Commodities are traded on exchanges by banks, corporations, and speculators. They buy long with the hope that they can sell it later at a higher price, or they sell short on a margin account (selling first — with the hope that the price drops so they can buy it at a lower price). These are called futures. There is technical analysis (reading patterns in candlestick charts and extrapolating where price will go in the future) and there is fundamental analysis (news events, corporate earnings reports like that of Saudi Aramco and corporate governance news and such). They speculate on this analysis to earn profits on their trades. If there are more sellers at a price than buyers, then the price of oil drops to where there are buyers at another price. If there are more buyers than sellers at a price, then the price of oil goes up to a price where there are more sellers. This is how the price of Brent and WTI crude are determined.

What you and I pay for gasoline has a lot to do with this oil price coupled with the billions of dollars that our government hands out to companies like ExxonMobil free of charge, which pads their bottom line more than it helps you and me afford their prices.

It would make zero difference to you and me if ExxonMobil is the owner or if British Petroleum is. I say let the British be the imperialists, and lets spend our money on subsidizing renewable energy, electric cars, investing in affordable housing and college, universal healthcare etc.

You’re wrong about the rich and the poor. The poor have nothing to be taxed. The rich should be taxed at pre-Reagan levels to make it a more just society. Also, the rich have longer life expectancy than the poor, better education, and have many more opportunities.

Furthermore, you’re a psychopathic asshole.

Kripke is, at most, (sort of) interesting (e.g. Quine, Goodman, Sellars, Haack, Lewis ... make much more sense). Definitions, btw, lack truth-value; — 180 Proof

Kripke is a rockstar. Why do you think NYU where he taught was the number one ranked graduate school for philosophy? Kripke makes a lot of sense.

So the premise, “A bachelor is an unmarried man” is untrue? That’s strange.

Nope. I would venture you know it through your experience, too, if you’re being intellectually honest. Truths are known either through experience (a posteriori, and as all experience is private, all a posteriori truths are privately known and communicated consciously by a thinking agent) or they are known by the meanings of the definitions of the terms used (a priori). This is Saul Kripke stuff. It is a necessary truth because experience cannot be conceived to exist without consciousness.

I just don't buy it came down from the scattered and not very large fires. — Coben

Of course it didn't. Only a fool would believe that a building would fall like that from small fires.

It's a necessary a posteriori truth knowable through experience.

Because my conscious experience involves sensations of walking and singing. It is prior to the doing.

And besides, ExxonMobil profits never helped anyone I've ever met. Oil is sold on the world markets and the prices are the same for you, me, and everyone else I've ever met no matter if ExxonMobil owns it or not. I don't give a fuck about ExxonMobil. They are fucking the vast majority of Americans.

I see. Like ... 'walking doesn't arise from legs' or 'songs don't arise from lungs', etc. — 180 Proof

Walking is what legs can do. Singing is what a conscious person with a body can do. They do not "arise". Consciousness is a phenomena not akin to walking or singing. A dead corpse cannot walk or sing. It takes consciousness which is fundamental to reality. Conscious experience "arising" from brains is invoking magic.

NO, no. My conspiracy theory is in the news. Yours is behind the headlines. Mine are in the li(n)es. Yours are in-between.

Which are more likely to be true?

"When two conspiracists lock antlers." — god must be atheist

I'm not being ludicrous and inane. You are. You are more than welcome to look up all of my claims. They are consistent, coherent, and logically inferred from the available public historical record. You are just trying to be funny or trying to get my goat. You're trolling, and I don't really care much for your lack of intellectual honesty.

They learned this from Hitler's Nazi movement, and from the Communist terror propagation. Except in America everyone buys the lies. This is because the powers that be suppressed education. The communists' biggest mistake was to teach science and literature and art to their young. Consequently, every citizen saw right through their lies.

I have news for you: the American establishment lies are almost identical to those of the communists. The difference? Amys believe them. Russkies did not. — god must be atheist

Now you're making sense. The working and middle classes mostly believe the lies, too. But, hey! We got the Super Bowl and Twinkies, right?

