SO MUCH great information here! Bookmarked for later, so I can pick through it later and absorb all of your knowledge. Because I'm like a sponge. Or maybe more like a leech....
The same reason that DeBeers doesn't flood the market with diamonds.
OPEC has always been about manufactured scarcity. It's not a bad scheme, if you have a heavily concentrated, limited resource. The difference, of course, is that oil is actually useful. So might as well pump it while you can, store it where it's easy to get and ration it out.
What is more, Saudi Arabia has 68 years of reserves at 2024’s production rate. The world will probably have stopped using hydrocarbons long before those run out. So any crude it does not pump today could be money lost forever.
Holy. FUCKING. SHIT! That is a lot of oil!
But the math doesn't check out. The world uses about 37 billion barrels annually. Saudi Arabia has ~260 billion barrels in reserve. That's more 7 years of global oil reserves. It would cover about 40 years of US oil use. And it would cover the modest Saudi annual useage for over 200 years. So no matter which way you slice it, the math is funky here.
Something else I just discovered. Saudi Arabia does not have the world's largest oil reserves. That honor goes to....drumroll....yep, you guessed it. Venezuela.
It's funny, I have very successful friends who used to say something similar. As one put it: "If you sell out at 20, you got no heart. If you haven't sold out by 30, you got no head."
That friend group are a great bunch of guys in their personal lives, family men and good providers, down to the last one. At the same time, they are 100% part of the problem. They are landlords and marketing execs. And every one of them has an exceptionally high EQ. (Except Jake. He's my favorite and he fixes industrial baking equipment. Used to be a bartender. You know the type - staring daggers when you interrupt his conversation with a regular customer. Jake didn't GAF about EQ.)
Anyway, it's not that they are evil. They are just the "normal" amount of selfish. They have comfortable lives. They read their newsfeeds without ever thinking any deeper. They aren't the Nazis - they are the people who empower Nazis by remaining laser-focused on their job and their family, ignoring politics unless their property tax is at stake.
I think it's possible to be a good husband and an overall good person, but not a good citizen. Zombies, if you will.
Someone did. They missed by inches. I would imagine they beefed up security a bit since then...
And, in most cases, it's a good thing that our head of state is well-protected. Otherwise, we'd have a new president every week and the executive branch would be a mess...oh....hmmm....
Edit: It's because I chose "Link" as the type of post. If I had chosen "Discussion", a URL wouldn't have been required.
I always do this - I ask questions first and click around later. JFC, I don't know if I've got ADHD or just come down with a case of boomeritis.
Thanks for this!
The field was marked required, with a red asterisk. I tried posting without a URL, and it did not accept the webform. Said I needed to fill in the required field.
I took a screenshot: https://imgur.com/a/gbF3jP3
(And if Imgur doesn't meet Lemmy standards, I'm happy to use a different service.)
With respect, it's also about who receives the money.
RTX makes the Tomahawk.
In 2016, the stock was at 59. Now it's at almost 200. A return of 338%. That's about the same rate of return as the S&P 500 in the same timeframe. The difference being, the worst performing stocks in the S&P are regularly swapped out.
So, yeah, these guys are pretty much a sure bet to make money.
In fairness, that one does get a giggle from me. Every time. Even this one. Especially this one.
Giggity. (Please forgive me.)
Your head is really gonna hurt when you read about printer ink and printing presses.
CMYK ftw!
This is false.
The Pentagon hosts a Ramadan dinner (at the end of the holiday, to celebrate the conclusion of the fasting ritual).
The Pentagon has hosted Hanukkah menorah lighting ceremonies. (I'm not sure if they still do.)
The issue here isn't the sponsoring of a religious activity. The function of the military is to send soldiers to their deaths. Those soldiers who need spiritual support should absolutely have access to it.
The issue is that the president and the defense secretary have incorporated evangelical Christianity into their cronyism. Religion is being used as a litmus test for loyalty.
Signed,
A pragmatic (ex-militant) atheist
First, who the fuck is an expert on teleporting to Waffle House?
Second, why the fuck are the experts "dubious" instead of incredulous or openly condescending? JFC, c'mon experts, do better!
Right! I must have been high when I wrote that! 🤣