Today the White House announced that President Joe Biden will visit the Middle East next month. His first stop will be in Israel, and then he will go to Saudi Arabia, where he will meet with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), the man responsible for the murder and dismemberment of
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!
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.
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?]
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?
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.
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…
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?
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.
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!
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
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.
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?]
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?
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.
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…
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?
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.
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.
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.
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/