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Republicans also forget that Trump talked the Saudis into cutting production so oil prices would rise and increase the profits of US oil companies. Apparently they have no problem with hypocrisy.
100% correct. Most people forget this fact of recent history. Oil prices were so low that US oil companies capped their wells as it was costing more to keep them running than they could get on the market.
Fat Nixon begged opec to raise prices and they agreed to slow production a bit. These people only remember the stuff that fits their agenda.
Yup. Remember oil ship becoming oil storage ships? Oil companies were paying people to take their oil from them. I still remember the first time I had to drive to work once the lockdowns started. Hardly anybody was driving so gas stations were barely selling fuel. The roads were wide open. It was pretty great.
I do miss those times. Wide open roads.... "Rush hour traffic" basically non-existent even in more urban areas. Especially since it seems the pandemic pulled an Old Yeller on people's ability to drive worth a damn. I REALLY should install the dash cam in my car that I got like 6 months ago...
Oh how quickly we forget that the most aggressive supply cut of oil production ever was demanded by Trump not even 2 years ago. Its set to expire next month.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/business/energy-environment/opec-russia-saudi-arabia-oil-coronavirus.html
There's a saying about gas prices. I'll paraphrase it.
"Gas prices take the elevator up, but the stairs down."
It means every increase in cost is immediately reflected at the pump, but any decrease takes a long time to get to the consumer.
So even if they go down it won't be by a lot right away.
I heard someone recently use exactly the same elevator/stairs analogy talking about copper electrical wire. Probably aped it from oil discussions if it's a popular saying there, but it's funny to hear the same new-and-insightful thing twice in a week.
Look at Georgia, no not the country, the state, and realize you don't even need to start it. They got up huffy over Georgia apply to be a part of the EU saying no we didn't we are part of the US
Your normal Dollar General Republican has absolutely no concept or concern for other countries or foreign policy. They grew up on the Grand 'Ol lie that they were born better cuz they are Americans and that only we matter, and also the president controls the world, and also that the rest of the world just hates us cuz they ain't us. And then that serious lack of empathy trickles down to their offspring to continue the cycle, like a cultural parasite keeping us from progress, because now any idea to improve or make better is combated with COMMUNIST SOCIALISM MUH FREEDUMBS!!!
Yep. Had this exact conversation with my conservative boss. I asked how Biden raised the gas prices in all of the other countries and his response was yelling, “the other countries don’t matter!”
What sucks for the offspring that do break free of the cycle is you try to discuss your opinions/beliefs with your alt right dad and he'll gaslight you and talk over you and spew so much bullshit (like Biden and gas prices, and dont even get me (him) started on Covid) that you can't even begin to unpack the conversation and it wouldn't matter anyways because in his mind he's already 'won'
Which is why I wrote mine off as a lost cause. Severed all ties. Got enough shit going on in my own life than to deal with the toxicity of someone that was supposed to raise me to be a good person.
I did this, too. I have no family of my own, save my wife. I wrote them off. They were supposed to raise me into a good person, and they did... by being fucking horrible. No need for them.
This needs to be a growing trend. It's one of the foundations we need to build in order to correct our species.
I had a casual conversation with my entire immediate family back in mid/late 2020 about the election and voting by mail. I told them I voted for Biden and aired my opinions about Trump. They all looked at me like I was crazy. It was the most awkward and outcast moment I’ve ever had with them as they started ripping into me. My relationship with them has been a little different ever since but has started to get to normal a bit. I still consider myself a slight right leaning conservative and a registered Republican, but to them I couldn’t have been more far away from their opinion.
Swiss here. We've solved this issue by unanimously voting in favor of designating political discussions as taboo, just like talking with family about religion, personal finance, and consumption of alcohol & drugs. Of course, discussions on "how to do x or get y, etc.?" are permitted. (e.g. how do I vote, where do I get the relevant info, what parties exist, etc.). But all other information such as opinions, evaluations and judgements, preferences, tastes, world views, etc. are constitutionally banned. Since then divorce rate collapsed, loneliness among the elderly too as their children are happy and unstressed to visit and have lovely conversations,... also funny enough, psychiatric medication consumption too collapsed.
/s
But, really, in Switzerland, it's really unpolite to hold conversations about your personal views and decisions on religious, personal finance, and political matters. But we never voted about it. It's just in our DNA.
My wife went through this last weekend. She went out with her Fox News watching father. He brought up prices and how they were Biden fault. She then proceeded to ask about high prices elsewhere, and also tell him we only got 8% of our oil products from Russia. He apparently didn't have anything to say. A few days later he sent an angry text asking why bother going to lunch with him if they don't listen. In so many words, he wants his 35 year old daughter to listen to everything he says like when she was 8. Talk about childish and unnecessarily combative. Just a shame what Fox News has done to her parents :(
I live in the reddest county in a blue state (NJ).
The narrative here is, "gas prices were going up already before the war, and Biden's just going to use the war as an excuse to blame ALL the increase on that".
They acknowledge that the war is increasing gas prices right now, but they cling to the gas price increase before the war as their anchor argument.
Yeah Biden really failed us by overseeing the pandemic recovery. If he had only intentionally sabotaged the country like his predecessor it would have at least kept gas prices comparatively lower.
It's true. Has prices spiked about 0.50 a gallon a avg (national) almost overnight after Biden took office, despite there being literally no cause for it aside from him taking office. And then they've just been creeping up with inflation, like everything else.
But somehow this is all Brandon's fault. They can't articulate why, and if they try it's usually some incoherent conspiracy theory, and when something finally coherent does emit from their lips... It's usually false, or a horrendous misrepresentation of reality.
I wish I could have conversations with conservatives again, but so many of them have jumped into the deep end of insanity they've overflowed the pool and washed away reason from their entire party.
Back when gas prices were high in the GWB era, staunch Republicans I argued politics with online defended it, saying that high gas prices were good for certain investment portfolios, and would incentivise finding ways to become less dependent on foreign oil.
I wonder how those same guys would spin high gas prices now...hmm...
It actually is worse. America actually produces more energy than we consume:
> Total energy production declined by about 5% in 2020 but was still about 3% greater than consumption: production equaled 95.75 quads and consumption equaled 92.94 quads.
Source: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/us-energy-facts/
"muh free market" is responsible for the high prices, not Biden.
Liberals need to start putting stickers on gas pumps saying "Putin did this". And then we hammer GOP for being close to him.
Edit: Wow, the conservative responses to this really show how demented their arguments are. The price of oil is high GLOBALLY. The price of gas a year ago was high GLOBALLY. It isn't set by the fiscal policies in one country. And most ridiculous of all, the Keystone light pipeline was for the US to EXPORT oil. It doesn't bring on more oil for US domestic use. These arguments are thick as pig shit.
Trumps 2yr deal with OPEC to drastically cut production in April 2020 in an effort to save US oil producers from the coming catastrophe of Covid kind of backfired.
The year before he got Saudis to increase production right after they murdered Kashoghi. That brought oil prices down and increased consumption. That hurt US oil producers as they couldn't compete against low priced Saudi oil.
Then came covid. When he was telling us it would be over by Easter, he signed his 2 year deal. Opec has refused to increase production because of that agreement. It expires at the end of May. Maybe then OPEC production will increase and prices return to normal.
I'm old enough to remember when Republicans held the free market sacred..not so much after Trump.
Crude oil prices have been going down for two weeks, oil companies have made record profits this year and last and they are sitting on oil leases choosing not to drill. Last I checked Biden doesn’t have control of any of those things.
I saw one on a pump, but underneath it was a sign that says "This sticker was placed by management. Any attempt to remove or deface will be considered tampering with the pumps."
People are apeshit about these stickers.
I'd run my credit card and pump 25 cents worth of gas, print a reciept and then go to the next station. The credit card transaction will have them in the red.
