Before responding to tonight’s letter, I’d like to congratulate you, Heather, our national treasure, for receiving such a great honor. It is so well deserved!
Yes! Congratulations, Professor Heather Cox Richardson! You are In good company: “Those previously elected to the academy include Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Charles Darwin, Margaret Mead, Albert Einstein, Condoleezza Rice, Martin Luther King Jr., Bryan Stevenson, and Joan Baez.” WOW!!!
What a prestigious honor for a professor who in a sense has the largest, most devoted class of students anywhere — here! Our major is "Letters from an American."
Rice fell victim of an Intel community that still could not see the difference between intelligence and foregone politically desired conclusions. It happened with Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs. It continues, and now the country will always reject and disagree with what its political leaders tell us.
At least Colin Powell acknowledged his erroneous public statements; Rice never did as far as I know. When the CIA officer told the administration there was no processing of yellow cake uranium from Africa, she was outed by Dick Cheney who chose to risk the life of an agent rather than back down on his dishonesty or insistence of war with Iraq. Given the lives lost and the billions spent, anyone in the Bush administration bore the moral responsibility of knowing and speaking the truth.
Wow, thanks for mentioning this, Rowshan! Congratulations, dear Heather! You are among exciting company with other previously elected members of the esteemed Academy. What a well-deserved honor!!
Glad you posted link, Rowshan. A subscriber, Lynn Freely, posted news of this on June 12th. She lamented that her three children had graduated earlier from Boston College and did not have opportunity of Prof Richardson in class schedule. There was such a slew of comments that day, I think that notable and very satisfying news got lost. Thank you to both you and Lynn for leading us in noting the honor that Heather Cox Richardson deserves for her part in preserving the common good of democracy. May we all be a valuable part of that.
Sorry, but I never saw Lynn Freely’s post, Christine. I just heard the news through a friend’s FB post yesterday and wondered why all of us weren’t talking about it, so I thought I should say something since Heather probably wouldn’t toot her own horn. It just seemed so strange that no one had said a word. My apologies to Lynn for not having been recognized. For me, it was just about my excitement about the news and wanting to get the word out to all of you.
Oh absolutely. Lynn didn’t want recognition. She was very happy to post news she had heard. It’s good we mention things again because not everyone reads later comments. I am so happy about the honor and recognition of Prof Richardson’s work.
A heartfelt congratulations to Heather. You have made a huge difference in my life, especially educating me on history and its relevance in today’s world. Thank you for sharing this, Rowshan.
Thanks, Rowshan. I shared this yesterday, but it somehow got lost. Or maybe I posted it only on her Facebook page. At any rate, I am proud of and happy for Heather, as I'm sure all of us here are. At AAAS, she joins illustrious company.
Yay! We need to hear the fact of positive recognition, in an era that negatives get swept under the carpet, in favor of No problem if not convicted, or even indicted. Congratulations!!!!
Heather, thanks so much for laying out the causes of and solutions for inflation. How refreshing it is that at least one source of price inflation (shipping) is being dealt with by the Senate. There appears to be no appetite to deal with gasoline and diesel price gouging, perhaps because half the Senate sees the high gas and product prices as something that they can hang on Biden (and, by association, the Democrats). Once again, partisan power grabbing trumps the welfare of the American people.
“In May the House passed the Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act by a vote of 217 to 207 with only Democrats in the yes column and all Republicans and four Democrats voting no. The bill provided a vague warning that it is unlawful to charge “unconscionably excessive” prices for consumer fuel during presidentially declared energy emergencies, and it gave the Federal Trade Commission more power to punish price gouging. “
So, what is President Biden supposed to do about gas prices? Nationalize the petroleum industry and then dictate pricing? Yea, that would go over like a lead, or unleaded, balloon.
The POTUS, any POTUS, has as much power to change the cost at the pump as, say, he/she does at the availability of toilet paper.
I’ve decided to stop trying to engage the right who’ve drunk the Kool Aid. I am pushing
the sleep walking left to get involved, step up, speak up, run for office and get involved in local government. It all starts there. We had a big win in southern Maine today, Democrat Jackie Sartoris DA won big time. All these little steps will make a big one.
Yeah, there is really no reasoning with those folks, since their ability to think critically and to comprehend anything more complex than a soundbite or meme has been coopted.
They choose to believe what suits them rather than knowing the truth. Blaming Biden for anything and everything in some weird way makes them feel better about themselves. They'd be shocked to see how much higher inflation is in other countries.
I don't know, they have not been the brightest of lightbulbs for as long as I have been trolling them. I accidentally typed "slightbulbs" which I really liked, but spellcheck had to intervene!
Correction - Republicans get money from oil and gas companies. From Open Secrets (which tracks campaign donations): “Led by the oil and gas industry, this sector regularly pumps the vast majority of its campaign contributions into Republican coffers. Even as other traditionally GOP-inclined industries have shifted somewhat to the left, this sector has remained rock-solid red.” https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=E01
Yes. And this is why the gas prices go down especially around election time when a Republican is in office. And they go up when a Democrat is in office. This has been going on for decades.
Ummmm. The stockholders are not responsible for gouging the public. Stockholders of all companies invest according to their ability to and expect profit or manage stock to avoid loss. This “gouging” and making insane profit is squarely on the companies.
The classic business ranking of corporate stakeholders puts stockholders first, then customers, then employees, then community. It’s hard to separate companies from stockholders - stockholders are the owners of the company. The interests of the stockholders are the primary driver of executive business decisions. CEOs who don’t serve the stockholders get fired. So I’d say that stockholders have significant responsibility for price gouging and “insane profits”.
Exactly....the pain people are feeling is calculated and the only thing Rs are interested in is power and money. This is part of the reason I call the Rs the party of death. Here in Oregon Schrader showed once again his true colors and announced the McLeod-Skinner will lose in November and then hung the socialist label on her. This week a person who has her ear close to the political ground said he wants to be a lobbyist like his wife. Meanwhile we are inundated with TV ads for Machine Gun Betsy, but some group is posting anti-Betsy ads on Facebook. Then there was an article, maybe Huff Post, on the drying up of the Great Salt Lake and all the problems that is and will cause. The good thing about today is that I am having my two hour massage.
The USSR was a few decades ahead of America. The virtually dried up the Aral Sea, the fourth largest lake in the world at the time. Water was siphoned off the two rivers flowing into it to irrigate cotton in the desert. Water was wasted and in no way managed. Part of the lake has been rescued but it will never be the same.
Yes, it's heartbreaking. Destroyed all of the sea life along with the lives of all who had relied on the sea for a living. I've seen terrible photos of the dry seabed with grounded boats rusting or rotting away.
Los Angeles perpetrated similar destruction in the Owens Valley, draining it dry as a bone. Ironically, the Native name for the Valley was "place of flowing waters". From Wikipedia: "The valley provides water to the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the source of one-third of the water for Los Angeles, and was the area at the center of one of the fiercest and longest-running episodes of the California Water Wars.[4] These episodes inspired aspects of the 1974 film Chinatown. The current arid nature of the valley is mostly due to LADWP diverting the water of the region. For example, Owens Lake was completely emptied by 1926, only 13 years after LA began diverting water.
{snip}
"In 1997, Inyo County, Los Angeles, the Owens Valley Committee, the Sierra Club, and other concerned parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding that specified terms by which the lower Owens River would be rewatered by June 2003.[12] LADWP missed this deadline and was sued again. Under another settlement, this time including the State of California, Los Angeles promised to rewater the lower Owens River by September 2005. As of February 2005, LADWP announced it was unlikely to meet this extended deadline. Finally, in 2008, Los Angeles fulfilled its promise and rewatered the lower Owens River.[13]
In July 2004, Los Angeles mayor James Hahn proposed barring all future development on its Owens Valley holdings, by proposing a conservation easement for all LADWP land.[14] As of October 2004, Inyo County officials seemed to be resisting the offer of the easement, perhaps due to the prior history of mistrust over LADWP actions.[citation needed] Los Angeles began using a new, organic method of suppressing airborne dust from the dry bed of Owens Lake in 2014 pursuant to an agreement between the city and Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District, the Owens Valley air quality regulators, ending a bitter decades-long dispute over the water and dust."
Even more scary, there's this LA Times article: "Major water cutbacks loom as shrinking Colorado River nears ‘moment of reckoning". [BY IAN JAMES STAFF WRITER JUNE 14, 2022]. I'm no longer a subscriber so can't gift the article but here's an excerpt from the full text a friend sent out in the body of his email:
"The Colorado River supplies water to nearly 40 million people in cities from Denver to Los Angeles and farmlands from the Rocky Mountains to the U.S.-Mexico border. The river has long been over-allocated, and its reservoirs have declined dramatically since 2000 during a severe drought that research shows is being intensified by global warming and that some scientists describe as the long-term “aridification” of the Southwest.
“What has been a slow-motion train wreck for 20 years is accelerating, and the moment of reckoning is near,” said John Entsminger, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which supplies the Las Vegas area.
He pointed out that Lake Mead’s water level, now at 1,045 feet above sea level, has continued to decline toward critically low levels. Hoover Dam could still release water down to a level of 895 feet, but below that, water would no longer pass through the dam to supply California, Arizona and Mexico — a level known as “dead pool.”
“We are 150 feet from 25 million Americans losing access to the Colorado River, and the rate of decline is accelerating,” Entsminger told the senators."
Yes, and yet so many assume things will go on as before. Our neighbors travel for a few months of the year to the southwest in the winter time and they have reported the steady decline of the the reservoirs. We have family who live in Burbank and we wonder how they will fare as things become more dire.
The loss of Colorado River water is only a part of it. Most of southern California gets its water from the State Water Project, canals from multiple reservoirs from northern California, reservoirs which rely on water from snow pack and slow melting of the snow so it can refill the reservoirs.
San Diego County has the best situation because of a desal plant on the coast and a couple of wastewater-to-potable water facilities. That water presently is used for irrigation and industrial needs, a portion eventually will go into a local reservoir (which reservoir water mix with Colorado River water then be treated a final time for release into our potable water systems citywide. Already a substantial percentage of water is now developed locally.
I agree, the republicans are pretty rough but remember people like Pelosi who does insider trading and other democrats who manipulate laws to get rich. The whole system stinks.
This Letter needs to be amplified and shared widely, to counter the false narratives out there and to shed light on the deliberate efforts of the GOP to KEEP gas prices high as a political tool.
I am not ‘shocked’ that President Biden, after calling Mohammed bin Salman a ‘pariah’ in 2019 for his murder of Khashoggi, is meeting with MBS during a forthcoming Middle East trip. As a former Foreign Service Officer, I am personally aware that our national interests require official contact with some truly scummy people and countries.
Stalin was a ‘pariah’ to Churchill until Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in 1941. Then Churchill ‘embraced’ Stalin, stating that he was happy to work hand in hand with the devil in his fight against Hitler.
Personally I was outraged, when, in 1956, Khrushchev sent in troops to crush the Hungarian Revolution. Two years later, President Eisenhower invited Khrushchev to the United States.
MBS is the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia. The United States seeks an increase in Saudi oil production to reduce the oil market shortage. To the extent that a presidential visit will assuage MBS—who is pissed at being treated as a pariah—, that is what nose-holding diplomacy is about.
