i have questions and no answers

[SaltyTiger 8,575]

11 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Actually, over-reacting to immediate pain while neglecting what is in our long term interest is the definition of putting one's head in the sand.

(Kind of like all those gas-guzzling trucks people have been lapping up over the last few years while gas was cheap.  In fact, one might argue that now is that long term future they were ignoring when buying those trucks.)

 

And seriously, "Biden's cult"

How lame.   You folks are just desperate to find some sort of equivalency to the actual true cult leader:

https://www.cnn.com/videos/media/2022/01/09/donald-trump-cult-diane-benscoter-rs-vpx.cnn

 

"Biden's cult"     Like I said, you're not very good at this.

 

 

 

 

 

Many of those gas guzzling trucks have never been on a dirt road or carried a load more than household garbage. Very aggravated years ago when I learned that carpet came standard in a truck. Rubber flooring cost extra. Understand my work justified and paid for a truck/fuel.

More astonishing are the numbers of people with ultra expensive boats, financing available for years now! water traffic seems as heavy as ever.

[I_M4_AU 8,940]

3 minutes ago, icanthearyou said:

Perhaps.  My concern is less about the short term, inflation, and more about the economic war that is going on, the petro dollar, the many consequences.

Why is the petro dollar a concern for you?  What changed in that arena?

[icanthearyou 4,468]

2 minutes ago, homersapien said:

Well, if you can't afford to buy the gas for a trip, you probably can't afford to take a trip to begin with.

Anyone in that position should be thanking God that they are not one of the poor souls who now lose an hour of their pay just to get to work everyday.  In many ways, inflation is the most regressive tax.

[icanthearyou 4,468]

Just now, I_M4_AU said:

Why is the petro dollar a concern for you?  What changed in that arena?

Can you imagine the decline in value of the U.S. dollar?  Can you imagine the decline in standard of living?  Can you imagine the destruction of U.S. political and economic influence?

[icanthearyou 4,468]

6 minutes ago, SaltyTiger said:

Many of those gas guzzling trucks have never been on a dirt road or carried a load more than household garbage. Very aggravated years ago when I learned that carpet came standard in a truck. Rubber flooring cost extra. Understand my work justified and paid for a truck/fuel.

More astonishing are the numbers of people with ultra expensive boats, financing available for years now! water traffic seems as heavy as ever.

God bless our credit based economy and the fake money house of cards that keeps it going.

[homersapien 12,238]

1 hour ago, I_M4_AU said:

 The contradiction that’s the issue is Biden pushed the oil companies to reduce oil production and not wants them to  pick it up overnight 

Biden didn't "push" the oil companies to do anything.  The oil companies reduced their own refining capacity in anticipation of reduced demand from conversion to electric vehicles. 

Oil companies have never reduced production in the face of full demand and they never will.  That's not the way large companies work. 

You are just desperately trying to find a way to make the high gas prices Biden's fault.  They aren't.

 

[homersapien 12,238]

32 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

I’m not in crisis, I just can’t stand the ineptness of our Administration on several levels.

 

Yeah, several emotional levels. 

[I_M4_AU 8,940]

39 minutes ago, icanthearyou said:

Can you imagine the decline in value of the U.S. dollar?  Can you imagine the decline in standard of living?  Can you imagine the destruction of U.S. political and economic influence?

What is the driving factor in this?  Why is it now a concern?

[I_M4_AU 8,940]

 

 

[icanthearyou 4,468]

Just now, I_M4_AU said:

What is the driving factor in this?  Why is it now a concern?

A good answer would be a book.  The short answer is, an economic alliance between China, Russia, the Saudis would mean trading in oil in other currencies.  Once this happens, the dollar as world reserve currency becomes untenable.  The loss of world reserve currency status severely drives down the value of the dollar.  That inflation would be catastrophic for the majority of us.  It would end our status as the global economic, political power.  At that point, all we have left is the military and, no easy way to maintain it.

Then again, I am not sure we can maintain the dollars status much longer than the end of this decade.  Our fixation on the division of partisan politics is killing us.  It has now been half a century since democracy and capitalism were functioning ethically. 

[icanthearyou 4,468]

4 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

 

 

That is NOT a fact check.  You cannot seriously use the Western Energy Alliance (a fossil fuel lobby, trade association) as a "fact checker".  This is the opinion/propaganda of the fossil fuel industry.

[I_M4_AU 8,940]

2 minutes ago, icanthearyou said:

That is NOT a fact check.  You cannot seriously use the Western Energy Alliance (a fossil fuel lobby, trade association) as a "fact checker".  This is the opinion/propaganda of the fossil fuel industry.

Fox used the term fact check, I didn’t.  I just posted it to give the oil company’s side of the argument.  It is spot on from their prespective.

[icanthearyou 4,468]

1 minute ago, I_M4_AU said:

Fox used the term fact check, I didn’t.  I just posted it to give the oil company’s side of the argument.  It is spot on from their prespective.

I know.  Wasn't directed at you personally.  I just wanted to point out the typical FOX disinformation delivery.

The same people with the same lies about global warming.  It took them a decade to even be honest enough to admit it was real.

[I_M4_AU 8,940]

14 minutes ago, icanthearyou said:

The short answer is, an economic alliance between China, Russia, the Saudis would mean trading in oil in other currencies

So, the sanctions put on Russia without the full cooperation of China and the Saudis as we wouldn’t allow buying Russian fuel in US dollars might have something to do with this?  Hmmmm.

[homersapien 12,238]

3 minutes ago, I_M4_AU said:

Fox used the term fact check, I didn’t.  I just posted it to give the oil company’s side of the argument.  It is spot on from their perspective.

