Aren’t we already an Oligarchy? Maybe the Kochs, Tillersons, Cheneys, Bezos, Musks, Zuckerbergs, Trumps, DeVoss and on and on don’t live in a country where our leader own’s 25% of every business. But, these families are using their wealth to influence every aspect of policy, politics, media, healthcare, voting rights, policing, environmental policy etc .
For the first time I look at the world with a different lens. My heart brakes for the Ukrainian people. Putin is the monster of our generation. Zelensky is a model of courage & leadership as are his people. But, again I listened today to Mika & Kady imply they are more deeply impacted because the people fleeing look like them. I’ve NEVER heard any of the people in media say that about Syria, Sudan, the Philippines the Uyghurs except the black and brown people they had as guests when talking about police shootings in our country. Reaction & reporting are all intertwined. I guess I digress.
Big piece this morning on Huffington Post about MBS rallying his "allies" (i.e. neighbors who fear him) against increasing oil production to offset the Russian boycott. I guess his nose is still out of joint because Biden won't treat him like more than the third rate murderer that he is. Must be tough to go from being worshiped by Trump and Kushner to membership in the international pariah club.
Read the recent article about MBS in The Atlantic. It does not ignore the danger the man poses but it describes how he is pushing his society into the modern world — diversifying its economy, greatly loosening restrictions on women, allowing western movies and even rappers in, and taking power from the Wahhabi extremist religious leaders (at least within the country). It sounds like he is the most dangerous kind of autocrat — as evil as Putin but smarter.
I have tried a couple of times to get thru that piece. Nothing will change the fact that he is a bloodthirsty murderer. As for the Wahhabis, the Saudi royals made a deal with those devils long ago in which the royal family will bankroll the export of Islamic radicalism in exchange for control of those extremists within the Kingdom.
The article acknowledges the fact that he is a ruthless murderer. What is curious is that although he taken away power from the Wahhabis at home they are still being funded internationally. The article says that the source of that funding isn’t clear. I want to know if it sanctioned by the government and if not why MBS isn’t putting a stop to it. Surely he can control funds coming from his own wealthy people.
I have seen that criticism but I strongly disagree that it is wrong to write about things a murderous dictator is doing if those things are good. I don’t remember hearing that the media should not have reported on the fact that both Mussolini and Hitler improved their country’s economies. That fact helped explain their ability to gain so much popular support.
The Atlantic article does not whitewash the danger of MBS or the fact that he is a murderer. Personally found the fact the he is loosening controls over the public interesting and worth knowing. The fact that he has even allowed some pretty raunchy rappers to perform really surprised me.
I doubt that the same criticism would have been aimed journalists who had written a similar article about Putin if he had done things like diversify the Russian economy and allowed more cultural freedom and Putin is as brutal a murderer and a bigger threat to democracy than MBS, if not more so.
I wonder if the fact that MBS is allowing modernization and is taking away the influence of the religious extremists might eventually undermine his ability to control his people.
When President Biden told us to expect "pain at the pump," he should have told Big Oil that a windfall profits tax was on the way. Firing that shot across Big Oil's deck would have served notice on other practitioners of gouging, and possibly caught the ear of tone deaf news editors.
I am hoping that is going on behind the scenes for now. The oil companies could get a lot of good PR by stepping up production to help save the economies of western democracies. Right now they are using their windfall profits to buy back their own stock.
CONTEXT! INFORM! Same crap, different day. The oil companies are known for gouging. Eric is dead on. The msm ignores the meaty, important news and opts to rinse, wash, repeat political and partisan pablum. The world is on fire and big biz is profiting, and doing so proudly. MSM is failing us big time.
It is ironic that, as globally connected as we claim to be, we become more morally disconnected with each passing day. Here's a bold statement: there is NO shortage of oil in the world, only short men with corrupt minds.
Let us not forget that the pandemic disrupted the daily flow of coins into the oil oligarchs' piggy banks. 2020/21 were not good years, but they all managed to stay afloat. We are now in Act 2 of As the World Turns, and the players are squeezing the jugular of humanity by inflicting pain on those who need the resources the most. If Covid did not kill you, the price of oil will. So the real and big question isn't the predictable behavior of the worthless few, but why does the World bequeath its vital resources to a few who hold it hostage for its own survival?
