[ZH] Reporters and breaking news X accounts indicate that anti-scale fencing was erected late Friday night into early Saturday morning around the White House and Treasury Department buildings in Washington, D.C.
While no official statement has been released, prevailing speculation online attributes the move to:
Preemptive security posture ahead of the July 4th holiday.
National March on Washington scheduled for Saturday, June 28 at 1 PM, led by ANSWER Coalition and affiliated anti-war organizations, protesting potential U.S. military escalation with Iran. Doesn't seem like that did squat
NBC News reporter Ben Popken questioned a U.S. Secret Service agent about the sudden construction of fencing and the apparent elevation in security posture. The agent attributed the move to standard protective measures ahead of the July 4th holiday.
#5
We will all get to see hypocrisy. It will turn Ohio redder than it already is. They are stupid to do whatever they have planned. They will probably live stream it.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/29/2025 10:59 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Not like releasing hundreds of terrorists from prison.
[Daily Mail, where America gets its news] Canada has dramatically hiked duties on American steel imports after Donald Trump shut down trade talks.
The country imposed an import quota late Friday and if it is exceeded, certain US metal will face a new 50 percent surcharge.
Canada's Finance Minister, François-Philippe Champagne, said the government was acting to protect domestic industry from 'unjust US tariffs,' NBC News reported.
The response came hours after Trump posted on Truth Social about how Canada is a 'very difficult country to trade with.'
His reason for suspending trade negotiations came down to a tax Canada is set to impose on major tech companies starting Monday.
'Based on this egregious Tax, we are hereby terminating ALL discussions on Trade with Canada, effective immediately,' Trump wrote, adding that the levy 'is a direct and blatant attack on our Country.'
Last week, the finance minister said he would not delay the implementation of the digital services tax, which applies to any firm making more than $15 million from Canadian internet users.
The three percent tax will strike at the heart of American companies like Amazon, Google, Meta, Uber and Airbnb.
And because the tax is retroactive back to 2022, one tech lobbying group said American firms will soon have to pay up to $3 billion directly into Canada's treasury.
Canada has not ruled out further action to strike back at Trump for ending negotiations, with the government saying it 'remains prepared to take additional steps as needed.'
How Canada's hike on US steel imports will affect the industry, which has been struggling for years, is yet to be seen.
US Steel Corporation, once one of the most valuable companies in the world, just merged with Japan's Nippon Steel earlier this month after years of declining sales.
Canada remains the second largest trading partner of the US, despite all the trade turmoil.
Right now, the US has 25 percent tariff on Canadian imports that aren't covered by the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA), the trade deal Trump signed in his first term.
Canadian energy is exempt from the 25 percent rate but is still tariffed at 10 percent, as are most products that have entered the US since early April.
Canada is also hugely impacted by Trump's 50 percent tax on steel and aluminum imports, as the country is largest foreign supplier of those materials to the US.
Canada's steel industry has laid off a staggering 1,000 workers since the first US tariffs in March, Reuters reported.
It has also been impacted by the 25 percent duties Trump has levied on foreign-made vehicles and parts.
This comes as the US rapidly approaches Trump's July 9 deadline to renegotiate trade with countries around the world so they can avoid so-called reciprocal tariffs.
Trump first announced the reciprocal tariffs on April 2, which he dubbed 'Liberation Day.'
More than 60 countries were hit with import charges of as much as 50 percent. The announcement from the White House led to widespread market panic and falling bond values, which led to Trump enacting a 90-day pause on April 9.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said early Friday that the pause could be extended to Labor Day - and that country-by-country tariffs could be negotiated down in that time.
Hours later, Trump echoed a similar sentiment. He said the initial July 9 deadline was not set in stone and could shortened or extended.
Continued on Page 47
[SDUT] OOPS! Realizing they've f*&ked themselves along with CA voters and gas consumers? Yes
A 24-page letter offers recommendations to Gov. Newsom. The commission also says refinery closures will add 15-30 cents to gas prices if changes are not made.
