Similar..

 

On September11, airplanes slammed into the World Trade Centers, murdering 2,763 people.

In order to bolster his poll numbers, guarantee his re-election, fund his weapons manufacturing corporate sponsors, and secure his country some cheap crude oil, American President George W. Bush, along with Vice President Dick Cheney and a cartel of war criminals, concocted a story that was later proven patently false:

 That Saddam Hussein was in possession of weapons of mass destruction.

Under the pretext of liberation — the special operation was named Operation Iraqi Freedom— America declared Iraq’s government illegitimate and invaded on March 19th, 2003.

The initial invasion was met with fierce resistance,and maintaining control of the nation proved far more costly than America had predicted.

Let’s be brutally honest: It was a bloodbath:

1,033,000 of our Iraqi brothers and sisters died.

9.2 million fled as refugees.    Thousands of cities, towns, and villages were destroyed.

America and its allies lost 25,071 soldiers, with another 117,961 wounded.

Last week, Russian troops initiated a “special operation,” invading the sovereign nation of Ukraine after declaring its government illegitimate.

Papini..

 

Sherri Papini, the Northern California woman charged last month with faking her kidnapping in 2016,  acknowledged she made up the story that prompted a frantic search and international headlines.

I am deeply ashamed of myself for my behavior and so very sorry for the pain I’ve caused.

The search for Papini, 39, of Redding, set off a three-week search across California until she resurfaced on Thanksgiving Day in 2016.

She had bindings on her body and injuries including a blurred “brand” on her right shoulder and a swollen nose. She had other bruises and rashes on many parts of her body, ligature marks on her wrists and ankles, and burns on her left forearm.

Federal prosecutors alleged that she actually was staying with a former boyfriend nearly 600 miles away in Southern California’s Orange County and injured herself to back up her false statements.

Arrested..

 

Lt. Gov. Brian A. Benjamin of New York, the state’s second-in-command to Gov. Kathy Hochul, surrendered early Tuesday morning to face a federal indictment charging him with bribery, fraud and falsification of records in connection with a scheme to funnel illegal donations to a previous campaign.

The five-count indictment accused Mr. Benjamin of conspiring to direct state funds to a Harlem real estate investor in exchange for orchestrating thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to Mr. Benjamin’s unsuccessful 2021 campaign for New York City comptroller.

“In so doing, Benjamin abused his authority as a New York State senator, engaging in a bribery scheme using public funds for his own corrupt purposes,” prosecutors charged in the indictment. The investor was arrested on federal charges in November.

The indictment — the result of an investigation by the F.B.I., U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York and the city’s Department of Investigation — also charged that Mr. Benjamin subsequently “engaged in a series of lies and deceptions to cover up the scheme,” including falsifying campaign donation forms, misleading New York City authorities and giving false information as part of a background check to become lieutenant governor last year.

When would NY Democrats trouble ends?  Just a thought.

Inflated..

 

Prices that consumers pay for everyday items surged in March to their highest levels since the early days of the Reagan administration, according to Labor Department data released Tuesday.

The consumer price index, which measures a wide-ranging basket of goods and services, jumped 8.5% from a year ago on an unadjusted basis, above even the already elevated Dow Jones estimate for 8.4%.

Excluding food and energy, so-called core CPI increased 6.5% on a 12-month basis, in line with the expectation. However, there were signs that core inflation appeared to be ebbing, as it rose just 0.3% for the month, less than the 0.5% estimate.  

“The big news in the March report was that core price pressures finally appear to be moderating,” wrote Andrew Hunter, senior U.S. economist at Capital Economics. Hunter said he thinks the March increase will “mark the peak” for inflation as year-over-year comparisons drive the numbers lower and energy prices subside.   Just an "Inflated Price" thought.

Opec..

 

Biden's followed the Far Left's "Climate Change." First day in the office, I will do executive decisions to cancel the Key Stone Pipeline, followed by impeding drilling in federal lands.

That caused trippling the prices of gas and energy.

Then adding more fuel to the fire in the Ukraine conflict that most likely encouraged by the USA. Another world wide food shortages to occur soon, and increase the poor countries children misery.

Opec is not moving against their own interests but the Biden's administration is terrified from the next US election in November.  Biden opened up the Strategic oil reserve, 180 Million Barrel of oil to be released in addition to the previous releases.

Just a thought.

Energy..

 

Europe was already in an energy crisis in 2020 and 2021, with the cost of CO2 permits soaring and wholesale electricity prices reaching record-high levels by December 2021.

Europe does not “depend on Russian gas.” It is codependency. Russia needs Europe to export, and Europe has no cheaper alternative. Let us remember that Russian gas is much cheaper than any other realistic alternative.

