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Cliff’s Note: An airline went bankrupt due to the price of jet fuel, and gas where I am is already over five bucks, but the orange diaper man wants to insist it’s Biden’s fault. It would be laughable, except why isn’t corporate media talking about this? Oh, yeah, because their scared of Orange Shitler, despite his subterranean numbers. If you want to help support David Shuster telling the unvarnished truth, please subscribe to BAM today! [ [link removed] ]
by David Shuster
There are few spectacles more nauseating these days than watching the Trump administration get caught flat footed by reality and proceeding, with great vigor and even greater absurdity, to deny that reality exists. But here we go again.
Because of the ongoing Iran war, blockages continue in the Strait of Hormuz, one of the world’s most critical shipping lanes. In turn, oil and gas prices keep surging.
The inflation is spreading its contagion throughout the global economy, including in the United States. Higher fuel costs mean higher transportation costs, which means higher prices for everyday goods, including food. This is not mysterious. It is plain arithmetic.
But key figures in the Trump administration are desperately spinning and deflecting. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy recently blamed the latest Iran war economic casualty – Spirit Airlines -- on the Biden administration.
Duffy acknowledged to Fox News that jet fuel prices have gone up. But Duffy declared “Spirit isn’t going out of business because of the Iran War. This story was written years ago because democrats blocked Spirit from merging with another airline.”
Ugh no. Spirit Airline executives say they stopped operations because of “sustained and soaring jet fuel costs.” To put it simply, Spirit cannot afford the jet fuel costs caused by the Iran war.
As for the airline that Spirit considered merging with a few years ago, Jet Blue? Analysts believe Jet Blue will also go bankrupt if jet fuel prices don’t drop this summer.
Trump agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins is also trying to blame the Biden administration for economic problems under her purview. Rollins told reporters that soaring beef prices are because the Biden administration “did everything they could to basically eviscerate the cattle industry, through grazing allotment, or climate change restrictions.”
Rollins also pointed to wildfires in Nebraska and the screw-worm parasite which has forced the closure of some imports. In other words, the Secretary of Agriculture claims beef prices are rising not because of rising fuel costs, but rather due to factors beyond the Trump administration’s control, including the Biden administration. Beef industry analysts call Rollins claims “ridiculous.”
But it gets even worse. During her news conference, Rollins called climate change a “hoax.” Then, White House economic advisor Peter Navarro stepped up to the same microphones and blamed higher inflation on higher beef prices caused by a decade long drought.
Navarro said there is nothing the Trump administration can do about drought, presumably because the Trump administration doesn’t believe in climate change or any environmental downside of drill baby drill. The economic foolishness is clear. Renewable energy sources, including solar and wind, are now less expensive in many parts of the United States than energy powered by oil and gas.
So, thanks to the Trump, U.S. energy prices are costlier and inflicting a greater economic and environmental toll than if the Biden energy policies had been left alone.
To be fair, there are some republicans who are willing to acknowledge the connection between Trump actions and soaring prices for energy and food. John Rose is running for Governor of Tennessee.
He told Newsmax, “Yes gas prices are higher. But that’s because the President decided we had to stop Iran from getting a nuclear weapon. So we are going to have to endure a little pain here. But you have to remember, we don’t have gas lines in this country.”
A little pain and no gas lines. Did you hear that? You may be paying five bucks a gallon for gasoline. But at least there is plenty of supply and no gas shortages, rationing, or long lines.
For the record, we have not had supply shortages and gas lines in the United States since 1979. That was 47 years ago.
What’s missing from the GOP and Trump team responses is accountability to the present moment.
Leadership during economic strain requires acknowledging reality, even when it’s inconvenient. It means explaining how international disruptions affect domestic prices, outlining steps to stabilize supply chains, and offering relief where possible.
The Trump administration habit of perpetual blame has consequences beyond mere irritation. It corrodes trust. If every present difficulty is forever the fault of the previous administration, then the logical conclusion is that no one now in office bears any responsibility at all. And if no one is responsible, then it follows that no one is in charge.
Thankfully, the American public has not been so easily duped.
Consumers feel the pinch at the pump, at the grocery store, and in the quiet recalculations of household budgets. Those of us who cannot recite the finer points of global energy markets, still know that something real is happening and getting worse.
A government worthy of our United States would address that reality with candor.
Instead, Trump and his administration officials and sycophants keep delivering a political show. It is loud, repetitive, and utterly unconvincing. Viewers watching these performances or clips from mostly conservative media, are not enlightened or reassured. And even conservative hosts guiding the interviews seem increasingly exhausted and faintly insulted.
This is the state of affairs under Trump. Rhetoric keeps displacing reason, the economic crisis continues, gas and food prices climb ever higher, and the explanations and excuses are growing more fantastical and absurd.
This is the kind of column corporate news won't run because the corporate parents share the predator class's interest in keeping you confused about why your grocery bill went up. Blue Amp Media is independent, uncaptured, and only here because you fund it.
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— Cliff
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