American Politics

[QUOTE=Beijing4987;2750092]Did Anybody here bitching about gasoline formulations and "pesky regulations" live in So Cal in the 60's-70's?[/QUOTE]If so. Cal had as much smog as, say, Mexico City, the Moron Brigade would claim that Dems weren't doing enough to keep the smog down. Maybe they'd say something stupid like "raking the forest will stop forest fires".

But the Moron Brigade [B]will[/B] blame Democrats and they [B]will not[/B] offer any constructive solutions. It is in their DNA (unless they think that their DNA was altered somehow, maybe by Chinese thermostats or Italian satellites).

[QUOTE=Tiny12;2750055]Why are gasoline prices high in California? Well, if a person were interested in details, he might want to look into the taxes and fees charged by California, which add up to about $1. 00 a gallon. Or the fact that California has to import 55% of its oil, incurring transportation costs, from places like Asia, South America and Alaska, even though the state has large oil resources. Maybe the state's refusal to issue permits for fracking has something to do with that. Twenty six refineries have closed in California. Perhaps the biggest reason for higher prices is the excessive regulation in the formulations required for gasoline. But people here aren't interested in all those pesky details.

So, when you get right down to it, it's because the California Democratic politicians cater to the greenies who want to have a smug feeling of self satisfaction and superiority from doing good things for the environment, even though they're not in any meaningful way. And they cater to the people who are sitting home on their asses and sucking off the government tit, so they don't have to commute. The workingman, who's busting his ass and paying $4,000 a year for gasoline to go to and from work, he's the minority. And he tends to vote for Republicans anyway. So f* him.[/QUOTE]OPEC is cutting production again tomorrow and gas prices will rise again. Not much in Republican states but California will see $8 a gallon gas. I love it. I think it is great. Those dumb ass democrats can keep praising Biden and Newsome. I really feel bad that I am in the oil business and reaping the benefits of the dumbest president in USA history.

[QUOTE=PVMonger;2750116]If somebody [B]actually[/B] was interested in "pesky details", they could do some research instead of simply pointing fingers.

[URL]https://news.yahoo.com/explainer-why-fuel-prices-rising-170130453.html[/URL]

"(Reuters) - After a tumultuous year, USA Gasoline prices have been steadily falling from peaks reached in June due to high demand and tight global refining supply. But in some regions, the average price is beginning to rise again, prompting concern from the Biden administration.

Although 60% of USA States saw gasoline prices fall week on week, the national average gas price increased by about 7 cents per gallon in the same period, according to data from the American Automotive Association.

Last week top White House officials met with oil executives to discuss Hurricane Ian and low gasoline inventories as President Joe Biden warned the industry not to price-gouge consumers.

Why are gasoline prices rising in some regions?

[B]Gasoline prices have recently been affected by regional refinery outages in the west coast and the Midwest.[/B]

Refinery maintenance often takes place in the fall when demand drops after the summer driving season. This fall, however, other refineries had to shut units without warning due to infrastructure problems.

Three refineries in Washington state and California have had planned maintenance while another had an unplanned outage in September, according to Refinitiv data and refining sources.

Overall, USA Oil refiners are expected to have about 1.5 million barrels per day (bpd) of capacity offline for the week ending Oct. 7, decreasing available refining capacity by 288,000 bpd, research company IIR Energy said on Monday.

In the Midwest, BP-Cenovus' Toledo refinery is still offline after a fatal explosion shut the plant late last month. On the East Coast, Irving Oil's Canadian refinery had maintenance this fall, according to refining sources.

Gulf Coast refineries are also undergoing maintenance this fall, including Marathon's Galveston Bay, Motiva's Port Arthur refinery, and Pemex Deer Park.

Where are gasoline prices rising and where are they falling?

Gasoline price spikes are most pronounced on the West Coast.

Average retail gasoline prices rose the most in California, rising 10% week on week to $6. 382 per gallon, and Alaska, rising by 11% to $5.34, according to AAA.

Prices have also increased by 11 cents in Ohio and 18 cents in Illinois due in part to the Ohio refinery fire.

Fuel prices fell the most in Florida, where demand was impacted by Hurricane Ian. The average price is now $3. 22, down 16 cents from a week ago. Gasoline prices also fell week on week in other states including Missouri, Nebraska, New York, and South Dakota.

What other factors are affecting fuel prices?

