Tag Archives: The Daily Caller

A Law Preventing A Ludicrous Idea

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Some Democrats who are absolutely horrified by the overturning of Roe vs. Wade have suggested that the government set up abortion tents on federal land in states that outlaw abortion. Before we consider this, let’s remember the money aspect of abortion, which I think explains why the Democrats are so upset. For example, in 2018 Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren received $128,407 from Emily’s List, a political action committee that aims to help elect Democratic female candidates in favor of abortion rights to office. Most Democrats receive substantial campaign contributions from Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood is a million dollar business that makes money from performing abortions and selling aborted baby body parts. Corporations like abortions because they are cheaper than healthcare and maternity leave. There are a lot of financial interests in keeping abortion as a million-dollar industry. Those efforts have begun (in spite of the Supreme Court ruling).

On Wednesday, The Daily Caller reported:

Despite demands from several prominent Democrats, the federal government is prohibited from using taxpayer dollars to fund abortions.

The Hyde Amendment, first included in federal appropriations bills in 1976, prohibits the federal government from funding abortions unless “the life of the mother would be endangered if the fetus were carried to term or where the pregnancy is the result of an act of rape or incest.” Activists estimate that the Hyde Amendment prevents at least 60,000 abortions every year.

The amendment is named for Republican Illinois Rep. Henry Hyde, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee who championed it.

Although support for the amendment was initially bipartisan, Democrats in recent years have attempted to pass federal budgets that do not include the provision. President Joe Biden flip-flopped on support for the amendment during his 2020 presidential campaign, and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi attempted to jettison the provision for an early COVID-19 relief package. Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin’s demand that the Hyde Amendment be included in a social spending package was a key factor in the breakdown in Build Back Better negotiations.

The article concludes:

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre rejected the congressional Democrats’ suggestion Monday, but two cabinet members did suggest that they would use their agencies to promote abortion access.

“Nothing is more important to me or to this Department than the health and well-being of our Service members, the civilian workforce and DOD families,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said in a Friday statement shortly after the ruling. “I am committed to taking care of our people and ensuring the readiness and resilience of our Force.”

“The Department is examining this decision closely and evaluating our policies to ensure we continue to provide seamless access to reproductive health care as permitted by federal law,” he added.

When contacted for comment, a Department of Defense (DOD) spokesperson cited a memorandum released Tuesday by Undersecretary of Defense Gilbert Cisneros. The memorandum stressed that the DOD will comply with the conditions laid out by the Hyde Amendment, and “will continue to follow existing departmental policy.”

Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Xavier Becerra promised to “increase access” to abortifacients, claiming that his agency has been planning for “every action necessary to protect women’s access to reproductive healthcare.”

A spokesperson for HHS did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment on compliance with the Hyde Amendment.

Just for the record, abortion is not healthcare. It will be interesting to see if the Biden administration simply chooses to ignore the Hyde Amendment.

Is The Media Waking Up?

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On Tuesday, The Daily Caller posted an article about a recent comment by Joe Scarborough about illegal immigration.

The article reports:

MSNBC host Joe Scarborough said Tuesday that there is “nothing progressive” about political leaders encouraging illegal immigration.

The “Morning Joe” panel criticized the current state of the U.S.-Mexico border by pointing to Texas authorities finding at least 46 people dead inside an 18-wheeler semi-truck in San Antonio. The Mexican foreign minister said a total of 50 died and among the deceased were 22 Mexicans, 7 Guatemalans and 2 Hondurans.

Scarborough said these tragedies will continue as long as the U.S. “keeps sending the message” that the nation does not “have laws” and therefore migrants can enter the country illegally.

“It’s kind of like when I talk about homelessness, there’s nothing progressive about having people sleeping in 10 degree weather, sleeping on grates, that’s not progressive. There’s also nothing progressive about encouraging migrants to risk their lives going across the desert to come into the United States illegally. Immigration, it is who we are, and all immigrants around the world should be given an equal chance to immigrate to America legally. Immigration makes us stronger as a nation.”

The article concludes:

Hispanic voters have fled the Democratic Party during President Joe Biden’s administration, though historically largely backing Democratic leaders for decades. A May 18 Quinnipiac poll found only 26% of Hispanic respondents that said they approved of how President Joe Biden is handling his job while 60% said they disapproved.

Inflation and supply chain issues have ranked the highest in Hispanic voters’ priorities and has caused them to shift political parties.

Another survey found that 49% of Hispanic and Latino voters support reducing illegal immigration. The poll surveyed 1200 Latinos who voted in 2020 between Aug. 28-Sept. 1, 2021.

Newly-elected Republican Texas Rep. Mayra Flores won a southern Texan district that had not elected a Republican in several years.

Our nation is stronger when we allow people who want to be contributing members of American society to immigrate. We need immigrants who respect our laws and are willing to become part of American society. We do not need people who come here illegally and expect everyone else to support them. Do you suppose that since Hispanic voters are fleeing the Democrat party, the Democrats will begin to move against illegal immigration?

Using Taxpayers’ Money For Illegal Aliens

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On Friday, The Daily Caller reported that Colorado will now use taxpayer dollars to fund healthcare for illegal aliens. It’s not that I don’t want people to get the healthcare they need, but the first priority for healthcare needs to be American citizens who are here legally. If you are here illegally, you need to go home. If home is a political nightmare, maybe you need to find people to join you in fixing it.

The article reports:

The program was approved under Section 1332, a provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that allows states to create their own requirements for insurance markets. Both the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) approved Colorado’s waiver request, submitted in November 2021. The federal government will provide $1.6 billion in pass-through funding to the state of Colorado over a five-year period to facilitate its healthcare exchanges.

Colorado’s application makes clear that its new healthcare exchanges are intended to facilitate the sale of taxpayer-subsidized health insurance to illegal immigrants.

“The State will be implementing a State-based subsidy program in plan year 2022, aimed at reducing the out-of-pocket cost sharing for individuals and families purchasing coverage through the exchange. In plan year 2023, a new subsidy program will be offered to Coloradans not eligible for federal subsidies, including Coloradans without a documented immigration status,” the state wrote in its application of the Colorado Option.

The article concludes:

Congressional Republicans are calling out the approval, with Colorado Rep. Ken Buck claiming that it violates the “clear intent” of the Affordable Care Act.

“While Americans suffer at the pump, Biden gives their tax dollars to illegal aliens,” Buck said in a statement. “This is one more episode of the Biden administration’s almost unbelievable commitment to putting the needs of Americans behind everyone else.”

“Democrats are putting illegal aliens first and Americans last. While Coloradans struggle to pay for gas and are being destroyed by inflation, Democrats’ top priority is to take your tax dollars and use them to give illegal aliens free Obamacare,” fellow Colorado Rep. Lauren Boebert added.

As long as we have Americans struggling to pay for health care, we should not be subsidizing illegal aliens. We are already diverting funds designated for veterans to other places (article here), we don’t need to spend more tax money on people who are not even here legally.