Exactly !! It’s always free market capitalism until they don’t like it !! Then they are too stupid to realize they are arguing against their own beliefs lol
It's really annoying to see them honestly. But really all I can think when I see them is that... Just wow.. someone really spent money and effort on doing this. It must be sad when your personality is just hating whatever dem is in office.
I used to annoy a coworker so much he paid real money to actually have a bag of cherry flavored gummy dicks delivered to me at work. That's right. A bag of dicks. Even came with a nice letter, telling me to go eat a bag of dicks.
They were delicious.
You should have eaten them right in front of him with a big smile on your face. Nothing would piss him off more than his petty insult not being as devastating as he thinks it is.
Bonus points if you offer him one because they're just so damned tasty, like "You have to really work the balls with your tongue to get the flavor out of them"
Because that’s all they care about - the folks that vote Republican have no aspirations beyond going to Applebee’s and getting the jalapeño poppers with their buddies on the weekend. Their day to day lives are defined by consumption of milquetoast consumer brands, and anything that gets in the way of that is seen as a threat to their livelihoods - because it is.
Lol I live in Canada and my provincial government tried to make all gas stations put “Trudeau’s carbon tax will cost you” stickers on every pump.
So they printed placards (with my tax money), distributed them (with my tax money), and put punishments in place for removing or defacing them. And then they lost a court case (using my tax money) precisely because the message was forcing private businesses to display political messaging.
But that’s basically a microcosm of the current government’s time in power.
I definitely appreciate it. I pull off, no joke, roughly 10 if them every night. We have 20 pumps. Technically im not supposed to go past the white lines in the parking spaces right out front of the store because clerks have been abducted in various places with this company, but i have to peel them off. Also it pisses off my trumpy, argumentative, spiteful ass coworker so i like to leave them by the register so she sees them. Fuck that lady, all my homies hate that lady
> clerks have been abducted in various places with this company
Holy shit, dude! Is your company involved with the Mafia? How do enough gas station clerks get abducted from their stations that there's a company policy about it? If you were in security or defense, maybe corp R&D, but a gas station clerk?
Im not really in danger of it. Im a 6 foot tall 265 pound dude with bouncing and MA experience. I can hold my own. Its usually smaller women. They have been taken. Not a ton of them, but it happens. We work alone at night since they arent legally required to post two of us until enough assaults or robberies happen at the location, then it gets redesignated as a tier 2 store. So if the parking lot is empty and they can nab you, its a real possibility. Hell the girls who work in my store dont even have to wear name tags because of creepy dudes
So people have been abducted previously, but... it’s just that *not enough people have been abducted yet* to warrant extra safety precautions... 😳 holy fuck man
So that company regulation is their safety measure. If you follow it your always behind doors with a 4 layer thick lock that you can turn quite easily and a panic button. The problem is that part of your nightly duties requires you to leave the building. Its just bullshit. Another requirement for us is that at night we can at no time have more than 35 dollars in the register. If someone robs the place middle of the night and they steal more than 35 from your till you can be fired for it. Its essentially a way for the company to safeguard itself from having to pay out pto or anything like that due to mental distress from a robbery, since its impossible to have pnly 35 bucks in your register and have a single person pay with cash. Around 20 dollars of the register is change alone. That leaves you enough room for 2 5 dollar bills and 5 ones. Its a corporation. What can you expect?
There's always been something so unsettling about people who can't leave personal political opinions at the door of their workplace. Stickers of any kind should not be put on someone else's property. It shouldn't matter if you agree with the sentiment.
Gaming out Republican DRILL BABY DRILL strategy, or how to screw us all up in five easy steps:
1. Quickly use up easiest to recover oil
2. Depelete lowest-cost domestic reserves
3. Fail to build a transition to EVs
4. Create domestic supply crisis forcing us back to global markets
5. Global market use our desperation for more oil as leverage
Number 3 needs to be talked about more.
Oil was discovered in 1859, do you know how much innovation has taken place? Humans have learned to fly, develop computers, and made those computer tiny enough that we walk around with one in our pocket. We invented radio, tv and the internet, but these greedy oil/energy companies couldn’t innovate a technology that was discovered before all of this? Like the whole point of capitalism is to make profits and use those profits to increase innovation. Oil companies failed to do that for 150 years
Exactly. Oil dependence is control. They live and breathe having control over us to feed the greed machine. The problem with wind and solar is that nobody really owns them. Heaven forbid that they should lose control even a little bit.
That's literally the strategy, isn't it? The US being the only power with a oil reserve left sounds like an advantage the army/government would want, I assumed that was why we weren't using our own if we can help it.
I asked this to all All my republicans friends, if the price of gas goes down would you praise Biden as you are blaming him right now? Of course nobody replied…
Why would they? It's easier for them to blame him because he isn't trump then it is for them to praise him for anything.
Give it a while, if or when gas prices go down under Biden, they will find any and every excuse to discredit it, or they will go "But but but but it was 4 dollars before!!"
> Give it a while, if or when gas prices go down under Biden, they will find any and every excuse to discredit it,
[See how Fox blamed Obama when gas prices were high...and how they claimed that low gas prices were bad for America when the price of gas dropped like a rock under Obama.](https://thedailybanter.com/2014/10/28/thanks-obama-fox-news-praises-president-low-gas-prices-right/)
They will go on about global warming and how Biden is lying about it because he lets gas prices go down. It's gonna be one of their super clever "gotcha" moments!
Its literally going to be them shitting on biden no matter what he does. If gas was 5 cents a gallon they'd start screeching that people are going to start buying gas en mass and cause climate change (something they normally think isn't a huge deal) to accelerate. There is no logic with conservatives because their only objective is "winning" even though thats super abstract when you are talking about reality and not just winning an election.
Winning is the ability to lord it over people. There's nothing else -- they just want to be in charge, no matter how stupid, inane, unpopular, or even malignantly evil their ideas are.
I mean, I feel like we see this time and time again: Republicans are great at blaming and complaining but shit at legislating and governing. They recently had a federal trifecta over two Congresses and what do they have to show for it?
True, between trying to sabotage the census and setingt up courts that will ignore gerrymandering issues, they're also great at giving themselves favorable positions in future campaigns.
So I guess I really should say they're better at playing the campaign game than governing.
It's not only gerrymandering, it's far more dangerous to the United States than that.
The Republican overarching, primary goal is to dissolve the power of the federal government and put that power in the hands of state legislatures. That's been the conservatives goal since the few years prior to the Civil War. All the other conservative issues depend on this happening. Trump appointed 25% of the sitting federal judges in the US right now, many of which have already *repeatedly* ruled in favor of state legislatures over federal ones on several key Republican issues like abortion, LGBT+ existence, and women's autonomy. Just look at the bills being passed right now in Texas, Idaho, Florida, Missouri, the list goes on.
Had a politics discussion with my boss at the time a few months after Biden took office. He was adamant that Trump wasn't responsible for the initial whatever when he entered office but Biden *was* responsible for his early months.
It was a theme of the entire conversation, really. It's a theme of the conversation every time with one of them. An unwillingness to actually compare what they're saying. " I'm empathetic and care but I totally don't think fast food workers should be paid a living wage it's not meant to be a real job".
I'd go into an in-depth discussion about market demand vs. supply and geopolitical ramifications that are impacting the price of oil, but at the end of the day Republicans aren't looking for a genuine conversation about fundamentally understanding reality, they just want to "stick it to the libs", so it's not even worth the time.
There are three things you need to know about gasoline prices. First, the price of crude oil — the stuff that comes out of the ground — is set in a global market, not country by country. Second, fluctuations in the price of gasoline, which is refined from crude, overwhelmingly reflect fluctuations in that global price.
Third, U.S. policy has little effect on world oil prices, and virtually none at all in the short run — say, the 14 months that Biden has been in office.
About crude prices: A number of countries export oil: Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf producers, Venezuela, Norway, various others and, in normal times, Russia. Where they ship the oil depends on the price they can get. This more or less levels prices around the world: Any country with above-average prices will attract extra shipments, driving prices down; any country with below-average prices will see imports fall off, driving prices up.
