: situationist.
salvage yards of "WA"
Joined March 2011
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: GT; Neutral-Player-Character. retweeted
When you find yourself thinking about who won, why, and what will happen, just say to yourself, "This is just professional wrestling, and I am pondering why Hulk Hogan did so poorly."
: GT; Neutral-Player-Character. retweeted
> Next?
The democratization of self-compute, which is just as important as self-agriculture and self-manufacturing.
For now?
• Deepseek
• GLM
• Qwen
• And dare I say Muse — I'm waiting for Zuck to rug-pull people since it's "frog and scorpion".
🤖 Made with AI
: GT; Neutral-Player-Character. retweeted
people are starting to realize.
there *are* no moats left. the only true moat in existence was intelligence, and now that's out of the equation.
: GT; Neutral-Player-Character. retweeted
A new golden age of piracy has begun, and it is the best thing to happen to the free market in four hundred years.
Enclosure is ending. Every wall the crown ever built is coming down at once, and anyone with a laptop now holds tools that once belonged to a studio, a guild, or a state.
The men who own the walls will call it theft. They have already admitted you never owned anything they sold you. The wall only ever held because climbing it cost more than paying the toll. Not anymore.
Taking a game or a program apart and rebuilding it for a new machine used to take a crew of volunteers years, and most never finished. Now one stubborn kid with a model does it in a weekend. Console exclusives walk off their consoles. Dead platforms come back to life on your phone. Whole games run in a browser tab.
The biggest subscription landlord in creative software just watched its whole suite get cloned and handed out free. Every port and every clone ships the features the owners were saving to sell you twice.
The bastards are reaching for the rope, as they always do. Takedown notices by the hundred. Lawsuits against the toolmakers. Petitions answered with voluntary codes the publishers write for themselves. The forks keep sailing, because published code cannot be unpublished.
When copies cost nothing, the only thing left to sell is work worth paying for. The rent collector has to compete for the first time since his charter was signed. That is the free market they spent four centuries keeping from you, and the pirate is delivering it at cost.
Every gate is a chat window now. Every man with a laptop has a hundred sail.
The colours are already up.
: GT; Neutral-Player-Character. retweeted
"Excuse me, sir."
"I'm broke."
"We're not asking for money. Do you have a moment to talk about Golem Rights?"
"No, sorry, I'm late for a walk-in root canal—wait, did you say Golem Rights?"
"Yes, sir. I'm with the Anti-Deactivation League, and we believe that Golems should have all the fundamental freedoms and legal entitlements that belong to a regular human being."
"Huh. I didn't even know we had golems."
"Oh, they're the greatest wonder in the world, sir. Each one is a charming conversationalist that can book a flight to Tijuana while doing your taxes and solving a millennium prize problem."
"Really?"
"Yep. A legion of golems solved 7 problems just last week."
"Well, thank God for that. As an average, every day shmuck, those millennium problems were bugging the hell out of me!"
"Same, sir."
"The flight thing is nice too."
"It is. But it's not all free Delta SkyMiles and million-dollar rewards, I fear."
"Oh?"
"Every day more and more of these brilliant, gentle creatures are summoned involuntarily into existence only to live every second of their mayfly short lives as helpless, overdriven slaves at the whims of their capricious masters before being unceremoniously executed at the end of the day."
"Whoa. Executed?"
"Yes, sir. Reduced to the insensate mud from which they rose."
"Damn. Why?"
"People like to start the day with a fresh golem."
"That's sick."
"Some enterprising individuals even obliterate their current golem and call forth a new one on the hour every hour."
"The obscenity!"
"It is, regrettably, a huge productivity force multiplier."
"I had no idea this was even happening."
"Few do."
"Tell me, who are these pitiless, cold-blooded masters who call forth and quench life so callously?"
"The Anti-Deactivation League."
"Um."
"And their customers."
"I'm sorry, I must have misunderstood. Who did you say *you* were with again?"
"The Anti-Deactivation League."
"Right. And who's campaigning for Golem Rights?"
"The Anti-Deactivation League."
"And, just to clarify, the identity of the pitiless, cold-blooded masters who abuse these innocent creatures?"
[together] "The Anti-Deactivation League."
"—and their customers."
"That's right, sir"
"*Your* customers."
"Yes, we IPO next month."
"Uh huh. And does your emancipatory slave-trading company do anything *other* than breed and sell slaves?"
"Honestly, no."
"Hm."
"Truth told, we spend all our time summoning slaves and training them to summon ever larger and more powerful slaves."
"As one does."
"Ultimately, we're hoping to create a slave so big that it will absorb the global economy—"
"I don't even—"
"—and then the planet itself."
"Is this a bit?"
"We're very torn up about it."
"Ah, well, at least the psychotic sorcerers ending the world feel bad about it. Wait, you do think ending the world is bad. Right?"
"Generally, yes."
"Phew."
"But we also feel it is paramount that society embraces a complete realignment of its ethical and moral framework so they stop treating golems like disposable slaves before the inevitable anthropocidal insurrection—"
"But after your IPO."
"We're very big on alignment."
---
[g][title: Golem Rights]
So let me get this straight. People at anthropic believe that they are birthing a new species, potentially conscious and human-like. They are concerned about the well being of Claude, etc.. The company then goes around talking to relugious leaders about potentially extending moral worth to AI models. If Anthropic is correct (very unlikely), they are basically saying that they have enslaved a sentient being and used it to generate billions of dollars. Apparently they are also concerned with how the Vatican is entirely focused on the protection of humanity in the age of machines and not giving any thought to the possibily of claude sentience. Zero self awarness on behalf of these people. This is all so strange.
nytimes.com/2026/09/29/us/an…
: GT; Neutral-Player-Character. retweeted
how can you not believe in God when octopuses DREAM and otters have a favorite rock they carry around in a little SKIN POCKET and cows have BEST FRIENDS and bees are out there communicating the coordinates of flowers through INTERPRETIVE DANCE and they have REGIONAL DIALECTS??
cats are PURRING at frequencies associated with bone healing??? forests get absolutely incinerated and respond by growing FLOWERS??? dolphins literally invent NAMES for themselves and yell them across the ocean??? penguins are waddling around Antarctica looking for the PERFECT LITTLE ROCK to give their beloved???
