have if we all lost our contact with GPS, for example.
Apple Suffers “Mysterious” Outage as Biden Issues Cyber Attack Warning
https://healthimpactnews.com/2022/apple-suffers-mysterious-outage-as-biden-issues-cyber-attack-warning/
Thanks!
As I said: Why should any sane person make himself dependent on an “Apple” if the stakes are not as high as in The Garden Of Eden.
Whenever I drive to new locations, I use paper maps. You never know if you are stuck in the middle of nowhere without
“THE GRID”
aka
“The Prison cell”
Klausi can play whatever game he likes online (at least as long as OFW is here…), That will not affect my life whatsoever.
But I must admit that I have done a lot in the last years that this is so, hehe…
I had a Garmin GPS until I got so pissed off I smashed it when after updating it and arriving in Portland, ME on my way to Farmington. The thing went wild and floated all over the map. Nerarly got in a wreck I was so distracted. Never again.
I keep a Rand -McNally atlas, a 12 V tire pump, a patch kit, jumper cables in my cars. And as stated before, if I can’t make a round trip with a full tank, I carry enough in 20 L Nato cans – and just in case someone drills my tank. On my last trip had 6 in the back of my SUV.
Jerry can. As the podcaster says: Genius.
Maps?
Dennis L
“It was easy to imagine the problem we would have if we all lost our contact with GPS, for example.”
Yes! You would have to remember how to read a map . . .
Maps are no longer as widely available. In a city, maps come as a book, with the need to move from page to page to see what is happening, as a person is traveling.
Part of the problem is figuring out recent changes to expressway entrances and exits. It is difficult to keep up with these in books.