The Biden - Harris Era.

[NattyBohChamps04]

This just in. Guy who spreads divisiveness from his social media feed thinks he's above social media and its divisiveness.

[youthathletics]

As I've mentioned over and over for quite some time.....THIS! is what social media does, to (re)enforce, or influence further partisan division. And it is working...is it not? Otherwise, we would have never had Trump 1, and now we are flirting with a Trump 2. You guys can minimize his message is 'turd' but who is listening to you? The (libs) as you like to call them, are doing nothing but doubling down on this guys message and then triple downing on Trump, maga, rednecks, white nationalist, etc.....just more identity politics, to the max. Add in border, ukraine funding, flirting with more wars, high gas, inflation, interest rates, and a looming recession.....what positive message is there to convey?

You guys are not understanding how social media is working these days.....I feel like Dr. Rick with you all.

Are you so self-centered that you think that list of "bad stuff libs are doing" is the only bad list out there?

Try this list for YOUR team, YA. In just a few short years, Republicans:


-Took away abortion rights, even though a majority of Republicans were perfectly happy with Roe v Wade. Did you get that? You overstepped your far right bounds soooo badly, that only fringe Republicans are happy. Women? F them, they're cattle, we get to make choices for them.

-Packed courts with far right wingnuts, handing out Fundamentalist Christian decisions on case law that was settled DECADES ago, because you want to go back to the year 1950.

-Cut education spending every chance you get, because you think it's cool to have a nation of morons running around, doing Trump's bidding because they can barely read and write, let alone think.

-Ban Books, because again, Republicans think it's neat that Americans are PLUMMETING in educational achievement measurements for our working class. So by all means, take books away from kids. Brilliant. Meanwhile, the top earners in the US get a top-notch education.

-totally dismantled unions, royally F'ing TrumpNation, and gutting our middle class

-handing us a private "health care" system that's so sh*(tty and expensive, that we blow twice as much on it as most countries, yet our poor's life expectancy is going DOWN. Fighting any notion of what the rest of the free world enjoys: free health care no matter how poor you are.

-Cozying up to White Supremacists. Oh, and the best part? Playing dumb, and telling yourselves that's not what you're doing. Neat.

-Trying to gut School Curriculums to keep kids from learning about slavery, or heaven forbid, that we have more than one kind of family in America. Oh no! Not that!

-wrapping yourselves in the flag with fake patriotism....right before yanking rights away from "other people". Because as you know, only Republicans are allowed to do what they want, everyone else can F off. And if anyone else tries to (horror) have a voice in our Democracy? Oh, that's "woke", and communism.

-cutting taxes for the rich over and over and over because R voters are too freaking stupid to understand that they are screwing themselves, and handing out tax breaks to Corporations that are increasingly owned by foreign interests. Smart.

-increasing the gap between rich and poor because, again, you chaps can't add and subtract, and think that paying the same tax rate you did under Reagan is now "communism" in 2024.

-hitting out at every institution you can name that you think is "doing it wrong"....including ones that YOU OPERATE...and telling us that "the libs did this".

-nominating a man who's under dozens of indictments, because you're so stupid that you want to put a connvicted felon who doesn't understand how government works....in charge. Again. Sweet. You guys are doing great.

-believe that EVERYTHING is a conspiracy, and coming up with the dumbest. possible. explanations. for everyday events that happen all over the world. Basically telling the entire world that you're not able to think above a grammar school level.

-tell us that "the border" and immigration is the most important issue in the history of Earth. And then (drumroll) promptly don't do one single thing to fix it. Sweet. Way to go!

I could go on, and on, and on. Your "the libs are bad" list PALES in comparison to what moderates and liberals think of your party, and how you've abandoned any resemblance to American Conservative thought.


And yet? In response to your team going off the deep end? Did they nominate a liberal Trump?

Nope. The actually put a guy in office who in MOST ways, is to the RIGHT of Trump. Explain that.

-

thanks for the list and time spent noting it. And I honestly, you are proving my point….

…The lib side is trying to argue all this in court, tv, impeachments, etc-etc…and guess what? Trump is still leading, Why? Back to my social media dissection of how the game is being played. The moment the libs get a legal win that buries his ass, they can claim victory, until then, they are only fanning the flames of Trump.

