oil
Mapping An ISIS Advance: Syria On The Brink | ZeroHedge
Recently, calls for US ‘boots on the ground’ in Syria have gotten louder after ISIS captured a UNESCO World Heritage site in Syria, overran Ramadi in Iraq, and took credit for a suicide bombing in a Saudi mosque.
The US is now reportedly looking at its options including sending so-called “spotters” to Iraq who will help to make US airstrikes more effective and meanwhile, uber hawks like Senator John McCain (who has himself had a bit of trouble shaking rumors that he was once photographed with the same ISIS forces he now wants to annihilate) saying that as many as 10,000 US troops are necessary to turn the tide. From Bloomberg…
Go here to Zero Hedge for the post, but don’t miss what may be the best comment on the article where ‘Paveway IV’ opines:
…Put 10,000 U.S. troops on the ground, which Syrians will absolutely fucking 100% hate. McCain forgets that even people on the rebel FSA side hate the U.S. now. This must be the new Pentagon requirement for troop deployment: wait until the people on the ground absolutely despise the U.S., are completely unwilling to cooperate and ignore U.S. pleas to return to territory the U.S. wasted U.S. soldier’s lives to conquer.
Locals always know how U.S. intervention ends: the locals are disarmed by the U.S. and defenseless, the U.S. has destroyed their homes and infrastructure, and whoever the U.S. was ‘fighting’ is just going to wait until the Americans leave and then come back and butcher anyone left. The U.S. may ‘hire’ a couple local thugs or petty criminals to act as police, but they will only extort money from the locals and will 100% flee at the sight of any kind of enemy.
The ONLY people in Syria that like the U.S. are the people that get radios, rifle scopes and arms from the U.S.: the rest of the failing FSA, al Nusra and ISIS. I guess we did send the Kurds a few token arms, but that was kind of a wash – the steerable parachutes with the German grenades all managed to fly directly into the ISIS compound er, by mistake I guess. Damn!
Dear McCain: Even a geriatric psychopath like you should be able to understand the futility of stirring up an Arab Spring ethnic cleansing campaign in Syria, killing three-quarters of a million CIVILIANS and funding a fake ‘rebellion’ whose soldiers almost wihtout exception have joined the al Nusra or ISIS head-choppers (and taken their U.S. equipment and TOW-2A’s with them). U.S. soldiers will die by the weapons and TOWs YOU sent to the fake FSA, remember? There will be several hundred more that come back with out arms and legs because YOU sent TONS AND TONS of RDX and ammonium nitrate to the rebels (who are now al Nusra or ISIS) through Turkey. All those expolsives will be used for car bombs and IEDs against American troops.
You launched a coup attempt against Assad and it failed miserably because you could only find psychopaths to serve as rebels. Don’t try to remedy the situation now by sending in our sons and daughters to clean up YOUR FUCKING MESS, you treasonous old bastard. If the Syrians want to ressurect Hitler from the dead and elect him president, then it’s NONE OF YOUR FUCKING BUSINESS. The Syrians hate our fucking guts – we have destroyed their country for Israel and Qatar and have made around ten million of them homeless and destitute. All of this for oil and gas pipelines for two of the most evil and corrupt nations on earth: Israel and Qatar.
If there is a God in heaven, then there is a wood-chipper SOMEWHERE on earth with your name on it. With any luck, you guys in Washington D.C. still have the one that you used to shred the U.S. constitution. I’m not advocating anyone using violence against you in the least – I’m simply imploring YOU to do the right thing for God and country – just this once.
Do it now, John – the feed cog is calling… It’s calling out to you: “John… oh, John… come closer… I’ll make the pain of your treason go away… You’ll be free at last… Come on John, I know you can hear me… step inside and the wood-chipper will forgive your genocide… it won’t judge you – it’s not your fault… your citizens can’t understand you in the special way a wood-chipper can… step into the feed cogs and let me embrace you, John”
Ditto Paveway IV, ditto.
No inflation here folks, just move along | H/T ZeroHedge
Producers Panic as Ethanol Mandate Loses Support | OilPrice
GE Comment: It is high time that this asinine program be demolished. Like AGW and the carbon scare, the greens and sheeple were duped by corporate ag into believing that pouring topsoil, RoundUp and tractor fuels into the gas tanks on their Honda Accords would ‘save’ the planet. Facts are, indeed, stubborn things.
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Ethanol producers are panicking amid speculation that the ethanol mandate could be drastically reduced or scrapped entirely this year as the biofuel loses its allure and bipartisan allies and former friends team up against it.
