Crypto Billionaire's Democrat Connections

The stench of a scandal involving crypto billionaire Sam Bankman-Fried is creating a stink for powerful Washington politicians. The beleaguered owner of cryptocurrency exchange FTX has been a mega-donor to the Democratic Party for years, pledging $1 billion in funding during the recent midterms. 

Democrats are rushing to return millions of dollars in donations to avoid the offensive whiff of ties with the bankruptcy of Bankman-Fried's crypto currency trading platform.  The 30-year-old crypto kingpin stepped down from FTX after its collapse. He's currently holed up in his penthouse in the Bahamas.

Unsuccessful Texas gubernatorial candidate Beto O'Rouke is giving back $1 million, joining Democrats Sen. Kristen Gillibrand (NY), Rep. Durbin (lIlinois) , Rep. Chuy Garcia (AZ), Rep. Lucy McBath (GA), Salud Carbajal (CA) and a host of other red-faced Congressional members scurrying for cover.

Although the mercurial billionaire bankrolled mostly Democrats, he tried to leverage two  Republicans on the Senate Agriculture Committee as part of his lobbying effort to put the Commodity Futures Trading Commission in charge of crypto regulation.  They each received $5,800. 

All those dollar signs are just a trickle of the gusher of cash that was unleashed by the crypto fraudster.  The majority of Bankman-Fried's largess was showered on Democrat campaign committees and so-called dark money organizations.  That money will never be returned. 

The political stampede began after Bahamian-based FTX filed for bankruptcy, sending shivers through the crypto industry and unnerving anxious investors.  A company document showed FTX has less than $1 billion in liquid assets and nearly $9 billion in liabilities.  The company listed 100,000 creditors. 

Questions are also swirling around the handling of customer funds at Alameda Research, a trading firm 90% owned by Bankman-Fried. Money allegedly was funneled from FTX to the trading outfit, disappearing into a black hole that investigators are trying to untangle.  

The epic crash of FTX conjured up similarities with the Bernie Madoff scandal.  Embarrassed U.S. regulators claimed there was no resemblance.  However, like Madoff, Bankman-Fried was hailed as a financial genius and  philanthropic champion with powerful friends in Washington. 

Bankman-Fried shoveled money like crop fertilizer throughout the halls of Washington, gaining access to top federal officials.  The crypto magnate donated $5.2 million to President Biden's 2020 campaign, according to OpenSecrets. That cash opened doors to top administration officials.  

Official records show Bankman-Fried visited the White House in June, where he made his $1 billion pledge, which he later reneged on.  The entrepreneur met with the White House counselor Steve Ricchetti in April and May, according to White House logs.  Ricchetti is a top Biden advisor.  

He powwowed with Charolette Butash, a policy advisor to the White House deputy chief of staff. At the time, FTX was lobbying Congress to shape crypto regulation. Crypto currency watchdog, Consumer Choice Center, warned that Bankman-Fried wanted to use regulation to strangle smaller competitors.  

Eight months before Bankman-Fried's empire crumbled, he joined s video call with top financial regulator Gary Gensler, according to The New York Times.  The former chief executive was seeking approval for exemption from the threat of fines for securities violations by cryptocurrency firms.

Gensler is the current chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), which regulates the securities industry and protects investors.  He was appointed to this position by President Biden in 2021.  Now Gensler is under fire for his agency's lack of oversight of the cryptocurrency industry.

Money buys influence in Washington and no one used that lever better than Bankman-Fried.  The disgraced financier doled out $39.8 million in the midterms, all but $989,856 going to Democrats. He was the sixth largest midterm election donor, only dwarfed by George Soros' $128.4 million. 

Bankman-Fried doled out $6 million on the Democrat House Majority PAC. He shelled out $28 million to the Protect Our Future PAC in an effort to ingratiate himself with lawmakers weighing crypto regulations, according to an article in Politico.  

Bankman-Fried, FTX co-CEO Ryan Salane and Director of Engineering Nishad Singh collectively poured $70.1 million in the mid-terms, a staggering sum of money.  The amount is ten times more than FTX contributed in the 2020 presidential election, reports OpenSecrets.  

The list of Bankman-Fried's PAC donations stretch for two pages on the website for OpenSecrets, which uses filings with the Federal Elections Commission to compile its data.  Follow the money if you want to know who carries political clout in Washington.  