You are focused on real life things, which I agree whole-heartedly, but currently, memes, 140 character posts, and deep fakes appear to keep winning.

Are they winning? Or are they polling?

In nearly every contest since 2016, and that’s a whole lot of election cycles, MAGA extremists, and after 2020 election denying MAGA extremists, have been losing. Very few wins outside of GOP primaries except in very safest districts. Moreover, even in red states when abortion rights have gotten a vote, choice has won.

But GOP controlled legislatures and some of the judges who had been appointed by Trump keep creating new law way outside of American majority opinion…in other words, in response to losing elections, they have tacked even further hard right.

So, sure, Trump is polling “ahead” of Biden in some important states. And that’s alarming. But does Trump have some special power that other election deniers do not? Anti women’s rights and healthcare? Or is polling quite different than what happens when voting actually is put to the test?

However, If you are saying that there’s a large and very active extremist effort to use social media and right wing media far more aggressively, with no regard to truth, rather just the efficiency of disinformation propaganda, I’d agree. Moreover, a significant additional input to that social media propaganda effort is from foreign adversaries recognizing the vulnerability of our electorate to such.

All the more reason to reject MAGA extremism and Trump.

I don’t think, however, that MAGA willingness to aggressively lie as the most effective propaganda, given an ends justifies the means rationale, should be adopted by the Dems. Right now, they have added a lot of disaffected Republicans and Independents for whom that very lying is a big part of why they won’t vote for Trump again. And they would lose them if there were truly the same disinformation methods being used on both sides.

In bold red: Yes...that is what I am conveying, .....however, it is not just "active extremists', it is prevalent in politics these days. Brad Parscale laid out the roadmap to the social meida -demo and how it helped them with the Trump win. Social media has only become worse since then....Brad has since pivoted away from Trump. let's hope more have done the same.

[Kismet]

The MAGA nuts are now telling people that the liberals who told them to wear a mask are now telling them not to look at the sun during the eclipse today and thus they think its a load of BS - care to estimate how many MAGA idiots are going to go blind today?

[youthathletics]

Joe is telling everyone gays cant be married...What the heck is going on, is there an eclipse or something:

https://x.com/leslibless/status/1777060619365007434

[Typical Lax Dad]

The MAGA nuts are now telling people that the liberals who told them to wear a mask are now telling them not to look at the sun during the eclipse today and thus they think its a load of BS - care to estimate how many MAGA idiots are going to go blind today?

Buy stock in braille keyboard manufacturers

[a fan]

Joe is telling everyone gays cant be married...What the heck is going on, is there an eclipse or something:

https://x.com/leslibless/status/1777060619365007434

Welcome to conservative America, YA. How many times have I told you that Joe is center-right?

....well, this is case in point.

[MDlaxfan76]

As I've mentioned over and over for quite some time.....THIS! is what social media does, to (re)enforce, or influence further partisan division. And it is working...is it not? Otherwise, we would have never had Trump 1, and now we are flirting with a Trump 2. You guys can minimize his message is 'turd' but who is listening to you? The (libs) as you like to call them, are doing nothing but doubling down on this guys message and then triple downing on Trump, maga, rednecks, white nationalist, etc.....just more identity politics, to the max. Add in border, ukraine funding, flirting with more wars, high gas, inflation, interest rates, and a looming recession.....what positive message is there to convey?

You guys are not understanding how social media is working these days.....I feel like Dr. Rick with you all.

Are you so self-centered that you think that list of "bad stuff libs are doing" is the only bad list out there?

Try this list for YOUR team, YA. In just a few short years, Republicans:


-Took away abortion rights, even though a majority of Republicans were perfectly happy with Roe v Wade. Did you get that? You overstepped your far right bounds soooo badly, that only fringe Republicans are happy. Women? F them, they're cattle, we get to make choices for them.

-Packed courts with far right wingnuts, handing out Fundamentalist Christian decisions on case law that was settled DECADES ago, because you want to go back to the year 1950.

-Cut education spending every chance you get, because you think it's cool to have a nation of morons running around, doing Trump's bidding because they can barely read and write, let alone think.

