The Evening Blues - 6-8-22



eb1pt12


The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Big Maceo Merriweather

Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features Chicago blues piano player Big Maceo Merriweather. Enjoy!

Big Maceo Merriweather - Worried Life Blues

"The relative freedom which we enjoy depends of public opinion. The law is no protection. Governments make laws, but whether they are carried out, and how the police behave, depends on the general temper in the country. If large numbers of people are interested in freedom of speech, there will be freedom of speech, even if the law forbids it; if public opinion is sluggish, inconvenient minorities will be persecuted, even if laws exist to protect them."

-- George Orwell


News and Opinion

Taibbi: Democrats and Republicans Have One Thing in Common — Both Suck on Free Speech

The Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, or FIRE, announced a major, $75 million campaign to boost free expression today. The move places the longtime agitator against campus speech codes in a role historically occupied by the American Civil Liberties Union, or ACLU. Since its founding 1920, but particularly since its famed 1976 defense of neo-Nazi marchers in Skokie, Illinois, the ACLU has been a face of American liberalism, but shifted in recent years as its once-definitional issue, free speech, is increasingly cast out of the Democratic Party mainstream.

FIRE’s expansion is great news for speech advocates, but likely wouldn’t have been necessary had attitudes toward speech not changed dramatically among liberal academics and among the ACLU’s primary donors, traditional Democrats. Moreover it’s not as simple as free speech moving now from being a blue value to a red one. What’s actually happened is far worse: tossed overboard by the blues, speech has been left without a consistent, principled champion on either side of the political aisle, as both parties have doubled or tripled down on the most idiotic forms of censorship lately, albeit in different ways.

The Democrats’ collapse on speech is especially tragic because Republicans have almost always been terrible on this issue and weirdly still are now, even when so many of their voters are primary targets of “content moderation” schemes, and “Domestic Terrorism” legislation clearly aimed at its base. ... Though there are exceptions among individual politicians, neither party has stood behind a platform of defending speech on principle, irrespective of content. We seem headed toward a zero-sum landscape, with Dems cheering when they’re in the censor’s chair and whining when a perceived antagonist like Elon Musk threatens to buy one back, while conservatives drop the hammer once they have a seat of control, for instance a state house.

The worst of all possible worlds would see speech policy added to the long list of under-publicized areas of near-total consensus between the two parties, like military spending, bank bailouts, corporate taxation, and warrantless surveillance. We’re almost there.

[See the rest of the article at the link, it's good. -js]

PROPAGANDA For Ukraine PUSHED By Raytheon-Backed Think Tank On MSM: Analysis

Global food crisis: No progress at Russia-Turkey talks on Ukraine grain exports

Plan to ship grain out of Ukraine dealt blow due to mines

A plan mediated by Turkey amid a global food crisis to open shipping corridors out of Ukrainian ports has been dealt a blow as officials in Kyiv said it would take six months to clear the coast of Russian and Ukrainian mines. As Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, arrived in Ankara on Tuesday, Turkey’s defence minister, Hulusi Akar, said in a statement that his government was making progress with the UN, Russia and Ukraine on reopening ports under Russian blockade in the Black Sea.

Ships leaving Ukrainian ports would be escorted by Turkish naval vessels under the proposal being discussed. The development appeared to offer some hope as the UN warned that the war in Ukraine – a world’s fourth biggest exporter of grain – was fuelling serious shortages of food around the world and pushing millions of people into famine. ...

However, Markiyan Dmytrasevych, an adviser to Ukraine’s minister of agrarian policy and food, said on Tuesday that even if Russia lifted its blockade, thousands of mines would remain floating around the port of Odesa, and elsewhere. Dmytrasevych said that currently Ukraine was able to export a maximum of 2m tonnes of grain a month – compared with the 6m tonnes before the war – and that it would take until the end of the year to clear the mines. ...

Turkey has offered Ukraine help to de-mine the coastal area but the government in Kyiv has not only warned of the scale of the task but is concerned that it could leave Odesa, among other key ports, open to attack. ...

Russia’s defence minister, Sergei Shoigu, said the Russian-occupied ports of Berdiansk and Mariupol had already resumed their operations. “The de-mining of Mariupol’s port has been completed,” Shoigu said during an appearance on Russian television. “It is functioning normally and has received its first cargo ships.”

