Trump To OPEC ‘Allies’: “Reduce Oil Prices Now” Or Lose US Defense Shield

 

Update: For the umpteenth time this year, President Trump has lashed out at OPEC over soaring oil prices (and therefore gas prices): “The OPEC Monopoly must remember that gas prices are up & they are doing little to help. If anything, they are driving prices higher.”

Then Trump escalated his rhetoric, appearing to threaten the withdrawal of support unless action is taken “…the United States defends many of their members for very little $’s. This must be a two way street. REDUCE PRICING NOW! “

This is coming after reports that Trump asked the Saudis to increase production by 2mm barrels and that they agreed.

President Trump has not been shy of expressing his views to OPEC…

Tsipras played his last chips

 

By calling for a referendum on 5 July on on the series of austerity measures demanded by Greece’s creditors in exchange for a bail-out plan, Greek prime minister spread distrust among Eurozone partners and put his country on the brink of economic disaster.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras played his last chips and the country is already experiencing the results. If he has come to terms with the idea of Greece returning to the drachma then you can see some logic in his tactics – not for the country, not for its people but for him personally. If not, then he will have to pull a U-turn before it’s too late.

Tsipras will need to address the Greek people and admit that he played his last chips as he did because that’s what he thought they wanted and then explain the losses and gains of his strategy. He will have to muster up the courage to accept whatever proposal is presented to him as a solution of last resort. And this will take a lot of courage.

Royal Navy Aircraft Carrier Has no Purpose Except As ‘a Failed Dream of EU Integration’

The 65,000-ton Royal Navy aircraft carrier Queen Elizabeth, launched by Her Majesty on July 4 and praised as “a national instrument of power,” is in fact “a ship with no real purpose other than to act as the monument to yet another failed dream of EU integration,” according to historian and journalist Christopher Booker.

…

Even before the launch, there were questions raised over the ship’s purpose. No aircraft will be able to fly off it until 2020. Despite a vast flight deck, it is not designed to handle fixed-wing aircraft, only the American-built vertical take-off F35, which is still in development with chronic design problems.

…

The F-35 seen on board the ship at the launch was in fact a fibre glass replica, a plastic kit plane defence giant Lockheed Martin assembles for air shows and exhibitions.

Other questions have been raised that HMS Queen Elizabeth should be nuclear powered like American aircraft carriers, not by diesel and gas. More, the Royal Navy no longer has enough surface craft to provide escort for an aircraft carrier.