Conservative Friends, Capitalism, and "Getting It" about the Price of Gas

A friend of mine who identifies as conservative said that he is happy the midterm elections are over so we can "work on the economy and inflation." I don't know what he means by that and neither does he. Someone asked him what he meant by his statement and his answer was to "look at gas prices." 

Let's look at gas prices. 

He and I have talked about gas prices before. He understands that the price is mostly based on supply and demand, but that there are other factors, too. His conclusion is that if we increase supply by glutting the market, the prices will drop. What he doesn't know is which company is going to pump enough oil to drop the price of a barrel below its production costs just so he will pay less at the pump. When I asked him if we should pay the oil companies to glut the market with gas so that he would pay less at the pump, he said he hadn't thought about it that way. I told him that we already do that in several different ways. That is partly why we pay less per gallon than most of the world. However, the main reason that gas prices are high is due to price gouging by the companies. 

He says he "gets it," but he doesn't really get it.

Accepting the Lesser of Two Evils and the Problems that Brings to 2024

This was written on April 27, 2023. It is as significant a problem today as it was seven months ago.

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It was a little more than three years ago that the Democratic party was desperately trying to undermine its two most popular candidates so that it could put up an establishment dweeb who would remain loyal to the party's big-money donors. To the party's chagrin, Bernie Sanders was still packing arenas and stadiums wherever he appeared, and Tulsi Gabbard tripled her support by stating the truth about some of the other candidates on the debate stage. After Bernie questioned Pete Buttigieg's claim of victory in the Iowa primary, the party knew that he was doing his own counting. 

The party did not have time to rig New Hampshire, which Bernie Sanders won. Joe Biden came in fifth with one-third the votes that Bernie got, but who somehow got two-thirds the number of delegates that Bernie got. 

The party then denied Tulsi Gabbard a spot on the debate stage claiming that she failed to qualify. However, it allowed a former-Republican mayor of New York to buy his way onto the stage. While mayor of New York, Bloomberg (you may have heard of his news network) was infamous for his "stop and frisk" policy that courts struck down as unconstitutional. Clearly, the party was less concerned about qualifying for the debate, and more about finding some way to stop the growing progressive wing of the party. 

Joe Biden: the Right is Wrong to Criticize Him, and the Left is Wrong for Defending Him

If you read posts on my blog regarding Joe Biden, you will find that I am not a fan of his. Even though he was able to beat Trump in 2020, his nomination over the most popular candidate, Bernie Sanders, may have cost progressive candidates in down-ticket races the votes they needed to win their races. 

Due to the pandemic, both Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard dropped out and endorsed Biden with primaries still to go and time left before the convention. Bernie then became quite presidential as he led a campaign to inform the public about what was known about the pandemic. Tulsi still spread her message of love and unity when she spoke, but she also spoke of the need to vote for Biden in order to defeat Trump. 

Though I was critical of the nomination process that gave us old Joe Biden and his boxcar full of timeless baggage, I was happy that he beat Trump. However, my appreciation for getting rid of Trump does not mean that Biden gets a pass on his past and present indiscretions. Therein lies the problem: the right is wrong to criticize Biden because everything they accuse him of doing wrong, Trump has done exponentially worse, and the left is wrong for defending Joe Biden because doing the same thing on a lesser scale is still doing the same thing.

Tulsi Gabbard Quits the Democratic Party, Takes Job at Fox News, and Endorses Republican Candidates

When Hillary Clinton said that Tulsi Gabbard was being groomed by the Russians to be an asset, she was slapped with a $50 million lawsuit. Mitt Romney accused her of telling "treasonous lies." He was hit with a cease-and-desist letter with the threat of a lawsuit if he didn't comply. 

My point is that Republicans in both parties have said things about her that they cannot back up with evidence. I can easily support an argument that the Democrats became Republicans during the Clinton administration, which is about the same time that the Tea Party was founded by Newt Gingrich. As I said about Hillary and Romney making arguments that Gabbard was being groomed by the Russians or was treasonous, they both chose to shut up rather than support their claims. 