Military collapse in north Donbass. Turkey & Russia move closer together as EU crumbles

"Global Embarrassment": Mexico & More Skip Biden's Summit of Americas for Excluding Cuba, Venezuela

More detail at the link:

Domestic Crude Oil Peaked at $145 a Barrel in 2008. It Closed Yesterday at $118.50. So Why Is Gas at the Pump at All-Time Highs?

The peculiar thing about the current era of gas pump prices hitting historic price levels is that the cost of crude makes up 61 percent of the cost of a gallon of gasoline, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). And U.S. domestic crude, known as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), is not at historic levels. WTI surged to $145.16 per barrel at its peak on July 14, 2008 and hasn’t traded near that level this year. So why are gasoline prices at the pump at historic levels?

Part of that, as the above stories illustrate, is just plain ole price gouging. But the big picture is more complicated than that. According to the EIA, in addition to the 61 percent of the price of a gallon of gas that comes from the cost of crude oil, the other 39 percent shakes out as follows: the costs of refinement (14 percent), distribution and marketing (11 percent), and taxes (14 percent).

And refining looks to be a particular problem right now. The EIA reports that as of January 1, 1982, the U.S. had 301 refineries in operation. That compares to just 129 in operation as of January 1, 2021.

Demand Grows for Windfall Profits Tax as Goldman Sachs Predicts More Gas Pump Pain

Progressives are arguing that Wall Street's new prediction of worsening pain at the pump for U.S. consumers this summer underscores the need for Congress to pass Democratic lawmakers' overwhelmingly popular bill to impose a windfall profits tax on Big Oil.

According to analysts at Goldman Sachs, "oil prices will surge to $140 a barrel this summer, with a drop in Russian production and a gradual recovery in Chinese demand adding to the pressure on already low supplies," Insider reported Tuesday.

"But they said consumers will feel as though oil has hit $160 a barrel," the news outlet continued, "because a lack of capacity at refineries means gasoline and fuel prices are rising more than would normally be expected, adding to costs across the economy."

Oil prices have already increased by roughly 50% this year as a result of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and mismatches in supply and demand. As of Tuesday, Brent crude, the international benchmark, and WTI crude, the U.S. benchmark, traded at approximately $119 and $118 a barrel, respectively, while the nationwide average price for a gallon of gas hit $4.92.

Since consumer demand returned following a brief pandemic-driven decline in 2020, investors have pressured oil giants to suppress production to push prices higher. Last year, as average gas prices in the U.S. steadily climbed—reaching about $3.40 per gallon in December 2021, up from $2.10 a year before—25 of the world's biggest fossil fuel corporations enjoyed a record $205 billion in profits.

Oil and gas companies have hiked prices even further in 2022—especially after President Joe Biden's early March announcement of a U.S. ban on imports of Russian fossil fuels. Accusations of war profiteering have grown since petroleum executives in April bragged about their "best quarter ever."

A report published last month by the watchdog group Accountable.US found that "in the first three months of the year, 21 oil and gas companies made over $41 billion in profits, more than doubling profits from just a year ago. This is, on average, $1.2 billion more per company than the same time last year thanks to—as the companies themselves say—high oil prices and the crisis in Ukraine."

Chevron and ExxonMobil respectively raked in $6.3 billion and $5.5 billion in the first quarter of this year, meaning that they quadrupled and doubled their profits compared with the previous year even as the U.S. economy contracted. ...

Petroleum executives have faced increased scrutiny from Democratic members of Congress and New York's attorney general in recent weeks, but Jamie Henn, a spokesperson for the Stop the Oil Profiteering (STOP) campaign, has long argued that "the clearest and most popular way to get direct relief to the public and to check Big Oil's rampant war profiteering is with a windfall profit tax."

In March, congressional Democrats led by Rep. Ro Khanna (Calif.) and Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (R.I.) introduced the bicameral Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax in an effort to crack down on what progressive lawmakers have condemned as "shameless" price gouging by fossil fuel corporations.

According to survey data released just days after the legislation was unveiled, a whopping 80% of U.S. voters—including 73% of Republicans—support the measure, which would hit large fossil fuel companies with a per-barrel tax equal to 50% of the difference between the current price of a barrel of oil and the average price per barrel between 2015 and 2019. An estimated $45 billion in annual revenue would be redistributed to U.S. households in the form of quarterly rebates.

"There is vast, bipartisan support for this policy," Henn said in late April, "because the public knows oil and gas billionaires are responsible for the pain at the pump."

