House Select Jan 6 Committee Public Hearing #9 is currently scheduled for Wednesday, 9/28 at 1 pm.
Link to Videos of all 8 Previous Jan 6 Public Hearings
What The Committee Says You Need To Know
– The House Select Committee investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection on Capitol Hill will hold its next hearing Wednesday at 1p.m. Eastern, the first public hearing since late July.
– Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told CNN that “unless something else develops,” Wednesday’s hearing will be the committee’s last before it issues a complete report on its investigation.
– While lawmakers have not revealed any specifics ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, committee member Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., told CNN it will “be potentially more sweeping than some of the other hearings.”
– The committee must shut down within a month after issuing a final report, per its rules – but lawmakers could issue some smaller reports before then, perhaps even before the November elections.
The committee held its first public hearing June 9, and the prime-time broadcast gave the panel of seven Democrats and two Republicans its first opportunity to present evidence of its wide-ranging probe into the insurrection – the worst attack on the Capitol since the Civil War – directly to the American people.
The first hearing featured both video and in-person testimony from U.S. Capitol Police Officer Caroline Edwards and Nick Quested, a British documentary filmmaker who was embedded with the far-right group the Proud Boys on Jan. 6 and the night before.
Edwards, who was one of the first law enforcement officers injured that day, described falling behind a line of Metropolitan Police Department officers, when she first saw the scale of the chaos unfolding around her.
“I can just remember my breath catching in my throat because what I saw was just a war scene. It was something like I’d seen out of the movies. I couldn’t believe my eyes,” she said. “There were officers on the ground. You know, they were bleeding. They were throwing up. … I saw friends with blood all over their faces. I was slipping in people’s blood.”
Subsequent hearings, while perhaps not offering the same gut-wrenching detail as the testimony provided by Edwards, have sought to better tie Trump’s actions – and failure to act – to the violence seen at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
The second hearing, held June 13, focused on Trump’s claims of voter fraud following the 2020 presidential election.
Despite his inner circle testifying that they pushed back against his false claims of a stolen election, Trump continued to promote the so-called “big lie,” which the panel has sought to connect to the mob of his supporters that stormed the U.S. Capitol in order to overturn the results of the election.
“President Trump rejected the advice of his campaign experts on election night, and instead followed the course recommended by an apparently inebriated Rudy Giuliani to just claim he won and insist the vote-counting stop, to falsely claim everything was fraudulent,” Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., the panel’s vice chair, said at the hearing.
In its third public hearing, the House Select Committee focused on efforts to pressure then-Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the 2020 election.
The panel made its case that then-President Donald Trump knew that the effort to get Pence to reject the results of the election was unlawful, but he went through with it anyway – and when Pence refused, the president whipped up his supporters into a frenzy, putting the vice president in danger.
“Mike Pence said no,” Thompson said. “He resisted the pressure. He knew it was illegal. He knew it was wrong. We were fortunate for Mr. Pence’s courage. On Jan. 6, our democracy came dangerously close to catastrophe.”
Its fourth public hearing centered on Trump’s efforts to pressure state officials to overturn the 2020 election, either by pressuring election officials in battleground states to reject ballots or submit slates of fake electors to Congress.
Rusty Bowers, speaker of the Arizona state House of Representatives, said he was asked multiple times by Trump and his allies to engage in efforts to overturn the election results in his state but resisted.
Wandrea ArShaye “Shaye” Moss, a former Georgia elections worker targeted by Trump and his allies in the wake of the election, recalled the ways in which Trump’s lies still impact her day-to-day life.
Moss had worked elections in Georgia for over a decade alongside her mother, Ruby Freeman, and told the committee she was taught by her grandmother “how important it is to vote and how people before me – a lot of people, older people, my family did not have that.”
In the weeks after the election, Giuliani, Trump’s personal attorney, shared a video of Moss and Freeman counting ballots on One America News Network, falsely alleging they tampered with the ballots. Giuliani and other allies mentioned both Moss and Freeman by name.