Yeah, but half of that number in troops are Americans-turned-Jihadists who were enchanted by the wonderful promise of the Islam. Plus, after joining up, they could kill people without repercussions... big attraction for most young hot-blooded All-American Boys. — god must be atheist

Whatever. You're a fool.

It did not work... for long. There is no presence that we know of by the USA in the Middle East wars. — god must be atheist

We have 40-50,000 troops in the Middle East as well as oil executives and contractors and military bases in the countries surrounding Iran.

"Just say NO."

It has a ring to it, it has the writers behind it, it is unmistakeably a slogan... yet even this hasn't worked. — god must be atheist

Ah, yes. Nancy Reagan. Dumb cunt.

If you're mocking me, then I don't find that interesting or funny. It's vapid and lazy.

Oh. I know da answer for that.

Sex, drugs, and Rock'n'Roll!! — god must be atheist

:up:

and as of yet freedom from propaganda.

I agree that there are intangible, fundamental "elements" and "features" of reality if that's what you mean. Mind doesn't "arise" from the brain, or at least it has not been shown to be a feature solely attributable to beings with brains.

Emergent properties are not explanations, they are facts. Trying to explain them away reductively is the mistake. — Pantagruel

Calling them "emergent" and not fundamental is the mistake.

Emergent properties as explanation is nothing more than invoking magic.

Are you a materialist?

Right, which is all consistent with those entities emerging as a result of systemic evolution, as documented and tested through systems theory. — Pantagruel

Yeah, okay. I may grant you that... but what is not a miracle about consciousness and what is it exactly? I'm not giving an argument here. I'm asking an honest question that has no satisfactory answers to date.

And don't be so naive as to think that the CIA doesn't have some trolls or shills on this forum. They are at least monitoring it closely (as is the NSA).

In my very esteemed and informed and educated and righteously angry opinion, 9/11 was all about an excuse to re-establish the USA as the only dominant force in the Middle East, ensuring the continued profitability of ExxonMobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Halliburton, Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed-Martin, et. al.; as well as an excuse to institute a mass surveillance system that was condoned by the public itself in the name of finding and fighting "terrorists". We swallowed the story whole-cloth. 9/11 had nothing to do with terrorists trained in Afghanistan. The 9/11 terrorists were largely Saudi Arabian with one Egyptian (as I remember) that were trained in small aircraft (Cesnas?) in the United States. This is public record. How did they fly those jumbo jets so accurately? Iraq was all about getting Haliburton and ExxonMobil in there. War is a racket and big oil runs the country (think of the rebates the oil industry gets from the taxpayer every year).

Social control given with the blessing of the American public and their unquestioning jingoism maintaining the power structure of big oil and the war industry.

9/11 was perpetrated by the Project for a New American Century (PNAC).

The only time the USA was relatively free was during the Vietnam protests and the classic age of rock and roll with drug experimentation and the counter culture... Then the Reagan Revolution happened.

Also, social control is crucial to maintaining the power structure.

what is going on is probably no more (or less) nefarious than a "conspiracy of greed." — Pantagruel

Of course. What else is there but money, power, and politics?

I was under the (false?) impression that the Internet was created for the dissemination of pornography.

The worst form of torture is to become a quadriplegic with schizoaffective disorder and claustrophobia with her tongue cut out in a sensory deprivation chamber for a very, very long time. Not being able to talk to oneself would be the worst part for the quadriplegic schizoaffective disorder sufferer.

slutty puppy

SiriusXM Classic Vinyl channel

The one issue I have with nearly all explanations of powerful people taking advantage of powerless is talking in terms of "rich" and "poor". Not all rich people are the same. That sort of explanation loses it's bite immediately. — creativesoul

Not at all. A master can be nice but a master or a member of the master class nonetheless. Many slaves like their masters. It's kind of like Stockholm Syndrome. The rich don't exactly share the same interests with the poor (to say the least), and their privilege makes them natural enemies of the poor. The poor populate the prisons. The rich populate the country clubs.

Furthermore, it has been said by many professional pilots that it would be impossible to hit the Pentagon with a jet at that angle, never mind that there is no video evidence of a jet hitting the Pentagon. There is only video of an explosion. Funny that that part of the Pentagon was already evacuated and no one was hurt.