Despite being brought to Capitol Hill to testify before Congress about their role in jacking up gas prices, U.S. fossil fuel executives—projected to reap up to $126 billion in extra profits this year—have not been shy about how they are capitalizing on the war in Ukraine.

After rewarding themselves and other shareholders with billions of dollars worth of stock buybacks and dividend bumps last year, industry leaders are on track to do more of the same in 2022.

To put an end to such behavior, dozens of progressive advocacy groups have been urging Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to support the Big Oil Windfall Profits Tax, which Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has said can help Democrats avert "big losses" in November's pivotal midterms.

The STOP campaign, for its part, tweeted Monday that a windfall tax on Big Oil's skyrocketing profits provides a "straightforward" solution to high gas prices.

Khanna highlighted recent reporting that the Biden White House is "engaging in conversations with" congressional lawmakers about the design of a potential windfall profits tax.

"This tax would help rein in Big Oil's profiteering and put money directly in the pockets of consumers," Khanna said Monday on social media.

Last month, Britain's Conservative government announced that the U.K. will impose a 25% windfall tax on oil and gas profits, which is expected to raise $19 billion to support low-income households struggling with a significant spike in the cost of living.

However, Khanna and Whitehouse's proposal faces long odds in the Senate, where the anti-democratic filibuster rule requires 60 votes to advance debate on most legislation. Not only is the support of at least 10 Republicans unlikely to materialize, but questions remain about whether corporate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) would back the bill.

Electric Cars The ONLY Solution Democrats Have For BALLOONING Gas Prices?

Janet Yellen tells Congress US faces ‘unacceptable levels of inflation’

Janet Yellen told Congress that the US is facing “unacceptable levels of inflation” on Tuesday as the treasury secretary defended herself from criticism of her previous comments that rising prices were “transitory”.

Although the hearing with the Senate finance committee was centered on Joe Biden’s budget for 2023, Yellen was forced to answer questions on inflation, including some on how she once said that inflation would be “transitory”, or temporary.

In response to a question about how she had initially framed inflation, Yellen said: “When I said that inflation would be transitory, what I was not anticipating was a scenario in which we would end up contending with multiple variants of Covid that would be scrambling our economy and global supply chains.

“I was not envisioning impacts on food and energy prices we’ve seen from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” Yellen said she and the Federal Reserve chair, Jerome Powell, “could have used a better term than transitory”.

She said: “There’s no question that we have huge inflation pressures, that inflation is really our top economic problem at this point and that it’s critical that we address it. I do expect inflation to remain high, although I very much hope that it will be coming down now.”

Half Of Families Face HUNGER After CTC Expires

Wage gap between CEOs and US workers jumped to 670-to-1 last year, study finds

The wage gap between chief executives and workers at some of the US companies with the lowest-paid staff grew even wider last year, with CEOs making an average of $10.6m, while the median worker received $23,968.

A study of 300 top US companies released by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) on Tuesday found the average gap between CEO and median worker pay jumped to 670-to-1 (meaning the average CEO received $670 in compensation for every $1 the worker received). The ratio was up from 604-to-1 in 2020. Forty-nine firms had ratios above 1,000-to-1. At more than a third of the companies surveyed, IPS found that median worker pay did not keep pace with inflation.

The report, titled Executive Excess, comes amid a wave of unionization efforts among low wage workers and growing scrutiny of the huge share buyback programs many corporations have been using to inflate their share prices. US companies announced plans to buy back more than $300bn of their own shares in the first quarter of the year and Goldman Sachs has estimated that buybacks could top $1tn in 2022.

Share-related remuneration makes up the largest portion of senior executive compensation and as buybacks generally boost a company’s share price, they also boost executive pay. ... The report found that two-thirds of low-wage corporations that cut worker pay in 2021 also spent billions inflating CEO pay through stock buybacks.

The biggest buyback firm was home improvement chain Lowe’s, which spent $13bn on share repurchases. That money could have given each of its 325,000 employees a $40,000 raise, according to IPS. Instead, median pay at the company fell 7.6% to $22,697.

Anti-Labor Starbucks 'Getting Wrecked' as Memphis Workers Win Latest Union Drive

Seven workers at a Memphis, Tennessee Starbucks who were fired earlier this year after starting a unionization campaign declared victory Tuesday after employees at the store overwhelmingly voted in favor of forming a union.

