[scook]

It is very likely to get worse before it gets better.

I think Putin is worse than just an aging KGB director. Clearly he wants to rebuild the former Soviet Union and has for many years. It seems that from isolation, or some other reason(s) he’s had a mental health deterioration beyond any condition he previously had. Condoleezza Rice, in a recent interview, said she knew him, had met several times with him and he seemed to be a very different person now than she remembered.

One positive thing he’s done I’d to unite most of the world against him.

An alternate view of the future is that we return to energy independence so that we’re not hostage to countries that hate us and want our destruction, and pursue renewable energy in a rational way, recognizing the facts of where we actually are. In a way that doesn’t brutalize the middle class and the poor and choke our economy. A healthy economy generates resources that can go to research toward reducing dependence on fossil fuels. Bjorn Lomborg suggests such an approach - investing a small percentage of GDP to make renewables CHEAP, and not punish regular people with astronomical energy prices.

Whatever Republican will hopefully be elected, we can look forward to a much more rational energy policy. With our separation of powers, the notion of a pseudo-dictator isn’t a remotely viable scenario - that has a zero probability of occurring. The closest we’re coming to that is the current progressive drive to encourage illegal voting and Biden’s repeated attempts to ignore clearly decided precedents by the Supreme Court, among legion other things.

Some of our energy deposits are located in vast, pristine parts of our land. Extraction takes place in what looks on a map like a minute speck of that land, and while there might be a spill, environmental requirements and much improved extraction technology would minimize even that, as well as making cleanup more thorough.

We need to be governed with a recognition of where we are and with executive skill - both of these components seem to be very much lacking right now.