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TheRanter

@rantermarkus.bsky.social
609 followers 396 following 252 posts

I read the manuals for the systems taking your money, then I translate them. The machine. The receipt. The move. Healthcare, housing, food, labor, debt. Send me the one you're stuck in. theranter.com

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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 5h
The deficit came in at $1.99 trillion. The administration calls it a blip and points at tariff refunds. Back the refunds out and it still grew. Interest alone ran $1.143 trillion, more than Medicare. finance.yahoo.com/economy/poli...
finance.yahoo.com
The US federal budget deficit for 2026 just came in. It’s $1.992 trillion.
The US federal budget deficit for 2026 officially came in Friday at $1.992 trillion, a final tabulation to close out the government's fiscal year and another reminder of Washington's spiraling relianc...
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 10h
Cool site tracking Trump's Flip Flops. www.habibicode.org/trumpositions
habibicode.org
Trumpositions
Where Trump stands, quote by quote. Guess his next move.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 14/10/2026
Every weekday I sort the news by where it takes your money: medical bills, rent, power bills, fees, and what Congress said that morning next to the record. No receipt, it stays off the tab. On Your Tab: theranter.com/extraction-board/today/
theranter.com
On Your Tab, Oct 13, 2026: Ernst & Young Wins Two Defense Audit Contracts Worth Up To $869.4... | The Ranter
EY gets up to $869.4 million to audit a Pentagon that failed six audits in a row and couldn't document 63% of its assets.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 09/10/2026
Making American Great Again. Let's bring back public executions.
apnews.com
Pentagon says the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed
The Pentagon says the firing squad execution of Fort Hood shooter Nidal Malik Hasan will be livestreamed after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the execution would be “public.”
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 08/10/2026
Work three, paid for five? The last productivity boom already answered that. Since 1979, output per hour is up 93.7 percent while typical worker pay is up 32.7 percent. The gains showed up. The paycheck never got the memo, so the three-day week comes with a three-day check.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Funny how that works: home and auto claims closing with zero dollars keep climbing, and the industry's underwriting profit nearly tripled in the first half, past $31 billion. Warren and Hawley agree on almost nothing, and they both want State Farm and Allstate to explain it.
tradingview.com
Elizabeth Warren, Josh Hawley Launch Probe Into Insurance Giants Over Claims That End With $0 Payouts — State Farm, Allstate Face Tough Questions: Report (UPDATED)
Editor’s note: The story has been updated to include comments from State Farm and Allstate.Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) are reportedly seeking answers from major home a...
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Rob a bank, you do time. Be a bank, your case gets dropped. 205 companies had federal enforcement closed, dismissed or reversed, 14 of them walked on straight pardons, and banks and finance were first in line with 51.
citizen.org
Trump Cancels Enforcement Against Corporate Criminals - Public Citizen
WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Trump administration has to date canceled enforcement actions inherited from the Biden administration against 205 corporations,…
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
Eight of every ten gallons of home heating oil is burned in the Northeast, go check your oil tank. Heating oil is running 21 to 50 percent higher this winter depending on who does the math, and at the high end that's about $878 more a house. Now they want to put in trucks ? Not going to get cheaper.
axios.com
A brutal winter heating bill is coming for some homes
Heating bills are eating into household budgets before winter sets in, with stark divides between fuel types.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 07/10/2026
For-profit water: $823 a year. Public: $494.
levernews.com
Your Tap Water Could Have A 67 Percent Markup
Corporate water providers charge customers hundreds more annually than households connected to public systems, according to a new analysis.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 28/09/2026
Depends what counts as a human. Cigna's PxDx allegedly let doctors deny claims by the hundreds of thousands at around 1-1.2 seconds a review. Technically a person made every call.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
Federal onshore oil paid a 12.5% royalty from 1920 until the IRA raised it in 2022. OBBBA put new leases back at 12.5%, and the new Senate Democrats' report counts that as a payoff. It is one. The repeal it recommends on page 56 was in Biden's 2021 budget and never made the IRA.
epw.senate.gov
Leader Schumer, Whitehouse Unveil Comprehensive New Report Exposing Corrupt Fossil Fuel Industry Control Over Trump Administration
As energy and electricity costs skyrocket, Americans are paying Trump’s debt to the fossil fuel industry Bombshell investigation released as part of Leader Schumer’s Anti-Corruption Workin...
