By P Gosselin
Just when we thought leaders couldn’t possibly screw things up more…now Europe faces a massively crippling energy shock and the German Chancellor closes pipeline…NATO’s frightening race to war with Russia.
The inflation rate in Germany stood at +4.9% in January, 2022. In December 2021, it had been +5.3% when it reached its highest level in almost 30 years.
Chart: Destatis.
Soaring energy costs
The main inflation driver for Germany is energy, which in January saw an increase of 20.5% year on year.
According the the the Federal Statistical Office, motor fuel prices jumped 24.8% and household energy prices 18.3%, year on year. The price of home heating oil rose a whopping 51.9%, natural gas up 32.2% and electricity +11.1%.
The steep price rise for energy products was affected by several factors: 1) the CO2 charge that increased from 25 euros to 30 euros per metric ton of CO2 at the beginning of the year and 2) higher electricity prices.
Escalating to war
Now worries are growing that the situation Europe is about to get a lot worse.
Earlier today Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that Germany was suspending the approval process for the Russian-German Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline – which means it cannot go online. The pipeline was built to be a major supply line to meet Germany’s energy needs as the country takes nuclear and coal power plants offline.
“55% of Germany’s natural gas demand is met by Russia’s Gazprom. Gas storage facilities in the country are currently only 31% full,” reports Disclose.tv.
2000 euros for 1000 cubic meters of gas
Dmitry Medvedev, Deputy Chair of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, reacted with a forceful tweet to the German move:
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has issued an order to halt the process of certifying the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline. Well. Welcome to the brave new world where Europeans are very soon going to pay €2.000 for 1.000 cubic meters of natural gas!
— Dmitry Medvedev (@MedvedevRussiaE) February 22, 2022
Nuclear superpowers’ mad race to world war
All signs point to an escalating Ukraine conflict that threatens to fly out of control, possibly unleashing a World War between nuclear super-powers Russia and NATO.It’s reported: “NATO has put more than 100 fighter jets on high alert, and 120 allied ships are underway in what Stoltenberg called ‘the most dangerous moment for European security in a generation.’”Stock up everyone. it’s not looking good. We’re being run by dangerous, reckless madmen.
The Emergency Windmill Construction Act has been posted. All able-bodied adults are to report to your local windmill hauling and construction sites for further instructions. Those not in compliance will have their heat turned off–well have it turned off longer anyway. Your local Green Party commander Griff will supervise you and report AWOL comrades. Achtung!!
Since when did P. Gosselin (or What’s Up With That) become an authority on Western foreign and national security policy?
This entire Russian aggression fiasco is part and parcel caused by the Progressive West’s pursuit of the Climate Scam. Putin’s history of aggression to its neighbors correlates exactly with periods of hard currency largess to the Russian treasury from sales of its oil and natural gas. So yes, the Climate Scam very much at the underlying cause of this national and European security issue.
Exactly – NTZ and WUWT incredibly echo MSM gleichschaltung on Russia while countering MSM on Climate. The EXACT SAME MSM.
Anyone smell a RAT?
Discussing war is always a bummer. Now, back to discussing idiotic ruinable energy.
After a Shaky Start, Airborne Wind Energy Is Slowly Taking Off
https://e360.yale.edu/features/after-a-shaky-start-airborne-wind-energy-is-slowly-taking-off
While ground based wind mills produce unreliable electricity, just imagine how much more unreliable kite powered electricity would be.
Hey, kites can’t fly unless there is wind, so when they are in the sky, they will always be generating wind power.
See, kite wind energy is not in any way unreliable. Its the wind that is unreliable. QED.
Well it didn’t work on the ground, so let’s try it in the sky! How can you possibly refute that impeccable logic?
(my reposted comment from another thread for more visibility)
Executive summary:
The Climate Scam is what enables Putin military imperialism.
The Climate Scam is a War on Fossil Fuels by another name.
The War on Fossil Fuels by President Biden and by the EU has allowed much of Europe to become dependent on Russian natural gas.
