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EDINBURG, Texas (AP) — Quinten Martinez, pumping gas under a hot South Texas sun, remembers a time when fueling up didn’t require difficult decisions.

“Is it going to be groceries this week?” asked the 28-year-old Amazon delivery driver as he watched the numbers tick higher. “Is it gonna be getting gas in our tank to go to work?”

He shook his head when asked about President Donald Trump’s assertion last week that higher gas prices are a small price to pay for the war with Iran.

“I don’t feel like it’s a good trade-off,” Martinez said. “I don’t feel like this is good for anyone.”

Voters across the country, and across the political spectrum, tend to agree.

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[-] collapse_already@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 day ago

But we don't even want the Iran war.

[-] JustPlainDave@lemmy.zip 8 points 2 days ago

Inexpensive? It was 2.19 in my town when he took office this time around. It's now 4.12. that's nearly a 100% increase.

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

Yup, and for a guy that got elected on affordability promises, his dementia has really made it difficult for him to understand how insane he sounds.

[-] Burn_The_Right@lemmy.today 8 points 2 days ago

After 50 years of living with conservatives in Texas, I can confidently say the only good war would have been the civil war if we had finished it properly. We wouldn't have concentration camps in US or be funding genocides if we had finished it properly.

Conservatives have infested both major parties all because we didn't properly finish that damned war. Wtf, Sherman?! Conservatives would never have let us live. Now they will prove it.

[-] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago

Yeah I feel like a lot of your current problems are because the Union didn't hang/shoot more Confederates and make the South understand that they, in fact, lost the civil war.

[-] Glytch@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Don't blame Sherman, he wanted what you want. It was Lincoln who stopped Sherman's good work.

[-] MunkyNutts@lemmy.world 5 points 2 days ago

Pentagon has said this war has cost over $45 B, and what have we got out of it?

It's made some other people richer, that's all they care about

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[-] 100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it 3 points 2 days ago

You cannot let Iran have nukes. That's it. That's their spin on it.

[-] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago

$45B is a gross understatement, but paying $5b to Iran would go a long way to ending any nuclear program.

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago

$45B was just the military cost. US spend an extra $100B on gas.

[-] Daft_ish@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 2 days ago

No new wars btw

[-] Dryad@lemmy.world 46 points 3 days ago

Oh yes. And what was it we were getting from the pedo in chief’s war of choice again?

[-] Murse@slrpnk.net 22 points 3 days ago

Oh yes. And what was it we were getting from the pedo in chief’s war of choice again?

Global distraction from the Epstein files and the fact that Trump raped children on that island.

For the small small price of dead Iranians, dead Americans, and a fucked global economy, Trump can keep those in the news instead of the files! Winning!!

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[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 10 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

The only response he ever gives is "it's worth it so Iran can't have a nuclear weapon". He probably isn't even aware in his demented brain that... we already had that, nor that his and Biden's handling of the economy these last six years has increased people's poverty exponentially.

It was an "inexpensive price to pay" to let Iranians have their own unfrozen assets back in return for de-nuclearizing.

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[-] kingkong@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

is it ok to call the pedo epstein elite class pedo epstein elite class here? was banned on multiple social media sites for calling the elites that own the social media platforms out.

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago

If in doubt, just stick to 'Epstein Class'. The pedo affiliation is implied.

[-] kingkong@lemmy.world 1 points 1 day ago

thanks but calling them facts is now banned by multiple large social media platforms its sickening. especially the ones that are larger corporations now its so obvious too our first amendment rights are being restricted using loopholes by the epstein class and ai bots in general fake engagement bots reports by bots used by ai to block real users.

[-] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 16 points 2 days ago

“I don’t feel like it’s a good trade-off,” Martinez said. “I don’t feel like this is good for anyone.”

Climate scientists have been telling us for 30 years we need to stop burning fossil fuels.

personally I'd rather we had $100 a gallon and deal with the consequences of that rather then cheap gasoline and diesel and deal with the cosequences of that

[-] TronBronson@lemmy.world 11 points 2 days ago

I'm with you bro, I pray the gas prices keep going up. The redneck shitbags are still driving their giant heehaw trucks around all day and night. I'll know gas prices are high enough when harrassing your neighbors stops being a recreational daily event.

