You may never see this again, lol.
This was inevitable. So is sports leagues moving events to empty arenas, which it looks like Seattle is about to do, the MAC has announced it will (mostly) do. But the NHL is so far resisting calls to play in front of empty seats. Arsenal-Man City has been postponed, there’s word that the UCL matches today will be postponed or played in front of nobody, and the NBA is considering moving their games to cities as-yet-unaffected by the Wuhan virus. In other words, a huge and comforting thing to many Americans is about to be turned on its head. Go big on Netflix, people. Because the masses need their entertainment.
In actual sports yesterday, Spuds were bounced from the UCL, as expected. And Atalanta took out Valencia. he big ones are today with Liverpool hosting Athletico and PSG taking on Dortmund. A unchecking of NCAA games took place, but the real heavy matchups start today. And on the ice, your winners were Toronto, Nashville, Pittsburgh, Boston, Carolina, NYR, Vancouver, and the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim.
Underrated
Comedic (replacement) actor Shemp Howard was born on this day. He shares it with band leader Lawrence Welk, silica inventor James Hyde, media mogul Rupert Murdoch, “journalist” Sam Donald, SC Justice Antonin Scalia, baseball player Dock Ellis, British SciFi writer Douglas Adams, director Jeffrey Zucker, tv personality Johnny Knoxville, and busty actress Thora Birch.
OK, on to…the links!
Biden physically threatens a voter and the left cheers him. Well, the voters cheered him. The major media outlets merely edited the video to not show him threaten to slap someone he’d just said he “won’t represent” after calling him “full of shit”. But I bet the vids they posed won’t get a twitter warning label.
And speaking of Biden slapping people around, he basically curb-stomped the Sanders campaign yesterday. So it’s over, folks. We’re headed to Trump-Biden, unless one of them keel over between now and November. Hope everyone is stocked up on Jiffy Pop.
This Harry was a lot more likable.
Prince Harry isn’t just a cuck, he’s also a chump. Seriously, this guy has the mental ability of a sack full of potatoes. He’s also gone so far up his own ass that he’s referring to himself in the third person. Which is cool if you’re Alan Iverson, but not cool if you’re not cool.
The real test in Afghanistan is about to begin. I don’t trust these people to not get a bit bomb-y, so I hope Trump is committed to geting our troops out even after they start to escalate their attacks on our soldiers who have inexplicably been there for over 18 freaking years.
That’s a shame. I hope he’s having a nice time in hell.
Not sure why a government official would want to have the final say on something like this. Oh yeah I do. Because they’re as corrupt as the cops the people are trying to rein in.
I hope this is his defense style.
Well this is fucking horseshit. Alex Jones just can’t catch a break. He gets pulled over for speeding (45 in a 40 zone) and then blows under the legal limit but still gets thrown in the clink? Way to go, Austin PD. You’re doing a great fucking job.
Want to know how to spread the Wuhan virus? This is how to spread the Wuhan virus. As if the TSA weren’t already stupid as shit, now they’re a vector for the thing causing everyone to shit their pants.
Ew, this is just nasty. This is not the kind of female teacher you want to envision. In any scenario, not just this one.
Every day is a good day to hear this song. And today will be one of those days. You’re welcome.
Now go out there and have a great day, friends.
He’s loudmouthed just like Trump! He’s the only one who can save us!
Trump is a loud-mouthed shnook but Biden should be red flagged. Unacceptable candidate being foisted by the establishment in favor of his VP nod. It’s so transparent that it makes for a few good chuckles now but who’ll be laughing if he pulls this off? I can’t believe how cynical the Dems have become since 2000.
I don’t have a problem with party establishment picking their candidate, it’s the way it should be. The part that pisses me off is the waste of taxpayer money to go through the phony-baloney primary process.
Agreed 100%
As long as they are transparent about it, and “we’ll let you go through the motions of choosing the candidate but the decision will actually be made in a smoky back room by the party elders” meets that definition.
The show is part and parcel of these “democratic socialism” systems. It’s to appease the mass of serfs. After all, Stalin said it best when he pointed out that the votes mattered little compared to the vote counting. Mao said it when he pointed out that power only can come from the barrel of a gun.
+1 Chicken hawk.
Its loudmouths all the way down
Can you imagine the media meltdown if Trump had done that?
Trump is a loudmouth. Biden physically threatens a man to his face.
There’s a big difference. But the media will say this is “fighting back” against “the gun nuts”.
That’s more or less the point I was poorly trying to make. Biden playing Mr. Tuff Gai is probably supposed to assure the left that he can be just as brash and disruptive as Trump, because they have absolutely no idea what it is about Trump that’s appealing to his blue collar base. Hint: it wasn’t threatening to beat up voters concerned about gun rights.
I don’t know what it is about us oldsters that thinks we could possibly hold our own when these confrontations occur. Fond memories, I suppose. Joe might have been quite the gladiator in his CornPop days but dude, it ain’t 1960 nomo. I catch myself in that brand of thinking too. I’m pretty fit and still strong but one false move and I’d be done like dinner.
Hey, you are my back up! What’s up with that?
We used to call that “Alligator mouth, hummingbird ass”
Now its hummingbird all the way down for us old guys.
My father basically has been trying to incite me to strike him my entire life and still does, always explicitly saying he’ll call the cops on me if I do. And I laugh to myself every time because I think “Old man, if I were to actually get physical how is it that you think you would be able to just shake it off and get past me to use the phone?”
You’re like a real life Luke Skywalker!
I need to ask him if he hates sand to confirm this
*Giggles like a teen-aged boy*
Biden may have been one of those “Hold me back” type guys back in the day. Now his age and frailty keep him from having to tussle.
It’s easy to threaten to whoop somebody’s ass when you have Secret Service agents with you. If he started a fight and the other guy fought back they’d be on him like white on rice.
Joe looks like he’d break in half from one hit, so not much the secret service could do.
Presumably they’d kill the guy anyway?
Not betting against you on that claim JD.
Oh, yeah? Well what about Charlottesville? /progtard
Here’s the mainstream media covering Charlottesville – https://youtu.be/PE63y7ctAwA
Do they mention that Bernie bro that shot Scalise and wanted to kill republicans? I am gonna guess the answer is only if they can claim he was brain washed and sent out by team red to create the illusion team blue nutjobs exist.
How they reacted to it.
That’s inspired.
I get to go backto work because I’m down to three days of sick leave and I’m not currently a snot zombie.
Yay!
Just hint that you have the Kung Flu, that should get you work from home privileges.
There’s already talk of preparations to have larger chunks of the state workforce working remotely in the near future should the Governer decide to make the grand gesture of quarantine.
I have the Hong Kong Fluey!
It’s not Hong Kong’s fault, it’s Wuhan’s fault.
Don’t they all look alike?
/runs for cover…
Number one super guy?
Thora just had bad management. She’s a smoke-show.
The child of two porn stars. That she managed not to stab someone before getting out of high school made the rest of her life a win. The acting career was just a bonus.
Well that and a great set.
She had an episode of Doogie Howser, how is that bad management?
Sloop beat Q to the punch.
As a young man, I watched Ghost World a LOT, and not for Scarlett Johansson. Thora Birch in that movie was pretty much my dream girl.
I love that movie and not in the pervy old man way that you do. I’ve seen it at least a dozen times.
Oh, I love the movie for its own merits too, don’t get me wrong.
Guys I think he just watches it for the fried chicken poster, we have confirmed racist shitlord status 😉
Especially in the latex mask…yowza
Thora Birch
Wood
Something, something Lodgepole Pine. something, something Ironwood
Do you suppose she has a bald cypress? I prefer a little moss on the north side IYKWIM
She has a nice ash, too.
I bet I could make her aspen quake
Kudos for the Swiss-squint that never took! I still think Thora is a fine actress and pretty attractive. I stand by my opinion re: Ghost World.
Knotty, knotty boy.
Meh. Doesn’t do it for me.
My county just had a DEATH VIRUS 2020 case confirmed… guess it is time to lock myself down.
So far all of our cases are in Vancouver. Much pants-shitting in the local rag’s letters page about The Women’s World Curling Championships being hosted here next week.
So did ours. I’m almost willing to bet they have classes for the next three days, spring break next week, and then classes will be cancelled.
It won’t effect us, but it’ll cause a lot of shit for a lot of parents.
My bet is this Hong Kong Fluey thing might be the great driver behind a lot of institutions expanding their remote teaching capabilities….
From CNN (your trusted channel for being trapped in hotels and airports): In the US over 1,000 confirmed cases, and 35 deaths.
Now, my math levels aren’t as high as most around here, but I’m pretty sure that is an under 1% death rate. I’ve received e-mails from my bank, my credit card, fucking Best Buy all telling me how they’re planning to survive the virus of doom.
Am I the only one confused as hell how this is getting so much traction when all of the other scary new diseases just fizzled out over the past decade?
Active cases are not used in calculating fatality rate. It’s a ratio of people who recover versus those who don’t. We may have a 100% death rate right now because all the future recoverees are still sick. It’s too new to our shores.
Give it a few months, then we’ll know for sure.
Yeah, but how many unconfirmed cases are there? I’m still trying to understand all the pants shitting going on about this. From all the stats I see, it’s not as bad as the normal flu is, and appears to have a little bit longer of an asymptomatic period. The longer asymptomatic period would allow for greater spread, and would also make most of the “self quarantine if you’re showing symptoms” a bit futile, as you were already spreading the disease.
