The Imperial Presidency, Part 2

[aku]

Interesting read: Actuarial Murder and Other Diffuse Acts of Violence

[Isodecan]

... I don't think I've seen gasoline under USD $3/gal in twenty years, but I'm also in commute range of Boston, so... You further west maybe? I've heard prices drop hard between the Mississippi and the Rockies.

I just looked out the window and it’s $2.49 at the closest gas station. I’m not as far west as the Mississippi, but the surrounding areas usually have better deals than the local rip off places. They’re sticking their jam covered fingers into your pocketbook if they never let gasoline dip below $3. Grocery items are expensive now too, they want like $1.97 for a dozen eggs right now at the grocery, or $2.59 for a gallon of milk. It’s highway robbery.

Edit: I just realized this could be read wrong. I’m upset with the folks/logistics/Unknown factor around you not being able to cut you a good deal on gas, not at you.

As a note, in Oklahoma City (where I currently live) I have seen several gas stations with gas at $1.96, which is actually below $2 which Trump has been saying the gas prices were at since he took office.  I'm not sure this is necessarily a good thing, as usually prices that low for gas around here indicate a glut where they were expecting to be able to sell more gas than they did (and since this is immediately after the Thanksgiving Holidays which are usually good for travel that seems distinctly possible) and they are trying to clear it.

[classicdrogn]

To be clear, I expect modern gas prices in the $4-5/gal range locally, about the same as a loaf of bread. $3 was noughties pricing.

[Labster]

... I don't think I've seen gasoline under USD $3/gal in twenty years, but I'm also in commute range of Boston, so... You further west maybe? I've heard prices drop hard between the Mississippi and the Rockies.

I just looked out the window and it’s $2.49 at the closest gas station. I’m not as far west as the Mississippi, but the surrounding areas usually have better deals than the local rip off places. They’re sticking their jam covered fingers into your pocketbook if they never let gasoline dip below $3. Grocery items are expensive now too, they want like $1.97 for a dozen eggs right now at the grocery, or $2.59 for a gallon of milk. It’s highway robbery.

Edit: I just realized this could be read wrong. I’m upset with the folks/logistics/Unknown factor around you not being able to cut you a good deal on gas, not at you.

As a note, in Oklahoma City (where I currently live) I have seen several gas stations with gas at $1.96, which is actually below $2 which Trump has been saying the gas prices were at since he took office.  I'm not sure this is necessarily a good thing, as usually prices that low for gas around here indicate a glut where they were expecting to be able to sell more gas than they did (and since this is immediately after the Thanksgiving Holidays which are usually good for travel that seems distinctly possible) and they are trying to clear it.

As a Californian, all of those prices sound amazingly, unbelievably cheap.  $2/doz. eggs is a great sale price, milk is in the $4 range -- most of this is because our laws require that animals not be kept in torturous conditions.  I haven't seen $2/gallon gas since, oh, 2004?  I'm pretty sure that line got crossed when I was in uni and never came back. You start noticing when trips home go from $30 to $50. It's currently hovering around $4/gallon. People say that it's because of taxes, but if you only pay $0.50/gallon, where does the other $1.50 go? (answer: salaries, enviro regulations for winter/summer blends, and greedy fucks).

Of course, as an environmentalist, I'd be happy if gas prices doubled again as an externality tax, with all of the revenue to deal with the consequences of pollution and climate change.  You know, some money to pay for asthma drugs, some money to build some seawalls, etc.  Because let's face it, the real cost of a gallon of gas is a lot more than what you pay at the pump.

But of course, this will never happen, because why would anyone care if the future is destroyed?

[Bob Schroeck]

To be clear, I expect modern gas prices in the $4-5/gal range locally, about the same as a loaf of bread. $3 was noughties pricing.

$3/gallon is bang in the middle of the price range in New Jersey, with the small chain/no-name gas stations charging around $2.79 and the big names charging $3.09 (EDIT: for Regular), at least as of this past weekend. But the prices have been floating in that vicinity for some months now. NJ traditionally has lower prices than the surrounding states because of the combination of lower gas taxes and lower transportation costs thanks to the refineries near Elizabeth.

EDIT 2: This despite a state law that bans self-serve pumps and mandates that your gas is pumped by a station employee, which you would expect would raise prices.

[nemonowan]

I know you can't compare apples to oranges, or the enormous USA with its car-centric infrastructure to a country the size of Missouri where half the population lives in a city with decent public transportation...

But it is really somewhat disconcerting to hear complaints about a 3$ or 4$ gallon of gas when here gas costs almost $2 a LITER (which means about 7.5$ per gallon)

[robkelk]

Not happy about posting this one...

