Larry On Military-Industrial-Congressional Complex Before Midterms. Germany And Diesel...

Larry continues to review one very important book ( I need to read it too) on US defense "industry" and comes to the conclusion:

Politics and defense spending are intertwined in ways that most people do not appreciate. I gained some insight into the corruption of this process thanks to my neighbor (when I lived in one of the Washington, DC suburbs). My former neighbor is 15 years younger than me and owns the largest defense lobbying firm in Washington, DC. His job entailed signing up major and minor manufacturers of weapons and military equipment. They paid him hefty monthly fees. In turn, my neighbor–let’s call him “Mr. D”–would wine and dine key members of the House of Representatives and the Senate. He was the man the legislators wanted to see because he could host “dinners” that raised money that was poured in turn to the bank accounts of those members of Congress. Buying influence in Washington is a multi-million dollar business that generates billions for the Defense Industry and has inflicted misery, suffering and death on millions of foreigners. I am afraid that tomorrow’s election in the United States will not alter the defense incest that dominates Washington, DC. The corrupt system will have to be broken by an outside force. What worries me is that the United States, in a moment of hubris, will find itself in a war with Russia or China and will discover the hard way that the expensive weapon systems will fail or be destroyed quickly on the battlefield. Like an alcoholic at the end of his ropes, the system must hit bottom and admit the addiction. Only then is reform possible.  

I agree completely. I also do not think midterms will change much in this respect, but as always--the logic of the events and circumstances sometimes is even stronger than corruption and greed. We'll see what tomorrow brings. Or (I stole it from comments from PJW's excellent video), as they say: My father has been a life long Republican until he died. Then he voted Democrat.(c) LOL)). Watch PJW's superb video and, if anyone ever doubted that PJW was not a neocon--he never was--his position on SMO and Russia completely dispels any speculation on this issue--I continue to watch him with pleasure all the time and I totally get the place he is coming from. Part of my roots is in this place too. 

In related news, Russian Duma has a bill ready for the first reading in which it is forbidden to show German porn in Russia, because it creates unrealistic expectations from young Russians on the speed with which plumbers arrive to customers' homes. This is absolutely impossible in real life and this perception creates absolutely unreasonable expectations from young customers. But jokes aside, Andrei Raevsky posted a superb series by Thorsten J. Pattenberg in which he with a stylish literary finess  demolishes the myth of Germany's "mighty" industry, especially in the modern geopolitical (Chinese) context and a complete degeneration of Germany's current ersatz "culture". He notes:

Germany depends on China’s industries A LOT. China might be the only nation that unconditionally keeps up with the German poop and still deals with the neonazis after Berlin started WW III with Russia this summer. If the Middle Kingdom was Middle Earth [an Anglo-Saxon fantasy world], then the Germans would be the Balin dwarves toiling under the mountains. It would be good for cave king Stoltz to discuss steel legions, rare earth mining, and bolt-throwers. But maybe the German mines ran dry and empty, so the Stoltz people crawled back to the surface with this new business plan of… morally harassing orcses, wizards, and little Chinese girls alike. Germany is a beaten, crushed, debilitated US-occupied nation. It should not exist in this form. But the victorious Western allies did not release these poor wretched people. Instead, they decided to chain them to the BRD regime [Federal Republic of Deutschland] and tell lies about how great it is to change from a glorious 1000-year-old Reich into a homo anal-fixated Iew-worshiping seepage. Watch any US movie and the villains are probably Germans. Also, watch gay porn, German’s best.

Read the whole piece--it is bitter and brilliant. But since we all know Russians are again meddling in US elections, here is another wowser form those evil Rooskies. Trying to figure out Four Reasons Why The U.S. Is Grappling With A Diesel Shortage, they "suddenly" discovered:

But the primary reason is the cutoff of Russian imports. Prior to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the U.S. was importing nearly 700,000 barrels per day (BPD) of petroleum and petroleum products. Most of those imports were finished products and refinery inputs that boosted distillate supplies in the U.S. The loss of those Russian imports have caused problems for refineries as they struggle to fill holes in their product slates. Refineries do have a small amount of flexibility in shifting gasoline production to diesel production. But it’s a relatively small amount (e.g., ~5% in a refinery I once worked in). That also means that if refiners do shift production, that also potentially creates shortages in the gasoline market. Some relief is on the way, as some diesel imports are on the way from Europe to the East Coast. But, the distillate market won’t likely return to normal before next summer at the earliest.

Indeed, Russian perfidy knows no bounds. To convince the US to cut off Russian imports--what a plan, what a plan...