What stats are you reading that it’s less severe than flu??
Yes, asymptomatic/presymptomatic is a problem but so is people just powering through it when they know they have a fever or other symptoms (which the CDC or the media is not doing a good job of informing the public). Social distancing has been working because it’s the defensive driving of vector control. Doesn’t matter if someone isn’t symptomatic if you’re not near them.
From what I have read this thing is serious problems for the very old and/or very infirm. Young people seem to be immune or simply shrug it off. The flu is actually far worse because it poses the same (and I suspect greater) risk to the same elderly/sick population AND it also hits the very young hard. We have the shitshow we have now because team blue is willing to burn down the country and destroy the economy to get back in power, and their operatives in what masquerades as media are helping that cause.
No, this is also a problem for everyone. Young children seem to be less affected true, but they absolute can and do get infected (potential carriers at the least).
The old and infirm have way worse mortality rates from this, but even the younger and middle aged adults have worse mortality than the flu.
But mortality rate really misses the picture. A significant number need hospital level care (5-15%). And of the “mild” cases of 85%, up to half have pneumonia which isn’t all that mild. This can quickly overwhelm the healthcare system if unchecked. It happened in Wuhan, it happened in Iran, it happened in Italy. When that happens, the mortality rate climbs below an already above normal flu mortality.
There is no vaccine, there is no prior immunity, and there aren’t drugs to lessen the severity like we do for flu.
The best thing that can be done is slow the spread so that the peak cases do not overwhelm the healthcare system.
My math was wrong, as illustrated below. But 35 deaths from COVID-19 confirmed in the US. CDC estimates (take them for what they’re worth) 20,000 -52,000 deaths. I may be wrong, and this may be the next terrifying pandemic. But the panic seems way out of order to me.
Flu is fairly understood and there is both a seasonal vaccine, prior immunity, and treatment drugs to lessen the severity. It still taxes hospitals and doctors during peak flu season. At the flu infection rate (20-30%, again that’s with a vaccine and prior immunity so seems a bit low), that’s 3-4.5M (on the low end of 5% hospitalization) hospital beds required. There’s approximately 1M total hospital beds in the US of all types, not just ICU beds. And a good chunk are already in use. Add on the duration of the hospital bed is needed due to Wuhan virus.
By the time it gets to the point of maxing out hospital beds a) we’re fucked because it’s not just Wuhan virus patients but everyone else that needs medical care is limited too, b) intervention measures such as social distancing are far less effective once infection rates have reached that point.
Gustave is correct. This is a problem of capacity. Current estimations are that 70% of the population will get infected. The rate at which that occurs will define everything. We simply do not have enough health resources to handle a full-blown epidemic, nobody does.
Watch what happens in the UK where the NHS is already at 94% capacity. It’s not going to be pretty.
Gustave: Thanks for the detailed analysis – appreciate the insights.
Trump wasn’t POTUS during the other scary diseases.
I recall that the SARS death count was far over 1000 when black Jesus decided to finally make it something the CDC needed to be involved with seriously and declared an emergency. We never heard much about it though, because the people rending clothes and screaming about Armageddon these days wanted to protect chocolate Jesus, and now want to kill orange man.
Pretty sure that was swine flu. SARs was mostly contained to Asia although there were some cases here.
Yep, SARS happened in 2003, under GWB.
I stand corrected.
Now, my math levels aren’t as high as most around here, but I’m pretty sure that is an under 1% death rate.
Isn’t that a 3.5% death rate for reported cases?*
*there’s no way there have only been 1000 cases
/looks at now empty coffee cup
/looks at math again
/hangs head
/gets more coffee
Not reported, confirmed cases.
That’s enough Corona virus to contaminate the entire country and still have spending money left over.
/Bryan Williams
“Why did you miss the cripples?”
guess it is time to lock myself down
Kinky! And sad that you don’t have someone to do the locking up for you. I would have guessed that you would have gotten Ilsa the She Wolf of the SS to do it for you. I mean, doesn’t the SS stand for Swiss Servator?
Sad that Ilsa is gone now. Lou Reed could do it for him.
Don’t know about texas drunk driving law, but in a lot of jurisdictions, the legal limit is just an automatic conviction point, and you can still get a DUI below it if you were showing the signs of intoxication to the point where your ability to drive is ‘impaired’.
Yes, it’s all bullshit.
Yep. Happened to my step-son a couple of weeks ago and he doesn’t drink. He’s hearing impaired. Cop wrote him up because he felt like doing so.
He’s just lucky he ain’t ‘tarded.
Well he is fucked in major ways but he IS my go-to IT guy. Kid’s got a brain but he is as would you might imagine. (Kid being nearing forty).
Shit like this is what “Good Hearty Cops” do. I’m not saying that there are absolutely no honest cops, out there. Just that they are rare. Almost all of your “good apples” will do shit like this.
It’s that way in Texas, but the article even says:
“while his demeanor was listed as excited, talkative, carefree and cooperative”
Sounds pretty much like normal for him.
That’s exactly what I was thinking. If Alex Jones wasn’t like that, I’d be suspicious.
There was one time – but it was footage surrounding the custody hearing for his children, so I figure that’s understandable.
It’s not like he can drink water.
Nope. Too many Pepitones https://youtu.be/5RXAFsZBtaA
But he’s not a frog, so I’d think it would be OK.
Literally any of them could though. Nobody’s going to make one of those sarcastic “I will not make an issue out of my opponent’s youth and inexperience” quips.
I give Bernie the better chances of still being in the same mental state as now and upright in 2024 than Biden, who’s neurological function appears to be going downhill fast. Yes, he’s had a heart attack, but he survived, got treated, and the post-treatment prognosis is generally good – provided you control things like stress and diet.
The best thing for Bernie’s longevity would be to not become President.
Fame, fortune and all the groupies you could shake a stick at without any of that pesky responsibility. Sounds like a pretty good gig to me!
“I will not….age and mental confusion” is OK though and will be used. By November we’ll be so tired of seeing Sleepy Joe’s gaffes, unless he provides some new ones, which is almost a guarantee.
If he does withdraw before the General the media will go all-in on Blame Trump mode. It’s just sad. 150+ million people in the U.S. hate Donald and this is the best that they can muster?
It’s not that high.
It’s clusters of highly vocal people with megaphones who actually hate.
Many merely dislike.
Many dislike the man but like the results.
And then there are those odd people who actually like him.
I’ve played sports with show-boaters like that. You might grumble on the bench but when he hits a clutch double the win the game you have to admire the feat. Like the good dancer that cuts a fine rug and woos the maidens faire.
“However, drivers in the state can be charged with DWI if they’re considered impaired, even if they’re under the limit.”
Cause FYTW.
Up here, suspicion is enough and the process is the punishment. I remember when Canada went off the rails. It was Trudeau Sr. and the repatriation of the Constitution. Courts have all of the power now.
Same law here in Ohio. Blowing .08 is evidence against you, but you can still be charged and convicted without a blood or breath test.
“Emanations and penumbras”
Well, the voters cheered him.
Trump attacks elites, media and otherwise and that is bad. Democrats attack the average-Joe voter and that is *meh*.
Just proves that every “reason” the left says they hate Trump is a lie.
Democrats attack the average-Joe voter and that is awesome, because deplorables.
He’s a white male and concerned about gun rights. He’s not even a person, just a cockroach to be exterminated in the revolution.
Good morning, Sloopy!
No clue what the donks are thinking. Biden is a fucking trainwreck.
It would have been fun to see Tulsi up there with the codgers.
The virus is asshole. We are strongly considering bailing on our trip to the Czech Republic, but now it looks like pretty much anywhere is gonna suck for awhile. Bah.
NOT hot for teacher. Ewww.
Fuck, what a bunch of depressing lynx!
Thanks for the music to wash the nastiness out of my head. What a great song!
I hope each and every one of you has a rude day!
Your first comment of the morning is always a treat for me. Especially since your taste in music is generally the right taste in music.
Tundra brings the positive vibe. This is known.
I appreciate the effort you all put in. I read all the lynx, but if I’m being honest, it’s the music that I like the most. Sometimes I can guess, especially on birthdays, but then there are days like today when the song comes out of nowhere and it’s perfect.
Fuck off, Tulpa!
That well has been thoroughly, irreparably poisoned. You should here what the Bernie Bros call her. “Garbage”, “celebrity crush”, “GOP slut”, “you only like her cuz she’s pretty” (while they fap it to AOC).
She’s cooked. Most of the Democrat base and party seem to view her as a GOP puppet, and/or immediately took Hillary’s staffer’s snark about “nesting dolls” as absolute fact that she is “Russian asset”. Eh. Not saying I’m a fan of her domestic agenda, but she makes a lot more fucking sense than the burnt out old commies and wokesters that have been whittled down to two of the burnt out old commies (or whatever Joe Biden is now).
I can imagine a President Tulsi presiding over a defense realignment that would be a net positive. The main issue with US foreign policy in the post Cold War era is a complete lack of any overall strategy. There’s just not really any kind of actual plan. Even a bad plan. It’s just lurching from Somalia 93 to Balkans late 90s and then the entire clusterfuck of the Middle East from 01-present. Standard Libertarian Disclaimer applies to the following.
