Biden And Media Prepare For Armageddon

For months Team Biden corralled lawyers and public relations experts to confront a day they hoped would never arrive. Their worst fears are now a reality.  When Republicans officially won control of the House, they signaled their first order of business would be an investigation of the president.

More than four months ago top White House officials huddled in the Roosevelt Room to prepare for this scenario.  Richard Sauber, former Biden campaign attorney, spearheaded the effort to build a war room to deal with expected GOP subpoenas and data requests, reports CNN. 

Sauber had been appointed Veterans Administration general council by the president in 2021.  Now his business card reads: special counsel to the president.  Sauber has experience with the Hunter Biden scandal. He squelched original reports about damaging information on Hunter's  laptop.  

Sauber was the least surprised when House Republicans made clear their plans to focus on linking President Biden to the foreign business dealings of his son, Hunter.  Rep. James Comer (R-Ky), slated to chair the powerful House Oversight and Reform Committee next year, fired the opening shot. 

Comer alleged the president "misused his public positions to further his financial interests." He backed up his claims with a trove of evidence recovered from Hunter's laptop and from documents that show the president participated in meetings and phone calls about his son's foreign business dealings.

The pro-Biden media cabal already had its marching orders.  After two years of calling the Biden laptop Russian disinformation, CBS pivoted this month and claimed forensic experts had verified the device belonged to Hunter. CBS pirouetted on November 22 after Comer's announcement.  

The news outlet was the last holdout of laptop deniers.  Their reversal followed flip-flops from NBC, ABC, CNN, The New York Times, The Washington Post and Politico.  Every single one of these Democratic Party propaganda organizations spent more than year debunking the veracity of the laptop.  

The New York Post broke the story three weeks before the 2020 president election about the laptop and printed reports detailing the contents on the device. Social media, led by Twitter and Facebook, censored the story under a flimsy pretense that the information on the laptop was unauthenticated.

The Post went to great lengths to verify the laptop belonged to Hunter and published details of its authentication process.  It didn't matter.  This was a coordinated social and news media blackout to preserve Biden's chances for election.  The White House orchestrated the censorship. 

In those days, Biden spokespersons repeatedly called the laptop Russian disinformation.  It cajoled a bevy of former government intelligence leaders to support the specious charge.  The scandal was embalmed and buried to protect Joe Biden. The censorship was part of a massive coverup. 

So why did the media have a change of heart about the laptop?

These not-so-clever media moguls decided to confirm the laptop verification in anticipation of the upcoming House hearings.  Now the cabal can claim emails, photos and other information on the laptop is old news.  There is nothing more to see. Disinformation and distraction are favorite media ploys. 

The Associated Press recently issued a dispatch that likely will be the media blueprint throughout the hearings. "Joe Biden has said he's never spoken to his son about his foreign business and nothing the Republicans have put forth suggests otherwise," the AP wrote mimicking the White House.

A blindfolded media just cannot see the connection between former Vice President Biden and his son flying on Air Force Two to China. After the trip, Hunter landed a sweetheart multi-billion dollar deal with a Chinese owned energy firm.  Only the naive believe the two never talked about the deal.

The Washington Post reported that entities controlled by Hunter Biden and this Uncle Jim Biden reaped $4.8 billion over 14 months from the Chinese government controlled firm. No wonder the Treasury Department issued at least 150 Suspicious Activity Reports related to Biden family transactions. 

There are emails on Hunter's laptop from Ukrainian and other foreign clients thanking Hunter for arranging meetings with his father.  There are photos from dinners and meetings which link the president to Hunter's partners.  One email specifies how to divvy up the funds with the "Big Guy."

There is enough evidence on the laptop to prove Biden knew of his son's foreign business dealings. An honest, unbiased media would have already connected the dots back to the president.  However, expect the unscrupulous cabal to ignore the hearings and to smear every Republican on the committee.  

Democrats are laughably lecturing the nation about the Republicans lack of seriousness because they want to investigate the president. Democrats spent four years probing and impeaching President Trump, including flogging a Russian collusion narrative that was not verified by anyone except Hillary Clinton.