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 25/09/2026
On Aug. 31, McCormick said data centers and AI are 20/80 in the US and blamed China. Now "many of them are very popular." PJM's market monitor ties $29.4B of the last four capacity auctions to data center demand. People don't need a foreign campaign to read their electric bill.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
41 states just got $694 million back from a subprime auto lender that scored its own loans for what percent it could collect. Also, made some loans it predicted would not even repay the principal, and let dealers pack on service contracts buyers never agreed to.
sclawyersweekly.com
Attorney General Wilson joins $694 million multistate settlement with subprime auto lender Credit Acceptance Corporation
(COLUMBIA, S.C.) – Attorney General Alan Wilson announced that South Carolina, along with the attorneys general for 40 other states, has entered into a settl
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
Oregon didn't wait for Congress. Data centers over 20 megawatts pay for their own grid upgrades, sign 10 to 30 year contracts, pay for 90 percent of the power they reserve whether they use it or not, and eat an exit fee if they walk.
portlandtribune.com
Pacific Power to charge new Oregon data centers for all costs associated with growing energy need - The Portland Tribune
Oregon’s second largest investor-owned electric utility could soon directly assign the costs of new energy projects and infrastructure needed for data centers to data center operators. Pacific Power l...
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
His own one pager calls it a 'light touch approach' and a 'federal recommendation.' Neither document mentions that a state is excused entirely if it already held a proceeding about it. 417 to 3 on Wednesday, blocked in the Senate on Thursday. This Congress passes nothing useful.
gabeevans.house.gov
Congressman Gabe Evans’ Bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act Passes the House
WASHINGTON — Today, Congressman Gabe Evans’ bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act passed the U.S.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
The people who would have to write this check are not selling it. Collins chairs Appropriations and says extraordinarily costly, no income cap she can find. Cruz wants it turned into a tax refund for people who work. Thune, asked if the Senate passes it: He said we'll cross that bridge.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 12/09/2026
Michigan's regulators and the grid operator both signed off on closing this plant. The Energy Department called it an emergency and held it open anyway. Consumers Energy put the bill in its own SEC filing: $259 million net through June. A federal court threw the order out Friday.
apnews.com
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Massachusetts just did the binding version. Healey's order, signed September 8: data centers over 25 megawatts fund the full cost of the energy infrastructure, get local approval first, and pay into a Ratepayer Protection Fund if they do not. H.R. 9340 asks states to consider it at 100 megawatts.
mass.gov
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Doug Parker ran American Airlines. He was asked on a podcast this week how airline pricing works: "start with basic and then build up on those with as many tiers as you can possibly create to get people to pay what they're willing to pay." Airlines Confidential, September 9. Not hidden fees. Addons
viewfromthewing.com
Former American Airlines CEO Reveals How They Get You To Pay More—Create “As Many Tiers As You Can”
Doug Parker says airlines have figured out how to get passengers to pay more: start with basic economy and add as many tiers as possible, delivering better service at higher prices. Yet American is st...
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
Treasury's deficit page reads $1.80 trillion for FY26 through July, up $170 billion on the same ten months last year. A 10% increase. The reconciliation bill that carried the spending cuts scores at plus $3.4 trillion over ten years, per CBO. What happend to balance the budget?
fiscaldata.treasury.gov
Fiscal Data Explains the National Deficit
Check out @FiscalService Fiscal Data’s new national deficit page! #NationalDeficit
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 11/09/2026
The Ratepayer Protection Act got narrowed at markup to name data centers specifically. So any other industry no issue. The Data Center Coalition objected to being singled out. Steel and industrial energy users backed the change. Cleared committee 52 to 0, floor vote next week. H.R. 9340.
axios.com
Scoop: House tees up pre-election vote on curbing data center power bills
Democrats have been hammering GOP incumbents over high energy prices.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 10/09/2026
California made it law. A quart of water an hour, shade over 80, ten minutes off at 95. None of it stops the work at any temperature. The federal rule has been a proposal since August 2024, and federal law exempts farm work from overtime with no hours ceiling. Hour twelve pays the same as hour one.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 29/08/2026
Buybacks were not illegal before 1982, just risky enough that firms avoided them. Rule 10b-18 gave them a safe harbor: follow volume and timing limits and it counts as clean sale. Volume exploded. Congress taxed it 1% in 2022. The narrowed the scope in 2025. This is an easy fix
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 14/08/2026
Texas can now enforce the ID-match requirement. Kansas already did this from 2013 to 2018. It blocked 31,089 eligible voters from registering. Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, a Republican, reviewed how it went: "It didn't work out so well."