Let’s Let Children Be Children

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On Thursday, The Daily Caller reported that Republican Congresswoman Elise Stefanik has proposed an amendment to a defense bill that would provide transparency to parents of children in Department of Defense Education Activity schools.

The article reports:

The proposal amends the National Defense Authorization Act and “reinforces that service members with children in Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) schools have the right to be involved in their children’s education, while increasing transparency and accountability in DoDEA schools,” according to a draft obtained by the Daily Caller.

Stefanik proposed the bipartisan bill after she says she discovered that DoDEA school’s educator training included “radical gender ideologies.” Stefanik alleges that one teacher training told educators to “keep gender transitioning students a secret from parents,” who are service members.

…Under the amendment, DoDEA schools would also be required to post the curriculum for each course and grade level on the school website and make “all instructional and educator professional development materials, including teacher’s manuals, films, tapes, books or other reading materials, or other supplementary materials used in any survey, analysis, or evaluation, available for inspection by the parents of children attending the school.”

The amendment has bipartisan support, according to a video from the House floor. Democratic Rep. Salud Carbajal of California expressed support for the amendment as he claims it would give parents more input in their child’s education.

The article concludes:

“America’s servicemembers have the right to be informed and involved in their children’s education, and it is unbelievable that some DoDEA educators do not trust with their own children the very men and women in uniform who keep our nation safe and secure,” Stefanik said. “There is no need for elementary school students to be taught radical gender ideology, and parents deserve full transparency from DoDEA schools about what is being taught in their child’s classroom.”

The Department of Defense Education Activity did not respond to the Daily Caller’s request for comment.

Please follow the link to the article to see the kind of material that someone thought was appropriate to teach to four-year olds. Four-year olds need to be more interested in blocks and sand boxes than homosexuality.

 

It’s Not Good To Mess With Mother Nature

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Over the years, men have done things in the rhealm of nature that have not exactly worked out as they planned. The Marine Mammals Protection Act of 1972 resulted in a dramatice increase of the seal population off off Cape Cod, Massachusetts. That was a nice gesture to save the seals, but it resulted in an influx of great white sharks in the area because of the increased food supply for the sharks. There is also the example of kudzu, which was introduced to Americans during the Philadelphia Centennial Exposition in 1876 where it was touted as a great ornamental plant for its sweet-smelling blooms and sturdy vines. From the 1930’s to the 1950’s the Soil Conservation Service promoted it as a great tool for soil erosion control and planting it was encouraged throughout the south. Kudzu is now recognized as an invasive plant and has killed multiple trees throughout the southern United States. Gypsy moths came from a scientist in Massachusetts who was trying to breed a more hearty breed of silkworm to create silk for America. A few escaped and have the resulting moths have now gone as far south as New Jersey.  It’s not good to mess with mother nature.

On Wednesday,The Daily Caller reported the following:

Field biologists discovered an 18-foot invasive Burmese python weighing 215 pounds in the Florida Everglades.

Researchers from the Conservancy of Southwest Florida believed their scale was broken when they weighed the beast, as none of them could comprehend a Burmese python would ever grow so huge, National Geographic reported Tuesday. The snake, the largest ever discovered in Florida, was captured using a male scout snake with a GPS tracker attached to it, the outlet continued. Burmese pythons are effectively impossible to spot without scout snakes, according to BroBible.

The article explains that these snakes are not native to Florida. The snakes were probably introduced by pet owners whose pets excaped or who let their pets loose because they got too big. It is frightening to me that they found deer hoof cores inside the animal. Please follow the link to read the entire article for further details.

Just Because It’s Legal Doesn’t Mean It’s Right

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On Monday, The Daily Caller reported the following:

Democrats across the country are spending millions of dollars in an effort to promote Republican candidates that they believe will be weaker in November’s general elections, an analysis of campaign finance records shows.

While the Republican Governors Association (RGA) and the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) have not spent money in primaries without an incumbent, the Democrats’ campaign arm, the Democratic Governors Association (DGA) has picked up the slack. The DGA is spending more than $17 million in several GOP gubernatorial primaries to promote candidates that Democrats believe will be easier to beat, and outside groups have chipped in millions more in Senate races. Many of the promoted GOP candidates have claimed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen, while their opponents are supported by local and statewide Republican organizations.

The DGA has spent more than $15 million on advertising on Republican candidates in the Illinois governor’s race, the most it has disbursed in any GOP primary so far, according to Politico. The ads have generally sought to portray state Sen. Darren Bailey as too conservative for the state, messaging that would increase his support in a close primary against Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin. Despite trailing for most of the race, a poll conducted by the Chicago Sun-Times found Bailey leading Irvin 32%-17%, with 27% of voters undecided.

I realize this is legal, but it is also underhanded. When the Democrats can’t honestly win an election, they do nasty things.

The article concludes:

Candidates frequently attempt to promote opponents who they believe are too extreme to win election, a strategy that has historically had mixed results. Then-Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill promoted Republican Rep. Todd Akin as “the most conservative congressman” ahead of their 2012 general election in Missouri, a race she won by 15 points after Akin claimed that women can not become pregnant due to “legitimate rape.”

During the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton frequently highlighted Donald Trump’s candidacy out of a desire to avoid a matchup against Sen. Marco Rubio or Gov. Jeb Bush, both of Florida.

A campaign memo described Trump as a “‘pied piper’ candidate who actually represent[s] the mainstream of the Republican Party,” and urged Democratic National Committee members to portray him as such.

I wonder if she regrets that decision.

Life In America Is Getting More Expensive

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On Friday, The Daily Caller posted an article about the impact of inflation on household budgets.

The article reports:

The Consumer Price Index (CPI) reached its highest rate in over 40 years in May, adding more strain on U.S. household budgets.

American families watched as consumer prices for necessities like groceries, oil and gas, and transportation rose 8.6% in the last year, according to the Friday U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) report.

The CPI, which measures the change in price for products paid for by U.S. consumers, increased a startling 1% in May after only rising 0.3% in April, the BLS report shows.

The skyrocketing rates affect all areas of American life, but shelter, gasoline, and food saw the highest price increases.

The article concludes:

Records show food prices rose 1.2% in May, an increase from the .9% rise in April. The food at home index climbed for the fifth consecutive month, increasing 1.4% in May. The price for American families to eat at home has risen 11.9% over the past 12 months, making it the largest 12-month increase since April 1979, reported BLS.

“All six major grocery store food group indexes increased over the [last 12-months], with five of the six rising more than 10 percent. The index for meats, poultry, fish, and eggs increased the most, rising 14.2 percent, with the index for eggs increasing 32.2 percent,” the BLS report stated.

Fruits and vegetables rose 8.2%, with other food at home rising 12.6%.

Transportation costs, like new and used cars, and airline fares, also rose. The price of new vehicles rose 1% in May and 12.6% over the past 12-month. The used car index increased 1.8% in May and 16.1% over the past year. Airline fares rose 12.6% in May alone, after increasing 18.6% in April, statistics show.

