My TV will be on HGTV all day Monday

I suggest you all do that as well. Let your friends know, too. Let TSF have a rating's meltdown.

The Definitive Guide to Where the US Has Squeezed Russia's Oil Flows the Hardest

Source: Bloomberg

Last Friday, the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control imposed restrictions on 158 oil tankers involved in the Russia trade, with the State Department targeting another three vessels. The measures were part of the most-aggressive round of sanctions on Russia’s oil trade by any Western power since the war in Ukraine began almost three years ago.

The oil market is still trying to pick apart the impact of the sanctions, which could redraw traders’ expectations for a global supply surplus in 2025. Brent oil has rallied $5 a barrel since the measures were introduced, with some predicting further gains.

Scott Bessent, President-elect Donald Trump’s nominee for Treasury secretary, said Thursday he would support dialing up sanctions on the Russian oil industry to end the war in Ukraine. That might mean even more disruption when the new administration takes office.

Ship tracking shows that previous rounds of US sanctions have been highly disruptive. It suggests Chinese and Indian oil buyers have been wary of falling foul of the Treasury. Since OFAC began sanctioning tankers involved in Russia’s oil trade in October 2023, only two of the 39 tankers targeted before last week moved more than single cargo. Thirty three were essentially idled completely.

© 2025 Bloomberg L.P.

Read more: https://gcaptain.com/where-the-us-has-squeezed-russias-oil-flows-the-hardest/

Russian Oil Tankers Still Under Construction Included in U.S. Sanctions

Source: Reuters

MOSCOW, Jan 17 (Reuters) – Six Russian oil tankers still under construction by Russia’s Zvezda shipyard were included in U.S. sanctions imposed last week, the first time Washington is known to have banned tankers before they even set sail, much less carried sanctioned cargo.

The sanctions imposed last week caused a spike in the price of oil and a surge in the cost of tanker shipping, as the outgoing Biden administration took steps to damage Russia’s oil exports and hinder attempts by Moscow to build its own fleet.

A Reuters review of the measures found that the six tankers under construction at Zvezda were among 183 vessels hit. They include the Nursultan Nazarbayev, the Alexander Beggrov, the Alexey Bogolyubov and three yet to be named: Zvezda 131080, Zvezda 131060 and Zvezda 131040.

Russia’s Sovcomflot is the buyer of the Alexander Beggrov and the Alexey Bogolyubov, according to the sanctions’ text, while Rosneft’s shipping arm Rosnefteflot is the buyer of the other four. Both buyers are also under U.S. sanctions.

(Reporting by Reuters in MOSCOW and Gleb Stolyarov in TBILISI, additional reporting by Timothy Gardner in WASHINGTON Editing by Peter Graff)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2025.

Read more: https://gcaptain.com/russian-oil-tankers-still-under-construction-included-in-u-s-sanctions/

'Sheep for hire': Trump, Musk and Zuckerberg's dangerous plan for Europe

Source: France 24

The European Union has long been one of the safest digital spaces for internet users. But that was before Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House and before two of today's tech titans – Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg – were essentially handed carte blanche to declare war on the EU’s digital defences. Some say the trio has even more sinister plans in the making.

Barely two weeks ahead of Trump’s inauguration, Mark Zuckerberg, the head of Facebook parent company Meta, threw down the gauntlet.

“We’re seeing an ever-increasing number of laws institutionalising censorship,” he railed in a five-minute video posted across social media on January 7. “And we're going to work with President Trump to push back on governments around the world that are going after American businesses."

His statement was a veiled threat directed at the EU, where increasingly stringent digital laws have already cost his interests more than a billion dollars in fines over the past few years.

Read more: https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20250117-sheep-for-hire-trump-musk-and-zuckerberg-s-dangerous-plan-for-europe

Meta Softens Zuckerberg's Tone, Tells Lula's Government Changes Aim to Reduce Excesses

U.S. Reveals Once-Secret Support for Ukraine's Drone Industry

Source: NY Times

The Biden administration declassified one last piece of information about how it has helped Ukraine: an account of its once-secret support for the country’s military drone industry.

