Two Large Submarines Visited Site of Nord Stream Explosions Immediately Before Pipeline Sabotage

Two Large Submarines Visited Site of Nord Stream Explosions Immediately Before Pipeline Sabotage

Two Large Submarines Visited Site of Nord Stream Explosions Immediately Before Pipeline Sabotage

‘Dark Ships’ Emerge From the Shadows of the Nord Stream Mystery

"According to the analysis by satellite data monitoring firm SpaceKnow, the two “dark ships,” each measuring around 95 to 130 meters long, passed within several miles of the Nord Stream 2 leak sites. “We have detected some dark ships, meaning vessels that were of a significant size, that were passing through that area of interest,” says Jerry Javornicky, the CEO and cofounder of SpaceKnow. “They had their beacons off, meaning there was no information about their movement, and they were trying to keep their location information and general information hidden from the world,” Javornicky adds.--WIRED

Do NATO navies possess submarines of the lengths witnessed on site?

YES...the British Astute class measures 96 meters, while the USS JIMMY CARTER measures 138 meters...each ship is used by naval special forces for sabotage operations.

ROYAL NAVY Astute Class Submarine (S119), 318' 3",  96.9264 meters

Royal Marines launch commando raid from Astute class submarine during Arctic exercise

US NAVY USS Jimmy Carter (Seawolf Class Submarine, Modified SSN-23),

453', 138.1 meters

The US Navy's only operational sub named after a president has been doing top-secret missions for 17 years

Secretive U.S. Navy Submarine Went on a Dangerous Mission

America's Most Secret Spy Sub Returned To Base Flying A Pirate Flag

We Now Have Details On The USS Jimmy Carter Spy Submarine's Secret Mission

WIKI

Electric Boat was awarded an $887 million extension to the Jimmy Carter contract on 10 December 1999 to modify the boat for testing new submarine systems and classified missions previously carried out by USS Parche.^[4] During modification, her hull was extended 100 feet (30 m) to create a 2,500-ton supplementary middle section which forms a Multi-Mission Platform (MMP). This section is fitted with an ocean interface for divers, remotely operated vehicles (ROVs), and special operation equipment; ROV handling system, storage, and deployment space for mission systems, and a pressure-resistant passage between the fore and aft parts of the submarine to accommodate the boat's crew.^[5][6][7]

Jimmy Carter has additional maneuvering devices fitted fore and aft that allow her to keep station over selected targets in odd currents. Intelligence experts speculate that the MMP may find use in missions as an underwater splicing chamber for optical fiber cables.^{[8][9][10][11]}

On September 26, 2022, a severe drop in pressure in both NS1 and NS2 was associated with a rupture in both pipes due to sabotage.

 

The Russo-Ukrainian "gas relations"

 

In terms of its impact and consequences, the destruction of Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines is on a par with the 9/11 attacks on the twin towers of the World Trade Center or the Reichstag fire. The admissibility of infrastructure warfare involving what appears to be the deliberate destruction of undersea pipelines and electric cables changes everything: the global agenda, evaluation criteria, decision-making rules, and even a notion of what normalcy is. As the crisis of subjectivity unfolds, the world is changing, too.

We are once again reminded of an old but long-forgotten adage that whenever oil, gas or coal is concerned, there is always talk of war. When it comes to controlling and rule-setting, the key link in any model has to do with mobility, that is, logistics, transportation services and lanes. In economic terms, space and time are merely two manifestations of the same essence expressed in money as costs and benefits.

On the eve of World War I, Winston Churchill briefly summarised this idea by saying that domination was the price of the oil deal he negotiated to ensure a steady flow of Persian oil for Britain. Throughout the industrial age, this has been the name of the game.

English politician, statesman, Prime Minister of Great Britain Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill.

Oil is a universal commodity at the heart of the global economy. It is primarily an investment vehicle with a certain degree of security to ensure its supply. The former (i.e. investment) cannot exist without the latter (i.e. security). In essence, natural resource rent is redistributed from surplus countries to deficit countries, with energy rent serving as its fundamental link and key driving force of the global economy.

The above concept is fairly simple, but after years of brainwashing designed to objectify the nature of money as a measurement system, it is, sadly, not so evident today. The blasts that destroyed the Nord Stream pipelines have brought us back to the origins of the global market, revealing how the system really works. Being a force majeure event, the destruction of the gas infrastructure has dramatically changed Europe's energy, economic and political landscape and the entire world overnight.

The first hybrid warfare

Following the blasts in the Baltic Sea, Russia is now facing a dilemma. To fulfil its contractual obligations, it must either increase LNG supplies, which is impossible or increase gas transit flows through Ukraine to cover the supply shortfall. Germany alone is to buy 40 billion cubic meters of Russian gas a year on a take-or-pay basis.

However, a potential 45% increase in gas flow costs via Ukraine is only part of the problem. The devil is in the detail – the Third Energy Package says there should be at least two pipeline gas suppliers.

It is still quite likely that all European countries, especially Germany, may need Russia to pump more gas via Ukraine. If Russia agrees, Gazprom, the Russian gas export monopolist, will have to sell 50% of its gas to Ukraine before it reaches Europe. Times have changed – evaluation criteria are no longer based on economic considerations.

In this scenario, Ukraine and the European Union will take advantage of the Third Energy Package. If Gazprom gives in again and chooses to toe the line "under the circumstances" just as it has done before, this stance is bound to have catastrophic consequences.

The destruction of the Nord Stream pipelines was decades in the making.

It all began with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the gas wars between Ukraine and Russia that ensued. After 1991, 95% of all Russian gas exports went via Ukraine. Kyiv took advantage of this by refusing to pay for gas even at deeply discounted prices. Russia claimed that as soon as it restricted gas supplies, Kyiv made what was called  "unauthorised withdrawals" or, in other words, stole gas from the transit pipelines.

Whenever gas supplies were disrupted, Europe pointed at Moscow and its gas monopoly. However, there was no big secret of Ukraine siphoning off the bigger brother's gas. Ukraine claimed at its place that it had every right to do so.

In an interview with Der Spiegel in 2000, the then Ukrainian president Leonid Kuchma said: "Moscow annually pumps 130 billion cubic metres of gas through our country to the West. If a billion cubic metres is siphoned off here, it's a tiny fraction."

Soviet and Ukrainian political and statesman. Photo: gettyimages.

The first gas war broke out in 1993 and 1994 when Gazprom cut Ukraine's quota several times. Then the second gas war took place in 1997 and 1998. This time Gazprom stopped direct gas deliveries to Ukraine, agreeing to provide Ukraine with gas flows required to cover its transit fees. In 2006, all gas supplies to Ukraine were cut. A turning point came in 2009 as Russia turned off the taps completely, cutting gas supplies to both Ukraine and the EU and stopping Ukraine from siphoning off EU-bound gas.

