Venezuela Miltary and Oil

Earlier this month, I looked into recent stories of Iran's General Soleimani. I figured I'd look into what was going on with Venezuela's General Quevedo who currently heads PDVSA, the state-run oil company. He must be keeping a low profile, because the most interesting article I found was from Bloomberg, which had a publication date of February 15, 2019:

The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned Venezuelan Oil Minister Manuel Quevedo, who also serves as the head of its state-owned oil giant, PDVSA, and four other officials for their ties to President Nicolas Maduro.

I always find  Reuters to be a good way to keep up with specific power brokers so I also did a specific search on that news source and just found this announcement from Quevedo:

Venezuela will stick to its plan of blending domestic and foreign crude to maintain and even increase oil production and exports in the face of sanctions prohibiting U.S. companies from buying the country’s oil, oil minister Manuel Quevedo said on Tuesday. 

Algeria: Protests Going on 6 Months

The Guardian has an update on the protests going on in Algeria:

Since then [cancellation of the July 4th elections], the opaque coalition of political and military figures considered the country’s true power, known as le pouvoir, has been reluctant to make any further concessions. 

The interim president, Abdelkader Bensalah, remains in power alongside the all-powerful army chief, Ahmed Gaïd Salah, while protesters say they will persist until the military-backed government is replaced by a civilian democracy. No new elections are scheduled.

Two former prime ministers, Ahmed Ouyahia and Abdelmalek Sellal, have been arrested along with several former MPs.

Eighteen protesters were arrested and put on trial in July accused of “undermining national unity” for waving the flag of the country’s marginalised Berber minority at protests. 

I actually find it interesting that these protests have gone on for 6 months with little interference (from what I can tell) by the military. If anything, the military appears to attempting to consolidate their power among the elites, by arresting politicians and business leaders. Yes, there were the arrest of 18 protestors, but this seems rather minor when millions are protesting.

California Pensions: Costs Growing Faster than Other States

The Sacramental Bee had an interesting article up on pensions recently:

Median pension costs went up $7,022 per employee in a selection of cities and counties in California from 2007 to 2016, compared to a national median increase of $1,216, Sarah Anzia, an associate professor of public policy, said Wednesday in Sacramento. 

The rising pension costs have consumed an increasing share of local government revenues, absorbing an additional 2 percent of general revenues over the 10-year stretch in California compared to a national median of 0.7 percent, according to Anzia’s data. 

From 2007 to 2016, per-pension costs for local governments with less than 50 percent union membership increased by a median $740, while those with more than 50 percent increased by a median $2,950. 

There's a lot of data points here: costs, percentage of revenue, unions. The problem with the growing percentage of general revenue going towards pensions is the fact that there will be less money to go to upkeep of cities and counties. Less money for parks. Less money for police (other than the money that goes to fund police pension funds). Less money over-all in general. At the end, if residents of a city want to continue those services, they will need to vote for higher taxes or be willing to fight it out with city unions.

China in Africa

I recently wrote a blog post about China's involvement in Venezuela. China has also lent large amounts of money to African nations.

Forbes (May 4, 2019) has the following:

“As a South African, I've seen China's activities on the continent up close,” says Ted Bauman, Senior Research Analyst at Banyan Hill Publishing. “It's clear that China's primary goal with foreign investment is geopolitical, not economic. The most consequential investments are undertaken by state owned companies, not by Chinese private capital. They tend to focus on infrastructure like highways, ports and dams, and on public networks like the electrical grid.”

The trouble is that “these investments help to bind countries to China politically, and through debt obligations,” explains Bauman.

Permian Shale: Underreported Activity?

Rigzone has an article about potential underreporting of shale drilling in the Permian Basin:

Hydraulic fracturing (fracking) activity was underreported by 21 percent in the U.S.’ most prolific basin in 2018, according to Kayrros, a data analytics company serving the energy markets.

In findings released Tuesday, Kayrros claims that more than 1,100 wells were completed in the Permian Basin but not reported through state commissions or FracFocus – a public repository for information on chemicals used during fracking.

Libya: Drone Wars and an Underground Peace Movement

Just to provide some a high level view of the current situation in Libya. Libya is basically divided into two main factions: in the east you have the Libyan National Army (LNA), which is ruled by Khalifa Haftar. To the west, in Tripoli, you have the U.N. backed government, known as the Government of National Accord (GNA).

With that:

It looks like both the LNA and GNA are using drones. The LNA is using their drones to attack their enemies while it is unclear exactly what the GNA is using their drones for. I came across two articles that discussed the LNA use of drones. Interestingly, I think there is a bit of plagiarism by the Express UK journalist. Here's what I mean:

Express UK:

In its statement, the LNA said the strike had targeted “Chadian opposition fighters” which is typically used to refer to Tebu tribesmen opposing them in the area. Khalifa Haftar’s organisation is allied to a parallel government based in eastern Libya. The LNA said it would begin heavy air strikes after “traditional means” of war had been exhausted.

General Soleimani: mid-2019 Update

In early 2018, I wrote a couple blog posts about General Soleimani (leader of Iran's Quds force) and a Shia Crescent (Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen). With the current tensions between the US and Iran, I figured it might be interesting to look at what the General was up to.

From The Guardian (16 May) we learn that Soleimani has been meeting with Iraqi militias. Iran's involvement in Iraq is known, but the quote from the article that is key is that Soleimani said that the militias needed to "prepare for proxy war."

The meeting has led to a frenzy of diplomatic activity between US, British and Iraqi officials who are trying to banish the spectre of clashes between Tehran and Washington and who now fear that Iraq could become an arena for conflict . . . 

The gathering partly informed a US decision to evacuate non-essential diplomatic staff from the US embassy in Baghdad and Erbil and to raise the threat status at US bases in Iraq . . . 

California: shift to renewable energy

In mid-July, I wrote a post about Sweden and its shift to green energy. Bloomberg had an article up about how Sweden's economic growth could be hurt while it shifted to green energy.

I recently was scanning CalMatters for articles that might address pension issues. Instead of finding any interesting articles on pensions, I instead came across a three part article on energy. The first asked if California could keep the lights on. The second looked into cyber-sabotage and the final looked at how to get to the future.

Venezuela and China

There's been plenty of stories about Russia and Venezuela. Some of this is no doubt driven by President Trump. For example, he claimed that Russia would be pulling their troops out of Venezuela. The Russians later denied this claim.

I think less is discussed about China's role in Venezuela. This Al Jazeera opinion article looks into China's involvement with Venezuela and why it is still siding with the Maduro government.

China, a global power with significant financial and military ties to Venezuela, refused to recognise Guaido's presidency on the grounds that doing so would amount to intervening in the internal affairs of a sovereign state . . . Meanwhile, acknowledging the important role China has been playing in the ongoing crisis, Guaido started a campaign to convince Beijing to end its support for the Chavista government.