You tell ’em, Joe
Our brilliant leader has a July 4th weekend message:
My message to the companies running gas stations and setting prices at the pump is simple: this is a time of war and global peril.
Bring down the price you are charging at the pump to reflect the cost you’re paying for the product. And do it now.
— President Biden (@POTUS) July 2, 2022
Because oil prices are arbitrary. Because companies shouldn’t be able to charge more than what they’re paying for the product. Because the federal government should be able to tell companies how to set their prices.
Hey, I’ve got a better idea, Joe. Why don’t you nationalize the oil/gas industry? Then you can make it all better. It’s a funny thing, isn’t it, how ungreedy the oil and gas companies were during Trump’s time in office, and how their greed ramped up when you came to power?
By the way, it’s always a time of war somewhere on earth, but when last I looked the US was not at war – except maybe a cold civil war. And if the world is in global peril, you’ve certainly done your bit to add to the problem.
But never fear, China approves:
My comment on Biden’s tweet last year, when he didn’t believe that greedy capitalism is all about exploitation. pic.twitter.com/ibgf9dSHyF
— Chen Weihua ????? (@chenweihua) July 2, 2022
It would probably work about as well as when Joe helped nationalized the student loan industry in 2009/2010.(People know that happened right?) Remind me again, how much more affordable did college education become after he did that? (Yes, I’m being sarcastic.)
A few weeks ago, I was talking with some immigrants from India ( I think that is where they are from). They have family in the gas station business. Their opinion was that the East and West Coast need to pay more for gasoline for supporting the Democrats. lol
In April 2020, gas was under a dollar in Wisconsin.
Joe Biden is not a smart man. We knew that 35 years ago. We all understand how he became president but my goodness, he certainly didn’t earn the prize. He was the next man up, like Bob Dole was in 1996. Except in 2020 the system was determined not to see Trump reelected. So we have Biden, perhaps the dumbest president since, well, George W. Bush.
I would like Biden to personally ignite the fireworks for the 4th.
I had a relatively huge chunk of money in Chevron, KMI and Enbridge. Everything else in cash. I sold about 90% of it on June 17th, keeping only the accumulated dividends since purchase. Wish I sold 3-4 days earlier.
The, ” lets nationalize the oil and gas industry” thought crossed my mind that week. I think there are many people who are stupid enough to think its a great idea.
Ive read oil could hit 300/barrel. Who knows, but imagine the pump price if it did and imagine the fury and vitriol to come. Oil is at 108 now, and I bet it hits 150. Russia can make that happen easily. Im betting theyre saving that bullet for the future.
Joe is the epitome of the angry old white guy. They applaud him. I swear Ive had the longest f’n nightmare ever. JB Pritzker? That cant happen.
God help us all.
“…the system…”
Um, er….
– – – – – – – – – –
In any event, clearly Joe Biden “won” the “election” by a historically unprecedented number of votes—a fantasy that is, of course, indisputable….which historically uprecedented “victory” gave “him” a mandate to destroy the country.
In plain English, what is transpiring has NOTHING to do with Joe Biden’s brains, acumen, cognitive abilities (or lack thereof) or understanding of how things work; but EVERYTHING to do with “Biden”‘s destructive plans and policies WRT America.
(This is why anyone who bemoans “Biden”‘s “mistakes” or “misunderstandings” or “stupidity”—while faithfully offering advice and suggestions on how “Biden” COULD SO EASILY change course to act in the country’s, and its citizens’, interests—TOTALLY misses the point; which point is “Biden”‘s goal is out and out sabotage of the country and (most of) its citizenry…FOR A BETTER FUTURE FOR ALL OF US!!!! Should add that at this stage of the game, they shouldn’t be missing this point…but people, I guess, are ever hopeful…. Hmmm, might one wonder if this insane(?) “EVER HOPEFUL” characteristic of humanoids is the reason why ALIENS are so curious about this planet…?)
