411 Comments

I think Biden’s approval of the Willow Project is a calculated political move aimed at his reelection. Conservative independents who are not comfortable voting for the “environmental president” now have a way to vote for Biden. Criticism by environmentalists serve to reinforce this view.

Conoco Phillips is a long way away from actual production. A lot can happen in the meantime; a presidential election is one of those things. If Biden is re-elected, there could well be unforeseen problems developing with North Slope oil production that will take even more time to resolve. Hey! Who knew?

Joe Biden is the sharpest political operator in Washington at the moment. He does nothing without a calculated purpose.

Those progressives/environmentalists who would stay home on Election Day in a snit because of Biden’s approval of the Willow Project, should contemplate the damage to the environment if (shudder)TFG, or indeed any Republican, gets elected president.

Everybody votes in 2024!

Expand full comment

So glad you shifted from the constant chatter of if and when Fake 45 will face the music to what Biden did today. He is slowly but surely handing back lands to the tribal nations, the rightful owners. It is important that he gives the proverbial finger to the fossil fuel industry which seeks to destroy and poison us all. Unfortunately, Joe is willing to sign onto the Willow project, however. I guess he is trying to even things out with jobs and future employment for Alaskans. I seriously don’t know if we will ever see gas as ancient history, but I sure wouldn’t mind it if it was.

Expand full comment

Thank you, Dr. Richardson for drawing attention to international affairs of great interest to all the world including us. Also thank you for telling us about the National Monuments President Biden has added and reclaimed. I realize that ranchers in Nevada and Utah believe that public lands should be theirs to use and exploit as they see fit. Thank you President Biden for seeing they are preserved for future generations.

Expand full comment

The stark contrast between the professionalism of Biden's national security staff and the keystone cops that were in place under the last administration is remarkable. Thank you for the "long view", Dr. Richardson.

Expand full comment

If you look at Putin's strategic options pre-2014 and considering that the Russian economy is smaller than Italy's, he had 3 basic choices:

1 Stand alone in the world as a nuclear armed but but second-level, independent nation supplying raw materials and energy to the world but without any real say in the workings of the world

2 Cozying up to Europe with the intention of becoming a significant member of the "peaceful" European community of Nations and help drive it to become the 3rd Block on the world stage, or

3 Imposing soviet nostalgia and trying aggressively to recreate the power that they feel they lost in 1990 and fing again their place in the world facing the US in a bi-lateral system as before.

As we know he chose the latter option but without significant preparation of the military, sufficient economic ressources to support a long offensive, real intelligence about Ukraine and with unrealistic political and military objectives.

Putin was facing 3 potential downsides should all not go well:

1 Losing the war and dwindling in importance in full view of the world,

2 Accepting American world-dominance and "converting" to liberalism, globalisation etc

3 Being forced to beg for help from China and thus becoming China's "sidekick" in Western Eurasia.

Well it is clear he chose strategy 3, things went badly and he ended up with downsides 1 & 3 without the possible benefits to the Russian people of the "downside" 2; the worst possible result and personal position for Putin. He is now the dependant offspring of the Chinese and he, personally is not actually necessary to the desired power surge of the Chinese. The Chinese will work with their favourite Russian Oligarch/politicians now to ensure a "clean", but sinophile succession. Putin will be "Gone, Baby, Gone"; with or without life and ill-gotten gains.

Expand full comment

Good perspective…I wish all of our representatives and their leaders could forget the petty crap and focus the extinction-level problems facing us righ now, Like nuclear ww 3, the next pandemic, and near certain climate apocalypse. Then we might see humans alive in 150 years to read and marvel at Heather Cox Richardson’s depth and wisdom.

Expand full comment

The great advantage of the United States today is American women.