In the wake of plans by two refineries to close down, the California Energy Commission offered a series of recommendations Friday to Gov. Gavin Newsom, aiming to help maintain a steady supply stream of gasoline to Golden State motorists.
Among the items in the 24-page letter to Newsom, the energy commission backed off plans to slap potential financial penalties on oil companies if the state deemed they made excess profits at the pump.
In addition, in a media briefing, energy commission Vice Chair Siva Gunda estimated that if no action is taken, the two anticipated refinery closures would add 15 to 30 cents per gallon in the near term.
In April, Valero, one of the country’s major transportation fuels producers, gave notice of intent to shut down operations at its refinery in the Northern California city of Benicia in 2026.
The CEO of the San Antonio-based company said, "California has been pursuing policies to move away from fossil fuels for the past 20 years, and the consequence of that is the regulatory and enforcement environment is the most stringent and difficult of anywhere else in North America."
The Valero announcement came just a few months after Phillips 66 announced it will shut down its twin Southern California refinery facilities in Carson and Wilmington by the end of this year.
The Valero and Phillips 66 facilities combine to account for roughly 20% of the state’s crude oil capacity, leading fuel analysts to raise concerns that the closures will strain supplies of the specially blended gasoline that is sold to California drivers.
In response, Newsom directed the energy commission, along with other state agencies such as the California Air Resources Board, to "redouble the state’s efforts to work closely with refiners" to help ensure Californians have access to transportation fuels such as gasoline in the short and long term.
California is in a tricky spot.
The state has moved aggressively to meet decarbonization goals — including a mandate issued via executive order by Newsom in 2020 to ban the sale of new gasoline-powered cars, SUVs and light trucks by 2035 — while simultaneously making sure there is enough supply of gas to meet demand.
In his letter to Newsom, Gunda described the current state as a "mid-transition" phase as the state tries to shift to massing adoption to electric vehicles.
"Keeping in-state and imported fuel competitive will be an important balancing act moving forward," Gunda wrote, "because if the cost of refining fuel in state exceeds the cost of importing fuel, it could further accelerate additional petroleum refinery exits."
Fuel imports are important because, as Friday’s letter mentioned, California imports more than 75% of its crude oil to meet the demand from in-state refineries and about 10% to 20% of its gasoline from foreign and out-of-state sources.
"Gasoline imports statewide could increase to 25-30% of demand by the summer of 2026, and up to 50% in the northern California region" after the Valero and Phillips 66 closures, the letter said, "bringing risk of supply disruptions and price volatility."
To help boost import of refined products, the energy commission letter in part called for streamlining regulatory and permitting issues that could help support "confidence for the private sector" to make investments.
As for stabilizing oil production within the state, the letter suggested the Legislature make zoning changes in Kern County — the heart of California’s Oil Patch — to "allow for a more appropriate amount of extraction."
Finally, the commission’s letter to Newsom said near- and medium-term actions should take a more "holistic transition strategy" for developing policies to transition California’s transportation system away from petroleum-based fuels.
"The problems laid out in this letter are complex but solvable," Gunda wrote.
As for the petroleum industry’s response, a spokesperson for the Western States Petroleum Association trade group said in an email to the Union-Tribune, "we are still reviewing what is in the letter."
Consumer Watchdog, a Los Angeles-based consumer advocacy group and longtime critic of the petroleum industry, labeled the California Energy Commission’s letter an "oil refiner bailout."
"California’s oil refining and distribution sector are charging Californians more than double what they take in elsewhere," the group said in a news release supported by 51 public and environmental organizations.
The groups also criticized the pause on potential financial penalties.
At Newsom’s urging, in 2023 the California Legislature in a special session passed Senate Bill X1-2, which created the Division of Petroleum Market Oversight to monitor California’s oil and gasoline companies.
