President Biden thread

5 minutes ago, Beerman said:

And, apparently the administration is now looking to Venezuela.

"Leaders in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) declined calls with President Biden as the war in Ukraine intensified, Middle East and U.S. officials told The Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.

"There was some expectation of a phone call, but it didn't happen," a U.S. official told the Journal regarding a call between Biden and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. "It was part of turning on the spigot [of Saudi oil]."

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/597436-saudi-uae-leaders-declined-calls-with-biden-amid-ukraine-conflict

Best I can tell, the criticism from the right is that Biden needs to do more to increase the supply side of oil (even though the availability of pre-refinery oil doesn't really affect the price of gas at the pump), but that he should be criticized for doing exactly what they're criticizing him for not doing?

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Researchers at Yale and the American Museum of Natural History have identified the earliest known relative of octopuses and vampire squid — and named it after the 46th president of the United States.

Syllipsimopodi bideni had 10 arms, fins, and rows of suckers to grasp prey. It lived 328 million years ago and represents a new species of vampyropod, the group of marine animals that includes modern octopuses and vampire squid.

The researchers named the animal after President Joseph R. Biden to honor the new president, who had just been inaugurated at the time the study was submitted for publication, and to recognize his commitment to science.

[...]

Hail to the Squid – New Species of Extinct Vampire-Squid-Like Cephalopod With 10 Arms Named After Biden

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A U.S.-Venezuelan deal would be a crucial piece in the puzzle of sanctioning Russian energy, a step U.S. President Joe Biden announced today. Venezuelan oil would be a perfect substitute for Russian oil in large part because Russian oil has been a perfect substitute for Venezuelan oil. Much of the oil refining industry on the U.S. Gulf Coast is built for heavy crude oil like that produced by Venezuela—some, such as the Citgo refinery in Lake Charles, Louisiana, was built specifically for Venezuelan crude. These refineries cannot run at capacity producing gasoline and other petroleum products from light oil grades such as those produced by U.S. shale drillers or Saudi Arabia, and there is not enough pipeline capacity to bring heavier oil grades down from Canada. When sanctions were levied on the Venezuelan oil industry, U.S. refiners’ sudden supply shortages were filled by Russia, which also produces a heavier grade. Indeed, Russian oil deliveries to the United States have roughly doubled since the start of U.S. oil sanctions on Venezuela in 2019.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/03/08/venezuela-maduro-sanctions-oil-deal-russia-war-ukraine-democracy-geopolitics/

Obviously there are problems with Venezuelan oil.   They are a Russian ally and they are not a democracy and are under sanction.    With their collapsed economy perhaps they might be willing to look back to the US and work through some of their issues.  They are sitting on the world's largest oil reserves.  It also puts them at an advantage as oil prices are at a peak.  

Will be interesting to see how this unfolds.   

51 minutes ago, Beerman said:

Interesting,  I guess it is.

My understanding is that it would take many months to years for Venezuelan oil to make a dent.

If that is true, it's hard to see the benefit in going this route.

Where do you believe that the USA should replace the Russian oil if not from the top 5 foreign sources for our oil imports? Do you think it would be faster to create a new market pathway?

On 3/9/2022 at 1:02 PM, toomuchbaloney said:

Where do you believe that the USA should replace the Russian oil if not from the top 5 foreign sources for our oil imports? Do you think it would be faster to create a new market pathway?

I don't think there is a pathway to that will make an immediate dent.  All pathways will take months to deal with the immediate issues.

I think for me the obvious route would be to increase from current suppliers, or in the case of Venezuela lift the embargo.  

For long term planning I hope we can become more self-sufficient.  

Apparently even our largest supplier of oil, Canada, will have some problem filling the gap from Russia in the long term.  

Another source, Mexico, is having increased domestic demands for it's own oil and late last year announced it's hope to stop exporting all together to be self-sufficient.

The Middle East has declined to help.  They are enjoying the high price of oil.

https://globalnews.ca/news/8667956/canada-oil-exports-us-russia-ban/

https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/12/28/mexico-plans-to-end-oil-exports-in-2023-to-reach-self-sufficiency

Obviously, we need to increase US production but without a state run oil industry that's not proving to be an easy fix and there's the environmental activities to pacify.  Obviously, we need to decrease demand and use other sources, but that's not an easy fix.

