Oil transportation being disrupted. (See 1 below.)
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Showalter and the Chinese thoughts re Trump. (See 2 below.)
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Sessions will be criticized for establishing a Task Force within Justice to investigate hate groups or organizations that impinge on religion and those holding religious beliefs but if this new section does it's job, as intended, it will be both a blessing and well over due. I can think of no better place to start than the SPLC and then the IRS.
All too often organizations give themselves names that ultimately become the opposite of what they assert and/or claim to be
Morris Dees began the SPLC after he left the Carter Administration as its superb fund raiser. Morris introduced the concept of soliciting small amounts through the mail having established a mail order business, in college, with his partner who subsequently began Habitat for Humanity, after they sold the business to the Los Angeles Chandler Family..
SPLC allowed Morris to practice law through tax free methods and he went on to become a very wealthy man. I knew Morris in his early years. He was extremely liberal, very smart and a mover and shaker. In the beginning days of the organization it defended acts of true injustice. Morris was courageous. When and where SPLC went off the tracks I do not know because I lost contact with Morris. The last time I saw him he was off to play tennis on the White House Court.(See 3 below.)
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Every once in a while I will re-read something I have written and, even after I have edited it, I find I do not like the way I expressed myself.
Such happened with something I wrote in my last memo so I am re-posting my corrected version. (See 4 below.)
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Dick
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1)
The 4 Key Chokepoints For Oil
While everyone has been watching the Strait of Hormuz amid rising tension between the U.S. and Iran, a chokepoint on the other side of the Arabian Peninsula is now at the center of the action.
Saudi Arabia temporarily halted all oil shipments through the Bab al-Mandeb strait after Saudi Aramco reported attacks from Houthi rebels on two oil tankers. The two ships in question were very large crude carriers (VLCCs), each carrying 1 million barrels of oil, and one of them sustained minor damage. The Houthis said that they have the naval capability to hit Saudi ports and other targets in the Red Sea, according to Reuters.
In response, Saudi energy minister suspended oil shipments through the strait. “Saudi Arabia is temporarily halting all oil shipments through Bab al-Mandeb strait immediately until the situation becomes clearer and the maritime transit through Bab al-Mandeb is safe,” Khalid al-Falih said. The Kuwait Oil Tanker Company said that it might also suspend tanker traffic through the narrow chokepoint.
The sudden risk to two of the world’s most critical chokepoints has pushed up oil prices a bit this week, although serious outages have yet to materialize.
Nearly two-thirds of the world’s oil trade travels via maritime routes. Here is a quick rundown of the top global chokepoints for the oil trade.
1. Strait of Hormuz. The most vital chokepoint in the world sees nearly 19 million barrels per day (mb/d) of oil traffic, according to the EIA. At its narrowest point, Hormuz is only 21 miles wide. Through that narrow passage, oil exports from Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar (including large volumes LNG exports), the UAE and Saudi Arabia must pass. The U.S. Navy patrols the area because of its strategic importance. Iran has threatened to disrupt oil traffic through the Strait, but for now the market is assuming that is all bluster.Related: Saudi Arabia Halts Oil Shipments At Key Chokepoint
2. Strait of Malacca. The second most important chokepoint in terms of oil volumes is the Strait of Malacca, between Indonesia and Malaysia, which saw 16 mb/d of oil in 2016. The Strait links the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and is the main route for oil from the Middle East to reach Asian markets. The Strait is only 1.7 miles wide at its narrowest point, “creating a natural bottleneck with the potential for collisions, grounding, or oil spills,” according to the EIA. China, the largest oil importer in the world, has a strategic interest in seeing uninterrupted tanker traffic through the Strait.
3. Suez Canal and SUMED pipeline. Located in Egypt, the Suez Canal is another crucial chokepoint. Combined with the SUMED pipeline, which bypasses the canal and connects the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, the two routes account for roughly 9 percent of the world’s daily seaborne oil, or 5.5 mb/d. Most of the oil goes north, from the Middle East to Europe. The Suez Canal cannot handle the largest oil ships, ultra-large crude carriers (ULCCs), and it can only handle VLCCs that are not fully laden. As such, VLCCs can offload some of their cargo onto the SUMED pipeline, and then the lighter ship can pass through the canal, picking up the oil at the other end of the pipeline in the Mediterranean. The SUMED pipeline can carry 2.34 mb/d, and offers a hedge of sorts against an outage at the Suez Canal.
