- Jun 6, 2007
- 852
- 483
- 910
An event in the same range of importance as the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor during World War II occurred this past week in Russia cutting back by forty-five percent the natural gas it sends to Europe via the Nord Stream One pipelines that go from Russia into Germany. This is an economic bombing of Europe by Russia, the importation of natural gas from Russia has been excluded from every round of European Union sanctions over Russia's invasion of Ukraine because including import restrictions for natural gas would cause such pain on ordinary Europeans and their economy it is impossible to fully qualify for starters though completely taking away this Russian gas would send Europe into a recession; this is so because Europe cannot replace Russian natural gas and it needs it to heat ordinary Europeans homes, to produce electricity and for many of Europe's industries. It is clear now Russian Vladimir Putin is using natural gas as a weapon to contain European countries and so to stop or restrain them from sending crucial heavy weapons and ammunition to the Ukrainians to enable them to drive the Russian army out of their country.
President Biden needs to see this event as a crossroads for the history of the world like Pearl Harbor; President Biden needs to see this moment as an obligation on America to step into this crisis and have America rescue Europe from this Russian natural gas siege. America needs to dramatically increase its shipments of natural gas to Europe beginning immediately and continuing throughout the next six months so not only is Europe prepared for the winter and to get through it if Putin shuts down the Russian natural gas pipelines to Europe but to permanently remove Putin's gun from the head of European Union leaders which restrains them from helping Ukraine at this existential super critical time for Ukraine where the eastern part and economic engine of their country is at stake. President Biden has shown outstanding leadership in helping Ukraine in this war without his actions Ukraine would not only be without any hope of saving their country in this war but they would have already lost the war; but it will all be for naught unless America gets Vladimir Putin's boot off the energy neck of Europe as it lays prostrate on the ground! President Biden is asleep at the wheel of the country if he thinks that if Putin pulls the trigger on Europe and shuts down the gas pipelines to Europe and sends them into recession it is not going to spill over into the United States, from the remarks of Jerome Powell the Federal Reserve Bank will at minimum raise interest rates by another one percent by December, a recession in Europe under these circumstances guarantees a hard landing and a recession in America in 2023. President Biden and his administration should be in a five alarm fire response mode to protect the country and the future well being of the Democrat Party in power in the country in response to Russia's declaration of energy war against Europe that just occurred which puts all these things in jeopardy.
President Biden showed signs of hope that he gets it with his letter this past week to executives of America's petroleum refineries that they need to take steps to stop having refinery costs drive fuel prices higher for American consumers and if they don't move to fix this problem he might use the Defense Production Act (DPA) to fix it! President Biden needs to stop dipping his foot in the water and jump in, he needs to stop with the talk and pull out the whip and start getting results for the American people. What President Biden needs to do is hire a heavy hitter in the energy industry and make him White House Czar for Developing and Managing America's oil, gas and petroleum products production and let it be known that this individual will have enormous leeway in writing Executive Orders to meet the nation's goals whether it be curtailing regulations or using the Defense Production act to further the nation's interests here; what the nation needs is someone like former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson that has a proven track record of producing oil and natural gas.
One thing this Energy Czar should do is get this Freeport Texas LNG terminal fully back on line quickly from its recent fire, reports are that the timeline now is sometime in the latter part of the year this will take place; this should be completely unacceptable to the White House this LNG terminal when fully operational ships two billion cubic feet of gas per day to the world market and largely Europe - this is a lifeline to Europe that should be reinstated post haste! If this Czar was really good the Czar would do things like prepare for Vladimir Putin to pull his trigger and shut off gas to Europe by increasing America's inventory of natural gas by scouring the nation and identifying coal electricity generation plants that are either under utilized or not utilized where their utilization could replace natural gas power generation; and either by voluntary consent or the use of the Defense Production Act or working with Congress get the natural gas power generation plant to cut its gas consumption by reducing power generation to eighty or seventy percent of capacity.
