[RE]

CNN.COM 2026-04-28

UAE to quit OPEC in blow to world’s leading oil exporters, as Iran war roils energy sector

• UAE quits oil cartel: The United Arab Emirates will withdraw from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) this week, as the Iran war roils global energy markets. The price of oil climbed above $110 a barrel for the first time in three weeks today.

I wouldn't count on this lowering the price of oil anytime soon.  Down the line some though, Demand Destruction could do that.  It will however make the whole energy market more volatile and less predictable.

RE

[TDoS]

Dismissing "communism" as a failed utopian dream misses the essential point.

I didn't dismiss it that way. I just compared RE's perspective on it to the reality of it. Theory and practice are two different things.

Marxism isn't an abstract wish list.  It is a materialist analysis of how society actually works. Your terrible outcomes weren't inherent to socialism itself, but were the consequences of specific historical circumstances and political errors.  Bureaucracy degenerated workers' power, and sabotaged the international workers revolution.  But that was then, and this is now.

Sure. And now the Communists have forced labor camps for the Uyghurs, are making sure that Hong Kong folks aren't so thrilled with their switch from capitalism to being ChiComs again, want to make sure that the capitalists in Taiwan, doing quite well for themselves, are brought to heel and properly....educated...and Tibet certainly understands that difference betweem being free or being...under someone elses bootheel.

China is certainly a long way from Mao killing off 10's of millions in food experiments, so in your mind are they "proper" socialists nowadays? The kind you would happily give up your 4 wheeled status symbols for?

The core socialist aims collective control over production to end class exploitation remain fundamentally sound, and are analytically necessary.

In theory. And if we are talking socialism like Scandanavian countries as compared to China and North Korea, I'd pick Scandanavia for sure.

The question isn't whether socialist goals are desirable (they are), but how can these goals be consciously achieved by the working class.  Using democratic means.  Avoiding the pitfalls and errors that lead to authoritarianism.

Having not asked a question, but just responded to RE and his enthusiasm for a particular socio-economic system, the results of which are already in the history books.

And I think we are currently in some form of mismanaged oligarchy more than anything else. And the oligarchs are going to do their best to keep it that way.

[TDoS]

You just haranging on what you harang on doesn't give much in the way of clues.

You need clues to figure out if something is funny?

I met you before, you pretending to not remember being irrelevant. You had a habit, of saying something, then having this dry little laugh as though what you said was amusing enough to warrant it. I didn't laugh at all, as it was just conversation, and you weren't being funny. It was just some mannerism. You do it in your videos as well.

I don't need clues to figure out what is funny. It is an easy thing, you know it when you see it. In person, or in your videos, you see it everywhere. I do not.

It's not detective work, you don't need to be Sherlock Holmes.

RE

Nothing to do with Sherlock Holmes. I didn't laugh when you were yucking it up over....whatever...in Inman either.

[RE]

Granted, my sense of humor is somewhat idiosyncratic and not appreciated by everyone.  The reason I don't remember you is probably because you didn't laugh at my jokes and said nothing worth remembering.  I do remember vaguely meeting a somber little man in disheveled clothing I though might be a homeless schizophrenic off his meds and discussing electric scooters.  He didn't identify himself though, I figured he couldn't remember his name.

RE

[K-Dog]

And now the Communists have forced labor camps for the Uyghurs

Following ethnic rioting, and a series of deadly terror attacks within and outside Xinjiang which Beijing blamed on Uyghurs, President Xi Jinping launched a "Strike Hard Campaign against Violent Extremism" in 2014 that framed Uyghur identity as a security threat.

Seems that their supreme leader is responsible for their camps.  Communism would not have a supreme leader.  Communism has soviets.  Or are you just going to say you never asked a question about Uyghurs now.  As you seem to not know the difference between authoritarianism and communism that would be your next move.

[TDoS]

Granted, my sense of humor is somewhat idiosyncratic and not appreciated by everyone.  The reason I don't remember you is probably because you didn't laugh at my jokes and said nothing worth remembering.

Both of those conditions are likely to be true, you didn't tell any jokes, just threw out those little laughs on occasion as though you had, and I didn't say anything worth remembering.

I was there to see if the money you were investing in that little SUN exercise had any chance of being something. You did put significant resources into it if memory serves. After it was all over, the videos of your drunken scooter/ebike excapades, the commentary on the size of the liquor bill for the sales pitch on local political "intelligentsia" (otherwise known as "southern crackers" perhaps?) all seemed a bit...pricey for the final result.