Tight refining supply has caused the gap between wholesale gasoline futures and retail prices to remain wide this year. It currently sits at about $1.30 a gallon, compared with an average of 88 cents over the past five years."[/QUOTE]Nice try buckaroo, and definitely a better effort than "Houston has a Democratic mayor and gasoline prices there are lower than California. " But the price has been higher in California for a long time. Here's a comparison between two series for "the DOE Retail Automotive Gasoline All Grades Average Price" for California and Texas. I downloaded the data from Bloomberg to Excel, but if you're energetic you can probably do the same thing by going to the DOE web site.

How much more gasoline cost in California than Texas:

2015:43%.

2016:38%.

2017:34%.

2018:41%.

2019:56%.

2020:65%.

2021:50%.

2022 YTD: 48%.

By the way, the premium from 2006 to 2014 was in the range of 12% to 20%. I'm not sure what happened in 2015 to cause it to shoot up.

[QUOTE=EihTooms;2750081]First of all, expand any Labor Force Participation Rate chart you've got to Max and you will see the gigantic plunge in the rate occurred throughout Reagan wannabe Repub GW Bush's presidency. That downward plunging trajectory only came to a halt and began to painstakingly reverse course under Obama-Biden starting in September 2015.

So any vague suggestion that it was "down" under Obama or due to anything Obama had done is total BS. He is the one under whose presidency the dramatic downward plunge trajectory came to a halt and reversed course!

Second, the only notable increase in the rate from where it had increased under Obama began around June 2019. Then, of course, that 8 month uptick came to an abrupt halt in February 2020 when Trump's disastrous economic and stewardship decisions from 2018 and all through 2020 came crashing down with a vengeance.

[B]Labor Force Participation Rate Chart[/B]

[URL]https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CIVPART[/URL]

I have posted screen shots of the above interactive Labor Force Participation Rate chart at the various points I just referenced; at Max showing the dramatic plunge throughout Reagan wannabe Repub GW Bush's presidency, at 10 years showing when it halted its downward plunge trajectory and reversed course under Obama and the June 2019 to February 2020 uptick before Trump's Pandemic crashed it. Although the screenshots are not necessarily in that order.

So what happened in 2019 to cause that 8 month notable uptick in the Labor Force Participation Rate under Trump before his crash? Could it have had anything whatsoever to do with his Tax Cuts and Jobs Act? In all likelihood, not very much. Why would tax cuts for corporations that they used to buy back their own company stocks inspire anyone to re-enter the Labor Force? Why would any tax cuts for anyone inspire unemployed holdouts to re-entering the Labor Force?

Reagan wannabe Repub GW Bush famously cut taxes a whole bunch, at least twice, and as you can see on that chart, Americans fled the Labor Force in droves!

I submit there was a far more logical reason for a notable uptick in American workers re-entering the Labor Force in 2019 and that trend would probably have continued doing so had Trump's Pandemic not derailed the entire USA economy as well as others around the world.

And it was a trend I already previously cited here as the real reason wages increased for women, blacks, hispanics and other minorities that Trump tried to take undeserved credit for but in fact it was something he, Moscow Mitch and most Repubs did and still do adamantly oppose:

[B]Blue states $15 minimum wage push gets a jump-start.
February 19, 2019[/B]

[URL]https://www.politico.com/story/2019/02/16/new-jersey-minimum-wage-1173156[/URL][/QUOTE]That's quite a piece of creative trend analysis and partisan distortion. You could be Biden's press secretary. Don't take that the wrong way, it's a compliment. My favorite part is, "So any vague suggestion that (labor force participation rate) was 'down' under Obama...is total BS. " Classic double think. My six year old could look at your graphs and tell you the labor force participation rate was down under Obama. Another zinger was "Trump's Pandemic...derailed the entire USA economy as well as others around the world. " Hell, I don't much like Trump either, but blaming the pandemic and the 2020 recession in the USA and foreign countries on him is another departure from reality.

All other things being equal, an increase in the minimum wage will cause [B]lower[/B] employment. And the the phased increases in minimum wage in the few states that you mentioned didn't do diddly squat in 2019. That said, I agree that many cities and states should increase their minimum wages. The poorest Americans have been left behind, and higher but reasonable minimum wages would help, even though it would reduce employment a bit.

[QUOTE=Canada;2750146]OPEC is cutting production again tomorrow and gas prices will rise again. Not much in Republican states but California will see $8 a gallon gas. I love it. I think it is great. Those dumb ass democrats can keep praising Biden and Newsome. I really feel bad that I am in the oil business and reaping the benefits of the dumbest president in USA history.[/QUOTE]Californians should be free to do what Californians want to do. I just don't like it when their progressive politicians go to Washington and then try to impose their high tax, big government, anti-energy agenda on my community and state.

