I think Democrats are wrong for opposing it, but there are also some Republicans against tax breaks for renewable energy. We should give them ALL tax breaks to break this cycle of dependence on OPEC+.
better idea is no tax breaks, just more domestic oil production. also, i am told that renewables are such a great opportunity they will be super profitable they dont need subsidy.
Interesting reading about Kharkiv and the opinion of the citizens. Of important note in 2014 the city was pro Russian and even took over the municipal government for a short time. However after seeing the “desolate Russian rule” in the Donbas their opinions changed 180* to pro Ukrainian. Today they hate what the Russians are doing. RUSSIA-UKRAINE WAR In the Rubble of Ukraine’s Second-Largest City, Survivors Make Their Stand: ‘Nobody Wants the Russians’ KHARKIV, Ukraine—A dazed older woman picked her way through Kharkiv’s central Constitution Square, navigating a blasted landscape strewn with twisted metal, glass shards and fragments of brick. Russian missile strikes have gutted every one of the elegant 19th century buildings lining the street. The innards of fashion boutiques, with decapitated mannequins, spilled onto the sidewalk. A cocktail bar down the road, its windows blown out, had bottles of Campari, gin and vermouth on display, untouched. “Have you seen PrivatBank?” the woman asked a rare passerby. The ATM there had eaten her debit card, she said. “Have you? I need to get the card back, for my pension.” The bank building had been reduced to a jumble of broken glass and crumpled metal. Its security alarm still blared. In the days since Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, shelling and airstrikes have killed hundreds of people in Kharkiv, a city of 1.4 million about 20 miles from the Russian border. Residents spend their days and nights huddled in the subway. Above them, explosions devastate their city. At least 400 high-rise apartment buildings have been hit, Kharkiv city authorities said. Strikes have damaged the art museum, with its collection of famous Russian painters including Repin and Shishkin, and the Korolenko library, which houses priceless manuscripts. “Everyone is in shock here,” said Ihor Terekhov, the city mayor. “We used to think of the Russians as our brothers. Even in our worst nightmares, we never imagined that they would destroy our city.” Russia’s attempt to use rapid thrusts by armored columns and assaults by paratroopers and special forces to seize the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv and other cities, overthrowing the country’s government, has stalled in the face of fierce resistance. Now, Moscow is resorting to a punishing, wholesale destruction, shelling and bombing residential neighborhoods and historic downtowns. Kharkiv has been pulverized with particular cruelty, even though almost all of its citizens are Russian-speakers, many of whom felt affinity with Russia in the past. On Friday, the thumps of artillery punctured the city’s eerie silence. Few people were on the street. Around the corner from Constitution Square, the new Nikolsky shopping mall—complete with an oyster bar and virtual-reality game zone—smoldered. A Russian missile had plunged through its roof Wednesday night. On the streets, police patrols watch for any looting. Municipal crews used a break in the shelling to repair power and water lines. Several Kharkiv taxi drivers worked together to remove debris from Constitution Square. “There isn’t much work nowadays, so we’ve come here to clean up the city and raise morale,” said Andriy Kolesnik, one of the drivers. “We can do it, so we do it.” It will take generations for the people of Kharkiv to forgive Russia and the Russians, said Mr. Terekhov, the mayor, as he visited a subway station-turned-dormitory. People there asked to take selfies with him. “The Russians thought, mistakenly, that Kharkiv would greet them with open arms,” Mr. Terekhov said. “But nobody wants the Russians here, nobody has invited them here. Our people are fighting them for our freedom, for the future of our children.” Back in 2014, in the wake of Kyiv street protests that ousted pro-Russian Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych, sympathy for Russia ran high in Kharkiv. Moscow-backed protesters briefly took over the regional government, hoisting a Russian flag and proclaiming a so-called Kharkiv People’s Republic, along the lines of similar pro-Russian statelets in nearby Donetsk and Luhansk. The desolate record of Russian rule in Donetsk and Luhansk, however, has changed local minds, especially after more than 100,000 refugees from Donetsk moved to the city, bringing tales of expropriations, murders and political repression. That shift wasn’t necessarily taken into account by Russia’s military planners, whose strategy in Kharkiv can only be explained by a profound miscalculation of the city’s mood, Ukrainian officers said. In the first days of the war, several units of lightly armed Russian troops in Tigr infantry vehicles penetrated deep into Kharkiv. Within hours, they were all killed or captured. “I don’t know what they were hoping for. To seize the regional government building right away?” said Ukrainian air force Maj. Oleh Koshevyi, who serves at the Kharkiv-based Ukrainian Air Force University. “Instead, everyone has united against them.” Responding to that initial assault, Ukraine pulled fresh troops into the city, organizing a defense around its northern, western and eastern perimeters that have been holding ever since. While Russian forces are close enough to shell residential neighborhoods with Grad multiple-launch rocket systems and artillery, they haven’t been able to advance and, in many areas, have been pushed back. The roads from Kharkiv to the Ukrainian cities of Poltava and Dnipro remain open, allowing resupplies of food, fuel and ammunition, as well as providing a way out for civilians who have somewhere to go. “The first days were scary. There was confusion, it was unclear who was where in the city,” said Lt. Andriy Babak of the Ukrainian Army’s 92nd Brigade, which is defending Kharkiv. “Now we have established the lines of defense and keep repelling their attacks.” Frustrated with its