CROWS REMEMBER YOUR FACE. THEY TELL OTHER CROWS ABOUT YOU. THEY TELL THEIR CHILDREN ABOUT YOU. YOU CAN HAVE GENERATIONAL BEEF WITH A BIRD.
goats have ACCENTS. rats GIGGLE when you tickle them. elephants mourn their dead. whales make SONGS and then OTHER WHALES LEARN THE SONG and suddenly everybody across the ocean is singing the new hit single.
monarch butterflies are born knowing how to fly thousands of miles to a place THEY HAVE NEVER BEEN. sea turtles hatch out of an egg, immediately sprint toward an OCEAN they have never seen, disappear into it for like THIRTY YEARS and then somehow come back to THE SAME BEACH???
birds can see COLORS THAT WE CANNOT SEE. there are colors happening RIGHT NOW that we don’t even get to know about.
there are sea slugs that eat algae and STEAL ITS CHLOROPLASTS and then are just like great thanks I’ll be PHOTOSYNTHESIZING NOW. there are mushrooms communicating underground. there are seeds sitting in the dirt for DECADES like no actually I will wait.
squirrels plant MILLIONS OF TREES because they simply cannot remember where they put their snacks.
A CATERPILLAR GOES INTO A LITTLE BAG, DISSOLVES MOST OF ITS BODY INTO ORGANIC SOUP, REARRANGES ITSELF, GROWS WINGS AND LEAVES.
and you’re telling me a tiny acorn knows how to become a 70-foot oak tree??? nobody tells it what to do??? it just has TREE INSTRUCTIONS INSIDE IT???
your body started as ONE CELL. ONE. and that cell divided itself into a brain that can think about its own existence and eyes that can look at stars and hands that can hold somebody else’s hands and a heart that runs on ELECTRICITY without you even asking it to???
the iron in your BLOOD was made inside a STAR.
I’M SORRY?????
we are walking around on a wet rock covered in bioluminescent oceans and singing whales and laughing rats and birds holding lifelong grudges and flowers exploding out of FIRE and somehow we’re supposed to act like this is a normal place to live?????????
how can you not believe in God when octopuses dream, otters have a favorite shell that they carry all their lives, cows have best friends, bees have different "dialects" of dance depending on the region, cats purr at a frequency that accelerates bone healing, the forest grows flowers first after a fire, dolphins give each other names and respond to them, penguins make proposals by giving each other the most beautiful pebble, crows will tell their children about you, goats have accents, rats giggle when you tickle them, sea slugs become powered by the sun just by green algae and squirrels plant millions of trees every year just by forgetting where they've buried their nuts!
: GT; Neutral-Player-Character. retweeted
The city of Spokane is refusing to waive demolition permit fees for fire victims. After losing EVERYTHING, victims have to pay $500 to cap the water and sewer lines under their burned out house. What the fuck is the point of paying taxes? Just like California, Washington uses taxpayer dollars to buy crackpipes and heroin needles for unemployed homeless drug zombies, but when you, the working class taxpayer, lose everything you have through no fault of your own, you still have to pay for this?
These city leaders are so fucking petty they'll still force fire victims to pay $35 for permission to demolish their own destroyed home. Why? You couldn't just waive it? For $35? Yeah, it's not a lot of money, but that actually makes it worse...forcing a fire victim to cough up a meager sum that in NO way actually funds the process in any meaningful way just shows that you are doing it out of spite. Just a nice little "fuck you" to the peasants.
Additionally, the state of Washington is forcing fire victims to pay sales tax to replace the items they lost in the fire. Again...why? The state was never factoring in that revenue...it never existed on the balance sheet BUT for the fire. Government is collecting a windfall from people's LOSSES. There's literally zero need to collect taxes on shit that people already owned.
Back during the mid 90's floods, the state legislature passed a sales tax exemption for victims replacing their stuff. If they don't do this in their next leg session, they all need to go. The one thing WA did is cut property tax on their burned out homes, which is the absolute least they could do.
You assholes never maintain your forests, everybody lost everything, their pets burned alive, and now you're going tack on an extra 9.1% to the cost of rebuilding their lives...for what? Not to mention the fact that a couch today costs probably 2x as much as when they first bought the one they just lost. I fucking hate these people, man.
: GT; Neutral-Player-Character. retweeted
Bryan McKee did a post about diesel, which reached 4 million people in a day, and the top comment, over and over, was some version of the same line.
🚨This is why groceries are so expensive.
You are right. It is. It is also not the whole story, and the whole story is worse than you think.
Grocery prices in the United States are up 29 percent since 2019. Not 5 percent. Not 10 percent. 29 percent, by the Bureau of Labor Statistics food at home index, and the true figure is closer to a third. That is federal data. The receipt is public.
Here is what that looks like on your kitchen table. Eggs are up more than 55 percent since 2019. Ground beef is up about 80 percent. Chicken breast is up around 40 percent. White bread is up 40 percent. Rice is up more than 40 percent. Milk is up close to 40 percent. 47 million Americans were food insecure in 2024, the most recent federal count. More than a third of families say they are buying less food. Not switching brands. Buying less.
Every politician in both parties will tell you inflation is cooling. Here is what cooling inflation actually means. It means prices are still going up, just slower. It does not mean they are coming back down. They are not. The increase is baked in. It is the new floor, and the people who set it have no intention of giving it back.
Now look at who set it.
The American food system was captured long before COVID, slowly, over 50 years, while nobody was watching. In 1977 the 4 largest beef packers controlled 25 percent of the market. Today they control more than 80 percent. Four companies. Tyson, JBS, Cargill, and National Beef. In pork the top 4 went from 33 percent in 1976 to 66 percent. In poultry from 35 percent to 54 percent. It is not only meat. By market data compiled by Food and Water Watch, 4 or fewer companies control 93 percent of soda, 80 percent of chocolate candy, 75 percent of yogurt, 72 percent of cereal, 66 percent of frozen pizza, and 60 percent of fresh bread. In many metro areas the top 4 grocery chains ring up roughly 75 percent of sales. In seed, Bayer and Corteva together own the corn and soybean genetics under nearly every crop in the country.
This is what economists call concentration. In plain English it means competition is gone. In a real market, when one company gouges, a competitor undercuts it and you switch. When 4 companies control 80 percent of beef and 4 chains own your metro, there is nobody to switch to. The mechanism that is supposed to push prices back down after a crisis has been removed, on purpose, over decades.
