Oil to Venezuela? Send It C.O.D.

It's not a new story but it remains evergreen as it appears there somewhat of a resurgence in affinity for socialism in the West, but Venezuela, with the world's largest repository of petroleum reserves, must import oil.  Such a scenario is always a good time to highlight the great quote from socialist British MP Aneurin Bevan.

Famous British Labor politician Aneurin Bevan once dismissed the possibility of radical unionism hurting Britain's coal industry by saying " “This island is made mainly of coal and surrounded by fish. Only an organizing genius could produce a shortage of coal and fish at the same time.”

Of course, a shortage of coal is exactly what Labor's policies went on to produce, highlighting leftists' typical ignorance of the workings of the world.  Plentitude of a useful commodity is meaningless as to whether humans get to benefit from it.

The latest twist is that Venezuela is on credit watch and oil suppliers are demanding cash up front.

A build-up of tankers has been reported off Venezuela as oil suppliers began to ask for pre-payment from state-controlled PDVSA for crude and products cargoes.

Reuters cited five companies involved in deals as saying there are worries over PDVSA’s cash flow.

The report said Maran Tankers’ 158,000–dwt suezmax Maran Pythia (built 2009), chartered by Statoil, loaded on 19 October in Angola and has been waiting at Curacao to discharge since early November.

The evidence is piled to the heavens, but we always forget and fall prey to the siren song anew -  socialism is destruction, socialism is anti-human, socialism is evil.

Obama's Likely Legacy: More Guns, More Debt, More GOP Governors, GOP Congress, Bush Rehabilitation, Racial Discord, Security Vulnerability

Apropos this article by VDH, I have blogged about the America that Lightworking Dear Leader will leave behind when he (mercifully, but not mercifully enough) leaves office.

Beyond doubt, Obama will leave behind a substantially more armed citizenry, who have, on the whole, become much more supportive of private ownership of firearms, and support less restrictive firearms laws.

Obama will leave behind an America where state governments are under historically unprecedented control of Republicans.

Obama will leave behind an America so indebted that the greatest 20th century achievements of the progressive movement will likely have to be rolled back in order to preserve the nation's solvency.

Obama will leave behind an America that understands (at least, if not fully accepts) more than it did that George W. Bush's foreign policy was driven by the view that terrorism (rogue and state-sponsored) needs to be engaged in foreign theatres lest it come to domestic theatres.

And this is to say nothing of racial discord and the shift in congressional power.

It will be for the historians to sort out and debate but the points above are likely only debatable in terms of degree.  I'm not sure this is what the hordes of fanboys and fainting fawners had in mind when they swept Lightworker Guy into office.

Dispatches from Page A9

The Islamic Body Count rolls on, albeit less spectacularly...from page A9 in today's WSJ...

In Tunisia, Terror Attack Kills 12

Islamic State Claims Deadly {7} Egypt Hotel Attack

7 and 12, small tallies to be sure, and in ArabNowheresville too, so who cares. 

 

Shocking News

One of the world's largest renewable energy companies is imploding and it looks pretty clear that it was more or less a fraud...

For a company that makes money turning sunlight into electricity, Abengoa shows a troglodytic aversion to transparency -- as investors are now finding out to their cost.

The Spanish builder and operator of renewable energy projects is to take the first step in filing for protection from its creditors, after a potential white knight savior abandoned a promise to invest 350 million euros ($371 million) to ensure its survival. But the root causes of its problems go back much further than that.

Basic economics...subsidies attract entities whose purpose is to capture those subsidies.  When policymakers establish subsidies, we are more likely to get fraudulent organizations whose sole purpose is to rake in available subsidy resources than to get an honest, but nascent, organization that just needs a like short term assistance. See Solyndra.  Now we have Abengoa.

Urgent Alert from MSM Central Directorate: More Cowbell

Attention ALL Journolist Authoritative, Non-Biased Professional Journalists at America's Highly-Respected News Organizations:

We need more "rape-culture", "patriarchal oppression", "because vagina" memes STAT.  See here.