Related:
“Former Top Obama Advisor David Axelrod Shreds Biden, Says He’s ‘Not in Command’ “—
https://redstate.com/bobhoge/2022/07/01/former-top-obama-advisor-david-axelrod-shreds-biden-says-hes-not-in-command-n587625
H/T Instapundit.
…which is—merely—the political equivalent of, oh, say Jeffrey Dahmer calling the police and saying something along the lines of…
“Officer, there’s this, um, strange odor in my building. I can’t really describe it, but SOMETHING is definitely NOT RIGHT. Please, please send someone over immediately….”
File under: “You don’t say!…”
…or maybe those aliens are simply fascinated by humankind’s ceaseless, unyielding, stick-to-itive quest for improvement and…yea, even perfection!
“Singapore Brewery Launches New Beer Made From Recycled Sewage Water”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/singapore-brewery-launches-new-beer-made-recycled-sewage-water
File under: “‘We are such stuff / As dreams are made on…’ ”
– – – – – – – –
OTOH, maybe the aliens are looking for tips (from the Democrats) on how to hold elections??
“Several NYC Election Sites Had ‘No Republican Ballots’ During Last Week’s Primary”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/nyc-election-sites-had-no-republican-ballots-primary-election
One would very much like to be sympathetic with the US government on this issue (but maybe-just-maybe said government should FIRST release ITS own far-too-large-number of political prisoners? Or at least one-and-a-half-years(!!) after their incarceration immediately cease abusing them physically and mentally and cease breaking the law regarding their rights to “habeas corpus” (heh) and legal representation…?
“US Rips “Sham Trial” Of A “Political Prisoner” As Brittney Griner’s Russian State Trial Begins”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/political/us-rips-sham-trail-political-prisoner-brittney-griners-russian-state-trial-starts
(They might even think about STOPPING giving advice to other countries on how to run “free and fair” elections…but that might be a bit too much to expect….)
File under: Jokers (and Hypocrites) Wild!!!
And in the proverbial nutshell:
“With hyperinflation, a world war, a bear market and now a recession, the Biden administration can finally declare victory.”—
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/welcome-biden-recession
…Since the GLORIOUS goal is to SEVERELY punish—and obliterate once and for all—the Capitalist, Imperialist, Colonialist, Oppressive, Racist, Abusive, Exploitive Enslaving, Mammon-Worshiping, “DEMOCRATIC”, [other flavor(s) of choice, e.g., Zionist], EVIL WESTERN “project”—which has brought so much MISERY to so much of the planet—and replace the above monstrosity with A WORLD of friendship, hope, equality, equity, siblinghood, prosperity-for-all, JUSTICE, LOVE…and everything that is simply PERFECT.
(Along with helplessness and fear, anger and resentment, vindictiveness and violence, vengeance and reparations, lies and betrayal, impoverishment and desperation!!!)
And so…my Fellow Americans, ASK NOT, PERIOD! (Don’t even open yer mouths).
Just thank us profusely, as we BRING IT ON!!
(Don’t worry. You’ll get used to it. You’ll have to….)
BUT…in a clear setback for “Biden”—
“A third of U.S. small businesses can’t pay rent because of inflation”—
https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/survey-third-us-small-businesses-cant-pay-rent-because-inflation
…which means that TWO-THIRDS of them CAN pay their rent.
“Biden” will have to step it up.
What this means is that old Joe hasn’t the foggiest idea of how businesses work.
Well, the usual next step is price controls, which will inevitably lead to shortages. Will we also have wage controls, as in the seventies?
It was a disaster then and it will be a disaster now.
Who is really president biden or sanders thats like which flavor of locusts you prefer
Can Biden do that for politicians? Have you seen how expensive they’ve gotten?
“…hasn’t the foggiest idea…”
Once again, this is an utter non sequitur.