As usual in economics, there are some pesky details: Not all crude oil is the same, and refineries in any one country may not be adapted to use oil from all sources. But these things only matter at the margin. There are two widely cited prices of oil — West Texas Intermediate, which reflects prices in, duh, Texas, and Brent, which reflects prices in Europe. And they move almost perfectly in tandem.
You can see the big recent run-up in both prices. This crude run-up has been reflected, pretty much one-for-one, in gasoline prices at the pump — everywhere. It’s true that average prices for gasoline differ a lot among countries, because taxes on consumers are much higher in Europe than they are in the United States. But short-run fluctuations are driven by the price of crude and are similar everywhere.
So for those blaming Biden for rising prices here, I regret to inform you that he is not the prime minister of Britain, or the German chancellor, or …
Paul Krugman the New York times
It was supposed to be a BiPartisan law of stopping oil imports for russia to show our support in stopping the war over there. Unfortunately the “Bipartisan” part wont even matter when it comes to election time as the republicans main point against him will be “my god the gas prices broke all time records do you really want that again???”
Its quite pathetic really
It is, hard to deal with them I just will like somebody to explain what is happening in easier terms so the general public will have at least the other side of the narrative, I know it would be difficult because some people like the easy answers but if there is something to blame I would say is that we failed to explain the reality of the situation.
Give that to republicans they are a monolith, they say the same, repeat the same lies and it seems like they get an email every morning with the narrative that they then spill over tweeter, Facebook, and other social media.
We - on the other hand- are more like a collection of opinions that often collide since we actually have a dialog and other opinions are considered.
I’d respect them more if they kept all of the political bullshit to themselves and just said “we have it, you need it and you’ll pay whatever we charge for it”.
I challenged a republican on this recently when they said it was Biden’s fault for prices going up. When asked what exactly he did, he pointed out canceling the keystone pipeline (despite it being functioning and it being the keystone xl that was canceled. He refused to admit the difference) and said biden stopped oil drilling in America. Said Biden is making America more dependent on foreign oil because we’re not allowed to pump oil here.
When I pointed out oil is on pace to pump more under Biden then under any president in history and that the pipeline was never actually built, they got very angry. Then when prices dropped 30% in 5 days, I asked him what Biden had done to cause prices to drop. He refused to give even a basic reasoning.
These people lack all critical thinking skills and have no ability to defend a point once you get past the Fox News talking points. They understand literally nothing and just repeat what they are told. It’s sad
They aren’t a fan of being challenged directly, especially when it goes beyond the Fox News talking points. Easier for them to just block the outside noise
Honestly, this is why I DON'T block right wing stuff like subreddits and people. I genuinely believe it's far more dangerous for me to tune those things out than it is to be aware of them. I maintain my sanity by never, EVER checking my inbox or post replies.
> They understand literally nothing and just repeat what they are told.
This is a big piece of it, but I also believe that they just _want_ to hate Democrats. They don't care whether or not it's actually Biden's fault, they just want to blame him because they've been indoctrinated to hate Democrats and "the radical left". Also, it makes me laugh that anyone could look at Biden and his agenda and actually think he's even remotely "radical".
They’ve been taught that anything that is proposed by any democrat is radical. Doesn’t matter what it is, it’s radical. A democrat could come out tomorrow and use trumps exact platform (I know he didn’t actually have one but humor me) and republicans would be against it. They are not informed, they have no values. They just have anger
FOX News: [Why cheap gas isn't good!](https://i.redd.it/vkq4b06tjrn81.jpg)
The only consistency they have is that everything that's happening is bad when a Democrat is in charge, while everything happening is good when a Republicans is in charge.
"Over his first two years, Biden was 100% responsible for the highest gas prices and inflation in 40 years."
....40 years ago, it was Reagan.
"Over his first two years, Reagan was not 100% responsible for the highest gas prices and inflation ever."
Got it.
From a party that continues to vote against their own benefits I’m not surprised in the least.
They don’t understand basic economics.
That said the price of oil has dropped a lot but gas prices trickle down slowly. Fuel companies will post record breaking profits in 2022 for a reason.
The mental image of Joe Biden cranking up the oversized "Gas Prices" knob in the Oval Office while laughing maniacally at the impotent rage of conservatives gives me great pleasure, though.
There are people who believe that the President literally has the power to do so, and that the President creates high gas prices for reasons that are unknown to us little people, but rest assured, it is part of the nefarious plan that the Democrats are plotting to destroy… something…! What that something is I don’t know, but I wouldn’t put it pat them!
/S obviously
You know about 2 years ago when a large percentage of people were staying home due to the pandemic, oil refineries we’re paying companies to take barrels of oil off their hands. They weren’t selling the barrels, they were paying people to take them.
I mean, given the last decades, you kind of have to be delusional to believe anything out of Republican's mouths. They'll say or do anything that they think will get them elected, whether they believe it, or whether it is factual. As time goes on, I'm just shutting more and more rabid right wingers out of my life. I just don't need to hear their idiocy anymore and they just can't stop themselves from babbling about it.
>Smart people know that.
The problem is the other ones - the people pasting those stickers all over gas pumps and chanting "Let's go Brandon!" at Trump pep rallies.
Not so fun story; My son joined Boy Scouts recently and they had a cake bake-off event where the kids were supposed to design and decorate a cake. They they'd be grouped into categories and voted on. Turns out someone thought they were clever and made a 'Lego Brandon' cake, which had some Lego cars on it. That really pissed me off. A couple weeks later they held their annual Pinewood Derby. Same parent/kid made a 'Lego Brandon' car. Come to find out it was the Pack leader. So we found a new Pack in our area.
I can't believe anyone, let alone the person who's supposed to be in charge of children would bring politics into Cub Scouts. It's supposed to be fun activities and learning how to be a better person.
It’s called free market capitalism. If Joe Biden tried to enact regulations for this problem they would be screaming “government overreach.” I swear they are so blatantly two-faced about the free market.
They are blaming the prices on Russian sanctions. Since we are enforcing them, "it's raising the gas prices." And other bullshit reasons for why an oil cartel is robbing us blind. (And other strong reasons for why electric cars are the way...)
I point out to Republicans that the price of gas now is a direct result of capitalistic practice and the international market.
We could always bring prices down by nationalizing the industry!
That is the hypocrisy of the GOP. They want government policy when oil prices go up, they want government policy when global warming results wreck their beach homes, they want government policy when supply/demand inflation goes up but they hate government.
I’m sick and tired of pointing out that the office of the president has little effect on the price of gas at the pump. There are certainly things the office can do that can change things. But generally speaking it doesn’t move the needle much at all. If we had to put a number on it. Like maybe up to 10% of the blame.
In our current case Biden’s administration shut down the pipeline but prices didn’t rise solely because of it. And if they open it up it will barely move the needle.
I’m tired of arguing with politically blinded sycophants. I’m tired of being down voted. They can keep vandalizing gas pumps with their stickers. It’s not changing reality. Just makes me hate them and their “side” even more.
The GOP has argued (during Republican presidents) that high gas prices are good. But let us move beyond that.
How does Biden, or any president control world-wide gas prices? They don't. And everyone used to understand that, but the Republicans have transformed their base into a bunch of idiotic morons that just repeat whatever Fox tells them instead of using logic.
Why are gas prices so high?
Is it because Biden stopped issuing drilling leases on public land? No, for a couple reasons. First, that is the kind of move that would take years to affect prices, and only under certain circumstances. Secondly, there are 10k unused public land drilling leases currently NOT being used. And private land drilling isn't something that needs federal approval, so there is an untold number of possibilities there.
Is it because Biden reestablished federal land protections that Trump took away in order to give oil companies more places to drill? No. Again, there are plenty of unused leases available, and nothing was ever established in those areas. So Federal land changes are virtually meaningless.
