2024

[MDlaxfan76]

The US could green light & provide the weapons for Ukraine to attack Russia's oil infrastructure (e.g. ATACMS & air launched cruise missiles fired by F-16's safely within protected Ukrainian airspace), while increased US oil production would make up for the reduction of Russian oil in the global market.
Biden is blocking both.

Biden is blocking increased US oil production.

[SCLaxAttack]

The US could green light & provide the weapons for Ukraine to attack Russia's oil infrastructure (e.g. ATACMS & air launched cruise missiles fired by F-16's safely within protected Ukrainian airspace), while increased US oil production would make up for the reduction of Russian oil in the global market.
Biden is blocking both.

Biden is blocking increased US oil production.

Trump’ll fix it as soon as he gets that $BIL in oil company donations. You know, from the exorbitant profits they’ve been taking from all of us while MAGAs are brainwashed that high prices are all Biden’s fault. That’s how the MAGAs roll.

[old salt]

There is a delayed impact of any Presidential oil policies.

For example -- much of the current "oil boom" is the result of increased production in New Mexico, made possible by policy decisions made in 2018.

https://www.eenews.net/articles/what-bi ... ys-future/

U.S. oil production is at record highs despite the president’s pledge to end the federal oil program.

President Joe Biden entered the White House promising to end drilling on public lands. Instead, he presided over a record boom in U.S. oil production.

Biden leased the smallest amount of public land for drilling in his first 18 months in office than any president since Harry Truman.

The conflicting record raises questions central to Biden’s efforts to address climate change: What is his oil legacy? How will it shape the industry — and emissions — in the long term?

...the trajectory of the oil industry since 2020 also shows the limits of presidents to control drilling, even as they set policies that may influence production levels years later.

The New Mexico factor
The current oil boom isn’t due to the administration’s policies — or any former president’s agenda, experts say. It’s the result of an oil boom in New Mexico.

New Mexico’s rise began before Trump took office in 2017. At the time, drillers had leased most of the good acreage in the Permian Basin of West Texas. Pushed out or priced out of Texas, companies bought federal leases in New Mexico, where a subbasin of the Permian — the Delaware — held promise. A nearly $1 billion federal lease sale in New Mexico in 2018 showed that the state’s oil rush had arrived in force.

“Growth in oil and gas production on federal lands in recent years has been dominated by production from New Mexico’s Permian Basin,” said Daniel Raimi, a fellow at Resources for the Future, an energy-focused nonpartisan group.

New Mexico production has been so strong that it’s offset a drop in other states. Gulf of Mexico oil drilling has also contributed to the rise in production, said Raimi.

Despite Biden’s promises to rein in oil development on public lands, there wasn’t much the president could do about the New Mexico boom, considering that drillers bought their rights before Biden entered office.

“There are fewer policy mechanisms the administration can use to reduce production on those lands,” Raimi said. “In Alaska or the Gulf of Mexico, where many leasing opportunities remain, the administration can take action to reduce future production by restricting leasing. But in the Permian, it’s a different story.”

Early in Biden’s tenure, Interior appeared poised to take a swipe at New Mexico oil and gas drilling activity with an order temporarily suspending new permitting, prompting a wave of criticism from industry and Republicans. But that order sunset. By the middle of Biden’s first year in office, new permitting on public lands had soared, cutting into a backlog of unapproved drilling permits left over from the Trump administration.

Biden’s most significant action to shrink the federal oil program may be in reducing leasing. That began early in the administration with a leasing moratorium on public lands and waters. The pause was overturned by a federal court in 2021, but subsequent lease sales onshore have been markedly smaller and less frequent than the historical norm.

Interior inked a five-year offshore oil program in December with three lease sales between 2024 and 2029. Prior programs sometimes included dozens of auctions.

Fewer sales could stifle oil and gas production over the coming decade because companies would have fewer places to drill.

While Biden hasn’t come anywhere close to a full moratorium since taking office, observers say his reduced leasing also weakened investment in drilling projects.