1. The Big Red Bear is dead. People forget just how much of the actual combat power of the Warsaw Pact was based on the intellectual, industrial, and manpower supplied by Eastern Europe. That’s gone. Poland might actually be the toughest nut on the continent to crack right now in a conventional war. The US simply doesn’t need to be involved in the defense of Europe from the Russians. They don’t have the capability to actually invade Western Europe, even if they were inclined to. Call of Duty video games are not geopolitical reality.
2. The importance of the Middle East drops every time another well gets drilled in the US. The only actual reason we had to care about them for 50 years was oil, and now we have plenty of oil.
3. The Chinese are a problem for the Russians if they decide to grab Siberia, they’re a problem maybe possibly for the Indians if they can figure out the logistical realities of the mountains, but they’re only a problem for the Japanese if they learn how to operate a blue water navy, which is something they haven’t had since Zheng He’s voyages. The Japanese “Maritime Self Defense Force” (don’t call it a Navy!!!!!!) has been quietly building up for a while now. They now have two “Multi-purpose operation destroyers” in commission that will operate F-35Bs. One of them is named Kaga. But don’t call it a baby carrier, it’s absolutely not that. No no no no. That would be unconstitutional.
Personally, a Mexican/Latin American general collapse and accompanying refugee crisis is something that should worry American defense planners a lot more than ChiComms invading Taiwan.
I question whether or not the Big red bear was ever a threat, kind of think it always was a boogie man foisted upon us by the military industrial complex in order to stay relevant and never pair down after WWII. The Country has a GDP roughly the size of Italy(in a what is far more capitalistic and innovative than it ever was under Soviet control granted it previously just survived by looting all the other countries under it’s umbrella) and a stockpile of obsolete munitions that I question if they ever worked. I really would love to know how many ICBMs at their peak could have ever even been successfully launched much less landed where they were meant to go. I mean the real indicator of Capabilities in my mind militaristicly is the Aircraft carrier this is a technology that’s been around for nearly one hundred years yet we are the only real power who actually can project force and launch and land aircraft on them as a weapons platform. There are currently 24 commissioned in the world we own 11 china has 2(neither of which can land aircraft after launching) and Russia owns 1. Granted that’s a dated technology due to the rise of the ICBM but it’s essential to having an ability to project force from anywhere in the globe and provide active air support for them anywhere.
There’s a level of engagement between “do nothing” and “Nuke ’em”. The ICBM didn’t render anything dated except perhaps airplane based delivery of nukes, which freed up the strategic bombers for conventional munitions.
The SDF did represent pretty well against the Zentradi.
According to commenters upthread, you’re totally wrong about number 2 since the Saudis are about to bankrupt American oil and we’ll be back to high dependency.
That’s not what we’re saying at all.
I’m saying that the credit markets are about to get locked up because there’s going to be a rash of bankruptcies in the US oil market, and that the credit markets control economic expansion.
I’m saying that deflation is coming.
I certainly got that impression, especially from Sloopy.
But hey, I’m always failing at reading comprehension.
Especially today.
/brain fog.
Question; does the rate at which the JMSDF has been updating it’s hardware and capacity come anywhere close to the rate at which the Chinese military, particularly the navy, has grown in terms of their own capabilities and materiel?
Well, for one, the Japanese aren’t getting Chinese Knockoffs, so there is that.
coughcoughF-35cough
Those Chengdon’t J-69 kung-fighters only need to work just the once, you know, and it’s not like they aren’t saving the best product for themselves.
Well, if you adjust for personnel costs (an all volunteer military is expensive), the Chinese were actually outspending us on equipment and development.
Navies are not armies. With an army, quantity has a quality all its own, the same is not as true for navies. The Japanese haven’t forgotten how to fight a fleet at sea, and the Chinese haven’t been a naval power in five centuries.
I love the Japanese ” helicopter destroyers”… that are bigger than the British aircraft carriers that recovered the Falklands.
I’m picturing the SHIELD heli-carriers.
They don’t have the capability to actually invade Western Europe, even if they were inclined to.
I don’t think they have the desire, but they absolutely have the capability. Russia has a strong military while the western European countries barely have a military at all. But I do agree that Poland is a tough nut to crack, so if Russia were intent on invading western Europe they would be wise to treat it as the Maginot Line and go around it. In all honesty the US doesn’t need to be super concerned about this theater.
The importance of the Middle East drops every time another well gets drilled in the US.
But oil is a global commodity, so unless the US commits to banning oil exports it is still dependent on what happens in the Middle East. The US may be the top single producer at 18% of global production, but the Middle East collectively has 30% of production. Any place that is the source of nearly a third of a vital strategic resource is going to be important to a defensive plan.
but they’re only a problem for the Japanese if they learn how to operate a blue water navy, which is something they haven’t had since Zheng He’s voyages
China does have a blue water navy, although they can’t project power all across the globe like some of the better navies (such as the US). While you are correct that Japan is not standing idly by and is developing as a counterweight to China, US strategic interests would still be to keep tabs on China to prevent them from establishing dominance over what should be the free shipping lanes that control over half of the world’s shipping.
Look at the bright side of getting sick in Prague. Hot Czech nurses.
“Is shortage of Czechs, you get East German nurse. Used to be on Olympic team. Still has more testosterone than you.”
I don’t really give a shit what people do, but I know if the genders were reversed the man would be raked over the coals for being a bastard instead of MUH EMPOWER SUCH BRAVE.
https://nypost.com/2020/03/04/dying-for-sex-podcast-follows-terminal-cancer-patients-wild-sexcapades/
Also: chemotherapy putting someone’s libido into overdrive? I’m calling fake news.
“If you knew that you had only a short time left to live, how would you spend it?”
Mase, Black Rob, and DMX asked that question already.
( “urban” lyrics maybe NSFW)
Those dudes really are doing God’s work.
Must need that fancy British liberal arts education, with a focus on logic and rhetoric, that in order to interpret this in a way that’s consistent.
My joke used to be “All Are Welcome! Now Get The Fuck Out!” but it seems that is no longer satire…
He’s not just a chump, he’s a yutz!
He’s Canadian now, so…
“I’m not your Chump, Yutz!”
I just hope Bernie makes the Dems continue this charade all the way to the convention and not “bow out gracefully” like last time.
Sounds like he’s gracefully retiring, according to the last interview I saw. He’s fucking Tom Sawyer with a bucket of white-wash and a fence.
Ouch, poor Tom Sawyer.
Poor Tom Sawyer, my ass. He’s a mean, mean guy.
Though his mind is not for rent
Don’t put him down as arrogant
His reserve, a quiet defense
Riding out the day’s events
*DAH DAT DAH DAHH*
*BAH-DUM CRASH!*
*DAH DAT DAH DAHH*
*BU-DUDUDUDUDUDUD CRASH!*
/RIP Neal
Economic news: Don’t expect the pullback to end anytime soon.
Word on the street is that the Saudis are willing to sustain production down to about $12/barrel in order to cripple the US fracking industry and Russia. Get ready for some bankruptcies and deflation.
Thing is, the strategy only worked with the old style wells, which could become unusable if alowed to fall idle. So while a few companies may go under and people will be out of work, the fields will spin right back up under new management when the price comes back.
On the other hand, the overhead for funding all of it’s support of non-working Saudi Citizens keeps creeping up, so the Kingdom can’t sustain the low rates the way it used to.
You don’t just spin fracking wells back up the same as deep wells. The challenge will be for new operators to:
get all the Frac tanks, set up sand operations, establish water distribution agreements (with new water distributors), obtain the pumping trailers and test/reseal them, and find the manpower who have moved on to something else or been sitting in their garage drinking for the last year.
And? It’s still easier than redrilling a clogged deep well.
And if I’m not mistaken each cycle someone manages to make the process even cheaper and easier, bringing the threshold price for viable extraction down.
And? It’s still easier than redrilling a clogged deep well.
I sincerely doubt this is true. Moving one directional drill rig onsite with a bunch of stem pipe is a lot easier than building the infrastructure necessary to set up a fracking operation.
I could be wrong though. I just work with both of these groups all the time.
Before I opened my own company, I worked for the Wilks Brothers. They had sold their fracking company years before for billions. As their non-compete clause got close to expiring from that deal, they spent a good six months acquiring the equipment needed to open their new operation at a tenth the size of what it was at the time they sold it. And they borrowed a shitload of money to do so (mostly from their holding company).
Spinning up a new fracking company required a lot of borrowing and a lot of time acquiring/prepping equipment. I don’t see borrowers lining up to take that risk after this.
This. Fracking is done for a while. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Chesapeake Energy go under.
The difference now is that there’s a ceiling for oil prices, but there really isn’t a floor as long as the Saudis are willing to pump.
It’s not really about the wells. It’s about the debt the drillers carry. They are going to be unable to service it for the foreseeable future. Defaults and bankruptcies galore.
US energy producers (mostly frackers) account for about 11% of the $1.2T junk bond market. Of that $130B, about half matures over the next three years. Additionally, nobody is going to touch a junk bond for the foreseeable future, therefore those drillers which are now actively losing money are up shit creek. Bankruptcy is unavoidable, and there is a significant risk to the broader credit markets.