Amid a nationwide tsunami of Starbucks worker organizing, employees at the company's store at the intersection of Poplar Avenue and Highland Street voted 11-3 to unionize, according to More Perfect Union.

"The Memphis Seven have been vindicated," the outlet tweeted following the vote. "The blowout victory comes four months after Starbucks illegally fired seven pro-union workers. A historic victory."

The seven former employees were fired in February after they launched the unionization effort. Starbucks claims they were terminated for violating company policies, but the ex-workers say the move was in retaliation for their labor organizing.

Due to a pending National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) case, the seven former workers were able to vote in Tuesday's election, after which they held a press conference.

"This is important to us; we know it's bigger than us," Nabretta Hardin told reporters. "I just really want to congratulate the workers at our store. Those workers down there, they are awesome. They didn't have to do this for us. They didn't have to do this for themselves. They could've left. I'm so filled with joy and so excited we are a unionized store."

Matt Breunig, founder of the crowdfunded think tank Peope's Policy Project, tweeted Tuesday that "Starbucks is getting wrecked."

According to the NLRB, more than 100 Starbucks stores have voted to unionize and over 270 union petitions have been filed by company workers in 34 states.

On Tuesday, workers at the Stuyvesant Plaza Starbucks in Albany, New York voted 15-0 to form a union. Employees at four Ann Arbor, Michigan Starbucks also unionized on Tuesday, as did two Seattle locations and a store in Lawrence, Kansas.

Starbucks workers seeking to organize have been met with union-busting and other retaliatory tactics by the multibillion-dollar corporation.

The NLRB has filed numerous complaints against Starbucks, including one last month that accuses the global coffee giant of more than 200 federal labor law violations.



the horse race



Michigan widens investigation into voting system breaches by Trump allies

State police in Michigan have obtained warrants to seize voting equipment and election-related records in at least three towns and one county in the past six weeks, police records show, widening the largest known investigation into unauthorized attempts by allies of Donald Trump to access voting systems.

The previously unreported records include search warrants and investigators’ memos obtained by Reuters through public records requests. The documents reveal a flurry of efforts by state authorities to secure voting machines, poll books, data storage devices and phone records as evidence in an inquiry launched in mid-February.

The state’s investigation follows breaches of local election systems in Michigan by Republican officials and pro-Trump activists trying to prove his baseless claims of widespread fraud in the 2020 election.

The police documents reveal, among other things, that the state is investigating a potential breach of voting equipment in Lake Township, a small, largely conservative community in northern Michigan’s Missaukee county. The previously unreported case is one of at least 17 incidents nationwide, including 11 in Michigan, in which Trump supporters gained or attempted to gain unauthorized access to voting equipment.

Many of the breaches have been inspired in part by the false assertion that state-ordered voting-system upgrades or maintenance would erase evidence of alleged voting fraud in 2020. State election officials, including those in Michigan, say those processes have no impact on the preservation of data from past elections.

Pelosi and other top Democrats subpoenaed over Bannon contempt case

Top House Democrats, including speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the members of the House select committee investigating the January 6 Capitol attack, have been subpoenaed to testify in court in connection with the criminal contempt case against Donald Trump’s one-time chief strategist Steve Bannon.

The subpoenas – which were accepted by the House counsel, Doug Letter, last Friday, according to a source familiar with the matter – compel the handover of documents and testimony about internal decision-making that led to Bannon’s contempt case.

But whether the subpoenas stand depends on how Judge Carl Nichols rules at a hearing next week, where he will asses pre-trial motions. Nichols could decide the testimony of members of Congress, for instance, is inadmissible because of protections like the so-called speech and debate clause.

Bannon’s lawyers are seeking cooperation from top Democrats including Pelosi, the House majority leader Steny Hoyer, the House majority whip Jim Clyburn, all members of the select committee and three select committee counsels, as well as Letter. The subpoenas request materials that Bannon’s lawyers believe will provide evidence that the select committee did not follow House rules in issuing its subpoena to Bannon last year, and that federal prosecutors violated justice department rules in filing charges.

It was not clear on Tuesday whether Letter, the House counsel, would move to quash the trial subpoenas.

San Francisco DA Chesa Boudin Ousted in Recall & L.A. Mayor Race Heads to Runoff



the evening greens


Why is eco-conscious California spending millions to support natural gas?

Transportation contributes at least 40% of California’s greenhouse gas emissions, and as regulators grapple with how best to reduce air pollution in the region, they are pouring millions of dollars into a controversial solution: natural gas.

