160 thoughts to “Open Thread Non-Petroleum, August 25, 2022”

  1. It was reported that on Saturday South Pole pointed North and vice versa

    1. Didn’t happen. I was out that day with my compass teaching tactical nav and everything was cool.

  2. Latest metoffice data shows the record-breaking heatwave experienced across Europe will be considered an ‘average’ summer by 2035. So much for the kids and their 401K’s.

    1. Its easier to take shade under a photovoltaic panel than under a pile of coal.
      Subterranean caverns may become much more popular.

    1. Look at the US gas flaring stats. Over 6,000 gas flares in the US. Russia had 1,700 last I looked, although they are larger. The whole gas flaring practice is the single biggest waste of energy in history. Hard to get sanctimonious about it when one looks at the practice in general.

      1. My point is that Putana is purposely burning off gas to mock those deprived of it.

      2. Yes, flaring should be banned. You hear a lot of talk abut banning fracking, but flaring is where the government should start.

        1. You guys seem to have no idea why gas is flared. If they did not flare the gas they would simply have to shut down the well or lay a very expensive pipeline to connect with a, very likely, distant pipeline. Oil can be stored in tanks then trucked out. Gas cannot. So if all flareing stopped tomorrow then crude oil production would suddenly drop by many millions of barrels per day.

          From the Web:

          When an oil well begins to spew, less-valuable natural gas comes up alongside crude. Pipelines can capture that gas, but when they’re not available, producers often get rid of the gas so they don’t have to stop pumping oil. They do that by either igniting the gas, in the case of flaring, or releasing it directly into air, known as venting. Flaring is preferred because methane, an especially potent greenhouse gas, is burned off, though carbon dioxide is released into the air.

          1. If they did not flare the gas they would simply have to shut down the well

            OR pipe and sell the shit where it’s needed!

            From the article linked above:

            Flaring is a common practice in oil and gas production, but the current level is unusually high and the timing is sensitive because of the Russian supply cuts.

          2. Gosh Ron you’re so smart. I guess there’s no solution. Clearly the oil industry has transformed itself to the best of all possible worlds and no efficiency improvements are conceivable.

            But fuck it, I still think we should stop wasting so much oil, and ban electricity lines to oil rigs.

          3. It’s possible and feasible to install a gas gathering system. I have never worked in a field without one. This problem can be solved with a no flare rule.

          4. It’s possible and feasible to install a gas gathering system.

            Of course, you can lay a pipeline. It’s all about economics. What would the pipeline cost versus how much would you profit from the gas sold. Again, it’s all about economics.

            have never worked in a field without one.

            You have never worked in an oil field without one? I must question that statement. Looking at the earth from space, at night, the Bakken, Eagle Ford, and the Permian are lit up like an enormous city from all the flares. You have obviously never worked in any of those fields.

            1. It isn’t really about economics at all. If the rule were enforced, it would raise the price of oil, but by much less than the wild swings we experience anyway.

              The price of a barrel has swung between -$38 and $120 a total difference of $158 in recent years. How much do you think oil would cost per barrel more if flaring were banned?

              If you want to claim economics is the issue, I’d need to see some numbers, not just a rant.

              Also I’d remind you that the oil industry has had a century of breathtaking profitability. A ban on flaring would bite into that, but not be the End of Civilization as We Know It. In fact, whining about adhering to basic ecology rules because it would lose you money reminds me of Mother Goose:

              Hark, hark, the dogs do bark
              The beggars have come to town.
              Some in rags, and some in tags,
              And some in velvet gown.

              So cry me a river about “”economics” while the world burns.

            2. A lot of this is down to state laws. We have an incredible fugitive emissions program. We are not allowed to vent/flare except in emergency shutdowns which rarely happen. We have full time embedded contractors whose only job is to go around with special cameras looking for any leaks. The biggest culprits are valve packings and flanges. We have to report our estimated emissions to state regs and above a certain value we would be fined so the company is very strict about keeping up maintenance.

              I understand this situation is slightly different than E&P activities, but plants can be forced to cut down emissions of methane and still be wildly profitable.

            3. Alimbiquated, if you think my post was a rant, then you very obviously did not bother to read your own. I never heard such a damn rant as that post.

              Just one more comment. You haven’t a clue as to what economics is all about.

              Now you can rant on bro. Bye now.

            4. LNGuy, understood. Now please explain what I am looking at when I see all those goddamn flares that you can see from outer space?

              Never mind, that was a rhetorical question. I can see them, and I know they are real. What I need is an explanation of why they are there?

            5. Alim, this information is not exactly carved in a stone tablet and hidden on the dark side of the moon. Rather than come here and share with us your best ideas about what the rules for humanity should be, why don’t you read about the things you think are a problem, and perhaps consider some realistic solutions; that is to say, articulate a policy.

              Gas Flaring Explained
              “Gas flaring is the burning of natural gas associated with oil extraction. The practice has persisted from the beginning of oil production over 160 years ago and takes place due to a range of issues, from market and economic constraints, to a lack of appropriate regulation and political will.”
              https://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/gasflaringreduction/gas-flaring-explained

              Flaring for economics
              “There is a significant gap between oil and natural gas prices. Natural gas costs more than oil to produce on an energy-equivalent basis. For this reason drillers are searching for oil, not gas, and companies are reluctant to invest in costly projects to capture and transport natural gas from oil wells to the market.”
              https://www.fluenta.com/companies-choose-flare-natural-gas/

            6. In Saudi Arabia, the oil and gas go into one pipeline to a GOSP, (gas oil separation plant), Many wells are connected to a single GOSP. There the gas is separated and stored or shipped out. But those wells produce for decades. It is economical to do such a thing. Shale wells produce only for a few years and not much in those last few years.

              Even the Saudi Persian Gulf wells have a GOSP. But the Iranian wells in the Gulf do not. You can tell where the Saudi/Iranian border line is by where the flaring starts.

            7. I never worked in Texas. In clean well regulated operations the cost to gather natural gas is included in the total surface equipment, pads, and roads cost. This is why multiwell pads are more economic, they allow for a single gas treatment and compression kit to serve up to say 32 wells. There are other options, such as flowing the comingled production from a multiwell pad to a satellite station where the gas is separated, dehydrated, and compressed.

              The state of Texas just happens to be extremely sloppy. They could fix this problem with a simple no flare no vent regulation.

            8. Fernando said: “In clean well regulated operations” …. “They could fix this problem with a simple no flare no vent regulation.”

