What's Really Important Ignorance May Not Be Bliss, But It’s Sure Expensive
The right wing spin machine lies like it breathes, and for various self-serving reasons. Unbeknownst even to itself, it doesn’t really care about this nation, or you or me for that matter; but it sure supports the theft of lots of money and comfort from others by means that are both unethical and only questionably legal. It chronically misdirects, misleads and obfuscates the truth to it’s own advantage. Why? Because the people driving it can get away with it! Unfortunately they have a large supporting audience that continues to feed on the manure they are fed, because they refuse to acknowledge the truth. They are easily confused because they won’t allow facts to interfere with their being right (literally and figuratively).
Here’s just one example: According to a friend in a recent email, “I was in the car most of the day and listened to Kim Komando and some NPR, but Prairie Home Companion is still a bit too corny for me so I went to right wing radio to see how they are attacking. They are still in lock step that we must drill for oil everywhere and the democrat caribou huggers and Florida beach selfish idiots are responsible for the high gas prices which [sic] are wrecking our economy. That implies that the crisis is of supply and demand yet I see no gas lines anywhere which tells me that the problem is deregulation of the futures markets and speculators. Still this is the right wing mantra since they just have no spaghetti that sticks against Obama.”
The fact is that presently there is no real supply and demand issue driving the high price of gasoline in this country. During a Congressional Committee meeting a few weeks ago when several oil CEOs were questioned, they admitted that the demand for gasoline has not changed significantly in this nation in a decade.
During a different committee meeting I watched just today, another fact came to light, namely that refining capacity has not been an issue, even though the ole spin machine constantly tells us that gasoline prices continue to rise because evil environmentalists won’t allow any new refineries to be built. The truth is, gasoline reserves in this nation are so large that the oil companies won't build a new refinery because there is not enough demand for the gasoline. You don't hear them talk much about how many billions of barrels of oil reserves we have in this nation, and just how many wells have been capped, and for how many years. Also, we get most of our oil from Mexico and Canada, and not the Middle East. The bottom line is that we are not really dependent on Middle Eastern oil, and OPEC should not be the greatest factor in raising the price of crude. In addition, there are very few people that don’t believe we would been off fossil fuel dependency perhaps decades ago, if the oil companies, facilitated by our government looking the other way, hadn’t used their money and might to ensure that no alternative energy sources were allowed to succeed.
It is the drop in the dollar and the good ole boys speculating in commodities that are driving up the price of gasoline so rapidly. (And do you ever wonder why the prices at your gas station rise so quickly with each rise in the price of crude, even though the gasoline in that station was refined quite some time ago?) Two of the experts I heard testify today surmised that the "real" price of oil, as dictated by supply and demand, should be about $65 per barrel. We know that it is selling for more than twice that. You gotta love the speculators, the same type of pukes that were driving up the price of energy in California for Enron, and laughing at the little old ladies that couldn't afford to heat their homes. I know some don't believe crude prices aren't being driven by speculation, but I don't buy that
You also gotta love right wing (and all too many on the left) politicians, bought and paid for, and without conscience, ethics, and probably mothers. And there are all those wonderful people who continue to support them based on ideologies that have been extinct in practical terms for decades, even though most of them are also getting screwed over just like everyone else who isn't independently wealthy. Ignorance may not be bliss, but it’s sure expensive, and certainly plentiful!
Comments
If people only knew that power relies on apathy and ignorance, perhaps there would be less of it...or is it just laziness?
Posted by: Al | June 30, 2008 11:04 AM
Good question Al. I'd suspect all three.
Posted by: Stephen | June 30, 2008 12:10 PM
As Joe Biden pointed out on Meet The Press (June 22, 2008), oil companies already possess 41 million acres of offshore leases but are only pumping in 10.2 million of those acres. 79 percent of all the offshore oil available off the coast of Florida, into the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic Coast and the Pacific Coast, lies within the acres they now have.
So why are the oil companies not drilling on the remaining 30 million acres they already have instead of claiming the only solution to our high gas prices is to give them leases on all the remaining offshore oil? Greedy does not even begin to describe these people. The best description of the behavior of the oil industry and its proponents is a line from Howard Zinn’s A People’s History of the United States, they are caught up in “...the frenzy for limitless profit.”
It is so obvious that we need to be concentrating on developing (not just talking about) alternative energy sources and yet the Bush/McCain gang continues to push for more and more oil - in the Middle East and in our country. They want to be sure they get every last cent out of all the existing oil in the world and they don't care one iota about what it costs the people. With the push for alternative energy sources growing everywhere, oil interests are trying to sidetrack the conversation back to oil because the remainder of the Bush term is their last chance to get what they want.
Posted by: Trish | June 30, 2008 04:43 PM
Well said Trish. Once again you've have hit the nail right on the head. They want to squeeze every last cent out of oil by working from the outside in, basically getting every drop now out of their greedy reach, and working their way back to what they already have. This has been rather obvious for quite some time now, and it is still amazing how many still seem incapable of "getting" it.
There are definitely different levels of consciousness going on. I honestly don't think it is simply a matter of intelligence. But this is not something I want to go into now.
I'm glad you are enjoying Zinn's book; it is quite an eye opener, isn't it?
Posted by: Stephen | June 30, 2008 11:08 PM