57 Comments

Billionaires and their media supporting trump are in the same insane and irresponsible corrupt league. They too must be held accountable! They want to destroy democracy. No democracy means no accountability anymore to the people. Freedom to do what they want. No good at all.

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We obviously don't breathe the same air, drink the same water.

California and other states are suing. Five oil companies, ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and BP along with the trade group American Petroleum Institute, have been sued by California Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta. The lawsuit alleges the oil companies knew about the risks posed by climate change due to burning of oil and gas fossil fuels, but followed this up by decades of deception when lying about climate change that “forced the state to spend tens of billions of dollars to address environmental-related damages.... the burning of fossil fuels leads to climate change.”

Through OPEC, they limited production, fixed prices, and undermined our economy since 1973. Treasury could recoup trillions. OPEC members fund proxy wars in the Ukraine, Syria, Yemen and Gaza.

This is a national security issue.

Also political. "91 percent inverse correlation between the price of gas and the popularity of Democrats when they’re in power: as gas prices go up, Democrats’ approval ratings (and electability) measurably and predictably go down."

We have the capacity to vote them out. Register Democrats - save the world.

To protect American democracy, reach out to millions of unregistered likely Democrats using a dedicated database using every outreach method possible (phone and text, postcard, email and targeted ad, and in-person too), where new Democratic voters will make the most impact – in the most flippable states and districts.

https://www.fieldteam6.org/actions

Meanwhile Saudis control our largest refinery, control Exxon and other companies

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I respect our dear Thom's sentiment for "our children's future", but WE are the problem, we are the consumers of 13.3 million barrels of oil daily here in the US, a total of 100 million per day worldwide. Econ 101: supply and demand. We control fossil fuel production by our fossil fuel consumption. The fossil fuel lobby's narrative is for us to whine about the lack of government action, to blame it on the other guy, so we can deny our own personal responsibility for consuming 13.3 million barrels of oil and half again as much NG DAILY. I burn about 20 gals of gas every two or three months, don't fly, don't cruise, avoid single use plastic when possible (almost impossible these days!), limit my use of NG and electricity, recycle, reuse, and reduce my consumption daily. And, you? How about we own-up to our own personal responsibility for global warming and the dark future facing our offspring?

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Currently living in Germany. I have a Germany ticket and bike not a car. My house has no carbon producing energy. Instead heat pump and solar. When I travel I do use a plane to get to the US, but in Europe I largely use the train. Really working on reducing my carbon footprint. I am recycling, trying to reduce my waste production with less packaging. That means bringing bags to the store, going to the farmers market with my own produce bags, supporting local seasonal foods as much as possible. It is asparagus and strawberry season here so the roadside farm stands sell them in bunches and cardboard containers.

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Totally agree. Without demand there is no supply.

We are the demand, we are the problem.

However we have to eat, we have to live, we want to make our existence as comfortable and enjoyable as we can, We don't want to regress to the hunter or ultimate ancestors were, and there isn't enough game and wild vegetables for us to hunt and gather.

So here we are, our own worst enemy, and there is nothing we can do about it, except commit rapid suicide, failing that we have opted for flow specicide.

The Second Law of Thermodynamics states that the state of entropy of the entire universe, as an isolated system, will always increase over time. The second law also states that the changes in the entropy in the universe can never be negative.

We are on an entropic spiral.

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Donald's followers will never hear about Donald asking for a 1 billion fee to get rid of all of those nasty regulations. They listen to the alternative news stations. Any right wing owned media is the alternative news stations. It is nearly impossible for a non member of the cult to get a word in edgewise without being censored. While you listen to the lies they spew constantly.

There are some odd things going on. The press is normalizing a dictatorship by treating the GOP as being democratic, the press overlooked Garland not prosecuting the GOP ringleaders for over 2 years, the federal courts are giving Donald enough time to become a dictator, we have lost our freedom of speech since we cannot talk to the cult members in order to sway them back to reality.

The right wing males especially seem to care very little about the future of their offspring. They make terrible fathers. Yet they think they are real men with their guns and stupidity. America is destined to become another third world nation if not worse because of these demons bringing a hell to Earth.