There are a lot of reasons for this increase in inflation. There is also a belief in some circles that it is by design–inflation makes the national debt easier to pay off. Unfortunately, if the Federal Reserve raises interest rates, the interest on the debt increases dramatically. Basically, excessive government spending is a major source of inflation. The dramatic increase in fuel prices has a trickle-down impact on inflation and is also contributing to the problem. Both of these things are correctable if we had an administration that wanted to correct them.

Someone Who Was There

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On Friday, The Daily Caller posted an article by Patrick Neville, who was a student at Columbine High School who survived the shooting there in 1999.

Please follow the link to read the entire article, but I will post a few highlights here:

I consider myself one of the lucky ones as I had walked by the propane tank bombs that never exploded at Columbine High School. My friends weren’t as lucky. As parents gathered at my old elementary school to pick up their children, I will never forget the look of worry and desperation as my friend’s dad asked me, “Pat, have you seen him?” This father coached my soccer team growing up. He was always calm, direct and confident. He wasn’t that day, and he would never see his son alive again.

This was more than 23 years ago. At Columbine, the perpetrators used pipe bombs and firearms, (some obtained illegally) and tried to kill many more with propane tanks. This happened in the middle of the assault weapons ban, mind you.

…While some have learned lessons from the tragedy, many politicians have not. The assault weapons ban, and other “gun control” measures didn’t save my friends, nor did a flashy sign declaring my school a “gun free zone.” A brave and heroic teacher did save many lives at my school. Yet, after every tragedy like this, Democrats immediately start beating the gun control drum. Sadly, many Republicans start looking for gun control policies to say they “did something.” They need to start looking through a different lens. Instead of restrictions and control, they need to empower citizens, teachers and parents to solve this problem.

An overwhelming amount of mass shootings occur in places where citizens are banned from carrying firearms. As more and more people realize this is a problem, states have started to adopt policies to allow people to equip themselves to protect our children.

The article concludes:

When I shop for a car, I look for lots of things, but one of the most important to me is making sure it has features that will protect my most precious cargo, my children. The car market has responded to parents like me by providing all sorts of safety features. If we had more school choice the education environment would be different. Schools could have SROs or not based on market signals. Each school could feature different safety measures, whether site security or trained staff, and they could incentivize staff to go through the training.

Instead of seeing parents with the look of worry and desperation, I want to see parents with the look of being empowered. Empowered about restoring our God-given, constitutional rights and duties to protect ourselves, our families and our communities. We all need to work together to reverse the alarming trend of mass shootings, and take meaningful measures that will secure our schools, places of worship, and other vulnerable spaces that are often exploited by the worst of humanity. I, for one, will never stop working on finding solutions to this problem.

Common sense from someone who was there.

It Hasn’t Worked Yet

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On Sunday, The Daily Caller reported that the three times that President Biden has released fuel from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve the price of gasoline has gone up. I don’t think his solution is working.

The article reports:

Biden ordered a 50-million-barrel SPR release in November, a 30-million-barrel release on March 1 and a 180-million-barrel release on March 31, saying the “historic” actions would ease pressure felt by Americans at the pump. But marketplace and government data analyzed by The Daily Caller News Foundation paint a different picture.

On Tuesday, the average price of gasoline reached an all-time high of $4.59 per gallon, according to AAA data, while domestic oil prices remained above $110 a barrel, far higher than their 2015-2021 average of $53.15 per barrel and 2021 average of $68.14 a barrel, Federal Reserve data showed.

Release 1: Nov. 23, 2021

Oil price: $76.75 a barrel.

Gasoline price: $3.40 per gallon.

The article concludes:

Finally, Biden announced the largest release to date on March 31, ordering the DOE to release 180 million barrels of oil from the SPR between April-September. The president said the move would provide a “historic amount of supply for a historic amount of time” and act as a “six-month bridge” to the fall.

“The action I’m calling for will make a real difference over time,” he said during remarks titled “Actions to Lower Gas Prices at the Pump for American Families.”

Biden then predicted gas prices would fall 10-35 cents a gallon.

However, the price of oil declined substantially from $107.82 a barrel on March 30 to $100.28 per barrel on March 31. Oil prices remained near that level through April and early May before increasing again and hitting $114.20 per barrel on May 16.

Gasoline prices followed a similar trajectory as oil prices, declining through April before skyrocketing in mid May and hitting multiple all-time highs.

Those of us who studied economics at some point are familiar with the law of supply and demand. Most Americans understand that if the government opens up drilling in America, we can again be energy independent and enjoy the benefits of that independence. Aside from lower prices at the gas pump, businesses are more likely to relocate to places that have cheap, dependable energy. We saw that during the Trump administration. The Biden administration’s war on fossil fuel has cost Americans dearly at the gas pump, in international relations, and in the ability to attract manufacturing jobs to America. The Biden administration is destroying America’s middle class and the American economy in the name of an industry that has not yet been proven to work. As Americans face rolling blackouts this summer, I hope many of them will reconsider some of their recent voting habits.

Very Few People Actually Believe This

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The Biden administration has continually passed off the rapidly rising gas prices as “Putin’s price hike.” This description ignores the fact that gasoline prices began rising steadily right after President Biden took office. On Friday, The Daily Caller posted an article about the real cause of the rising gasoline prices.

The article reports:

The White House often describes higher prices at the pump as “Putin’s price hike,” but prices were going up steadily after President Joe Biden took office. The price already increased by 55%, rising from a U.S. average of $2.11 when Biden took office to $3.51 the day before Russian President Vladimir Putin decided to invade Ukraine, according to Forbes.

“The ‘Putin’s price hike’ is laughable – and you can tell because no matter how hard they try to advance this particular little bit of propaganda absolutely nobody but White House spokespeople use the word,” John Cochrane, a Hoover Institution senior fellow, told the Caller.

“The administration wants to blame anybody but itself for the challenges of the American economy. [‘Putin’s price hike’ is] a good talking point because there’s a sliver of truth in it,” President of the American Institute for Economic Research, William Ruger, told the Caller in an interview.

The current U.S. average price of gas sits at $4.59 per gallon and prices in California have reached as high as $7.25 per gallon.

The article notes that although inflation is part of the problem, the problem is also due to the Biden administration’s war on oil and gas.

The article notes:

“At least early on in the price run-up, drilling activity was comparatively muted. Cancelled leases, cancelled pipelines, proposed regulations to penalize lenders that financed fossil-energy businesses all dampened production responses that would be putting oil and gas on the market today,” Kreutzer said.

…Biden stymied future production of gasoline by canceling the Keystone XL oil pipeline, halting the sales of a drilling area in Alaska and two in the Gulf of Mexico, and banning new oil and gas leasing on public lands.

