Free markets and oil monopolies? That’s like being sober but still taking anti depressants. because you are a depressed substance abuser….

No sobriety or liberation for America here as long America fails to realize servitude is bought, while competition is limited. Slave owners had a monopoly on labor. The slave’s energy for the benefit of another…

ENERGY and GREED are the common denominators here folks. It is called protect the oil interests as slavery was once protected.

I live in Alaska and our oil refineries abuse us to the nth. You are a slave to oil. live with it. Or change it.

Like drug addicts Americans, have little choice when it comes to energy needs. A person addicted to a substance is in servitude to that substance. The most basic energy need in America is for transportation. People, goods and services are transported daily in our diverse economy. This action requires a substance, liquid potential energy.

When a drunk squanders his paycheck at the bar, the bar owner and purveyors of alcohol win. The drunk and his family loses. When America waste .80 cents of most dollars spent on gasoline or 80% of the stored potential energy is wasted, America loses and corporations win.

The substance abuser can make a cognitive choice not to drink, abuse a substance and liberate himself from servitude to a substance which the “use of” results in negative consequences for himself and the family.

Millions of Americans do not have a choice when it comes to the “potential energy,” a substance, required to operate vehicles powering the transportation of people, goods and services. Meanwhile the necessitated action of “buying gasoline,” and the “wasting,” of “trillions of dollars,” to get to work is just as servile with greater negative consequences to America, than the drunk in servitude to his abused substance of choice. At least the substance abuser seeking the “buzz,” does have a choice. He does not have to consume.

The purveyors of liquefied potential energy from crude oil have all the incentive to manipulate the market, for profit, while disregarding the negative consequences of their business model on the consumer and nation’s general welfare. Servitude is bought….

Good morning all,

Ah, the invisible hand of the free market with a middle finger extended.

Until there are real and very substantial penalties for this kind of thing, there is no incentive for them to stop. Until the cash comes out of American elections, there will be no political will to establish those penalties.

Good morning, pups. Mr. Kristof is flying solo since Ms. Collins is off today. He is in Bab Al-Salam, Syria. In “The Men Are Vanishing Here” he says a visit inside Syria provides a chilling sense of growing torment, and that the West can help. Oh, goody. Let’s meddle in yet ANOTHER country. What could possibly go wrong?

Here he is.

The coffee and tea are ready, and I’ve got banana pancakes for breakfast. It’s cold and rainy out, and the cavalcade of kittens tumbled out of the door when I fed the outside kittehs. Now, of course, they’re reconsidering that idea so it’s time for me to go and play doorman for a while. (They’ll all leave together, but trickle back inside one at a time.) Have a great day.

I’m hard pressed to see where the oil companies violated the law. Normally, you’d expect competition to keep prices down and I’m wondering why that didn’t here.

Perhaps some digging will produce some collusion. Which would be against the law. Not that it matters, nobody will go to jail.

Boxturtle (They’re saying BP is making a deal on the gulf blowout. No jail time)

Penalties that MUST extend beyond fines and consent decrees to include admissions of guilt and jail time for executives.

Otherwise, it’s just the cost of doing business.

Boxturtle (How many CEO’s would we have to lock up before the others get the message?)

Penalties that MUST extend beyond fines and consent decrees to include admissions of guilt and jail time for executives.

Yes. Monetary penalties are nothing to these people. They’ll pass them on to the consumer. The only thing they can’t pass down to us would be prison time. Lying isn’t a crime in this country but price gouging is and the lies are compelling evidence of that.

that the West can help

All of the suggestions he gave would have the effect of heating up the war and pissing off the Russians.

Somebody needs to accept that there will be no solution that isn’t acceptable to Russia and stop pretending we can just help the FSA and they’ll win.

My solution: Tell the Russians to pick the next Syrian leader. He can be as pro-Moscow as they want, as long as his hands are clean enough for the Syrian citizens and he isn’t going to turn into a mass murderer to hold on to power. Russia keeps their client, arms customer, and base. We get the killing to stop. Return to status quo.

Boxturtle (Russia will stop anything that risks the three things in that list)

A BP refinery fire in Indiana resulted in a massive price hike this summer(it goes up in hours, takes months to go back to normal). Once the refinery came back online, they produced contaminated gas delivered to service stations all over the Chicago area. We’re poor little lambs.

BTW, Taft’s bathtub weighed over a ton. I’m pretty sure they broke it up to get it out of the White House in the 1952 renovation. That makes some sense, as his son Robert was still serving in the Senate. The tub was probably an ongoing source of family embarassment. The tub at the National Archives is definitely a replica.

Chris Christie will have to be fitted for his own tub.

Is there any good news? Crazy F-1 comes to Austin with crowds, roads closed, and private jets….for those with money to waste.

Another execution in TX, with another one to come tonight. Yes, that’s TX a whole other country. I may have to give up on the news.

The “free market” propaganda machine plays the U.S. public for chumps. Sadly, most of the public does not disappoint.

Well, rats. I thought the one in the Smithsonian was real. Perhaps Christie would like one of these.

Boxturtle (It’s amazing how quickly prices can rise after an incident)

Two executions in 24 hours. You should feel WAY safer. Can’t wait to see how much the crime statistics go down once the crooks realize We’re Really Serious Now.

Boxturtle (What could a public school do with the money spent on just ONE execution?)

fleecing the free market…it’s the golden rile of the 1%

dammit…ipad not my friend. should be fleecing the followership…it’s the golden rule of the 1%

Yep, makes one weep. Of course, Calif. just voted to keep the death penalty, for all that safety, I guess.

Thanks, attaturk, reminiscing about the Enron thugs taped chortling over bashing grammas with outlandish prices for their power, using that old line about refineries being down. There are laws against depriving people of staple foods to drive up prices, in many countries. Not a bad route to take; and as Margaret points out, just fines won’t do the trick. Perhaps nationalization is the permanent solution.

Thanks, Marion, just the ticket, let’s go ‘help’ the people. After this election, we should hang our heads in shame instead of advising the rest of the world how a democracy should be working. Time to remove elections from the hands of partisan politics, and make it totally civil service administration.

For the Over Easy post, going up at 8 ET, I went with pics of breakfast, hope everyone’s all right with that. Healthy food.

What? Are you still a hippie or something? Pushing healthy food?
S’okay. I don’t usually eat anything for a few hours after I awake.
Hi Ruth. Looking forward to seeing The Band, at any rate.

Oh, yes, indeed, always a hippie. Let me know if the sight of food this early in the morning makes you hide your face.
I start with coffee. Then, the idea of breakfast seeps in.

If you ever had doubts about whether the Oil Oligarchs manipulate the price of gas to their benefit, this link should answer your questions. Click on the 60 month version of the graph and be amazed at how prices were manipulated around the 2008 election.

http://gasbuddy.com/gb_retail_price_chart.aspx