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Bob, they listen to demagogues who use the Bible and Constitution as a sock puppet.

Because the bible tells them so, they believe that humanity is special, that their god will take care of them so long as they fall on their knees placate it with mumbles and folded hands, and put pieces of paper and metal in a collection plate.

If they do that faithfully then they are good to go.

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Louis XV reputedly said “Apres moi, le deluge!” He was right. Our morbidly rich seem not to care even about their own issue. I am glad our kids produced but one grandchild among them. He will inherit from all,of us, and it may be barely enough for him to live a barely tolerable life somewhere as the earth dies around him. As I look back over my 76 years, and history before that, it is clear to me that our species is selfish, predatory, cruel, ignorant, thoughtless and present-oriented, with few exceptions. The cockroaches have been around far longer than we have. Maybe their long-delayed era of dominance is at hand. Or maybe we will manage to kill virtually all life on the planet. Our species is a plague, despite its achievements. None of the.m will matter when we are all dust.

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Survival is the exception. Extinction is the rule. Ouch

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As we get closer to the election, some friends and I are pooling our money to take out full page ads in our local paper that summarize Trump‘s crimes and ineffectiveness compared with Biden’s. Thom, it would help enormously if you would create what you would consider to be the most powerful message and share it on your program, and on your website so that other people might also want to fund this kind of campaigning. What do you think?

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May 10·edited May 10

Can you say quid pro quo? Just when you thought Trump could not be more corrupt.....

I'd like to add the car companies are also guilty. In fact, they have colluded with the fossil fuel industry. They bragged to Congress how well they work together. Oh they tried to make it sound like it was to make improvements for "us", but we know damn well that is ludicrous.

Look at the size of vehicles over the years. At one stage they almost stopped making the smaller models all together. They went from muscle cars to small cars and then gradually convinced everyone to buy a gas-guzzling big truck, SUV, or van. They did so while fighting safety regulations and CAFE standards all along the way. We know we could have had the electrics over 30 years ago. Practical small electric cars with less range for city driving have been possible SINCE THE AUTOMOBILE WAS INVENTED.

From The Guardian article 5/7/24 by Jillian Ambrose: "Clean electricity has already helped to slow the growth in fossil fuels by almost two-thirds in the past 10 years, according to the report by climate thinktank Ember. It found that renewables have grown from 19% of electricity in 2000 to more than 30% of global electricity last year."

Too little too late? We do not have the luxury to give-up. Giving up having a child? It's a sad choice. The one thing you can be sure of is there is a kid already born that needs your love and your support.

What Trump told the industry execs tracks; if we listen, he lets us know in graphic detail that he is a greedy, lying, cheating, criminal psychopath. This is what the Republicans want for America and the world. Just say NOPE and VOTE!

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G O P...........Greed Over People. ... Got Other Priorities..... like party first nation last. Thanks for your writing.

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It's infuriating that many of the world's preventable catastrophic events are controlled by greedy politics.

Where will the vast fortunes (soon to be amassed by even fewer elites) be spent when there's no humans left on Earth to buy from??

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They can't help themselves David. They dare not think about tomorrow, because they have to keep up with their peers today. Like most of us, they live in today, and let tomorrow take cae of itself, besides they have so much money that they think they can survive anything, I would love to know what and where they have built safe houses, inside mountains? Floating cities, There is such a project for the wealthy, live off the bounty of the sea., the movement of the ocean can produce electrify to power the vessel and provide comfort for the inhabitants.

Come to think of it, I would like to know more about the engineering of the Royal Caribbean Icon of the Sea.

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Right now we have a Utopia for the wealthy and a Dystopia for the poor. Like societies did thousands of years ago. The conservatives don't want to change that either, even though 99 and a half percent of them are poor? They must be suffering from the Stockholm syndrome or incest?

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There may be no need for a general rise and gas and oil prices because the Saudi cut production. The US now imports only 7% of its oil from the Saudis. https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/oil-and-petroleum-products/imports-and-exports.php

Domestic production costs do not increase so the huge price increases are likely not justified.

However, I can’t find any independent study that examines how much impact the Saudi 7% import price increase should actually have on US retail oil and gas prices. But it may be minimal. The price increases are likely just done by the oil executives for greater profits.