              Oh no, regulations = socialism = Fidel Castro = bad

              Fernando is just a typical contradiction-ridden right-winger.

    2. Does anyone account for the CO2 that is co-produced with natural gas? Many years ago, while working in Indonesia I discovered that some of their fields contained in excess of 20% CO2 which had to be removed before the gas was useable.

      1. Indonesian oilfields are anomalous. Most fields have less than 0.5% CO2. The amount of CO2 impacts the gas heating value and price.

    1. That’s interesting.

      Does that mean food production will decrease ? Or we are just producing food more efficiently.

      1. With the price of fertilizer going through the roof I think this answer is rather obvious.

        1. Well a lot of fertilizer is wasted, so raising the price probably won’t decrease production. In fact overuse of fertilizers causes eutrophication, an ecological problem itself.

          I suggest you read the article, it’s a complicated topic.

          1. “raising the price probably won’t decrease production” ~ Alim

            Probably lol

            Impacts and Repercussions of Price Increases on the Global Fertilizer Market
            “Fertilizer accounts for 36 percent of a farmer’s operating costs for corn, and 35 percent for wheat. These elevated prices could have implications for crop production in 2022 and 2023.” … “Ten countries produce 71, 86, and 95 percent of N, P, and K fertilizer, respectively.”
            https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/impacts-and-repercussions-price-increases-global-fertilizer-market

            1. You do love deceptive statistics don’t you. The conclusion:

              That’s an American site. It states: “Producers in the United States may be able to increase production, despite commodity prices remaining high, but will have to grapple with the expectedly high input prices for commodities”.

              Your own link contradicts you, but you try to hide it.

              Putrid

  6. I was surprised to learn recently that when CO2 is injected for carbon capture and sequestration it is not in the gas phase, but a supercritical liquid phase. I’d appreciate any comments or insights people have on this.
    thanks

    1. You do not have any choice – at a little over 1000 psi and 85 degrees CO2 is in the supercritical phase – conditions you will find in every oil well except the very shallow ones.

      1. Thanks. I had to go back a review some phase diagrams to get a handle on that.

    2. It takes up less space in the reservoir if the stuff is liquid. However, if its injected for enhanced oil recovery a fraction will eventually turn to gas and will be produced with oil and water. The water will have dissolved CO2 and turn into carbonic acid, which in turn can corrode equipment.

  7. You Want an Electric Car With a 300-Mile Range? When Was the Last Time You Drove 300 Miles?
    “However, these carrots and sticks merely tweak a fundamental approach to E.V. policy that has failed to achieve its goals. Rather than unleashing a mass market of affordable E.V.s, more than a decade of subsidies favoring large batteries has created an overheated market for premium E.V.s. A serious electrification policy will have to be tailored to the way we actually drive, not the way we think we do… (snip)

    … Compared to the herculean task of building supply chains to sustain a broad domestic E.V. market, tackling this problem from the demand side almost seems easy. Proving that E.V.s can road trip may have been an important psychological hurdle for the technology to tackle, but it remains more psychological than real: the average American motorist drives about 40 miles per day and 95 percent of our car trips are 30 miles or shorter.

    We haven’t so much overcome this psychological hurdle as thrown big batteries at it, which is having a paradoxical (if predictable) effect of actually entrenching it. Despite dramatic growth in median E.V. range, to 234 miles in 2021 from 90 miles in 2015, consumer demand for range is always one step ahead. Three hundred miles might have been a desirable figure for potential E.V. buyers in 2019, but come 2021 it was 341 miles, according to findings from Cox Automotive. We could cater endlessly to this desire for more range without ever satiating it: More is always more, but more is also never enough.”

    https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/27/opinion/electric-car-battery-range.html

    1. It will likely become more common to see many EV’s with range closer to 120 miles available.
      And people with these much more affordable vehicles will rent other vehicles for occasional longer trips if they need to.
      Same with pickups- most people would do just fine renting one once a month or once a quarter.

    2. Charging electric vehicles – for those who can’t swing a big PV system – will eventually fall victim to supply/demand issues. With natural gas prices more than doubled in the US, and no giant wave of alternatives (incremental at best), the switch to electrified transportation will be problematic. But most of you know that.
      We’re in the Atlanta TV market and Georgia Power (Southern Company) has been running a lot of commercial spots lately touting their “investments in a diversified power base to insure progress in a challenging future”. Translation: Rates are going up significantly. And the grid isn’t up to the task of having millions of two ton tea kettles plugged in every afternoon, during the hottest part of the day in much of the air conditioned US. Smart chargers can solve part of that problem, but still …..
      Too many humans. Not enough planet.

    3. Let’s look

      a 300 mile range is in reality a 250 mile range if you drive calm (It’s the same with gas and Diesel cars).

      Then you need 20% more in winter and 30% in really bad weather when you don’t want to wait for the car service to recharge you in the middle of nowhere.
      So you are at 170 – and calculate a reserve for blocked streets or taking a wrong turn.
      So it’s 150 miles you can drive when conditions are bad (or think traffic jam when you wait 3 hours with heating on).

      That’s a complete reasonable range if you live a bin on the countryside, even here in small Germany. When used only in town or near town you need less.

      I think a not too big car with this range can be build with LiFePO and in a few years with sodium batteries, not needing rare and expensive cobalt and nickel. With sodium you can take some less capacity, since they are winter hard. Here a 250 mile car would be the same when it comes to winter conditions.

      I don’t own an electric car, but an DIesel.

      The paper fuel usage is 4.4 Liter/100km – my consumption is 5.1 Liter. This is not bad, the average consumption is 5.4 liter.

      1. Another issue that is not so frequently addressed is that the EV manufactures recommend that you charge the battery to 80% for daily use, and don’t run it down below 10%. So that gives you 70% of the stated range. Then add real world issues like weather. So a Tesla Model Y long range, stated range of 330 miles is closer to a RW range of 330*.7=231 minus real world considerations = closer to 200 miles. That is not bad for day to day driving but it is far from long range.
        Rgds
        WP

        1. If you know you are going to drive above your normal usage for the day, you can safely charge your EV to its nameplate range for that day. Other than that, I just charge to a lower range that fits my daily needs. So, for longer trips, you really don’t lose that top 20 percent.

    4. I would need a vehicle with about 200 miles range, to allow me to drive to the nearest big city. The road crosses a mountain range and it can reach over 100 Farenheit in summer time, so battery degradation is important. This is probably why around here we see no EVs, and most taxi drivers drive hybrids. A neighbor just bought the first Toyota hybrid in the neighborhood, and I’ve seen a couple of Tesla taxis. And this area is supposed to be wealthy, so I assume EVs will be less popular in areas with less income per family.