Consider:
https://blazingcatfur.ca/2022/07/01/toddlers-do-this-when-they-drink-from-a-cup-without-spilling-it/
IOW, of course he hasn’t (though he may have once upon a time…perhaps…even if this is NOT the issue here)…
“Biden” OTOH most certainly does “have an idea”.
AND when your aim is PARADISE (of the humanly-ordained variety), well, it is well known—proven time and time again—that yer gonna have to break a few eggs.
(Or more than a few….)
Unfortunately, I will surmise that a significant percentage of Americans believe the oil companies rig prices to maximize profits.
These people just refuse to think, they refuse to question- they just believe – and it is these folks that joke bidet and the demonkrats are speaking to.
And all the stupid, inane utterances of the senile joke bidet are broadcast by the propaganda organs – the MSM – of the demonkrat party.
…but at least he’s not Trump….
“The President is economically illiterate, delusional, a liar, or all three about the probability and causes of a recession.”—
https://americanmind.org/salvo/biden-plays-pretend/
“Jeff Bezos calls out Joe Biden’s latest inflation claim: ‘Straight misdirection or a deep misunderstanding'”
https://www.foxbusiness.com/economy/jeff-bezos-joe-biden-inflation-misdirection-misunderstanding
(Of course, Bezos could always “embrace the power of ‘and’….” On the other hand, who cares what this inane “Biden” enabler thinks?)
+ Bonus (Sob. Couldn’t happen to a crookeder guy. Sob…):
‘”One Of The Worst Downturns In Recent History”: Zuck Warns Facebook Employees To Brace For Layoffs’—
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/one-worst-downturns-recent-history-zuck-warns-facebook-employees-brace-layoffs
…e.g.,
https://justthenews.com/nation/states/center-square/alabama-one-20-states-banning-zuck-bucks-legislation-according-report
This is not the only nonsense that came from Biden this weekend.
He awarded the Medal of Freedom (our highest civilian award) to Megan Rapinoe. Or perhaps I should say it was awarded to her in his name. We may never know who is actually pulling his strings.
The message is that if you spit on the United States, you will be rewarded. Some say the term “spit on the United States” is a bit harsh; but, I do not know how else to describe kneeling on Dutch soil while our National Anthem is being played, then standing respectfully for that of the host country–while ostensibly representing the United States.
PS Simone Biles, the troubled Olympic gymnast, was also recognized. These two are the most deserving of all possible recipients? The Medal of Freedom has been tarnished. Just like most everything that Biden touches.
@Barry Meislin
“…well, it is well known—proven time and time again—that yer gonna have to break a few eggs.
(Or more than a few….)”
Yes and still we never get any omelets. Just a lot of broken eggs ground into the dirt.
Old tough-talkin’, wise-crackin’, crazy-uncle, Scranton Joe – because once upon a time people occasionally listened to him – before quickly reaching a conclusion and turning away. He’s like the computers on the Space Shuttle, hopelessly obsolete before the first launch but absolutely reliable and predictable within their limited capabilities.
And here come the Republicans, doing just what they need to do, to keep the 2022 elections a horse race – determined to turn purple states blue with their post-Roe, post-Dodd imbecilities.
Biden’s tweet. It seems mean.
Dems want to kill all chirren and corporate america is on board
Jeff Bezos of all people retorts to Joe Biden’s tweet:
“Ouch. Inflation is far too important a problem for the White House to keep making statements like this. It’s either straight ahead misdirection or a deep misunderstanding of basic market dynamics.”
Don’t tell me Jeff, that the party you’ve spent millions propagandizing for and propping up actually engages in misdirection or is incompetent.
TommyJay,
If only Bezos owned a major news outlet that could fairly report on issues like this…
You paid for him jeff, no returns
Likewise
https://www.westernjournal.com/wh-press-corps-demands-biden-admin-change-unprecedented-rules-restrictive-antithetical-concept-free-press/
The markup by gas stations on gas per gallon has always been low. When I worked at one in the 1990s in Texas it was 3 cents to about 10, regular to supreme. Granted, we had a full service pump when I first started and that markup was much higher, but only about 20-30 cents. To make a ton of money on just gas, you had to have a good location, which this was. Worse, the price of gas, when I first started, was mainly self regulated. The owner would drive the area and see what other nearby stations would charge and change accordingly. This was an independent Exxon station. Exxon, which became ExxonMobile put in censors and satellite connected, and I am sure now just wifi internet, cellular connected computers and demanded a set margin no matter what.