(Click to enlarge)
4. Bab el-Mandeb. The Strait of Bab el-Mandeb is a narrow passage between the horn of Africa and the Middle East (between Djibouti and Yemen, specifically). It connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, or more broadly, it is the linkage between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. This chokepoint saw just under 5 mb/d of oil traffic in 2016, but its importance is magnified for two reasons. First, most oil that has to pass through the Suez Canal/SUMED pipeline must first pass through the Bab el-Mandeb, so, tankers have multiple obstacles on this Middle East-to-Europe route. Second, it is, at this point, close in proximity to the war in Yemen.Related: The Most Important Waterway In The Oil World
There are a series of other smaller chokepoints, but these four are the most important in terms of size of the trade and because of the risk. An outage at any of these locations, even for a brief period of time, has the potential to force steep oil price increases, with the effects magnified by the size and duration of the outage. Even the whiff of a potential outage, particularly when the oil market is tight, can add a few dollars per barrel as a risk premium.
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2) Meanwhile, the Chinese think Trump is a genius
In response, Saudi energy minister suspended oil shipments through the strait. “Saudi Arabia is temporarily halting all oil shipments through Bab al-Mandeb strait immediately until the situation becomes clearer and the maritime transit through Bab al-Mandeb is safe,” Khalid al-Falih said. The Kuwait Oil Tanker Company said that it might also suspend tanker traffic through the narrow chokepoint.
The sudden risk to two of the world’s most critical chokepoints has pushed up oil prices a bit this week, although serious outages have yet to materialize.
Nearly two-thirds of the world’s oil trade travels via maritime routes. Here is a quick rundown of the top global chokepoints for the oil trade.
1. Strait of Hormuz. The most vital chokepoint in the world sees nearly 19 million barrels per day (mb/d) of oil traffic, according to the EIA. At its narrowest point, Hormuz is only 21 miles wide. Through that narrow passage, oil exports from Iraq, Iran, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar (including large volumes LNG exports), the UAE and Saudi Arabia must pass. The U.S. Navy patrols the area because of its strategic importance. Iran has threatened to disrupt oil traffic through the Strait, but for now the market is assuming that is all bluster.Related: Saudi Arabia Halts Oil Shipments At Key Chokepoint
2. Strait of Malacca. The second most important chokepoint in terms of oil volumes is the Strait of Malacca, between Indonesia and Malaysia, which saw 16 mb/d of oil in 2016. The Strait links the Indian and Pacific Oceans, and is the main route for oil from the Middle East to reach Asian markets. The Strait is only 1.7 miles wide at its narrowest point, “creating a natural bottleneck with the potential for collisions, grounding, or oil spills,” according to the EIA. China, the largest oil importer in the world, has a strategic interest in seeing uninterrupted tanker traffic through the Strait.
3. Suez Canal and SUMED pipeline. Located in Egypt, the Suez Canal is another crucial chokepoint. Combined with the SUMED pipeline, which bypasses the canal and connects the Mediterranean to the Red Sea, the two routes account for roughly 9 percent of the world’s daily seaborne oil, or 5.5 mb/d. Most of the oil goes north, from the Middle East to Europe. The Suez Canal cannot handle the largest oil ships, ultra-large crude carriers (ULCCs), and it can only handle VLCCs that are not fully laden. As such, VLCCs can offload some of their cargo onto the SUMED pipeline, and then the lighter ship can pass through the canal, picking up the oil at the other end of the pipeline in the Mediterranean. The SUMED pipeline can carry 2.34 mb/d, and offers a hedge of sorts against an outage at the Suez Canal.
(Click to enlarge)
4. Bab el-Mandeb. The Strait of Bab el-Mandeb is a narrow passage between the horn of Africa and the Middle East (between Djibouti and Yemen, specifically). It connects the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, or more broadly, it is the linkage between the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean. This chokepoint saw just under 5 mb/d of oil traffic in 2016, but its importance is magnified for two reasons. First, most oil that has to pass through the Suez Canal/SUMED pipeline must first pass through the Bab el-Mandeb, so, tankers have multiple obstacles on this Middle East-to-Europe route. Second, it is, at this point, close in proximity to the war in Yemen.Related: The Most Important Waterway In The Oil World
There are a series of other smaller chokepoints, but these four are the most important in terms of size of the trade and because of the risk. An outage at any of these locations, even for a brief period of time, has the potential to force steep oil price increases, with the effects magnified by the size and duration of the outage. Even the whiff of a potential outage, particularly when the oil market is tight, can add a few dollars per barrel as a risk premium.
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2) Meanwhile, the Chinese think Trump is a genius
Has anyone ever called the Chinese 'stupid'? Not those guys.
So now they're reading President Trump, and unlike the childish Eurotrash of western Europe, they see a shrewd, wily, chess-playing, Sun Tzu-grade genius, who could easily checkmate them, and they've got a lot of reasons for thinking so.
