Libya, Then (One Month Ago) And Now (Today) -- August 3, 2014; Iraq Only Worsens

THEN: July 4, 2014 -- AFP

Libya will flood the world with oil:

Not one new Libyan barrel has been shipped out of the terminals since the agreement to reopen them. Yet oil prices have already shed around $4 on the news. In turn, Tripoli will get less revenue from its current, meager oil sales from smaller ports.

In theory, the troubled nation could immediately flood oil markets: even just one of the terminals being re-opened has enough oil in store to swiftly fill up to ten medium-sized tankers. But if that happened, “we fear there could be a surplus” on global oil markets, one Libyan oil official says.

NOW: August 3, 2014 -- PressTV

Libya up in flames:

A British Navy ship has arrived in Libya to evacuate British nationals amid deadly fighting in the country, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) says. The MoD said in a statement that the HMS Enterprise, which had been on a Mediterranean deployment, arrived off the capital Tripoli on Sunday. 

The Foreign Office had previously urged British people to leave the North African country following the latest round of intense fighting among rival armed groups in the African country. The British embassy in Tripoli also said it will suspend operations on Monday.

Of course, once the Libyans clear all those British ships out of the harbor, they can start loading tankers with oil and flood the market with oil.

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Iraq/ISIS: Off the Radar Scope

Militants Continue to Consolidate Gains

Take Major Dam

President Obama's Focus: "Russia Doesn't Make Anything"

FoxNews is reporting, two more Iraqi/Kurdish towns fall to ISIS:

Militants with the Islamic State extremist group on Sunday seized two small towns in northern Iraq after driving out Kurdish security forces, further expanding the territories under their control, officials and residents said.

The fresh gains by the Sunni extremist militants have forced thousands of residents to flee from the religiously mixed towns of Zumar and Sinjar, toward the northern self-ruled Kurdish region, the United Nations said. Some of them were trapped in an open rugged area, it added.

Mosul Governor Atheel al-Nujaifi, who fled to the largely autonomous Kurdish region when the Islamic State group and allied Sunni militants seized Iraq's second-largest city of Mosul in June, told The Associated Press that the two towns fell after fierce clashes that erupted the day before.

A resident in Sinjar said the militants blew up a small revered Shiite site and two Yazidi shrines. Yazidis are a Kurdish-speaking sect and religious minority. Another resident in Zumar said they took over at least two small oil fields. Both spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retribution.

But much more ominous, the rebels take a huge Kurdish dam, as reported by The Daily Star:

Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) fighters seized control of Iraq's biggest dam, an oilfield and three more towns Sunday after inflicting their first major defeat on Kurdish forces since sweeping through the region in June.

Capture of the Mosul Dam after an offensive of barely 24 hours could give the Sunni militants the ability to flood major Iraqi cities, sharply raising the stakes in their bid to topple Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's Shiite-led government.

Meanwhile, President Obama continues to throw petty insults at V Putin: "Russia doesn't make anything."  These petty insults only makes things more problematic for our ambassadors, diplomats, SecState Kerry. [Don reminds me: it appears that Obama has completely forgotten about Russia's space program; Russia practically "owns" the space station now. They are the only ones ferrying supplies to the station; the US relies on the Russians for access to the station; I don't think the US is even interested in a manned program any more.]

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Fort Berthold Reservation: $66 Million In New Projects

The Bismarck Tribune is reporting:

• a new school in White Shield: $14 million
• a veterans center near New Town: $10 million
• elder care center near Twin Buttes: $4 million