The fifth hearing focused on former Justice Department officials who faced down a relentless pressure campaign from Trump over the election results while suppressing a bizarre challenge from within their own ranks.
Witnesses included Jeffrey Rosen, who was acting attorney general on Jan. 6, 2021. Three days earlier, Rosen was part of a tense Oval Office showdown in which Trump contemplated replacing him with a lower-level official, Jeffrey Clark, who wanted to champion Trump’s bogus election fraud claims.
The sixth hearing heard explosive testimony from Cassidy Hutchinson, who worked as a special assistant and aide to Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows.
Hutchinson testified that both Trump and Meadows were warned on the morning of Jan. 6 that supporters gathered on the National Mall brought weapons with them, yet they failed to take action to stop the ensuing violence. She also revealed that Meadows and Giuliani sought pardons from the former president before he left office.
The seventh hearing highlighted the way violent far-right extremists answered Trump’s “siren call” to come to Washington for a big rally on Jan. 6, particularly in how the former president utilized social media to address his supporters.
A former Twitter employee – whose identity was kept anonymous by the House committee – testified feeling growing dread that Trump was using the social media platform to galvanize dangerous extremists.
“My concern was that the former president, for seemingly the first time, was speaking directly to extremist organizations in giving them directives,” the employee said, referring specifically to Trump’s comments at a September 2020 presidential debate where he told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by.”
The eighth and most recent hearing focused on the president’s time inside the White House as the mob raided the U.S. Capitol — where he was, what he was doing and his decision not to stop the violent mob and answer pleas from members of Congress.
Open thread.
citizen dave
Oh yeah, that time the 45th President tried to overthrow the government…violently.
WaterGirl
I would LOVE a series of smaller reports, perhaps one for each of the 8 focus areas outlined above. Maybe a 9th for what is covered today, unless “more sweeping” means that it’s less focused and more of a summary.
Or more sweeping could mean that we get to hear about the traitors who hold elected offices and we involved in the attempt to disrupt the peaceful transfer of power.
Old School
It seems like too much has happened even since the 8th hearing to cover it in one session, but I guess we’ll see.
Ida Slapter
MSNBC reporting now the hearing will probably be postponed. I know nothing else.
germy shoemangler
The business meetings are fascinating:
https://january6th.house.gov/legislation/business-meetings
Dorothy A. Winsor
When the first meeting of the committee showed the videos of the rioters, I was horrified all over again. It’s so easy to forget the impact of those visuals. I want to see them all over.
Betty Cracker
According to CNN, the hearing will be postponed due to the hurricane.
Dorothy A. Winsor
@Betty Cracker: Sigh. That’s probably a good idea. People won’t be watching and it’s hard to compete with the impact of a hurricane
Lapassionara
Wasn’t there a hearing in the summer of 2021? With several police officers?
WaterGirl
@Ida Slapter: Interesting! I did write “currently scheduled”.
Irresponsible speculation: I wonder if someone/s new came forward after the announcement that this would be the last hearing.
Also irresponsible speculation: maybe the DOJ put a but in someone’s ear that maybe they should wait a couple of days/weeks.
Betty Cracker
As for the hurricane, if the most recent track holds, it looks like my area (and Adam’s south of me) will be spared the worst of the wind and storm surge, which will hit further south (where valued commenter J lives).
Some county guys came out earlier on an airboat and put a sign up on a mile marker in the river that says the river is closed to boat traffic. I’ve never seen that before, but a neighbor down the road says she saw it in 2004 when we had four hurricanes and there was catastrophic flooding in this area. I hope it’s just an abundance of caution rather than a portent of doom!
It’s already raining here, and the mister is tying our canoes to the dock, which I’m not sure is a great idea. (But I’m not going to say anything.) He tied the stern of our little jon boat to a cypress tree that’s about 15 feet from shore and the bow to a sturdy winch on shore. There’s slack to accommodate a rising river but not enough that it will bash into anything. Hopefully.
