Venezuelan oil generally has a fairly high extraction cost, much of those reserves are in oil sands in the Orinoco, quite similar to the oil sands of northern Alberta. Fifteen years ago, there were quite a few Venezuelans around Fort McMurray, because the instability and Chavista policies made the Alberta industry more appealing for their expertise.
4 Likes
Such details are irrelevant I’d say.
2 Likes
One of the comments below this picture said, “Trump has a neck like a Betty White vagina”… Guess once you have got that image in your head, it is sort of hard to get rid of it eh :0)
5 Likes
Lost in the crowing anti trump coverage of a woman winning the nobel peace prize trump wanted is that Corina Machado is actually very Trumpy. She has openly promised the US access to its oil if they help her oust Maduro.
Having known nothing about this woman before the got the prize she presents another example of how difficult it can be praising the enemies of our enemies because they are often pretty unpleasant themselves (see Navalny)
4 Likes
The war on terror looked more like a pretext to exploit natural resources. The war on drugs will follow the same sort of playbook, though I can’t imagine many American troops on the ground for any length of time. Venezuela will be exploited and stripped. Ugh.
A few months ago Trump was making a play for control of Canada, in the name of security and a stronger economy, again due to natural resources. The Canadians gave him short shrift - good on ya.
He was also making a play for Greenland, again in the name of security and a stronger economy, but it very much looked like exploitation of natural resources is the main driving force. I feel that one is not finished and America will continue to insert themselves more and more.
I suppose throughout history the stronger power has always taken from others, but in this day and age, you would want to see mutually beneficial arrangements so everyone wins. I won’t hold my breath.
2 Likes
File this in the same category as the East Wing ballroom being paid for by private donations
https://x.com/adamcancryn/status/1981780728187904031
That is not actually a defense against the criticisms. It is a wildly inappropriate set of events with absolutely terrifying consequences. The fact MAGA point to this as defenses of the Trump admin just shows again they have no understanding of how anything is supposed to work or why. It shows that when they complain about something government related it is just a primal scream of not knowing how the world works rather than a coherent argument that can be debated with. This is being done by after being elected because they wanted him to drain the swamp… Fuck me dead.
3 Likes
It’s also a little disconcerting to consider that she is openly petitioning Trump to bring about regime change through military action in contravention of international law and so obviously antithetical for the award of a 'peace ’ prize.
5 Likes
Yeah, it took me 2 mins reading about who she was to get into WTF territory on her being the recipient of this. Honestly, we may as well give it to Trump for ending the war between Batman and Superman
5 Likes
Did anyone read the story that just broke about how Hunter Biden got appointed to the board of a weapons company, a position he was completely unqualified for, shortly after the 2020 election and soon after the company got awarded a big DoD contract? Maybe there is something to those accusations the GOP were pushing about Hunter and Joe?
https://x.com/scarylawyerguy/status/1981855966602690641
Hang on, Im sorry. I meant Don Jr in 2024.
3 Likes
The Roman Republic went into terminal decline when the legions became loyal to the rich men who paid them rather than the republic.
4 Likes
There is a facebook page under the moniker - ‘The Other 98%’
It posts/whispers lots of stuff that is happening behind the scenes with the GOP… Obviously, there is lots of fact included, but to be sure, one can always follow the information up with the help of Google and searching for the finer details…
Here is such a post that the media, once again, are not publicising so much… If a fraction of it is true, words just fail…
Trump just gave away America’s last wild frontier — to Big Oil. It’s the largest giveaway of public land to fossil fuel companies in modern history. The announcement, made Thursday by Trump’s Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, opens 1.56 million acres of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge wilderness to oil and gas drilling.
Burgum bragged that “Alaska is open for business,” calling it a win for “energy independence.” Translation: the Arctic is open for destruction.
And this isn’t just about drilling in the Arctic. Trump’s team also reissued permits for the Ambler Road Project — a 211-mile industrial road slicing through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, home to more than 200,000 migratory birds and dozens of tribal communities that rely on the land for hunting and fishing.
Thirty-nine Alaskan villages and 37 tribes have already said no. Trump didn’t care.