-Ban Books, because again, Republicans think it's neat that Americans are PLUMMETING in educational achievement measurements for our working class. So by all means, take books away from kids. Brilliant. Meanwhile, the top earners in the US get a top-notch education.

-totally dismantled unions, royally F'ing TrumpNation, and gutting our middle class

-handing us a private "health care" system that's so sh*(tty and expensive, that we blow twice as much on it as most countries, yet our poor's life expectancy is going DOWN. Fighting any notion of what the rest of the free world enjoys: free health care no matter how poor you are.

-Cozying up to White Supremacists. Oh, and the best part? Playing dumb, and telling yourselves that's not what you're doing. Neat.

-Trying to gut School Curriculums to keep kids from learning about slavery, or heaven forbid, that we have more than one kind of family in America. Oh no! Not that!

-wrapping yourselves in the flag with fake patriotism....right before yanking rights away from "other people". Because as you know, only Republicans are allowed to do what they want, everyone else can F off. And if anyone else tries to (horror) have a voice in our Democracy? Oh, that's "woke", and communism.

-cutting taxes for the rich over and over and over because R voters are too freaking stupid to understand that they are screwing themselves, and handing out tax breaks to Corporations that are increasingly owned by foreign interests. Smart.

-increasing the gap between rich and poor because, again, you chaps can't add and subtract, and think that paying the same tax rate you did under Reagan is now "communism" in 2024.

-hitting out at every institution you can name that you think is "doing it wrong"....including ones that YOU OPERATE...and telling us that "the libs did this".

-nominating a man who's under dozens of indictments, because you're so stupid that you want to put a connvicted felon who doesn't understand how government works....in charge. Again. Sweet. You guys are doing great.

-believe that EVERYTHING is a conspiracy, and coming up with the dumbest. possible. explanations. for everyday events that happen all over the world. Basically telling the entire world that you're not able to think above a grammar school level.

-tell us that "the border" and immigration is the most important issue in the history of Earth. And then (drumroll) promptly don't do one single thing to fix it. Sweet. Way to go!

I could go on, and on, and on. Your "the libs are bad" list PALES in comparison to what moderates and liberals think of your party, and how you've abandoned any resemblance to American Conservative thought.


And yet? In response to your team going off the deep end? Did they nominate a liberal Trump?

Nope. The actually put a guy in office who in MOST ways, is to the RIGHT of Trump. Explain that.

-

thanks for the list and time spent noting it. And I honestly, you are proving my point….

…The lib side is trying to argue all this in court, tv, impeachments, etc-etc…and guess what? Trump is still leading, Why? Back to my social media dissection of how the game is being played. The moment the libs get a legal win that buries his ass, they can claim victory, until then, they are only fanning the flames of Trump.

You are focused on real life things, which I agree whole-heartedly, but currently, memes, 140 character posts, and deep fakes appear to keep winning.

Are they winning? Or are they polling?

In nearly every contest since 2016, and that’s a whole lot of election cycles, MAGA extremists, and after 2020 election denying MAGA extremists, have been losing. Very few wins outside of GOP primaries except in very safest districts. Moreover, even in red states when abortion rights have gotten a vote, choice has won.

But GOP controlled legislatures and some of the judges who had been appointed by Trump keep creating new law way outside of American majority opinion…in other words, in response to losing elections, they have tacked even further hard right.

So, sure, Trump is polling “ahead” of Biden in some important states. And that’s alarming. But does Trump have some special power that other election deniers do not? Anti women’s rights and healthcare? Or is polling quite different than what happens when voting actually is put to the test?

However, If you are saying that there’s a large and very active extremist effort to use social media and right wing media far more aggressively, with no regard to truth, rather just the efficiency of disinformation propaganda, I’d agree. Moreover, a significant additional input to that social media propaganda effort is from foreign adversaries recognizing the vulnerability of our electorate to such.

All the more reason to reject MAGA extremism and Trump.