The question is how long will Joe Biden's Department of Justice and SEC dither until they charge Bankman-Fried?  When will he be expedited? Bankman-Fried apparently isn't worried.  He is making the media rounds, trying to restore his shattered reputation while apologizing for the FTX implosion. 

Investors want justice.  But Bankman-Fried paid for political protection and influence.  Washington politicians never eat their benefactors. That's why no one should expect a full investigation of Bankman-Fired's efforts to buy influence with Democrats and the administration.    

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.    

Mid-Terms Blues: A Referendum On President Biden

Democrats are scrambling for the lifeboats.  Despite months of election bravado, the Democrats are abandoning the sinking Titanic that is the Biden presidency.  The Biden media, sensing a midterm drubbing for Democrats, is cracking after more than a year of covering up for the gaffe-prone president.

USA Today, a reliable pro-Biden newspaper, called out Biden for a string of blunders, including a false claim that Congress approved the student loan forgiveness plan. At a recent event, the president called for the late Rep. Jackie Walorski to stand up.  She had died the previous month in a car accident.

"It also raises questions about Biden's mental acuity.  I don't fault him for growing older--he's turning 80 next month.  But if Biden can't remember such a sweeping legislative action, it makes me wonder if he isn't making these decisions, then who is?'"wrote USA Today columnist Ingrid Jacques.  

The abrupt shift in media coverage signals growing frustration with the president, whose job performance is undermining Democrats chances in the midterm elections.  Yet delusion Speaker Nancy Pelosi insists her party will hold the House and grow its lead in the Senate. 

The Supreme Court decision on abortion was supposed to juice the Democrat base and attract independents. Democrats quietly celebrated the ruling, convinced they had a seminal issue that would turn the tide.  However, polls reveal abortion is not a top of the mind issue with most Americans.

This election is about the economy, inflation and the rising cost of living under the Biden Administration. Pundits claim it's unfair to punish Democrats for the post-pandemic economic carnage. Unfair? Tell that to a family of four living paycheck to paycheck.      

An angry electorate blames Biden.  If you doubt this, consider the blowback even among Democrats as the president continues to flog his progress on the economy.  Some are openly warning that even talking about the economy risks sending voters fleeing into the waiting arms of Republican candidates.

Voters don't want to hear what the president and his party have achieved when each trip to the grocery store produces sticker shock. Spiraling inflation, which was supposed to be temporary, is a nightmare for the average consumer.  Abortions don't pay the bills for cash-strapped households. 

A poll by the non-partisan Pew Research Center reported 95% of Americans are either "very" or "somewhat" concerned about the cost of food and consumer goods.  Another 87% are anxious about the spike in housing costs.  And 70% are worried about "how the stock market is doing," the poll found.  

No wonder the stock market is a key concern. Americans' 401-K savings are now 201-K plans as the market has lost $7.6 trillion in value since Biden took office. Instead of empathy, Biden brushes off the market debacle because it "doesn't reflect the state of the economy".  He just doesn't get it.  

Another poll conducted for NBC news offers a dose of reality.  Nearly three in four voters (71%) say the U.S. is headed in the wrong direction.  Only 20% think the country is on the right track. One-half (50%) believe the economy will get worse, the highest number since the polling began in 1994.

The American mood is decidedly gloomy. That is a realistic predictor of the midterm election outcome.  Polls about  specific races for the House or Senate are just snapshots of a single moment in the election. These surveys are increasingly partisan and have wide margins for error.      

Even if the president and Pelosi seem oblivious to the sour mood of the country, Democrat pollsters and strategists are clearly aghast at the findings.

Fernand Amandi, a Democrat pollster who worked on Barrack Obama's presidential campaigns, offered this opinion:  "A month ago, it looked like not only were the Democrats poised to hold the Senate, the question was: Were they going to be able to get, you know, two extra seats.  Now, I think the hope is to just hang on."

Even that prospect looks in doubt.  Democrat strategist Mike Lux told "The Hill" that the party should have never downplayed inflation. "Working-class folks are getting hit hard by inflation," he said.  "And we need to make it clear that we understand what's going on."

What is President Biden's message to the electorate on inflation in the closing days of the midterm elections?

Blame meat companies.  Blame grocery wholesalers.  Blame corporate greed.  The president is clueless about what American consumers want to hear.  They do not give a wit about who's to blame. Voters want prices to fall. Inflation is eating into their savings and driving up household  credit card debt. 