The long-term contracts signed with Gazprom are closed at prices that can be up to ten times lower than some of the current alternatives. The 150 billion cubic meters that Europe imports from Russia can be replaced with liquefied natural gas from Norway and the North Sea, the United States, Algeria, Qatar, or Israel, but it will be much more expensive.

 If Russia sees that European governments ban nuclear power, prohibit the development of indigenous gas reserves, intervene in imports, and add massive CO2 taxes, Russian authorities will know that there is no competitive alternative and that European industry and consumers will collapse due to the rising cost of energy

European governments should think hard about misguided policies when the continent has been saved this winter by natural gas imported from the United States produced with fracking, a technology that has been banned in Europe.

Europe created their own problems by following the American apetite for war and for Anti-Russia sentiiment.

Trump Rule..

 

The Supreme Court reinstated for now a Trump-era rule that curtails the power of states and Native American tribes to block pipelines and other energy projects that can pollute rivers, streams and other waterways.  

In a decision that split the court 5-4, the justices agreed to halt a lower court judge’s order throwing out the rule. The high court’s action does not interfere with the Biden administration’s plan to rewrite the rule. Work on a revision has begun, but the administration has said a final rule is not expected until the spring of 2023. The Trump-era rule will remain in effect in the meantime.  

The Biden administration had told the justices in a court filing that it agreed that the U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup lacked the authority to throw out the rule without first determining that it was invalid. But the administration had urged the court not to reinstate the rule, saying that in the months since, officials have adapted to the change.

Economics..

 

David Rubenstein, the billionaire investor and cofounder of The Carlyle Group also cautioned the Federal Reserve's interest-rate hikes will curtail economic growth, explained why he's become less skeptical of cryptocurrencies, and predicted the crypto trend won't fade anytime soon.

  "Russia-Ukraine, as the global economy was beginning to recover from COVID, we now find ourselves in a free-fall a bit, in terms of the global economy. 

We're seeing a dramatic decline in obviously the Russian economy and the Ukrainian economy but it's spilling over into the European economy, and to some extent, the US economy. 

Until that issue is resolved, I don't think we're going to really know how the global economy is going to perform over the next year or so."

"Many people are going to look at whether the US economy is now going to be needing some stimulus. It was growing back after COVID, but now it's going to be stalling a little bit because of Russia." 

(Rubenstein gave the example of US airlines not being able to fly over Russia, and the increased difficulty of shipping goods across some national borders now.)

Demonize..

 

Europe wants cheap and abundant energy, but politicians demonize nuclear, gas, and oil. All the interventionist proposals that are put forward by European politicians entail a higher cost for long-suffering consumers.

Natural gas flows all the time and is cheap and abundant. It cannot be substituted with renewables that are intermittent, volatile, and unpredictable. 

The example of Germany is clear. After investing massively in renewables and doubling bills for consumers, it depends more on lignite coal and Russian gas to guarantee supply. 

Germany has had to reactivate coal plants after spending more than $200 billion on subsidies and renewables!

All technologies are necessary, and renewables are key, but they are not the alternative because they need natural gas backup while the technology is developed, as it is still in its infancy.  

All the "magical" alternatives that interventionism sells mean going from depending on Russia to depending on China. Where are we going to get the silicon, aluminum, rare-earths, copper, lithium, etc. necessary for those massive magical investments announced?

Demonizing nuclear energy has left Europe in the hands of expensive and volatile alternatives. The energy transition must be considered with an understanding of the importance of security of supply and competitiveness. We need all technologies, without ideological bias. We need solar, wind, natural gas, hydro, oil, and nuclear, or we will go from crisis to crisis, and always pay more.

Wheat..

Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on Twitter that he plans to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday, marking the first in-person meeting between Putin and a European Union leader since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February.

Ukraine’s economic output will likely contract by a staggering 45.1% this year due to Russia’s invasion, the World Bank said on Sunday in a new assessment of the war’s economic impacts.

The World Bank also forecast Russia’s 2022 GDP output to fall 11.2% due to punishing financial sanctions imposed by the United States and its Western allies on Russia’s banks, state-owned enterprises and other institutions.

The World Bank’s Eastern Europe region, comprising Ukraine, Belarus and Moldova, is forecast to show a GDP contraction of 30.7% this year, due to shocks from the war and disruption of trade.

For Ukraine, the World Bank report estimates that over half of the country’s businesses are closed, while others still open are operating at well under normal capacity. The closure of Black Sea shipping from Ukraine has cut off some 90% of the country’s grain exports and half of its total exports.

With that, the desire for war/revenge continues and the demand for weapon continued. 

Just a thought.