SITREP on me, etc.
- I can now walk 100 yards with a walker, go up and down a few steps, descend my driveway to a car. Life is good!
- I guess all you pro-Russians are afraid of dying in the wreckage of the world. I respect that but lay off the abusive bullshit directed at those who want to support Ukraine.
- One of our long-term correspondents is pushing the notion that NATO and the “Anglosphere” lured Russia into attacking Ukraine for the benefit of the profit to be made in back-filling equipment given to the Ukes. Ah, the MIC, Biden’s favorites.
- Another fellow thinks Poland is scheming to recover territories lost in western Ukraine over the centuries. I, personally, am waiting for some sane group in Moscow to decide Vlad is too expensive to keep around.
- BTW, when would Germany have an operational LNG port? Or is there another LNG port available to them?
- And now, Biden’s Marxist handlers want to have a “Ministry of Truth.” Under which statute would that operate. pl
Pat,
Hang in there!
2022 is one for the history books and the historians will have a better sense of it than we do.
The markets seem to be joining the fun.
Wait until the election starts to heat up.
“I, personally, am waiting for some sne group in Moscow to decide Vlad is too expensive to keep around.” Looks instead that they decided the US dollar is too expensive to keep around, Nikolai Patrushev, said that Russian experts are working on a project to back the Russian ruble with gold.
Hope your health continues to improve
Keep working on it. I am up to a mile twice a day. I have a preference for flat paved surfaces now.
Gad to have you back
I had both knees replaced 5 years ago. Same time. The young PT was a Brazilian kid, a look alike for Natalie Wood. She took me climbing stairs one morn and I said “I’m 230 Lbs, how will you catch me if I fall”. In her best Sao Paulo accent she said “your not my first rodeo big boy, just pay attn”. They really do know what their doing. I hope Pat has a pretty one also!
Dang it Bill. You’re a lucky man to get the girl from Ipanema. My physical therapist was named Captain Crunch and he had the size and shape of Sasquatch.
But, what happened to you, Colonel, to be so, if I may know?
I missed the SitRep, thought I was banned and stop reading for a while..
Good to hear about the progress you’re making. Speedy recovery!
But just curious: why are you now supporting Ukraine? I’ve been following you here (and at the old SST) for eight years, and you’ve been following the Russia/Ukraine situation just as long (at least as long?). You know everything that’s gone down there since then. So why are you now siding so strongly against Russia? I mean, neutrality I would understand. But the Banderites? Why?
S.P. every country seems to have its collection of bad people. The guys who think they’re modern day followers of Stephan Bandera are Ukraine’s. Bandera was no “deus ex machina”. Why do you think he came to be? Do you have revulsion for the brutality of some of Putin’s troops and should he be blamed for atrocities committed thereby? Every thing I’ve read about civil wars (if this be one) tells me they are nasty on both sides. You could be painting w/a pretty broad brush. But why support Ukraine at all, you ask. Putin says Ukraine shouldn’t exist, when he is through they won’t; and he is clearly a more powerful man than Bandera. Slavic nations neighboring Russia’s west have been fighting forever to be free of her. Perhaps Bulgaria or Slovakia should not be independent of Russia. Ukraine’s been begging, and fighting for her freedom for about 120 years. Their effort didn’t start in 2014. It started b/f WW I,WW II, NATO, Cold War, neocons, Nuland, and the “Anglosphere”. Don’t you think they are entitled to independence? Heck, even Ireland finally got her independence. Are Ukrainians unworthy?
Related to supporting Ukraine, I think everybody does so, pro-Russians, and even Russians…Meaning the people of Ukraine, and what other thing a country is if not its people? Its elites mean nothing when they are comprador and do not even care except for their pockets and wallets…
What quite a bunch of people in the US, Europe and the world do not support is the nazi battallions of which this clearly illegitimate regime serves to terrorize a great part of its population.