The War of Fossil Fuels is directly responsible for the soaring price of Natural Gas that Europe and the UK have had to pay to get thru this current winter season.
The War on Fossil Fuels has resulted in a destruction of affordable energy for Europe, and thus left the EU nations unable to adequately counter Putin.
Putin is now flush again with hard currency to fund his military adventurism and seizing of Ukrainian territory while the EU and US can do little to stop him.
Discussion:
What stops Putin is low gas and oil prices. When the Russian treasury is low on income, Putin’s tanks stay in their garrisons, the Sukhoi and Mig jets don’t fly, and the Russian missiles and arty remain silent. First and foremost Putin has to keep Russians fed and his military paid to stay in power. He needs hard currency to do that.
When the Russian treasury is flush with cash during high oil and natural gas periods, Putin’s goes on the offensive. His military is on the move burning oil because they can afford it domestically. Putin can afford to run his tanks and jets and keep everyone fed.
Correlation of Russian military imperialism with oil prices is causation in this case.
The evidence:
2008: Russia invaded Georgia and seized South Ossetia in August 2008, a period when Brent crude was hitting north of $120/bbl. Russia was flush with cash in 2008 to fund aggression into Georgia.
2014: Russia seized the Ukrainian territory of Crimea in February and March 2014. It also took parts of eastern Ukraine via a proxy war of little green men. For all of 2013 and the first 3 months of 2014, Brent crude was north of $100/bbl,
2022: Russia is now effectively annexing parts of the Ukrainian Donbass, the break-away Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and placing them under the control of Moscow selected leadership. Brent oil is now nearing $100/bbl.
Russia does not need Ukraine for its natural resources of coal and hard minerals. Ultimately keeping Ukraine under Russian control means Moscow can direct Ukrainian grain harvests to Russia as needed in the coming years as potential famines await the world as the War on Fossil Fuels accelerates, driving up the price of all agricultural commodiities. In 2019 Ukraine was the world’s 5th largest exporter of wheat, behind US, Canada, Argentina and Australia. Food scarcity and famine have long haunted the Russian people, and Putin understands this, and to keep his people fed to stay in power.
The Climate Scam and the ensuing Western Left’s War on Fossil Fuels is enabling Vladimir Putin to carry out this aggression. Until the Strategic appeasement of the West’s Climate Scam crumbles, this Russian aggression will continue.
NATOstan is on its last legs. The Unipolar world order is finished. Welcome to the Multipolar World. Drop obsolete fossilized cliche’s .
Did I mention NATO? No.
Did I claim a unipolar world? No.
Do I understand the multipolar world we are in? yes.
Putin’s aggression against Ukraine is being directly fueled by the large inflows of Western currency to Russian treasury. Just as it was in 2008 into Georgia, and 2014 into Crimea.
Your criticism is stupid bonbon, even for you. The West’s calamitous War on Fossil Fuels, driven under the guicse of the climate change Trojan Horse, is what has led Europe to this 1938 moment.
Your stupid ommission of NATOstan and Unipolar Rules-based-Order is simply dementia.
CO2, CPO26, Great Reset, Ukraine, are window dressing.
That is what is actually going on in the real world outside of the NATOstan rubber room.
The <expletive> BBC should be closed down following their ‘coverage’ of this carry on.
They have ran a constant barrage of articles like this one:
Headline:”Russia-Ukraine crisis: How likely is it to escalate into broader war?
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-60485766
They have constantly fed it into people’s heads that there is going to be a full blown World War kicking off sooner than later.
why why why – wtf is really going on here?
The End of an Era – the Multipolar world was born with twins…
As Pepe Escobar wrote, the New Multipolar World was born with the twins of Donetsk and Lugansk.
The Unipolar Rules-based Order is over.
As China and Russia said recently, replaced with a Multipolar Law-based Order.
Interview here – the word invasion was not used by Trump, rather independence.
Trump praises Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as ‘genius’ and ‘very savvy’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sAlXuRIuH4
Meanwhile NordStream2 was put on hold, again. There is no way Qatar and US LNG can possibly replace this supply.