All these "wars", whatever their timelines, had a few things in common. They were all triggered by Ukraine's failure to pay its obligations, and invariably, any brokered solution to the crisis was always laden with certain implications of political nature.

As a result of the first such "war", Ukraine recognised Russia as the legal successor of the Soviet Union with respect to the latter's debts and assets.

Following the second "war", Ukraine signed a Black Fleet agreement granting Russia a 20-year lease to several bays in the vicinities of Crimea's Sebastopol and Feodosia, with the lease being tied to the repayment of Ukraine's debt. In addition, Ukraine ceded to Russia 11 of its Tupolev Tu-160 and Тu-95MS bombers, about 600 airborne cruise missiles, and some ground-based "Soviet legacy" equipment.

The third war in 2006 came as a direct result of the 2004 elections in Ukraine. Russia's bets at the time were on the win by then-Prime Minister Viktor Yanukovych, who had pledged to foster Ukraine's further integration into Russia-led Common Economic Space. As an early incentive for this hoped-for partnership, Russia's Gazprom signed a 5-year agreement with Naftogaz setting a fixed gas price of USD 50 per thousand cubic metres through 2009.

In the end, Viktor Yushchenko ended up being elected into office in the wake of the Orange Revolution. He renounced and disavowed all prior deals and proclaimed the course towards the country's Euro-Atlantic integration as Ukraine's priority. Soon after, Yushchenko began to actively explore options for getting gas from Turkmenistan. By that time, average European gas prices exceeded USD 150 per thousand cubic metres, making the fixed price of USD 50 appear nonsensical.

In 2006, Russia stopped all its gas deliveries to Ukraine, triggering a series of trilateral negotiations between Moscow, Kyiv, and Ashgabat. Ashgabat opted for a balanced approach by agreeing to supply gas to Kyiv at European-level prices and conditioning this on repayment of the USD 159 million debt owed by Ukraine. In other words, Turkmenistan rejected Ukraine's advances. Russia finally agreed to sell gas to Ukraine at USD 65 until the end of 2006, despite having contracts to sell it to others for a price of USD 230.

Although the 5-year contract signed in the pre-election year of 2004 was set to expire in 2009, Ukraine was in no hurry to sign a new one. On January 1, 2009, Russia cut off its gas supplies to Ukraine; on January 5, it reduced the flow of gas intended for Europe; on January 7, it halted all gas deliveries altogether. On January 19, Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine's prime minister, flew to Moscow.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Yulia Timoshenko shake hands after signing a gas agreement in Moscow, Russia, Monday, January 19, 2009. Photo: AP.

Following lengthy talks held between Tymoshenko and then Russia's Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, a first-ever direct gas supply and transit agreement was signed for 2009-2019. After signing the agreement, Putin pointed to the need to explore alternate routes for shipping Russian gas to Europe. A year later, the Nord Stream 1 gas pipeline construction would get underway.

Commonalities in comparison

The link between the latest events in Ukraine, including the Maidan protests on Independence Square, the coup, the Crimea and the civil war that ensued, on the one hand, and Russian gas supplies to Europe and the 2009 gas contract, on the other, may at first glance appear to be far-fetched. We generally tend to view any events whose mechanisms are beyond our knowledge and comprehension as something far-fetched and inexplicable to us.

That said, the connection between the Russo-Ukrainian "gas wars" and the change in Europe's gas infrastructure and logistics, in contrast with the "political" connection, doesn't seem to surprise anyone or raise anyone's objections.

After the first "war" in 1993, an agreement was signed in Warsaw initiating construction of the Yamal-Western Europe natural gas pipeline that was commissioned in late 1999 during the second "war", reaching its full capacity in 2006 amidst the third "war".

At the height of the second "war" in 1997, a Russia-Turkey agreement on the construction of the Blue Stream pipeline was signed, and a survey of the potential route of Nord Stream 1 on the bottom of the Baltic Sea was initiated.

The end of the third "war" in 2007 was followed by negotiations regarding the construction of the South Stream pipeline that was eventually renamed TurkStream.

The interconnectedness of infrastructures makes it tempting to adopt straightforward solutions and relegate Russo-Ukrainian "gas relations" to the level of strictly bilateral arrangements.

At the time of signing the milestone 2009 contract, Ukraine's transit fell from 130 to 98 billion cubic metres per year.

By 2014, marked by the Maidan protests, this transit had dropped to an even lower level of 85 billion cubic metres, dropping further down to just barely over 40 billion cubic metres at the time of the explosions on the Nord Stream pipeline.

The attack on the Nord Stream pipelines has changed the balance dramatically and upped the role of gas transit through Ukraine to a survival, economic and otherwise, level for the European Union and the rest of Europe, for that matter.

The Ukraine situation has suddenly appeared to be making sense. All that needs to be done is to establish who might stand to benefit from these latest actions.

Part 2.

The Hunt

 The Nord Stream sabotage, part 2

Part 1.

Since the first Russo-Ukrainian "gas war" in 1993 and 1994, the gas relationships between the two countries have been a stalemate. Ukraine's status as a major transit country helped bring the case into the political arena.

This is a stalemate for the producer and the consumer. It is advantageous for the transit country, the intermediary if the producer and the consumer cannot force it to fulfil its obligations. Ukraine does not fall under this definition. The question of who does, who acts as a global intermediary with impunity.

Given the Third Energy Package, the EU can't be excluded from the Ukrainian formula. The discussions over the Third Energy Package initiated during the 2006 "gas war" and its entry into force was timed to coincide with the 2009 "war" and the signing of a direct 10-year contract between Russia and Ukraine.

Gazprom pipelines. Photo: TASS.

And there might be a catch: the discussions over the Third Energy Package started after Gazprom, the Russian gas monopolist, had renegotiated long-term contracts with European buyers in 2004. That is after Europe had secured gas supplies from Russia.

There are similar stories to bear in mind. The 15-year contracts' end date concluded in 2004 overlaps with the 10-year "Ukrainian" contract finished in 2009. It looks quite conspiratorial if we note that Nord Stream 2 was planned to be completed by the end of these contracts in 2019.

The Third Energy Package established a single-oil-and-gas-buyer regime, shutting Gazprom out of the EU internal market. The elaboration of the Package was under steady political pressure from Ukraine or whoever might have been standing behind Ukraine.

The lead singer of the European aria at the Ukrainian orchestra was Berlin, which, if successful, would gain direct access to Russian resources. Germany was turning into the central gas hub, a major distribution centre in Europe with unlimited regulatory capacity. The country was about to become that intermediary between the producer and the consumer.

Some may also remember Hunter Biden was appointed to the board of directors of Ukraine's GTS immediately after the Maidan. Therefore, it was not Ukraine that Berlin set its sights on, so it got punished together with Europe. The Nord Stream explosion buried German hopes to establish an independent economic project.

