03/29/22

The Moscow Exchange Head Fake

Russia got caught off guard by the severity of the western economic sanctions imposed in response to their unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

Foreign Minister Lavrov (in place as Foreign Minister for 14 years and a member of the permanent mission to the UN before that for 10 years) said as much this week, a very surprising admission by the Empire Builders.

Putin and his puffer coat crowd thought they were pretty clever hiding lots of foreign currency reserves overseas — there is really no place to hold foreign currency that is safe inside Russia. Apparently, based on their foreign currency reserve hoarding, they’d been planning their move on Ukraine for almost two years.

No surprise there as Russia began to press against the Ukrainian border with troops almost a year ago.

So, when the west unshackled many of the Russian banks from the SWIFT (Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications) system with 11,000 member institutions and 42,000,000 messages a day in more than 200 countries, they were caught unable to access those reserves because the conduit — the SWIFT system — was blocked.

SWIFT also threw Iran out of the system in 2012 – 2016.

One of the things Russia did immediately on Invasion Ukraine Day, 2-24-2022, was to close down its Moscow Exchange, their biggest stock market and the place where Russians and foreigners owned Russian stocks.

In London where many of these stocks also trade, the Russian stocks were down as much as 98%, so the prospect of a gargantuan sell off was very real. Continue reading →

03/23/22

Extraordinary Men

There are really no extraordinary men; there are ordinary men who rise to the challenge in extraordinary times and standout from the rest of mankind because they can function when the world is crippled by fear.

George Washington

George Washington was the Father of Our Country. Without him as our Commander-in-Chief and our President for two terms, the American Revolution would have been a footnote in English history wherein the King had crushed another rebellion and the British Empire had moved on.

Instead, he improbably beat the toughest and largest army on the planet and formed a country from scratch. Continue reading →

03/14/22

The Sticky Math Of Crude Oil Imports v Pipelines

The United States was once upon a time energy independent and then Joe Biden was elected.

Since then, it has become apparent that we need to find some new sources of crude oil particularly since we finally stopped funding the crude Putin War Machine by buying more than 600,000 barrels a day of his nasty Russian crude.

The Biden administration is reportedly looking in Venezuela and Iran to replace that crude which entails the reality that it will be shipped in oil tankers.

Maybe they should look in the United States since we sit on a gigantic reservoir of oil and gas ourselves? Maybe we should re-invigorate the Keystone XL pipeline deal? Using domestic sources would preclude shipping costs and environmental impacts.

What is the environmental cost of importing oil via ship?

There is no alternative when importing oil than ships. Well, except for pipelines, trains, and trucks from Canada.

 

Continue reading →

03/13/22

Who Exactly Is The West?

In the current events we are constantly bombarded by the bad acts of Putin and Russia who is being opposed by the WEST?

Who exactly is the WEST?

The other day a pal of mine was cataloging all the countries that make up the WEST. I told him the WEST is not a list of countries.

Ahhh, my dear reader (I said in a particularly obnoxious, condescending voice fueled by cheap Keurig coffee), allow me to explain.

 1. It is an idea, not a specific list of countries. It is not a place one can identify or find using an atlas or on a map. Continue reading →

03/12/22

The Structural Disconnection Of Russia From The Civilized World

We are now in the third week of the Russo – Ukrainian War and the west has retaliated against the invading Russians with economic sanctions that are slowly, but surely, disconnecting the nation of Russia from the rest of the civilized world.

Russian tank fire hitting threatening apartment building in Mariupol. Who shoots at apartment buildings? War criminals.

Countries that make war on apartment buildings, kill babies, kill children, kill women and old folks are not civilized. This is medieval, Dark Ages siege behavior and we are cowards for tolerating it.

Continue reading →

03/11/22

A Personal Letter to President Joe Biden

Dear Mr. President,

I have been watching your reaction to the build up and attack on Ukraine by Russia — going on for a year, amigo — and I would like to share with you some advice and thoughts.

