Reminder: 290 and 67. The 290 represents how many U.S. House of Representatives members it takes to override a presidential veto (all Representatives are up for reelection this year). It takes 67 U.S. Senators to override a presidential veto (35 Senators are up for reelection this year with 22 of those being Republicans—the ones we have to concentrate on the most). These numbers are very important this year at the ballot box because it will take this number of votes to help right this vast ship of a country for all of us, not just the billionaire class.
I’m sure like where you live, gas prices where I live fluctuate a great deal from day-to-day, sometimes hour-to-hour. At the station closest to us, we joke they must have a spinning wheel in the backroom that they spin to change prices. Before this last spin, the highest it had gotten was $4.39/gal, but the increase had never had such a large jump in cost. Going from $3.81 to $4.49 is a shock to the system. It has since gone down to $4.31 where it seems to have stabilized for the past few days.
I feel sorry for the independent truckers out there. Even though my gas price has increased a great deal, which hurts, and I know it hurts many families even more who must commute back and forth to work everyday, it hurts the truckers who must use diesel even more. Their price has jumped to an average price of $6.50/gal with it reaching close to $8.50/gal in some places. Another gas price to pay attention to is jet fuel, which has gone for $3.87/gal to $4.51/gal in the past month. One last price I never have really thought about is the Heavy Fuel Oil used by cargo ships.
Many of us, including myself, rarely think about the effects of the cost of diesel or jet fuel because we are thinking about the effects of the price we are paying at the pump. But, we really should equally be as concerned about the price of these two gas prices.
Why worry about jet and cargo ship fuel? Because, as a major importer of goods from overseas, those goods arrive by air and ship. When the cost for those two modes of goods delivery increase, so do our cost. This affects the cost of our food: fruits, vegetables, seafood, meat, and grains. This also affects the cost of other goods, such as machinery, electrical machinery and electronics, vehicles and automobiles, pharmaceuticals, and medical equipment and supplies. The U.S. also imports millions of barrels of oil every day, which ironically, most of the imports are from Canada with whom we are currently engaging in a trade war at the moment.
Although I will now worry about those prices, my main worry is the increase in the cost of diesel. The reason I worry more about the cost of diesel is because of its outsized impact on our daily lives.
Once the goods arrive that are mentioned above, about 20% of those goods are still mainly delivered to where we live, large and small alike, via a truck that uses diesel. This does not count the many buses used by cities and schools across the U.S. It also doesn’t include the machinery used by our farmers growing our food that uses diesel (90% of agricultural machinery still use diesel). It also affects the many contractors around the country who must use personal trucks that run on diesel every day to get to their job sites.
Every time cargo ship fuel costs increase, so do our prices. Every time jet fuel costs increase so do our prices for imported goods well as the cost to fly across the country to see our families. Every time diesel fuel costs increase, so do our prices at the grocery store, famers markets, restaurants, clothing store, home improvement, and other stores along with the cost to build or repair our homes.
Usually politicians and a president have little to do with the cost of fuel, other than the taxes added, even though we often blame them.
However, the prices we are now experiencing are directly related to the Trump regime and his Congress. Trump decided all by himself to join Israel in a war against Iran. In his self-identified high-IQ thinking, he ordered the bombing and subsequent blockades against a nation of 92 million people who have been taught their entire lives the United States is their enemy and will one day attack them. Up until Trump, all former presidents resisted Israel in the call to attack Iran.
Ever since Trump’s fateful decision, we have seen nothing but a rise in fuel costs, a rise in food costs, and a rise in other day-to-day expenses. We have also seen a rise in escalation, and spread, of this non-Congressionally approved war. The Strait of Hormuz is now compromised greatly, restricting the flow of mostly oil, but also fertilizer used by our farmers. But the Strait of Hormuz is no longer, due Trump and Hegseth’s bumbling of the war, the only Strait to worry about. We now also have to worry about the Bab al-Mandeb Strait in the Red Sea, which is also a major trade route for oil, along with the Houthis inflicting major damage on the Saudi Arabian oil pipeline and other oil related facilities.
With this new strait in danger, and one of the world’s largest oil exporters’ oil infrastructure under attack, we all need to start looking at our budgets because our gas and our basic needs are about to get much more expensive. All of this because the Republicans in Congress, the Republican Cabinet, and the top Military Brass can’t, no rather, they won’t say no to Trump or rein him in with their Constitutionally guaranteed right to be a check on, or to speak truth to power to, the Executive and Judicial branches of government.
Early voting has already begun in parts of our great country. Think about whether your salary and quality of life is better now than it was even just six months ago. If like most of us, the answer is no, then it is time for change and to vote for Democrats up and down the ballot to bring accountability, Congressional power, and a stop to the out-of-control Trump regime.
Only your vote can bring this about. So please, Vote!
P.S.—Make sure to check your voter registration weekly at vote.org (not Musk’s VoteSafe.org, which, based on reports, and my own opinion, is collecting data to be used in ways you might not like). Republicans across the spectrum are doing all they can to suppress your vote. Check your status to ensure you have time to fix it before showing up to vote, when it may be too late to correct.
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