As someone who is very invested in oil and energy in general, the Saudi’s and Russians have had much more an impact on the prices of oil than anything Biden has done. The only thing that has had any major impact is shutting down the Keystone Pipeline, but that has been overblown frankly.

Yeah I'm not blaming him entirely for the rise, more so that lowering the prices doesn't seem to be a priority. I can see nuance in the situation, I try not to be one of the "everything good is Trump's fault, everything bad is Biden's" people

Whenever Psaki is questioned about the topic, she either dodges the question or says "yeah that sucks doesn't it!"

Most of the governments spending during covid wasn't the direct checks thanks to people like Pelosi being the master of creating 2-3 trillion bills where 10% of it is the actual direct cash payment. That makes it even worse as a lot of people are bearing the brunt of the inflation without having really benefitted from it. Biden is not the only one to blame as Trump and Republicans had the power in 2020, and Build Back Better got blocked.

The amount of cash in circulation (tracked as M0) in the US has literally doubled since 2020 and is 4 times higher in Canada, there being an inflation impact as a result of that is unavoidable, frankly it is fortunate it is only 7%.

What kind of logic is banning imports from Russia to take a moral stand, but buying them from Venezuela and Iran instead?

Pretty simple logic really. Irán and Venezuela are not invading other countries, specifically not countries bordering your closest allies.

Yeah, at least for now, "you" need to make a stand against Russia first and deal with other issues later.

It's time to ramp up domestic natural gas and oil production already!

US oil producers made $174 BILLION in profit in 2021.

But sure, "supply chain issues" and "green new deal bad".

Yes stocks in some oil companies are at all time record highs right now and are surging.

US crude oil production dropped from 13 million barrels a day in 2020 to 9m a day at the beginning of 2021, and has since only recovered to 11m barrels.

Yet people are still buying them at record high prices.

At least US and Canada have their own oil, the European countries are screwed. Germany is apparently already 8 dollars a gallon and Putin hasn't even officially shut off the tap yet.

Good thing Europe is more invested in alternative energy sources. They’re going to need them

Saw a post from Norway about how they have the equivalent of $13/g right now? Fuck that. It'd be cheaper to buy a Tesla lol.

I sold my NRGU back in September to pay for my summer vacations ... Whoops! I thought turning a 191% profit off them was good but now its over double what I sold for.

Market has sucked for like 4 months straight now. Hopefully we get a boom in summer cause I'll need to pay for those vacations too.

Bless nuclear energy. It has its downsides, though minor compared to oil, coal and gas, but it makes us (France) far less dependent on awful dictators for our energy production (70% nuclear based, the highest in the world).

The supposed "Don't Say Gay" bill has to be one of the best media spins of legislation they oppose in recent memory.

I don't know if I even had a concept of straight/gay when I was in grades K-3, let alone trans issues. Just let them concentrate on learning how to read, do math and make friends and stuff. A 7 year old who's an LGBT supporting critical race theory supporting social justice warrior is just a vegan cat.

That’s a reflection of culture (and your own upbringing), not natural developmental progression. I also didn’t “know” what gay was when I was in 3rd grade, but I did think it would be cool / progressive if I kissed my best friend (male) on the lips. The bullying that followed was brutal and long-lasting, because culture implicitly teaches us that straight is correct and anything else is abhorrent and weird. Would have been helpful if someone at school had the knowledge and capacity to speak out against heteronormative cruelty. Or you could just say “let kids be kids” and accept the astronomical rates of suicide in queer youth.

Kids at my school were also incredibly racist — refusing to drink from water fountains that a black girl had used, calling anyone who did “disgusting,” bullying, exclusion, etc. This is like 1st grade at a Christian school. Talking openly about racism is good and necessary. Kids aren’t going to be warped by talking compassionately and openly about societal hate, if anything they’re already warped by constant exposure to cultural messaging (which exists everywhere but primarily communicated through family, school, media), and providing a counterbalance is a good thing.

It wouldn't be *as* big a deal if it was exclusive to K-3. But it's not really about keeping sexual discussion out of kindergartens because it's not really happening anyway.