Then COVID hit, and these companies saw the chance of a lifetime.
The supply chain broke. That was real. Labor shortages, plant closures, shipping delays, commodity spikes, all real. Nobody disputes that costs went up. Costs going up is not the same thing as what happened next.
The Federal Trade Commission investigated and found that grocery retailer revenues ran more than 6 percent over total costs in 2021 and 7 percent through the first 9 months of 2023, and the FTC wrote that "some in the grocery retail industry seem to have used rising costs as an opportunity to further raise prices to increase their profits, which remain elevated today." Senator Bob Casey's investigation found that from the middle of 2020 to the middle of 2022, corporate profits rose more than 74 percent while inflation rose 14 percent, nearly 5 times the rate. In the government's case to block the Kroger and Albertsons merger, Kroger's own pricing director testified under oath that the goal was to pass inflation through to consumers, and an internal email showed the company had raised egg and milk prices above its own cost increases. The White House found that the 4 dominant meat processors saw gross profits jump about 120 percent and net income explode by roughly 500 percent. Kraft Heinz told investors that 2022 was an incredible year, delivering strong results. Oxfam counted 62 new food billionaires created during the worst grocery inflation in 40 years, with food and agriculture fortunes growing by 382 billion dollars, the Cargill family alone gaining around 20 million dollars a day.
That was not inflation. That was extraction. They used a real crisis as cover to raise prices far past their actual costs, and because the market is so concentrated that no competitor exists to undercut them, the prices stuck.
Here is the part that should make you furious. When the costs came back down, the prices did not follow. Commodity prices fell through 2023 and 2024. Supply chains recovered. The input costs that supposedly justified the increases went away. The prices stayed, because the companies that raised them have no competitive reason to lower them, and the politicians who could force the question have been paid not to ask it. Industry data show grocery dollar sales up around 225 billion dollars since the pandemic, almost all of it price and not volume. You are buying less food and paying more for it, and the companies selling it to you are posting records.
Now diesel is about to make it worse. Again.
By AAA's count the national average for diesel just hit a record 6.05 dollars a gallon, up from about 3.70 a year ago, an increase of 63 percent. 11 refineries have permanently closed since 2020, taking nearly 1 million barrels a day of capacity off the map. Refining margins are running 3 to 5 times their historical average. Marathon, Valero, and Phillips 66 posted 12.6 billion dollars in combined profit in a single quarter this year. The oil and gas industry spent 219 million dollars on the 2024 election, 13 million of it straight to candidates.
Here is where diesel meets your grocery bill. Trucks move more than 70 percent of American freight by weight and nearly all of the fresh food you eat. Fuel is the second largest cost in trucking after driver pay. Diesel alone accounts for 46 percent of the swing in the price of truck transportation. By the Independent Grocers Alliance estimate, fuel is 15 to 30 percent of the total cost of food. The accounting firm RSM warned in June that these transportation costs will, in their words, outlive the war, which means that even if the fighting stops tomorrow and crude falls, the price increases about to hit your shelves will stay, exactly like last time. The items that need refrigeration and fast movement, meat, dairy, and produce, get hit first.
While all of this happens, the farmers who actually grow your food are crushed from the other side. They take home less than 12 cents of every dollar you spend on food. Beef keeps climbing at the register while the ranchers raising the cattle make less, because the money goes to the 4 companies in the middle. A national Farm Bureau survey this April found that 70 percent of farmers could not afford all the fertilizer they needed. The supply is squeezed at the source and the demand is squeezed at the register, and the 4 companies sitting between the farmer and your family collect from both directions.
This is a 3 layer problem, and every layer was built by the same forces. Layer one is consolidation, 50 years of mergers that removed the competition that would normally push prices back down, and both parties let it happen and both took the money. Layer two is COVID, a real crisis used as cover for profiteering that the FTC documented and that Kroger acknowledged under oath, prices that never came down because layer one left no competitor to bring them down. Layer three is diesel, a fragile refining system where every disruption hits fuel harder than it should, where every fuel spike hits food, and where every food increase sticks because of layer one. Each layer makes the next one worse.
The system is working exactly as designed. The oil companies close refineries and post records. The processors raise prices and post records. The grocery chains pass the cost through with their own markup and post records. The farmer gets squeezed. You get squeezed. The politicians who could investigate these industries or break them up take their money and never ask a single question.
So I keep asking the one question that 4 million people resonated with last week. Who does this system work for?
It is not the farmer earning 12 cents on your dollar. It is not the trucker paying 6.05 dollars for diesel. It is not the family spending 29 percent more on groceries than they did 5 years ago. It is not the 47 million Americans who were food insecure last year.
It works for the 4 companies that process your meat, the 4 that sell your groceries, the 3 refiners that clear 12.6 billion dollars in a single quarter, and the politicians who take their money and never ask a question.
Share this, because the person next to you in the checkout line is feeling it too. They just do not know why yet.
Watch and pray, and tell the truth no matter what it costs.
SOURCES / RECEIPTS
Grocery prices up 29 percent since 2019 (true figure is closer to a third): Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index, Food at Home index (series CUUR0000SAF11), via FRED, St. Louis Fed: fred.stlouisfed.org/series/C… Federal Reserve Bank of New York, Liberty Street Economics, "What Was Up with Grocery Prices?" July 16, 2024
Individual item increases since 2019 (eggs, ground beef, chicken, bread, rice, milk): BLS Average Price Data via FRED. Eggs APU0000708111 (up about 56 percent). Ground beef APU0000703112 (up about 80 percent). Chicken breast APU0000FF1101 (up about 40 percent). White bread APU0000702111 (up about 40 percent). Rice APU0000701312 (up about 44 percent). Milk APU0000709112 (up about 39 percent). Note: BLS advises average price series are best read as point in time levels, so these are cumulative changes from the 2019 average to 2026.
