Biden 2021 - A Mediocre Middle Ground

It only took months and months of restrictions, with Melbourne spending almost six out of twelve months in 2020 under harsh lockdown… And a decent chunk of this year too (still in lockdown). By lockdown I refer to 5km radius, curfew, door to door police checks, drone surveillance and more.

When we opened up, for the short duration we were “open”, international travel was still banned, interstate travel was heavily restricted and hospitality/nightlife never returned to “normalcy” either.

Now with the delta strain, compliance isn’t enough as it is SO infectious. It feels like a bit of a kick in the face to be in the most locked down area in the world, to have endured so much yet now we have more covid per capita in my state relative to much of Europe… And even parts of the US… Both open societies… And we are still locked down.

There is something to be said about a degree of societal herd immunity + vaccines. We don’t have any herd immunity aside from that provided by vaccines.

Now that we have had almost 150k cases I assume this dynamic will change. By the end of the year I suspect we will hit 300-400K confirmed cases. Meaning on top of vaccines we will have almost TWO percent of the population naturally immune!!! For a little while…

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Herd immunity through “natural infection” as was advocated by GBD sociopaths in 2020 is simply not achievable.

Honestly, if I were in your place, I’d be very satisfied that Australia handled the pandemic (relatively) better than both the US and Europe. I don’t understand what you’re bitching about.

We can agree to disagree

Stranding tens of thousands of Australians overseas, denying babies interstate treatment resulting in preventable deaths, police raids over social media posts…

And these lockdowns where people can’t leave the house aside for groceries, work or doctors appointments go on for months and months. I think my state is nearing 300 cumulative days of this…

There are two Australia’s at the moment… The Australia that has been relatively covid free since the start… Even then, they have restrictions that aren’t necessary anymore… And the Australia that has been locked down for inhumane periods of time.

I also don’t support the indefinate suspension of parliament over “but there’s a case!”

I don’t support stranding citizens overseas for two years… Citizens who can’t always afford to house themselves overseas for two years

We have international students (the ones who didn’t pull out and leave) going to food drives, begging for food because our government won’t let them work… And they don’t have income

The aspect of humanitarianism has been overlooked.

And I’m not oblivious to the death toll. A family member of mine anecdotally died last year from covid… But I don’t want to live in fear either…

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Pres Biden met with some business guys and the dudes who run the big ports in California and they all agreed to increase their workload to get imports moving into the country faster.

Is this a good thing? Or should we be upset with the government government messing with business?

Holy shit, this guy is terrible.

Terrible for trying to get lower fuel prices? Or terrible for not getting lower fuel prices? Or terrible for not telling the press secretary about his efforts?

What are you even upset about?

Terrible for putting in policies that increase energy prices, then deciding begging companies to decrease profits is his best solution.

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Oil was $ -30 per barrel! It was necessary Then to decrease production to raise the price.

Oil is now $80 per barrel. It is Now necessary to increase production to lower the price, but the Price Fixing oil companies don’t want to do it. Now those poor oil companies are squeezing You to make profits.

Oil companies pretty much make their profits no matter the crude price iirc from studying it in the past. Kind of like how the USG does by taxing per gallon, which isnt decreasing.

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Ruthless, price fixing international cartels usually don’t accept losses.

If you are saying the sovereigns are the drivers, and the the elitist capitalists (exxon, chevron, cop, shell) tag along for the $ - l agree.:grinning:

Maybe it is about the money… didn’t see that coming hehe.

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The world is much less scary when you look at it like a bunch of squirrels chasing nuts.

Coming out of the blue for this one my friend.

So prepandemic Oil production tended to be debt heavy. Large scale capex reductions significantly affected not only production but means of commodity transport, which was compounded by poor domestic federal policy.

This time around, shareholders are looking for greater returns, so many firms are acting at that pleasure. Also ramping production is extremely complicated and Time and capital-heavy. Given that this administration floats ideas such as crude oil export or LNG export bans, the market is uncertain.

If the Biden administration is truly serious, and they need to act now to take a system wide approach to undo the network of the bad policies they’ve created before anyone can take a serious look at reallocating capex to remedy acute woes or speedily reap benefits

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We need LNG so badly and the price is so high that some people want to horde it, and that is a dis-incentive to produce more?

If I was selling moonshine and business was so good that 1 guy felt like he needed to buy it all, just so he could have some, I would make more moonshine.

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Anyway, Good to see you again man!

How’s the family? Any recent good life news?

There’s enough hot air wind production to power the Eastern US, but transmission line permits are currently on hold.

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So LNG is full-steam ahead and appetite is strong, but the permitting process for an LNG facility can be close to a decade before this admin took office. Construction is another beast that takes years - not only for the terminal itself, but the cross-state pipelines and gathering lines. Since so many people are anti-pipeline right now that’s just stymies that process. Also you have to factor in the difference between contract and spot - due to the length of development and the need for natural gas there is not nearly as much LNG to purchase on the open market as there is long-term contracts.

That’s not to mention that capital investments can be $10b+ for these projects, and it’s just not pragmatic to deploy that level venture capital for a greenfield project when you have an openly hostile administration.

US LNG can reduce the worlds emissions and lift folks out of energy poverty if level-headed thought is allowed a seat at the table

Family is great! My little one is nearly 8 months old and I just can’t believe it. My wife also leveled-up career wise, so we are trying to get this old crumbling house sellable before something else big breaks lol. How about you and yours?

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Crazy how much has drilled (presumably capped) in Angelina and east, & below Madisonville and south. If only they would find lithium…snarky snark.

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It’s all Jane Fonda’s fault. Seriously.

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Friggin’ Steel Yard Blues!