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India Explores Alternative Energy Sources After Oil Supply Shock

By Tsvetana Paraskova of OilPrice.com

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi has urged the government to urgently explore an increase in the use of alternative energy sources, including biogas as a substitute for liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), as the Middle East crisis is choking oil and gas supply to the world’s third-largest crude importer.

Modi also urged ministers to move faster with implementing reforms to turn India into a developed nation by 2047, the goal for its 100th independence anniversary.

India has been grappling with the energy crisis that the Iran war created. Oil supply from the Middle East was severely constrained, forcing India to boost Russian oil imports – with a U.S. blessing in the form of waivers for Russian crude on tankers – and seek alternative crude and LPG supply from regions other than the Middle East.

Earlier this week, reports emerged that India plans to send empty tankers into the Strait of Hormuz to load oil supplies from the Gulf producers.

This would be a first such Indian move west of the chokepoint for loading crude and LPG since the Iran war began, sources with knowledge of the matter told Bloomberg on Wednesday.

India has boosted imports of oil and LPG from places that don’t need the Strait of Hormuz, but costs are usually higher, and the journey times are much longer compared to the shorter routes from the Persian Gulf to India.

At any rate, India will likely need approval from the U.S. to move through the U.S. blockade in the Gulf of Oman first, and then from Iran for clearance in the Strait of Hormuz en route to the export ports in the Persian Gulf.  

Two and a half months after the Middle East conflict began, one of the highest-performing emerging markets in recent years is scrambling to contain the oil shock that is spreading to consumer prices, foreign exchange reserves, and economic growth.

Tyler Durden Fri, 05/22/2026 - 20:05

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Disney's Marvel Comics Faces Mass Layoffs And New Woke Leadership

The saga of woke comics is the saga of woke America.  Much like video games, comics and superhero movies were ignored by conservative movements as "meaningless kids stuff" until recently, which is part of the reason why those industries were so easily invaded by leftists and used to indoctrinate millions of children and teens a decade ago.

Culture is more important than politics.  This is obvious.  It's a fact that leftists have understood for generations and one that conservatives have foolishly dismissed.  Only in the past few years has there been a shift; at least, the progressive rampage through America's various media institutions has been stalled and slightly reversed. 

But, the most captured platforms are not going to change anytime soon, even in the face of financial decline and mass layoffs. 

Disney and Marvel have recently announced a shake-up of the comics division, with over a thousand layoffs this year (after moderate layoffs over the past few years), and new executive leadership.  Far-left DEI advocate Dan Buckley is on the way out.  This change is being presented as a retirement, though some skeptics argue he is being forced out as part of the company's restructuring.  

Buckley replacement is not much better, however.  TV Chief Brad Winderbaum is taking over as Marvel President and his track record on Marvel TV series includes some of the biggest woke failures in streaming history - Ms. Marvel (Muslim Pakistani representation), She-Hulk: Attorney at Law (feminist/meta take, which he defends as a strong performer despite critical failure), Ironheart (feminism and BLM propaganda), Echo, Agatha All Along, Wonder Man (prominent LGBT elements).

In other words, superhero fans hoping that the company changes will result in a renewed respect for the source materials are probably going to be disappointed.  Marvel's direction is unlikely to improve.  

Marvel Comics, a subsidiary of Disney, has been at the forefront of far-left propaganda in content for many years, and their woke concepts are usually ported directly into Disney's movies and streaming series.  Everything from gay and trans X-Men to black Spider-Man, to female gender swaps of popular male characters have become the norm.  And, books sales have flatlined in response.

Marvel's market share has plunged from highs of 40%-45% to around 29% today.  Direct market US comics make up around 15% of total sales in the medium, while Japanese Manga dominates with 50% of the market.  US comics continue to lose ground exactly because no one likes woke superheros.       

Only ten years ago the business of superheroes was big.  Theater goers could not get enough of the comic book genre.  Comic studios from industry titans to indies were scrambling to turn every property they had into a movie deal.  Nerd culture went fully mainstream and every kid and suburban wine-mom was geeking out in a way that used to get people beat up in middle school. 

The problem is that nerd culture became a platform that the woke movement lusted after.  And, as they do with everything they touch, their efforts to hijack comic book media and exploit it as a vehicle for DEI ended up destroying popular sentiment. 