That thinking, though, is a long standing industry practice in gas station/convenience stores. You don’t like what PepsiCoFritoLay demands for markup, they start limiting product. Granted the inside stuff, chips, soda, lighters, etc was where you can make serious bank, but even then it was regulated by suppliers.
I don’t know what the markup on gasoline is today by gas stations, but I’ll bet it’s close to as when I worked. The state and federal taxes on gas per gallon has always been much higher. Today, Texas state taxes from what I have seen is 20 cents per gallon and the federal is a little over 18 cents.
In the freedom loving state of Texas, our state gas tax is supposed to fund highway construction and upkeep. Yet, we keep getting more permanent toll roads while keeping the “free” gas taxed roads the same. Doesn’t sound so free to me, but just another ploy to fund other non-essential state programs from the general fund in which the state gas tax goes to and privatize everything no matter if it’s sound, good, or economical for Texas’ citizens.
Yeah, that sounds like a Democrat, but nope, just a pissed off Texas Republican who voted for W 4 times, twice as gov, twice as prez, held my nose for McCain and Romney, but still voted for them, and finally Trump twice. Trump at least worked to actualize what Republicans have been trying to get my vote for decades. Nevermind he was used and abused by the GOP from the outset.
In the end, you know they will catastrophically wreck the economy. Then they’ll act all reluctant and nationalize everything. They’ll shrug, (fake) grimace and say:
“We gave this capitalism thing a fair chance. Just couldn’t get it to work”
Easy to keep forgetting that EVERYTHING “Biden” does is a DISTRACTION; is meant to create an angry response, an irate reaction.
To make people angry, irritated, ornery…to increase the chance they’ll take their eyes off the ball.
Keep ’em all roiled and emotional…and make ’em lose their focus.
IOW, they’ll be so pissed that they won’t notice you’ve “slowly, and then all of a sudden” put them in economic—or other—jail…even as you’ve eroded whatever rights they believed they had.
AKA, “What is this Constitution you talk about?? That old, irrelevant piece of parchment that Dead, White, Slave-Owning Men conjured up?? I spit on your Constitution…”
Where would we be this long weekend without a little political satire?…
(True, nauseatingly goofy political satire, but satire nonetheless…that says far more about the cretin who wrote it than anything else…)
“Salon: Joe Biden, Like America’s Founding Fathers”—
https://victorygirlsblog.com/salon-joe-biden-like-americas-founding-fathers/
https://boriquagato.substack.com/p/is-pfizer-suppressing-vaccine-adverse?utm_source=%2Fprofile%2F32715357-el-gato-malo&utm_medium=reader2
In the freedom loving state of Texas, our state gas tax is supposed to fund highway construction and upkeep. Yet, we keep getting more permanent toll roads while keeping the “free” gas taxed roads the same.
It’s proper to finance maintenance and amortization of limited access highways by tolls and regular public roads by excises on motor fuels supplemented with vehicle registration fees.
Require by law that the state government each local government charged with maintaining roads have a dedicated fund for that purpose which cannot be used for any other purpose. Have a decennial census of macadam across the state and distribute the proceeds of the motor fuels tax according to the distribution of macadam for which each road maintenance authority is responsible. This will create a foundational appropriation for road maintenance which each responsible authority can top off with general revenues.
It’s important that state law create dedicated funds and ban the diversion of toll proceeds or motor fuel excises to other funds. Ideally, all road maintenance and amortization would be financed by tolls and motor fuel excises, which would have no other uses.