The EU did not get the Multipolar Memo yet, and no doubt are scurrying – every response looks dumber than the last.
PS : beat this for incompetence :
“There is no gas in the NordStream 2 pipeline. What has been stopped is the approval it needs in order to get into operation, which means stopping the approval process can have no effect on gas prices,” European Commission Executive Vice-President Margrethe Vestager.
Russia will still sell its natural gas to someone else, like China. Russia needs the foreign currency to feed its people and keep its military and industrial base running. This just shifts the global flows of gas.
Why lie, bonbon? Trump in no way praised Putin’s invasion of the Ukraine: He said, given the incompetence of Let’s Go Brandon, that Putin was very savvy in how he went about it. He also said that it would never have happened during his Presidency.
Why not listen – Trump said Putn is savvy – the entire tragedy would not happen except for relentless Russiagate.
Trump DID NOT say invasion – he said independence. Brilliant move.
Cut out Rachel Maddow”s lies.
You said-“Meanwhile NordStream2 was put on hold, again. There is no way Qatar and US LNG can possibly replace this supply.“
Who put it on hold the 1st time ?
Compared to Biden, I would say that Putin has the mental edge on savvy also. BBB Joe said in a debate that Hunter was one of the smartest people he knew.
Compared to BBB Joe, Putin probably ranks as a genius. Trump is comparing their two mental capacities.
Trump’s just telling the truth, like he always does. The radical Left can’t stand the truth.
Btw, Simon, I heard today that the New York Prosecutor dealing with Trump is thinking about dropping the case against Trump.
There is enough gas to see out the winter even if imports from Russia stop…
Europe could see out winter on gas reserves if Russian imports stop, says German analysis | Russia | The Guardian
Nothing focuses one’s attention more than the prospect of being left in the cold and dark for months. Maybe this is the wake-up call for Europe to End the Climate Scam and its War on Fossil Fuels.
The collapse of the Climate Scam, like all collapses in history of schemes built on lies, will come fast, furious, and be unstoppable by the Global Elitists. They (and you Griff) live in a Climate Scam House of Cards built on lies.
Trouble is we live in this Scam House :
Samson :
Meanwhile, the media propagandists are spreading the lie that Trump praised Putin. It’s sarcasm! Most of them conveniently omit the part where he said he wouldn’t have allowed this to happen. But leftists have always had problems understanding sarcasm because they’re always on the lookout for things people say to be offended by.
Interview here – the word invasion was not used by Trump, rather independence.
Trump praises Putin’s invasion of Ukraine as ‘genius’ and ‘very savvy’
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5sAlXuRIuH4
Listen carefully. The whole Ukraine gambit is Obama and Biden. Not sarcasm at all. As Trump often said getting along with Russia is a good thing. Durham has not finished with Russiagate yet!
Trump is in love with Putin. If he could, he’d probably marry him.
Trump’s First Lady is the most catching I have seen in decades!
Bruce, you are very good on climate change subjects. Politics, not so much.
“We’re being run by dangerous, reckless madmen.”
You forgot to mention crooks.
Does Germany or France really care who is in charge of the Ukraine?
Both refused to address NATOstan’s constant expansion east to Russia. Both would veto Ukraine NATO membership – there is a civil war there after all. Now we will see how NATOstan crumbles – it will take a while… Meantime we might freeze in winter….
In an effort to improve the expert jingoism here, by those that, like Greta, do no homework :
Ukraine’s nuclear fantasy is dangerousUkraine seeks to retain the status of a nuclear weapons state it never possessed
Scott Ritter, US weapons inspector :
https://www.rt.com/russia/550057-zelensky-dangerous-nuclear-ukraine/
And :
Sergey Karaganov: Russia’s new foreign policy, the Putin DoctrineMoscow’s confrontation with NATO is just the start
By Professor Sergey Karaganov, honorary chairman of Russia’s Council on Foreign and Defense Policy, and academic supervisor at the School of International Economics and Foreign Affairs Higher School of Economics (HSE) in Moscow
https://www.rt.com/russia/550271-putin-doctrine-foreign-policy/
Some of the comments here make Greta look like a Professor of Climatology.