ICE to buy $7.2 million worth of Canadian armored personnel carriers

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is spending more than $7 million on a fleet of armored vehicles designed to protect occupants against bomb blasts and which can stop a .50 caliber round, according to federal procurement records reviewed by The Independent.

However, the 20 bulletproof personnel carriers ordered by the nation’s deportation agency are not coming from an American manufacturer, but a Canadian company headquartered in Ontario – the province whose recent anti-tariff TV ad so infuriated Donald Trump, the president threatened additional levies on all goods coming in from the country.

ICE is laying out exactly $7,234,926.20 in taxpayer funds for the 20 vehicles, the justification document states.

So much for Canada having nothing that the USA needs, eh?

[Inquisitive Raven]

To be clear, I expect modern gas prices in the $4-5/gal range locally, about the same as a loaf of bread. $3 was noughties pricing.

$3/gallon is bang in the middle of the price range in New Jersey, with the small chain/no-name gas stations charging around $2.79 and the big names charging $3.09 (EDIT:  for Regular), at least as of this past weekend.  But the prices have been floating in that vicinity for some months now.  NJ traditionally has lower prices than the surrounding states because of the combination of lower gas taxes and lower transportation costs thanks to the refineries near Elizabeth.

EDIT 2:  This despite a state law that bans self-serve pumps and mandates that your gas is pumped by a station employee, which you would expect would raise prices.

I couldn't tell you what gas prices are like in Philadelphia because I haven't owned a car since 2011 or driven since 2020, and thus don't pay attention to gas prices, but ISTR that when I did have a car, they were consistently several cents/gallon more expensive than the priciest gas in New Jersey.

[Labster]

Trump wins his peace prize from FIFA – any chance of a VAR review?

Every single sentence of this article reads like it would have been a great article in The Onion one decade ago.  Sadly, satire is dead, and Trump really did win a peace prize from FIFA, complete with a trophy of hands grasping the world, plus a medal he can wear around everywhere, in a ceremony presented by Heidi Klum.  And Trump really did say everyone should call "soccer" football.

[Dartz]

It's the "Most Enthusiastic Participant" peace prize, when you think about it.

He doesn't realise he's the joke and everyone laughs behind his back - like Brezhnev's Hero of the Soviet Union awards.

[Jinx999]

If I remember correctly, back when he was first running for president, one of the arguments of his supporters was that, as he was already rich, it'd be impossible to bribe him.

[classicdrogn]

That one was laughable even then.

[robkelk]

Canadian boycott of U.S. hitting border states hard: Congressional report

The joint economic committee, set up in 1946 to study economic policy, is composed of both senators and members of the House of Representatives. It includes both Republicans and Democrats, with each side regularly publishing reports that don't include the other.

[robkelk]

Incomplete batch of documents from the Epstein files released

I have no idea how many more batches will be released. Most of the photos that I've seen have been censored to make it impossible to identify some of the people in them.

The batch includes Maria Farmer's original 1996 complaint to the FBI about Epstein. So, no, she wasn't lying about that, neither three decades ago nor now.

The DOJ published only some of the files it has in the Epstein case, despite legislation passed by Congress and signed into law by Trump that dictates all documents were to be publicly released by Dec. 19.

The rest of files are being held back because further redactions are required, officials said. They will be distributed sometime in the new year, according to Trump's former lawyer Todd Blanche, who now serves as the deputy attorney general.

That has prompted claims by Democrats and others that the Trump administration is orchestrating a coverup.

[robkelk]

Trump says U.S. 'needs' Greenland for national security reasons

The leaders of Denmark and Greenland insisted Monday that the United States won't take over Greenland and demanded respect for their territorial integrity after U.S. President Donald Trump announced the appointment of a special envoy to the semi-autonomous territory.

Trump's announcement that Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry would be the envoy prompted a new flare-up of tensions over Washington's interest in the vast territory of Denmark, a NATO ally.

The U.S. ambassador to Denmark is being summoned by the Danish government to explain this.

[classicdrogn]

Well you see, Hans, it's very simmple. We're the baddies and you have something the Beloved Leader wants.

[Labster]

There's been a ghoul haunting our neighborhood lately.  I know this, because it's all spelled out in spray paint, the stylized letters "GHOUL" on a nearby speed limit sign, on a boulder, and across the side of a city building housing a water well.  Why am I talking about this here?  No idea, must just be a non sequitur.

On with the news then:
* Trump’s new Trump-Class battleship will carry nuclear weapons
* Kennedy Center gets new signage bearing Trump’s name
* US Institute of Peace renamed for Trump after his administration gutted it earlier this year