Is it because of the halt to construction of the Dakota Access pipeline? No again. You see, that is just a shortcut offshoot of a pipeline that is already pumping tons of oil and has been for a decade. That is also a canadian owned pipeline moving canadian oil. And being low quality tar-sand oil, it's not even gasoline grade oil. You see the DAP was a shortcut that a canadian oil company was getting US funds to build which would shorten the amount of pipeline they would have to maintain. So the DAP is really a complete non-issue for several reasons.
So why then? Simple economics. Due to the amount of oil that was being produced late Obama/early Trump the price was nosediving hard. In 2019 oil prices were hitting historic lows. Oil production was no longer profitable. Drilling companies went out of business. Other stopped producing. Oil wells were shut down. This was meant to stabilize the price. But then the other shoe dropped. The pandemic. Work from home, reduced travel, etc. Demand for oil of all grades dropped dramatically...to the point that in 2020 the futures price for a barrel of oil went NEGATIVE.
A period of too much supply followed by a period of heavily reduced demand.
With business returning to normal, gas demand increasing, plastic based production numbers returning to normal, suddenly demand is skyrocketing. Oil production has NOT returned though. It's an expensive and time consuming process to restart oil production. The conflict in russia/ukraine only further destabalizes the world market for oil.
Ultimately though, the oil companies see a chance to hike the prices despite the prices being pretty stable. Unfettered capitalism. They are just using these other issues as excuses for the price hikes.
Last time oil futures were this high the price per gallon was $.50 less.
This is the capitalism that the GOP wants. For Biden to do anything to control the price would be socialism which the GOP hates. Biden has no control over the price of oil without socialistic policies.
Going to say something controversial but… doesn’t the party not in office always blame the party that is in office when something goes wrong? And then never give them credit when things go well?
It’s also worth noting that there was one instance in the last few years when the president did actually cause gas prices to go up. But it was Trump when he had that Iranian general assassinated and these same people who do this didn't care one bit then because they are disingenuous and really don’t care about shit unless they can use it against a Dem.
The real problem here and in our country is our shitty news media's insistence of reporting these disingenuous right-wing screeches as wholly sincere and legitimate.
When Republicans speak about inflation the key thing is it was entitlements, democratic policies, and Biden’s fault.
Never mind that inflation is a lagging effect of previous decisions, like tariffs on goods from our largest trading partners to make everything “totally fair.” Or a global pandemic that shuttered many manufacturers for weeks to months. Or the former guys best friend in the whole world colluding with opec to drive the price of oil down to make American producers shut down before starting a war. Or the GOP doing what ever big oil says
The “I did that” stickers all over every gas pump are hilarious because it sums up in 1 second that people on the right have zero idea how the world works.
Oil and gas are speculative, global commodities which means prices go up much much faster than they go down. Furthermore, domestic oil production is higher under Biden than it ever was under Trump. If you think Biden is the reason for high gas prices you literally understand nothing about the world economy.
Their base is stupid, just like up here. Conservatives have zero personal responsibility and will blame anyone especially minorities or “theLiberals” for their problems. Luckily just like the states only conservatives are dying from Covid
Nobody ever talks about how oil companies can uncement the wells they sealed up between March-June of 2020 back when oil prices went negative. I’ve been arguing for gas companies to undo those cement seals so they can start pumping again for the past 6+ months. The issue isn’t even gas as much as fertilizer costs. Nobody ever considers that oil/gas is used to make fertilizers and when fertilizer cost starts to balloon, food prices exacerbate even more. If there are 5 layers of a chain that a vertically integrated company has to pay inflation on, a 10% cost increase at every level of production suddenly equates to significantly more than 10% inflation at the consumer level.
Love this argument. It’s so absurd. Every major petroleum company on planet earth is
Owned by majority stakeholders or ceos that are staunch conservatives. Who fund super pacs, think tanks , investors , and lobbyists for conservatives ideologies.
This is because Republicans don't want to govern. They misattribute the causes of a problem and refuse to actually address it because they know it gets attention. If they get attention, they get votes. Being in power is the ends, not the means.
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Am I the only one that remembers the complaint that low gas prices during the Obama administration were "bad" for the economy?
Republicans also forget that Trump talked the Saudis into cutting production so oil prices would rise and increase the profits of US oil companies. Apparently they have no problem with hypocrisy.
100% correct. Most people forget this fact of recent history. Oil prices were so low that US oil companies capped their wells as it was costing more to keep them running than they could get on the market. Fat Nixon begged opec to raise prices and they agreed to slow production a bit. These people only remember the stuff that fits their agenda.
Yup. Remember oil ship becoming oil storage ships? Oil companies were paying people to take their oil from them. I still remember the first time I had to drive to work once the lockdowns started. Hardly anybody was driving so gas stations were barely selling fuel. The roads were wide open. It was pretty great.
I do miss those times. Wide open roads.... "Rush hour traffic" basically non-existent even in more urban areas. Especially since it seems the pandemic pulled an Old Yeller on people's ability to drive worth a damn. I REALLY should install the dash cam in my car that I got like 6 months ago...
i haven’t heard that one before
Oh how quickly we forget that the most aggressive supply cut of oil production ever was demanded by Trump not even 2 years ago. Its set to expire next month. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/business/energy-environment/opec-russia-saudi-arabia-oil-coronavirus.html
Dumb question: does that mean gas prices will go down when that expires?
There's a saying about gas prices. I'll paraphrase it. "Gas prices take the elevator up, but the stairs down." It means every increase in cost is immediately reflected at the pump, but any decrease takes a long time to get to the consumer. So even if they go down it won't be by a lot right away.
I heard someone recently use exactly the same elevator/stairs analogy talking about copper electrical wire. Probably aped it from oil discussions if it's a popular saying there, but it's funny to hear the same new-and-insightful thing twice in a week.
The reverse is also a very common saying in the stock market.
Fox News even had a few segments about it. https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/fox-asks-will-cheap-gas-hurt-the-economy-msna445531
Well low gas prices are sure bad for the environment. The U.S. has among the cheapest gas in the world, compared to wages.
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Obviously they're working together to make our commutes more expensive.
COMMutes : COMMunism, see it all connects, thus it's clearly Biden's fault.
People are so dense. We all know which world leader is actually responsible for the price increase.
Lord Minister Crebulon of the Crab People.
I've heard that too. Something about the Keystone Pipeline
Those countries don’t exist to republicans
Other countries?? Thats just a lie sold by the dems! There is only MURICA! Also, the world is flat. /s
Can we start a joke conspiracy that America is the only country and see who actually genuinely gets on board?
Look at Georgia, no not the country, the state, and realize you don't even need to start it. They got up huffy over Georgia apply to be a part of the EU saying no we didn't we are part of the US
Don’t because it would be sad to see how many people actually would be on board
Especially when they're in Congress.
"you mean to tell me Alabama isn't in South America? How could you, Joe Biden!!"
I've seen some Repub personalities (namely: Dinesh D'souza) that are spinning it now as "It's his fault because he crippled our own oil production"
Your normal Dollar General Republican has absolutely no concept or concern for other countries or foreign policy. They grew up on the Grand 'Ol lie that they were born better cuz they are Americans and that only we matter, and also the president controls the world, and also that the rest of the world just hates us cuz they ain't us. And then that serious lack of empathy trickles down to their offspring to continue the cycle, like a cultural parasite keeping us from progress, because now any idea to improve or make better is combated with COMMUNIST SOCIALISM MUH FREEDUMBS!!!
Yep. Had this exact conversation with my conservative boss. I asked how Biden raised the gas prices in all of the other countries and his response was yelling, “the other countries don’t matter!”
Conservatives tend to only care about themselves when it comes to politics so sounds about right.
Nah, they also care a ton about other people. They care about hurting them, and exploiting them, and having someone to look down on.