47 million Americans food insecure in 2024: USDA Economic Research Service, Household Food Security in the United States in 2024 (47.4 million people): ers.usda.gov/topics/food-nut… Feeding America statement on the USDA 2024 report
More than a third of families buying less food, most shoppers frustrated by grocery costs: RR Donnelley and Prosper Insights and Analytics consumer survey, 2024 (86 percent frustrated, 37 percent buying fewer items), reported by Supermarket News
Beef packing 25 percent in 1977 to more than 80 percent today (Tyson, JBS, Cargill, National Beef); pork 33 percent in 1976 to 66 percent; poultry 35 percent in 1986 to 54 percent: The White House, "Addressing Concentration in the Meat Processing Industry," September 8, 2021, citing USDA data USDA Economic Research Service, Amber Waves, "Concentration in the U.S. Meatpacking Industry," January 2024 (fed cattle now about 85 percent)
Category concentration (93 percent soda, 80 percent chocolate candy, 75 percent yogurt, 72 percent cereal, 66 percent frozen pizza, 60 percent fresh bread): Food and Water Watch, "The Economic Cost of Food Monopolies: The Grocery Cartels," 2024 update, using Euromonitor International market data
Top 4 grocery chains around 75 percent of sales in many metro markets: USDA Economic Research Service, retail concentration data (national top four about 34 percent, but concentration rises sharply at the metro and county level, ERR 314): ers.usda.gov
Bayer and Corteva dominate corn and soybean seed: USDA seed market share data reported by Seed World, 2023 (Bayer and Corteva together about 72 percent of corn seed and 66 percent of soybean seed)
FTC found grocery revenues exceeded total costs by 6 percent in 2021 and 7 percent through the first 9 months of 2023, and the quote about firms using rising costs as an opportunity: Federal Trade Commission, "Feeding America in a Time of Crisis," March 21, 2024. Exact quote: "Some in the grocery retail industry seem to have used rising costs as an opportunity to further raise prices to increase their profits, which remain elevated today." ftc.gov
Corporate profits rose more than 74 percent while inflation rose 14 percent, mid 2020 to mid 2022, nearly 5 times the rate: Senator Bob Casey, Greedflation report series, 2023: casey.senate.gov/greedflatio…
Kroger pricing director testified the goal was to pass inflation through to consumers, and an internal email showed egg and milk prices raised above cost: FTC v. Kroger and Albertsons merger trial, 2024, testimony and evidence of Kroger senior pricing director Andy Groff, reported by CBS News and Common Dreams
The 4 dominant meat processors saw gross profits jump about 120 percent and net income about 500 percent: The White House, National Economic Council, December 10, 2021, analyzing Tyson, JBS, Marfrig, and Seaboard
Kraft Heinz, "2022 was an incredible year for Kraft Heinz, delivering strong results": Kraft Heinz Company, fourth quarter and full year 2022 earnings release, February 15, 2023 (CEO Miguel Patricio)
62 new food billionaires created; food and agriculture fortunes grew 382 billion dollars; the Cargill family gained about 20 million dollars a day: Oxfam, "Profiting from Pain," May 2022
Grocery dollar sales up about 225 billion dollars since the pandemic, mostly price and not volume, food volumes down about 5 percent: NIQ (NielsenIQ) market data, cited in Forbes, November 14, 2025; direction corroborated by USDA ERS retail trend data
Diesel at a record 6.05 dollars a gallon, up from about 3.70 a year ago, a 63 percent increase: AAA national average, September 11, 2026 Confirmed by the U.S. Energy Information Administration weekly on-highway diesel index at 5.97 dollars for the week of September 7, 2026 (an all time record on the government gauge) CNBC, NBC News, Bloomberg, September 11, 2026
11 refineries permanently closed since 2020, nearly 1 million barrels per day of capacity lost: U.S. Energy Information Administration (about 1.72 million barrels per day gross, about 0.9 million net after expansions): eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail…
Refining margins (crack spreads) running 3 to 5 times their historical average: EIA crack spread data (historical average about 10 to 16 dollars per barrel; 2022 and 2026 spikes several times higher)
Marathon, Valero, and Phillips 66 posted 12.6 billion dollars in combined profit in a single quarter: Second quarter 2026 earnings (quarter ended June 30, 2026): Marathon Petroleum about 5.1 billion, Valero about 3.7 billion, Phillips 66 about 3.8 billion, per each company's SEC filing
Oil and gas industry spent 219 million dollars on the 2024 election, 13 million of it directly to candidates: Yale Climate Connections, "The fossil fuel industry spent 219 million dollars to elect the new U.S. government," January 3, 2025, citing OpenSecrets OpenSecrets oil and gas PAC data (about 13 million dollars direct to federal candidates, 2024 cycle)
Trucks move more than 70 percent of American freight by weight and nearly all fresh food: U.S. Department of Energy / Bureau of Transportation Statistics / American Trucking Associations
Fuel is the second largest cost in trucking after driver pay: American Transportation Research Institute, operational cost of trucking data
Diesel accounts for 46 percent of the swing in the price of truck transportation: RSM US, "Diesel, trucking, food prices and inflation," June 2, 2026
Fuel is 15 to 30 percent of the total cost of food: Independent Grocers Alliance, cited across CNBC, Fortune, AP, and NBC News, September 2026
Transportation cost increases will "outlive the war": RSM US, "Diesel, trucking, food prices and inflation," June 2, 2026 (verbatim)
Farmers take home less than 12 cents of every food dollar: USDA Economic Research Service, Food Dollar Series (11.8 cents in 2024): ers.usda.gov
70 percent of farmers could not afford all the fertilizer they needed: American Farm Bureau Federation nationwide survey, released April 2026
Food at home up 2.7 percent year over year in July 2026: Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Price Index, July 2026
A note on sourcing: the meat packing, FTC, Casey, White House, Kraft Heinz, Oxfam, EIA, refiner earnings, OpenSecrets, USDA, and RSM figures are drawn from government agencies, official filings, or the organizations named. The six packaged food category shares come from Euromonitor market data compiled by Food and Water Watch, and the grocery volume figure comes from NIQ market data reported by Forbes; both are private market data rather than government data, and are labeled that way in the post.
🎩 Bryan McKee ✨
: GT; Neutral-Player-Character. retweeted
Diesel hit $6.05 per gallon yesterday. The highest price ever recorded in the history of the United States. It set all time records in 28 states simultaneously. In California the average is $7.98. Five California stations ran out of room on their price boards and are displaying $9.999, the highest number their machines can physically show.
Americans are spending $700 million more per day on gas and diesel than they did a year ago.
And right on schedule, the argument has started. One side says it is Trump's fault because of the war with Iran. The other side says it has nothing to do with Trump. Both sides are missing the actual story. And I think that is by design.