The Nord Streams sabotage occurred after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz's failed trip to the Middle East in search of spare volumes of gas and oil. The trip showed that, for good or for bad, there is no real alternative to Russian energy supplies. Not only is there no spare capacity, but newly built capacities have already been contracted. So Germany basically would have needed to launch the Nord Streams pipelines at full capacity.

Germany might have been enjoying the status of Europe's major economy for far too long, heavily relying on Russian gas and oil. Now Germany has to "wake up" due to an ending era of its economic leadership.

The hunt

As soon as the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project was announced, the "Nord Stream 2 hunt" began. And no wonder the project, by its scale and prospects, was massive. Fair to say, the political pressure and public scrutiny were enormous. Nord Stream 2 was on the media focus and the energy agenda.

It's all about energy. Photo: Bloomberg.

Earlier this year, Germany was still hesitating about cancelling the project as it had been designed to meet the German industrial demands amid evolving energy issues.

However, Russia played by the American scenario, and the White House demanded a gas embargo. The European Union took a transition time until December to look for alternative suppliers. It turned out to be easier said than done. The German industry, traditionally considered the economic driver of the EU, would be hit first and most likely the most.

Scholz's recent trip to the Middle East was probably the final straw. The Arab countries would not be as fast and easy to refocus from Asia to Europe.

The dominant market is the ruler

The explosion of the WTC towers shifted the issue of the existence of a modern model of the world market from the economic plane to the anti-terrorist one. The sabotage of the underwater communications of Nord Stream brought it into the field of global security.

Such a level of sabotage cannot simply be disregarded. This is not an act of aggression against a specific state, be it Russia or Germany. The pipelines are part of the vital European infrastructure.

The notion of "controlled chaos" became trivial and boring. However, the explosions of the Nord Streams might turn out to be handy for the ideologues of the modern global governance model.

The sabotage could be regarded as a backlash to Germany's attempt to isolate itself from the general energy capital markets. It is not about the chaos but the approach and management tools. What a paradox: mess for the sake of governance. However, a specific method has been employed in the oil market and is now implemented in the gas industry. The model is called spot pricing.

Spot pricing is a trading method and a mechanism to interpret the present based on visions of the future, with the past as the central reference point. It is a struggle between short-term opportunities and strategic perspectives.

Spot pricing pulls funds out of long-term investments into immediate speculative transactions. The method has been used since 1986 in the oil sector.

Such market mechanisms are essential to rule economics and politics. Everything else, including Germany, Europe, Ukraine, Russia, explosions, or wars, are side effects.

 

Biden Launches Economic Act of War Against Chinese Electronics Industry

China's Semiconductor Industry 'Decapitated Overnight': What 'Annihilation Looks Like'

by AJ Fabino, Benzinga Staff Writer 

 

 

ZINGER KEY POINTS

• Sanctions imposed by Biden prevents businesses from sending cutting-edge processors required to run efficient AI algorithms to China.
• The sanctions require any U.S. citizen working in the Chinese semi industry to quit their jobs, or be at risk of losing U.S. citizenship.

 

The Biden administration unveiled a comprehensive strategy last week to move the U.S. forward and hold China back in the production of advanced semiconductors, virtually eliminating China's semi industry overnight, escalating the high-tech battle with Beijing.

“Every American executive and engineer working in China’s semiconductor manufacturing industry resigned yesterday, paralyzing Chinese manufacturing overnight,” wrote Twitter user @lidangzzz, translated by Rhodium Group analyst Jordan Schneider.

“One round of sanctions from Biden did more damage than all four years of performative sanctioning under Trump.”

 

What happened: Yangtze Memory Technologies Co, a company owned by China, and 30 other semiconductor companies in China have been put to the Unverified List by the Bureau of Industry and Security, a division of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Sanctions imposed by the Biden administration also prevent businesses from sending the cutting-edge processors required to run or train the most efficient AI algorithms to China.
Also read: US Said To Mull Sanctions On China To Deter Invasion Of Taiwan And It Could Be A 'Far More Complex' Exercise Than One With Russia

The extensive new regulations are intended to keep China's AI industry in the stone age as the U.S. and other Western nations advance.

The limitations also prohibit the export of chip manufacturing tools and design software and forbid the top silicon fabs in the world, such as Taiwan Semiconductor Mfg. Co. Ltd.

TSM-4.10%+ Free Alerts

 and Samsung, from producing cutting-edge chips for Chinese businesses.

Why Did American Execs Resign? One of the provisions of President Joe Biden's executive order is that any U.S. citizen or green card holder working in China cannot work in the Chinese semiconductor industry or risk of losing American citizenship.

According to the @lidangzzz thread, it is not just affecting Americans.

“Everyone from Lam Research Corporation  LRCX-7.53%+ Free Alerts  at Yangtze Memory left today, and on the 12th the Applied Materials, Inc.  AMAT-5.79%+ Free Alerts folks will leave as well — not just Yangtze, but also HLMC [Shanghai Huali Microelectronics], ICRD’s [Shanghai Integrated Circuit R&D Center Co], Jiading fab, [and] Hefei’s CXMT DRAM fab.”

ASML Holding NV  ASML-6.48%+ Free Alerts, one of the world’s most important semiconductor toolmakers, told U.S. employees to stop servicing Chinese customers.

“The starting point for this round of sanctions is to go all the way up the food chain and ensure the elimination of all American products and technologies from the entire ecosystem,” the thread reads.

Why It Matters: Taiwan Semi reduced its forecasts for capital expenditures and Applied Materials cut its outlook for revenue and profit following the sanctions. Both businesses said the demand for semiconductor products would decline.

Chinese officials described the U.S. limitations as a significant step intended to thwart the development of the nation. The decision might have wide-ranging effects, such as restricting the development of artificial intelligence that underpins algorithms for driverless vehicles, and other risks.

"This is what annihilation looks like: China’s semiconductor manufacturing industry was reduced to zero overnight. Complete collapse. No chance of survival," the thread continued.

Benzinga's Take: While the new sanctions are a sharp blow to China's semi industry, U.S. leverage could fade eventually as Shenzhen, China's innovation powerhouse, intensified efforts to develop its domestic chip sector by giving significant subsidies and financial incentives to semiconductor companies registered in the city.

Stay up to date on U.S. sanctions here. 

Photo via Shutterstock.

