re: Latest Updates: Russia-Ukraine Conflict.

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I'm talking large centrifugal compressors for chemical plants, in the 14,000 BHP to 35,000 BHP range. Try ordering one with less than a 2 year delivery.

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We ordered some for Exxon Baytown a year ago and it took 14 weeks to get them on site. Try again dillwad.

With those hydrocracker reactors you ordered from the OEMs on the Houston Ship Channel?

Sure you did.

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How quick could you get one if you ordered it today?

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He doesn't know the difference between compressor types. An air compressor maybe, a hydrogen compressor for a hydrogen consuming refining process whether isomerization, desulfurization or hydrocracking. These are more specialized with safety features because hydrogen is quite explosive.

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All of these are good points, but there's one thing that that hasn't been discussed yet that not only led to the invasion in the first place but adds to their current motivation, and that's Russia's enormous geographic borders.

Russia has the largest borders of any country in the world and it's been that way for centuries. It's led to the numerous invasions that they've had to fight off and was what Catherine the Great meant by 'I have no way to defend my borders but to extend them.' This means that Russia must push out to naturally geographically defensible positions where they can simply place a few military bases in defensive holes, in places like the Bessarabian gap in Moldovia, the Baltics, and other places that lay outside of Russia. In fact, the only time the Russians did have control over these vital gaps is during the Soviet times when the Soviet Union's size combined withe it's control over the Warsaw Pact countries ensured nobody was going to invade. It's more than just a land grab, it's a genuine security risk that anyone who knows Russia sees, and the Russian leaders understand this.

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I've discussed this all here dozens of times over the past couple of years. I've posted numerous vids explaining it. Most people refuse to believe it. It is their historical national obsession.

I watched it earlier and it is correct that long term cost to Russia is devastating

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Putin has bit of more than he can chew and fumbled Russia's greatest assets in the process. He could have been the great trade center between the East and West, but he chose a bungled war instead.

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Psychopaths can't change their spots... thus the confusing actions of Putin, who can seem to be the smartest guy in the room on one issue and a complete rockhead on another issue.

Psychopathy is a mental disorder and like all mental disorders does substantial long term harm to the afflicted. As they have no capacity for empathy, they make great criminals. But for the same reason, because they can't experience empathy, they can't understand it in others. As empathy is a main driver of human behavior, this causes no end of problems in their lives. However, most psychopaths learn how to fake empathy, thus we see Putin talking about ceasefires and peace agreements.

But without therapy and controls, the criminal behavior is dominant. This is why for recruitment purposes, the Russian security services over the years sifted through the population looking for them. In the Stalin years, the Kremlin quickly discovered the kind of work the NKVD was expected to do could not be done by anyone that was not suffering from some level of psychopathy. Thus, as a young person Putin was not the most intelligent recruit, as proven by his later problems with the German language, but that was secondary to what his psychological tests revealed. These showed them he was exactly what they were looking for.

So the kind of cooperative thinking that it would take to develop Russia as a great trade center between the East and West does not exist with Putin and his fellow security services recruitees. Their sole business concept is a gun-to-the-head monopoly. In their thinking, any agreement that is beneficial to all parties is not an option because they don't understand it.

That's why in 2021-22 we saw the Gazprom-controlled underground gas storage sites in Germany and Austria emptied while at the same time the gas prices from the Nordstreams were going up. That illustrates what Russians conceive as intelligence on Putin's part. Then the other side of psychopathy appears - he invades Ukraine. And here we are.






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Evidently it was, but the Marketing Dept. took its place.

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Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom ·

Look, VP is an educated man, and he knows how WW II ended. But "Ukraine must negotiate with Putin" is the new party line, so he says what he must.

But what his comment reveals is how stupid he thinks the GOP base is, and how much he holds them in contempt.

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He could have been the great trade center between the East and West, but he chose a bungled war instead.

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I don't know about this. I think the historical distrust of Russia by basically the entire west is too much to overcome. But that distrust exists because historically you haven't been able to trust Russia.

In the first decade of the 2000's Exxon and Shell developed Sakhalin Island oil and gas. Most of the modules to process the production were from Louisiana, including the Arctic class offshore drilling platform for Exxon. 100% US technology and equipment.

The target market was China but due very active seismic zone no pipeline could be laid so it was LNG and shuttle LNG carriers.