Among its provisions, the legislation also gave the energy commission authority to penalize oil companies if they exceed a "maximum gross refining margin." The penalty, which would have been the first of its kind in the nation, has yet to be implemented.
Asked about the recommendation to suspend the penalty, Gunda told reporters, "It’s important to provide the necessary certainty and regulatory conditions to allow for the private investments to come in."
He added that a separate bill that passed in another special session "really gave us tools that actually increase the supply and solve this through the marketplace."
Gunda is referring to another gasoline-related bill called Assembly Bill X2-1 that Newsom signed into law last year. It requires California refineries to maintain minimum amounts of gasoline inventories in the hopes of preventing price spikes.
California has 13 refineries operating in the state but five of them are very small. Eight major refineries account for about 96% of crude oil capacity in the state — and that figure includes the Valero refinery in Benicia and the Phillips 66 facilities in Carson and Wilmington.
Gas prices have been a long-standing complaint for California motorists.
According to AAA, the average price in the Golden State stood at $4.61 for a gallon of regular on Friday — $1.40 higher than the national average. The price in San Diego on Friday came to $4.646.
Continued on Page 47
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2025 00:00 ||
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Posted by: Frank G ||
06/29/2025 4:44 Comments ||
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#4
We seem to be under capacity for refineries nationwide; 30 cents seems low to me. Also I thought that California requires a bunch of special mix formulations. Why would they expect to be able to farm that out? Switching over other refineries to make batches of California brew is going to impact capacity and cost for other states unless they drop all the special requirements. I don’t see them doing that.
Posted by: Super Hose ||
06/29/2025 8:04 Comments ||
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#5
Hose, it's better than that. Let's suppose you're a an out of state refiner willing to make California blends.
How do you get it to market with Cal mandating electric semis, electric trains, and no new pipelines?
Posted by: ed in texas ||
06/29/2025 8:20 Comments ||
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[IsraelTimes] For the second time within days, US President Donald Trump ...Perhaps no man has ever had as much fun being president of the US... lambasts the ongoing criminal trial against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, claiming that it harms efforts to strike deals in Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... and with Iran.
While not directly threatening the prosecution, Trump highlights the billions of dollars in US aid to Israel before declaring, "We are not going to stand for this."
"It is terrible what they are doing in Israel to Bibi Netanyahu," Trump writes on Truth Social.
"He is a war hero, and a prime minister who did a fabulous job working with the United States to bring great success in getting rid of the dangerous nuclear threat in Iran," Trump continues.
"Importantly, he is right now in the process of negotiating a deal with Hamas ..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,... , which will include getting the hostages back."
"How is it possible that the prime minister of Israel can be forced to sit in a courtroom all day long, over nothing," he adds, downplaying the charges against Netanyahu while calling the corruption trial a "witch hunt."
"This travesty of ’justice’ will interfere with both Iran ...a theocratic Shiite state divided among the Medes, the Persians, and the (Arab) Elamites. Formerly a fairly civilized nation ruled by a Shah, it became a victim of Islamic revolution in 1979. The nation is today noted for spontaneously taking over other countries' embassies, maintaining whorehouses run by clergymen, involvement in international drug trafficking, and financing sock puppet militias to extend the regime's influence. The word Iran is a cognate form of Aryan. The abbreviation IRGC is the same idea as Stürmabteilung (or SA). The term Supreme Guide is a the modern version form of either Duce or Führer or maybe both. They hate JewsZionists Jews. Their economy is based on the production of oil and vitriol... and Hamas negotiations," Trump claims.
"In other words, it is insanity doing what the out-of-control prosecutors are doing to Bibi Netanyahu."
"The United States of America spends billions of dollar(s) a year, far more than on any other nation, protecting and supporting Israel," he adds
"We are not going to stand for this," Trump says, adding that "this greatly tarnishes our victory.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
..the braying voice of Islamic Resistance®,...