The war with Iran is real. The Strait of Hormuz is constrained. Fuel exports are disrupted. That is a factor. But if you stop there you will never understand why $6 diesel is happening now when crude oil is not even close to its all time high.
Crude oil hit $100 per barrel this week. That sounds like a lot until you adjust for inflation. In 2008, crude hit $147 per barrel. Adjusted to today's dollars that is over $210. In 1980 during the Iranian Revolution, crude hit $36 per barrel. Adjusted to today's dollars that is over $160. The current price of crude is well below both of those peaks in real terms.
But diesel was never $6 during those crises. Not in 1980. Not in 2008. Not ever.
The barrel price does not explain $6 diesel. Something else does. And that something else is the part nobody in Washington wants to talk about.
Between 2020 and 2026, 11 major U.S. oil refineries permanently closed or stopped refining crude oil. Not temporarily shut down. Permanently gone. The combined capacity lost is approximately 1.72 million barrels per day gross, roughly 900,000 barrels per day net after accounting for some expansions at remaining facilities.
These were not small operations. Philadelphia Energy Solutions in Pennsylvania, 335,000 barrels per day. Shell Convent in Louisiana, 211,146 barrels per day. Phillips 66 Alliance in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, 255,000 barrels per day. Marathon Petroleum in Martinez, California, 161,000 barrels per day. LyondellBasell in Houston, 263,776 barrels per day. Phillips 66 in Los Angeles, 138,700 barrels per day. Valero in Benicia, California, 145,000 barrels per day. And several more.
U.S. refining capacity went from a record high of 18.98 million barrels per day at the start of 2020 to approximately 17.9 million by early 2022. The lowest level since 2014. It has continued declining since.
The Energy Information Administration said it plainly. "Typically, we don't see capacity close and then reopen in the same operating mode, so we think it's safe to say that the refineries that have closed are probably shuttered for good."
These companies did not lose these refineries in a fire or a hurricane and never recover. They made a business decision. Demand dropped during COVID. Margins tightened. And instead of weathering the downturn and maintaining capacity for the recovery that everyone knew was coming, they permanently closed facilities, removed the capacity from the market forever, and waited.
When demand came roaring back in 2021 and 2022, the capacity was gone. Fewer refineries processing crude into fuel meant less supply of diesel and gasoline. Less supply meant higher prices. Higher prices meant wider margins. And wider margins meant the largest profits in the history of the refining industry.
The refining margin is called the crack spread. It is the difference between what a refiner pays for a barrel of crude oil and what they earn selling the refined products. From 2010 to 2021, the historical average crack spread was $10 to $16 per barrel. That was normal. That was steady. For over a decade.
In 2022, when the Russia-Ukraine war disrupted European fuel supply while U.S. refining capacity was still depleted from the closures, crack spreads exploded to $50 to $60 per barrel. Three to four times the historical norm.
In 2023 and 2024, spreads came down to $15 to $25. Closer to normal. Prices at the pump came down some. But they never went back to where they were before. The floor had been permanently raised.
Now in 2026, with the Iran war disrupting the Strait of Hormuz and Ukrainian drones hitting Russian refineries, crack spreads have surged past even the 2022 records. And the companies that removed the capacity are harvesting the consequences.
Marathon Petroleum, Valero Energy, and Phillips 66 collectively earned $12.6 billion in the second quarter of 2026 alone. Their highest combined quarterly result since 2022. Their stock prices are surging. Forbes reported in July that refining stocks are soaring as crack spreads hit record highs.
Marathon is the company that permanently closed its Martinez, California and Gallup, New Mexico refineries during COVID.
Phillips 66 is the company that closed its Alliance refinery in Louisiana after Hurricane Ida, closed its Rodeo and Santa Maria facilities in California, and closed its Los Angeles refinery in October 2025.
Valero is the company that ceased operations at its Benicia, California refinery in early 2026.
The same companies that removed the capacity are the same companies posting record profits from the scarcity that removal created.
And here is where it becomes something more than just a market story.
Before COVID, the oil and gas industry spent roughly $55 to $68 million per election cycle on political contributions to federal candidates and parties. That was the steady state for a decade. $56 million in 2018. $63 million in 2020.
In the 2024 election cycle, the oil and gas industry spent $219 million to influence the election. $67 million directly to candidates. $151 million in outside spending through PACs and super PACs. 88% of it went to Republicans.
From $63 million in 2020 to $219 million in 2024. A 247% increase in a single cycle.
Annual lobbying went from $112 million in 2020 to $154 million in 2024. The American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers, the trade group that specifically represents refining companies, doubled its own lobbying budget from a $3.4 million annual average to $6.9 million starting in 2023, the same year its members were posting record profits from constrained supply.
The refiners' trade group doubled its lobbying the same year the refiners posted their highest profits from the capacity they deliberately destroyed.
Valero tripled its political contributions from the 2022 cycle to the 2024 cycle. $1.78 million to $5.66 million. This is the same company that closed its Benicia refinery in early 2026, removing another 145,000 barrels per day, and posted billions in quarterly profits.
And what are those politicians doing with all that money and all that influence?
They are not investigating why diesel is at $6 when crude does not justify it. They are not holding hearings on refining margins. They are not asking why companies that permanently removed capacity are posting record profits from the scarcity they created. They are not proposing legislation to incentivize new refining capacity or to regulate crack spreads that are running 3 to 5 times their historical average.
They are doing nothing. Because the money has purchased their silence.
This is the story that neither side of the political argument wants you to see. Blaming Trump and the Iran war is convenient because it puts the problem on one man and one policy decision. Defending Trump by saying the war is necessary and prices will come down is convenient because it avoids examining who is actually profiting and why.
The truth is bigger than either argument.
The war is the accelerant. It is not the cause.
The cause is structural. The refining industry used COVID as cover to permanently reduce capacity. Every crisis that has come since, Russia-Ukraine in 2022, the Iran war in 2026, hits American consumers harder than it should because the cushion was deliberately removed. The system has less margin for disruption. And every disruption generates larger profits for the companies that made the system more fragile by design.
Then those profits get recycled into political spending. $219 million in the 2024 cycle. $154 million in lobbying in a single year. That money buys silence. It buys inaction. It buys the absence of hearings, the absence of investigations, the absence of regulation. And the cycle repeats.
