Life Between 0 and 1

As if after the hot mess that 2020 and 2021 ended up becoming because of the COVID pandemic, we now have to deal with yet another crisis that is pushing oil prices to a new high that we haven’t seen in 14 years. Relations between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia right now are, at best, similar to the climate inside a chest freezer and we’re all too familiar with Venezuela to know that relationship isn’t coming around any time quickly. Those two countries are the only two that can provide any serious relief to the oil supply and drive prices down as we head into warmer weather in most of the northern hemisphere. As I drove past the gas station yesterday, the gas price per gallon has jumped practically overnight from $4.20 to $4.45 per gallon and I see no reason why it wouldn’t be close or over $5 by the end of March.

I generally don’t follow too much national or global news as it typically makes my head spin. It’s hard to know what true, not so true, and just made-up echo chamber crap. Being in the U.S. adds to the complexity since we’re so damn divided on pretty much everything lately. What I do follow is local news from smaller sources and neighborhood applications like Nextdoor. The level of complaining on the apps about gas prices goes, 90% of the time, one of two ways. Either they complain about how high its getting and resolve to drive less and be more efficient to save gas or go completely bat crazy and blame Biden for not doing anything….. you know, because Trump, or any president, can really do a lot about supply vs. demand. Well, in the case of prices going up so quickly, its the stupid petroleum companies artificially raising prices BEFORE there is actually any shortage of supply or increased demand. It’s isn’t like the gas in the 10,000 gallon tank in the ground on Monday all of a sudden became $0.25/gallon more expensive on Tuesday. Duh, it’s the same exact gas.

I don’t know why Putin invaded Ukraine. Sure there are a dozen or so reasons posited online in multiple sources as to the reasons he did what he did, but they don’t help anyone because he still did it. The rest of the world is now reacting to this invasion and in the U.S we’re having to suffer with the consequences of the decisions of our elected leaders. To be fair, Biden hasn’t really done much other than offer support through UN and NATO channels as far as I’m aware and he did say there won’t be any American troops on the ground in Ukraine. I fear though that if Putin gets more “severe” with his advances that the U.S. won’t have a choice but to put troops on the ground.

We should all look at this picture of cats instead and hope that logic prevails……