I'm old enough to remember when the 1972 Arab Oil Embargo pushed the price of gas over $1. And when the embargo ended, the price stayed above $1. Oil companies have been allowed to reap massive windfall profits for decades by regulations that allow them to set pump prices at a level dictated by the restock price, hence when crude goes up, pump prices immediately follow. But the regulation does not require the equal and opposite reaction. Prices only go down when enough Americans reduce their driving to reduce demand...or heaven forbid, shift to smaller cars or electric vehicles. When Exxon sees demand starting to fade, you will see the prices drop, and not a moment sooner. And Biden can't do a damn thing to change that. Congress could, at least, pass a windfall profits tax (as if Republicans and Manchin would allow it) and distribute that money back to low income people who are hurt by the price of gas. Drivers of large pickup trucks, monster SUVs other gas guzzlers should be exempted.
Off topic, but I was glad to see there was an uproar over the bizarre NY Times editorial claiming that shaming people for things they say is taking away their right to free speech:
“ For all the tolerance and enlightenment that modern society claims, Americans are losing hold of a fundamental right as citizens of a free country: the right to speak their minds and voice their opinions in public without fear of being shamed or shunned.”
Apparently the Times’s editors don’t understand that the right to free speech is a guarantee against the government silencing us, not a protection against being shamed by other people if we say something others think is wrong, stupid or despicable. The Times editors don’t understand that people criticizing or shaming speech is also an example of free speech. Apparently they want to see that kind of speech go away.
Here is a link to comments by Jay Rosen and others on Twitter:
The American mainstream media is wholly focused every day on generating heat in whatever inconsistent form it might take, to get keep ratings up for their commercial enterprise. Evidently, spreading light just won't get that done for them.
As long as the marketing departments control the news departments, you’ll never see news stories unfriendly to the US’s biggest advertisers. The millions of advertising $ spent by oil companies, auto companies, big pharma, etc ensure that the MSM will push the big business angle of every story. Those executive editors make a lot of money, and they don’t bite the hands that feed them. The press, as the responsible 4th estate, is all but dead.
"There was a time when the mainstream media cast a constantly skeptical eye not only on Big Oil, but on Big Business in general. Today, they get a pass, while Biden gets the blame."
I'm a decrepit dotard but I can't remember tis happening more recent than than sometime before Reagan. Did I miss something??
Sunday Morning on CBS yesterday did a puff piece on the oil companies, reporting about the supply chain-reaction of the world boycotting Russian oil. At no point did they mention gas prices vs. oil prices as you would expect from a show who's main goal is to advertise Broadway shows. On another tangent regarding this story is the double edge sword we are dealing with. Do we really want more oil drilling while the earth is warming every year, while storms are getting more and more powerful, where the cost of storm destruction is reaching new heights annually? This is an opportunity for the US to rise to the occasion and push green energy by heavily subsidizing electrical vehicles, solar panels on our roofs, and to task NASA with Solar Power from Space which is not science fiction but a real possibility of 24/7 solar energy. But no, the Republicans and sadly Democrats too, will continue to stroke the balls of the oil billionaires.
As Mittens Romney infamously intoned at a campaign stop in 2012: "Corporations are people, my friend." It's a patently ridiculous notion that is a product of a series of even more ridiculous rulings from the right wingnuts who dominate the U.S. Supreme Court. So, if corporations are people, this recurrent phenomenon proves that they are nothing more than common criminals, or as they are known in psychiatric circles: Sociopaths.
Sociopaths who are never held to account for price gouging, either by attorneys general in every state in the country or the guy who runs the DOJ (the one who's still "mulling over" a criminal contempt citation by the Jan. 6 committee after 100 days); and certainly not by the hyperventilating press that never misses an opportunity to parrot GOP talking points dumping this on Biden.
Sure, drill for more oil. Spoiled Americans in their $50,000 SUVs are crying about paying more at the pump. What's wrong with you people? Ever hear of global warming?
Have you not looked at the cars next to you in traffic? Most have no passengers, only the driver. And look at the buses - half to mostly empty even though they're the cheapest transportation you can get. I took a bus to work every day for 5 years. I brought along something to read and never had to drive in the snow, which I hated.
We need to straighten out the price gouging and stop clamoring for more drilling.Stop being selfish children and work together. At least share a ride.
And just this evening Catherine Ramped has issued another press release to the effect that Dems are totally lost in determining why federal government is permitting these high gas prices. Oil Company profiteering is ruled out, it's what companies do, silly. Profiteering is just the fact prices are higher than politicians want them to be. Nothing about a lack of competition allowing these high prices to continue.
Given the incestuous nature of Boards of Directors, I would not be surprised to learn that the directors of the giant telecoms (who currently own most of the US media “brands”) also sit on the boards of some of the oil companies.
Follow the money, I say.
This out of date chart (2018) shows some of the connections between assorted boards:
I'm old enough to remember when the 1972 Arab Oil Embargo pushed the price of gas over $1. And when the embargo ended, the price stayed above $1. Oil companies have been allowed to reap massive windfall profits for decades by regulations that allow them to set pump prices at a level dictated by the restock price, hence when crude goes up, pump prices immediately follow. But the regulation does not require the equal and opposite reaction. Prices only go down when enough Americans reduce their driving to reduce demand...or heaven forbid, shift to smaller cars or electric vehicles. When Exxon sees demand starting to fade, you will see the prices drop, and not a moment sooner. And Biden can't do a damn thing to change that. Congress could, at least, pass a windfall profits tax (as if Republicans and Manchin would allow it) and distribute that money back to low income people who are hurt by the price of gas. Drivers of large pickup trucks, monster SUVs other gas guzzlers should be exempted.
