Wow, Hurricane Ian sure has offered the cons an opportunity to put their money where their mouth is, yes? These are the people always trying to deny other states aid when they have some natural disaster. They feel like Federal aid is wasted money – if it’s not being funneled directly to some corporate interest. So…now good old Ron DeSantis can show us all how dedicated he is to his conservative ideology and just tell all the Floridians to pull themselves up by their bootstraps while telling President Biden, “No, thank you, Sleepy Joe! We don’t need your stinking FEMA aid!” Right?

Okay, so I don’t mean to be unkind to the good folks of Florida. In fact, I believe that Ron DeSantis WILL demonstrate his “dedication” to his conservative ideology. Of course, that will mean dumping his conservative positions just long enough to accept aid from the big, bad, evil government that never does anyone any good, right?

Once the FEMA checks have cleared he can get back to whining about anything/everything the government does. Hypocrisy, thy name is conservatism…

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Well, if you live in California you’ve certainly noticed the oil companies are at it again. As you will recall, gas prices skyrocketed a few months back. The “explanation” was the FAR too overused, “supply chain issues.” Sure, we all knew supply hadn’t been interrupted but that doesn’t stop them from telling the tale. Okay, I say “we all” but that has to exclude the cons who seem to have been convinced that all drilling has stopped since Biden was sworn in…

But people who understand things knew there was still plenty of oil to go around. The corporations just saw an opportunity and took full advantage of it. “It’s just business,” right? It is, too. Unregulated, so-called “free market” business. It did serious harm to the economy for awhile. Then the government started hinting at windfall profits taxes and the prices started creeping – ever so slowly – downward. They never reached where they had started, of course. We all got used to $5.00+ per gallon and felt better about the “relief.”

Just in time, too. People were getting angry. People were starting to talk about fixes to the system. People starting talking about change. Once the prices came back down a bit, everyone settled down. Cons ALWAYS get wrong who’s responsible for what. They think high gas prices are Joe Biden’s fault or, in this case, Gavin Newsom’s fault. That’s only true to the extent that Biden or Newsom seem never willing to stand up to the oil cartels. Anyway, the economy started recovering a bit and people’s anger sort of subsided.

Now the cartels are doing it again. The gas prices have shot up at an incredible rate – something like 17 cents in a week! More at many places. The “excuse” this time? “Planned and unplanned refinery maintenance.” It’s just a line they use. The supply chain may or may not be interrupted at any given time but ‘planned and unplanned refinery maintenance’ is always there, always ready to lend a helping hand to unbridled greed.

Sure, it fattens the pockets of the oil cartels but I’m not sure that’s the actual motivation this time. THIS time, I suspect it’s political. See, the conventional wisdom WAS that the Dems were going to get their asses handed to them in the upcoming midterms. People pretty much thought it was a done deal and there was little or nothing the Dems could do to change it. That was likely true, but there was apparently something the CONS could do to change it.

They started attacking women’s rights – aggressively. Even dumber, they KEEP coming back trying to out-do each other on just how much harm they can do to women and society in general. They’re out there bragging about all the vicious little evils they’re planning. Despite all their talk about state’s rights and small government and ‘keep your government off my body,’ they’re planning to pass Federal legislation relegating women to second class status once and for all. “No, you don’t get to make decisions about your own body or your own health. THOSE decisions are for men to make.” Nice.

I suspect it’s not going to work. I mean, the masses WILL get progressively angry at the price gouging of the oil cartels. Eventually, we’ll DEMAND that Newsom or Biden do something about the rip-off. A windfall profits tax is the best idea. (As a sidebar, every time this comes up, cons start SCREAMING about “punishing success.” I’d just like to note that “punishing” THIS success is no different than punishing an armed robber who “innovates” by using a bigger, scarier looking gun. Theft is theft and should, by all rights, be punished…)

But as it happens women aren’t as stupid as Republicans wish they were. I suspect even many conservative women will (secretly) vote against the anti-women agenda. I really do think the cons have gone too far in their attacks on women’s rights. I think THAT will be the focus in the next election and likely the one after that. I think EVERYONE now realizes that getting rid of Republicans is the only way to save the Republic – and I think that’s the mindset.

I’ll tell you this: we’ll pay extortion rates as long as Newsom and Biden just stand by but we’re NOT, I think, going to put corporation-loving cons back into positions of authority so long as they’re actively, publicly losing their collective minds…