Tag Archives: Ukraine

economic news

Drill, baby, drill

All this chatter about the impact of President Biden’s decision to ban Russian oil imports in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine misses an important point.

The price of crude has zoomed skyward. It is well north of $100 per barrel. The last time we saw this kind of price hike, the result was that American oil drillers uncapped their wells and got their pumpjacks fired up to start pulling the oil out of the ground.

Do you think it could happen again now that the Russians have launched a ground war in Europe and caused the world to react as it has done by essentially boycotting Russian petroleum products?

I can see it happening.

I spent many years in West Texas, and I can speak from experience about what I have witnessed during previous oil-price spikes. We would drive through the Permian Basin, or the South Plains east of Lubbock and we would witness those pumpjacks working relentlessly to pull oil out of the flat land. We saw much the same thing as we motored through the Oklahoma Panhandle.

Oil producers need little if any government incentive to realize when it’s profitable for them to get to work.

At these prices, they are able to make a healthy profit on delivering the goods.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

War grabs media’s attention

War has this way of grabbing everyone’s attention, even yanking other compelling stories off the front page, pushing them off the air, relegating them to “old news.”

So it is these days with a ground war erupting in Ukraine. Russian armed forces have invaded a neighboring, sovereign nation on the orders of dictator Vladimir Putin. Media around the world are reporting on it to us who want to know how this war will play out.

I am unsure how I feel about our limited attention span. I remain deeply interested in the congressional inquiry into the cause of the 1/6 insurrection. Moreover, I want to know how the House committee is progressing in its search for the truth. It will get there in due course and I plan to be waiting with bated breath when the panel reaches its finish line.

President Biden has an aggressive agenda to help boost our already-recovering economy. It is stalled in the Senate. I want to know whether the president can parlay his extensive legislative experience into working out a compromise that can push the Build Better Back bill — or some facsimile of it — to a fruitful conclusion.

There remains a boatload of issues to be resolved, if only congressional Republicans can find a way to work the Democratic president instead of obstructing him at every turn.

OK, so all of that will still be there once our attention looks elsewhere, once we remove our gaze from Ukraine. I want that moment to arrive sooner rather than later. Not because I lust for a chance to see all those matters resolve … but because I want an end to the bloodshed.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

economic news, International news

Keep it in perspective

I couldn’t resist sharing this item that showed up on my social media feed this evening. I never really know who comes up with these gems; I do learn something from them.

My lesson here? It is that the pain, suffering, bloodshed, misery, anxiety, mourning and grief that Ukrainians are feeling at this moment put every little petty annoyance we might have in their proper place.

Gas prices going up? I don’t like it any more than the next person. However, it is good to keep some matters in context — such as what this message suggests we do.

More than 1 million Ukrainians reportedly have fled their country ahead of the Russian military onslaught initiated by the madman Vladimir Putin. Those who have stayed behind to fight the Russians are putting their lives in dire peril.

I won’t like paying more for the fuel that goes into my truck. However, I don’t believe I should bitch about it.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Tough to watch these scenes

My old age is showing, as I am finding it increasingly difficult to watch the televised images from Ukraine that show the entire world what Russian military forces are doing to those who live in a country those forces are seeking to conquer.

They make me very angry. No, I am not going to suit up and go to war, fighting alongside the Ukrainians. I am way too old for that.

I just become enraged when I hear rhetoric from those who suggest that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy should just give in to Russian dictator Vladimir Putin’s demands … whatever the hell he intends.

Putin has launched a humanitarian crisis in Europe not seen since World War II. The Ukrainians are trying to defend their country against naked, bald-faced aggression. Putin, who once ran the Soviet spy agency the KGB, once told Barbara Walters that he didn’t order anyone’s death while serving as the Evil Empire’s top spook, that he was more of an “analyst.” Do you believe him? Hah! Neither do I.

I am not sure I can stomach much more of this, not that it matters to anyone at the center of the fight. I just am left to vent my frustration and rage via this platform and hope it somehow trickles into the decision rooms of those who are committing these war crimes.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news, military news

Warmongers beware!

Our world is full of too many warmongers who either have no appreciation of the brutality of war’s insanity or who — to put it bluntly — just don’t a crap about any of it.

Count me as one who (a) does appreciate the brutality of war and (b) gives a serious crap about its consequences.

Russian troops and tanks are battling with Ukrainian troops and tanks over who should run Ukraine, an independent nation that borders Russia and much of the rest of eastern Europe. I am baffled to the max over criticism from the far right over President Biden’s response to the unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine.

For my money — and this is just me speaking — I believe the president has reacted appropriately. And yet there are those who say we should “do more” to defend Ukraine. That would be what, precisely? Send in the jet fighters? Join in defending a no-fly zone over much of Ukraine, which I should add is an act of war all by itself? Send in the thousands of troops we have deployed to Poland to fight the Russians hand to hand?

The array of economic sanctions this country has imposed on Russia will deliver serious pain to the strongman Vladimir Putin and his oligarch pals and allies. We have essentially choked off Russia from the rest of the Free World’s banking system. Joe Biden has declared there will be no Russian aircraft allowed in U.S. airspace. Our allies in western Europe have shut off the fossil fuel pipeline from Russia; yes, we already are paying the price for that with increasing energy prices.

The Russians have a lot of very deadly weapons in stock. We do, too. We aren’t going to use them on the Russians, nor will they use them on us. The “mutually assured destruction” policy has been dredged up and returned to the top shelf, as it would be pure MADness to start hurling nukes at each other.

