dagblog - Comments for "Making It Up As We Go Along"

Sorry, hate to ruin your oil

artappraiser — Mon, 21 Mar 2011 06:41:08 +0000

Sorry, hate to ruin your oil business plot narrative, but here's an example of the narratives that are actually occuring:

Eni Chief Blasts Libya Sanctions
Wall Street Journal - Guy Chazan - Stacy Meichtry - March 17

The head of Italian oil giant Eni SpA called for Europe to drop sanctions against Libya, saying it was "shooting itself in the foot" and endangering its energy security by punishing the Gadhafi regime....

Read more link.....

Qaddafi Advance Poses Eni Expulsion Risk From Libyan Oil
Bloomberg, March 18, 2011

"China is far less interested in the strategic argument and much more concerned with its economic interests in Africa," Frattini told a parliamentary committee in Rome on March 16. "Out of this situation, great doors open for China."

It may not be that simple, said Elizabeth Cheng, Hong Kong- based editor of China Hand, a publication of the Economist Intelligence Unit, by telephone.

"It's a complicated issue," she said. "I don't think Chinese companies would be expected to make a reckless decision." Oil companies would have to consider their relations with western companies and security in Libya, as well as Qaddafi's ability to maintain power, she said..

Risk Management....

Read more link.....

I kmew a Jack Russel Terrier

we are stardust — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 17:32:30 +0000

In reply to I knew a Russell Antoinette

I kmew a Jack Russel Terrier named Antoinette once; mad about chasing trucks. Definitely a relation of the Condominium Russel Empire. They're second cousins to Donald Trumpet.

"After all, what is Libya

A Guy Called LULU — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 17:10:22 +0000

In reply to It's all about the oil.

"After all, what is Libya without it's oil?"

Connect that question with this one. What is the world without the Middle East’s oil? That is where the tension arrises and the profit motive asserts itself, along with the survival motive. No matter the level of cynicism and venality of some within the various power structures, there is a reason that it is all about oil. It cannot be written off as only a bunch of bad guys just going after big bucks. Sure, there are bad guys doing bad things just for the big bucks as well as others doing what they think they must or at least should.

Drugs, being illegal and much wanted, provide big bucks for many bad or desperate people. Oil, being absolutely necessary in the modern world and also running short, provides the big bucks for some bad guys. That is because oil would make people desperate if they didn’t get it. Those in the oil mix who are successful bad guys will lie, steal, connive, and send others to kill or be killed so as to keep their position of power and as the recipients of the big bucks.There are others in America and the world who will do the same because they see the critical importance of oil and believe that demand will actually create supply as long as the areas of supply are kept under control. Their actions, which are for the most part the same as those of the bad guys are,in their minds, justified.

Most Americans go about their daily lives and don’t care enough to have an opinion that would influence their choices regarding votes or their way of life. While some percentage are emotionally or psychologically as well as financially stressed, almost all are still physically comfortable. A small majority is against more war and I believe it is only because they think the most recent wars have cost too much rather than showing a profit as far as they could tell. Their opinion is just a vague, uninformed, or misinformed vote. Just like their vote for president was, but their motive is to stay comfortable and they have shown that they can be quite comfortable while our military does what active militaries do so long as someone salves their easily salved conscience by saying we are bombing bad guys to protect good guys. An honest leader would tell the American public that it is all about oil.

The TV news will show stand-off pictures of bombs and cruise missiles striking targets. It will not show the up close splatter of human bodies. That makes it being all about oil too uncomfortable and my bringing it up is pointless, I just do it anyway.

Back to oil. If, and I believe absolutely that there will be a “when”, we run short on oil and people get physically uncomfortable, the statement, “It is all about oil”, will not be made with a dismissive tone as though recognizing that fact means that it is not a genuine problem but only is a problem because a few bad guys are making the big bucks while they can, and that that causes our price at the pump to get uncomfortably high. No, it will then be because people are cold and hungry if we do not change from spending all our wealth to guarantee access to the last drop of oil to a policy of investing heavily in a reorganization of our energy type and use.

Military action in Libia and else ware may be a legitimate short term action to keep the world stable but if our long term strategy is not changed it will be bloody pointless.

I knew a Russell Antoinette

quinn esq — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 16:54:03 +0000

In reply to Or as Laurie Anderson said,

I knew a Russell Antoinette once.

Drove truck between Spruce Falls and Thunder Bay.

Any relation I wonder?

Or as Laurie Anderson said,

Desider — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 16:49:58 +0000

In reply to

Or as Laurie Anderson said, "Condominiums like great white sharks' teeth"

Or as Marie Antoinette said, "Let them eat timeshares".

we are stardust — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 16:14:05 +0000

In reply to It's all about the oil.

Beachfront property?

Desider — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 15:59:02 +0000

In reply to It's all about the oil.

Beachfront property?

It's all about the oil.

Beetlejuice — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 14:56:33 +0000

In reply to Making It Up As We Go Along

It's all about the oil. Libyan crude is the best in the world. When I was working for ARAMCO in Saudi, the riggers told me it was so good you could pump it straight out of the ground and into a diesel truck tank and the truck didn't have a problem running...the refining process is minimal.

So with all the civil unrest in the region, an astute oil corporatist with tons of cash to spend could easily sway disgruntled people to stage a revolt while working behind the scenes in Europe to convince individual NATO members it was Libyan's turn to throw off the yoke of oppression and the West should support their cause once blood began to flow.

And once the smoke settles, the oil corporatist will pounce on Libyan like starving vultures and divvy up the spoils...that being the oil fields...at pennies on the dollar.

Libyans might get a new government that may very well be no better than what they already have, but they'll loose control over their only asset in the march towards democracy. And that's too large a price to pay for freedom and democracy, in my opinion. After all, what is Libya without it's oil?

Well, I was thinking about

Desider — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 08:12:09 +0000

In reply to It's an interesting treatise,

Well, I was thinking about China as I wrote it, and doing a mental coin toss.

China does seem to be doing some democratic reforms. They do seem to pay more attention to needs of the people. The last few years they've ballooned expenditures and efforts for health care. Their stimulus during the financial crisis actually got money to people and industries that needed it. Their public transit system seems well adapted to get this amazing mass of people to and from work each day or back to their parents' for their frequent long holidays.

Additionally, the amount that Chinese are able to speak up and criticize is growing, especially due to social media but more accepted levels of criticism.

It's not perfect, you can make the argument at the same time that it's painfully slow, but then you have India where they can't even get a 3G license out the door after how many years. So combined with people needing a voice, they need a government that responds to the voice. If government anticipates basic needs for people, it obviously takes out some of the eruptive pressure for new reforms. How long the Chinese can continue this balancing act without really opening the door, don't know, but I'm also sympathetic to the difficulties. India's open, and hasn't managed the efficiencies. And China's well accustomed to mass catastrophe during "interesting times".

[and this all ignores Xinjiang, Tibet, et al. which would make a much longer discussion, but pretty much irrelevant to core Han democracy, which is the only thing that has political power in China]

It's an interesting treatise,

artappraiser — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 00:30:23 +0000

In reply to Balkinization posits that

It's an interesting treatise, that economic reforms create pressures for democratic reforms.

See: China. And the flip side: India.