There is imminently more evidence about Biden's knowledge and participation in Hunter's deals than there was about Russia collusion. Democrats can squeal all they want, but the GOP is just using the political strategy perfected by Democrats. Why can't the GOP play by Democrats' rules?

Democrats employed every polarizing precedent they could dream up to destroy the Trump presidency. In politics, payback is inevitable.  Is this sort of gamesmanship good for America? Of course, not. But Democrats ceded the high moral ground six years ago, therefore, their protests ring hollow.  

How Democrats Turned Red Wave Into Blue Foam

This year's midterm elections shattered every historical axiom.  Dating to World War II, the incumbent president's party has loss an average of 28 House seats and four Senate seats.  Losses are normally worst in times of economic distress.  Yet Democrats defied precedent, staving off deep losses.  

Never have so many experts been so wrong about an election. Republicans seemed poised to rack up big gains. Instead, voters shrugged off record inflation, a brutal stock market, rising crime and an influx of illegal immigrants. They voted Democratic in spite of their sour mood about the country's future.   

Even the political class cannot explain this conundrum.  Exit polls by the National Election Pool Survey found about three-quarters of voters rated the economy as weak and about the same number believed the country is headed in the wrong direction.  Voters, illogically, cast ballots for the party in power.  

In the aftermath, political pundits, party strategists and the news media gleefully named former President Donald Trump as the culprit. Trump, a habitual target, certainly deserves some responsibility  for the GOP's lackluster results.  But this knee-jerk analysis doesn't hold up under scrutiny.

Another popular view is the caliber of some candidates hurt the GOP. But an unbiased observer must admit there were more than a few clunkers on the Democratic Party side.  Exhibit A is John Fetterman in Pennsylvania, a stroke victim who hid from voters and reporters for most of the campaign.

No Republican wants to confront the reason for their embarrassing performance.  Democrats outsmarted, out spent and out maneuvered the GOP, managing to narrowly lose the House and hold the Senate. Here are a few insights into how the Democrats crushed the red wave.

• Democrats focused on mail-in ballot initiatives to build sizable margins, just as they did in 2020.  More than 40.7 million Americans voted either by mail or early in person. More mail-in and early ballots were cast in this election than in the 2018 midterm (36 million), despite record turnout that year. Republicans spent too much effort on turning out voters on election day.  Banking votes early is the best way to guarantee turnout. The GOP still hasn't learned that lesson, disdaining efforts to harvest mail-in ballots.
• Democrats intervened in GOP primaries, spending money on negative ads to smear candidates they deemed less extreme and therefore the toughest to beat.  The move triggered blowback within the party because it cut into funds in Democrat primary races.  But in the end, it worked. The GOP primary winners often had baggage that made them vulnerable to Democrat attacks.     
• A record $16.7 billion in campaign funds was spent in the midterms. By some estimates the Democrats outspent Republicans two-to-one in key races.  The GOP, especially in Senate races, spread the funds too thin, often depriving candidates of needed dollars.  Mitch McConnell, in particular, made funding decisions based on Senators who would back his candidacy as minority leader. Too many "out of favor" GOP candidates were starved for campaign funds that could have made a difference.
• More young people turned out to vote in the midterm election than anticipated.  Estimates are 27% of young people (18-29) cast ballots in the election.  It is the second highest youth turnout percentage in the past 30 years.  The National Election Pool Survey estimated 63% of youths voted Democratic.  Those votes swung key races in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia.  Polling showed the top issues with young voters were student loan forgiveness and abortion. 
• Republican messaging was a an incoherent hodgepodge, ranging from crime to the border.  This election was about the economy stupid!  Inflation and the economy should have been the laser focus. Even when candidates talked about this issue, they offered few solutions.  Illegal immigration didn't resonate with voters outside border states.  And even in crime ridden areas, voters didn't trust Republicans to fix the issue.

Despite the appalling showing, Republicans can take some solace from a few positives that emerged. Based on CNN exit polls and the National Election Pool Survey, Republicans made inroads with suburban women.  Hispanics and African-Americans were more supportive of Republicans than in past elections. The GOP garnered 5 million votes more than Democrats in the election. Those are encouraging signs. 

Republicans had more advantages this election than they may ever have again. But still lost. Republicans have no one to blame but party leadership in the House, Senate and the GOP National 

Committee.  If the GOP insists on following the same script, they will be a permanent minority. 

