To listen to the GOP (Greedy Old Plutocrats) campaign ads, one would think the US is paying way above the world average for gasoline. Rubbish. We lead the world in oil production in spite of the “drill baby drill” propaganda emitting from MAGA disinformation, where the truth goes to die.
If you are looking for the cheapest world gas price available, then be ready to surrender your democratic and free enterprise lifestyle for authoritarian dictatorship. Petroleum-rich Iran, Libya and Venezuela residents pay a measly 10 to 13 cents/US gallon. Their state-owned gas conglomerates set the price, not supply and demand. It might be the only economic benefit to live in such political hellholes. Residents can afford the gas. Buying a car to power it is another matter.
Number #2 oil producer Saudi Arabia comes in at $2.35/US gal, with #3 Russia at $2.29/US gal. Again, heavy government subsidies and dictatorships. Note the trend. Less freedom, cheap government-controlled gas. Is this worth the price?
On 10/28/24, the US averaged $3.46/US gal. Disregard MAGA arguments about gas less than $2/US gal under Trump. COVID regulations closed businesses and increased work from home, resulting in a huge drop in demand.
How do current prices compare with our democratic allies? We beat them all — Japan $4.32, UK $6.62, Canada $4.74, Germany $6.78, Mexico $4.76, France $6.97
China pays $4.31. Israel checks in at $7.52. Hong Kong is the most expensive at $12.53.
Don’t forget taxes. Federal and state governments levy excise taxes on gasoline, as they do on other commodities like alcohol and tobacco. The federal tax is 18.4 cents/gal., 35 cents for diesel. Read the pump sticker. The average state excise tax is 33 cents/gal, 35 cents for diesel. Florida registers 38 cents/gal. The buyer also pays state sales tax like any other purchase. All this is included in the price at the pump.
Looking for cheaper gas? In the Western democratic world, you are living in it. Not so if the US surrenders to the corporate friendly MAGA Project 2025. Big Oil would play an even bigger role unimpeded by government regulations. Expect already obscene executive compensation to skyrocket from your wallet.
Consumers, be careful what you wish for, because you might just get it.
(Main source — Global Petrol Prices.com, 10/28/24)
The deep down reason for Trump is: fear of the future. The globe is shrinking, there’s travel and intermarriage. Of course the Earth’s population will be more varied and diverse. This you can’t stop. People fear the changes and want a Big Daddy to tell them everything will be all right even if he is an incompetent buffoon and a felon to boot. Those who voted for Trump have mistaken bullying, meanness and lack of compassion for strength. How sad.
Loved Kamala’s concession speech. Graceful and dignified and encouraging.
GRACE GAMBINO, Jacksonville, Fla.
Whether you support or oppose the GOP’s candidate for President, you should not take John Kelly, Mark Milley, Mark Esper, James Mattis, John Bolton, Rex Tillerson, Omarosa Manigault Newman, Mike Pence, Michael Cohen, Cassidy Hutchinson, Alyssa Farah Griffin, Bill Barr, Mitch McConnell, et al. even remotely seriously.
Each and every one of these individuals enabled 45. In fact, they relentlessly kissed his ass. There were numerous occasions when any one of them could have spoken up; instead, they stood mute, smiling obediently the entire time. If Orange Julius somehow brings about democracy’s demise, the aforementioned are complicit. Hardly heroes for “speaking up” at the zero hour. It’s not as though they had a last-minute epiphany. They pussyfooted around for eight years.
Tillerson was making bank off the military industrial complex long before he was appointed to a government position. He’s the embodiment of the swamp. Pence was losing his re-election bid for Indiana Governor. Without his appointment as Veep he would be a no-name former politician by now. Likewise, Omarosa was a nobody until 45 made her. You see the pattern, right?
Undecided voters will surely see these people as nothing more than jaded grifters and opportunists.