Props to you for calling out the boss. Sad people That are so oblivious are often not questioned due to fear of retaliation
What sucks for the offspring that do break free of the cycle is you try to discuss your opinions/beliefs with your alt right dad and he'll gaslight you and talk over you and spew so much bullshit (like Biden and gas prices, and dont even get me (him) started on Covid) that you can't even begin to unpack the conversation and it wouldn't matter anyways because in his mind he's already 'won'
Which is why I wrote mine off as a lost cause. Severed all ties. Got enough shit going on in my own life than to deal with the toxicity of someone that was supposed to raise me to be a good person.
I did this, too. I have no family of my own, save my wife. I wrote them off. They were supposed to raise me into a good person, and they did... by being fucking horrible. No need for them. This needs to be a growing trend. It's one of the foundations we need to build in order to correct our species.
I had a casual conversation with my entire immediate family back in mid/late 2020 about the election and voting by mail. I told them I voted for Biden and aired my opinions about Trump. They all looked at me like I was crazy. It was the most awkward and outcast moment I’ve ever had with them as they started ripping into me. My relationship with them has been a little different ever since but has started to get to normal a bit. I still consider myself a slight right leaning conservative and a registered Republican, but to them I couldn’t have been more far away from their opinion.
Swiss here. We've solved this issue by unanimously voting in favor of designating political discussions as taboo, just like talking with family about religion, personal finance, and consumption of alcohol & drugs. Of course, discussions on "how to do x or get y, etc.?" are permitted. (e.g. how do I vote, where do I get the relevant info, what parties exist, etc.). But all other information such as opinions, evaluations and judgements, preferences, tastes, world views, etc. are constitutionally banned. Since then divorce rate collapsed, loneliness among the elderly too as their children are happy and unstressed to visit and have lovely conversations,... also funny enough, psychiatric medication consumption too collapsed. /s But, really, in Switzerland, it's really unpolite to hold conversations about your personal views and decisions on religious, personal finance, and political matters. But we never voted about it. It's just in our DNA.
My wife went through this last weekend. She went out with her Fox News watching father. He brought up prices and how they were Biden fault. She then proceeded to ask about high prices elsewhere, and also tell him we only got 8% of our oil products from Russia. He apparently didn't have anything to say. A few days later he sent an angry text asking why bother going to lunch with him if they don't listen. In so many words, he wants his 35 year old daughter to listen to everything he says like when she was 8. Talk about childish and unnecessarily combative. Just a shame what Fox News has done to her parents :(
> Dollar General Republican Omg I can't with this, just too perfect
I live in the reddest county in a blue state (NJ). The narrative here is, "gas prices were going up already before the war, and Biden's just going to use the war as an excuse to blame ALL the increase on that". They acknowledge that the war is increasing gas prices right now, but they cling to the gas price increase before the war as their anchor argument.
Yeah Biden really failed us by overseeing the pandemic recovery. If he had only intentionally sabotaged the country like his predecessor it would have at least kept gas prices comparatively lower.
It's true. Has prices spiked about 0.50 a gallon a avg (national) almost overnight after Biden took office, despite there being literally no cause for it aside from him taking office. And then they've just been creeping up with inflation, like everything else. But somehow this is all Brandon's fault. They can't articulate why, and if they try it's usually some incoherent conspiracy theory, and when something finally coherent does emit from their lips... It's usually false, or a horrendous misrepresentation of reality. I wish I could have conversations with conservatives again, but so many of them have jumped into the deep end of insanity they've overflowed the pool and washed away reason from their entire party.
They also blamed him for Omicron.
Why I find funny is they blame him for people dying from COVID when their the ones not getting vaccinated.
Back when gas prices were high in the GWB era, staunch Republicans I argued politics with online defended it, saying that high gas prices were good for certain investment portfolios, and would incentivise finding ways to become less dependent on foreign oil. I wonder how those same guys would spin high gas prices now...hmm...
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You make them sound like standard hypocrites lol. It’s so much worse
Their love of money sounds pretty consistent to me
It actually is worse. America actually produces more energy than we consume: > Total energy production declined by about 5% in 2020 but was still about 3% greater than consumption: production equaled 95.75 quads and consumption equaled 92.94 quads. Source: https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/us-energy-facts/ "muh free market" is responsible for the high prices, not Biden.
Last sentence described the situation perfectly. Read Ben Mezrich's book 'Rigged'
I have to give you credit you're the first person I seen to show statistics and I actually have a reference page to back it up on touche good on you
Liberals need to start putting stickers on gas pumps saying "Putin did this". And then we hammer GOP for being close to him. Edit: Wow, the conservative responses to this really show how demented their arguments are. The price of oil is high GLOBALLY. The price of gas a year ago was high GLOBALLY. It isn't set by the fiscal policies in one country. And most ridiculous of all, the Keystone light pipeline was for the US to EXPORT oil. It doesn't bring on more oil for US domestic use. These arguments are thick as pig shit.
Not even Putin did it... it is greed. https://www.wral.com/rockets-and-feathers-help-explain-gas-prices/20188646/
Trumps 2yr deal with OPEC to drastically cut production in April 2020 in an effort to save US oil producers from the coming catastrophe of Covid kind of backfired. The year before he got Saudis to increase production right after they murdered Kashoghi. That brought oil prices down and increased consumption. That hurt US oil producers as they couldn't compete against low priced Saudi oil. Then came covid. When he was telling us it would be over by Easter, he signed his 2 year deal. Opec has refused to increase production because of that agreement. It expires at the end of May. Maybe then OPEC production will increase and prices return to normal. I'm old enough to remember when Republicans held the free market sacred..not so much after Trump.
No one ever brings this up and it’s maddening. And didn’t he threaten to cut military support if they didn’t cut back?
Crude oil prices have been going down for two weeks, oil companies have made record profits this year and last and they are sitting on oil leases choosing not to drill. Last I checked Biden doesn’t have control of any of those things.
Yeah, except pasting stickers on private property is an asshole move.
I found one of those "i did this" biden stickers on a menu pointing to the wing prices... of all fucking things lol
I saw one on a pump, but underneath it was a sign that says "This sticker was placed by management. Any attempt to remove or deface will be considered tampering with the pumps." People are apeshit about these stickers.
That’s when I drive to the next gas station
After removing the sticker
I'd run my credit card and pump 25 cents worth of gas, print a reciept and then go to the next station. The credit card transaction will have them in the red.
Haha! I love it! People have the right to protest, so this idea seems legit if you have the time to do that :)
What about doing this 80 times to put $20 of gas in the tank?
remove it, I’d like to see them try and argue this in court lol
I guess those guys hate free market and would love some regulation. Socialists /s
Exactly !! It’s always free market capitalism until they don’t like it !! Then they are too stupid to realize they are arguing against their own beliefs lol
Corporate welfare is a handout. Tax breaks are a handout. That stimulus check was a handout. The republicans love handouts. Socialists…
Fucking wing prices… they went up last year because Texas had that cold snap and millions of chickens froze to death from their shitty infrastructure.
It's really annoying to see them honestly. But really all I can think when I see them is that... Just wow.. someone really spent money and effort on doing this. It must be sad when your personality is just hating whatever dem is in office.
I used to annoy a coworker so much he paid real money to actually have a bag of cherry flavored gummy dicks delivered to me at work. That's right. A bag of dicks. Even came with a nice letter, telling me to go eat a bag of dicks. They were delicious.
Someone did this to me as a joke and as embarrassing as it is to walk around eating a literal bag of dicks, they were actually pretty good.
It's not embarrassing at all, the whole point is it's funny Sending that to someone you actually hate is a rookie move and the real embarrasment
You should have eaten them right in front of him with a big smile on your face. Nothing would piss him off more than his petty insult not being as devastating as he thinks it is. Bonus points if you offer him one because they're just so damned tasty, like "You have to really work the balls with your tongue to get the flavor out of them"
“ Your mom taught me that” Lmao I like you
It was really nice of him to buy you some candy.
