Priorities
It started innocently enough. Someone on Astros twitter innocently enough claimed that it cost them 75 dollars to fill up their tank with gas. They apparently drive a larger vehicle with a larger tank. In the end, they thanked Joe Biden.
Some people continue to blame Biden for expensive gas. Others defend Biden’s moves and assert that things will get better. The third group simply point out that presidents don’t have as much control over market forces as people would like to think they could.
Then, the author of the opening tweet chimes in with the money line. I’m not going to torpedo the person here, so I’ll paraphrase. Essentially they said that 75 dollars seemed to be the price some are willing to pay not to have mean tweets.
Naturally, the hounds of war descended on that person. I’m somewhat ashamed that I was one of them. I’m ashamed because I know the person likely wasn’t completely serious and was just fishing for a reaction.
Still, a larger point needs to be made. To put things very simply, there is a minimum bottom level of humanity necessary for leadership. It isn’t about mean tweets. It isn’t about insulting of women, minorities, disadvantaged, handicapped, or struggling nations. It isn’t about a craven disregard for the suffering of others. It isn’t about personal discretions so depraved that all sense of shame has escaped.
One could almost look past those things. Except those things become markers for all of the other stuff. How could someone gleefully lock kids in cages? How could someone skimp on hurricane relief and insult those that need it? How could someone demagogue entire groups of people and compare them with racists and xenophobes as if they are the same? Finally, how could someone gaslight an entire pandemic and spread misinformation until a million Americans wind up dead?
Well, it takes someone with such a deficiency in character on those first things that they become capable of doing those other things. One of the things we used to collectively understand is that whether we are miserly or generous, conservative or liberal, religious or not religious, there was a foundation of humanity necessary to lead. No one that fails to meet that bar need apply. Except this last time someone did apply and they won.
No political victory big or small is worth human depravity. No economic or social plank is worth it. Gas may cost an extra 20 or 30 bucks a tank. There could be a hike in income tax or maybe supply chains are slower. Those things may be under the president’s control, but usually they aren’t. The president is usually just a piece of the machinery that makes the world turn and life to run smoothly. He or she can’t do it alone.
Even if we were to disregard all of that, there is a minimum measure of humanity needed for the job. We have certainly elected men with character flaws before. We’ve had huge battles over which flaws were worse and which ones were acceptable. Those are usually worthwhile discussions until we happened on a man without character flaws. He didn’t have any character flaws because he has no character. No one has ever successfully put a price tag on character, but I’m positive it is worth more than 20 bucks in gas.
Heckuva a beginning to the 21st century, folks. 8 years of Dubya/Cheney/Rumsfeld. 8 years of Moscow Mitch and the QOP dragging on everything President Obama and his administration tried/did to improve the country. Then the pantload dropped – Donnie. The twice impeached nevuh corrected spoiled brat crook with a coterie including Bitsy DeVile, Sleepy Ben Carson, the tRump crime family, and every crook the conservatives could squeeze into that maladministration.
Ergo sum on what I said yesterday:
I’ll believe we’ve entered the 21st century when:
1. The Brits divest their monarchy and force ALL of them to earn a living
2. The Roman Catholic church empties its coffers to benefit the poor and turn the scoundrel priests out
3. tRump and every scoundrel associated with him is prosecuted
Take that, Boomers. Some of y’all may have “missed” the 60s. I’m setting up to skip an entire century.
1Over the weekend I had a few idle moments to read another essay in a book about photography. In one of the Fotos, two women are gassing up a car with plates marked “1957”. In the background you can clearly see the gas is priced at 26¢ per gallon.
In “constant dollar” terms, that’s $2.95 per gallon. So gas isn’t anyore expensive than it was in 1957.
However I guess most of the raving faux news acolytes wouldn’t be able to follow my rambling digression.
