Friday Open Thread

13 thoughts on “Friday Open Thread”

1. READ THIS:

   Yale psychiatrist: Trump “projects his sense of inferiority” by calling women reporters “nasty”

       Donald Trump’s “mental incapacity,” says Dr. Bandy X. Lee, is “the greatest            calamity in the nation’s history”

   A Yale psychiatrist who has sounded the alarm on President Donald Trump’s mental health for the last several years is urging Congress to heed the warnings of mental health experts — as the president’s coronavirus response goes off the rails with new conspiracy theories about former President Barack Obama and attacks on female reporters.

   Bandy X. Lee, a forensic psychiatrist at the Yale School of Medicine and author of the textbook “Violence,” called on mental health professionals to speak out early in Trump’s presidency and edited the bestselling anthology “The Dangerous Case of Donald Trump: 37 Psychiatrists and Mental Health Experts Assess a President.”

   https://www.salon.com/2020/05/15/yale-psychiatrist-trump-projects-his-sense-of-inferiority-by-calling-women-reporters-nasty/

   Log in to Reply

   1. Trump is a garden-variety sexist of his generation, who doesn’t care for “smart-ass women” . Hopefully, he represents a dying breed in this. He also seems to resent uppity blacks and other minorities, Democrats, liberals, scientists,  and smart people in general. He may indeed  have feelings of inferiority- he seems to have a reading disability, often mixing up letters or misreading teleprompter text. I’d feel compassion for him if he ever showed any compassion or empathy for those he “rules”. 

      What is unusual about $rump is how openly and brazenly he expresses his sexism, racism, and other prejudices. He got elected appealing to fears and prejudices , so probably sees no need to change as long as his “ratings” are good, and as long as people around him tell him what he wants to hear. . 

      Log in to Reply

2. The natives in D-stan are (once again) restless.  I don’t know whether or not to be relieved my friends have transitioned from infectious disease experts back to constitutional scholars. I’ll give you one guess on how this person votes (hint: it’s not for unicorns, libertarians or dimmycrats).  

   

   Log in to Reply

3. For handy reference via TPM:

   “We want to be early, ready for the next [pandemic], because clearly the Obama administration did not leave to this administration any kind of game plan for something like this,” McConnell said on Monday.

   Former Obama administration Ebola response coordinator Ronald Klain and Obama administration deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes pushed back on the senator’s claim that same day.

   “We literally left them a 69-page Pandemic Playbook…. that they ignored. And an office called the Pandemic Preparedness Office…that they abolished. And a global monitoring system called PREDICT…that they cut by 75%,” Klain tweeted.

   “The maddening thing is Obama left them a WH office for pandemics, a literal playbook, a cabinet-level exercise, and a global infrastructure to deal with ‘something like this,'” Rhodes tweeted.

   And a Politico report confirms that the Obama administration did leave behind a 69-page playbook on handling pandemics by its National Security Council.

   Log in to Reply

   1. Ummmm, . . . 

      “That shiftless Obama took all the smart people with him, three years ago, when he left . . .”

      OK, . . . hmmm . . . well, . . . they didn’t . . . um, leave anybody who knew how to read, or think, or use those preparedness plans, and offices, and response structures did they?

      “We want to be early, ready for the next [pandemic]”

      Oh, and by the way coach Mitch, did you, what, just forfeit on this pandemic?

      ”Well team, it was a tough game.  We really could have used a few more players, tonight.  We’ll get ‘em next season, boys!  Yes, yes, we will . . .”

      On the bright side, it’s certainly reassuring to hear that the next Administration will have a full stockpile of expired hydroxychloroqine tablets, a tanning bed, a bottle of Clorox, a roll of paper towels, that inflatable animatronic Jared Kushner doll, and an autographed picture of Ttump with the MyFavoritePillow guy all ready to go to do battle with the next hoax deadly worldwide epidemic!!!

      Log in to Reply

      1. Mitch has since eaten the required crow and publicly stated he was wrong about what guidance for pandemics was left by the outgoing Obama administration.

         Log in to Reply

         1. Who'd have thunk?  Who is this man and where are they holding Mitch? In the basement of Comet Ping Pong? 

            Log in to Reply

   2. #TweetForEverything

      

      Log in to Reply

4. They may have an exit plan: (after they harvest another billon or so from the rubes) 

   Is the Trump Campaign App Designed to Win the Election, or Launch Trump TV?

   The Trump campaign isn’t trying to entice new voters by sneakily suckering them into their digital tractor beam; it’s radicalizing the people who are already on the Death Star. This effort has been called a “gamified campaign,” a “digital mousetrap,” and Candy Crush for MAGA-land—and all those descriptions that ring true. A Trump supporter uses the app to earn points redeemable for merchandise discounts, early event access, and even a photo with Trump. There are memes to be spread, hashtags to plant, and lots of prompts to donate and leverage contacts to recruit friends and family.

   Log in to Reply

   1. If you haven’t been following the Howard Stern developments, it’s worth a few minutes while you’re sipping your morning joe: 

      Howard Stern to Trump supporters: He hates you and so do I

      “The oddity in all of this is the people Trump despises most, love him the most,” Stern said. “The people who are voting for Trump for the most part… he wouldn’t even let them in a f—ing hotel. He’d be disgusted by them. Go to Mar-a-Lago, see if there’s any people who look like you. I’m talking to you in the audience.”

      (Junior felt compelled to respond this morning on Fox News)

      Log in to Reply

      1. Michael: this may surprise some people. I've always liked Howard Stern. Yes, he can be inappropriate at times. But Howard has often been a good reflection of society. When his radio show could be found on TV; the E entertainment network; I tuned in pretty regularly.

         Log in to Reply

         1. Nice. Agree, he’s always been a pretty good reflection of society, albeit crass at times. He just says what we’re all thinking! 

             

            Log in to Reply

5. Saudi Oil Rush Threatens to Disrupt Stabilizing U.S. Market

    

    “An armada of tankers filled with Saudi Arabian crude steaming toward the U.S. threatens to prevent America’s oil glut from draining, which is only just beginning.

   Over 30 ships are set to arrive on the U.S. Gulf Coast and West Coast during May and June, according to ship tracking data compiled by Bloomberg. The more-than 50 million barrels of Saudi crude on the water threaten to upend a positive supply development: U.S. crude stockpiles declined for the first time since January and inventories at the Cushing, Oklahoma storage hub contracted by the most in months.

   The U.S. is facing a tsunami of Saudi oil — the lingering effect of a price war between Riyadh and Russia back in March — that led the Middle East nation to slash pricing of its grades to multi-year lows and flood the market. The wave of supply occurred even as the Covid-19 pandemic was beginning to rapidly weigh on petroleum demand. A fifth of global consumption is still seen disappearing this quarter alone.

   “The expected Saudi deliveries could push U.S. inventories back to builds depending on their timing,” said Sandy Fielden, director of oil and products research at Morningstar Inc. “If the shipments land at a rate that isn’t balanced by falling production or an uptick in exports, then we’ll see a domestic build.”

   https://ca.finance.yahoo.com/news/saudi-oil-rush-threatens-disrupt-172012215.html

   Just when the Oily Boyz thought they were gonna get a break.

   Log in to Reply