Do you think that President Biden will personally meet ‘Killer’Putin in the next several years? That depends on what Biden determines to be our overriding national interest.
[How many assassination attempts against Fidel Castro were initiated by the Kennedy administration?]
Thanks Keith for this mature look at foreign relations. The faux moral outrage that people come up on these kinds of things is ridiculous. I notice they sure don't turn their nose up at the gas pump or beg for smaller cars or hybrids or electric.
When I was a Buyer for a major utility in my State do you know what the first thing I checked each morning as I drank my coffee? The price of a barrel of oil. Then I would read the international news. It is regrettable that an awful lot of Americans can't seem to see beyond their backyard fence. The Republicans are adept at tapping into the voters' ignorance.
Willful ignorance. They willfully refuse to look at any news other than what they have been told they may look at by their cult leaders, including Fox.
OMG Diana. I was thinking the same thing. I keep comparing it to Jehovah's Witnesses who are forbidden to investigate anything outside their Watchtower publications.
Every time I talk to a republican friend of mine, he has to run everything past his leader, whoever that is, and the leader tells him what to think and what to say. He's a conduit - not an independent thinker.
Keith, I appreciate your perspective and sober reality check. And yet I still feel deeply alarmed by Biden’s visit with MBS. MBS, for me, represents the the cunningly horrific new generation of autocrats. Saudi Arabia has been the bane of our existence since they choked off oil in the 70’s. Nothing they do aligns with American values or principles of human rights. And it was Saudis who flew the planes into the twin towers and the pentagon. The House of Saud has drained their country of money while telling their people its the USA. Biden going to him? It strikes me as bending a knee to evil. And for what? A possible “maybe” that they will pump a few extra gallons of the fossil fuels we need to be weaning ourselves off from? The only thing more chilling about this meet up would be if Biden met him in the Saudi embassy in Turkey.
Michele Let’s make a list of whom the United States shouldn’t deal with, because they are scummy, rotten, killers, and/or lock-step authoritarian.
1) MBS
2) Putin
3) Kim
4) Erdogan
5) Xi
6) Belarus president (fraudulent election—opponents being jailed and worse)
….
It’s tough enough to deal with such ‘allies’ as Boris Johnson. I can recall several bosses that might have fit on the above list. Should President Biden refuse to deal with governors DeSantis and Abbott because they are ass holes?
What if a foreign leader announced that he wouldn’t deal with the president of the United States until all those ‘shootings of innocent little kids stopped?’
Keith, I hope that you don't mind my adding a more complete list of dictators from 'world population review'. It is good for us to recognize the large number of them, perhaps, spurring our determination that the USA not be added to the list.
'In fact, most dictators adopt common appellations such as "President" or "Prime Minister", so they must be identified via their actions and policies rather than their title.'
President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai of Afghanistan
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune of Algeria
President João Lourenço of Angola
President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan
King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain
Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh
President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus
Sultan Haji Waddaulah of Brunei
President Évariste Ndayishimiye of Burundi
Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia
President Paul Biya of Cameroon
President Faustin Archange Touadera of the Central African Republic
President Idriss Deby of Chad
President Xi Jinping of China
President Félix Tshilombo Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
President Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of the Congo
President Miguel Diaz-Canel of Cuba
President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh of Djibouti
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt
President Teodoro Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea
President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia
President Albert-Bernard Bongo of Gabon
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei of Iran
President Barham Salih of Iraq
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan
President Bounnhang Vorachith of Laos
President Nouri Abusahmain of Libya
Min Aung Hlaing of Myanmar
President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua
President Kim Jong-un of North Korea
Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al-Said of Oman
Emir Tamin Al Thani of Qatar
President Vladimir Putin of Russia
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda
King Abdullah Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia
President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed of Somalia
President Salva Kiir Mayardit of South Sudan
President Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan of Sudan
King Mswati III of Eswatini/Swaziland
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria
President Emomalii Rahmon of Tajikistan
Chairman Losang Jamcan of Tibet
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey
President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow of Turkmenistan
President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda
King Sheikh Khalifa Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates
Well put, Keith. The US and everyone else has to deal with the world as they find it. We have to interact with estabished governments, even when they have unsavory, to say the least, people in charge. But our long history of intervening to help dictators (Iran in the 1960s, Chile in the 1970s, and Nicaragua in the 1980s, to name a few) is another matter. The US has an atrocious history in helping brutal dictators.
"....our long history of intervening to help dictators (Iran in the 1960s, Chile in the 1970s, and Nicaragua in the 1980s, to name a few...". And this history has seldom failed to turn around and bite the U.S. where it hurts (except that are appears to have become numb).
They may be ________, but they are our ___________ is how the world ended up in this mess. America was the light on the hill to the world after WWII and then they came down hard on the side of unfreedom
Oh the nose-holding diplomacy, sort of like when I choose to treat MAGAts as human. Joe will do what the country needs him to do, while being vilified by all, especially the guiltiest of all, Rupert Murdoch
Thank you for this clear explanation. I wish we did not have to deal with scumbags, but sometimes we do. I have always been a realist even when it made me squirm. Also as you point out, our own approach to foreign nations is not exactly clean. Some time ago, I read a book about Cuba which was focused on the Bush family's dealings there. Nothing pretty.
The saying is "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." The reason being it is always good to know what your enemies are up to. That way we aren't operating in a naïve bubble.
We have a friend much involved in local politics who often listens to enemy radio and visits enemy territory. I always count on her to help me understand what is going on locally.
I'm sure it is. She is a political wonk and lives for politics. She and her husband are interested foremost in land use. Someone is always trying to undermine our land use laws here.
I am one of those persons as well. Although after reading anything FOX or people like Theissen I want to take a shower and a long long walk. Still. It's useful information.
Thank you for addressing the issues that are affecting us daily, utilities, gas prices, inflation, peace talks, war. Development of alternative energy. That’s just to start. I, like all our readers, have a gift for seeing clearly what’s not only the future, but the past. Who listened when we and our friends knew we needed to change our environmental and energy policies and use? In the 1980s and earlier? Why aren’t we all driving and powering utilities with alternate fuel sources? Haven’t we had enough time to fully develop the resources and technology needed to be energy independent? Unfortunately politics and corporate greed have driven us to this moment. The “Inconvenient Truth” Mr. Gore, (who should have been president) warned us would be here if we didn’t respond to climate change. Global warming. In the next decades how will we drive, heat and cool our homes, grow our food, respond to pandemics, with local production of energy and goods not fully developed. We are dependent on countries whose own human rights history violates what we say we believe is important: Justice, respect for human rights for all, economic and social equality, safety, to start. But our reliance on corporate profits, funding wars, inequality here at home, bring us to this point. “Trading” with Saudi Arabia, China, possibly Russia. Trace it back to Politics. Corporate and political greed. Tax laws that protect the wealthy. Dismantling of environmental protection. Is it truly possible to save this planet for our grandchildren?
On a lighter note about him, I recall that he wanted to use ground transportation rather than using Air Force One for some travel as a means of saving energy. His experts convinced him that the amount it would cost an entire entourage traveling by vehicles as opposed to the cost of fuel for one plane, plus a press plane, was more costly. So he scrapped that idea!
Lynell, this is an amazing article. Thank you for sharing! I remember reading about the work Carter did, environmental and humanitarian. And how the fossil fuel industry sabotaged the progress for research and development. And still does. Carter helped start Habitat for Humanity, which I worked with in 2019. What stands out is how close we were to acting on Climate Change and what might have moved forward if he had been re-elected. This: “Still, it seems possible that if Carter had been re-elected, the world might have been in a better position regarding climate impacts today. One of the first things Reagan did after winning the election in 1981 was take down the White House solar panels. Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry – whose scientists were already studying the ways that fossil fuels were changing the climate – started spending tens of millions of dollars sowing doubt about climate science.” What’s with the repubs, I ask one more time.
Before Reagan was President, he was governor of California. At that time, I remember clearly, I was nearly arrested for walking across the UC Berkeley campus carrying political posters. The charge was going to be "conspiracy to deface government property", which was false because our posters would have improved the place. A combination of lies, "oh no sir", and (mostly) white privilege got us off with a warning. Autocratic leanings in the right wing are nothing new.
Those Reagan years were brutal as were Nixon’s. Then we got the Bushies. All Repubs. All destroyed our country. Clinton messed things up with the adoption of NAFTA but no wars were started. Then we got an outlier (heavy on the lier). We have been asleep at the wheel. It’s up to us to navigate and vote for candidates who promote decency, fairness, and equality. Not hate thy fellow man.
This. Plus power/money/“what’s in it for me-ism” - also a feature of Reagan’s influence. “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” he told everyone to ask themselves, during his campaign against Carter. Unlike JFK for instance, who encouraged people to think in terms of the country being better instead of each of us as individuals. 🤬
Perhaps we could find ways to circumvent the nonsense and evil that spews from the right. While reading your post I envisioned a White House photo featuring a newly installed solar array. What a step that would be for Biden to go all in on solar, starting at his current home.
I was thinking that, too, Wendy. The article I posted about Carter had a photo of him where you can see what looks like the panels that were installed on the White House back then.
Thank you Lynell. I’ll read the article. We have had the knowledge and technology, just as you point out about President Carter, to be environmentally conscious and self sufficient for decades. But the auto industry, the chemical industry, certain political parties, have scrapped or voted against policies and progress. Even in this last administration when TFG took office, he dismantled environmental protections and policies. It’s hard to understand how repubs vote against clean and efficient everything. Don’t they think about their grandchildren, the air they breathe, the water they drink? It’s discouraging that the life of our earth is shortened by greed and selfish motives. But there’s also the flip side. Maybe it’s not too late.
Thank you Lynell for posting this. I hope everyone following HCR reads this. This is the stuff that should be making news today and showing the country just what the party of Reagan has done to create the mess we are in today. I turned 18 in 1972 and voted in my first presidential election for George McGovern followed by voting for Jimmy Carter in 1976 and 1980. I still vividly remember Carter's fireside chats from the White House. My grandmother was such a Carter fan because it brought her back to FDR and what he had done to save the country and world. But also, she constantly reminded me how both men cared deeply for helping out ordinary people everywhere.
Splendid comment, Arthur. I agree with your grandmother. The press, however, always made negative references about him being a peanut farmer. But I was impressed having read about George Washington Carver's research showing the many uses of peanuts!
I've been bemoaning for decades that the American people did not heed President Carter's sage advice and that they did not elect Al Gore. (Well, they did, but...) Imagine how much the climate crisis could have been slowed had Gore been president.
We had just come back from Alaska when an "Inconvenient Truth" came out. It was so obvious to see even during a relatively brief visit of 2 weeks. I had been forewarned by a friend who had seen the changes from the 1970's onward. It is an absolute travesty where we are today. What is happening was predicted . . . the geopolitics, stifling heat/destructive weather, melting ice, pollution, wars, mass migration, etc. We are now playing "whack-a- mole" . . . . unfortunately, not a positive, long term outlook.
And what adds to the scariness is the effects of climate change are happening more quickly and with greater ferocity than the climate scientists predicted decades ago.
