The Congressional Record is a unique source of public documentation. It started in 1873, documenting nearly all the major and minor policies being discussed and debated.
“ISSUES OF THE DAY” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the in the House section section on pages H6667-H6672 on July 15.
The State Department is responsibly for international relations with a budget of more than $50 billion. Tenure at the State Dept. is increasingly tenuous and it's seen as an extension of the President's will, ambitions and flaws.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
ISSUES OF THE DAY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of January 4, 2021, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Gohmert) is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, I am honored to yield to the gentleman from Kentucky (Mr. Rogers), former chair of the Appropriations Committee.
Honoring Fallen Heroes in Floyd County, Kentucky
Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I thank Judge Gohmert for very graciously allowing me to speak before his main subject.
Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to the memory of three fallen heroes in eastern Kentucky. Last week we laid to rest three police officers and one service canine who were slain in the line of duty after enduring unexpected gunfire in Allen, Kentucky, on June 30, 2022.
Among the fallen were William Petry, a 31-year law enforcement veteran and the fire chief in Floyd County, Kentucky; Ralph Frasure, a 39-year law enforcement veteran and school resource officer; and Jacob Chaffins, was a 28-year-old police officer who just started his law enforcement career 3 years ago and an active sergeant in the Kentucky Army National Guard. Also among the deceased was a beloved canine named Drago, a well-trained service dog for the Floyd County Sheriff's Department.
Needless to say, the heartbreak and pain that have reverberated across eastern Kentucky at the loss of these brave men who dedicated their lives to serving and protecting our local people has been overwhelming.
President Theodore Roosevelt, who was a former New York City Police Commissioner, once said, ``No man is worth his salt who is not ready at all times to risk his body, to risk his well-being, to risk his life in a great cause.''
On Thursday, June 30, 2022, these officers, and many other responders risked their lives as they valiantly answered the call to protect the people of the Commonwealth of Kentucky.
Their heroic deaths represent a powerful display of the selfless love described in John 15:13, ``Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one's life for one's friends.''
Even as we speak, several other first responders are also fighting for their lives, recovering from their injuries from that horrific day, and our prayers are with them and with their families.
In a Nation where police forces have been vilified in recent years by the actions of a few bad actors, may the lives of these brave men be a reminder of the outstanding integrity and sacrifice that the thin blue line represents. We must continue to support our law enforcement officers across the United States, ensuring they are fully equipped, adequately prepared, and never at the mercy of evildoers.
This Nation owes a great debt of gratitude for the life and service of Officers Petry, Frasure, and Chaffins. May their loved ones find abundant peace and confidence in Matthew 5:9, ``Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called the children of God.''
Madam Speaker, I request to recognize a moment of silence in memory of William Petry, Ralph Frasure, Jacob Chaffins, and K-9 Drago.
{time} 1430
Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, what a very fitting and appropriate tribute to such selfless servants.
Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Hill).
Remembering R.D. Kinsey
Mr. HILL. Madam Speaker, I thank my good friend from East Texas, Judge Gohmert, with whom I have had such a great association over these past several years and thank him for his leadership in this people's House.
Madam Speaker, I rise to honor the life of a Vietnam veteran and leader in our Arkansas community, R.D. Kinsey, a great personal friend of mine, taken too suddenly last week.
Following Kinsey's honorable discharge from the United States Air Force, he worked to serve his fellow Vietnam-era veterans by working alongside them and the VA to ensure that those heroes could obtain the benefits they had earned during their time in service.
Over time, R.D.'s mission expanded, and he worked with local veterans and their families to ensure that they had the healthcare and benefits that they had rightfully earned. R.D. dedicated his life to his fellow service heroes.
In 2004, R.D. worked to establish the Michael Vann Johnson, Jr., American Legion Post 74 of North Little Rock, Arkansas, where he held the commander position for 14 years. Under his leadership, Post 74 became known for their tremendous work in assisting veterans across the State. Let me say personally, no one was more shipshape than Post 74.