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
I read Hinson's insurance denial bill. Subsection (c)(3) is the part nobody is quoting. hinson.house.gov/sites/evo-su...
hinson.house.gov
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 05/08/2026
Patriot interceptors are down two-thirds since the war started, about $4 million each. We fire them at attack drones that run $20,000 to $50,000. The Pentagon has failed eight straight audits with 26 material weaknesses, so nobody can tell you what is left on the shelf.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 31/07/2026
New York already caught them at this. DoorDash was counting your tip against the base pay it was supposed to sit on top of, the AG settled for $16.75 million in 2023, and the apps built the next version anyway. To a company that size that is a line item. They budgeted for it.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Those little arrows on the bottom of everything were never a recycling program. American Plastics Council notes say what they were for in plain English, "to prevent bans," and 39 states then made the symbol mandatory. Ban insurance, printed on the bag.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 30/07/2026
Everyone's arguing about what gets taught. The biggest single thing this department holds is a $1.72 trillion loan book with 42.6 million people on it, so the fight is really over who inherits that, plus IDEA and the civil rights office.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
Undue Medical Debt files audited financials. One recent year: they spent $15,453,205 and abolished $3,337,752,724 in face value. That is 216 dollars of debt for every dollar spent. Half a cent. open.substack.com/pub/therante...
open.substack.com
The Write-Down Was Coming Either Way
A foundation spent $200,000 and 26,000 people stopped owing money. It worked because the debt had already lost nearly all of its value, which is the same reason none of them should have been sued over
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
FIFA is a registered non-profit. The sale needs a yes from its 211 member associations, and FIFA is offering each one up to $20 million in one-off capital. At the ceiling that's $4.2 billion routed to the people whose votes decide it. Congress votes in Morocco in March.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 28/07/2026
The Secretary of Defense wants $1.5 trillion for FY2027. The department he is asking for just failed its audit for the 8th straight year, under three administrations. The finding: a disclaimer of opinion. Accountant for "we can't tell you what this is." 24 must pass. One never has.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
17 of the 50 largest Fortune 500 companies appear on state rosters of top SNAP employers. The wage stops short of the grocery bill, and the federal budget covers the rest. Amazon is one line on the invoice.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 23/07/2026
The FY2027 ask is $1.5 trillion, about a 50% jump, partly to replace what the Iran campaign burned through. In 1964 the Army swapped the M16's powder for a cheaper propellant and approved it without retesting in the rifle. It ran hotter. Rifles jammed in combat. The men were told it was user error.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
The Pentagon wants $1.5 trillion next year. It has failed eight audits in a row and still cannot reliably say what equipment it owns. The person applying for food assistance has to account for every dollar to qualify. We audit the hungry. We hand the Pentagon a raise.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Iowa banned spread pricing in its Medicaid contracts in 2019. The middleman bills your plan more than it pays the pharmacy and keeps the gap. A June state audit says PBMs moved it to year-end accounting. Every claim looked compliant. One PBM cleared about $100 million. bit.ly/4fmS8UV
bit.ly
Auditor Sand releases report criticizing PBMs for impact on Iowa Medicaid
Iowa Auditor Rob Sand released a report Wednesday explaining how Iowa's Medicaid is being impacted by pharmacy benefits managers (PBMs).