This caused me to laugh out loud.

That's like saying the Texas Republican Party's recently published platform is "spot on" from their perspective.

 

[icanthearyou 4,468]

3 minutes ago, homersapien said:

This caused me to laugh out loud.

That's like saying the Texas Republican Party's recently published platform is "spot on" from their perspective.

 

From the tobacco lobby perspective, cigarettes were healthy, flavorful, stress relievers.  Funny how money will bias your perspective.

[aubiefifty 18,248]

23 hours ago, homersapien said:

Start with the understanding that corporations have only one objective - maximize profits.

Our system does not bestow the power on the POTUS to arbitrarily make them lower their rates, and probably never will, which is arguably a good thing, depending on one's politics.

The compromise - which we apparently cannot achieve - relies on regulations designed to benefit the common good.

so we have no safeguards against greed? you are going to screw your own country for record breaking profits for a few shareholders? i do not understand. and is this the same people that rarely if ever pay taxes? the rich are not hurt like poor folks are. and that let them eat cake is getting old to me. and the refinery thing has been an excuse off and on for years. i think we had one blow up or burn down and it crippled us then and we still have not done anything about that? and what do we have to do to get saudi and others we have not pissed off in the middle east to help us? say what you want i believe bombing some of those countries back to the stone age has hurt us. it might not be the main factor or maybe not since i am trying to digest all this mess. and what really pisses me off is i still have not gotten my tax refund which would help me get through this? it seems this is because of two things. i keep hearing covid and i keep hearing trump gutted the IRS. i know the social security office has not opened back up in my town so i assume it is the that way everywhere. i forget which one but the last time prices got this high one of the presidents went to the middle eat and fixed it. why can we not get it done now? because we raised hell about a murdered journalist?

[aubiefifty 18,248]

9 hours ago, I_M4_AU said:

You believe the *long term* is where we should concentrate without a thought for the pain at the pump we are experiencing.  That’s head in the sand type of thinking.  

Biden’s cult.

define bidens cult for me please. and answer me this question honestly. if trump is in office would things be different right now?

[aubiefifty 18,248]

8 hours ago, I_M4_AU said:

So, the sanctions put on Russia without the full cooperation of China and the Saudis as we wouldn’t allow buying Russian fuel in US dollars might have something to do with this?  Hmmmm.

so we just let russia do whatever the hell they want then? and i am pretty sure trump had a whole lot to do with pissing china off.

[I_M4_AU 8,940]

9 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

define bidens cult for me please. and answer me this question honestly. if trump is in office would things be different right now?

The 33% that still thinks he’s doing a good job.  Trump’s not in office; this is all Biden.

[I_M4_AU 8,940]

9 hours ago, aubiefifty said:

so we just let russia do whatever the hell they want then? and i am pretty sure trump had a whole lot to do with pissing china off.

Of course not.  If you are going to sanction Russia you better know you have cooperation of countries that need the oil.  China needed the oil and was going to get it one way or another.  The US wasn’t going to provide it to them.  The Saudis and Russians saw an opportunity to take America down a notch or two.  I hope they don’t succeed.

[I_M4_AU 8,940]

Do sanctions work?

 

 

[wdefromtx 3,611]

Refineries are running at 94% capacity. 
 

A couple of things, one is several plants were permanently closed during the pandemic because demand was so low. 
 

Second, from what I’ve been told and I have not been able to back it up is that two of our major refineries in Louisiana are only producing JP-8. Therefore if these two plants are included in that 94% the real percentage is way lower. 
 

If true, let that sink in for a moment…..JP-8 fuel….means we are stockpiling it or it’s going somewhere…Ukraine? 

[icanthearyou 4,468]

2 hours ago, I_M4_AU said:

Do sanctions work?

 

 

Very interesting.  Thanks for posting.  Prior to the invasion of Crimea, the ruble to the dollar was fairly stable between high twenties, low thirties.  After the sanctions related to Crimea, the ruble dropped sharply to where this chart begins, 60:1. 

The sanctions over Ukraine obviously aren't working as intended.  The question is,,, why?

https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/23/russias-ruble-is-at-strongest-level-in-7-years-despite-sanctions.html

Short answer, energy demand.  I think the real answer extremely complicated.  Economic wars in the global economy are going to be extremely disruptive.

For now, I think China is the winner.  They have secured their energy needs through Russia.  We meet their needs for the consumption of their productivity.

https://www.uscc.gov/sites/default/files/Research/China Russia gas deal_Staffbackgrounder.pdf

For now, we feed the Chinese who in turn feed the Russians.  The house of Saud is also a winner.  Their relative power and influence in the world is enhanced as they have the ability to play all sides against one another.

Ultimately, I think we are very poor "globalists", even worse Americans.  We are essentially a country of international corporations, not a nation of people.

 

Edited June 23, 2022 by icanthearyou

[I_M4_AU 8,940]

1 hour ago, wdefromtx said:

Refineries are running at 94% capacity. 
 

A couple of things, one is several plants were permanently closed during the pandemic because demand was so low. 
 

Second, from what I’ve been told and I have not been able to back it up is that two of our major refineries in Louisiana are only producing JP-8. Therefore if these two plants are included in that 94% the real percentage is way lower. 
 

If true, let that sink in for a moment…..JP-8 fuel….means we are stockpiling it or it’s going somewhere…Ukraine? 

JP-8 (military grade) is the same as JET-A for commercial use I believe.  Could the oil companies believe commercial aviation fuel will not be attacked like automobile fuels?