What a different world if Gore hadn’t had the presidency snatched from him by Baker, Stone and other cheating bastards. As I watched that, I had a feeling of foreboding like I had never had before. The boldness of the “coup” was shocking and I have watched my worst fears become reality.
Marlene, these are the times of not-so-quiet desperation. We’re backed into a corner, dependent on resources we have not developed. And blamed for not being ready when repubs have blocked progress at every turn. Ggrrrr!!!
If Biden doesn't get a grip on inflation and gas prices he will most likely be a one term President. I shudder more at the prospect of either trump or Desantis in the White House. I fully support the need to deal with the Saudis.
I recently pulled Al Gore's book, The Assault on Reason, out of my book case and started reading it again. It is just as relevant today as it was 15 years ago, maybe more so.
There is a book out called They Knew by James Gustave Speth, which details what the US government has known about global warming for decades. Husband’s library book and he’s a slow reader.
I confess to being a pessimist on saving the planet. In an earlierI post this am, I mentioned the drying up of the Great Salt Lake. In southern and eastern Oregon the drought continues despite all the rain we have had which will help us on this side of the mountains. Those same areas continue to vote R despite the fact that they are paying in the final analysis with their livelihoods. In Morrow County they have a big pollution problem which the DEQ did nothing about and the Port of Morrow ignored. And so it goes....polluting what little water there is.
Michele, the old saying, “if you aren’t angry, you aren’t paying attention” is so true. I’ve been driving my hybrid since 2012. Just visited family 330 miles round trip with 55mpg. I had to wait to buy it until Toyota added adjustable seats to its design, 2011 The “only” reason we’re not all driving alternative fuel vehicles is political. Our citizens are stuffing themselves on candy and ice cream, then wondering why they’re sick and fat. And they don’t get metaphors.
We were T-boned on the Winter Solstice this last year, so had to buy a new Prius and were lucky to get the last one that was coming in. We get astonishing mileage because we seldom drive out of town. When we plug in, our solar panels provide the electricity. I don't like to be angry all the time, so I try to save that for yelling at the news and garden (when it isn't raining) and read a lot to relax. When the news gets to be too much as it often does, off it goes and we stream instead. Finishing up Peaky Blinders and now we see the rest of Ozark is available. We don't limit ourselves to Netflix though. Watched Murdoch last night.
Think of choices and privilege. My car is hybrid so not plugging in. And has 89,000 miles. Hardly any added during last two years. My friend has a Tesla. We’re lucky we have choices. But when we look at the choices: fuel efficiency or huge pick up truck, same $$$, our choices matter. Speaking of luck, I spend time in Brooklyn with family when we’re not in Pandemic. The three live in a tiny fourth floor walk up choosing location over square footage. I have to find alternative accommodations most of time. On Broadway I saw “Hamilton” and next day, “INK” about the “real” Rupert Murdoch, how he got his start. A lot of testosterone power in our history.
Again, IMO HCR's Letters should be on the "front page" of every mass media resource and "required" reading in schools. Concisely aggregated and delivered information goes a long way in narrowing the information/education gap that has become so prevalent in this country.
I am always amazed when I read Heather's column and the clarity she provides one on the issues presently being discussed. We as democrats or independents or other liberal leaning individuals can clearly see just how the republicans are so entrenched in trying to create a society of rich elitists and have no compassion for anyone else and heaven forbid provide any social safty nets which would take any of the money away from their followers. The articulation of the inflation cause and the profits being made by oil companies is just terrible and to think no republicans would support fair regulation to help our country is just unbelievable. They want deregulation and this would certainly take us back to the early 1900's and the ear of the robber barons. Heather has provided such a wonderful road map of the problems and the solutions and now it is up to us to help make sure everyone knows who is trying to help and who is hindering any progress.
Heck...the 'pubbies don't care if social safety nets take money away from their followers...just as long as government taxation doesn't take any of their own precious money away from THEM. May the gods forbid a jot or tittle of their money hoard goes toward helping society. The .1%ers would do well to read the many warnings of Nick Hanauer.
What’s interesting is that I think they have read Nick Hanauer. That is why they are hard bore going at the culture war. Keep people fearful about “The Other”. Keep them alarmed that Imminently they are being “Replaced” by black and brown people set out to eliminate them and all they hold dear. This keeps their followers distracted while they pick their pockets and point at the Dems and say: “They did it!”
HCR, yes, your work and insights are invaluable but how can you write a piece on oil and inflation without uttering the words CLIMATE CHANGE?! It is beyond obscene that we as a nation and a world are willing to continue having the same conversations and playing the same games of power and politics all at the expense of our children’s future and our Earth’s ability to sustain life. It is completely immoral and would be laughable, if it wasn’t so dangerous, that we all, including this admirable writer and historian, continue to ignore this elephant in the room. There is no such thing as a prosperous economy in an increasingly unstable climate. In addition, if climate change continues to go unchecked the pressures of floods, droughts, crop failures, etc, will make democracy into a quant, unimaginable thing of the past. The Gods are laughing at our collective inability to see the forest for the trees but my 13 year old son doesn’t think it’s funny at all. We can’t continue to have our oh so important discussions into the future if we don’t integrate dealing with and making progress on climate change into ALL that we do. Our window of opportunity is running out! That’s a scientific fact we can’t afford to ignore! Thanks…
Tony Israel thinks. Cares. Speaks. Is outraged that HCR covers BIDEN - MBS and inflation and oil and IGNORES WARMING. See Rachel Maddow. Blow Out. Her masterpiece. She’s an honest genius. She’s running MSNBC’s blowout of Trump - GOP - Fascist Inc. The best are interviewed by Maddow. We see and hear there. We are incinerating the planet. Biden’s wish to survive demand pull inflation suggests a willingness to kill demand while feeding demand and sucking up to the dictator that killed Khashoggi in Istanbul in his embassy.. yes, politics makes for strange bedfellows and current history is not history at all, it’s shit politics by the blind. HCR and Maddow alike do not understand: deflation of the common denominator is driving prices and assures higher short term rates from the error prone Powell at the Fed. Chairman Powell screwed up and now he will crank the short end - that’s all the Fed can do. The long end of the curve is going to whip up and down like a Brahmin bull Sun shining in the rodeo. Oil is “near money” and increasing output will not do much to control demand. Biden’s FED and he are trapped. Covid-19 has not and will not vanish and here comes Monkey Pox, sexually transmitted by gays worldwide.
Midterms are our underbelly. Democrats must sell themselves and educate. Meanwhile, Trump GOP racists will try scorched earth on Blacks and color and homophobia, ignore Uvalde and slaughter in Texas by COP Indifference... and Abbott’s white trash pandering. Summer is here. Warming is destroying everything. Big Energy rules Biden’s wish to survive at 80, and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, read her minority opinions and cry - only Ulysses can cover Dublin, and we must blend Rachel Maddow with Heather Cox Richardson - oil and demand pull, civil liberties and fascism - Tucker the Fucker and Bill Barr’s Bullshit, Jeffrey Epstein’s movies, Ghislaine Maxwell’s trailer park prostitute production, and Les Wexner’s schizoid playground - watch for Robert Harry Morosky’s news - he walked on Wexner’s playground of 14 year olds in the ocean, all nude - and they’re all filmed - as Bill Barr’s father Donald of Dalton knew .. Letters from an American readers, HCR can spell, but she cannot read... Biden and his COS are trapped, as are we all, Khashoggi got out throughput in a sewer drained - the Black Sea is Putin’s MBS - and Ron Klain and Sec. Antony Blinken and DOJ and DOD are all praying in the temple of their truths, unable to speak it, for democracy and Democrats are watching the January Six Hearings and AG Garland pausing to allow the pressure to build - then we will charge the first US president with everything and he will swing in Pence’s rope, and the court of public opinion will call the meeting to order - a Republic If You Can Keep It will pair up with Joe Knows Us, as Moscow Mitch McConnell and our corrupt Senate and the push button default 69 vote veto kills children and democracy alike, it all started with slavery, cotton and sugar - and greed - the Negro Wet Nurse fed our white boys and girls, then had sex with the white boys to produce the lighter skinned proof of racial intolerance meets economic insanity... as DeSantis decides what they can read - Putin destroys Ukraine - and CO2 soars - the measures are everywhere - humans are committing suicide in increasing numbers - Denial Rules - Cider House Rules led to suicide, too, as a Black father raped his daughter and she was aborted - and SCOTUS is lost - so pray in the right temple, if you’re so inclined, my temple is truth, and that means all of it - Heather. To Kill a Mockingbird... feature the Black child, Heather, feel what she feels ... our history starts there. Adam Schiff gets it. The suicide in a Harvard law student sent the message. Pity his fabulous father won’t run to replace Biden. I’m up for change and our dead are speaking to me.
1. Republicans run the Oil Companies and they are ensuring high prices to make voters believe it is Biden's fault. We need to frame that message
2. Biden Didn't allow Nicaragua, Hondoras and Venezuela into the Western Hemisphere conference in LA because they were anti-democratic yet he is going to Saudi Arabia who murdered a US journalist?
I have a real problem with people who fail to understand that a president needs to do what needs to be done, distasteful as it may seem. I supposed you'd like to keep your lily-white consciences with the Republicans in charge of the congress so they can steal the election for Trump that much more easily in 2024? I can be all kinds of pragmatic when it comes to avoiding that.
I don’t see this as trying to keep a lily-white conscience. “Doing what needs to be done” ? Why does he need to go TO MBS? Why ask them to pump more fossil fuel when the amount we get from them is so small? Breaking a campaign promise is understandable when it make sense to do so. This does not make sense. The gop will never support it publicly even if they support it privately. So there’s no bump there. It won’t make a difference price-wise of any significance. So there’s no bump there. He’s bending a knee to someone who ordered the killing and dismemberment of a journalist who worked for the Washington Post, crippling any claim to supporting human rights. So there’s no bump there. MBS is responsible for thousands of civilian deaths in Yemen - with American weapons congress tried to NOT fund, but trump vetoed the actions. Now in 2022, MBS awards trump back-handed ly through a $2 Billion “investment” in his son-in-law’s “new” business. So as far as thwarting Biden’s standing against financial corruption, there’s no bump there. This is not a case of wanting to keep a “lily-white conscience”. It’s a rightful questioning of ANY upside gain for this action compared with the myriad, sober, REAL downsides.
And yet, we know nothing about what Biden’s discussions will include. His foreign policy expertise is legitimate. He’s not an “off the cuff” strategist
Diplomacy is not always about virtue signaling, its as TC mentioned, pragmatism
"Bending a knee"? Hardly. The upside is called doing business in the name of the American public who are massively addicted to their vehicles, hopefully staving off a Republican takeover and thus saving Democracy. The saving Democracy part is not hyperbole.
"crippling any claim to supporting human rights" The depth and breadth of human right issues is vast. This absolutely in no way negates America's record and continued work in human rights such as LGBTQ, Abortion and the Black vote.
TC, let me know when the GOP pat Biden on the back for begging for oil from the man that had an American journalist murdered. September 11th involvement? I haven't forgotten that.
