 I recall it had something to do with the war in Iraq. Bush and his cabal,
handmaidens of Big Oil, jacked up gas prices so high Americans would gladly
grant them permission for a war to liberate a massive new supply.
“Blood for oil.” It was starting to come back to me. Then I went back to check
and found that I was misremembering, as Bush had done on many occasions.
As early as two years into the war, Workers World, the website for workers and
oppressed people of the world with an interest in uniting, noted that prices at
the pump were continuing to climb.
“The invasion was not about “blood for oil” but something far more sinister,”
according to Greg Palast, who credits himself for uncovering many of the great
Bush administration conspiracies. “Blood for no oil. War to keep supply tight
and send prices skyward.”
President Obama certainly did his part. Obama managed to end the excuse for
high-priced oil by withdrawing from Iraq while gasoline prices pushed $4 a
gallon for longer than they did under his predecessor.
How, then, I wondered, could these manipulators of presidents, these shadow
topplers of nations, have allowed the worldwide price of a barrel of oil to slip
below $50?
The short answer — and it’s a pretty pallid one, I admit — is the shale oil
revolution. You would have thought Bush, whose family made its fortune in oil,
or at least one of his fellow creatures of the oil monopolies would have seen
this coming.
These monopolies went ahead heedlessly spending billions and billions of their
own dollars to create and deploy technology that has once again made the United
States the largest oil producing country in the world.
It’s hard to keep fixed on what nefarious motive these oiligarchs have for doing
this while you’re doing the math at home. At the current price of gas, I am
saving $711 a year over what I was paying less than six months ago.
Information company IHS estimates there are 252 million cars and light trucks on
the road in the United States. If the owners of just half of them fill up as
often as I do, I calculate about $90 billion more discretionary income for
Americans in this coming year.
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 That is 90 bil right out of the vest pockets of those
mustache-twirling Oil Can Harrys.
This might make those 100 million people and surely those
oppressed folks over at Workers World happy. But I’m afraid it’s
done nothing but make the people covering the oil business
miserable.
Having come from a long career in newspapers I can tell you why.
Good news doesn’t sell. Had Scottish philosopher Thomas Carlyle not
been so obsessed with economists he would have dubbed the news
business the dismal science.
The media doesn’t feel any need to explain why it’s different this
time, or why Obama is or isn’t to blame, or take the time to explain
the intricacies of international oil. Just as long as they can
deliver the chaos.
The same people clever enough to play the world economy like a
marionette just a few short years ago have now unwittingly given us
panic and, maybe, doom, the press is now telling us. And
shortchanging themselves in the bargain.
How dare we feel good about our paltry savings when international
markets we couldn’t possibly understand are plummeting down Niagara
Falls in an oil barrel?
Only one thing can save us from our greed, the first gas tax
increase in 22 years. Once again our elected federal and state
officials are stepping in to offer a better, more moral and
patriotic way for us to spend our money.
And once again, there to support our politicians are the editorial
boards of America’s major newspapers.
I’d suggest a conspiracy but, if my memory and the media serve, that
went out with the Bush administration.
[This
article courtesy of
Watchdog.]
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