US SEC STATE Blinken Calls Terrorist Attack Upon NordStream Gas Arteries"tremendous strategic opportunity"

 US SEC STATE Blinken Calls Terrorist Attack Upon NordStream Gas Arteries"tremendous strategic opportunity"

"My own sense – and I mentioned this the other day – is, look, there’s a lot of hard work to do to make sure that countries and partners get through the winter.  Europe itself has taken very significant steps to both decrease demand but also look at ways to pursue the transition to renewables at the same time.  And ultimately this is also a tremendous opportunity.  It’s a tremendous opportunity to once and for all remove the dependence on Russian energy and thus to take away from Vladimir Putin the weaponization of energy as a means of advancing his imperial designs.  That’s very significant and that offers tremendous strategic opportunity for the years to come, but meanwhile, we’re determined to do everything we possibly can to make sure that the consequences of all of this are not borne by citizens in our countries or, for that matter, around the world."--US Secretary of STATE Antony J. Blinken describing terrorist cutting of European gas lifeline, NordStream 1 + 2 as

"tremendous strategic opportunity"

[SEE: Secretary Antony J. Blinken And Canadian Foreign Minister Mélanie Joly At a Joint Press Availability ;

 Moscow Catches Blinken Letting Slip US Motive for Sabotaging Nord Stream]

Both Nord Stream I & 2 Russian Gas Pipelines Ruptured By Underwater Explosions Overnight

 Both Nord Stream I & 2 Russian Gas Pipelines Ruptured By Underwater Explosions Overnight

[The violent destruction of the Nordstream 1 + 2 pipelines is a direct aggression against the people and interests of the European Union, as well as against Russia.  The entire world is aware that the European people had great hopes that they would be able to top-off all Euro storage facilities before the US forced closure of all Russian gas and oil to Europe.  And there will now be  no American gas available to meet the shortage and it will take a very long time to build new Qatari ships and lp facilities...the coming freezing of Europe will not be Russia's fault.]

Underwater explosions were detected near Nord Stream leaks

• 

  An aerial picture of the gas leak in the Baltic Sea, taken from a F-16 fighter jet belonging to the Danish Armed Forces (Photo: Danish Defence)

By WESTER VAN GAAL

Gas leaks in the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines connecting Russia to Germany are being investigated by a crisis team set up by Sweden and Denmark.

Although the cause of the leaks has not been officially confirmed, measuring stations connected to the Swedish National Seismic Network (SNSN) detected powerful underwater explosions.

• 

  The Danish navy has placed three beacons over the Nord Stream 1 and 2 leaks to signal danger to passing vessels. (Photo: MarineTraffic)

"We do not know what the cause of the explosions is," Michael Roth, a seismologist at SNSN, told EUobserver on Tuesday (27 September). "But we think the events are explosions and not just a burst [pipe] or leak because of the high-frequency signals."

The first explosion was recorded at 02:03 on the night of Monday, and the second at 7:04 p.m. on Monday.

One of the explosions had a magnitude of 2.2 on the Richter scale and was registered at as many as 30 measuring stations in Sweden.

"Blasts and earthquakes can be distinguished by the type of seismic waves they emit. An earthquake of that magnitude would have lower frequencies than a blast," Roth said. "The signals related to the two events are clearly explosions."

"However, we can not deduce which source was used," he said.

The Danish Royal Navy announced on Tuesday it had sent the frigate Absalon and the environmental ship Gunnar Thorson to patrol the waters and prevent vessels from entering the exclusion zones near the leak.

 

In an aerial picture posted by the Danish air force taken from an F-16 fighter jet, gas could be seen swirling to the surface in an area measuring about 1km in diameter. The smaller circle where the other blast took place is approximately 200 metres wide.

"We can see that a lot of gas is being released. So it is not a small crack. It's a really big hole," director of the Danish Energy Agency Kristoffer Böttzauw told Danish daily Berlingske.

Danish authorities on Tuesday raised the level of preparedness for energy companies. This requires them to do physical safety checks of the generator grounds several times a day.

"A leak is extremely rare, and it naturally causes strong concern. That is why we have raised the level of preparedness in Denmark," Böttzauw said.

"It is hard to imagine that it is accidental. We cannot rule out sabotage, but it is too early to conclude," Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen said while in Poland, where she attended the inauguration of the Baltic pipeline which will connect the Norwegian gas grid to Poland.

'Sabotage'

Her Polish counterpart Mateusz Morawieckiwas was less cautious. "Today we faced an act of sabotage, we don't know all the details of what happened, but we see clearly that it's an act of sabotage related to the next step of escalation of the situation in Ukraine," he said.

When asked when divers would be able to investigate the leaks up close, the Danish Energy Agency could not immediately respond.

Bipartisan Blindness and the Illusion of "American Democracy"

 Bipartisan Blindness and the Illusion of "American Democracy"

It’s as-if voters want to remain deceived

  Eric Zuesse

 

 

Right now, most Governments do things that are commonly said to be evil when perpetrated by an ‘enemy’ country but which are simultaneously considered to be okay when one’s own Government does it. For example, the U.S. Government invaded Iraq in 2003 on the basis of purely lies (for which no one was held to account, and which lies were themselves subsequently lied-about by saying they had been only ‘intelligence failures’ though they weren’t at all that), but this same U.S. Government is now pouring the most vicious terms of condemnation upon today’s Russian Government for invading Ukraine after the U.S. anti-Russian military alliance NATO had announced unanimously on January 7th that Ukraine’s application to join that anti-Russian military alliance on Russia’s very border and thus to allow the U.S. Government to position its nuclear missiles in Ukraine within only a five-minute striking-distance from Russia’s central command in Moscow, was going to be accepted. If Russia fails to win control over enough of Ukraine so as to block that from ever happening, then the very real prospect will exist that the time-window for a U.S. blitz nuclear annihilation of Russia’s central command in Moscow will become far shorter than the half-hour time-frame for the Soviet Union to annihilate America’s central command in Washington DC was when JFK threatened Khrushchev with World War III if the Soviet Government were to place its missiles in Cuba. Obviously, that’s unacceptable for any country; it was unacceptable for Americans during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and it would be even more unacceptable for Russians today, because, whereas Cuba is 1,131 miles from DC, Ukraine is (at its nearest point to Moscow) only 353 miles from The Kremlin — and missiles today are far faster than they were in 1962.  

America’s voters don’t want to acknowledge that they were fooled, by lying Presidents and by their stenographic ‘free press’ transmitting Governmental lies — they were thus deceived into invading and destroying Iraq in 2003, and Libya in 2011-, and Syria in 2011-. U.S. is globally the most frequently mentioned nation as being “the greatest threat to peace in the world today.” The biggest threat to peace isn’t Iran, and isn’t Russia, and isn’t China, and isn’t Venezuela, but it is, in fact, their mutually shared and actually aggressive enemy, the United States of America, which wants to dictate to them all — this imperialistic dictatorship demands to impose its ‘democracy’ throughout the world, as it has tried to do in hundreds of coups and invasions. It destroyed Iran’s democracy in 1953. It destroyed Guatemala’s democracy in 1954. It destroyed Chile’s democracy in 1973. And there are many other such instances, less well-known — including many even after the so-called ‘ideological’ Cold War ended in 1991. But the American people obviously don’t want to know, and don’t even care, about the ugliness of the Government that they allegedly ‘elect’ (but really do not — and they don’t want to know that, either). Americans aren’t physical slaves, but are mental slaves — they don’t even want to know the reality, of the regime that rules them.