Like most GOP propaganda, its directed at weak minded individuals depending on illogical false correlation from Tucker et al to foment their misguided outrage
Biden’s goal to reach consensus is admirable, but I believe he understands the futility of reaching the Foxers (Fochsers?) and as such is proceeding to use his office to lead America in spite of GOP roadblocks
That's hardly the point. The goal is to reduce gas prices and also in return reduce costs such as food. Single issue voting or basing policy on a single issue is dangerous.
Biden is doing what is best for the Country at this time. It's called situational management. It's a bold and brave play. I applaud Biden.
Then I will expect you to not say a word when the GOP rains down on this. No words when people can't feed their families and put gas in their car to go to work and will look for an option at the voting booth.
We aren't winning this fight and the midterms are on our heals.
As a colleague pointed out last week. The Republicans are treating Biden just like we treated Trump. If they gain control of the House and keep the Senate, as anticipated, they will move forward their threat of Impeaching Biden as they said the day Biden took office.
In spite of our preoccupation with events in the Ukraine and our domestic political soap opera, intractable issues in the Middle East have not gone away. I'm glad to hear that Biden is heading into that part of the world to renew ties with the most influential of countries, however far from our expectations for civil rights they may be. Our opportunity to influence the course of events in the future depends far more on engagement than on isolating other countries. It may seem distasteful, but dialogue is a first step towards finding common interests on which relationships and influence can follow. I'd prefer to see billions spent on diplomacy of all sorts than on endless armaments.
Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia speaks to his understanding of how the world works. My first reaction was that the Saudis SHOULD be a pariah state based on the behavior of MBS. Why is our President flipping on this? Because life isn't that simple. And the greater good will be achieved by having closer ties with a nation that has enormous influence in the region and in the fossil fuel industry. Keep your enemy close if at all possible.
It can't be said often enough. We are fortunate to have Joe Biden as President during these most challenging times (most challenging in my long life). I can't think of any human who could be steering the ship of state any better.
I hope he can bask in a comfortable retirement in 2025 after Corey Booker wins the election.
My post today is more a "what could have been," rather than our present reality. Indeed, where would we be today if the country got behind President Jimmy Carter's proposal to begin renewable energy alternatives back in 1977? Late last summer we installed solar panels on our house. The decision to do so was driven more by our concern for the climate than it was by the prospect of reduced utility bills.
On another personal note, we watched Air Force One last evening. I had an emotional moment watching the scene right before the President boards the plane, where he acknowledges the assembled crowd. I realized in that moment that as he stood before them, it was not the man; it was us that he represented standing there. We need to get that moment back.
Dr. Richardson. Congratulations on earning, through hard work for many years, your new position in the Academy of Arts and Sciences.
It is important for others who have worked to earn their way to see that working hard can matter in America.
As for gas prices. Oil is a finite natural resource. Working to keep it cheap so America can use, with it’s small population, a whopping 40% of this finite resource makes little to no sense.
American Presidents needed to insure that Americans understood the finite nature of oil after the price shocks in the 70’s.
Instead, using war and other nonsensical policy the US has suppressed prices relative to all other countries enabling Americans to drive vehicles back and forth to the car wash that are five times as large as vehicles in Europe or any other country.
Oil is finite. Let us responsibly allow prices to rise to reflect that fact and encourage people to conserve the oil that remains.
Not waste that oil out of the tailpipe of a 8000 lb, jacked up pickup truck, that serves as a fashion accessory not a work truck.
Wow. Such incredible explanations of complex current and recent history, put so we non historians can understand. And to learn of the award! I feel like I can be a small part, if only as an appreciative reader, of really important matters of each day.
Thank you for this, HCR. There are multiple readers of this column who have commented that the high fuel prices are Biden's fault when they patently are not. As others have noted, crude oil supply is global and market prices are set globally; prices reflect aggregate supply, not just the supply coming out of one country or another.
Thank you for doing what the media has not been doing: facts and analysis, contemporary and historical. The right-wing has left mass journalism in the dust of their clever but perverse manipulation of the public's perception of reality. The media needs to develop a healthy dose of rational, focused cynicism to make themselves relevant in a world in which one party in particular has taken a turn into the dark side. My local rag, the Columbus Dispatch, is burying the January 6 hearings on page 7, next to the ads, and not a word about Clarence Thomas's wife. Not an AP article goes by without a subtle editorial aside, critical of Joe Biden.
Hi there, neighbor! I’ve stopped reading the Dispatch, although my husband still does. It’s insanely expensive - more than I pay for the WaPo and NYT, combined.
If Republicans block legislation to rein in the price gouging by U.S. oil companies, I hope President Biden makes some noise about it. Getting the message out is so important! LBJ would have brought all of those oil company CEOs to the White House and knocked heads!
And, the oil companies would have responded with doing something beneficial for the country vs. lining all their pockets! Also $billions in the hands of so few (ala the Musk's, Zukerburg's, Bezo's of the world) is an economic disaster. $hundreds of billions that never reach general circulation.
"Billionaires play an outsized role in shaping the global economy, politics, and philanthropy. Forbes puts the number of billionaires in the world at 2,668 in 2022. The wealthiest among them belong to an even more exclusive club and wield still more power. Many of these billionaires are founders of technology giants, with much of their wealth still invested in the companies they started." Investopedia
Yes - messaging is indeed SO important- and, where Dems have *failed* so badly for decades. The Repubs craft their thinking into short bites that are memorable and easy to pass on - even when they’re lies. (Not, for instance, “pro-life”, as I’m sure most people here know, but simply “anti-abortion” 😒 )
Whatever Biden does or says, he will be roundly criticized by almost every repub. Bipartisan for the repubs means the republican way. Look at gun control. Tax breaks for billionaires, corporations. Dems are continually on clean up duty.
Before responding to tonight’s letter, I’d like to congratulate you, Heather, our national treasure, for receiving such a great honor. It is so well deserved!
https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/bcnews/humanities/history/heather-cox-richardson-elected-to-aaas.html?fbclid=IwAR2FtSw6QWkadkrSkip2QMiX0618AeLfYcQGGO0oxOetuh0KXoPlyGaMPx4&fs=e&s=cl
Yes! Congratulations, Professor Heather Cox Richardson! You are In good company: “Those previously elected to the academy include Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, Charles Darwin, Margaret Mead, Albert Einstein, Condoleezza Rice, Martin Luther King Jr., Bryan Stevenson, and Joan Baez.” WOW!!!
I'm sure she is relieved that Thomas Jefferson was not among them...LOL!
Good one, Lynell! And good morning!
Late returning to the party, Alexander...Afternoon!
Jefferson was elected to the Academy in 1787.
https://www.amacad.org/directory?search_api_fulltext=Thomas%20Jefferson&field_class_section=All&field_class_section_1=All&field_deceased=All&sort_bef_combine=search_api_relevance_DESC
Well at least they knew better than to mention his name in the same breath as Heather's!
Oops!
He was the anomaly! Shouldn’t have been given the award!
😆 Indeed!
🤣
🤣
😂😉
What a prestigious honor for a professor who in a sense has the largest, most devoted class of students anywhere — here! Our major is "Letters from an American."
Rice is likely a war criminal in the minds of many; stellar group in spite of…
Which Rice?
Condoleeza for her bold-faced lying during the Iraq War.
Rice fell victim of an Intel community that still could not see the difference between intelligence and foregone politically desired conclusions. It happened with Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs. It continues, and now the country will always reject and disagree with what its political leaders tell us.
At least Colin Powell acknowledged his erroneous public statements; Rice never did as far as I know. When the CIA officer told the administration there was no processing of yellow cake uranium from Africa, she was outed by Dick Cheney who chose to risk the life of an agent rather than back down on his dishonesty or insistence of war with Iraq. Given the lives lost and the billions spent, anyone in the Bush administration bore the moral responsibility of knowing and speaking the truth.
They all lied no? Bush, Cheney etc.
Indeed.
My thoughts too.
Well that's recognition extremely well-deserved!
Thanks for sharing this link!
Professor Richardson is indeed a national treasure and well deserving of this great honor 🌟
Wow, thanks for mentioning this, Rowshan! Congratulations, dear Heather! You are among exciting company with other previously elected members of the esteemed Academy. What a well-deserved honor!!
Glad you posted link, Rowshan. A subscriber, Lynn Freely, posted news of this on June 12th. She lamented that her three children had graduated earlier from Boston College and did not have opportunity of Prof Richardson in class schedule. There was such a slew of comments that day, I think that notable and very satisfying news got lost. Thank you to both you and Lynn for leading us in noting the honor that Heather Cox Richardson deserves for her part in preserving the common good of democracy. May we all be a valuable part of that.
UNITA! 🗽
Sorry, but I never saw Lynn Freely’s post, Christine. I just heard the news through a friend’s FB post yesterday and wondered why all of us weren’t talking about it, so I thought I should say something since Heather probably wouldn’t toot her own horn. It just seemed so strange that no one had said a word. My apologies to Lynn for not having been recognized. For me, it was just about my excitement about the news and wanting to get the word out to all of you.
Oh absolutely. Lynn didn’t want recognition. She was very happy to post news she had heard. It’s good we mention things again because not everyone reads later comments. I am so happy about the honor and recognition of Prof Richardson’s work.
Salud!
Thank you for posting it! Many of us would have missed this great honor!
You beat me to it, Rowshan! Thanks for posting!
So glad that you were aware of it, Lynell. I thought it should have made the news!
Thanks for the link, Rowshan! Wonderful news!!👏🏼👏🏼
Agreed! Congrats, Heather!
A heartfelt congratulations to Heather. You have made a huge difference in my life, especially educating me on history and its relevance in today’s world. Thank you for sharing this, Rowshan.
Thanks, Rowshan. I read that with great pride and pleasure. It's like a beautiful sunrise.
Wow. Rowshan. You are a 1st class reporter.
And congrats to our Professor. Well deserved.
Thanks, Rowshan. I shared this yesterday, but it somehow got lost. Or maybe I posted it only on her Facebook page. At any rate, I am proud of and happy for Heather, as I'm sure all of us here are. At AAAS, she joins illustrious company.
Sorry I missed it, Mim! Thank you for sharing it. Such important news for us all!
Every ounce of recognition is well deserved. Congratulations Heather!
Congratulations
Congratulations!!!! And thank you for bringing this to our attention Rowshan. Wonderful news!
Yay! We need to hear the fact of positive recognition, in an era that negatives get swept under the carpet, in favor of No problem if not convicted, or even indicted. Congratulations!!!!
Heather, thanks so much for laying out the causes of and solutions for inflation. How refreshing it is that at least one source of price inflation (shipping) is being dealt with by the Senate. There appears to be no appetite to deal with gasoline and diesel price gouging, perhaps because half the Senate sees the high gas and product prices as something that they can hang on Biden (and, by association, the Democrats). Once again, partisan power grabbing trumps the welfare of the American people.
Agreed, Mary! It’s so disconcerting to read that:
“In May the House passed the Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act by a vote of 217 to 207 with only Democrats in the yes column and all Republicans and four Democrats voting no. The bill provided a vague warning that it is unlawful to charge “unconscionably excessive” prices for consumer fuel during presidentially declared energy emergencies, and it gave the Federal Trade Commission more power to punish price gouging. “
So, what is President Biden supposed to do about gas prices? Nationalize the petroleum industry and then dictate pricing? Yea, that would go over like a lead, or unleaded, balloon.