You do realize that Vladimir Putin thinks you are a weak leader, lack the resolve to engage, are inexperienced in such matters, and are personally fearful of combat?

As a Vietnam War Era draft dodger, he is onto something, but I can help you. Here is my advice:

 1. Stop telling everybody that direct American involvement is “off the table.” Even if it is, why arm a jack off like Putin with that knowledge?

Keep him guessing. Tell him, “Nothing is off the table, you little trollette including de-regimeing your mangy ass.”

 2. This isn’t Putin’s first rodeo. He destroyed Chechnya, in particular the city of Grozny its capital, during the Second Chechen War. Georgia? Crimea? Donbas region of Ukraine?

He levelled Grozny using the same medieval, Dark Ages siege tactics as he is using in Ukraine.

Understand where this is headed and get out ahead of it. He is going full on Grozny on Kyiv.

Start the verbal offensive right now. Don’t procrastinate. You’ve wasted enough time already. Bury him in public opinion and get Russia excluded from every international organization.

 3. Putin has a third rate, poorly led, inexpert, conscript army with a duct tape and bailing wire supply chain.

The Russians are not the varsity. You, on the other hand, have a modern, well trained, sometimes well led army capable of destroying Russia’s weak force.

How do I know this, you ask? I used to be in the military racket.

I grew up on Army posts, my father was a career soldier, my mother was a World War II veteran, I am a graduate of Virginia Military Institute, and was a professional soldier for five years followed by a great number of years as an unprofessional soldier.

That bunched up Russian jug fuck of a convoy is a cemetery of KIAs waiting to be harvested.

So, Joe, lean forward in your saddle like you have a set and are John Fucking Wayne. Act like a guy  who can back up the mindless rhetoric.

 4. Make a big, bold stroke — call for raising a dozen new Army and Marine divisions, put tanks back into Europe, sell 4,000 8,000 tanks to Poland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia.

Move our European deployments right near the border and install Patriot missiles. Make Putin sweat.

 5. Joe, do some secret stuff. Don’t talk about Migs in public, you bloody moron. Secretly transfer Migs to the Ukrainians. The Russians won’t know where they came from.

Put some sack into it. Get the Migs for Ukraine and act surprised. Remember, Joe, secret stuff. Do not telegraph your punches.

Look, we’re giving the Ukes Javelins and Stingers — what difference would a Mig or two make? Give these magnificent men more Javelins and Stingers.

Give those heroic,  brave Ukrainians a fighting chance. Turn them loose to destroy that column.

 6. Mr. President, one more time, give the Ukrainians anything we can. The really good stuff. Give them Javelins, Stingers, anti-aircraft, gobs and gobs of ammunition.

 7. Crush the snot out of Russia and Putin economically. You were slow to the realization that the US was buying incredible amounts of energy from Putin.

When the polls signaled the unviability of your stance, you got with it. Stop waiting on the polls.

So, here’s the lift, Mr. President. Turn loose the Kracken of the American Oil Patch. Drill, baby, drill until US production is 15,000,000 barrels of crude oil a day and the American excess puts our whole arm on the scale of pricing. Drive oil to $10/barrel and let Putin sweat out how he’s going to pay his thugs. Knock the financial underpinning of the Russian oil economy on its ass.

Unleash the power of the American energy entrepreneur — jobs in the US, money to US energy companies, surge the US economy not Venezuela’s; reverse your disastrous week #1 energy errors. Do this now when it can make a difference.

 8. The Saudis are pissed with you. Tell those MF-ing murderers they can hang with us or Putin. If they hesitate, tell them the Israelis are going to do touch-and-gos in Riyadh unless they get with us.

 9. Last thing, Joe, tell those fools running the Pentagon they can shelve the whole gender identity and pronouns thing. Have them focus instead on force lethality, force safety, and standing up a dozen divisions.

There it is, Joe. Do this and the world will be safer, you will sleep better, and the blood of the innocent Ukrainians will not be thigh high in the Oval Office.

With warmest personal regards,

The Big Red Car