Miscellaneous And Off Topic Subjects

[Dr. Strangelove]

There has been minimal to no investment in oil and gas for about five years. Everyone in the business knows that its days are numbered. It's not surprising that the domestic industry is ill-equipped to handle a shock to the supply. Any investment is likely to be stranded, and our oil and gas companies got hit massively in the pocketbook as a result of the disastrous lockdowns and Covid panic. Obama's CAFE standards and state LCFS programs have ensured that our energy industry dies a slow death while consumers wrestle with increasing fuel prices.

Well a big part of why there's a lot less investment in shale companies has to do with how much money investors lost in the early period of shale drilling up to the 2014 oil crash mentioned in Geezer's article. A ton of American drillers dramatically oversold the kind of returns investors could expect and a bunch of investors on Wall Street got burned. First company in the industry I worked for was Chesapeake. They spent like drunken sailors and Aubrey McClendon promised stockholders riches galore if they stuck around. At one point here from 2010-2014 the company had a dominant position here in Ohio. Now they're long gone from Ohio and the company went from around 12,000 employees (and the largest gas producer in the country) to under 2,000 I believe. Most investors in Chesapeake lost their shirts.

McClendon was forced out, started a new company, started getting in trouble again almost immediately, got federally indicted, and died in a mysterious "accident". A lot of people like him were the CEO's of the early shale companies (many of which are gone).

[Mike]

You will pull the lever for him in 2024 and you probably rue the fact that he and Guilani couldn't manufacturer enough Hunter Biden dirt to disqualify Biden for another Trump term. If that would have happened Vladimir would have been free to take over Ukraine.

First, there was actual dirt on Hunter Biden prior to the 2020 election and it was suppressed by the media and removed on social media platforms.

https://www.nationalreview.com/corne...ions-are-real/

The New York Times Suddenly Discovers Hunter Biden Laptop and Corruption Investigations Are Real

If you are really industrious, you can dig 20 pages into the A section of today’s New York Times and find a 1,700-word news story by three of its top reporters, relating that the Justice Department’s investigation of President Biden’s son, Hunter, is not merely a tax matter. Turns out that prosecutors are probing his penchant for cashing in on his father’s political influence, through payments by overseas entities for which he did not register as a foreign agent.

Well, I’ll be damned!

Even better, if you wade 23 paragraphs into the story, you will learn that prosecutors are examining emails between Biden and his business associates that come from “a cache of files that appears to have come from a laptop abandoned by Mr. [Hunter] Biden in a Delaware repair shop.”

You don’t say.

Second, why on earth do you think had Trump won a 2nd term that Putin would have "been free to take over Ukraine"? You mean like how he feels NOW. We don't have a crystal ball to know the future but we certainly know that past and that is this: In 2014 when Biden was VP, the U.S. sent blankets to Ukraine when they asked for weapons to help repel Putin's advances in Crimea and Donbas. It was the Obama/Biden administration who stood by and did virtually NOTHING. It was the Obama/Biden administration who drew a red line in the sand over the use of chemical weapons in Syria and then did NOTHING when that line was crossed.

During 4 years of the Trump administration, Putin did not invade his neighbors or level cities. Now that could just be coincidence but we know for a fact that Putin didn't do these things while Trump was president.

In 2021 Biden oversaw one of the greatest military humiliations in our nation's history with his horseshit Afghanistan evacuation. The following year Putin invades all of Ukraine.

So to recap: Biden was either VP or POTUS on two occasions when Putin invaded his neighbors while Trump presided over zero such instances. So color me confused as to how Putin would have felt emboldened to take over Ukraine if Trump had won but..... somehow wasn't emboldened by Biden's feckless cluelessness??

[froot loops]

Yes tough Comrade Donald would have prevented this. Good take. You'll get your chance to pull the lever for him in 2024, that is if he isn't reinstalled for having the election stolen from him by Venezuela!

[Mike]

Again, it's entirely possible that Putin still would have invaded. We don't know for sure. What we DO know is that he did no such thing when Trump was in office and has done so twice with Biden in office.

Good take, dude.

[froot loops]

Young got me with that logic, tough Donald would have dealt with it harsher. Remember he is the same Comrade who bitched about NATO, openly pined to be Putin's new best friend and two weeks ago called Putin a saavy genius.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Mike, remind me of the circumstances of Trump's first impeachment? I believe they demonstrate what a great friend and protector to the Ukrainian people Trump truly was.

I have no clue what Trump would have done during all this. I'm sure to Putin Trump was a wild card. Less predictable than Biden or Clinton, and thus potentially more dangerous, but potentially more beneficial as well. There are two multi-national organizations Putin wants most to destroy: NATO and the EU. One is Russia's biggest military rival and the other is it's chief economic one. It just so happens that Trump was the first President since the Berlin Wall fell to be openly and loudly hostile to both NATO and the EU. Trump cheered with delight when the UK left the EU. Putin was also pleased. At least two people on Trump's national security team, John Bolton and Mark Esper, have gone on the record saying that Trump explicitly told them he was going to take the US out of NATO if he won a second term. Maybe they're liars or maybe that was just more of Trump's hot air. I don't know. But would that have been out of character for him?

If you're Putin and you see the American leader talking this way about the EU and NATO, and talking down Ukraine as a corrupt shithole associated with Hillary Clinton & Joe Biden, maybe you figure there's no need to go to war. Trump will unwittingly achieve your goals for you.