The POTUS, any POTUS, has as much power to change the cost at the pump as, say, he/she does at the availability of toilet paper.
Who were the four Dems voting NO on price-gouging prevention?
Gonna track that tidbit down.
Let the faux viewers know that little tidbit!
I’ve decided to stop trying to engage the right who’ve drunk the Kool Aid. I am pushing
the sleep walking left to get involved, step up, speak up, run for office and get involved in local government. It all starts there. We had a big win in southern Maine today, Democrat Jackie Sartoris DA won big time. All these little steps will make a big one.
Yeah, there is really no reasoning with those folks, since their ability to think critically and to comprehend anything more complex than a soundbite or meme has been coopted.
They choose to believe what suits them rather than knowing the truth. Blaming Biden for anything and everything in some weird way makes them feel better about themselves. They'd be shocked to see how much higher inflation is in other countries.
I still go out on faux to distribute a little Truth now and then...just in case anyone might be ready to wake up to reality. One never knows!
Is it me, or are their responses getting lamer?
I don't know, they have not been the brightest of lightbulbs for as long as I have been trolling them. I accidentally typed "slightbulbs" which I really liked, but spellcheck had to intervene!
Rupert will never tell. They still label Joe Biden as a parasite, as does the old crone at the assisted living facility where I live.
Parasite? Why parasite?
I'd guess simply because it's a pejorative term when applied to a human being, no logic behind it.
She also said it will not pass a senate that is still controlled solely by Mitch McConnell and the dirty industries he truly represents.
Senators get money from oil and gas companies. Stockholders of oil and gas companies want to gouge the public.
Correction - Republicans get money from oil and gas companies. From Open Secrets (which tracks campaign donations): “Led by the oil and gas industry, this sector regularly pumps the vast majority of its campaign contributions into Republican coffers. Even as other traditionally GOP-inclined industries have shifted somewhat to the left, this sector has remained rock-solid red.” https://www.opensecrets.org/industries/indus.php?ind=E01
Yes. And this is why the gas prices go down especially around election time when a Republican is in office. And they go up when a Democrat is in office. This has been going on for decades.
The power of oil and corruption of the GOP; a marriage of civil parasites.
👍🏼
Ummmm. The stockholders are not responsible for gouging the public. Stockholders of all companies invest according to their ability to and expect profit or manage stock to avoid loss. This “gouging” and making insane profit is squarely on the companies.
The classic business ranking of corporate stakeholders puts stockholders first, then customers, then employees, then community. It’s hard to separate companies from stockholders - stockholders are the owners of the company. The interests of the stockholders are the primary driver of executive business decisions. CEOs who don’t serve the stockholders get fired. So I’d say that stockholders have significant responsibility for price gouging and “insane profits”.
Exactly....the pain people are feeling is calculated and the only thing Rs are interested in is power and money. This is part of the reason I call the Rs the party of death. Here in Oregon Schrader showed once again his true colors and announced the McLeod-Skinner will lose in November and then hung the socialist label on her. This week a person who has her ear close to the political ground said he wants to be a lobbyist like his wife. Meanwhile we are inundated with TV ads for Machine Gun Betsy, but some group is posting anti-Betsy ads on Facebook. Then there was an article, maybe Huff Post, on the drying up of the Great Salt Lake and all the problems that is and will cause. The good thing about today is that I am having my two hour massage.
That info about Great Salt Lake was scary, wasn't it? And no, I don't remember the source, else I'd link it.
Found it! Gift article:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/07/climate/salt-lake-city-climate-disaster.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxftm3iWka3DLDm4diO8RAo2J50qKfqNne5431jeWAdRALK5qT_hzy-ZDMglhShKhuYeJgtIFPyAx48qVb18B4qjsD_o-4CO4KS6wMvt-z7my-BzbOmO6D6zVzXVycAd6pcNhJkX523cN2qfHGuRw3NYu269yBYtoBmtVPFn8tPfiCB9-Od-Df0ucvlFwA7cFLGmVyd2M6LsAcxFQDkbFSB5842U779BaOLAHLfq1bk5gKIel3-JnWiE_J5ypBpYxW4HRi71t1LbMohCIw8e1rO4kU40yeiVedC2f1AO7eAOdKg&smid=url-share
The USSR was a few decades ahead of America. The virtually dried up the Aral Sea, the fourth largest lake in the world at the time. Water was siphoned off the two rivers flowing into it to irrigate cotton in the desert. Water was wasted and in no way managed. Part of the lake has been rescued but it will never be the same.
https://youtu.be/5N-_69cWyKo
Yes, it's heartbreaking. Destroyed all of the sea life along with the lives of all who had relied on the sea for a living. I've seen terrible photos of the dry seabed with grounded boats rusting or rotting away.
Los Angeles perpetrated similar destruction in the Owens Valley, draining it dry as a bone. Ironically, the Native name for the Valley was "place of flowing waters". From Wikipedia: "The valley provides water to the Los Angeles Aqueduct, the source of one-third of the water for Los Angeles, and was the area at the center of one of the fiercest and longest-running episodes of the California Water Wars.[4] These episodes inspired aspects of the 1974 film Chinatown. The current arid nature of the valley is mostly due to LADWP diverting the water of the region. For example, Owens Lake was completely emptied by 1926, only 13 years after LA began diverting water.
{snip}
"In 1997, Inyo County, Los Angeles, the Owens Valley Committee, the Sierra Club, and other concerned parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding that specified terms by which the lower Owens River would be rewatered by June 2003.[12] LADWP missed this deadline and was sued again. Under another settlement, this time including the State of California, Los Angeles promised to rewater the lower Owens River by September 2005. As of February 2005, LADWP announced it was unlikely to meet this extended deadline. Finally, in 2008, Los Angeles fulfilled its promise and rewatered the lower Owens River.[13]
In July 2004, Los Angeles mayor James Hahn proposed barring all future development on its Owens Valley holdings, by proposing a conservation easement for all LADWP land.[14] As of October 2004, Inyo County officials seemed to be resisting the offer of the easement, perhaps due to the prior history of mistrust over LADWP actions.[citation needed] Los Angeles began using a new, organic method of suppressing airborne dust from the dry bed of Owens Lake in 2014 pursuant to an agreement between the city and Great Basin Unified Air Pollution Control District, the Owens Valley air quality regulators, ending a bitter decades-long dispute over the water and dust."
Someone said Chinatown was a documentary.
The dust off the dry Great Salt Lake is going to kill many people and ruin lots of land
Thanks Ally.
Even more scary, there's this LA Times article: "Major water cutbacks loom as shrinking Colorado River nears ‘moment of reckoning". [BY IAN JAMES STAFF WRITER JUNE 14, 2022]. I'm no longer a subscriber so can't gift the article but here's an excerpt from the full text a friend sent out in the body of his email:
"The Colorado River supplies water to nearly 40 million people in cities from Denver to Los Angeles and farmlands from the Rocky Mountains to the U.S.-Mexico border. The river has long been over-allocated, and its reservoirs have declined dramatically since 2000 during a severe drought that research shows is being intensified by global warming and that some scientists describe as the long-term “aridification” of the Southwest.
“What has been a slow-motion train wreck for 20 years is accelerating, and the moment of reckoning is near,” said John Entsminger, general manager of the Southern Nevada Water Authority, which supplies the Las Vegas area.
He pointed out that Lake Mead’s water level, now at 1,045 feet above sea level, has continued to decline toward critically low levels. Hoover Dam could still release water down to a level of 895 feet, but below that, water would no longer pass through the dam to supply California, Arizona and Mexico — a level known as “dead pool.”
“We are 150 feet from 25 million Americans losing access to the Colorado River, and the rate of decline is accelerating,” Entsminger told the senators."
Yes, and yet so many assume things will go on as before. Our neighbors travel for a few months of the year to the southwest in the winter time and they have reported the steady decline of the the reservoirs. We have family who live in Burbank and we wonder how they will fare as things become more dire.
The loss of Colorado River water is only a part of it. Most of southern California gets its water from the State Water Project, canals from multiple reservoirs from northern California, reservoirs which rely on water from snow pack and slow melting of the snow so it can refill the reservoirs.
San Diego County has the best situation because of a desal plant on the coast and a couple of wastewater-to-potable water facilities. That water presently is used for irrigation and industrial needs, a portion eventually will go into a local reservoir (which reservoir water mix with Colorado River water then be treated a final time for release into our potable water systems citywide. Already a substantial percentage of water is now developed locally.
I want to say the Huff Post or the Oregonian. And yes, it was scary.
I agree, the republicans are pretty rough but remember people like Pelosi who does insider trading and other democrats who manipulate laws to get rich. The whole system stinks.
I understand that Ds sometimes do things we would rather they would not including Pelosi. However, the two parties are not the same right now.
This Letter needs to be amplified and shared widely, to counter the false narratives out there and to shed light on the deliberate efforts of the GOP to KEEP gas prices high as a political tool.
More than half of congress profits personally from that fraught relationship.
I am not ‘shocked’ that President Biden, after calling Mohammed bin Salman a ‘pariah’ in 2019 for his murder of Khashoggi, is meeting with MBS during a forthcoming Middle East trip. As a former Foreign Service Officer, I am personally aware that our national interests require official contact with some truly scummy people and countries.
Stalin was a ‘pariah’ to Churchill until Hitler attacked the Soviet Union in 1941. Then Churchill ‘embraced’ Stalin, stating that he was happy to work hand in hand with the devil in his fight against Hitler.
Personally I was outraged, when, in 1956, Khrushchev sent in troops to crush the Hungarian Revolution. Two years later, President Eisenhower invited Khrushchev to the United States.
MBS is the de facto ruler of Saudi Arabia. The United States seeks an increase in Saudi oil production to reduce the oil market shortage. To the extent that a presidential visit will assuage MBS—who is pissed at being treated as a pariah—, that is what nose-holding diplomacy is about.
Do you think that President Biden will personally meet ‘Killer’Putin in the next several years? That depends on what Biden determines to be our overriding national interest.
[How many assassination attempts against Fidel Castro were initiated by the Kennedy administration?]
Thanks Keith for this mature look at foreign relations. The faux moral outrage that people come up on these kinds of things is ridiculous. I notice they sure don't turn their nose up at the gas pump or beg for smaller cars or hybrids or electric.
When I was a Buyer for a major utility in my State do you know what the first thing I checked each morning as I drank my coffee? The price of a barrel of oil. Then I would read the international news. It is regrettable that an awful lot of Americans can't seem to see beyond their backyard fence. The Republicans are adept at tapping into the voters' ignorance.
Last sentence says it all, except that I would add stupidity
Willful ignorance. They willfully refuse to look at any news other than what they have been told they may look at by their cult leaders, including Fox.
OMG Diana. I was thinking the same thing. I keep comparing it to Jehovah's Witnesses who are forbidden to investigate anything outside their Watchtower publications.
Every time I talk to a republican friend of mine, he has to run everything past his leader, whoever that is, and the leader tells him what to think and what to say. He's a conduit - not an independent thinker.