Liquidity drives everything these days, and it just dried up.
“nobody is going to touch a junk bond for the foreseeable future”
Public employee pensions will chase yield. Taxpayers, as ever, will be the bagholders.
Someone is going to buy up the assets on the bankruptsy. The same companies won’t be the ones reopening the fields, but the fields won’t stay closed.
You’re still looking at it as if it were a single market problem. In 2008, the housing market took a dump but the credit problems spread to the rest of the economy because the banks were operating with insufficient capital reserves.
We’re right back where we started, except this time US corporate debt load is half of GDP. The Fed is going to cut rates, but they’re going to be pushing on a string.
The Fed has been pushing on a string for over 80 years. That is its purpose.
The Fed will buy all the garbage, as it bought all the MBS trash in 2008. And every deposit into a retirement account will require a minimum percentage to be Treasury bonds. (Up to a maximum $ amount, wouldn’t want to hamstring any elites.)
Not if the lenders hold onto those assets or sell them to scrappers (in the case of Frac tanks) to cut their losses.
Which is exactly what they’ll do. Auctions are coming.
Auctions are coming.
::faps wildly::
Frac tanks I used to sell for $15-18k a year and a half ago are sitting there without anyone wanting them for $4-5k for the last few months when oil was bringing 25-50% more than its at today. And the scrap value of those is right around $3-3.5k. Pretty soon, my sellers are going to say cut them loose to the scrap guys because they have loan payments to make and need every penny they can get.
So soon, we’ll also be talking about the need to build new tanks. And that means they’ll cost a good $15k for starters.
Sounds like an investment opportunity.
” because they have loan payments to make”
And the parties who made those loans will sell the loans for whatever pennies they can get and the entity buying them won’t be nearly as desperate to get those loans performing.
The smallest outfits will do as you say. The larger ones will get a stealth bailout or get hoovered up in mergers.
That is what would happen in a functioning market.
The Fed’s job is to make sure the market doesn’t function properly. The Fed will do everything it can to prevent price discovery. It will just push the problems into other sectors, kicking the can as it were.
While it is bad for the american oil industry, it is good for everyone else.
Just like cheap steel prices destroyed the steel industry but is good for everyone else.
Cuomo just orgasmed.
Ummmm ok?
https://www.sausageroll.com.au/tech/automotive/nissan-usa-disable-comments-on-brie-larson-commercial-after-it-bombs/
Larson definitely suffers from major hot girl privilege; she would be a bagger at Safeway if she were ugly. That’s probably the root of her resentment toward men, she knows she’s utterly dependent on them finding her attractive to stay relevant.
I don’t even find her attractive. She’s got a bobblehead.
THIS girl? https://youtu.be/jtrmWnFAHYE
De gustibus non est disputandum and all that, but I’ve seen way hotter Safeway baggers tbh.
I’m sorry, are you saying she’s hot? Because between her oversized forehead and mannish jaw, I just don’t see it.
And a rear that’s flat as a pancake.
She’s a skinny blonde girl. They’re a dime a dozen.
But they get annoyed at being offered 0.8333 cents
But she is “outspoken” so that rates her at 0.74 cents on the Dollar.
They are also the most privileged people on the planet.
You hear that? That’s the sound of my bubble bursting. Thanks.
*sobs*
I don’t think she’s that hot. From the sidebar:
“But now, on Twitter at least, the term is considered hate speech and can qualify you for an instant ban, if used as targeted harassment.
The CEO Twitter himself failed to give a straight answer as to what actually constitutes targeted harassment on his platform when interviewed by Joe Rogan leaving the rule very ambiguous. There have been many reports of people getting banned from simply responding to criticism which indicates that the use of “OK boomer” may be considered targeted harassment even though its just a reply to someone else’s comment.
This isn’t the first meme that Twitter has sent to its grave; the NPC and #LearnToCode memes have been completely banned of Twitter and you can be instantly banned for using them.”
https://www.sausageroll.com.au/tech/is-twitter-banning-the-ok-boomer-meme-to-protect-joe-biden/
I see nothing wrong with that commercial – and I’m generally sensitive to the women’s empowerment crap. Watched with the spouse – same response. And yeah, we both find Brie Larson attractive.
Oh, ugh. I could hold my own with an adult male when I was 16 interviewing for my first job.
Piker.
Its getting harder and harder to tell a 4th wave feminist apart from a sexists Victorian who thought that women were too weak and frail to be able to handle big-boy man work or be left to their own devices.
A 4th wave Feminist doesn’t believe a woman should get married.
TheVictorian probably knew which sex had the penis and which ahd the pussy.
Well now, it could have been Harvey Weinstein. Though in that case she should lecture the “sisterhood” about knowingly sacrificing each other to a predator.
Atalanta’s win is pretty impressive; especially considering they lost their first three matches in the group stage. This is a lower table club historically speaking finding its way into the quarters.
Plus they play amazing soccer.
If this was an EPL club my God the attention it would get.
Wanton Wednesday drafts a deliriously delightful delivery of dangerously curvaceous dames.
http://archive.li/1vtLj
“Rhiannon Ballard Petty, 41, of Shepherd, is being charged with improper relationship with a student, a second-degree felony. Court records show the alleged victim said Petty performed a sexual act at a New Caney Walmart.”
Classy.
wut
https://nypost.com/2020/03/10/miserable-man-tattoos-entire-body-blue-to-feel-confident/
To make it big in the former forklift driver game, you definitely need to stand out.
Obligatory
Also, wouldn’t it have been easier and a lot less painful to just get into colloidal silver?
Wrong shade of blue?
Does he identify as a Smurf?
Maybe he has plans to audition for the Blue Man Group?
New dating site launches for men with ‘dinky’ penises
It will be embarrassing when they get hacked.
I wonder if they have some kind of confirmation policy.
So Jesse finally found the way to get all the dick pics he wants. Live the dream man!
They should get Enrique Iglesias to be their spokesperson.
In what should be a shock to no one, there are short dick chasers amongst women. Even ones who aren’t interested in humiliation around it. There’s a kink for every ass or something.
The things that I saw on Mulberry Street! I mean Glibs. Jesus Christ on toast.
If they aren’t referred to as stubby chasers it’s a missed opportunity.
27,000 members or in Imperial units, 3 Rons.
I’m stuck on trying to imagine what self-respecting dude would sign up for this.
I guess it takes courage of a sort to admit one’s shortcomings.
^ seen and noted
Biden is doing a great job of winning primaries in states where Democrats have no chance in November.
Come on, Man…
AM needs a quick road goal today.
Before noon?
“ON CLIMATE
‘Unfortunately, the world is being led by some very sick people, so people like yourselves and (the) younger generation are the ones that are going to make all the difference. People need to be woken up and the only way to wake people up from what effectively is a consciousness crisis is, I think, you need to be doing extreme things. What you need to do is make real big changes that actually shock people, and it’s that shock factor that wakes people up.'”
Oh shut up Harry.
I’m awake. I’m drinking as I type!
“ON PRIVATE JETS
‘Unfortunately there is very few alternatives. We have to fly on commercial planes all over the world. Nowhere near as much as most people who do it for a night or weekends. Certainly for my family, to protect my family, from these people, as you can well understand. I have to put protections and safety of my family first and these people are never-ending.'”
This is like the Michael Bloomberg ‘I need guns because I’m important’ shtick.
You know, everybody made fun of Crichton for his villains in State of Fear, but…
They make fun of the villains in Atlas Shrugged too.
BTW, something is causing the avatars to take up more width than normal (with a bunch of empty space) in smartphone mode, so the comments are hitting the right edge at a much earlier nesting level.
I posted about this yesterday, but have a little more to add:
I don’t know how many of you remember me talking about Lilah a while back. She’s the little girl with Epidermolysis Bullosa. Her mother wrote a children’s book about her life. It is releasing April 17th, Lilah’s 5th birthday! Below is a link to pre-order and a short description.
Cotton Candy On the Moon
from 13.99
This is a story inspired by Lilah Miller, a brave little girl battling a rare and challenging medical diagnosis known as Epidermolysis Bullosa. This story details one very special little girl’s impossible dream from a hospital room she knows all too well. The dream is made a reality in this fantastical adventure with stars, rainbows, and her beloved teddy bear to guide her. Lilah knows ALL dreams are possible if you just believe it!
By Kelsey Townsend-Miller
Illustrated By Caitlyn Chase
There’s also book launch party on May 1st here in Indy. There will be a silent auction and all proceeds will be donated to the EB Research Partnership. If anyone has anything they would like to donate to the silent auction or wants to attend the launch you can email me at my handle at
evilco.comthe google.The Beltway talking head types are orgasming over that Biden clip because he’s acting exactly as they believe politicians should act towards deplorable, white, blue collar people. It excites them to no end.
I wouldn’t have thought they’d be far enough up their own assholes to believe that this plays well with average people, but then their capacity for self-delusion is boundless.
I was with several Dem acquaintances last night when the incident came up. There was an awkward pause, followed by a round of mourning for the candidates who didn’t make it.
Biden’s irrelevant, though – the real election is Biden’s VP vs. Trump.
How dare you! There is NO data that Biden has had a congitive decline!
A surprising number of people still haven’t realised that, in the smartphone age, everything a celebrity says and does is instantly accessible public record *forever*.