  8. Corn yield/acre USA
    What happened since the 1930’s?
    #1= N fertilizer from nat gas
    other factors- other fertilizers (P/K primarily), more tillage/weed control/herbicides, corn breeding improvements, irrigation on some lands, lime for pH correction…
    All of these things involve fossil fuels except the breeding. Good varieties without all the other inputs only gives you a relatively small yield increase- less than double for sure, and not the nearly 6 fold increase that has been achieved.
    Enjoy the abundance and inexpensive food while it lasts.

    2. The interesting question of course is whether the increase of fertilizer use is reflected by higher yield or do we actually observe a huge waste of fertilizers…..

  9. The Russians are shelling the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant and spreading fakes that Ukrainians are doing it:
    ZNPP engineer: “We have a dry storage facility for spent nuclear fuel here. Just a funnel 50 meters away. What are they doing?”

    A rather informative interview with an engineer of the Zaporozhye NPP, about what is happening at the station, thanks to “Hippy_End” for the text transcript:

    Zaporizhzhya NPP engineer: “In short, we are constantly being ironed. Pmki mines were scattered two days ago. I’m in Energodar, I work at the station. It turns out that the station flew either from the “Hurricane”, in short, or his dick. We have a dry storage facility for spent nuclear fuel near Unit 6. At 50 meters, just a funnel. It’s an ass what they do. Excuse my french.

    In short, at night, two days ago it thundered specifically. Ironed right in the afternoon. They hit with a drone on … It turns out that we have, well, ours, so to speak, went in, well, the Russians, of course. There was a field kitchen. A drone flew over them. They hit it there. In my opinion, three people, in my opinion, well, in short, two hundredth, damn it. Sadly. And a few three hundredth, wounded. We sent them there, sent them to Melitopol for medical treatment.

    And now, what is the situation. “Grads” come out from us … At night, “Hurricanes” away from us, it turns out that we have Manganese here, here is the Kakhovka reservoir, Manganese, a response flies there. Because Ukraine, well, so to speak, is being pulled there. Campaign “three sevens” is. Because the industrial zone is generally hit hard.

    We already have wounded even children. One girl 13 or 12 years old … ”

    Video blogger: “Are they striking at sleeping areas?”

    ZNPP engineer: “They are beating, it feels like hell, understand where. So today we went to the beach, well, so, fry and eat pure kebabs. It turns out that they drove past us there, well, in general, “Zeds”, let’s say so. Two “Urals” there. They go there all the time patrolling the area. And, apparently, they see them from drones. Because drones are constantly in the air, you can’t see or hear them, but in chats, like Nikopol, Manganets, we’re watching, they upload videos there. They post these videos.

    This is intelligence, according to which, apparently, they are guided. These are the correctors. We have air defense in Energodar, well, ours, Russian, is practically non-existent. There is a problem with air defenses. Therefore, everything that they beat, everything flies here …

    We even, we have such a group of friends here, we went into these chats, and they were simply asked: why are you hitting Energodar? Why don’t you crush the Kherson direction there, the Zaporizhzhya, Donetsk direction? Why don’t you use this technique there? What is the point of hitting here, through the Kakhovka reservoir? From us to them here it turns out about eight kilometers through the water.

    But there is no specific explanation. Immediately banned, removed from the group. Well, that’s all. And you can’t write anymore.

    I’m now with a SIM card, well, of course, we have already switched to SIM cards +7, Russian ones, they are sold here. We switched, I again went to this channel, but I don’t write anything anymore. Because I understand that any of my words is immediately a ban. They don’t even listen to anything. It’s just that any version that differs from their worldview is immediately banned. Just a ban without explanation”

    Video boger: “But Rosatom specialists work at nuclear power plants?”

    ZNPP engineer: “So the situation is like this. The last time I was at work was on Monday of that week. We are now being held, so to speak, at shift N. We are now still under the Energoatom NNEGC. Those. NAEC still pays me a salary. She comes to me with a salary on the Privatbank card. Ukraine still pays, but there is already talk that we will work for Rosatom somewhere in September.

    Now it’s Petro Kotin, this is our president of NNEGC Energoatom. He wrote, perhaps, in his Telegram channel that Russia is preparing to connect the Crimea, Donetsk and Lugansk to the Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant.

    At night, there are voltage drops. Now I measured the voltage yesterday – 182 volts. We are here now… they hit us, the voltage dropped from 220 to 180, refrigerators in stores are turned off.”

    Video blogger: “Does the nuclear power plant continue to supply electricity to Ukraine?”

    ZNPP engineer: “Yes, he continues. Here, two power lines go through Kakhovskaya, they are so powerful, 750 kilovolts, they transmit there. Those. is still going on. But the 4th block was unloaded due to the impact. Well, he went into defense, because the load dropped sharply, and now he has cooled down. In my opinion, power units 5 and 6 are currently in operation.

    Video blogger: “Well, as far as I know, the power unit is not so easy to destroy?”

    ZNPP engineer: “Well, look, the reactor, of course not. A reactor of the WWR-1000 type, the first block was launched in 1984, we have the reactor itself, the reactor building, even from a howitzer dolby into it, there the walls are such a meter thick reinforced concrete. You will NOT try them. But if you get into the turbine hall. This is the engine room, where the turbine and turbogenerator are located, the generator is cooled by pure hydrogen. It is natural immediately explosion ”

    Video blogger: “What are they trying to achieve? You said about the waste storage facility, if something happens there, then Chernobyl will seem like a children’s party.”

    ZNPP engineer: ”
    Link to the Russian publication (in Russian):https://aftershock.news/?q=node/1147636
    Link to the interview:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-VpQwbLXHOo

    1. Your comment is baloney. The Russians control the nuclear plant, so it’s the Ukrainians who are shelling the surroundings. The plant is on the shore of a large and wide water reservoir, so the Ukrainian artillery is probably coming from the North, where the front lines are located East of the Dnieper river.

      I find Ukrainian war propaganda to be quite exaggerated, but this bit in particular is zany. It must be intended to deceive those who don’t follow the war. I live in Europe and the war is impacting very hard, the cost of gas and electricity is sky high. We also have lots of Ukrainian refugees, some of which are fairly poor, although I’ve seen a few Ukrainian plates on BMWs and Mercedes in this area. Anyhow, given the way things are, I spend time following the war closeup, look at maps, follow well informed individuals on social media, etc.