The Democrat Congress should wrap up this January 6 Committee hearings as quickly as possible for the hearings are a disgrace and hold hearings Congressional duty calls for like on the energy crisis facing America and the world and how fix or at least improve the picture here. This writer is not saying anything like President Donald Trump's behavior in trying to overturn the 2020 election was anything but a significant harm to America's Democracy and its tradition of peaceful transition of power. But the hearings are shockingly partisan, a Congressional committee investigating an incident or a series of incidents in America should have a respect for the law recognizing it as a solemn thing that it preserves and guards our society when deciding whether a crime has been committed one must act like a reasonable person and consider contrary viewpoints, one should not take a partisan or biased viewpoint. It is dangerous for our Democracy when people that have a role in its enforcement take a partisan view in evaluating facts and deciding on whether to bring charges because then there exist the danger of America being a society where those in power use America's criminal statutes biasedly to punish their enemies and that is an America dramatically less good than the country America has known.
The list of the committee's failure here is long. President Donald Trump and his followers are well within their rights to believe the 2020 election was fraudulent and act on such beliefs; in this election there was unprecedented use of mail in balloting and courts on their own in many cases changed the rules on such ballots, further America's voter registration rolls are replete with inaccuracies (no national voter registration database for the most advanced country in the world are you kidding me) how do we know there wasn't people voting multiple times? For the record this writer believes the 2020 election was not fraudulent because parties have a legal right to challenge the fairness of elections in America's court system and if they fail or lose in that regard America's court system say on the election is the final word - that what it means to be a society of laws. Also, there is nothing wrong with a candidate after an election raising money to challenge the validity of the election and not using all that money in the challenge; I wouldn't be surprised if George Bush and Al Gore did such in the 2000 contested election. Also, under America's current practice it is not unreasonable to believe the Vice-President could reject the ballots from a state delegation in the electoral College even though the U.S. Constitution does not expressly give the Vice-President such power for the U.S. Constitution does not give Congress such power however it it the Congress's current practice to believe they have such power!
What this Committee's findings and hearings should be focused on is to fix the flaws in America's election system that could disenfranchise American citizens. The system should be that only the court system should be able to conclude that an election in a district or state is unfair and the only remedy is to redo the election, the country needs to stop with this ability for state legislatures being able to select electoral college delegations or to find that elections were unfair this isn't a political decision it is a finding of fact decision to be made by a Judge. The Committee should call for legislation that stops members of Congress or the Vice-President from rejecting a state delegation to the Electoral College ballots. Elections are about citizens selecting candidates it is not about politicians or political parties selecting candidates to fill elected offices in America!
President Biden needs to see this event as a crossroads for the history of the world like Pearl Harbor; President Biden needs to see this moment as an obligation on America to step into this crisis and have America rescue Europe from this Russian natural gas siege. America needs to dramatically increase its shipments of natural gas to Europe beginning immediately and continuing throughout the next six months so not only is Europe prepared for the winter and to get through it if Putin shuts down the Russian natural gas pipelines to Europe but to permanently remove Putin's gun from the head of European Union leaders which restrains them from helping Ukraine at this existential super critical time for Ukraine where the eastern part and economic engine of their country is at stake. President Biden has shown outstanding leadership in helping Ukraine in this war without his actions Ukraine would not only be without any hope of saving their country in this war but they would have already lost the war; but it will all be for naught unless America gets Vladimir Putin's boot off the energy neck of Europe as it lays prostrate on the ground! President Biden is asleep at the wheel of the country if he thinks that if Putin pulls the trigger on Europe and shuts down the gas pipelines to Europe and sends them into recession it is not going to spill over into the United States, from the remarks of Jerome Powell the Federal Reserve Bank will at minimum raise interest rates by another one percent by December, a recession in Europe under these circumstances guarantees a hard landing and a recession in America in 2023. President Biden and his administration should be in a five alarm fire response mode to protect the country and the future well being of the Democrat Party in power in the country in response to Russia's declaration of energy war against Europe that just occurred which puts all these things in jeopardy.