Andrew Vachss, writer, summed up the greed of corporate oligarchs perfectly when he said, " In my world, people are always plotting. You have no idea of all the crimes people in business commit everyday. Like it was nothing. Or there’s a set of special rules for them. Remember when Bush made that whole speech about ‘corporate ethics’ last year? What a fraud. You think stuff like Enron or
WorldCom is an aberration? It’s only the tip. Business is a religion. Probably the only one practiced all over the world, "
Paul Krugman’s op ed today included a graph showing how global use of oil per unit of production dropped sharply beginning in the late seventies/early 80s and has been steadily dropping since then.
Scroll down to figure 2 to the graph “Global oil intensity and time trend”
I have not seen anything written about this for since the Iraq invasion but the last time I did the goal was to explain how Carter’s energy independence push was responsible for this drop and had continued despite Reagan’s attempt to undo it. Carter’s programs incentivized corporations, not just individuals, to become more energy efficient. I assume that the savings corporations realized has encouraged them to continue down that path. The intent of that previous article was to explain why spikes in oil prices no longer lead to the drastic rise in inflation they way they had before Carter’s energy efficiency push.
It drives me crazy that the same media who joyfully proclaimed that Romney was right about Russia will never, ever acknowledge that Carter was right about the crucial need not only for energy independence, but also for green energy and that Reagan was wrong — dead wrong — to promote dependence on oil and gas.
The media’s disdainful treatment of Carter — who they saw as just a “peanut farmer” rube from nowheresville Georgia — their willingness to blame him for things he had little control over (e.g. OPEC’s restriction of oil production) coupled with their refusal to give him credit for the many great policies he implemented did a lot to help get Reagan elected. We and the world would be much better off had Carter been reelected and empowered to continue pushing green energy technology.
Remember in the 70ties when the price of gas shot up, and there was a limit put on how much you could buy at once? Lines around the corner, stations running out of gas, people cheering the supply trucks.
We all blamed Iran, not our President. Well, most Americans anyway.
Truth social? trump's new media platform name seems to have been inspired by George Orwell. That's one lie that won't come true no matter how many times it's repeated.
Oh, I'm sure it'll work some day. What numbers it attracts is a huge question. Secondary question maybe: Does it even matter?
And how well it runs is the secondary goal of the site. Primary is using it to enrich Crooked Donnie. And I forget, it either has already or is pretty much guaranteed to.
The West not only provoked Russia but failed to prepare for this or maybe even have any concern about it happening.
Putin already has a minor victory that neoliberalism prevents from addressing: showing that West is relatively powerless, beholden to promoting capitalism and ignoring global security to maximize profits (which only coincidental to mass material improvement).
To refer again to my favorite all-time editorial name, Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee, he once said that he would rather hire a scientist who knew the field who they could teach to write than have a reporter start covering science and need to get up to speed. I wonder how many economics degrees there are among DC's political media brothel and, more crucially, among those, how many trained at the University of Chicago, which demonstrated its lack of interest in actual economics by hiring Milton Friedman.
Morning Joe had some guy from CNBC on this morning talking about oil prices. In his one line about the huge profits the oil companies are making, he suggested, in passing, that those companies should use the money to invest in more exploration. Totally ignored the fact that oil companies are sitting on 9000+ leases they don't care to exploit. Or the need for a windfall profits tax. Not that we would expect anything like talk of raising taxes, even on those that deserve it, on Morning Joe.
Actually I have heard many discussions on Morning Joe led by Joe about how wrong it is for big companies and plutocrats to get away with paying no taxes. I would guess in this case the people in that discussion weren’t very knowledgeable about the topic but willing to spout their opinions anyway which happens far too often.
I have heard Joe call for tax increase on those corporations and plutocrats and more than once. (I watch most days because it is supposed to be the show most watched by people in DC power circles so I want to know what they are hearing.)
