…black in the red? [DOT 21/4/20]

…well, shit…maybe some folks saw that coming but I wasn’t one of them…or at least I figured it’d take longer…unless of course it did & it’s my sense of time that’s shot…which is totally a thing that could be true at this point

Too Much Oil: How a Barrel Came to Be Worth Less Than Nothing

…I mean, given the sheer number of ways that we use petrochemical stuff that tracks back to oil…not least in a lot of the materials from which that oh-so-profitable PPE is composed, for example…it’s hard for the likes of me to really grasp that the whole prospect is backed up to the point of paying to be shut of the raw product

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/20/stocks-markets-today-oil-coronavirus/

…sure…it’s not like the refineries won’t eventually get through whatever they have in terms of stock but the volume of the stuff that’s sitting around is another of those numbers that is a little too big to readily get my head around…but the industries that are the primary consumers of crude oil don’t look like they’ll be ramping up that demand in a hurry & it’s not like Russia & the likes of Saudi weren’t already fucking with that market to begin with so the financial palpitations don’t look like they’ll be cured of their arrhythmia any time soon

…& it’s not like this is going to improve the prospects of those fragile little defenseless airlines now, is it?

Trump Plans to Suspend Immigration to U.S.

…or…to put it in the parlance of the one-eyed man speaking to the blind

…he really is a lethally amoral shitstain of a human being…the logic required to parse that statement isn’t even circular…it requires more moebius loops than an escher staircase

…couple of things…first of all the way a good deal of immigration works is by vacuuming up a lot of unenviable places down at the base of the great capitalist pyramid scheme…so right now that would be the kind of jobs that are the kind of essential that has more to do with keeping the lights on & the water running at home than staying safe…so it’s not an exaggeration to read that as an invitation to his less wealthy supporters to go forth & actively risk contagion for subsistence level income coupled with zero job security & quite possibly barriers to accessing healthcare compounded by an imperative to avoid the attendant crippling costs…to really get out there & burn themselves up priming the chamber to get those engines of commerce back up & chugging…which has to be at least seven shades of fucked up…& second the invisible enemy is & always fucking has been ignorance of the exact sort this jumped up jackass has been peddling his whole tragically fucking ruinous life…also

…free ideas for rankings post: the worst kind of dumbass?
…free ideas for ranking posts #2: most dishonest piece of trash?

…& speaking of ol’ Joe…he better be about done warming up & ready to get his race on because they may say that money talks & bullshit walks but when bullshit has money idiots think the ride is free

Joe Biden Starts General Election Nearly $187 Million Behind Trump

…I know he had his best month to date & primary season vs a presumptive incumbent candidate means he’s not going to be ahead…but you know what?

…$187 Million seems a little light to me…Trump had financial vehicles sucking up “donations” towards his re-election literally before he got out there in front of his threadbare crowd & perjured his way through the oath of office…although compared to the things we know about how his first stab at grifting the campaign finance model went maybe the surprise is that $187 Million being on the books at all…strange days & all…

Doctors and Governors Vie for Masks in Cloak-and-Dagger Deals

…never read the art of the deal, myself…but in my limited experience of effective management at any kind of scale…it did not resemble what is coming from the White House…in any way…at all…even charitably…with the rosiest of rose-tinted spectacles & a heart full of nostalgia & national pride

…there might be a certain utilitarian efficiency to the efforts of Mitch “switch bitch” McConnell & the federalist society stacking courts all over the land & the considerable hustle they have going on when it comes to those vital efforts to suppress votes…& its effects might be both brutal & insidiously complex…but that doesn’t alter the fact that we’re looking at cataclysmic incompetence writ large

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/21/trump-golf-company-retweets-video-of-john-daly-recommending-vodka-as-covid-19-cure

…the more you don’t know

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/20/us-protests-lockdown-coronavirus-cases-surge-warning

…& I know we should all beware the reddit rabbit hole…but

…see…this much stupid don’t come cheap…even when you run the school system, apparently

…& speaking of shitshows

This badly fractured decision, affecting defendants in two states, continued a debate among the justices over the power of precedent.

In dissent, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., joined by Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and, for the most part, Justice Elena Kagan, said the majority’s discussion of race was part of a trend in “too much public discourse today” that “attempts to discredit an argument not by proving that it is unsound but by attacking the character or motives of the argument’s proponents.”

Justice Gorsuch said that burden, whatever its magnitude, was not a good enough reason to keep the Louisiana and Oregon laws in place. “The dissent would have us discard a Sixth Amendment right in perpetuity rather than ask two states to retry a slice of their prior criminal cases,” he wrote. “Whether that slice turns out to be large or small, it cannot outweigh the interest we all share in the preservation of our constitutionally promised liberties.”

…also…never underestimate the lengths some people will go to when it comes to saying the right thing for an exhaustive list of the wrong reasons

Justice Kavanaugh contributed an 18-page concurring opinion in which he set out an extensive analysis of when overruling precedents is appropriate. He said every current member of the court had voted to overrule constitutional precedents, and he listed major decisions that had overruled earlier cases, including ones on school segregation, gay rights and abortion.

…& speaking of overruling constitutional precedents & principles

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/apr/20/san-leandro-shooting-walmart-police-steven-taylor

…so when even the haus of maus is shutting up shop

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/disney-furloughs-100-000-theme-park-hotel-workers-amid-coronavirus-n1188236

…& even fucking facebook can’t claim not to see this shit straight

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/facebook-removes-some-events-calling-protests-stay-home-orders-n1187811

…dipshittasticus disastrous the dotard blowhard with the bully pulpit is of course supremely on his fucking bullshit

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/trump-encourages-anti-lockdown-group-opposed-stay-home-order-minnesota-n1186331

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/its-5-oclock-do-you-know-where-your-president-is/2020/04/20/story.html

…I mean, I think all his numbers should haunt the fucker but I genuinely don’t believe him capable of appreciating that kind of existential terror

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2020/04/20/one-poll-number-that-could-haunt-trump-coronavirus/

…not to mention the fucking rent-a-ghosts

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/social-media/conservative-activist-family-behind-grassroots-anti-quarantine-facebook-events-n1188021

…& a few more besides

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/20/white-house-gop-face-heat-after-hotel-restaurant-chains-helped-run-small-business-program-dry/

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/shake-shack-returning-10-million-government-loan-meant-small-businesses-n1187541

…so, sure it’s an oversimplification…but you see how it makes sense to say “The problem isn’t a lack of information. It’s Trump.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/20/trumps-attempt-frame-who-only-shows-his-failure-act/

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3 Comments

  1. I suppose that, given the choice between asking immigrants to risk their lives here and having a significant chunk of Trump’s knuckle draggers risk their lives…I’d choose the latter.

    • Off protecting women’s rights. /s

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