The US is the largest consumer of oil.  With a population of over 1.1 billion more people that the US, the 2nd largest consumer,  China, uses about 7 million barrels less a day.  Obviously some of this has to do with standard of living, but this should be our wake up call. 

It won't be though anymore than the long gas lines in the 70's were.

Opinion piece:

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“Biden Inflation” is real. It had arrived even before Putin began massing forces adjacent to Ukraine. It will continue even if Putin declares victory and withdraws from Ukraine. It is simply the product of too much money chasing too few goods. And it will crush Democrats at the polls in November. But it will crush them even worse than it ordinarily would if Biden continues to insist “I didn’t do it.” That’s what children declare when anything goes awry. But it’s not what voters expect of elected officials.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/11/biden-blame-putin-inflation-will-not-work/

26 minutes ago, Tweety said:

Opinion piece:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/03/11/biden-blame-putin-inflation-will-not-work/

I had to go check to see if Marc Theissen or Henry Olsen or Hugh Hewitt wrote that conservative opinion.  

In this instance Mr Hewitt contends that blaming the factors which are causing rising prices won't fly because "the American people are not stupid". Yet an alarming number of Americans are stupid enough to think that the KEYSTONE XL pipeline would have positively impacted American energy prices, or that there was a bunch of permits for ANWAR drilling and leases that were cancelled by Biden or that Trump reduced foreign oil imports (russian oil imports increased under Trump). The fabricated conservative narrative that the absence of that pipeline means that less oil would be forthcoming from North America is cute...but doesn't  match any of the expert projections.  In fact, production from the Canadian tar sands oil fields has increased since the Keystone XL project was put to rest. 

It was interesting that Mr Hewitt chose to close by spreading partisan nonsense about democrats as if it was gospel truth rather than just another republican opinion. 

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“The Democrats believe in five things: inflation at home, appeasement abroad, teachers unions first and parents and students last, an open southern border and closed police precincts everywhere.”

It's almost like he thinks that Americans are stupid and don't actually pay attention. 

28 minutes ago, toomuchbaloney said:

I had to go check to see if Marc Theissen or Henry Olsen or Hugh Hewitt wrote that conservative opinion.  

In this instance Mr Hewitt contends that blaming the factors which are causing rising prices won't fly because "the American people are not stupid". Yet an alarming number of Americans are stupid enough to think that the KEYSTONE XL pipeline would have positively impacted American energy prices, or that there was a bunch of permits for ANWAR drilling and leases that were cancelled by Biden or that Trump reduced foreign oil imports (russian oil imports increased under Trump). The fabricated conservative narrative that the absence of that pipeline means that less oil would be forthcoming from North America is cute...but doesn't  match any of the expert projections.  In fact, production from the Canadian tar sands oil fields has increased since the Keystone XL project was put to rest. 

It was interesting that Mr Hewitt chose to close by spreading partisan nonsense about democrats as if it was gospel truth rather than just another republican opinion. 

It's almost like he thinks that Americans are stupid and don't actually pay attention. 

I do agree that his stereotypes of Democrats five things are nothing but right wing rhetoric.  

I also think when he says the American people aren't stupid he's wrong.  The dumbing down of America is long under way.  

I do agree that inflation is going to be one issue, if not the issue, that crushes Democrats.  

5 minutes ago, Tweety said:

I do agree that his stereotypes of Democrats five things are nothing but right wing rhetoric.  

I also think when he says the American people aren't stupid he's wrong.  The dumbing down of America is long under way.  

I do agree that inflation is going to be one issue, if not the issue, that crushes Democrats.  

That will be the issue that crushes democrats only if the press doesn't cover the deep and un-American lies about our elections and the Republican attempt to dismiss the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election results while they make it easier to subvert future election results based upon partisan ambition. The free press should be the watch dogs of our democracy but the authoritarians seem to have have discovered that all you need to do is distract them with juicy rhetoric about silly social issues...and that's what they will publish.