Virginia gun laws in the works.
Showing your shootin’ buddy your new blaster will be a felony.
Yes, we’re circling the bowl
Listen fat, Biden is not going to take your guns away!
with the intent and purpose of intimidating
Subjective.
They aspire to be New Jersey.
NJ Security Guard arrested for firearm that he’s licensed to carry and ammo that they have listed as “legal”>
this guy has the mental ability of a sack full of potatoes.
Generations of royal inbreeding.
blows under the legal limit but still gets thrown in the clink?
I would think this case would be dismissed with prejudice but the law doesn’t mean anything anymore.
He’ll plead down to reckless driving and that will be that
The “legal limit” is usually a presumptive intoxication that above that amount, you’re presumed to be intoxicated regardless of your apparent behavior. Below .08, you can still be charged if your intoxicated by your actions/behavior.
Coronavirus conference canceled in New York because of coronavirus
Who could have seen that coming?
But there is some good coronavirus news.
Islamic Scholar Who Said Coronavirus Was “Allah’s Punishment” Gets Coronavirus
LOL
Every story about the Iranian regime succumbing, I get tempted to make a similar comment. So far I’ve only thought about it.
I bet a lot of the people that claimed there were no gay people in Iran were also into man sex…
“To the Turks, everything is “shurla burla”, which means “like this, like that”. You never know what will happen. All foreigners are “ayip”, they’re considered dirty. So is homosexuality, it’s a big crime here, but most of them do it every chance they get.”
–Midnight Express
Has someone told Alanis Morisette?
Huh. I would have guessed Babylon Bee with that headline.
https://twitter.com/MidtownChico/status/1237215780196007936
what?
Looks effective.
Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.
Like I tell my wife when she tells me about something stupid someone did.
“Their vote counts just the same as yours”.
We made it to Idaho and are settling in, cats are digging it. Gotta return the rental car to Spokane today, then go to the DMV to transfer my license and do car shopping later. Coeur d’Alene seems awesome so far, beautiful mountains and scenery but lots of new stores.
The place we’re living has Spectrum TV and internet as part of the rent. I went to the Spectrum office yesterday and there were like 15 people and two employees, I realized that the building has very very fast resident Wi-Fi, so I just hooked up the TV and the computer to run everything off of the Wi-Fi and it’s just as fast as my Spectrum wired internet service in Brooklyn was. Good times
Good move, Slammer. Welcome to Deplorable Land.
If you get a chance, make sure to patronize one of the meth dealers downtown while you’re in Spokane – they are the backbone of the economy.
Lotsa cheap kid’s bikes too. Most of the bums will be riding one and wheeling another alongside. Spokane is Prince George South.
Any young injun lady strippers would be of interest
Ahh, day shift at the Deja Vu…
Congrats, Slammer!
Moving to the mountains is one of my important goals, so I’m really happy for you!
Glad to hear you made it through Youngstown without an issue. 🙂
Welcome to Idaho. Fun fact: the Navy still has an acoustic research base on the southern end of Lake Pend Oreille. Or used to, anyway. It has been a couple of years since I’ve lived in that area. Good luck with the natives in the panhandle. They can be quite… colorful.
Cool, thanks. Definitely worth checking out
These are all accurate descriptions of Spokane but they left out the most important warning. Be careful when returning your rental car, you might destroy it when driving on Spokane streets.
SJWednesday: Then Let’s Not Talk About My Enema Bottle
What about dickhead?
Surely asshole is OK right? Everybody has one.
My brother lived in a fleabag motel for awhile and he had two old lesbian grannies for neighbors. Mean as snakes. One of them had a colostomy bag and the other was the controller. They used to knock on the door looking for smokes and if you didn’t answer they’d get more and more het up. :Knock-knock: “It’s your Granny! :knock knock: “I know you’re in there…” :knock knock knock: “We just want a smoke!”:KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK: “OPEN UP YOU LITTLE SHITS AND GIVE ME A SMOKE OR I SWEAR I”LL GUT YOU LIKE A FISH!”
My bro even wrote a song about them, “Enemarie, Enemarie! She’s the one! The one for me!” Happy times are remembered long after they’re gone…
I had a lesbian couple as my next door neighbors for a year once, and it was one of the absolutely worst experiences of my entire life.
Go on…
““White pride” was carved on the ground outside a black-owned gym in Johnson City, Tenn. The local community rallied in support of the business. Following a police investigation, Mahagany Teague, 42, was arrested and charged with vandalism. http://wcyb.com/news/local/jcpd-woman-arrested-for-carving-white-pride-into-sidewalk-at-jc-business … #HateHoax”
https://twitter.com/MrAndyNgo/status/1237033052464754689
Do any of these turn out to be real?
So far… no.
Very, very rarely.
Where was Jessie (no longer Jussie)?
How do you know it’s a Hoax? What if she has lots of White Pride?
If I didn’t have some strong objections to the ill-conceived and hysterical notion of “hate crime”, I’d say apply the law as written, and prosecute this women under whatever statute it is that makes what she did special and distinct from regular vandalism. If. However, I’d rather be consistent in my principled opposition to such legislation, so I guess just petty vandalism? Idk.
Lesson learned
don’trob a Russian hair salon?Robber who broke into hair salon is beaten by its black-belt owner and kept as a sex slave for three days… fed only Viagra
Weird she had a bunch of viagra on hand.
“When police arrived to question Zahjac, she said: ‘What a bastard. Yes, we had sex a couple of times. But I bought him new jeans, gave him food and even gave him 1,000 roubles when he left.””
Wait, they’re remaking Pulp Fiction with a female Maynard and Zed?
Now the hard part: who plays the female Gimp?
Brie Larson, duh.
Courtesy of Sir Digby from the Tuesday night post.
SJWednesday: Enacting Your Labor In A Time Of Crisis
I’m gonna pay you $100 to fuck off
Wouldn’t it be easier to just give your children to the government and let a Paid Care Worker™ raise them? Families are bad and stuff.
Men never do work that they don’t demand payment for.
https://twitter.com/shoe0nhead/status/1237702435038212099
seems legit
Pixar’s Onward ‘banned by four Middle East countries’ over gay reference
https://twitter.com/BidenInsultBot
Look, this funny. Come on, man!
Banned in 3…2…
We have only the highest quality bots. The. Best.
It’s a Daily Show creation? I imagine they’ll deep-six it now that he’s certain to be the nominee – Dems know how to close ranks.
“iron deficient toad-licker”
I larfed
Seems like more of a docu-drama.
Hulu’s new docuseries Hillary was released on March 6; a four-episode, four-hour slog that went back and forth between the 2016 campaign and Hillary Clinton’s life from childhood. Although rewatching her 2016 concession speech and crying supporters was a highlight, this being a show about the Clintons, the series was filled with lowlights.
Here are 6 of the worst moments.
Obama called Trump a “fascist”
The camera captured running mate Tim Kaine telling Hillary that President Obama told him, “You’ve got to keep a fascist out of the White House.”
“I echo that sentiment,” Hillary replies. “The weight of our responsibility is so huge.” She also said Trump’s agenda is “other people’s agenda,” implying that he’s working with the Russians.
That’s rich.
Hillary’s campaign did, in fact, keep a fascist out of the White House.
Here’s the system that American progressives hold up as a model for socialized medicine:
https://twitter.com/michaeltinmouth/status/1237308267552034821
Note that they will tell you the problem is with the people and not the stupid system or ideology that produces shit like that. And they will do it ad nauseum. Cause the fact that 120 million people were murdered by communism while close to 3 billion lived in hell, and the fascists (which are the natural heirs to the failures of communism and the system that was then born from said lessons) went on to wreck the world and kill off another 50 or 60 million, are all simply coincidences that should not reflect badly on an ideology that is only doable when government becomes hyper-coercive and constantly uses force (read tyranny).
Capitalism can survive a 100 year assault by politicians, bureaucrats, academics, the media, and cultural establishments who hate it. John Brennan, a Communist, being the head of the CIA, Communists infesting the US government for decades under FDR and his minions, that couldn’t do it. Debasement of the currency, sweeping controls on wages and prices, on capital and labor, massive taxes on every aspect of economic activity, that can’t kill capitalism.
Communism, the perfect scientific system, can’t function if Igor the Ukranian peasant sells chicken eggs to his neighbors.
KULAK!
*Arrests Igor.*
Over the weekend one of my friends – a Warrenesque urban progressive – expressed to me his anticipation that the coronavirus had the potential to be what ultimately brings down Trump. As most progressives on this issue, he was disturbingly gleeful about it. I hadn’t the heart to tell him that I believe the exact opposite to be equally plausible. It could potentially turn swaths of deeply blue states to varying shades of purple; especially in those states with large urban centers like Chicago and Atlanta. A pandemic will naturally hit areas with high population densities the hardest, and the first line of defense isn’t FEMA or the CDC – it is the local health departments and county hospitals. These organizations will buckle under the load and reveal to voters how alarmingly unprepared they have been for something like this all along. This is going to be one hell of a ride.
The “health system” can’t function if other systems can’t function.
“These organizations will buckle under the load and reveal to voters how alarmingly unprepared they have been for something like this all along.”
Not seeing how progs will change their minds because of it. The standard progressive answer will be “TOP MEN must be in charge of everything and capitalism prevents it and that is why we are nor prepared for something of this magnitude.”
