Iraq’s Oil Ministry has revealed that it has sent out exclusive invitations to several major U.S. energy firms to develop the country’s huge West Qurna 2 oilfield following the withdrawal of Russian oil number two Lukoil after Washington ratcheted up sanctions on Moscow. “It’s a huge turnaround in the trajectory it [Iraq] had been headed with Russia and China, marking a massive win for us [the U.S.] and Europe,” a senior legal source who works closely with the U.S. Treasury Department exclusively told OilPrice.com last week. “Stay tuned – there’ll be more of this to come,” he added.
The significance of this sea-change in Iraq’s geopolitical leanings can barely be overstated. Following the increasing perception among the Iraqi people that the U.S. had overstayed its welcome after it removed Saddam Hussein as leader in 2003, Russia and China – in that order – looked to boost their influence across the country for three key reasons. First, it offers a huge repository of oil at the world’s joint lowest average lifting cost of $2-4 per barrel, together with large quantities of associated and non-associated gas. Second, it occupies the geographical heart of the region, lying west of Iran, north of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, east of Jordan and Syria (with its long Mediterranean coastline offering access to further critical sea routes), and south of Turkey (affording an entry into the European continent). And third, it is a key member of the ‘Shia Crescent of Power’ geopolitical arc that stretches from Iran through Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon, where Shia communities and Iran-backed groups exert significant influence over regional politics, economics, and security. In short, if you are a global superpower or wannabe, Iraq is where you need to be.
Is the Reign of the Leftist Propagandists (aka Legacy Media Journalists) Nearing an End
Your Moral And Intellectual Superiors
The 57th edition of AP Stylebook (2024-2026) is out.
Much of the guide consists of lectures on progressive values and why they are supposedly correct, as a justification for forcing them into the language. For example, when instructing journalists not to use the word “woke,” it states, “Some people and groups, especially conservatives, now use it in a derogatory sense implying what they see as overreactions.”
A lengthy section titled “Inclusive Storytelling” goes on and on about how journalists must seek quotes from diverse, underrepresented people. It provides examples, such as “[d]escribing the unique obstacles faced by gay people who came out later in life” and “[e]xplaining what has led women of color to become a growing force…” It instructs journalists to seek out “a Black female researcher focusing on vaccination rates among children, or a Latino teacher on strike in Chicago, or a gay couple struggling to make ends meet during the pandemic.” Another section on “Unconscious/Implicit Bias” tells journalists to “check yourself.”[…]
The words “male” and “female” are now restricted: “New guidance to avoid using male and female as modifiers that could convey assumptions about gender roles, such as male nurse, male nanny, female bodybuilder.” Journalists must use “search” instead of “manhunt.” Since “Frosty the Snowman” is a character’s name, the guide helpfully suggests referring to it as “Frosty.” Journalists can no longer refer to women as “blondes” or “brunettes,” or use the words “manhole,” “mankind,” “manmade,” “gentleman,” “lady,” “mistress,” “hostess,” or “heroine.”
Down The Primrose Path
Follow The Money
BC MLA Dallas Brodie is one brave woman for putting together a critical examination of the residential school issue. My opinion: we’re in the grip of another mass formation that has been building since the early 1990s. It’s time to put a stop to this before we experience the Zimbabwe solution in real time.
Narrative Reborn
Here We Go Again: Media Claims J6 Pipe Bomber Was MAGA
This is CNN
For those of you scratching your heads about Jake Tapper’s misidentification of Brian Cole’s skin color, here’s a useful guide to help you understand Tapper’s color propaganda.
This Is CNN
🚨 BREAKING: CNN's Jake Tapper calls Jan. 6 pipe bomb suspect Brian Cole a "WHITE MAN"
WHAT?!?!
Does this look white to you, Jack? 🤯
"Brian Cole Jr., a 30-year-old white man…" pic.twitter.com/UakxeZikDy
— Eric Daugherty (@EricLDaugh) December 5, 2025
Collateral Damage?
Needless prosecution of a victimless crime, or a case of “the law is the law“?
The administration’s sudden expansion of immigration arrests in Chicago meant Guzmán was in the government’s custody for about 34 hours. She was kept in a holding facility that was intended to house people for only a small fraction of that time… Even though she was still trying to produce breast milk for her daughter, Guzmán had limited access to food and water at the Broadview Processing Center and was never provided a breast pump. She said she was never assessed by a medical professional while in the government’s custody. Guzmán was left to manage the pain of her C-section recovery as well as her Type 1 diabetes with the supplies she had in her backpack at the time of her arrest.