I know, kids, homework is heavy.
Imagine if kids could dislike their teachers?
Oh, wait, that is Woke!
This is just nonsense.
Is Moscow paying you?
Nah – won’t happen!
Nato knows that war with Russia is suicide.
Putin knows that war with Nato is suicide.
I agree with Anne Applebaum here who says that Putin’s grumbles about Nato are “a distraction” – watch and you’ll be convinced –
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRTakARMODE
If Putin didn’t want Nato on his borders, why would he invade Ukraine, thereby encouraging Sweden and Finland to look at joining Nato?
Putin MUST have known that would happen!
He’s not THAT stupid!
No. Putin grumbles about the Nato countries on his border because he can’t invade THEM.
He is a piss-ant looking for another anthill to piss from. Ukraine is “up for grabs” (not being in Nato) so he snaps it up.
The logic seems rock-solid to me.
As for the fighters heading east – they’ll reinforce what’s already in the Nato countries.
Panic over!
See what Scott Ritter, US weapons inspector, says about Applebaum, McFaul ‘Russian experts’ :
https://www.rt.com/russia/550057-zelensky-dangerous-nuclear-ukraine/
and laugh.
NATOstan is finished. Not that it understands it openly, yet.
I don’t think either Biden or Putin are “mad” enough to start a nuclear war, even with tactical weapons. That’s a no-win situation. There is a lot more we can do to curtail Russia’s aggression without officially declaring war. Putin knows that. Let’s see how far he tries to go and risk those responses.
So now the warmunista alarmoclones are h3ll bent on starting WWIII. Can’t say they didn’t warn us. Can’t say we didn’t see it coming. It’s going to get a lot worse before it gets better, if ever.
I think you’ll find this was Putin’s idea and nobody else’s
No, AOC and her radical Left warmunista comrades gleefully welcomed World War to “combat climate change”. It’s in the record. You yourself celebrated the idea of World War, as well as world domination by climate tyrants. You yourself praised the Net Zero build up to World War. You have been jonesing for armed conflict to advance your agenda. You can’t erase your bellicose desire to remake the world by the most brutal and violent means. It all comes home to roost on your head and those of your fearmongering vermin.
I think you’re right about that. And I think it might be the end of Putin, politically.
Until this year, and even after Crimea was taken, Ukrainians were against joining NATO. Did Obama make a mistake not pushing economic isolation after Crimea was taken? Trump couldn’t do anything – there was no immediate provocation.
So here we are again, Putin taking another chunk out of Ukraine and now the Ukrainians are worried this might not stop at the Russian-leaning areas in the east. Finally, they would actually vote to join NATO if offered.
It’s a complicated situation. On one hand, an independent country that’s somewhat of a Democracy is being invaded. It’s quite clear that if Kyiv responds militarily, it will be shelled and perhaps even taken.
Add to that the idiotic decisions by the EU/UK and the USA/Canada to abandon any thoughts of energy independence, which has handed a lifeline to a Russian state that otherwise would have collapsed by now.
What to do? A real leader who can see the energy situation clearly and isn’t part of the Church of AGW would immediately start ramping up oil and coal production and maybe even look into a modern nuclear program for the future.
But when you look at these major new Chinese manufacturing cities and see all the multinationals there, you know who’s really running the show. The price of all that corruption is ceding energy security.
Therefore, China will use this Russia situation to its advantage and we really can’t do a damned thing about Ukraine – nor for Taiwan when it falls later this year. And we hope Putin understands that if he still has his eyes on Finland and/or Estonia, that might actually force the EU to look for some collective manhood… maybe.
For now, as Finland/Sweden in particular are strongly against joining NATO, it’s Putin’s game and these weak sanctions are all we’ve got.