In 2018, R.D. became the first African-American State commander in the history of the Department of Arkansas when he assumed the leadership of the American Legion's command for that 1-year term.
While serving in this capacity, R.D. led nearly 15,000 Arkansas military veterans and their families in serving God and country.
Up until R.D.'s passing, he served the National Legislative Commission, presenting the National American Legion's agenda to the United States Congress on behalf of our Nation's beloved veterans.
R.D. dedicated his life to those veterans and to their families.
My sincerest condolences go out to his wife of 37 years, Dianna; his daughters, Meredith and Allison; and all who were honored to know him and call him a friend.
R.D. and his life of service had a profound impact on me, our veterans, our State, and I am honored to recognize him here today on the floor of the people's House.
Congratulating Colonel Nate Todd
Mr. HILL. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Colonel Nate Todd, who currently serves as the Secretary of the Arkansas Department of Veterans Affairs, on his recent appointment to the University of Arkansas Board of Trustees.
Todd's history of service began as a student at Pine Bluff High School, where Nate was a member of the Junior Air Force ROTC unit there.
He would go on to graduate from the University of Arkansas with a Bachelor of Science degree in industrial technology and a master's degree from Baylor University. Other achievements include a Chief Financial Officer Leadership Certification from the National Defense University and graduation from the Executive Medical Leadership Course at George Washington University.
Today, Todd is a 37-year veteran of the Army and Army Reserve where he has served as the director of Health Financial Policy with the U.S. Army Surgeon General and chief financial officer for Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington.
Those familiar with Colonel Todd's leadership know of his decades-
long devotion to the service of Arkansas and our Nation. Most recently, he has served at the appointment of Governor Asa Hutchinson as our State's Veterans Affairs Department head since early 2017.
The students, faculty, and broader community of the University of Arkansas system will benefit from the knowledge, experience, and integrity that Colonel Todd brings in this new role.
Congratulations to Colonel Nate Todd. I congratulate him for his continued service to the people of Arkansas.
The Continuing War in Ukraine
Mr. HILL. Madam Speaker, today is the 141st day since Putin commenced his illegal, brutal invasion of Ukraine. Vladimir Putin continues to direct his gang of thugs to target Ukrainian civilians.
We have seen this play from Czar Putin before, with the mass murder of 25,000 souls in Grozny and the leveling of biblical Aleppo.
To date, the United Nations High Commission has verified nearly 12,000 civilian casualties across Ukraine since February. This number is understated.
In the words of Nazar Havryliuk, a 17-year-old from Bucha: ``They were not able to defeat our Army, so they killed ordinary people.''
Both his uncle and father, innocent civilians, were murdered by Putin's invading Army.
Russian military strikes continue to target Ukrainian resources, including grain storehouses responsible for feeding over 400 million people worldwide. The World Food Programme estimates that 47 million people across the globe are suffering from acute hunger as a direct result of Putin's targeting of Ukrainian stores.
Since February, almost 2,300 schools, Madam Speaker, have been damaged or destroyed, and 290 healthcare facilities have been attacked. No place in Ukraine is safe for civilians.
Currently, 12.1 million people in Ukraine are estimated to need health assistance. That is 12 million individuals who are unable to get the help they need, the help they deserve, all due to Putin's invasion.
Madam Speaker, as my friend from Wisconsin just told this House, leadership from the United States is essential now more than ever. President Biden must step up and ensure that Ukraine has the lethal weapons and supplies to achieve a prompt and decisive victory over the invaders.
Only America's President can stand in the breach and lead. That leadership of our transatlantic partners and our critical allies, like Japan, are essential, essential in assisting the Europeans in crafting help for the people of Ukraine, including supporting humanitarian and critical and necessary and essential military support.
The United States can support Ukraine directly also by supporting the U.N. Secretary General's efforts to open the Black Sea. It is essential that safely exporting Ukrainian grain, currently trapped, is a must-do. The world is waiting for that grain. The world is starving without it. Helping alleviate that hunger crisis requires American leadership.
