Just one more dungpile as we attempt to navigate the neverending river of filth…
Just spoke to my friend MBS (Crown Prince) of Saudi Arabia, who spoke with President Putin of Russia, & I expect & hope that they will be cutting back approximately 10 Million Barrels, and maybe substantially more which, if it happens, will be GREAT for the oil & gas industry!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 2, 2020
Required disclosure: I never actually managed to plow through Dune, not even during my sf-obsessed teen years when I had all the time in the world. But from what I remember of deformed monster and would-be tyrant Baron Harkonnen, at least he managed to accomplish a few things…
Don’t get him riled. He knows people with bonesaws. pic.twitter.com/YtJJRcltPJ
— Hoodlum in Lockup again ???? (@HoodlumRIP) April 2, 2020
Whoops:
Trump also said he had spoken to Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who had in turn spoken with Russian President Putin. But a Kremlin spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said the conversation hadn’t happened and that no production cut had been agreed with the Saudishttps://t.co/NBDaWQliPl
— Sebastian Sienkiewicz (@Amdalleq) April 2, 2020
These days everyone not on his payroll, or in the death cult, just assumes he’s lying about everything.
Oil, shares slip on doubts over Saudi-Russia deal https://t.co/IXdDdgc87J pic.twitter.com/MMqLidluDr
— Reuters (@Reuters) April 3, 2020
joel hanes
Trump is Raban Harkonnen, not the old Baron, Vladimir.
That makes Jared a pale simulacrum of Feyd-Rautha, without the intelligence or the physical skills.
cain
Our president seems to live in his own reality. Maybe he doesn’t think he’s lying, he’s just on a different plane, and when it sucks he moves to another plane where the odds was that he made a decision that was good previous. Crikey
HumboldtBlue
I have little use for saints.
Confrérie des Charitables de Saint-Éloi
I get them.
I also think cemeteries and golf courses are a criminal waste.
Respect.
opiejeanne
I’ve been musing about what it will be like when it’s safe to leave home again. Will we be freaked out by close contact, by unmasked people, by huggers?
I think it will feel very strange for a while, and I’m expecting to live this way for quite a few months, maybe a couple of years.
opiejeanne
@joel hanes: Wasn’t Raban referred to as The Monster?
Mary G
@opiejeanne: I wonder that too. If my isolating works, I can still catch it, so do I isolate for 18 months minimum until a vaccine is developed?
Onkel Fritze
Open thread, so here’s something not corona. Not sure whether it’s funny or horrifying:
https://www.columbia-cs.com/statement-on-rcgs-resolute-incident/
sanjeevs
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1245932600839090176
Darkrose
I am so exhausted. I was on the phone for three hours with one of my best and oldest friends. She’s having a rough time, and we listened to each other and sympathized until she started talking about politics. She’s a Bernie stan, and…I’m not. I tried to stay cool, but when she went all-in on the conspiracy theory stuff, I got pissed. We ended okay, on an agreement that we’ll vote for whoever the Democratic nominee is, but it’s frustrating that someone as smart as she is seems to think that people voting for the other guy is OMG RIGGED
More than anything else, I will probably never stop disliking him for not being realistic with his supporters and allowing the conspiracy theories to fester.
piratedan
@opiejeanne: actually it was The Beast, at least per the Movie version, been so long since I’ve opened the original novel
HumboldtBlue
We still got music.
pattonbt
As someone in the oil and gas business (but pretty ignorant of most of it), I can say the glut is now a huge concern high up. More so than low prices. They know they’ll survive low prices (with some pain) but when storage capacity runs out, they really don’t know what to do.
frosty
@cain: Exactly. He’s on a different plane.
frosty
@opiejeanne: I agree, we’ll all be a little shy of crowds. Can you imagine this happening sometime in the rest of 2020?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a23945btJYw
Morzer
@opiejeanne: Beast Rabban. I actually did read Dune – and rather enjoyed it. It’s a shame Frank Herbert didn’t stop after the first 3 books in the series though. As for the efforts of his son to extend the series to wall of door-stoppers length, the less read, the better.
TS (the original)
@opiejeanne:
I agree – If I am out, I am not the good samaritan – I walk away to avoid contact with others. I have never been a great hugger – other than with very close family, so now I can be like that without being treated as a pariah.
And the Trump is mumbling about the price of oil – which has zero bearing on anything in my world right now and for the known future.
Ruckus
@opiejeanne:
This changes life for a long time. At least till a vaccine comes along and most everyone has it. So 18-24 months most likely.
Ruckus
@Mary G:
As more people get this and develop antibodies, the risk goes down, but us olds are only getting older and that increases risk. So anyone in a high risk group has to stay vigilant and careful. That’s not to say that some return to some level of normalcy isn’t possible but it may not be a complete return until a vaccine is widely available and the vast majority has taken it.
bjacques
I made it partway through Children Of Dune, or whichever one it was, when the scheming Princess Wensicia (sp?) gets her comeuppance.
There’s a soundtrack to the Jodorowsky/Moebius Dune movie that was never made. It’s pleasant, owing a lot to Tangerine Dream and Giorgio Moroder.
Anyone else remember the parody Doon? Goofy, like Bored Of The Rings, but I find both funnier over time.
Origuy
@bjacques: I remember Doon and Bored of the Rings; I think I still have both around here someplace. I remember Bored a lot better, probably because I’ve read LOTR so many times.
WereBear
I adored Dune, but couldn’t manage any of the others. It’s a shame, though, because the original really rocked those concepts.
It’s a touchstone even now.
Mel
@Ruckus: I worry about how this might strengthen employers’ ability to get away with discriminating based upon some already deeply entrenched hiring biases, as well.
If older people (guilty) and ill or immune suppressed people (also) are largely unable to safely work outside the home until a month or so after a vaccine is available, that very specific time gap between now and then is going to be a pretty big “tell” on a CV, if the potential employer insists upon exact dates prior to an interview. It’s so frustrating that they already use college graduation dates and/or dates of first employment to gauge the age of applicants without violating any laws by asking directly. Now, they will have another tool to suss out candidates who are likely either older or have a health condition or a disability.
I hope that I get proven wrong about that, but I suspect that HR people will quickly recognize the time frame as a fairly effective way to avoid interviewing candidates that they think might be “too old”, or wjo might require some additional accommodations, or increase the employer side cost of group health plans.
SectionH
@Origuy: Bored of the Rings, my favorite book! (Well, besides the real ones, but wth. Ca-Ching!
And Drunken Omaha etc – not bad, but no comparison.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
@Mel:
I dunno – maybe it is time to revisit the thing we call age discrimination. Why should the over 60s infest every management position? Why do we have senators and representatives that are over 70, and why should we be suffering the ossified political philosophies by people with little remaining skin in the game by having the votes of those over 70?
Present company aside, I’m not seeing a lot added to the lives of the working by the gigantic tranche of voters over 70.
Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes
To put it another way, my wife spoke at some length to her dad yesterday. He’s in his mid 80s, has been retired now nearly 25 years, and between his military retirement, some defined benefit pension, his SS and other savings, brings in more than he ever had come in when he worked. She reported that he was only worried about himself, which is something she’s noticed several years now as he’s gone down the Fox News rabbit hole. He had absolutely zero thoughts about what she, her sister or her brother are drawling with on this. As she put it, “he’s uninvolved with his community, cares nothing about his family and is only worried about himself. Meanwhile, everybody is suffering to keep this disease away from him. Where is his input into the world?”
Of course, he’ll be the first to whine about moochers this fall.
SectionH
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Hello Sweetie… Mr S is all about Younger Democratic candidates. and I am too, but ffs, please focus. I mean, you’ve got a really good young Democrat in Kentucky right now as Governor. He’s made a huge difference in the state’s COVID-19 numbers already. I know he’s srsly busy doing his job right now, never mind how shit the state legislature is,
Think: you could be in Tennessee. Read those numbers. Watch those numbers.
You are not the only person worried to pieces about paying your mortgage, property taxes, and other shit, as previously privileged ppl.
I’m “lucky” I guess, because I’ve never had much living family, but I’ve had some, but damn, you’re letting them get to you. DON’T LET THEM DO THAT. What your Mother says/thinks ISN’T your problem. Why do you care? (And yes, I know from that shit in other situations.)
Mel
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I’m talking about the 45-60 age group. That encompasses a substantial number of people who bring an enormous amount of talent plus experience and maturity to their career fields. Actual, real world age discrimination does not necessarily begin only after age 65 or 75, nor does it always abide by a strict legal definition when it happens.
And younger employees might bring energy and new ideas, but who do you want teaching your kid’s AP classes? performing emergency surgery on a loved one? guiding you in individual or couples therapy?
Youth and energy and enthusiasm have great value, but personally, I’ll take an experienced person over the newbie in those situations and numerous others.
NotMax
So old can remember it being serialized in Analog magazine before it was expanded into a full-fledged novel. Know kept the issue with the first chapter of the serialization; it’s in a box in the back of a closet somewhere around here.
Mel
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: I understand exactly what you mean about dealing with older people who just don’t give a damn about others. My mother-in-law stated, quite literally, that she doesn’t give a damn what happens to her children, in-laws, or grandchildren if they don’t have a social safety net, because she “has hers” and will die before the Trumpers (of which she is loudly and proudly one) totally destroy the limited safety net that exists.
I’m on several strong immunosuppressant medications, and yet my elderly relatives refuse to take even the most basic coronavirus safety precautions to keep themselves or others safe. I am their primary helper, as they have fractured their relationships with my sibling to the point where he has, after many years, finally given up on trying to assist them. But when they started refusing to even wash their hands after insisting on being out in busy public places, because they wanted to “own the libs” , and “prove it’s just a cold”, or whatever nonsense they’re buying into these days, I made the difficult decision to stop assisting them. There is a long history of selfish, destructive behavior on their parts, but that was the final straw for me. Anybody who would willingly kill their friends, relatives, neighbors, and loved ones just for the sake of being obstinate is not worth your psychological or physical energy, much less your life.
I love them, but I cannot fix their damage. They are deeply damaged, but that doesn’t mean that all in their age group are the same way.
Searcher
@Mary G: The rule of thumb I’ve been following is N = 10 / kR, where N is the maximum number of daily interactions I should aim for, k is the probability of catching the disease from interactions with an infected individual, and R is the rate (per hundred thousand population) of infection.
This was formulated using extremely naive assumptions with the parameters of having less than a 1% chance of catching it over three months. I originally used it to decide when to stop commuting to NYC (since I probably “interacted” with something like 100-300 people on the commute in, plus a similar amount inside the office).
Right now, R in my area is known to be > 135; I typically use k = 1, since I assume R is an undercount. So my target daily interactions are currently < 0.07.
If I wanted to extend this to the full ~18 months, I would probably switch to N = 1 / kR; basically, try not to go outside again until the local rate of infection is (well) below 1 per 100k.
Searcher
@Morzer: The former makes me OK with the latter.
Herbert had the problem many authors have, which is, once they hit upon a successful concept, everyone just wants them to write more of it. Some do, some don’t. Frank was obviously willing to keep writing schlock after more schlock to keep the money flowing, so I don’t begrudge Brian doing the same with his father’s properties.
opiejeanne
@piratedan: You’re right, Raban was known as The Beast.
I fell asleep before I could correct that.
kindness
I loved Dune. And the books that followed. It was the scifi version of Lord Of The Rings which I also loved (until his son took over the franchise).
Kosh III
@Searcher:
Some of FH’s novels were schock, e.g. The Dosadi Experiment and the WorShip stuff but the Dune novels were excellent. God-Emperor is my favorite.
Full disclosure: I did read most of Brian and KJA’s Dune novels but it was mostly bland and formulaic.
Plus Frak the Tick-turd in the White House and his devotees.
joel hanes
@WereBear:
Same here. I have always advised the Dune-curious to stop after the original novel — it’s all downhill from there.
Aziz, light!
@Le Comte de Monte Cristo, fka Edmund Dantes: Too bad global warming will eliminate the ice floes you want to put us on.
One day, when you’re older, the right wing will succeed in persuading the youngs to destroy the social safety net entirely. Why should they support all those worthless old moochers, one of whom will be you?
I hear Soylent Green* is delicious.
*My original nym here at BJ.
Another Scott
@Onkel Fritze: Um, was the Venezuelan navy ship named the Black Knight?
:-/
Thanks.
Cheers,
Scott.
Another Scott
@Mel: Condolences.
Unfortunately, oldsters turning toward the dark side probably isn’t always willful. E.g. people can have “mini-strokes” that damage their brains but can be recovered from – until they’ve had too many. And larger strokes can have profound effects.
e.g. https://www.verywellhealth.com/loss-of-empathy-after-a-stroke-3961831
(IOW, it could be disease rather than FOX. But FOX almost never helps.)
Do what you must for you. You drowning isn’t going to save them. :-(
Hang in there.
Cheers,
Scott.
Mel
@Another Scott: That is true. Having worked in the education and social services systems with people with a variety of cognitive challenges (FAS, schizophrenia, traumatic brain injury, stroke, dementia, etc.) , I know that there can be a mixed bag of causes for altered / inappropriate thinking and actions. I’ve had several TIAs and also brain hypoperfusion due to my autoimmune condition, and thus unfortunately also know firsthand how those issues can impact one’s function.
The issues / behaviors with which I was attempting to address with my elderly relatives have been long-standing (over decades) and are far more related to mindset and belief systems. Sad, but it is what it is.