Dolores,
A lot of people don’t support the nazi battalions of the Wagner Group and several other Russian PMCs who operate at the whim of Putin. Wagner’s commander wears his SS runes and rank as tattoos. A lot of people aren’t too thrilled with the Russian Army murderers and rapists of Bucha and other Ukrainian villages or of the forced deportation of thousands of Ukrainians to Russia. That’s as bad as Stalin and his NKVD. I see no reason for so many Americans to support these Russian government actions.
Well, I do not know whether there are nazis in the Wagner Group, but if that is the case, the keep their ideology for themselves or may be for their intimate group back in Russia.
Yeah, there are nazis everywhere, in every country and in every army, but we got to the agreement that this ideology was no longer tolerated in the public space after the past great war.
At least we got to this agreement in Europe where we took the main blow of the war, wit ha especial place for the Russians taking the bill of 30 million people dead, for not to mention those millions exterminated by nazi death machine in the camps through the most heinous ways.
I can not conceive anyone accepting this whitewashing of nazism by the current elites in the US/UK/Canada/Ukraine/EU except if he is a nazi himself.
If you are not a nazi yourself, you will find soon that what yo uare whitewashing now will sooner or later come to bit you, since, paraphrasing the very ideologues of the Open Society…( as an example on that everybody can be right at a certain time in some way…)
Karl Popper’s paradox of tolerance.
Should a tolerant society tolerate intolerance?
The answer is no
It is a paradox, but unlimited tolerance can lead to the disappearance of tolerance.
When we extend tolerance to those who are openly intolerant, the tolerant end up being destroyed and tolerance with them.
Any movement that preaches persecution and intolerance must be outlawed.
As paradoxical as it may be, defending tolerance requires not tolerating the intolerant.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DsUmOvHXoAAEjIR?format=jpg&name=medium
Dolores,
I can assure you that both Wagner Group and the Rusich militia are both very much neo-nazi groups and are quite proud and open about it. The Rushich militia calls itself a “sabotage and assault reconnaissance group” and has a history of collecting ears from Ukrainian soldiers. Both groups were in Ukraine in 2014-2015 and are there now. That, also, should not be whitewashed or tolerated. Nor should the Russian Army butchery in Bucha and other occupied areas of the Chernihiv, Kharkiv, and Kyiv regions.
As far as fighting the Nazis in WWII, you leave out the greater sacrifices made by the Belorussians and Ukrainians. Sure that detracts from Putin’s trumped up reason of denazification as an excuse for invading Ukraine, but it’s the absolute truth.
Belorussians and Ukrianians were included into the “Russians” I meant in my previous post, perhaps I should have said Soviets, of course…
Why do you not post my answer to your Bucha allegations?
Why do you not offer us a thorough investigation on the facts in Bucha?
Karl Popper’s paradox of tolerance
Karl Popper did some useful work, but his “paradox of tolerance” is a confidence scam in its logical fundamentals.
Popper himself did not necessarily personally benefit from running this scam, but he greatly dishonored himself by publishing it and enabling other scam artists to run with it. If you want to fight Nazis, be my guest, but do not use Popper’s sophistry to praise your fight. Popper’s sophistry, like all sophistry, is the enemy to all truth.
For decades in formerly Christian countries such as the USA, various power-hungry narcissists have held themselves up as paragons of “tolerance.” (Of course, these narcissists rarely tolerate anyone else — they typically wish to break the rules of Christianity and to be tolerated by Christians, so they falsely claim to be tolerant of most people.) These anti-Christians first marginalize Christian ethics in the name of “tolerance” — and then, when the traditional guardians of public ethics have been chased away, the narcissists appoint themselves the new arbiters of right and wrong.
Any scam artist can implicitly declare himself the arbiter of what is to be tolerated. The scammer then condescends to tolerate any faction that seems harmless to the scam, but demands intolerance against anyone who might expose the scam. Karl Popper was very clever, but he was not intellectually honest. A prolonged discussion of the merits and flaws of his philosophy is not likely to be relevant to the present forum, but there is no reason for any intellectually honest person to tolerate scams in the mold of Popper’s “paradox of tolerance.”