As A.B. Abrams’s 2021 World War in Syria: Global Conflict on Middle Eastern Battlefields stated in its Chapter 1, regarding what was actually an obsession by the U.S. regime to take control over Syria as soon as the French imperial regime lost Syria in the wake of WW II, “The first [coup in Syria, the CIA’s actually second coup, the one in Thailand in 1948 having been its first-ever coup] was engineered by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) against the government of President Shukri Al Quwatli.11 The [Al Quwatli] administration was targeted primarily due to its lack of enthusiasm for [actually its opposition to] a major American project, the Trans-Arabian Pipeline, which was intended to transport Saudi Arabian oil to Europe through Syrian territory. Quwatli’s replacement, a general with a ‘strong pro-French orientation’ named Husni Al Zaim, ran what Pentagon cables described as an ‘army supported dictatorship’ with a ’strong anti-Soviet attitude.’12 His government approved the pipeline in its first week in power, but was overthrown five months later by colonel Sami Al Hinnawi whose short-lived administration was itself toppled by another colonel, Adib Shishakli, in December [1949]. Shishakli’s pro-Western government lasted four years before a coup deposed it and restored national elections. Al Quwatli was then re-elected in 1955, and his administration distanced itself from the West as a result of the CIA’s involvement in the original March 1949 coup.” This bit of history alone is sufficient to show that at the start of the CIA by U.S. President Truman in 1947, Truman’s Government was fixated upon robbing the peoples of other countries — which Governments it would label as being ‘communist’ though they were not and were ONLY trying to establish or continue democracy, which the U.S. regime would NOT allow — in order to enrich America’s own and allied billionaires, such as the Saudi royal family, and, of course, the U.S.-and-European billionaires who would ALSO get a cut into the marketing and distribution of the Saud family’s oil sales. Clearly, therefore, that bit of history constitutes virtually a proof that as soon as FDR died and WW II was over, Truman turned the U.S. Government into the U.S. regime that we know today, a hegemonic imperialistic-capitalist, or fascist, dictatorship by America’s super-rich as now constituting America’s aristocracy controlling the entire then-nascent growing U.S. empire — grab, grab, grab, all the way. For example: as was documented by the link at the opening here, the U.S. regime’s invasion of Iraq in 2003 was no mere fluke or ‘intelligence error’ (such as the billionaires’ media portray it) but instead it was just another part of the entire post-FDR U.S. global dictatorship, which constantly lies through its teeth in order to further enrich its insatiably grasping billionaires and their foreign business-partners, all being an international-gangland operation that they have the nerve to call ‘democracy’ (and, so, to insult that noble term).

Americans prefer to remain deceived, and to blame-the-victims — Iran, Russia, China, Syria, Venezuela, etc. — even as our Government imposes entirely unjustified and unjustifiable strangulating economic blockades (“sanctions”) against countries that America’s voracious and vicious megacorporate aristocracy (America’s billionaires) want to control, so as for those lands to become additional parts of the U.S. regime’s global dictatorship, and for those super-rich vampires to suck dry even of their independence.

This is a 1984 country, where white is black, good is bad, war is peace, deception is routine, and the masses are satisfied, with their intellectual enslavement, to these lies and liars — their masters. 

Here’s an example:

On August 1st of 2019, the largest Republican Party online news-medium, Breitbart, headlined “Donald Trump: Tulsi Gabbard ‘Doesn’t Know What She’s Talking About’ on Al Qaeda”, and reported:

President Donald Trump criticized Rep. Tulsi Gabbard on Thursday for claiming that he was supporting Al Qaeda.

During the Democrat debate on Wednesday, Gabbard accused the president of betraying the American people on terrorism.

“We were supposed to be going after Al Qaeda,” she said. “But over years now, not only have we not gone after Al Qaida, who is stronger today than they were in 9/11, our president is supporting Al Qaida.”

Gabbard had asserted during the July 31st Democratic debate:

We were all lied to. This is the betrayal. This is the betrayal to the American people, to me, to my fellow servicemembers. We were all lied to, told that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, was working with Al Qaida, and that this posed a threat to the American people.

So I enlisted after 9/11 to protect our country, to go after those who attacked us on that fateful day, who took the lives of thousands of Americans.

The problem is that this current president is continuing to betray us. We were supposed to be going after Al Qaida. But over years now, not only have we not gone after Al Qaida, who is stronger today than they were in 9/11, our president is supporting Al Qaida. 

Donald Trump can’t stand the truth, and neither can Gabbard’s own Democratic Party voters, who refuse to recognize that their own beloved President Obama had been protecting Al Qaeda in Syria in order to overthrow Syria’s sovereign Government and replace it with one that would be appointed by the Saud family who own Saudi Arabia.

The scum that is at the top of the U.S. Government (including all recent Presidents) is bipartisan in supporting the Sauds and their Israeli ally, both of whom crave for America to invade and destroy Iran, which both of them consider to be their mortal enemy. Trump wanted economically to strangle Iran to death without physically invading it, but that’s hardly less barbaric, and less unjustifiable, than an outright invasion — and Iran never invaded nor even threatened to invade America. This is pure U.S. aggression, which is the American Government’s way. Israel and the Sauds aren’t rich enough to protect themselves? What? They really can’t protect themselves? (And Iran won’t attack either of them, unless it’s invaded; so: What’s all of this about, anyway, other than lies and power-grabbing, by the U.S. Government and its allies?)

One of the rare intelligent and well-informed readers at that Breitbart article commented:

windship  Doug Dannger • I’m not American, so am neutral on Gabbard, but most of the world that pays attention knows full well that al Qaeda owes it’s entire existence to the astounding generosity of three deceptive nations: the US, Israel and the KSA. Great teamwork produces things like 9/11.

Why don’t Americans know and understand what that person knew and understood? They refuse to. There are exceptions, of course, just as there are some Americans who know and understand that the U.S. regime is the biggest threat to peace throughout the world, but there are only few exceptions. The rest are mental slaves — they insist upon believing lies.

Also on August 1st of 2019, Fox News headlined “Tulsi Gabbard defends debate claim that Trump supports Al Qaeda”, and reported:

“Gabbard cited Trump’s “support and alliance with Saudi Arabia that is both providing direct and indirect support directly to Al Qaeda,” when she spoke to Shannon Bream of “Fox News @ Night” after the debate.” “’How can you say Saudi Arabia is a great partner in fighting terrorism when they are fueling and funding terrorist groups in Yemen?’ she added.” She said that Saudi Arabia is pushing for a war with Iran, which would be “far more devastating, far more costly” than the U.S. war in Iraq.