JPL
@Betty Cracker: I do hope that you and J and all in harm’s way are safe.
Hurricane warnings are already put up on the GA coast so they expect the hurricane to move over FL.
That’s good for me that’s about it.
WaterGirl
@Betty Cracker: Not as juicy as my irresponsible speculation, but it makes total sense.
Old School
@Betty Cracker: I’d think canoes would be easy enough to move on land, but hopefully it is a good rope.
UncleEbeneezer
@Betty Cracker:
“Some county guys came out earlier on an airboat and put a sign up on a mile marker in the river that says the river is closed to boat traffic.”
In other words, expect footage of another MAGA boat parade defying Big Government!!1!, sometime in the next couple days…”Yer not the boss of (gurgle, gurgle…)”
WaterGirl
I guess the postponement gives everyone a chance to re-watch anything fom the earlier hearings, if desired.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: I thought the first hearing was earlier and featured Mike Fanone and other police.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: I took the numbers straight off the committee’s website.
Betty Cracker
@Old School: The canoes have water in them already, and the mister believes they will continue to fill up with water from the rain and stay near the dock, which could totally work. They were on land, but we were worried they’d become missiles and either hit our screened porch downstairs or fly out into the river and float away.
My dad had a dive shop and marina from when I was a kid until he finally retired in 2020. One time in the 1990s we had a big storm, and after it passed, I was dispatched to collect some loose jon boats. I found one seven miles away! They’re sturdy little boats though — just bail them and they’re good to go. Ours is one from the old shop.
Ruckus
@Betty Cracker:
Best of luck, least of weather.
We have what 900 or so people charged in the riot. We have a pretty clear view of the major players out of the WH. For all the historical meaning of this, from a prosecutors point of view is there actually a reason for more hearings? We aren’t getting any real important news from the major providers because they do not want to risk the midterms from going their way. And this is so long ago, is it really that important? In case you don’t get it, that last sentence is SNARK, in a national US news sort of way.
IMO I think we’ve done about as much as is realistic, it’s up to the judicial branch and the citizens who actually give a damn about the lawlessness of a large segment of our population. And I think we have to think about the last 2 or more years, what has happened to not just us but the entire world and how that effects everything.
Dorothy A. Winsor
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: Okay, then I don’t know what happened to that first hearing.
geg6
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
I have to say, I’m a bit shocked at this.
zhena gogolia
@geg6: Mitch has a tiny teeny bit of integrity. The size of a grain of mustard seed.
Ken
@Dorothy A. Winsor: “Our plan is to use the courts and state legislatures to rig elections for the Republicans. Congress would only get in the way, and should just rubber-stamp the results.” — McConnell, if someone slipped him some Veritaserum.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Fanone testified in a hearing on Capital Hill, but that was July 2021, and I don’t know that we even had the Select Committee in place at that point.
So you’re not crazy, you watched the testimony, it just wasn’t part of the Select Committee hearings.
Scout211
@zhena gogolia: Liz Cheney definitely said “9 hearings” at the beginning of the last public hearing. But I am thinking (now) that she may have been talking about the total number of hearings, not the number of hearings so far. She may have been including the final hearing that hasn’t happened yet in her count. 9 hearings in total.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: No integrity. It’s self-preservation. He doesn’t think the R party can survive if they try to steal 2 elections a row.
Brit in Chicago
Daily Kos say that the hearing scheduled for tomorrow is postponed, on account of the huricane. They cite CNN, so I’m inclined to believe it.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: I could swear it was before the committee.
Quick visit to Youtube:
zhena gogolia
@Scout211: I believe that when she said “9” she was including the July 2021 hearing.
Did anyone else see that she said this next one was not by any means the last?
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: For whatever reason the Select Committee does not include it as part of their public hearings.
I think he testified as part of congressional hearings, but not the public hearings. The committee was created on July 1, 2021, so the Select Committee did exist then.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia:
In what context? When did she say that?