Yes! He was a fraud in so many ways. A most pernicious influence and still I believe strong. Has a somewhat starry-eyed concept of the scientific method as well.
That analytic philosophy is erroneous because it uses complex concepts to demonstrate that complex concepts don’t exist.
Like saying the word ‘meaning’ has no meaning (and therefore no utility). To which one replies ‘if the term has no meaning then why are you using the term yourself’.
Same problem with Hume, whom many still worship. The shoddy side of the Enlightenment. Dogged materialism, as we now see it exemplified by such as Dawkin, is such a dead end. Inhuman bastards. They use fake logic to chain us to their sterile visions.
A perfect intellectual framework for homo economicus.
Typing error – “Dawkins”. Not that he’s the best example since he’s gone a bit loopy recently.
The alleged authorship of the Bucha masacre by the Russians has been debunked weeks ago by several former military men, some good men, even former NATO ones, by stating that this is not the way of the Russian Army, which is a professional army.
The images circulating in the still not censired networks, plus the numerous testimonies by residents of Mariupol and other cities and areas offer the image that who were masacred in Bucha were people who reached the Russians looking for humanitarian aid, since they were wearing white bracelets of neitrality and they were found laying dead by those Russian green humanitarian aid boxes with a star stamped on them.
Everybody in Europe, and I fear in the US too, has seen this…
You must know better after all the hoaxes staged in Syria…
Dolores,
All the evidence I’ve seen concerning Bucha shows a Russian Army systematically engaged in murdering, raping and looting. It wasn’t just a few bad apples. The image of the professionalism of the Russian Army has been left in tatters over the last two months.
TTG –
I’ll be the devil’s advocate. My belief is that the atrocities in Bucha were not committed by Russian grunts whether regulars or national guard. Much of the looting certainly was by them, and rapes. But rape can happen in any war, whether the perps are Russian or US or from any civilized country in Europe. Not an excuse. Those are war crimes. The ones that participated in looting and rape, or stood by while it happened, deserve to be court martialed.
But the torture and the killings, no. I believe those horrors were committed by Putin’s security services. Perhaps it was FSB or Kadyrovites or Wagnerites. More likely it was done by Rosgvardiya’s special police units (OMON) who have a long history of abducting, torturing, raping and killing civilians. They did it in Chechnya, Georgia, Ossetia, LNR & DNR, the Baltics in Soviet times, and internally in Russia against peaceful protestors and religious minorities. They are the ones who would have been tasked to detain and interrogate Ukrainian officials, and carry out executions.
No evidence I admit. But that’s my belief until proven otherwise.
Leith,
I agree with you. The bulk of the war crimes committed as planned policy were by security services, Kadyrovites,Wagnerites and such. Those committed by regular army forces were more the result of a lack of discipline and leadership. The eyewitness and victim stories coming out bears that out. The most damning crime was the forethought put into this by the security forces. That makes those security forces a criminal organization much like Hitler’s SS units as opposed to the Wehrmacht.
Dolores,
I assess your last two comments, which I am not publishing, to be unhinged and baseless propaganda. I find your apparent support of Russian neo-nazis, murderers, rapists and looters to be abhorrent. There are other blogs out there which would welcome those kinds of comments. Don’t repeat them here.
Even if you believe Zelinsky was helped by the US in his first election the Ukrainian people had a chance to remove him afterwards but didn’t. They (I’m not there so how could I really know) like him. But if he were illegitimate, tell me which of his predecessors was legitimate. The question of Ukrainian corruption usually comes up about now. I remember my mother chiding me when I spoke ill of others. It was something about people living in glass houses. I am a resident of NYS. Our capitol, Albany, has the distinction of being the most corrupt in all 50 states (I don’t think it is as corrupt as Wash. D.C.). So I am loath to speak about Ukrainian corruption. Your comment about Nazi battalions, however, is sobering. I d/n realize the entire Ukrainian military was composed of battalion after battalion of Nazis. Perhaps you have been listening to too much Putin propaganda. In any case you can take heart. I read the Azov battalion is being completely destroyed in Mariupol. D.O’N. this is not a war about corruption, illegitimate governance, or Nazi’s. It is a war for independence.