While Putin's puppets are in Istanbul sitting at a table talking about opening the Black Sea, his military is systematically bombing and burning all the fields of wheat across Ukraine.
America must also lead in planning for reconstruction in Ukraine once the invader has been ejected.
We must also hold Putin and his cronies accountable for the war crimes that they are committing daily in Ukraine. The targeting of schools, hospitals, places of worship, and civilians is unacceptable, illegal, and immoral. Russian leaders will be held accountable.
I was pleased to see the National Defense Authorization Act continued to set that out as a basic tenet of American foreign policy, that we will hold these war criminals accountable.
I will continue to voice my support for the brave people in Ukraine fighting against an illegal invasion to protect their homeland, their freedom, and their sovereignty.
I urge all my colleagues to join me in working to craft the right way to support those Ukrainians in the distribution of needed resources worldwide and holding the Russian leaders accountable for their crimes. This we must do, and this House must lead. Again, I must close, Madam Speaker, by saying it is American leadership that unites the world that can eject Putin from Ukraine.
Madam Speaker, I thank my friend from Texas, and I am grateful for the time.
Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, I am very grateful for the message from my friend from Arkansas, words of wisdom that are greatly appreciated.
One of the things we took up this afternoon on a vote here--and if I recall correctly, there were two of us voting no--but I know the people voting for the bill wanted to try to help with the issue of baby formula. But the bill was thrown upon Republicans last night, not exactly the best way to handle legislation with far-reaching effects, and then voted on today. Well, let's look at some of the facts.
Here is an article: ``Global infant formula products market: estimations and forecasts for production and consumption.'' This points out that in 2017, the EU was the biggest supplier of infant formula, with one-third of global volumes, with China and southeast Asia in second and third places respectively.
Chinese companies have invested in ingredient and infant formula production capacity in France and in the Netherlands and have strategic alliances in Denmark and Ireland. So that way, when they produce it, they don't have to say, ``made in China,'' which causes some people concern, especially when you have stories that exist, reports where Chinese formula has done great damage.
Here is a story from September of '08: ``China: Fourth baby dies from tainted formula.'' So Americans have reason to be concerned when we go buying baby formula that is manufactured by Chinese companies, no matter where it is actually produced.
Going back to this article, it says: ``China is the second largest infant formula producer'' and points out they do export some of their formula.
But with this report about opening plants in other countries, it may give the impression and the appearance that these are not like the formulas that were created in China.
So here is another line that says: ``A lot of the global growth in infant formula production will come from Chinese companies investing in production capacity outside China.''
So it is not enough to ask where was this produced; it is also important to ask: Who actually produced it; who is behind it?
It is also surprising that we would get that bill late at night before people are expected to vote on it the next day when--here is an article from the BBC in May of 2022, and it indicates that the FDA said sales of infant formula rose 13 percent in April compared to January before the recall, and some indicators suggested that the out-of-stock rates had been overstated. It says: ``Increased sales are a good indicator of formula available to the general population.''
{time} 1445
Now, if you are in a place where you can't find formula, then it is not much of a comfort that people are finding more in other places in the United States. But here it is: This should have gone through a committee. This should have had an opportunity not just for debate but for more research. It should be under what we normally try to do. Leadership from the parties tries to give 72 hours' notice, but this bears looking at.
I understand that the vote is only going to go until the end of the year, but as Ronald Regan said, the closest thing to eternal life here on Earth is a Federal Government program. I have seen in my years in Congress things that are only going to be a matter of months, just 1 year, 2 years, 3 years, but they are still going on. It happens over and over.
We have been told, oh, this is going to sunset, and that will be the end of it. Then, we get pressure brought to bear on enough Members that those sunsets are reset to further years down the road.
When it comes to baby formula, American babies should have enough American formula produced to take care of them where we have--and obviously, the FDA has shown in the last few years that they can be totally incompetent in so many areas. They can have decisions appear to be totally based on money rather than the best interests of Americans. The FDA has shown that they don't care about it being your body, your choice. They would rather force you to have injected into your body what they tell you to inject, especially when it makes billions of dollars for pharmaceutical companies that are under an emergency use authorization so the companies have no liability for the death and injuries that they cause.