I don’t think, however, that MAGA willingness to aggressively lie as the most effective propaganda, given an ends justifies the means rationale, should be adopted by the Dems. Right now, they have added a lot of disaffected Republicans and Independents for whom that very lying is a big part of why they won’t vote for Trump again. And they would lose them if there were truly the same disinformation methods being used on both sides.
[/quote red: Yes...that is what I am conveying, .....however, it is not just "active extremists', it is prevalent in politics these days. Brad Parscale laid out the roadmap to the social meida -demo and how it helped them with the Trump win. Social media has only become worse since then....Brad has since pivoted away from Trump. let's hope more have done the same.

R
Not just active extremists. Also our foreign adversaries who have no interest in truth. And the parts of the media and political class which decided for monetary and power interests that disinformation and outrage sells better than truth.

Yes, you can find some of this on the far left, but it is dwarfed by what has happened with MAGA in which the chief leader has consciously committed to this strategy for most of his life, and his accelerant and influence as a politician. We don’t see anything remotely comparable on the Dem side.

Yes, social media is a huge accelerator given those companies’ decisions to allow their algorithmic recommendations to reward and accelerate the most divisive and scary rhetoric instead of the most accurate and truthful.

I understand how hard it is to consume social media, even if conscious, but what I think we need to be super clear about is when the the creator and spreader of division and disinformation have clear financial and power incentives.

I think you posted a rant from a Newsmax jerk a day ago as if making valid points…no, it was extremist disinformation designed to attract attention and incite anger and fear and division. He’s paid more to do so.

The tactic is to reference things that people have been told should worry them in terminology far beyond rational logic, sprinkling selected facts among flagrant lies in order to create a pretense of credibility. Look at the financial motivations, see the tactics…and reject.

[MDlaxfan76]

Joe is telling everyone gays cant be married...What the heck is going on, is there an eclipse or something:

https://x.com/leslibless/status/1777060619365007434

Welcome to conservative America, YA. How many times have I told you that Joe is center-right?

....well, this is case in point.

Yup, a whole lot of center-right people changed their views on marriage after they experienced friends, colleagues, etc or their children seeking to commit to long term loving relationships.

They are still center-right by natural proclivity.

Similarly with abortion. A whole lot of center-right people are opposed to abortion for their personal life, yet have moved to support choice for women. They remain center-right.

[SCLaxAttack]

Joe is telling everyone gays cant be married...What the heck is going on, is there an eclipse or something:

https://x.com/leslibless/status/1777060619365007434

Welcome to conservative America, YA. How many times have I told you that Joe is center-right?

....well, this is case in point.

Yup, a whole lot of center-right people changed their views on marriage after they experienced friends, colleagues, etc or their children seeking to commit to long term loving relationships.

They are still center-right by natural proclivity.

Similarly with abortion. A whole lot of center-right people are opposed to abortion for their personal life, yet have moved to support choice for women. They remain center-right.

I watched that and saw two things:

- Even back then one side was all about culture wars.
- As did I, and as MD points out, over time Biden changed his opinion on gay marriage.

Comment: I don't think the government has any business being in the marriage business. Like most Central and South American countries marriage should be for religion, civil union for governments, civil and legal rights. C and S American couples go to city hall one day, the church of their choosing the next.

[MDlaxfan76]

Joe is telling everyone gays cant be married...What the heck is going on, is there an eclipse or something:

https://x.com/leslibless/status/1777060619365007434

Welcome to conservative America, YA. How many times have I told you that Joe is center-right?

....well, this is case in point.

Yup, a whole lot of center-right people changed their views on marriage after they experienced friends, colleagues, etc or their children seeking to commit to long term loving relationships.

They are still center-right by natural proclivity.

Similarly with abortion. A whole lot of center-right people are opposed to abortion for their personal life, yet have moved to support choice for women. They remain center-right.

I watched that and saw two things:

- Even back then one side was all about culture wars.
- As did I, and as MD points out, over time Biden changed his opinion on gay marriage.

Comment: I don't think the government has any business being in the marriage business. Like most Central and South American countries marriage should be for religion, civil union for governments, civil and legal rights. C and S American couples go to city hall one day, the church of their choosing the next.

That’s a reasonable position (assuming marriage was solely a religious term not a cultural one) but there was such a massive amount of federal and state law accumulated referencing marriage and its protection and benefits, and an unwillingness of legislatures to change All such to civil union, that the courts had little choice but to do it for them.