Keith, I appreciate your perspective and sober reality check. And yet I still feel deeply alarmed by Biden’s visit with MBS. MBS, for me, represents the the cunningly horrific new generation of autocrats. Saudi Arabia has been the bane of our existence since they choked off oil in the 70’s. Nothing they do aligns with American values or principles of human rights. And it was Saudis who flew the planes into the twin towers and the pentagon. The House of Saud has drained their country of money while telling their people its the USA. Biden going to him? It strikes me as bending a knee to evil. And for what? A possible “maybe” that they will pump a few extra gallons of the fossil fuels we need to be weaning ourselves off from? The only thing more chilling about this meet up would be if Biden met him in the Saudi embassy in Turkey.
Michele Let’s make a list of whom the United States shouldn’t deal with, because they are scummy, rotten, killers, and/or lock-step authoritarian.
1) MBS
2) Putin
3) Kim
4) Erdogan
5) Xi
6) Belarus president (fraudulent election—opponents being jailed and worse)
….
It’s tough enough to deal with such ‘allies’ as Boris Johnson. I can recall several bosses that might have fit on the above list. Should President Biden refuse to deal with governors DeSantis and Abbott because they are ass holes?
What if a foreign leader announced that he wouldn’t deal with the president of the United States until all those ‘shootings of innocent little kids stopped?’
Keith, I hope that you don't mind my adding a more complete list of dictators from 'world population review'. It is good for us to recognize the large number of them, perhaps, spurring our determination that the USA not be added to the list.
'In fact, most dictators adopt common appellations such as "President" or "Prime Minister", so they must be identified via their actions and policies rather than their title.'
President Ashraf Ghani Ahmadzai of Afghanistan
President Abdelmadjid Tebboune of Algeria
President João Lourenço of Angola
President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan
King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain
Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh
President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus
Sultan Haji Waddaulah of Brunei
President Évariste Ndayishimiye of Burundi
Prime Minister Hun Sen of Cambodia
President Paul Biya of Cameroon
President Faustin Archange Touadera of the Central African Republic
President Idriss Deby of Chad
President Xi Jinping of China
President Félix Tshilombo Tshisekedi of the Democratic Republic of the Congo
President Denis Sassou Nguesso of the Republic of the Congo
President Miguel Diaz-Canel of Cuba
President Ismaïl Omar Guelleh of Djibouti
President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of Egypt
President Teodoro Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea
President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea
Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed of Ethiopia
President Albert-Bernard Bongo of Gabon
Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei of Iran
President Barham Salih of Iraq
President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev of Kazakhstan
President Bounnhang Vorachith of Laos
President Nouri Abusahmain of Libya
Min Aung Hlaing of Myanmar
President Daniel Ortega of Nicaragua
President Kim Jong-un of North Korea
Sultan Qaboos bin Said Al-Said of Oman
Emir Tamin Al Thani of Qatar
President Vladimir Putin of Russia
President Paul Kagame of Rwanda
King Abdullah Aziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia
President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed of Somalia
President Salva Kiir Mayardit of South Sudan
President Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan of Sudan
King Mswati III of Eswatini/Swaziland
President Bashar al-Assad of Syria
President Emomalii Rahmon of Tajikistan
Chairman Losang Jamcan of Tibet
President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan of Turkey
President Gurbanguly Berdimuhammedow of Turkmenistan
President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda
King Sheikh Khalifa Nahyan of the United Arab Emirates
President Shavkat Mirziyoyev of Uzbekistan
President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela
President Nguyễn Phú Trọng of Vietnam
President Brahim Ghali of Western Sahara
President Abd Al-Hadi of Yemen
https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/dictatorship-countries
Wham, bam, thank you ma’am. Wow.
Go get em, Wonderful Woman!
Fern Might you also include some Republican scum bags?
Excellent idea Keith. Please feel free, so far, no invasion of the forum has been attempted. DeSantis, Abbott, et al., appear to be otherwise engaged.
Thank you, Fern. I think you've acutely proved Keith's point.
The number of dictators in the world today is 'acutely' serious, Lynell. It headlines a crucial aspect of the lives of human beings on earth.
Exactly, diplomacy is not for the faint of heart.
Well put, Keith. The US and everyone else has to deal with the world as they find it. We have to interact with estabished governments, even when they have unsavory, to say the least, people in charge. But our long history of intervening to help dictators (Iran in the 1960s, Chile in the 1970s, and Nicaragua in the 1980s, to name a few) is another matter. The US has an atrocious history in helping brutal dictators.
"....our long history of intervening to help dictators (Iran in the 1960s, Chile in the 1970s, and Nicaragua in the 1980s, to name a few...". And this history has seldom failed to turn around and bite the U.S. where it hurts (except that are appears to have become numb).
They may be ________, but they are our ___________ is how the world ended up in this mess. America was the light on the hill to the world after WWII and then they came down hard on the side of unfreedom
Allen These days they may be bastards and they aren’t even our bastards. What a frightful development.
Now that would be something....
Excellent point Keith!
Excellent. Thanks Keith.
My concern is, what would the US sacrifice to get Saudi oil? Or Venezuelan oil? It is worth it?
The whole world would be better off if didn’t buy any Saudi oil and all and, to boot, put a strictly enforced $25/gal tax on gasoline.
And would we, the people, be willing to make that sacrifice.
Well said Keith
My lay opinion aligns with yours, Keith. Thanks for stating the reality that we are facing.
Oh the nose-holding diplomacy, sort of like when I choose to treat MAGAts as human. Joe will do what the country needs him to do, while being vilified by all, especially the guiltiest of all, Rupert Murdoch
Thank you for this clear explanation. I wish we did not have to deal with scumbags, but sometimes we do. I have always been a realist even when it made me squirm. Also as you point out, our own approach to foreign nations is not exactly clean. Some time ago, I read a book about Cuba which was focused on the Bush family's dealings there. Nothing pretty.
What is that saying? Hold your friends close and your enemies even closed?
The saying is "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer." The reason being it is always good to know what your enemies are up to. That way we aren't operating in a naïve bubble.
We have a friend much involved in local politics who often listens to enemy radio and visits enemy territory. I always count on her to help me understand what is going on locally.
That is a great reminder to me to do the same. But omg, it’s hard to listen or read the lies.
I'm sure it is. She is a political wonk and lives for politics. She and her husband are interested foremost in land use. Someone is always trying to undermine our land use laws here.
I am one of those persons as well. Although after reading anything FOX or people like Theissen I want to take a shower and a long long walk. Still. It's useful information.
Kudos to you. I can understand the feeling of needing to take a shower. The info is just plain poison and often icky to boot.
I meant closer not closed, but yes exactly right Barbara. Pretending they aren’t there tells us nothing. I’m glad Biden knows this all too well.
Thank you for addressing the issues that are affecting us daily, utilities, gas prices, inflation, peace talks, war. Development of alternative energy. That’s just to start. I, like all our readers, have a gift for seeing clearly what’s not only the future, but the past. Who listened when we and our friends knew we needed to change our environmental and energy policies and use? In the 1980s and earlier? Why aren’t we all driving and powering utilities with alternate fuel sources? Haven’t we had enough time to fully develop the resources and technology needed to be energy independent? Unfortunately politics and corporate greed have driven us to this moment. The “Inconvenient Truth” Mr. Gore, (who should have been president) warned us would be here if we didn’t respond to climate change. Global warming. In the next decades how will we drive, heat and cool our homes, grow our food, respond to pandemics, with local production of energy and goods not fully developed. We are dependent on countries whose own human rights history violates what we say we believe is important: Justice, respect for human rights for all, economic and social equality, safety, to start. But our reliance on corporate profits, funding wars, inequality here at home, bring us to this point. “Trading” with Saudi Arabia, China, possibly Russia. Trace it back to Politics. Corporate and political greed. Tax laws that protect the wealthy. Dismantling of environmental protection. Is it truly possible to save this planet for our grandchildren?
Irenie, I posted this Guardian article about what former President Carter tried to do back in 1977. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/14/1977-us-presidential-memo-predicted-climate-change
On a lighter note about him, I recall that he wanted to use ground transportation rather than using Air Force One for some travel as a means of saving energy. His experts convinced him that the amount it would cost an entire entourage traveling by vehicles as opposed to the cost of fuel for one plane, plus a press plane, was more costly. So he scrapped that idea!
Lynell, this is an amazing article. Thank you for sharing! I remember reading about the work Carter did, environmental and humanitarian. And how the fossil fuel industry sabotaged the progress for research and development. And still does. Carter helped start Habitat for Humanity, which I worked with in 2019. What stands out is how close we were to acting on Climate Change and what might have moved forward if he had been re-elected. This: “Still, it seems possible that if Carter had been re-elected, the world might have been in a better position regarding climate impacts today. One of the first things Reagan did after winning the election in 1981 was take down the White House solar panels. Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry – whose scientists were already studying the ways that fossil fuels were changing the climate – started spending tens of millions of dollars sowing doubt about climate science.” What’s with the repubs, I ask one more time.
The Republicans are mostly interested in money.
Mostly?
It does seem to be the only thing that impresses them.
I would say power more than money.
Before Reagan was President, he was governor of California. At that time, I remember clearly, I was nearly arrested for walking across the UC Berkeley campus carrying political posters. The charge was going to be "conspiracy to deface government property", which was false because our posters would have improved the place. A combination of lies, "oh no sir", and (mostly) white privilege got us off with a warning. Autocratic leanings in the right wing are nothing new.
Those Reagan years were brutal as were Nixon’s. Then we got the Bushies. All Repubs. All destroyed our country. Clinton messed things up with the adoption of NAFTA but no wars were started. Then we got an outlier (heavy on the lier). We have been asleep at the wheel. It’s up to us to navigate and vote for candidates who promote decency, fairness, and equality. Not hate thy fellow man.
Take down the solar panels? Now I KNOW he was an ass.
Agreed. The Gipper did more harm to the country than we will ever realize.
It is high time that we make a move to honor President Carter.
Yet again, Reagan emerges as a hero. (Sarc.)
We know what is with republicans, now they say and do it with no shame whatsoever.
Indeed. We need a public shaming of every "proud boy".
They have zero to be proud about
"What’s with the repubs?" Stickin' it to the libs?
This. Plus power/money/“what’s in it for me-ism” - also a feature of Reagan’s influence. “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” he told everyone to ask themselves, during his campaign against Carter. Unlike JFK for instance, who encouraged people to think in terms of the country being better instead of each of us as individuals. 🤬
Perhaps we could find ways to circumvent the nonsense and evil that spews from the right. While reading your post I envisioned a White House photo featuring a newly installed solar array. What a step that would be for Biden to go all in on solar, starting at his current home.
YES!
And remind folks of our recent, not to be forgotten nor buried history if Carter installing solar, only to have Ronnie take it down like a brat
I was thinking that, too, Wendy. The article I posted about Carter had a photo of him where you can see what looks like the panels that were installed on the White House back then.
I'd wait until after the midterms...
Carter made no secret of his dislike for Politics. A fateful attitude for this Country.