“It is a pulling back on the reins of the oil and gas energy horse,” said Thomas Sansonetti, former Interior solicitor during the George H.W. Bush administration, of Biden’s leasing decisions.

How much they will pull back on the reins remains to be seen, however. Biden’s tenure coincided with a Republican-controlled House of Representatives, preventing the president from changing the oil program more permanently through the law, Sansonetti said.

A regulatory strategy
In the wake of the 2021 decision blocking Biden’s leasing moratorium, the administration pivoted to a different tool — regulations.

Interior finalized multiple rules in the past three years that affect the industry, including increasing royalties on federal leases, prioritizing lands with high oil potential for new lease sales, limiting venting and flaring of federal wells, increasing minimum bonds for onshore drilling, banning new leasing in the Arctic Ocean and requiring roughly $6.9 billion in new supplemental cleanup insurance from offshore drillers.

EPA has also released multiple regulations, including pollution protections from oil and gas infrastructure and a proposed fee on excess industry methane emissions.

While a future president could undo many of the rules, a reversal of all of them could take a long time, said Sansonetti.

Webb said the climate impact of Biden’s oil record goes far beyond the oil and gas leasing program.

“You’ve got to look at that program in the context of all the actions that are being taken across the administration,” she said. “It’s an interconnected system.”

A critical element of Biden’s oil legacy, she said, is the Inflation Reduction Act, which included new rules to make drilling on public lands more expensive alongside its $369 billion investment in energy and climate change programs.

Erik Schlenker-Goodrich, director of the Western Environmental Law Center, said the IRA offered “promise but also peril,” because it invests in “boondoggles” like untested carbon capture technology that will extend dependence on fossil fuels.

For their part, oil companies argue that Biden has hurt the industry’s ability to grow in the long term.

Holly Hopkins, vice president for upstream policy at the American Petroleum Institute, said the Biden administration has used “every tool at its disposal” to limit federal oil and gas development and the impacts will be felt in later years.

“Record high U.S. oil and natural gas production is supported by forward-looking decisions from previous administrations, and the misguided policy steps happening today will have consequences,” she said in a statement.

Biden’s regulatory actions have also prompted court battles that are continuing to shape the industry. One of the most recent examples is a lawsuit last month from North Dakota and other Republican states against Interior’s methane rule.

Industry groups also sued successfully to include an endangered whale’s potential habitat in a 2023 Gulf of Mexico oil sale after Biden tried to bar new leasing in the area.

[a fan]

The New Mexico factor
The current oil boom isn’t due to the administration’s policies — or any former president’s agenda, experts say. It’s the result of an oil boom in New Mexico.

Read this above part. Now read it again.

We've been pulling more and more oil and from privately owned land over the last 20 years. Doesn't matter who is in the White House.

But yep, Biden wants to slow oil extraction on Federal land. You're right about that. But he's not very effective at that.

[MDlaxfan76]

The New Mexico factor
The current oil boom isn’t due to the administration’s policies — or any former president’s agenda, experts say. It’s the result of an oil boom in New Mexico.

Read this above part. Now read it again.

We've been pulling more and more oil and from privately owned land over the last 20 years. Doesn't matter who is in the White House.

But yep, Biden wants to slow oil extraction on Federal land. You're right about that. But he's not very effective at that.

Salty ignored that point and instead falsely claimed that it was due to policies from 2018. Typical.

[cradleandshoot]

The New Mexico factor
The current oil boom isn’t due to the administration’s policies — or any former president’s agenda, experts say. It’s the result of an oil boom in New Mexico.

Read this above part. Now read it again.

We've been pulling more and more oil and from privately owned land over the last 20 years. Doesn't matter who is in the White House.

But yep, Biden wants to slow oil extraction on Federal land. You're right about that. But he's not very effective at that.

Salty ignored that point and instead falsely claimed that it was due to policies from 2018. Typical.

Since you have ZERO integrity on this forum why should anyone believe your lies? OS I will always believe. MD lax I would never believe if he was lying on a stack of Protestant bibles.