Old School
@zhena gogolia:
The 7/27/21 hearing is listed as “The Law Enforcement Experience on January 6th” on their website.
Not sure what the difference is.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: it was A tweet that passed by my consciousness. It was at the same event that Pete Buttigieg was talking and I can’t remember what it was called
Scout211
So this is a curious development. Link
CNN did not speculate, but it would be irresponsible for me not to do so. We will have to see who is lead on his defense team in the future, but I wonder if his team is looking for a federal criminal defense attorney right now, not a white-collar attorney, like Kise.
cain
Best of luck to all the Florida folks – be safe, be sane, and hopefully you have water, fuel, and plenty of food to last. Don’t forget toilet paper!
geg6
@WaterGirl:
I read an interview (can’t remember where) and she said she thought there may be more hearings, but couldn’t say for sure.
Major Major Major Major
Looks like somebody’s started sabotaging the Nord Stream pipeline. The hip new online conspiracy is it was us, lol.
Or it’s simply picked a super weird time to spring some huge leaks.
Calouste
@Scout211: Trump’s razor says it’s because the check from Trump to Kise didn’t clear.
Betty Cracker
@Scout211: Fascinating. I hope this means Trump has to go back to relying on the OAN nitwits. I read somewhere when Kise first came on board (after a Trump PAC paid $3M upfront, lol!) that there was a potential conflict of interest, but I can’t remember what it was.
Ken
Did Kise ever swear an oath to defend and uphold the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic?
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: @geg6: Two thoughts.
First, this from above is straight from their website today.
So whatever she was thinking when she said that, it really does appear that this is the last hearing “unless something else develops.”
Second, I got a phone call after I typed the first one, and now I have no idea what my second thing was!
JPL
@zhena gogolia: Nah.. You’re giving him too much credit. He simply hates trump.
Calouste
@Major Major Major Major: And two weird leaks in two different pipelines within 24 hours. That showed up as 1.8-2.3 earthquakes. Total coincidence.
Jay
@Major Major Major Major:
current reports are 3 leaks, several detections of events by seismic stations, seismic events have been ruled out, one event was the equivalent of 200lbs of TNT.
Whom ever did it has to have a “Covert Missions” submarine, (Russia, US), or a Research Vessel with a large ROV. A quick search of sat photo’s of the area, would quickly determine if a surface vessel was involved and identify the vessel, so, probably a sub.
BenCisco 🇺🇸🎖️🖥️♦️
@Dorothy A. Winsor: This makes me ask, “Where’s the hook?”
Because with this asshole, there’s ALWAYS a hook.
Baud
RaflW
@Major Major Major Major: Swedish seismology system apparently pointing to likely explosions not earthquakes. I’m just sure the Green Party was out there with a mini-sub, doing a James Bond impersonation.
Martin
@Calouste: 3 it seems. But I can’t envision a scenario that doesn’t involve sabotage.
Major Major Major Major
@Jay: I’m seeing 70 meters, so you don’t exactly need to be a world historical power to have done this. A Baltic state, maybe?
RaflW
@Betty Cracker: I’d think the $3M was a retainer, but maybe Kise was really bold and just made it a flat fee!
geg6
@WaterGirl:
LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL!
Josie
@zhena gogolia:
Wasn’t that the interview at the Texas Tribune program either last week or the week before?
Jay
@Major Major Major Major:
Yeah, read that. Divers, because of the depths and distance from shore, would still need a support vessel to stay on station during the mission set, and would be visible on satellite or ship tracking.
I thing the mystery will quickly be “solved” unless it involves a sub.
I doubt that the current crop of AUV’s that are known to exist, are capable of the mission.
Baltic States gain nothing from taking both NordStreams “out”, other than Norway. The most likely theory is that given that NordStream 1 has been taken off line for “service” by Pootie Poot, and NordStream 2 has been “paused” by the EU, that Pootie Poot is sending a message on how vulnerable EU gas and oil supplies are.
zhena gogolia
@Josie: Yes, it was Texas Tribune. I just saw the summary in a tweet but didn’t see her interview.
Calouste
@Major Major Major Major: Why would a Baltic state do it? What do they have to gain by it? The pipelines are both shut down at the moment.
Not that Putin has a lot to gain by it at the moment, but at least a benefit for him is that it is a demonstration that undersea gas pipelines can be disrupted (a new one between Norway and Poland was opened this week), and that Germany won’t get any gas via those pipelines for quite a while even if Putin gets removed from power. Other than that, I can’t really come up with a reason why someone would benefit from this.
Major Major Major Major
@Calouste: the only people who stand to gain from a durable shutoff of Russian gas are the people who want Europe to not have the option of asking Russia for gas this winter. “Durable” being “blow it up in a way that makes it hard to repair”. Russia would probably love for Europe to have the option to come begging them for gas! This cuts that off.
Martin
@Major Major Major Major: Can’t imagine that happening. So far the success behind Ukraine has been solidarity among NATO nations/aspirants. Sabotage by any of those members risks upsetting that. And the timing to the opening of the Baltic pipeline is too coincidental to think it’s anyone other than Russia believing a permanent cutoff of their gas supply potential will stress Europe.
Major Major Major Major
@Martin: How does it make sense for Russia to blow up the pipeline, in a way that’s hard to repair, instead of turning it off?
hilts
Ari Melber just said that tomorrow’s Jan 6 hearing is postponed due to Hurricane Ian.
Good luck to all Floridians in Ian’s path
More details here:
https://www.npr.org/2022/09/27/1125436577/jan-6-hearings-committee-postponed-hurricane-ian
Calouste
@Jay: The Baltic isn’t very deep (70 meters where the pipeline is), so subs are somewhat hard to hide. Sweden has definitely spotted a number of Russian subs violating their territorial waters over the last decade or so. It’s not an impossible scenario, but you’d think subs hanging out just outside the territorial waters would have been spotted.
Origuy
Tucker Carlson spoke at the funeral for Hell’s Angels leader Sunny Barger
Calouste
@Major Major Major Major: Who are “the people”?
trollhattan
@Betty Cracker:
I have seen flying canoes but they were attached to struts beneath sea planes. :-)
trollhattan
@Origuy: One of these things is not like the other.
We, in college, revered HS Thompson but were nothing like HS Thompson and further, also knew that.
Tucker would rank among “worst roommate” candidates alongside Rand Paul and Ted Cruz.
Martin
@Major Major Major Major: Because Russia’s entire propaganda effort is to sew chaos and distrust in the west. Right now, Russia loses nothing by doing this – the pipelines were shut down. There was a fairly orderly debate about buying gas from Russia again this winter, which is now settled, with the result that European energy prices are likely to spike. I mean, they just successfully got a fascist government back in Italy, and Russia probably can’t be happier with that result. How many other European nations are going to break from democracy under higher energy prices, and an additional migrant crisis on their borders that Putin created.
How many European leaders worried about energy supplies this winter are now panicking?
Geminid
@Major Major Major Major: The Russians may just be showing that they can and will make trouble.
Omnes Omnibus
@Martin: All of them. It will end in violence and electric cars will do more harm than good. Did I miss anything?
Jay
@Major Major Major Major:
NordStream 1 has been turned off by Russia. NordStram 2 will probably never be completed barring regime change in Russia.
Each Consortium/Nation in the project is responsible for the construction, maintenence and repair of segments of the line. Russia’s chunk wasn’t blown up.
If Russia ‘completes their faux maintenence” and NordStream1 is unable to carry the gas because the damage has not been repaired, they are owed penalties equivalent to the gas that would have been shipped.
Geminid
@Scout211: Kise may have chosen to stay out of the classified documents case for now. It could be real professional trouble for the attorneys already involved, and they can make whatever crappy arguments he could.
Gin & Tonic
@trollhattan: Yeah, St. George’s School here (at $70k/yr) is a real hotbed of biker gang activity.
Major Major Major Major
@Martin: But this removes all of Russia’s leverage. With the pipelines shut down, countries can come to them hat in hand and say “hey we’ll undermine Ukraine if you’ll just give us some gas please, we’ll even pay you in whatever currency you want.” With the pipelines blown up… like, yeah, it’s destabilizing and stuff in the longer term, but it actually makes Russia a lot worse-positioned for the war, which is happening right this second.
And–I’ll admit I don’t know any of the details on whether this is true–doesn’t it just push them closer to dependence on American natural gas?
@Jay: Let’s not pretend anybody will pay them those penalties.
I get that Russia is acting insane right now, but IMO the countries whose interests are most advanced by this action are America and the Baltics. That doesn’t mean another actor didn’t do it, obviously, Homo Rationalis is a cryptid after all.
Jay
@Calouste:
most of the Soviet and Russia subs “detected” in Nordic waters, were first visually spotted by running aground, breaching or surfacing to recharge their batteries. The latest Russia Kilo’s have AIP and can go almost a month with out surfacing.
Russia also has a bunch of small “special purpose” subs, some expressly designed for this mission set. Most are in the Arctic, and also require the use of a support vessel, some of which are Bond like. These subs however are capable of travelling a reasonable distance from their support vessel.
eclare
@Omnes Omnibus: Hahaha…
topclimber
@Martin: Commenters in a couple of threads have downplayed the extent of rightist gains in Sweden and Italy. In Sweden, for sure, there was an anti-immigrant factor, though directed at brown folks. Still, can’t help but wonder if the strain of helping Ukrainian refugees will not come into play for the nativist crowd.
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic: Let me give you a tip. Don’t watch the recording of Zelenskyy’s speech at Harvard today. He speaks for a while about how urgent it is to take some preventive measures against Russia’s nuclear threats, then they open it up to Q&A. I expected the questions to all be about what he meant by “preventive measures.” But they were all questions about what career advice he could give Harvard students. It is the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen.
JPL
@zhena gogolia: I can’t imagine it. We all want to be like Zelensky. It’s just strange, but i hope he said just don a uniform and come help us.
Jay
@Major Major Major Major:
Historically, Russia supplied 40% of the EU’s gas supply. NordStream 1 at full capacity supplied 11% of the EU’s gas supply. NordStream 2 was planned because Russia has been cutting back on gas supplies from other lines since 2014 by re-routing the gas elsewhere, cutting back on volumes and cutting off supplies to Ukraine and cross transit across Ukraine.*
*(and because the EU planned on using Russian gas to switch over from coal.)
zhena gogolia
@JPL: Nope. He played along.
ETA: This is a guy who got the “We want you to do us a favor, though” call. He knows how to play along.
Jay
@Major Major Major Major:
“And–I’ll admit I don’t know any of the details on whether this is true–doesn’t it just push them closer to dependence on American natural gas?”
Neither Canada nor the US currently has the infrastructure or transit abilities to backfill Russian gas, and won’t for a few more decades.
Dorothy A. Winsor
I assume this is not normal
🐾BillinGlendaleCA
@UncleEbeneezer: I’m here to provide a first hand report on the Easter Sierra Fall Color as of yesterday. I took a bit of a walk…(aka, hiked up the North Fork of Big Pine Creek).
Below about 8,000 feet, no evidence of Fall Color, from about 8,000 feet to 9,000 feet, the trees are beginning to turn, above that, they have really started to show color in places.
Jay
@Major Major Major Major:
BTW, other than Norway and Ukraine, the rest of the EU relies to a large extent on Russian gas. So for most of the Baltic nations, there is no “win” from blowing up NordStream.