“If the global supply of oil is low, we should ask who canceled the Keystone Pipeline on his first day in office, why fracking is banned in many states, and so forth. Hobbling U.S. energy investment has been the deliberate policy of the administration from the first day in office,” Cochrane said.

“The administration should have accelerated approval of pipeline permits, instead of blocking and cancelling them. It should not have cancelled leases that had already been issued. It should not be using regulatory agencies like the Security and Exchange Commission and appointments at the Federal Reserve to hobble investment in oil and gas production,” Kreutzer (Institute for Energy Research senior economist David Kreutzer) said.

Elections matter, and energy policies matter.

Challenging Admission Policies

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On Sunday, The Daily Caller reported the following:

  • University of Michigan professor Mark Perry told The Daily Caller News Foundation that he filed a Title VI complaint over a program application at the University of South Carolina that was restricted to students of certain race and ethnicities. 
  • Following his complaint, the application was updated stating the program is  “Open to all Rising High School Juniors and Seniors in South Carolina,” but highlighted students “who are in support of the advancement of business students from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds are strongly encouraged to apply,” Perry told TheDCNF. 
  • “They’re so corrupt and they’re so unprincipled, that they do this all the time,” Perry said. “They might not even realize they’re violating federal civil rights laws or they know that it’s illegal, but they do it anyway because they’ve done it in the past (and) they’ve always gotten away with it because no one has ever challenged them.”

On Monday, The Carolina Journal reported:

The N.C. Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson and Virginia Lt. Gov Winsome Sears, each the first black lieutenant governor of their respective state, have joined forces to pen a brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in support of Asian-American students suing Harvard and UNC-Chapel Hill. Carolina Journal was present at the Lieutenant Governor’s Mansion on May 19 at a press conference where the North Carolina Asian American Coalition (NCAAC) thanked Robinson for his support.

The students in the lawsuit accuse the institutions of discriminatory admissions practices, where they are held to a higher standard during consideration because of their race. The Robinson/Sears Amicus brief was filed May 9th.  

“While it can be argued that these policies had a role in helping many Americans overcome the persistent effects of historical and past discriminations in higher education, those effects are becoming less impactful the further we travel from the dark days of state-sanctioned discrimination,” said Robinson at the event. “Instead, they now function to unfairly discriminate against and deny opportunity to other ethnic and racial groups. Discrimination on the basis of race or ethnicity is immoral in all of its forms, and we can do better. We must do better.”

The nonprofit group Students for Fair Admissions filed the original suit in 2014, but when it was ruled in November 2021 that Chapel Hill could continue to use affirmative action in their admissions, the case was appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.  

College admissions should be based on merit. If a student is admitted because of race or ethnicity and does not have the ability to do college work, the student is being set up to fail. No one gains by doing that. I hope the lawsuit is successful and we go back to rewarding people who work hard and stop rewarding people or punishing people for something they have no control over.

The Wrong Answer

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On Tuesday, The Daily Caller reported that the Biden administration is preparing to ease sanctions on Venezuelan oil imports into America.

The article reports:

The Biden administration is expected to soon announce it would ease sanctions on Venezuelan oil amid the ongoing energy crisis, several media outlets reported.

The federal government will ease “some” of the energy sanctions on Venezuela, two senior administration officials told CNN. In addition, U.S. oil corporation Chevron will be allowed to enter into negotiations with Venezuelan state-owned firm PDVSA over potential continued operations in the South American oil-rich nation.

The article concludes:

“Our experience buying Russian energy should have taught President Biden that buying energy from tyrants is a dangerous proposition,” Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member John Barrasso said in a statement.

“Yet President Biden continues to reward our enemies by waiving sanctions while his administration does its best to kill American energy production. Funding despots isn’t in the national interest. Supporting American energy is,” he continued.

Venezuela consistently ranks as one of the least “free” countries in the world, according to Freedom House.

Meanwhile, the Biden administration has increasingly moved to restrict further domestic oil and gas production. The Department of the Interior canceled the three remaining federal offshore oil and gas lease sales last week and dramatically scaled back the federal onshore program in April.

The average price of gasoline reached an all-time record $4.52 a gallon on Tuesday, according to AAA data.

The White House didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from The Daily Caller News Foundation.

The Biden administration is under tremendous pressure from the environmental extremists to end America’s use of fossil fuel. What the environmentalists don’t realize is that America is one of the most environmentally safe countries in the world in its extraction of fossil fuel. Getting fuel from Venezuela is not only foolish because it strengthens a tyrant, but because it is not as environmentally friendly as drilling practices in America. This move by the Biden administration is another step in the wrong direction.

Prepare For Gas Lines

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In the 1970’s we had gas lines. Part of the problem was our reliance on oil from the Middle East and part of the problem was the government’s efforts to keep the cost of gasoline down. Those efforts together created the perfect storm. To put things in perspective, in 1969 a gallon of gas cost $.35 or $2.75 in today’s dollars (according to dollartimes.com). In 1978, a gallon of gas cost $.65 a gallon or $2.99 inflation adjusted (according to CNBC). By 1981, the cost was $1.35 a gallon or $4.46 inflation adjusted (CNBC). With the exception of 2011-2014, gasoline has generally stayed between $2 and $3 a gallon. Right now the price is over $4 a gallon, and obviously that impacts everything Americans buy. The Biden administration desperately wants to lower the price of gasoline before the mid-terms. However, there is some disagreement as to how to do that. The easiest way would be to open up drilling in America and bring back our energy independence, but considering who the Biden administration is beholden to, that is highly unlikely. So we are left with more risky solutions.

On Monday, The Daily Caller posted an article about one suggested solution.

The article reports:

Several economists slammed a Democratic proposal making its way through Congress that would enable energy price controls amid record high fuel costs.

Such a policy, which prohibits private companies from increasing prices regardless of market conditions, would have catastrophic consequences including energy supply shortages and increased inflation, the economists argued in a series of interviews with The Daily Caller News Foundation. Democrats have alleged in recent weeks that inflation is being driven by corporate price gouging and that Big Oil is using the Ukraine crisis as cover to raise prices and boost profits.

Oil is a commodity. It is subject to supply and demand. When America drastically decreased the amount of oil it was producing (under the Biden administration) and the amount of fossil fuel it was exporting, the supply shrank and the cost went up. The war in Ukraine did not help, but the problem was there before the war.

The article continues:

“I just can’t believe they’re dumb enough to do this,” Benjamin Zycher, an economist and senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, told TheDCNF in an interview.

“If prices are controlled at below-market clearing levels, then you get shortages because the quantity demanded is greater than the quantity supplied at the legal maximum price,” he continued. “And that’s why you get gasoline lines and allocation controls.”

The House Rules Committee announced that it would review the Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act — a bill that enables the president to issue an emergency declaration banning energy prices issued in an “excessive or exploitative manner,” according to its sponsors — on Monday before reporting it to the floor. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who told reporters last week that oil and gas companies were exploiting consumers, promised that there would be a floor vote on the legislation this week.