One conduit to that end would be to have a notional federal excise on motor fuels, but define the vendor’s liability to the federal treasury as $x per gallon less what was paid to the state treasury provided the state in question had a compliant network of road maintenance funds. This would give state legislatures an incentive to raise their excises to capture the revenue. The federal agency charged with ‘collecting’ the tax would just conduct audits and produce survey data.
Another conduit to that end would be to allow the state governments to collect tolls on short-haul Interstates while the federal government collected tolls on long-haul interstates and then distributed the proceeds per acres of macadam to dedicated funds in each state.
Ideally, the federal government would remove a mass of command-and-control regulations on emissions and replace them with Pigou levies on motor vehicle sales and smokestack emissions. Said levies could be placed in a dedicated fund and then remitted to the public by dividing the accumulation in the fund each year by the number of federal tax returns filed and remitting that figure to each household.
Biden’s tweet reminds you that the Democratic Party is run by lawyers and NGO microbes who have zero understanding of economics or business.
From Obama’s single/central/solutions to Covid-19/20/21/22’s mandates and Joe’s, perhaps green, perhaps affirmative, Green deal for progressive prices.
Green deals, raw deals, and reverberating sanctions are first-order forcings of catastrophic anthropogenic progressive prices.
Suggestion for the Babylon Bee:
“Biden Administration Proposes Spending $20 Billion to Provide Every American With a ‘Whip Inflation Now’ Pin.”
My message to the Secret Service. Just look the other way for one minute. I’m not going to hurt him. Not bad. He’ll live through it. It’s just a slap. I won’t even back hand him.
https://www.fox13news.com/news/highest-and-lowest-gas-tax-map
I don’t even know where to start. How about this? There are no companies that set prices at the pump. Prices are set by the retailer who has to deal with not just dollars per barrel but also refinery fees, distribution fees, etc., etc. and of course state taxes. Which varies between 33 and 86.55 cents per gallon. I’m not accounting for federal and local.
The mom and pop proprietor is eking out 5 to 7 cents profit. Hoping you’ll buy something from their convenience store. Which is why I always buy something when I use the bathroom.
“It’s proper to finance maintenance and amortization of limited access highways by tolls and regular public roads by excises on motor fuels supplemented with vehicle registration fees.”
The tolls are private companies. At one time an arrest warrant could be issued if you didn’t pay the tolls to the private company and it wasn’t a theft warrant, but an unpaid toll warrant. That got legislated away, but today if you don’t pay, again it’s not theft, but you can’t get your car registered and on your driver’s license you are noted as a scofflaw.
Our tax in gas is low, very low. It hasn’t been changed since 1991 or so.
At the same time road construction costs have gone up dramatically. Simple shortfall.
Yet, not all tax collected goes to roadway construction. Some goes to schools. The most goes to the state and I think TXDOT, but of course, it doesn’t all go to building roads.
I don’t like taxes, but roads are an important function of government. I will gladly pay for that. Texas used to do public private tolls and once the highway was paid for the toll went away. A major highway between Dallas Fort worth was created that way long ago. Today, I feel that even if we raised gas taxes to close or sufficiently fund the roads, we will still be short and the call for more private toll ways would continue.
Wesley Mooch could not be reached for comment. Unnamed sources in the administration indicated that Directive 10-289 would be released within the week. Brandon tweeted ‘Ayn Rand and her little dog Toto aren’t in charge any more’.
@ OldFlyer in re Medal of Freedom – “These two are the most deserving of all possible recipients?”
Scrolling down the list of Presidents, there are quite a few sports personalities and entertainers among the serious folk, but they all had lengthy and illustrious careers.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Presidential_Medal_of_Freedom_recipients
This was the Democrats’ pay-back for Trump honoring Rush Limbaugh.
https://babylonbee.com/news/simone-biles-awarded-second-medal-of-freedom-for-backing-out-of-first-medal-of-freedom-ceremony
I know like they said in thank you for smoking ‘everyones got to pay the mortgage’ but schoen should find another line of work
Of the list, denzel probably is the only worthy (although demerits for american gangster)
Holy crap, what kind of idiots don’t know that drilling for oil is speculation, betting on the outcome and it costs a lot to place your bets. I have been connected to oil families for over 50 years, close family in accounting and married twice into Texas oil families.