That's the report from a European policy-domo, who actually went to Beijing and asked the local leaders what they were seeing. The report that European Council of Foreign Relations President Mark Leonard gives, in the Financial Times, is well worth the subscription or trial subscription to read it. Some of his thoughts from the piece can be read onInstapundit, however. Here's a bit of what Glenn Reynolds posted:
I have just spent a week in Beijing talking to officials and intellectuals, many of whom are awed by his skill as a strategist and tactician. . . .
Few Chinese think that Mr Trump’s primary concern is to rebalance the bilateral trade deficit. If it were, they say, he would have aligned with the EU, Japan and Canada against China rather than scooping up America’s allies in his tariff dragnet. They think the US president’s goal is nothing less than remaking the global order.
They think Mr Trump feels he is presiding over the relative decline of his great nation. It is not that the current order does not benefit the US. The problem is that it benefits others more in relative terms. To make things worse the US is investing billions of dollars and a fair amount of blood in supporting the very alliances and international institutions that are constraining America and facilitating China’s rise.
In Chinese eyes, Mr Trump’s response is a form of “creative destruction”. He is systematically destroying the existing institutions — from the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement to NATO and the Iran nuclear deal — as a first step towards renegotiating the world order on terms more favourable to Washington.
Once the order is destroyed, the Chinese elite believes, Mr Trump will move to stage two: renegotiating America’s relationship with other powers. Because the US is still the most powerful country in the world, it will be able to negotiate with other countries from a position of strength if it deals with them one at a time rather than through multilateral institutions that empower the weak at the expense of the strong
.
My interlocutors say that Mr Trump is the US first president for more than 40 years to bash China on three fronts simultaneously: trade, military and ideology. They describe him as a master tactician, focusing on one issue at a time, and extracting as many concessions as he can. They speak of the skilful way Mr Trump has treated President Xi Jinping. “Look at how he handled North Korea,” one says. “He got Xi Jinping to agree to UN sanctions [half a dozen] times, creating an economic stranglehold on the country. China almost turned North Korea into a sworn enemy of the country.” But they also see him as a strategist, willing to declare a truce in each area when there are no more concessions to be had, and then start again with a new front.
Wow. So the Chinese watched the Trump dramas in Quebec and Singapore and Brussels and Helsinki closely, and drew their own conclusions as to what was going on from them. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, as Sun Tzu used to say. The slaparound of Justin Trudeau in Canada, the rapprochement with North Korea's dictator Kim Jong Un in Singapore, the second slaparound at NATO headquarters in Belgium and the lovefest with Vladimir Putin in Finland had quite an effect in China, where the locals recognized the dictum in action.
What a coincidence, Trump just happens to be a student of Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese strategist, who wrote "The Art of War."
Apparently, the Chinese didn't see a madman (and being pals with Kim, don't think the Chinese aren't well-experienced with so-called madmen) the way the Europeans and the U.S. left did. They saw a power player, someone intent on taking down the world order that the U.S. pays full freight on, yet gets very little from. After all, who cleaned up after the Iraq War was fought, (with U.S. blood and treasure, along with its dragged-along, unwilling allies), and then got all the oil? The Chinese, of course.
Naturally, that means that up until now, they've considered the U.S. a sucker. Note that the Chinese guy Leonard quotes is the very Chicom, now-former Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs He Yafei, who had fun browbeating President Obama openly in Copenhagen a few years ago, and Obama just took it.
He's not talking the same way about Trump.
They see Trump as breaking up the multilateral institutions of the post-war order that so stiff the Americans, and then holding out for a better deal for the U.S. on them, which does kind of make sense. After all, Trump is saying that's his idea in the trade war back and forths, over tariffs and pacts.
Maybe President Trump is doing this instinctively, or maybe he's doing it with a plan in mind, something that makes the Trump-haters laugh. (Recall though, that his earlier policy guru, Steve Bannon, did focus intently on China.)
What's clear though, is that the Chinese have a healthy respect for the U.S. now, and don't focus on mannerisms the way the Eurotrash and their mannerist leftist U.S. allies do, just the actual substance of Dealing with Trump.
Was it Sun Tzu or someone who noted the importance of persuading your adversaries that you are more powerful than you may appear to be?
Actually Trump himself did, in this Sun Tzu tweet here. Trump, after all, is a big fan of Sun Tzu.
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3) DOJ's New Religious Liberty Arm
Set to Investigate the SPLC?
