Oil prices davastating to rogue nations
 

Some of the unintended consequences of very low oil prices and from what analysts tell us, going to be staying there for a very long time.

So three countries that mostly depend on oil exports to support their economy is in deep shit. Basket cases Venezuela, Iran and Russia are and will be hurting. Venezuela is close to default, Iran will be hurting even more now with the sanctions and Russia, who cares (I don't). Of this Iran is the most interesting as this will seriously impact their ability to fund the proxy wars that are being fought in the middle east. Will the Sunni's gain an upper hand?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...y.html?hpid=z2

Apart from anything else, I would take exception to your characterizing these three countries as rogue nations. For starters, if we applied the same standard to our own country as is applied to Iran and Russia (state sponsor of terrorism and interfering militarily in the affairs of their neighbors), we'd be at or near the top of the list. Venezuela is a failed state, or about to become one, but the only "rogue" behavior they exhibit is giving free heating oil to poor Americans.

John

Your points are noted and so I will characterize Venezuela, Iran and Russia as rogue nations when American self interest is the first and foremost consideration.

Venezuela is subsidizing oil to South American countries to form an anti US block. Iranians end their weekly prayers with "death to America". Russia? The heck with Putin, he deserves every hardship since the Snowden debacle.

Beamon's characterizations indicate how much many of us adhere to official
pronouncement.

BTW Venezuela gives a lot of relief re the price of oil to many Caribbean states such as Jamaica.

Venezuela: they're simply trying to extend their influence in the region by economic means, the same way we do. That the big loser in this may be the US is cosmic justice, a payback for our trying to remove Chavez by organizing a coup.

Iran: frankly, I doubt that such utterances are all that common. Probably less common than US congregations praying for Muslim deaths.

Snowden: obviously you don't but I consider his actions to have been heroic and in the interest of Americans, if not our government. Would you prefer to live in a world where the governmental actions he revealed were still unknown to us and still going on? As for Putin/Russia, their involvement was after the fact. The worst you can say about it is that they saw an opportunity to tweak us in the nose. IMO, it's much more benign than our meddling in Ukraine.

John

John, end of the day I would rather put my faith and trust in America than in Venezuela (dysfunctional democracy), Iran (theocracy) or Russia (dictatorship).

This from a recent news item (Oct. 2013):

Iranian president pushes to ban the 'Death to America' chant that is shouted after weekly prayers

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/arti...y-prayers.html

Dondilion, "...........how much many of us adhere to official
pronouncement." How so.

Snowden is Gen Y and I am not under the illusion that he was interested in informing the American public.

That's fine but it doesn't justify your characterization of them as rogue states.


Because he's "Gen Y"????

John

ROGUE implies more evil stuff. :D

That's good enough for me.

http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/pr...al-debate.html

My Gen-Y comment stands.

Chavez did refer to President Bush as the Devil.........:D

More official?

What about your independent assessment?

Venezuela is a rogue state?

We're going to have to chip in and send you back to Pol Pot's Vacation Camp for a refresher course Rajoo. :D

I was quoting your hero Bronco Bama. :)

Can you please give me 25 words or so on what Gen-Y means, when you use the term? I assume it's something more than 'people born from 1980-1999.'

Then, please state why it's fair to draw conclusions about the motives of a specific person based on broad generalizations about a generational cohort? Are you assuming 80 million people or so are 'all the same?'

It's a comment, not a clinical evaluation. Take it or leave it.

Can't you even give me a hint? I get the idea you don't like Gen-Y, but howcome?

Not that it's true one way or the other (it was an opinion piece, after all), rogue behavior was asserted in the OP linked piece. If you have a beef with it, take it up with the Post or Jackson Diehl who entitled the op-ed piece "Rogue States Feel the Pinch."