Don’t get me wrong, the man often drives me crazy but he has changed his tune on a lot of positions since Trump. Of course he will never admit that he and Mika helped Trump during the 2015 primaries but he has been tough on this issue. He has also complained that the Trump supporters in his family and long time friends don’t realize these guys pay nothing or far less in taxes than they do.
You have more intestinal fortitude that I my friend. I usually can't do more than a half hour, more if he opens the show with a long segment on baseball...
I read emails and sites like this one during the show. If I didn’t I would go insane. Thank goodness there are people like Eric, Eric Alterman and Dan Froomkin who are willing to read all the media bs because doing that would push me completely off the deep end.
“Thank God the party that unanimously voted AGAINST reducing childcare costs and pre-K costs and insulin costs and prescription drug costs is looking out for us when it comes to gas costs. Whew.”
Once again we as a nation are caught with our pants down because at every opportunity throughout recent history, we refused to stop stroking the balls of oil billionaires. Imagine if we had actually listened to Jimmy Carter almost 50 years ago and got our energy independence act together, how things could have been so different today. Even if we had paid attention to Al Gore twenty years later and so many others since, not only would our environment be on the road to recovery but two-bit dictators like Putin and Middle East oil tycoons would have had no market for their dirty oil. Yes, I'm glad the majority of Americans are willing to pay higher gas prices for the benefit of Ukraine but it sure is hypocritical when you consider how many oppressed peoples we didn't give a shit about who live under oil rule in the Middle East or how many third world peoples have faced genocide over the years. I guess it has something to do with the fact that this time, the people being oppressed are white. Here we are at yet another moment in history where we might decide that now is the time to seriously move to green energy like land and space based solar, wind, and offshore. We can decapitate the power of big oil. But somehow I have a feeling that if we're still here in twenty years, we will still be sucking the teat of the oil companies. And finally since this blog is mostly about media, where the hell are they in pointing these things out?
For decades the media has been terrible on this issue. I posted about their lack of attention to Carter’s energy policies above before I saw your post. I think you would be interested in the link to the data on the steady drop in oil consumption per unit of gdp since Carter.
For years the media framed Democrats’ concern for the environment as a soft, “girly” issue although I think the evidence of climate change has scared them in recent years. But back in 2000 Maureen Down openly mocked Gore for his concern about the environment, writing "Al Gore is so feminized and diversified and ecologically correct, he's practically lactating."
I realize the odious Dowd writes an opinion column but the fact that her statement was not only stupid but deeply sexist and insulting to any woman who has ever nursed a baby makes me wonder why the editors ever allowed it. Surely they would not allow an similarly racist comment to be posted on their site.
I remember that piece by Dowd. I never understood how women can agree with the sexism that men project on women. Sadly I've seen female relatives and friends too often support their husband/boyfriend's viewpoint that treat women as second class citizens. Women not only have to overcome men objectifying them, they must overcome many enabling women.
The US isn’t the problem here, it’s the Europeans who are dependent on Russian oil and especially gas. GOP are using the crisis to call for more oil production and consumption and a roll back of environmental protections. Even though oil production is at its highest levels ever and the industry refuses to use the thousands of approved permits it has. This realty is a media narrative problem.
I don't disagree. I simply am pointing out that our reluctance to go green when we could have dominated the energy industry put us and the rest of the western world under the thumb of the oil oligarchs. If we had done our homework and created the green infrastructure we still talk about, Europe and much of the world would have followed suit. We could have been the world leader in renewable energy but instead, we coward to the oil billionaires.
Be specific, please. It wasn't "our reluctance." It was the GOP, from Reagan through Drill baby, drill, through the liars today. Regan removed the solar panels on the White House, etc etc through Trump opening up ANWAR for drilling. And the media allowed themselves to be played with their usual bothersiderism BS. "Some scientists say the earth is round, and pictures from space seem to confirm that, but others aren't quite sure and have even questioned if those photos are real."
First, Truth Social: When has Trump and/or his name ever been associated with something that isn't a piece of crap? So, I, personally, am disappointed because I so long to be able to bring truth to #MAGAts and I remain stymied and frustrated because TS is so far a Trump Shit Show®.
