I always wondered, who the F is setting the price of oil barrels? And, kinda knew it was b.s. since obviously the ones setting it were the ones profitting from it.

So, how did this total deregulation, thus the exploitation of gas consumers' money (everyone's), of oil start and when? Was it the genius idea of having Bush in two terms of office? And, since the ones that can change it obviously won't because it was their fault to begin with (intentionally), what or who can stop it?

Ah, the gas station: that once mighty and blissful oasis at the corner of every intersection, Anytown, U.S.A.; where one could load up on Twinkies, windshield wipers, 2-for-1 packs of Camel Lights, and dreams; where pretty soon the phrase "Fill 'er Up!" would no longer refer to the declarative mission statements of industrious magnates, directing the wheels of Motor City's finest machines to Manifest Destiny; but rather, "Fill 'er Up?" -- now, a defeated and dejected, euphemistic expression from destitute 21st century drivers -- propositioning oral pleasure to passersby and other station patrons for just enough fuel to get home.

"I'll suck yo' dick"?

Indeed, Big Oil, we shall.

MORE ON THE REAL REASON
BEHIND HIGH OIL PRICES, PART II
by F. William Engdahl
May 21, 2008

As detailed in an earlier article, a conservative calculation is that at least 60% of today's $128 per barrel price of crude oil comes from unregulated futures speculation by hedge funds, banks and financial groups using the London ICE Futures and New York NYMEX futures exchanges and uncontrolled inter-bank or Over-The-Counter trading to avoid scrutiny. US margin rules of the government's Commodity Futures Trading Commission allow speculators to buy a crude oil futures contract on the Nymex, by having to pay only 6% of the value of the contract. At today's price of $128 per barrel, that means a futures trader only has to put up about $8 for every barrel. He borrows the other $120. This extreme "leverage" of 16 to 1 helps drive prices to wildly unrealistic levels and offset bank losses in sub-prime and other disasters at the expense of the overall population.

I got these cheeseburgers man...

Other things I've read and heard led me to believe that futures trading had a lot to do with the way oil prices have been going, but according to the minutes of the Bank of England's Monetary Policy Committee Meeting for May (paragraph 11):

They appear to be specifically referring to Brent Crude (ie North Sea oil, though this is regarded as a benchmark) for the pricing of 2/3 of crude oil traded internationally), and I know they only refer to 'recent months'... but does this make them morons too? Eh, I don't really understand.

That was a rhetorical "you", not a reference to you specifically. Sorry.

Oh, and fuck the small business owners, too. (That is, fuck the ones who try to make a whole bunch of wrongs right by just tossing another wrong into the pile.) It's a debit card, there's no charge for using one. (At least not at the other thousand places I've used it.) Not that the law's always right (it usually isn't), but I think what the gas station owner tried to do constitutes a not very sly form of theft. (At least not as sly as the "hedge fund" (WTF is that?) assholes who are openly raping us, but still illegal never the less...)

is this why it takes so long to wait in line at the pump for people sitting inside their cars?

have they thought of 'self serve' as a good time to whack one off??

You didn't read anything I wrote did you?

There has always been a fee to use a debit or credit card, it's just that before now, gas station owners could afford to take it on the chin. Different kinds of businesses still get charged that fee, it's just that the goods and services they are selling haven't been so dramatically affected.

Before, when a person could afford to put twenty dollars into their gas tank at every transaction, then it was doable for the station owners. Now, if a customer can only afford ten bucks at each transaction, the business owners are now absorbing twice that fee for each twenty dollars worth of goods sold.

It sucks, and business owners don't like doing it, precisely because of the negative reaction of customers, but if they do it, it's probably that or get rid of credit/debit transactions at their station entirely.

This is why cash-only stations are, and have always been, significantly cheaper than stations that do accept plastic as a form of convenience for their customer. A debit card is not like using cash. It is like an instantly-verifiable check, and just like a check, there are fees associated with it's processing.

Don't like it? Start paying cash. It's the bank that's raping you on the transaction fee, not the gas station.

Saw this on another forum I go to.

Aside from the oil companies getting rich raping us for the oil and gas. They also like to buy up the patents on alternate fuel sources, and lock them down so nobody else can further the research...

-Patent #7,014,953 (Texaco Ovonic Battery Systems)
-Patent #6,969,567 (Texaco Ovonic Battery Systems)
-Patent #6,759,034 (Texaco Ovonic Battery Systems)
-Patent #6,557,655 (Texaco Ovonic Battery Systems)
-Patent #6,330,925 (Texaco Ovonic Battery Systems)
-Patent #5,879,831 (Texaco Ovonic Battery Systems)

It's not "on the sly." It's called a POS charge. If you have a debit card, and you can check your account on-line, you will see it listed as such if you use a debit card where gasoline is sold. The "other thousand places" you've used yours don't sell gasoline. As was already outlined, many places that sell gas eat the cost as a service to consumers.

Who signed the "Commodity Futures Modernization Act of 2000" into law? Just curious.

It seems like I hear the same thing from every gas-station worker/owner/whatever I've ever expressed any outrage over pricing to: "Oh, we don't make any money selling gas." Well, somebody has to be! Otherwise, where would the advantage in owning/operating a gas station be? The way I keep hearing it is that the poor, lowly gas station dude doesn't make dime one, while all these laughing, screeching money assholes on wall street are just sweeping in the cash faster than it can be printed per barrel. You would think that with things being as they are (shitty), they would start waiving a lot of these fees so that more people would buy shit. (I might be wrong here, but I think lots of folks use them fancy debit cards these days. I myself haven't carried cash for a long time.)

I think you're either channeling Neil Gaiman or William S. Burroughs, there.

Yeah, my E-Sci friends always tell me about this. The only thing I have to say in response to everything in the this article is "Big fucking surprise."

9 years ago, when I was first becoming interested in politics, my neighbors explained to me what would happen if George W. Bush became president. Every fucking revelation they made came true, like they were descendants of Nostradamus or something.

I half agree with FTR about the people who put GW in office. Part of me feels like "See what happened, retards? You did this by allowing him to make you afraid that street-corner abortion vendors were going to line every town, and by drinking the kool-aid of patriotism he sold you laced with fail."

There's certainly nothing wrong with holding a conservative view point. I understand their concerns, to a degree. There is something wrong with voting for the most obvious fuck-up in the history of our country, twice. I feel like they just covered their ears and screamed "La la la la la laaaaa!" while all the evidence in the world just looked them right in the face and said "Can't you see he's using you? He doesn't give a shit about anything you hold dear. He's using you, and getting rich off of you."