2Anyone complaining about $4.00 gas needs to travel in Europe. Europeans would think they just won the Irish Sweepstakes with the fuel costs that we have here in the good ole U.S, of A. Of course one does not see many Chevy Suburbans, Ford Explorers, or Hummers on the roads either.
While I wholeheartedly support electric vehicles as one of the strategies to help reduce greenhouse gasses, there will come a time in the near future where gasoline taxes will have to go up for all non-EV drivers to compensate for the loss of motor fuel dollars that EV owners don’t pay.
Here in Pennsylvania, the home to one of the highest total motor fuel tax rates, $0.77 per gallon for combined state and federal tax, a vehicle getting 32 mpg and driving 12,000 miles per year will pay about $290 in taxes per year. That money will have to be made up somewhere. I suppose that will be the price that will have to be paid to hopefully make the planar more livable.
3I always say “Goodness! Hope gas doesn’t get as expensive as back 2008! I paid $4.25/gallon – in Houston, no less! Wonder if this guy blamed George Bush?
4For as long as I can remember the price of gas in European countries has been well over $5.00 a gallon. We in the USofA have enjoyed cheap gas for decades. I will be so glad when I don’t have to drive gasoline-powered vehicles. I can’t afford even a used hybrid vehicle now or I’d gladly unload my current 10-year-old Honda CRV.
5High gas prices are also the reason so many Europeans commute by train. And everywhere but the UK they expect (and get) excellent high-speed service. Why? Higher taxes. People are willing to be taxed in return for universal health care, free college, day care, parental leave, decent infrastructure, etc. I hope civilization will come here one day.
6$75 for a tank of gas?
Solution 1: Complain & blame.
7Solution 2: Organize your shopping, travel, drive less and pay less for gas OR trade in the Big tank gas guzzler for an electric vehicle which comes with a $7500 tax credit. There are even EV pickups available now, more models on the way this year.
Last time we drove in Europe (pre-Covid), I believe gas was $4 per Litre. I believe they don’t sell by the gallon.
8Well, it isn’t actually gasoline, but petrol, which is harder to refine in Imperial units and then sell in Metric to the English.
/s
9Presidents don’t make laws, legislators do.
10Legislators are voted in by citizens, so
The blame is on the voters.
It isn’t like we didn’t know Trump’s character.
We just didn’t turn out, even for Democratic legislators.
Our bad, do better.
Opinionated Hussy @8, you are right and I should have said Litre and not gallon. You have been in Europe more recently than I. When I was there gas was somewhere around 7. I didn’t have a car there and went everywhere by train. It was convenient and wonderful. We could have all that here but people are married to their cars and consider public transportation some kind of communist plot. The uber rich and corporations do not pay their fair share of taxes (if any at all), so the rest of us shoulder pay the bills. I do not understand why the lower income Republicans cannot figure out how screwed over they have been and are not leaving the party in droves.
11We’re seeing the poison fruits of the shit show administration run by TFFG that, as Nick said, gaslighted the pandemic so it could impact the economy in the ways the retrumpican party is blaming on Biden. Inflation, shortages, gas prices just to name a few. The trumpf regime also signed an agreement with the enemy Taliban that allowed them to insure a chaotic U.S. exit, and emboldened this century’s worst dictator in Putin. It’s amazing how many retrumpican elected officials that are siding with Putin. Actually, not surprising.
12Gas price in Paris France on February 14 was 1.76 euros per liter, equivalent to 7.54 US dollars per gallon.
Here’s a site you can look around on:
https://www.globalpetrolprices.com/
13@dbtexas: June 2008 my wife and I were taking our first long loop around the central and western states from Georgia. Crossing into California on I-15, the first gas price I saw was $4.999/gal. We drove through 19 states and gas was above $4/gal in 11 of them. Then on election day it had mysteriously dropped to $1.839. By Feb of the next year it was back up to $3.689
Presidents do not control gas prices, but oil companies that don’t like Democratic presidents have a big influence.
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