The Conservative Cave

Posted at the DUmp.

Valero just wrote off $1.1 billion. That is the cost they are taking to walk away from California rather than keep operating their Benicia refinery past April 2026.

When a company takes a billion dollar loss just to leave, you know something is seriously broken.

This facility processes 145,000 barrels of oil per day, representing 8.6% of California’s entire gasoline production. 400 workers have lost their jobs. 200 contractors are out of work.

The city of Benicia loses 17% of its entire budget, and California drivers, they are about to get hammered with the worst gas prices in American history.

University of California Davis economists calculate a 40 cents per gallon increase the moment Phillips 66 closes their Los Angeles refinery this December. Then another 81 cents when Valero shuts down four months later in April. That totals a $1.21 per gallon increase by August 2026, your 15 gallon fill-up jumps from $70 to at least $95.

The Stanford Energy Institute came up with even worse projections. They are showing potential spikes to $8 per gallon during supply disruptions.


There is an added wrinkle — a major one. In an attempt to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, the state has mandated the use of special blends of gasoline, which are known as “CARBOBs — California reformulated gasoline blend stock for oxygenate blending. This is not regular gasoline. It is a specialized ultra clean burning fuel mandated by California law.”

These blends cost substantially more to produce than regular gasoline due to their added complexity.

Unlike other states, California’s special fuel blends cannot be imported from major U.S. oil-producing states such as Texas, Oklahoma, or Louisiana when inventory runs low. Instead, supply comes largely from a shrinking number of in-state refineries or from a handful of foreign refineries — primarily in countries like South Korea, India, and Singapore — that have the specialized equipment needed to produce CARBOB fuel.

The long-distance transport, exposure to global supply-chain disruptions, and added logistical costs all drive prices higher — costs that are first borne by corporations and ultimately passed on to California consumers at the pump.

Liberals Are Right That Trump's Reiner Tweet Was Ungracious, and They Should Shut Up About It Too

https://hotair.com/david-strom/2025/12/16/liberals-are-right-that-trumps-reiner-tweet-was-ungracious-and-they-should-shut-up-about-it-too-n3809935

What happened to Rob Reiner was horrific, and while it would be wrong to say I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy—I think it would have been awesome for Mao, Pol Pot, Stalin, or Hitler to die at the hands of a family member or loved one—I certainly don't think that any ordinary person, however imperfect, should suffer such a fate.
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It's not like he was a pedophile rapist, like Roman Polanski. His great sin was being a blowhard.
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But I also believe that most people who are complaining the loudest are ridiculous hypocrites who have absolutely no right to say so, because they celebrated Charlie Kirk's death, or excused those who did in the most vile ways. Many of them still do.
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So to them I have two words: screw you. After being subjected to vile slanders for over a decade, conservatives really don't care what you think. You have called us Nazis, bigots, the Gestapo, fascists, wished us dead, told pollsters we should be put in camps and have our children taken away, and lamented that Thomas Crooks wasn't a better shot.
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Rob Reiner was himself exceptionally gracious, and I believe sincerely so, when Charlie Kirk was murdered, for which he deserves great credit. His was a rare voice from the left.
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This doesn't excuse Trump's outburst, but Rob Reiner was, you must admit, not merely a Trump critic but one of the prime celebrity promoters of hoaxes intended to bring Trump down. While silence would have been Trump's best response, asking him to say insincere words of praise would be a step too far. One suspects that Reiner would have made an exception from his usual graciousness upon Trump's own demise.
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Whether that is true or not, it is galling to be lectured to about graciousness from the same people who have been utterly vile to conservatives when they pass away. It is beyond hypocritical. It is yet another example of appropriating the mantle of virtue in the service of evil.
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Conservatives have a right to chastise Trump for saying aloud something that strikes us as off-key, but unless a liberal loudly denounced the hatefest after hatefest aimed at conservatives, they should sit down, shut up, and look in the mirror. You are not more virtuous than Trump.