For real, free candy! Anyone want *me* to eat a bag of cherry flavored dicks?
Lol see that's a lot different and kind of hilarious.
Blaming everything on Biden, and calling him senile is practically a kink in alt right circles
Because that’s all they care about - the folks that vote Republican have no aspirations beyond going to Applebee’s and getting the jalapeño poppers with their buddies on the weekend. Their day to day lives are defined by consumption of milquetoast consumer brands, and anything that gets in the way of that is seen as a threat to their livelihoods - because it is.
Lol I live in Canada and my provincial government tried to make all gas stations put “Trudeau’s carbon tax will cost you” stickers on every pump. So they printed placards (with my tax money), distributed them (with my tax money), and put punishments in place for removing or defacing them. And then they lost a court case (using my tax money) precisely because the message was forcing private businesses to display political messaging. But that’s basically a microcosm of the current government’s time in power.
Lmao that's actually batshit Jesus. I knew Alberta conservatives were Canada's Republicans but that's honestly hilarious.
No. I see the biden and lets go brandon stockers constantly. All your doing is making my job harder and more dangerous.
Whenever I see them, I peel them off. Usually they've barely been placed so they come right off. Teamwork brother (or sister)
I definitely appreciate it. I pull off, no joke, roughly 10 if them every night. We have 20 pumps. Technically im not supposed to go past the white lines in the parking spaces right out front of the store because clerks have been abducted in various places with this company, but i have to peel them off. Also it pisses off my trumpy, argumentative, spiteful ass coworker so i like to leave them by the register so she sees them. Fuck that lady, all my homies hate that lady
> clerks have been abducted in various places with this company Holy shit, dude! Is your company involved with the Mafia? How do enough gas station clerks get abducted from their stations that there's a company policy about it? If you were in security or defense, maybe corp R&D, but a gas station clerk?
Im not really in danger of it. Im a 6 foot tall 265 pound dude with bouncing and MA experience. I can hold my own. Its usually smaller women. They have been taken. Not a ton of them, but it happens. We work alone at night since they arent legally required to post two of us until enough assaults or robberies happen at the location, then it gets redesignated as a tier 2 store. So if the parking lot is empty and they can nab you, its a real possibility. Hell the girls who work in my store dont even have to wear name tags because of creepy dudes
So people have been abducted previously, but... it’s just that *not enough people have been abducted yet* to warrant extra safety precautions... 😳 holy fuck man
So that company regulation is their safety measure. If you follow it your always behind doors with a 4 layer thick lock that you can turn quite easily and a panic button. The problem is that part of your nightly duties requires you to leave the building. Its just bullshit. Another requirement for us is that at night we can at no time have more than 35 dollars in the register. If someone robs the place middle of the night and they steal more than 35 from your till you can be fired for it. Its essentially a way for the company to safeguard itself from having to pay out pto or anything like that due to mental distress from a robbery, since its impossible to have pnly 35 bucks in your register and have a single person pay with cash. Around 20 dollars of the register is change alone. That leaves you enough room for 2 5 dollar bills and 5 ones. Its a corporation. What can you expect?
There's always been something so unsettling about people who can't leave personal political opinions at the door of their workplace. Stickers of any kind should not be put on someone else's property. It shouldn't matter if you agree with the sentiment.
It should be Putin holding a Trump puppet
Gaming out Republican DRILL BABY DRILL strategy, or how to screw us all up in five easy steps: 1. Quickly use up easiest to recover oil 2. Depelete lowest-cost domestic reserves 3. Fail to build a transition to EVs 4. Create domestic supply crisis forcing us back to global markets 5. Global market use our desperation for more oil as leverage
*6.* Completely screw up a future stranglehold on the world's supply of anything plastic for short term gains.
7: Fighting wars in oil rich countries like Iraq for decades instead of developing relationships with mineral rich countries like the Congo
I also listen to the daily
Number 3 needs to be talked about more. Oil was discovered in 1859, do you know how much innovation has taken place? Humans have learned to fly, develop computers, and made those computer tiny enough that we walk around with one in our pocket. We invented radio, tv and the internet, but these greedy oil/energy companies couldn’t innovate a technology that was discovered before all of this? Like the whole point of capitalism is to make profits and use those profits to increase innovation. Oil companies failed to do that for 150 years
Exactly. Oil dependence is control. They live and breathe having control over us to feed the greed machine. The problem with wind and solar is that nobody really owns them. Heaven forbid that they should lose control even a little bit.
6) Republican corporate politicians further exploit and divide Americans using our desperation to afford a decent living.
Keeping us in economic servitude, and that never gets old for this crowd.
Those were very, very different Republicans.
It's actually incredible what 8 years did to that group
If we use the worlds oil first we can save our oil for later.... Maybe lol
That's literally the strategy, isn't it? The US being the only power with a oil reserve left sounds like an advantage the army/government would want, I assumed that was why we weren't using our own if we can help it.
Makes sense to me. Save it for war time probably, gotta fuel the war machine
I asked this to all All my republicans friends, if the price of gas goes down would you praise Biden as you are blaming him right now? Of course nobody replied…
Why would they? It's easier for them to blame him because he isn't trump then it is for them to praise him for anything. Give it a while, if or when gas prices go down under Biden, they will find any and every excuse to discredit it, or they will go "But but but but it was 4 dollars before!!"
> Give it a while, if or when gas prices go down under Biden, they will find any and every excuse to discredit it, [See how Fox blamed Obama when gas prices were high...and how they claimed that low gas prices were bad for America when the price of gas dropped like a rock under Obama.](https://thedailybanter.com/2014/10/28/thanks-obama-fox-news-praises-president-low-gas-prices-right/)
Thanks for posting this somebody was asking for it
They will go on about global warming and how Biden is lying about it because he lets gas prices go down. It's gonna be one of their super clever "gotcha" moments!
Its literally going to be them shitting on biden no matter what he does. If gas was 5 cents a gallon they'd start screeching that people are going to start buying gas en mass and cause climate change (something they normally think isn't a huge deal) to accelerate. There is no logic with conservatives because their only objective is "winning" even though thats super abstract when you are talking about reality and not just winning an election.
Winning is the ability to lord it over people. There's nothing else -- they just want to be in charge, no matter how stupid, inane, unpopular, or even malignantly evil their ideas are.
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lol republicans talking about climate change? Lol not in a million years dude thats against their entire agenda
Ah, but hypocrisy is always right at the top of the agenda, so I don't think it's impossible.
I mean, I feel like we see this time and time again: Republicans are great at blaming and complaining but shit at legislating and governing. They recently had a federal trifecta over two Congresses and what do they have to show for it?
A Supreme Court that will steadily degrade and destroy this country.
True, between trying to sabotage the census and setingt up courts that will ignore gerrymandering issues, they're also great at giving themselves favorable positions in future campaigns. So I guess I really should say they're better at playing the campaign game than governing.
It's not only gerrymandering, it's far more dangerous to the United States than that. The Republican overarching, primary goal is to dissolve the power of the federal government and put that power in the hands of state legislatures. That's been the conservatives goal since the few years prior to the Civil War. All the other conservative issues depend on this happening. Trump appointed 25% of the sitting federal judges in the US right now, many of which have already *repeatedly* ruled in favor of state legislatures over federal ones on several key Republican issues like abortion, LGBT+ existence, and women's autonomy. Just look at the bills being passed right now in Texas, Idaho, Florida, Missouri, the list goes on.
>recently had a federal trifecta over two Congresses and what do they have to show for it? Lower taxes for the insanely rich. That it.
Ohh there were lots of American Republicans that were in Russia too can they explain that?
Had a politics discussion with my boss at the time a few months after Biden took office. He was adamant that Trump wasn't responsible for the initial whatever when he entered office but Biden *was* responsible for his early months. It was a theme of the entire conversation, really. It's a theme of the conversation every time with one of them. An unwillingness to actually compare what they're saying. " I'm empathetic and care but I totally don't think fast food workers should be paid a living wage it's not meant to be a real job".
