Grouse

"U.S. taxpayer money ... should be used to help Americans get new jobs, ramp up oil production at home, and lower gas prices through the increased supply. This is something that should have been done throughout 2021, but instead Biden did the opposite. He discouraged oil investment, closed new oil leases, and his team promised laid-off Americans they could get a new job in the green energy business. The odd part about that strategy is not that the Left believes in green energy or wants to cut down American production of oil. That has been the case for quite some time. The peculiar thing about all this is that Biden pushed that strategy while supposedly operating off intelligence that Russia would invade Ukraine and interrupt the oil market. ... But if he were expecting Putin's war and knew it would cause an increase in gas prices for the American people, then why didn't he take the steps needed to ensure cheap fuel to avoid added burden for the nation? Well, it seems obvious that he did it because he truly does operate from an America Last standpoint." —Tim Meads "[Biden] said defending freedom comes at a cost. ... It's the environmental claptrap that comes as a cost. This is not about freedom. There would be no cost if we didn't demonize drilling, if we didn't shut down pipelines, if we didn't demonize fossil fuels. So, it's not about defending Ukraine. It's about exposing the destructiveness of, I would say, the green ideology, which is part of a larger ideology of punishment." —Fox News's Greg Gutfeld A Blind Squirrel Finds a Nut "This just exposes how insane it is that ... we rely on energy from authoritarian leaders and we are not self-reliant on our own energy." —MSNBC's Katy Tur

Joe Biden wants higher gas prices. Democrats want to fundamentally transform our economy away from fossil fuels and toward the climate aware utopia (read: socialist backwater) of the Green New Deal. Gas prices in the United States hit a new all-time high under President Joe Biden’s watch on Tuesday, clocking in at an average of $4.17 per gallon, surpassing the previous record of $4.11 set in 2008. It’s obvious to everyone paying attention that the Democrat administration’s policies, not just the Russians, are to blame for rising prices at the pump. The third week of February, before the Russian invasion of Ukraine started, the average price of U.S. gas was $3.53 per gallon, compared with $2.38 the week Biden took office: a $1.15 difference. But that fact hasn’t stopped Press Secretary Jen Psaki from lying through her teeth to blame the spike entirely on Russia. The Biden administration did not just achieve rising gas prices through accidents and incompetence. Your pain at the pump isn’t just unforeseen collateral damage of the White House’s policies — it’s a very intentional result of it. That’s right, Biden wants staggering gas prices to force you from being able to drive where you want, when you want, as much as you want to. It’s all a part of his green energy agenda, which panders to radicals on the far left side of Biden’s ever further left party. And he told us this in the 2020 campaign. “We are gonna get rid of fossil fuels,” he said at a rally. During a primary debate, he promised, “We would make sure it’s eliminated and no more subsidies for either one of those, either — any fossil fuel.” His actions have backed that agenda up, too, from canceling the Keystone XL pipeline to suspending new drilling on federal lands to moving us away from the energy independence the U.S. established under former president Trump. That agenda has been apparent even in the Biden administration’s tone-deaf responses to the current spike in gas prices. Vice President Kamala Harris, who has failed in every sector she’s been appointed to take charge of, spent Monday afternoon with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg promoting the administration’s anti-gas messaging and suggesting that perhaps Americans should just buy electric cars. The average cost of an electric vehicle is $56,437, equivalent to an entry-level luxury car. You paying more (and more, and more) at the pump just means Biden gets one step closer to his anti-oil agenda. Don’t think he isn’t happy about it.

Biden IS responsible for the current prices of fuel in America. Prior to the Biden administration meddling with domestic production and distribution, the US had become the global marginal producer; US production levels were setting the global spot price. After Biden took office and disrupted the US energy industry, we lost that.

And the stupid opinions just keep on coming.