The warmongers out there need to take a breather and let these economic sanctions play out. They’re already bringing plenty of pain to Putin and his cabal of thugs.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Trying to figure Putin out

(AP Photo/Martin Meissner)

It’s a challenge in the extreme to put oneself into Vladimir Putin’s skull or into what passes for the Russian dictator’s heart. I have sought to inject myself into both places, but I cannot find my way into or out of either of them.

So … I am left only to wonder what goes through his noggin or that thing he calls a heart.

Putin is now a worldwide pariah. At least in most of the world. He’s got his friends in China, Belarus, Syria, Iran and North Korea. The remainder of Earth’s civilized world is aghast, appalled and astonished at the invasion he launched against Ukraine.

The madman is bombing cities and inflicting deliberate harm to civilians. When was the last time that happened in open warfare? World War II? The Germans and Japanese started that fight, but the rest of the world finished it. I concede openly that our side brought terrible suffering to civilians, too. And, yes, terrorist organizations around the world have done the same thing in the decades since the end of WWII.

The flashback has returned in real time in Ukraine.

What does someone such as Putin think when he reads that his standing among world leaders has sunk to such depths? Does it bother him? Does it inject in him any sense of reason, or any sort of shame that he has done this to innocent victims while bringing shame to himself and his country?

I suppose it’s becoming clear that Putin wants to swallow up Ukraine. French President Emanuel Macron reportedly has said that is Putin’s precise goal, to conquer the whole country and bring it back into the Russian fold or, at the very least, install a puppet government in Kyiv to do his bidding.

The rest of us are left to offer prayers for Ukrainians and their leaders while also sending intensely bad karma to Putin and his thugs.

That’s all I — as an old man sitting far away in my comfortable home — can offer.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Ukrainian president: real-life hero

I have to join the growing chorus of supporters around the world who are singing the praises of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zellenskyy.

A young man who entered politics after a career as a comic and an actor has emerged as a towering figure of strength in leading his country’s resistance against the Russian aggressors.

Heroes often are the product of the circumstances into which they are thrust. Zellenskyy didn’t ask to become a hero; it just fell on him when the Russian dictator, Vladimir Putin, decided he wanted to take Ukraine back, return it to the fold of the former Evil Empire. Putin acted for reasons that defy reason, logic and all that is rational.

Zellenskyy could have fled his country. He could have led a government in exile. He chose instead to stay and to lead from ground zero in the conflict.

He has risen to an enormous challenge. The Ukraine’s brave leader is made of the sternest stuff imaginable. I am going to pray hard for the president and his countrymen and women.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news, military news

Tragedy playing out in real time

I am sitting in my comfortable North Texas home while consuming the news pouring out of Ukraine and I am astonished at the sight of Russian bombs and rockets blowing civilian structures to smithereens.

Casualty counts? How many civilians are dying? How many of those civilians, moreover, are children?

Does this remind you of World War II? The conflict that leveled cities in Europe and Asia is now being re-played in real time in Ukraine.

Then we have Russian goon/strongman Vladmir Putin orchestrating a frontal assault on a sovereign nation and we learn that the early stages of the invasion are going badly for the Russians. Putin reportedly wanted to storm across the countryside and into the Ukrainian capital city of Kyiv. The convoy of trucks, tanks and assorted big guns is stuck. Meanwhile, Ukrainians are preparing to fight the Russian invaders to the death when they reach Kyiv.

This is a nightmare playing out 24/7 in front of the whole world.

I thought the kind of assault we are witnessing on our TV screens was a relic of the past. Silly me. It’s happening right now and it is a development that is fraught with extreme danger.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Putin does the impossible

Vladimir Putin has performed what should be considered an impossible task. The Russian dictator has managed to unite virtually the entire world against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Get a load of this: Switzerland and Sweden, two of Europe’s most adamantly neutral nations, have lined up solidly in the Ukraine camp. Switzerland has imposed a virtual ban on all Russian banking activity; Sweden has decided to send military equipment to assist the Ukrainians in their fight against the Russian aggressors.

Nations have banned Russian aircraft from flying into their air terminals. Embassies have been shuttered. The ruble is now worthless because virtually no country on Earth wants to do business with the Russians.

Get a load of this: Millions of people have marched in streets around the world, including — and this is fantastic! — in Moscow. Even the Russians are calling for an end to the invasion.

Vladimir Putin is now seen across the good Earth as a pariah. Russia’s third-rate economy is being dismantled daily. He is not without his allies, in China, in Belarus and, oh yes, even a former U.S. president.

Putin, though, has shown the world how to unite people of widely disparate religious and political views. They are united against the hideous military action that Putin has launched against a sovereign nation, which by the way has put up a ferocious resistance against the invaders.

This is an international reaction I cannot remember ever witnessing unfold in real time.

It is a sight to behold.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

International news

Keep talking

on the border with Belarus. Talks between the warring nations concluded and the negotiators retired to their respective headquarters.

That’s the bad news. The good news? They are going to keep talking to each other.

Meanwhile, the Russian invasion of Ukraine isn’t going as well as Russian dictator Vladimir Putin had hoped. I keep hearing he hasn’t yet deployed the full force of the military arsenal lined up against Ukrainians. Still, for the Russians to think they could walk into Ukraine without getting a serious resistance is foolish in the extreme.

I will hold out hope that as long as the warring nations are talking that there will be a chance they can find a way to stop the shooting, the bombing and the killing. I figure the longer the fighting goes without the Russians being able to march into the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, the better the chance for a deal to talk their way into something approaching a solution.

Now, if only someone could explain to me why the Russians decided to invade in the first place.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com