In the case of baby formula, we find out in an article that indicates that already the Abbott facility is at 95 percent of what it was before the FDA shut them down and created problems in doing that without proper regard.
It seems like this bill was a rush to get done without properly considering what this would mean. Whether it is intentional or not, what we keep seeing here are bills that pass through this House that end up making profits for Russia, China, Iran, OPEC, countries that hate us.
As I have said from years ago when I started pointing this out, whether it is paying countries that vote against us more than half the time in the U.N. or bills quickly passed like this that are going to provide profits to other countries, we don't have to pay people to hate us. They will do it for free.
Shouldn't we use profits strategically and quit helping those that want to destroy America for all time? If you just look at the Ukraine invasion by Russia, the policies, decisions, executive orders, things that have been pushed through by this White House, pushed through Congress by this White House, the Biden administration, Russia has made so much profit because of what this White House has done that they have been able to fund the war and the invasion in Ukraine.
On the other hand, we have had the same administration rush in and get Democrat leaders in the House and Senate to pass bills that would--
well, we had $13 billion, $40 billion, we have had other bills that we have to pass this to help Ukraine. Well, I voted against the last one because there were simply not--I want to help Ukraine.
I have a special place in my heart for Ukraine, having been an exchange student in Ukraine back in the seventies. I grew to love so many of the people there. It is a good place. They are good people. Of course, they were corrupted by a Marxist system, as every country that attempts Marxist systems is. But as a farmer on a massive collective farm explained to me when I asked, in the best Russian I could muster,
``When do you work out in the field?'' because they were sitting there in the shade in the middle of the morning, he said, in Russian, ``I make the same number of rubles if I am out there in the sun as I make in the shade, so I stay in the shade.''
Well, the Soviet system was able to crush the amount of produce that could be generated in Ukraine and have done much better without the Marxist-Soviet system as far as production.
But I would like to be assured by the bills we pass that money is going to be utilized for what is intended. When you are giving tens of billions of dollars to an administration that just carelessly and callously leaves $85 billion of equipment in the hands of our enemies that killed 3,000 people on 9/11 and would like to kill all the Americans they can, then we need to be more careful in what we pass in this Chamber because this administration cannot be trusted.
I have never indicated that I believe the administration wanted American soldiers killed in Afghanistan because I don't believe that. I just believe their incompetence is at such a level, their lack of judgment is at such a level, that they made it possible that 13 soldiers could be killed on what should have been a peaceful exit if it had been properly done and if we had properly utilized the assistance of our allies, the former Northern Alliance that fought and originally defeated the Taliban with about 300 special operators from the U.S. There shouldn't have been any Americans who were killed in leaving Afghanistan. But then to leave that much equipment, that just cries out that this administration is incompetent, that the leaders in the Pentagon are incompetent.
They continue to say climate change is the biggest threat, but let me tell you, there was not a single military servicemember who was killed in Afghanistan by climate change. Those 13 who were killed, it wasn't climate change. It was incompetence by this administration, the poor judgment by this administration, that got our people killed.
There will be more Americans killed, as our former allies that initially defeated the Taliban by early 2002 told me in multiple visits. For years, they were saying: You can't stay here forever. You end up like occupiers. It is not good for you, and it is not good for us. But for heaven's sake, don't leave the country so that the Taliban is going to take over and kill off all of us who helped America. Don't do that because they will kill us off, and the Taliban will still want to destroy America. But next time they hit you and kill thousands of people and you want to come to take on the Taliban in Afghanistan, we will all be dead. Everybody that helped you will be dead. There will be nobody to help you here.
They were trying to warn us not to negotiate with the Taliban, just defeat the Taliban and leave, and leave them in a position in Afghanistan to defeat the Taliban when they tried to rise again.