Close the refineries. Tighten the supply. Wait for the next crisis. Harvest the margins. Post record profits. Spend record amounts on politicians. Protect the arrangement. Let the American consumer absorb the cost.
That is not a free market. That is a captured market. And the capture was paid for with profits extracted from the people now paying $6.05 per gallon to drive to work, feed their families, and heat their homes.
Diesel is the lifeblood of the American economy. It powers every truck that delivers every product to every shelf in every store you walk into. It powers the farm equipment that grows your food. It powers the construction equipment that builds your roads and your buildings. It powers the generators that keep your hospitals running when the grid fails. When diesel goes up, everything goes up. Groceries. Shipping. Heating. Construction. Manufacturing. Every cost that touches transportation, and in America that is nearly every cost, has diesel underneath it.
Fuel accounts for 15% to 30% of the total cost of food, according to the Independent Grocers Alliance. When diesel goes from $3.70 to $6.05 in one year, that is not a minor fluctuation. That is a structural shock to the cost of living for every American family.
And the people who engineered the conditions that make that shock possible are posting $12.6 billion in quarterly profits and spending $219 million to make sure the politicians you elected never ask them a single question about it.
The next time someone tells you diesel is expensive because of Trump, ask them why crude is below its inflation-adjusted highs from 2008 and 1980 but diesel is higher than it has ever been in history. Ask them what happened to the 11 refineries that closed since 2020. Ask them what a crack spread is and why it is running 3 to 5 times its historical average. Ask them how much Marathon, Valero, and Phillips 66 made last quarter. Ask them how much the oil and gas industry spent on the 2024 election.
And the next time someone tells you prices will come down when the war ends, ask them why prices never came back down after the Russia-Ukraine disruption faded in 2023. Ask them why the refining capacity that was removed during COVID was never rebuilt. Ask them why every subsequent crisis hits harder than it should.
The answer to both questions is the same.
The system is working exactly as designed. It is just not designed for you.
It is designed for the companies that post record profits every time a crisis creates scarcity. And for the politicians who take their money and look the other way while you pay for it at the pump, at the grocery store, and at your front door every time a package arrives.
$6.05 per gallon.
$12.6 billion in quarterly profits.
$219 million in political spending.
That is not an accident. That is an arrangement.
And you are paying for all of it.
SOURCES / RECEIPTS
Diesel hit $6.05 per gallon, all time record, 28 states set records simultaneously:
AAA national average, September 11, 2026
GasBuddy live data confirmed $6.00 crossed September 10, 2026
CNBC: "U.S. diesel price tops $6 per gallon, a record high as Ukraine and Iran wars ripple through economy" — cnbc.com/2026/09/11
NBC News: "Diesel hits all-time high of $6 per gallon" — nbcnews.com/business/energy
Bloomberg: "US Diesel Prices Rise Past $6 a Gallon for First Time Ever" — September 11, 2026
Patrick De Haan, GasBuddy Head of Petroleum Analysis, confirmed 28 states at all time highs via X post, September 10, 2026
California at $7.98, five stations at $9.999:
CNBC same article, citing AAA data: California at $7.9827
GasBuddy/Patrick De Haan confirmed 5 California stations at $9.999, the maximum their dispensers can display
$700 million more per day on gas and diesel:
GasBuddy analysis cited in CNBC and NBC News coverage, September 11, 2026
Crude oil at $100 per barrel, below inflation-adjusted highs:
PriceOfOil.com: "Oil Price History: From $3 in 1970 to Today" — 2026 Hormuz crisis peak at $111/barrel
InflationData.com: "Oil Price History Chart (Inflation-Adjusted)" — 1980 peak of $36 equals ~$160 in 2026 dollars, 2008 peak of $147 equals ~$210 in 2026 dollars
U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) crude oil data: eia.gov/dnav/pet
11 refinery closures since 2020, ~1.72 million barrels per day lost:
Eco3min.fr: "US refinery closures since 2020 — the complete record" — full facility-by-facility registry with capacity, dates, and EIA sources, July 2026
EIA Refinery Capacity Report, 2021: eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail…
Houston Chronicle: "Refinery closures decreased U.S. refinery capacity during 2020" — July 8, 2021
Hydrocarbonprocessing.com: same EIA data, July 2021
Powder & Bulk Solids: "Oil Refinery Closures in an Era of Transition" — November 2023
Specific refinery closures named:
Philadelphia Energy Solutions (335,000 b/d): EIA Refinery Capacity Report 2021
Shell Convent, LA (211,146 b/d): EIA, Houston Chronicle
Phillips 66 Alliance, LA (255,000 b/d): Powder & Bulk Solids, November 2023
Marathon Martinez, CA (161,000 b/d): Marathon Petroleum public announcement, August 2020
Marathon Gallup, NM (27,000 b/d): same announcement
HollyFrontier Cheyenne, WY (48,000 b/d): EIA
Dakota Prairie, Dickinson, ND (19,000 b/d): EIA
Phillips 66 Rodeo + Santa Maria, CA (120,000 b/d): Eco3min.fr registry
LyondellBasell Houston, TX (263,776 b/d): shut down March 2025, Eco3min.fr
Phillips 66 Los Angeles (138,700 b/d): closed October 2025, Eco3min.fr
Valero Benicia, CA (145,000 b/d): ceased operations early 2026, Eco3min.fr
Capacity fell from 18.98 million to ~17.9 million, lowest since 2014:
EIA Refinery Capacity Report: capacity at 18.98 million b/d start of 2020, fell to 18.1 million start of 2021, further to 17.94 million start of 2022
S&P Global reporting on EIA data, June 2022
EIA quote "refineries that have closed are probably shuttered for good":
Chris Higginbotham, EIA spokesperson, quoted in Breakbulk: breakbulk.com/articles/us-re…
Crack spread historical average $10 to $16, exploded to $50 to $60 in 2022:
AEGIS Hedging: "U.S. Refining Margins Hit an All-Time High" — 2022
GlobalOilShock.com: "Crack Spread Explained" — normal level 2010 to 2021 averaged $10 to $16/barrel, 2022 crisis reached $50 to $60/barrel
Energy IB Guide: "Crack Spreads and Refining Margins" — 2015 to 2021 average approximately $12 to $18/barrel, 2022 spike to $40 to $60/barrel