December saw California Democrat Dianne Feinstein—a renewable fuel champion–coordinate efforts with Oklahoma Republican Tom Coburn to come up with a Senate bill to get rid of ethanol from the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), citing fears that corn-based fuel production mandates will harm livestock producers.
In November, Washington proposed cutting the biofuels mandate for 2014 by 16% to 15.21 billion gallons. This would be the first cut in biofuels requirements, which were ideally set to grow each year with incremental increases in renewable fuel targets laid out in a 2007 law.
For renewable fuel targets, this represents a major setback because not only is 15.21 billion gallons for 2014 much less than the originally intended 18.15 billion gallons, it is also less than this year’s mandate of 16.55 billion gallons.
Two years ago the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the E15 blend, which contains 15% ethanol and 85% gasoline, for vehicles manufactured in 2001 or later. There has been little progress towards widespread use of E15 though, and today’s blend is commonly E10. Continue reading
Iran lawmakers prepare to close Hormuz Strait | RT
Iranian lawmakers have drafted a bill that would close the Strait of Hormuz for oil tankers heading to countries supporting current economic sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
“There is a bill prepared in the National Security and Foreign Policy committee of Parliament that stresses the blocking of oil tanker traffic carrying oil to countries that have sanctioned Iran,” Iranian MP Ibrahim Agha-Mohammadi told reporters. “This bill has been developed as an answer to the European Union’s oil sanctions against the Islamic Republic of Iran. ” via RT
Navigating through a Room full of Elephants – Nate Hagens at ASPO 2012 Conference
Starting with some piecing insights into the state of the economy, “peak oil”, energy costs, social trends and money, Mr.Hagens concludes with some thought provoking observational predictions for where we are headed. Worth the 49 minutes. GE.
Iran Escalates Again, Cuts Off Oil Shipments To Spain | ZeroHedge
Those hoping for a quick and painless resolution to the Iranian question may have just seen their hopes dashed, following the breaking news from Iranian Press TV, according to which not only is Iran not seeking to appease its Western counterparts, but is, in fact escalating. From Press TV: “Tehran has cut oil supply to Spain after stopping crude export to Greece as part of its countersanctions, unnamed sources confirmed on Tuesday. Tehran also mulls cutting oil supply to Germany and Italy.” Continue reading
‘Panetta believes Israel will atttck Iran | JPost
According to the report, written by the paper’s senior opinion writer David Ignatius, Panetta is concerned that Israel will launch an attack before Iran enters the so-called “immunity zone” when its nuclear facilities will be heavily fortified and a military strike will no longer succeed.
Ignatius does not quote Panetta in the article but he is currently traveling with the secretary of defense in Brussels.According to the article, Israel might decide to strike before Iran completes the fortification since afterward only America will be capable of stopping Iran militarily….via JPost
Will Israel Attack Iran? | NYTimes.com
Very good, 11 pages and worth the time. GE.
“…The future can evolve in three ways,” he said. “Iran and the international community could agree to a negotiated settlement; Israel and the United States could acquiesce to a nuclear-armed Iran; or Israel or the United States could attack. Nobody wants to go in the direction of a military strike,” he added, “but unfortunately this is the most likely scenario. The more interesting question is not whether it happens but how. The United States should treat this option more seriously and begin gathering international support and building the case for the use of force under international law...”
After speaking with many senior Israeli leaders and chiefs of the military and the intelligence, I have come to believe that Israel will indeed strike Iran in 2012. Perhaps in the small and ever-diminishing window that is left, the United States will choose to intervene after all, but here, from the Israeli perspective, there is not much hope for that. Instead there is that peculiar Israeli mixture of fear — rooted in the sense that Israel is dependent on the tacit support of other nations to survive — and tenacity, the fierce conviction, right or wrong, that only the Israelis can ultimately defend themselves.
Are We Really Going To Bomb Iran? | DollarCollapse.com
“… In one sense this latest war is, if not right, at least understandable. A fight is clearly brewing and the US wants to both protect an ally and keep the oil flowing. But in another sense it’s absurd. Multiple simultaneous wars are for solvent superpowers with sound currencies and flexible finances, and the US no longer qualifies. Our military is overextended and exhausted and this year Washington will borrow its defense budget from China, add another trillion to the official national debt and maybe three trillion to unfunded liabilities and other off-balance-sheet but very real obligations…” via DollarCollapse.com.
Stephen Hadley: Chance of US Military Action Against Iran ‘Very High’ | Newsmax
The chances of military action between Iran and the United States are “very high” George Bush’s National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley warned in an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV.“We could get into a situation of confrontation fairly easily,” due to the instability of the Tehran regime, he said…. via Newsmax
The Grey Enigma 