Joe Biden is busy announcing that we are shutting off the Russian gas spigot and as a result the cost of gas will be even higher than it is now and we can all wonder why? Why the hell is giving the American gas companies a boost in their business, an excuse for them to raise prices and why the hell should we accept it? Telling us that it is our patriotic duty to accept this kind of gouging by our criminal oil companies is nothing but pure bullshit.
Americans are fully in line to back the Ukrainians in their war with Putin, but they seem strangely confused about whom to blame for the rise in gas prices at home. I just don’t understand the confusion. The oil companies are the decided villains. We haven’t even shut down the Russians and they are already pushing up the prices at the pump. Why? Why should selling more oil cause them to raise their prices and make more money on their already enormous profits? And why is the public blaming Joe Biden when the only thing he has done wrong is not nationalizing this odious product.
The President cuts off Russia and throws that business to Standard oil and their buddies and Standard thanks him by raising its prices? We already know the oil companies are scum. They don’t have to prove it every day. Hundreds of companies all over the United States have shut down their operations in Russia. They will all lose money, but they are willing to do the right thing. The oil companies get a chance to make more money while helping the cause but it’s not enough. They say thank you by raising their prices to make even more. It’s time for the government to step in and freeze fuel prices as a combination anti-inflation and national security measures.
The oil giants have been the worst providers in the history of mankind. They have poisoned the land and the air. They have ignored safety procedures and climate control, all in a desperate, destructive race for profit. Now as they approach the sunset of their ignominious history the men who lead them are making one last grasp at the big payoff. We must not reward them for being greedy pigs. We must use the powers of the government to redirect their operations and impale them on the spit of history.
*****
Kudos to John Oliver for bringing a fantastic piece of photojournalism to the TV screen. It was a recording of an older Ukrainian woman engaging a Russian soldier, cursing him out and ranting about his being in her country. This brave and maybe a little nutty, lady raged at the dumbstruck soldier, reviling him in the most picturesque language, calling him a “fucking invader” and demanding he get out of her country. Then she offered him a handful of seeds and told him to put them in his pocket so they could be fertilized by his rotting body. It was beautiful; and the incredible clip was brilliantly driven home by Oliver’s classic statement about a woman bringing seeds to a gunfight but still winning.
*****
So, some Russian politician has decided that we should give Alaska back to Russia because our sanctions have cost them so much money. Great idea the next thing they would do is claim that Canada was really a Russian satellite and invade Vancouver. Then Tucker Carlson and Tulsi Gabbard could get their own slots on Today in Montreal.
And speaking of the putrid pair: I have always believed that everyone is entitled to their opinion no matter how wrong it is, but Carlson and Gabbard aren’t expressing opinions, they are proselytizing, and there is a huge difference. I mean do you really think that Tucker believes the bullshit he is spreading all over the floor at Fox? Of course not! He would have to be a moron to buy any of it. But he will sell it because that will endear him to a GOP power structure that finds it advantageous to back Putin in hopes it will weaken Joe Biden’s position, rather than do their patriotic duty as Americans and pursue the destruction of the Kremlin’s dive into an ocean of media lies.
I haven’t forgotten that I predicted there would be no war in Ukraine, but since then I have come to understand that I have no sensitivity to the thought process of those who do not depend on reason and logic to make monumental decisions. This leaves me with no insight into the sociopathic mind so I am somewhat at a loss to interpret the moves and motivations of such as Putin but I will still go out on a limb and say that there appears to be no functional way for Putin to get out of what I thought would keep him from invading Ukraine.
The peace talks being held between Ukrainian diplomats and Russian diplomats can decide what they want but until they get Putin’s okay, which as far as we can see, they have not, it will be meaningless.
The estimate of Russian dead so far in this mockery of a war ranges, depending on who you want to believe, from 7,000 to 14,000. That’s a lot of body bags and even more angry relatives. The folks back home will only buy Putin’s con for so long. I mean how many traffic accidents can one army have in only three weeks?
But still, we’re only talking 14,000 families, tops. What about the other 144 million Russians who are about to find out that the ruble is worth nothing and that everything except their money is about to triple in cost. That’s a lot of really angry consumers with only one person to blame. That of course, is the problem with being a dictator. You can’t blame it on the other Party. There isn’t one because you killed them all.
But this situation creates another big danger. As Putin sits alone at his huge conference table and contemplates his army’s inability to occupy cities in Ukraine; as he counts his rising casualties and watches his armored columns being destroyed, one tank at a time, he must inevitably face the fact that he will never enjoy his Soviet dream and more likely will end up much like Benito Mussolini or Saddam Hussein. That’s when, with no other alternative, his proximity to the button will become a real and really serious problem.