Remember, for progs nothing succeeds like failure. Failure only makes them double-down.
Hardcore progs are also fairly adept at overstating their own numbers and influence. The people whose votes really matter are the workaday Democrats that live in collar suburbs and semi-industrial parts of the city. There are a lot more of them than there are progressives, and their voting preferences aren’t immutable.
Unfortunately that system is probably coming to the US, eventually. Polls consistently show that Americans trust the Democrats on healthcare more than the Republicans, so what the Democrats are pushing on that front will probably come to pass.
“New York City’s emergency ‘surge plan’ for a severe pandemic calls for Rikers Island inmates to dig mass graves to bury up to 51,000 bodies as coronavirus cases increase”
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8093543/New-York-Citys-surge-plan-severe-pandemic-calls-Rikers-Island-inmates-dig-mass-graves.html
DeBlasio took the 1619 Project that seriously, huh?
You know who else used slave labor to dig graves?
The First Emperor of China?
If only there was some kind of massive machine that could quickly and easily dig large holes.
The measure of the Sierra Club padre
Them frogs are not very bright people, I surmise……
At least they’ll go out having a damned good time AND TALKING ABOUT IT INCESSANTLY.
DNC Forgoes Audience for Sunday Debate Over Fears of Wuhan Virus
Amid rising concerns of coming into contact with an individual infected by the greatly feared Wuhan virus, The Democratic National Committee opted to disinvite audience members from the CNN-Univision Democratic presidential debate this upcoming Sunday evening.
The clash between Vermont Socialist Senator Bernie Sanders and Former Vice President Joe Biden of Delaware will go forward in Phoenix, Arizona that evening, but both candidates asked that there be no audience for their own safety, despite Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego deeming the event safe to go forward as planned.
“DNC has been in regular communication with local health officials and the Mayor’s office, which advised that we could proceed as planned,” said Xochitl Hinojosa, DNC Communications Director. “Nevertheless, our number one priority has and will continue to be the safety of our staff, campaigns, Arizonans and all those involved in the debate. We will continue to remain in daily contact with all stakeholders through Sunday.”
I thought it was because they couldn’t find 50 people to show up.
I thought it was because they don’t want Bernie to speak in public anymore.
So you are saying that one problem is self-correcting. //jk
As cities begin to think about shutting down schools or limiting some public gatherings to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, it’s obvious to most that tens of thousands of homeless people living on the streets are at risk. Cities like Seattle, Portland and San Francisco are said to be bracing for what could come next, but how do you keep people who live outdoors in adjacent tents with no running water from getting sick?
Coulda been Dysentery or Hep-Squared. Mighta been TB or Bum-Flu. I don’t really wish ill on these people but would they please stop wandering down the middle of the thoroughfare, ranting at their imaginary demons? Oh, and stop stinking up my bank kiosk by parking your fetid person in the corner and begging.
“at risk” as opposed to “likeliest cause”.
Here’s my prognostication…
Short version: This Saudi move is the tipping point for formalizing and making open the China-Arabia Axis.
Slightly longer version:
– PRC’s long been pursuing the Belt/Road thing, and needs cheap Arabian oil, and overland ’cause those are ugly SLOCs
– PRC’s stressed in a whole bunch of ways right now
– The US, seeing generaly success in the current trade war with PRC, will clumsily reapply the same tactic against the Saudis to try to protect North American energy sector
– Something something US leaving Afghanistan and Saudis/Chicomms filling the gap differently
– Both tell US openly they’re best pals now, cheap oil to rest of world on their terms now, but not US
Whatcha think?
We’ve got oil. They can literally go pound sand.
Yeah. I’d originally had another line on there that said “And the US decides it doesn’t really care, and slips into a nice isolation-y mode…”, but struck it.
The Saudis need a Patron. I’m fairly confident they would be eaten by their neighbors if the US were to abandon them
Patron Xi has a nice offer for you.
“We have cocktail of respiratory diseases and perpetual servitude to Beijing.”
There is some possibility there, but oil is fungible. Not selling to the US is irrelevant.
Now what would upend the world order is if the Saudis stopped pricing oil in dollars.
So why wouldn’t they and their new friends do that?
Because that would be poking a very large, very irritable bear.
Folks have poked bears before. Not saying any of this is wise. Just that I could see it happening.
The Second Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere’s gotta get oil somewhere, and they’re itching to look big and powerful and respectable.
And they wouldnt’ call it that, since the first one was mostly about screwing them, but you know what I mean.
That is one bear you do not want to poke. The Saudis would be better off bombing Israel or blowing up another WTC.
Ending the petrodollar would be akin to declaring war on the entirety of the US financial system.
Can you explain why this matters now that the US is the worlds top oil producer? Like, I get the whole petrodollars thing back when the Saudis were the top producer. But they’re pumping 12 million barrels a day to the US’s 15 million. I’m not sure that card matters the way it used to.
It matters because the petrodollar system makes the US dollar the reserve currency of the world.
If you attack that, you attack the base of the US economic system.
But the petrodollar only existed because the Saudis brought the petro, and the the US the dollars. If the US has the petro and the dollar, how does the threat work?
Like, if two guys are in the desert, and one guy has the GPS and the other the water, they need each other. But if the guy who has the water finds a GPS, then now he doesn’t actually need GPS guy.
The Saudis can produce oil at a significantly lower cost than the US, and they can produce more oil than anyone needs for a considerable time. We can drill plenty of oil for our own needs so that puts a ceiling on oil prices, but it does not establish a floor. And right now, the floor is well below what the US drillers need in order to operate profitably.
Because global oil is priced in dollars, it stabiizes the price of the dollar against a known commodity. It makes the dollar a safe haven. If you take that away, it blows up almost all of the financial advantages the US has had when trading with foreign partners.
A brief summary of the petrodollar:
Looking at the other side of the coin – the damage to the Saudis in trading in a rather lenient protector for any available predatory patron from among the available options doesn’t seem to have an upside. They would be getting a worse deal with any other major power, and pissing off a known factor.
Exactly why I don’t think they would do it. While I can’t say what exactly the US would do, I can guarantee it wouldn’t be pleasant for the Saudis.
Associated far-out prognostication: This all also ends up with a regime change in Iran. The resultant secular government has normal relations with the US, and this relationship is made stronger by them not liking their spot squeezed between China and Arabia.
Rob Reiner✔
@robreiner
The survival of Democracy depends on the removal of the most Criminally Corrupt President in our Nation’s history. It’s time to put our differences aside and celebrate what unites US by coalescing behind Joe Biden. This Nov. let’s blow the Sick Liar away.
Double-barrel Joe is pretty bad, but we should tone down the rhetoric a bit.
And I like the “put our differences aside”. You little tyrants and tyrant-enablers can fuck off.
Sarah Palin tried to murder Gabby Gifford with some cross-hairs written over contested districts and an insane Leftist. See?
We need to put our differences aside by you doing exactly what we want!
Fuck off, Meathead, indeed.
I’d wager he never even had the balls to carve a chunk off of Sally Struthers in the five year window wherein she was a hot tamale.
the most Criminally Corrupt President in our Nation’s history
Assertion without evidence. Yet it never seems to bother them that they can’t back up such assertions with factual citations.
I’m up. I’m back. Took a little jaunt to Valier, Montana. I waved when we went past Belt, Francisco.
If the Demos want a badass for a candidate, they should draft Ahhnult. They can, you know, just claim he lost his California Certificate of Live Birth.
Because everything was so peaceful and calm during your tenure as VP…
My fellow Americans, we have to once again lead the world. Donald Trump’s “America First” policies made America alone. You know, in the fight against climate change, we have to rally the rest of the world to act, and act now. Rejoin the Paris Climate Accord on Day One. Make it clear to our allies that we’ll honor our commitments, that our word can be trusted.
[Applause]
And make clear to our adversaries that we will stand fast in restoring world order. That’s the American responsibility.
[Applause]
The American government’s responsibility is to the American people, Joe. But do you know who else wanted to lead the world order?
Non amyloid afflicted Biden?
But do you know who else wanted to lead the world order?
Hulk Hogan?
COBRA Commander?
That dude could never get the job done. Now that Serpentor fella, he had a shot.
Please do tell us Joe, how much the average American is going to required to fork over to third world kleptocracies after we “rejoin the Paris Climate Accord on Day One”.
He only knows how much his kin have been promised in kickbacks.
When his memory is working.
But the NHL is so far resisting calls to play in front of empty seats.
In fairness, hockey rinks tend to be rather cold, and sports crowds tend to be rather drunk, so perhaps they are counting on the twin combo of cold and alcohol to prevent the spread of disease.
I find the whole thing comical. It’s as if the sports leagues (pro and amateur alike) are panicky about the fans, but don’t seem to actually give a flying fuck if a player gets the virus.
Go big on Netflix, people. Because the masses need their entertainment.
I only hope this doesn’t revive the net neutrality movement.
If you are also taking bread orders, make mine sourdough.
Mmmm… soughdough toast.
Add in some bacon and fried egg to make a sandwich…
I might not even get mad if you don’t manage to fully cook the yolk.
*realizes no one is going to cook anything*
now I’m sad.
Gives UCS the side-eye.
Nobody makes me a sadwich unless I pay them to.
