Gas lines spread, stations run out after days of Colonial pipeline shutdown

Video-suddenly it's 1979 as gas stations run out and gas lines grow 40 sec

On the 12th of May, Maryland shared in an East and S US gasoline shortage that may be a taste of things to come-or a flashback to 1979. Over the weekend,a ransomware attack forced Colonial Pipeline to shut down the distribution pipeline that supplies half of all liquid fuels to the South and East US. On Wednesday, gas stations ran out just as the pipeline was resuming operation.

There were two factors to this: the pipeline shutdown itself, and the "gasoline zombie" tank-topping panic that resulted as people with no bikes and no history of walking considered where their groceries would come from if they had no access to gasoline.

Now before the SUV Owners of America tries to blame "pipeline protesters" for the ransomware attack, consider this. The pipeline that was shut down by this (presumed Russian) "Darkside" ransomware attack is a domestic distribution pipeline for finished fuels. The "Black Snake" pipelines targetted by protesters have so far been crude oil, tar sands, and fracked gas pipelines from producing wells to fuel EXPORT facilities. One estimate somewhere around 2011-2013 predicted the Keystone XL by facilitating petroleum(actually tar sands) export would have increased US gasoline prices by about 25 cents per gallon, by increasing the number of potential buyers for the raw materials to make it. Of course, if there were no distribution pipelines anywhere on Earth, there would be no Black Snakes, no tar sands mines, no man camps, much less destruction of Indigenous land, and the climate would be far better off. Probably the suburbs would never have been built, meaning most people's shopping and commuting times by foot, streetcar, or bike would be no more than they are today.

Speaking of ransomware, a second ransomware operation has released a huge file liberated from MPD believed to contain the identities of numerous snitches and informants. As this is written, Babuk (the ransomware operators in this case) is still sitting on the key needed to decrypt that massive file. As a "taste", they have released unencrypted personell files from when MPD officers first applied to join the department. MPD has confirmed those files are genuine.