How much is your local "Trump at the Pump Tax?"

we are already part way there.

 

More accurate:

2 billion people across
more than 130 countries-regularly eat
​

‘Trump verbal fecal matter.’

Bob Wilson

​

 

Many people who eat bugs do so by choice, not because they are starving and that's all there is. Grasshoppers in many places are a treat, more or less "flying shrimp". Eating these is so common that Americans and Europeans are the odd ones out. In Mexico, for instance, look for "chapulines".

Chinese street food has an assortment of land invertebrates on sticks, see the pictures in this link for some varieties:

Lair of the Scorpion King: Beijing street food | Bidoun

 

probably better for you than cow

 

Yeah my problem with the “insects could solve hunger “ comment is that people all over the world already do and they are typically expensive enough that they are not normally going to be a primary dietary source.
They are more of a treat or delicacy.

collection, preparation, etc isn’t free, not like growing wheat or rice.

good cholesterol and usually very healthy protein.

 

not sure how we got here from gas prices but...grasshopper-farming-beginning

 

$4.49 at the nearest grocery-with-gas

 

There are already commercial farms for crickets and other bugs for the pet and bait trades.

 

I learned myself this while making a movie that involved a scene about a cricket infestation... fun times.

 

My yard creates billions of large black ants, probably not real tasty, tastes like burning.

There are farms for shrimp and lobster, still expensive

 

Where are the ‘long lines’ in the USA?

In the past, price increases were accompanied by fuel shortages and long lines at the gas stations. But this time, the price goes up yet gas demand does not follow a shortage of gas and diesel.

My perception is less traffic on the roads and fewer shoppers and diners. Our economic activity appears to have ‘turned down.’ I’ve seen that in past recessions. It is a compounding effect. Yet no lines.

Bob Wilson

 

One big difference from the 1970s is that the US now pumps substantially more oil. Then, when OPEC stopped pumping we didn't have enough produced locally and it was a hard stop, supply dropped precipitously. This time with oil from the middle east mostly fubar'd the US can pump more oil. But the oil companies don't have to sell it to us, if they can get more money for it elsewhere, they will. So the price will probably rise substantially before any actual shortages occur. That is over most of the country. The west coast is kind of screwed though because most of our oil wasn't coming from the rest of the US as it was cheaper to ship it in from elsewhere. There is no oil pipeline that I know of which crosses the line of mountains that starts with the Sierras and goes all the way up to Canada. In fact, I don't think there is even one that extends into Utah or Nevada. So we are going to need a lot of tankers to load up in the gulf and work their way around through the Panama canal. Maybe some could come down from Canada - except Trump has spent this term making himself, and by extension the rest of us, persona non grata in that country. Not sure how accurate this map is, but:

U.S. Oil & Gas Pipelines - Felt Map Gallery

 

So who is buying our oil? What do they do with it?

Bob Wilson

 

Oddly our oil is more valuable than the stuff we buy in return.

been a long time issue, oil oil everywhere but none to refine

 

Sorry but I don’t understand how others can make a modern refinery for our oil but the USA can’t.

Bob Wilson

 

follow the money... anything can be done

 

That comment didn't age well ...

Biden pulled lots of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve because of the disruption and price surge caused by Putin's war on Ukraine. That withdrawal ended in June 2023, and 47 million barrels were re-added by the end of Biden's term, and another 20 MB added during Trump's first year of this term:



But now, Trump is removing oil from the SPR even faster than Biden ever did, despite Iran war gas prices not (yet) as high as during the first months of the Ukraine war:



“The strategic national reserves, which I filled up, have been virtually drained in order to keep gasoline prices lower, just prior to the election,” Trump said during his 2024 campaign launch in November 2022."

No, Trump did NOT fill up the SPR during his first term, that is just more of his gaslighting. He actually reduced it by 57 MB during his first term, much more than Obama's net reduction of 8 MB over two terms. SPR's peak level happened during Obama's first couple years.

U.S. Ending Stocks of Crude Oil in SPR (Thousand Barrels)