Most of the reader-comments there were pure partisan (i.e., suckered) bunk, like “Democrats never back down from a lie even when they’re proven wrong.” But one was partly realistic:

RobtheOld: Whose to blame on this one…Tulsi or Fox?  The Saudis have been giving money to Al Qaeda for years thru radical clerics [actually, even through Saudi princes’ own donations], under the table and not so under the table.  Clinton, Bush and Obama all knew this in real time.  What did they do about it?  What does she expect Trump to do about it?  The Saudis are one of our “best” friends in the region, or so the experts say..  I don’t see how that means President Trump is supporting Al Qaeda.  I do know that Tulsi once took a volcanic stone from the Big Island and that’s why Kilauea erupted.  That means Tulsi started the volcano, right?

The reality is that Gabbard spoke the truth. But Americans don’t want to know this. Trump, like Obama, was a supporter of the Sauds, and protected Al Qaeda. Even the neocon The Daily Beast acknowledged on 13 March 2017 (two months after Trump became President) “The American air campaign has notably not targeted al Qaeda in Syria, known as Jabhat al Nusra.” Trump continued Obama’s policy. Trump does whatever he can to place the Sauds in control of Syria. The U.S. regime lies through its teeth. And Americans believe it, each time, as if the U.S. Government’s track-record in its allegations regarding international affairs were good, instead of disgusting and loaded with lies. Donald Trump protects Al Qaeda in Syria, just as did Barack Obama. 

Back on 4 April 2007, when the New York Times headlined “Pelosi Meets With Syrian Leader [Assad]”, Democrats approved but Republicans did not; but when on 26 January 2017 Rep. Gabbard met with him, the headline at CBS was “Rep. Tulsi Gabbard defends meeting with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad”, and she was not only condemned by Republicans, but abandoned by Democrats. PBS’s (Public Broadcasting System’s) 1 October 2020 interview with Gabbard opened with the interviewer saying that Gabbard had “infamously met with Bashar al-Assad.” The U.S. regime is in lock-down mode, now — bipartisan fascism — and its public just go along with this, don’t rebel against such propaganda; they instead subscribe to it. Not to be fascist is even treated as if that were to be unpatriotic. (This is like the McCarthyism period; but, this time, there’s not even the ideological rationalization for it, just sheer evil on the part of the perpetrators, plus callousness, if not disinterest, on the part of the public.) The American people accept a fascist regime; this has even become bipartisan fascism, in America. Never before has Americans’ self-deception been quite this pervasive. Only around 2% of Democratic voters were supporting Gabbard, and the media did everything they could to bring that number even lower. Right after the 31 July 2019 Democratic Presidential Primary debate, a ten-minute Anderson Cooper interview with her presented Cooper (at 5:10-8:10 in that video-clip) basically challenging her patriotism and even her decency, because she had met with Assad. This was blatant billionaires-hired prime-time CNN propaganda, to ditch her candidacy. Jamil Smith, of Rolling Stone, MSNBC, and The New Republic, said that her answers there, to Cooper, were “disqualifying”. 

Americans today don’t mind invading and occupying a country on the basis of sheer lies. But then Americans become exercised with hatred against Russia when it invaded Ukraine after NATO insisted that Ukraine would become a member (and so there was the real prospect of U.S. nuclear missiles becoming positioned just a five-minute flight to annihilating Moscow) after Obama had couped and grabbed Ukraine in 2014 in what some have called “the most blatant coup in history.” Controlling the media is controlling the mass-mind, in a ‘democracy’. But such a country can’t be any democracy, because its public are mere mental slaves to whatever liars appeal to the biggest percentage of the public’s prejudices. In America, it comes down to Democratic Party lies, versus Republican Party lies. Just like with science itself, democracy can be based only on the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.

 Eric Zuesse

 

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse's new book, AMERICA'S EMPIRE OF EVIL: Hitler's Posthumous Victory, and Why the Social Sciences Need to Change, is about how America took over the world after World War II in order to enslave it to U.S.-and-allied billionaires. Their cartels extract the world's wealth by control of not only their 'news' media but the social 'sciences' — duping the public.

The Four Horsemen of the 21st century: War, capitalism, fascism and mass death

 

The Four Horsemen of the 21st century: War, capitalism, fascism and mass death

Billionaires won't give up on corporate rule. The angry masses embrace fascist demagogues. This won't end well

By CHRIS HEDGES

Scales with dollars and skull with US flag (Getty Images/bestdesigns)

 

 

This article originally appeared at ScheerPost. Used by permission.

It is hard to be sanguine about the future. The breakdown of the ecosystem is well documented. So is the refusal of the global ruling elite to pursue measures that might mitigate the devastation. We accelerate the extraction of fossil fuels, wallow in profligate consumption, including our consumption of livestock, and make new wars as if we are gripped by a Freudian death wish. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse — Conquest, War, Famine and Death — gallop into the 21st century.Those who rule, servants of corporations and the global billionaire class, accompany the suicidal folly by cementing into place corporate tyranny. The plan is not to reform. It is to perpetuate the corporate pillage. This pillage, more and more onerous for the global population, necessitates a new totalitarianism, one where the billionaire class lives in opulence, workers are serfs, rights such as privacy and due process are abolished, Big Brother watches us all the time, war is the chief business of the state, dissent is criminalized and those displaced by conflicts and climate breakdown are barred entry into the climate fortresses in the global north. Portions of the human species, the most privileged, will, in theory, hold out a little longer before they succumb to the great die-off.

RELATED: Jesus, endless war and the irresistible rise of American fascism

 

The persecuted and the abandoned, now in the tens of millions, know the future. For them, the future has already arrived. Julian Assange, the most important publisher of our generation, whose extradition to the U.S. was approved last Friday by British Home Secretary Priti Patel, is an example of what will befall all publishers and journalists that expose the inner workings of power. His imprisonment for revealing the war crimes, mendacity, cynicism and corruption of the ruling class, including the Democratic Party, heralds a new era. Investigations into the centers of power, the life blood of journalism, will be a criminal offense.

It does not matter that Assange, who suffered a stroke and is in poor physical and psychological health, is not a U.S. citizen or that WikiLeaks is not a U.S.-based publication. It does not matter that all of Assange's meetings with his attorneys were recorded by UC Global, the Spanish security firm at the Ecuadorian embassy where Assange lived for seven years, and turned over to the U.S., obliterating attorney-client privilege. The campaign against Assange, and I have sat in on hearings in London, is a Dickensian farce, the persecution of an innocent and heroic man, far more reminiscent of the Lubyanka than the best of British jurisprudence. He is being used to send a message: If you expose what we do we will destroy you.