As for the actual focus of the post: How is this crappy reporting not harmful, how does it inform people in any way that's, you know, good for society?
And I have to say, despite being soft on Ukraine -- tl;dr: I don't see how in a real world Hod do we get there way ending well for Ukraine -- while Ukrainians are literally fighting for their lives and independence, we can't make the sacrifice of temporary higher gas prices. Now, maybe a functional state (which we're not) would impose an excess profits tax ASAP and use same to mitigate the price gouging...
But the infantilism of the American people here as well as with their opposition to responding to a global pandemic by wearing masks and getting vaccinated, I mean, JFC, what a fucking disgrace. (Full disclosure: Got my Covid, in all likelihood, from some local cracker who believes in freedumb and therefor was incapable of going out in public masked, you know, like any decent person with a scintilla of compassion and responsibility. But, you know, being led by an infantile bully for four years was taken by some as encouragement.)
As for the beating of the drum for more oil: Well, the dependency on fossils is actually a huge problem in the context of the invasion and, of course, more generally, climate change. OTOH, mainstream reporting on the invasion has been both grossly excessive and conservatively 90% bullshit/propaganda. So this, sure, why not.
I hope I am not blaming the victim here, but I could not help but notice some of the man-on-the-street interviews with pumping gas/sticker shock were with SUV (and larger) vehicles with notoriously bad mileage.
Second point: Isn’t the Consumer Protection Bureau supposed to have some ability to stop price gouging?
Last point (I promise): Americans generally do not understand the dismal science of economics (which is not an actual science) and so we are very gullible to this sort of reporting. Again, I think that journalists need to have something akin to the American Bar Association and police themselves, enforce standards, and enable a code of ethics.
1) Fossil fuel companies have never put public interest anywhere near the top of their priorities. Maximizing profit and shareholder value is job one, always has been. That's why they have invested so heavily in climate denial.
2) They are not investing in more drilling because they know there will be increasing pressure to get off fossil fuels, to eliminate reliance on volatile suppliers in uncertain regions for strategic reasons, as well as the growing impact of climate they can no longer deny/ignore. They are cashing in while they can rather than making long term investments.
3) The media obsession with blaming Biden for high gas prices demonstrates that they are taking their talking points and narratives directly from the right wing. It's no longer possible to excuse it or deny it. As long as Democrats are unable to push back, it will only get worse.
4) This goes hand in hand with media reluctance to call out fossil fuel companies for price gouging. Talking about corporate responsibility is dangerously close to Socialism as far as the media and the right wing are concerned.
Corporate interest, media and oil, are always driven by the bottom line- which becomes predatory when media and oil have market power due to their massive corporate size and concentration in a few players. By high gas prices and misleading reporting, both oil and media aim to influence the way Americans will vote. We basically have oil and media cartels favoring the election of an authoritarian GOP. Their best interests, not ours.
The only people who seem to be aware of it are retailers of fuel oil and gasoline (a certain Mr. Metz who owns dozens of filling stations in CT MA and NY for example), but a lot of the price we pay goes directly into the pockets of bankers (Goldman Sachs, for one) who deal in oil futures. The man who delivers my fuel oil said there's pretty simple fix - if they were required to actually take possession, rather than leaving in in tankers moored offshore while they play around with it, the trading would stop and prices would go down by as much as 1/3. Something that deserves investigation.
Aren’t we already an Oligarchy? Maybe the Kochs, Tillersons, Cheneys, Bezos, Musks, Zuckerbergs, Trumps, DeVoss and on and on don’t live in a country where our leader own’s 25% of every business. But, these families are using their wealth to influence every aspect of policy, politics, media, healthcare, voting rights, policing, environmental policy etc .
