Joe Biden Gaslights America About Gas Prices

Plus, the editors talk about alternative strategies to deal with Russia.

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:15 :15

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Joe Biden Gaslights America About Gas Prices

Reason editors Matt Welch, Peter Suderman, Katherine Mangu-Ward, and Nick Gillespie discuss U.S. foreign policy debacles other than the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

28:15: Weekly listener question: I was wondering if you could discuss alternative strategies to address Russia. For example, can we weaponize immigration policy instead of solely relying on money for weapons systems and sanctions? What if the U.S. issued an uncapped number of visas to any Russian citizen? What if we provided immediate U.S. citizenship to any active duty Russian soldiers and their families who surrender? Could be interesting if you include bonuses to defecting soldiers for bringing their equipment—$1,000 for a rifle, $100,000 for a tank, $1 million for a MiG… all much cheaper than weapons used against them. Seems like the army would rapidly depopulate, and Putin couldn't backfill if millions of Russian citizens decamped for the U.S. You'd also get the side benefit of eliminating any labor shortages and maybe do something real against inflation, so I think it's a fun idea, but I'd appreciate your thoughts on this idea or any other alternative strategy for dealing with the Russian conflict.

This week's links:

• "Biden Takes Big Step Toward Government-Backed Digital Currency" by Jason Abbruzzese and Kevin Collier
• Townhall.com tweet
• "How the Russian Invasion of Ukraine Upended Germany" by Alec MacGillis
• "Biden's Hidden War Is Destroying Yemen" by Fiona Harrigan

Send your questions to [e-mail]. Be sure to include your social media handle and the correct pronunciation of your name.

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Audio production by Ian Keyser
Assistant production by Adam Czarnecki
Music: "Angeline," by The Brothers Steve

 

What are we consuming this week?

Peter Suderman

• Songs From The Stars by Norman Spinrad

Nick Gillespie

• The Andy Warhol Diaries

Katherine Mangu-Ward

• Pervak Ukrainian Horseradish Vodka

Matt Welch

• Winning Time: The Rise of the Lakers Dynasty

---

Comments

[Rich]

Could be interesting if you include bonuses to defecting soldiers for bringing their equipment—$1,000 for a rifle, $100,000 for a tank, $1 million for a MiG

"How much for tactical nuke, Comrade?"

[Nardz]

More US taxpayer $ for Ukraine!

[Vexatious]

If they’re running into a meat grinder, it might work. Charging into certain death isn’t widely popular.

[ElvisIsReal]

As evidenced by the fact the Redditors are getting the fuck out.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

I suspect the $$$ for equipment might run afoul of some kind of international law. I suspect the questioner vastly overestimates how many Russians would take up such offers. But I think those are interesting possibilities much more amenable to private action than government, except of course the citizenship angle, which should not be immediate, but follow the usual course after an immediate residence visa of some sort.

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

You know, something like FundAComrade.com.

[Brandybuck]

If we get too many takers, we just annex Russia to house them...

[Nardz]

https://twitter.com/Partisan_O/status/1503371585998176260?t=MBd3BrB0vKvmVZqZHoHX0A&s=19

The American public is now primed to see any setback for the “right side of history” on a foreign battlefield as the result of disloyalty or some other moral failing here at home.

19 days of relentless propaganda will do that.

This is the ideal environment for settling old scores, undermining rivals, and escaping accountability.

Excellent conditions for a high-stakes election year.

[DesigNate]

That’s just Russian propaganda!

[Vexatious]

The equipment is Russian, so we could just revive the ‘Cash for Clunkers’ name. Although I’m not sure how well ‘clunkers’ translates into Russian.

[Nardz]

Apparently it's "Kyiv"

[Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland]

I will always refer to it as the dumbest place to fortify on the risk map

[BillyG]

Regardless of the number of Russians who take up such offers, the existence of the offers creates doubt in the mind of Russian leaders. Are troops going to desert and take valuable hardware with them? Or will they stay loyal? It's a mind game that wins by its very existence.

[mad.casual]

It's a mind game that wins by its very existence.

"Take $1000, give them your $400 AK-74, and, as an added bonus, I'll throw in an extra $100 if you vote for Biden when you get there." - Putin

[A Thinking Mind]

Nobody should be even slightly surprised to hear a politician blame someone else for a problem they created. They should expect them to blame everything except their own policies.

[Don't look at me!]

SleepyJoe said he would “work like the devil” to reduce gas prices.
About 2 weeks later he said “can’t do much about it”.

[Mother's Lament]

He could stop trying to destroy the North American oil industry... but that option was probably pooh-poohed by his puppeteers.

[Cronut]

Can't do much about it? Has he even TRIED bombing someone?

[Utkonos]

Joe Biden Gaslights America About Gas Prices— The old fart!

[Quo Usque Tandem]

Our POOTUS has flatulence.

