The biggest lie about the price of oil is that it is controlled by supply and demand. The real truth is that it is controlled by the refiners and the speculators. When Biden was elected, oil was at $39 a barrel for light sweet crude, today it is pushing $84 a barrel with no real changes to supply and demand.

Meanwhile, Middle America pays a dollar gallon more for gasoline when the economy is frail, kids aren’t in school, and Covid 19 kills us at an alarming pace. We are not using more oil than we have, in fact, we are not using all the oil that is produced in America, so why are we buying any oil from anyone else? I’ll tell you why, its because the refiners are refining foreign oil that comes in on tankers instead of Texas Oil which comes in on trucks and pipelines because they are getting it at a price that undercuts ours and if it doesn’t, then the profit from the crack spread makes it up on the back end. Its not how much they pay, its how much they make in the middle when all is said and done.

Now we cringe when we go to the store, the economy is subject to wait and see instead of supply and demand. Wait means wait, and see means if you see it, buy it. And that includes damn near everything we consume on a daily basis, beef, pork, chicken, milk, vegetables, fruit, and don’t forget, dog food. I’m a dog breeder and my bag costs have gone up $12 to $14 a bag in just the last year. Now let’s add heating and electricity to the mix and the most valuable of all, water… Without water, all the rest of them are luxury items, even in America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, not starving Africa. The containerships sit idle on the docks, the truckers are waiting in line, and the retailers are looking for people who want to work but won’t show up when they are hired…

So here is a proposal. Stop buying middle eastern oil, stop refining it from tankers in New Orleans, and let Putin start a war in the Ukraine over his territorial enterprise. Let China finance the middle east for their oil, and send them a bill for the Covid crisis, not only from the USA but the rest of the world as well. This will make the impending conflicts with them strictly monetary and take the war machine out of it… This is not simplistic thinking, it is an actionable alternative based on realistic situations that have developed in the last couple of years. And if we are going to prop up any country, let it be Venezuela, they have the most oil, and need the money and food more than all the starving African nations put together. We’ll pay them a fair price for their oil and give them food and trade goods at a fair price to build their country back up again.

This is short and not so sweet, but works on the street, which is where the American public is going to be if we don’t wake up and do someting about our current situation.