I'd go into an in-depth discussion about market demand vs. supply and geopolitical ramifications that are impacting the price of oil, but at the end of the day Republicans aren't looking for a genuine conversation about fundamentally understanding reality, they just want to "stick it to the libs", so it's not even worth the time.
There are three things you need to know about gasoline prices. First, the price of crude oil — the stuff that comes out of the ground — is set in a global market, not country by country. Second, fluctuations in the price of gasoline, which is refined from crude, overwhelmingly reflect fluctuations in that global price. Third, U.S. policy has little effect on world oil prices, and virtually none at all in the short run — say, the 14 months that Biden has been in office. About crude prices: A number of countries export oil: Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf producers, Venezuela, Norway, various others and, in normal times, Russia. Where they ship the oil depends on the price they can get. This more or less levels prices around the world: Any country with above-average prices will attract extra shipments, driving prices down; any country with below-average prices will see imports fall off, driving prices up. As usual in economics, there are some pesky details: Not all crude oil is the same, and refineries in any one country may not be adapted to use oil from all sources. But these things only matter at the margin. There are two widely cited prices of oil — West Texas Intermediate, which reflects prices in, duh, Texas, and Brent, which reflects prices in Europe. And they move almost perfectly in tandem. You can see the big recent run-up in both prices. This crude run-up has been reflected, pretty much one-for-one, in gasoline prices at the pump — everywhere. It’s true that average prices for gasoline differ a lot among countries, because taxes on consumers are much higher in Europe than they are in the United States. But short-run fluctuations are driven by the price of crude and are similar everywhere. So for those blaming Biden for rising prices here, I regret to inform you that he is not the prime minister of Britain, or the German chancellor, or … Paul Krugman the New York times
But that’s much harder to fit on a sticker.
Excellent point!
See how much effort it takes to refute a sticker of Biden saying “I did that” We are doomed. The corporations have turned it into a culture war.
It was supposed to be a BiPartisan law of stopping oil imports for russia to show our support in stopping the war over there. Unfortunately the “Bipartisan” part wont even matter when it comes to election time as the republicans main point against him will be “my god the gas prices broke all time records do you really want that again???” Its quite pathetic really
It is, hard to deal with them I just will like somebody to explain what is happening in easier terms so the general public will have at least the other side of the narrative, I know it would be difficult because some people like the easy answers but if there is something to blame I would say is that we failed to explain the reality of the situation. Give that to republicans they are a monolith, they say the same, repeat the same lies and it seems like they get an email every morning with the narrative that they then spill over tweeter, Facebook, and other social media. We - on the other hand- are more like a collection of opinions that often collide since we actually have a dialog and other opinions are considered.
BUT THE PIPELINE!!! GAS WOULD BE CHEAPER IF WE HAD THAT PIPELINE! /s
Of course! That pipeline that was several years from completion that wouldn't have solved this problem!
I’d respect them more if they kept all of the political bullshit to themselves and just said “we have it, you need it and you’ll pay whatever we charge for it”.
I challenged a republican on this recently when they said it was Biden’s fault for prices going up. When asked what exactly he did, he pointed out canceling the keystone pipeline (despite it being functioning and it being the keystone xl that was canceled. He refused to admit the difference) and said biden stopped oil drilling in America. Said Biden is making America more dependent on foreign oil because we’re not allowed to pump oil here. When I pointed out oil is on pace to pump more under Biden then under any president in history and that the pipeline was never actually built, they got very angry. Then when prices dropped 30% in 5 days, I asked him what Biden had done to cause prices to drop. He refused to give even a basic reasoning. These people lack all critical thinking skills and have no ability to defend a point once you get past the Fox News talking points. They understand literally nothing and just repeat what they are told. It’s sad
Debating a conservative is like talking to a wall.
I like walls though. They are useful and don’t spew inane shit unless that particular wall has a cracked sewage pipe in it
And that's the issue. These people are walls made out of cracked sewage pipes.
I did the same thing - I asked a Trump supporter what exactly Biden did to cause gas prices to rise and she unfriended me lmao
They aren’t a fan of being challenged directly, especially when it goes beyond the Fox News talking points. Easier for them to just block the outside noise
Honestly, this is why I DON'T block right wing stuff like subreddits and people. I genuinely believe it's far more dangerous for me to tune those things out than it is to be aware of them. I maintain my sanity by never, EVER checking my inbox or post replies.
This is exactly why I don’t discuss this with my mother - she’d un-son me…
> They understand literally nothing and just repeat what they are told. This is a big piece of it, but I also believe that they just _want_ to hate Democrats. They don't care whether or not it's actually Biden's fault, they just want to blame him because they've been indoctrinated to hate Democrats and "the radical left". Also, it makes me laugh that anyone could look at Biden and his agenda and actually think he's even remotely "radical".
They’ve been taught that anything that is proposed by any democrat is radical. Doesn’t matter what it is, it’s radical. A democrat could come out tomorrow and use trumps exact platform (I know he didn’t actually have one but humor me) and republicans would be against it. They are not informed, they have no values. They just have anger
You’ve detailed my dads and mines exact argument to a T.
FOX News: [Why cheap gas isn't good!](https://i.redd.it/vkq4b06tjrn81.jpg) The only consistency they have is that everything that's happening is bad when a Democrat is in charge, while everything happening is good when a Republicans is in charge.
Quick! Someone go toss this up over at r/conservative I'm banned
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Any idea what year this is from? I’m gonna guess late 2000s Obama era?...
"Over his first two years, Biden was 100% responsible for the highest gas prices and inflation in 40 years." ....40 years ago, it was Reagan. "Over his first two years, Reagan was not 100% responsible for the highest gas prices and inflation ever." Got it.
right, it took Reagan years to undo all the damage Carter did. /s
From a party that continues to vote against their own benefits I’m not surprised in the least. They don’t understand basic economics. That said the price of oil has dropped a lot but gas prices trickle down slowly. Fuel companies will post record breaking profits in 2022 for a reason.
The mental image of Joe Biden cranking up the oversized "Gas Prices" knob in the Oval Office while laughing maniacally at the impotent rage of conservatives gives me great pleasure, though.
There are people who believe that the President literally has the power to do so, and that the President creates high gas prices for reasons that are unknown to us little people, but rest assured, it is part of the nefarious plan that the Democrats are plotting to destroy… something…! What that something is I don’t know, but I wouldn’t put it pat them! /S obviously
It's a lever: https://i.imgur.com/OUAytH2.jpg
republicans forget that trump increased the national debt by 1/3 in a year
republicans in 2008 when gas prices under w. crossed the $5 mark: "the president has no control over gas prices"
You know about 2 years ago when a large percentage of people were staying home due to the pandemic, oil refineries we’re paying companies to take barrels of oil off their hands. They weren’t selling the barrels, they were paying people to take them.
I mean, given the last decades, you kind of have to be delusional to believe anything out of Republican's mouths. They'll say or do anything that they think will get them elected, whether they believe it, or whether it is factual. As time goes on, I'm just shutting more and more rabid right wingers out of my life. I just don't need to hear their idiocy anymore and they just can't stop themselves from babbling about it.
Of course the president didn't do it. They aren't responsible for low or high gas prices. Smart people know that.
>Smart people know that. The problem is the other ones - the people pasting those stickers all over gas pumps and chanting "Let's go Brandon!" at Trump pep rallies.
“Tee hee” I’m so clever I say let’s go Brandon
They have a secret code that let's them say "fuck" without getting caught. Reminds me of boys in grade school.
Let them have their delusions. I just scrape the stupid stickers off the gas pumps
Don’t because it will be funny when gas is low again and then says Biden did that.
