Start Pumping Oil

Current so-called renewable energy is now economically viable due to the current oil price. But that oil price is held up by Venezuela's lack of output. They only pump about 900,000 barrels of oil a day, when they should be pumping about nine million barrels. Even at that higher rate, they'd have about 100 years of production left based on existing reserves.

The renewables sector is living in a false economy. The price of oil can only come down. That's because Venezuela won't continue to live in the Dark Ages much longer, plus new oil fields are coming on soon in Africa. As well, there is much oil yet to be discovered.

Study the graph which shows how oil reserves amongst the top five countries have increased. The graph starts in 1980; the year before I studied the oil crisis of the 1970s. I had a lecturer, a colossal fool this person was, an intellectual minnow who opined that oil was finished, nothing new was to be found, and it would all be gone by the year 2000. Back then, in 1979, people actually believed that kind of nonsense. There was also the big ice age about to happen, and it was in all the newspapers and magazines; we were preparing to freeze because oil was running out.

Well, how did that work out? 

You know - science!

Top 5 Oil Reserves 1980-2015

Justin Trudeau Broke Canada

Wow, Justin Trudeau really was as bad as he appeared to be. He's worse than New Zealand's Jacinda Ardern.

Justin Trudeau 2015-2025 Worst Canadian Ever

New Zealand Says NO to Recognising Palestine - for Now

New Zealand has taken the sensible approach. I was a bit worried that NZ would jump on board the bandwagon that Australia, Canada and the UK had joined. 

https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/574305/nz-not-yet-recognising-palestinian-state-foreign-minister-winston-peters-announces

The government has decided against recognising Palestinian statehood, retaining its "when not if" position at the United Nations General Assembly.

Its rationale is that with Hamas in place as the de facto government of the Gaza Strip and no clarity on next steps, there is not a fully legitimate and viable State of Palestine for New Zealand to recognise.

The decision leaves New Zealand with a handful of countries including Singapore, Japan, South Korea and the United States, who have not made the move.

Not Really American Things

Hah, I knew this; baseball evolved from the English game of rounders and cricket. Little known fact: the first game of international cricket was played in 1844 between Canada and the United States. Canada won, of course. Stick that up your jumper, Donald Trump.

Effect of Tariffs

Law firm, England & Knight have put up the following page summarising the full effect of China's counter-tariffs:

https://www.hklaw.com/en/insights/publications/2025/04/chinas-comprehensive-retaliation-against-us-tariffs

Note that Red States will bear the full impact of effective bans on poultry, pork, wheat and soybeans. China can easily replace these supply lines with output from Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand and Australia.

Further, Canada and Mexico are still where they are:

Ontario Bights Back

The premier of the Canadian province of Ontario is standing up for his people by placing a 25% charge on their electricity exported to the US states on Minnesota, Michigan and New York. It will load an average charge of $100 each month to power bills.

Tariffs are being misused, they're an ineffectual tool in this scenario. Tariffs can be effective in protecting existing industry, especially where industries are at risk of being swamped by cheap imports. Those cheap imports can be supported by subsidies from the exporting country, meaning a tariff is appropriate to level the playing field. But what Trump is saying he wants to do is revive industry. That will take years, maybe a decade or more, which just leaves consumers paying higher prices. It ends up being an exercise in self harm.

Canada's New Prime Minister

I learned something new today, Canada can have a completely unelected prime minister. Mark Carney is the new PM, and yet he doesn't hold a seat, and he's by no means the first.

USAID Shutdown

The move to shut down the US aid programme does look dictatorial. My question is related to Elon Musk: who elected him? Elon Musk is not the entrepreneur he's touted as being. He's an invention of the US federal government and its spending, without which he'd be penniless. Not only that, he makes the world's worst car, Tesla, and rockets that are unreliable. For the latter, and an example of best practise he needs to take a trip to Russia, and for the former a trip to Japan.

I find myself agreeing with about 50% of what Donald Trump is doing. However, don't his recent moves look like Russia collusion? If you look back to just before last year's election, who stood isolated in the world? That would be Russia, with only a few close allies; namely, China, Iran, North Korea and Belarus. 

Now, Donald Trump is trying to upset all of America's closest allies; Mexico, Canada, and the EU. If you were Vladimir Putin, wouldn't you be dancing a jig right now? I think so. Then, Elon Musk has close links to China and het sets out to destroy US federal government institutions. Uhm...hellooo.

Canada Counter Tariffs

OK, so this has become a tariff war, this will start to ramp up:

Who Pays a Tariff?

I've found a useful explanation on how tariffs actually work. I don't talk about myself all that much, but something I can say is that I've done a lot of import and export, with goods heading all over the world. I find myself agreeing with the man from shoemaker, Deer Stags.