Sorry, but I’m keeping all the sourdough to myself.
*collects torches and pitchforks*
Share the Sourdough!
/hands UCS a plastic container with starter
Hello little yeasties.
Look at you othering the bacteria.
There’s no good play off the word beasties for bacterium.
So I read a really fun book, Cinnamon and Gunpowder, where our intrepid hero creates a start in a very unusual way (SFW). I’d describe it but it’s been a while since I read it.
Meh, I like white bread. (well aktually I don’t like bread, I just want as little flavor interference from the sandwich medium as possible)
Regarding “I’m gonna slap you” Joe.
I saw, what i think, was a prime example of “Whataboutism” with this when Juan Williams defended Joe by saying 1) You guys would love it if Trump did this, because it is direct. And 2) I love it because it makes Joe direct. He has to let people know that he’s against assault weapons, and that worker wasn’t going to vote for him anyway so who cares. That second one is particularly funny because Joe was explicitly saying the opposite of that to the guy confronting him. Juan also called everyone who said Joe wanted to take AR-15’s away a liar, because Joe only said he wanted to take assault weapons away.
As Southen says: Gun Grabbers Lie, always.
He’s against assault weapons but in favor of assault.
So did he turn around and tell the Protection Detail not to carry?
Eventually he’s going to ram his finger into the wrong guy’s chest and go through the rest of the campaign with a cast on his hand.
At least he didn’t pull that stunt Bloomberg did and tell the guy that asked him why he could have protection that because he was rich and powerful he was in need/worthy of protection, while the damned serfs should know their place. I am sure he believes that, but he was either smart enough, or more likely, too senile to opine, and kept it from being spoken. So far.
The two are not mutually exclusive, Drake. unarmed sheeple are far easy to assault without fear of any serious consequences, which is why asshats like Biden want everyone but their protectors disarmed.
Threatening to smack people for opposing your gun grabbing schemes (while there are Sec Serv agents around you to act as backup in case things go south) is some cowardly shit. Get used to it though, praise of that idiocy will only embolden fool old Joe.
What are the DNC faithful going to do? They are past the point or know return. They are beyond the point where they can criticize him, and ignoring it is to blatant. The only option they have is to cheer it.
Whatcha think?
Needz moar acronyms.
NMA?
TCT
Biden physically threatens a voter and the left cheers him.
So Biden’s old “Uncle Joe” nickname gets a lot more sinister.
Depends what he was planning to do with that palsied finger.
Catching up from Last night’s threads . . . .
AlexinCT posted “To those of you that wont vote for me I tell you I hope you fuck off and die… To those of you that I need to vote for me, I say I hope you fuck off as well! ”
PBRstreetgang replied “First politician with this pitch, gets my vote.”
Since I’m in need of voters:
Vote BLC1 for President: “To those of you that wont vote for me I tell you I hope you fuck off and die… To those of you that I need to vote for me, I say I hope you fuck off as well! ”
/Veto Party 2020
But what is your stance on going outside with a voter?
You got my vote brah.
And make sure when asked what you promise to do for the people, you reply with “I will steal far less than the other people running for this office and will also not fuck over my political enemies using the power of government”. You might find a lot of people do a double take and decide you are their guy…
You’re too short.
/LIV
It worked
Former Arizona Rep. Gabby Giffords, a key voice on gun violence prevention, has endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden, calling him the “choice for a true gun safety president.”
“Joe Biden leads with his heart. He has the compassion and toughness to lead on gun safety,” Giffords said in a statement Wednesday morning. “I’ve witnessed him comfort the survivors of gun violence, and I’ve seen him fight for solutions to gun violence—and win. This is the leadership we need in the White House. Joe Biden is the choice for a gun safety president.”
Biden thanked Giffords for her support, calling her an “American hero who embodies the courage and tenacity we need to take on and defeat the gun lobby.”
We’re coming for your guns, and there’s nothing you can do about it!
Joe Biden leads with his heart. He has the compassion and toughness to lead on gun safety,
I’m going to go out and say: being “Compassionate” towards people who agree with you and tough on those who disagree, is not the epitome of “compasionate”
Pffttttt…. he’s always been a bullshitter extraordinaire. But he’s losing his restraint now and saying stupid shit.
“Gun safety”…..that euphemism never fails to annoy the shit outta me, as if they’re just concerned about safe weapons handling.
Leads with his heart, because his brain is gone.
Ew, this is just nasty. This is not the kind of female teacher you want to envision.
Note that in this story the student was a girl, not a boy. Perhaps standards are different. Given all the butch lesbians out there, I imagine so.
“Biden physically threatens a voter and the left cheers him”
These incidents are all a sign of the progression of dementia. We’ve seen the same thing with my dad, who is 91 now. He would just get suddenly aggressive and combative with nurses or other people for the least perceived annoyance and later deny it even happened. Trump will fully take advantage of this on the debate stage.
The telling part, and the part that no one is focusing on is when the Voter said “You work for me!” and Biden retoreded “I don’t work for you, you’re such a Horses Ass”
He also invokes OW Holmes can’t shout fire in a crowded theater crap.
Well, to be fair, Brandenburg v. Ohio was only 51 years ago, so Joe hasn’t gotten the memo yet.
Via Wiki:
“When people with dementia are put in circumstances beyond their abilities, they may experience a sudden change to crying or anger (a catastrophic reaction).”
Speaking of auctions….
This is so dotcom. Several dozen printers, computers, monitors, and one frozen yogurt machine
https://rasmus-auctions.appspot.com/auctions/fMwyCUx3ouu5oGN2L68L
Of course it’s all Apple shit…
Well said.
The endorsement from the former congresswoman, who is a co-founder of the gun violence prevention group Giffords, is the latest in a string of endorsements from gun control groups and comes ahead of the Arizona primary next week. Biden is steadily moving toward the Democratic nomination, getting important wins Tuesday in the Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, and Idaho primaries.
Brady: United Against Gun Violence, a pro-gun safety group, endorsed Biden for President Sunday, and the Newtown Action Alliance backed him on Monday.
Biden’s gun control plan, which he released in October, aims to tackle urban gun violence with an eight-year, $900 million program that would go toward efforts to combat shootings in 40 cities with the highest rates of gun violence. The plan would force owners of assault-style rifles to either sell their firearms through a voluntary buyback program or register them with the federal government under the same law that was first used to strictly control sales of machine guns in the wake of the gangland shootings of the 1920s and ’30s.
What are you worried about, you paranoid psychos?
Fuck You Joe.
In 2017 there were 15,129 homicides according to the FBI. 403 of them involved some sort of rifle. More people (467) were killed with hammers and clubs and even more with fists and feet (692).
So his big plan to help “urban” folks is to go after one of the very rarest of murder weapons.
Not only that but the “Assault Weapons” like the AR-15 are probably the most effective home defense weapon for new/inexperienced shooters. He literally wants to take the way for people defend themselves away and then calls you a crazy nut for thinking thats what he wants
.
And the courts will be no protection against these unconstitutional laws, because even if they were inclined to be, the Democrats have fully signaled that they will not tolerate a court that does not Ok their trampling of constituional rights.
More people are killed by getting tangled in their bedsheets than are killed with a rifle.
Politicians are only good at offering to solve problems they, or some other politicians vowing to solve a problem, created. They however never tend to want to solve any problems. I surmise the reason there is such a hatred for Trump was that unlike them, he took solving some problems seriously enough that it exposed the chicanery of the political class to the masses. Can’t have that shit. People might decide to hold the political class responsible when they don’t deliver on their promises.
Well, to be fair, they have no power to solve problems, just to hide the pain, and get people addicted…almost like opioids…what are they trying to do to them again?
I have always pointed out to people that anyone that makes a living in a profession where they claim their goal is to solve problem X should immediately be seen as suspect and lying. What incentives to solve that problem would really exist if it is going to leave you unemployed. In fact, these sort of people want to create more problems they can then claim they have a solution for, because that creates more people dependent on favors from them. Politicians are the worst when it comes to this. Their war on poverty has pissed away trillions of dollars in the last half a century, but their policies would have resulted in far more harm were it not for the fact that other entities (which these poverty warriors always object to for the obvious reasons) kept increasing prosperity in general.
Ambitious asshats will not put themselves out of work. in fact, they will create a lot more reason for others to need them. The fact that these politicians always create new problems when they try to sole existing ones they created themselves (or others did) is a built in feature of the process of creating job security.
Urban Gun Violence =/= Assault Rifles.
The plan would force owners of assault-style rifles to either sell their firearms through a voluntary buyback program or register them with the federal government
Doesn’t sound voluntary and it ain’t a “buyback” as the gov’t never owned it in the first place.
Ah. Tapping out guys. Work is trying to kill me and the time change is a hindrance. Be well, Glibs!
I really didn’t pay particularly close attention at the time (because I never do), and I certainly am not going to go back and research it, but I don’t recall Trump’s campaign as being especially negative toward Democratic voters. Sure, there was that “Lock her up” stuff, but I don’t recall him accusing the people who voted for Obama of being stupid, or outright evil.
It’s one thing to say you think the incumbent and his party have taken the country in a direction you disagree with. It’s an entirely different thing to accuse every single person who voted for him of being a traitor to everything wholesome and good and right, which is where I see the Democrats’ campaign heading. I don’t think it’s going to have the effect they’re hoping for.