Diesel Shortage Will Stoke Inflationary Fires

Inflation weary Americans are facing another shortage that will take a bigger bite out of their paychecks.  Supplies of diesel fuel are plummeting to historic lows, creating record spikes in the cost for distillate products. A perfect storm is brewing that threatens to ignite an inflationary inferno.   

Diesel prices have jumped 33% for November deliveries.  The national average price for a gallon of diesel is $5.37.  Oil experts expect the price to climb another 15 to 20 cents in the next few weeks. Diesel prices were $2.364 a year ago.  The record is $5.713 per gallon, which may soon be eclipsed. 

Households using heating oil will spend about $2,354 this winter, a 27% increase from 2021. This comes at the time when families are having a difficult time paying their electric and gas bills.  About one in six U.S. households are in arrears, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The diesel crunch will ripple throughout the economy.  Air travel will be more expensive.  Propane, used to heat some households, will cost more.  Transporting goods by  diesel trains will soar.  Farmers cost of producing food will rise.  Prices for shipping via diesel trucks will surge.  

The result will be even higher costs for food and consumer goods.  As a result, American consumers will once again bear the brunt of the failed policies of the Biden Administration that are crimping the supply of fossil fuels and discouraging oil production.  

President Biden announced $13.5 billion in funding to help low-income households deal with high heating costs.  But the president offered nothing to relieve the shortage.  The administration's answer is to blame the refineries and oil companies for making windfall profits. That's not a solution.  

The petroleum industry is warning the nation has a 25-day supply. Pro-Biden media fact-checkers claim the industry is misleading Americans. Yet Biden's Department of Energy released data confirming the country has 25 days of diesel supply remaining.  Misinformation is a media staple.   

The fact is distillate inventories haven't been this low in November since the EIA began reporting the data in 1982.  This is a far worse than previous shortages, according to the EIA.  These low inventories are the reason prices are marching upward. 

The crunch is far worse in the New York/New England markets, which depend on heating oil during the winter.  Diesel inventories have plunged 50% since last year, the lowest level since 1990.  East Coast refineries are currently operating at 102% of capacity, however, supplies are running dangerously low.

The current diesel shortage can be traced to a number factors. The industry has shuttered 13 oil refineries which accounted for more than 1.4 million barrels of oil per day.  That is more than 7% of the country's entire capacity for refining gasoline, diesel and jet fuel.

Last month, Lyondell Basell industries announced it will close its 104-year old refinery by the end of next year.  That will result in the reduction of 263,000 barrels of production a day.   Since 2018, only three new refineries have opened as environmental regulations blunt the incentive to build more.  

Older refineries are closing because retrofitting the facilities to meet new regulations is not economically feasible.  Regulatory and environmental hurdles add substantial costs to plans for new refineries. Additionally, environmental lawsuits often derail projects before construction.  

Paul Doucette, a former energy transition and general manager at Baker Hughes, explained the disincentives for Forbes.  "The real questions for refineries right now is whether to invest billions of dollars on retrofitting old facilities.  You ask yourself, can I make money over the next 40-years? 

"The market is telling you that EV's are becoming more popular, that pressures to reduce emissions are more severe, that carbon prices or taxes may be coming in the near future, and that the environmental community may not want you there."

Complicating the supply issue, the U.S. has been exporting more than one million gallons of diesel to Latin American nations and Europe to help those countries stick to their pledge to buy no fuel from Russia. Latin America is the largest purchaser of American refined gasoline products.

The European Union needs to replace two million tons of diesel imports from Russia.  In addition, the International Energy Agency estimates the EU's demand for refined produces will increase by 300,000-500,000 barrels per day during winter to meeting heating demands.  

This administration can't truthfully claim they were caught flat-footed by this crisis.  Demand for distillate fuels (diesel, jet fuel, heating oil) historically leaps at this time of the year in the U.S.  It does every single year.  There is nothing nefarious going on. 

Unfortunately, there is no likely scenario where consumers win.  For his part, President Biden has shown no empathy for average Americans footing the bill for his misguided policies.  His plan is to destroy the fossil fuel industry no matter the costs to Americans or the damage to the economy.