Gary Varvel for November 10, 2021

Nuance. Varvel knows it’s in the dictionary between Neenerneenerneener and OMFG!

The GQP is promising to build a time machine and take America back to a time when petroleum wasn’t rapidly speeding toward obsolescence.

This is just a dishonest cartoon. The pipeline “shutdowns” that Varvel refers to are mostly permit denials that don’t affect current supplies because they haven’t even been built yet. U.S. production of crude oil is at or above 2018 levels, and above the levels for Trump’s last six months in office. It hasn’t been that long since the Fat-Bastard-in-Chief was begging OPEC to cut production because US oil company profits were cratering.

Varvel LIES again.

A normal day.

We were exporting more than we imported, but Trump stop that. Beside show me one oil pipe that Biden shut down that was pumping US oil.

I’ve heard some really stupid things but Gary Varvel just won “Most Stupid Toon of 2021”.

Best comic of the month, because that is exactly what is going on. Twice he has requested that OPEC produce more oil to keep our price at the pump lower and twice they told him to “pound sand”. They have plenty of sand and said there would be no charge for that. Good job Gary!!!

No surprise here. In the end OPEC is very happy that Biden was stupid enough to shut down the Keystone Pipeline. That was the perfect opportunity to start raising oil prices and we are seeing it every time we fill our gas tanks.

Just replace biden with Gary “servicing” Opec

Right wing fantasy land.

Oh you liar!!!! The pipeline was shipping oil tar to Texas for export and the current gas price situation is due to a shortage of drivers; nothing to do with a pipline.

Varvel liked it when Trump bowed down to receive a medal from the Saudis.

Gary the Marvelous liar strikes again!

On December 5, 2021, Canadian pop star Justin Bieber is scheduled to perform at the Formula 1 STC Saudi Arabian Grand Prix 2021, a state-sponsored music festival funded by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS). The Human Rights Foundation (HRF) considers the Saudi regime to be one of the world’s worst human rights violators, and has contacted Mr. Bieber and his team, urging him to cancel his performance and refuse the Kingdom’s efforts to whitewash its appalling human rights record. Instead, HRF has asked him to use his global influence to issue a statement in support of human rights in Saudi Arabia, just as his colleague Nicki Minaj did when she canceled her 2019 performance in Saudi Arabia, following a letter from HRF.

“It would be disastrous for Justin Bieber, an artist with a vast global following, and who is idolized by millions, to be used as a pawn by MBS’ murderous regime,” said HRF President Céline Assaf-Boustani. “Instead of giving into MBS’ plot to launder his image, as other artists have done since MBS’ ascent to power, Mr. Bieber should follow the lead of his fellow artist Nicki Minaj, who boldly shut down MBS and refused to perform for him.”

Saudi Arabia is not a democracy. It is an absolute monarchy whose de facto dictator, MBS, brutally silences anyone who dares to criticize his policies or calls for reform. Since the beginning of his rule in 2017, MBS has spearheaded a brutal crackdown on dissidents, many of whom have been harassed, arbitrarily detained, sentenced, and tortured to death. Among the groups that his crackdown has targeted are women, who are treated like second-class citizens, the LGBTQ+ community, and other minority groups.

https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/11/9/2063389/-HRF-to-Justin-Bieber-Cancel-Performance-in-Saudi-Arabia?utm_campaign=recent

We shouldn’t deal with the Saudis at all.

The only pipelines being shut down are the tar sands one from Canada being sent across major aquifers to Texas so they can refine and sell the tar sands oil on the world market with minimal risk to Canadian land. The US gets the benefit of taking all the risk and paying for the ecological damage when they leak (which they already have).

So at best Varvel is being specious and disingenuous.

Do your world and reality ever intersect? Look at the domestic production numbers for this year vs 2020.

Piping dirty Canadian oil through the Us does nothing for the price of gas. By law none of it can be used here anyway. Doing something to stop the speculators would help a lot more. How often do we see the price of oil going down do to a worldwide glut at the same time the price of gas is going up? Put out a rumor of a storm in the gulf and raise the price at the pump ten cents!