The regional air regulator that oversees Los Angeles, Riverside, San Bernardino and Orange counties, the South Coast air quality management district, has for years dedicated a significant potion of its clean air grants – millions of dollars – toward natural gas trucks and infrastructure through its various incentive programs meant to clean up the air, according to data on two of the agency’s main grant programs. One of its biggest grant programs spent more than 90% of funds on diesel and natural gas incentives – rather than on electric vehicles. Much of that funding has flowed to very large, private companies like Disneyland Resort and Waste Management Inc to replace diesel vehicles with natural gas. The agency has also contributed hundreds of thousands of dollars to an industry-focused partnership that runs a pro-gas website.

South Coast argues that the electric alternatives available are too expensive, in part because they require additional spending on charging station infrastructure. The board argues that some of the equipment the grants replace – for marine, construction and agricultural uses – doesn’t have a widely available electric alternative. But it says it’s working with Volvo, Volkswagen and other manufacturers to help bring more cost-effective options to the market. ...

Critics question why the agency is investing so many public dollars into helping large private corporations clean up their businesses and why it is doing so by investing in gas at a time when the world is calling for a shift toward renewable power. “You have this kind of deep investment in the gas industry and it helps prop up the opposition to zero emissions. And that’s what we fear is happening,” said Adrian Martinez, senior attorney at the environmental group Earthjustice. “At some point it’s got to stop … I think where it gets strange is when the government is so entangled in pushing and selling [the gas industry’s] product for them.” ...

But a recent study from California’s air resources board – which oversees South Coast – concluded that zero emissions vehicles are the cheapest option to own and operate because they save so much in fuel and maintenance costs. The study also found that replacing diesel trucks with natural gas trucks can actually be worse for the climate, because the venting and flaring associated with producing natural gas emits so much methane.

Much more detail at the link:

A mega-tsunami in the Pacific north-west? It could be worse than predicted, study says

Scientists have long predicted a giant 9.0-magnitude earthquake that reverberates out from the Pacific north-west’s Cascadia fault and quickly triggers colossal waves barreling to shore. But what if these predictions were missing an important piece of information – one that, in certain scenarios, could tell an even more extreme story?

A new study, published last month in the peer-reviewed journal Earth-Science Reviews, points toward such a missing piece. Researchers revealed a previously unknown relationship between the severity of a tsunami triggered by an earthquake and something known as “the outer wedge”, the area between the main earthquake fault and the seafloor.

Sylvain Barbot, a co-author of the study, described the outer wedge as the “garbage bag of subduction zones”, the place where two tectonic plates crash into each other and can produce an earthquake, because it’s where sediment piles up. The researchers’ findings suggest that the wider it is, the larger the maximum size of the tsunami will be. ...

“There are places where [the outer wedge is] tiny, so great news,” said Barbot, an associate professor in earth science at the University of Southern California. “And there are places where it’s huge. And that’s the case in the Pacific north-west.”

For about two years, he and co-author Qiang Qiu, of the South China Sea Institute of Oceanology, studied 11 “tsunami earthquakes” that have taken place across the world over the past 200 years. ... They found a correlative relationship between the maximum tsunami height and the outer wedge. The wider it is, Barbot explained, the more faults there are, the more chances there are to move the seafloor and thus the more extreme the tsunami may be.


Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Some Other People's Thoughts On The U.S. Role In The Ukraine And Europe

US Leads Sanctions Killing Millions to No End

Italy Secret Services Attack on Ukraine War Skeptics Backfires: Corriere della Sera Publication of “filoputiniani” List Called McCarthyism, Proscription; Suits Coming?

John Kiriakou: The Setback in Russiagate Probe

Move over ACLU, FIRE is the New Champion of Free Speech

Paul Mason’s covert intelligence-linked plot to destroy The Grayzone exposed

Is Capitalism Near Its End?

High-stakes California races will decide LA mayor and San Francisco recall

Will anti-abortionists use ‘uterus surveillance’ against women in the US?

Liability Shields Allow Big Pharma, Gun Industry To Kill Americans Scott-Free: Briahna Joy Gray

Russian Media hints at ceasefire. Merkel returns. War and Peace canceled.