[QUOTE=Tiny12;2750179]That's quite a piece of creative trend analysis and partisan distortion. You could be Biden's press secretary. Don't take that the wrong way, it's a compliment. My favorite part is, "So any vague suggestion that (labor force participation rate) was 'down' under Obama...is total BS. " Classic double think. My six year old could look at your graphs and tell you the labor force participation rate was down under Obama. Another zinger was "Trump's Pandemic...derailed the entire USA economy as well as others around the world. " Hell, I don't much like Trump either, but blaming the pandemic and the 2020 recession in the USA and foreign countries on him is another departure from reality.

All other things being equal, an increase in the minimum wage will cause [B]lower[/B] employment. And the the phased increases in minimum wage in the few states that you mentioned didn't do diddly squat in 2019. That said, I agree that many cities and states should increase their minimum wages. The poorest Americans have been left behind, and higher but reasonable minimum wages would help, even though it would reduce employment a bit.[/QUOTE]And if you didn't reprimand and punish your six year old for a blatant bit of lying by omission like yours in that post you might be guilty of negligent parent.

I said any suggestion that it was "down" under Obama or because of something Obama did is BS. You omitted that last part trying to pull a little porkie pie, didn't you?

The downward plunge trajectory all through Reagan wannabe Repub GW Bush's presidency unavoidably bled into Obama's presidency in the wake of GW Bush's Great Repub Recession and Massive Jobs Destruction. It was "down" under Obama for that reason and that reason alone until Obama's economy halted the plunge and reversed the trajectory. Which is what Trump inherited.

Look at that Max chart and anyone can see that dramatic and steady downward trajectory for Labor Force Participation all through Reagan wannabe GW Bush's economy had no more to do with anything Obama did to put it there before his economy dramatically reversed course on it than the dramatic and steady downward trajectory for the unemployment rate through Obama's presidency that bled into Trump's presidency had anything to do with it continuing to decline from 3. 9% to 3. 5% after his typical Repub waste of Trillions TCJA took effect.

Seriously, show your six year old that chart and this one below and find out what he can teach you about easily observable reality:

[URL]https://data.bls.gov/timeseries/LNS14000000[/URL]

Oh, be sure to set the above chart coverage range back to at least 2008. Your six year old can help you with that.

[QUOTE=Beijing4987;2750092]Did Anybody here bitching about gasoline formulations and "pesky regulations" live in So Cal in the 60's-70's?[/QUOTE]I loved the much cleaner air in the 2000's than we had in the 60's-70's. And California managed to responsibly deal with it, fix their LOS Angeles Basin "weather" problem in that regard and pay for it without draining America's coffers with constant emergency Federal Assistance. Imagine that.

I thank god every day that California knows how to apply sensible and responsible regulations and tax policy in order to make living and working there more attractive and profitable than most anywhere else in the country if not on Earth.

My beautifully increasing rental property values and rent rolls are evidence of that every year. Beats the hell out of scrambling around every hour of the day checking on yield curves and trends to guess what to buy and sell with some insignificant percentage of ones stock market holdings just to stay afloat and hopefully break even someday from when prior guesses and bets went south as others do.

Obama had at least two shots at defund, dismantle, mock, deride and lie about the international health and disease monitoring agencies and the intel they provide to prevent and, failing that, intelligently respond to emerging potential economy-crippling Pandemics.

But he didn't:

[B]The 2009 influenza pandemic and the Ebola crisis: what are the lessons learnt?
April 27, 2015[/B]

[URL]https://www.futuremedicine.com/doi/10.2217/fvl.15.9[/URL]

Instead, this is what he did a decade before Trump was forced to apply Obama's fast-track vaccination program when his lies could no longer prevent his stock market from crashing into a Mega Bear despite his defunding, dismantling, mockery, denigration, lies, etc on the World Stage trying so hard to prevent it:

[B]Obama's science advisors outline plan for faster pandemic vaccine.
August 19, 2010[/B]

[URL]https://www.cidrap.umn.edu/news-perspective/2010/08/obamas-science-advisors-outline-plan-faster-pandemic-vaccine[/URL]

[QUOTE=MarquisdeSade1;2749517][URL]https://www.breitbart.com/entertainment/2022/10/02/bill-maher-suggests-dumping-kamala-harris-from-2024-democrat-ticket-shes-not-very-popular-anywhere/[/URL]

[URL]https://stormer-daily.rw/satanic-hindu-of-color-kamala-says-only-blacks-will-get-hurricane-relief/[/URL]

[URL]https://www.breitbart.com/asia/2022/09/29/confused-kamala-harris-praises-the-republic-of-north-korea-on-visit-to-dmz/[/URL]

[URL]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i5OkECyvCY8[/URL][/QUOTE]Bill Maher is funny. But his political instincts suck and his ill-informed Bothsiderism is idiotic.

