The witch is dead! Problems solved!
Bin Laden has been killed! At last our wars have meaning! We can start to become safe again because, yes, we really can kill everyone who's a threat to us. And even though we say we cannot, we are going to relax now. Hope springs anew and the world is turning to love.
Hard not to drink the Kool-aid, isn't it? We're so tired of hearing how we're being pissed on we're finally starting to believe it really is raining. But that, my friends, is what the Bible refers to as tearing apart the seals of life. Poison is not food, lies are not the future, death has no hope. And it is always good to face those facts.
But let us turn our eyes back to America's biggest and most lethal enemy: greedy Americans. In my previous post I spoke of the eviscerating rape currently conducted by Oil speculators, aided by the government entrusted to protect us. We can blame the speculators, we can blame the government, but it is we who allow these sort of people to live free among us, damaging lives without restraint or penalty.
My man Ed Wallace has come to the same conclusion:
After three months of reading oil reports I concluded that, in terms of legitimate discovery pricing for crude, today's oil market does not line up with reality. While I said so in the Star-Telegram last weekend, a similar column of mine came out at BusinessWeek on the 19th of the month and immediately became their most read story that day. They say that timing is everything: Two days later President Obama said he would put together a task force to investigate, seek out and report any "fraud or manipulation" in the oil markets.
This task force, apparently, would answer to Eric Holder, our Attorney General. And immediately the Associated Press quoted Holder as saying, "It is also clear that there are lawful reasons for increases in gas prices, given supply and demand." That column continued, "Given that no evidence has yet surfaced of actual fraud or price manipulation in [the] oil market, Obama's remarks appeared, at least in part, as more of an attempt to assuage public anger over rising gas prices."
Then last Saturday, Reuters offered a follow-up article which stated, "Barack Obama told Americans on Saturday that there is no magic bullet to bring down high gasoline prices ..."
Really? This all seems so strange. In 2008 this same Barack Obama, albeit then running for the White House, had plenty of so-called magic bullets to shoot at the high price of oil. Moreover, he was fully aware of what was causing the oil spike of 2008 - which happens to be the same things pushing prices up today.
See? I know how to get your attention!
Yup, the dog and pony show continues. The blind eye sleeps well, assuring itself all is well and our leaders can be trusted to do the right thing (even if we ourselves are not!). But I look at it like this: the people who enact harm on us need to be stopped at any cost. The first step in doing that is to admit to yourself who you are and what you are. That's where the truth starts.
It's bad enough that we forget Obama's campaign pledges, but he at least should remember them well. So should his opponent, Senator John McCain. In the 2008 election's last months, this same John McCain suggested that the only way to lower oil prices was more drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. Remember his catchy "Drill, Baby, Drill" slogan? But even as he first uttered that phrase, McCain too knew what was really behind rising oil prices.
It turns out that on June 22, 2008, three weeks before oil peaked at $147 a barrel, Obama said that if elected president he would crack down on speculators in the energy markets to rein in runaway fuel costs.
The same Reuters article that discussed candidate Obama's plans to put sanity back into commodities trading also quoted Jon Corzine, then Governor of New Jersey and a former CEO of Goldman Sachs. Corzine backed up Obama's position, saying, "I think everyone believes that there's too much speculation in the oil markets."
In case you don't remember, Obama's plan was simplicity plus. He wanted to close the "Enron Loophole" that exempted many energy traders, letting them place bets on oil electronically and outside the regulation of the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, on the dark and unregulated exchange. He also wanted to investigate how the higher leverage amounts speculators were using extended the price impact of their oil bids.
So why is that loophole still open? Why do we allow ourselves to be exploited? Why are the most vulnerable among us considered the least valuable?
Is the answer to those questions that things are the way they are because we are an honest, selfless nation of integrity? This wholesale robbery operation is not an anomaly, nor a temporary aberration, nor a blind spot by a well-meaning people. This is a known, highly organized criminal enterprise. Justice is not determined by what we do or don't sanction (see: greed and witch burning). Justice is determined by the fruits of our endeavors.
But let's not let McCain off on this either; he didn't win the White House, but he's still one of America's most powerful Senators. He couldn't wait to say Obama was trying to steal his political thunder about ending this commodities foolishness in 2008, so why hasn't he put forward the legislation to do that by now? He said he knew how to stop speculators from controlling prices beyond legitimate supply and demand issues. Obama said he knew the same thing. And even the former head of Goldman Sachs weighed in and agreed with them. Yet nobody's done a thing to fix it yet.
And people wonder why I don't vote.
The same day my column appeared in BusinessWeek, five days before a similar piece appeared here, Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson spoke to the Financial Times. I'll supply his quotes and leave you to decide whether oil prices are correct today:
"The market is well supplied, with inventories in the U.S. at near-record levels and stock levels in Europe and Asia within the normal range. So there's plenty of oil on the market. Libya is not causing a major headache and [Exxon] did not have any particular difficulties in finding alternative crude supplies. I see early signs of consumption growth destruction. The Saudis did make available additional crude; what they found ... [is] nobody was buying it."
That's right. Buyers are turning down oil, but the price keeps climbing.
Far be it for me to disturb anyone's slumber as we rack up more and more charges on our environmental and economic credit cards. How does one pity someone who insists on putting their finger on a hot stove but not get burned? Life is better than this. It does not have to be as hard as we're making it. I just don't get why everyone is OK with dying.
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