A Little Night Music

Big Maceo Merriweather - Macy Special

Big Maceo - Big City Blues

Big Maceo Merriweather - Leaving Blues

Big Maceo - Since you been gone

Big Maceo - Big Road Blues

Big Maceo Merriweather - Strange To Me Blues

Big Maceo & Tampa Red - Kid Man Blues

Big Maceo Merriweather - Texas blues

Big Maceo Merriweather - Have You Heard About It

Big Maceo Merriweather - Chicago Breakdown


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19 users have voted.

Comments

snoopydawg's picture

President Joe Biden's early March announcement of a U.S. ban on imports of Russian fossil fuels.

Russia is saying that Biden has doubled the amount of gas he buys from Russia whilst making sure that Europe buys their gas from us at inflated prices. I’ll find the link.

Add Utah to this list.

Some areas are over $5. It’s gone up $.40 just this week.

Oh my

We’re still camping. Went to take Sam wading today but the shores were full of people and I’d have to walk too far to find a spot away from them. I’ll go earlier tomorrow and see how it goes. She’s having a blast hunting squirrels and bugs and pretending that she is the queen of the wilds. If I stay 2 more days I’ll miss the democrat’s big bogus hearing on the capital thingy. But I’m sure lots of people will be glued to their TV watching as America returns to McCarthyism.

Gateway Pundit is showing lots of videos that democrats have edited from their lineup. Fox is getting lots of crap for not airing the hearings.

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10 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

i filled up over the weekend and the cheapest gas i could find in my part of maryland was 4.75, it'll be up over $5 the next time i need to fill up, i'm sure.

i can't imagine why oil stocks are rising. i mean, gosh, there are shortages, right? and there's just nothing anybody (especially the government) can do.

glad to hear that you and sam are still having a good time out there. don't worry about missing the dems latest attempt to show us all that despite the fact that they are useless jackasses, that the other side is so evil and dangerous that we have to vote for the useless jackass party. sound and fury signifying ...

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12 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@joe shikspack

He does a good job calling out the shitlibs for shirking everything that they once stood against.

Solidarity Solitary confinement is being used for them and the shitlibs cheer it. Black is the new white. But then that was why democrats addled their brains with Orange Man bad for 4 years wasn’t it?

Biden’s DHS put out new warnings for domestic terrorism and anyone who even questions the hearings or that there’s a big problem with the border are going to be targeted. Yippee says the shitlibs.

I guess solidarity works for some…. I wonder how long till congress passes Schiff's patriot act 2? Probably something that congress will do after their hearings and I bet republicans will also vote for it including Lee who says that he stands for the constitution.

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8 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

enhydra lutris's picture

Funny that free speech, of all things, should come up this afternoon. I brought up Denis Diderot this morning and, in the course of so doing, provided this bit of wisdom from him.

“All things must be examined, debated, investigated without exception and without regard for anyone's feelings.”

~~ Denis Diderot

Of course, free speech started to die here as soon as the courts began asserting that there were acceptable exceptions and restrictions. The question isn't whether we have free speech, we don't, but merely exactly how unfree it is currently.

Another fun topic has reared its ugly head again too.

Domestic Crude Oil Peaked at $145 a Barrel in 2008. It Closed Yesterday at $118.50. So Why Is Gas at the Pump at All-Time Highs?

Because that's what the market will bear, which is really how gas at the pump is priced.

The peculiar thing about the current era of gas pump prices hitting historic price levels is that the cost of crude makes up 61 percent of the cost of a gallon of gasoline, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). And U.S. domestic crude, known as West Texas Intermediate (WTI), is not at historic levels. WTI surged to $145.16 per barrel at its peak on July 14, 2008 and hasn’t traded near that level this year. So why are gasoline prices at the pump at historic levels?

Uh, yes, and NO. The cost of crude as a fraction of the total cost fluctuates, but that's a quibble. The real thing is that the quotation prices that everybody is always talking about aren't the actual cost of crude. They're what unhedged small retail buyers pay. Hedged downstream companies, plus all the other industries like plastics, chemicals, medicines and such pay a bit less. PRODUCERS, however, pay very, very, very little, a small fraction of that quotation price; these folks are the Supermajors and many/most of the majors. There is a somewhat brilliant little essay on how this all works right here on c99p - https://caucus99percent.com/content/oil-cost-oil-and-gas-price-disconnec... Trust me, it's the straight scoop read it, then bookmark it and re-read it every now and then whenever to start to associate quotation prices for crude with what you pay at the pump. What you pay at the pump it what the people who set prices think the market will bear.

be well and have a good one

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15 users have voted.

