A friend just stopped by a little earlier, a little exasperated du=e t the fact that, where we live, the average price of gasoline is now $4.50 a gallon. That may cause some to laugh at the predicament but energy costs are becoming a factor all over the country. It’s not just California anymore, but little old Arizona, where I live. And if it’s $4.50 here in Tucson, You can bet in outlying cities and towns it’s over $5.00 a gallon. What has caused this to occur? Aren’t we a “net exporter” of oil and natural gas?
I can’t watch the news anymore. I just don’t know what to believe. It seems that all of it is some form of propaganda, left-wing or right-wing sputtering from not just politicians and administration officials (I know, that’s redundant) but the people reporting the so-called news as well. People I used to like watching, thinking they were a refreshing break from the nonsense of the day, appear more and more to me as just paid political hacks trying to gaslight the public into believing whatever it is they’re pushing at the moment (war, economy, etc.). I mean, I’m okay with people being upfront as to their opinions. I watch a variety of videos online that will take different positions on a topic. Like the Iran war, for instance.
Does anyone remember that since February of 2022, a war is going on in Europe? It has been described as “The largest land war in Europe since World War Two”. although to most of us the United States, it barely hits our radar as to any news coverage. Imagine, if we, the United States, were in a war with another country where around 1,000 troops were killed. Weekly. If the estimates are true (they are of course self reported by each government) then that means, just on one side, there are some 4-5,000 casualties per week. On that same side, since the instigation of hostilities, some 1.4 million troops have been killed. That’s right, killed in action. The other side has similar numbers. Imagine turning on the news here in the United States and hearing those kinds of casualty reports. During Vietnam, which finally ended in 1975, we lost over 58,000 since our first kinetic contact with the North Vietnamese. Hundreds of thousands wounded. It sparked protests from coast to coast.We never lost the numbers that are being lost Europe today, and yet try and find a single report on any national or international U.S. based news channel. Nothing. While we’re worried about the price of gasoline because of a stupid conflict we started with Iran, more people are dying in one week than have during the entire time we’ve been bombing Iran.
Like many, I’ve been wondering if and when the U.S. (and Israel) will finish this war with Iran. Yes, it is (or at least was) a war and now, for several weeks, there’s been a ceasefire (of sorts) and a least an attempt to negotiate a peace in the region. Everyday, reporters question members of the administration as to the status of the negotiations and well, it’s becoming clear to anyone still paying attention that the Iranians appear to be giving us the finger (or whatever they do in Iran). So why is Trump being so patient with the situation as it stands?
I used to be very pro State of Israel, and to some extent, I still believe tha my early support was not unfounded. My support had nothing to do with holocaust surivors, but more of a people who have, for centuries, undergone egregious persecution in western countries, and that today, they have their own country, even though they have to constantly fight to keep it theirs. And free. Then came 10/07/2023, or rather, the reaction to the most awful, horrendous murder of Jews (and others) since the holocaust.