I don't dislike them. They are who they are and for the most part products of our environment. Suffice to say that we have and will have quite a few of them working for us and it can be a challenge unless one understands how they think. Very self absorbed and only looking out for themselves (I have come to realize that they don't know any better and really not their fault but they are not militant). In a small company such as ours, it becomes difficult to manage when employees are so self absorbed and most of their actions are based on self interest. Of course there are exceptions and we do have a couple of them. :)

My opinion is that Snowden could have cared less about the NSA eavesdropping and was trying to sell his information to the highest bidder. Did not work out and he tried to cover his original intentions by selective leaking. This is what I believe.

There is a dearth of quality opinion/analysts.

Too true. The journalism marketplace doesn't want 'em.

Jackson Diehl is not part of that dearth. He, along with several others on the WashPost (e.g., Ignatius) are very accomplished, bright fellows.

Jackson Diehl received Inter-American Press Association Award for Interpretive Journalism in 1984 for his coverage of South America, and the Bob Considine Award of the Overseas Press Association in 1990 for his coverage of the 1989 revolution in Eastern Europe. He was named a finalist for the 2011 Pulitzer Prize for Editorial Writing for his commentary on Egypt, and was again a Pulitzer Prize finalist in 2013 for editorials about Syria.

In 2014 he was presented with the Knight's Cross of the Order of Merit by the government of Poland for "outstanding contribution to the support of democratic changes in Poland."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Diehl

He was an early supporter of Dubya's Iraq invasion, however.

They must have changed the title, or was the newsprint title different (if you read the hardcopy)?

Title at this moment: "Falling oil prices hit Venezuela, Iran and Russia hard."

I perceive many journalists to be lazy; they repeat a lot of government handouts. Or perhaps they are just opportunistic, or just fearful of rocking the boat.

They observe and note the repercussions to people (like the Dixie Chicks :D) who seek and try to express the truth. And so what we get for the most part
is conformist journalism.

I subscribe to the hard copy and it was as I said. Also, the Post has a habit of changing the title of op-ed pieces and feature articles after the first day, perhaps to get new or different eyeballs on them or to have their webpage always seem fresh.:confused: I just noticed that the original title is still being used on the link on the WashPost's homepage and their Opinion page.

I think the only questionable thing about this article is its use of "rogue", in that rogue is in the eye of the beholder. However, it's an op-ed piece, so he can use whatever adjective he wants.

I think there's little question that oil prices are adversely impacting Russia, Venezuela and Iran, all of which have screwy governments/leaders (to be charitable). One could even call them rogues without stretching the definition very far at all.

25 posts and we are bickering about the author's choice of the word rogue?
I didn't realize so many cared. :)

Bickering schmickering... ;) this is tame compared to some subjects 'round here lately. I'm gonna head on over to Sister Mary JJs with a bottle of Kentucky tea and my geetar. :)

Before I took exception to BeamOn's use of the term "rogue state", I checked the linked article. I wanted to make sure I beefed at the right person.

And that's the title I found.

John

Sometimes just a few words from a piece can indicate that a journalist is a
light weight, an official runner.

Open your mind a little bit instead of buying into these knee jerk demonizations.

Watch the following video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpPp6FRsUrQ

Probably in response to the fact that we have been fucking with Latin America for 200 years.

http://www.mindfully.org/Reform/2003...tions-1823.htm

If you want to talk "Rogue nations" you should probably start with the biggest Rogue of all, The United States of America.

They are not doing Canada nor my pension the world of good either.

There are also indications that the falling price of oil is having a negative effect on ISIS. A lot of the money they need for their operations comes from selling Iraqi and Syrian oil on the black market.

John

Why would this affect your pension, you retired from Bell Canada right? Drastic fall in exchange rates? I am curious.

Because Canada has such oil reserves the glut lowers the price and affects their economy. The economy suffering has the $CDN dropping. It was bad enough when the Bank of England hired away the Governor of the Bank of Canada but the new Gov of B of C deliberately pushed the dollar down to aid exports. It was above parity not too long ago.