By Tyler O'Neil
WASHINGTON, D.C. — On Monday morning, Attorney General Jeff Sessions announced a new Religious Liberty Task Force in the Department of Justice (DOJ) to defend religious freedom as laid out in last October's memorandum. In his remarks, Sessions referenced the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) as a threat to religious liberty, suggesting the new task force may investigate or target the left-wing smear group.
"A dangerous movement, undetected by many, is now challenging and eroding our great tradition of religious freedom," Sessions declared, adding that this movement "must be confronted and defeated." He also lamented that "one group can actively target religious groups by labeling them a 'hate group' on the basis of their sincerely held religious beliefs."
Sessions emphasized that the new Religious Liberty Task Force represents a sea change from the Obama administration, under which federal agencies often used the SPLC "hate group" markings. His direct reference to the SPLC in his remarks suggested that the new Task Force may investigate the left-wing smear group.
According to the DOJ, the Task Force will "develop new strategies, involving litigation, policy, and legislation, to protect and promote religious liberty." The DOJ did not respond to PJ Media requests for comment about whether or not this new Task Force would investigate the SPLC, but Christian leaders insisted Sessions' remarks bode ill for the left-wing smear group.
"I think that by the Attorney General making this statement today, warning against this dangerous movement, we can predict that the attorney general and the DOJ will take active steps regarding the SPLC," Mat Staver, founder and chairman of the Christian legal nonprofit Liberty Counsel, told PJ Media Monday. Liberty Counsel is suing the charity navigator website GuideStar after it adopted the SPLC "hate group" labels, smearing Liberty Counsel and many others.
"My guess is that Sessions is setting the FBI or some outlet of the Justice Department to take an objective look at this whole concept of hate labeling, its impact, its origins, and its legitimacy," Lt. Gen. (Ret.) "Jerry" Boykin, executive vice president of the Family Research Council (FRC), told PJ Media. He suggested the Task Force itself might investigate the SPLC.
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4)After the mid term election we will still have President Trump but we might have Maxine Waters heading the House Finance Committee.
4)After the mid term election we will still have President Trump but we might have Maxine Waters heading the House Finance Committee.
After the mid-term election we will still have President Trump but we might have a call for his impeachment from the likes of Maxine Waters and assorted radicals who are working to take over the Democrat Party.
After the mid-term election we will still have President Trump and we will still have the mass media hawking their Trump Syndrome Madness to those of like mind..
So when you go to vote think about this before you pull the lever. Do you prefer economic growth, higher employment or another two years of deranged confusion brought about by those who sought to tie Trump to collusion claims that failed? In fact, it failed so miserably we actually learned the connection was based on false information, paid for by Hillary and the DNC, then used by the FBI to obtain a FISA warrant under false pretenses.
So the Trump Haters are now trying to link Trump to unbecoming behaviour and payoffs to prostitutes etc.
To accomplish this linkage, Prosecutor Mueller has interrogated a lot of people. He put one in jail for several months before prosecuting him for something that had nothing to do with the election. Then Mueller put pressure on Trump's "gum shoe" attorney and got him to break the lawyer client rule though wiretaps so he could entrap Trump while squeezing his attorney.
So far. all of this seems to be another shoddy episode in this entire "witch hunt" according to Trump Most agree there was interference by Russia in our election but , apparently, no Trump collusion but plenty of Hillary collusion. Meanwhile, Hillary, who apparently broke many laws, has been saved from legitimate prosecution and investigation by seniors in The FBI and Intelligence Community who feared a Trump presidency.
We also know The Justice Department's Rosenstein and The FBI are doing everything they can to slow walk documents that, most likely, will prove actions/behaviour they prefer to hide in order to save embarrassment. They also are engaged in delaying this information hoping, should Democrats take over The House, they will end all investigations of The FBI, other intelligence agencies and a host of senior officials who feared a Trump presidency. I have continued to maintain this goes to the very top and that Obama was involved, knew what was going on though, I am sure, he was clever enough to hide his own role in all of these nefarious actions.
Trump has every right to be upset considering the entire Mueller team is a construct of anti-Trumper's who are charged with investigating other anti-Trumper's in the upper echelons of government who continue to be engaged in questionable, and probably illegal, activities. Americans should be pleased that Devin Nunes, Jim Jordan and Trey Gowdy have been willing to take the calumny that has been heaped upon them for doing their job. Comparably, Americans should be ashamed of the likes of Adam Schiff who has done everything in his power to disparage and question their efforts.
If this tragic episode is allowed to die it could well result in another cut into the bone marrow of our Republic. For a nation that believes none are above the law the Mueller investigation is investigating activities that reached a new low even for those who live in Swampville.
Watergate is a puddle by comparison.
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