"EIGHT WEEKS TO EMPTY SHELVES. SIXTY DAYS TO FAMINE." EVERYBODY INSULT THE OP!

[slightlv]

25. And this is the reason I pooh-pooh all the hullabaloo

about U.S. oil shortages. Yes, I DO believe we have them and they'll be more frequent - and be a large aspect to the corps gouging us even more than today. But I swear it's manufactured shortages. As long as these companies can sell and export their oil to other countries, rather than first taking care of the needs of the country, then there is no shortage... there is only greed. This time, I feel like a switch has flipped that hasn't been flipped before. I was around in the 70's and 80's. I remember rationing, the long lines, and the "out of gas" signs. But as panicked a time as that was, it didn't feel like today. Maybe it's the fact that trump has devastated everything all at once. Maybe its because the corporations and multi-millionaires just said, "what the heck" and went for broke on raising prices beyond all reason. But a sizeable number of people are really getting angry about all of it - some of whom would have been the ones to just say "coast along, it'll right itself at some point." These same people are getting squeezed just like the rest of us. Like everything greedy and avaricious, trump ate himself straight into the depths of hell with more people than he could have ever thought possible. Even now he can't believe it; won't admit it; refuses to see what's right in front of his eyes. That stupid "secure" ballroom and bunker is evidence to me that deep down he knows he's up the river without a paddle, and more and more people are going to be coming for him with all the guns the R's let them buy and amass for all these years.

If we can have a fair election, the R's have buried themselves for decades, just as in their prior "40 years" in the wilderness. When they screw themselves, they really screw themselves. And this generation, they have *really* screwed themselves. The only thing that will allow them breathing room is to stay on top of the political apparatus and cheat, cheat, cheat. THAT does worry me. Being voted out of office by a majority of voters? I have no doubt it'd happen IF the people still have the right to vote and IF that vote is counted properly.

The wheelers and dealers made sure this was a country dependent on oil and fossil fuels. Our whole mythology is based on that "rugged individualism" of the person getting into his gas-guzzler and going wherever the hell he wants to go. White, xtianist, male identity has been totally swathed in this for decades and decades. So these bros are realizing their "rugged individualism" isn't as tolerated in the world as it once was; they can't get laid; they can't even attract the women they'd not have given a nod towards in days passed. And NOW they can't get gas/oil for their huge tanks of a truck? Talk about blowing a gasket!