What do you think about with current News and Opinions?

[guest1163268]

Something to understand what nurses think about re the Current News and their opinions!

3 hours ago, Tweety said:

Yes I expect them to complain about high gas prices, but aren't we all?  I think you're mistaken that it's only those people.  

We all are complaining about gas prices.  Also there seems to be agreement on all sides to deal with it if it hurts Russia both from the camp that whined about wearing masks and the rest of us.  Last poll I read was 80% of Americans supported boycotting Russian oil and products even if it meant higher prices. 

I reserve the right to still "whine" about high gas prices.  It sucks.

I saw today on a friends facebook when he was talking about hurting Russia with an oil ban "and Biden blocked the oil pipeline first day in office, anything to hurt Trump,  and he cares nothing about America".  Fresh out of the conservative playbook.   So yes while they are taking advantage of it to criticize Biden, they aren't whining about high gas prices. 

I think it's pretty universal that we don't like the high gas prices but are willing to put up with it. 

I don't recall saying that only those conservatives would be complaining about high energy prices...Americans seem prone to whining about all manner of things in this modern era. Perhaps thats how my comment was interpreted.  

The local Alaska news social media threads are filled with regional conservatives whining about gas prices while they cheer on the trucker protest and spread the same misleading rhetoric about pipelines and drilling and Biden's "war on oil".  In my neck of the woods they are both complaining about the price of energy and spreading political hyperbole. 

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

27 minutes ago, toomuchbaloney said:

I don't recall saying that only those conservatives would be complaining about high energy prices...Americans seem prone to whining about all manner of things in this modern era. Perhaps thats how my comment was interpreted.  

The local Alaska news social media threads are filled with regional conservatives whining about gas prices while they cheer on the trucker protest and spread the same misleading rhetoric about pipelines and drilling and Biden's "war on oil".  In my neck of the woods they are both complaining about the price of energy and spreading political hyperbole. 

Okay I guess it's fair to mock one segment of people complaining about rising gas prices.  

But I see a lot of shaming of people complaining or worried about gas prices.

Quote

...., the Democratic Party has lost touch with rural and working class Americans. This shows in the response of the liberal commentariat, all of whom are asking the most vulnerable among us to take it on the chin. For too many, though, rising gas prices are more like a punch in the gut.

https://www.newsweek.com/stop-sneering-people-worried-about-gas-prices-working-class-bearing-brunt-opinion-1686159

1 hour ago, Tweety said:

Okay I guess it's fair to mock one segment of people complaining about rising gas prices.  

But I see a lot of shaming of people complaining or worried about gas prices.

https://www.newsweek.com/stop-sneering-people-worried-about-gas-prices-working-class-bearing-brunt-opinion-1686159

I wonder what liberals are supposed to do about the reality that the wealthy won't suffer the consequences of the inflation or high energy prices in the deeply demeaning ways that the working poor will. I wonder who conservatives and republicans thought was going to suffer most from the costs associated with cutting off Russian oil and what their plan was to forestall that suffering to accomplish the ban that they were promoting? 

I guess the bottom line is that I don't agree with his opinion that what he cited as shaming or mocking was much more than providing a different perspective.

Knowing that this is going to be especially difficult for the working classes, maybe Congress's job is to provide some relief rather than contribute to the pain. What are the odds that such legislation would have bipartisan support?

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

I might be a little sensitive.  Recently (before this conflict) I had to shut down a friend who always listened to my job stresses but always thought he was being helpful with a "well at least it's not.....".  I just told him "you know sometimes I just need to vent and have someone listen.  No need to offer advice or a different perspective to make me feel gratitude for this stress".  

I guess that's how I feel about the "at least you're not being bombed" folks that shut down the people affected by high gas prices.

[subee, MSN, CRNA]

3 hours ago, Tweety said:

Okay I guess it's fair to mock one segment of people complaining about rising gas prices.  

But I see a lot of shaming of people complaining or worried about gas prices.

https://www.newsweek.com/stop-sneering-people-worried-about-gas-prices-working-class-bearing-brunt-opinion-1686159

Skyler is off base.   Poverty in the suburbs?  Really? Maybe his age group is sneering.  The more seasoned of the population have been through multiple gasoline crises (remember even vs. odd license plate numbers for filling up?) and here we are decades later still having to appease the worst players in the world.  This isn't sneering.  It's acknowledging that the boomers never followed through weaning ourselves off oil - relatively speaking because I realize we will always be dependent, in some degree, on oil products.  But having lived through so many gas crises, I know that no one starved to death.  People forget in 10 minutes how stressful it was having to wait in those long gas lines and tolerate within 10 minutes the Khashoggi murder because the price of gas is more important than any other humiliation we have to tolerate.  