As if that weren’t enough, the White House also greenlit new oil and gas lease sales across the National Petroleum Reserve, reversing Biden’s 2024 decision to expand protections there.
Let that sink in: during a government shutdown, when public workers go unpaid, Trump found time to hand Big Oil the keys to the Arctic — and the shovels to dig its grave.
Environmental groups are furious — and rightly so.
“The Arctic Refuge is the crown jewel of our public lands system,” said the Alaska Wilderness League. “Opening it to drilling would destroy one of the most ecologically significant landscapes on Earth.”
The Sierra Club called it what it is: “A collective wrecking ball aimed at fragile Alaskan ecosystems, all to boost the bottom lines of CEOs.”
And the Gwich’in people, whose ancestors have protected this land for millennia, called it a “direct assault on our culture, our food security, and our future.”
This isn’t about jobs. It’s not about energy independence. It’s about greed — pure and simple.
Trump’s “America First” energy plan is really Planet Last.
He’s trading caribou for campaign checks, glaciers for gas wells, and Indigenous rights for profit margins.
If this makes you angry, you’re paying attention. Because when Trump says “America is open for business,” what he really means is: our future is for sale.
Upon using Google to trace back the validity…
Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has recently made announcements and taken actions related to energy dominance and departmental efficiency. He signed a Secretary’s Order to prioritize energy projects with higher capacity density, impacting the permitting of large-scale solar and wind projects on federal lands, and directed the Department to manage administrative functions more efficiently. He has also supported fossil fuels, with recent announcements about coal lease sales and promoting the opening of lands for leasing.
Energy policy
- Prioritizing project efficiency: Burgum signed a Secretary’s Order to more efficiently manage energy resources by considering a project’s “capacity density” (how much energy it generates per acre) when permitting projects on federal lands.
- Impact on renewable energy: The order is expected to reduce the efficiency of permitting large-scale wind and solar projects in favor of those with smaller footprints, like nuclear, gas, and coal.
- Offshore lease schedules: Following the order, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) is rescinding a regulation that required a five-year schedule of offshore renewable energy lease sales every two years, claiming the previous rule unnecessarily limited the Secretary’s discretion.
- Support for fossil fuels: The Department has also announced coal lease sales and the opening of millions of acres for coal leasing to advance American energy dominance.
Departmental efficiency
- Reorganization: Burgum has launched a reorganization of the Department of the Interior to consolidate and unify administrative functions, such as human resources, IT, and financial management.
- Streamlining processes: The goal is to create greater efficiencies by optimizing processes, eliminating redundant efforts, and integrating technology across the various agencies and bureaus within the department.
1 Like
Just like their justification on their immigration crack down are based on complete lies about there being an open border they had to address, these moves are also based on a lie about the existing state of US oil production - domestic oil production and profits of the US producers were hitting record levels under Biden. Yet the right has lied about the focus on developing a next generation energy economy to pretend that it hurt domestic oil production and interests. This is a response to a problem they invented yet that many people believe
3 Likes
I tried looking up Betty White’s Vagina but couldn’t find it. I saw some pictures of her head/face that looked a bit like a vagina but nothing quite as disgusting as TACO’s head.
3 Likes
It’s a pity Alaska is not part of Canada… At least it would be in safe hands
1 Like
Well as Betty White was 17days short of her 100th Birthday when she passed, I think the crusty age was the reference of the initial comment :0)
1 Like
Reported
3 Likes
Oh! Like those things Ed Gein had stored in his underwear?
There are reports that the Ballroom work was initiated without even submitting any permits. Now they are showing that not only have they broken promises to not touch any of the existing building, they have removed some historical commemorative trees.
https://x.com/ABC/status/1981875121263391170
2 Likes
It is interesting that we’re seeing a good number of defections from Trump’s camp over this
https://x.com/TPCarney/status/1981678112556622163
Carney is the sort of conservative you would have thought would have joined the Lincoln Project and Bulwark crew as being an early never Trumper but he didnt make the move. This seems like its finally too much for him
4 Likes