All 435 House seats and 35 in the Senate are up for grabs. The "smart" political class rates both houses a toss-up.  This writer disdains wishy-washy predictions.  Republicans will have a 31 seat margin in the House and will win enough Senate races to regain the majority with 53 seats.

This election is a referendum on Joe Biden and that spells disaster for Democrats. 

Sanctimony Over Busing Illegal Immigrants

Swarms of illegal immigrants flooding across the Southern border have been deliberately ignored by the media to support the administration's lie about a secure border. But when 48 migrants arrived on a bus in the exclusive enclave at Martha's Vineyard, the news coverage was intensive and sanctimonious.   

All it took was a busload of 48 migrants for the pro-Biden media to condemn the exploitation of illegals as political pawns. The migrants spent 44 minutes on the luxurious island before they were whisked off by the national guard after residents discovered the illegals were not lawn service workers. 

Florida Governor Ron deSantis airlifted the illegals from Texas and then bused them to the exclusive vineyard. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has been busing illegals nabbed at his state's border to Chicago and New York City, both sanctuary cities.  Mayors in those two cities are apoplectic. 

The president's spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre condemned the governors for sending illegals to Democrat-run sanctuary cities.  "What they are doing is a legal stunt, is a political stunt.  It's really just disrespectful to humanity." Her words oozed with hypocrisy.   

Apparently, Jean-Pierre forgot the administration's busing of hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants to cities throughout the nation. Migrants were dropped off in Orlando, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach, Florida.  Others were shipped to Houston and Dallas. There was no outrage.

Administration officials flew or bused immigrants to states and cities over their objections.  When the administration, dropped off 2,000 immigrants in Westchester County (N.Y.), even Democrat lawmakers questioned the move. Rep. Tom Suozzi griped the flights landed at night with no prior warning.

Dozens of flights shuttled immigrants from the Southern border to Jacksonville last year without prior notice.  In Iowa, the governor complained after two dozen immigrant children showed up in Des Moines, prompting law enforcement to investigate if they were victims of human trafficking.

Over the protest of Tennessee leaders, the administration began sending immigrants to their state. Four planes arrived in Chattanooga without prior notice.  These were not isolated incidents.  Many states had similar experiences.  Immigrants in most cases were unaware of their destination.  

Now that Governor DeSantis and Abbott are flipping the script it seems unfair to the political elitists responsible for the open border policy.  Biden has ignored the pleas of border states to fix the problem.  Democrats are begging Biden to sue Abbott and DeSantis instead of addressing the border crisis.   

Sanctimonious Democrats are denouncing the governors for treating the immigrants inhumanly.  Really? Every one of those immigrants paid a human smuggler from the Mexican drug cartel to get into the U.S. They weren't sent in an air-conditioned bus or an airplane. 

Fifty three illegal immigrants stuffed into a sweltering tractor trailer died earlier this year in Texas. Each put their lives in the hands of smugglers.  Just recently Border Patrol agents rescued more than a dozen migrants locked in a U-Haul truck.   This is what "disrespect for humanity" looks like  Jean-Pierre.

Biden's open border policy is inviting the cartel to exploit foreigners arriving in Mexico.  His policy is enriching drug cartels.  The Biden plan is inhumane and cruel.  

Thanks to Martha's Vineyard, more Americans are now aware the Border Patrol has apprehended more than 2 million illegal immigrants this fiscal year, which ends this month. The numbers do not include more than 500,000 getaways who avoided apprehension and escaped into the country. 

Think about that figure of 500,000.  The number of getaways are larger than cities such as Miami, Oakland, Tampa and Cleveland. Where have all those illegals gone?  The administration doesn't have a clue about their whereabouts or whether they are terrorists, gang members or drug runners. 

Open borders are facilitating a tide of lethal drugs into America. The Border Patrol  has seized 1,007 pounds of cocaine, 4,009 pounds of methamphetamine and 461 pounds of fentanyl at the border.  No one knows how many drugs swept undetected into the U.S. 

It is no coincidence that drug overdose fatalities are spiraling in the U.S..  More than two-thirds of overdose deaths involve fentanyl.  A trailer loaded with 1,337 pounds of meth, was recently seized. Meth is often mixed with fentanyl by the cartel. Two milligrams of fentanyl is considered a lethal dose.