[Salted Nuts]

Gastric inflation rising.

[Nobartium]

The libertarian case for slavery isn't something I expected some retard to ask the editors to answer, but I really shouldn't be surprised.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kuckland]

They already ran the libritarian case for speech codes, so nothing they call libritarian can be concidered libritarian at face value

[Dillinger]

>>$1 million for a MiG

uh, negative Ghostrider the pattern is full.

[Barnstormer]

How about $1 million for an SU-31? That would be the cat's ass!

[soldiermedic76]

What excuse are we on now for inflation, I've lost track? Maybe Joe will be along shortly to give us today's talking points from the DNC about how this is transitory, er a good thing, er greedy businesses, er, Putin's fault. Haven't seen Joe post last couple days, maybe an anvil fell on his head, or just hasn't posted anywhere I've posted. Oh, that's right the Democrats were having their retreat, er not supposed to call it a retreat, to get their talking points straight this weekend, maybe he is waiting for the new batch of talking points hammered out this weekend.

[Mother's Lament]

- It's Trump's fault
- There is no inflation
- It's a good thing
- It's Russia's fault <== You are here

[Outlaw Josey Wales]

You forgot Corporate Greed. Though that was so two weeks ago...

[Unicorn Abattoir]

The only ones being gaslighted by this are the ones that want to be.

[soldiermedic76]

See my reference to Joe Friday.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

I suppose he is at the retreat getting his talking points too.

[Nardz]

https://twitter.com/Oilfield_Rando/status/1503431922957041671?t=S4L2sQvZ4bMjW-1weU0Mcw&s=19

Would you like to know how much money in the omnibus goes to the IRS?

Would you really like to know?

Ok, you've been warned........

$12,575,000,000

$2.8 billion for IRS taxpayer services

$5.4 billion for enforcement

$4.1 billion for operations support

$275 million for business systems modernization

[Cronut]

"Taxpayer services"= also enforcement

[CE]

But the enforcement spending doesn't add to the deficit! It pays for itself!

Where does the money come from then? The greedy billionaires and their army of tax lawyers the newbie IRS agents are going to outsmart? Or the few small business-people who managed to make it through the lock-downs intact? (They must have been hiding income someplace, or how would they also not have gone broke?)

[Utkonos]

You know who else was less than honest about his gas policies?

[R Mac]

Howard Stern?

[bevis the lumberjack]

Herman Webster Mudgett?

[Diane Reynolds (Paul.)]

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand it looks like Horse Dewormer worked for treating COVID.

[Mother's Lament]

Of course it did. That's why India, Africa and Brazil are approaching zero Covid deaths after instituting it.
The West desperately needs a post-Covid war crimes trial.

[DesigNate]

Our “Leaders” need a lot of things.

[Vexatious]

I’m all for divesting America of it’s democrats.

[Salted Nuts]

Yep. Only been saying that for over a year now.

[Titus PUllo]

Don't worry, the corporate media will carry Biden and the authoritarian lefts propaganda...if you disagree you are a tool for putin..didn't you know that Reason?

[Carl Cameron]

If McSuderman wants to read some Spinrad, skip the rest and go for the best The Men in the Jungle

At one time all of the text was available free. You can probably find it elsewhere. Or just by the book!

[T.C.]

Pretty sure that you wouldn't want to offer a "dollars for defecting ", "rewards for rifles", " moolah for missile launchers" bounty to Russian soldiers currently in Ukraine.

Even the most dimwitted 18-year-old conscript would understand that if he defected for dollars Vladimir would do some interesting things to his parents and siblings. So the yield of this program would be very very low.

That is unless the soldier wasn't dimwitted, and just didn't give a damn about what Vladimir would do to his parents and siblings once he defected (not giving a damn about ANYBODY in your family is a pretty good working definition of a psychopath)

And if the "dollars for defecting" soldier wasn't dimmer than dim-witted, or a psychopath, the third possibility is that he's a KGB plant, an infiltrator, an espionage agent, a spy.

Why start a program designed to attract those cohorts of folks; especially if the program is likely to have low yields thus wouldn't have much of an effect on the Russian military anyway¿

[BillyG]

Why start a program designed to attract those cohorts of folks; especially if the program is likely to have low yields thus wouldn't have much of an effect on the Russian military anyway¿

Announcing the program would mess with Putin's & his general's heads. They'd start questioning the loyalty of their troops. Think psychological warfare.

[mad.casual]

Even the most dimwitted 18-year-old conscript would understand that if he defected for dollars Vladimir would do some interesting things to his parents and siblings. So the yield of this program would be very very low.

If I posed it to my 13-yr.-old, he'd come back with "They're giving me $1000 for a rifle. You throw in $100 for me to start a Facebook page supporting Trump and it's a done deal."

It really is astounding how stupid people have gotten. When the Russian Collusion Hoax was going on, nobody had an answer to the open borders question "Let anyone in... including Russians?" now, for some reason, it seems like a great idea.