I have had some rather fine dinners in the Houston Petroleum Club, the Dallas Petroleum Club and the Oklahoma City Petroleum Club and they all served excellent food. When things go right in the oil business everyone is happy and then, it crashes, over and over again, just about every decade, it takes a lot of money to drill for oil, they tend to overextend and use a lot of debt.
Years ago I did a little bit of the investing as a working interest in what turned out to be a great oil well and then I found out what the back side of that investment was, keeping it going and all of the other costs of production, it’s kind of like playing poker and you need to have enough to stay in the game. My first wife’s father was very successful in the 1950’s ,until he wasn’t, down in the Houston area, he kind of hung in and limped to his last years. My second wife is part of a Dallas family who did a bit better playing it safer and they too have seen all the early oil money shrink, enough to allow most of the family to have a decent old people landing but that’s the way it goes.
The oil business has always been a boom and bust situation, yet it was never strangled like the Washington weasels are trying to do now to stop the fiction of global warning. Why in the world they have, without any real evidence, decided we are doing to lose all of our coastland to melting ice when their great wise leaders are buying and building costal properties. Perhaps that’s why they don’t want to risk any larger oil production that might harm their multiple costal homes, I don’t know.
“ The mom and pop proprietor is eking out 5 to 7 cents profit. Hoping you’ll buy something from their convenience store. Which is why I always buy something when I use the bathroom.”
Maybe 5 years ago, I was talking to one of the owners of the Conoco in town (in NW MT). He claimed 3¢ a gallon profit margin. My guess is probably closer to 5¢ a gallon because gas from that station now runs about that much above the Town Pump in town. The Town Pump is maybe a Chevron, but the chain has their own gas trucks. They inevitably have the big convenience store in towns where they have gas stations, so the Conoco is also a feed store. (They do have nice soft serve ice cream). The point though is that the margin on gasoline never covers even the rent or utilities anymore. You need some side line for that – most often a convenience store, to stay in business. The one thing that the Conoco has that no one else in the county has, is premium gasoline w/o ethanol. That costs maybe 20¢ more than regular premium, and at least 50¢ above regular gasoline. When you need it, you need it. They make a lot of money there during fire season, because a lot of the Forest Service motors cannot tolerate ethanol in their gasoline.
Biden’s been telling people that he’s compassionate, and empathetic, and relatable for decades, and the media and his staff have been telling him that for just as long. He believes it. He believes that he’s Middle Class Joe. When that sinks deeply enough into your mind, especially into a decaying mind, you don’t have to actually care about what people are going through. Of course, Biden is going to follow the party line — he always has — and of course, he’s not really in any shape to make shrewd political judgments, but his self-image may also get in the way of real empathy for ordinary Americans.
I liked this response:
https://twitter.com/US_OGA/status/1543598296668803075?s=20&t=a7ibfxE-VZh0CXUMaQaWAA
“…passionate and empathetic…”
So was Stalin…well, to a select few.
(E.g., Pasternak, to the end of is life, never understood why he was spared…but “Uncle Joe”, AKA the Great Father, must have loved the sprawling historicity of “Dr. Zhivago” and—who knows?—maybe some of the poetry as well…No doubt, Stalin was a poet at heart…)
Thanks to the commenters with knowledge on gas station pricing. About what I figured. Slow Joe’s (or his handler’s) commentary isn’t just wrong. It’s preposterous.
But I believe the operative tactic is that any argument is better than no argument. One would think that some arguments are so poor that they would be a net negative. Maybe the Biden team will discover that level.
Biden’s brain is undergoing a state of progressive necrosis.