Bill,
“the Ukrainian people had a chance to remove him afterwards but didn’t.”
When and how were they gong to do that? He wasn’t elected until 2019.
Fred tnx. Just did a little check on Ukrainian Pres. Elections and you are right. Zelinsky will be Pres. through 2024 if he can avoid Putin’s firing squad. So we’ll see in 2024 what Ukrainians think of Zelinsky. Best.
Bill,
Did you find the news of Zelinsky banning all the political parties that oppose him yet?
Bill – Zelensky stood as the peace candidate. That’s why he got so many votes. It was something of a fake.
He was put up by Kolomoisky. Kolomoisky funded many of the neonazi groups and organised some too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ihor_Kolomoyskyi
Stories differ about Zelensky. Some say he was always supportive of the neonazis. Others that he genuinely tried for peace but was warned off by the neonazis.
I tend to believe the second story because of the Zolote incident. But it doesn’t really matter. Either way he was unable to carry out his peace mandate. That is why we are where we are now.
I do get your concern for Polish security and for the security of eastern Europe generally. I have similar deep concerns about the security of my own country. Not for the same reasons but the concern’s the same.
This isn’t the way to ensure it. The English press now insists that there are few neonazis. That the Kiev regime is not under neonazi influence.
This is not true. There’s an immense literature on the extent and influence of the neonazis in Ukraine. Azov in particular has international connections and is powerful in Ukraine itself.
I saw a recent comment that praised them for their courage and tenacity. Probably true but the way they fight, using human shields and civilian infrastructure as cover is not the usual military definition of courage.
“Zaur, a soldier from Dagestan, emotionally tells about the storming of a building in Mariupol, which was held by “Azov”.
According to him, the squad could not get close to the place for a long time because of snipers. The crucial moment for the breakthrough was the shock of what the soldiers saw – in front of their eyes Ukrainian snipers shot a woman with a child who tried to escape by running across the yard.
“They shot the mother in the back, she fell. We shouted to the child “Run!”. But he did not know what to do, he wanted to run away and help his mother. And the sniper shot him in the head. That bastard shot a kid in the head! At that moment, we all forgot what death is, we did not think about our lives, we breached there. Many soldiers died.”
“It was an inflection point, to understand that I am doing everything right. That I am here for these people. They cry, hug us, thank us,” Zaur says.”
https://t.me/ConflictChronicles/1335?
Propaganda? Maybe. But there are too many such reports. As with the Iraq war the public, those who are interested, will find we’ve been sold a pup by the media when the true story of what’s happening in the Ukraine comes out.
Backing a regime that relies on and is deeply penetrated by such elements as this is not a good long term basis upon which to build Polish security. Nor the security of Europe in general. After this is over it would be better to find another way.
Fred have you got Zelinsky confused w/Putin re party banning?
Lincoln shutdown newspapers that disagreed w/t civil war- but that was during war! FDR incarcerated Japanese Americans but that was during war. And did you hear?! Adams Alien and Sedition Act, surrounding America’s “almost war w/France” promised to imprison citizens who spoke unkindly of Adams, and now Biden wants a ministry of truth to be sure no political wrong thinking is allowed. That could be war. Pls keep me posted on how evil Zelinsky is. Who was the guy he beat – Poroshenko? I’ll bet he was as white as snow.
Glad to see you recovered. Keep up with the therapy. Don’t curse your therapist. Hope you got a young pretty one.
Those Ukrainian Special Forces in ultra-light, all-terrain tactical vehicles armed with ATGMs are tearing up Russian armor. Hit fast, hit hard, and savvy use of the terrain. Reminixcent of Stonewall’s valley campaign. And they own the night.