Here is the latest highly regarded poll I've seen for Kamala Harris in a hypothetical head-to-head contest with the two top likely GOP candidates. This was just two months ago. She beat both of them, as did Biden:

[B]Biden and Harris Would Both Beat Either Trump or DeSantis in 2024: Poll.
7/21/22[/B]

[URL]https://www.newsweek.com/2024-odds-biden-harris-trump-desantis-1726687[/URL]

So which of the other Repub Party Superstars do you, Maher and the geniuses at breitbart think will be the greatest threat to another landslide victorious Biden-Harris ticket on your lord and savior's Repub Party ticket in 2024?

Pence?

Cruz?

Gohmert?

Greene?

[QUOTE=ChuchoLoco;2750009] ... [b]Electric cars are the latest joke.[/b] Remember when diesel cars were the future and EPA said they were less polluting? ... [/QUOTE]While I don't think EVs are a panacea to all our immediate transportation / environment problems, they will play a large role in the US becoming more energy independent. Not too mention, battery tech is advancing at an enormous pace, that should give EVs the advantage over ICE, in most vehicle type applications. Not all, but most.

Also, EVs and our foray into larger cleaner forms of energy, is definitely much to the chagrin of the oil and gas companies (domestic and foreign) and will most assuredly, help to loosen their soci-eco grip on us, addressing your question "Who Controls the Price? Will at least going forward.

Granted we'll have to deal with the "controllers of the electricity prices", but at least that's more of domestic ONLY problem.

So my question is, why do you say, [b]"Electric cars are the latest joke? [/b]

P.S.: Florida, could have used a few F150 Lightning EVs to help supplement power. Yes?

[B]Electric F-150 Lightnings save the day with power in Kentucky flood...[/B]

[URL]https://electrek.co/2022/08/06/electric-f-150-lightnings-save-the-day-kentucky-flood-response/[/URL]

[QUOTE=Tiny12;2750176]Nice try buckaroo, and definitely a better effort than "Houston has a Democratic mayor and gasoline prices there are lower than California. " But the price has been higher in California for a long time. Here's a comparison between two series for "the DOE Retail Automotive Gasoline All Grades Average Price" for California and Texas. I downloaded the data from Bloomberg to Excel, but if you're energetic you can probably do the same thing by going to the DOE web site.

How much more gasoline cost in California than Texas:.[/QUOTE]Gee, why not count the number of refineries in California and the number of refineries in Texas? I'll bet dollars to donuts that Texas has more than double the number of refineries than California. And I would also bet that the disparity has existed for a long time. Sure, let's not mention that, right?

Let's also not mention that California has unique fuel blends that help control smog. After all, that wouldn't have anything to do with price either, would it? Sheesh, the lengths you guys go to dig yourselves into a hole is astounding.

And, since you can't read, Canada said in his post "Why is gas 80 to 100 percent higher in dem run cities? I pointed out that Houston and Tucson (both cities that [B]he used[/B] in his rant to [B]prove[/B] that gas was cheaper in Republican cities) both had Democratic mayors. I can't help it if his analysis was faulty [B]and[/B] I can't help it if you can't read.

[QUOTE=Spidy;2750269]While I don't think EVs are a panacea to all our immediate transportation / environment problems, they will play a large role in the US becoming more energy independent. Not too mention, battery tech is advancing at an enormous pace, that should give EVs the advantage over ICE, in most vehicle type applications. Not all, but most.

Also, EVs and our foray into larger cleaner forms of energy, is definitely much to the chagrin of the oil and gas companies (domestic and foreign) and will most assuredly, help to loosen their soci-eco grip on us, addressing your question "Who Controls the Price? Will at least going forward.

