“There are more Russians standing up to Putin than Republicans,” – John Collins.
And why is that? Republican leaders from disgraced twice-impeached ex-president Donald Trump, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (who is coming to OC for a fundraiser soon), to OC’s GOP Congressional delegation of Reps Michelle Steel and Young Kim, along with conservative apologists Tucker Carlson, Mike Pompeo, Candance Owens — all initial responses what Vladimir Putin would be gleeful about.
Rep. Elise Stefanik is the third-ranking Republican in the House issued a statement critical of President Joe Biden:
“After just one year of a weak, feckless, and unfit President of the United States and Commander-in-Chief, the world is less safe. Rather than peace through strength, we are witnessing Joe Biden’s foreign policy of war through weakness. For the past year, our adversaries around the world have been assessing and measuring Joe Biden’s leadership on the world stage, and he has abysmally failed on every metric. From kinetic and deadly attacks on our allies and partners, to the catastrophic withdrawal and surrender in Afghanistan, to the cyber attacks impeding American industry and infrastructure, to today’s Russian invasion of Ukraine, Joe Biden and his Administration have failed America and the world.”
Tone deaf.
Locally, it wasn’t until Sunday that OC Republicans jumped on the bandwagon calling out Russia and supporting Ukraine? Was someone asleep at the switch for 72 hours prior? And their message: attack Biden, who’s leading the world in garnering economic sanctions against Russia, and going after Gov. Gavin Newsom for not calling for a ban on the sale of Russian products in the state.
Could it have been video of massive protests in St. Petersburg and Moscow where protesters take to the streets at great personal risk? Video of brave Ukrainians defending their Capitol instead of marching on it? Condemnations of Trump’s praise of Putin being used for misinformation campaigns in Russia? Or video of an old Ukrainian woman telling a Russia soldier to place sunflower seeds in his pocket so flowers will grow from his dead body? Sunflowers are Ukraine’s national flower in case you didn’t know.
Nationally and locally, Republicans “leaders” have no spine. None.
In Costa Mesa, The Moscow Deli on Harbor Blvd offers classic Eastern European products including stuff from Russia and The Ukraine. A worker answering the phone said Monday morning that the invasion was terrible. Some in OC mildly protested outside the shop over the weekend, but the workers there didn’t invade another country — Putin did.
I’d like to encourage readers who want to protest to buy a packet of sunflower seeds and send them to the Russian Embassy in DC. The address is:
Embassy of the Russian Federation
2650 Wisconsin Ave., NW
Washington, DC
20007
And for our local Republican “leaders,” I’ll try and find the address to “Oz” because if a brain, a heart and courage can be found for you, it will be there.
Why is Joe Biden so weak on sanctions toward Putin. He seems reluctant to impose sanctions on Russia’s energy sector while at the same time he will not release the sanctions on American energy production. Is there any wonder so many people are questioning Biden’s ability to lead the country, including many Democrats. Further, why did Biden give the green light to the Nordstream 2 pipeline benefitting Russia while killing the Keystone pipeline that would have benefited American energy production? One might observe that Biden is acting like a stooge for the Kremlin.
Lots of misinformation here so let’s get to it. Sanctions on Russia’s oil and gas are being announced this morning. There are no sanctions on American energy production on public lands as there are significant numbers of private land licenses for drilling that are going unused — perhaps the fossil fuel industry ought to use those first before seeking drilling permits on public land. Nordstream 2 pipeline is between Russia and Germany with construction beginning in 2011 — energy has not yet begun flowing there but I’m not sure what authority the US has to greenlight this project period. The Keystone pipeline is not carrying oil from the US; its Canadian oil that would have gone through the US to ports in Louisiana; Americans would not get oil from Keystone. Last year, the US generation 700K barrels per day more than the Trump administration did with signs that growth isn’t stopping. Prices are up due to the Fossil Fuel industry and makes the argument to transition to green/clean/renewable energy faster to lessen our dependence on fossil fuels. The stooge for the Kremlin is found at Mar-A-Lago.
Initially perhaps the Keystone pipeline oil might have been intended for export, however, that does not necessarily have to be the case. Our refineries have the capability to refine the type of oil originating from the Canadian tar sands as is the keystone oil. Further, Biden’s pipeline cancellation destroyed 11,000 union jobs in the process for a pipeline that would have been an overall benefit to the country. As it turns out, the Canadian oil is still being purchased by the U.S. but is being transported by rail, which poses a greater threat to the environment than transport by pipeline. As far as transitioning to green energy, we are not at a point where our green energy sources can take up the slack from petroleum and nuclear sources. Transition to green should be proven sustainable for the energy needs of the country in terms of cost and energy output before you completely cutoff the working source.
