Refining
The WaPo, in its all-too-finite wisdom, has a front page bit on gasoline prices today. Sure, oil prices are at about $1.70 a gallon right now. But why are prices over $3.00 (US) a gallon at the pump? The answer (according to this piece): refineries.
Okay, refining has in the past been a low-margin business and there have been just enough refineries and now there aren't enough blah blah blah. But weren't the energy moguls in the Junta supposed to know this stuff?
I mean, one of their biggest selling points has always been that they know the oil bidness. Georgie himself was a failed Texas oil man before his daddy's friends bailed him out. Veep Chicanery was a Dark Prince of Halliburton oil before he started shredding the constitution full time.
The whole notion that these guys know anything or can do anything right has long since gone far away. But back when anyone claimed that they had any expertise at all, it was in this area.
But what have they done? They've mashed environmental restraints to increase domestic drilling - which has increased petro profits and wildlife mortality. They made a complete bloody hash of the middle east, which has increased prices dramatically.
What about the refining question? That didn't come out of nowhere. The lack of refining capacity has to have been a known issue to people in the business for a number of years. Even before Katrina and Rita, demand has been increasing steadily - where were the new refineries to keep up?
This bunch believes that tax breaks are the magic bullet to fix all domestic ills from poverty to education to manufacturing - where were the tax breaks for refineries? They didn't build - and apparently markets didn't invest - because the profit margin was so low.
Shockingly, in this case tax breaks might actually have helped. Which, when you think about it, makes sense. These guys simply can do nio right. They pass around the tax break aspirin to every patient with broken bones and massive trauma - but they withhold it from the guy with the headache.
Sadly typical.
Speaking of bad medicine, the now-totally-political FDA has come out strongly against medical marijuana. Not that, you know, the medical community has.
The FDA "said Thursday that "no sound scientific studies" supported the medical use of marijuana." Except for, you know, the only definitive study done by the best researchers in the world. Except for them.
So cancer patients and AIDS patients can got suck on hard candy - nevermind that it really helps them. The FDA is not in the business of helping people. The FDA is (now) in the business of appealing to the neocon religious base. No morning-after contraception, and no Mary Jane.
There was a time, not too long ago, that the FDA had a reputation for good science and good decisions. How sad it must be - there and in the other government departments - that Dumb and Dumber is now in charge.
All the smart guys are out - the Day of the Idiot is at hand. The morons are running every part of the executive branch. Baseless foundationless ideology is king. No amount of contrary evidence can ever be enough to change any minds.
This is America?
Okay, refining has in the past been a low-margin business and there have been just enough refineries and now there aren't enough blah blah blah. But weren't the energy moguls in the Junta supposed to know this stuff?
I mean, one of their biggest selling points has always been that they know the oil bidness. Georgie himself was a failed Texas oil man before his daddy's friends bailed him out. Veep Chicanery was a Dark Prince of Halliburton oil before he started shredding the constitution full time.
The whole notion that these guys know anything or can do anything right has long since gone far away. But back when anyone claimed that they had any expertise at all, it was in this area.
But what have they done? They've mashed environmental restraints to increase domestic drilling - which has increased petro profits and wildlife mortality. They made a complete bloody hash of the middle east, which has increased prices dramatically.
What about the refining question? That didn't come out of nowhere. The lack of refining capacity has to have been a known issue to people in the business for a number of years. Even before Katrina and Rita, demand has been increasing steadily - where were the new refineries to keep up?
This bunch believes that tax breaks are the magic bullet to fix all domestic ills from poverty to education to manufacturing - where were the tax breaks for refineries? They didn't build - and apparently markets didn't invest - because the profit margin was so low.
Shockingly, in this case tax breaks might actually have helped. Which, when you think about it, makes sense. These guys simply can do nio right. They pass around the tax break aspirin to every patient with broken bones and massive trauma - but they withhold it from the guy with the headache.
Sadly typical.
Speaking of bad medicine, the now-totally-political FDA has come out strongly against medical marijuana. Not that, you know, the medical community has.
The FDA "said Thursday that "no sound scientific studies" supported the medical use of marijuana." Except for, you know, the only definitive study done by the best researchers in the world. Except for them.
So cancer patients and AIDS patients can got suck on hard candy - nevermind that it really helps them. The FDA is not in the business of helping people. The FDA is (now) in the business of appealing to the neocon religious base. No morning-after contraception, and no Mary Jane.
There was a time, not too long ago, that the FDA had a reputation for good science and good decisions. How sad it must be - there and in the other government departments - that Dumb and Dumber is now in charge.
All the smart guys are out - the Day of the Idiot is at hand. The morons are running every part of the executive branch. Baseless foundationless ideology is king. No amount of contrary evidence can ever be enough to change any minds.
This is America?
posted by fiduciary at 7:45 AM
1 Comments:
I hate those damn unpatriots! Good word. What would an "unpatriot" be? A Colt? A Jet? A Raider? Yessss.
These guys have no answer for Iran. They've pissed away any possible negotiating power, you can't take them at their word - so why bother talking - and they're the kind of nutcase that can get cheesed off and go after you with a screwdriver for no reason.
So really their only option is the screwdriver. And they're in deep doo-doo if they go into the mid-terms without another crisis to mis-manage.
Maybe there's the hope - if enough people realize that these are the least capable crisis managers in world history, they'll want them out before the next one hits. Instead of running on fear, the fear will be on their side...
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