Note:  Probably illegitimate due to source (clearly bias, unprofessional, tool of moneyed interests) but NEVER hurts to take precautions.

Over.

Hope and Change for the Rest of Us?

Never put too much stock in an election result...but desperate times call for perhaps finding optimistic signals wherever you can...

This is maybe the only sign that I have see in awhile indicating that the world may be regaining its senses.

Let's hope.

ObamaCare

I predicted ObamaCare would collapse of its own weight, namely poor design.

More and more, analysts see it happening.

Am I some sort of genius?  No, from the outset...2010...careful, clear-eyed analysis could have led anyone to that same analysis.  It was only the euphoria-induced blindness of the political left that prevented them from seeing it...that or the belief that they'd be able to fix any flaws due to their ongoing power thanks to the "coalition of the ascendant", which now looks like the coalition of the living in Mom and Dad's basement.

Invert This

Pfizer to Treasury Secretary Lew:  Screw You.

It's Not the Terror That Is Frightening...

It is the not existence of Islamic terrorism that is so frightening (the world is and always will be dangerous)...rather the fact that we have the worst class of out-of-touch, incompetent and/or willfully blind asses in charge of things, is what is truly frightening.

We all go through traumatic situations, but what keeps us going and not folding up into despair is the reassurance that something is being down, that issues are being addressed, that we can/will improve our lot.  Not so here.  Murderous terror and mayhem is on loose, and no one is on the case.  That is what is frightening.

#BlackLivesMatter Is...Counterproductive

In light of this...

In a critical editorial, the conservative Dartmouth Review listed some of the epithets hurled by the protesters: “Fuck you, you filthy white fucks!” “Fuck you and your comfort!” “Fuck you, you racist shits!”

In addition, the Review reports that some of protesters became physically violent: “Men and women alike were pushed and shoved by the group. ‘If we can’t have it, shut it down!’ they cried. Another woman was pinned to a wall by protesters who unleashed their insults, shouting ‘filthy white bitch!’ in her face.”

I note two things, both of which I have said before...

1)  The civil rights movement has become solely a rent-seeking movement, as the "if we can't have it..." quote aptly demonstrates.  This isn't about civil rights or fair treatment anymore, it's about taking stuff.

2)  Whites are checking out of engagement because they don't see the "conversation" as genuine.  It's patently disingenuous, as this and other episodes make clear.

See the dilemma here for white America?  It's a double standard with increasingly brutal consequences.  Frankly we're pretty sick of it.  This annoyance is expressed in multiple ways.  ...  Another is retreating from this ridiculous phony "conversation on race" that the elite racialists keep insisting we have.  The only way to not lose the game is not to play, which is why in multiple subtle ways much of white America has checked out of the discussion.  Concern about race relations and mutual well-being is just not that high on the priority list because the elite opinion-makers have rigged the game.  So don't bitch to me about the lack of progress on race relations in America.  Progress requires willing parties, and the racialists have created a massive unwilling party by setting up lose-lose rules of public discourse.

Translation from Academese: Obama Is a Dickhead

From Obama-voter Walter Russell Mead...

“Obama’s own policy decisions—allowing Assad to convert peaceful demonstrations into an increasingly ugly civil war, refusing to declare safe havens and no fly zones—were instrumental in creating the Syrian refugee crisis in the first place. This crisis is in large part the direct consequence of President Obama’s decision to stand aside and watch Syria burn. For him to try and use a derisory and symbolic program to allow 10,000 refugees into the United States in order to posture as more caring than those evil Jacksonian rednecks out in the benighted sticks is one of the most cynical and cold-blooded moves an American president has made in a long time.”

Minimum Wage Killer In Plain Sight

I won't rehash the latest aggressive attempts to raise the minimum wage through the roof for foodservice workers (Mark Perry has it well-covered).