      Some of my sources are in Spanish, but I recommend following Denys Davydov, an Ukrainian who speaks very good English and shows real maps. He even shows the way battlefield lines change when Ukrainian forces retreat, which is rare these days, when we get fed so much fake news.

      1. Your comment is baloney. The Russians control the nuclear plant, so it’s the Ukrainians who are shelling the surroundings.

        Fernando, you haven’t a clue as to what you are talking about.

        Ukraine nuclear plant: Russia in control after shelling

        Russia took control after the shelling. They know where the shelling originated and it was the Russians. Kindly try to know what you are talking about before you start posting more bullshit on this blog.

          1. Yeah, I overlooked the date, thanks. But why are you saying I am wrong. Do you actually believe that the Ukraine army would poison their own people? That was the point of my post. If you think the Ukraine army was the ones shelling the nuclear power plant then you, like Fernando, have rocks in your head.

      2. Fernandoleanme: Not sure why your bother. This site is become full toxic political propaganda. I stopped bothering about 6+ months ago. I just checked in today, to see if the toxicity level has changed, & it has, but its gone up not down.

        FWIW: Some alternative info on the War: Youtube: “Redacted”, YouTube: iEarlgrey, YouTube: Patrick Lancaster, Youtube: “eva k bartlett”. Canadian Prepper (YouTube) also does a news summary nearly daily.

        US & EU has gone full fascist. Russia just shutdown Nord Stream 1 indefinitely as the last operating turbine failed. Either the EU does a 180 in the next 30 to 45 days, or perhaps millions in the EU freeze this winter.

      3. Fernandoleanme. Of course you are right. It was sarcasm. The fact is that I drew line by line the dialogue of an engineer who is now working at the Zaporozhye NPP with a blogger, and then translated it with Google. It is clear from the dialogue that as a result of the shelling of the NPP, three Russian servicemen who guard the station died, it also says about the situation at the station. It is absurd that the Russians are killing their own! The same can be said about the Donbass, after February there was a continuous mobilization and all citizens understood and understand who shelled their city, especially since their relatives are in the army. Unfortunately, apparently Google could not translate correctly. And yes, I’ve been following Denis’s channel on YouTube for three months now.

    1. “the cure for fertilizer shortages is fertilizer shortages lolz”

      Or human compost.

      1. Human compost? That won’t quite fly, from a PR point of view. Neither will humanure.

        This is an emerging industry, still in diapers, but assuming Old Man Business As Usual manages to hobble along another decade or two, it’s going to be a BIG THING, for sure.

        But since the big boys who sell soap and deodorant and sanitary wipes and disinfectants, etc, and the safety mommies who make their livings teaching us to fear damned near everything are dug in……….. the general public will go insane and fight it tooth and claw.

        The biggest single technical problem may well be to get out the relatively small amounts of poisons such as heavy metals in sewage, so that it can be processed into fertilizers.

        I foresee a day when pipelines will run from sewage treatment plants out into the countryside to farms, with the partially treated waste water, RICH in nutrients, will be used directly for irrigation.

        Hey, we’re already used to bathing in and drinking water that was full of pee and poop before we ran it thru a water treatment plant. We’ll get used to this too……. eventually.

        1. OFM- check out Farmers Farmers of Forty Centuries: Permanent Organic Farming in China, Korea, and Japan. The human sewage pipeline from city to fields was a wheelbarrow relay.

          1. One of my favorite books!
            I’ve loaned it out half a dozen times and talked it up endlessly in other forums.

        2. I use a sanitary, odor free compost toilet I built after reading
          The Compost Toilet Handbook – by Joseph Jenkins
          https://www.amazon.com/Compost-Toilet-Handbook-Joseph-Jenkins/dp/1733603514/ref=sr_1_1?crid=22VONO1ETULDP&keywords=compost+toilet+handbook&qid=1661797492&s=books&sprefix=compost+toilet%2Cstripbooks%2C166&sr=1-1

          He has created a new way to make and use a compost toilet as well as a new way to make a compost pile [with no turning and no odor!!].

          He is a true revolutionary!

        3. Russia is using liars like the above poster to spread the idea that sanctions against Russia are the end of Civilization As We Know It.

          Don’t fall for it.

          Oh wait you already fell for the wave of Putin propaganda against Hillary Clinton after the death of Gaddafi. Putin shit his pants when he saw the lynching video, sent his minions online to attack his perceived enemy. And you fell for it hook line and sinker. Ranted for years about it lol.

          Never mind.

      2. Those who succumb to the fertilizer shortage will soon then become it. Two birds one stone and all that…

        1. I’ve asked that my body gets digested to make fertiliser, if such a facility exists by then, but the last thing I read was that there was only one demonstration plant somewhere (maybe California).

          2. That’s my plan too George, although I’d settle for being added to a large well prepared hot compost. I can’t imagine it would take very long to be down to just a few of the larger bones. I’ll leave a few quid to the one that sorts the job out and turns me over into the garden.

      3. Perhaps my tone was too dry?

        I was evoking the image of gigantic piles of rotting corpses that will be the inevitable result of “fertilizer shortages”…and a new recycling industry.

    1. If this is just the first chapter….holy crap folks.

      btw- thanks for all the good stuff you’ve been sharing.

    2. And just think–

      –this is just the beginning.

      (A minor aside–we’ve had five years now of rainless springs in Maine. I grow things so I know. No one talks about it, tho.)

    3. And,

      CHINA’S ENERGY CRISIS SEES THE WORLD’S TOP EMITTER INVESTING IN MORE COAL

      The energy crisis has seen Beijing shift its political discourse and proclaim energy security as a more urgent national mission than the green energy transition. Now, the government is investing in a new wave of coal-fired power stations to try to meet demand. In the first quarter of 2022 alone, China approved 8.63 gigawatts of new coal plants and, in May, announced C¥ 10 billion of investment in coal power generation. What’s more, it will expand the capacity of a number of coal mines to ensure domestic supply as the international coal market price jumped amid Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. China is responsible for around a third of global carbon dioxide emissions, which makes this latest rebound to fossil fuels a climate change emergency.

      https://phys.org/news/2022-08-china-energy-crisis-world-emitter.html

  14. https://getpocket.com/explore/item/this-ultra-white-paint-may-someday-replace-air-conditioning?utm_source=pocket-newtab

    I never got more than a couple of nights of homework into optical physics fifty years ago.