The article concludes:

Economists, meanwhile, have also rebuked the argument that oil companies are price gouging amid the Ukraine crisis.

“[Retail gas stations] don’t necessarily drop their price as rapidly as what wholesale prices and oil prices are doing,” Garrett Golding, a business economist tasked with analyzing energy markets at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, told TheDCNF in an interview. “Some people want to call that price gouging because it’s not in lockstep with where wholesale prices are. But the fact of the matter is, what they’re doing is making back the money that they were losing on the way up and that’s how they stay in business.”

Golding and fellow Dallas Fed economist Lutz Kilian published a May 10 paper laying out why gasoline prices haven’t risen and fallen in lockstep with oil prices over the last few months. They said pump prices are also affected by operating expenses such as rent, delivery charges and credit card fees, and that prices are set by retail gas stations, not oil drillers.

Democratic Reps. Kim Schrier and Katie Porter, the sponsors of the Sponsors of the Consumer Fuel Price Gouging Prevention Act, and Pelosi didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment from TheDCNF.

Democratic Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren introduced similar legislation Thursday that would implement a federal ban on “unconscionably excessive price increases.” House Democrats, led by Illinois Rep. Jan Schakowsky, unveiled a companion to Warren’s legislation.

Democrats are not likely to let facts get in the way of increasing federal control over our lives.

How Short Is The Average American’s Memory?

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Disinformation is something the Biden administration wants to fight against. However, they seem to be spreading it themselves. On Thursday, The Daily Caller posted an article about some recent disinformation put out by the current White House.

The article reports:

The White House tweeted COVID-19 disinformation Thursday evening to imply that President Joe Biden deserves credit for vaccinating Americans against the virus.

The official White House twitter account tweeted that when Biden took office, on Jan. 20, 2021, there were millions of Americans unemployed and no COVID-19 vaccines available. The tweet went on to tout the decrease in unemployment since then, calling it the fastest drop in unemployment at the start of a president’s term ever.

…Biden himself had already received two doses of the coronavirus vaccine before he became president. He received his first dose of Pfizer’s vaccine Dec. 21, 2020, and then his second dose on Jan. 13, 2021.

Maybe he forgot.

On Saturday, Townhall reported that the misinformation had been corrected.

Townhall reported:

On Thursday night, as Katie highlighted, the official White House Twitter account, tweeted out a falsehood about the timeline of the availability of the vaccines. Though it has since been corrected, the original tweet in question is still up. 

…Glenn Kessler, the fact-checker for The Washington Post, also weighed in, demanding to know who was manning the account and calling for them to “Delete this false tweet.”

The job growth claims in the tweet are also questionable. Adding back jobs that you killed with the shutdown of the economy does not count as economic growth–it counts as recovery. This is really not the time for the Biden administration to be praising itself for its economic achievements–inflation has wiped out the salary gains Americans achieved during the Trump administration and food shortages and other supply chain issues have become a problem. I think the Biden administration needs to spend less time bragging and more time actually finding solutions to the problems they have created.

Some Democrats Support American Energy

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On Thursday, The Daily Caller posted an article about some House of Representatives Democrats who are supporting a move back to American energy independence.

The article reports:

A group of House Democrats wrote to President Joe Biden Wednesday urging him to boost energy production by unveiling an offshore drilling plan.

The four Democrats — Texas Reps. Vicente Gonzalez, Sylvia Garcia, Henry Cuellar and Lizzie Fletcher — said the Ukraine crisis has proven the need for domestic oil and gas production to ensure the U.S. isn’t reliant on hostile foreign powers, according to the letter. They urged Biden to make progress on a new five-year offshore leasing plan to replace the current one that is set to expire in late June.

“The energy crisis in Europe demonstrates the vital national security benefits of robust domestic production and the consequences of relying on foreign nations to satisfy our energy needs,” the lawmakers wrote in the letter. “One important action your administration can take to ensure American energy independence is to publish a new Five-Year Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Plan.”

The Biden administration has dragged its feet on the replacement plan which the Department of the Interior (DOI) is mandated to issue under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act of 1953. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said there is still a “significant amount of work” to do before the administration can publish the plan and begin the lengthy public feedback process, during an April 28 hearing with the House Appropriations Committee.

Actually, I think it would be better just to open up drilling on land and continue construction of the Keystone XL Pipeline, but this is at least a step in the right direction. Offshore drilling does occasionally have accidents, but is generally safe. On land drilling seems to be less risky. The one thing to remember as the Biden administration increases our dependence on foreign oil is that oil from America is generally obtained in a manner more environmentally friendly than the oil from some of the countries we are importing oil from. We were energy independent under President Trump. It would be nice to return there.

The Emperor’s New Clothes

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“Green energy is the answer to all of our environmental problems,” cries the Biden administration. Never mind the toxic waste created when the solar panels or windmill blades outlive their usefulness. Never mind the toxic chemicals used in the manufacture of solar panels. Never mind the bald eagles being shredded by the windmills. We can overlook those details. However, there is one detail that cannot be overlooked.

On Sunday, The Daily Caller posted an article about a current problem with green energy.

The article reports:

  • Wind and solar companies have reported massive profit declines over the last year as clean energy prices have risen and new installations have been delayed thanks to supply chain shortfalls, market uncertainty and the Ukraine crisis.
  • “One of the problems with this industry as a whole is that, since at its very foundation it is based on government subsidies and government mandates, its market value is never truly known,” said Daniel Turner, the executive director of Power the Future.
  • “90% to 95% of the supply chain does not exist,” RJ Scaringe, CEO of electric vehicle maker Rivian, told reporters in April, according to The Wall Street Journal.

This is what happens when the government interferes in the free market.

The article reports:

The average price for renewable energy technology in North America increased an “astounding” 28.5% between early 2021 and early 2022, according to an April 13 report from renewable industry marketplace LevelTen Energy. Development costs, supply chain issues and market uncertainty are to blame for the setback even as demand for green energy climbed, the report added.

In addition, wind and solar project completions in the U.S. have plummeted over the last two years with the total investment value of such projects falling from $46.2 billion in 2019 to $7.5 billion in 2021, an Industrial Info Resources report published on April 21 showed. In that same time span, the number of wind and solar project completions has decreased from 240 to just 66, a 73% decline.

“Difficulty in obtaining financing, regulatory challenges, or a shortage of available capacity on the transmission grid are three longstanding challenges to getting renewable generation built,” Industrial Info Resources Vice President of Research for the Global Power Industry Britt Burt said in a statement.

“As long as these myriad headwinds persist, we can expect elevated [prices] across North America,” Gia Clark, a senior director at LevelTen Energy, said earlier in April.

The article concludes:

Meanwhile, the head of leading electric vehicle manufacturer Rivian warned that building out the battery supply chain — which includes mining and refining minerals, and assembling costly battery packs — remains a massive hurdle for the industry as governments push increasingly aggressive transition policies, The Wall Street Journal reported. For instance, Biden has promised to craft policies to ensure 50% of new vehicle sales in the U.S. are emissions-free by 2030 and every addition to the federal government’s 600,000-vehicle fleet is electric by 2035.

