Trump’s Sweet Deal for Big Oil
Donald Trump, who has never met a “quid pro quo” he doesn’t like, hosted two-dozen oil company executives at Mar-a-Lago last month.
According to The Washington Post, Trump pledged that if they’d fork over a billion dollars for his re-election campaign, he’d roll back any and all Biden administration clean energy initiatives that the fossil fuel industry requests.
The Big Oil execs had a ready wish list: end restrictions on drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic; back off emissions limits from cars; thaw the “freeze” on permits for liquified methane gas exports—and much more, all of which will change the climate for the worse. (Oh, and more tax breaks would be nice too.)
That sort of wheeling and dealing used to be considered influence-buying—i.e. bribery.
Mind you, the oil industry isn’t struggling. The Post reports that the U.S. now produces more oil than any nation in history. Last year, Chevron and ExxonMobil racked up their biggest profits in a decade.
Politico says oil industry execs are busily writing executive orders for Trump to issue should he regain the White House. It’s yet one more sign that a second Trump presidency would mean oligarchy—government by the wealthy and powerful—and that Trump’s loyalties are to his corporate donors, not the American people.
The Post says several oil execs at the dinner were “stunned” when Trump made his offer. C’mon guys, you weren’t at Mar-a-Lago just for the shrimp cocktail.
Patty Satalia, State College
Should Brian Fitzpatrick be impeached?
Is Representative Brian Fitzpatrick guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors? Well, that depends on what standard you use: the rational standard of common sense or the standard Fitzpatrick used when he voted to impeach Alejandro Mayorkas.
Republicans are blood-thirsty for someone to blame for an immigration problem that dates back to well before the 1930s when America went nativist and deported more than one million people of Mexican ancestry. They could have focused on why so many people are so desperate they’re willing to leave their homes and risk their lives on the perilous journey to reach the promise of America. Instead they decided to impeach a cabinet secretary who’d been on the job for less than two years. They needed a scapegoat, and Alejandro Mayorkas would do just fine.
Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia is the one who introduced the resolution to impeach the Secretary of Homeland Security for high crimes and misdemeanors (H.Res.863 118th Congress). It failed to pass on the first vote largely due to the ‘no’ votes of three Republican representatives: Ken Buck of Colorado, Mike Gallagher, of Wisconsin, and Tom McClintock, of California. Don’t get the wrong idea. These are not moderate Republicans. These are the kind of Republicans who have no problem voting to protect semiautomatic assault weapons and large capacity magazines. But even they couldn’t stomach this taxpayer-funded farce.
The conservative Wall Street Journal Editorial Board proclaimed: Impeaching Mayorkas Achieves Nothing. A policy dispute doesn’t qualify as a high crime and misdemeanor. Despite this, the resolution was brought to the floor a second time. It passed by a single vote. Representative Buck was quoted as saying, “You can try to put lipstick on this pig. It is still a pig.”
Where was Brian Fitzpatrick in all this? He was going-along-to-get-along, matching his vote with the likes of Matt Gaetz, Andy Biggs, Scott Perry, and Lauren Boebert. Perhaps he felt he needed to ingratiate himself with Marjorie Taylor Greene and the rest of the extreme MAGA right. It’s a head scratcher. This hardly seems like the actions of someone who loves to tell us what an independent thinker he is. Don’t get me wrong, it’s his prerogative to join the clowns and carnival barkers who now seem to be running the House of Representatives, just don’t pretend to be anything else.
If Brian Fitzpatrick feels it’s okay to impeach someone over a policy dispute, you would hope he’d understand when he gets impeached for the same thing. After all, Fitzpatrick has voted against allowing Medicare to negotiate prescription drug prices. Against extending subsidies for the Affordable Care Act. Against expanding tax credits for renewable and clean energy efforts. Against establishing a 15 percent corporate minimum tax. Against prohibiting restrictions on access to abortion services. And against developing strategies to lower food and fuel costs. If these are Fitzpatrick’s policies, there are more than a few constituents of Pennsylvania’s 1st District who have a legitimate dispute with that.
So, should Brian Fitzpatrick be impeached? Probably not. After all that would make us as bad as those we rail against. But the need for him to be voted out of office is indisputable.
Dana Rollins, Langhorne
Pathetic Pandering
An obscene sideshow to the Trump Hush Money Trail is developing in New York City. Various Republican politicians have been showing up, ostensibly to “support their friend” in his hour of emotional need, with appearances by Rich Scott, Tim Scott, JD Vance, Tommy Tuberville, Vivek Ramaswamy, and even House Speaker Mike Johnson.
Most are simply auditioning to be Trump’s vice-presidential nominee.
Engaging in this pathetic pandering under the guise of supporting a friend is shameful enough, but their comments to the press reveal a more corrupt intent. They are intentionally circumventing the gag order Judge Merchan imposed on Trump in his effort to protect the integrity of the case, the witnesses, jurors – and even his own daughter.
Trump’s so-called “law and order” sycophants let fly the unhinged and dangerous verbal attacks that Trump himself can’t launch.
As if reading from a script, each has delivered verbal pot shots at the “sham” trial and the unreasonable restraint on Trump’s opportunity to campaign. Most appallingly, Speaker Johnson used his press time to attack Judge Merchan’s adult daughter, falsely claiming that she is using the trial to make “millions of dollars doing online fundraising for Democrats.” (The firm that she works for does some work for Democrats.)
In our three-part system of government, legislators have traditionally honored judicial proceedings with their silence, but like so much that Trump has broken, this too seems no longer to be the case. Republican officials now freely undercut the integrity of the very government they pledged to uphold.
Vote them out.
Rebecca R Sheerin, Pittsburgh