    But this has an ENORMOUS upside potential, in terms of energy conservation.
    Now here’s a question for anybody who knows.

    How effective would glass mirrors be used as roofing in terms of rejecting the heat in sunlight?
    In radiating heat away at night?

    Glass can be hardened, making it resistant to hail, and it wouldn’t be out of the question to use it for roofing under favorable circumstances.

    Anybody who lives out in the boonies, away from close neighbors and roads, could go this route with mirrors, and of course if this new paint is commercialized and affordable, I’ll probably buy it for my own house, given that I have a metal roof and it will need painting in a few more years anyway.

    1. I don’t have an answer for your question, but a second question-
      might make more sense to use photovoltaics rather than mirrors?

      1. There are certain advantages to living on a farm, lol. There’s plenty of room here for a ground mount system.

        I live quite well, all things considered. Old friends from the city who make six figures come here to camp out in my woods, and go hunting and fishing, or just relax and unwind. I wouldn’t trade my old farmhouse for my good buddy lawyer’s penthouse in Richmond.

        But I’m pretty much busted as far as taxable income is concerned. Looking after elderly parents for no pay for a couple of decades will to that to ya.

        So no solar system for me. I might not live long enough to break even on it, even if I could afford it.

        I put the twenty grand a decent system would cost me into equipment and sweat equity projects which are paying FAR better returns.

        I’m all for subsidies designed to speed up the transition to renewable energy, but I’m not in position to take advantage of any of them, and I can’t get a low interest loan, so I will just keep on paying AEP.

        I will continue to drive my old car and my old truck, because the payments on new ones would be at least four times what I’m spending on gasoline and maintenance on my old ones.

        I don’t feel any need at all to impress anybody with a new car or truck, lol.

        1. This is a good narrative of why I do not expect as rapid a transition to EV, s and renewable energy as some here have expressed/hoped for.
          Simply it is a combination of affordability, and lack of desperation and clear sense of future challenge.
          Most people, municipalities and countries have no budget/credit for adding a whole new layer of energy infrastructure and generation capacity on top of what they already are paying in the form of internal combustion vehicles, transport fuel, and the whole electricity system- from the mine or well to plug.
          Secondly, a majority of the worlds people who are not in the bottom 3 billion poorest have not been seriously exposed to fossil fuel energy shortage and so there is just not the imperative to prioritize the transition effort. Europe is getting a glimpse of shortage now. Serious effort will come only after crises.
          Its just the way we are, with few exceptions.

        2. OFM, you are a very handy fellow so you could easily install a system on your own. At about half the cost of hiring it done. You might get an electrician to do the final hook-up though. That makes the payback pretty good in most places.
          Get a gang together and help each other out. Better than a barn raising and you’ll coast from then on.
          I appreciate your many wise thoughts over the years. JB

          1. Thanks, Jim, for the kind words.

            But even at half the cost, it would still be money that wouldn’t earn a satisfactory return, for me, in my situation. Ten grand invested might possibly enable me to use the same amount of electricity while cutting my electric bill by no more than maybe eight hundred bucks a year.

            I can easily earn double that in tax free capital gains by spending only a couple of grand on materials making various improvements to my little farm, doing the work myself, and at some point I will have to sell out if my health fails.

            Hickory is right.

            Tens of millions of us just aren’t situated in such a way as to take advantage of such opportunities to go renewable as are available to other people who are earning good money and able to collect the various subsidies available, and or borrow money at low interest rates.

            But taken all around, I’m actually better off in terms of a great life than the people I know from the city who have four or five times as much money, even ten times as much.

            I have all the modern conveniences, and my place is very much like a lot of vacation properties that belong to successful doctors and lawyers, lol. The difference is that they can enjoy their country place a few weeks a year. I’m here year around, lol.

            So I’ve pretty much got it all, as I see it, and I’m not hurting in terms of my net worth.

            But to me ten grand is one hell of a lot of money.

        3. The electric car phase is much too much at the beginning.

          Many people buy used cars – because they don’t drive much, or don’t have the money. It’s still 10 years until a full used car market for electric cars is there.

          The possibility to buy a used electric car for a few thousand bucks that can drive to town when an old gas car finally breaks down isn’t still here yet.

        4. I drive an old five speed diesel. In my case I’m mostly worried about leaving some money to my children, but I’m also constrained because I have a large IRA and I hate pulling money out and paying taxes. Anyhow, I don’t have space to put in a solar panel, and I’m not investing in one of those deals whereby a company puts up solar panel’s elsewhere with my money, and I supposedly get paid back with cheaper electricity. That deal depends too much on subsidies, and I don’t trust Socialist governments.

          1. Every time someone like Fernando decries socialist governments, need to remind him that libertarian governments are essentially incapable of supporting nuclear power plants. Right-wingers can’t govern and are unwilling to fund startup costs, insurance, and long-term maintenance and shutdown/clean-up costs. Venture capital would never take this on. Personal solar panels and local wind turbines are much more open to the libertarian mindset … in principle, but politics gets in the way.

            1. Stagnant idealists.

              Our best hope lies in implementing equitable policies and cooperating like never before. Humans have loads of potential, which even increases when we co-operate. Meanwhile, politicians create an environment that is as toxic as possible; the lemmings follow.

              My entire political stance basically boils down to “I care about other people” and MAN does it make people MAD.

            2. “and MAN does it make people MAD.”

              It makes certain people mad. Not me. I remember college tuition about $350 a quarter (in a tri-quarter system), no loans necessary … yet I don’t get upset about Biden’s executive order loan bailout. But there are many that are BOILING MAD about that one.

    2. The Greeks have been practicing this for thousands of years by whitewashing entire villages, but it does nothing to counteract the ambient heat in the atmosphere – when it cools in the evening they move out on the roof and even sleep there. When they move to the cities they opt for air conditioners.
      Other passive features include north-facing windows and/or large overhangs over south facing windows so that only the winter sun can penetrate into the interior of the domicile.
      The typical North American approach is to heavily insulate the ceiling and then to provide venting of the space above that ( generally covered by local building codes).
      One esthetic issue for a white roof is algal growth, which will show up as black stain and streaks, not generally noticeable on a dark roof, except in the area of flashings where the zinc erosion kills the algae in the immediate vicinity.
      Paint is cheap, and might well provide savings, but if the outside is 100 degrees, the inside will be similar over time.
      Glass mirrors will be effective in rejecting heat during the day, and in radiating the heat at night.