That, in its essence, is fascism--ownership of government by an individual, by a group, or by any other controlling private power. -- Franklin D. Roosevelt --

joe shikspack's picture

@enhydra lutris

heh, yeah, it's funny how all of our elected officials are so proud of capitalism until somebody starts doing it so ruthlessly and transparently that people can see it's a bunch of crap too easily.

will exxon become a martin shkreli bro? stay tuned!

have a great evening!

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8 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

Ukraine intelligence is keeping Biden in the dark about what it’s doing there. Nothing like building a case of not knowing that the offensive weapons being sent there are going to be used to attack Russia.

“We didn’t know that they were going to do that and besides they gave us their word that they wouldn’t.”

Biden and his NATO sycophants are running the show. And today the NATO mouthpiece said that every country gets to decide on whether they have nuclear weapons. But Biden is telling North Korea that they better not dally with them as is Israel telling Iran that they can’t have them either. Love the double standards don’t you?

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12 users have voted.

Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.

joe shikspack's picture

@snoopydawg

maybe biden should try that trick he used to get ukraine's president to dump the prosecutor that was investigating burisma in order to get full information from zelensky about what he's doing.

north korea must be delighted that nato has discovered the concept of national sovereignty and self-determination.

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7 users have voted.

Wurlitzer keeps finding Another gear to spin faster and faster
kinda amazing that people who Knew the govt was lying about
Everything now believe the govt lies about Anything
regardless of contrarian evidence

Talk about broken brains(mine was broke a Long time ago-hint) buying shoddy merch
sad

I’ll see your bad propaganda and raise you shitty propaganda
and actually mean it?!?
wow

seems like reality won’t really bite
until it does
scarily that could be a mushroom cloud the way things be going
lots of parallels to a hundred and ten years ago this time with big badda booms to play with
such Fun to look forward to

tanks for the round up and da blues
if you ain’t got ‘em now you will soon enough

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11 users have voted.

Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .

Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .

If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march

joe shikspack's picture

@Tall Bald and Ugly

heh...

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6 users have voted.
ggersh's picture

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11 users have voted.

I never knew that the term "Never Again" only pertained to
those born Jewish

"Antisemite used to be someone who didn't like Jews
now it's someone who Jews don't like"

Heard from Margaret Kimberley

joe shikspack's picture

@ggersh

you were right, that is funny. Smile

have a great evening!

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4 users have voted.

@enhydra lutris @ggersh that is hilarious! And so TRUE!

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5 users have voted.

"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American public believes is false." ---- William Casey, CIA Director, 1981

joe shikspack's picture

@CB

wow, the ukrainians must have spent a fortune on mines, that was pretty impressive.

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7 users have voted.
CB's picture

@joe shikspack
They were supplied free of charge by the US taxpayer thru NATO.

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6 users have voted.
joe shikspack's picture

@CB

well, i guess that i'm glad that for once the tax money that they stole from us to further their selfish war aims of dominance amounted only to a very large annoyance that can be cleared by heavy equipment.

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6 users have voted.
janis b's picture

@joe shikspack

Mines are so creepy, beside being exceedingly dangerous and violent. Every aspect of war is horrifying in its violence. How so many humans can participate in one form or another will always astound me. I realise the necessity for some to protect themselves, and I don’t imagine or expect a utopia, but I am stunned by how widespread and easily ignited violence is.

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11 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@janis b

that I don’t have any sympathy for. Lots of ex military and call of duty gamers answered Ukraines call for volunteers to fight the nasty Russians and were surprised when lots of them were killed by Russian bombs. 3 people who are considered mercenaries plead guilty recently. CB has the story of one of them.

It’s one thing to be misguided and sign up to defend your country, but it’s another thing to sign up just to make money. I’m betting that Blackwater is in Ukraine and every member is getting paid much more than the people in the military are. Remember what Blackwater goons did in Iraq and innocent people died.

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janis b's picture

@snoopydawg

I think at this point with so much exposure, there’s less reason to be misguided, but that's just me. Does that mean people are so desperate that they take the risk of sacrificing their lives for a pay check?

I'm glad you and Sam are enjoying Ogden Valley.

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5 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@janis b

then people signing up to defend their country, but there still are plenty of people who think that the military actually defends their freedoms. I find it weird how so many people aren’t aware that congress has pretty much nullified our freedoms through the patriot act and Obama rescinding habeas corpus while people in the military didn’t say a damn thing about it.