Claim: “Revokes Keystone Pipeline, 57,000 go jobless.”
Facts: Biden did sign an executive order rescinding a March 2019 permit for the Keystone XL Pipeline — a pipeline slated to run from Alberta, Canada, through the U.S., to Nebraska. The executive order said “the significance of the proposed pipeline for our energy security and economy is limited” and that the U.S. would “prioritize the development of a clean energy economy, which will in turn create good jobs.”
But the pipeline project was not employing “57,000,” as the meme claims.
Terry Cunha, a spokesman for the company behind the pipeline, TC Energy, told us in an email that 1,000 unionized jobs will be lost in the coming weeks as a result of the permit being revoked.
Those were construction jobs — and therefore temporary.
“The project was prepared to hire 11,000 union workers during the construction of the project,” Cunha said, citing an October 2020 press release that said the project expected to employ 11,000 Americans in 2021.
A 2014 State Department report on the pipeline estimated that, after construction, the project “would generate approximately 50 jobs during operations” — 35 permanent employees and 15 temporary contractors.
You quote or paraphrase the wording of the EO Biden signed and I assume you believe it to be accurate. Unfortunately, I do not have the same confidence in much of what this administration says because they have given the public much misinformation. According to the union representing the pipeline workers, 11,000 jobs were directly and immediately lost as a result of the EO eviscerating the work on the pipeline. Also, material were purchased for the pipeline and will now be written off as scrap, a tremendous waste to taxpayers.
Biden also claimed there are 9000 drilling permits currently going unused. What Biden didn’t say is that many of those potential drilling sites have been deemed by the drilling companies to be low or no yield sites. In other words, this necessitates the need for further exploration on federal lands, which Biden has restricted access to. Biden also claimed that oil production is up compared to the Trump administration. This is also false, at least according to the EIA (Energy Industry Assoc.), according to their website, the peak of oil production occurred in Dec. 2019 during the Trump admin. As of now, we are about 1/2 million barrels down from that 2019 peak. Rather than ramping up production, Biden is considered a deal with Venezuela which is run by a brutal dictator and I’m sure will charge the U.S. more than we could produce it ourselves. With regard to Biden seemingly wanting to transition to green energy, Judging by his verbiage, it sound like he believes this can be done in short order. If that’s true, he is gravely mistaken. We are far from being completely dependent on green energy. Considering the population and densities of the country, we will be dependent on fossil fuel energy for many years to come. Much of what is required for green energy to be a viable source currently limits it’s use. If the transition to green occurs too soon, without fully understanding the limitations or solving those limits, it would be disastrous and yes I believe there is some form of climate change occurring but not necessarily anthropogenic and I don’t believe it is an eminent danger to humanity.
No, I’m quoting FactCheck.org, a non partisan site that says you are still wrong about the fundamentals on the pipeline
How do you know zfaxcheck.org is non partisan, because they claim to be? Many of the so called fact checkers have been getting it wrong on what they report or leave out of reporting. I think if you do a deep dive into the Biden administration, you will find many lies, half truths and deception and that’s coming from a former Democrat who is now an Independent.
It’s funded by the Annenberg family — one of the most conservative families in the nation; they introduced Ronald Reagan to Margaret Thatcher. And your criticism of fact checking sites mirrors your new narrative — Keystone Pipeline facts you continue to dispute are proof of this.
Do the Annenbergs have control over the content and are they still funding it? I seriously doubt it. Who else funds the site? Possibly George Soros or others with an interest in promoting an inaccurate narrative for the purpose of advancing an agenda regardless of the facts? These are just some questions I would want to know before I rely on a so called fact check site.
George Soros has nothing to do with FactCheck.org. I believe the family funds it and its run by indenpedent research professionals. PolitiFact won a Pulitzer prize for its work. Smart people change their views based on facts; stupid people change their facts to match their views.
Disregarding the XL pipeline for a moment, which I still have disagreements with you, can we at least agree that Biden has been a complete disaster as a president? I’m sure you are intelligent enough to take my view on that.
I think Biden has done a remarkable job cleaning up the mess Trump left behind
It’s going to be difficult for most people to take you seriously with comments like that. The polls show a great deal of buyers remorse with people who voted for Biden. A large number of Democrats believe Biden has been an abject failure. I think your extreme hatred of Trump and Republicans is prohibiting you from being objective. I didn’t particularly like Trump, but given the choices, I believe he was best suited for the job. Biden’s election in 2020 reinforces that position given the turmoil we are now going through as a result of Biden’s policies.