It is open season for drug and human smuggling into Texas, Arizona and New Mexico. Democrats control Congress, yet refuse to even acknowledge the problem much less address it.  Instead, they criticize governors dealing with the catastrophic invasion every day at the border.  

Democrats often deflect the border issue by insisting on immigrant reform first.  Why haven't Democrats acted?  They have the votes. The answer is obvious.  They prefer an open border irregardless of the consequences for the country. Their policy is killing immigrants and Americans.  

Biden's Twilight Zone Presidency

There have been an avalanche of surreal events involving President Biden but none more bizarre than a White House celebration on inflation reduction on the very day his government announced an 8.3% hike in the cost of living.  It eerily resembled a Twilight Zone television episode.  

While touting the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden boasted that gasoline prices are down an average of $1.30 since the beginning of summer. However, the cost per gallon is still 25.6% higher than a year ago. Russia's Putin was blamed for the price hike, so, facetiously, does he get credit for the decline?

Gas prices are dropping because demand for fuel has faltered 4.4% this year.  Another contributing factor  is some states have suspended gasoline taxes which lowers the average cost of a gallon.  Industry experts expect prices to escalate again when the release of Strategic Petroleum Reserves ends this fall.

During his back-slapping speech, the president said; "We're getting other prices down."  Exactly which ones is he talking about?   A Department of Labor report released the same day recorded the largest food price increases since May, 1979--an 11.4% jump over the past year. 

Here's some examples of soaring food prices: Eggs, 39.8%; flour, 23.3%; milk; 17%; bread 16.2%; chicken, 16.6%; meats, 6.7%; pork, 6.8%, fruits and vegetables, 9.4%.  A industry report shows lower-income households in particular are skipping nutritional food items because of the inflated price. 

Utilities are rising, especially natural gas, which climbed 33% since last year. With winter coming, prices will spike. New vehicle prices are 10.1% higher than 2021 and rent continues to skyrocket: the nationwide average for a one-bedroom apartment has mushroomed 27.1%.

Asked if he was concerned about 8.3% inflation, the president responded: "No, I'm not because we're talking about one-tenth of 1%," an apparent reference to a dip in some prices. Be assured average Americans are not fist bumping in joy at the check-out counter at their local grocery store.

But, of course, he is not the only person in the administration that does not allow facts to stand in the way of dubious pronouncements. In an interview, Vice President Kamala Harris twice claimed the porous southern border is "secure." The sycophant reporter did not challenge her obvious falsehood.

She said the following in a television interview: "We have a secure border in that that (sic) is a priority of any nation, including ours and our administration."  You can't make this stuff up.  

The vice president's claim is particularly egregious considering she is the administration's official Border Czar.  She hasn't  personally visited the border, so she might be excused for knowing so little about the current crisis. Although you might surmise, she could find out if she wanted. 

Southwest border apprehensions in fiscal year 2022, which ends in September, have already hit 1.9 million arrests.  This is the highest number ever recorded since the U.S. Customs and Border Patrol began tracking apprehensions in 1925.  That doesn't fit the definition of security at the border.  

But Harris' statement pales in comparison to the whopper told by Biden's Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.  Questioned about border security, she replied: "It's not like people are just walking across the border."  What alternative universe is she living in? 

There is a large cache of videos showing immigrants not only walking across the border, but climbing fences, swimming and being ferried across the Rio Grande River in boats operated by Mexican drug cartel members. Swarms of illegals are coming because they know the border is open.   

Cue the Twilight Zone music.

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen can always be counted to deliver a Rod Serling gem. (Serling was the creator of Twilight Zone.) She assured Americans for months inflation was temporary, even as the data showed the pressure on prices was continuing to mount. 

Then after two quarters of negative GDP growth, Yellen delivered a non sequitur by calling the economic decline a "transition" not a recession, ignoring the long-established definition.  Two quarters of negative growth denotes a recession.  

Now Yellen is backtracking again by admitting the country faces "a risk" of recession as it battles inflation.  Even if the third quarter delivers negative growth data, it would not surprise if Yellen updated the term to "extended transition." This administration knows no shame.

There are two conclusions that can be drawn from this Twilight Zone administration: Either President Biden and his team believe Americans are stupid or they are convinced their lies will be accepted as fact by a compliant media prone to echo the administration's narrative.

Whatever the conclusion, Americans are not entertained nor fooled by Washington's Twilight Zone episodes.