This administration did exactly the opposite. They negotiated with the Taliban. They left them $85 billion of equipment to help kill Americans in the future and our allies in the future. It sent a message to China and Russia that if you want to invade another country, if you want to take over an area where the U.S. was once the prominent force to be reckoned with, do it now because the administration in charge of America is too incompetent to do anything about whatever imperialistic moves you want to make. That was the message this administration sent.
We need more safeguards. I think about a predecessor of mine, Charlie Wilson. As some constituents have said over the years, Charlie had a lot of personal issues, problems, but he was always honest about them. Charlie was on appropriations, and he knew how to leverage appropriations, as the Founders knew. They gave us the power of the purse, yet this Chamber doesn't use our leverage to get good governance out of a faulty administration. We just rush to give them sacks and sacks of tens and hundreds of billions of dollars so they can throw it around wherever they want it.
I was shocked to see that this administration, for the first time in the history of the United States of America, is promoting atheism and humanism. They are providing grants, as I understand it, through the State Department to groups in other countries that will encourage atheism in those countries. They will provide grants to other groups. To be providing funds, grants, to export atheism makes it clear that this administration is going to create chaos around the world.
As John Adams said, and it can't be said too often, this Constitution was intended for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the governance of any other. Unless we are going to get back to teaching moral absolutes, some things are just wrong, and some things are right. If you are not going to teach those moral imperatives that we have had throughout our country--the Supreme Court said, no, you have to stop with those. The Ten Commandments, no, don't be teaching that. Somebody might think it is improper to murder. You don't want to let that be taught in schools or brought up in public areas. Get rid of those.
John Adams knew. George Washington knew. He talked about the imperative nature of teaching morality and religion. Atheism is the absence of religion. It is not a religion. Yet, this administration, heavily funded by this body, is going around the world saying, yes, we want to give you money if you are going to spread atheism and humanism where we teach people to be as selfish as they possibly can be.
{time} 1500
This country won't continue to go on as an experiment in self-
government because you are going to have to get rid of the Second Amendment. You are going to have to get rid of the right to be protected from unreasonable search and seizure. You are going to have to get rid of the freedom of assembly. You will have to get rid of freedom of speech. You can't have freedom of religion. We are going to have to basically get rid of the Constitution.
I would prefer to do what the Founders talked about--sure, there has never been one perfect human being in all of history--none were perfect. The amazing thing about the Founders is they recognized their imperfection. They even put it in writing because they understood the importance of all people being equal and that all people were endowed with rights not from mankind, but from God.
When you fail to recognize that, then it is very easy to take away people's rights because, you know, who are they?
If you believe what the Bible taught and teaches, we are created in God's image--and I don't think it was in a physical image--but if created in the creator's image then people, every single person, is worthy of being free and worthy of having rights as pronounced in our Bill of Rights and our Constitution.
We are at a very precarious situation in our history. We have had those before. The Founders, like Thomas Jefferson--yeah, he had slaves, but go look at his original copy of the Declaration of Independence. He made clear that slavery was a scourge, it was an abomination, it was a harmful thing, it was a grievance that the Founders had against King George III because he should never have allowed slavery to get a foothold at all, and that it was going to help destroy the country.
He recognized this was a problem. It got taken out of the final draft. But you had Founders that recognized, yeah, they knew it was hypocritical to have slaves and talk about how wrong slavery was. They were trying to put together a government, a country, with freedoms that would last, but they understood how precarious that was. They understood that no government ever lasts forever. They tried to give us the best instruments they could.
I read, of course, that Jefferson was not there for the Constitutional Convention but sent a letter after he read it saying that if I could change one thing, I would make it a requirement that any bill had to be on file for a year before it could be voted on. Well, that would have kept us from voting on this bill that rushes in as formula production is getting back close to where it was in January. We rush in at the last minute, and say: No, no, we are going to allow people to buy more Chinese milk wherever they choose to make it.
Isn't it interesting, we keep doing things that end up profiting countries that hate us.
That brings me to the topic of fuel. It is rather ironic--there is an article from the Gateway Pundit. There is a Houston television station doing a story on the wind turbines in Texas as ERCOT was created to create policies and oversee our energy production in Texas.