Workers, whether in the vast sweatshops in China or the decayed ruins of the Rust Belt, struggle on subsistence wages without job protection or unions. They are cursed by trade deals, deindustrialization, austerity, rising interest rates and rising prices. They, too, know the future.

 

The decision to raise interest rates by three-quarters of a percentage point, with new rate hikes on the way, will further depress wages, which have stagnated for decades, increase unemployment and personal debt and make food and other basic necessities more expensive. Raising interest rates usually induces a recession. But the oligarchs are more than willing to extract blood from the working class. Inflation reduces investment returns. It disrupts leveraged financial strategies.

Prices are not rising because of wages.

The Fed's decision to raise interest rates will depress wages, increase unemployment and make basic necessities more expensive. The oligarchs are more than willing to extract blood from the working class.

 They are rising because of supply shortages and price-gouging by corporations and oil conglomerates. U.S. corporations posted their biggest profit growth in decades by raising prices during the pandemic. Corporate pretax profits rose last year by 25 percent to $2.81 trillion, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. That's the largest annual increase since 1976, according to the Federal Reserve. When taxes are included, last year's corporate profit rose to 37 percent, more than any other time since the Fed began tracking profits in 1948.

Antitrust laws and breaking up monopolies would ease the strain of inflation and lower prices. Rationing would break inflation. So would a wage-price freeze. Nationalization, reversing the capture of public utilities, the health care system, banking and other services by corporations, would also blunt price rises. But the billionaire class is not about to impose measures that diminish their profits. They will keep their monopolies. They will keep their grip on what were once public assets. The message from the billionaire class is this: The economy is run for our benefit, not yours.

Ukrainians, enduring a war of attrition with the infusion of tens of billions of dollars of weapons from the U.S. and Europe, know the future. War is the chief business of the state. It enriches the arms industry. It expands the military budget. The U.S. now sends $130 million a day in military aid and assistance to Ukraine, part of the $55 billion in aid promised by Washington.

The U.S., struggling with societal breakdown and an ailing economy, sees its military as the only mechanism left to destroy global competitors, especially Russia and China. Russia, hemmed in by an expanding NATO in Central and Eastern Europe, and China, harassed by a succession of carrier groups in the South China Sea, which Washington has called a "national interest," have been united as U.S. adversaries. China sees the waterways of Asia and the Pacific as part of its sphere of influence, as Russia sees Ukraine and other neighboring states. The aggressive military posturing of the U.S. on the borders of China and Russia has provoked an unnecessary cold war, one many Washington policy makers nonchalantly expect may evolve into a hot war amongst nuclear armed nations that would potentially obliterate life on the planet.

 

There is an intensifying scramble for control, with Russia's invasion of Ukraine and China's building of air bases from Japan to Australia along the Asian littoral, giving it the ability to attack warships, including aircraft carriers, in the western Pacific. The refusal of the U.S. to accommodate itself to a multipolar world and to stop chasing the chimera of unrivaled global hegemony has seen Russia and China solidify an alliance that cold warriors worked hard to prevent. The hostilities, a self-fulfilling prophecy by U.S. warmongers, delight the Washington establishment whose goal is to perpetuate endless war.

You know you are in trouble when Henry Kissinger, who has called for Ukraine to cede territory to Russia and open negotiations with Moscow "in the next two months before it creates upheavals and tensions that will not be easily overcome," is a voice of sanity.

Despotic governments need an enemy to justify the repression of dissidents, the reduction and cancellation of social programs and the iron control of information. Wars justify the unjustifiable — black sites, kidnapping, torture, targeted assassinations, censorship and arbitrary detention — off-the-book war crimes. War induces a state of perpetual paranoia and fear. It demands mass obedience.

You know you're in trouble when Henry Kissinger is a voice of reason. As Orwell wrote, "The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous."

"The war is not meant to be won, it is meant to be continuous," George Orwell writes in "1984." "Hierarchical society is only possible on the basis of poverty and ignorance. This new version is the past and no different past can ever have existed. In principle the war effort is always planned to keep society on the brink of starvation. The war is waged by the ruling group against its own subjects and its object is not the victory over either Eurasia or East Asia, but to keep the very structure of society intact."

The message of endless war is this: If you defy the ruling class, the militarists and the government, you are a traitor.

 

The 140 million people across the globe suffering from acute hunger, a result of the pandemic, the climate crisis and the war in Ukraine, know the future, along with the families of the 15 million people who died from the pandemic, hundreds of thousands of whom with proper prevention and medical care could have been saved. The refugees fleeing failed states and climate disasters — there could be 1.2 billion climate refugees by 2050 — in the global south know the future.

The message imparted to the poor, the vulnerable, the sick and the weak is this: Your lives and the lives of your children do not matter.

The oligarchs in the Democratic Party and the establishment wing of the Republican Party are aware they are in political trouble. Is it due to Russian meddling? Is it due to Donald Trump and his proto-fascist minions? Is it caused by journalists and publishers like Assange who give them a bad name? Is it a failure of messaging? Is it a lack of rigorous censorship of the far-right and leftist critics?

The Democratic Party, now united with the establishment Republican Party, is flailing around for a solution. It is bankrolling far-right candidates in the Republican primaries, a tactic that backfired on Hillary Clinton when her campaign worked during the primaries to promote Donald Trump as the Republican nominee. Retrograde Republicans, de facto members of the Democratic Party because they voted to impeach Trump, are being lionized as true patriots, as if they can lure people away from Trump and Trump-like clones. Robert Reich, along with other Democratic leaders, argues that Rep. Liz Cheney — who voted for Trump policies 93 percent of the time as a member of the House but now looks set to lose her bid for reelection in Wyoming — has "demonstrated more courage and integrity than any other politician in America" and might just be "the best president of the United States for the perilous time we're entering." Jonathan V. Last, in an article headlined "Mike Pence is an American Hero" in the Atlantic, writes that Pence "did more to protect democracy — both on January 6 and since — than any other person inside the Trump administration."

Perhaps the expected Supreme Court ruling that will overturn Roe v. Wade will work in their favor. Perhaps the televised hearings on the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol, an extended campaign commercial, will convince voters to support them. Perhaps the promise of more stringent gun laws will excite the electorate.

What can we possibly expect from a political party that believed Michael Bloomberg would save them from Bernie Sanders?

What can we expect from a party leadership that believed Michael Bloomberg, who has switched allegiance between the Democratic and Republican parties several times, would save them from progressives such as Bernie Sanders? What can we expect from a party leadership that anointed Joe Biden, who spent his political career dispossessing working men and women, building the world's largest prison system, militarizing police, destroying the welfare system and funding military fiascos in the Middle East, as president?

The Biden administration is defined by failed expectations, from its stymied Build Back Better Plan to its refusal to raise the minimum wage. It is running on fumes, using gimmicks, empty rhetoric, spectacle and fear to intimidate the electorate.

