Brian Deese — The Musical Tribute Continues

by

I first heard of Brian Deese during the Obama administration, when he was appointed as one of the ‘Czars’ for the auto industry…and I was inspired to write this little song.  (with apologies to Gilbert & Sullivan)

I see that Mr Deese–now the Director of the National Economic Council–is much in the news lately, most recently for this interchange:

CNN: “What do you say to those families that say, ‘listen, we can’t afford to pay $4.85 a gallon for months, if not years?’”
BIDEN ADVISOR BRIAN DEESE: “This is about the future of the Liberal World Order and we have to stand firm.”

So, I saw no alternative other than to resort again to a musical form of expression.  Here, to be sung to the tune of “I’ve been working on the railroad”, is the next song in my continuing tribute to Mr. Deese:

I’ve been workin’ up at Blackrock
All the livelong day
Hung out there during the Trump years
Yeah, I really liked the pay!

Had to package those investments
Rise up so early in the morn
Hear the other partners shouting
‘Brian, blow our ESG horn’

Now I’m back here in the government
Washington, DC
Surely speaks well for Joe Biden
That he’s impressed with me

I explain that economic problems
Are surely not our fault at all
Whatever it may be the numbers say
Or those charts up on the wall

Someone’s in the kitchen with the data
Someone’s in the kitchen I know-o-0-0
Someone’s in the kitchen with data
Watching the inflation quickly grow

And singing
Fee-Fi-Fiddly-I-O
CPI and PPI up wo-wo-wo-wo
Fee-Fi-Fidly-I-O
Watching the inflation quickly grow

What you going to do about it, Brian?
What are you and Biden going to about it woo-woo-woo-woo
What you going to do about infla-tion
Seems like the folks are getting a clue

They’re singing
Fee-Fi-Fiddly-I-O
Can’t afford to drive or eat wo-wo-wo-wo
Can’t afford to pay our rent or mort-gage
Watching the inflation quickly grow

Need to polish up that narrative
Why there’s nothing we could do
Have to let the prices rocket up
Or the Liberal World Order is so screwed

We’re singing
Fee-Fi-Fiddly-I-O
Nothing we could do about it wo-wo-wo-wo
Fee-Fi-Fiddly-I-O
It’s best to let those energy prices grow

34 thoughts on “Brian Deese — The Musical Tribute Continues”

  3. “What do you say to those families that say, ‘listen, we can’t afford to pay $4.85 a gallon for months, if not years?’”
    Pretty soon they’ll be saying they can’t afford ten dollar a gallon gasoline. And it will keep going up from there.

  4. We pay over $8 a gallon in BC, like most of the world. That’s where you are going, not $5 a gallon, a lot more, so $10 is not at all impossible.

    Especially if you do the, cap Russian oil prices, stupidity.

    Such a feast for those who just want to watch the world burn. Less so for me, my children will suffer. ;(

  5. I think I heard ‘Let them eat cake…” somewhere in that lyric.

    It was either that or: “Well, then, if you can’t afford gasoline, buy an electric car.”

    Reality WILL bite them on their posterior, someday, hopefully.

    The road to xxx is paved with good intentions. To be able to go down that road, one must use the assets at hand, not the assets one may be able to obtain and the infrastructure you can build over a 10-20 year timeframe. They dream the impossible dream, more or less. We get to have the resultant merde sammich for dinner, every day.

  6. “Well, then, if you can’t afford gasoline, buy an electric car.”

    In progress. I should have my Subaru Solterra in a couple of months. I will go from $120 a month to about $20 a month.

  7. Let’s all see if Canada is really populated with obedient little idiots paying $8 a gallon and glad for the privilege. Time, as always will tell.

    Anybody that is under the illusion that “Investor’s Business Daily” is a worthwhile resource for investors needs to read this:
    https://www.investors.com/news/best-chinese-stocks-to-buy/?
    I wonder if the companion pieces explaining why everyone should have seen trouble coming for these stocks are already written for when they are de-listed or the Chinese government expropriates the foreign investors. Not a mention of Evergrande. Of course the people that sold Evergrande to the suckers have probably long since spent the money they made and are looking to cash in on the next tranche of the gullible.

