re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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Oh you don't want to go a few more steps down the line, do you? Probably the most memorable news day of our lifetime?

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One didn’t cause the other.

We invaded Afghanistan because they harbored OBL and his people who were out to get us for other reasons than because we helped Afghanistan throw the Russians out.

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Ummmm, we're at $57 billion at last count. 23 + 23 = 46. So no, that's true.

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It's been way higher than $35 billion. So we started with the 13.6 billion in March and then the House in May did a $40 billion dollar package.

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You think we’ve already spent all of that money? Congress doesn’t spend money. Congress authorizes the executive branch to spend money.

Those funds will be disbursed over a period of time.

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And then we've given a few hundred million to billion dollar packages from the federal level every few weeks one which we gave to them last week. We're now 6 billion dollars away from the first three years of the Afghanistan war.

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Uh.. those announcements you see from DOD about funding being released for military aid are not in addition to the congressionally-allocated funds. They are the congressionally-allocated funds. That’s the portion of the $54 billion that’s actually been spent so far. Do people really not understand this?

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I've been doing the math. Sorry, you're wrong here.

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Holy shite.

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We just shipped out 5 million barrels of oil to Europe and Asia, including China.

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Who, specifically, do you think shipped those barrels?

The federal government doesn’t own refineries. They don’t require that every barrel of oil sold from the SPR be processed in a US refinery. Even if they did mandate it, the finished products would enter the open market and potentially be exported anyway.

US refineries are at capacity, and we already export about 3 million barrels of oil per day (without SPR releases). When oil is released from the SPR while refineries are at max utilization, it’s a near certainty that the oil will be exported. Which is why the SPR isn’t really built for global supply crunches - it’s built for supply crunches that specifically affect the US (e.g. the Arab Oil Embargo). In that case, there would be a void domestically being filled by the SPR release. That brings me to…

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The only circumstance I could possibly fathom selling or giving our oil from our strategic reserve is if we're in a major war and say Britain was running low on their oil, we had enough oil, and we were allies. Other than that, under no circumstances should we sell it to foreigners. It's called "Reserve" for a reason.

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Surely you are aware that Congress periodically mandates sales from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve?

Of the oil released from the SPR during FY 2022, 38 million barrels were required due to the 2015 and 2018 budget acts.

Another 32 million barrels were “loaned” through competitive exchanges. These are programs where buyers “borrow” the oil and have to replenish the inventory at a later date, plus an additional “premium” volume. These barrels have to be returned to the SPR between now and 2024, with premiums from 2-10% depending on how soon the barrels are returned.

The “emergency sales” (the part you’re complaining about) account for roughly 50 million barrels so far in FY 2022, as far as I can tell. Those sales are, in my opinion, unwise.

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Oh wow, I'm paying three cents less adjusted for inflation for gas than I was in 2008. Wow I should be thankful then, and just dismiss the skyrocketing inflation for literally everything else.

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It’s actually more like $1.00 cheaper when adjusted for inflation. Regardless, it doesn’t mean you should be thankful. Gas prices still suck. Just means you should refrain from hyperbole.

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The food shortages in this country haven't really even happened yet outside of the formula, but yeah, we'll live since we're nice and fat and have a shite ton of farmland. It's still going to happen to some extent. Did you ever think you'd be defending food shortages saying Ethiopians have it worse?

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I’m sorry, I thought the entire point was negative impacts to Americans due to the war in Ukraine. Americans aren’t likely to feel shortages, and the inflationary aspects have infinitely more to do with our COVID actions (including ridiculous stimulus packages) than the war.

I guess I just can’t keep up with the goalposts.

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Because it's going to be pretty fricking bad

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Here we go again.

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it’s built for supply crunches that specifically affect the US (e.g. the Arab Oil Embargo). In that case, there would be a void domestically being filled by the SPR release.

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Pipeline reversals have changed that quite a bit. Major pipelines like Texoma, Seaway and Capline used to move crude oil from the coast to inland as far away as Chicago, Detroit, etc.. but those pipelines have all been reversed. We cannot even send oil from SPR via pipeline to refineries in Oklahoma, Borger, or Shreveport. So only refineries from Sweeney, TX to New Orleans have pipeline access to SPR and no further north than Krotz Springs.

maybe your source doesn't know what he is talking about. Most pundits have zero clue

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But to the Chinese? Go frick yourself. He should be thrown the frick out of office for that alone. China not Russia is our #1 enemy, and he sells them some of our strategic oil reserve? Go frick yourself if you don’t think that’s a big deal. That’s outright treason.

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You’re cool with giving China some of our strategic oil preserves? You know you bought that oil, right?

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We didn't "give" china anything, they bought it. How do you suggest we prevent certain countries from buying commodities? And if we were to do that, do you know what happens to prices when you eliminate buyers from the market?

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I’m cool with BP and Exxon doing it, but not from the state.

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Yeah pretty sure private companies bought it and then sold it to china/europe/etc.

Look I don't like depleting the reserves either, so be mad about that if you want. But it's pretty silly to get mad that some oil on the open market ends up in china and then act like Biden himself put it on a boat and sent it to china. And act like we "gave" it to them.

Take a breather, bro.