The $3.45 average price of gasoline in 2024 was not quite 7% higher than the inflation adjusted price of $3.23/gallon from 1978

 Gasoline prices are moderating slowly in 2025 even as the inflation-adjusted price rises to $3.27.

Gasoline actually averaged $3.27 in the first half of 2025, dead on the money for what it should cost if it were only adjusted for inflation since 1978.

Gasoline retailers like convenience stores don't make their money on gasoline, with profit margins on gasoline in the 2% range. They make it on stuff like milk, the free-market price of which is a great mystery. AI thinks the unregulated price of milk right now would be about $4.00/gallon.

At the corner convenience store near where I live, a gallon of whole milk is a whopping $4.99, but eight miles down the road at my grocery it's only $3.45, so it's a mark-up of 45% for the convenience. 

But my grocery offers a routine discount coupon of 60 cents per gallon of milk, which brings the price down to $2.85, which Sam's can't beat at $3.23. Milk is my grocery's loss leader to get me in the store, like rotisserie chicken is a loss leader for Sam's and Costco, or like gasoline.

Gasoline this morning at Sam's is $3.01/gallon.

My momma told me, you better shop around. 

Meanwhile average fuel economy in 2023 is 27.1 miles on a gallon of gasoline, up from about 17.6 in 1978.

Seems like we should be doing better in that department. 

 

Down she goes

 

The example most detrimental to U.S. and U.S. presidential stature is Two Weeks Trump's ridiculous coddling of Vladimir Putin at the expense of Ukraine for two months

 

 ... Over the last two months, Trump has said repeatedly that various answers to questions about the war, including U.S. assistance to Ukraine, would be just two weeks away.

On April 24, he told a reporter who asked about continued military assistance for Ukraine: "You can ask that question in two weeks, and we'll see." He gave a similar answer days later when asked if he trusted Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom he had publicly criticized in recent months.

Those weeks came and went. And on May 19, when asked if Ukraine was doing enough to support U.S.-led cease-fire negotiations, Trump replied, "I'd rather tell you in about two weeks from now because I can't say yes or no."

Over a month ago, on May 28, Trump gave Putin another two-week deadline when a reporter asked whether he believed the Russian leader truly wants the war to end.

"I can't tell you that, but I'll let you know within two weeks," Trump said. "We're going to find out whether or not he's tapping us along or not. And if he is, we'll respond a bit differently, but it will take about a week and a half, two weeks." ...

Last Wednesday marked three weeks, and still bupkis from Trump. 

It's been two months, not two weeks.

More. 

The world's population of everyday normal millionaires heh since the year 2000 has more than quadrupled to 52 million

 ... There is not much data on individuals in the $50 million to $1 billion range, which distorts the picture, according to Mazeau. He also said the wealth growth among middle and lower wealth brackets is underappreciated. For instance, the number of individuals with $1 million to $5 million, whom UBS dubs “everyday millionaires,” has more than quadrupled since 2000 to about 52 million.

“They have more wealth collectively than all the billionaires in the world,” he said. “It is often overlooked how much wealth is rising and is going towards the middle of the pack.”

The middle of the pack. Yeah right.

It takes $33 million in 2025 to be a 1913 millionaire. 

More in "The U.S. added a thousand new millionaires a day in 2024: Report".

Meanwhile . . .

 

 

Burning cargo ship bound for Mexico from China with 800 electric vehicles on board abandoned off the coast of Alaska lol

 

... Fires across all vessel segments hit the highest level in a decade in 2024, according to insurer Allianz Commercial. ...

More.

Gee, I wonder why.

Don't park one in your garage.

 

Update Wed Jun 25, 2025:

She sank, 16,000 feet under lol.

The ninth car-carrier in ten years the video says.

 

 

 

CNBC piles on Elon Musk with unfair story about latest test flight of Starship, which was hardly a setback

 

SpaceX’s Starship explodes for third time in a row, Musk promises more frequent launches

 

SpaceX saw its Starship system explode on Tuesday in a test flight, the third consecutive setback for Elon Musk’s rocket maker.

 

There's a far less biased presentation here:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If ivermectin ever made a difference to COVID-19 outcomes in Africa, it sure didn't in Latin and South America

Wide distribution of ivermectin in Africa to combat river blindness does not appear to have had anything to do whatsoever with low death rates from COVID-19 in places like Angola (62 deaths per million of population), Kenya (120), and Nigeria (16).

It turns out that ivermectin was widely distributed in eight Latin and South American countries from June, August, and December 2020, but all of them had steeply higher death rates from the disease:

Peru 6,945

Brazil 3,396

Mexico 2,654

Panama 2,089

Bolivia 1,974

Guatemala 1,222

Honduras 1,165

El Salvador 652.

 

Exposure to fresh air and full spectrum sunlight with its infrared and ultraviolet radiation has been shown to speed recovery from the disease:

 

 

Because they are gay

 Why men are shaving off their eyelashes...

tl;dr

 

 

Go boom is more like it

 Trump: Tariff Rollout "Going Very Well," "Our Country Is Going To Boom"

Venezuelan gangs in America are an invasion like January 6th riots were an insurrection

 Brought to you courtesy of the UniParty, the Red, White, and Blue.

 Count me out.