All I will add is that none of these geniuses appear to have been to an airport recently.  If they had, they'd have seen one of these.

They are taking over.  Last year I only noticed them in the swankier airports, now they cropping up everywhere.  Usually there are 2-3 chefs behind the counter and only one server taking care of a large amount of patrons.  If I was in the med-fast service restaurant business and you slapped a minimum wage hike on me, I'd throw up one of these puppies.  Sophisticated consumers are already quite used to it.

ObamaCare Prediction Gloat

I've long said that in response to ObamaCare, doctors would shun insurance and put out the "We accept Visa, MasterCard, American Express" signs on their doors.

Done.

Paris

It is times like this when you need a really good hashtag and a POTUS who thinks climate change is the world's most pressing problem.
Thank heavens.

The Bursting of the Higher Education Bubble Continues Apace

Scalp secured.  American Higher Education continues its descent into madness.

No one apparently gave a thought to what happens both in the short term and long term after revealing to the world that leadership is impudent.

This episode proves too things:

1) That the modern American university has lost all bearings as institutions learning, as opposed to institutions of indoctrination of accepted orthodoxy;

2)  Universities have so prostituted themselves to the big business of sports that they can no longer maintain their values in the face of losing even so much as $1 in associated funding.

Liberal Logical Disconnet of the Day

American leftism is riddled with logical disconnects, many of which I've chronicled.

The good Professor has one today that I have not previously pointed out...

“Police are horrible, racist monsters who want to lock up minorities over even trivial violations of the law! And police are also the only ones who should have guns!”

Add another one to the list!  Lefties are so good at these!

Bloomberg In Classicly Egregious, Awful Reporting

As a New Jersey native, my eyebrows were raised reading this opening paragraph about Atlantic City's pensions for lifeguards...

Joseph D. Rush, Jr. joined the beach patrol in Atlantic City when qualifying tests were conducted in stormy weather at sea to judge an applicant’s mettle, local Republican leaders signed off on each hire and lifeguards attended movies free by flashing their badge. He retired in 2000 with an annual lifeguard’s pension of $30,000.

Lifeguard pension?

Republicans?

An article about pension profligacy wrecking a once-thriving city that tags Republicans with the blame?  Classic media bullshit and a classic Bloomberg swipe.  First off, there are virtually no big city governments run by Republicans in America.  Second, with near unbroken uniformity, American cities whose finances have been brought low by pension profligacy are run, and have been run for decades, by Democrats.  And, as any New Jerseyan can tell you, "AC" is as blue a town as it gets.  Atlantic City is just another Democrat strong-hold that overspent itself into oblivion mostly via the pension disease.

For the most part, you simply can't say "Republican" and "pensions" in the same sentence when talking about America's pension crisis, and be honest; but there it is, in the first paragraph of this Bloomberg News article.

Oh, here's the teensy tiny fig-leaf of honesty that Bloomberg throws in order to coat this swipe in journalistic integrity, thin as it is (from several paragraphs down):

The pension plan is the product of a 1928 state law sponsored by an Atlantic City Republican legislator named Emerson Richards, who lived in a palatial apartment near the lifeguard headquarters and threw parties, such as an annual Easter eggnog celebration, attended by political wheelers and dealers.

1928.  Of course, Republicans are to blame (notice the mention of Chris Christie way above this little tidbit?).  Democrats are laying waste to urban America with their pension benefit vote-buying scam and this is the type of reporting that Bloomberg News comes up with...Republicans and 1928.  Disgraceful.

Another Green Booster Mugged By Reality

Check out this story...this is happening all over.

NRG Chief’s Green Ambitions Are Put on Back Burner

Money-losing investment in renewable energy didn’t sit well with investors

Throughout its 26-year life, NRG Energy Inc. NRG 7.34 % has made most of its money by running big electric plants that burn fossil fuels. But six years ago, the company’s chief executive began a billion-dollar push into clean power: rooftop solar, wind farms and electric-car charging stations.