[Jerry B.]

“Weekly listener question… What if the U.S. issued an uncapped number of visas to any Russian citizen?”

Ilya Somyn, is that you?

[Salted Nuts]

Is there amy problem that can't be solved by unlimited open borders?

Wow, your one-trick pony is a real Koch-sucker.

[Quo Usque Tandem]

Odd, I don't see OBL on this thread.

[Salted Nuts]

I know! I was waiting...

[perlhaqr]

He recognized that even he couldn't beat Poe's Law here..

[Joe Friday]

Facts:

- Inflation and high gas prices are a worldwide event, following Covid and resultant low production. How did Biden do that? Must be a genius.
- US oil production tanked in 2020 .... due to Covid. Who was president then?
- US oil production has rebounded in 2021 and projected to continue in 2022, though not quite up to 2019 numbers yet.
- Federal land leases make up about 8% of US oil production.
- There are currently 9000 permits granted for federal lands oil drilling which are not being used. One oil company said:
"PDC’s end-of-year report Monday noted its extensive stockpile of hundreds of approved permits and drilled but uncompleted wells, which it said “represents an inventory life of more than ten years at the current development pace” — and plenty of additional drilling permits for approved surface locations are on their way,"
- Keystone XL is not complete and the Trump administration stated that it wouldn't be for several years.

Clearly Keystone and federal land oil lease have no impact on current oil prices.

[Enjoy Every Sandwich]

So you're not buying the argument that it's Putin's fault?

[Quo Usque Tandem]

There you are! Got all your talking points, 50 center?

[Quo Usque Tandem]

https://akheadlamp.com/friday-fact-check-responding-to-white-house-blame-game-on-permits-and-leases/

Key Points:

First the 9,000 leases There are about 37,496 leases in effect. Assuming her number on nonproducing leases is correct (as FY 2021 data are not yet available from the government), a 75% utilization rate is a historic high:

• Many leases are held up in litigation by environmental groups. Western Energy Alliance is in court
defending over 2,200 leases, most of which cannot be developed while those cases are ongoing.

• Companies must put together a complete leasehold before moving forward, particularly with the long horizontal wells that can cut across multiple leases. Sometimes a new lease is needed to combine with existing leases to make a full unit. Since the Biden leasing ban remains in effect with no onshore lease sales held since 2020, some leases are held up waiting for new leases or for the government to combine them into a formal unit.

• Before allowing development on leases, the government conducts environmental analysis under NEPA (the National Environmental Policy Act), which often takes years to complete. Many leases can be hung up by NEPA or awaiting other government approvals.

• Finally, not all leases will be developed because, after conducting exploratory work, companies may determine there are not sufficient quantities of oil and natural gas on them.

There are 4,621 permits to drill awaiting approval. The government could approve these permits now, enabling companies to forward with development. There are also about 9,173 outstanding approved permits, but there are factors that cause companies to wait to drill those wells.

• Because of the uncertainty of operating on federal lands, companies must build up a sufficient inventory of permits before rigs can be contracted to ensure the permits stay ahead of the rigs. We drill wells in a matter of days and rigs are very expensive, so it’s a delicate balancing act.

• The federal permit to drill is not the only government approval required. Rights of way can take years to acquire before companies can access their leases and put in natural gas gathering systems. With the pressure not to flare from regulators and investors, most companies cannot drill before gathering lines are in place. Timely approvals of ROWs would enable companies to develop sooner.

• The administration has worked with anti-oil-and-gas activists to slow pipeline infrastructure. Without pipelines to move the oil and natural gas produced, wells cannot be developed.

• Capital must be acquired. Activist investors, encouraged by an administration intent on expanding its

financial regulatory powers, have worked to de-bank and de-capitalize the industry. Many companies, particularly the small independents who drill the majority of federal wells, are having difficulty acquiring the credit and capital necessary to develop. By calling off bureaucratic efforts to deny financing to the industry, the president would send a strong signal to the market that investments in oil and natural gas are safe and new production could move forward.

• The Biden Administration has embarked on an agenda of regulatory overreach with extensive new regulations in the works. The uncertainty of all the new red tape puts a damper on new investment and development today, especially on federal lands where the burden is highest. Consequently, companies prioritize their nonfederal leases because there’s less regulatory risk.

[Joe Friday]

So Quo you agree there is nothing about these federal land leases or Keystone significantly affecting current gas prices. That is what is alleged, not whether you agree with environmental concerns, which is partly what helped elect Biden.

[Alan@.4]

Admittedly Trump was no bargain. Question is, Is Biden An Improvement? Personally speaking, I doubt it.

[Patrick Henry, the 2nd]

Well that's what they all wanted! (Outside of Nick maybe).

No mean tweets and now high gas prices. Hope it was worth it!

[Sullivan4irsmatters]

nice