[Tom W]

Tom, it's simply a response to Biden Derangement Syndrome. You're complaining about having assclowns when we previously suffered with treasonous grifters. Yes it is uncomfortable now, but was far worse before. Perhaps we will put the USA back on track with no candidates in 2024 named Biden, Harris, AOC, Trump, DeSantis, or Pompeo.

Sorry Jon.. but struggling with trying to NOT visualize what a "cockholster" is better than the mess that exists TODAY.

This is what the Trump haters wanted. You spent 4 years zeroing in on getting rid of him. NOW, you got it. Own it. Prove that it wasn't a mistake (with something better than unsubstantiated namecalling) or admit that you screwed up and do better.

It's fair to say "assclowns" are running the show, because, right now, they are. "Poopypants" isn't a great visual, either, but it's might very well be true. And "Giggles"? Spot on. Crapping your pants or being a poor public speaker aren't necessarily deal breakers, but If you want better names, do better things.

Despite what you or Toucan Sam can say, Trump is gone. Really. If you look around you'll find that practically every one of your so called "Trumpsters" here recognize that it's best to keep him away. And, to be fair, does any rational person really want Hillary, either?

But, if either side can't come up with anything better, that's what we'll get.

[Mike]

Look, you know I'm not a Trump fan. Hell, I voted against him twice. But I'm pretty sure Putin didn't need any help manufacturing a hatred of Ukraine either. Trump also railed on NATO members for not paying their fair share and an overreliance on the U.S. Those things are both true. In fact Germany has recently announced that they will begin spending over the 2% GDP minimum. One could argue Trump had a good point on that one.

Bottom line though, it's crazy to believe Putin would have been MORE emboldened if Trump were still president while Putin is currently bombing the fuck out of Ukraine with Biden as president. I guess his war crimes would have been really bad if Trump were still around.

[Da Geezer]

Tom, it's simply a response to Biden Derangement Syndrome. You're complaining about having assclowns when we previously suffered with treasonous grifters. Yes it is uncomfortable now, but was far worse before. Perhaps we will put the USA back on track with no candidates in 2024 named Biden, Harris, AOC, Trump, DeSantis, or Pompeo.

To put Desantis and Pompeo in that list is absurd. Do you believe Pompeo is of the same caliber as AOC?

Do you have any evidence that Trump was a "treasonous grifter"?

It is "uncomfortable now but it was far worse before". Can you name anything that is better now than when Biden was elected? Covid is better, but I'm not at all sure it is better through the efforts of the Biden administration.

Oh, and how about naming an accomplishment of the Biden administration. Any accomplishment at all.

[Mike]

Tom, it's simply a response to Biden Derangement Syndrome. You're complaining about having assclowns when we previously suffered with treasonous grifters. Yes it is uncomfortable now, but was far worse before. Perhaps we will put the USA back on track with no candidates in 2024 named Biden, Harris, AOC, Trump, DeSantis, or Pompeo.

I'm becoming more of a DeSantis fan by the day. I'd take him in a heartbeat right now.

[Dr. Strangelove]

Look, you know I'm not a Trump fan. Hell, I voted against him twice. But I'm pretty sure Putin didn't need any help manufacturing a hatred of Ukraine either. Trump also railed on NATO members for not paying their fair share and an overreliance on the U.S. Those things are both true. In fact Germany has recently announced that they will begin spending over the 2% GDP minimum. One could argue Trump had a good point on that one.

Bottom line though, it's crazy to believe Putin would have been MORE emboldened if Trump were still president while Putin is currently bombing the fuck out of Ukraine with Biden as president. I guess his war crimes would have been really bad if Trump were still around.

I don't think he'd be more emboldened to go to war under Trump. I do think he'd have more reason to hope that permanent damage to the NATO alliance and Ukraine's relationship to the West would happen under Trump. I just can't see how Putin would not rather have a US President who was strongly inclined towards isolationism and expressed open contempt for not just Ukraine but almost all of America's traditional allies. But we can disagree. Trump was both higher risk/higher reward for him, IMO, and Putin is a gambler.

[froot loops]

It's pretty safe to say if you have a guy like Trump calling Putin a saavy genius two weeks ago, he wasn't going to put up much of a stink if Vladimir invaded Ukraine. He loved to praise Vladimir. The dude loves Putin, much of the GOP loves Putin, they have been put in a bit of a pickle here. Everyone must remember the position that a guy like Mitt Romney has on Russia is anachronistic. Romney himself is an anacronism, the energy of the party is behind people like Trump, DeSamtis, Fuentes and MTG. They are no longer fringe figures, they drive the party.

[Tom W]

Dude, you can't must have sat through too many midnight screenings of The Wall. It wasn't a Trump campaign film. Orange is not the new Pink.

[Dr. Strangelove]

This is interesting. Chinese state tv is actually airing clips of Russian atrocities. And it might be coincidental but I saw earlier today that Lavrov was supposed to fly to Beijing for talks and his plane was turned around mid flight

[crashcourse]

sounds like the first us citizen killed in ukraine

far as first impeachment that taped phone call sure as hell makes sense to me. same as they did over russia gate obama investigates trump thinking hes a threat to national security. trump has info thinking biden is a threat to national security

now trump is president--looks like hunter is absolutely compromised as more and more are finding out --why would you not want the country that you are sending arms to investigate a United states dirty corrupt senile politician and his son if you have hard evidence

but even going back to quid quo pro--ukraine got the 400million arms package under trump didnt they. was no quid quo pro

and now layer after layer is peeling off of what a slimeball hunter biden and the big guy really are

if biden doesnt get removed on 25th amendment thats another way they can chase his ass out

or better yet just let him run again