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

14 minutes ago, subee said:

Skyler is off base.   Poverty in the suburbs?  Really? Maybe his age group is sneering.  The more seasoned of the population have been through multiple gasoline crises (remember even vs. odd license plate numbers for filling up?) and here we are decades later still having to appease the worst players in the world.  This isn't sneering.  It's acknowledging that the boomers never followed through weaning ourselves off oil - relatively speaking because I realize we will always be dependent, in some degree, on oil products.  But having lived through so many gas crises, I know that no one starved to death.  People forget in 10 minutes how stressful it was having to wait in those long gas lines and tolerate within 10 minutes the Khashoggi murder because the price of gas is more important than any other humiliation we have to tolerate.  

Okay person of that generation (don't want to violate the T.O.S).  

Forget that despite knowing gas prices will go up people are willing to have that happen to support Ukraine.  I've heard that over and over from my friends.    We're going to whether it just fine.  Might not be able to go to Starbucks every day but we can handle the high gas prices.

But also we need to acknowledge that's privilege as well.

I'm 62 and I never experienced having to wait in long gas lines, and I'd venture to say neither did about 3/4s of the country.  It's not that people forgot, it's not part of our experience.  (I do remember it and my father experienced it).   

Even if I did experience hardship in the past worst than today, I would allow people their current pinch of having to deal with high gas prices on top of the worst inflation in 40 years, on top of coming out of a pandemic, on top of work stress, family stress and other things going on in their life.  

It's not fair to blow to us off like that.  

That's all I'll say about it.  I'm going in to broken record routine and allow people their opinions and right to express it.

[Beerman, BSN]

3 hours ago, toomuchbaloney said:

 I wonder what liberals are supposed to do about the reality that the wealthy won't suffer the consequences of the inflation or high energy prices in the deeply demeaning ways that the working poor will. 

A concern that the wealthy won't suffer never entered my mind.  Why would we want anyone, wealthy, poor, or otherwise to suffer if they don't have to?

That sentence never would have made it on to the page from most of us.  That's the difference between the crazy-left and a conservative,  or even a moderate liberal.

1 hour ago, Tweety said:

Okay person of that generation (don't want to violate the T.O.S).  

Forget that despite knowing gas prices will go up people are willing to have that happen to support Ukraine.  I've heard that over and over from my friends.    We're going to whether it just fine.  Might not be able to go to Starbucks every day but we can handle the high gas prices.

But also we need to acknowledge that's privilege as well.

I'm 62 and I never experienced having to wait in long gas lines, and I'd venture to say neither did about 3/4s of the country.  It's not that people forgot, it's not part of our experience.  (I do remember it and my father experienced it).   

Even if I did experience hardship in the past worst than today, I would allow people their current pinch of having to deal with high gas prices on top of the worst inflation in 40 years, on top of coming out of a pandemic, on top of work stress, family stress and other things going on in their life.  

It's not fair to blow to us off like that.  

That's all I'll say about it.  I'm going in to broken record routine and allow people their opinions and right to express it.

I have family members and loved ones who live paycheck to paycheck.  They are already making difficult choices.   Their transportation costs are going to become unsustainable. Sometimes the loudest complainers are not those most negatively affected. 

[Beerman, BSN]

13 hours ago, Tweety said:

Nothing is 100% green and pure, or cheap.  

It pays to look at the total picture.   Risks vs. benefits and which is better dumping tons of C02 pollution into the air or an alternative that has other unintended side effects.

It depends on the unintended side effects.

Actually,  we don't even need to get that deep.

Let's look at risk vs reward.  Most don't see how we're going to see the possible reward in our lifetime.  Many have decided they don't want to have wind or solar farms, or lithium mining in their neighborhood.

Me, personally.  I'm OK with alternate forms of energy.   But I'm only willing to sacrifice so much for something that may or may not make a difference to a world that may or may not even be here when those actions would make a difference.

I'll get flamed by some for that.   But, I feel most who are being honest with themselves would say the same.