For the first time I look at the world with a different lens. My heart brakes for the Ukrainian people. Putin is the monster of our generation. Zelensky is a model of courage & leadership as are his people. But, again I listened today to Mika & Kady imply they are more deeply impacted because the people fleeing look like them. I’ve NEVER heard any of the people in media say that about Syria, Sudan, the Philippines the Uyghurs except the black and brown people they had as guests when talking about police shootings in our country. Reaction & reporting are all intertwined. I guess I digress.
sad but true re: western response to Ukraine (and how it’s portrayed in the press) vs it’s response to Middle East etc
Big piece this morning on Huffington Post about MBS rallying his "allies" (i.e. neighbors who fear him) against increasing oil production to offset the Russian boycott. I guess his nose is still out of joint because Biden won't treat him like more than the third rate murderer that he is. Must be tough to go from being worshiped by Trump and Kushner to membership in the international pariah club.
Read the recent article about MBS in The Atlantic. It does not ignore the danger the man poses but it describes how he is pushing his society into the modern world — diversifying its economy, greatly loosening restrictions on women, allowing western movies and even rappers in, and taking power from the Wahhabi extremist religious leaders (at least within the country). It sounds like he is the most dangerous kind of autocrat — as evil as Putin but smarter.
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/04/mohammed-bin-salman-saudi-arabia-palace-interview/622822/
I have tried a couple of times to get thru that piece. Nothing will change the fact that he is a bloodthirsty murderer. As for the Wahhabis, the Saudi royals made a deal with those devils long ago in which the royal family will bankroll the export of Islamic radicalism in exchange for control of those extremists within the Kingdom.
The article acknowledges the fact that he is a ruthless murderer. What is curious is that although he taken away power from the Wahhabis at home they are still being funded internationally. The article says that the source of that funding isn’t clear. I want to know if it sanctioned by the government and if not why MBS isn’t putting a stop to it. Surely he can control funds coming from his own wealthy people.
It’s getting SLAMMED
I have seen that criticism but I strongly disagree that it is wrong to write about things a murderous dictator is doing if those things are good. I don’t remember hearing that the media should not have reported on the fact that both Mussolini and Hitler improved their country’s economies. That fact helped explain their ability to gain so much popular support.
The Atlantic article does not whitewash the danger of MBS or the fact that he is a murderer. Personally found the fact the he is loosening controls over the public interesting and worth knowing. The fact that he has even allowed some pretty raunchy rappers to perform really surprised me.
I doubt that the same criticism would have been aimed journalists who had written a similar article about Putin if he had done things like diversify the Russian economy and allowed more cultural freedom and Putin is as brutal a murderer and a bigger threat to democracy than MBS, if not more so.
I wonder if the fact that MBS is allowing modernization and is taking away the influence of the religious extremists might eventually undermine his ability to control his people.
When President Biden told us to expect "pain at the pump," he should have told Big Oil that a windfall profits tax was on the way. Firing that shot across Big Oil's deck would have served notice on other practitioners of gouging, and possibly caught the ear of tone deaf news editors.
I am hoping that is going on behind the scenes for now. The oil companies could get a lot of good PR by stepping up production to help save the economies of western democracies. Right now they are using their windfall profits to buy back their own stock.
Such a tax won’t happen because The GOP in Congress would never vote for it.
The sad truth is that Boris Manchin and Natasha Sinema won't let a windfall tax come to the floor of the Senate.
CONTEXT! INFORM! Same crap, different day. The oil companies are known for gouging. Eric is dead on. The msm ignores the meaty, important news and opts to rinse, wash, repeat political and partisan pablum. The world is on fire and big biz is profiting, and doing so proudly. MSM is failing us big time.
it’s just astonishing how media turn energy giants into non-players in coverage of gas prices
That is because they are only shills for their advertisers, that’s the only reason they exist. It’s disgusting
It is ironic that, as globally connected as we claim to be, we become more morally disconnected with each passing day. Here's a bold statement: there is NO shortage of oil in the world, only short men with corrupt minds.
Let us not forget that the pandemic disrupted the daily flow of coins into the oil oligarchs' piggy banks. 2020/21 were not good years, but they all managed to stay afloat. We are now in Act 2 of As the World Turns, and the players are squeezing the jugular of humanity by inflicting pain on those who need the resources the most. If Covid did not kill you, the price of oil will. So the real and big question isn't the predictable behavior of the worthless few, but why does the World bequeath its vital resources to a few who hold it hostage for its own survival?