I’m in my old stomping grounds here. My friends and I came here for graduation and got bored and started finding which fun size candy bars were good for roasting. We settled on Milky Way bars and my family and friends have been roasting them ever since. You just have to do it slowly and carefully and then you are in for a treat.

Plus there’s the dam where we spent days waterskiing and snowbasin for downhill and cross country skiing and lots of places to camp.

https://www.visitogden.com/neighborhoods/ogden-valley/

We are in Eden at north fork state park. I went to look at the other campgrounds I used to go to 40 years ago and decided this spot can’t be beat.

Next trip will be to the Uintas which are higher in elevation. Xmas meadows is my favorite spot there. Hopefully I can still camp by the river which will please the Sam dawg immensely.

You are moving into winter right? It’s your rainy season?

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janis b's picture

@snoopydawg

How beautifully scenic Eden is, and Xmas Meadows looks sublime.

Winter (rainy and colder) has been taking its time to appear. It seems only now to be starting, though in only two weeks the days will start to lengthen. The next two months should be colder and rainier. I'm glad I have good wood to burn.

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7 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@janis b

more rain. It’s getting scary enough that so many places are not getting it that makes me believe in weather modification that is causing it. So many states in the west are having mega fires too. Thousands upon thousands of people homeless and vying for houses and the supplies are dwindling.

The peak in the picture is Ostler peak and just to the left of it is sore ass pass. I went backpacking on the other side of the peak and came down sore ass pass into Xmas meadows. It’s aptly named because I had to come down it on mine. It’s very long and steep to be sure. There are cabins just to the right of the picture too. Fun place to spend the winter if you can get the 8 miles from the road.

My family went camping just below the meadow and there is a campground up at the top of the picture. I’m going to go there and see if my spot by the river is still available. The Uintas were packed during the epidemic because everyone and their newly adopted dawg bought RVs. I’m hoping that people are back in their federal and offices and not in the mountains. All of Utah’s state parks were crammed full last year. They’re now doing reservations for most of them.

Thanks for posting that picture.

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janis b's picture

@snoopydawg

I'd love to be there then, if only for a day. A week would be better.

I waver between feeling grumpy about the increase of people on 'my' beach, and compassion for those who are more restricted to have the opportunity to enjoy it.

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6 users have voted.
snoopydawg's picture

@janis b

because of the amount of snow on the peak. They are 10,000 feet high and they get lots of snow. Usually. There are lakes scattered everywhere up there. I flew over our backpacking route and got a picture of it. I’ll post when I get home unless I forget. I’ll tell you walking downhill from there was a killer on my knees and I was young. Owie.

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@snoopydawg

sounds appropriate
climbing is easier than
descending from my
experience

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3 users have voted.
CB's picture

Prosecution are asking for death penalty. He will know his sentence tomorrow. He is asking for mercy and says he regrets he joined the Azov Battalion after seeing the death and destruction they have wrought upon the civilians in Mariupol. He is offering his services to help rebuild the city as penance.

Aiden Aislin: The Court Sentence (Watch)

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8 users have voted.
Pluto's Republic's picture

This is worth a screen shot album:

If you type "summit of the americas" into Google search, you get back
six pages, 95% of which are Fake News; Puff Pieces; Non News Brochure copy;
Historical Fake News from prior events; State-owned news orgs including VOAnews, NPR, and PBS; State Department-edited news from the LATimes; outdated news from weeks and months earlier; Controlled Opposition pseudo-news; State Department pay-Op news from NGOs like NED and USAID; manufactured news from depraved mouthpieces like Wall Street Journal and the New York Times; and one news concoction from behind a UK paywall, blaming everything on China.

All Latino protesters are described as protesting against places like Cuba, Venezuela, Mexico, etc. None are protesting against the US treatment of immigrants.

In other words, no news from real journalists, domestic or foreign. Most Americans have no idea what's taking place in Los Angeles. Google must have gone over these prepared offerings with a microscope.

One could write a dissertation based on these screen shots. This content-free pseudo news offering from Google tells the true story of how the Western Hemisphere flew apart. If you want to see a shocking version of this, type "summit of the americas" into Google News. At the moment, all that comes back is a handful of news-free articles from the LATimes, edited by the State Department.

Watch out as the BRICS begin to rise next year! The 'C' stands for China.

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5 users have voted.

____________________

The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato