POLITICS V ENERGY
*note: damn, that's a catchy tune. Music to Apocalypse by click here
*
note: this is a really good book on suburb bugging in. I found I liked it even more when I noticed she gave me a shout-out on my Jim Washer http://amzn.to/2EU0SQv
*
Sigh. Why must I endure the pointless pontification
of pundits perpetually puking platitudes?
When it comes to the situation in Venezuela, I can see the likes of
Rawles or SHTF Plan.com being completely clueless. Just throw out a Rush Limbaugh throw away
unthinking blank coverage statement like, “oy!
The socialists!” and move on to important things like pimping for your
advertisers ( I have no problem relying on ads to support a writer. I DO have a problem with ads supporting BAD
writing ). I have less understanding
when far more learned commentators like the economist Armstrong or the
geopolitical Black Pigeon Speaks screw it up.
*
“Oy! The Socialists!”. Why not just channel McCarthy and friends and
blame the evil Communists for the fluoride in the drinking water stealing our
ability to breed a true race of upstanding capitalists. I mean, can you get any lazier? Pigeon ( You Tube videos ) falls back on the
lazy Fracking Fag argument, which Armstrong also adds to his Oy, Socialists
screed. Now, these guys are much smarter
than myself in economics and geopolitics, but being laser focused specialists they
have no clue about energy, or anthropology, or other fields-in which I am the
furthest thing from an expert but I am a reasonably competent generalist in.
*
First off, the field of
economics has been largely subsumed by the globalists in the last forty-five
years or so. When almost every single
country is participating in the petrodollar trade and derivatives casino,
adding in colonialism, does it even matter what their official political label
is? Plenty of other countries are MORE
socialist than Venezuela, and doing much better financially, so that right
there blows your argument out of the water that being too leftist will
automatically crash your economy ( did they mean “socialism incompetently done“?
). And why do a bunch of fascist
imperialist jingoists get off accusing another government of too much
centralized government? It is the kettle
calling the pot black.
*
Secondly, it really is all
about the energy. “Venezuela has the
largest reserves globally”. Let’s
pretend that isn’t another throw away line ( given to Canada and the US, just
recently. It has nothing to do with
extraction numbers and everything to do with conning the rubes into investing
in the next energy miracle ). Let’s
pretend that they haven’t already been pumping for a hundred years ( like Iran
or Syria, bringing them nearly on par with Indonesia or China for energy
production importance )( you might as well claim Ohio or California are next
new US Saudi Arabia ).
*
Even if Venezuela was all
the things the Lying Liars are claiming, their petroleum is Fake Oil. It has so little net energy ( being in the
tropics, it is far easier to process than the frozen sludge in Alberta, but
that is about the only thing it has going for it ) that it isn’t worth
pumping. They didn’t close most of their
refineries down because they were socialists and incompetent ( if it were
California refineries, the argument would go “socialist, environmentalist,
incompetent ), but because no one wants their crap fake fuel ( fewer barrels of
Alaskan sludge are closing down Cali refining, as the north slope is barely
producing ).
*
Over capacity of
production ( caused by production build based on pre-Peak Oil BTU’s ) and the
rising cost of living, taxation and unemployment ( in large part caused by the
majority of money funneled to the bankers instead of anywhere else ) have
caused the global economy to stall, for the last few years. A stalling economy uses far less oil, and
when there is a glut of production the last thing anyone wants is the worst of
the oil. Which Venezuela specializes in.
*
Does no one remember the
Really Friggin Bad Year of 2009? You
know that little nightmare when all the counties were slashing their budgets
and the states were going broke? Kind of
like next year as all the pension funds drown everyone but the feds with their
printing presses. It doesn’t take much
of a lack of surplus to kill your economy.
Venezuela is still selling its crap oil, but not enough of it. Tell you what-you ask for a ten percent cut
in your income and see how great your household economy starts to look.
*
Does no one remember how
badly the entirety of Latin American looked in the 1970’s, economically? Yes, some of that was Soviet intelligence
agency funded revolution ( before they got preoccupied in Afghanistan ). Some of it was pre-American Drug War lack of
economic activity. And some of it was
American Colonialism. It isn’t ALWAYS
the socialists fault the economy crashes.
Sometimes we give them a little help.
Don’t you remember our political maneuvering in Venezuela as they
threatened to and then did leave the Petrodollar?
*
Low net energy fracking
fuel or its incestuous kissing cousin tar sands or bitumen is a beetle infested
pine compared to a hard wood tree. It is
bog peat compared to the hard coals we’ve already run out of. It is Fake Fuel, not worth two craps unless
you are Nazi Germany being invaded by the Soviets with no other domestic fuel
to use ( theirs was liquefied coal, and no, it isn’t as “energy independent” as
it sounds. You get a net energy loss
from the coal, as you do a near loss with today’s equivalent ).