Marriage has the cultural meaning of a solemn commitment, whether religious or not. It’s confusing and difficult however for a religious person to accept that perspective if their organized tradition demands marriage in their faith so as to avoid sin or to achieve community acceptance (like Biden’s Catholicism). For some, only marriage within the faith is accepted, all other commitments simply have no standing, aren’t valued’. Of course, such dogma also may hold that anyone not accepting their specific faith fully is doomed to Hell.

Same folks often want to demand their government enforce such compliance, denying various value to those who do not comply.

Obviously, not you, but that’s why the courts needed to do so as the politicians just didn’t want to go against those parts of their constituencies at that point. And there was a realization of the mess that not doing it federally created for people moving state to state.

[a fan]

Joe is telling everyone gays cant be married...What the heck is going on, is there an eclipse or something:

https://x.com/leslibless/status/1777060619365007434

Welcome to conservative America, YA. How many times have I told you that Joe is center-right?

....well, this is case in point.

Yup, a whole lot of center-right people changed their views on marriage after they experienced friends, colleagues, etc or their children seeking to commit to long term loving relationships.

They are still center-right by natural proclivity.

Similarly with abortion. A whole lot of center-right people are opposed to abortion for their personal life, yet have moved to support choice for women. They remain center-right.

I watched that and saw two things:

- Even back then one side was all about culture wars.
- As did I, and as MD points out, over time Biden changed his opinion on gay marriage.

Comment: I don't think the government has any business being in the marriage business. Like most Central and South American countries marriage should be for religion, civil union for governments, civil and legal rights. C and S American couples go to city hall one day, the church of their choosing the next.

Where's the standing ovation button??

This is SUPPOSED to be the American Conservative position: keep the government out of the most personal part of our private lives. Want to merge finances and liabilities? Form an LLC. Keep government out of who you love, and who you live with.

Another conservative failure on the part of American conservatives who swear they want government out of their lives. The reality is? They want government sticking their nose in OTHER PEOPLE's lives, and tell them to conform. This is the opposite of the freedom claimed by Americans.

Marriage is nowhere in the Constitution. I wonder why? Answer is obvious: keep government separate from what was, and is, a religious ceremony.

[youthathletics]

Joe is telling everyone gays cant be married...What the heck is going on, is there an eclipse or something:

https://x.com/leslibless/status/1777060619365007434

Welcome to conservative America, YA. How many times have I told you that Joe is center-right?

....well, this is case in point.

Yup, a whole lot of center-right people changed their views on marriage after they experienced friends, colleagues, etc or their children seeking to commit to long term loving relationships.

They are still center-right by natural proclivity.

Similarly with abortion. A whole lot of center-right people are opposed to abortion for their personal life, yet have moved to support choice for women. They remain center-right.

I watched that and saw two things:

- Even back then one side was all about culture wars.
- As did I, and as MD points out, over time Biden changed his opinion on gay marriage.

Comment: I don't think the government has any business being in the marriage business. Like most Central and South American countries marriage should be for religion, civil union for governments, civil and legal rights. C and S American couples go to city hall one day, the church of their choosing the next.

Where's the standing ovation button??

This is SUPPOSED to be the American Conservative position: keep the government out of the most personal part of our private lives. Want to merge finances and liabilities? Form an LLC. Keep government out of who you love, and who you live with.

Another conservative failure on the part of American conservatives who swear they want government out of their lives. The reality is? They want government sticking their nose in OTHER PEOPLE's lives, and tell them to conform. This is the opposite of the freedom claimed by Americans.

Marriage is nowhere in the Constitution. I wonder why? Answer is obvious: keep government separate from what was, and is, a religious ceremony.

I believe it was a direct result of 'money'; beneficiaries, tax code/law, medical claims, etc-etc. We were not ready for it and it needed to be matriculate slowly.

[a fan]

I believe it was a direct result of 'money'; beneficiaries, tax code/law, medical claims, etc-etc. We were not ready for it and it needed to be matriculate slowly.

Then form an LLC or some such financial entity that has nothing to do with marriage.