    And finally, if you’re planning on buying a car, don’t do it now. Coming to a country near you; a flood of repos, down payment via stimulus cash with payment unsustainable by real earnings:
    https://www.barrons.com/articles/recession-cars-bank-repos-51657316562?
    Just as in 2008, the banks and other holders of these debts will sit on them until they explode. Soon, no doubt, to be followed by all the houses following the same pattern.

    There is such a thing as deflationary inflation where existing assets prices go down from oversupply while expenses keep going up. You can buy a cheap house or car but not be able to afford gas or electricity.

  10. MCS: “… or the Chinese government expropriates the foreign investors”.

    Sadly, the tendency of politicians to steal whenever they think they can get away with it is not limited to China’s government. One might ask certain Russian investors about their experiences in the US, the UK, Switzerland, and Germany.

    Maybe we have no sympathy for those foreign investors, but we need to remember — if “Our Guys” can get away with doing that to unpopular foreigners, they will soon be coming for us too. Is this the time to empty your 401K?

  11. About supporting “the Liberal World Order”: when did the People say they wanted this? I must’ve missed that referendum.

  12. Gavin,
    I have it straight from the mouth of Mike Pence that Social Security is a promise and we all know just how good promises are from politicians.
    https://chicagoboyz.net/archives/67956.html#comment-1059176

    401K’s and savings in general are a matter of private property which is guaranteed by the Constitution. Of course, we have it from no less than Chief Justice Roberts that something like, say, a 100% tax on such things would be completely kosher. Hell, why stop at 100%, why not 150%?

  13. “Let’s all see if Canada is really populated with obedient little idiots paying $8 a gallon and glad for the privilege.”

    Well it is the entire country, but no one is glad.

    Do you really think its not just a function of oil prices? We are taxed more on fuel, which is most the difference between us and you. You pay your taxes in different ways, so I expect if it all was calculated, it would end up as a wash.

    It is why your country is obsessive about oil prices, its one of the likely flash points should things get real tough. In Canada its different. ;)

  14. It is why your country is obsessive about oil prices, its one of the likely flash points should things get real tough. In Canada its different. ;)

    Speaking of Canadian idiots. No, we are not “obsessive” about oil prices. It is just that this is a big country and people drive a lot. The Biden regime seems to be made up of people who like urban life and don ‘t have cars. The US (and Canada) have abundant oil supplies that Biden is selling to our enemies. I know you lefties in BC hate Alberta and the oil shale industry. The fallacy of the electric car (and truck) is so obvious that anyone who wants to understand knows better.

  15. “The fallacy of the electric car (and truck) is so obvious that anyone who wants to understand knows better.”

    In BC its a good idea. I do understand a pure capitalistic state does produce infrastructure, that will maximize its profits. We can see where this produces less than ideal infrastructure for the common consumer, like Texas.

    Our unusually clean system can easily stand an all electric car world, while many cannot. Its a good idea and will save me a lot of fuel cost.

  16. The geographic happenstance that makes hydro-power abundant in the Pacific Northwest does not confer some special virtue on the people of that region for simply consuming that power anymore than those same people are somehow contemptible for having to bring most of their food from places where cultivation is more efficient.

    I’m still waiting to see any of the advocates of vehicle electrification tackle issues like farm and construction machines that consume not miles per gallon but 10-20 or more gallons per hour and do so for 10 or more hours a day. Where is the power to recharge them going to come from when tens may be on a single job site? How much of those expensive and environmentally disastrous materials will it take to make batteries measured in megawatt hours for a single machine?

  17. MCS,
    The level of ignorance displayed by those on the left (and some on the right too) is appalling. Their sheer inability to do simple arithmetic reflects badly on their elementary school teachers.

  18. In BC the plan is to go electric for the vehicles that fit that method, and use hydrogen for things that don’t, like your agriculture example. We can make hydrogen with electricity.

    In China they are just opening the worlds largest hydro/solar plant, which leverages solar to pump water, when its needed. A useful way to do this.

  20. Penny,
    Go away and come back when you have something besides unicorn farts to contribute. For instance, how many cubic meters of tank at 200 bar will it take to hold the hydrogen equivalent of the 400 liters of diesel fuel to run a medium sized machine for a shift or a semi for 1,000 Km and how many tons will it weigh. Now do the same for the truck hauling enough to refuel a dozen such machines on a medium sized construction job. Find me an example of something the size of a D-8 running on hydrogen.

