No Surprise, Trump's Going to Pay Oil Companies to Bail His Ass Out in Venezuela

President Donald Trump said he believes the U.S. oil industry could get expanded operations in Venezuela "up and running" in fewer than 18 months.

"I think we can do it in less time than that, but it’ll be a lot of money," Trump told NBC News in an interview Monday.

"A tremendous amount of money will have to be spent, and the oil companies will spend it, and then they’ll get reimbursed by us, or through revenue," he said.

Yeah, who did not see that particular bit of corporate socialism coming? We're going to be on the hook for it and we'll get reimbursed by the oil companies when it it can be scientifically proven that Hell has frozen over.

A Drop in the Bucket and Corporate Welfare (Updated with OpenAI Losses)

Wal-Mart is donating $500K to food banks. They have 4,600 stores, so they're donating less than $110 per store.

They are seriously cheap fucks. Brookshire Grocery, which has about 200 stores, is donating half a million.

If you donated a load of groceries to a food bank, the chances are that you, proportionately, did more to help people needing food than did Wal-Mart.

Keep in mind that SNAP, the ACA and Medicare work also as subsidies to labor exploiters like Wal-Mart, which thereby don't need to pay a living wage to their workers.

Meanwhile, OpenAI, which is backed by billionaires and large tech giants, wants the government to back their loans, so they will have nothing at risk. (OpenAI lost about $12 billion last quarter.)

Sam Altman read the room and realized that asking for a few hundred billion in loan guarantees wasn't a good sell when tens of millions of Americans are going hungry, so he walked that back.

For now. Corporations and oligarchs always seem to want the government to guarantee their shit, while deriding those at the bottom of the economic pyramid. Socialism for the rich, same as it ever was.

Corrupt AF

The Times has a long article on how Joe Manchin has, both as a senator and previously, as a state legislator, worked to ensure that his business interests are protected. He got a sweetheart deal from a power plant that he worked to protect and to which, his coal company is the sole supplier of fuel.

It's sort of a mixture between corporate socialism and corruption.

It's Probably a Good Thing That I'm Not the Governor of California

Tesla CEO Elon Musk threatened Saturday to pull the company’s factory and headquarters out of California in an escalating spat with local officials who have stopped the company from reopening its electric vehicle factory.

I'd tell him: "I'm not intimidated by a bunch of protesters walking around with guns and I'm sure as shit not going to be intimidated by the likes of you."

But you don't say things like that to whiny-ass crybaby billionaires who crater their companies on Twitter.

Good Old Crony-Corruption Is Still In Vogue

After Robert Kadlec was confirmed as President Trump’s top official for public health preparedness in 2017, he began pressing to increase government stocks of a smallpox vaccine. His office ultimately made a deal to buy up to $2.8 billion of the vaccine from a company that once paid Kadlec as a consultant, a connection he did not disclose on a Senate questionnaire when he was nominated.

Under the agreement struck last year with Emergent BioSolutions, Kadlec’s office at the Department of Health and Human Services is paying more than double the price per dose it had previously paid for the drug. Because Emergent is the only licensed maker of the vaccine, Kadlec’s office arrived at the price through negotiations with the company rather than through bidding.
...
Kadlec scaled back a long-standing interagency process for spending billions of dollars on stockpile purchases, diminishing the role of government experts and restricting decision-making to himself and a small circle of advisers, according to three former officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive matters.

Besides giving lucrative contracts to friend, Kadlec was also dismissive of the idea of a naturally-occuring pandemic. So he focused on anthrax and stuff like that while ignoring infectious diseases, you know, the things that came close to triggering two global pandemics in the `00s (SARS and H1N1).

Ethically challenged and wearing blinders-- the guy was indeed a good fit for the Trump Administration.

One Thought About the TrumpBux

I wonder how many of the Trumpanzee/Teabaggers, the ones who constantly bleat about socialism being evil while rereading their copies of Atlas Shrugged are now gleefully taking the $1,200 per adult (and $500 per kid) handouts from the government.

Which reminds me of this old joke:

Man to woman: Would you sleep with me for one million dollars?
Woman: Sure.
Man: How about for ten dollars?
Woman: What do you think I am?
Man: We’ve already established what you are. All we’re doing is bargaining about price.

They've sold themselves rather cheaply.

Cruise Lines Aren't Getting Bailed Out

... major cruise operators don’t locate their headquarters in the United States, so they will not have access to $500 billion in aid for large employers in the massive stimulus bill, the industry’s trade group said Thursday.