Andrew Vachss, writer, summed up the greed of corporate oligarchs perfectly when he said, " In my world, people are always plotting. You have no idea of all the crimes people in business commit everyday. Like it was nothing. Or there’s a set of special rules for them. Remember when Bush made that whole speech about ‘corporate ethics’ last year? What a fraud. You think stuff like Enron or
WorldCom is an aberration? It’s only the tip. Business is a religion. Probably the only one practiced all over the world, "
How truthful is that ?
I think most of what corporate oligarchs do is perfectly legal these days which is the real problem.
Paul Krugman’s op ed today included a graph showing how global use of oil per unit of production dropped sharply beginning in the late seventies/early 80s and has been steadily dropping since then.
Scroll down to figure 2 to the graph “Global oil intensity and time trend”
https://www.energypolicy.columbia.edu/research/report/oil-intensity-curiously-steady-decline-oil-gdp
I have not seen anything written about this for since the Iraq invasion but the last time I did the goal was to explain how Carter’s energy independence push was responsible for this drop and had continued despite Reagan’s attempt to undo it. Carter’s programs incentivized corporations, not just individuals, to become more energy efficient. I assume that the savings corporations realized has encouraged them to continue down that path. The intent of that previous article was to explain why spikes in oil prices no longer lead to the drastic rise in inflation they way they had before Carter’s energy efficiency push.
It drives me crazy that the same media who joyfully proclaimed that Romney was right about Russia will never, ever acknowledge that Carter was right about the crucial need not only for energy independence, but also for green energy and that Reagan was wrong — dead wrong — to promote dependence on oil and gas.
The media’s disdainful treatment of Carter — who they saw as just a “peanut farmer” rube from nowheresville Georgia — their willingness to blame him for things he had little control over (e.g. OPEC’s restriction of oil production) coupled with their refusal to give him credit for the many great policies he implemented did a lot to help get Reagan elected. We and the world would be much better off had Carter been reelected and empowered to continue pushing green energy technology.
Remember in the 70ties when the price of gas shot up, and there was a limit put on how much you could buy at once? Lines around the corner, stations running out of gas, people cheering the supply trucks.
We all blamed Iran, not our President. Well, most Americans anyway.
So many scales. So many thumbs.
Truth social? trump's new media platform name seems to have been inspired by George Orwell. That's one lie that won't come true no matter how many times it's repeated.
and it was destined to flop!
Oh, I'm sure it'll work some day. What numbers it attracts is a huge question. Secondary question maybe: Does it even matter?
And how well it runs is the secondary goal of the site. Primary is using it to enrich Crooked Donnie. And I forget, it either has already or is pretty much guaranteed to.
Why he was free to ‘launch’ this is absolutely UNREAL. No words.
The West not only provoked Russia but failed to prepare for this or maybe even have any concern about it happening.
Putin already has a minor victory that neoliberalism prevents from addressing: showing that West is relatively powerless, beholden to promoting capitalism and ignoring global security to maximize profits (which only coincidental to mass material improvement).
To say the least. But, yes, amazing.
Poor Putin, so misunderstood.
Not following ‘provoked’ part(?), but noted.
Provided numerous reasons albeit no justification for invading.
To refer again to my favorite all-time editorial name, Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee, he once said that he would rather hire a scientist who knew the field who they could teach to write than have a reporter start covering science and need to get up to speed. I wonder how many economics degrees there are among DC's political media brothel and, more crucially, among those, how many trained at the University of Chicago, which demonstrated its lack of interest in actual economics by hiring Milton Friedman.
Morning Joe had some guy from CNBC on this morning talking about oil prices. In his one line about the huge profits the oil companies are making, he suggested, in passing, that those companies should use the money to invest in more exploration. Totally ignored the fact that oil companies are sitting on 9000+ leases they don't care to exploit. Or the need for a windfall profits tax. Not that we would expect anything like talk of raising taxes, even on those that deserve it, on Morning Joe.
Actually I have heard many discussions on Morning Joe led by Joe about how wrong it is for big companies and plutocrats to get away with paying no taxes. I would guess in this case the people in that discussion weren’t very knowledgeable about the topic but willing to spout their opinions anyway which happens far too often.