Finlandisation is one possibility for Ukraine.
Key is, NATOstan out, Europe in, and Russia with China on the ball.
‘In 2017, Ukraine adopted a constitutional amendment that committed itself to NATO membership. Ukraine then adopted a National Security Strategy aimed at developing its NATO partnership in 2021. ‘
Ukrainians backed that.
It’s a little more complicated than that. The amendment made a commitment to supporting the process, but as recently as a couple of week ago, diplomats implied that the bid could be negotiated away in return for a treaty of sorts with Russia.
Keep in mind that Russia has been engaged in a war of sorts with Ukraine since 2014, when it took Crimea.
Popular opinion in western Ukraine is pro-NATO, and has been since 2014, but the eastern half of the country was against it. Obviously polls would turn out a little differently today, but the consensus was that proceeding with membership was far from a given.
I had no idea you actually read responses on this forum. I thought you were a bot from John Kerry’s office or something. Go figure.
I remember a debate between Obama and Romney where they were asked where the greatest danger was going to come from. Romney said Russia and Obama laughed at him and mockingly said “the 80s rang, they want their cold war back”. The war just became hot…probably due to climate change.
Obama was, and is clueless about foreign policy and dealing with dictators. Just like most other Democrats.
China…….
The U.S. is barely functioning now if Putin wanted to continue past Ukraine.
USPS gets final signoff to order new delivery vehicles – ABC News (go.com)
Thought experiment for Americans:
substitute US for Russia and Canada for Ukraine: mostly same language/ culture close neighbors with long land borders.
Imagine the Russian FSS having organized a coup in Ottawa and wanting it to join a military alliance with it (wasn’t Alaska once Russian anyway?): would the Pentagon take that lying down?
Zero chance.
(Also because Canada has the woke Trudeau WEF mannequin “in charge” who is even dumb enough to cancel his own countries fossil fuel wealth, so no need for any foreign enemy,)
Until about a month ago, the Ukrainians would not have supported joining NATO. And do you have any information that the US (or anyone else) has been involved in any Ukrainian unrest? Perhaps it’s part of the Steele Dossier and Trump’s still out there?
Anyway, now what? Putin is apparently going to take down the Ukrainian government. China is apparently fine with that. Our energy grid hasn’t been this weak since before WWII, thanks to Obama and Biden.
It looks like Putin is starting to murder innocent people in Ukraine. The attack has begun.
A ruthless dictator murdering innocent people. What will the West do about this?
Putin is an existential threat to world peace.
How can Germany justify buying fossil fuels from a ruthless, murderer-of-innocent-people, like Vladamir Putin?
Paying more for energy is not much of a sacrifice when the only madman in the room, Putin, is throwing a temper tantrum.
Russia has not got the financial stamina to enter Ukraine and stay. Putin is already on his knees financially as Russia is severely lagging behind in economic development. Yes, he can make a move now and hope that everyone backs down but he cannot sustain the effort. I think he knows it.
The bigger problem is he is the small fish jumping out of the water. The usually do that because of the bigger fish below….
The reason I voted for Johnson instead of Clinton was because she would’ve been the greatest gift to Russia and OPEC ever imagined. Well, before Biden anyway.
The president and his son are emblematic of how our government works. He essentially took bribes in support for his crackhead son and, according to him, took kickbacks from that.
If we were properly focused on energy security, greenhouse gas emissions would be a moot point.
The Northern Hemisphere climate was much more extreme in previous centuries. The past 150 years have been unusually kind. We are not prepared for reversion to the mean.
#AntiFragileEnergy #GreenNUCLEARDeal #HighlyFlexibleNaturalGas #IncineratePlasticPollution #WasteToEnergy
AntiFragileEnergy #GreenNUCLEARDeal #HighlyFlexibleNaturalGas
AntiFragileEnergy #GreenNUCLEARDeal
The reason I voted for Johnson instead of Clinton was because she would’ve been the greatest gift to Russia and OPEC ever imagined. Well, before Biden anyway.
OPEC