However, many things have occurred since those days. Tulsi Gabbard quit the Democratic party to become independent. She took a job as an analyst at Fox News where she often substitutes for Tucker Carlson on his show. Worst of all, she endorsed several Republican candidates over Democratic candidates. 

Marketing Propaganda to the Brainwashed in the Midterms

Patty Murray has been a senator for thirty years. I wish she would retire, but, since she didn't and is running for her sixth term, I hope she wins the election. Her opponent, Tiffany Smiley, is running a highly effective campaign by marketing propaganda to lure those who can be brainwashed into voting for her to do so. Much of her marketing is devoted to associating Murray with Pelosi and Biden, which is true. They are all Democrats, so they all likely vote for the party platform when things come up for votes.

What would also be true, then, is that instead of aligning with Pelosi and Biden, she would align with Boebert and Greene, and would join others like Herschel Walker and Dr. Oz in bringing back Mitch McConnell as Majority Leader. Like Boebert and Greene, Smiley is a relatively young mother who touts her family values. Like Walker, you don't learn anything when she speaks. Like Dr. Oz, she is relying on a gullible audience that she can peddle her snake oil to. However, that is how marketing works. It is also how propaganda and brainwashing work.

What we have here, folks, is a failure to communicate, which is part of her strategy.

Protest Votes Are Fine, But Vote

The same people who shoved Hillary down our throats in 2016 are shoving Biden down our throats in 2020. I voted for Hillary in 2016, which gave the world the appearance that she was more popular in our state than she truly was. I don't know how many other people gagged just a bit while voting for someone who did nothing to earn our votes. 

Biden will not be getting my vote. However, I do intend to vote, and so should those who cannot bring themselves to vote for Biden. The progressive movement is not only about getting the power of position, but it is also about getting the votes that we need to change the system via infiltration. Those are the races that are down the ballot from the presidential race.

Not Demanding Sanders Is a Vote for Trump

I have written quite a few posts about the marketing campaigns the DNC uses, and how marketing, like brainwashing and propagandizing, is based on science. The only defense against it is critical examination. If we are not allowed to critically examine the reasoning behind nominating Biden instead of Sanders, then I contend it is those who criticize the examination rather than the question who are actually casting their votes for Trump.

After taking a short break from directly criticizing Biden to consider what a trusted friend said, I concluded that the breaking of criticism only led to the emboldening of the establishment supporters who 'vote blue no matter who' (VBNMW) to allege that supporting Sanders is the same as voting for Trump. It isn't. It never was. It is propaganda and marketing.

If You Are Over Forty, We Are Likely Political Enemies

My friend called it a "snarky remark." To me, it was an observation. He said there was an "implication" made that he was not concerned about the welfare of young people. I said what I meant forthright. 

It seems hypocritical to me for older people to complain about others not being concerned about their existence, and not supporting 83% of the people under the age of 29 who are worried about their long-term existence. It seems to lack intellectual integrity when the candidate whose disappointing end to her campaign didn't support what either old people or young people need to exist.

Cuomo and Biden Should Sell Used Yugos; Perez Still Needs to Resign

With the hope that they can keep Joe Biden from spewing some gaffe-ridden bile about how Trump is messing up, the DNC is hoping that the flavor d'jour, Governor Andrew Cuomo of New York, can put aside the fact that they have no plan for handling these situations and win the public over.

As I sit here at my table hearing Cuomo explain that they are trying to "avoid an apex" by looking for a flattening of the bell curve, I realized how stupid the average person must be for that to be considered smart. 

So that you understand if you don't, we are wanting to see a flattening of the curve which means the growth is slowing so that we can reach an apex, at which point the rate starts heading downward. It doesn't take a math degree to understand that our objective in the bell curve is to reach the "zero" on the far side of it. At this point, we are still heading up the front side of it hoping to see the curve flatten so that we reach an apex and start the downward trend.

COVID-19 Will Make Democratic Socialism Popular Two Ways

With all the economic shutdown due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many politicians are calling for some type of basic income stimulus ala Andrew Yang just to keep some economic activity going. Even Trump is jumping in on the act. Undoubtedly, Biden will take credit for thinking of Andrew Yang's idea first, but that's just the cute bullshit people have to put up with from good old Joe.