Thank you Lynell. I’ll read the article. We have had the knowledge and technology, just as you point out about President Carter, to be environmentally conscious and self sufficient for decades. But the auto industry, the chemical industry, certain political parties, have scrapped or voted against policies and progress. Even in this last administration when TFG took office, he dismantled environmental protections and policies. It’s hard to understand how repubs vote against clean and efficient everything. Don’t they think about their grandchildren, the air they breathe, the water they drink? It’s discouraging that the life of our earth is shortened by greed and selfish motives. But there’s also the flip side. Maybe it’s not too late.
All you say, Irenie; and maybe more...
Rupert never told them so much, Fox spent most of budget “entertaining” with vitriol re “libtards.” It’s still their “go to.”
Thank you Lynell for posting this. I hope everyone following HCR reads this. This is the stuff that should be making news today and showing the country just what the party of Reagan has done to create the mess we are in today. I turned 18 in 1972 and voted in my first presidential election for George McGovern followed by voting for Jimmy Carter in 1976 and 1980. I still vividly remember Carter's fireside chats from the White House. My grandmother was such a Carter fan because it brought her back to FDR and what he had done to save the country and world. But also, she constantly reminded me how both men cared deeply for helping out ordinary people everywhere.
Splendid comment, Arthur. I agree with your grandmother. The press, however, always made negative references about him being a peanut farmer. But I was impressed having read about George Washington Carver's research showing the many uses of peanuts!
Thanks for the reminder about the fireside chats.
I've been bemoaning for decades that the American people did not heed President Carter's sage advice and that they did not elect Al Gore. (Well, they did, but...) Imagine how much the climate crisis could have been slowed had Gore been president.
Yes, Gore, for sure, Mim.
We had just come back from Alaska when an "Inconvenient Truth" came out. It was so obvious to see even during a relatively brief visit of 2 weeks. I had been forewarned by a friend who had seen the changes from the 1970's onward. It is an absolute travesty where we are today. What is happening was predicted . . . the geopolitics, stifling heat/destructive weather, melting ice, pollution, wars, mass migration, etc. We are now playing "whack-a- mole" . . . . unfortunately, not a positive, long term outlook.
And what adds to the scariness is the effects of climate change are happening more quickly and with greater ferocity than the climate scientists predicted decades ago.
Feedback loops.
What a different world if Gore hadn’t had the presidency snatched from him by Baker, Stone and other cheating bastards. As I watched that, I had a feeling of foreboding like I had never had before. The boldness of the “coup” was shocking and I have watched my worst fears become reality.
Beautifully said, Irenie. It makes me shudder to know that Biden with be meeting with an assassin in Saudi Arabia.
I have no doubt that he is reluctantly going to do it to help we, the people.
Marlene, these are the times of not-so-quiet desperation. We’re backed into a corner, dependent on resources we have not developed. And blamed for not being ready when repubs have blocked progress at every turn. Ggrrrr!!!
If Biden doesn't get a grip on inflation and gas prices he will most likely be a one term President. I shudder more at the prospect of either trump or Desantis in the White House. I fully support the need to deal with the Saudis.
Maybe Biden has something on the Prince, you know, like evidence of something we don’t about…yet.
He's really going to have to stiffen the sinews. And maybe fast before the meeting.
I recently pulled Al Gore's book, The Assault on Reason, out of my book case and started reading it again. It is just as relevant today as it was 15 years ago, maybe more so.
There is a book out called They Knew by James Gustave Speth, which details what the US government has known about global warming for decades. Husband’s library book and he’s a slow reader.
Nothing like turning one’s head away like they’ve seen nothing. 😡😡
I confess to being a pessimist on saving the planet. In an earlierI post this am, I mentioned the drying up of the Great Salt Lake. In southern and eastern Oregon the drought continues despite all the rain we have had which will help us on this side of the mountains. Those same areas continue to vote R despite the fact that they are paying in the final analysis with their livelihoods. In Morrow County they have a big pollution problem which the DEQ did nothing about and the Port of Morrow ignored. And so it goes....polluting what little water there is.
Michele, the old saying, “if you aren’t angry, you aren’t paying attention” is so true. I’ve been driving my hybrid since 2012. Just visited family 330 miles round trip with 55mpg. I had to wait to buy it until Toyota added adjustable seats to its design, 2011 The “only” reason we’re not all driving alternative fuel vehicles is political. Our citizens are stuffing themselves on candy and ice cream, then wondering why they’re sick and fat. And they don’t get metaphors.
We were T-boned on the Winter Solstice this last year, so had to buy a new Prius and were lucky to get the last one that was coming in. We get astonishing mileage because we seldom drive out of town. When we plug in, our solar panels provide the electricity. I don't like to be angry all the time, so I try to save that for yelling at the news and garden (when it isn't raining) and read a lot to relax. When the news gets to be too much as it often does, off it goes and we stream instead. Finishing up Peaky Blinders and now we see the rest of Ozark is available. We don't limit ourselves to Netflix though. Watched Murdoch last night.
Think of choices and privilege. My car is hybrid so not plugging in. And has 89,000 miles. Hardly any added during last two years. My friend has a Tesla. We’re lucky we have choices. But when we look at the choices: fuel efficiency or huge pick up truck, same $$$, our choices matter. Speaking of luck, I spend time in Brooklyn with family when we’re not in Pandemic. The three live in a tiny fourth floor walk up choosing location over square footage. I have to find alternative accommodations most of time. On Broadway I saw “Hamilton” and next day, “INK” about the “real” Rupert Murdoch, how he got his start. A lot of testosterone power in our history.
That’s a big UGH!
Again, IMO HCR's Letters should be on the "front page" of every mass media resource and "required" reading in schools. Concisely aggregated and delivered information goes a long way in narrowing the information/education gap that has become so prevalent in this country.
Definitely. Particularly "required reading in schools".
I am always amazed when I read Heather's column and the clarity she provides one on the issues presently being discussed. We as democrats or independents or other liberal leaning individuals can clearly see just how the republicans are so entrenched in trying to create a society of rich elitists and have no compassion for anyone else and heaven forbid provide any social safty nets which would take any of the money away from their followers. The articulation of the inflation cause and the profits being made by oil companies is just terrible and to think no republicans would support fair regulation to help our country is just unbelievable. They want deregulation and this would certainly take us back to the early 1900's and the ear of the robber barons. Heather has provided such a wonderful road map of the problems and the solutions and now it is up to us to help make sure everyone knows who is trying to help and who is hindering any progress.
Heck...the 'pubbies don't care if social safety nets take money away from their followers...just as long as government taxation doesn't take any of their own precious money away from THEM. May the gods forbid a jot or tittle of their money hoard goes toward helping society. The .1%ers would do well to read the many warnings of Nick Hanauer.
What’s interesting is that I think they have read Nick Hanauer. That is why they are hard bore going at the culture war. Keep people fearful about “The Other”. Keep them alarmed that Imminently they are being “Replaced” by black and brown people set out to eliminate them and all they hold dear. This keeps their followers distracted while they pick their pockets and point at the Dems and say: “They did it!”
Exactly, they are deliberate, calculated and greedy. Oops, I forgot evil…
HCR, yes, your work and insights are invaluable but how can you write a piece on oil and inflation without uttering the words CLIMATE CHANGE?! It is beyond obscene that we as a nation and a world are willing to continue having the same conversations and playing the same games of power and politics all at the expense of our children’s future and our Earth’s ability to sustain life. It is completely immoral and would be laughable, if it wasn’t so dangerous, that we all, including this admirable writer and historian, continue to ignore this elephant in the room. There is no such thing as a prosperous economy in an increasingly unstable climate. In addition, if climate change continues to go unchecked the pressures of floods, droughts, crop failures, etc, will make democracy into a quant, unimaginable thing of the past. The Gods are laughing at our collective inability to see the forest for the trees but my 13 year old son doesn’t think it’s funny at all. We can’t continue to have our oh so important discussions into the future if we don’t integrate dealing with and making progress on climate change into ALL that we do. Our window of opportunity is running out! That’s a scientific fact we can’t afford to ignore! Thanks…
Tony Israel thinks. Cares. Speaks. Is outraged that HCR covers BIDEN - MBS and inflation and oil and IGNORES WARMING. See Rachel Maddow. Blow Out. Her masterpiece. She’s an honest genius. She’s running MSNBC’s blowout of Trump - GOP - Fascist Inc. The best are interviewed by Maddow. We see and hear there. We are incinerating the planet. Biden’s wish to survive demand pull inflation suggests a willingness to kill demand while feeding demand and sucking up to the dictator that killed Khashoggi in Istanbul in his embassy.. yes, politics makes for strange bedfellows and current history is not history at all, it’s shit politics by the blind. HCR and Maddow alike do not understand: deflation of the common denominator is driving prices and assures higher short term rates from the error prone Powell at the Fed. Chairman Powell screwed up and now he will crank the short end - that’s all the Fed can do. The long end of the curve is going to whip up and down like a Brahmin bull Sun shining in the rodeo. Oil is “near money” and increasing output will not do much to control demand. Biden’s FED and he are trapped. Covid-19 has not and will not vanish and here comes Monkey Pox, sexually transmitted by gays worldwide.
Midterms are our underbelly. Democrats must sell themselves and educate. Meanwhile, Trump GOP racists will try scorched earth on Blacks and color and homophobia, ignore Uvalde and slaughter in Texas by COP Indifference... and Abbott’s white trash pandering. Summer is here. Warming is destroying everything. Big Energy rules Biden’s wish to survive at 80, and Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, read her minority opinions and cry - only Ulysses can cover Dublin, and we must blend Rachel Maddow with Heather Cox Richardson - oil and demand pull, civil liberties and fascism - Tucker the Fucker and Bill Barr’s Bullshit, Jeffrey Epstein’s movies, Ghislaine Maxwell’s trailer park prostitute production, and Les Wexner’s schizoid playground - watch for Robert Harry Morosky’s news - he walked on Wexner’s playground of 14 year olds in the ocean, all nude - and they’re all filmed - as Bill Barr’s father Donald of Dalton knew .. Letters from an American readers, HCR can spell, but she cannot read... Biden and his COS are trapped, as are we all, Khashoggi got out throughput in a sewer drained - the Black Sea is Putin’s MBS - and Ron Klain and Sec. Antony Blinken and DOJ and DOD are all praying in the temple of their truths, unable to speak it, for democracy and Democrats are watching the January Six Hearings and AG Garland pausing to allow the pressure to build - then we will charge the first US president with everything and he will swing in Pence’s rope, and the court of public opinion will call the meeting to order - a Republic If You Can Keep It will pair up with Joe Knows Us, as Moscow Mitch McConnell and our corrupt Senate and the push button default 69 vote veto kills children and democracy alike, it all started with slavery, cotton and sugar - and greed - the Negro Wet Nurse fed our white boys and girls, then had sex with the white boys to produce the lighter skinned proof of racial intolerance meets economic insanity... as DeSantis decides what they can read - Putin destroys Ukraine - and CO2 soars - the measures are everywhere - humans are committing suicide in increasing numbers - Denial Rules - Cider House Rules led to suicide, too, as a Black father raped his daughter and she was aborted - and SCOTUS is lost - so pray in the right temple, if you’re so inclined, my temple is truth, and that means all of it - Heather. To Kill a Mockingbird... feature the Black child, Heather, feel what she feels ... our history starts there. Adam Schiff gets it. The suicide in a Harvard law student sent the message. Pity his fabulous father won’t run to replace Biden. I’m up for change and our dead are speaking to me.