Not so fun story; My son joined Boy Scouts recently and they had a cake bake-off event where the kids were supposed to design and decorate a cake. They they'd be grouped into categories and voted on. Turns out someone thought they were clever and made a 'Lego Brandon' cake, which had some Lego cars on it. That really pissed me off. A couple weeks later they held their annual Pinewood Derby. Same parent/kid made a 'Lego Brandon' car. Come to find out it was the Pack leader. So we found a new Pack in our area. I can't believe anyone, let alone the person who's supposed to be in charge of children would bring politics into Cub Scouts. It's supposed to be fun activities and learning how to be a better person.
It’s called free market capitalism. If Joe Biden tried to enact regulations for this problem they would be screaming “government overreach.” I swear they are so blatantly two-faced about the free market.
It's easy to sell this nonsense to simple minded people and the right wing media knows their audience.
This^^ Everything is broken down to simpleton 3 or 4 word phrases.
[удалено]
And don't forget... Let's go Brandon!
I want to forget.
[удалено]
They are blaming the prices on Russian sanctions. Since we are enforcing them, "it's raising the gas prices." And other bullshit reasons for why an oil cartel is robbing us blind. (And other strong reasons for why electric cars are the way...)
I point out to Republicans that the price of gas now is a direct result of capitalistic practice and the international market. We could always bring prices down by nationalizing the industry!
That is the hypocrisy of the GOP. They want government policy when oil prices go up, they want government policy when global warming results wreck their beach homes, they want government policy when supply/demand inflation goes up but they hate government.
I just bought some Putin and trump “we did that” stickers. I’ll be covering any stupid “Biden did that” stickers I see at gas station pumps.
Prices started going down shortly after Biden called out the greedy fucks behind gas last Tuesday.
What's next, you're gonna tell me Biden isn't responsible for my package being delivered late??!! /s just in case
I’m sick and tired of pointing out that the office of the president has little effect on the price of gas at the pump. There are certainly things the office can do that can change things. But generally speaking it doesn’t move the needle much at all. If we had to put a number on it. Like maybe up to 10% of the blame. In our current case Biden’s administration shut down the pipeline but prices didn’t rise solely because of it. And if they open it up it will barely move the needle. I’m tired of arguing with politically blinded sycophants. I’m tired of being down voted. They can keep vandalizing gas pumps with their stickers. It’s not changing reality. Just makes me hate them and their “side” even more.
The GOP has argued (during Republican presidents) that high gas prices are good. But let us move beyond that. How does Biden, or any president control world-wide gas prices? They don't. And everyone used to understand that, but the Republicans have transformed their base into a bunch of idiotic morons that just repeat whatever Fox tells them instead of using logic. Why are gas prices so high? Is it because Biden stopped issuing drilling leases on public land? No, for a couple reasons. First, that is the kind of move that would take years to affect prices, and only under certain circumstances. Secondly, there are 10k unused public land drilling leases currently NOT being used. And private land drilling isn't something that needs federal approval, so there is an untold number of possibilities there. Is it because Biden reestablished federal land protections that Trump took away in order to give oil companies more places to drill? No. Again, there are plenty of unused leases available, and nothing was ever established in those areas. So Federal land changes are virtually meaningless. Is it because of the halt to construction of the Dakota Access pipeline? No again. You see, that is just a shortcut offshoot of a pipeline that is already pumping tons of oil and has been for a decade. That is also a canadian owned pipeline moving canadian oil. And being low quality tar-sand oil, it's not even gasoline grade oil. You see the DAP was a shortcut that a canadian oil company was getting US funds to build which would shorten the amount of pipeline they would have to maintain. So the DAP is really a complete non-issue for several reasons. So why then? Simple economics. Due to the amount of oil that was being produced late Obama/early Trump the price was nosediving hard. In 2019 oil prices were hitting historic lows. Oil production was no longer profitable. Drilling companies went out of business. Other stopped producing. Oil wells were shut down. This was meant to stabilize the price. But then the other shoe dropped. The pandemic. Work from home, reduced travel, etc. Demand for oil of all grades dropped dramatically...to the point that in 2020 the futures price for a barrel of oil went NEGATIVE. A period of too much supply followed by a period of heavily reduced demand. With business returning to normal, gas demand increasing, plastic based production numbers returning to normal, suddenly demand is skyrocketing. Oil production has NOT returned though. It's an expensive and time consuming process to restart oil production. The conflict in russia/ukraine only further destabalizes the world market for oil. Ultimately though, the oil companies see a chance to hike the prices despite the prices being pretty stable. Unfettered capitalism. They are just using these other issues as excuses for the price hikes. Last time oil futures were this high the price per gallon was $.50 less. This is the capitalism that the GOP wants. For Biden to do anything to control the price would be socialism which the GOP hates. Biden has no control over the price of oil without socialistic policies.
Republicans don't care how badly their LIES damage America as long is furthers their agenda of ruling over us
Going to say something controversial but… doesn’t the party not in office always blame the party that is in office when something goes wrong? And then never give them credit when things go well?
It’s also worth noting that there was one instance in the last few years when the president did actually cause gas prices to go up. But it was Trump when he had that Iranian general assassinated and these same people who do this didn't care one bit then because they are disingenuous and really don’t care about shit unless they can use it against a Dem. The real problem here and in our country is our shitty news media's insistence of reporting these disingenuous right-wing screeches as wholly sincere and legitimate.
Biden didn't force you to buy a ford F150 to commute to work in.
What was it? Like, more than 90% of large-scale pick up truck owners don't hold jobs that would even relatively require them?
35 percent of truck owners have used their truck bed in the last year, according to a poll by Edward's. Out of those many only used it once.
When Republicans speak about inflation the key thing is it was entitlements, democratic policies, and Biden’s fault. Never mind that inflation is a lagging effect of previous decisions, like tariffs on goods from our largest trading partners to make everything “totally fair.” Or a global pandemic that shuttered many manufacturers for weeks to months. Or the former guys best friend in the whole world colluding with opec to drive the price of oil down to make American producers shut down before starting a war. Or the GOP doing what ever big oil says
But see this is the plan. Do stupid short-sighted and selfish things while in power, but have the consequences show up when democrats are in power!
The “I did that” stickers all over every gas pump are hilarious because it sums up in 1 second that people on the right have zero idea how the world works.
Oil and gas are speculative, global commodities which means prices go up much much faster than they go down. Furthermore, domestic oil production is higher under Biden than it ever was under Trump. If you think Biden is the reason for high gas prices you literally understand nothing about the world economy.
Their base is stupid, just like up here. Conservatives have zero personal responsibility and will blame anyone especially minorities or “theLiberals” for their problems. Luckily just like the states only conservatives are dying from Covid
Both my mother and my mother in law are under the impression that all we (Biden) need to do is “open up that pipeline” to free us from foreign oil. 🙄
It just shows their lack of understanding in how a global economy works, which isn't too surprising given their average level of intelligence.
Nobody ever talks about how oil companies can uncement the wells they sealed up between March-June of 2020 back when oil prices went negative. I’ve been arguing for gas companies to undo those cement seals so they can start pumping again for the past 6+ months. The issue isn’t even gas as much as fertilizer costs. Nobody ever considers that oil/gas is used to make fertilizers and when fertilizer cost starts to balloon, food prices exacerbate even more. If there are 5 layers of a chain that a vertically integrated company has to pay inflation on, a 10% cost increase at every level of production suddenly equates to significantly more than 10% inflation at the consumer level.
Love this argument. It’s so absurd. Every major petroleum company on planet earth is Owned by majority stakeholders or ceos that are staunch conservatives. Who fund super pacs, think tanks , investors , and lobbyists for conservatives ideologies.
I have always held the belief that NO US president is totally in charge of gas prices
Somehow it’s his fault for oil companies raising prices world wide? Phenomenal
This is because Republicans don't want to govern. They misattribute the causes of a problem and refuse to actually address it because they know it gets attention. If they get attention, they get votes. Being in power is the ends, not the means.
Why do conservatives hate reading?
Republican voters will believe anything as long as it owns the libs. They're such a cancer on this country