[W. K. Lis]

The bad news...

The war is causing crude oil price to increase....

Gas prices to jump to record high in GTA, southern Ontario​

From link.

Gassing up is about to get even more painful to wallets in the GTA and southern Ontario.

Gas prices will hit a record high on Thursday, jumping up seven cents to 167.9 cents per litre, according to Dan McTeague, president of Canadians for Affordable Energy.

That leap follows a two-cent increase Wednesday that brought gas to 160.9 cents a litre.

“Seven cents a litre brings you to 167.9 cents per litre so that’s a record. The record was 161.9,” McTeague said.

And to make matters worse, McTeague expects gas could continue to climb as high as 190 cents per litre the longer Russia’s war against Ukraine goes on.

“Shortage of oil in the world and sanctioning Russia, which has 10% of the global production, will have the effect of driving oil prices even higher,” he said, adding he supports sanctions.

“The war premium has brought us from the mid-150s (per litre) to 170, which is likely what it’s going to cost by Friday here in the GTA.”

McTeague said he is also concerned about diesel price increases this week as that drives food prices.

“Its rise is 13 cents. It went up five cents Wednesday. It’s going up another eight cents Thursday. So that affects the price of everything including food.”

The good news (for Alberta)...

Canada's Alberta province forecasts 2022/23 budget surplus as oil prices soar​

From link.

Canada's biggest oil-producing province Alberta is expecting its first budget surplus since 2014/15, Finance Minister Travis Toews said on Thursday, as soaring global energy prices and increased oil output boost provincial resource revenue.

Alberta expects a surplus of C$500 million ($391 million) in the fiscal year beginning April 1, compared with C$3.2 billion deficit expected in the current financial year. The 2021/22 deficit forecast was significantly revised down from an original projection of C$18.2 billion made in February 2021.

Reuters reported last week that Alberta was on course to return to budget surplus in the coming fiscal year.

The province is also forecasting surpluses of C$900 million and C$700 million in 2023/24 and 2024/25, respectively.

The dramatic turnaround in Alberta's financial fortunes could provide a boost to Premier Jason Kenney, who faces a leadership review held by his United Conservative Party in April, and has been criticised by many Albertans for his handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Alberta government based its 2022/23 budget assumptions on an average U.S. crude oil price of $70 a barrel, well below the current price of $96 a barrel. Oil prices topped $100 per barrel on Thursday after Russia invaded Ukraine, fanning concerns about disruptions to global energy supplies.

"In 2022 Alberta's economy will fully recover from the contraction that first started in 2014 and we will lead the nation in economic growth," Toews said.


The oil and gas sector makes up around 17% of Alberta's gross domestic product (GDP), and the provincial economy has struggled since the 2014 global crude price slump forced the industry to slash capital spending and lay off thousands of workers.

Toews said Alberta is working on diversifying its economy to become less reliant on volatile commodity prices.

"Oil prices will go up and down, but we're looking to create more stability, more sustainability in Alberta's income statement," he added.

Alberta expects to bring in C$13.8 billion in resource revenue in 2022/23, up from C$13.2 billion in 2021/22. Alberta's original resource revenue forecast for 2021/22, made early last year when oil prices were still recovering from a pandemic-induced crash, was C$2.9 billion.

Alberta expects economic growth of 5.4% in 2022, down slightly from 5.8% in 2021.

($1 US dollar = 1.2802 Canadian dollars)

 

[Towered]

It's not just defence. We need funding for better intelligence, hardening infrastructure, cyberwar, countering foreign influence, etc

We need a grand strategy that reduces global oil demand. Both for climate change and to crush petrostate bad boys like Russia.

We aren't going to defeat Putin thinking one step ahead.

The US has stated yesterday that one of their long term goals is to crater global reliance on Russian oil and gas. The fallout of this war will last many years, if not decades.

 

[DSC]

Good to see that the Ukrainians can still make jokes! https://www.theguardian.com/world/2...an-tanks-dont-need-to-be-declared-on-tax-form

 

[Admiral Beez]

The good news (for Alberta)...

Canada's Alberta province forecasts 2022/23 budget surplus as oil prices soar​

From link.

Let's hope the dummies in Edmonton bank the money this time.

 

[W. K. Lis]

 

[W. K. Lis]

Twisted Sister's Dee Snider endorses Ukrainians singing We're Not Gonna Take It​

From link.

Twisted Sister frontman Dee Snider — pictured here on Oct. 20, 2017 — has endorsed the use of his song We're Not Gonna Take it by Ukrainians fighting a Russian invastion. (Juan Karita/The Associated Press)

When Dee Snider found out that some Ukrainians are using a song he wrote as a resistance anthem, he offered his full endorsement.

But the Twisted Twister frontman, whose grandfather was Ukrainian, didn't have anything nice to say about those who invoke We're Not Gonna Take It to protest mandatory masking and other pandemic health measures.

"One use is for a righteous battle against oppression; the other is [an] infantile feet stomping against an inconvenience," the Los Angeles-based '80s hair metal star, said Sunday in a tweet that's been re-posted more than 50,000 times.

Snider spoke to As It Happens guest host Helen Mann about why he's glad Ukrainians have found inspiration in his music as they fight a Russian invasion. Here is part of their conversation.

Why was it important for you to endorse We're Not Gonna Take It for the Ukrainian people?

It was designed to be a song where people can read their personal strife and struggle, whether it's your teachers or your parents or your government or an invasion — whatever.