President Biden showed signs of hope that he gets it with his letter this past week to executives of America's petroleum refineries that they need to take steps to stop having refinery costs drive fuel prices higher for American consumers and if they don't move to fix this problem he might use the Defense Production Act (DPA) to fix it! President Biden needs to stop dipping his foot in the water and jump in, he needs to stop with the talk and pull out the whip and start getting results for the American people. What President Biden needs to do is hire a heavy hitter in the energy industry and make him White House Czar for Developing and Managing America's oil, gas and petroleum products production and let it be known that this individual will have enormous leeway in writing Executive Orders to meet the nation's goals whether it be curtailing regulations or using the Defense Production act to further the nation's interests here; what the nation needs is someone like former Exxon CEO Rex Tillerson that has a proven track record of producing oil and natural gas.
One thing this Energy Czar should do is get this Freeport Texas LNG terminal fully back on line quickly from its recent fire, reports are that the timeline now is sometime in the latter part of the year this will take place; this should be completely unacceptable to the White House this LNG terminal when fully operational ships two billion cubic feet of gas per day to the world market and largely Europe - this is a lifeline to Europe that should be reinstated post haste! If this Czar was really good the Czar would do things like prepare for Vladimir Putin to pull his trigger and shut off gas to Europe by increasing America's inventory of natural gas by scouring the nation and identifying coal electricity generation plants that are either under utilized or not utilized where their utilization could replace natural gas power generation; and either by voluntary consent or the use of the Defense Production Act or working with Congress get the natural gas power generation plant to cut its gas consumption by reducing power generation to eighty or seventy percent of capacity.
The Democrat Congress should wrap up this January 6 Committee hearings as quickly as possible for the hearings are a disgrace and hold hearings Congressional duty calls for like on the energy crisis facing America and the world and how fix or at least improve the picture here. This writer is not saying anything like President Donald Trump's behavior in trying to overturn the 2020 election was anything but a significant harm to America's Democracy and its tradition of peaceful transition of power. But the hearings are shockingly partisan, a Congressional committee investigating an incident or a series of incidents in America should have a respect for the law recognizing it as a solemn thing that it preserves and guards our society when deciding whether a crime has been committed one must act like a reasonable person and consider contrary viewpoints, one should not take a partisan or biased viewpoint. It is dangerous for our Democracy when people that have a role in its enforcement take a partisan view in evaluating facts and deciding on whether to bring charges because then there exist the danger of America being a society where those in power use America's criminal statutes biasedly to punish their enemies and that is an America dramatically less good than the country America has known.
The list of the committee's failure here is long. President Donald Trump and his followers are well within their rights to believe the 2020 election was fraudulent and act on such beliefs; in this election there was unprecedented use of mail in balloting and courts on their own in many cases changed the rules on such ballots, further America's voter registration rolls are replete with inaccuracies (no national voter registration database for the most advanced country in the world are you kidding me) how do we know there wasn't people voting multiple times? For the record this writer believes the 2020 election was not fraudulent because parties have a legal right to challenge the fairness of elections in America's court system and if they fail or lose in that regard America's court system say on the election is the final word - that what it means to be a society of laws. Also, there is nothing wrong with a candidate after an election raising money to challenge the validity of the election and not using all that money in the challenge; I wouldn't be surprised if George Bush and Al Gore did such in the 2000 contested election. Also, under America's current practice it is not unreasonable to believe the Vice-President could reject the ballots from a state delegation in the electoral College even though the U.S. Constitution does not expressly give the Vice-President such power for the U.S. Constitution does not give Congress such power however it it the Congress's current practice to believe they have such power!
What this Committee's findings and hearings should be focused on is to fix the flaws in America's election system that could disenfranchise American citizens. The system should be that only the court system should be able to conclude that an election in a district or state is unfair and the only remedy is to redo the election, the country needs to stop with this ability for state legislatures being able to select electoral college delegations or to find that elections were unfair this isn't a political decision it is a finding of fact decision to be made by a Judge. The Committee should call for legislation that stops members of Congress or the Vice-President from rejecting a state delegation to the Electoral College ballots. Elections are about citizens selecting candidates it is not about politicians or political parties selecting candidates to fill elected offices in America!