We haven't really had problems with energy production until we got ERCOT. Of course, they were putting so much emphasis in green energy that we had a terrible power outage in winter. They were taking care of spending more and more on windmills and solar, but they didn't follow the advice of a study that said you need to winterize the natural gas connections--so they weren't winterized, and we had a failure.
In this story: ``Texas grid operator ERCOT was forced to take unprecedented emergency measures on Wednesday to avoid rolling blackouts amid a heat wave as wind turbines failed to produce energy due to low winds.''
Amazing. Those of us who have lived in Texas all our lives--well, I had 4 years in Fort Benning, Georgia--but otherwise, we know that often in the hottest part of the summer the wind doesn't blow and the turbines won't turn. We need air conditioning more than ever.
Yet, in my district and adjoining areas, they closed a couple of coal power plants. They had plenty of scrubbers on them to help have clean air. Cleaner production of power than any coal plant in other countries of the world. China is going to add another hundred to the hundred they just opened. They are not going to be near as clean as we had in east Texas. There are a couple more in my district that are scheduled to be closed.
We are creating a situation where people will die because that always happens when we don't have sufficient power, people don't have air conditioning, and the heat gets them.
The article says: ``ERCOT manages electric power to more than 26 million Texas customers and represents 90 percent of the State's electric load. . . .
``On Monday ERCOT asked customers to voluntarily raise thermostats a degree or two, turn off lights, avoid using ovens, washing machines and dryers. . . . `'
This is Texas. We create ERCOT and what happens?
They go nuts on green energy. Now we are going to have what Gray Davis used to have, called Gray-outs, in Texas. We got plenty of fuel. We have lost our minds. Maybe we would be better off without ERCOT.
Here is an article from Tucker Carlson. This is from July 12. I am going to read some of it.
He said: ``Voters, it turns out, are not into any of those things and so nothing that resembles the Green New Deal is going to pass the United States Congress in our lifetimes''--I am hoping not--``provided this remains an actual democracy, which is to say, provided the public has anything to say about how they're governed.
``That's a nonstarter here. It's never going to happen by democratic means, but that doesn't mean it can't happen. It doesn't mean that ideologues can't impose the Green New Deal on weaker countries that are too poor to refuse it, and over the past several years, that's exactly what they've done. So the Green New Deal is actually taking effect around the world. So, we don't have to guess what would happen if it took effect here. We can know. That's the science.
``Let's start with Ghana. Ghana's a pretty little country, peaceful place, actually, on the west coast of Africa. Three years ago, Ghana was in great shape. It had one of the fastest-growing economies in the world. In fact, it had so much energy over most of the last decade, it was exporting it to its neighbors in West Africa.
``Now, those energy exports from Ghana peaked in 2014. Why that year? Well, because the next year, the World Bank published this headline on its website, `World Bank approves largest-ever guarantees for Ghana's Energy Transformation.' Oh, when they promise to transform your energy, slow down.
``But Ghana didn't slow down. They just kept going. The World Bank promised to provide, and we're quoting,
`technical assistance for energy sector reforms and the drafting of a new renewable energy law.' So, in return for all this help, Ghana agreed to limit its carbon emissions, and then they entered the Paris climate agreement. Oh, how virtuous.
``What happened next? This is the part you don't read that much about. Last year, Ghana experienced a complete shutdown of its national power supply. No more electricity, no emissions because we have no electricity, and blackouts have continued since then. Just yesterday, a news source in Ghana reported that, `Residents in parts of the Ashanti region who have been hit with power cuts are without water as well,' because it turns out you need electricity to provide water also to grow food. Now, this is not a small thing. The Ashanti region has millions of people living in it. They're all now living in the Stone Age and it's not just the energy grid that's now compromised in Ghana.
``International observers say the country is now facing severe food shortages and hunger, starvation within a matter of months. Why is that? It's a fertile country, hardworking people. Now they're running out of fertilizer. Why? Well, because for years, Sandy Cortez's friends in the NGO community pushed Ghana toward less efficient, more expensive organic fertilizers and the government of Ghana, because it's not a rich government, caved. Last year, according to Ghana's news service, Ghana's agricultural minister `urged local farmers to adopt an organic agriculture system to reduce the impact of climate change.'
