In the last two weeks, I have said on FB and to friends we have learned nothing from 1914, as we refuse to recognize the complex history of Ukraine with Russia, the arrogance of the United States government in going against what George Kennan and Chalmers Johnson, among so many Cold War era advisers who survived long enough after the Soviet Union's 1991 collapse to scream from high heavens--"Don't extend NATO into Eastern Europe or worse, Ukraine because you will build up Russian nationalism that will create more war!" Nope. Our leaders didn't listen. Chris Hedges, who was a foreign affairs reporter in the Balkans in the 1990s, remembers very clearly how the US was orally and sometimes in cables saying it would never extend NATO into Eastern Europe, the Baltics, or Ukraine at the border of Russia post-1991. Here is a CATO Institute (yeah, CATO and I have long agreed about how the US empire is constantly seeking wars and pushing the sale of military weaponry around the world) doing a nice linked-filled summary of US leaders in the 1990s and beyond admitting Russian nationalism is stoked with such NATO expansion moves.
Now, as I see everyone panicking and making the wrong political responses, I can now say we have learned nothing from the 1970s, and particularly the oil shocks.
First, the oil companies never made more profits than this past year. The big oil companies spent billions this past year using their profits to buy back their own stock, and enrich its executives and big stockholders.
Second, the rise in pricing is in the futures markets, so the current price at the pumps is for oil purchased at far lower per barrel rates. In other words, this is a price gouge. Oh, and the per barrel prices of about $140 a barrel now are roughly what they were in 2008, so maybe we can also say, "Wow, we had a great run of lower oil prices for fourteen years." That is of course no reason to give the oil companies a break, but it is one for perspective.
Third, 3% of crude oil comes here from Russia (for some reason, 8% of overall oil came from Russia last year). Related to this, our nation has the ability to get more oil from other sources such as Venezuela or Iran, with whom we have had ridiculous sanctions against for the past several years--and could easily make up the loss of 3% or 8%. I agree with Ilan Omar (D-MN) that going to the oil wells with Saudi Arabia, when it is still involved in a horrific invasion-war against Yemen, is the wrong solution to what should be a relatively short term strategic issue.
Fourth, Biden approved MORE oil leases in his first year than Trump in Trump's first year. There is absolutely no basis to think we have to open up even further.
Fifth, why this is not a wake up call for a Manhattan Project for renewables is all you need to know about capitalist domination of our media discourse and our overall society. It is not that we really have a system based upon capitalism as much as we have a discourse that continually idealizes capitalism and demonizes any government action to protect regular people. If you want to attack Biden, it can only legitimately be from the left for not saying what I am saying. Any of our right wing friends attacking Biden for inflation or the oil price rise that will surely fuel further inflation is just cynical propaganda.
To remind us of the history from the 1970s, here is a brilliant deep dive from the late Robert Sherrill, who somehow got this into the NY Times (he was not a regular reporter for them) in real time--October 1979!--- as our nation was in the middle of the second of the big 1970s oil shocks then occurring. What happened from the spring of 1979 through the end of 1980 was another example of manipulation from oil companies where Saudi Arabia--and I distinctly recall this--had increased its oil production to cover the loss of Iranian oil, and then Sheik Zaki Yamani expressly said sometime in 1980 he did not understand why the oil companies were complaining about shortages when the Saudis had so increased its oil production.