Off topic, but I was glad to see there was an uproar over the bizarre NY Times editorial claiming that shaming people for things they say is taking away their right to free speech:
“ For all the tolerance and enlightenment that modern society claims, Americans are losing hold of a fundamental right as citizens of a free country: the right to speak their minds and voice their opinions in public without fear of being shamed or shunned.”
https://presswatchers.org/2022/03/the-new-york-times-editorial-board-should-retract-and-resign/
Apparently the Times’s editors don’t understand that the right to free speech is a guarantee against the government silencing us, not a protection against being shamed by other people if we say something others think is wrong, stupid or despicable. The Times editors don’t understand that people criticizing or shaming speech is also an example of free speech. Apparently they want to see that kind of speech go away.
Here is a link to comments by Jay Rosen and others on Twitter:
https://twitter.com/jayrosen_nyu/status/1505627645039501316?cxt=HHwWiICzqbaXiOUpAAAA
The Philadelphia Inquirer’s Will Bunch has a good opinion piece about this, too.
https://www.inquirer.com/opinion/commentary/new-york-times-free-speech-editorial-20220320.html
The American mainstream media is wholly focused every day on generating heat in whatever inconsistent form it might take, to get keep ratings up for their commercial enterprise. Evidently, spreading light just won't get that done for them.
As long as the marketing departments control the news departments, you’ll never see news stories unfriendly to the US’s biggest advertisers. The millions of advertising $ spent by oil companies, auto companies, big pharma, etc ensure that the MSM will push the big business angle of every story. Those executive editors make a lot of money, and they don’t bite the hands that feed them. The press, as the responsible 4th estate, is all but dead.
"There was a time when the mainstream media cast a constantly skeptical eye not only on Big Oil, but on Big Business in general. Today, they get a pass, while Biden gets the blame."
I'm a decrepit dotard but I can't remember tis happening more recent than than sometime before Reagan. Did I miss something??
Sunday Morning on CBS yesterday did a puff piece on the oil companies, reporting about the supply chain-reaction of the world boycotting Russian oil. At no point did they mention gas prices vs. oil prices as you would expect from a show who's main goal is to advertise Broadway shows. On another tangent regarding this story is the double edge sword we are dealing with. Do we really want more oil drilling while the earth is warming every year, while storms are getting more and more powerful, where the cost of storm destruction is reaching new heights annually? This is an opportunity for the US to rise to the occasion and push green energy by heavily subsidizing electrical vehicles, solar panels on our roofs, and to task NASA with Solar Power from Space which is not science fiction but a real possibility of 24/7 solar energy. But no, the Republicans and sadly Democrats too, will continue to stroke the balls of the oil billionaires.
Another well-crafted piece…👏
Unless the news puts the president and democrats in a bad light, media just isn’t interested
As Mittens Romney infamously intoned at a campaign stop in 2012: "Corporations are people, my friend." It's a patently ridiculous notion that is a product of a series of even more ridiculous rulings from the right wingnuts who dominate the U.S. Supreme Court. So, if corporations are people, this recurrent phenomenon proves that they are nothing more than common criminals, or as they are known in psychiatric circles: Sociopaths.
Sociopaths who are never held to account for price gouging, either by attorneys general in every state in the country or the guy who runs the DOJ (the one who's still "mulling over" a criminal contempt citation by the Jan. 6 committee after 100 days); and certainly not by the hyperventilating press that never misses an opportunity to parrot GOP talking points dumping this on Biden.
Sure, drill for more oil. Spoiled Americans in their $50,000 SUVs are crying about paying more at the pump. What's wrong with you people? Ever hear of global warming?
Have you not looked at the cars next to you in traffic? Most have no passengers, only the driver. And look at the buses - half to mostly empty even though they're the cheapest transportation you can get. I took a bus to work every day for 5 years. I brought along something to read and never had to drive in the snow, which I hated.
We need to straighten out the price gouging and stop clamoring for more drilling.Stop being selfish children and work together. At least share a ride.
And just this evening Catherine Ramped has issued another press release to the effect that Dems are totally lost in determining why federal government is permitting these high gas prices. Oil Company profiteering is ruled out, it's what companies do, silly. Profiteering is just the fact prices are higher than politicians want them to be. Nothing about a lack of competition allowing these high prices to continue.
Boys of Summer:
Lyrics: Don Henley
Music: Mike Campbell
Will The Centrist institutionalist status quo Establishment Democrats give us another whitewashing committee?
Given the incestuous nature of Boards of Directors, I would not be surprised to learn that the directors of the giant telecoms (who currently own most of the US media “brands”) also sit on the boards of some of the oil companies.
Follow the money, I say.
This out of date chart (2018) shows some of the connections between assorted boards:
https://www.visualcapitalist.com/50-largest-u-s-companies-board-members/
Did anyone expect the press to pick on those poor innocent oil companies?
Today's tune is still reverberating for me. Thanks Eric.