      1. Actually, mirrored surfaces would probably inhibit the emitting of building heat at night. You need a product that has high reflectivity (to visible light) and high emissivity of infrared (thermal heat)

      1. Thanks for that link. I did a bit of digging and found that progress is made in that area – it is just not hitting the front pages of news outlets. The idea is to radiate energy into the universe, thereby cooling a building. I wonder if this could be applied on a global scale – i.e. can it help global warming by ejecting excess energy back into space?
        What I like about this approach in general is that it is passive – you invest a certain amount of resources into a solution one time and then it generates results for as long as the object exists.

        https://www.connectingdots.one/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Radiative-Cooling.pdf

        Rgds WP

        1. From the article-
          “He ruled out the idea of using the mirrors to slow down global warming. “Roof space accounts for only a small portion of the Earth’s surface, so at this point we don’t think this would be a geoengineering solution. Rather, our contribution on the green house gas emission issue is simply to reduce electricity consumption,” he said.
          “I’m really excited by the potential it has and the applications for cooling,” said Marin Soljačić, a physicist at MIT.

          1. I just emailed the author and he sent me 2 articles which have updated information on the topic:

            “Thermal radiation, or photon heat flow, carries both energy
            and entropy1. When a hot and a cold object undergo radiative
            exchange, there is a net photon heat flow from the hot to the
            cold object2,3. Such a photon flow carries both energy and entropy
            away from the hot object, leading to radiative cooling of that hot
            object. The radiative cooling processes are passive processes that do
            not require any energy input. However, to perform radiative cooling
            on a hot object, one does need to couple it radiatively to a cold
            object that serves as the heat sink.”
            https://www.connectingdots.one/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Radiative-Cooling-Fan_NaturePhotonics_16_182_2022.pdf
            https://www.connectingdots.one/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/Terrestrial-Radiative-Cooling-Yin_Science_370_786_2020.pdf

            I will read up on this a bit more – it sounds like it has potential for cooling, using a non heat/FF related process.

            Rgds
            WP

  15. On the Great Basin, but it applies many other zones like parts of the West Coast, Mediterranean and Central Asia

    ‘The desert just to the south of us is moving our way’
    “This isn’t a drought. It’s something else,” he said. “Myself and other scientists are trying to use a different term: Aridification.”
    Aridification is defined as “the gradual change of a region from a wetter to a drier climate.” According to Udall, it also means “declining snowpacks. It’s earlier runoff. It’s a shorter winter. It’s more rain, less snow. It’s higher temps. It’s drying soils. It’s severe fires. It’s forest mortality. It’s a warm, thirsty atmosphere.”

    1. Electricity per capita tells quite a different story, but yes- exports account for a significant chunk of China energy consumption. Same with other big exporters of ‘energy dense’ products, like Japan, Germany.

  17. GREENLAND ICE SHEET LOSING ICE FASTER THAN FORECAST, NOW IRREVERSIBLY COMMITTED TO AT LEAST 10 INCHES OF SEA LEVEL RISE

    “Even if all the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming ceased today, we find that Greenland’s ice loss under current temperatures will raise global sea level by at least 10.8 inches (27.4 centimeters). That’s more than current models forecast, and it’s a highly conservative estimate. If every year were like 2012, when Greenland experienced a heat wave, that irreversible commitment to sea level rise would triple. That’s an ominous portent given that these are climate conditions we have already seen, not a hypothetical future scenario.”

    https://phys.org/news/2022-08-greenland-ice-sheet-faster-irreversibly.html

  18. https://newatlas.com/energy/coaxial-vertical-floating-wind-turbines/

    I’m not an engineer, but it’s easy to see that this vertical axis design will be far cheaper to build, deploy, and maintain than a conventional horizontal axis design.

    It will also be better suited to deep water sites, and it’s probably also better suited to sites with powerful storms.

    But there’s nothing in the link that leads me to actually believe this design will produce more kilowatt hours per dollar invested. The list of people and organizations involved indicates that there’s a good possibility it WILL perform as envisioned…… but apparently they haven’t yet built any prototypes big enough to actually KNOW.

  19. Uraniums doing good. CCJ, EUC, and CanAlaska are up nicely over 5 days, perhaps on news that Japan is turning on all the power.

    Japan signals return to nuclear power to stabilise energy supply
    https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-pm-call-development-construction-new-generation-nuclear-power-plants-2022-08-24/

    Even the Fed Rate chatter didn’t take too much wind out of solid looking uranium investments. I can’t say I’m sold on being a Gold Guy™.

    1. Thanks SK. Worth reading the article – the author is obviously not convinced by the book’s doom and gloom…

  22. GREENHOUSE GAS, SEA LEVELS AT RECORD IN 2021

    Earth’s concentration of greenhouse gases and sea levels hit new highs in 2021, a US government report said Wednesday, showing that climate change keeps surging ahead despite renewed efforts to curb emissions. “The data presented in this report are clear—we continue to see more compelling scientific evidence that climate change has global impacts and shows no sign of slowing,” said Rick Spinrad, administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

    https://phys.org/news/2022-08-greenhouse-gas-sea-noaa.html

  23. Trashing planet Earth.

    BRAZIL’S AMAZON SEES WORST AUGUST FIRES IN OVER A DECADE

    Fires in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest surged in August to the highest for the month since 2010, government data showed on Wednesday, surpassing the blazes in August 2019 that drew global attention soon after President Jair Bolsonaro took office. National space research agency INPE registered 31,513 fire alerts in the Amazon via satellite in the first 30 days of the month, making it the worst August since 2010, when fires totaled 45,018 for the full month.

    https://ca.yahoo.com/news/brazils-amazon-sees-worst-august-112600613.html

    1. Get used to new reality,
      easy, cheap and unending energy is not the norm of the future.
      people will need to learn to charge their cars during off peak hours.
      Its not the end of the world.
      Maybe a small wake up call to get hustling on building up electrical [production/transmission/storage] capacity.

      1. The starving people of Sri Lanka and Pakistan don’t have cars. They are worried about where their next meal is coming from. Cheap renewable energy will not help them a damn bit. Crops are failing because of draught or flood and if that don’t happen they have no money for fertilizer.

          1. Yes, I knew that. But he did mention “The Green Revolution”. I was responding to that. And that is worldwide. My point was the problem cannot have a border. Even if EVs overtake the USA and make IC vehicles obsolete, that will make little difference. That fact will not feed the starving people of the world that is collapsing as we speak.

