Old Crank
Old Crank's JournalThe Skoda Roomster is back.
Popular but discontinued in 2015 because it didn't fit brand image. New metal and looks.
Now we have another funny named car. Dacia is now producing the:
BIGSTER
All the good names are gone.
BLueberry prices
I'm in Munich and I hit my closest grocery store for a few things. Was not going to buy blueberries today but I will need them for Sunday's pancakes. 2.99 euro for 500 grams. That is right about $2.75 per pound.
From Peru. Peru. How do they do that?
That is a lot of work from field to transfer station to reefer ship, to Holland, and trucked to my store 300 meters down the road.
Unreal.
Any news on Vance saying that the Good killer
has absolute immunity?
Just saw a screenshot of a TV news feed.
No other information.
Donnie"s oil pipe dream
Here is a short blurb from an Economist newsletter I get via email.
It is about the Trump follies of trying to make money and control the global market of oil.
They estimate that at current prices for oil Venezuela only has the world's 17 largest amount of oil reserves.
This is largely because the reserves were inflated and their crude is crude.
Mr Trump’s team is now high on hydrocarbons. On January 7th his energy secretary said that America would “market” Venezuela’s oil “indefinitely” and deposit the proceeds into “accounts controlled by the US government”. Combining Venezuela and Guyana (where American firms have a big presence) with Uncle Sam’s own stash, JPMorgan Chase notes that America could soon have 30% of global oil reserves “under its influence”. Others observe that, should Mr Trump bring more producers in the Americas under his thumb, “Donroe Doctrine” nations could come to account for 40% of global output—more than all members of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries combined. Enough, perhaps, to control prices, rule global energy markets and starve China of fuel. The prospect has the MAGA world giddy with excitement.
Will the Don’s great oil empire pan out? This week I assessed his chances. My first step was to look at Venezuela’s geology. I quickly discovered that the country’s oil reserves are vastly overstated. As Priya Walia of Rystad Energy, a consultancy, told me, the official figure reflects volumes booked under highly optimistic price assumptions in the late-2000s oil boom. Those estimates have hardly been revised since, despite big falls in prices, the imposition of harsh sanctions and plenty of operational difficulties. The true amount recoverable in Venezuela today, Ms Walia says, is closer to 40bn barrels than the 300bn often suggested. And a lot of the untapped oil, deemed “extra heavy”, is hard, costly and polluting to extract. To be bankable, Venezuela’s biggest new projects need Brent, the global price benchmark, at $80 a barrel. This year Brent is forecast to fall towards $50.
When you are pitching to America’s oil giants, a risk-averse bunch, that’s not a good start. And Venezuela, which confiscated many of their assets in 2007 without compensating them for the trouble, has other problems. It lacks the type of sound legal system, stable politics and functioning economy that foreign companies like to see before opening their wallets. So my next step was to gauge whether, despite all this, American oil firms might be willing to take a punt. I found that a few mavericks may well raise some private money to snap up Venezuelan assets. But to move the needle, Big Oil needs to return, and insiders told me the majors, which spent decades trying to solve their PR problem, are wary of becoming involved in Mr Trump’s project. During talks with American officials yesterday, oil executives insisted they would need “serious guarantees” from the White House before unleashing capex.
Still, for the sake of argument, I assumed the majors could be persuaded. A new question emerged. To whom would the extra oil be sold? Today the world is awash with petroleum and may well be so for the rest of the decade, owing to new production from Brazil, Guyana and elsewhere. Beyond 2030 global oil demand is set to peak as the world economy electrifies. And few refineries other than America’s, and a handful of China’s, are designed to process the type of gloopy crude that Venezuela cranks out. Perhaps many more Bolivarian barrels can be pumped. But it’s not clear anyone wants them.
6,666 was the number of my last post.
What does that mean?
Am I an order of magnitude greater than the Biblical beast?
If I get through far, what will 66,666 mean.
So when does he go i to Mexico?
Since he is now attacking their president. Blaming gangs that the government isn't controlling.
Mexico and Canada need to sanction Trump and the US for gun running.
US gun running is arming Mexican gangs. US gun running is rising violent crime in Canada.
Independent voters are the most ignorant of what is going on
Survey from Marquette. They took a bunch of subjects and compared how closely they were followed by GOP Democratic party and independents. There were some large gaps between Democratic leaning people and GOP leaning people. Generally it seems that we, Democratic people, are generally more interested in what is happening.
Independents, on the other hand, are teh least interested in the subjects surveyed. I might just call them head in the sand voters...
Can't figure out how to make the whole link 'hot'. You may have to copy and paste.
https://substackcdn.com/image/fetch/$s_!CsY-!,f_auto,q_auto:good,fl_progressive:steep/https%3A%2F%2Fsubstack-post-media.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fpublic%2Fimages%2Fb1b7ae82-c908-4fac-8083-ccab77ac1065_5062x3037.heic
Family recipes dragged out for New Years.
Pineapple upside-down cake 3 days ago. Today is Pear ginger upside-down cake.
For desert after the turkey soup.
It was worth it for me
When we moved into the flat we bought I got the 90 cm cooktop, induction, and the 90 cm stove.
Had to buy a semi custom case for the stove to match to Ikea cabinets. But I was tired of juggling around dishes in the standard 60 cm ovens and not having a big burner for stocks and stuff.
This time I got a 14lb turkey and the stuffing into the oven with room to spare and now have 4 burners free while the turkey stok is cooking.
Got my 2025 initial 1099
From Social Security.
The system seems to be working. I got my letter with the new monthly amounts for 2026 earlier.
Profile Information
Name: RalphGender: Male
Current location: München, DE
Member since: Tue Nov 14, 2017, 06:17 AM
Number of posts: 6,681