The Poles have an LNG terminal near the German border. I have no idea of the capacity. I think the French have one at Dunkirk.
Hate to show my ignorance, but what does ‘sne’ mean?
Leith,
There are a number of northern European LNG terminals. Lithuania’s terminal is what allowed her to tell Putin to jam his gas straight up his ass. In addition to the one in Poland, there’s one each in Belgium and the Netherlands, three in the UK, four in France and a butt load in Spain, Italy and Turkey.
TTG –
The one in Klaipade Lithuania could be a source for Germany, as well as the ones in Belgium and Holland. The others mentioned are problematic for Germany.
You forgot Greece, but I doubt they’d send Germany any NG except at an exorbitant price.
Leith,
I think Greece is helping Bulgaria already.
Good for them. I suspect Putin’s cruise missile strike on Kiev yesterday might have been intended as an insult or slap to Bulgaria’s Prime Minister Kiril Petkov and his coalition cabinet who were visiting at the time. So much for old friendships.
Leith,
Putin’s targeting of Bulgaria doesn’t make a lot of sense. Bulgaria was more or less neutral in the conflict and was not sending any weapons to Ukraine openly, although I’ve seen rumors of 152mm ammo being quietly flown to Poland. Now they’re jumping into the NATO coalition with both feet. Something’s off in Moscow.
They are reportedly giving technical assistance. And they want to up the ante on that by helping the repair effort of damaged Ukrainian war materiel at Bulgarian arms plants. Plus Petkov is on record wanting to do more. He’ll need to convince his oppo party back home.
Putin is irate that Bulgaria condemned his invasion; and turned down his natural gas when he tried to rewrite the contract on the fly and insist they pay in rubles. Plus he thinks Bulgaria still owes a debt to Russia for assisting their liberation from the Turks 144 years ago.
Zelensky apparently suggested Ukraine NG deliveries to Bulgaria. Its not clear to me how they would do that.
Building new LNG import facilities takes 3-5 years.
https://www.climatechangenews.com/2022/04/28/germany-to-build-lng-terminals-at-tesla-speed-in-shift-away-from-russian-gas/
“Building new LNG import facilities to diversify supplies will take three to five years, the government says. And shifting energy uses away from gas will require significant infrastructure changes, a slow-moving process.”
The Germans have also leased three floating LNG plants which will be operational by the end of 2024. Capacity is about 27 BCM.
https://safety4sea.com/germany-to-speed-up-the-floating-lng-terminals-plans/
Is it possible to try putting this mess in context?
No one has ever assumed the Russians to be angels, but our planet is reaching an overload stage, where those currently in charge had some potential opportunity to try to organize some larger cooperation. As Reagan put it, “Trust, but verify.” Instead we seem to have succumbed to greed and fear.
History will not accord this generation much respect. Small minded jingoism seems our highest talent.
Glad to see you vertical, Sir.
Col.,
Glad to hear you are recoving. About the statue Joe’s Ministry of Truth will operate under, that’s Alinsky’s rule #1 ” “Power is not only what you have, but what the enemy thinks you have.”
They’re just gonna say they have the authority, then get their compliant media allies to go along with the narrative manipulation; then lose in court and appeal. Provided nobody in the GOPe has any balls and gets the house to cut DHS funding and specificly forbid them to create and run such an freedom destroying bureaucracy.
Welcome back to the land of the walking wounded. Keep pushing yourself, just not too hard.
Hard to find a good guy to root for in the Ukraine/Russia debacle. Some wormtongue realized Putin’s health is failing and advised “now or never Sire”. However it ends, this will be his legacy and he knows it.
“When would Germany have an operational LNG port?” Almost certainly before Russia would have the ability to manufacture high end chips. I don’t mean that to be snide. This is a conflict. Both sides are going to hurt. Probably hurt pretty bad. The question is who will hurt more. Or give it up first. Most discussion focuses narrowly on the hurt to one side or the other. Both sides have the ability to hurt the other. There are lots of theories about the economics as well as the military aspects. But sometimes you just have to go head to head and find out.