But then I started to get some people asking me, "Well, how can you support that, but you know, you denounced the anti-maskers?"

I was processing it and I was about to head out the door to get Saturday-morning bagels for my family, and I said, you know: This is why.

And I wrote it down. And I came back a couple of hours later and opened up my Twitter feed, and it exploded, and I said: "Whoa!" I didn't realize I sort of hit the nail on the head.

One group are fighting for their lives against oppression and tyranny for real. It's a life and death situation. The other group are screaming that they're being oppressed because they're being asked to wear a piece of paper over their nose and mouth to protect others.

It's just so ludicrous, you know? And when you put that kind of perspective on it, it looks embarrassing when you see these true people fighting for their lives, struggling for their lives in the Ukraine, and you get these silly people … stamping their feet like little children.

You said that there was an explosive response on social media to that posting of yours. What kind of things did you hear?

One of the constant things that I'm seeing is: Who would have thought Dee Snider from Twisted Sister would be the voice of reason in 2022?

But I responded to that saying: I've always been a voice of reason. You just weren't listening.

I've always [had] sort of the same mindset, the same position, if you go back to when I spoke in Washington in the '80s fighting censorship. I wasn't in there cursing out the politicians. I was rationally explaining what was the problem with the censorship they were trying to impose on music.

So I've always had this sort of centrist position on things.

What did the band have in mind when you guys wrote the song in the early '80s?

I wrote the song myself and, you know, I was an angry young man. And it was a song about being mad at my dad and being mad at my teachers and mad at my bosses and mad at ex-girlfriends who said I was never going to be anything, you know, and all that stuff. So it was one of those teen angst songs.

But as a songwriter, I always try to leave it open for interpretation. And sometimes people use the song, like teachers. A number of years ago, teachers were using it as their battle cry, and I was like: Yes! Teachers, yes! You get it.

And then I get the, you know, the anti-maskers … singing it, and I go: No, they don't get it.

What people don't understand is that for commercial use, yes, I have control. But for just, like, singing it at a rally or something … the songwriter has zero control. And people for some reason think, "Oh, you wrote the song, that means you endorse them," which is not always the case.

The only thing the songwriter or the band can do is denounce the people [you don't support] or cheer on the people who you support.

Like, I was on a Broadway stage and as I walked out before I sang We're Not Gonna Take It, I said, "This one's for the teachers."

But then when [former Republican congressman] Paul Ryan, who's anti-choice … was using it, I had to denounce him. I said, "Dude, the first line of the song is we've got the right to choose. How can you be singing my song?"

Do you plan to use your platform in any other ways to support the Ukrainian people?

I would love to do something with it. You know, somebody's approached me and said, "What about doing an all-star re-recording of it for the Ukrainian people … to raise money, all proceeds going to the people [whose] lives are being destroyed?"

I would support doing that, something like that, in an instant. But, you know, with something like that, you need some really big players — bigger than me. I need the [Bruce] Springsteens and the Bonos of the world to step forward and say, "Dee, we'll do this with you." Because you know, a bunch of hair bands aren't going to get the interest of the world.

But then again, I apparently got the interest of the world with my tweet. So who knows?

 

[slickpete83]

Putin fires back and writes his own disco song
Rasputin
he's listening right now in his office

 

[W. K. Lis]

Putin fires back and writes his own disco song
Rasputin
he's listening right now in his office

(Ras)Putin!

 

[Northern Light]

If the war itself is not sufficiently concerning........

It would appear that Ukraine's largest nuclear reactor facility, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, is on fire, as a result of Russian shelling.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1499533944500498434

From the Twitter thread above:

Picture from their live cam, as posted in the above Twitter thread:

 

[gabe]

Reports of Russians firing at firefighters trying to put it out. This is beyond scary. I never thought i'd ever say this in my life, but i' watching a war at a nuclear power plant unfold on an internet livestream .. . What a crazy times we are living in.

 

[AlvinofDiaspar]

Just add yet another war crime to the list. If there is a consolation, it is that the wind is currently blowing East-South East right now.

AoD

 

[Johnny Au]

It would be great if the dish known as "poutine" were to be renamed Zelensky.

Why?

In French, Russian President Vladimir Putin's surname is spelled "Poutine." Given that the dish originated in Quebec, it would be very uncomfortable for anyone supporting Ukraine in Putin's invasion of said country but enjoy eating it to eat the dish under its current name of poutine.

By renaming the dish Zelensky after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, restaurants selling the dish can show solidarity to Ukraine.

Source: Wikimedia Commons

Such an appetizing Zelensky.

It's not the first time popular dishes were renamed for patriotic reasons.

 

[Richard White]

If the war itself is not sufficiently concerning........

It would appear that Ukraine's largest nuclear reactor facility, the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, is on fire, as a result of Russian shelling.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1499533944500498434

From the Twitter thread above:

View attachment 383013

Picture from their live cam, as posted in the above Twitter thread:

View attachment 383014

Apparently it has the potential to be 10× worse than Chernobyl if it blows.

It could take a large chunk of eastern and central europe with it

 

[DSC]

Apparently it has the potential to be 10× worse than Chernobyl if it blows.

It could take a large chunk of eastern and central europe with it

CBC just announced the fire is not in a building with reactors or radioactive material.

 

[Northern Light]

CBC just announced the fire is not in a building with reactors or radioactive material.

While that is good news; if its out of control, in a complex w/nuclear reactors and radioactive material, I think I will still view this as disconcerting.

Though, by all means lets take some small comfort its not worse, yet.