The Democrats have normalized vilifying their political opponents. It’s not just disagreement and dislike anymore. Their opponents are sub-human, without possibility of rectification. They cannot be saved, their sin is unforgivable.
Yes – And Trump campaigns to win. Clinton, Sanders, and Biden all campaigned to for the approval of the party core – and a righteous loss in the general. They have become Mitt Romney.
They are the Nick Gillespie of candidates.
For some reason Gabbard seems to be the only one who recognizes that the primaries and the general election are two different things and they should be trying to win both. I find her domestic agenda abhorrent, but she’s the only Dem who doesn’t openly hate me.
+1 basket of deplorables
He vilified “the elites”, but he was pissing on the gatekeepers of his own party to nearly the same extent as the opposition on that score.
The telling part, and the part that no one is focusing on is when the Voter said “You work for me!” and Biden retoreded “I don’t work for you, you’re such a Horses Ass”
Okay, now I’m angry. I want Trump to hit him with that, live on stage in a debate, and watch Biden’s eyes roll back and then see him slump over dead on stage. Fuck you, Biden. Die.
“Who do you work for, Joe?”
Signs and t-shirts, everywhere he shows his face.
Fun new game. The Joe Biden argument generator. Type in “listen here Jack” into your phone then let predictive text finish the rest of your sentence.
“Listen here Jack is a little more money for me if I can get it over to my house”
Surprisingly that makes more sense than half the things Biden says.
“Listen here Jack is in a good way in the morning to get it done.”
Listen here Jack please don’t let him know that you have twins
“Listen here jack off to the side of the road and I was wondering if you could tell me what you think”
Listen here jack off and my mullet is the best way to get in touch with you”
I lied. Tulsi Gabbard has absolutely nothing to lose here. She’s a reasonably attractive, sorta , kinda middle of the road candidate that doesn’t like wars for oil. She’s not done yet. She’s pretty young and doesn’t have the baggage of a Kamala or an AOC. https://youtu.be/WeQDTj1UllA Be careful what you wish for, America. Her measured speaking tone freaks me the fuck out.
The best. The brightest. The finest minds the nation has to offer.
Colleges across the country have begun to cancel classes among growing COVID-19, or coronavirus, fears. National Public Radio estimates that more than 600,000 students have been impacted.
One of the latest schools to shut its doors is Harvard.
On Tuesday, Harvard President Lawrence Bacow announced the school would transition to virtual classes for undergraduate and graduate students. He also said students would be asked not to return to campus following spring break and that the school would no longer be hosting non-essential gatherings of more than 25 people.
An email Harvard College Dean Rakesh Khurana sent that day clarified that students would be required to evacuate their dorms in five days. The move has highlighted the bold steps some schools are taking to address coronavirus — as well as the unintended impact of such actions.
Precautionary principle, FTW!
What would really be educational is if people started to ask themselves why they need Harvard at all. Maybe they could delve into a study of probability, while they’re awaiting permission to return to Cambridge.
“would be required to evacuate their dorms in five days”
Huh, wonder if there will be refunds?
Nope, “Disinfection Fees”
/just guessing
MSU did it today, effective until 4-20 (what were they thinking?] which is basically finals week.
2 cases in metro Detroit, 1 suspected at MSU. smdh
tOSU suspended classes yesterday effective until 3/31.
/DOOM
https://dailycaller.com/2020/03/11/dayton-students-riot-coronavirus-videos/
First riot related to the closures that I’ve seen.
Yeah, let’s have some perspective here. ?
I’m pretty sure that in this case “riot” = “raucous party in the streets” because that’s what UD students do any time they have an excuse to do so.
Noted.
#AnyGivenStPatricksDay
Don McLean’s Respectable, in honor of the nut punches in the links.
“and busty actress Thora Birch”
Always been a fan. Loved her in “Ghost World” and lots of other films as well.
She was on Marc Maron’s podcast the other day. The parents’ porn careers were not mentioned.
Where’s Hunter?
*chuckle*
Hair fires don’t last very long.
+1 Pepsi
Breaking: Hunter Biden sets hair on fire
He can drive to Arkansas in a few days. No problem.
Socialism as religion.
https://www.lawliberty.org/2020/03/10/the-inner-life-of-the-american-communist/
Many things I’ve been saying for a while.
When I type “Joe Biden” into my search engine (Bing), the first auto-choice that comes up is “Joe Biden dementia”.
Microsoft knows Trump will back their play for world domination!
Hmm, it’s the same for duckduckgo. But Google doesn’t even have “dementia” in the first nine suggestions.
Lol: Duck Duck Go has “Joe Biden Endorsed Trump” as number 2
Type “Joe Biden Dementia” into Google – “Trump” is the one with “mental health problems – GOP and Trump coordinated attack.
Google’s algorithms aren’t algorithms, they’re manipulated suggestions, especially when it comes to topics of political or social importance.
Curious that when I search that, I get a match to a 9 hour old article on Forbes with the headline “Does Joe Biden Have Dementia? Does it Matter?”
When I click on the link, the page no longer exists.
I’ve noticed some oddities with recent Google searches – a number of anti-Trump stories on the news feed with seemingly unrelated searches including “Yahoo” stories written by shrieking people who don’t seem to be legitimate. No secret which side is favored by Google and their employees.
All anyone at work talks about is corona virus. That’s as much as I can say about my job; and it’s damned depressing. The world is always ‘just about to end’
I feel fine…..
Howdy!
Glad you are in good spirits. Haven’t been able to keep up round here with the new job. Was your Glibfund able to take some of the burden off in your time of need?
Also, glad you have your disc golf hobby to help you through these times.
Thanks, Your funding has helped a great deal, now its just cleaning up business affairs and getting rid of all this stuff I called a home,
Not my funding. I was able to give very little, but the glibs en mass were generous. Great group we have here.
I must have missed any news about how your interview went (I was sick, so I slept a lot)
How did it go?
They hired someone else, another bummer, ah well..
☹️ I thought you were the only HVAC guy around those parts.
And it sounds as if you have found another place after your landlady reneged on you?
I guess I’m not, but I can do a lot of things so, not to despair, and no, I’m staying here until I go through all the crap I own and get rid of most of it
The world is always ‘just about to end’
It makes life more fun if it is like a movie.
Brazil meets Office Space?
My wife is a county supervisor, and they are having a meeting today (right now, in fact) to discuss plans for how to handle it. My wife doesn’t think the meeting is really necessary since there are already various plans in place, but everyone else thinks something has to be done.
Well, as long as they are all locking themselves in the same room, face to face, to figure out how to deal with a highly communicable disease, I’m sure we’ll all be fine.
Weinstein received a 23-year sentence – GTFO. That guy should have fled the country.
Get ready for “Weinstein didn’t kill himself”.
Shakes fist at sky! That isn’t how my script should end!
Seems like he could afford a plane ticket to France doesn’t it?
Regarding the rape charges. What evidence did they have on him? Sounds like he was convicted with very little.
He was convicted on charges of being a gross old man.
At least from the evidence I’ve actually heard about being presented.
He was convicted of rape in the third degree (no consent), and criminal sexual act for forcing oral sex on a PA. The guy is a sleaze, but ai agree he was convicted on very little.
So did the Jury see his junk and confirm he was intersex as accused?
So with Hillary Clinton having to be deposed, did Hillary Give her condolences for the impending suicide of Hillary Clinton?
“I do not recall. I don’t remember. I don’t recall that.”
/Hillary’s Deposition Transcript.
Most likely
Except she has a hard time containing her temper and masking her contempt for the deplorables. Good questioning could push all the right buttons.
They cleaned it up from “Don’t you know who the fuck I am, you little shit weasel?! When I regain my strength and my true form is reveled your sole will be the first to sate my thirst! All who came before and shall come again shall quiver at my power!”
I was baking cookies!
My wife is a county supervisor, and they are having a meeting today (right now, in fact) to discuss plans for how to handle it. My wife doesn’t think the meeting is really necessary since there are already various plans in place, but everyone else thinks something has to be done.
I suspect they just want to be seen making an effort of some sort, as a defense against claims of not Doing Something about the apocalypse du jour.
Perception is reality.
This is an important issue that requires clarity and coordination – corporations dealing with legitimate issues would have on-going meetings (in fact, they are doing so regarding this issue). I’m as anti-government bureaucracy as the next glib, but a failure of many government and “close enough” groups (e.g. academic centers) in this case is lack of ensuring an action plan is appropriate developed/adjusted, communicated and followed.
Bottom posting because the wrapping is getting terrible above.
Discussion about the capacity needed to cope with a widespread pandemic
http://www.centerforhealthsecurity.org/cbn/2020/cbnreport-02272020.html
AHA presentation (skip through the BI stuff for the numbers chart)
https://www.businessinsider.com/presentation-us-hospitals-preparing-for-millions-of-hospitalizations-2020-3
Bottom posting because . . . the BI stuff
This is how I read your post.
I should be asleep by now, but given it is Wednesday I can stay up a few more minutes to find out how SF has outdone me this time.
Mr. Mojeaux’s work is sending some teams home on a rotating basis. 1 week at home, 3 weeks on site. Like that’s going to help.
He assures me his is not one of them. I’m quite sure that will change within the week.