“Put very simply, all the world’s cell production combined represents well under 10% of what we will need in 10 years,” RJ Scaringe, Rivian’s CEO, told reporters in April, according to the WSJ. “Meaning, 90% to 95% of the supply chain does not exist.”

Kish noted that the price of lithium has risen 1,000% over the last two years.

The green energy market is not yet ready for prime time. It will never be unless the government gets out of the way. Government subsidies do not help an industry–they skew the growth curve by not weeding out the inferior products. When the market place allows companies with superior products to grow because they have a superior product, an industry progresses. When the government is paying the bills, there is no incentive to progress.

It All Depends On Your Point Of Reference

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The Biden administration says oil production is at historic levels. When I read that I truly wondered what in the world the people in the Biden administration were smoking.

On Friday, The Daily Caller posted an article about this claim by the Biden administration. Some of us remember the good old days (two years ago) when America was energy independent. We are no longer energy independent, so where does the claim that we at historic levels of oil production come from?

The article reports:

Total U.S. oil production decreased to about 11.3 million barrels per day in February, down 3.9% from the 11.8 million barrels per day produced in November, the latest Energy Information Administration (EIA) data showed. Between Nov. 1-Feb. 28, though, pump prices increased 6.4% from $3.39 per gallon to $3.61 a gallon.

“I was a little bit shocked when I first saw the numbers,” Dan Kish, a senior fellow at the Institute for Energy Research, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview. “It tells me that President Biden is going to have to work more like the devil in order to increase production.”

…By comparison, between November 2018-February 2019, production declined 1.8% and between November 2019-February 2020, production dropped just 1.1%, according to the federal data. But between November 2020-February 2021, the period when President Joe Biden replaced former President Donald Trump, production dropped a whopping 12.1%.

Dan Kish, a senior fellow at the Institute for Energy Research, commented:

“If people invite you to a party and every time you go to their party, somebody throws a drink in your face, you’re probably going to stop going, right?”

That pretty much sums up the way the energy sector is feeling right now.

The article concludes:

Shortly after taking office, Biden signed an executive order pausing all oil and gas leasing on federal lands and nixed the Keystone XL pipeline permit, saying the U.S. must “prioritize the development of a clean energy economy.” Since then, the administration hasn’t held a single onshore oil and gas lease sale, even after a federal judge struck down the moratorium.

In addition, the administration chose not to appeal a ruling canceling a November oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico. It has also dragged its feet formulating a five-year offshore leasing plan to replace the current one that expires in June.

Much of the oil production declines between November-February were due to lower offshore output levels, according to the EIA. Crude oil production in the Gulf of Mexico dropped 9.8% in that period.

Domestic oil production surged to nearly 13 million barrels a day in November 2019, 12.8% higher than current levels, the EIA data showed.

The numbers and the actions of the Biden administration do not match their claims of success.

Two More Weeks Of Masks For Public Transportation

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The government does not like to give up control–even when that control is not based on science. To review a few basic facts–the corona virus is smaller than the spaces in the cloth mask–it easily gets through. Wearing a mask to protect you from Covid is like putting up a chain-link fence to protect you from mosquitoes. There is also the fact that wearing a mask has a negative impact on your immune system (my husband and I were recently told this by a pulmonary specialist). The pulmonary specialist is expecting a spike in pneumonia when the masks are permanently gone. At any rate, the Biden administration has extended the requirement for masks on public transportation for two weeks.

On April 13th, NewsMax reported:

The Biden administration will extend for two weeks the nationwide mask requirement for public transit as it monitors an uptick in COVID-19 cases, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was set to extend the order, which was to expire on April 18, by two weeks to monitor for any observable increase in severe virus outcomes as cases rise in parts of the country. The move was being made out of abundance of caution, the person said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to preview the CDC’s action.

When the Transportation Security Administration, which enforces the rule for planes, buses, trains and transit hubs, extended the requirement last month, it said the CDC had been hoping to roll out a more flexible masking strategy that would have replaced the nationwide requirement. 

Meanwhile, on April 12th, Hot Air reported:

We’re still waiting to find out if President Joe Biden will allow the mask mandate for public travel to expire on April 18th or if he will extend it yet again. While he’s making his decision, he might want to take a peek at a new Axios/Ipsos poll that was just released this week. They asked Americans a variety of questions about how serious the threat from COVID was at this point and if the pandemic was still a major driving concern. While it may come as a great surprise to some people, particularly inside the White House and among cable news hosts, people really aren’t seeing this as a crisis requiring any extravagant government intervention at this point. In fact, it sounds like a large majority of Americans crossing party lines and every other demographic are done with the pandemic. (Daily Caller)

Just 9% of Americans believe COVID-19 is a serious crisis, signaling Americans are ready to move past the pandemic, according to a new Axios/Ipsos poll released Tuesday.

The poll asked Republicans and Democrats to characterize the state of the coronavirus in the U.S. Only 16% of Democrats called it a “serious crisis” compared to just 3% of Republicans. Sixty-six percent of Republicans called it a “problem, but manageable,” compared to 81% of Democrats. Overall, 73% of those polled said it was a “problem, but manageable.”

Meanwhile, 31% of Republicans said it was “not a problem at all” while just three percent of Democrats said the same, according to the poll.

The article at Hot Air also notes:

Another interesting recent finding mentioned in the linked report is the reality that the states which took a more “eased” approach to masking and other mandates had better outcomes than those with the harshest restrictions in terms of deaths, hospitalizations, and all the rest. The lowest grades were given to blue states such as New York, New Jersey and California. Utah, Vermont and Nebraska fared the best.

I don’t know exactly how Covid became political, but it is becoming obvious that very few of the decisions made in the last two years were based on science. Unfortunately, I expect that trend to continue.

Information Or Disinformation?

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On Sunday, The Daily Caller posted an article about a recent conference held at the University of Chicago centered on “disinformation.”

The article reports:

The university hosted a “Disinformation and the Erosion of Democracy” conference featuring big names like CNN’s Brian Stelter, The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum and Jeffrey Goldberg, and former President Barack Obama. The conference was largely partisan with the exception of the token conservative, Jonah Goldberg.

Freshman Daniel Schmidt questioned The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum about Hunter Biden’s laptop, to which the left-leaning journalist quickly dismissed the question.

“So, in 2020, you wrote ‘those outside the Fox News bubble do not, of course, need to learn any of the stuff about Hunter Biden,’ referring to his laptop, of course,” Schmidt began. “A poll later found out that if voters knew about the contents of the laptop, 16% of Joe Biden voters would’ve acted differently. Of course, we know a few weeks ago The New York Times confirmed that the content is real.”

“Do you think the media acted inappropriately when they instantly dismissed Hunter Biden’s laptop as Russian disinformation and what can we learn from that in ensuring that what we label as disinformation is truly disinformation and not reality?” he continued.