Trump supporters are putting up memes that correctly show the Democratic hypocrisy on the matter, but they do so without recognizing their own hypocrisy. It would be funny, except that it isn't when you consider all these hypocrites in both parties get to vote. Oh well, I'll get to that later.

Truth Versus Prejudice, Cigarettes are Good for the Economy, and Super Tuesday Results

It's the day after Super Tuesday, and many people are looking at the results to see what the truth is today. There is no need to do that. Truth does not change. I believe as my father did that if Jesus were to come back today, that he would say the same things today that he said then. What Dad and I might disagree at first about Jesus is his race. I would have been around people who told me to look at the region of the world that is being talked about, and then to consider whether someone born there would be a white person or a dark-skinned person.

The most beautiful thing about talking to my father about things like that was his willingness to consider evidence. If he were presented with evidence that shed light on truth, he did not turn his back on the light so that he wouldn't see it. He might struggle to let go of prejudices he had long believed when he didn't know the truth, but he would eventually let the prejudice go in favor of the truth. In the case of the race of Jesus Christ, it would not have been that he thought Jesus had to be a white man; it would have been more like he had never thought about until it was pointed out to him.

What Biden's Primary Win Means

Who knows?

It seems to lack the certainty one might get flinging a strand of spaghetti at the ceiling to see if it sticks. That certainly means the pasta is done.

I have been warning people for several posts now about falling for the marketing campaigns that are going to be used. My posts have reached such popularity that my followers and fans can be measured in the quarter-dozens! Two-thirds of one of those several quarter-dozens are Bryan and Ken.

I know Bryan and Ken in the ways that I know them, but I don't really know either of them too well. Certainly, I don't know either of them well enough to speak for them. Also, neither of them has given me permission to speak for them. We just all know each other as we know each other, but there is something special about my relationship with them that I covet: we talk about things.

Black People, Reparations, and Which Whitey is Best

Seven white people stood on a stage last Tuesday vying for the Democratic nomination. With the next primary being the first in a state with a higher-than-average Black population, the significance of South Carolina is to try to market to Black people around the country what the Black people in one of the least populated states in the country are thinking. 

What is missing from the significance of South Carolina is that presidential races are generally not close enough for the votes in South Carolina to make a huge difference. Votes in South Carolina are weighted heavily over votes in California for electoral purposes, but it still takes a lot of South Carolinas to make one California. There are so many confusing issues at play that the subject of Black people really only seems to have time for discussion when there is a potential marketing campaign that can exploit the image we have of "Black people." Having a small state with a higher-than-average Black population may not mean much in political clout, but, for those in the DNC, it is like the last reed they are grasping for before they drown. 

I mean to pull that reed away from them. From my perspective, Black people have in common what any demographic broken down by race has in common: little to nothing.

That is Slime, Not Grease, on Pete Buttigieg's Hands

With the Iowa debacle still unresolved, the candidates headed off to New Hampshire for the first primary of the election season. As we know, Pete Buttigieg declared victory on Monday with only 40% of the precincts reporting and him in second place. Apparently, he had received word ahead of the actual results being posted because of a service he purchased from the software company tabulating the votes.

All the reporting stopped when Bernie Sanders campaigners disclosed that the tallys didn't match the numbers his precinct captains had been entering into an app his team designed and didn't mention to the Democratic party. Numbers weren't adding up the same, so the Iowa party and the DNC went into lock down.

Biden, Bernie's App, and Buttigieg's Suspicious Rise

The Iowa caucus is a debacle that leaves many questions. One thing it cleared up, though, is that Joe Biden is a loser this election cycle, too. 

He took on the persona of a tough guy who wished he could meet Trump 'out behind the gym.' He backed off of those sentiments when he was confronted about whether or not he really meant he would punch Trump given the chance. Of course, he wouldn't; it was just, you know, locker room talk. He just wanted to make it clear that he doesn't speak clearly, but it wasn't clear what he meant except that he clearly didn't mean what he said.

He probably also regrets walking around Iowa telling people to not vote for him. He ended up with less than 15% of the count, and will likely leave Iowa with few, if any, delegates. His best days are behind him, and they were wasted being on the wrong side of history quite often.