Dear Fox commentators. I am confused. The US Government does not own any oil company and oil companies are totally in the private sector. No US company is importing Russian oil. No US company is sending any money to Russia, American banks, shipping companies etc etc refuse to deal with Russia. US oil companies are now pumping more oil as the price of oil makes it profitable. They also have over 1000 leases to drill for oil that have not been used yet. So all this talk about the US (read President Biden) in some way financing Russian invasion of Ukraine is in fact not happening? So why does President Biden have to ban Russian imports of oil that are not happening?
By the way, the US oil companies make billions in profits each year, import from over 80 countries and export to over 100 countries. In fact the USA is a net exporter of oil each year, As the price of oil goes up guess who makes more profits? Oil companies. That is the capitalist way.

Its very easy to criticize if you don’t have to be responsible for what happens. Its easy to criticize for what should have happened if you dont know the facts. It’s easy to say “we should do more” if you dont have to deal with the unintended consequences. It’s easy to call for taking risks and “having a spine” if you are not facing a real potential of nuclear war that could destroy the world.
The game of politics is simple. Criticize from the outside to help you get elected then when you are on the inside forget what you said. When you are on the outside the facts don’t really matter. What does matter is getting elected. The Republicans are now on the outside and the midterms are coming up so they criticize everything even if they would do the same thing. That is the reality of politics.Both Democrats and Republicans do this. For instance, Donald Trump said Obama care was a disaster and that he would replace it with something much better and cheaper day one. Forgotten day two. Mexico will pay for the wall. Forgotten. Iran nuclear deal was the worst deal ever so he terminated it to get a better deal. Never replaced and Iran now much closer to getting a nuclear weapon. etc etc.
Big talking points now are oil independence. Sounds good and on the surface makes sense. Ban Russian oil imports! Meanwhile the US government does not import oil, the private sector does. And no Russian oil has been purchased for several weeks now – before any calls for banning the oil occurred. Many oil leases in the US have not been utilized yet. We dont need any more. The US is a net exporter of oil. etc etc.Besides one way to cut the need for oil is to build more renewables. Drilling is not the only solution. Then there is Iran. Complete that nuclear deal and a major oil exporter enters the market. There is more than one way to skin a cat.

My son Miles IV came up with an interesting scenario to solve the Ukraine war. It goes something like this: Letter to Putin and the Russian Military leadersDear Sirs, As you know Ukraine gave up its nuclear arsenal years ago with guarantees from the USA and Russia. What you do not know is that we kept three of the largest nuclear bombs. One has now been placed in Moscow and ready to detonate. The other two are also ready to detonate and are located in two other cities that we will not disclose. We are giving you 24 hours to cease operations in Ukraine and 48 hours to remove your troops from our country. Let me remind you. We have nothing to loose. Several of our cities already look like they were hit by a nuclear bomb. Millions have fled Westward. We have no wish to kill Russians. We equally have no wish to see our country occupied and destroyed. We are not kidding. If you do not do as we ask millions of Russians will be vaporized, Its up to you. Ukrainian Resistance Forces.

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There is not much good one can attach to the war in Ukraine but it does expose me to people with views that try to validate some of what Putin is doing. I did not know who Lee Smith was until I saw him on Laura Ingraham’s FOX TV show. Subsequently I read many of his writings to see what he was all about. Some subjects I did not know much about but others I do know a lot about. For the latter all I can say is that this guy is deeply misinformed and prone to misinterpret history to an astounding degree. I would like to say that he is just naïve and got such views because of that, but it did not take long to see he was coming from a conspiracy agenda that enables him to see evil intentions under every bed as long as they are American or Democrats. I can safely say that he is a wacko. Meanwhile watching useful idiot Tucker Carlson yesterday also on FOX, I heard Tulsi Gabbard express views that I can’t help but think she means well but does not really know anything about history or the realities of world politics. I am reminded of the old saying “a little knowledge is a dangerous thing.” Though she talked for a while the only message that she seemed to be saying is that 1. a politician should be thinking of what is “best for his people” as if that was some great revelation. 2. that of course we should be upset at Putin’s invasion of Russia BUT it is not our problem and not in our interest to respond to it. And 3. All the Ukrainian bloodshed could have been avoided IF we and NATO had listened to “legitimate Russian security fears” and agreed that Ukraine would never join NATO. Of course useful idiot Tucker Carlson agreed because as he has said “why should I care about Ukraine?”. Well, some facts need to be understood. First it was not NATO that pushed to include Poland, the Baltic States, etc into NATO, it was those countries themselves that were desperate to join. Why? Because they feared Russia. They had experienced Russia and wanted protection from it. Second, NATO was set up for defense and NOT for offence so Russian “security concerns” are a false flag. Does anyone really believe that Germany, France, England, the USA and all the other NATO countries were plotting to attack Russia? It is a preposterous notion. If they were plotting so hard why did they become so dependent on Russian oil? Second, as we have clearly seen the Ukrainians had no intention to attack Russia. They gave up their nuclear arsenal with guarantees from the US AND Russia. What’s more, it is Ukraine that is pushing to join NATO and not the other way around. In fact NATO has resisted. Third, Why are we to believe that if we had granted Putin’s demand that Ukraine never join NATO he would not have attacked Ukraine anyway? We need to look back at a very similar period of history to understand what was likely to happen. In 1938 Hitler’s Germany demanded to take over the Sudetenland, the heavily German speaking part of western Czechoslovakia. In Western capitols we heard views that this was simply redressing the unfair way Germany was treated after World War I. “Legitimate” in other worlds. Nevil Chamberlain, having experienced the horrors of the First World War wanted peace and to avoid another world war. He ended up believing Hitler when he was told this was the last bit of land Germany wanted. He agreed to let Hitler take that land and came back to the UK as a hero with a piece of paper saying we have “peace in our time”. He went on to expound the view that it was Winston Churchill who was the war monger NOT Mr. Hitler. Well, he was right – he did deliver “peace in our time” – the problem was that “our time” turned out to be very short. Less than a year later Hitler invaded Poland. The word “appeasement” became part of our no no doctrine. When Hitler took not only the agreed Sudetenland but the whole of Czechoslovakia the penny dropped as to what Hitler was really all about. BUT still there were those who said “why should we care about Czechoslovakia”? Peace was seen as a more important goal. Lets not forget that President Roosevelt promised America would not go to war in Europe. In the end we learned the lesson that “appeasement” is NOT the answer to secure peace. It may be a short term answer but history has shown over and over again it is NOT the long term answer. If anything, the short term benefits appeasement may bring only make the long term disaster all the more severe. Like Hitler before him, the invasion of Ukraine has exposed Putin’s real intentions. Most of the world (even Switzerland and Sweden!) have united against him because we know all the bullshit about “legitimate security concerns” is just that; bullshit. We had to finally wake up to Hitler, now we have to wake up to Putin. Time to open our eyes and see what is right in front of us.