Relatedly, most discussion treats the increased willingness of European countries to provide aid to Ukraine in terms of increased outrage and fear of Russia. But it must also represent a growing evaluation of probable futures. Providing advanced weaponry implies an expectation that the the Ukrainians will last long enough to use it. And that it will not immediately end up being reverse engineered in Russia. I read analysis that the Ukrainians will soon caught in cauldrons or that they will soon go on the offensive. I can’t judge. But it appears to me that professional evaluation (as opposed to mine) is reaching some conclusions about the probable course of events.
fredw,
It’s a lot easier to buy high end chips than it is to recreate a middle class.
fredw – I think the high end chips are a big deal and I think that is where China comes in. There is a spectre haunting Intel – the spectre of RISC-V. (Actually ARM is the spectre haunting Intel but RISC-V is the spectre haunting ARM. TTG – do you have an opinion on this?)
James,
I have no doubt China is investing heavily in a home grown chip industry, including the open source RISC-V. Many years ago they made a concerted effort in developing their AI research and industry by hiring world experts in AI, algebraic geometry and other key technologies. They are serious about this stuff, far more serious than the Russians.
Glad to see you recovered.
Be strong, stronger as you progress.
Gas.
What is the total amount of gas consumed by Europe (plus the Britts), of which 40% is Russian gas?
How much replacement LNG can suppliers deliver?
The future is far away. Winter is near.
Piece by James Delingpole on Ukraine/Russia:
https://www.conservativewoman.co.uk/the-msms-outrageous-misreporting-on-ukraine/
Le3M
In future include your own commentary or I will not post your comments.
Colonel
I wish you well on your way to gaining better health.
You might wish to look into the Zhan zhuang standing exercises/meditation poses.
Very beneficial for body and mind.
They require a lot of self discipline though.
https://scottjeffrey.com/zhan-zhuang/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y07FauHYlmg
You ask about LNG as a substitution solution in Germany. It is likely that before the end of the year 50% can be covered if all goes well.
On 28 February Germany declared to build two LNG terminals before the end of 2022. Both in the NW (Brunsbüttel near Wilhelmshaven and Stade). Then there is an operational terminal Swinemünde near Danzig (Gdansk) in Poland that is already operational. But I will explain later why that is not going to enter the calculus much.
German ministries – controlled by the three coalition partners – respective the ministries for environment (SPD), economy (Greens) and justice (FDP) have passed a formulation for a law “accelerating the import capacity for liquified natural gas” which will be passed soon.
It is widely assessed that until winter the first project in Wilhelmshaven will be finished which can take care of 8-9bcm or roughly 20% of the annual gas imports from Russia. Salzgitter started producing the pipes to pump the gas to the caverns already in early April (without waiting for the customary environmental evaluation etc.). It also looks good for Stade (which will need the access to the same pipe). Stade is projected to cover 12bcm per year or about 30%.
Stade was very advanced in January when it looked as if NorthStream II would come whatever may be, so people put it on hold as it would not make economic sense. Now it’s of course soaring!
Question is not whether Germany has the engineering capacity to build the terminals. The main problem so far was that we have a very long regulatory process. Seems this is now out of the way. The minister of state for Lower Saxony declared that the will start construction BEFORE receiving the necessary approvals. The above mentioned law also will take care of that.
For the remaining 50% other solutions will be need to be found, Minister for Economy Habeck (Greens) was in Poland in order to secure some delivery through Gdansk, which by all appearances he got. But Poland needs LNG too, will support other Eastern European countries, so I think there is not much that can be expected from there.
The project currently thought up is to purchase swimming terminals that will be anchored offshore. But again the pipes are lacking to bring the gas to the caverns. And that takes time, we had problems with some of the storage caverns. We look therefore at a much longer wait, likely to the end of 2023.
