2022 Archives

Want to know why gas costs so much? Trump may be long out of power, but the impact of his corrupt treachery lives on... It was a double-whammy for two of then-President Donald Trump’s biggest patrons, Vladimir Putin and American fossil-fuel billionaires and their industry: the price of oil was too damn low. Between the pandemic-induced collapse in demand for oil and the price war Saudi Arabia was then fighting with Russia — two of the world’s largest producers — Putin was being pinched badly. And in America, from Pennsylvania to Texas, oil producers were outright losing money on the oil they pumped. Gas prices were at record lows, gutting the profits even of refiners. So, Trump acted. It seemed inexplicable at the time, but in retrospect (knowing now how tied to Putin he was) it makes perfect sense.

We lost 45 years to the fossil fuel billionaires and their GOP toadies, who’ve kept us dependent on fossil fuels to keep their profits high - but still they want more, more, more... As Putin’s war of choice against Ukraine tears that nation apart, his army is in the process of seizing a second nuclear power generating station, which will allow him to cut off power — and thus communications, heat, and water — to large chunks of that nation. If most households in Ukraine had solar panels on their roofs and battery storage in their basements — as two states in Germany and the US State of California are now requiring for all new construction — blowing up or seizing a central power station would have far less ability to brown out large parts of the country.

The Best of the Rest of the News — As they were being shut down by Putin's thugs, Russia's last independent news channel played Swan Lake, the same song that Russian media played during the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. — Trump's henchmen are trying to run out the clock on the January 6th committee, and some may succeed. — "Don't Say Gay" legislation in Florida, Texas and other states is facing united opposition from students who are tired of being pawns in the GOP's election-year "culture war." — Putin's largest base of support in the US for the past decade or so has been white evangelical church leaders, who see his open hostility to Islam and his harassment of and laws against LGBTQ+ people as a model for the USA. — After Tucker Carlson has openly embraced Putin for months and now goes off on a cringeworthy racist rant about Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, will Fox abandon him or is this really and truly the Murdoch brand? — Will the Fed cripple the Biden Boom? — In Good News, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has rejected a series of Republican gerrymanders that would have cemented GOP rule in that state even when a majority of Wisconsinites vote for Democrats every election. — Crazy (and I mean really crazy) Alert! As the "freedom convoy" of mostly pickup trucks and cars with a sprinkling of big rigs heads toward Washington, DC this weekend, word has spread that the CDC has dropped their mask guidance and the country is moving past mask and vaccine mandates. — Quote of the week goes to George Will who, in a Washington Post op-ed on Friday, referred to Donald Trump as "a stray orange hair to be flicked off the nation's sleeve."

Will Republicans rally unconditionally to Ukraine's side if it costs us more at the gas pump and raises the price of home heating oil? Ukrainian Member of Parliament Oleksandra Ustinova asked this morning how many Ukrainian deaths do Americans have to see on TV before we stop funding Putin by buying his oil? I’d add, how many Ukrainian deaths do we have to see on TV before Republicans stop using the Russian invasion of that country to promote the interests of American petrobillionaire oligarchs?