Someone should tell Sean Hannity that the US has NOT purchased any Russian gas/oil for the last two weeks. Russian oil accounts for 3% of annual US purchases and largely replaces Venezuelan supplies. The argument that the US should pump more gas at home is valid but grossly exaggerating its effect is a distortion of reality. Also solving one problem may well cause another worse one. NO decision is without unintended consequences. However here are the facts: in 2020, the United States IMPORTED about 7. 86 million barrels per day of petroleum from about 80 countries. Petroleum includes crude oil, hydrocarbon gas liquids, refined petroleum products such as gasoline and diesel fuel, and biofuels (including ethanol and biodiesel). Crude oil imports of about 5. 88 million barrels per day accounted for about 75% of U. S. total gross petroleum imports in 2020, and non-crude oil petroleum accounted for about 25% of U. S. total gross petroleum imports. In 2020, the United States EXPORTED about 8. 50 million barrels per day of petroleum to about 174 countries and 4 U. S. territories. Crude oil exports of about 3. 21 million barrels per day accounted for 38% of total U. S. gross petroleum exports in 2020. The resulting totalnet petroleum imports(imports minus exports) were about -0. 63 million barrels per day in 2020, which means that the United States was a net petroleum exporter of 0. 63 million barrels per day in 2020. When you see these facts it pretty much destroys most of Hannity’s argument. Meanwhile thinking “someone” should bomb the 40 mile long Russian column heading from the North to Kyiv and that can be hidden shows just how detached from reality Hannity is. The Russians have satellites too, and these days you cant hide anything. Even the Russians have phones with cameras. Basically as far as I can see his show is basically a party political broadcast to belittle the Democrats and President Biden and enhance Republicans. Its interesting to see how he twists everything going on in the Ukraine to somehow mean its all Biden’s fault. 

Then followed by Laura Ingraham she should be more careful who she invites on to be a talking head. Look at all the writings of Lee Smith. Talk about a wacko! Great use of half truths mixed with outright delusions and an obvious agenda. Just another conspiracy theory advocate who makes out Russia is good and Ukraine is getting what it deserves and that it is America’s fault (actually NOT America but Obama, Biden and the Democrats of course).

Blame for what is going on in Ukraine can be shared by many going back for many years. It goes to show that not dealing with an issue early can create greater problems in the future. Every recent US President, both Democrat and Republican and many European leaders can take some of the blame. So can the media. The truth is no one wanted to deal with what would now seem obvious any more than the world wanted to deal with Hitler in 1939. Nevil Chamberlain believed Churchill was the problem NOT Hitler! We don’t want to deal with climate change and some of the media even go so far as to laugh at environmentalists no matter how dire the warnings are. Only when Miami sinks or New York is under water will the media come to accept the dangers.

Why?

It costs money and sacrifices have to be made which we don’t want to deal with. It is no different with Putin and Russia. We should have known, the signs were there, but who wanted to take them seriously? Hell, if we couldn’t take Hitler seriously how the hell are we expected to take Putin seriously? Meanwhile under the last President Putin was made out to be a good guy and certain media today don’t want to mention that now very inconvenient truth. They even say he strengthened NATO which he did the opposite of. Again, not wanting to deal with it because it conflicts with other agendas. More disturbing are the Putin supporters among the far right who continue to champion support even as we can see what is happening on our TV screens. It is shocking to realize once again how many will choose to believe what they want to believe even when the evidence is overwhelming that the opposite is true. The only good news in all of this is that the Russian invasion is making many wake up to the reality of Putin and to the inconvenient truths that previously they chose to ignore.

The real danger ALL of us will face, Russians, Americans, Europeans, Putin himself is what is beginning to happen. The scenes of destruction and misery we are seeing on TV will soon push the publics of the US and Europe to demand a response. There is a limit and soon the idea of nuclear war will be seen as a Russian bluff the public is willing to call. At the same time Billionaires and others are assembling mercenaries to go and fight the Russians in Ukraine. Many of these mercenaries are really bad people who love the idea of killing Russians and becoming a hero for doing so. They also have weaponry that is more advanced then anything the Russian army has and most of the US Army as well. Putin has unleashed dangers that will destroy him but I fear might destroy all of us as well.

Interesting Putin Denazification of Ukraine.  A Russian missal destroys the Kyiv Jewish Holocaust memorial.