[Seacoaster(1)]

The New Mexico factor
The current oil boom isn’t due to the administration’s policies — or any former president’s agenda, experts say. It’s the result of an oil boom in New Mexico.

Read this above part. Now read it again.

We've been pulling more and more oil and from privately owned land over the last 20 years. Doesn't matter who is in the White House.

But yep, Biden wants to slow oil extraction on Federal land. You're right about that. But he's not very effective at that.

Salty ignored that point and instead falsely claimed that it was due to policies from 2018. Typical.

Since you have ZERO integrity on this forum why should anyone believe your lies? OS I will always believe. MD lax I would never believe if he was lying on a stack of Protestant bibles.

Not with me. MDLax may p*ss you off with his usually fulsome explanations and posts, but he is relentlessly informed, informative, and courteous in the face of, and in response to, your ill-informed, faux "common sense," often rude buffoonery. OS is nothing more than a gaslighting partisan.

[cradleandshoot]

The New Mexico factor
The current oil boom isn’t due to the administration’s policies — or any former president’s agenda, experts say. It’s the result of an oil boom in New Mexico.

Read this above part. Now read it again.

We've been pulling more and more oil and from privately owned land over the last 20 years. Doesn't matter who is in the White House.

But yep, Biden wants to slow oil extraction on Federal land. You're right about that. But he's not very effective at that.

Salty ignored that point and instead falsely claimed that it was due to policies from 2018. Typical.

Since you have ZERO integrity on this forum why should anyone believe your lies? OS I will always believe. MD lax I would never believe if he was lying on a stack of Protestant bibles.

Not with me. MDLax may p*ss you off with his usually fulsome explanations and posts, but he is relentlessly informed, informative, and courteous in the face of, and in response to, your ill-informed, faux "common sense," often rude buffoonery. OS is nothing more than a gaslighting partisan.

MD doesn't pizz me off. MD lax NEVER raised his paw and swore the same oath to this country that OS and I did. It's called having " skin in the game" MD pisses me off because he lies to the forum members here every day. I believe and trust Old Salt. I wouldn't trust MD lax to guide my granddaughter across the street. Never trust anyone who even as a pimpled faced teenager use to be a rabid Richard Nixon fan.

[jhu72]

The New Mexico factor
The current oil boom isn’t due to the administration’s policies — or any former president’s agenda, experts say. It’s the result of an oil boom in New Mexico.

Read this above part. Now read it again.

We've been pulling more and more oil and from privately owned land over the last 20 years. Doesn't matter who is in the White House.

But yep, Biden wants to slow oil extraction on Federal land. You're right about that. But he's not very effective at that.

Salty ignored that point and instead falsely claimed that it was due to policies from 2018. Typical.

Since you have ZERO integrity on this forum why should anyone believe your lies? OS I will always believe. MD lax I would never believe if he was lying on a stack of Protestant bibles.

Not with me. MDLax may p*ss you off with his usually fulsome explanations and posts, but he is relentlessly informed, informative, and courteous in the face of, and in response to, your ill-informed, faux "common sense," often rude buffoonery. OS is nothing more than a gaslighting partisan.

MD doesn't pizz me off. MD lax NEVER raised his paw and swore the same oath to this country that OS and I did. It's called having " skin in the game" MD pisses me off because he lies to the forum members here every day. I believe and trust Old Salt. I wouldn't trust MD lax to guide my granddaughter across the street. Never trust anyone who even as a pimpled faced teenager use to be a rabid Richard Nixon fan.

-- more buffoonery!

[MDlaxfan76]

The New Mexico factor
The current oil boom isn’t due to the administration’s policies — or any former president’s agenda, experts say. It’s the result of an oil boom in New Mexico.

Read this above part. Now read it again.

We've been pulling more and more oil and from privately owned land over the last 20 years. Doesn't matter who is in the White House.

But yep, Biden wants to slow oil extraction on Federal land. You're right about that. But he's not very effective at that.

Salty ignored that point and instead falsely claimed that it was due to policies from 2018. Typical.

Since you have ZERO integrity on this forum why should anyone believe your lies? OS I will always believe. MD lax I would never believe if he was lying on a stack of Protestant bibles.

Not with me. MDLax may p*ss you off with his usually fulsome explanations and posts, but he is relentlessly informed, informative, and courteous in the face of, and in response to, your ill-informed, faux "common sense," often rude buffoonery. OS is nothing more than a gaslighting partisan.

fulsome...

[kramerica.inc]

Eeew.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2024/0 ... -unproven/

Snopes, a leading fact-check website, recently reversed a “fact-check” regarding the authenticity of Ashley Biden’s diary, which allegedly claimed that President Joe Biden had taken “inappropriate” showers with his daughter.

In response to a question concerning whether the contents of Ashley Biden’s diary had been verified, the fact-checking website wrote, “On April 29, 2024, Snopes changed the rating of this fact check from ‘Unproven’ to ‘True’ based on testimony provided by Ashley Biden. In an April 8 letter to a New York judge requesting jail time for one of the two people convicted of stealing her diary, Biden wrote ‘I will forever have to deal with the fact that my personal journal can be viewed online.'”

Snopes explained that the fact-check had previously stated that there was “strong evidence” Biden’s daughter’s diary existed but that the fact-check had “argued that no source had authenticated the contents of the pages published online.”

According to The Post Millennial, the fact-checking website’s reversal comes shortly after Ashley Biden wrote a letter to Judge Laura Taylor Swain confirming the authenticity of the diary. The letter was written by the president’s daughter during the sentencing of Aimee Harris, who was one of the two individuals convicted of stealing the diary and selling it to Project Veritas.

[cradleandshoot]

The New Mexico factor
The current oil boom isn’t due to the administration’s policies — or any former president’s agenda, experts say. It’s the result of an oil boom in New Mexico.

Read this above part. Now read it again.

We've been pulling more and more oil and from privately owned land over the last 20 years. Doesn't matter who is in the White House.

But yep, Biden wants to slow oil extraction on Federal land. You're right about that. But he's not very effective at that.

Salty ignored that point and instead falsely claimed that it was due to policies from 2018. Typical.

Since you have ZERO integrity on this forum why should anyone believe your lies? OS I will always believe. MD lax I would never believe if he was lying on a stack of Protestant bibles.

Not with me. MDLax may p*ss you off with his usually fulsome explanations and posts, but he is relentlessly informed, informative, and courteous in the face of, and in response to, your ill-informed, faux "common sense," often rude buffoonery. OS is nothing more than a gaslighting partisan.

MD doesn't pizz me off. MD lax NEVER raised his paw and swore the same oath to this country that OS and I did. It's called having " skin in the game" MD pisses me off because he lies to the forum members here every day. I believe and trust Old Salt. I wouldn't trust MD lax to guide my granddaughter across the street. Never trust anyone who even as a pimpled faced teenager use to be a rabid Richard Nixon fan.

-- more buffoonery!

So you were a Richard Nixon suckhole?? Now that would be buffoonery at it's finest.

I would have guessed you to be more of a Spiro Agnew fan. Kinda like a rear admiral in the Greek Navy...

[jhu72]

Eeew.

https://americanmilitarynews.com/2024/0 ... -unproven/

Snopes, a leading fact-check website, recently reversed a “fact-check” regarding the authenticity of Ashley Biden’s diary, which allegedly claimed that President Joe Biden had taken “inappropriate” showers with his daughter.

In response to a question concerning whether the contents of Ashley Biden’s diary had been verified, the fact-checking website wrote, “On April 29, 2024, Snopes changed the rating of this fact check from ‘Unproven’ to ‘True’ based on testimony provided by Ashley Biden. In an April 8 letter to a New York judge requesting jail time for one of the two people convicted of stealing her diary, Biden wrote ‘I will forever have to deal with the fact that my personal journal can be viewed online.'”

Snopes explained that the fact-check had previously stated that there was “strong evidence” Biden’s daughter’s diary existed but that the fact-check had “argued that no source had authenticated the contents of the pages published online.”

According to The Post Millennial, the fact-checking website’s reversal comes shortly after Ashley Biden wrote a letter to Judge Laura Taylor Swain confirming the authenticity of the diary. The letter was written by the president’s daughter during the sentencing of Aimee Harris, who was one of the two individuals convicted of stealing the diary and selling it to Project Veritas.

Snopes Update How old was she when this happened?

[old salt]

The article I linked made the point that the oil policies of a President don't always reach maximum impact until after his term in office.
I did not mention Trump. The article said:
" New Mexico’s rise began before Trump took office in 2017. ...A nearly $1 billion federal lease sale in New Mexico in 2018 showed that the state’s oil rush had arrived in force. "
If that's partisan gaslighting, it is on behalf of Obama.
The point is, we won't feel the full impact of Biden's oil policies during his first term & we're still benefiting from some of Trump's policies.

[a fan]

The article I linked made the point that the oil policies of a President don't always reach maximum impact until after his term in office.
I did not mention Trump. The article said:
" New Mexico’s rise began before Trump took office in 2017. ...A nearly $1 billion federal lease sale in New Mexico in 2018 showed that the state’s oil rush had arrived in force. "
If that's partisan gaslighting, it is on behalf of Obama.
The point is, we won't feel the full impact of Biden's oil policies during his first term & we're still benefiting from some of Trump's policies.

No. The point of your citation is that oil prices have nothing to do with who is in the White House.

And they're right.

As you've said, you're a partisan, and that's fine. But all you're going to do is share stuff that you think makes the Dems look bad, and the R's look good.

And hide things that makes the R's look bad, and the Dems look good.

Policy is immaterial to you, although like all partisans, you'd never admit that. Because if a R does something you know is bad? You ignore it and won't even consider it. And if a D does something good? You'll bury it, and steer the conversation to anything you can find anywhere around the world that you think sounds bad.

US Oil production is at record high, so you're going to move the goalposts around to suit your worldview.

If's far easier to admit that only 1/4 of oil production happens on Federal land, and that there are far more important pressures on global oil prices than which letter the White House guy has by his name. But you do you.

[old salt]

A Presidental decisions on whether or not to open areas for oil production, to sell leases, & to regulate production, obviously have an impact on production quantity & prices, whether in the short term or the long term. As does a decision to draw down the strategic petroleum reserve. As do oil transport policies & decisions like canceling pipelines or waiving or repealing the Jones Act.
To assert otherwise is to deny reality.

When a party or a President vows to end fossil fuel production & consumption, it impacts investment in exploration & production.

To assert otherwise is gaslighting.

[CU88a]

The New Mexico factor
The current oil boom isn’t due to the administration’s policies — or any former president’s agenda, experts say. It’s the result of an oil boom in New Mexico.

Read this above part. Now read it again.

We've been pulling more and more oil and from privately owned land over the last 20 years. Doesn't matter who is in the White House.

But yep, Biden wants to slow oil extraction on Federal land. You're right about that. But he's not very effective at that.

Salty ignored that point and instead falsely claimed that it was due to policies from 2018. Typical.

Since you have ZERO integrity on this forum why should anyone believe your lies? OS I will always believe. MD lax I would never believe if he was lying on a stack of Protestant bibles.

Not with me. MDLax may p*ss you off with his usually fulsome explanations and posts, but he is relentlessly informed, informative, and courteous in the face of, and in response to, your ill-informed, faux "common sense," often rude buffoonery. OS is nothing more than a gaslighting partisan.

MD doesn't pizz me off. MD lax NEVER raised his paw and swore the same oath to this country that OS and I did. It's called having " skin in the game" MD pisses me off because he lies to the forum members here every day. I believe and trust Old Salt. I wouldn't trust MD lax to guide my granddaughter across the street. Never trust anyone who even as a pimpled faced teenager use to be a rabid Richard Nixon fan.

-- more buffoonery!

+1

Making themselves a special class of citizens, better than the rest of us...