What’s with all the criticism of “dirty” oil? Name an oil that is not “dirty”. It all comes with an environmental cost.. some you can see (as in open pit mining) and others you can’t, but it’s there nevertheless.

Great argument for a green economy

I thought it was Commy Harris who was always on her knees.

If it were only that simple http://priceofoil.org/2012/05/22/keystone-xl-gas-price-myth-busted/“The pipeline would not add to oil supply coming into America for at least 15 years. This is because there is currently around 2 million barrels per day of spare pipeline capacity between Canada and the United States. Keystone XL would therefore divert oil that would have been processed in the Midwest to the Gulf Coast.The Gulf Coast produces less gasoline per barrel of oil than the Midwest. Midwest refineries are configured to produce much more gasoline from a barrel of crude and over 90% of the gasoline produced in Midwest refineries stays in the United States. Gulf coast refineries are configured to produce more diesel than gasoline. The majority of gasoline and diesel produced in Gulf Coast refineries is exported.”

Remember Lac Megantic, Tar sands oil is equivalent to coal total dirty, It cost more to get it out of the ground semi refine it so you can ship it , A runaway tanker train derailed in the middle of Lac Megantic and killed 47 people aslo wiping out the Historic down town ! Remember Lac Megantic !

Varvel is just following M. T. Greene’s tactics!

Now, this I really don’t understand. The US, led by a generally moderate progressive, asking for more oil while said oil is the destroyer of the environment. Crazy.

Where’s the flag button for the ’toon when you need it.

The conventional wisdom advises that those who do not learn from their past mistakes are doomed to repeat them endlessly. OPEC brought America to its knees in the 70’s by sharply reducing the supply of oil. We had to deal with seemingly endless gas lines at those few stations that had any to sell. The speed limit was cut to 55 mph nationwide to conserve gas. And of course, the price of gas skyrocketed. So here we are 50 years later still having our lives being dictated by the filthy rich oil sheikhs who know no end to their greed. At the same time, we are wreaking havoc on our climate with emissions from our gas powered motor vehicles. Why didn’t we connect the dots back then and realize that we needed to find alternate ways to get from point A to B that aren’t dependent upon a steady supply of affordable petroleum distillates? Yes, we are making progress with electric powered vehicles and renewable energy but it’s only a drop in the bucket compared to our glutenous appetite for fossil fuels. We should have seen this coming a half century ago but we didn’t. We adore our motor vehicles and seemingly will pay any price to keep them barreling along at 75 mph on the interstate so we can go somewhere….. the specific place is unimportant. We just need to get there ASAP. We piss and moan over the price of gas but we keep filling our tanks even if it means cutting back on other expenses such as food. As Walt Kelly summed it up, “We have met the enemy and he is us”.

That’s just plain wrong, opinion is one thing but don’t lie.

AMEN!

This would be a great cartoon, if there was a single tidbit of truth to it.

This back-&-forth nattering is pointless. Just look at the cartoon and ask “What’s being said here?” Sure, it’s hyperbolic, like almost every political cartoon, but the message is simple. President Biden’s administration (not him personally) is actively working to limit the movement of petroleum products through pipelines, and President Biden (personally) has asked OPEC+ to increase petroleum production so American working people won’t suffer as much using their cars to get to work (paraphrasing his words). But he’s not on his knees in the desert begging for more production, that’s just the way the cartoonist is making the point of this ironic situation. That’s all it is, but somehow it invites all these screeds and cherry-picked links and personal insults. Pointless.

Maybe if Trump hadn’t asked for oil production to be cut, it wouldn’t have raised the prices so fast as people started getting back into old fuel consumption habits. Bet, by the time President Biden’s 4 years are up gas prices will be back at a reasonable level again. Anyone ever expecting gas to be a buck a gallon again is delusional. Kind of like expecting a 24 case of Cola to be 2 dollars again.

From energy INDEPENDENCE to killing pipelines and drilling, skyrocketing energy prices, dwindling supplies, etc. Thanks, Biden and Demoncrats! LET’S GO BRANDON!

This is a recent article about Keystone XL. It includes a link to the 2015 study that showed that the majority of the oil was intended for other countries – NOT the U.S.

https://www.nrdc.org/stories/what-keystone-pipeline#econ