Applebaum quickly moved to dismiss the legitimate question.

“My problem with Hunter Biden’s laptop I think is totally irrelevant,” she said. “I mean, it’s not whether it’s disinformation or, I mean, I didn’t think that Hunter Biden’s business relationships have anything to do with who should be president of the United States, so I don’t find it to be interesting, that would be my problem with that as a main news story.”

It really isn’t irrelevant when a candidate for a major office has a son who is possibly involved in illegal activities and could be subject to blackmail. Also, why do they keep calling America a democracy–it’s a republic!

The article also highlights another question asked by someone who obviously wasn’t buying into the political agenda of the conference:

Freshman Christopher Phillips then asked CNN’s Stelter about his outlet’s role in pushing disinformation, saying “you’ve all spoken extensively about Fox News being a purveyor of disinformation, but CNN is right up there with them.”

Phillips then noted how CNN “pushed the Russian Collusion hoax, they pushed the Jussie Smollett hoax, they smeared Justice Kavanaugh as a rapist and they also smeared Nick Sandmann as a white supremacist and, yes, they dismissed the Hunter Biden laptop as pure Russian disinformation.”

Stelter claimed Phillips was “describing a different channel than the one I watch” but he understands “it is a popular right-wing narrative about CNN.”

I wonder if outsiders will be invited to the next disinformation conference?

Continuing The War On American Energy Independence

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On Thursday, The Daily Caller reported that the Biden has more attacks on the fossil fuel industry in the works.

The article reports:

President Biden is calling on Congress to make companies pay fees on wells from their leases that they haven’t used in years and on acres of public lands that they are hoarding without producing,” the White House said in a fact sheet on Thursday.

“Companies that are producing from their leased acres and existing wells will not face higher fees,” the statement continued. “But companies that continue to sit on non-producing acres will have to choose whether to start producing or pay a fee for each idled well and unused acre.”

As part of the announcement Thursday, Biden will also order the Department of Energy to release a million barrels of oil a day from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve for the next six months.

The White House has repeatedly blamed Big Oil for not doing enough to combat high gasoline prices in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which has disrupted global energy supplies. Biden and Democratic lawmakers suggested this month that oil companies have taken advantage of the crisis to pad their profits.

I have no way of knowing if the President actually believes the garbage he is spouting. The problem with gasoline prices sits in the White House–not in the executive boards of oil companies.

The article concludes:

Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma, meanwhile, noted the Interior Department is currently holding up permits on 3,800 leases while it conducts additional “climate change analysis,” about 4,600 permits are still awaiting approval and that the her group is defending thousands more in court.

“Western Energy Alliance has been in court for years defending 5,900 leases of 7.3 million acres and companies can’t develop on most of them when they’re caught up in legal challenges,” Sgamma told the DCNF in a statement. “But the president now wants to penalize us for these delays?”

“The White House conveniently forgets the government’s role in delaying pipelines and permits and introducing new financial and regulatory risks to American development,” she continued.

The Biden administration has actively pursued an anti-fossil fuel agenda, nixing the Keystone XL oil pipeline, ditching oil drilling in Alaska, not appealing a court ruling that prohibited a massive offshore drilling lease in the Gulf of Mexico, attempting to ban new drilling leases on federal lands and making it harder for utilities to gain approval for natural gas projects.

The actions of the Biden administration in the area of energy policy show a total lack of concern for the well being of the American people. A continuation of these policies will eventually wipe out the middle class in America. This may in fact be the goal of the Biden administration.

Making A Bad Situation Worse

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During the 2020 presidential campaign, former President Obama warned us about the ability of former Vice-President Biden’s ability to mess things up. I am not posting the actual quote because this blog is family friendly, but you can find it in a search engine if you want to read it. It begins, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability…” On Tuesday, The Daily Caller posted an article that illustrates that point.

The article reports:

President Joe Biden’s budget proposes to scrap more than $45 billion in fossil fuel subsidies, his administration’s latest attack on the beleaguered industry.

The White House budget will remove more than a dozen fossil fuel industry tax credits, increasing the federal government’s revenue by an estimated $45.2 billion between 2023-2032, according to the proposal published Monday. The administration explained that the proposal was written to prevent further fossil fuel investment.

“These oil, gas, and coal tax preferences distort markets by encouraging more investment in the fossil fuel sector than would occur under a neutral system,” the Department of the Treasury wrote in its general budget explanation.

“This market distortion is detrimental to long-term energy security and is also inconsistent with the Administration’s policy of supporting a clean energy economy, reducing our reliance on oil, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions,” the department added.

…“This budget is basically a $45 billion tax increase on the oil and gas industry,” Mike Palicz, the federal affairs manager at Americans for Tax Reform, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “This is more targeting oil and gas for provisions that are just good tax policy that any industry should be able to take advantage of.”

“This is a clear effort to continue to try and paint (the oil and gas industry) as the villain,” he continued.

The article concludes:

Republicans, who have doubled down on calls for the Biden administration to incentivize domestic energy production in recent months, slammed his tax proposal Monday.

“President Biden wants to spend more taxpayer dollars on his green energy schemes instead of increasing American energy production to solve the energy crisis he created,” Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, the top Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement. “The president’s priorities could not be more out of touch with families in Wyoming and across the country.”

“This budget is dead on arrival. Republicans will focus on what Americans care about most: national security, energy security, and economic security,” he continued. “That means tackling inflation, unleashing American energy production, and keeping Americans safe.”

The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.

If by some horrible miracle this budget passes, every Congressman who votes for it should be voted out of office in the midterms. The average middle-class American cannot afford what will happen to gas prices if this passes. The average middle-class American cannot afford to buy an electric car–regardless of the government rebate. This is an attack on the average American.

The Conflict Between Going Green And The Mid-term Elections

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The Daily Caller posted an article on Friday about the mixed messages the Democrats are sending out about energy policy.

The article reports:

  • Democrats and White House officials have pushed for both greater domestic fossil fuel production and less reliance on fossil fuels over the last 24 hours.
  • President Joe Biden announced a deal with the European Union on Friday morning to export an additional 15 billion cubic meters of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to member nations in 2022.
  • But Biden noted at a press conference that the deal called for “reducing Europe’s demand for gas overall,” even as the plan itself forecasted greater LNG exports to the continent.

What in the world do those ideas have in common? They have very little in common, but they are the result of the approaching mid-term elections. If the Democrats lose Congress in the mid-terms, it is quite possible that America will again become energy independent. It will take a bit to rev up the oil drilling and remind the banks to lend to fossil fuel companies, but it will happen. If the Democrats retain control of Congress or have enough power to stop an override of a Presidential veto, we can expect more hardship for the average America.