Not sure if everyone will be able to see this video or not, but it goes into great detail regarding the ruling class and their desire to control what can and cannot be done by any individual or corporate entity, though the use of financial oppression. Facebook

Nothing like a good old fashion war to distract people from an administration that is a complete disaster

In the year 1919, an English poet named Rudyard Kipling penned a poem called “The Gods of the Copybook Headings” that many of us, a century later, would find eerily prophetic. There’s a particular stanza in the poem that should strike close to home for everyone who follows the history of gun-rights infringement worldwide, here and in Eastern Europe. It goes like this: When the Cambrian measures were forming, They promised perpetual peace. They swore, if we gave them our weapons, that the wars of the tribes would cease. But when we disarmed They sold us and delivered us bound to our foe, And the Gods of the Copybook Headings said: "Stick to the Devil you know." “Gods of the Copybook Headings” refers to an Edwardian method of teaching penmanship—children would copy Biblical quotes and aphorisms over and over in imitation of a perfect example rendered in the heading of their copybook. Perhaps there was something about writing those words repeatedly that reminded people of their wisdom. By the time Kipling wrote the poem, the titular copybooks were already going out of style. Whether or not the fact that people stopped copying that down-home wisdom had anything to do with their having forgotten it, it’s fair to say that the tide of “gun control” was already well ashore in England and elsewhere in 1919, and that Kipling foresaw only trouble in its wake. Sadly, in this case and in that stanza, Kipling was right.

Video: Trump's Bold Prediction from 2020 Comes True as Americans Live the Reality of Biden's America With gas prices skyrocketing under President Joe Biden, some are pointing to a prescient prediction made by then-President Donald Trump just before Election Day. The administration has pulled the rug of American energy independence out from under the feet of the American people — and left the middle class with the bill. Just as Donald Trump predicted. Video: Trump's Bold Prediction from 2020 Comes True as Americans Live the Reality of Biden's America (westernjournal.com) (Notice Trump does not use a teleprompter or a written speech when he talks. Could Biden do that? Never!)