And David Crane, the CEO, became increasingly outspoken about the need to go green. In an essay earlier this year, Mr. Crane warned his fellow electricity executives that by failing to embrace clean energy they “are losing the hearts and minds of the future generation of Americans.”

From higher energy bills for consumers, to zero returns for investors to lack of development in the developing world, "green" energy is coming out a loser and getting ratcheted back.

Finally, your euphemistic gem of the day:

 “There was a mismatch between what investors wanted us to do with our cash—which was give it back—and what we wanted to do, which was put it in growth businesses,” Mr. Crane said.

Translation:  Stop wasting our money on these stupid green projects.

Get It Through Your Heads - The Chinese Don't Care About Global Warming

Remember all the gushing and hosannas over Obama putative visionary leadership and persuasiveness in getting a global warming climate change deal with China?

Of course, many of us knew at the time it was phony.  Like the Iran nuke deal, the China deal appears to be entirely phony and merely fodder for fawning domestic press.  The Chinese have no intention of abiding by such an agreement.  In fact they've been lying all along about the level of their emissions. 

China, the world’s largest carbon emitter, has been dramatically underreporting the amount of coal it consumes each year, it has been claimed ahead of key climate talks in Paris.

Official Chinese data, reported by the New York Times on Wednesday after being quietly released earlier this year, suggests China has been burning up to 17% more coal each year than previously disclosed by the government.

The revelation – which may mean China has emitted close to a billion additional tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year – could complicate the fight against global warming ahead of the United Nations climate change conference in Paris, which begins on 30 November.

Lesson that ought to be learned:  the Chinese will do what the hell they want to do, and you can't believe their representations.

Death Wish of the West Coming True?

As Drudge headlines with "Germany Sliding Toward Civil War" (link here), let me remind readers that I and others have analyzed the West denial and coddling of Islam as its own, peculiar civilizational death wish.

I don't know if Germany will slide into civil war, it sure seems possible, but what I do know is that Germany lies at the heart of "the West", it is a proxy for the prosperous, democratic West.  If this crisis roils Germany to the point of instability or failure, it will be because we had our eyes closed and were unbelievably naïve.

You Heard It Here First

I may not have said it here, but I've said it to friends and colleagues, so my marker is out there...
I believe that, in time, Elon Musk will be revealed - and go down in history as such - as one of the great charlatans of the age.  I hope I am wrong, but I don't think so.

Early indication..?  Who knows at this point.

Bloomberg Editors: Cure Poverty By Speaking SLOWLY to Dumb Poor People

Like speaking slowly to someone who doesn't speak your language  ("Where is the baaath rooooom?"), the genius editors at Bloomberg News think that if we just dumbed down the communications from our government, poverty would be alleviated. 

Making that letter very clear -- with simple language, an easy-to-read font and well-spaced text -- boosted the response rate by another 9 percentage points. And telling people how much money they could get increased their odds of participating by another 8 percentage points.

Taken together, those three small changes -- repetition, simplification and disclosure of potential benefits -- persuaded 31 percent more eligible tax filers to claim the earned income tax credit.

This is grounded in some truisms, notably that government communications are notoriously unclear and hard to penetrate.  Second, poor people, on average, are not well-educated, so, yes, they might be less inclined to understand.  But there is so much wrong with this line of thinking. 

First, it's arrogant and typical of elitist lefties - we MUST SPEAK SLOWLY TO THE POOR PEOPLE.  Second, these changes presume that poor people are unaware of how to get goodies from the government.  They are not. 

Finally, this has nothing to do with alleviating actual poverty, it has only to do with lowering a statistical measure - the poverty rate - that merely aims to show the effectiveness of the redistribution of resources.

Essentially, Bloomberg is saying that the redistribution mechanism of government isn't even good at what it does AND we need to do things to make government look better at giving away your money.