Language in the 883-page bill passed by the Senate says that to be eligible for aid from the $500 billion fund, companies must be certified as “created or organized in the United States or under the laws of the United States” as well as having “significant operations in” and a majority of employees based in the United States.

Major cruise companies have located their primary headquarters overseas, which for years has allowed them to pay almost no federal taxes and avoid some U.S. regulations. To staff their ships, the companies rely heavily on foreign workers from the Philippines, Indonesia and India.

They wanted the benefits of being bailed out without having assumed any of the burdens or responsibilities of operating as American companies. It's standard Republican corporate socialism: Don't pay any taxes but line up to get bailouts.

Carnival Corp., owner of the Princess cruise lines, is incorporated in Panama. Royal Caribbean is incorporated in Liberia, and Norwegian Cruise Lines in Bermuda.

As I said before, they can go ask those governments for loans. Fuck those guys.

Question du Jour

How much money will Trump's companies get from Mnuchin's slush fund? (How much money is Trump losing at his properties?)

The fight, right now, is over transparency. It should come as no surprise that the Trump Administration wants to be able to hand out a half-a-billion, in cash, to companies with no requirement to account for who gets it. The Trump Administration wants to hand it out with no strings, companies would only have to promise that they'll try to retain workers. (But no money would be available to help nursing homes and hospitals from the Mnuchin slush fund.)

In short, as Trump envisions it, he gets to loot the treasury to benefit his cronies.

Teapot Dome had nothing on these birds.

Bail Out the Cruise Industry?

President Donald Trump on [March 9th] said he has plans to help the cruise and airline industries that have been “hard hit” by an outbreak of the coronavirus, as his administration sent mixed signals over whether Americans should proceed with holiday cruise plans.

“We’re working with them very, very strongly,” Trump told reporters, referring to airline and cruise line executives who have met with White House officials in recent days.

I sure as hell hope that this is off the table. Most of the cruise lines are companies that are registered in other companies and their ships are foreign-flagged, crewed largely by third-world crews.

If the cruise lines want a bailout, they should go ask the Bahamians, the Filipinos, the Panamanians, the Belizeans, or the Hondurans. Not us.

Fuck those guys.

Shorter Trump: What's a Million Dead People As Long as the Stock Market Goes Back Up?

President Trump on Sunday night said that the government would reassess the recommended period for keeping businesses shut and millions of workers at home after this week, amid millions of job losses caused by the efforts to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus.

“WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF,” Mr. Trump tweeted in all capital letters shortly before midnight. “AT THE END OF THE 15 DAY PERIOD, WE WILL MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHICH WAY WE WANT TO GO!”

That's Trump's priority, which comes down to protecting his own hide above everything else. He's losing a ton of cash at his properties every day they are closed. So opening them is in his self-interest.

Allowing business interests to rule over epidemiology is a recipe for a lot more dead people, as in six figures' worth. This is a national public health emergency. The people who should be driving it are those who have expertise in such matters. The states where there are not a lot of cases are the states where the virus has not taken a firm hold. Hoping that it won't is not any sort of a rational plan.

But Trump has never cared about anyone other than himself. He has all of the empathy of an I-beam.

On another note, Congress should make sure that there are firm controls on bailouts and loans for businesses. If there is a lot of discretion left to the Treasury, you can bet your last roll of toilet paper that Trump, through Mnuchin, will make sure that the money only goes to businesses that have pledged fealty to King Donald the Nutter.

Airline Bailout?

With each day that the coronavirus outbreak spreads and claims more lives, the damage to global airlines rises too. U.S. carriers on Monday put a price tag on their pain: They asked the federal government for more than $50 billion in rescue aid.

It is a staggering request for an industry that has chalked up tens of billions in profits over the past decade.

Most of the airlines have been effectively shaking down money from their passengers during the 2010s. Seat pitch has gotten tighter. Baggage fees have been going up. Some charge for carry-on luggage, as if anyone can travel without a bag of clothes.

Now they want a handout?

No. No free money for companies, like American, which used their obscene profits to give large bonuses to their executives and to buy back stock to please Wall Street.

If they want money, make them give stock to the government. if they want loans, fine, but those will have to be repaid and there has to be some interest. If they want a tax break, same rules: It has to be paid back when times are better.

American capitalists are really semi-socialists: They keep the profits, we make good their losses.