I See a Bald Man Crying….

I hope I’m right about “bald man crying”. I am so disappointed in Vlad.

Sorry, I’ve been so preoccupied with taking stock of what’s going on in the Real World outside the local news of the day, that it’s becoming near-impossible to try to keep up with Putin’s idiotic ego trip. He saw an opportunity for a land grab and took it. How it will end is speculative right now, but one can hope that he’s bitten off more than his silly ego can chew. And Ukraine is asking for foreign reinforcements. Show of support in my area, and counties south of me over the weekend. Lots of Ukrainian immigrants and their descendants around here.

In regard to Russia’s proven oil reserves, the following excerpt is from a 2016 article:

Oil Reserves in Russia
Russia holds 80,000,000,000 barrels of proven oil reserves as of 2016, ranking 8th in the world and accounting for about 4.8% of the world’s total oil reserves of 1,650,585,140,000 barrels. Russia has proven reserves equivalent to 60.4 times its annual consumption.

Russia Oil Reserves, Production and Consumption Statistics – Worldometer

Russia sells oil to Canada, the USA, European countries and other entities, and with the current price of oil fluctuating like an out-of-sync engine, the price is bobbing up and down. This has less to do with imports from Russia than it does with future prices of gas at the pump, never mind other commodities like grain. Why is grain important to the petroleum industry? Ethanol, boys and girls – it goes into gasoline production for your high-mileage vehicles, among other things.

This link will give you a general idea of how much we do import from Russia:

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/3/3/how-much-oil-does-the-us-import-from-russia

On today’s commodities markets in the USA, the prices of grains (corn, soy, wheat, etc.) are also fluctuating, here on Barchart:   https://www.barchart.com/futures/major-commodities

If you’re concerned about the price of gas at the pump, Gas Buddy has a price map for all gas stations that report their prices.  For gas prices in your area, type “gasbuddy” into your search block and go to the “heat map” section, which will give you gas prices at the pump. They are generally accurate. Juts roll the wheel on your mouse to enlarge the area you want to visit.

The problem is that these fluctuations are already affecting the price of food at the grocery store again, as you well know. It isn’t just the cost per ton of grains or the price per head of beef or hogs or chickens. All transportation of livestock to market requires a means of getting there, and that is by rail and by truck. When the cost of gas at the pump is flying into the “outrageous zone”, nearly $5/at the pump now ($3.50+/- on the commodities board), it’s a good idea to expect The Worst, as it may be yet to come.

None of this is a good thing, but it is inevitable in a dicey economic environment such as what we’re  experiencing now. I’ve said this before: your pantry should be well-stocked with basic food items that you know you will use, and your freezer should have a good supply of protein resources (fish, chicken, beef, pork, etc.) that you can fall back on. Not scolding anyone, but we tend to take such things as fully-loaded grocery store shelves for granted and the recent panic pandemic was a warning to all of us.

It ain’t over yet, boys and girls. I won’t say I see a bad moon rising, but I can certainly whistle that tune, and I sincerely hope that I’m wrong as it regards civilization.  I also hope that someone gets his ass handed to him.

Category: "Teh Stoopid", 2020 Election, Biden, Economy, Russia, Ukraine