More "Invented" News

 

More “Invented” News

 

        On the off chance that you actually ever believed that Fox News was a real news organization, here are some examples of why that’s an incorrect assumption.  Additionally, if you were ever foolish enough to believe that Sean Hannity is the only pathological liar hired by Fox News, scratch that as well.  

        Recently, Dan Bongino, another Fox News professional prevaricator did a segment on which he essentially attacked Democratic municipal administrations and their policies as being responsible for what he proclaimed were the “Top ten unhealthiest cities in America.” He then produced a map showing said cities, which he claimed were these mismanaged cesspits of sickness.  As Fox switchboards and the internet lit up, it soon became evident that Mr. Bongino actually had taken the list of cities from a study which proclaimed them as “The 10 healthiest places to live in the United States.”  Apparently, Fox was so besieged with protestations and calls that they actually, in a rare example of acknowledging a lie, forced Bongino to do so as well. That’s one in a row. As a footnote, Bongino also confused Irvine, California with Irving, Texas! (Which isn’t easy if you are sentient)

        Another Far Right politician, Mike Pence, has recently seemed to have been attempting to distance himself from his former boss Donald Trump and has seemingly backed away somewhat from far-right rhetoric. However, Mr. Pence, apparently unable to refrain from slamming Democrats, said recently that President Biden's cancellation of the Keystone XL pipeline dramatically increased American dependence on Russian oil. It's sad enough that he said it and more unfortunate, in that some people will believe it even though the cancelled Keystone XL pipeline has never carried any oil to or through the United States. Mr. Pence certainly knows this but apparently the chance to take a cheap potshot at the current President was just too much of a temptation.

        While vice former Vice President Pence was lying about Keystone XL his former boss in a recent interview is quoted as saying, “Energy prices - We were energy independent and now we're going begging, OPEC please send this oil we have no oil please send us oil. California just hit $7.75 in certain areas of California. Can you believe it?” (sic) At that point, Trump then said, “Gas was $1.86 a gallon when I left.” (This, from the man who has never actually bought and paid for gasoline for the last 25 years).

        The lies within this exchange are several-fold. First, at the time when Trump claims we were energy independent, we were actually still importing 500 million barrels of oil annually. As I previously discussed, we have never been energy independent (as defined by not importing energy) in the 21st century and earlier in the Trump administration we were importing 3/4 of a billion barrels of oil per year.

        The second lie is the statement that we are claiming we “have no oil.” The United States still has the largest oil reserves of any country in the world and President Biden has authorized more public land drilling in the first year of his administration that Donald Trump did in his entire administration. The irony is that although we were a net exporter of petroleum in 2021, we still imported half a billion barrels of foreign oil. The rationale for this is, I would imagine, hidden somewhere deep within some foreign policy program. Trump clearly doesn’t understand that exporting more than you import doesn’t mean you don’t import foreign oil. American refiners produced 11.185 million barrels of crude oil per day in 2021, compared with 11.283 million a year earlier under Trump. The amount produced in Biden’s first year exceeds the average daily amount produced under Trump from 2016 to 2018.  As of now, thousands of drilling permits of federal lands go unused. That's because it is up to oil and gas companies, and the finance firms that back them, to do the actual drilling. Additionally crude oil prices are a global, not national statistic. Crude oil prices are determined by global supply and demand, not by individual countries, politicians, or even the oil companies themselves, according to industry experts.

        The final lie in Trump's litany of untruths is that gas was $1.86 a gallon when he left office. In fact, when Trump left office, gasoline was 28% higher than the figure Trump quoted, at $2.38 per gallon. Additionally, while Trump seems to feel a constant need to take pot shots at California, his stated $7 was actually just about twice as high as actual California gas prices the week he left office. During Biden’s term in office, the average weekly price in California has risen as high as about $4.55, but nowhere near $7.

         It should be noted that that figure is an average for the state. There will always be places conveniently located in downtown areas where gasoline prices are far higher than the state average. Several years ago, I saw gasoline priced at about twice the state average in Seattle. The station was simply located in an affluent area and was a convenient (although God-awful expensive) place for people on their way to or from work to fill up the Beemer or the Porsche.

        And, finally, in case recent events have weighed on you to the point that you’ve asked yourself how it could be any worse, here’s how. Four days ago, in a nearby Polk County landfill, an employee was answering a call of nature in a port-a-potty. Meanwhile, a bulldozer was driving up an embankment at the landfill with the front blade of the vehicle several feet above the ground, preventing the driver from seeing around it clearly. Once the driver was level on the embankment, he began to turn his bulldozer and heard a loud “crumble”, as he described it.    

        When law enforcement arrived on the scene, the driver, greatly distressed, said he was unaware the port-a-potty was near the staging area, according to the sheriff’s report. When the dozer driver went to see if anyone was inside, he found the victim, a 40-year-old employee, unresponsive, deputies said. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration was contacted, and an autopsy will be conducted at a later date. One has to wonder why an autopsy even need be done. What a shitty way to go!