Farmer Diaries

 How on God Green earth is this even remotely possible? How incompetent does an oil company have to be, when oil prices are about US$ 75 per bbl is it possible for PEMEX to lose US$ 2;5 billion in a quarter?  This loss tells you everything you need to know about Mexico and its inability to deal with reality. Oil in Mexico is extracted in the golf of Mexico in a relatively well know and exploited oil well that has been producing for nearly 30 years.  The cost of producing that "shallow oil" is unlikely to be more than US$ 5 per bbl.  They sell the stuff for US$ 75 per bbl. PEMEX is the ONLY oil company in the world that consistently lost money in the past two decade NOTE:  Exon Mobile saw its Q3 results double over the previous year to US$ 19 billion.  

 Sometimes you get a trifecta, and with the above, I get that; it's about Mexico, it's about the airline industry and it's about the Mexican government.  Reading what is being said about that plan makes you realize that there's a sucker born every minute. The Mexican airline business is not doing well, too rapid an expansion, with declining margins, insufficient capital and aggressive unions that have created financially tricky situations.  In addition, you add Covid and the loss by Mexico of its Schedule A carrier rights and you have a difficult situation for airline owners, who rightly carry a large portion of the blame for their difficulties. Still, Aeromar is a small regional carrier with 12 aircraft, all of them aging ATR (turboprop) that operate a domestic service across Mexico.  The airline has a lot of debt and a lot of problems (as I mentioned above) and the owners are looking for additional capital. Enters the military that is looking to capitalize on their...

Something like 95% of all GOP running in the midterm are saying that the 2020 elections were stolen, in addition, they are already claiming that the 2022 midterm will be tainted and that there will be fraud on the part of the Democrats. On the Sunday show, a well-known pollster indicated that he thinks that the 2022 midterm will take months to resolve who has won.  The reason is that in many cases the results will be close, and it has become the go-to solution for both parties (yes, the Democrats too) to say that the election process was tainted by voter fraud. Even today most of those running for the GOP are saying that if they don't win the election has been stolen, and America, it seems is buying it. However, this is only mildly interesting when you consider that in the midterm only about 40% of eligible voters bother to vote.  Nearly 60% of eligible voters cannot even be bothered to vote.  They simply don't care.  they pay lip service and say things about their c...

 This weekend is the ending of the once-every-five-years party congress.  the highlight: Xi is now totally in charge, 3 of the 7 members of the polite bureau are gone as is China's #2.  As far as Xi is concerned that's the positive side of the balance sheet. The negative: Taiwan China still wants to re-integrate Taiwan into the country.  The Taiwanese are less than keen, in addition, so many anti-market actions have been taken in China that Taiwan which is an example of extreme corporatist capitalism is not amused.  Many believe that the Ukraine war will dissuade the Chinese.  Personally, I think they are wrong. China's army is well equipped and far larger than Russia's, and China has a small window of opportunity, like after the US midterm as it looks like Biden will lose both Senat and the House, his second term will be a fight for survival, to invade Taiwan.  This may also address internal Chinese security issues. Property Real Estate accounts for 7...

 iceberg like the salad and not floating ice To say that Britain's new prime minister is in trouble is probably the understatement of the century.  She sacked the head of the treasury as if it was his fault. The woman was an opportunist from the first day she became a politician.   She may have the shortest live premiership ever

 Those who follow Mexican politics (it's actually entertaining) will have heard that the Mexican MoD had a massive data breach two weeks ago, where tens of thousands of documents, in particular emails, were stolen by a Mexican hacker group. So far, the revelation has been minimal and related to the close relationship between Narcos and the President's cabinet.  The one surprising aspect is that it seems that for a long time the President had been talking the Narcos, but it doesn't appear to have done much for the violence in the country, which is the highest it has ever been.  Most of Mexico is very dangerous, and bulletproof cars have started to re-emerge.  In the end, AMLO doesn't really care since it has no impact on his party's standing. Yesterday, it was all the news about the Maya Train, one of the four cornerstones of the President's rebuilding of Mexico (the 4T).   The highlights of the leaks: Costs are even more out of control than they were commun...