 

 

National Security Adviser Mike Waltz lied through his teeth with the cameras rolling to President Trump at the White House on Tuesday, saying he never met Jeffrey Goldberg

 

Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic was mistakenly included in the Houthi Signal Chat because he shares the same initials as Jamieson Greer

 

Goldberg, who has the same initials as U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, was mistakenly added to the group by National Security Adviser Michael Waltz.

Reported here.

I hope they don't bomb Ireland when they intend to bomb Iran.

War is peace, freedom is slavery, ignorance is strength, tariffs are tax cuts

 

You are the asshole now Donald Trump

 

Savage sheeple: Democrats baaaaad! Republicans gooooood!

 Starting at 1:50.

 

 

I for one am looking forward to J. D. Vance defending the First Amendment rights of Jihadist authors

 

A purported descendant of Patrick Henry and James Madison blasted The Tyrant Trump in GA-7 townhall represented by Rich McCormick

 

Town Hall Erupts At Blistering Anti-Trump Rant Torching ‘Tyranny’ — Gets Standing Ovation In Trump District:

 

A town hall in a plus-thirty GOP district erupted in a sustained standing ovation over a blistering rant calling President Donald Trump a “tyrant” who “named himself king.”

Trump’s first weeks in office have been characterized by a string of successful Cabinet nominations and a relentless testing of executive power and governing norms. Many critics saw Trump’s social media declaration “Long live the King!’ as emblematic of that approach.

That was certainly the case when Rep. Rich McCormick (R-GA) — who endorsed Trump in 2024 after first supporting Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) — faced constituents at a town hall meeting in Roswell, Georgia on Thursday.

A woman named Virginia Lim prefaced her scathing question to McCormick by referencing her familial connection to the Founding Fathers — then laid into Trump:

VICTORIA LIM: Thank you so much, Congressman, for taking my question. I do so appreciate it.

I’m a direct descendant of Susanna Henry Madison, one of Patrick Henry’s younger sisters and a cousin by marriage of James Madison.

Do you know who Patrick Henry was? And James Madison, sir? (NODS)

I’m so glad to hear that. While arguing the need for the American Revolution, Patrick Henry said “A king is a tyrant. If a wrong step is made now, the Republic will be lost forever and tyranny will rise.”.

I believe you know the rest of his speech. Something about “give me liberty.”.

It’s clear from all the writings of our Founding Fathers that our great Republic was never meant to be ruled by a dictator, nor a king.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

So. So you can imagine my shock and pure horror when I woke up to find that our president had given himself unprecedented executive powers, and then, within a few days, named himself King to his followers. (APPLAUSE).

Tyranny. Tyranny—!

MODERATOR: Virginia. Do you have a question for the congressman?

VICTORIA LIM: I do, I do. Thank you. Tyranny is rising in the white House, and a man has declared himself our king. So I would like to know. Rather the people would like to know what you, congressman, and your fellow congressman are going to do to rein in the megalomaniac in the White House.

(CROWD STANDS AND CHEERS).

AUDIENCE MEMBER: Thank you!

REP. RICH MCCORMICK: Thank you. I’m not going to give you my best Foghorn Leghorn response to that. But what I was — so you can go ahead and sit down — thank you.

The — when you talk about tyranny, when you talk about presidential power, I remember having the same discussion with Republicans when Biden was elected.

(JEERING).

The funny thing is, the funny thing is —

(JEERING CONTINUES).

The funny thing is, you’re sitting here in your body, you would probably say those January 6ers who were yelling just as loud as you, who were upset just like you, and not listen —

(INDISTINCT SHOUTING)

MODERATOR: Hey, hey, hey, let’s restore some order! Let’s restore some order! Hey hey hey, let’s restore some order!

REP. RICH MCCORMICK: So yelling, yelling at me is not going to get any answer, okay? Hey, like I said, like I said, we’re not going to give order right now.

MODERATOR: Let’s get through this. Congressman.

AUDIENCE: Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!

REP. RICH MCCORMICK: I’ve seen Game of Thrones, too. Thank you.

Eventually, McCormick cited the so-called REINS Act, claiming it “reins in executive power” — but the bill actually has to do with rule-making at federal agencies.

 

Just words: It's been 20 days and the war he said he'd settle before he even became president is still going strong

 

Trump says he has spoken to Putin about ending the Ukraine war

 

 

 

Trump's deportation fantasies hit the big brick wall of reality

 Meanwhile at ICE, Vitello told agents in January to aim to meet a daily quota of 1,200-1,400 arrests. According to numbers ICE has posted on X, the highest single day total since Trump was inaugurated was just 1,100, and the number has fallen since that day. On Tuesday of this week, arrests of immigrants were over 800, according to a source familiar with the numbers. But last weekend, there were only about 300 arrests, another source told NBC News.

In order to fulfill Trump’s Inauguration Day promise of “millions and millions” of deportations, the Trump administration would have to be deporting over 2,700 immigrants every day to reach 1 million in a year. 

And, as NBC News has reported, arrests do not always equal immediate detentions, much less deportations. Of the more than 8,000 immigrants arrested in the first two weeks of the Trump administration, 461 were released, according to the White House. 

More.

They were supposed to end catch and release on day one. They can't do even that.

 

 

RFK Jr gets a nicotine fix during Senate testimony

Yeah, that's what we want to see in our next Secretary of Health.

Ciga-reetes, and heroin, and wild, wild Olivia Nuzzis, they'll drive you crazy, they'll drive you insane.