Signs Of The Times: Poles Burning Trash, EVs ... Also Burning, Saudis Laugh Zhou Off

Three brief stories via Zerohedge.

Poland has the biggest coal reserves in Europe—vast amounts of it—but they’ve pretty much shut down production, because … climate, save the planet, EU green politics, you name it.

Poland had the Russian Yamal natural gas pipeline running across its territory from Russia to Germany. That gave Poland hefty transit fees and a share of the gas via Germany. Poland shut down Yamal because, we hate you Russia—and you, too, Germany!

Were the Poles in on the Nordstream pipeline sabotage? I’d rate that in the very possible to likely range.

Now we learn that, having cut its energy nose to spite its geopolitical face, already in the first week of October Poles are burning household trash to stay warm:

Polish Households Burn Trash To Stay Warm As Sanctions On Russia Backfire

Current Polish strongman Jarosław Kaczyński—who hates all things Russian with a burning passion, and wants everyone to know it—has helpfully advised ordinary Poles to “burn everything, except for tires,” to stay warm. That’ll show the Russians! Or give them a good laugh, since Russians don’t exactly have a warm place in their hearts for Poles to begin with.

Local governments in Poland are rolling back environmental restrictions to allow people to burn all sorts of … stuff. But isn’t that combustible stuff carbon based, too? Well, as long as it’s not coal or gas, I guess, even if it’s probably much dirtier and definitely stinkier. Don’t ask me to explain that. Meanwhile, from Polish media:

"People are scared and they are collecting anything that can be used for burning," Piotr Siergiej, spokesman for a network of environmental activists called Polski Alarm Smogowy — or Polish Smog Alert, said. 

"We're seeing a significant drop in garbage collection, especially when it comes to materials than could at least in theory be suitable for burning such as paper, cardboard and packaging.

"We'll fine those who are trying to poison us and our children."

But didn’t Poland and Norway just open a pipeline to supply Poland with expensive Norwegian gas to replace the cheap Russian gas? It seems Norway’s gas isn’t as abundant as Russia’s, and that move may have been as much about expensive geopolitical virtue signalling as anything else. Norway is scrambling to increase gas and oil production—while Poles collect anything they can burn, Czech schools distribute blankets to the kids, Germans scavange for wood, and so on across northern parts of Europe.

Meanwhile, Poland says it wants the US to send them nukes so they can use the nukes to threaten Russia. And maybe Germany, if they don’t pay the $1.5 trillion in reparations that Kaczyński is demanding. After all those other bad decisions, they should be trusted with nukes?

Also in energy related news, every week brings new ways the EV push can go wrong:

Jimmy Patronis @JimmyPatronis

There’s a ton of EVs disabled from Ian. As those batteries corrode, fires start. That’s a new challenge that our firefighters haven’t faced before. At least on this kind of scale. #HurricaneIan

More energy and backfiring sanctions news:

OPEC Humiliates President Biden On A Global Stage

Well, why not? The US allows him to humiliate himself—and right thinking Americans—daily on the world stage, so why shouldn’t the Saudis take their turn?

In short, yesterday OPEC humiliated President Biden on a global stage by cutting oil production after he specifically lobbied them not to. There’s no “nice” way of putting it - they straight-up snubbed the U.S. and have now, in my opinion, made it officially clear that they 1) are not our friends, 2) do not care what we want, 3) do not take us seriously and 4) are not here to help us and/or Biden get re-elected by lowering prices.

To use Biden’s parlance, “Let me tell you something, Jack - we’re not in bed with the Saudis anymore. They are more allied with China and Russia than they have ever been, at arguably the most crucial moment in recent history for our global economy.”

…

Biden probably went into the meeting he had with MBS months ago thinking we had some type of leverage, like we have had decades ago. The sad reality is that we simply don’t anymore: the Saudis have the oil, they have gold, and now they have allies just as big and powerful as the U.S. when combined. And those allies provide financial and military support at a crucial juncture for geopolitics.

And no one is impressed by Biden’s gangsta parlance. In fact, more and more countries are inclined to “f*ck with a Biden”, no matter what Zhou or Blinken or Nuland say. The times they are a-changin’.

Lastly, a link to an entertaining story about a different type of burning:

Watch: Stella Assange Slaps The Mustache Off John Bolton's War-Criminal Face

Bolton is another Trump administration alumnus, by the way. How did he ever get in there, if only for the few weeks he spent as National Security Advisor? These bad pennies keep turning up, reminders of Trump’s very bad personnel decisions.