Demand reduction will also be a solution. Wherever people can substitute they will do so. I had planned to switch the system in a house I am renting out from oil to gas this year, but am simply leaving it with the oil. Other people I know have already shifted to wood heating options (pellet systems) and heat pumps. But the crafts usually have a two year waitlist where I live, which of course is affected by the cancellation of projects like my oil-to-gas conversion. The crafts lack 34,000 apprentices to fill open positions. This might be affected by the influx of refugees.
Of course this will not be able to cover 100% and demand will rise with the flow of refugees increasing – so the winter will see a likely takeover by the state of gas distribution and some rationing. Polls show a wide majority of Germans is ready for lower temperatures in their homes.
Col Lang, hope your recovery proceeds well. I have been following you daily since 911 and value and respect your experience and knowledge, I have learned much from reading your blog. It seems to me that the National Security State has been demonizing Putin for years even when he has reached out to us, Bush and Trump both got taken to the woodshed when they made complimentary remarks about him and turned around and slapped sanctions on Russia. Besides helping South Ossetia and Abkhazia and putting down an Islamist rebellion in Chechyna what horrible things has he done before this ill advised invasion of Ukraine. I don’t buy the Russians tipping the election to Trump or hacking the DNC computer.
Good to have you back. I missed your blunt BS detector. Even when it puts me on the receiving end.
hint for recovery from knee replacement surgery:
suspend a trapeze bar over your toilet
makes it easier to sit and stand
worked for me
cheers
PL
Glad you’re mobile again. My old bones have been cranky, some days I think I should keep a cane handy.
“MINISTRY of TRUTH”
How far gone are those on the left who would name a US Government agency such a thing. The rocks they live under must be thick with dystopian green slime.
Maybe it is a California thing but DH and I, when both facing different bouts of physical therapy, found the at-home hot tub to be a godsend. I do believe IRS, under the right circumstances, lets one deduct this as a medical expense.
Mainly because even post-recovery, graceful aging and maintaining joint flexibility is a necessary therapeutic exercise. Never was a party-hearty hot-tuber out West, but the old bones sure loves it today. Like the Japanese up-to-your neck daily hotan; which some claim to be the secret to their longevity.
Glad to hear your recovery is going well, Colonel.
Best wishes from Cape Cod Bay, Colonel Lang.
My first thought when I saw the photo: “Is that the Colonel? Is he going to be able to do grilling this year?” Not very sympathetic but not an idle thought. I have had so many teeth pulled it’s hard for me to chew steak anymore. But I get vicarious enjoyment from looking at the photos you post of steaks you grill. Once I almost wrote to ask what a person had to do to get invited to dinner at your house, but then I lost my nerve. I guess you could rig up a stool by the grill; you don’t have to stand.
>BTW, when would Germany have an operational LNG port? Or is there another LNG port available to them?
Colonel,
the number of European LNG ports is not even the most critical bottleneck.
The key problem is this: The EU imports 180 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year from Russia. Total US LNG export capacity for the whole world is about 100 billion cubic meters per year, and only 10% of that went to the EU before the beginning of the Ukraine war. You could reroute LNG designated for other export markets to Europe, but that will only shift the gas shortage around to a different part of the world and in any case not fully alleviate it.
If you want to double the capacity, you have to double the LNG tanker fleet size. Building the required number will take several years, probably about as long as it will take to build a dozen LNG terminals and regasification facilities in Germany so that LNG can be imported directly without clogging up the whole European pipeline grid. 2024-2025 seems to be a good estimate, if construction does not get obstructed by NIMBYs or planning failures or other fuckups, which regularly happen these days when big infrastructure projects are undertaken in Germany.
Right now, domestic discussions are ongoing about whether Germany should prioritize its industry or households if gas rationing gets introduced, which will definitely happen if either the EU passes a gas import boycott or if the Russians stop deliveries to Germany:
https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article238468145/Privatwohnung-vor-Chemiewerk-Am-Notfallplan-Gas-werden-Zweifel-laut.html
All the short-term solutions to this problem are extremely painful.