*
Venezuela could have
centuries worth of the stuff ( they don’t, just like we don’t, may all the
demons of Hell infest Glen Beck’s rectum for even suggesting it ) and that
still wouldn’t matter because you can’t indefinitely use real oil or real oil
infrastructure to extract negative return fake fuel. The reason Canada is doing it is that they
are desperately trying to survive economically off of it, but are themselves
gutting their economy ( notice the real estate fake boom going on there
now? How do you think THAT is going to
work out for them? ).
*
And the same with
Venezuela. They have no choice but to
lose money and make up for it on volume ( old economic joke ). Lack of sales is killing the industry that
supports a country. And you think the US
will do any better? Our business is
empire, which we are doing terribly at.
The petrodollar is dying, and even being NOT socialist won’t save us
then. The petrodollar is paying for the
fracking oil extraction, as that industry has been a money loser since the
beginning. The banks prop it up if the
investors don’t ( you know, institutional investors like the City Of Dallas or
the State Of Illinois pension funds ) since a dysfunctional economy is better
than none at all.
*
Even if we weren’t using
Colony Bucks to subsidize the fracking industry, it looks like at about the
same time the last PetroDollar is accepted, the fracking oil will be running
out anyway. The Fracking Natural Gas
supply disruption will cripple/kill our electrical grid, and the lack of
fracking oil will impact our transportation grid. Then you can look fondly back on Venezuela
and marvel how they kept things going better than we are.
END ( today's related link http://amzn.to/2DAejDx )
* By the by, all my writing is copyrighted. For the obtuse out there
Fake Blog Post?
ReplyDeleteHa! I know, energy posts are disliked as much as book or movie reviews. I try to minimize them, to when I'm seeing red over others posted idiocy.
DeleteShades of election meddling , then sanctions when we didn't get our man...
ReplyDeleteSpeaking of economies ...how bout that stock market today ?
Setting another record high. As the 1% reinvest those saved tax dollars , to gain even more wealth...hmmm , just as they said that they would before the tax bill passed.
The 1% all sit to pee, consequently there never is any splash over to trickle down.
But they sure stand up to take a crap, since that hits us full force. As for the stock market-meh. I pay it no mind-I don't even know what it is at within the closest 5k. Like unemployment, a completely fabricated number.
DeleteOh for sure a meaningless number it says.
DeleteJust a poke at how things work.
The stock market is important-is some respects. Just outside our need to know trying to understand the economy.
DeleteIt's important when your stock triples in price.
ReplyDeleteSell sell sell
It isn't that bad of an institution as long as you see it as gambling. I look at it as, if Bezos sold, the end is nigh. Not saying he is smarter-but probably much wilier.
DeletePositive politics, or the illusion of it to the masses in a consumer economy is helpful to support energy demand-production-exploration etc. In a controlled/closed loop command economy it does not stir enough energy lust to be helpful. That only being the case with enough supplies, secure logistics-routes, unfettered access-extraction,etc. Dink around with any parts of the system and it fails due to it's interconnectivity. The main pickle here being a few BILLION too many useless mouths. It will be the undoing of it all as math numbers do not lie or hide facts. Enjoy these bad old days, step on that gas pedal and go!
ReplyDeleteEat, drink and burn more oil, as tomorrow we shall die.
DeleteIf you can endure a 60% downturn with 12 years to get back, the stock market indexes are for you!
ReplyDeleteDidn't it take 20+ years to get it back after the 1929 crash? And that was all probably just inflation.
DeleteIt isn't socialism that is Venezuela's problem. Scandinavian countries have socialism and significant resource based revenues while not becoming completely economically failed in less than a decade like Venezuela has. The difference is the CORRUPTION. Socialism and Communism allow for immense power and wealth to flow through the hands of select parts of the government controlling the economy - if the people handling this wealth and power are held accountable, and kept from excessively profiting off it (while being allowed to profit enough they aren't tempted to overstep) then everything works fine. In places like Venezuela a modest amount of corruption was always existent, but with the coming of socialist (actually COMMUNIST in implementation) control and an attempt to crack down on the trivial corruption while cutting salaries just led to a massive increase in more extensive and higher level corruption, and since there was no private sector immune to the government corruption the whole thing fell apart quickly. The US and almost every other 'free' nation has corruption too but it is a lower level of corruption and corruption is less needed by the average government worker to survive and thrive - for now. Expect the decline of resources to reflect in the increase in not just crime and economic levels but in corruption.
ReplyDeleteI don't agree that the US has less corruption. It has more, far more, as there was more to steal. I just wouldn't define "corruption" as a civil servant with sticky fingers. There, there must be a bribe, due to low pay. Here, there need be none due to very high pay. But when the top fraction of the 1% are allowed to ignore the law, your level of corruption is orders of magnitude above a civil servant demanding a bribe. The cost is far higher to society. Use this as an example. You need to give the building inspector a months pay to get a permit to build. Here in the US, you pays YEARS of wages in institutionalized bribes. Permits, fees, zoning regulations, property taxes increased with the cost, etc.
Delete