You may not have realized it, but the current run-up in oil and gasoline prices is actually a right-wing plot to oust President Barack Obama.
Big oil companies and/or Wall Street speculators have inflated prices to foment voter unrest and help Republicans seize the White House this fall. The possibility of armed conflict between Israel and Iran has nothing to do with it, or is a contributing factor at best.
This theory has been echoing across the blog-osphere for weeks. The most detailed version appeared on the widely read Daily Kos blog, which included a lengthy post on Feb. 26 warning that "some are seeing an intentional manipulation by the most reactionary sectors of the petro-oligarchy to undermine Obama."
...
Analysts consider it a modern myth, one of many conspiracy theories that have found a nurturing home on the Internet. Like many conspiracy theories, it feeds off helplessness and anger. And it taps the cynicism that comes from hearing different public figures and experts come up with wildly different explanations for high prices....The Daily Kos post cites the dramatic plunge in prices in the fall of 2008, when Obama was fighting Republican John McCain for the presidency, as proof of the election-manipulation theory. "We reminded readers of this prediction when oil prices surged again in 2007 - and when they dropped again, right on schedule, in October 2008!" reads the post, written by a Daily Kos member under the name World War 4 Report.
But that explanation overlooks the fact that the global economy was in free-fall at the time, dragging gasoline and oil prices with it into the abyss.
It's also hard to see how anyone hoping to keep the incumbent party in the White House in 2008 would push the oil market to its all-time record high that July, when a barrel of oil sold on the New York Mercantile Exchange cost more than $145.
...
Prices are higher because of a constricted supply caused by Southern Sudan oil being taken off the market and the fear of Iran blocking the Strait of Hormuz. This has been exacerbated by Obama's ridiculous decision to block the Keystone XL pipeline which would have replaced the oil lost because of Sudan. His other policies and that of previous Democrats have strangled domestic production of oil on federally controlled lands. If he would send a signal to the marketplace by opening more areas for development and approving the pipeline the price would start to drop. That is apparently too complicated for the Kos Kids.
Comments
Post a Comment