Some of the conflicts noted in the article:

But Biden noted at a press conference that the deal called for “reducing Europe’s demand for gas overall,” even as the plan itself and Sullivan forecasted greater LNG exports to the continent. In addition, the president said the Ukraine crisis, which has led to a U.S. ban on Russian oil imports and a promise from EU nations to ditch Russian energy, proved the need for the world to “double-down on our clean energy goals.”

…Meanwhile, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), a Democratic-majority U.S. agency that regulates pipelines, made a sudden reversal to a climate policy announced in February. On Thursday, the commission struck the policy, which mandated a more stringent environmental review of pipelines and other fossil fuel projects, saying it would now consider the policy a “draft.”

…In another reversal, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Thursday that the global transition to clean energy “must be accelerated” during a meeting with the International Energy Agency in Paris. However, during a March 9 speech at the energy industry CERAWeek conference, Granholm said the U.S. was on “war footing” and needed to “increase short-term supply” of fossil fuels.

Who does she think caused the decrease in the short-term supply of fossil fuels? Anyway, elections have consequences–even before they occur.

 

The Realities Of Ukraine

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On Thursday, Victor Davis Hanson posted an article at The Daily Caller about the war in Ukraine. The article lists ‘ten realities’ about what is happening in Ukraine.

Here is the list:

One — Reassuring an enemy what one will not do ensures that the enemy will do just that and more.

Two — No-fly zones don’t work in a big-power, symmetrical standoff.

Three — Europe, NATO members and Germany in particular have de facto admitted that their past decades of shutting down nuclear plants, coal mines and oil and gas fields have left Europe at the mercy of Russia.

Four — China is now pro-Russian. Beijing wants Russian natural resources at a discount.

Five — Americans are finally digesting just how destructive the humiliating flight from Afghanistan was.

Six — The Ukraine war did not cause inflation and record gas prices.

Seven — Putin did not invade during the Trump tenure, although he had been more aggressive under previous American leadership with his prior attacks on Georgia, Ukraine and Crimea.

Eight — It is not “escalation” to send arms to Ukraine.

Nine — Putin may never fully absorb Ukraine as long as it can easily be supplied across its borders by four NATO countries.

Ten — It is not “un-American” to point out that prior American appeasement under the Obama and the Biden administrations explains not why Putin wished to go into Ukraine, but why he felt he could.

Please follow the link above to read the entire article for the details.

The article concludes:

We should not rehash the past but learn from it — and thereby ensure Putin is defeated now and deterred in the future.

A strong America with strong leadership makes the world a safer place.

Priorities?

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On Thursday, The Daily Caller posted an article by Victor Davis Hanson that provides some perspective on the current war in Ukraine.

The article notes:

Thousands are dying from Russian missiles and bombs in the suburbs of Ukraine.

In response, the Biden administration’s climate change envoy, multimillionaire and private-jet-owning John Kerry, laments that Russian President Vladimir Putin might no longer remain his partner in reducing global warming.

“You’re going to lose people’s focus,” Kerry frets. “You’re going to lose big-country attention because they will be diverted, and I think it could have a damaging impact.”

“Impact”?

Did the global moralist Kerry mean by “impact” the over 650 Russian missiles that impacted Ukrainian buildings and tore apart children?

The article also asks the obvious question:

But how will the Biden administration square the circle of its own ideological war against oil and natural gas versus handing the advantage to our oil- and gas-producing enemies, as Russia invades Ukraine?

Or put another way, when selfish theory hits deadly reality, who loses? Answer: the American people.

President Joe Biden lifted U.S. sanctions on the Russian-German Nord Stream 2 pipeline designed to provide green Germany with loathsome, but life-saving, natural gas.

But first Biden canceled the Keystone XL pipeline in the United States. He has no problem with pipelines per se, just American ones.

While Biden doesn’t like the idea of Germany burning carbon fuel, or Putin reaping enormous profits from Berlin’s self-created dependency, or Germans importing liquified natural gas from America, Biden also does not like the idea of forcing German families to turn off their thermostats in mid-winter when there is Russian-fed war not far from Germany’s borders.

Here at home, Biden gets even crazier. As our enemies around the world reap huge profits from record high oil and gas prices, did Biden ask Alaska, North Dakota or Texas to ramp up production?

In other words, did he ask Americans to save fellow cash-strapped Americans from a self-created energy crisis, in the way he assured the Germans that during war reality trumps theory?

The article concludes:

Biden also has beseeched the once sanctioned, terrorist Iranian government. He wants Tehran to help us out by upping the very oil and gas production that America has tried to curtail for years. In return, Iran is demanding a new “Iran Deal” that will soon ensure the now petro-rich theocracy the acquisition of nuclear weapons.

On the eve of the Russian invasion, Biden begged Putin to pump even more oil to supplement its current Russian imports to the United States.

Did Putin see that surreal request as yet another sign of American appeasement that might greenlight his upcoming planned invasion? In Russian eyes, was it more proof of American weakness and craziness after the humiliating flight from Afghanistan?

Biden has blasted the human rights record of Saudi Arabia’s royal family. Now he is begging the monarchy to pump more of its despised carbon-spewing oil to make up for what his administration shut down at home. Is that why the Saudi royals refused to take his call?

The moral of Biden’s oil madness?

Elite ideology divorced from reality impoverishes people and can get them killed.

Because we have given up American energy independence (and the ability to supply Europe with energy), we are funding Russia’s war on Ukraine. Until our leaders are willing to acknowledge that fact, I don’t see the war in Ukraine ending or the war on American energy ending.

The Continuing War On Energy

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On Tuesday, The Daily Caller posted an article about the Biden administration’s continuing war on energy.

The article reports:

Half of all U.S. states penned a letter to the Biden administration, arguing against its decision to reverse a Trump-era rule allowing energy firms to transport natural gas via rail.

“Biden’s war on energy is a war on America’s poor and working-class,” Landry said in a statement Monday evening. “It is high time the Biden Administration to put America first. Biden’s environmental virtue-signaling is burdening American families and jeopardizing the safety and security of our homeland.”

Natural gas is the largest source of electricity production in the U.S., accounting for about 40% of all generation, according to the Energy Information Administration. The Republican attorneys general’s letter noted, citing Environmental Protection Agency data, that greenhouse gas emissions have decreased 11.7% overall and a whopping 33.1% from electricity generation between 2005-2019.

They argued emissions have decreased as reliance on natural gas has increased over the past decade. Relying on domestic natural gas production for electricity generation also makes the U.S. less dependent on foreign producers, the states said.

America has managed to decrease its greenhouse emissions by using natural gas. China on the other hand has increased its use of coal for generating electricity. It makes no sense for America to cripple its economy when curtailing our emissions will have little or no impact on the overall greenhouse emissions around the world. It might make us feel noble, but all it will do is eliminate America’s middle class. The article notes that environmental groups, which have also opposed pipeline projects, argued rail transport of natural gas was too dangerous. Meanwhile the price of gasoline at the pump is rapidly rising because America has lost its lead in energy production. It is not surprising that there is evidence that Russia is working with America’s environmentalist movement.