``Oh, what happened then? Well, the good people of Ghana, while they feel good about their fight against climate change, are now starving and in June, last month, police in Ghana used water and tear gas to attack hundreds of demonstrators in Accra, which is the capital of Ghana.
``It's not just Ghana. The same thing just happened in Sri Lanka. In 2016, the World Economic Forum published an article by a Columbia professor called Joseph Stiglitz, one of the dumbest people on planet Earth, urging Ghana to transition to `high productivity organic farming.' Now, what does Stiglitz know about farming? Ever farmed? No, but he felt strongly that Sri Lanka should try a new kind of farming and of course sold it to Sri Lankans as a pathway to prosperity.''
Again, this is Tucker Carlson.
``In 2015, the World Economic Forum published an article on its website entitled, and we are quoting, `This is how we will make Sri Lanka rich by 2025.' You can search for that article, but it's gone now along with the government of Sri Lanka. So, they had an actual insurrection, not January 6, not a guy in horns, in a bearskin, running around on mushrooms, making weird noises. No, an actual insurrection where they like, come to your house and swim in your swimming pool, root through your sock drawer and make you leave. That's what they did to the people who run Sri Lanka. They, being the public.
``The turning point came in 2021 when the president of Sri Lanka, acting on advice from the World Economic Forum, banned the use and importation of chemical fertilizers. Now, the problem was virtually every farm in Sri Lanka uses those fertilizers to produce food, which it turns out people need every day in order to survive. As a result of that move, food prices in Sri Lanka nearly doubled. Millions more Sri Lankans now live in poverty, which is not a joke and because the economy has collapsed, Sri Lanka now cannot afford fuel imports. So, Sri Lankans are now waiting days for gasoline. Watch.''
{time} 1515
Then he has the story there from Sri Lanka:
``What's so interesting is millions of people are now really suffering. The government just fell in Sri Lanka. Now, no one in Sri Lanka is White. They are what our Democratic Party would call people of color and yet the American intellectuals who pushed that disaster in Sri Lanka, who are responsible for the suffering there, have all escaped culpability. No one is saying a word about it.''
``The Netherlands, for example, which is a very rich country, the second-biggest food exporter in the world, tried to do, for reasons that are not clear but may have to do with Western guilt, the same thing that leaders in Sri Lanka tried to do. They just ordered farmers to cut virtually all of their nitrogen oxide emissions to `save the environment.' Now, doing that would shutter most farms in the Netherlands and destroy the country's food supply and once again, that led to riots. So, everything that's happened in Sri Lanka and Ghana and the Netherlands is happening at the behest not simply of ideologues, but of some of the largest financial institutions in the world.
``They want more of this. It's why Ghana has achieved a near-perfect ESG environmental impact score of 97.7. According to World Economic Research, Sri Lanka has an ESG score of 98.1, the Netherlands 90.7. So, the poorer you get, the more human suffering there is, the higher your ESG score, and that is important because companies will not invest unless you have a high ESG score. Interesting. So, these countries have no choice and that's why South Africa, for example, works so hard to get an ESG score that now totals 91.
``Now, that effort began in 2015 when South Africa switched to renewables. Now, how did that work? Well, like everything in South Africa, no one in America really wants to know. It's their favorite country. It's a huge success. What's life like in South Africa for people of all colors?'' ``Well, the Guardian, of all places reported at the time, and we are quoting `solar, biomass and wind energy systems are popping up all over the country and feeding the clean energy into this strained electrical grid.'
``So their grids have been falling apart since 1994, but no problem. The green energy geniuses are going to save South Africa. How did that work?
``Well, 7 years later, The Washington Post reports that South Africa regularly experiences `rolling blackouts that last 8 hours or more, crippling economic activity and disrupting life in this nation of 60 million people,' . . .'' ``Ask anybody who lives there. It is falling apart. Doesn't work.
