VoA—U.S. engagement in Southeast Asia, especially Myanmar, can advance America’s national security, economic interests and broader strategic goals in countering China’s expanding influence, foreign policy analysts say.
Analysts warn of China advances in Myanmar, see Rubio as key to US response
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Read More »The focus of political and media attention has inevitably turned from Europe to the Middle East, where the United States, through the Secretary of the Pentagon, has insisted on “Israel’s right to defend itself,” has welcomed the assassinations of Hezbollah leaders carried out by means of massive bombings in Beirut, and has given explicit approval to the ground operation with which Tel Aviv and Washington claim to want to “dismantle the attack infrastructure along the border to ensure that the Lebanese Hezbollah cannot carry out attacks in the style of October 7 against communities in northern Israel.” The precedent of the last twelve months in Gaza, the West Bank, Syria, Yemen and Lebanon foreshadows what the ways of defending oneself against Israel will be and that the United States will continue to justify any excess, selective assassination or massacre, while any response, such as that which occurred yesterday with the launching of Iranian missiles against Israeli military bases, will be considered an unacceptable escalation. And although Ukraine’s public concern for securing priority war status has not yet begun, any escalating war could affect Kiev, especially when it comes to imposing its discourse of existential war on the West as a collective.
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The Indian Navy intends to build a second base in the Lakshodeep archipelago, located on the tanker route from the Gulf of Aden and the Strait of Hormuz to the Strait of Malacca.
Russian newspaper: India wants to cut off Arab oil from China, but can it?
H/T: Geopolitical Trends, w/Dr. David Oualaalou
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India may cut off Arab oil supplies to China
Read More »China is prohibiting the export of some technologies to process rare earth elements to protect its national security as the race for critical minerals supply intensifies.
China Bans Exports of Rare Earth Tech as Critical Minerals Race Heats Up
Caracas, December 4, 2023 (venezuelanalysis.com) – Venezuelans voted to support the country’s sovereignty claim over the Essequibo Strip in a non-binding referendum on Sunday.
Venezuela: Referendum Delivers Overwhelming Backing for Essequibo Claim
An air of bonanza has raised the projections of the Exxon Mobil corporation, which accumulated around 414 billion dollars in 2022, an unprecedented income in its history, which represents 44.8% more than the previous year. It is a gigantic increase if compared to its crisis in 2020, when its losses put its place in the stock market in jeopardy. Also from the research of that American corporation, it is said that Guyana could become “the country that produces the most barrels of oil per inhabitant in the world, surpassing Kuwait, in that case, when measuring the wealth per capita of its 800 thousand inhabitants, it would become a rich country, since in 2021 its GDP increased by 57.8% and in 2022 by 37.2%”.
Guayana Esequiba: Geo-economics of an Occupation
This was supposed to be the year that the Biden administration took a first swing at the laborious process of refilling America’s energy backstop, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR).
Inside the challenging effort to refill America’s energy backstop
Buckle up!
The Final Curtain For Incandescent Light Bulbs
The use of incandescent light bulbs is not banned, only the sale and manufacturing of less than 45 lumens per watt lights. The de facto ban exempts appliance lights, Christmas lights, flood lights, and infrared lights, among others.
A ‘successful, deceptive’ PR campaign.
The devious fossil fuel propaganda we all use
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[2017] Trump’s Budget Delivers Big Oil’s Wish: Reducing Strategic Petroleum Reserve
While most observers believe the budget will not pass through Congress in its current form, budgets depict an administration’s priorities and vision for the country. Some within the oil industry have lobbied for years to drain the SPR, created in the aftermath of the 1973 oil crisis.
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Exxon, as well as the American Petroleum Institute (API) and the Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA), have long lobbied for a drawdown of SPR‘s supply, according to lobbying disclosure records reviewed by DeSmog. They supported two key bills, proposed but never passed by Congress: H.R. 4136 in 2012 and S. 1231 in 2015.
H.R. 4136, lobbied for by Exxon, API, and IPAA**, says that the Strategic Petroleum Reserve can only be tapped if more federally owned public lands and waters were leased to the oil and gas industry. S. 1231, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Modernization Act of 2015, called for a Department of Energy study of the SPR “to determine options available for [its] continued operation,” to be completed 180 days after the bill’s passage.
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“[T]he SPR is unnecessary in the first place. Private inventories and reserves are abundant, and open markets will respond more efficiently to supply shocks than federally controlled government stockpiles,” wrote Loris, who began his career as an associate for the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation. “Congress should authorize the Department of Energy to sell the entire inventory, using the revenues solely for deficit reduction.”
Ms. Cat’s Chronicles 
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