Building 7 supposedly housed millions of classified CIA documents. It has also been reported that the owner of the World Trade Center property took out an $8 billion insurance policy before the attack.

I would love to read some of your work, and you should feel free to post some of it in the Lounge.

That said, while many, many thinkers believe the written word is the single greatest invention of humankind, I am recently of the belief that the written word has been the single greatest disaster for humankind. Let me explain.

Without the written word, the civilizations of the world would have been made very difficult if not impossible. Governments would not be able to function, and the accounting of business and aristocratic affairs would be nearly unworkable. Architecture and any large-scale infrastructure would be impossible. Mathematics and science would not exist. As such, modern medicine would not exist either. Nuclear power wouldn't exist, nor would the combustion engine. Coal power plants, natural gas power plants, power plants period would not exist. As a result of the written language and the resulting structuring of societies, our modern society couldn't have arisen. And the death of the planet wouldn't be imminent (at least for harboring large civilizations and eco-diversity).

If written language weren't invented, we would all be living in tribes as we did before the dawn of civilization. That probably sounds horrible to most, but to me it would be ideal. In the time before Europeans came to the Americas, the majority of natives lived in tribes (except for the Mayans, Incas, and Aztecs), and I posit that life had much more "spiritual" meaning. It must have been quite magical and mythical for the first arrivals of humans to the "New World" in the Ice Age to discover the new beasts and landscape of such a world. People in tribes all depended on one another in their small groups for survival and companionship, a far cry from the compartmentalized world of today with its isolated individuals on their computers and social media having very little human contact outside of meaningless work. There was real freedom, not the fake freedom of choice between consumer products of today. Thought and language was awash with spirituality and deep meaning. The oral traditions of the different tribes gave a real sense of identity, whereas today we are workers and consumers and as a result mental illness is widespread, something I very much doubt existed in pre-historic times. I believe mental illness is caused by modern civilization, not some brain disorder or chemical imbalance. Mental illness occurs because people don't belong in this society. They have no home. They have no place. They have no purpose outside of worker and consumer.

Small bands of people living on an Earth that was untouched by technology and man-made infrastructure must be something really alien to most of the minds of modern society and must have been something to behold! We are made to think that life in pre-historic times was nasty, brutish, and short. I disagree. People had knowledge of natural remedies that cured many ailments. People didn't live to be 90, but then again, I don't know of any 90 year-old who is ecstatic about their condition. They are usually reminiscent of their years in their prime. People in pre-historic tribes belonged in the world. They weren't parasites to the planet. They lived in harmony with the environment. It was only when we started trying to tame nature that we became disconnected with our true selves. Civilization does NOT nourish community either. In fact, it does quite the opposite. People are masters or slaves. People are used in modern society, whereas people in pre-historic times belonged to each other in companionship and united purpose, feeling a kinship with Mother Earth, grateful for every day they survived and grateful for the earth's bounty.

On the other hand, seeing as how there is no going back because there isn't the free, untouched land available for people to live free; the land, water, and air is poisoned; and the knowledge and wisdom of pre-historic humans is lost forever; I happen to value the written word above everything else that modern humans have created, seeing as how I have to live here.

So, please do share your writing with us so that we all may feel the wonder of something as yet untouched and virgin as Mother Earth once was.

I must admit that I didn’t read your entire post, but I reckon you are interested in firsthand accounts, so here goes...

A few months back I was dreaming, and I don’t remember the entire dream, but I dreamt about a high school acquaintance. He said to me, “I’m not so and so. I’m an alien. There is going to be a race war and we will protect you. You can murder human beings... and now forget...” He then stretched out his hand and touched my temple and I forgot what had happened in the dream before his appearance.

I presume he meant that I could kill Nazis because I had been threatening them to the Google, iPhone, PC, and smart TV surveillance devices in my home.

And that’s that. I’m not sure if this is what you were looking for, but that’s my account.

I'm BACK! Back in the TPF groove!
I'm BACK! Back in the TPF groove!
I'm BACK! Back in the TPF groove!