Of course, this emphasizes the need to get off fossil fuel dependency and reduce Saudi imports to zero.

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Agreed; since the US is now a net exporter of oil (exports exceed imports), and Saudi Arabia accounts for only about 7% of US oil imports (most comes from Canada), Biden may be able to cut Saudi imports and buy more from Canada and other non- OPEC sources. Likely depends on the terms of global supply agreements and already established obligations to buy and sell; the only way this would be blocked is if Canada's supply is already earmarked to other customers. Its highly unlikely any US importer has agreed to bulk imports from the Saudis regardless of price so presumably domestic importers have already found alternative sources as a workaround.

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Jan, the US exports more oil than it uses, and imports oil only to keep the oil cabal profitable.

TheSaudis own the largest refinery in the U.S. in Texas, ahttps://money.cnn.com/2017/05/01/investing/saudi-arabia-buys-largest-oil-refinery-port-arthur/index.html

The United States exported over 316 million barrels worth of finished motor gasoline in 2022,

and 10% of Liquid Natural Gas is exported.

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It's not only our progeny that Trump would trade the world for a billion dollars, it's his family as well. A recent example that he cares only about himself is that he asked the judge for a day away from his trial to attend his son, Baron's graduation, yet he is attending a rally and fundraiser instead. But he is using the boy to be a delegate at the Republican convention. Trump is a very sick and dangerous man. Due to climate change, homeowners insurance may become obsolete. The taxpayers will probably have to foot the bills for rebuilding. Will we have to live underground eventually?

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The “I did that” slogan ... almost singlehandedly gave us GOP control of the House of Representatives."

Even worse, it gave the GOP such a small margin in the House as to cripple the 118th Congress.

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How about a slogan campaign this time for gas pumps that says “Trump did this”?!

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Out standing. The problem with liberals and why they lose to right wingers is that Right wingers make bumper stickers and liberals make long winded political statements (guilty as charged)

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Yesterday I posted The Hartmann Report on Facebook as I do every day. It was flagged as spam. The same thing happened twice today. Any ideas what's going on? I feel your posts are vitally important and must be shared widely!

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I tried to post this article on my personal Facebook profile. It was immediately removed by FB citing “Spam, Trying to elicit likes”. It did not cite false information. Is Facebook now a MAGA arm of censorship?

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Try to copy and post the whole article, sans link,Thom won't mind, I am sure,just attribute and change the title to something like Trading our children's future for money. FB probably has an algorithm that tracks subjects by name, instead of Trump use TFG, or the Orange penguin, and the algorithm alerts a hall monitor (watcher) they abound on the internet, every wiki site has them.

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Me too

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Is there a way to confirm rate of new millionares within the GOP via insider trading on NRA investments after incidents related to school shootings. Their policy: Keep the children alive long enough to die in grade school for profit?

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Cannot share this story. Facebook removed it because it goes against their rules.

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This just happened to me as well.

I tried to post this article on my personal Facebook profile. It was immediately removed by FB citing “Spam, Trying to elicit likes”. It did not cite false information. Is Facebook now a MAGA arm of censorship?

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I think that FB has hall monitors from respective industries. Like Wikipedia has the capacity for anyone to Watch for changes to an article they are interested in.

Keywords will trigger a hall monitor (watcher) and then they object to the post, they are professionals and know just the right phrasing to use.

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That sounds true as well. The immediate removal of this post cited by others in this thread would support your theory. Thanks

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Me, too. Three posts removed (and challenged by me!) On FB.

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Me as well

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It behooves voters to do their “due diligence” and not only stay informed, but to make their assessments within the greater context of events.

Nothing eroded democracy like headline news, sound bites, misinformation and propaganda. The RNC Libertarian Fascists designed main stream media to be misleading and to keep people ignorant of the Bigger Picture. They even had the Mercers create targeting paradigms for social media and Murdochs to spin and lie around the clock, mesmerizing non-thinking voters. They weaponized propaganda and fed it to Americans as “news.” This is straight out of Lenin’s teachings, adapted by the LIbertarian Fascist Billionaires who run the RNC.

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