inability to enter or encircle the city, Russia pivoted to the new strategy of destruction here on March 1, the end of the war’s first week. At 8 a.m. that morning, a Russian ballistic missile slammed into Kharkiv’s Freedom Square, just outside the regional administration headquarters, a Stalin-era neoclassical building that pro-Russian protesters had taken over in 2014. Several other missile strikes since then have turned entire downtown city blocs into a cityscape of destruction akin to Stalingrad, Aleppo or Grozny. Burned-out, shrapnel-peppered cars, the remains of their occupants melted into the seats, dot the streets. Twisted pieces of roofing hang from electricity lines. Inside the regional administration’s courtyard, a giant crater marked the spot where a Russian missile vaporized an ambulance. A rigid, frozen body is still lying outside. In the governor’s former office, a book on the challenges and perspective of Ukrainian law studies remains, pristine, amid the soot and debris. Elsewhere in the building, pieces of flesh spatter whitewashed walls. Oleh Supereka, a former studio portrait photographer turned soldier, pointed to a fifth-floor apartment of a gutted building near the regional government building. His friend lived there, he said, and miraculously survived the blast, which sheared off the living room’s outer wall. “The Russians are doing this out of desperation,” Mr. Supereka said. “They understand they can’t take the city from the land, so they just destroy it from the air.” The initial bombing of Freedom Square was one of many Russian strikes on Kharkiv that day. At around 10:30 p.m., four Russian cruise missiles slammed into the compound of the Kharkiv Air Force University. One of them hit a residential building that housed retired officers and the families of current officers. Most active-duty personnel were by then deployed to the front lines around Kharkiv, and so women and children made up most of the dozens of victims buried under the rubble that night, said Lt. Col. Oleh Pechelulko, the university’s deputy commander. Ten days later, rescue crews were still digging through the crumbled building. Col. Pechelulko said his wife luckily had left their apartment there a few hours earlier. “Everything has burned down. Nothing is left. Not memories. Not documents. Nothing. I am continuing the war just with what I had on my back that night,” he said, showing the charred block where the couple once lived. The remains of a playground stood amid the debris. A painting of a lion with a pink mane, part of a mural, still showed on a charred brick wall. Wrecked cars littered the space. “All the men had gone off to fight and defend Kharkiv that night,” Col. Pechelulko said. “Now, every one of them will avenge his family, his murdered children, his murdered wife. We will never forgive the enemy for this.” At 3:30 p.m. on March 7, Serhiy and Elena Kosyanov’s children were lying on a sofa and playing with smartphones in northern Kharkiv’s Saltivka neighborhood. Elena, a kindergarten teacher, was in the kitchen and her mother was preparing to walk their dog. Serhiy was opening the door to their apartment building downstairs. He was in good spirits: After two hours waiting in line, he had filled their car with
Here's the rankings of my concerns: 1) Inflation 2) Southern border 3) China 4) Looming recession 5) Fentanyl epidemic 6) Deep swamp progress towards totalitarianism 7) American censorship and propaganda ... ... 99) Ukraine (American elite's prostitution whore)
I think you should have listed number six as number one and the rest as subsections. to me they are derivatives, distractions and tools to help them achieve their goal. 1. Deep Swamp -a -b
Biggest concerns: 1- The rise of authoritarianism, as represented by people like trump and Putin 2- The growing disparity between rich and poor 3- Global warming 4- Religionism and resistance to science 5- White supremacy and the assault on women's rights 6- The environment 7- Fake news by outlets such as Fox, Newsmax, OAN
You’re a walking talking Rachel Madow. You may think it a compliment but believe me it’s not. The greatest threats facing America today is as follows 1) the war in Ukraine hands down. It has the potential to descend into a long term world scale disaster. Even if we’re not dragged in (I am not in favor) the disruption is only starting to be felt. Worse case we could be dragged into WWIII. 2) the ever growing attack on the classical foundation of our country and the lurch to centralized and authoritarian government on both sides of the political divide. 3) the declining quality and expectations of the educational system. Education and a classical education is critical to the establishment of an informed electorate. As we see from the last several elections an ignorant electorate chooses poorly. Frankly the rest are details that are more about Maintanence. The three cited above go to the root of our country and future.
i pulled this off of a FB post. I haven't fact checked it but even if you half the numbers, it is still pretty eye opening. Getting the oil from there to here and refining it vs. getting the oil from here to here and refining it:
We definitely need solar energy to be more efficient and cost effective. The initial cost is still a bit too high. Great strides have been made in this area, but more is needed. I would love for my home to be self-sufficient, especially during hurricane season, and only use the grid as a backup. Each type of energy source has distinct advantages in certain areas. My opinion is that solar COULD be best for powering homes if we get the cost down and develop the battery technology. I have heard it argued that oil is too valuable to burn as a fuel. Think of all its uses (plastic, cosmetics, feed stock, etc). Of course, EVs can work locally for transportation, but I would still prefer a gas powered car for longer trips. I would also support a Manhattan Project type program to develop nuclear fusion technology. It would provide nearly limitless clean energy. Scientists are making progress, but there is a long way to go.
Rachel Maddow is a Rhodes Scholar, a Stanford graduate, and a PhD from Oxford. She is extremely intelligent and moral. Thank you.