  21. Hydrogen Fuel Cells are probably a better way than just compressed hydrogen, as they are much more efficient than IC engines. Electric motors are really far superior to almost any other kind of motor, certainly for emissions, but also in power delivered.

    Compressing it requires more space than gasoline storage, it is the lightest element, but there are many situations where that does not matter.

  23. Canada has 1/10th our population, as with the similar proportion to Western Europe, you have a higher proportion of upper class twits, per capita,

  25. Penny,
    Where do you think the hydrogen to fuel the fuel cell comes from, the fuel cell just converts it to electricity. It still needs a source of hydrogen, the least energy dense fuel in creation. Like I said, show me even one machine anywhere capable of doing actual work fueled by hydrogen.

    Just unicorn farts and hand waving, we’re going to magically switch to a fuel that is presently produced at a net loss from natural gas because we don’t know how the electrolyze water with even passable efficiency. Right now, a fuel cell big enough to run my D-8 is probably the size of a house and far too fragile to go bouncing over rough ground. The tank to hold the hydrogen is bigger and much heavier. So if you’re keeping score, they’re going to use a fuel they can’t produce in quantities that they can’t store portably in machines they can only imagine but are nowhere near building and replace everything running now in 10-20 years.

    Did anyone mention that hydrogen is a very powerful greenhouse gas, It is and extremely hard to keep from leaking as I know from personal experience. It’s commonly used to test for leaks.

    It takes a lot of energy to refine crude oil into finished products. Most of the processes occur at high temperatures and pressures. The way it’s always been done is to burn some of the less useful fractions, either to produce steam or for really high temperatures, direct firing. Also to generate electric power. The newest mantra is decarbonization. You know how they’re going to do it? They’re going to switch to electric heaters. So now our over strained grids are not only going to magically power all the cars, they’re going to fire all the boilers too because less carbon. You are living in a dream world if you think refining is only about fuel. One of the other themes is how to run hydrogen reformers for better efficiency. Refineries use a lot of hydrogen.

    Of course, you’ll be able to buy a promise from Algore to plant trees somewhere to make it all right. It’ll certainly make him a lot richer, probably enough for several new houses and a few jets.

  27. 5 million people metropolitan miami has 6 million rest assured they are using nuclear and coal.

  28. Kunstler’s latest at Clusterfuck Nation is a great account of a man’s humbling, after his own green techno-hubris. Instructive!

  29. “Where do you think the hydrogen to fuel the fuel cell comes from”

    Well in BC we plan to make it with electricity. A very common method really.

    Hilarious. Where does the electricity come from? How about the feed stock? Have you solved the problem of industrial levels of electrolysis to get hydrogen from water?

  31. trade-offs of electrolyzer systems under predicted future dynamic operating modes using CO2-free electricity.

    Good luck. I don’t believe it.

  32. Hydrogen by electrolysis is a net energy loser and therefore will always never be able to compete with gasoline/diesel. Again, those who advocate it cannot do simple arithmetic.

  33. If we could do reasonably efficient hydrogen production by electrolysis, it might form a method of energy storage. All others also involve losses, especially batteries. The rub is that we can’t now and there’s always a new “breakthrough” that never makes it to the real world.

    At first glance, hydrogen would seem to be a way to transfer energy by pipeline like natural gas. The problem is that natural gas (methane) is eight times denser than hydrogen and the fact that it causes embrittlement in the steel that forms the existing pipeline network. It also has a very low lower explosive limit and detecting buildups before they become dangerous is difficult.

    Where the low density of hydrogen really comes into play is for any sort of portable power source. It may be possible to imagine an electric locomotive followed by a sting of fuel cars and small vehicles may be able to make do with a limited range to get by with tanks small enough to be practical, Machines that have to produce hundreds of horsepower for hours on end and need to be refueled from potable tanks show the lie.

    Liquefied natural gas is becoming more popular as a ship fuel but one of the trade offs is that the tanks take up a significant volume that could be used for revenue cargo. Small liquid tanks are completely impractical. And liquid hydrogen is much harder to handle than LNG due to its much lower temperature, 20.2°K for hydrogen and 111.6°K for methane. Liquid hydrogen is much less dense than LNG which is why the tank on the Space Shuttle was so huge.

  34. Heard our buddy Mr Deese on the radio this morning, saying, hey inflation is high, but we have it way better than most places, who have to worry about stuff like famine.
    OK, then.
    Looks like I better go stock up on food…

Comments are closed.