The descent is pathetic to watch, reminiscent of the moment Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu tried desperately to placate an unruly crowd from the Balcony of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Romania building by offering to raise pensions and family allowances by $2 a month. He and his wife were executed four days later. The discredited East German Communist Party, which like the Romanian revolution I also covered as a reporter, made similar empty gestures, promising to open its closed party headquarters to the public long after anyone cared.

The billionaire class, or at least many of them, would prefer to loot and pillage under the cover of the old political decorum and rhetoric. They like the fiction of paying homage to an emasculated democracy. It gives them the veneer of respectability.

But this is not to be. The rage of the betrayed is articulated by imbecilic demagogues vomited up from the social and political swamp. Corporations and the billionaire class will continue to exploit, but under a cruder and crueler authoritarianism. The social, political, economic and environmental breakdown will accelerate. Reality, increasingly unpalatable, will cease to exist in public discourse. It will be replaced by millenarian cults, such as the Christian fascists, and bizarre conspiracy theories, a retreat into magical thinking where evil is embodied in demonized individuals and groups that must be eradicated. Truth and lies will be indistinguishable. The vulnerable will be cast aside, blamed for their own misery, as well as ours. Those who resist will be criminals. Mass death will sweep across the planet. This is the world our children will inherit unless those who control us are wrenched from power.

 

Read more from Chris Hedges on war, peace and the future:

• Jan. 6 committee is spectacle taking the place of politics: It will accomplish nothing
• There will be no gun control: For many white Americans, the idea of the gun is all they have left
• A return to permanent war is here: First it will bankrupt America, then destroy it

By CHRIS HEDGES

Chris Hedges is the former Middle East bureau chief of the New York Times, a Pulitzer Prize winner and a columnist at ScheerPost. He is the author of several books, including "America: The Farewell Tour," "American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War on America" and "War Is a Force That Gives Us Meaning." He previously worked overseas for the Dallas Morning News, the Christian Science Monitor and NPR, and hosts the Emmy-nominated RT America show "On Contact."

 

MORE FROM CHRIS HEDGES

Waging the Imperial Economic War With No Regard For Unlimited Collateral Damage

 

"When the American Govt. made the decision to wage total economic war against Russia, Europe's and one of the world's top energy producers, it was obvious to any observer that there would be severe economic hardship inflicted upon all the people of Europe and anyone heating their homes with nat. gas or fuel oil. Like the many extreme and deadly hardships already visited upon the people of Ukraine by the American plan to use Ukraine to destroy Putin (Did US GOV Sacrifice Ukraine To Get Putin?), US leaders had zero concern for the hardships to be inflicted upon the world by this cowardly American foreign policy plot."

 

EU in for another winter shock – Reuters

Diesel storage tanks are drying up ahead of a Russian oil ban, according to the media

© Getty Images / lovro77

 

The European Union is heading into winter with seasonally low levels of diesel in storage tanks, Reuters reported on Friday, warning of major implications for the continent’s industries and drivers amid looming sanctions on Russian crude oil and refined product supplies.

The latest data from Wood Mackenzie shows the region’s stockpiles of road diesel, heating oil and other diesel-type fuel are set to dwindle this November to the lowest levels on record in data that goes back to the start of 2011.

According to a Reuters report, current prices trade at a premium to prices for future deliveries, which makes it uneconomical for traders to put diesel into storage and book a profit. “No one in their right mind would put diesel into tanks at those levels,” an unnamed European trader told the outlet.

The situation is deteriorating as the market is already tight due to refinery outages in Austria, which along with Germany and Switzerland is looking to build heating oil stocks ahead of winter.

Meanwhile, surging natural gas prices, which are encouraging a switch to oil products for power generation could also tighten the market further, FGE Energy warns.

READ MORE: EU ramped up Russian coal imports before ban – media

 

The International Energy Agency on Thursday raised its forecast for oil demand growth for this year by 380,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 2.1 million bpd citing the gas-to-oil switch.

Reuters pointed out, citing data from energy analytics firm Vortexa, that Europe continues to rely heavily on Russia to satisfy its diesel demand. Statistics show that 60% of the region’s seaborne diesel imports originated from Russia last month.

And with no evidence that companies are stockpiling ahead of sanctions, “traders expect Europe to be in for a winter shock,” the media outlet wrote. It quoted another European trader as saying “Who knows what is going to happen [at the] back end of this year, early next – looks like it will be carnage for a bit.”

The European Union plans to stop buying all seaborne Russian crude oil from early December and will ban all refined products from the country two months later.

 

McConnell Wants Pelosi To Provoke China, By Going To Taiwan

"McConnell has never seen a war he didn't like. When it comes to hawkishness and reckless bloodlust, Pelosi and Mitch are opposite sides of the same coin...they join hands for every war and argue publicly over a handful of issues. This is the state of American Democracy."

McConnell says Pelosi would hand China a win if she sacks Taiwan trip after complaints

By Mark Moore

 

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will provide China a “victory of sorts”​ if she backs off from an expected trip to Taiwan.

The Kentucky Republican was asked about the speaker traveling to Taiwan amid China’s threats and said there are other matters beyond the trip that should be discussed.

“If she doesn’t go now, she’s handling China a sort of a victory of sorts,” McConnell said at a Senate Republican leadership news conference on Tuesday.

Instead, he said the emphasis should be on making sure that the “weapons systems that they actually have meet the threat that they might actually have to endure. And that requires I think a good deal more emphasis on Taiwan defense than we’ve had.”

China, reacting this weekend to a possible visit by Pelosi later this summer, escalated its warnings to the US — even a possible military response.

China’s Foreign Ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian on Monday said: “We are seriously prepared.”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell was asked about the speaker traveling to Taiwan amid China’s threats.

Bloomberg via Getty Images

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will provide China a “victory of sorts”​ if she backs off from an expected trip to Taiwan, according to Mitch McConnell.

CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Imag

Asked what that meant, he responded, “If the US side is bent on going its own way, China will take strong measures to resolutely respond and counteract.”

“The United States should be held responsible for any serious consequences,” he added.

Amid the heightened tensions, Taiwan’s capital Taipei staged air raid drills and the country’s military conducted joint air and sea exercises that involved the mobilization of tanks and troops on Monday.

Sirens blared throughout the city as people took to shelters and shops closed.  ​​

China and its Foreign Ministry spokesperson Zhao Lijian have been adamant about the U.S. not getting involved in Taiwan-China affairs.

VCG via Getty Images

“In recent years, Chinese military planes have frequently harassed Taiwan, and the war between Russia and Ukraine broke out in February this year,” Taipei Mayor Ko Wen-je told reporters, ​referring to fears that Beijing could follow Moscow’s example and invade Taiwan.

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What do you think? Post a comment.

“All these things make us understand the importance of being vigilant in times of peace and we need to be prepared if there is war.”​