Top companies like Marvel and DC no longer publish exact sales data and unit numbers are proprietary.  The reason was because sales collapsed according to evidence accumulating across bookstores and newsstands.  There are estimates of around 2500 comic stores closed since 2016, many of them were stores that had been open for decades.  Neighborhood favorites that used to do decent business folded.  

The stores that survived were those that diversified into video games, board games and other products.  Store owners reported that comic fans were buying older back issues and often avoided new woke books. 

In 2026, the superhero trend is dead.  The audience has dried up and no one cares.  It's sad to see, but completely predictable.  Marvel's pretentious obstinance led them to believe that the audience exists to serve their products, rather than their products existing to serve the audience.  The thing is, they can force woke cultism into any IP they like, but they can't force people to pay for it. 

For now they a protected by Disney's vast corporate umbrella.  But, this might not be the case for long if they continue to lose money.

Tyler Durden Fri, 05/22/2026 - 19:40

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The Trillion-Dollar Man

Authored by Noel Williams via AmericanThinker.com,

If he had any, Bernie would be pulling his hair out at the prospect of Elon Musk becoming a trillionaire.

Socialist imbeciles spurn success, preferring downtrodden masses who wallow in government dependence rather than exerting individual independence. As is well known, socialists portray billionaires as a "policy mistake."

Extrapolating from that, they must consider the potential coming of trillionaires as a policy catastrophe.

The first man likely to reach that lofty target -- if his companies meet stringent performance objectives -- is Elon Musk.

At first blush, that seems exorbitant, but let’s run some numbers.

Musk heads several remarkable companies, but for this exercise, we’ll focus on Tesla, which was founded in 2003. 

Tesla’s current headcount is about 125,000 (give or take). 

Average headcount (hard to calculate due to extreme scaling) over its lifespan is approximately 51,000. 

Average salary (excluding bonuses and benefits) is also approximate, at about $100,000 per annum.

So, 23 (years in existence) * 51000 (average headcount) * 100,000 (estimated avg. salary, per above link) equals $117,300,000,000.

That’s over 117 billion dollars paid to direct Tesla employees over its lifespan -- again, that excludes all the other benefits that may accrue.

Remember, this is before ramping up production of Tesla’s Optimus robots that will become the predominant contributor to revenue (and productivity gains that will benefit society at large).

It is estimated that Tesla alone supports over 600,000 jobs (think supply chain and contractor jobs).

So let’s consider their larger impact on growing societal wealth.

It’s tricky to determine the average salary of such positions, but let’s go with a conservative $60,000 per annum.

Here’s the calculation: 23 (years in business) * 600,000 (jobs tied to Tesla) * 60,000 (approx. salary) equals $828,000,000,000.

That’s over eight hundred billion, by golly (combine that with the above, and you're teetering on one trillion).

Admittedly, these are imprecise estimates (maybe underestimates), but the point is clear: Tesla alone has generated enormous payrolls for direct and indirect employees combined, and the future looks brighter still.

In fact, Tesla is inexorably becoming much more than a car company: there are all-important data repositories, AI, energy, autonomous driving, and robots. Indeed, if Musk hits the pay targets that may catapult him to trillionaire status, the estimated market cap of Tesla will be around 8.5 trillion dollars.

That’s Tesla, but there’s also Neuralink, the Boring Company (tunneling, etc.), X, and xAI. Oh yeah… then there is SpaceX, which currently employs thousands of dedicated full-time workers worldwide.

Its Initial Public Offering is gearing up, with an anticipated value of well over $1 trillion.

The socialist politicians propagating envy will have hysterical fits over that.

Speaking of whom, Obama once mused that at some point a businessman has “earned enough,” and that is well below a billion dollars. Well, given all the societal wealth (not to mention philanthropic aid and services to hapless victims of natural and man-made disasters throughout the world) that Musk has generated, maybe one trillion dollars is about enough.

Who would you rather have access to those resources: a creative, market-driven entrepreneur (albeit one who occasionally benefits from industrial policy), or a fuddy-duddy, central-planning socialist sequestered from the dynamism of consumer-oriented markets?

Tyler Durden Fri, 05/22/2026 - 19:15

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