 To nobody's surprise, the CAQ won the fixed date elections on October 3rd, 2022. The polling numbers all the way in August showed that the CAQ was going to win a majority by a wide margin (they got 90 seats and needed 63). The turnout was poor at 66% of eligible voters -- as an example in the 1997 referendum, 97% of eligible voters went to vote.     More interesting were the other parties: The Liberal are the big losers here with a drop of almost 500,000 votes for the party. The total impact was that the official opposition saw its number fall from 25 to 21 seats in the new parliament. The Parti Quebecois lost one seat but got more votes than the Liberals -- so that's good The Quebec Solidaire saw a fall of one seat, but it too got more votes than the Liberals The Conservatives got 200,000 fewer votes than the Liberals but got zero seats. The story of the October 3rd election is that all four opposition parties got nearly all the same percentage of votes, but the Li...

 I only saw bits and pieces of the funerals for the Queen.  Fundamentally not that interested.  The whole thing was blown out of proportion.  She certainly represented continuity but ok.   I found amusing the bullshit around Harry and Megan; considering how they wanted to remain low-key, I think they succeeded, and good for them.   I suspect that tomorrow they will be on BA 283 the first flight to California, happy to have left the royal family.  For whatever reason, the palace (hence the King) has blown hot and cold during the entire process, when I got the feeling, they were working hard at not making these funerals about them, it seems that the Royal family and the British press were really trying to get to them and implied all kinds of behavior on the party of Harry and Megan (in particular).  It is clear that for Harry it was a difficult time, purely for family reasons, he has no stake in the British game and cares little since they...

 $28,000 for a new batterie.  A (ex) Canadian Tesla owner complained that this was outrageous.  he stated that the air conditioning unit was leaking on the battery which led to it needing to be replaced.  Now Tesla will not do it for free.  HOW DARE THEY.,, Ok, now a bit of context.  The Tesla owner who paid $140,000 for his car did so in 2013.  The car is 9 years old.  If instead, he had bought a high-end BMW or Mercedes he would probably have to replace the following: The engine The transmission  Entertainment system Spare parts for luxury vehicles are expensive and the wear is terrible.  This guy is complaining that his 9-year-old Tesla needs a new battery.  Apparently, he sold his 9 year old car, but of course, didn't disclose for what price... That is apparently news in Canada...outrage and then nothing  

 I don't understand what is going on with the Trans movement in the US.  I thought this was a myth that children were being offered sex reassignment operations.  I really thought this was another far-right conspiracy.  Turns out not so much. Now when I mentioned children, I understand that we are talking "minors" here rather than 7-year-olds.  Still, one thing I know for sure is that full brain development doesn't occur until the age of 25 (I checked on the interweb).  I find it surprising that hospitals and doctors would consider gender reassignment before the age of 18.   My oldest friend's daughter, even when she was 7 years old, behave and dressed like a boy.  She looked like a boy and behaved like a boy, and what more than happy when she was referred to as a "he".  I saw them sparingly as she grew up, and her dad told me about five years ago that she had gotten married and had a baby boy (he was a proud grandfather).  Her wife ...

Sometimes words are hard...I guess in the world of these two GOP politicians it doesn't matter that they are challenged by the English language. Wonton & Wanton Petri Dish & Peachtree dishes Gazpacho & Gestapo Really they don't know the difference... and the more important issue is that their supporter either don't care or don't understand the difference, because they don't know the word Wanton, or what's the Gestapo or what the CDC would do with a Petri Dish.  To their supporters its all irrelevant These are questions that have been asked by late-night shows to people walking on the streets of New York City: What is the capital of the US How many presidents have there been In what year did the US declare independence In what country is the Panama Canal and my all-time favourite:  Which is larger the sun or the moon... Something tells me that America's education system is not the greatest...BTW the people who were asked these questions didn't...

 "T he fundamental difference between Ukrainian soldiers, who are fighting for their country’s existence, and Russian soldiers, who are fighting for their salary, has finally begun to matter" The Atlantic Elegant and true... A lesson, maybe, for the Xi Jinping