POOR, AGING NANCY PELOSI. NOT ALL THE BOTOX IN THE WORLD, NOR ALL THE COSMETIC SURGERY AVAILABLE COULD WIPE THE LOOK OF SHOCK OFF HER 83-YEAR-OLD FACE WHEN SHE ATTENDED A CONFERENCE WITH PAUL KRUSTY KRUGMAN. PAUL WAS YET AGAIN WEARING HIS "ETHEL AND JULIUS GOT OFF TOO EASY" T-SHIRT THAT HE TROTS OUT TO PROVE TO TOMMY FREIDMAN THAT HE'S A BIG BOY, HONEST TO GOODNESS, A BIG BOY WHO EVEN GOES TO THE BIG BOY POTTY! NANCE? SHE USES HER DEPENDS BECAUSE SHE'S AFRAID OF BECOME SENATOR DI-FI -- KNOWN TO HER COLLEAGUES AS "PUDDLES." NO SOONER DID NANCE SLITHER IN THEN PEOPLE RUSHED TO . . . GREET(?) HER:
“For some reason, you have a very bad obsession of getting us into war. Hey, why is it that you did not admit that there were no WMDs in Iraq? You lied us into a war in Iraq. You got us to invade Afghanistan. Now over 90 percent of those people are impoverished and are dying. Why don’t you tell the truth about Nordstream?” he said, accusing Pelosi of being a “war criminal.”
Another protester stood up and screamed at Pelosi, admitting he was disappointed because he came to see a “warmonger,” but only got a “sad old drunk.”
"HEY, HEY, HEY!" INTERRUPTED KRUSTY KRUGMAN, "HOUSE GIRL PELOSI DOESN'T HAVE TO TELL YOU ONE THING ABOUT NORDSTROM! WHAT SHE PAYS FOR HER MARKDOWN DIAPER PADS ARE NOT YOUR BUSINESS! AND SHE'S NOT A SAD, OLD DRUNK! HOW DARE YOU, SIR! HOW DARE YOU! SHE'S A DAMN GIDDY OLD DRUNK!"
"I'LL DRINK TO THAT!" AN OBVIOUSLY INEBERATED NANCE SAID SWAYING UNSTEADILY ON HER FEET.
It's time for THUS SPOKE GLENNETHUSTRA. Yes, it's time for Glenneth Greenwald and his transphobia. I'm being told that the link I provided isn't working. Did he pull the piece? I believe I just copied and pasted it. I've got to take a shower after this dictation is done -- I'm on a treadmill right now -- and then a Zoom with a college on the east coast so I'll put a note in later as to the link or if it's gone. [Added, here's the link.] If there are any misquotes, I'm doing this from memory, I read the piece online last night before going to bed. Glenneth writes to an e-mailer who is troubled by his transphobia:
As you rightly point out, I rarely talk about trans issues, in part because I generally try to avoid talking about anything where I have nothing unique to say due to lack of expertise or passion (which is how I feel about the trans debate), in part because I do think the Culture War (often by design but always in effect) distracts and divides us from larger and more consequential questions about how and where power is wielded, but in larger part because it's mostly an easy issue for me: I think adults should have the absolute right to do and be however they want, pursue whatever makes them happiest and most fulfilled, and they ought be respected both legally and socially regardless of those choices, including but by no means limited to pronoun use, which doesn't bother me at all. That's a principle in which I believe strongly: that society should be constructed to facilitate and maximize the self-actualization of the individual. That was not only the foundation of the successful effort to obtain equal rights for gay men and lesbians but also the core precept on which the Culture War consensus over the last 20 years or so was based, a consensus now sadly unraveling primarily over this issue.
The Culture War? He's a coward. He was a coward in college -- I have the receipts, him in his too big jeans, walking around campus, farting all the time -- I'm serious he had some gas problem -- I know all of it and he's still a craven coward taking what's offered him. He refused to fight as a gay man and instead cozied up to right-wingers and hoped to be their mascot. He was pathetic then. The same refusal to fight was evident in his departure from THE INTERCEPT. He's an attorney. The term "breach of contract" should be a familiar one to him. He refused to sue THE INTERCEPT while making his grand stand. And that's because Glenn never fights. Coward.
Trans people, he insists, are distractions and divisions pulling "us from larger and more consequential questions about how and where power is wielded." Spoken like a true Karen, Glenneth. Trans people are in the minority, they are oppressed by the government and for you to pretend otherwise goes to both your cowardice and your stupidity.