[Seacoaster(1)]

The New Mexico factor
The current oil boom isn’t due to the administration’s policies — or any former president’s agenda, experts say. It’s the result of an oil boom in New Mexico.

Read this above part. Now read it again.

We've been pulling more and more oil and from privately owned land over the last 20 years. Doesn't matter who is in the White House.

But yep, Biden wants to slow oil extraction on Federal land. You're right about that. But he's not very effective at that.

Salty ignored that point and instead falsely claimed that it was due to policies from 2018. Typical.

Since you have ZERO integrity on this forum why should anyone believe your lies? OS I will always believe. MD lax I would never believe if he was lying on a stack of Protestant bibles.

Not with me. MDLax may p*ss you off with his usually fulsome explanations and posts, but he is relentlessly informed, informative, and courteous in the face of, and in response to, your ill-informed, faux "common sense," often rude buffoonery. OS is nothing more than a gaslighting partisan.

MD doesn't pizz me off. MD lax NEVER raised his paw and swore the same oath to this country that OS and I did. It's called having " skin in the game" MD pisses me off because he lies to the forum members here every day. I believe and trust Old Salt. I wouldn't trust MD lax to guide my granddaughter across the street. Never trust anyone who even as a pimpled faced teenager use to be a rabid Richard Nixon fan.

I kind of missed this response. Question: is this really what servicemen and -women, and veterans think of the rest of us -- that we have no skin in the game because we never served in the armed services branches and never "swore the same oath" as they did?

[cradleandshoot]

The New Mexico factor
The current oil boom isn’t due to the administration’s policies — or any former president’s agenda, experts say. It’s the result of an oil boom in New Mexico.

Read this above part. Now read it again.

We've been pulling more and more oil and from privately owned land over the last 20 years. Doesn't matter who is in the White House.

But yep, Biden wants to slow oil extraction on Federal land. You're right about that. But he's not very effective at that.

Salty ignored that point and instead falsely claimed that it was due to policies from 2018. Typical.

Since you have ZERO integrity on this forum why should anyone believe your lies? OS I will always believe. MD lax I would never believe if he was lying on a stack of Protestant bibles.

Not with me. MDLax may p*ss you off with his usually fulsome explanations and posts, but he is relentlessly informed, informative, and courteous in the face of, and in response to, your ill-informed, faux "common sense," often rude buffoonery. OS is nothing more than a gaslighting partisan.

MD doesn't pizz me off. MD lax NEVER raised his paw and swore the same oath to this country that OS and I did. It's called having " skin in the game" MD pisses me off because he lies to the forum members here every day. I believe and trust Old Salt. I wouldn't trust MD lax to guide my granddaughter across the street. Never trust anyone who even as a pimpled faced teenager use to be a rabid Richard Nixon fan.

I kind of missed this response. Question: is this really what servicemen and -women, and veterans think of the rest of us -- that we have no skin in the game because we never served in the armed services branches and never "swore the same oath" as they did?

That is why I took the oath. I was willing to defend your right to your political perspective. Your correct there counselor, you do have skin in the game. So do you think it is a good strategy to label FRC folks as Nazi fascists? Because then when those FRC Nazi fascists label you as a commie pinko useful idiot y'all get your panties all tied up in a knot. It makes me wonder why your team hasn't made a conscious decision to dial down the rhetoric. It could possibly be that y'all really believe the Republicans really are made up of a bunch of Nazi fascists? It would be refreshing if someone on your team would repudiate the nonsense some of your team is dishing out. Do you believe me to be a FRC Nazi fascist? Wave a Nazi flag in front of me irregardless of politics and legal repercussions...I'll take my old bones and punch you in the face. My dad died with Nazi shrapnel imbedded in his back. Burn an American flag and I'll turn my back and walk away. In America today from the perspective of some folks, burning our flag is a true symbol of how a patriot is defined in 2024.
Have a good day counselor.

[Seacoaster(1)]

The New Mexico factor
The current oil boom isn’t due to the administration’s policies — or any former president’s agenda, experts say. It’s the result of an oil boom in New Mexico.