Expand full comment

It is more than just about economics and military alliances, Xi and Putin's alliance covers an enormous fraction of the earth's landmass--much of which is critical to controlling climate change--especially due to the danger of permafrost in Siberia warming and liberating massive amounts of greenhouse gases. With the news that the critical deadline for major global warming mitigation has moved up to the mid 2030's the danger has increased substantially. Russia is going to be the wild card controlling global warming and it is in the hands of an autocratic madman.

https://hir.harvard.edu/climate-change-and-siberia-no-time-for-continued-climate-inaction/

Expand full comment

"The Republican Party has tied itself to [Trump] so completely it is now .... calling for the investigation or even the arrest of those handling Trump’s many lawsuits.... . Right now ...neither the legal nor the political momentum is in [Trump's] favor. " If these two statements are correct, the 2024 implications for Democrats are pretty good.

Expand full comment

Just when so many were expecting the top story to be Trump's indictment, you have the courage to point out that the top story was not our domestic one, but rather the international story involving Russia and China. As I was reading your letter all I could think of was Rick Blaine standing on a fog shrouded tarmac telling Ilsa Lund ". . . it doesn't take much to see that the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world. Someday you'll understand that. Now, now. Here's looking at you, kid."

If justice prevails, Trump and his minions will be dealt with appropriately. We just have to remember that there are other crises in the world -- Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the "mortgaging" of the Kremlin to Beijing, for example -- that exist and require our awareness and attention.

Expand full comment

Thank you Heather.

Don't for a second think that Trump's presence has faded.

Look at how many people, both Democrats and Republicans cling to his words.

That my friends, should unsettle you.

Be safe. Be well.

Expand full comment

Xi and Putin are brothers in genocide, Xi against the Uyghurs, Putin against the Ukrainians. Those countries failing to condemn these murderers, as India fails to do, also wage war against their own citizens. Republicans have adopted this war on their on citizens strategy with their dog whistling Anti-Semitism call of Soros, Soros Soros. Demonizing minorities is on the first page of the authoritarian handbook. Turning them against each other as Russian active measures did in the 2016 attempt to incite African American anger at Jews is one variation.

Expand full comment

When I think of the perspective from 2200, I can only think of two questions. Did we find a way to stop the overheating of the planet, and did we find a way to avoid WW3?

Expand full comment

I found this interesting: See Sam Greene's comments on Heather's front page. "If you're looking for the TL;DR on Xi's visit with Putin, it is this: China's domination of Russia is complete." Followed by a pretty full summary of their discussion.

Expand full comment

Thank you Heather, for writing about the Russia/China “alliance”, Japan’s support of Ukraine & Biden’s designation of park lands. Oil drilling too. Your mention of Trump is certainly important but , egads, he takes up so much oxygen and I do not like being drawn into that vortex, which is so easy to do.

Expand full comment

There are two loci, for me, where news and information is most important: locally, because what happens locally affects everything nationally on a much greater scale than the other way around, and the Rest of the World--about which we in the USA hear far too little--because ignorance of what is happening outside the USA means a total lack of understanding (and empathy) for the challenges and traumas that drive the rest of the human race who don't live in the USA. The Ukraine war has placed Eastern Europe in the sights of Americans but I bet that most cannot identify it on a map or explain why it is important. The coverage of the "anniversary" of the US invasion of Iraq has been infuriating me because of all the moaning about American deaths and almost no discussion of the--possibly as many as a million--Iraqi deaths and the complete and utter destruction of the infrastructure of a formerly prosperous and functioning country. I sympathize with American families that mourn the loss of their loved ones, but when the difference in pain and harm is at this order of magnitude, it's time to grow up. Americans need more information about what is happening in front of their noses AND on the other side of the world. Both are of historical interest, especially if one is a "longue durée" historian like myself. Medievalists are focusing more and more on the ways in which the activities and experiences of people on the local level affected the shaping of events and experiences on a broader scale. And we are coming up with radically different analyses and conclusions as a result: ones that are no longer adopting the 19th-century imperialist assumptions that drove the writing of history until very recently. We in the USA maintain our intellectual isolationism at our peril.

Expand full comment