But you do not really hear them calling for tax increases. Joe’s Reaganite fantasy world only allows so much.
I have heard Joe call for tax increase on those corporations and plutocrats and more than once. (I watch most days because it is supposed to be the show most watched by people in DC power circles so I want to know what they are hearing.)
Don’t get me wrong, the man often drives me crazy but he has changed his tune on a lot of positions since Trump. Of course he will never admit that he and Mika helped Trump during the 2015 primaries but he has been tough on this issue. He has also complained that the Trump supporters in his family and long time friends don’t realize these guys pay nothing or far less in taxes than they do.
You have more intestinal fortitude that I my friend. I usually can't do more than a half hour, more if he opens the show with a long segment on baseball...
I read emails and sites like this one during the show. If I didn’t I would go insane. Thank goodness there are people like Eric, Eric Alterman and Dan Froomkin who are willing to read all the media bs because doing that would push me completely off the deep end.
✔️
“Thank God the party that unanimously voted AGAINST reducing childcare costs and pre-K costs and insulin costs and prescription drug costs is looking out for us when it comes to gas costs. Whew.”
-@briantylercohen
Once again we as a nation are caught with our pants down because at every opportunity throughout recent history, we refused to stop stroking the balls of oil billionaires. Imagine if we had actually listened to Jimmy Carter almost 50 years ago and got our energy independence act together, how things could have been so different today. Even if we had paid attention to Al Gore twenty years later and so many others since, not only would our environment be on the road to recovery but two-bit dictators like Putin and Middle East oil tycoons would have had no market for their dirty oil. Yes, I'm glad the majority of Americans are willing to pay higher gas prices for the benefit of Ukraine but it sure is hypocritical when you consider how many oppressed peoples we didn't give a shit about who live under oil rule in the Middle East or how many third world peoples have faced genocide over the years. I guess it has something to do with the fact that this time, the people being oppressed are white. Here we are at yet another moment in history where we might decide that now is the time to seriously move to green energy like land and space based solar, wind, and offshore. We can decapitate the power of big oil. But somehow I have a feeling that if we're still here in twenty years, we will still be sucking the teat of the oil companies. And finally since this blog is mostly about media, where the hell are they in pointing these things out?
For decades the media has been terrible on this issue. I posted about their lack of attention to Carter’s energy policies above before I saw your post. I think you would be interested in the link to the data on the steady drop in oil consumption per unit of gdp since Carter.
For years the media framed Democrats’ concern for the environment as a soft, “girly” issue although I think the evidence of climate change has scared them in recent years. But back in 2000 Maureen Down openly mocked Gore for his concern about the environment, writing "Al Gore is so feminized and diversified and ecologically correct, he's practically lactating."
https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2007/10/gore200710
I realize the odious Dowd writes an opinion column but the fact that her statement was not only stupid but deeply sexist and insulting to any woman who has ever nursed a baby makes me wonder why the editors ever allowed it. Surely they would not allow an similarly racist comment to be posted on their site.
I remember that piece by Dowd. I never understood how women can agree with the sexism that men project on women. Sadly I've seen female relatives and friends too often support their husband/boyfriend's viewpoint that treat women as second class citizens. Women not only have to overcome men objectifying them, they must overcome many enabling women.
The US isn’t the problem here, it’s the Europeans who are dependent on Russian oil and especially gas. GOP are using the crisis to call for more oil production and consumption and a roll back of environmental protections. Even though oil production is at its highest levels ever and the industry refuses to use the thousands of approved permits it has. This realty is a media narrative problem.
I don't disagree. I simply am pointing out that our reluctance to go green when we could have dominated the energy industry put us and the rest of the western world under the thumb of the oil oligarchs. If we had done our homework and created the green infrastructure we still talk about, Europe and much of the world would have followed suit. We could have been the world leader in renewable energy but instead, we coward to the oil billionaires.