Wendy gave me the impression that the entire exercise was designed to find support for a theme park showing people how great it would be to live Amish or something similar. As though taking a trip to Amish country wouldn't suffice?

I do remember vaguely meeting a somber little man in disheveled clothing I though might be a homeless schizophrenic off his meds and discussing electric scooters.  He didn't identify himself though, I figured he couldn't remember his name.

I've got a solid 6-8 inches on you, and probably 100# at that point in time. And you never asked me to identify myself, I certainly wasn't about to hand you a business card knowing your propensity for cyber stalking. Although Haniel was gone by then I believe and you hadn't found a tech replacement to do your MIB routine on Diner members.

[TDoS]

Or are you just going to say you never asked a question about Uyghurs now.  As you seem to not know the difference between authoritarianism and communism that would be your next move.

Can't say I've asked many questions about Uyghurs, no. As far as not knowing the difference between communism and authoritarianism, well, we all have our specialties. Political distinctions are interesting to some I suppose, not sure why, but to each their own. My specialty pays quite well. Do you get paid well for knowing nuances of various political definitions/organizations, or is it just a hobby to one-up other politically involved hobbyists?

[RE]

I've got a solid 6-8 inches on you, and probably 100# at that point in time.

Must have been someone else then.    I don't remember talking to any 6'2" Fat Guys, so if I talked to you, it wasn't very memorable.  Can't say for sure whether I told a joke or not, but it's irrelevant.  You don't recognize my jokes without clues, and I don't hand out clues, especially to fat trolls stalking southern redneck town fairs incognito.

RE

[RE]

My specialty pays quite well.

Bragging about how much you get paid is a violation of the CoC.  3 Days in the Cooler.

RE

[TDoS]

I've got a solid 6-8 inches on you, and probably 100# at that point in time.

Must have been someone else then. I don't remember talking to any 6'2" Fat Guys, so if I talked to you, it wasn't very memorable.

More like 5'10". You are quite short. And I told you, there wasn't supposed to be anything memorable. I'm really good at what I do, if only demonstrated by the quality of my diet not changing at all in these hard times. Why did Wendy think you were setting up an amusement park to demonstrate how cool it was to be Amish? And you are pimping the idea in FARM country...to the LOCALS?

You just seemed to be there to entertain folks with that electric scooter thing.

Can't say for sure whether I told a joke or not, but it's irrelevant. 

I don't think you told any jokes. You just said stuff, and then gave that random laugh as though you did. Again, as I said before but perhaps you missed, it shows up all over the place in your videos as well. And when you talk. No jokes needed.

You don't recognize my jokes without clues, and I don't hand out clues, especially to fat trolls stalking southern redneck town fairs incognito.
RE

I don't recognize random laughter for whatever it is a symptom of either. And I was fat then. Lost 50# in the past 2 years though.

How long before you vast experience with suits and 3D printers is going to deliver the real world result of better tasting protein and more quantities of it?

[RE]

You are quite short.

Either you can't add or you're a poor judge  of height.   I'm not Joe Pesci.  I'm the same height as Tom Cruise. 😀

RE

[TDoS]

You are quite short.

Either you can't add or you're a poor judge  of height.   I'm not Joe Pesci.  I'm the same height as Tom Cruise. 😀

RE

Whatever you say. I am making my estimate based on how short you were compared to me. The 12 year old who came up and asked about your little electric skateboard thing was about your height, so my estimate seems pretty reasonable. 

[RE]

Whatever you say. I am making my estimate based on how short you were compared to me. The 12 year old who came up and asked about your little electric skateboard thing was about your height, so my estimate seems pretty reasonable. 

I was sitting on the scooter, dimwit.

RE

[TDoS]

I was sitting on the scooter, dimwit.
RE

No. You weren't. You had to get on the thing to show the kid who wandered by that you could do feats of daring do with it. All dressed in black, sort of like a small Johnny Cash. And how would you know anyway? You are the one claiming you don't even remember me being there and soaking more than half an hour of your time? And then I talked to Wendy, noticed Dave and Monsta sitting near her tent, and John explaining something undoubtedly bamboo-ish to others. Collected some literature. And then I left.

It was quite illustrative, in terms of getting a bead on who I had been dealing with.

[RE]

He said, she said. 🙄

At the time, I COULDN'T stand up without having something to  brace myself against, and even then only briefly.  Certainly did not stand talking to a boring fat man.

RE