You Would Be Perfectly Entitled To Think I Meant One Of These -
Art!
ANYWAY you'd be wrong! Wrongity-wrong-WRONG. Because where else does one find tanks?
Yes. On a tanker. Art!
This, for your information, is an 'AFRAMax' tanker, so-named after the 'Average Freight Rate Assessment' invented by Shell in 1956. They are typically capable of carrying between 80 to 120 thousand tons of oil as cargo, which was pretty big beer back in 1956 but is rated rather petite in today's classes of Suezmax or Very Large Crude Carriers.
All fascinating stuff I'm sure, yet why am I regaling you with it? O I thought you'd never ask!
More of misery in Modern-day Mordor, I'm afraid. You see, there are now circa 280 Ruffian tankers now on the sanctioned list, carrying over two-fifths of Ruffia's unrefined crude, which mostly goes to India and China, who buy it on the cheap, refine it and then sell the much more profitable refined fuels. Sneaky, hmmm? Art!
This is the marque of the Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited, an Indian business, who now have 0 orders for Ruffian crude in March, and whom see the trade from March onwards being far less in volume than December or January. In fact, Indian refineries are now seeking alternatives to Modern-day Mordor's oil from South Canada, the Middle East and Africa.
Why the trouble? In a word, sanctions. Those pesky petroleum punishments are now being meted out and it's affecting Ruffian exports of crude to India, as seen above, and also China. The extra administration, red tape, cost and general delays are causing up to three week halts in Ruffian crude being off-loaded at Chinese ports like Yantai or Tianjin. The Shandong Port Group - Art!
Shandong tanker tank ding-dong?
- has imposed a ban on Ruffian crude that will cut the oil received from 1.7 Million Barrels Per Day (hereafter BPD) down to 700,000 BPD, a cut of over 60%. That means a drop in revenue to match, kind of an 'Ouch' moment.
That's not the worst of it, either. O Noes, big nose. You see, there are costs associated with chartering a tanker in order to transport your oil overseas; these things don't run on love and pixie-dust. To hire an AFRAMax tanker in order to make the run from Ruffian ports in their Far East costs an average of $35,000 per day, meaning an average run of two weeks to China and back again costs about $1,000,000. This price has now jumped thanks to there being few non-sanctioned tankers and their owners being able to gouge the orcs. This cost has now apparently tripled to about $3 million, or over $100,000 per day. Ruffia Mother Ruffia is now in a real bind, because neither China nor India want to risk secondary sanctions by allowing sanctioned tankers to dock, BUT the cost of hiring a 'clean' tanker rather than one of their rusting 'Shadow Fleet' is going to make profit margins wafer thin, if not run at a loss. Art!
Before you ask, that's a 'Suezmax' tanker, cargo capacity from 120.000 tons to 200,000 tons, and they are defined as the largest ships that can transit the Suez Canal when fully laden. Just so we're clear.
A little more statistical information. India has, up to now, imported 36% of it's crude oil from Ruffia, meaning 64% is sourced from other countries, which figure is only going to increase as they diversify their imports. China used to import 20% of it's crude from Ruffia, past tense, because with the cuts made by SPG - not to be confused with an SPV - that will come down to 8%, a big reduction. Once again, China will probably seek to diversify it's imports, leaving the Puffy-Phaced Petrol Pimp both out of luck and pocket. You might even say that the Ruffian petrol economy has - er - 'tanked'.
How exquisitely sad. Art!
Any excuse to get the futurologist's work up on the blog
Yes, they mis-spelled 'PURSUIT'
Tanks for listening to this old man's ramblings. I'm now off to watch that John Delaney lecture about the Sherman. Tread lightly!
Whilst On The Subject
I tried a sample text on the AI Art Generator that I use, under the 'Cyberpunk' skin, and with the text prompt "Amphibious tank with sponsons made of spaghetti meatballs" and it came up with this - Art!
You'll note that there aren't any sponsons or spaghetti, although the latter might be stored inside.
So much for the threat of AI. 3/10. Must try harder.
"The War Illustrated Edition 202 March 16 1945"
We only mentioned the Sherman in passing so I am allowed to have this item in here. Yesteryon's item had a useful map, showing the Allies poised to cross the Teuton border into Western Germany all along the Rhine. Conrad is going to annoy the Ruffians by ignoring them, tee hee! Eat it, Dimya. Art!
It was the editor's decision to stick this photo selection on their side, not Conrad juggling with the camera function. In the top picture British troops as part of Crerar's First Canadian Army are advancing into Germany towards Cleves. This wood appears to have been fought over, which is bad news as forests are awful to wage modern war within. The battle is long over, as the photographer is standing upright out in the open and the advancing troops aren't taking cover or even unslinging their weapons.
At port below a Teuton sniper is 'winkled out' of a position, most likely by the tank blowing it up around his ears. The crew would be quite happy to do so as this is a German town inside Germany, getting some of the 'Coventry treatment'.
The central lower picture claims to be soldiers taking cover in a roadside ditch. But the photographer didn't cravenly conceal himself? Conrad suspects staged or posed.
The final noticeboard warning was well-merited, as the Teutons would booby-trap everything possible to cause delays and casualties. Allied troops were warned not to pick up anything until or unless the sappers had given the okay.
Quickly, Get The Popcorn!
It seems that the Orange Land Whale didn't really understand what a 'tariff' is, which is no great surprise as anything bigger than '10' or with more than one syllable is a mystery to him. To him, a 'Tariff' was 'Economic magic word that make me look bigly good and help groceries'.
Sadly, not. Art!
Donold Judas Trump's ego won't allow him to admit he lied during his campaign about lowering grocery prices, nor that there will now be a trade war with Canada and Mexico. I mean, pushing the Canadians so hard they do something bad? That takes real effort and determination. Watch him double-double down with more lies about just how EEEEVVILLLL the Canuckistanians are.
Fortunately I bought two packs of popcorn. May need more later on this afternoon, though.
Finally -
My 'Toad in the Hole' was not a roaring success, but still edible and it used up six sausages before they went off. On the same page in my "1,000 Recipe Book" there's one for 'Pork & Olive Loaf' which looks interesting enough to try. Laterz!
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