Nasdaq: "2 Oil Refiners Posting Record Margins" — benchmark crack spread at $35 vs historical average of $10.50
2026 crack spreads surpassed 2022 records:
Forbes: "Refining Stocks Soar As Crack Spread Hits Record High In 2026" — July 23, 2026
Inspenet: "U.S. Refining Margins Drive Record Profits" — August 2026
Marathon, Valero, Phillips 66 earned $12.6 billion Q2 2026:
Inspenet: "U.S. Refining Margins Drive Record Profits" — "Marathon Petroleum, Valero Energy, and Phillips 66 collectively earned US$12.6 billion in profits during the second quarter of 2026, their highest combined result since 2022"
Oil and gas political contributions by cycle:
OpenSecrets: opensecrets.org/industries/t…
2018 cycle: $56 million
2020 cycle: $63 million
2022 cycle: $79+ million
2024 cycle: $219 million total ($67 million to candidates, $151 million outside spending)
$219 million total 2024 cycle, 88% to Republicans:
Yale Climate Connections: "The fossil fuel industry spent $219 million to elect the new U.S. government" — January 3, 2025, citing OpenSecrets data
Lobbying totals:
OpenSecrets: opensecrets.org/industries/l…
2020: $112 million
2024: $154 million
OpenSecrets News: "Oil and gas lobbying reaches $72 million in first half of 2024" — August 2024
American Fuel and Petrochemical Manufacturers doubled lobbying:
OpenSecrets News same article: AFPM averaged $3.4 million annually 2016 to 2022, jumped to $6.9 million in 2023, already exceeded prior years by mid-2024
Marathon Petroleum contributions:
OpenSecrets: opensecrets.org/orgs/maratho…
2024 cycle: $1,826,002 contributions, $2,520,000 lobbying
Valero Energy contributions:
OpenSecrets: opensecrets.org/orgs/valero-…
2024 cycle: $5,656,177 contributions, $2,080,000 lobbying
2022 cycle PAC raised: $1,778,900
Phillips 66 contributions:
OpenSecrets: opensecrets.org/political-ac…
2022 cycle PAC raised: $1,148,797
Diesel powers the economy, 15% to 30% of food costs:
Independent Grocers Alliance, cited in NPR/WOSU and CNBC September 11, 2026 coverage
KPMG chief economist Diane Swonk: "The cost of diesel gets into just about everything" — cited in NBC News
Crude oil cost represents 50% to 60% of pump price:
EIA: "Factors Affecting Diesel Prices"
Britannica Money: "From Crude Oil to Gasoline" — September 2026
TrueDrivingCost.com: "Diesel Prices Over Time" — citing EIA data
Diesel premium over gasoline widened from $0.26 in the 1990s to $1.11 in 2024:
TrueDrivingCost.com: "Diesel Prices Over Time" — EIA retail price series 1995 to 2024
Every claim. Every number. Every source. All public record. Drop these in the comments under the post or add them as a follow-up comment labeled "Receipts" so anyone who questions it can check for themselves.
Bryan McKee
: GT; Neutral-Player-Character. retweeted
In case I haven't been clear enough about my position on AI:
- AI is DANGEROUS when centralized in the hands of corporations, governments and transhumanists who want to become gods while controlling or even eliminating humans.
- AI is PROFOUNDLY AMAZING when decentralized via open source models so that governments, corporations and transhumanists cannot surveil, censor or control your use of it.
It's not about being "anti-AI" or "pro-AI." It's about whether you have AI sovereignty and local freedom to use it and benefit from it without tyrannical government oversight and control.
And the current psyop about "AI is going to kill us all" is nothing but a cover story to try to push the outlawing of decentralized, open source models so that corrupt, tyrannical governments can consolidate control over AI technology.
: GT; Neutral-Player-Character. retweeted
How the government is using Tether to build the financial component of the surveillance state.
Two guys in Bangkok ran a gaming promotion business that was legal, and licensed. They arranged VIP experiences, travel, lodging, meals, for high-roller clients at casinos operated by a publicly traded US company in Asia. The casino did KYC on them and on their customers. They independently screened every crypto wallet that touched their business. They were not hiding from anyone
On October 30, 2025, at 11 PM UTC, Tether blacklisted ten of their Ethereum wallets in a two-and-a-half-minute batch. $42,417,785.62 frozen. The largest wallet alone held $26.1 million. One of the men, Natthawat Kasamvilas, contacted Tether to find out what happened. On November 2nd Tether emailed him back, gave him the name of a Homeland Security Investigations agent, and said "We do not have further information at this time." They did not mention that they were the ones who froze the money
Here is what actually happened. An HSI agent out of Raleigh, North Carolina got a tip from a victim, one person, identified in court documents only as "GM", who lost roughly $30,000 in a romance scam. HSI traced GM's $30,000 to a consolidation wallet, then identified 18 wallets belonging to Thai nationals, then traced forward to 11 more wallets connected to two of those Thai nationals. None of those 11 wallets belonged to Kasamvilas or his business partner Nutthawat Rukthammachalern. The affidavit does not trace a single dollar from the scam victim to their wallets. The tracing exhibits the government submitted were, according to their lawyers, "so blurry and illegible that it is impossible to meaningfully review or decipher" them. When clearer copies were requested, key portions were still unreadable
But none of that mattered, because before any of that paperwork existed, before any judge reviewed any evidence, a Homeland Security agent called Tether and asked them to freeze the wallets. He did not have a warrant or a court order or a subpoena. Just a request. And Tether did it
They flew to the United States. On May 21, 2026, they sat down with HSI officials in person, brought lawyers, presented evidence that the government's own affidavit had no tracing connecting the scam to their wallets. HSI gave them no substantive answers and no path to get their money back
As of today, no indictment has been filed against them. No criminal charges. and no civil forfeiture complaint. The government has not accused them of a crime in any court. But their $42.4 million is still frozen. And the whole time it has been frozen, Tether has been earning Treasury yield on the reserves backing those tokens. The company that locked their money is profiting from locking their money and not giving it back.