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
The software NJ just restricted works by feeding on rival landlords' nonpublic rent data, then recommending a price to all of them. Separate landlords, one number. DOJ's active RealPage case calls that algorithmic coordination. A state made the tool unlawful before the case even lands.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
People paid a down payment on a house to sit at that final. Worth reading where the money landed. FIFA is a nonprofit association under Swiss law, pays no dividends, and its own 2024 report shows over $33 million in compensation for senior management and Council. The nonprofit that priced you out.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
You did the responsible thing. Called the student loan servicer, asked what to do, took what they offered. Then the balance went up. Forbearance was less work for them than the plan that helps you. 39 states, $1.85B settlement over that steering. Help was a trap. open.substack.com/pub/therante...
open.substack.com
The Debt Built To Outlive You
The servicer got paid either way and steered borrowers into the plan that grew the balance. Navient paid $1.85 billion for it.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 21/07/2026
Amazon buried the Prime cancel button for six years, got caught, settled for $1.5B in refunds capped at $51 a head. Then read the order: any money nobody claims reverts to Amazon. Filing honestly for $51 takes more jumping through hoops than most people will take. ftc.gov/amazon
ftc.gov
Amazon Refunds
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 20/07/2026
'For whom' has a paper trail. That student debt got bundled into bonds, $626B of SLABS issued since 1988. Servicers get paid to collect it either way, and investors get paid as long as it's collected. A record in defaults doesn't dent the cash flow. It moves from your paycheck to a bondholder.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Taylor Farms' Mexico operation caused a Cyclospora outbreak in 2013, 631 sick, Olive Garden and Red Lobster. Its onions caused an E. coli outbreak at McDonald's in 2024, one dead. Cyclospora again in 2026, 1,645 cases. Same company, 13 years, still the biggest fresh-cut producer in USA.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
The bill caps a "single-family home" at two units and excludes manufactured housing entirely. RHP Properties, the country's largest mobile-home-park owner, bought 41 Wisconsin communities in one 2022 deal. Its biggest state concentration is Wisconsin. The ban has a door cut for exactly that.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
They got the raise. The part that came first is the story. To get accredited, SoFi workers gave FIFA their SSNs and home addresses. FIFA's contract permits sharing that data with "law enforcement agencies, intelligence agencies." At a Senate hearing, they said DHS moves the data into FBI systems.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
The $10k get-in is resale. The part worth seeing is FIFA's own price. Group tickets opened at $60. By April the cheapest final seat on FIFA's own platform hit $10,990. The first World Cup ever run on demand pricing. FIFA raised prices on about 90 of 104 matches and called it market practice.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 19/07/2026
Asked if there's any data the 3-minute break helps players, FIFA's Wenger said "No." Before this tournament a cooling break was a 90-second call, ref's discretion, hot matches only. Now it's a mandatory 3 minutes, every game. They ran it at 60F in Seattle.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
The housing law everyone's cheering defines a "large institutional investor" as 350+ homes. Then it says the homes they buy through its eleven exceptions don't count toward 350. Build-to-rent, mobile parks, rent-to-own: all exempt. I read the bill. open.substack.com/pub/therante...
open.substack.com
The 350-Home Line, and the Eleven Doors Cut Into It
The law banning Wall Street from buying your neighbor's house has a number in it, 350, and the homes it lets Wall Street keep buying do not count toward that number.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 16/07/2026
Your insulin copay was tied to a list price the middleman pumped up on purpose, because a bigger list price meant a bigger rebate they got to keep. Caremark (CVS) just settled with the FTC over it. Up to $8.5B in patient savings projected over 10 years. www.ftc.gov/news-events/...
ftc.gov
FTC Secures Major Settlement with Caremark, Resolving Antitrust Case Against Second Drug Middleman
The Federal Trade Commission secured a settlement agreement with one of the nation’s largest pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) and its affiliated entities, marking yet another important victory in t
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 06/07/2026
The viral "$1,900 skin-to-skin" bill isn't verifiable. The mechanism under it is real: a US birth generates 3 separate bills, and the anesthesiologist is often out-of-network even when you booked in-network. open.substack.com/pub/therante...
open.substack.com
That $1,900 "Skin-to-Skin" Bill Probably Isn't Real
But a real one exists: $39.35 on a 2016 C-section bill. That single line gives away why your whole birth bill is fiction.
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TheRanter @rantermarkus.bsky.social · 03/07/2026
Federalist 70: Hamilton wanted a strong, fast president on purpose. Federalist 51: Madison's fix wasn't a weak president, it was branch fighting branch. That check only works when opposing parties hold different branches. One party holding all three is the failure mode nobody planned for.
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