What happened between the period of relatively low prices and now? 9-11 and Bush's militarism happened. 9-11 and Bush's mismanagement of the economy pushed us into a recession. Gas prices started to rise. There was almost no effort made to halt the rise except for some token moves by OPEC around election time in the U.S. to increase production.
Now we have the news that the U.S. crude supply is high, with refined supplies too low for it to make much of a difference today. But, there will be an after-winter drop in demand and refinery issues should be resolved in the next quarter. So, there will be a downward trend in prices.
There will be an effort to keep those prices high. Not for the environment. Not for the sake of some sanity on the part of oil executives who have seen the light about our wasteful ways. The price is kept high to feed the record profits that they have enjoyed throughout our struggle with expensive gas.
I agree that we waste too much oil. But, there millions of Americans whose gasoline bills are stretched by normal, necessary driving. The effect of high oil includes other uses like heating, and also hits the industries who rely on a low gas bill to survive. There's a point where technology hasn't caught up with the ideology of conservation and alternatives to oil that makes all of the finger-wagging about consumption seem misguided. We still need oil and gas to survive.
We could likely sustain high prices for a determinate time if the goal was truly a shift to alternatives. But, until there is some true path to all of that, a high price of gas will only shrink demand as far as folks actual needs allow. There's little point in forcing responsible users to pay for some punitive, corrective notion of conservation when the overall industry takes the profits off of the top. They're not going to make any substantive investments that would undermine their own oligarchy of greed.
I remember the cockiness from the conservatives before the war as they gloated over the prospect of the U.S. taking over Iraqi oil. I know they're not all wealthy. These prices have to be putting the squeeze on so many Bushites, in so many ways.
Bush didn't say it outright, but he wanted to get his hands on Iraq's oil. I won't say that he quite knew what HE was going to do with it, but Cheney did. Right from the start he brought in the oil executives and they literally mapped out their plunder of Iraq's oil fields.
But, it's been a disaster for oil prices. And the silence that went on for so long was from the same bunch of Americans who voted for this regime, and expected that all of the macho talk about rolling over the evil Iraq was real.
Their fantasy came true. Liberals were pushed aside, moderates got to practice their conservatism in the open, and Bush Fonzerelli sent his boys (and girls) to rumble. Their target crumbled right away. Saddam retreated to a hidey-hole. That's the history. So are those amazing photos of him submitting himself to the de-lousing like a lost child.
Iraqis, though, would not willingly submit themselves to our invasion, and we were never welcomed to stay.
How stupid are the average Bushites? Stupid enough to believe that multi-national corporations, oilgarchies, Exxon, Mobil, Shell, BP . . . would actually take what they gained by the sacrifice of our soldier's lives and the lives of those they were tasked to kill, and use it to lower our gas bills.
Are they really that stupid? Yup. Are they wising up? I would hope so.
Mission Iran. Oil prices going back up through the roof. Neonuts blame the rise on 'Middle East' unrest, tension, violence, uncertainty. Those Bushites, though, have got to be looking at the next round of military action and saying to themselves, this can't be good for my wallet.
I saw a lot of expressions of nationalism from Americans for years after 9-11. There's still a hardcore percentage of them who have convinced themselves that Iran is coming to kill their God, and I know it won't take anything for them to get behind another crusade against evil. But they've got to wonder just how this president let things slide so far that we're talking nuclear war again.
It's not like we've been toiling within the isolation of a cold war for decades like before. Anyone with a memory can recall the salad days of the Clinton era of peace and prosperity. Sure, the Clinton bunch wagged around our nation's defenses like typical imperialists when it suited them, but their most prominent doctrine was one of reserve and diplomacy. It was no accident that a great deal of the world seemed to be working together then.
President Clinton spoke to the British Houses of Parliament, London, U.K., November 29, 1995:
Now we have the news that the U.S. crude supply is high, with refined supplies too low for it to make much of a difference today. But, there will be an after-winter drop in demand and refinery issues should be resolved in the next quarter. So, there will be a downward trend in prices.
There will be an effort to keep those prices high. Not for the environment. Not for the sake of some sanity on the part of oil executives who have seen the light about our wasteful ways. The price is kept high to feed the record profits that they have enjoyed throughout our struggle with expensive gas.
I agree that we waste too much oil. But, there millions of Americans whose gasoline bills are stretched by normal, necessary driving. The effect of high oil includes other uses like heating, and also hits the industries who rely on a low gas bill to survive. There's a point where technology hasn't caught up with the ideology of conservation and alternatives to oil that makes all of the finger-wagging about consumption seem misguided. We still need oil and gas to survive.
I remember the cockiness from the conservatives before the war as they gloated over the prospect of the U.S. taking over Iraqi oil. I know they're not all wealthy. These prices have to be putting the squeeze on so many Bushites, in so many ways.
Bush didn't say it outright, but he wanted to get his hands on Iraq's oil. I won't say that he quite knew what HE was going to do with it, but Cheney did. Right from the start he brought in the oil executives and they literally mapped out their plunder of Iraq's oil fields.
But, it's been a disaster for oil prices. And the silence that went on for so long was from the same bunch of Americans who voted for this regime, and expected that all of the macho talk about rolling over the evil Iraq was real.
Their fantasy came true. Liberals were pushed aside, moderates got to practice their conservatism in the open, and Bush Fonzerelli sent his boys (and girls) to rumble. Their target crumbled right away. Saddam retreated to a hidey-hole. That's the history. So are those amazing photos of him submitting himself to the de-lousing like a lost child.
Iraqis, though, would not willingly submit themselves to our invasion, and we were never welcomed to stay.
How stupid are the average Bushites? Stupid enough to believe that multi-national corporations, oilgarchies, Exxon, Mobil, Shell, BP . . . would actually take what they gained by the sacrifice of our soldier's lives and the lives of those they were tasked to kill, and use it to lower our gas bills.
Are they really that stupid? Yup. Are they wising up? I would hope so.
Mission Iran. Oil prices going back up through the roof. Neonuts blame the rise on 'Middle East' unrest, tension, violence, uncertainty. Those Bushites, though, have got to be looking at the next round of military action and saying to themselves, this can't be good for my wallet.
I saw a lot of expressions of nationalism from Americans for years after 9-11. There's still a hardcore percentage of them who have convinced themselves that Iran is coming to kill their God, and I know it won't take anything for them to get behind another crusade against evil. But they've got to wonder just how this president let things slide so far that we're talking nuclear war again.
It's not like we've been toiling within the isolation of a cold war for decades like before. Anyone with a memory can recall the salad days of the Clinton era of peace and prosperity. Sure, the Clinton bunch wagged around our nation's defenses like typical imperialists when it suited them, but their most prominent doctrine was one of reserve and diplomacy. It was no accident that a great deal of the world seemed to be working together then.
President Clinton spoke to the British Houses of Parliament, London, U.K., November 29, 1995:
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
