The fool who is running Florida into the ground has also been spreading the big lie that if he were elected President, he would lower gas prices to $2 per gallon.
This proves one of two things about DeSantis. Either he is so stupid that he has no idea how gas prices are established, or he actually does know, and he is lying again.
What do I mean? Well, the President really has very little influence over how gas prices are set. Oil prices are actually set by the people who control the drilling of oil which includes OPEC, a group of mostly desert Arabs, plus Venezuela and OPEC+, the former group plus Russia and a couple of smaller players. The United States, which is actually the largest producer in the world, doesn’t belong to either of these groups. When I say the United States, I am not speaking of the government, but of the association of U.S. oil producing companies that supply the market. The President certainly has a small position of influence here, but nothing that would allow him to set a price that would damage the bottom line for these companies. The same is true, only more so, with OPEC and OPEC+. So, DeSantis has lied once again or he’s a moron who doesn’t understand that the President doesn’t control the price of oil, and that same moron, being a decided Trump type, will lie about anything that comes out of his mouth.
*****
Watched an interview on the economy with Pete Buttigieg, and frankly everything he says makes sense. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem to make any difference to the great intellectually unwashed. I’ve said that I have no faith in polls, but they cannot be completely ignored, and right now they are telling a very depressing tale. People are whining about the economy, while they are enjoying better and higher paying jobs than ever before. But those higher paying jobs are causing prices to rise, so their better paycheck still doesn’t cover as much.
None of the potential Trump voters seems to consider that it was Trump, and what there was of his policies, that caused the economy to tank. They ignore the fact that we still have the strongest economy in the world and that we have never invested more in our infrastructure, which fixes problems and creates those higher paying jobs. Under Biden we have created over 13 million jobs, more than under any President in history.
And still, they tell us Biden is too old, they ignore his massive accomplishments and whine that he will never make it through another four years, and sure, there are certainly indications that what they say could be true. Biden’s physical and vocal appearance leave a lot to be desired in the matinee idol department. Yes, he has a stutter but that has nothing to do with age. What he doesn’t have is a strong speaking voice and a healthy demeanor, and that is difficult to get past. The fact that he is still smarter than the next guy and especially the guy he seems to be running against, appears to be lost on a serious segment of the voting public.
The Democrats biggest problem seems to be that they have no second team, no replacement candidate to step in for a graciously retiring Biden. Harris has her own problems and doesn’t appear to be a very strong candidate.
The strongest candidate is Bernie and he’s almost as old as Biden, but he just doesn’t give off the same aging vibes. After that, there is a very steep drop-off in projecting Democratic candidacies, as the aging Democratic strongmen have gutted the party’s next generation. There are a couple of Governors like Whitman up in Michigan and Newsome in California, but the lineup is pretty weak. There are a couple of young congress people, but they are still minor league status and in need of seasoning to build up their names. So, everybody can bitch about Biden, but he still seems like the best game in town.
*****
The crook that formerly lived in the White House, the one with the long list of criminal charges, any of which could land him in the hoosgow for the rest of his life, is now faced with losing control of his entire New York State holdings and picking up a significant fine that could bring down his entire empire.
A New York state judge ruled on Tuesday that Trump and his entire organization had been violating state laws by continuality changing the evaluations on his properties in order to inflate them to banks for mortgage deals and to lower them to the IRS for tax purposes.
This could actually destroy the Trump empire by taking away their ability to do business in NYS. It includes his sons Don Jr. and Eric,
whose actions are so egregious that they include the overvaluing of Mar-a-Lago by 2,300% and the overestimating of the square footage of Trump’s Trump Towers apartment by two thirds.
What really slammed the door on Trump’s protestations of these charges was the fact that he and his people overvalued and undervalued many of the same assets depending on whether they were dealing with banks or the IRS. This was really tough for the judge to swallow, so he slammed the door.
*****
Unfortunately, Bill Maher is right. When the TV pundit went on a rave about Biden not being too old to serve, but to get elected, he was probably right on target.
Biden has been a great President. I know you’d never believe that if you just listened to the criticism that comes from Fox, the NY Post and the party that hasn’t had a great President since Honest Abe. But the problem isn’t whether or not he’d do a good job, the problem is how do you get a man elected who is beginning to stumble and stutter, especially if he has to debate an angry, insane, psychopath who doesn’t know what the truth is, let alone how to tell it. I think maybe Joe would get steamrolled.
The Democrats problem is who do you run instead of Biden.
*****
The Hamas/Hezbollah joint attack on Israel can’t be considered surprising. It has been percolating for years. I have been an Israel backer since its inception, but there is no denying that their current policies covering the Palestinian problem are what brought this about. Add to that, the fact that they are encumbered by Bibi Netanyahu as Prime Minister. Bibi will be the first to turn this attack inro a full-scale war in order to give him room to expand his policies and give the people of Israel something else besides his criminal activities to think about.
Meanwhile the Iranians sit back and cheer the chaos. It is almost a sure thing that this attack will end the American backed peace discussions that seemed to be moving ahead between Israel and the Arab nations, discussions that did not include Iran.
There Is still a chance that this entire mess can be resolved in a way that will lead to a better way of dealing with the Israel/Palestine problem than exists now.
*****
Sorry that we missed a couple of issues, but we were in London, trying to find a good meal. Just kidding but maybe not too much. What we were mostly doing was attending the opening of Old Friends, the Stephan Sondheim musical starring Bernadette Peters, Lea Salonga and an incredible English cast that just tears the roof off the Gielgud Theatre. This may be the best musical theatre to be created since long before the plague, and why not? It is, after all the best music from some of the best shows ever produced. Sondheim was our reigning musical genius, and this is a compendium of his best of the best. This is one that no one with a taste for theatre will want to miss. It is not, as yet, scheduled to jump the pond but it is inevitable.
very good post, Bill!