I’ve been clear that I will not be voting for Orange Julius. In a recent commentary (posted at www.dannebohm.com) I noted that while I will be casting my vote for Kamala Harris, I’m not convinced she will triumph. Though I don’t support Mr. Trump (and never have), I know way too much from years of research about the roster of names coming forward at the last minute to voice their concerns and opposition. They’re desperate accomplices.
Hold them accountable, don’t herald them as heroes.
J. BASIL DANNEBOHM, Fredericksburg, Va. (former Republican Kansas State Representative, registered Independent since August 2015.)
We’ve seen Trump project his own bad qualities onto others, hundreds of times. nnHe says “the election was rigged” because he tried rigging it, by asking Georgia’s election official to “find me 11,780 votes.”
He calls rivals “liar,” while telling over 30,000 lies himself.
He calls President Biden “corrupt,” while accepting bribe money from people renting his hotel rooms and never occupying them.
He calls fallen soldiers “losers,” yet he’s the loser who can’t admit he lost the election.
He calls political opponents “crazy,” while extolling virtues of fictional characters (Hannibal Lector) and a famed golfer’s genitals.
He calls Kamala “a danger to America,” while giving scarce COVID testing equipment to Putin, threatening to exit NATO, and planning to fire military officers who don’t promise loyalty to him over our Constitution.
He calls opponents of his despotic ambition “the enemy within,” while that Nazi phrase applies exactly to him.
BRUCE JOFFE, Piedmont, Calif.
On Oct. 11 the Norwegian Nobel Committee announced that Nihon Hidankyo, the Japan Confederation of A-and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, is the 2024 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for their steadfast efforts and advocacy to achieve a world free of nuclear weapons.
The U.S. atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki caused unimaginable harm, suffering, death and severe illness to hundreds of thousands of Japanese. Such horrendous suffering must never again be inflicted on anyone, anywhere.
While securing a global agreement and set of rules to prohibit the possession and use of nuclear weapons will be a very difficult challenge — it is both politically and technically possible. We need only remember the 80’s, when the United States and the Soviet Union made significant progress on nuclear arms control.
Now, with two major wars underway involving nuclear-armed nations and the risk of nuclear conflict/war perhaps greater than it’s ever been, is precisely the time for the United States and other nuclear weapons states to get serious about nuclear risk reduction and to talk to each other, engage in diplomacy, and to choose cooperation over war and conflict
Communities and elected officials from around the country — as part of the national Back from the Brink campaign (preventnuclearwar.org) are speaking up and calling for Washington to get serious about reducing the threat of nuclear war. The time to act is NOW! And persevere like Nihon Hidankyo.
KATHLEEN WELCH, Ph.D., M.P.H., Philadelphia, Pa., volunteer, Back From the Brink,
There should be a requirement by TPP that before any contributor may have their articles published, they should be mandated to read the other columns that will appear in that edition. Such a rule would have saved Dave Zirin from appearing as a fool in the Oct. 15 edition of TPP.
Zirin was all upset that Tyreek Hill, a football player for the Miami Dolphins, was arrested after driving in a reckless manner and placed on the ground after belligerent behavior. In the same newspaper, Mary Sanchez told the truth about Hill’s character, which included his choking his girlfriend while in college.
Craig Carton, who has a TV sports talk show on FSI, has said that Tyreek Hill has fathered 12 children by eight different women!
Almost all of the other sports broadcasters have followed the Zirin playbook and rushed to defend and excuse Hill’s disgraceful, unlawful behavior. They are afraid of the sports mob. I am sick and tired of the press treating the sports stars as royalty!
They acted the same way toward Tiger Woods when he was having love affairs with waitresses in the parking lots of Denny’s restaurants and when he was driving dangerously, and while on drugs on several occasions.
Maybe the Republicans should run Woods for president and Hill for V.P. in 2028. They have the same character as Donald Trump.
STEPHEN LANDUYT, Quincy, Ill.
Editor replies: I don’t think we could put out a twice-monthly paper if we required each columnist to preview other columns in each edition. We believe a broad array of columnists and differences of opinion over time lets readers decide on the truth.
From The Progressive Populist, December 1, 2024
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