“In 2020, U.S. Congress imposed secondary sanctions on banks that processed transactions related to the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines and on ship insurers that serviced them.

When construction of Nord Stream 2 was finished in 2021, Washington imposed new sanctions on insurance and certification companies to keep it from opening.

Finally, both pipelines were sabotaged in an undersea explosion in September 2022.

As a result, the industries that had made Germany preeminent in Europe, such as steel, chemicals, machinery, and automotives, are suffering from high energy costs and the loss of Russia’s aluminum, titanium, and palladium.

As a consequence, one in four German companies is considering moving production to other countries, amid the energy crisis…”

— Renate Bridenthal at the Geopolitical Economy Report, 01.10.2023

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“Kristi Parrott is joining the Subcommittee on Environment from HBW Resources, where she lobbied Congress on behalf of an astroturf group for oil majors…” —Donald Shaw at Sludge, 07.01.2022

This was inspired by the lead foto in this article I caught at Sludge a few days ago.

This, kiddies, is the party people are expecting to fight for reproductive rights — the party who couldn’t get you universal healthcare, or decent COVID relief, or housing relief, or an unemployment benefits extension during the pandemic, who’s instead shoveling cash into a capitalist proxy war in the Ukraine, now signing up Big Oil lobbyists for the House Environmental Subcommittee.

If you think the DNC is going to lift a finger for women, or the working class, or the poor, or anyone else who’s really struggling in this goddamn country, you’re as stupid as you look.

Vote harder!

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Gropin’ Joe has made it abundantly clear at the AFL-CIO convention a week or so back that he plans to beat that “Putin’s Price Hike” horse until it’s either dead or people actually start believing that horseshit. We promised Gorbachev we wouldn’t expand NATO, then promptly spent the better part of the 1990s expanding NATO to Russia’s front stoop and fomenting pro-US regime-change “color revolutions”, but yeah, sure, Joe — it’s Putin’s war. Sonofabitch plans on distracting us from his horrid performance and our wartime austerity pain by blaming Putin for everything but the Mariners dragging ass in the AL West.

So — you heard it here first, kiddies. Supreme Court just stripped your reproductive rights? Putin made ‘em do it. That asshole boss at Starbuck’s who just canned you for union organizing? Putin did it.  Those pals of yours who promised to help move that sofa last Saturday flaked on you? Putin. That raging hottie you’ve been dating for the past 2 months just put you in the Friend Zone? Yeah, that’s right, my dude — fucking Putin.

Dude’s been one busy motherfucker lately, gotta give credit where it’s due.

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