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Showing posts with label gas prices. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gas prices. Show all posts

Monday, January 14, 2013

Football and Politics

Ok, here we are, the Monday after the playoffs and all people are talking about is how the Falcons pulled it out in the last seconds of the game. Or they are talking about the tweet Tebow's brother sent out about "am I the only one happy that Denver lost?" big whoop.
In the mean time, gas is still above $3.25 a gallon, a lot more in some places and the national debt is growing faster than ever. The president is on the radio and tv today trying to blame the republicans again for all the problems wrong in the world. Never mind the fact, the democrats have had the White house and the Senate for the past four years.
The politicians continue with the same ole stuff, blame each other for everything. They never stand up and just say, "I'm sorry we miscalculated, we are going to do what ever we can to fix it." There is just to many people in Washington trying to protect the paycheck that is four times the median wage in the US. Football players at least go out and give 100% for their money, and we get to see what they do in the light of day. Where the politician hides in the back room making deals, runs to blame the other guy and refuses to answer a question honestly. Remember this, "we have to pass the bill to find out what's in it'." How well would that work anywhere else?
How did we ever get to the point where $3.00 a gallon a gas seems normal. When Blame it on Bush left office, the gas price was down to $1.85 in most places. Obama promised to do something to curb the US taste for oil, go green, well all he did was take more spending money from the working class to survive. We have grown so use to this, that when the gas comes down to $3.10 or $3.05 people rush to the station like this is incredible, buy it now before it goes back up. It all a matter of conditioning. Just like a town expects a team to loose or win, if something happens out of the ordinary, there is an excitement or let down. People have seem to lost this excitement with things that matter.
Were I am going with this? This is the new world, the world where no one cares anymore about Washington is doing, political talk radio is dying and people are throwing up there hands and saying you win, we will do what we have to do to get by. They turn to sports, to TV, to whatever to keep from thinking about the things that really matter. For that point, don't think most people don't even know what really matters anymore. They know that gas prices are way to high, they don't know why, but they see the price. They know it cost more at the grocery store and at the pharmacy, but they don't know why, but they pay the price, because that is just what it cost.
The press is quick to cover the school shootings and people are outraged that a bunch of kids they don't know were killed. But these same people are just as outraged when an official at the stadium makes a bad call and it their team looses. The sad part about this is, they will stay more pissed off at the ref, than the fact the same government that promises to do something about the school shooting is the same government that failed to protect it's own people at the embassy in Benghazi. They don't see the same outrage when, our dollar gets weaker and weaker around the world and that China and Russia arn't scared to stand up to our president, just like Baltimore wasn't scared to stand up to Peyton Manning. We keep playing this way and it will probably come down to overtime and sudden death takes on an entire new meaning.
So here we are, Football playoff season, the tax season is coming and the the people will want their refunds. Fans of the ball games of the ones that lost, walk around depressed saying maybe next year, in the mean time we all loose at the tax office and never look for a better season next year.
Think things will ever change? Not unless we fire the head coach (Obama) his assistants (Biden, Reid and Pelosi) and get rid of the entire staff (senate and congress) and go for better picks in the upcoming draft.
Good luck to us all on a better season next year.

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Romney and Ryan will spell Victory for Obama

This is about right on track for the Republican party, lets blow the presidential race in a big way, not just give it away. The Paul Ryan pick will be the death nail for any chance to get Obama out of the white house.
The Democrats are licking their lips and the ad's are already in the works. They will be on the Florida televisions within just a few days. The first ad will be; Romney and Ryan plan to cut and gut your Medicare and Medicaid benefits, get ready to pay more so rich people like Romney and Ryan don't have tell their friends they are going to raise their taxes. If you don't want to be kicked out of the hospital and put on the streets, VOTE NO to the Romney Ryan cut and gut plan.

Does it matter that it is truthful? Did it matter that when they run the ad that claimed a man's wife died of cancer after Romney sold the company, seven years later? Since when did the truth matter to a politician trying to keep power?

You would think with unemployment at over 8% and gas at almost $4.00 a gallon, he wouldn't have a chance. But Obama will win in November 57 to 42 and 1 going to none of the above, mark it, count on it, place your bets.

Monday, April 12, 2010

Can OPEC kill the economy?

If you think the housing bust was about bad loans, yes, a lot of the loans were made to low lifes that knew they could never pay the loan. But, the housing bust corresponded with what, the last rise in the prices at the pump. Most people live on a budget, when the budget is busted, it forces people to makes cut somewhere.
When gas prices hit $4.00 a gallon, not only did effect how much it cost to fill up a car, it did much more. Fuel cost increased the cost of shipping everything. Food went up, airline tickets went up and business's started to suffer. Restaurants and other establishments begin to layoff workers due to the business turn down.
When peoples disposable income began to disappear, their budgets began to get out of whack. Part of the  money they had allocated to help pay the bills started going in their tanks and to pay for the increase in grocery prices.
The economy seems to be slowly recovering now. Jobs are not readily available yet, but small business is seeing some growth, along with housing sales picking up. The American public is still vulnerable to rising gas prices, with a lot of blue collar workers dependent on independent travel to and from jobs, small increase hurt.
If OPEC decides to cut production to increase prices, who will stop them. Oil prices are on the rise again and will probably continue through the summer. This will coincide with summer travel plans with millions of Americans headed on vacation. With every price increase at the pump, they will have to cut something somewhere. One less night at the hotel, one less meal they eat out, multiply this by the amount of travelers and isn't hard to see where this is headed.
If we head into another economic turn down with the unemployment rate already at 9plus percent, around 20percent in the construction field, what happens then. Do we blame this on the financial institutes again? When prices at the pump go up the congress is quick to blame the gas companies and fail to mention the role of our foreign dependence on oil. Do we have a recourse against OPEC creating self imposed shortages, such as cutting production? Price at the pump depends on the price of a barrel of oil.

So, are we headed for another economic slow down, prices at the pump are up now over a dollar a gallon from last year, which is keeping the recovery in the slow mode. If we want to get the economy pumping again, slow down the cost at the pump.