``Also join France. France is committed to renewable energy. How is that working? Well, France currently has an ESG environmental score of 92.6. Why? Because 10 years ago France pledged to drive a quarter of all of its energy from renewables in 2018. These policies led to riots.''
He goes on to talk about how much chaos it created for France.
In everyplace that it has been tried with this green energy, it has fallen apart--every single one--with no exceptions: Albania, Kenya, Argentina, Peru, Ecuador, Panama, Libya, and so on.
But it is not just a problem there, it is becoming a problem here.
United States' ESG scoring on environmental issues currently stands at 58. But Joe Biden--who buys into every stupid trend--wants to change that. It is very important to get our ESG score up.
Madam Speaker, you see in history, and you see around the world that when Marxists want to take over, they take advantage of weaknesses, and they exploit them. What they have seen America, exploit this green energy deal in the name of saving the world, and, yes, there will be riots.
For the morons that say I promote violence, I have never promoted violence. I have promoted using our institutions that were created to peacefully resolve them. As a historian, it is clear that Dr. King's peaceful methods worked best toward bringing about needed change. But as a historian, Madam Speaker, you have to note that when our institutions don't do their jobs, then you end up with violence. I don't want violence, but that is what happens.
It is happening in these countries that have gotten their ESG score up and people start starving and they see their families suffering. We can avoid all that. But we have got to stop the insanity.
What does it really come back to?
This: I saw it in the Soviet Union as a college student, and I am seeing it happening now. I thought socialism, Communism, and progressivism, whatever you want to call it, I thought it was dead because it fails every time it is tried.
There is a tiny, elite ruling class when you have Marxism, socialism, and progressivism--a tiny, little, elite ruling class. They will have power. They will have electricity. They will have what they need. They will have food to eat. You might hear some of them behind closed doors say: Let them eat cake or bugs.
We are being told: Eat bugs. Because your countries are going broke because they are trying to get up their ESG scores. It is unnecessary.
We have people saying: You have to get rid of your car. You can't have a car. That gives you too much freedom. You are a peasant. We want to get back to the Middle Ages, these people say, who want to be part of the elite ruling class. Yes. Let's get back to Middle Age mentality where we have peasants, and they walk everywhere, and the elite ruling class gets to ride in style.
No. We had the greatest, freest, and most wonderful country. Sure, it had problems. Every country has problems. But it was the best that has ever been. Now we are destroying it, and we are going back to a time when elitists will fly around in their private jets and everybody else will have to walk.
Now, let's get back to freedom across the board. We cannot do it if we do not take notice and usage of the things with which this country has been blessed more than any other.
We had another bill to put off limits more uranium. Well, don't worry. When Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State we sold, I think, about 20 percent of our uranium available to Russia. Of course, she made a lot of money for the Clinton Foundation, and Bill Clinton got paid a lot of money. They were able to get that sale through.
Wasn't that great?
Continuing to put uranium off limits, we should have had rare-earth metals that we were able to get from Afghanistan, but this administration's incompetence left that in the hands of China that has most now of the rare-earth minerals. Every week it seems like--at least every month--we are putting more of our own blessed rare-earth metals and minerals of all kinds off limits because we are going to drive this country back to the Middle Ages, and people will be eating bugs as they are being encouraged to do around the world.
We need to have freedom and not have Congress push us back to the Middle Ages and push us back to the age of elitism or like it was in the Soviet Union.
We were told before the eight of us went over there that only the elite have cars in the Soviet Union. To them it is a game. Don't think for a minute pedestrians have the right-of-way because they looked at them as peasants, and they tried to hit them. Boy, did I see that. I couldn't believe it. So you had to be careful because somebody is in a car, and they are going to try to hit you. They did, a number of times.
That is where we are going back to. We are going to have Marxist peasants and Marxist elitists if we don't stop the insanity. It needs to stop now.
Madam Speaker, I appreciate what Tucker Carlson put together so we can share here, and I yield back the balance of my time.
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