Part of it, as I"m sure you know, was that women were viewed as property back then, and had no right to vote.

[youthathletics]

I believe it was a direct result of 'money'; beneficiaries, tax code/law, medical claims, etc-etc. We were not ready for it and it needed to be matriculate slowly.

Then form an LLC or some such financial entity that has nothing to do with marriage.

Part of it, as I"m sure you know, was that women were viewed as property back then, and had no right to vote.

I also seem to recall all the controversy around medical at the height of the AIDs epidemic with gay men and the fight over insurance claims.

[a fan]

I believe it was a direct result of 'money'; beneficiaries, tax code/law, medical claims, etc-etc. We were not ready for it and it needed to be matriculate slowly.

Then form an LLC or some such financial entity that has nothing to do with marriage.

Part of it, as I"m sure you know, was that women were viewed as property back then, and had no right to vote.

I also seem to recall all the controversy around medical at the height of the AIDs epidemic with gay men and the fight over insurance claims.

Yes. Our government should be set up to allow financial partnerships.

It's too late for this, obviously. We have so much tied up in marriage now, it would be impossible to untangle thousands of rules and laws, and consequences therein, surrounding marriage.

[MDlaxfan76]

Joe is telling everyone gays cant be married...What the heck is going on, is there an eclipse or something:

https://x.com/leslibless/status/1777060619365007434

Welcome to conservative America, YA. How many times have I told you that Joe is center-right?

....well, this is case in point.

Yup, a whole lot of center-right people changed their views on marriage after they experienced friends, colleagues, etc or their children seeking to commit to long term loving relationships.

They are still center-right by natural proclivity.

Similarly with abortion. A whole lot of center-right people are opposed to abortion for their personal life, yet have moved to support choice for women. They remain center-right.

I watched that and saw two things:

- Even back then one side was all about culture wars.
- As did I, and as MD points out, over time Biden changed his opinion on gay marriage.

Comment: I don't think the government has any business being in the marriage business. Like most Central and South American countries marriage should be for religion, civil union for governments, civil and legal rights. C and S American couples go to city hall one day, the church of their choosing the next.

Where's the standing ovation button??

This is SUPPOSED to be the American Conservative position: keep the government out of the most personal part of our private lives. Want to merge finances and liabilities? Form an LLC. Keep government out of who you love, and who you live with.

Another conservative failure on the part of American conservatives who swear they want government out of their lives. The reality is? They want government sticking their nose in OTHER PEOPLE's lives, and tell them to conform. This is the opposite of the freedom claimed by Americans.

Marriage is nowhere in the Constitution. I wonder why? Answer is obvious: keep government separate from what was, and is, a religious ceremony.

Horse left the barn long ago, indeed because right wing Christians decided to exert political power to demand conformity to their religious beliefs. Not traditional conservative, much less libertarian. And that began long ago under the presumption that we all agreed that marriage deserved to be encouraged.

Marriage has therefore become a cultural necessity not just religious and to deny the state’s protections and benefits of marital status, which religious people had insisted upon (ostensibly on behalf of a societal good favoring committed families and parenting), is untenable.

Could have been, probably should have been separate, but the history is long.

[Brooklyn]

https://www.usnews.com/object/image/000 ... dhoc-a.jpg


interestingly, Biden has had some rebound in the polls and his agenda has been working - the delusional right wing hasn't had much to criticize in him lately and seem more focussed on criticizing tRump for his crimes, corruption, slurred speeches, and incompetence

[old salt]

Gutting our Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

https://www.nationalreview.com/2024/04/ ... term=first

How and Why Biden Destroyed the Strategic Petroleum Reserve

by ANDREW FOLLETT, April 9, 2024

Instead of unleashing more American energy, Biden has chosen to use America’s emergency reserves to solve his own political problems.

Last Wednesday, President Biden’s Department of Energy (DOE) canceled a pair of oil purchases to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), leaving America’s energy reserves dangerously low at a time of global uncertainty.

The DOE originally planned to buy oil at $79 per barrel. But oil prices have stubbornly refused to cooperate and remain above $86 per barrel, leading the DOE to cancel the purchase.

