BOUGHT POLITICIANS & PHONIES

PATRICK MARTIN—A major factor is the decision of Texas state officials, adhering to Republican Party doctrine, to take no notice of climate change, despite a series of climate-induced disasters that have befallen the state—tornadoes, floods, droughts, wildfires. Above all, there was Hurricane Harvey, which spawned floods that devastated the Houston area in 2017, killing more than 100 people and causing damage estimated at $125 billion.

Climate change is believed to be a major contributor to the more frequent eruptions of the “polar vortex,” which bring bursts of super-cold air into regions where subzero temperatures have historically been rare.

But there are other political and economic decisions that underlie the current crisis. Texas operates a state-wide power grid that is disconnected from the major national grids that cover the remaining 47 states of the contiguous US. The state government has chosen this policy in order to evade the authority of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), which oversees power grids that cross state lines.

The obvious continuation of a confrontationist policy from the Trump administration to the Biden administration reflects how this policy is not simply attributable to the person sitting in the White House; it is largely structural, with deep roots in the US defense and foreign policy establishment. It also explains why Joe Biden, who was a vehement critic of Trump’s “trade war” with China, has not immediately reversed the tariffs that the former president had imposed.

P. GREANVILLE—The facts the elites live by a different legal and social standard becomes compellingly clear as top governors betray the public interest and no penalties are ever filed.  Rick Snyder, former Michigan governor, grossly disregarded the Flint water poisoning scandal, yet the courts treated the whole thing as a misdemeanor. 

JONATHAN BURLEIGH—In truth, there can be no serious talk of addressing climate change while the world’s imperialist powers prepare for global war, led by the anti-Russia and anti-China hawks of the Biden administration. The only way a capitalist Earth can limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is through a nuclear winter. Biden’s proposed militarized climate policy only raises the odds of such an outcome.

China currently leads the world in carbon emissions, with 30 percent of the total compared to 15 percent for the United States. This is an inevitable outcome the development of world capitalism, not a specifically Chinese affair. As a central element of the globalization of production, China has emerged as the manufacturing hub of the world. Targeting China and forcing it to reduce its emissions would, under global capitalism, only lead to corporations shifting production to other countries, while destroying jobs in China and driving down wages and living standards for workers all over the world.

GLEN FORD—The Democrats have every reason to expect that the Black Misleadership Class and its brown counterparts will be allies in the quest to establish a more politically stable corporate dictatorship in the United States, and in supporting never-ending war in defense of global capitalism. The continued political potency of the more blatantly white supremacist brand of fascism among the Trump Republicans will further solidify the unholy alliance of warmongering Democratic oligarchs and narrow Black “representational” politics. This deepening partnership presents a profound challenge to the militants seeking social transformation and peace under the Black Lives Matter umbrella, who must weigh the full implications of the Black Democratic Misleaders’ deal with the devil.