U.S. officials said on Thursday that they had made big investments that helped Ukraine start and expand its production of drones as it battled Russia’s larger and better-equipped army.

...

American officials said on Thursday that they believe the investments have made Ukraine’s drones more effective and deadly. They noted that Ukraine’s sea drones had destroyed a quarter of Russia’s Black Sea fleet, and that drones deployed on the front lines had helped slow Russia’s advances in eastern Ukraine.

Mr. Sullivan said the drive to build Ukraine’s drone industry had provided “invaluable lessons” that the Biden administration had started to integrate into America’s own defense industry.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2025/01/17/us/politics/ukraine-drones-biden-support.html

Canada preparing retaliatory tariffs to unveil as soon as Trump's inauguration day

Source: CBC

The Trudeau government is planning a first round of counter-tariffs that could be unveiled as soon as incoming U.S. president Donald Trump is sworn in on Monday, Radio-Canada has confirmed.

The counter-tariffs would apply to $37 billion in goods that would be less harmful to the Canadian economy.

Trump has threatened to levy a 25 per cent across-the-board tariff on Canadian goods. Experts and lawmakers have warned such a move would be devastating for the Canadian economy.

The Canadian government is also preparing additional retaliatory tariffs that would cover up to $110 billion, depending on the Trump administration's actions. Those could potentially be more damaging to the Canadian economy.

Read more: https://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/canada-retaliatory-tariffs-1.7434137

Guardian: It's time for Democrats to go low

This is from The Guardian.

It’s time for Democrats to go low

Democrats should make the next four years of Republican governance as grueling and painful as possible

by Peter Rothpletz

What the 2024 election results made clear is that the Obama coalition is dead. If Democrats are to have any shot at reclaiming power, so too must be the niceties and mores of the Obama era.

Yes, Democrats must get mean – ruthlessly, bitterly mean. This is not to say, however, that they need merely to cast aside the former first lady’s once-famous, now-infamous messaging mantra. No, what I prescribe is not just a new approach to political discourse but a new theory of opposition party politics.

Trumpsim has corrupted America in myriad ways, but one of the most obvious is how voters now expect lawmakers and surrogates to be truly vicious cultural warriors for them. One can see manifestations of this in Congresswoman Nancy Mace’s deranged bullying of Congresswoman-elect Sarah McBride, the endless and deliberate mispronunciation of Kamala Harris’s first name, and the fact that Marjorie Taylor Greene is one of the top fundraisers in the House of Representatives.

This phenomenon also exists on the left. The coffers poured open for Jasmine Crockett following a tet-a-tet with the aforementioned Taylor Greene, during which Crockett mocked her colleague’s “bleach-blonde bad-built butch-body”. And one could argue the strongest period of the Harris-Walz campaign – at least in terms of Democratic enthusiasm – was during the “weird” and “couch” sagas of Brat summer.

Finding hope amid the hurt and heartache

Amazon alternatives

I want to drop my Amazon account, but I use it for many things. One at a time, I'm moving to alternatives, but I need more. Let's make this thread about the alternatives we have available to keep from sending more money to Bezos and his monopoly.

Regular scheduled deliveries:
* Coffee- I now buy directly from Peet's
* Water filter- Lowe's?
* Home health - specialty web sites

Shopping items:
Tech stuff- B&H Photo
Books- library
Audio books- suggestions?
Streaming- Netflix, Apple TV, others
Tools- local hardware store
Clothes- many retail stores have web sites

Amazon gadgets-
Alexa- I depowered mine a year ago. Haven't convinced the Mrs to do the same with hers. Yet.
FireTV - we have 3, but only use one of them. Once we drop Amazon, I will remove all of them. We have a Chromecast that will work just fine, so I'm going to use that instead and see if there are any issues.