[-] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago

A $300/ton CO2 tax (paid as dividend to residents) is $3/gallon gasoline. It doesn't get to your $100/gallon target, but it does bring CO2 air capture technology into play. accelerates EVs/emobility, makes green H2 competitive for those who need to refuel often and aviation/heavy shipping. Obviously solar/wind are that much more economically obvious.

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[-] jtrek@startrek.website 21 points 3 days ago

A lot of idiots will still believe the Republicans are "good at the economy".

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[-] melsaskca@lemmy.ca 28 points 3 days ago

You mean the war trump unilaterally started to deflect from his pervert degeneracy? That war?

[-] Diplomjodler3@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

The kind of war of aggression we had the Nuremberg trials over? That war?

[-] bold_atlas@lemmy.world 3 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

Peak oil = peak chud.

Up! Up! Up! Up!

[-] DeadEndLink@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago

Only 19.5 years left to go. Count your pennies.

[-] modus@lemmy.world 8 points 2 days ago

Says the guy who travels to his plane in a motorcade a dozen vehicles long without paying for a single litre of fuel.

[-] NotEasyBeingGreen@slrpnk.net 3 points 2 days ago

America never used the litre [sic]. It used to use gallons for gasoline prices, but a recent Presidential decree renamed those to Americans.

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[-] Neverbeaten@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Probably what's going on in his mind: "What could a gallon of gas cost? $40? What are they complaining about?"

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 2 points 2 days ago

So theft, fraud, corruption, incompetence, pedophilia, all ok with America. It all comes down to gas prices.

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

In fact, no.

If the several assassination attempts haven't demonstrated it, or the several socialist candidates that have become electable, then consider the fact that the simple sabotage that took place in LA, Chicago, Portland, and Minneapolis earlier this year forced Donald to fire ICE's leadership and reconsider their Gestapo tactics.

As for gas prices, Donald was elected largely for promising to address affordability, so yes, there is going to be a significant amount of anger that he has not only failed to do so, but launched a war that exacerbated the poverty already rampant here in the US.

[-] SaveTheTuaHawk@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago

several assassination attempts

one. if it even really happened. Broadway wasn't even this staged.

forced Donald to fire ICE’s leadership and reconsider their Gestapo tactics.

LOL. Then this happened , today.

So yeah, Americans only give a shit about gas prices.

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago)

one

Factually incorrect.

LOL. Then this happened , today.

I'm aware. Resisting fascism is a process, and one that we in the US have to navigate very carefully thanks to the Insurrection Act. (Among other things.) As one of the seven people in the US who was against the War on Terror from the start, I agree that the long road it's taken for Americans to get to this point is pretty shameful.

And I see you just kinda ignored the other points, but that's okay. Clearly you're operating on confirmation bias.

[-] adarza@lemmy.ca 1 points 2 days ago

oh, don't kid yourself. they're mostly still gonna vote for magats, cuz the 'right people' are getting hurt worse and more frequently. hate will overrule their wallet.

[-] Sordid_Seraphim@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 day ago

A smooth line when you aren't paying for it.

[-] voxthefox@lemmy.blahaj.zone 18 points 3 days ago

If you actually believe that then have the government subsidize the price difference at the pump? Oh what's this, you mean its inexpensive because you dont have to pay it? That's on brand.

[-] blattrules@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

I think they’re already subsidizing it as much as they can and it’s still this expensive - oil companies get direct subsidies, we’ve been dipping into the national reserve and they approved adding more ethanol to the gas to bring prices down and sacrifice our fuel economy and add wear to our engines.

[-] FlashMobOfOne@lemmy.world 15 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

What's old is new again.

A mere three years later we're being gaslit by a president with an evidently broken brain, who is clearly too old to be a functional head of state, and he's gaslighting us on the economy as if we don't have to open our own bills and do our own grocery shopping.

The only thing that's changed is the centrists are now pretending to care about affordability, where three years ago they were the ones telling us that things were just fine, even though our collective experience was that we were in a cost of living crisis. The shred of support Donald still possesses is insisting the same, though it's clear the crossover voters he gained in 2024 by pretending to care about affordability have been lost.

I wish I could get off this runaway train. Let's hope the dozen or so DSA's get elected and start some serious shit in Congress.

[-] bad1080@piefed.social 9 points 3 days ago

trump says "but my cronies are making bank!"

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[-] LodeMike@lemmy.today 4 points 2 days ago

You could give me $100,000 and I'd say fuck off with your fucking war.

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this post was submitted on 20 Sep 2026
251 points (100.0% liked)

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