            1. Got it.
              And yes, whether it is electrical shortage or gas shortage
              it means a decline in economic activity,
              and that always hurts poor people first and most.

  26. Pakistan, 4th largest country by population, just lost about 80% of its agricultural livestock.

    1. Googled it: Flood-hit Pakistan braced for hunger crisis after crops and livestock washed away

      Pakistan faces an acute hunger crisis after millions of hectares of crops were washed away and herds of livestock were killed in devastating flooding.

      Farmers in Pakistan’s Sindh – the country’s second largest province – estimated that 80 per cent of onion, tomato and chilli crops, along with 70 per cent of rice crops that were about to be harvested, had been destroyed.

      “It was very painful seeing our entire crops destroyed in front of us,” said Muhammad Amjad, 30, who lived in Basti Clairy village, in southern Pakistan.

      “Our hard work was lost in moments, but at the time our priority was to save our lives. Only the government can help us now, otherwise it will be difficult for us to survive in the coming months.”

      Pakistan was already on the verge of collapse. This could push them over the edge.

      2. For Pakistan I forecast famine and cannibalism.
        World population will decease by about a billion between Q4 2022 and 2030.
        How’s the cornucopian dreams that I’ve been hearing so much about for the last several years coming along?

          2. I feel bad for the people of Pakistan.

            However, their incompetent apocalyptic government couldn’t possibly miss the Strait of Hormuz with those missiles……..

      3. I read that China has made loans to Asian countries for the Belt and Road project which are greater than the combined loans of IMF, World Bank, and other G-20 countries,
        to countries like Pakistan, Burma, Sri Lanka for example.

        1. Yes they have. And there is a method behind their madness. China knows those loans will never be paid back. But there was a condition in the loan agreement that gave China ownership and control of everything built with those loans. That is the sea ports, the train stations and anything else associated with the Belt and Road Initative. This 10 minute YouTube video explains it all.

          Gravitas Plus: The Belt & Road initiative

          1. Agreed. China will take the payments in the form of natural resources shipments and enactment of policies to allow construction of naval port facilities in Pakistan and Myanmar.

  29. The USA has been a democracy with some big caveats over its history.
    The electoral college, restriction of blacks and women from voting, failure to institute and enforce nationwide federal voting rights law, and unequal representation in the senate (2 senators from each state regardless of population size, which gives each Wyoming citizen as much say-so as 68 Californian citizens for example) are or have been the biggest examples of restriction on democracy.

    And now we have an all-out attack on democracy coming from the Republican party and its voters.

    We may no have longer a United States of America.
    It may become the ASA- Autocratic States of America (courtesy of the religious right and certain segment of the billionaire class)
    or the FSA- Fragmented States of America

    Don’t take it for granted that this country stays as a single entity, or one that is based on democracy with a bill of rights. The whole experience thus far has been during a period of incredible abundance and growth.
    That will change.

    1. The attack on American Democracy™ comes from both leasing parties; the Republicans and the Democrats.

      https://www.gp.org/voter_suppression

      Democrat supporters have a bias that impacts their ability to construct an accurate problem definition; that is to say, they only see 1/2 the problem.

        1. Dims vs Repugs offers about as much choice on the American ballot as CPSU vs Komsomol offered on the Soviet ballot; that is to say, very little.

          1. Survivalist, you are one of the best posters here. I take your post very seriously, except when you talk American politics. On that point you apparently don’t know dick shit.

            Republican politics, since Donald Trump and his princess came down the escalator in 2015, has been nothing but hero worship of a blooming self-centered idiot. They all, that is Trumpite idiots, who are about 80% of the Republican party, are all conspiracy believing fools who think Donald Trump is the second coming of Christ.

            So please don’t tell me that there is no difference between me, a Democrat, and the average Trumpite who would destroy the constitutional government just to instill their wannabe Hitler to power. You could not possibly hit me with a greater insult.

            1. Cheers Ron, you and Dennis have seen to a good forum, we’re all in our rights here, and you are always a pleasure to follow and read. I’d pay for access to this info & discourse.
              I predict that Green Party will get on more ballots and we shall see both disaffected Dems and disaffected Repub voters choosing to vote for them; perhaps 3 out of 10 from both sides. Making it a 7-7-6 race. Put a pin in it. I like to make a few forecasts myself; and complex opinionated conclusions as to what I feel is morally permissible.
              Perhaps you’re right about American Politics, and perhaps I am wrong; but for some reason, I think I’m quite right about the future, the famine, and the necessary political fragmentation that will most certainly soon occur. So maybe I’m on to something, I sense a tension; the policies and observable behaviors of both Dims and Repug politicians have a lot to do with my conclusions.
              I feel that the furthest right “successful” elected politician and the furthest left “successful” elected politician in US have more in common with each other than they do with any of us; to wit, lobbyist Hunter Biden appointed by Pres. GW Bush to Board of Directors, of Amtrak, in 2006. That’s why they’re all doing so well, except poor Hunter I suppose, and most others in this country are not doing so well at all. It’s easy to see, and there’s a reason for it:

              “It’s a BIG Club and You Ain’t in it” ~ Saint George

              https://youtu.be/cKUaqFzZLxU

        2. That might apply to a few issues, for example both parties are beholden to special interests (just like all political parties in the world), and both parties have a pretty solid history of being anti communist, and of being pretty heavily tilted towards the capitalistic/freemarket scale of the economic range, and of playing dirty against international adversaries.

          But on a whole host of issues it is like night and day difference

          For example- issues of environmental conservation, fossil fuel transition, civil rights/voting rights/womens rights/minority rights, and control of machine guns among the civilian sector.
          And if you don’t care to acknowledge those stark differences then I see your opinions on domestic political affairs as naive and irrelevant.
          I doubt you give a care, but so it is.

      2. See it as you wish,
        threat of slide towards autocracy or fragmentation regardless.

    1. Having just read the Dawn of Everything I call bollocks on theories that say everything started to go wrong the instant (actually an instant lasting 3000 years) we switched to agriculture.

    1. There seems to be an assumption that going forward there will still be an organised and funded international aid system. After not too many years of continuing energy shortages and concomitant recessions and depressions I’d say there won’t be.

      Thanks for all these excellent links you keep finding.

      1. Cheers George, agreed; perhaps preferences masquerading there way into future trends analysis.

        I have a big favorites bar, a rather wide bandwidth, and an eye on the horizon; I manage to sluice out a bit of gold dust now and then. I’m glad you find some interesting. I’m afraid I’m also a bit of a bore; dull and tiresome to many, I’m sure.

