Featured image from the San Diego Union Tribune. I don’t know what the article is about because it is hidden behind the pay wall, but feel free to check it out if you are so inclined.
The environmentalists won when Biden was elected, and now we are seeing the fallout from those early administration policy decisions. I will start with personal anecdotes, and go from there.
I live in the San Diego area, and the featured image reflects roughly today’s pricing for gas. I take my hybrid SUV to Costco to fill up roughly a full tank every two weeks. I have a couple jobs, so I try to keep it above half a tank, just to be safe. I’ve reduced my driving by finding work that is remote, and closer to where I live. My decision making is more and more dependent on my ability to keep the fundamentals: food on the table, gas in the car, and a roof over my head. The luxuries that I once had are starting to fall away. I used to have an annual pass (paid monthly) to Disneyland and would take the 90 minute drive (roughly) from San Diego to Anaheim. I would regularly go out to eat (not helping the weight loss situation) several meals a day. I would carry a bunch of subscriptions and would indulge in some retail therapy when I felt the need to. I would engage in self-care via acupuncture, massage, or a pedicure to prevent me from getting ingrown toenails (TMI I know, but it is for a point).
For me, the cost of living was reasonable because I could afford it. I had a good paying job with money on the side to pay the rent. But with the rise of the COVID tyrants, the election of Joe Biden, the ramping down of domestic oil and gas production, and now, the conflict in Ukraine between Russia, Europe, and the US, I am finding it harder and harder to make the ends meet at the lifestyle that I was accustomed to. And though it may all seem unrelated, I assure you, they are all quite reasonably connected.
In the US, under the Trump administration, there was concerted effort to energy independence. According to Forbes, the Trump administration benefitted from an Obama-era tradeoff that allowed domestic oil producers to export crude oil. This tradeoff helped spur the fracking boom that was present during the Trump administration, and, with the rise of COVID-19 in the early parts of 2020, fell due to decreased demand. It is something that I did not know happened during the Obama era, and I will give President Obama full marks for that far-sighted gesture of statecraft. I will also give President Trump full marks for knowing to leave it the hell alone.
But what I take umbrage with is the general distaste for giving President Biden poor marks for giving into the “green” movement and not continuing the trend. From the Institute for Energy Research, “Biden’s cancelation of the border permit for Keystone XL has also helped to increase gasoline prices by 30 percent since his taking office, along with his other anti-oil actions, including pausing federal oil leases and suspending oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. All of these supply-limiting actions send signals to markets that begin to factor in their impacts.”
So I, living along the West Coast (sort of), now have to deal with a Federal government that is signaling to the rest of the world that we’re going to slow down our oil production in an effort to combat the “Climate Crisis.” Saudi Arabian and Russian oil producers must be tickled pink by this news, because they have an even firmer grip on the oil markets. Flash forward to today, and we see that VP Kamala Harris acknowledged that higher gas prices may result from the conflict in Ukraine.
“When America stands for principles, and all of the things that we hold dear, it requires sometimes for us to put ourselves out there in a way that maybe we will incur some cost,” Harris explained. “In this situation, that may relate to energy costs.”
VP Kamala Harris via Newsweek
What principles are we standing for in this case? We aren’t protecting the American people, particularly those on the low end of the economic spectrum, from the rising cost of living here in the US. We aren’t protecting our homeland from the millions of illegal immigrants pouring into the country, effectively erasing our borders. We aren’t standing for the principles of equality, independence, and liberty when we attempt to force equity measures and vaccine mandates upon the American people. We aren’t standing for free speech when the government coerces and coopts tech companies to censor news organizations and individuals for “misinformation,” or shut down people’s ability to bank because they hold kooky ideas. We don’t stand for equal justice under the law when people are being prosecuted for political crimes committed by both sides. What are we standing for?
The reality is that the Federal government stands for those who give them money. We are principled insofar as those who control the purse strings. And for a long time now, that hasn’t been the American people in general, but rather, a small group of well-funded individuals and corporations who exercise a vast amount of influence and control over many aspects of the American way of life.
Whether it is in food…
To media…
Few hands controlling the trillions of dollars generated annually by the US. It makes sense that the Federal government caters to them, and in kind depends on them. It also makes sense how the CRT and woke propaganda has infected our culture so quickly, but that’s a topic for another time.
The common man is tossed aside, left to gather the crumbs that descend from the tables of the privileged elites (geez I sound like a commie don’t I?) while they feast, fly, and ignore the rules imposed upon the masses. It’s the cost of doing business, they say. I disagree, and instead of violent revolution (which will destroy our Constitution and lead to a true authoritarian state), we must build our own. That is after all what they’ve said this whole time. Build your own Facebook, Twitter, Internet, etc. So be it. We must return to depending upon ourselves, and our communities. We must work to support the common men and women just trying to make it. The elites don’t understand or care about us, and we should work hard to make ourselves independent from their control. Not through centralization and destruction of old institutions, but from decentralized, localized authority, a return to common values, common meanings, and mutual support (or at the very least mutual non-intervention).
We must do so through peaceful non-cooperation and civilized civil disobedience. We cannot descend into violence of any sort, and must be ever vigilant to ensure those who march beside us are adherents to these principles. We must maintain and reform the system in order to protect the fundamental freedoms still enshrined in our Constitution.
This must be the way.
A Place 4Politics 