Read this above part. Now read it again.

We've been pulling more and more oil and from privately owned land over the last 20 years. Doesn't matter who is in the White House.

But yep, Biden wants to slow oil extraction on Federal land. You're right about that. But he's not very effective at that.

Salty ignored that point and instead falsely claimed that it was due to policies from 2018. Typical.

Since you have ZERO integrity on this forum why should anyone believe your lies? OS I will always believe. MD lax I would never believe if he was lying on a stack of Protestant bibles.

Not with me. MDLax may p*ss you off with his usually fulsome explanations and posts, but he is relentlessly informed, informative, and courteous in the face of, and in response to, your ill-informed, faux "common sense," often rude buffoonery. OS is nothing more than a gaslighting partisan.

MD doesn't pizz me off. MD lax NEVER raised his paw and swore the same oath to this country that OS and I did. It's called having " skin in the game" MD pisses me off because he lies to the forum members here every day. I believe and trust Old Salt. I wouldn't trust MD lax to guide my granddaughter across the street. Never trust anyone who even as a pimpled faced teenager use to be a rabid Richard Nixon fan.

I kind of missed this response. Question: is this really what servicemen and -women, and veterans think of the rest of us -- that we have no skin in the game because we never served in the armed services branches and never "swore the same oath" as they did?

That is why I took the oath. I was willing to defend your right to your political perspective. Your correct there counselor, you do have skin in the game. So do you think it is a good strategy to label FRC folks as Nazi fascists? Because then when those FRC Nazi fascists label you as a commie pinko useful idiot y'all get your panties all tied up in a knot. It makes me wonder why your team hasn't made a conscious decision to dial down the rhetoric. It could possibly be that y'all really believe the Republicans really are made up of a bunch of Nazi fascists? It would be refreshing if someone on your team would repudiate the nonsense some of your team is dishing out. Do you believe me to be a FRC Nazi fascist? Wave a Nazi flag in front of me irregardless of politics and legal repercussions...I'll take my old bones and punch you in the face. My dad died with Nazi shrapnel imbedded in his back. Burn an American flag and I'll turn my back and walk away. In America today from the perspective of some folks, burning our flag is a true symbol of how a patriot is defined in 2024.
Have a good day counselor.

I can only respond for myself, of course. But I will try to respectfully do that.

My skin in the game is that I am a citizen, and believe in the deepest place in my heart and mind that the American experiment -- republican democracy, fidelity to the Constitution and laws, equal protection of the laws, separated and diffuse powers in government, the sanctity and importance of the vote, etc. -- is something worth giving our last and best chance to preserve and continue.

I hate that we are so polarized, but I do think things are far more grave, serious and threatening than many folks. Old Salt uses his derisive "be afraid, be very afraid" to chide and heckle those of us who believe as I do, that the current GOP nominee for the Presidency has had an unprecedented and, in relative terms, very serious and quick corrosive effect on the nation's trust in elections and electoral institutions and practices, and in fact plans on a de jure form of reducing the American experiment to something different than I have described above. I don't think all Republicans are "fascists;" I do think many of them do not fully comprehend what another Trump presidency will do to this country or what Trump's ambitions will lead to for all of us.

My team is -- and I know this sounds overly pious and snooty -- but my team is the America I have tried to describe, above. I am a Democrat, because that party most closely aligns with my own views, not 100%, maybe not even 75%, but I am aligned with the Democratic Party far, far, far more than the policy free, deeply sick thing that now passes itself off as the GOP.

I would never burn the flag. But at the same time I understand how profound a bit of political and moral expression that could be to and for some people. Four of my uncles and my dad served in WW2. My beloved aunt's brother died on Saipan when he was 20. I have tried -- maybe in vain -- to inculcate in my children (who are now adults) a love for the experiment and adventure that all Americans share. I have persisted in believing that there are more issues in common than divide us. But the politics of the day is grievance-heavy, "why them and not me" heavy. We'd all do well to tone down the rhetoric and search for solutions -- but that does not appear to be reflected in the campaigns for public office.