  33. “Nearly two dozen Democratic lawmakers with gold-star ratings from a major environmental advocacy group have personal financial ties to fossil-fuel giants and petroleum-focused energy companies, federal financial-disclosure documents show.”
    https://www.businessinsider.com/congress-democrats-with-fossil-fuel-stocks-investments-2021-12?amp

    Three-in-ten or more Democrats and Republicans don’t agree with their party on abortion
    https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/18/three-in-ten-or-more-democrats-and-republicans-dont-agree-with-their-party-on-abortion/

    When asked if he’d support legislation to protect same-sex marriage, one conservative Republican senator was almost nonchalant. “I see no reason to oppose it,”
    https://abcnews.go.com/amp/Politics/wireStory/republicans-good-politics-sex-marriage-bill-87634999

    14 years ago, Democrat Barack Obama opposed gay marriage
    https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2022/07/22/politics/marriage-equality-congress-evolution/index.html

    “The party only officially embraced same-sex marriage in its platform four years ago, and this year’s nominees, Hillary Clinton and Tim Kaine, came around on the issue after that”
    https://rollcall.com/2016/07/28/how-democrats-came-around-on-gay-rights/

    Poll: Only 52% of Democrats oppose Florida’s ‘Don’t Say Gay’ policy
    https://ca.news.yahoo.com/poll-only-52-of-democrats-oppose-floridas-dont-say-gay-policy-214144683.html

    “Splitting (also called black-and-white thinking or all-or-nothing thinking) is the failure in a person’s thinking to bring together the dichotomy of both perceived positive and negative qualities of something into a cohesive, realistic whole. It is a common defense mechanism[1] wherein the individual tends to think in extremes”
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Splitting_(psychology)

    1. Grasping at straws Survivalist

      Meat on the bone-
      “House Republicans cast pro-environmental votes just 5 percent of the time in 2016, while their Democratic colleagues tallied a 94 percent voting record”
      “In the Senate, the average GOP member was voting pro-environment 14 percent of the time, while the Democrats’ average was 96 percent.”

      And Hightrekker, as a student of history I am surprised to hear you so lightly disregard the Republican war on democracy in central america during the 1980’s.-
      http://peacehistory-usfp.org/central-america-wars/
      “During the 1980s, the United States supported a counterinsurgency war in El Salvador and directed a guerrilla insurgency in Nicaragua…
      In December 1981, the Salvadoran Army massacred close to 1,000 men, women, and children in the village of El Mozote and in neighboring hamlets. Denying that a war crime had taken place, the Reagan administration certified to Congress that same month that the Salvadoran government was making progress in human rights and requested more U.S. aid for the government.[1]..”

      And if you don’t think the US Supreme Court has a starkly different stance when dominated by Republican vs Democratic appointees, then you just have not been paying attention.

        1. Sure. And the parties are like the Vatican or some monstrous monopoly-
          its the organization above all else.
          And I despise that.
          Its a long struggle to change that.

          In the meantime, there are dramatic choices to be made.

          1. With global oil production in Nov of 2018, Capitalism is increasingly its path toward death.
            We will see what emerges.

            1. Autocratic kleptocracy, just much more pronounced and blatant than we have today.

          2. “In the meantime there are dramatic choices to be made” ~ Hick

            Not in the ballot lol. I have a feeling that in 100 years from now, if those choices continue to be D vs R, the Historians will all be asking “so what?”.

            Contemporary America culture, and I use that work lightly, seems very solipsistic.

            There’s about 3 or 4 federal election cycles before 2040 and the “Big Problem”.

            1. Enemies lol yeah gotta have those. I just want more people to have the option on the ballot to vote for the Green Party, and indeed the option not to vote for the Green Party, and many would have it, in accordance with the rule of law and their Rights, if it weren’t much for the policies of the Dems. I find that, restricting my options on the ballot as a means to their own end, morally impermissible.

      2. Ok, now the Repugs are the only ones with foreign policy blood on their hands. Got it.

        Truman overthrew Iran in 1953 and interfered in Italian elections in 1948.
        Kennedy invaded Cuba, poorly.
        Kennedy/Johnson interfered in japans elections in the 60’s, and concurrently supportered Indonesias Transition to the New Order; that was a messy one.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_mass_killings_of_1965–66

        Go on your fav search engine and type in “US support to Indonesia in the 1960’s”; you may have a few blind spots.

        I could go on. But perhaps it’s best if those interested in history learn about these events, and then cross reference with who the president was at the time, themselves.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_involvement_in_regime_change

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_presidents_of_the_United_States

        There’s plenty of blood on the Democrats hands, too, Hick, if one measures that sort of thing by which Party the President belongs to when a bunch of killing secondary to election interference and/or regime change happens. Some of the regime change might seem quite just, and liked, I suppose, by some citizens, and some not so much, media coverage influences perceptions (Ukraine pure vs Russia evil incarnate- things are more nuanced); but blood on hands it is, Hick, tankers of it. Dims and Repugs are both addicted to war; it’s a wealth transfer program.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Military_budget_of_the_United_States

        Democrats remind me of naive Weimar Liberals, but more to the Right.

        1. I never said that, and I’m well aware of much of that history.
          Nonetheless, the choices are dramatic, and your
          seemingly juvenile and ‘feigning ignorance’ approach
          to making big boy decisions is very transparent-
          leave the hard choices to the everyone else and claim some sort of
          superiority/innocence.
          Falls flat.

          In the mean time, I’m going to keep leaning hard against
          autocracy and the extreme accumulation of wealth among the few at the very top.

          Elizabeth Warren [D] is the best/most effective national warrior for this issue in my opinion, and I’ll keep pushing hard to get her near or at the top-

          “The result is an extreme concentration of wealth not seen in any other leading economy. The 400 richest Americans currently own more wealth than all Black households and a quarter of Latino households combined. According to an analysis from economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman from the University of California-Berkeley, the richest top 0.1% has seen its share of American wealth nearly triple from 7% to 20% between the late 1970s and 2016, while the bottom 90% has seen its share of wealth decline from 35% to 25% in that same period. Put another way, the richest 130,000 families in America now hold nearly as much wealth as the bottom 117 million families combined.”
          https://elizabethwarren.com/plans/ultra-millionaire-tax

  34. Global food prices down from March peak. Yet still up 40+% compared to 2020 and 2019…

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