Please Advise! Who’s to Blame for Soaring Gas Prices?
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Dear Dr. Steve,
I am mad. Gas prices are soaring. Who should I blame?
Signed,
Moto Cross
Dear MC,
Normally, gas prices are the bane of political analysts. They serve as the ultimate demonstration of electoral illogic — a random factor that reliably drives approval ratings down in every political sphere, despite the fact that the politicians in power almost never have anything to do with fuel costs, nor can they do much more than express sympathy and shake their fists at big, bad oil companies.
But once again Donald Trump proves he is one of a kind. There’s never been anyone like him. If you don’t believe it, just ask Trump. He’s incredible, unbelievable, like no one has ever seen before. With chaos reigning in the Strait of Hormuz, Trump is proving once again he is sui generis . Once you explain to him that’s not some kind of sugar-free Swiss granola, the U.S. president would surely agree.
As usual when gas prices spike, people are looking for someone to blame. And there he stands. It’s so rare that a single person can take on the full responsibility for siphoning your RRSP into your gas tank. Joe Biden couldn’t. Barack Obama couldn’t. Only Donald Trump can truly say, “See that? See the pump meters spinning as though powered by coked-up gerbils? I did that. Me. Donald J. Trump.”
Ordinarily, blaming one man for high gas prices is a dirty trick. Not this time. Trump and pump are like cat and litter box. Your fuel budget might as well be the Epstein files for all the grimy Trump fingerprints on it.
Motorists watching those pump dials roll like Satan’s slot machine know very well that the president’s attack on Iran is responsible. Planned with all the careful consideration of a stoner’s Snickers purchase, the Iran attack is perhaps Trump’s signature initiative. It has given him a glorious opportunity to display his unique perspective to the fullest. He combines the attention span of a caffeinated goldfish, the clueless egotism of a newly promoted nepo baby and the intellect of a damaged Commodore 64, all stuffed into a skin bag that appears to be leaching fermented soybeans.
If one can mine grim laughter from such a serious situation, it was amusing to see Trump belatedly call upon European allies for support with his impulse war.
After tariffs, insults and invasion threats, Trump turned on the batshit signal and demanded NATO assistance. Thus we see Trump’s Art of the International Deal: “Screw you, screw you, screw you, HELP!” The boy who cried tariffs is now crying the blues. Maybe the Strait of Hormuz could issue a special permit for a big freighter full of tissues.
But Trump knew this would happen. At a Monday appearance he said : “I knew the strait would be a weapon. I predicted it a long time ago. I predicted all of this stuff.”
He’s admitting it? Trump aimed the pistol at his own foot, knew his toes would scatter like spilled macaroni and still fired? George W. Bush had “Mission Accomplished.” Donald Trump has “I meant to do that.”
At times like these we discover how far we have to go with decarbonization. Inflation is certain to climb along with transportation costs, proving there’s still a disturbing amount of oil in our food. Perhaps we owe the U.S. president a big thank you for highlighting our dangerous reliance on oil, thus helping drive the transition to a sustainable future. Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, environmental heroes. After all, they say every major air crash leads to improved safety features. In that sense, Trump and Putin are a couple of Hindenburgs on a collision course.
In the end, though, it’s all rather depressing. The pointless war, yes. But also the reminder of just what it takes to move the political needle these days.
To review: Donald Trump attempted to violently overturn an election. A civil jury found him liable for sexual assault. There is testimony in the Epstein files alleging his sexual assault of a 13-year-old. He’s a convicted felon and wealthy draft dodger who referred to military veterans as “suckers and losers,” a white supremacist , more corrupt than a Russian arms dealer, a man drunk on his own signature cocktail of megalomania and narcissistic imbecility, utterly lacking in decency or empathy and possessing the morals of a tapeworm, a Don who has staffed the highest levels of American government with incompetent lickspittles and psychopaths, all engaged in an ongoing attempt to destroy democracy and the rule of law.
And what’s the greatest political threat Trump is likely to face? High gas prices.
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And Steve Burgess is being nice ... he's just too Canadian.
He has a Canadian sense of humor. He made me giggle
Is being Canadian a problem around here? If the price of gasoline is such a problem, go EV. Just because NIagara Falls doesn't mean we do.
Only when we forget to supplicate ourselves to the deranged southern cousin.
Do we really HAVE to be polite?
Attention span of a caffeinated goldfish? I have to write that one down.
The author lost the vibe by relitigating stone-cold issues. The author's point could have been reinforced by simply stating that we're all Americans now whether we like it or not.
sho 'nuff
Well... Kevin Hasset says protecting consumers isn't a priority, so....
I normally neither blame the POTUS for rise nor give them credit for the fall of petrol prices. In normal times they do not have control of it, even when releasing oil from the SPR. Oil is global commodity and is traded as such. But we are not in normal times and in this instance I do blame Trump. Not simply because it's Trump, but because it's Trump.
He decided to "right the wrong" that is Iran, falsely claiming it was an imminent threat to North America. He decided to do something no other POTUS (in their right friggin' mind) would do in 47 years. He talked to a previous President (himself in the mirror - remember, he was the 45th POTUS), saying they wish they would've done it. He's surprised Iran did cave like Venezuela, didn't allow him to put in a puppet, or give him a peace prize for "blowing their sh!t up". Once again he didn't ask "If I / we do this, what do they do? If we do that, what do they do?". He literally said, "We're making money", meaning not you D/As who voted for him, but those who buy / sell / trade oil. Sorry, this isn't on Biden, Obama, G-Dubyah, Clinton, H.W., Reagan, Carter, Ford, Not A Crook Nixon, LBJ, Kennedy, Eisenhower, Truman...
A lot of folks like to blame Biden for the run-up in petrol prices in 2022 and somewhat in 2023. What happened in 2022? People were being told to get their lazy booties back to work / office and it was time for oil companies to regain lost profits from Q2 2020 - Q1 2022. Then 2023 remained high due to "trickle down". They're not going to simply lower prices by a dollar overnight, no, gotta let that lower price trickle down. Plus test the pain points of the consumer. I'm an essential worker so after an initial 3 week WFH in April 2020 I was back in office, 5 - 7 days a week. And fuel wasn't all that cheap in 2021, averaging for me $3.15 for 87 octane, you know, similar to what it was last year and pre-Iran conflict, incursion, excursion, war, not war, however Trump and Co. spin it.
Tds morons showing once again what hypocrite pieces of shit they are,
June 2022 5.15 a gallon,
March 2022 4.15 a gallon
U.S. Gasoline Prices (1978-2026)
And then we have these propaganda pieces of shit posting this on their website.
But then again these are the same pieces of shit that kept a running body count during the Bush presidency and then had it disappear for Barry.
We get it, Trump bad, 5 dollar a gallon gas good for senile old Joe.
This ain't CNN, it's The Tyee and the article is by its house satirist. Unlike in MAGAvoid, satirists in Canada are blessed with poetical license.
Although The Tyee is leftist (oh the horror), it has a clean fact check record.