" pity his fabulous father won't run to replace Biden"-- Raskin? --yes!!!
Great author, good husband and good father, Rep. Jamie Raskin Esq., would be our best..so...
DRAFT him. Draft Rep. Raskin. I love this man and he loves us all.
Draft is an old political concept. Think Ike.
General Dwight David Eisenhower.
Think Governor Adlai Ewing Stevenson.
Let’s draft our next president..
I love this idea!!! Smart and has integrity. ( My Mom loved Adlai--)
For love of money and power. At any cost.
All driven by racism.
And fear.
Wow Sandy. What a lot to take in. Thanks.
Take it easy but take it: Studs T
Sandy, great passion today. One correction: Powell no longer leads the Federal Reserve. Janet Yellen does.
Janet Yellin and Powell in tandem - she at Treasury, he at the Fed.
Oh, you’re right! Apologies- I should know better than to correct an expert 😂
That’s incorrect, KR - Yellen is currently the Secretary of the Treasury (horse of a - somewhat! - different color!)
Yes, I stand corrected. Should I delete?
Treasury. Sir.
My head is spinning…
BRAVO!
1. Republicans run the Oil Companies and they are ensuring high prices to make voters believe it is Biden's fault. We need to frame that message
2. Biden Didn't allow Nicaragua, Hondoras and Venezuela into the Western Hemisphere conference in LA because they were anti-democratic yet he is going to Saudi Arabia who murdered a US journalist?
I have a real problem with people who fail to understand that a president needs to do what needs to be done, distasteful as it may seem. I supposed you'd like to keep your lily-white consciences with the Republicans in charge of the congress so they can steal the election for Trump that much more easily in 2024? I can be all kinds of pragmatic when it comes to avoiding that.
Thanks, TC. Being a good and fearless ruler is a thankless task. Machiavelli and Marcus Aurelius sit side by side on my bookshelf.
I'm glad to know that. :-)
I don’t see this as trying to keep a lily-white conscience. “Doing what needs to be done” ? Why does he need to go TO MBS? Why ask them to pump more fossil fuel when the amount we get from them is so small? Breaking a campaign promise is understandable when it make sense to do so. This does not make sense. The gop will never support it publicly even if they support it privately. So there’s no bump there. It won’t make a difference price-wise of any significance. So there’s no bump there. He’s bending a knee to someone who ordered the killing and dismemberment of a journalist who worked for the Washington Post, crippling any claim to supporting human rights. So there’s no bump there. MBS is responsible for thousands of civilian deaths in Yemen - with American weapons congress tried to NOT fund, but trump vetoed the actions. Now in 2022, MBS awards trump back-handed ly through a $2 Billion “investment” in his son-in-law’s “new” business. So as far as thwarting Biden’s standing against financial corruption, there’s no bump there. This is not a case of wanting to keep a “lily-white conscience”. It’s a rightful questioning of ANY upside gain for this action compared with the myriad, sober, REAL downsides.
And yet, we know nothing about what Biden’s discussions will include. His foreign policy expertise is legitimate. He’s not an “off the cuff” strategist
Diplomacy is not always about virtue signaling, its as TC mentioned, pragmatism
Let us not guess about Biden’s intent
Exactly. Biden's not Jared Kushner, a bumbling meddlesome wannabe.
Yes
Yes
"Bending a knee"? Hardly. The upside is called doing business in the name of the American public who are massively addicted to their vehicles, hopefully staving off a Republican takeover and thus saving Democracy. The saving Democracy part is not hyperbole.
"crippling any claim to supporting human rights" The depth and breadth of human right issues is vast. This absolutely in no way negates America's record and continued work in human rights such as LGBTQ, Abortion and the Black vote.
My gag reflex would get a workout, but glad Joe is behind that podium ilo chump. I can tolerate anything that Joe does.
TC, let me know when the GOP pat Biden on the back for begging for oil from the man that had an American journalist murdered. September 11th involvement? I haven't forgotten that.
If we focus on GOP backpats, we miss the real issues. Getting approval from the GOP seditionists is not the goal
Dave, this plays directly into their "Biden is weak" mantra.
Like most GOP propaganda, its directed at weak minded individuals depending on illogical false correlation from Tucker et al to foment their misguided outrage
Biden’s goal to reach consensus is admirable, but I believe he understands the futility of reaching the Foxers (Fochsers?) and as such is proceeding to use his office to lead America in spite of GOP roadblocks
Politics has its place. Knowing what the response could be in making decisions is a good thing to consider.
But. The huge fact is: The Republicans will never approve of one single thing Biden does.
That's hardly the point. The goal is to reduce gas prices and also in return reduce costs such as food. Single issue voting or basing policy on a single issue is dangerous.
Biden is doing what is best for the Country at this time. It's called situational management. It's a bold and brave play. I applaud Biden.
Then I will expect you to not say a word when the GOP rains down on this. No words when people can't feed their families and put gas in their car to go to work and will look for an option at the voting booth.
We aren't winning this fight and the midterms are on our heals.
Too late. The Republicans will rain down on this just like they do everything else the Democrats do.
As a colleague pointed out last week. The Republicans are treating Biden just like we treated Trump. If they gain control of the House and keep the Senate, as anticipated, they will move forward their threat of Impeaching Biden as they said the day Biden took office.
Yes, I have a real problem with that!
In spite of our preoccupation with events in the Ukraine and our domestic political soap opera, intractable issues in the Middle East have not gone away. I'm glad to hear that Biden is heading into that part of the world to renew ties with the most influential of countries, however far from our expectations for civil rights they may be. Our opportunity to influence the course of events in the future depends far more on engagement than on isolating other countries. It may seem distasteful, but dialogue is a first step towards finding common interests on which relationships and influence can follow. I'd prefer to see billions spent on diplomacy of all sorts than on endless armaments.
“…on isolating other countries. It may seem distasteful, but dialogue is a first step towards finding common interests on which relationships …”
Yet Biden shunned Cuba and Nicaragua and Venezuela by not inviting them to the recent Summit of the Americas.
Go figure.
Biden's visit to Saudi Arabia speaks to his understanding of how the world works. My first reaction was that the Saudis SHOULD be a pariah state based on the behavior of MBS. Why is our President flipping on this? Because life isn't that simple. And the greater good will be achieved by having closer ties with a nation that has enormous influence in the region and in the fossil fuel industry. Keep your enemy close if at all possible.
It can't be said often enough. We are fortunate to have Joe Biden as President during these most challenging times (most challenging in my long life). I can't think of any human who could be steering the ship of state any better.
I hope he can bask in a comfortable retirement in 2025 after Corey Booker wins the election.
Corey Booker would make an excellent President.
My post today is more a "what could have been," rather than our present reality. Indeed, where would we be today if the country got behind President Jimmy Carter's proposal to begin renewable energy alternatives back in 1977? Late last summer we installed solar panels on our house. The decision to do so was driven more by our concern for the climate than it was by the prospect of reduced utility bills.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jun/14/1977-us-presidential-memo-predicted-climate-change
On another personal note, we watched Air Force One last evening. I had an emotional moment watching the scene right before the President boards the plane, where he acknowledges the assembled crowd. I realized in that moment that as he stood before them, it was not the man; it was us that he represented standing there. We need to get that moment back.
Re Air Force One: I agree with you. It struck me, at the time.
Dr. Richardson. Congratulations on earning, through hard work for many years, your new position in the Academy of Arts and Sciences.
It is important for others who have worked to earn their way to see that working hard can matter in America.
As for gas prices. Oil is a finite natural resource. Working to keep it cheap so America can use, with it’s small population, a whopping 40% of this finite resource makes little to no sense.
American Presidents needed to insure that Americans understood the finite nature of oil after the price shocks in the 70’s.
Instead, using war and other nonsensical policy the US has suppressed prices relative to all other countries enabling Americans to drive vehicles back and forth to the car wash that are five times as large as vehicles in Europe or any other country.
Oil is finite. Let us responsibly allow prices to rise to reflect that fact and encourage people to conserve the oil that remains.
Not waste that oil out of the tailpipe of a 8000 lb, jacked up pickup truck, that serves as a fashion accessory not a work truck.
Trucks and guns. ‘Murica. What an embarrassing national identity.
What about those with the huge boats, spending hundreds of dollars for a tank to go out for an afternoon on the lake?
Wow. Such incredible explanations of complex current and recent history, put so we non historians can understand. And to learn of the award! I feel like I can be a small part, if only as an appreciative reader, of really important matters of each day.
HRC holds the light up so that we can read.
Thank you for this, HCR. There are multiple readers of this column who have commented that the high fuel prices are Biden's fault when they patently are not. As others have noted, crude oil supply is global and market prices are set globally; prices reflect aggregate supply, not just the supply coming out of one country or another.
👍🏼
Thank you for doing what the media has not been doing: facts and analysis, contemporary and historical. The right-wing has left mass journalism in the dust of their clever but perverse manipulation of the public's perception of reality. The media needs to develop a healthy dose of rational, focused cynicism to make themselves relevant in a world in which one party in particular has taken a turn into the dark side. My local rag, the Columbus Dispatch, is burying the January 6 hearings on page 7, next to the ads, and not a word about Clarence Thomas's wife. Not an AP article goes by without a subtle editorial aside, critical of Joe Biden.
Hi there, neighbor! I’ve stopped reading the Dispatch, although my husband still does. It’s insanely expensive - more than I pay for the WaPo and NYT, combined.
If Republicans block legislation to rein in the price gouging by U.S. oil companies, I hope President Biden makes some noise about it. Getting the message out is so important! LBJ would have brought all of those oil company CEOs to the White House and knocked heads!
Added: President Biden is convening a meeting of oil company CEOs and conveyed that to them in a very respectful letter that is being mischaracterized by many media outlets. I was able to find the full text here: https://www.mediaite.com/news/read-bidens-full-letter-to-oil-companies-demandinghelp-on-gas-prices-historically-high-profit-margins-are-unacceptable/
And, the oil companies would have responded with doing something beneficial for the country vs. lining all their pockets! Also $billions in the hands of so few (ala the Musk's, Zukerburg's, Bezo's of the world) is an economic disaster. $hundreds of billions that never reach general circulation.
"Billionaires play an outsized role in shaping the global economy, politics, and philanthropy. Forbes puts the number of billionaires in the world at 2,668 in 2022. The wealthiest among them belong to an even more exclusive club and wield still more power. Many of these billionaires are founders of technology giants, with much of their wealth still invested in the companies they started." Investopedia
They “play an outsized role”? There are 2,668 billionaires too many.
Agreed!!!
Yes - messaging is indeed SO important- and, where Dems have *failed* so badly for decades. The Repubs craft their thinking into short bites that are memorable and easy to pass on - even when they’re lies. (Not, for instance, “pro-life”, as I’m sure most people here know, but simply “anti-abortion” 😒 )
Whatever Biden does or says, he will be roundly criticized by almost every repub. Bipartisan for the repubs means the republican way. Look at gun control. Tax breaks for billionaires, corporations. Dems are continually on clean up duty.
👍🏼