When former president Donald Trump attempted to fill the SPR to the brim when oil prices were at a rock-bottom price of $24 a barrel, congressional Democrats blocked the purchase, claiming it would be an oil-industry bailout.

Taxpayers would have been left on the hook for the price increase since then had the Biden administration proceeded with the purchase. But simply refusing to replenish the oil supply is a risky decision given that now there’s almost no oil reserve left. America’s oil reserve has declined by 44 percent since Biden took office, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The SPR is at its lowest level since its initial filling in August 1983. The reserve can hold 714 million barrels. It’s currently about half full and thus could supply America’s needs for just 17 days.

Prior to Biden’s tenure, the SPR releases occurred for wars or natural disasters, such as the 1991 Gulf War or various hurricanes striking the oil refineries on the Gulf Coast. Such events could cause unexpected disruptions of the oil supply.

The SPR’s purpose is to “diminish the vulnerability of the United States to the effects of a severe energy supply interruption, and provide limited protection from the short-term consequences of interruptions in supplies of petroleum products.” It was not intended to bail out a president’s policy of producing less American energy. But that’s how Biden has used it: more as a political reserve than a strategic one.

In 2021, Biden made the unprecedented move of releasing oil from the SPR to combat high fuel prices, although prices remained stubbornly high regardless. Mysteriously, the release concluded right before the 2022 midterm elections, when high gas prices were a key issue. Biden claimed his plan to release another 15 million barrels from the SPR was “not politically motivated at all.”

But the problem isn’t just that American taxpayers were robbed of the opportunity to buy oil at bargain prices during the last administration and then saw the SPR used in an arguable attempt to score political points under Biden. Now, if America needed to significantly increase oil use in a natural disaster or war, the reserve is already mostly depleted.

The SPR’s depleted state certainly shows weakness to America’s enemies, as it demonstrates a lack of capacity to fight a long war. But the situation is actually worse than that. Biden’s policies have fatally undermined America’s ability to quickly increase oil production in an emergency.

The number of U.S. oil-drilling rigs has still yet to recover to pre-pandemic levels. Rig counts are down 22 percent compared with March 2020, mostly due to the anti-energy policies of the Biden administration creating legal and regulatory uncertainty. Especially damaging was Biden’s blocking of U.S. energy exports, which greatly weakened the growth of this strategically vital industry, and forced America’s allies to rely on foreign dictatorships for their energy security. So America’s strategic reserves are not only depleted, but our capacity to rapidly refill them during a crisis is as well.

Biden has greatly shrunk the market for U.S. energy. America’s capacity to quickly ramp up energy production in the event of a global conflict is sharply limited. That’s a major problem, given that the U.S. is directly or indirectly involved in major conflicts in Israel, the Red Sea, and Ukraine.

The situation in Israel presents particular risk to America’s energy reserves. The U.S. has a legal obligation to sell a portion of those reserves to Israel if the latter is unable to purchase energy in international markets. Although Israel has never exercised this legal right, given the current political and military situation in the Middle East, discounting the possibility would be extremely foolish.

But instead of unleashing more American energy, Biden has chosen to use America’s emergency reserves to solve his own political problems, to the detriment of America’s strategic interests, and has made his country vastly more vulnerable to true emergencies.

One hopes Biden and congressional Democrats will stop playing politics with this strategic resource before such an emergency arises, or the consequences could be grave. Blocking the opportunity to refill the reserves when prices were low, and then using high prices as an excuse to refuse to refill them now while wastefully and non-strategically depleting the reserves for political points, is the height of irresponsibility.

[youthathletics]

Why even have a media/press conference, if its going to be staged?
https://x.com/RNCResearch/status/1778117701937873252

https://x.com/RNCResearch/status/1778119232607158342

[cradleandshoot]

Joe is telling everyone gays cant be married...What the heck is going on, is there an eclipse or something:

https://x.com/leslibless/status/1777060619365007434

Joe was obviously under the spell of Tim Russert. Alot of Democrats use to believe marriage was between a man and a woman. I bet they all have amnesia today if asked about it. All Joe has to say is that he never said what he said. Joe would add to that " if you don't believe me ask Tim, he will back me up."