Tag: Gulf of Mexico

The Messed Up Truth About The Louisiana Purchase

Ms. Cat
American Progress, 1872.

The Louisiana Purchase is usually presented as an incredible, inspiring moment in American history in which President Thomas Jefferson, wise, benevolent eyes twinkling under his powdery white wig, made an incredibly shrewd real estate deal with notorious, disgraced French emperor Napoleon Bonaparte and, with one stroke of his giant quill pen, doubled the size of the United States of America for the bargain price of $15 million, or just three cents an acre. What we don’t usually learn about is the negative domino effect this treaty had in terms of inspiring the concept of manifest destiny or the belief that white colonists had a God-given duty to expand across North America and redeem and remake the land in their own image.

The Messed Up Truth About The Louisiana Purchase

The United States Wants to Prevent a Historical Fact: Eurasian Integration

Ms. Cat

by Vijay Prashad / July 7th, 2022

Over the course of the past fifteen years, European countries have found themselves with both great opportunities to seize and complex choices to make. Unsustainable reliance on the United States for trade and investment, as well as the curious distraction of Brexit, led to the steady integration of European countries with Russian energy markets and more uptake of Chinese investment opportunities and its manufacturing prowess.

The United States Wants to Prevent a Historical Fact: Eurasian Integration

Related video:

Vijay Prashad – Why the United States Opposed the Historical Integration of Eurasia

How Joe Biden Made the War in Ukraine a Gift to the Gas Industry

Ms. Cat
Gas execs

How Joe Biden Made the War in Ukraine a Gift to the Gas Industry

The letter, dated February 25, just one day after Vladimir Putin’s forces launched their assault on Ukraine, noted the “dangerous juncture” of the moment before segueing into a list of demands: more drilling on US public lands; the swift approval of proposed gas export terminals; and pressure on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, an independent agency, to greenlight pending gas pipelines.

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Much of the new gas infrastructure won’t be operational for several years, which may be beyond the timeframe of the Russia-Ukraine conflict that has squeezed supplies and caused gas prices to spike. So much LNG export is planned or under construction, adding up to about half of all total US gas production, that it will probably cause gas prices to climb for domestic American users, according to Clark Williams-Derry, analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis

“It’s beginning to eat into the amount of gas available to domestic consumers,” said Williams-Derry. “We will see very severe impacts on domestic US gas prices. We will see the impacts for as long as the eye can see.”

Bill Gates and the Secret Push to Save Biden’s Climate Bill

Ms. Cat

Bill Gates and the Secret Push to Save Biden’s Climate Bill

Gates started wooing Manchin and other senators who might prove pivotal for clean-energy policy in 2019 over a meal in Washington DC. “My dialogue with Joe has been going on for quite a while,” Gates said. “Almost everyone on the energy committee” — of which Manchin was then the senior-most Democrat — “came over and spent a few hours with me over dinner.”

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Also at Manchin’s insistence, automakers also will see new strings attached to electric vehicle tax incentives so they will have to be made in North America and, by 2024, can’t use batteries sourced from China. Labor leaders bemoaned that the final package doesn’t contain much support for workers who lose their jobs in the green transition.

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There’s been such whiplash from 2016 when, as Gates puts it, green spending from the US government “had dropped to near zero.” Six years later, American climate finance has been “reinvigorated,” and Gates now sees innovation “going way faster than I expected. That’s why I’m optimistic that we will solve this thing.”

The working class is going to be thrown under the bus, but at least Bill Gates is happy. 🤷🏼‍♀️

U.S. “Waited and Watched” as Cuba Fought Deadly Blaze

Ms. Cat1 Comment

Aug 15, 2022 – When a catastrophic fire in Matanzas threatened Cuba’s fuel supply, other countries rushed to help. What did the world’s most powerful country offer Cuba? A phone call. The lack of U.S. support has sparked outrage. And its crushing sanctions have limited Cuba’s ability to respond.

Video via Belly of The Beast Cuba

Related:

While Cuba Deals with Blazing Fire, the U.S. Heartlessly Watches and Waits

House Dems Urge Biden to Provide Assistance to Cuba Amid Fire Disaster

At Least 1 Dead and 121 Injured in Fuel Storage Depot Fire in Matanzas, Cuba

The Cuban president stated in a tweet, “We express deep gratitude to the governments of Mexico, Venezuela, Russia, Nicaragua, Argentina and Chile, which have promptly offered solidarity and material aid in the face of this complex situation. Cuba also appreciates the offer of technical advice from the United States.”