Anyway, every empire that has ever existed constitutes a master/slave society. The United States empire is no exception. ExxonMobil is the biggest master but not the only one. Corporations (and those who run them) run the United States. The working class are the servants/slaves. The middle class are also servants/slaves but maybe house slaves. The police are the overseers. Freedom amounts to very little besides consumer choice. The state-sanctioned entertainment keeps you from questioning your status as nothing more than a consumer. Businesses are mini-kingdoms. You are never more aware of your slave-hood than when you are at work. The supervisors are overseers at the business kingdoms. The owners are the masters.

There are only so many state-sanctioned religions. You have "freedom" to choose among them, but just don't try to start one (think Waco, TX).

Freedom of choice? Sure. You can choose between PC or Mac, Android or iPhone, MSNBC, CNN, or Fox News, etc... All of these are corporations that keep you boxed in a prison. Our several domiciles are also prisons that are constantly "watched" by Google, Apple, Microsoft ... even your smart TV has a camera on it.

The judicial system works to exonerate the rich and condemn the poor (masters and slaves). The prosecutor has a team. The rich can hire an arsenal of lawyers to debate the best strategy and pick the best jurors. The poor have one public defender with a gigantic workload. S/he is paid a pittance, and s/he knows you are probably going to get convicted. Well, what did you expect? A slave would walk free?

The NSA, CIA, and Pentagon (read "War is a Racket" by General Smedley Butler) work on behalf of the corporations as does the President, Congress, and the judicial system. There are too many unconstitutional laws that are legal to be counted here because of the corrupt judges and justices. Never mind that judges relate to the rich as people, and they look down on the servants/slaves. The slaves get life sentences and the wayward masters get parole after slaps-on-the-wrist sentences.

Edward Bernays and Walter Lippmann conceived of this society to keep our minds shackled (just Google them and read their books). Personal responsibility? Sure. Everyone is responsible for themselves. That's by design. The system doesn't create working-class crime. It's bad individuals. Sure. Crimes of poverty, in reality. Think "Prison Song" by System of a Down (the metal band).

Not convinced yet? Just ask questions and I will try to respond to all of them.

Welcoming hatred: that's a rough one. No good. Gotta stay away from those Mein Kampf reading fascists; they will kick you to death. — uncanni

Nah, they’re just pussies paid by Senator Ron Johnson’s lieutenants to harass me. I’ve been in enough fights to know pussies when I see them. I ain’t scared.

So how do you know that it's not ideological, whatever it is you mean by that term? — uncanni

I know it’s personal because my enemies are unrelenting in their hatred for me. Doesn’t matter what I do or say, it’s personal with them. They hate me and I welcome their hatred, Putin-loving Mein Kampf reading fascists that they are.

Anyways, it doesn’t matter what you believe about me. It doesn’t change my experiences one bit. It does sound like boasting about made-up things to a commoner, I’m sure, but that’s only because you’re a commoner. I was also valedictorian of my high school class, graduated Summa cum Laude from college, and was accepted into the best law school in my state. I was accepted into eleven law schools, in fact. This, too, probably sounds like bullshit to a commoner, but I’m not a peasant.

Haha! If I were making this up, then why didn’t the FBI or Secret Service come interview me for my threats?

In exactly what sense are you using "boys" here?
A. as in choirboy the the priests.
B. as in good boy like a pet
C. a boy as in one of our sons — Sir2u

More like a pet or a pet project. I probably first got on their radar sophomore year of high school when I got the highest score in the history of the state on a standardized test. The Army wanted me then. Years later my sister-in-law’s sister’s husband worked at the Pentagon, and now my nephew is a Marine, and my wife’s brother is an ex-Marine. My grandfather was recruited by the Secret Service after WWII, but he declined. My uncle fought in Vietnam and was a member of Mensa. My dad was honorably discharged from the Army even though he had a nervous breakdown only after a few months. I am monitored 24/7 because I am a highly intelligent and educated person with a dangerous mental illness with a family history of service to this country. I’m given latitude in the things I say because they know what I’m doing at all times. I love and hate Big Brother. If not for them I would be locked up, but I often get agitated due to the constant surveillance. It’s difficult when so many people know your business.