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

2 hours ago, Beerman said:

It depends on the unintended side effects.

Actually,  we don't even need to get that deep.

Let's look at risk vs reward.  Most don't see how we're going to see the possible reward in our lifetime.  Many have decided they don't want to have wind or solar farms, or lithium mining in their neighborhood.

Me, personally.  I'm OK with alternate forms of energy.   But I'm only willing to sacrifice so much for something that may or may not make a difference to a world that may or may not even be here when those actions would make a difference.

I'll get flamed by some for that.   But, I feel most who are being honest with themselves would say the same.

Fair enough. 

I agree that most of us aren't that forward looking.  We have to deal with our immediate needs of dealing with high gas prices, war, disease and just getting by.  

Telling someone in a food dessert without access to fruits and vegetables to eat more vegetarian for the planet isn't helpful.  

Apparently the cost of going green has been estimated at 45 trillion.  We're not going to spend that much.  Especially when a large swath of people believe that the current situation isn't even all that harmful to the planet.

I'm in that situation myself as single person trying to get buy, save for a rainy day and retirement,  in times of high housing, home insurance and inflation.  I bought a used Corolla for $18,00 an outrageous price for a vehicle but electric and green cars are over $30,000.  I find myself reaching turning away from green household products because of inflation lately when in the past I bought them.  I find myself reaching for conventionally sprayed tomatoes because their $2.00 a pound less.  There's only so much I'm wiling and able to do.  

 

[Tweety, BSN, RN]

8 hours ago, toomuchbaloney said:

I have family members and loved ones who live paycheck to paycheck.  They are already making difficult choices.   Their transportation costs are going to become unsustainable

Glad to hear they aren't complaining or whining like people with gas guzzlers that did it to themselves.  They need to suck it up and continue to sacrifice and not complain even if they can't afford it.   They need to take one for the people of Ukraine.  At least they aren't being bombed.  (sarcasm intended)

What I see more than people with gas guzzlers complaining about gas prices is all of us complaining about gas prices, or at least taking notice.  But I have noticed from the right is taking advantage of this situation to bring up that Biden canceled the Keystone Pipeline.  I've seen and heard this on Fox News and on social media.  Memes are popping up.  We even heard here about the "war on oil" and it's consequences today in high prices.   As if having the keystone pipeline would have made a difference.  Would it have been operational by now?  It was delayed for up to 12 years prior.

It's affective.  America loves a scapegoat and the half of America that didn't vote for Biden are ripe territory to spread it.

[heron, ASN, RN]

Sweet Goddess … it’s deja by all over again!

Did y’all know that the first practical electric car was invented a hundred years ago? By that I mean a car with a rechargeable battery and capable of being mass produced. It was eclipsed when the advent of the Texas oil industry made gas powered cars cheaper. The push for EVs resumed in the late sixties and was promptly kneecapped by - you guessed it - the oil and auto industries. As a result, we have neither the technology nor the infrastructure to make EVs affordable to anyone but the upper and upper middle classes.

As for food prices, make no mistake, you are paying through the nose for those sprayed tomatos. They’re cheap on the surface because conventional farmers, especially those linked to agribusiness conglomerates, are able to shift the costs of the damage they cause into the public sector. IOW you the taxpayer.

When was the last time a corporation cleaned up a superfund site on its own stockholders’ dime?

Every single time we have been faced with a choice between damage to natural systems - including the human species - and profits, profits won. Almost always, the arguments against even small changes in favor of preservation of the environment included phony “compassion” and self pity over the effects on the 99% who aren’t rich.

Imagine what a difference it would have made if, fifty years ago (when we first realized the damage being done by fossil fuels), we had made a shift in priorities from the private auto to public transportation. (A choice that, incidentally, would have immediately and directly benefitted the less-monied classes everyone claims to be so worried about.) This whole panic attack over gas prices would probably have been moot. Especially for the 99% who aren’t rich. Yeah … capitalism forevah!!

Like the person who delays attending to health issues because of the cost of a doctor’s visit, only to incur ever-mounting costs when those issues escalate into an emergency, we have continuously declined to address problems like our dependency on fossil fuels because we are unwilling to tolerate the cost of change. Everyone is entitles to make the choice for themselves, but you don’t get to whine when the entirely predictable consequences ensue.

What the hades did y’all think would happen?