Y2Kyoto: News They Can’t Use
Some huge news dropped today that will reverberate through climate science and policy. Nature has finally retracted “The Economic Commitment of Climate Change,” by Kotz et al. (KLW24), more than 18 months after first learning that the paper was fatally flawed, with the authors acknowledging that its errors are “too substantial” for a correction.
It is not just the retraction that matters — that’s long overdue — but the reaction to the retraction, which indicates that while the old ways still have a grip on the climate discussion, things may be changing for the better.
Back in August, I explained the growing scandal around KLW24: It wasn’t just a fatally flawed paper, but a flawed paper that had taken on outsized influence in climate advocacy and policy.
The Dangerous Covid Jab: Denial is More Than Just a River in Egypt
Please carefully listen to this discussion and then feel free to shove it in the face of all of the toxic sheeple who went out of their way to belittle, cancel, and destroy you.
Update: Her views echo my own very closely.
I’ll Huff and I’ll Puff…
The Fog of War
A longtime friend of mine in Vancouver has severe TDS and a reluctance to do any research that might possibly poke holes in his never-ending hatred of Trump. Today, he sent me this video, and this comment:
Seems like Pete got some heat to the feet from the Donald. Hard job to get in defence mode with your boss and the country looking on. Lack of face to face combat sure comes with its casualties
I did some research and sent him back this video. Will he watch it? Likely not.
But this clearly illustrates how the Deep State, the Democrats & RINOs, and their media apparatchiks shape narratives amongst normies who are so easily to manipulate.
Dead Men Floating
Moral And Intellectual Superiors Update: …in journalistic terms, those three paragraphs amount to the NYT calling WaPo liars.
@brithume – This story remains exclusive to the Post. Beware of stories that remain exclusive.
Circling The Drain
The mainstream financial media is subtly acknowledging that a lot of the price action in Bitcoin was fueled by leverage. We seem to be in the process of finding out how leveraged bets on a rising asset price work in reverse. Hint: they don’t work very well.
Bitcoin, which was soaring around $125,000 in October, dropped below $86,000. That’s down roughly 7% from a day earlier.
Strategy, the company that used to be known as MicroStrategy and now raises money just to buy bitcoin, lost 10.3%. It said that it raised a fund of $1.44 billion in U.S. dollars, not in bitcoin, by selling stock to help pay for its dividends on preferred shares and interest on its debt.
The Start of a Hi-Tech Powered Dark Age?
This AI cat video is an example of the latest state of AI videos. While most certainly amusing, there’s a darker side to what this technology could be used for.
Imagine if dozens, then hundreds, then thousands of videos start appearing on social media, showing police brutalizing black people or Muslims. Realize that 100% of these videos would be fake, but the average person won’t know that. What do you think would result? Who would do such a dastardly thing, you might be wondering?
I’ve long felt that [some of] the elites want the rest of us fighting with each other, rather than closely examining them. That’s who would launch such a propaganda campaign and they have more than enough money & resources to do it.
I Want A New Country
Never forget how much they hate you.
Nightmare Scenario
Furry Friends
I had been told years ago that if you were hiking with at least six people, bears would not bother you. It seems some bears didn’t get that memo or the other one regarding pepper spray. Too bad someone in the group didn’t have a gun on them, but that promotes disharmony with nature. A ban on hunting these animals couldn’t possibly have led to them losing their fear of humans either. And so on.
“It’s the ecosystem being out of balance that means grizzly bears are getting desperate,” he said, citing recent clear-cutting and forest fires pushing bears from of their habitat.
He dismissed suggestions that bears may be more aggressive before hibernation because the animals do not look to human prey. Scapillati said he worried about pro-hunting groups using the attack to spread inaccurate information about bears being aggressive. “That’s so inappropriate at a time when we’re focused on holding the children and families and all those affected in our hearts and focused on them,” Scapillati said.
This Land is Our Land
Read the whole thing.
National Post- Canada wasn’t ‘stolen’ from Indigenous people
In short, the Americas were settled in waves from Asia. Everyone alive today is descended from settlers. The latest “Indigenous” settlers arrived barely ahead of the first European settlers, the Vikings, who settled in Greenland and Newfoundland, and of Christopher Columbus, who started Spanish settlement in the Caribbean.