These twenty-five Biden administration policies are raising energy costs DEC 4, 2021 BY ABIGALE TARDIF Updated on March 7, 2022 The national average for a gallon of gas for Americans has risen to $4.065, 45 cents higher than just last week. As Americans return to work, plan spring break and summer vacations they are faced with rising gas prices. (Not to mention higher costs for electricity, home heating, and groceries!!) The price at the pump and for home expenses began to rise before the Russian invasion of Ukraine. At the end of 2021, President Joe Biden announced the U.S. Department of Energy will release 50 million barrels of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Energy experts told PBS interviewers that tapping the SPR won’t drive down gas prices. The decision was little more than “a drop in the ocean” when it comes to energy policy, one person said. The decision also won’t counteract Biden administration policies that have caused rising energy costs — and that will continue to drive prices higher in the future. Here are 25 decisions the president has made over the last year that have affected gas prices, home heating costs, and other energy-related burdens U.S. families and businesses face. #1 and 2: Adopting new EPA oil and gas rules In November 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency announced new regulations governing methane emissions from oil and gas production, transmission, storage, and distribution that would cost more than $1 billion a year. Last spring, Biden signed a resolution that overturned Trump administration reforms to EPA oil and gas rules. This resolution will worsen energy poverty, reestablish burdensome regulations, and have a disproportionate impact on small businesses. #3, #4, #5, #6, #7, and #8: Restricting or impeding energy projects One of Biden’s first actions after taking office was to halt new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters, the Biden administration has delayed decisions on these leases — a move that results in higher energy costs for the most vulnerable consumers. The administration canceled the Keystone XL pipeline and suspended oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and New Mexico (despite opposition from the Navajo Nation). It also resurrected the “Waters of the United States” rule, which would increase barriers to energy projects. The White House is pursuing new standards for particulate matter and ozone, likely tightening them to unachievable levels for much of the country and creating new barriers for energy project permits. The president also has rescinded Endangered Species Act reforms, a move that will increase red tape and allow litigation to slow down energy projects. #9: Rejoining the Paris agreement In April 2021, without the consent of Congress, Biden rejoined the Paris agreement, which will result in onerous new regulations that could raise energy costs. #10: Appointing unaccountable energy regulators The president has created several bodies within the White House charged with creating new policies to regulate energy. The people who run these councils are unelected and do not need Senate confirmation, but they have been given broad powers to come up with new executive actions — which do not need consent from Congress — to regulate U.S. energy production. #11: Forcing states to restrict driving One section of the recently enacted Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, supported by the White House, would require every U.S. state to develop state carbon-reduction plans that must be approved by the U.S. Department of Transportation as well as be updated every four years. These plans are aimed at reducing driving all over the country — even for people in rural areas where public transportation is limited, and driving is the only option. #12, #13, and #14: Raising the prices of cars and trucks The Biden administration has failed to take adequate action on annual requirements and small refinery waivers for the Renewable Fuel Standard and in providing regulatory relief from this biofuel mandate due to economic hardship. His EPA has finalized a new rule regulating greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. That single regulation could raise the average vehicle price by $1,000. #15: Instituting a new policy on carbon taxes in organized wholesale electricity markets This carbon pricing policy statement, issued by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in April 2021, is a blanket endorsement of top-down policies that have been demonstrated to be costly, ineffective, regressive, and consistently rejected by the American people. #16: Raising the prices of common household necessities The EPA has issued a final rule to phase out a common, inexpensive refrigerant. This policy is a de facto tax on air conditioning and refrigeration. #17: Stifling energy innovation In May 2021, Biden issued a sweeping executive order that mobilized federal agencies, including the Securities and Exchange Commission, to enforce mandates on businesses, insurers, retirement funds, and suppliers. These policies will stifle innovation critical to improving the environment and will increase costs for a wide variety of businesses. #18: Altering regulatory cost analyses The Biden administration has changed key inputs for economic and regulatory analysis, including raising the “social cost” of greenhouse gases. These policies will mask the true consumer cost of regulatory actions. #19 and #20: Imposing new costs on power generation The administration attempted to resurrect an aggressive version of the Clean Power Plan for power sector mandates called the Clean Electricity Standard. In the Fall 2021 Unified Agenda, the EPA stated their intention to propose what can be considered the Clean Power Plan 2.0. This policy would impose burdensome regulations but would have little or no environmental benefit. The EPA also has mandated that even facilities with reduced emissions must remain on the list of “major” sources, subjecting these facilities to permitting burdens and higher costs. #21: Impeding Americans exports The administration is considering potential restrictions on the export of crude oil that would increase, not decrease, energy prices. #22 and #23: Raising taxes More than one-quarter of the administration-backed Build Back Better agenda is pulled directly from the “Green New Deal.” The Build Back Better agenda includes new taxes on natural gas and home heating. It also includes new taxes on petroleum and manufacturing. #24: Picking energy winners and losers The Build Back Better agenda would spend taxpayer dollars to push utilities to adopt more costly, politically preferred forms of energy, a move that would reduce Americans’ energy choices. #25: Fueling the fire for future regulation Finally, through the Civilian Climate Corps, Build Back Better would fund the salaries of tens of thousands of anti-energy activists who would perpetuate high energy costs by demanding new and costly federal regulations and legislation. Unlike releasing oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, these 25 steps are not just a “drop in the ocean.” They have made, and will continue to make, a significant impact on Americans’ ability to afford the energy products that fuel their lives and livelihoods. BY ABIGALE TARDIF

Are we now starting to propose that everyone's opinion has value? That's crazy. If that opinion is ludicrous, it has NO value. When someone is of the opinion that men can get pregnant, giving their opinion a value is playing a game of fantasy with a child. When any of their opinions are refuted by factual evidence, their opinion is worthless. Let's stop giving stupid opinions a forum, much less a value.

"The reason why the price of gas is going up is not because of steps the president has taken. They are because President Putin is invading Ukraine." —White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki