It's not Russia, it's Putin

[UnseenParticipant]

PopeBeanie wrote:

I already said, he could be false-flagging the sabotage. What benefits him, personally, is any perceived “win” that could keep him in power.

Occam’s razor tells me that the United States doing it is a far less twisted explanation.

You know, Putin is a bad actor and he’s had Russia doing some bad things, but we Americans have become so used to thinking of that shit that we are almost automatically willing to blame them for everything. Maybe they sometimes aren’t behind the things our overlords attribute to them.,

[UnseenParticipant]

_Robert_ wrote:

jakelafort wrote:

Robert, did you escape damage from the hurricane?

Thanks for asking Jake! We did OK, no power for 3 days because a tree fell on the powerlines, but the house is on 4-foot pilings, so that helped us stay dry. The garden is striped of leaves, hoping some of the plants will recover. The eye passed over us as it was transitioning from a cat 1 to a TS. If it was gonna be a 3 or higher, we would have packed up and made a dash. I learned not to mess around with these things after barely surviving Andrew when I lived further south.

I always wonder why people live in Florida when they could go to California which also has palm trees and be rid of hurricanes, mosquitoes, and proto-fascist politicians. What’s your attraction?

[_Robert_Participant]

Unseen wrote:

_Robert_ wrote:

jakelafort wrote:

Robert, did you escape damage from the hurricane?

Thanks for asking Jake! We did OK, no power for 3 days because a tree fell on the powerlines, but the house is on 4-foot pilings, so that helped us stay dry. The garden is striped of leaves, hoping some of the plants will recover. The eye passed over us as it was transitioning from a cat 1 to a TS. If it was gonna be a 3 or higher, we would have packed up and made a dash. I learned not to mess around with these things after barely surviving Andrew when I lived further south.

I always wonder why people live in Florida when they could go to California which also has palm trees and be rid of hurricanes, mosquitoes, and proto-fascist politicians. What’s your attraction?

Family and we have a beautiful home we enjoy a lot. Yet, we decided they can visit 🙂 so I have been researching the best choice for new home state and town if/when it becomes possible. We would like to travel and stay there for a while to be sure, but the pandemic slowed that effort down.

Vermont would be great for me but not for my sweetheart, cold winters. Rural East Tennessee looks pretty good to us, but damn, that area is full of bible thumpers. Oregon is nice but expensive. We do like acreage. I have three acres now so when we move, I would like ten or more.

[UnseenParticipant]

@robert

If you’re done with semitropical climates and ridiculous weather, consider the Pacific Northwest. I live in Portland, which has its problems, but Eugene and Corvallis are college towns with Eugene having a hippie-esque vibe. Southern Oregon is gorgeous but less developed. Ashland looks a lot like Vermont but no cold winters.  Eastern Oregon is high desert and equally gorgeous.

Washington State has even more spectacular scenery, but many people will tell you that Oregon is a nicer place to live.

Come out here for your next vacation and explore.

[Reg the Fronkey FarmerModerator]

If I were to live in the USA I would go somewhere like this part of Atlanta. I would be happy on a half acre site as it is surrounded 1000’s of acres of national parks with great amenities. I have walked or jogged most of them over the last 20 years. I would also consider somewhere further north towards Chattanooga, TN,  if acreage was towards the top of my list.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Unseen,

LNG is one of the many derivatives of refined petroleum, along with gasoline, kerosene, diesel, propane, butane, naptha, plastics, and many other products. If the U.S. has been gelded of its ability to obtain and refine petroleum, then it can’t get any of these other derivative products either nor can we offer them to the world market to undercut OPEC, China, and Russia.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Robert,

Sorry to hear about the power down there, but I’m glad the worst didn’t happen to you. Too many Floridians weren’t that lucky and as always, the aftermath always brings new death tolls as the damage is cleared.

Wherever you move, remember that each area has its own unique risks for natural disasters and not one square inch of Earth is exempt. Prepare with the commonalities needed in all disasters (shelter, water supply, food supply, medicine and First Aid, tools, weapons, data and communications, entertainment, etc.). But also prepare for area-specific hazards (e.g. clear brush and trees away from homes and build a fire-break in wildfire-prone areas, build window shutters and have basement space for Tornado Alley, get snow shovels, ice melt, and paver attachments to mowers and tractors for snowstorm zones, etc.)

Above all, go where your money and person are safest from human predators, whether from the street or from City Halls and State Capitols.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Unseen,

I asked you to fit China into your theories against centralized control. You know, how is it that if centralized control doesn’t work that they’ve been taking our lunch money and growing two or three times faster for some decades now.

Did you miss that or are you working hard on filling us all in?

Sorry for missing that. While Red China averted starvation back in the Eighties when Deng Xaiopeng allowed the peasants to own their own 8′ × 10′ plots and allowed some privatization of small business, basically, Red China’s much-vaunted economic growth is a State-created bubble.

An economic bubble happens wherever participants in a market spend more for a good or service than the initial market price says the good or service is worth. It can only happen and last when there is an incentive to spend more than the good or service is worth and when there is gain to be had from the good or service. When the incentive and gain stops, the bubble either deflates and shrinks or bursts.

Red China’s gersion of The Federal Reserve has incentivized both personal and business debt as well as buying and investing real estate. A decade back the amoint of debt was as great as the entire Gross Domestic Product (GDP). And real estate plots are over 25 times what the average worker can pay. This diverts massive amounts of capital from other more fruitful ventures and encourages leveraging of property for dubious other ventures. When those ventures can’t pay their bills or taxes, then the bubble will burst and the biggest downturn in world history begins.

• This reply was modified 5 months, 4 weeks ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Punctuation

[UnseenParticipant]

TheEncogitationer wrote:

Unseen, LNG is one of the many derivatives of refined petroleum, along with gasoline, kerosene, diesel, propane, butane, naptha, plastics, and many other products. If the U.S. has been gelded of its ability to obtain and refine petroleum, then it can’t get any of these other derivative products either nor can we offer them to the world market to undercut OPEC, China, and Russia.

Umm, then what about US finalizing plans to divert gas to Europe if Russia cuts off supply even before Russia invaded?

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Unseen,

Read the first sentence. Biden was begging other global supliers to provide fuel. He wasn’t sending U.S.-produced fuel.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Fellow Unbelievers,

Now see, folks. I am being infinitely gracious on this topic. People with literal skin, bone, flesh, blood, and brains in the game say it very differently 😁

Ukraine ambassador tells Elon Musk to ‘f*** off’ after Tesla boss tries Twitter poll to solve conflict
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/ukraine-elon-musk-twitter-poll-ambassador-melnyk-b2191856.html

• This reply was modified 5 months, 3 weeks ago by  TheEncogitationer. Reason: Spelling

[UnseenParticipant]

TheEncogitationer wrote:

Unseen, Read the first sentence. Biden was begging other global supliers to provide fuel. He wasn’t sending U.S.-produced fuel.

Nice try, but you’re going way beyond the actual words. It says that American officials “(are) working with global suppliers to avoid European gas crisis if flow from Russia is cut…”

Then further down, “The US has helped prepare for the diversion of natural gas supplies from around the world to Europe in the event that the flow from Russia is cut, in an effort to blunt Vladimir Putin’s most powerful economic weapon.”

No one, myself included, is saying that the United States could handle all of Europe’s needs on its own. And, there’s no mention anywhere in the article implying that the American contribution would be severely limited, is there?

Maybe you can document that the United States has put the world on notice that it won’t be able to help Europe very much this winter(?).

• This reply was modified 5 months, 3 weeks ago by  Unseen.

[TheEncogitationerParticipant]

Unseen,

The fact that it said “global suppliers” means it’s more than just the U.S. doing the supplying for Europe.

And with less drilling and no pipeline building in the U.S. this means that anything the U.S. exports will be to the depletion of our own use and the prices will go up even greater than the normal rise in Fall and Winter.

Column: U.S. gas exports squeeze domestic supply
https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-gas-exports-squeeze-domestic-supply-kemp-2022-09-29/

[UnseenParticipant]

TheEncogitationer wrote:

Unseen, The fact that it said “global suppliers” means it’s more than just the U.S. doing the supplying for Europe. And with less drilling and no pipeline building in the U.S. this means that anything the U.S. exports will be to the depletion of our own use and the prices will go up even greater than the normal rise in Fall and Winter. Column: U.S. gas exports squeeze domestic supply https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-gas-exports-squeeze-domestic-supply-kemp-2022-09-29/

I’m not sure what point you are trying to make. I am not saying it would be 100% the burden of the U.S. If you’re implying that the U.S. can’t contribute at all, that’s absurd.  One thing is certain, if the U.S. and other producers have to step up by both increasing production and increasing exports to help Europe, the price of LNG and other fuels will be rising.

[UnseenParticipant]

Well-known and widely-respected economist Jeffrey Sachs discusses several Ukraine-related topics. Of particular interest here, perhaps, is that at 4:45 he gives his take on who blew up the Nord Stream pipelines and his hosts absolutely freak out.

• This reply was modified 5 months, 3 weeks ago by  Unseen.

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