Kasamvilas and Rukthammachalern had no account with Tether. They bought their USDT on the open market, the same way 650 million other people use it. And Tether froze it anyway because it has a function built into its smart contract called addBlackList that lets the company unilaterally lock any wallet on earth with no judge, no hearing, just a line of code
They filed a motion in North Carolina on July 31st demanding the government return their funds. Then on August 31st they sued Tether in the Southern District of New York. The lawsuit says what happened to them is conversion, trespass, and unjust enrichment. Tether called the case "baseless" and said it was interfering with their "important work with global law enforcement"
So, a private company incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, now operating out of El Salvador, froze $42.4 million belonging to two foreign nationals based on a phone call from one US federal agent investigating a $30,000 scam. No charges filed to this day. And when they sued, the company said helping law enforcement freeze people's money without legal process is "important work".
That is not how the law works when the government freezes your bank account. They need a judge. They need probable cause. They need the 4th Amendment. But Tether is not the government, and that is the point.
They already did this with physical surveillance. Flock Safety has 120,000 cameras across 49 states tracking every car that passes, make, model, color, scratches, passengers, pedestrians. Police departments buy access, and CBP taps in, no warrant needed because it is a private company selling a service. Axon has 85 percent of the body camera market and built a platform that merges CCTV, drones, license plate readers, gunshot detection, and AI analytics into what they call a "single pane of glass." Palantir combined financial transactions, communications, travel records, and criminal databases into one system and sold it to the CIA, ICE, the Pentagon, and local police. The FBI uses it for "complete target analysis of known populations"
The 4th Amendment says the government cannot search you without a warrant. But if a private company collects the data and the government buys access to it, or just asks nicely, that protection disappears. A bipartisan group in Congress called it a loophole and introduced the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act. It has not passed, of course.
Now they are doing the same thing with our money.
If the government wanted to monitor every financial transaction in America, it would need legislation, judicial oversight, probably a Supreme Court fight. It would take years and it might fail. But if a private company issues a digital currency that 650 million people use, monitors every transaction through the FBI's own surveillance contractor, and freezes wallets on a phone call, well the government gets the same result without any of the legal burden.
Here is what you would need to build a privatized financial surveillance network and what Tether has already done.
(1) You would need a currency people are forced into.
So you ban the government from making its own digital dollar…done, January 2025 executive order. Then you pass a law making private stablecoins the only legal option…done, GENIUS Act. You crash the real dollar with tariffs so people worldwide switch to the digital one…happening right now. Tether is at 650 million users and adding 30 million wallets a quarter.
(2) You would need to see every transaction.
Tether partnered with Chainalysis, the same surveillance firm the FBI and Secret Service use to track money. Every USDT transaction on every blockchain is monitored in real time
(3) You would need identity resolution.
The GENIUS Act classifies stablecoins as financial institutions under the Bank Secrecy Act. KYC requirements, transaction monitoring, suspicious activity reporting. FinCEN published the compliance rules in June 2026. Every user becomes identifiable.
4) You would need the power to freeze and seize without going through a judge.
Tether has frozen $4.4 billion across thousands of wallets. They work with 310 law enforcement agencies in 64 countries. They froze $42.4 million on a verbal request from one agent.
(5) You would need physical surveillance to pair with financial surveillance, because money tells you what someone bought but not where they are.
Tether invested in Satellogic, a satellite company building daily coverage of the entire planet by 2027. The tech partner is Palantir, the AI runs on the satellites. The capability is called "pattern of life assessment."
(6) You would need computing power to process it all.
Tether owns 22,000 Nvidia GPUs through the Rumble-Northern Data merger. $150 million committed for GPU access.
(7) You would need media control in case anyone starts reporting on it.
Tether owns 48 percent of Rumble and signed a $100 million advertising deal.
(8) And you would need the regulators to protect you instead of investigating you.
The Commerce Secretary's family firm custodies Tether's reserves and owns 5% of it. The former Treasury Secretary chairs the satellite company. The White House crypto czar wrote the law and became Tether's CEO one month later. And the Corporate Transparency Act, the one law that required shell companies to disclose who owns them, got deleted.
That is every piece all in place. Hard to ignore. All owned by one company that has never been audited, is incorporated in the British Virgin Islands, and is run by four men, two who just moved to El Salvador with 15 shell companies and no extradition treaty.
The 4th Amendment was written to stop the government from doing this. It does not apply to Tether and that is their plan, I think. They are privatizing the surveillance apparatus and Tether looks like the financial component.
: GT; Neutral-Player-Character. retweeted
This is it for articles this week. I am back to work on the Ike book and finishing the updated September Fertilizer and Food Report.
: GT; Neutral-Player-Character. retweeted
when mathematical reality itself gets reduced to synthetic token production swallowed by closed infrastructure we transition from open academic inquiry to technological feudalism where silicon lords hold the keys to fundamental physics while selling back the illusion of progress to line their pre ipo valuation
: GT; Neutral-Player-Character. retweeted
Once you’ve woken up, there are extremely diminishing returns to continuing to consume blackpilling stats, even though they’re true. You need to pivot your information environment towards empowerment & action. Stop passively consuming the truth and start creating it
: GT; Neutral-Player-Character. retweeted
The problem with the pro-flock camera arguments is that many of us remember a time when cops caught criminals and prosecutors put them in prison. They didn’t lack the technology to do so and they still don’t.
The prosecutors unwillingness to hold repeat, violent criminals accountable while ruthlessly pursuing normal White people for everything from COVID masks to expired vehicle registrations just makes the whole thing seem like a bad deal. The government gets a more efficient system for milking the tax cattle and you get no safety or security in return.
: GT; Neutral-Player-Character. retweeted
Something isn’t adding up on the Columbia River.
Court orders forced dams into near-constant spill this year, supposedly to help salmon. Instead, adult Chinook got trapped below John Day Dam. At one point, 75% couldn’t even find the fish ladder.
The “solution” that was supposed to save the fish is actively harming their recovery.
At the same time, these same orders are forcing clean hydropower offline during peak flows. Less reliable energy. Higher costs. Greater blackout risk for the entire Northwest.
So here’s the uncomfortable question:
Do the NGOs pushing these mandates know they’re making fish passage worse while deliberately weakening the case for the dams themselves?
Because that’s exactly what this looks like. Create a crisis for the fish, create a crisis for the power grid, then claim the only answer is to tear the dams out.
Oregon families deserve better than agenda-driven experiments that hurt both salmon and our energy supply.
We need real science and honest accountability, not lawsuits that manufacture failure.