The problem with the bill is that it also applies to anything deemed non "age appropriate" (as determined by the school district, supposedly) regarding sexual orientation or gender identity at ALL grade levels.

The biggest issue of all is that teachers/the school are required by the bill to out kids (again, at all grade levels) to their parents. This is ridiculous and has nothing to do with education. Times have changed, sure, but there are still many kids whose only safe place is at school. Outing these kids to potential unaccepting and/or abusive parents is evil. Not to mention how it'd increase the likelihood of suicide.

"Straight" is considered the default by these guys, therefore this bill obviously takes aim at the LGBTQ community. But straight isn't the default, so this implies that discussion on anything considered straight can also be deemed inappropriate if we want it to be.

If I was a parent in Florida, and had the means to sue the schools, I'd be doing it all the damn time whenever my kid came home and told me their pregnant teacher brought up their pregnancy, or if anything else included what could be considered straight was said or displayed in the class.

Either every sexual orientation and identity is subject to the bill, or none are. Selecting one orientation/identity as appropriate and others not so is pure discrimination.

That's fair, it's also been over 20 years since I was in 3rd grade and a lot has changed. At the same time some of those changes in wider culture may also have prevented you from being bullied as much in modern day for kissing someone on the lips.

I don't think many people would be opposed to teaching 3rd graders that straight and gay exist and that we should accept both. Ultimately what it comes down with this and the CRT bans is that conservatives don't have any trust that the hardcore woke activists have boundaries at this point. It's their religion. The only way to prevent them from going deep in the weeds making 5 year olds learn about gender fluidity and polysexuals, is just to have a broad rule not to teach about sexual orientation or gender. At the same time, I would be opposed to schools teaching kids explicitly anti-trans rhetoric or saying JKR is right. Just leave it neutral. Woke parents can still make their kids follow in their ideologue footsteps at home, just like a kid from a hardcore bible thumping family can make their kid religious even if it wasn't taught at public school (if they have money they can even send to them to the woke equivalent of a Christian academy). But banning it from public school allows the woke teachers from spreading their ideology to the the kids from moderate/conservative families who don't want it. The same logic applies to why public schools shouldn't be religious, the kids from religious families are probably going to be raised that way anyways, but no atheist should have their kid forced to become religious just because they can only afford public school. Obviously not everyone agrees that wokeness should be treated as a religion-like ideology, but since the Republicans were elected in Florida, they get to make that call.

I had a crush on a boy in the fourth grade. But I considered it, and other crushes and such for a few years, as "weird, wrong, gross, evil, etc." because that was just how it was perceived by most people, kids and adults alike. Why? Largely because it isn't explained or discussed at all. There's no problem when a little boy and girl have a crush on one another. Most consider that cute, adorable, etc. If a boy gives another boy a flower though? Everyone's quick to come up with reasons on why and try to make sure it doesn't happen or talked about. SMH.

The more we openly talk and have discussions on these human-made matters, the more accepting and understanding everyone is. We just keep making problems when there are none.

Republicans doing what they do best, disguising their bigotry with "common sense" laws to "keep kids safe".

From learning about gender? From learning about racial issues?

It's just absolutely batshit that they keep getting away with this shit. CRT does NOT exist in schools. Racial equity/equality SHOULD be taught in schools, it's a part of history.

Gender and sexuality SHOULD be taught to kids. We, America specifically, are so ashamed of sex/sexuality/anything remotely "taboo" that it has ruined generations of kids. We absolutely should be teaching kids the differences between genders, that there is more than one sexuality, etc etc.

There's nothing sexual about acknowledging the existence of people.

Agreed, Chippy. The “war on woke” feels very much like some reactive, regressive, straw-man/boogey-man whipped up hysteria. It’s become a religion, Shack? To educate people that 1. Racism historically and presently exists; 2. Sexism historically and presently exists; 3. Gay and trans people historically and presently exist? Generally that prejudice is bad? And that common civility, acceptance, and compassion are values that we as a society would collectively want to teach our youth? That’s religious indoctrination?

There are absolutely a large number of people that are fully and forever “opposed to teaching 3rd graders that straight and gay exist and that we should accept both.” And right now there’s a powerful and emboldened minority making big moves legislating into law their biases and bigotry, straight up.