Wouldn’t surprise me at all somehow, USA has a hand in this somewhere. Too many dollars involved and political overtones. All about the money, as it has been for centuries.
Why would the US help Iran and/or Venezuela since both are on its sh*t list right now?
Past performance shows the “shit list” is mostly a coat of lipstick on the pig of the moment. Remember the Iran - Contra affair among other scams.
Right now, even though Russia is supposedly on the “shit list”, Vlad’s bestest supporter and puppet is living in the White House.
I question that too Lee_Shore, but nothing would surprise me in these oil games. Stay tuned, there is probably more players in this than we,the pubic know about.
Nothing new here. Iran and Venezuela have been BFFs from back when Chavez was in control. Different trade deals and military training.
I’m not surprised that Iran & Venezuela are in business with one another because that makes sense, neither has much to lose by doing so concerning US & international sanctions. What I found sad was Venezuela, one of the former top oil producing nations on the planet is importing gasoline. For years I heard the saying, “Bottled water costs more than gasoline in Venezuela”.
But after further thought, perhaps this gasoline going to Venezuela is a favor to Iran from Venezuela to help free up storage space for the Iranians? Who knows?
Contracted with Cities Service many years ago. Venezuela oil was one of the main products out of more than a few Gulf coast refineries. All involved were cheerleaders then. Not so sure the"Pom Poms" have been retired.
Back in the '70s, the local Phillips 66 refinery built a massive unit to handle high sulphur crude. It was so efficient at extraction, it put the local sulphur mines out of business. Mid '70s the Venezuelans nationalized the oil industry. The Americans working there were phased out very quickly. Wasn’t long after, the refineries were shutting down. Several from my area were brought back down to get things up and running. A couple of friends worked there in the '80s and '90s for about 10 years. When they were first there with their families, things were very nice. After about 5 years things were going to shit so they sent their families back to the states. One friend said when politicians run the refineries, it’s time to move on. They made no suggested maintenance it all went down.
Edit…I just spoke to my friend that was on that Phillips job. He said it was not a politician but a general in the army running the refinery.
Well, a general isn’t the worst they could have appointed. I worked for Tidewater for 10 years & a couple of years after I left TDW Chavez stole all but 2 of TDW’s osv’s in Venezuela. What I heard from my former coworkers who fled Venezuela was the most senior janitor over Tidewater’s office in Venezuela became operation manager over the 11 stolen boats. Any TDW employees who had any sense left the country to go work in other Tidewater global operations & only a few dummies stayed hence the janitor ops manager. Tidewater ran junk boats that required skill & constant jerryrigging to keep up & within 2 years the whole fleet was inoperable, sinking at the dock.
I don’t feel bad for the Citco exec’s being held ransom in Venezuela. The writing on the wall has been up for a long time concerning crazy Venezuela politics. This all happened over 10 years ago.
Only a fool could still, after 3 years of investigations, millions upon millions of man hours by the left’s own Sword and Shield (the FBI), a special prosecutor who was given free reign, and an investigation by the partisans of both houses of Congress, who all found NOTHING OF THE SORT, still bleat about mUh RuSsIa and CoLlUsIon.
Give it up, Putin and the Communist Chinese are more interested it having your side win, they know that the American left hates this country and will happily sell it out.
And here is another tidbit: VZ was once the most prosperous nation in South America. What happened to change that? A socialist named Hugo Chavez who nationalized everything, enforced price controls, and used his secret police to murder any political dissidents. So it just goes to show that even with all the resources that VZ has to offer it was still strangled to death by socialism.
USA brokered the deal to help both countries go broke…lol
How can you say this rubbish? Everyone I know, left and right both, loves this country! I was a Republican until the lies and reality-denying drove me out. Both left and right lie, but Republicans lately seem to do nothing but lie. It’s disgusting.
We all live here, we all care, we all want to see the country succeed. What does anyone gain by pretending otherwise other than hatefulness and setting brother against brother? How can anyone from left or right who does this sleep at night? How do they look in the mirror? To whom have they sold their souls, and for what?
No one has clean hands here. Business as usual. As long as you know that, your portfolio perhaps will not suffer.
Or more accurately a demagogue named Hugo Chavez.
From How Democracies Die:
Hugo Chavez was a political outsider who railed against what he cast as a corrupt governing elite, promising to build a more “authentic” democracy that used the country’s vast oil wealth to improve the lives of the poor".
When Chavez ran for president he called his opponents “rancid pigs” and “squalid oligarchs” as president he called his critics “enemies” and “traitors”.
Chavez campaigned as socialist only to gain popular support and governed as one only to maintain power.
A textbook demagogue meets four tests. First, he identifies as a man of the masses, usually by attacking elites. Second, he creates great waves of passion. Third, he uses that passion for political benefit. Fourth, he tests or breaks established rules of governance. Taken together, this approach enables the demagogue to create a state within a state — a massive cult — that follows him alone.
Great post, cap! One of the most succinct so far.
History has just about always shown when a peasant makes president people die and those remaining get poorer
Like in the USA, Harry Truman, Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama who came from poor families ?
Not peasants there for sure, and not from the same party. Oil is oil,and everybody wants some.
Yes, oil is oil. I remember many years ago when gas prices were very high and congress held hearings. The CEO of Exxon was asked if Exxon as a US corporation didn’t feel some responsibility for gas prices being so high in the USA. To paraphrase his response, Exxon is not a US corporation, we are an international corporation and oil is an international commodity. He was absolutely correct. When the shale boom started and everyone was justifying it on making the US energy independent I just laughed knowing they sold the stuff out of the USA to the highest bidder
Patriotism among oil companies as well as most multinationals is nonexistent. By their corporate charter they are to get money wherever they can legally get it for the stockholders. The legality they leave up to their lawyers and the lobbyists that write the laws.