If you can't grasp his stupidity, Karen Hunter and her guests rejected that argument yesterday noting that it's target the transgendered right now, develop a blue print to use on others.
Glenneth is speaking of 'self-actualization'? He really is an idiot. No, self-actualization was not behind Stonewall or any other major LGBTQ+ protest and/or rebellion. It was about equality. If you hadn't been so scared of being seen as gay throughout most of your life, you might know some LGBTQ+ history. But you were a stupid moron and you were too cowardly to read the books you should have in order to educate yourself. What if ____ saw you with the book!!! You know who I mean, Glenneth, the right-winger you crushed on in college but he was straight. You did everything but doodle his name on your classroom notes.
He goes to Maslow because Glenneth doesn't believe in equality. So he goes with the best of each own blah blah blah. Amazing how offensive the words equality are too him until you remember that he is a right-winger.
He then appears to be saying -- read it carefully and grasp that logic is not his skill nor is presentation -- that gay and lesbian rights -- he ignores others -- are faltering now "unraveling primarily over this issue" -- trans people. First off, learn some history you ahistorical idiot. Second, trans rights are causing a backlash?
Oh what a shocker. I noted that reality last year. And didn't couch it. Yes, they are. And I also noted that the backlash was coming anyway. If anything Ls and Gs are lucky that trans persons have been taking the bulk of the scorn because they would otherwise be the primary target. Instead, trans persons are the ones taking the hit but this is about everyone that is seen as an enemy of the right -- pro-choice, pro-equality, pro-democracy.
We progressed as a society throughout the 90s and the 00s and marriage equality coming in the '10s was a huge step for Americans. Progress is never a brisk walk down the road. Instead, people throw up barriers and blockades -- hate constructs that they pursue never grasping how ugly they come off to the people around them.
An attack was coming regardless and it focused on transgender persons primarily (make no mistake, if an anti-trans agenda was achieved tomorrow, these same hate merchants would be going after lesbians and gay men).
Glenneth is wrong about the so-called "consensus" -- it's been ripped apart by liars which is why you need to call it out. The playbook -- as we pointed out long before others started noting it -- was a repeat of Anita Bryant in the 70s. Groomers was used to attack gay men back then and it's used to attack trans people It's why history is important. You need to know what happened before. The hate merchants of the 70s used lies just as is happening now. And they're running off support with their ugly remarks. That happened in the 70s as well. The more hatred emerged, the more obvious that we weren't dealing with people who were loving and caring and believed in the best for the country. We were dealing with hateful, dishonest people who would just as soon turn on your straight ass as they did on gay men.
FOX NEWS, as we've been the only ones to note (not bragging, just pointing out reality -- I'd love it others noted it, we could just link to it and I wouldn't have to spoon feed repeatedly) has reached its own tipping point. They aren't sure how to proceed. Basic cable subscribers are still with them. If this were 1994, that might be a good business model.
It's 2023 and that doesn't cut it. FOX NEWS no longer has FOX entertainment to help it out during tough patches. THE SIMPSONS network is now part of ABC-DISNEY, et al. To generate revenues, it is important that FOX NEWS has a streaming service. FOX NATION was born. And it looked like it was doing okay. That was a mirage brought on by Roseanne Barr. Interest in her return to stand up led to a lot of people signing up. Some dropped it without ever paying -- using the trial system. Many more dropped it six weeks or so after. We noted that reality when it happened and we noted that in the "reason" for dropping, people were referring to the broadcasting of hate. There was a Catholic male, for example, who identified as Catholic, stated he was religious but noted that FOX NEWS' idea of religious did not fit with him. He stated he did not know any trans people but even he was offended by the coverage. I've seen hundreds (thousands?) of the responses. How bad is it? Days ago, FOX NATION started reaching out with an offer of $1.99 a month if any of those people would sign back up.
They need subscribers.
DISNEY+ lied about subscribers. The huge drop off they have right now is not a huge drop off. They've actually stabilized. But they lied for months about their numbers -- they did lie -- and that's one of the things that Bob Iger is not going to put up with. They had to get honest. But they were able to lie because trade papers -- VARIETY, THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER, etc -- print any lie. They're not real journalists (especially at THE HOLLYWOOD REPORTER) and NETFLIX would lie that X number streamed whatever film or series and it would be printed as fact. No you type up "NETFLIX claims they had . . ." Industry reporters -- unless they hate you -- do not ask you to back up anything and run with any claim. So FOX NATION may claim that they're doing well -- that would keep their stock afloat. But they are not doing well. That's reality.
Why I was seeking out the data on that was because of history. If this is happening to people who would subscribe to FOX NATION in the first place, this means they're losing from the center and the right. This is the beginning of a turning point. How long that will take, I have no idea. But the hate merchants are repelling people that previously weren't repelled.
"F**K FLORIDA!" RON DESANTIS SNARLED AT THESE REPORTERS -- MUST CREDIT BULLY BOY PRESS& CEDRIC'S BIG MIX & THOMAS FRIEDMAN IS A GREAT MAN & ANN'S MEGA DUB-- "ME AND MY MAN WIFE CASEY DO WHAT WE WANT. FLORIDA WILL TAKE IT, THEY HAVE NO CHOICE AND I DON'T CARE IF THEY GET STUCK WITH A BILL FOR MILLIONS MORE!"
Welcome to the disaster that is the global economy.
THAI PBS WORLD notes, "Major oil powers led by Saudi Arabia announced a surprise production cut of more than one million barrels per day on Sunday, calling it a “precautionary” move aimed at stabilising the market." KURDISTAN 24 reports, "As part of the collective decision by its fellow OPEC+ members, Iraq has decided to cut 211,000 barrels of oil per day, beginning in May, in an effort to stabilize the oil market, according to a statement from the Iraqi Oil Ministry." AP insists, "Higher oil prices would help fill Russian President Vladimir Putin’s coffers as his country wages war on Ukraine and force Americans and others to pay even more at the pump amid worldwide inflation." Australia's ABC adds, "Cuts by Saudi Arabia, Iraq, UAE, Kuwait, Algeria and Oman from May to the end of the year will top one million barrels per day -- the biggest reduction since the OPEC+ cartel slashed two million barrels per day in October." Seban Scaria (ZAWYA) explains, "Last month oil prices plunged close to $70 per barrel following fears of an imminent global banking crisis triggered by the collapse of US-based Silicon Valley Bank and Geneva's Credit Suisse. However, prices came back up to close to $80 a barrel recently following supply disruptions in Iraq."
Oil prices soared in early trading on Monday after Opec+ producers pledged to collectively cut output by 1.16 million barrels of crude per day on Sunday.
Both Brent, the benchmark for two thirds of the world’s oil, and West Texas Intermediate, the gauge that tracks US crude, had jumped more than 6 per cent before giving some gains but were still trading strong.
Brent had gained 5.57 per cent and was trading at $84.34 a barrel at 6.37am UAE time, while WTI was up 5.64 per cent to $79.94 a barrel.
CNBC notes the early morning surge and puts it at 8%. Noah Browning (REUTERS) reports, "Brent crude was trading at $84.53 a barrel as of 1115 GMT, up $4.64, or 5.8%, after touching the highest in a month at $86.44." Yongchang Chin and Alex Longley (BLOOMBERG NEWS) offer, "The White House said the OPEC+ decision was ill-advised, while adding the US would work with producers and consumers with a focus on gasoline prices. Last year, President Joe Biden ordered an unprecedented release from the nation’s strategic crude reserves after Russia invasion of Ukraine." From CBS' MONEYWATCH:
The production cuts alone could push U.S. gasoline prices up by roughly 26 cents per gallon, in addition to the usual increase that comes when refineries change the gasoline blend during the summer driving season, said Kevin Book, managing director of Clearview Energy Partners. The Energy Department calculates the seasonal increase at an average of 32 cents per gallon, Book said.
With an average U.S. price now at roughly $3.50 per gallon of regular, according to AAA, that could mean gasoline over $4 per gallon during the summer.
The decision was unusual in that it took place outside of a formal meeting of the oil-producing countries, “suggesting an element of urgency by the members taking part in the cuts,” according to the Financial Times (FT).
The market was taken by surprise. Bloomberg reported that all 14 traders and analysts it polled last week predicted no change in production. They took their lead from Saudi Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman who said last month that the OPEC+ targets set last October were “here to stay for the rest of the year, period.”
However, the financial turmoil, set off by the failure of the US Silicon Valley Bank, the second largest in monetary terms in US history, and the forced takeover of Credit Suisse by UBS appear to have changed those calculations.
There are growing concerns that the financial upheavals and the widely forecast ensuing credit crunch could trigger a slowdown in the global economy, if not a recession.