I now notice talk of the US soon to impose a worldwide 10% tariff on imports. But, I wonder how much of these moves from Donald Trump are actually targeting those who have criticised him, it's kind of convenient that the leaders of Mexico and Canada are both opponents of Trump. Using that logic, the UK must now be in the crosshairs since the UK Labour party sent activists to the US to actively campaign for Kamala Harris. That may come back to bight Keir Starmer on the arse.

Dreaded Tariffs

Are we about to enter another era of tariff wars worldwide? We are if the soon to be imposed tariffs on Canada and Mexico come into effect.

Tariffs are usually a negative and are inflationary. They impact the less well off, as well as those on fixed incomes. The effect of this in the USA will also result in US manufactured goods that rely on imported components, becoming more expensive. Workers will lose their jobs. 

However, on the other side of the equation; with oil and gas being fully exploited and with oil going into every part of our lives, then the lower prices at the pump will temper the inflationary effects of the tariffs. 

It's a wait and see. By comparison, Japan play the game differently as they don't rely on tariffs, but they do use complicated regulations to protect their own industry. An example is with rice. Japan require all rice consumed to be grown in the country, as a matter of strategic importance. However, they do import rice, but it gets further processed into such things as rice crackers. In Japan, you cannot buy foreign rice to be consumed as rice itself.

Below embed is the best I can find so far on the effect of tariffs, apologies for the speaker treating everyone as if they're imbeciles:

Justin Trudeau Gone

The monster that is Justin Trudeau is going the way of another monster, Jacinda Ardern. That is, a knighthood and promotion to some other high office. But, at least he'll no longer be prime minister. Trudeau must have done more damage to Canada than any other single man. 

 

What Happened to Canada?

Canada used to be a wonderful country. What happened? If any country is worse than New Zealand, Canada must be a top contender.

Super Bowl LVI

 Who is America rooting for in Super Bowl LVI? This scientific research provides the answer:

Canada Freedom Convoy 2022: GoFundMe Shut Down Donations

Not unexpected really, fundraiser GoFundMe has shut down donations to the Freedom Convoy. What will happen to the money already donated? The size of the fund is reported to be just north of 10 million dollars.

The Freedom Convoy 2022 site for donations is now Give Send Go https://www.givesendgo.com/FreedomConvoy2022

There may be other avenues for helping the truckers, I've embedded a useful video below.

Freedom Convoy Canada Organisers Speak

The organisers of the Freedom Convoy to Ottawa speak for the first time. This is a revolution in the making.

 

Request from Canadian Truckers

Freedom Convoy Canada

The MSM won't report it. Right now over 50,000 trucks are heading across Canada to Ottawa. They intend parking there until the Candian PM resigns, or mandates are ended. The convoy is reported to be 150 kilometres long and growing. It will bring Canada to a standstill. Are you paying attention Australia and New Zealand?

 

The Fall of Justin Trudeau and Jacinda Ardern

The Canadian Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau and his New Zealand counterpart, Jacinda Ardern have come under fire recently.

Trudeau has dressed in brown face and costume for a party, something he says he regrets and has apologised for. The first evidence of this was an event he attended in 2001 at the age of 29. Think about his age and the year. What? 2001 and 29. Not 1961 and 19. 

Justin Trudeau, the most 'woke' person on the planet, turns out he's just another racist. He's been playing the electorate like fools all along. Anyone who voted for him must feel badly cheated.

Then we have Jacinda Ardern. Six months ago she did an astoundingly good job in the wake of the Christchurch massacre. New Zealanders overlooked the stage managing of her hug of the Muslim woman, a picture that went around the world. NZ wanted to heal, and the picture helped. Okay, they ensured the angle was just right, and she held the other person long enough for the right picture to be taken, but who really cared, what happened was truly shocking and stage managing was acceptable.

But six months on and things have changed drastically. Now we have a different stage, this time it's the Beehive and Bowen House where the executive of the NZ government hangs out. Inside those buildings it is alleged a number of serious sexual assaults occurred. The predator initially kept his job while, apparently, his many victims were sidelined. What's worse, the PM may have known but did nothing. The Minister of Finance may have known but did nothing. It's hard to know what the two knew, when they knew and what they did about the allegations because a wall of silence has gone up. Inquiries will be held, the terms of reference for which are secret (yes, secret), while the alleged perpetrator has finally resigned. It's all very murky indeed and not a good look at all.

Justin Trudeau and Jacinda Ardern have experienced a sudden and astonishing fall from grace. One word sums up why that is: hubris.

President Trump and Tariffs

Oh no, President Trump has upset everyone with his tariffs on steel and aluminium. However if you step back for a minute, it is easy to see that the US has been taken advantage of. The countries that are now the focus of Trump's attention, very quickly skew the playing field when it suits them. All the US is doing is evening things up. Those countries affected are crying crocodile tears in other words.