Be specific, please. It wasn't "our reluctance." It was the GOP, from Reagan through Drill baby, drill, through the liars today. Regan removed the solar panels on the White House, etc etc through Trump opening up ANWAR for drilling. And the media allowed themselves to be played with their usual bothersiderism BS. "Some scientists say the earth is round, and pictures from space seem to confirm that, but others aren't quite sure and have even questioned if those photos are real."
Yes, you are correct. Many of us wanted a green future. We know who is at fault. I should have been more specific. We are in fact on the same side.
I know. I agree, imagine the progress that could have been made in addition to what has been accomplished even with resistance.
First, Truth Social: When has Trump and/or his name ever been associated with something that isn't a piece of crap? So, I, personally, am disappointed because I so long to be able to bring truth to #MAGAts and I remain stymied and frustrated because TS is so far a Trump Shit Show®.
As for the actual focus of the post: How is this crappy reporting not harmful, how does it inform people in any way that's, you know, good for society?
And I have to say, despite being soft on Ukraine -- tl;dr: I don't see how in a real world Hod do we get there way ending well for Ukraine -- while Ukrainians are literally fighting for their lives and independence, we can't make the sacrifice of temporary higher gas prices. Now, maybe a functional state (which we're not) would impose an excess profits tax ASAP and use same to mitigate the price gouging...
But the infantilism of the American people here as well as with their opposition to responding to a global pandemic by wearing masks and getting vaccinated, I mean, JFC, what a fucking disgrace. (Full disclosure: Got my Covid, in all likelihood, from some local cracker who believes in freedumb and therefor was incapable of going out in public masked, you know, like any decent person with a scintilla of compassion and responsibility. But, you know, being led by an infantile bully for four years was taken by some as encouragement.)
As for the beating of the drum for more oil: Well, the dependency on fossils is actually a huge problem in the context of the invasion and, of course, more generally, climate change. OTOH, mainstream reporting on the invasion has been both grossly excessive and conservatively 90% bullshit/propaganda. So this, sure, why not.
Which brings us back to my question above.
I hope I am not blaming the victim here, but I could not help but notice some of the man-on-the-street interviews with pumping gas/sticker shock were with SUV (and larger) vehicles with notoriously bad mileage.
Second point: Isn’t the Consumer Protection Bureau supposed to have some ability to stop price gouging?
Last point (I promise): Americans generally do not understand the dismal science of economics (which is not an actual science) and so we are very gullible to this sort of reporting. Again, I think that journalists need to have something akin to the American Bar Association and police themselves, enforce standards, and enable a code of ethics.
Some observations:
1) Fossil fuel companies have never put public interest anywhere near the top of their priorities. Maximizing profit and shareholder value is job one, always has been. That's why they have invested so heavily in climate denial.
2) They are not investing in more drilling because they know there will be increasing pressure to get off fossil fuels, to eliminate reliance on volatile suppliers in uncertain regions for strategic reasons, as well as the growing impact of climate they can no longer deny/ignore. They are cashing in while they can rather than making long term investments.
3) The media obsession with blaming Biden for high gas prices demonstrates that they are taking their talking points and narratives directly from the right wing. It's no longer possible to excuse it or deny it. As long as Democrats are unable to push back, it will only get worse.
4) This goes hand in hand with media reluctance to call out fossil fuel companies for price gouging. Talking about corporate responsibility is dangerously close to Socialism as far as the media and the right wing are concerned.
Awesome.
Corporate interest, media and oil, are always driven by the bottom line- which becomes predatory when media and oil have market power due to their massive corporate size and concentration in a few players. By high gas prices and misleading reporting, both oil and media aim to influence the way Americans will vote. We basically have oil and media cartels favoring the election of an authoritarian GOP. Their best interests, not ours.
The only people who seem to be aware of it are retailers of fuel oil and gasoline (a certain Mr. Metz who owns dozens of filling stations in CT MA and NY for example), but a lot of the price we pay goes directly into the pockets of bankers (Goldman Sachs, for one) who deal in oil futures. The man who delivers my fuel oil said there's pretty simple fix - if they were required to actually take possession, rather than leaving in in tankers moored offshore while they play around with it, the trading would stop and prices would go down by as much as 1/3. Something that deserves investigation.