Granted we'll have to deal with the "controllers of the electricity prices", but at least that's more of domestic ONLY problem.[/QUOTE]The electricity that will be needed to charge the batteries will come from power plants, many of which are coal fired and a major contributor to air pollution as well as what the mining does to the earth. Maybe nuclear plants most of which have exceeded their 20 year design life and what are they doing with the spent fuel that lasts longer than civilized man and also risks of Chernobyl or Tree Mile Island. Now the batteries are most likely lithium and mining lithium is destructive and the batteries don't last forever and are a destructive pollutant. Where will we get all the additional electricity to fuel all these cars when we are at near capacity and many times there are brownouts. Texas a couple years ago. I'm sure with all the technology a very high mileage and les polluting gas engine can be designed and built. How about reducing the size of vehicles too? Do we really need all these huge pickups and SUV's? I'm always seeing women driving a huge SUV at the grocery store and no passengers. I'm just not as optimistic or a believer in EV's. I don't know the answer to this but how much does it cost to totally charge an EV? Also how long does it take to charge and if you only get 200 miles between charges it seems to me a trip over 200 miles is out of the question among other transits. Ethanol is another false savior. It takes more than a gallon of gas to make a gallon of pure ethanol and mileage is much less than pure gas. So it really pollutes more and uses more fuel. EV's to me are the Latest joke but I'm not laughing.

[QUOTE=Spidy;2750269]While I don't think EVs are a panacea to all our immediate transportation / environment problems, they will play a large role in the US becoming more energy independent. Not too mention, battery tech is advancing at an enormous pace, that should give EVs the advantage over ICE, in most vehicle type applications. Not all, but most.

Also, EVs and our foray into larger cleaner forms of energy, is definitely much to the chagrin of the oil and gas companies (domestic and foreign) and will most assuredly, help to loosen their soci-eco grip on us, addressing your question "Who Controls the Price? Will at least going forward.

Granted we'll have to deal with the "controllers of the electricity prices", but at least that's more of domestic ONLY problem.

So my question is, why do you say, [b]"Electric cars are the latest joke? [/b]

P.S.: Florida, could have used a few F150 Lightning EVs to help supplement power. Yes?

[B]Electric F-150 Lightnings save the day with power in Kentucky flood...[/B]

[URL]https://electrek.co/2022/08/06/electric-f-150-lightnings-save-the-day-kentucky-flood-response/[/URL][/QUOTE]Most of the knocks on EV's, at least from the articles I've read, has been "The electric grid can't handle the load" and, to prove the point, the article uses logic like "what if everybody with an EV decided to charge them at the same time". What the article [B]never[/B] mentions is "what if everybody with a gasoline powered car decided to fill up at the same time"? See, if that happened, gas stations would run out of gas. A typical gas station has 30 K gallons of gasoline in their underground tanks after a delivery. So that's about 1,500 cars and the station is dry.

The other knock is the range of the vehicle and that is where your battery technology comes into play.

[QUOTE=Canada;2750146]OPEC is cutting production again tomorrow and gas prices will rise again. Not much in Republican states but California will see $8 a gallon gas. I love it. I think it is great. Those dumb ass democrats can keep praising Biden and Newsome. I really feel bad that I am in the oil business and reaping the benefits of the dumbest president in USA history.[/QUOTE]Not great if you live on California but I have been advising all my clients to be buying oil and gas stocks the last few months and it is working for them. Oil stocks are the only stocks going up today. Biden is begging OPEC countries today to not make the cuts in oil production but they just laugh at him. OPEC knows Biden is a fool for devastating his energy program in USA and begging other countries to produce more. But the dumbest people in the USA will continue to support Biden stupidity and incompetence and just blame Trump or Putin.

[QUOTE=Spidy;2750269]While I don't think EVs are a panacea to all our immediate transportation / environment problems, they will play a large role in the US becoming more energy independent. Not too mention, battery tech is advancing at an enormous pace, that should give EVs the advantage over ICE, in most vehicle type applications. Not all, but most.

Also, EVs and our foray into larger cleaner forms of energy, is definitely much to the chagrin of the oil and gas companies (domestic and foreign) and will most assuredly, help to loosen their soci-eco grip on us, addressing your question "Who Controls the Price? Will at least going forward.

Granted we'll have to deal with the "controllers of the electricity prices", but at least that's more of domestic ONLY problem.

So my question is, why do you say, [b]"Electric cars are the latest joke? [/b]

P.S.: Florida, could have used a few F150 Lightning EVs to help supplement power. Yes?

[B]Electric F-150 Lightnings save the day with power in Kentucky flood...[/B]

[URL]https://electrek.co/2022/08/06/electric-f-150-lightnings-save-the-day-kentucky-flood-response/[/URL][/QUOTE]That is a joke in itself. 2 trucks can save the day when there is no power in the area? What happens after 4 hours and the 2 trucks go dead? Propaganda at its best.