If you live in California, you have, no doubt, noticed gas prices on the rise again. This happens here every year. Why? Greed. We’re never told that, of course. Each year, we’re offered an “explanation.” The explanation is reused, year after year. In part of it’s efforts to combat air pollution, California requires a special summer gasoline blend. It’s actually an EPA program but California embraced it right away. Every year, the refiners act as though the whole thing came as a surprise that caught them off guard. And why wouldn’t it? It’s only been happening since 1989. They’ve only had 35 years to plan for the switch and prepare for it.

There’s also “refinery maintenance.” Please note: local news commonly reports stories of refineries having threatening emergencies of various kinds due to “maintenance issues.” They’re clearly NOT maintaining the bits that need maintaining. I think what they’re maintaining is the highest prices at the pump they can get away with.

I just saw the story again, ‘Why gas prices in California “have gone ballistic.”‘ Go ahead. Guess why. Oh, refinery maintenance. And, at least this article mentioned the “normal penchant for speculative buying in the second quarter.” Oh, okay. THAT probably explains how gas prices can go up .23 cents in one week – while only going up .04 cents nationwide.

I’ve been listening to these same excuses for 35 years. They don’t hold up under scrutiny but with today’s corporate owned media, there won’t BE much scrutiny. Still, I wish they would at least try to come up with new excuses. Or better yet, they could just speak the truth. “Screw you! We can, so we do!”

It’s one of the very best reasons to leave gasoline powered vehicles behind and embrace electric cars…

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Campaign season. Again? Isn’t it always campaign season in the United States? Biden seems to be focusing on how well the economy is doing right now. MAGA thinks it’s all “fake.” Of course, they think the economy was buzzing along under Donny. They just don’t seem to understand numbers.

I know MAGA gives Donny a pass on destroying the economy. Mostly, that’s because he’s Donny and they give him a pass for everything – the advantage of being a cult leader. Biden took over a completely wrecked economy, also because of Covid-19, but MAGA disses Biden’s success at recovering the economy after Donny’s failures. In truth, though, anybody trying to be fair would have to acknowledge that Covid-19 did damage, so maybe MAGA overlooking the crash is at least partially warranted.

Of course, if we’re REALLY trying to be fair, one would ALSO have to acknowledge that it was Donny who dismantled the team America had in place for just such an eventuality in the first place. He had applied his mini MAGA mind and decided that the program was just more government “wasteful spending.” So he dismantled it. Then, Covid-19 hit, as if to demonstrate “dumb” in real time. Most of the world got the message. MAGA made excuses.

Of course, Donny doesn’t give two figs about the national economy. Mostly, he’s focused, these days, on his very own, personal “economy” – and how he can get more money from his rubes, er, supporters to prop it up a little while longer. He will, too. Cult members are a trip, aren’t they?

We’ve seen cult members commit murder for their glorious leader with Manson’s cult. More often, we see them commit suicide for their glorious leaders, like in Waco or the People’s Temple. With Heaven’s Gate, they killed themselves in an effort to hitch a ride on a comet. I hope they got there. Otherwise, they just look real, real stupid.

MOSTLY, these days, Cult 45 is good for money for Donny. They DID do some of that killing on J6 and they’re being primed to be ready to do more if needs be in the very near future but, for now, it’s mostly about money. From time to time, I find myself wondering how many MAGAS fall out over time.

There is a commonality around cults we don’t hear about as much. People leave. The more extreme the demands of the cult leader, the more questions are generated and people leave. This happens commonly once the leader announces God has told him he has to have sex with the underage girls of the “community.” But even then, FAR too many members just hand their daughters over.

You can find living, one-time People’s Temple members. Or Branch Davidian members. There are even living, one-time Heaven’s Gate members. They’re still living because they left the cult before the final implosions. That’s not an easy thing to do, leave a cult.

It’s no easier for Cult 45 but we all know it’s happening. People DO get the courage to leave and I’m hopeful more and more of them will follow suit in the coming months. Donny’s rants are getting crazier and crazier. His financial demands could bankrupt huge swaths of America and he’s working as hard as he can to dismantle the American system.

Even some MAGA will see (eventually) how bad that will be for them, personally, and fall away. When that happens, let’s not punish them for having been MAGA, okay? People get sucked into things they shouldn’t. It’s an emotional thing, not intellectual. If they can manage to pull themselves out, we should welcome them back to reality with open arms. I think that’s important to say because MAGA loses die-hard members every day.

So let’s not abandon all hope, shall we? As disappointed as we are that Donny isn’t going to face justice before the election, he still has to win the election and that’s not going to be automatic. In fact, I’d say the odds are getting longer every day. Ever since his successful trumpery in 2016, his shtick is wearing thin – boring, even – and his losses mount. And those losses are everywhere – elections, money, AND supporters. Given a chance, the law WILL eventually catch up to him.

It might even be fair to say he’s adding a new reason to vote against him in November. Like thinking Americans needed another reason to vote against him in November, right? His goal is to stall until the elections. If he wins the election, he misuses his powers as President to protect himself by removing those legal problems – and ends America. But if he loses the election? Well, all he did was stall until November. THEN, the trials proceed as they should. THEN he faces jail.

So I’ll tell you this: If YOU think Donny should, at a minimum, be tried for the crimes of which he stands accused, vote against him. That means voting Biden, like it or not…