It’s not uncommon for Halloween costumes to take on themes from current events. I was in college during Watergate, Richard Nixon masks were all the rage.
I love the kid here dressed as an oil spill. Sadly, this is a topic that will be with us for some time to come.
A reader reacted to my recent post centering around energy analyst Robert Rapier’s explanation of the role that U.S. presidents play in determining the price of gas. She writes: “I am sure the price of gas is a complicated issue, but it does seem to me that Biden’s actions [gas line from Canada] and general negative attitude toward fossil fuel production must play a part.”
You bring up interesting points. I would agree that putting a spear through pipeline projects could affect the long-term price of gasoline.
It’s unclear (at least to me) what the transition away from fossil fuels will do. First, let me point out that this is happening very slowly, due to the extremely powerful influence that Big Oil has on our world.
Eventually, the phase-out will lower demand, which would actually lower prices, as alternative/competitive solutions come on line. However, at the same time, it will reduce supply, raising prices, because the market will get smaller and therefore less attractive. But again, the significance of these factors will play out over a period of decades rather than months.
Here’s a bar chart of the grid-mix in the OECD countries.
Note the correspondence between the nations at the top of the graph and those at the top of the world happiness rankings. The seven happiest countries, in order, are Finland, Denmark, Switzerland, Iceland, Netherlands, Norway, and Sweden.
Various theories could be posited here as to the reason. Perhaps these nations simply do everything right. They also have very little crime, and have the pandemic more or less under control.
Another idea derives from a modern American philosopher who said, “Clean hands make a happy life,” meaning, of course, that people who do rotten things to one another are generally miserable human beings.
Greed, criminality, and environmental degradation are not the things of which happiness is made. Conversely, doing right by all the world’s people puts a smile on one’s face.
Sometimes things have a way of working out for the best.
Similar to what John Oliver says here about policemen, there are science teachers who have quit because they refuse to get vaccinated. So, whom have we lost in that case? A science teacher who doesn’t believe in science?
I’m OK with that.
It could be argued that the United States had done a reasonably good job at the task that Jimmy Carter mentions here, up until perhaps 1980. At that point, the top tax rate went from 70% to 28%, the educational system began to falter, union membership fell by two-thirds, the incarceration rate started to skyrocket, and social programs designed to keep kids in school, off drugs, and out of jail dropped off.
What was formerly a large and prosperous middle class is now a bunch of frustrated and ignorant racists, armed to the teeth, who teamed up with the billionaires to elect a two-bit conman as president.
The meme makes an important point, and it’s certainly not limited to child care.
Think about the “Green New Deal” or “Build Back Better,” call it what you will. There are many millions of American families that will benefit from the enormous job growth that will ensue as a result. Everyone on this planet, and especially those yet to be born, will get to live their lives on a healthier and safer planet.
That all these things are political footballs is disgusting.
From Democracy Now:
Four years after the deadly white supremacist “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, a federal civil trial charges the organizers with an unlawful conspiracy to commit violent acts. Defendants include Jason Kessler, the main organizer, and Richard Spencer, a white nationalist who spoke at the event. Neo-Nazi James Alex Fields, who slammed his car into a crowd of antiracist counterprotesters during the rally and killed activist Heather Heyer, has already been sentenced to life in prison. Plaintiffs in the case cite the careful advance planning done in online chatrooms to wreak irreparable harm. (more…)
In this video, Republican Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt (pictured), who is in charge of vote-counting, got emotional as he recounted the threats sent to his family following the 2020 election.
There are dozens of different concepts out there for removing the trillions of pieces of plastic from our oceans. The video below presents an idea that involves two ships that drag a huge net through the water, scooping up everything larger than perhaps a lima bean that’s floating in the top three feet, while allowing fish to escape. (more…)