Steeplejack
@Ken:
Yeah, this. McConnell is probably calculating that if the GQP steals the 2024 election at the state level this legislation will prevent the Democrats from blocking certification, as the GQP tried to do in 2020.
Geminid
@Major Major Major Major: Sure, if the Russians sabotaged that pipeline it would be an irrational act. But they may think it in their interests to appear irrational.
Scout211
@Dorothy A. Winsor:
twitter.com
Gin & Tonic
@zhena gogolia: Thanks for the tip.
I think matriculating at Harvard does things to one’s brain. A long time ago I was mildly upset that they rejected me, but I’ve come to be thankful.
eclare
@Steeplejack: That was my thought, prevent D’s from stopping states that steal.
zhena gogolia
@Gin & Tonic: It really does something.
I was completely gobsmacked by the arrogance of this event.
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: Ongoing war as an intellectual exercise. Arrogance, for sure.
zhena gogolia
@WaterGirl: It was more than that — they acted as if the war was over and they were wondering about career opportunities for Harvard students in rebuilding Ukraine. It was really weird. Plus Ashton Carter, the moderator, was fondly reminiscing about his role in destroying Ukraine’s nukes. Strange all around.
Captain C
@Origuy:
Tucker seems like the kind of guy who would get the shit beat out of him by Hell’s Angels, or pretty much anyone else in the bar that heard him talk for more than a minute.
Trinity is a fine school, but it has a reputation as the safety school for the rest of NESCAC (as well as the Ivies), to the point that when I was in college many moons ago, they were rumored to reject people who had applied to too many of the other mentioned schools.
Ella in New Mexico
@Betty Cracker:
“Ixnay on the earingsay”
Geminid
@Jay: I recall reading when Secretary Blinken visited Algeria in March that Algeria supplied 10% of the EU’s natural gas, through two undersea pipelines. Blinken encouraged them to up their production. I imagine the Algerians encouraged Blinken to roll back our support for Moroccan sovereignty over the Spanish Sahara. That was one of trump’s dumbass moves, and the Algerians don’t like it one bit.
Other sources that could make up Europe’s gas shortfall (besides the US and Nordic countries) are the Gulf states, Libya (maybe) and eastern Mediterranean countries that are just now bringing offshore gas fields on line. The Gulf states have other customers like Japan and South Korea, though.
I noticed that when Deputy Secretary of State Nuland visited Cyprus a few months ago she declined to endorse a pipeline that would connect Greek, Cypriot, and Israeli gas fields to the mainland of Europe. She pointed out that the pipeline would not operate until 2030. By then, Nuland said, the US wants countries to be reducing their need for fossil fuels. So for now, Israel at least will pipe their extra gas to a facility on the Egyptian coast for shipment on LNG tankers.
Israel may have other natural gas problems, though. They plan to start recovering gas soon from a field in waters shared by Lebanon. Those two countries are hammering out an agreement over the field with US assistance, but Hezbollah is threatening to attack Israeli platforms if the deal is not good enough.
Besides, Hezbollah says, some of Israel’s other fields rightfully belong to the Palestinians in Gaza, and they will contest Israel’s control of them too. These are not neccessarily empty threats. Hezbollah has armed drones supplied by Iran, as well as a stockpile of rockets estimated in an Al Jazeera article as exceeding 125,000 in number. That seems like a lot, but other sources give a similar number.
Ohio Mom
@zhena gogolia: Are those students assuming that the end of the current war will bring conditions similar to the fall of the Soviet Union? That it will be a Wild West of money grabbing?
WaterGirl
@zhena gogolia: It sounds like some of the questions didn’t have to be totally awful.
zhena gogolia
@Ohio Mom: The moderator Ashton Carter (secdef under Obama) set the tone. Zelenskyy had said that leadership means acting preventively in response to Russia’s threats, so Carter turned that into what advice do you have for Harvard students about leadership? Then a former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff asked exactly the same question. The students, mostly Ukrainians, followed their lead. No one asked any specific questions about the progress of the war