Within the same 30-day cycle Joe Biden asked Venezuela to produce and deliver more oil in order to help him politically.  The Venezuelan government, having been the subject of an attempted coup and sanctions driven by the DC interventionist mindset, refused to assist.  Joe Biden then refused to invite Venezuela to his Latin-America summit scheduled for this week.

Latin-America leaders are not stupid.  It doesn’t matter whether the self-interested bully comes from the east or the west, they are not blind to the parasitic self-interest contained within the blackmail of any larger nations on the geopolitical stage; especially as the cleaving of the west and east is taking place with increased ferocity.

Today Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez-Obrador announced he will not attend Joe Biden’s Latin-America summit.

AMLO joins the leaders of Bolivia, Guatemala, Honduras and the tiny Caribbean state of St. Vincent in refusing to attend the summit because Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua were blocked from attending by the Biden administration.

(Via Wall Street Journal) – […] After weeks of wrangling over the issue amid threats of country boycotts, the administration excluded the three autocracies due to U.S. concerns over human rights and lack of democratic institutions in those countries, the officials said. The regional summit, scheduled for June 6-10 in Los Angeles, is expected to focus on migration and economic issues.

“I’m not going because not all the countries of America are invited,” said Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador Monday at his daily press conference. The Mexican leader said he had a good relationship with Mr. Biden and that he planned to visit the White House in July.

(more…)

Last Friday the Biden administration raised the mandatory amount of biofuel, specifically ethanol, that must be blended within the U.S. gasoline supply.  The previous amount of 10% (summer blend) was raised to a year-round 15% (waiver) by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).  This is likely to lead to two sets of bigger issues, less food and higher gas prices.

♦ First issue. – The Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS) is a government mandate, passed in 2005 and expanded in 2007, that requires growing volumes of biofuels to be blended into U.S. transportation fuels like gasoline and diesel every year.  Approximately 40 percent of corn grown in the U.S. is used for ethanol.  Raising the amount of ethanol required in gasoline will result in the need for more biofuel (corn).  With farming costs and outputs already under pressure this could be problematic.

♦ Second issue – The EPA enforces the biofuel standard by requiring refineries to submit purchase credits (known as Renewable Identification Numbers, or RINs) to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proving the purchases.  This enforcement requirement sets up a system where the RIN credits are bought and sold by small refineries who do not have the infrastructure to do the blending process.  They purchase second-hand RIN credits from parties that blended or imported biofuels directly. This sets up a secondary income stream, a trading market for the larger oil companies, refineries and importers.

The RIN credit trading platform is similar to what we might expect to see if the ‘Carbon Trading’ scheme was ever put into place.   However, now that summer biofuel requirements for blended gasoline have gone from 10% to 15%, the price of the RIN credits will likely jump.  This will cost refineries billions in additional expenses,…. which will mean the cost of the gasoline from the refineries will increase,….. which will mean the cost of the gasoline at the pump will go higher.

(more…)

Republicans in Washington DC, the right wing of the UniParty vulture, play the game of Chaff and Countermeasures whenever it comes to the investigation of lawbreaking that targets people outside the system.  If you are an ‘ordinary’ American with no connection to the insider’s club, the best you can hope for is a strongly worded message of support from the GOP.  Prior examples of Chaff and Countermeasures have included: Fast and Furious, IRS Targeting, Benghazi, Spygate, Trump-Russia Collusion, and the 2020 election fraud.

STEPS: 1) The electorate become aware of a political issue or action; often illegal. 2) The electorate becomes angry. 3) DC needs to protect itself. 4) Countermeasures are assigned and deployed to delay, obfuscate and create the illusion of investigation of the illegal governmental action. 5) Electorate watch. 6) Investigation goes nowhere. 7) Countermeasure deployment successful. 8) Pause-Wait-Repeat.

John Ratcliffe appears on Fox News with Maria Bartiromo to discuss the outcome of the Michael Sussmann not-guilty verdict.  Ratcliffe waxes poetically noting the evidence at trial looks very badly upon the Robert Mueller and Andrew Weissmann investigation.  Ratcliffe says justice is going to have to come at the ballot box.   WATCH:

In response to the arrest of Trump advisor Peter Navarro, which included handcuffs and leg-irons for a perp walk, Mr. Ratcliffe notes that FBI Director Christopher Wray should probably look into that…. As if Direct Chris Wray wasn’t an active participant in the decision-making.  Mr. Ratcliffe does a great job pretending not to know things.

(more…)

Here is one succinct interview containing the smorgasbord of far-left policies the people behind Joe Biden are proposing as the solution to the inflation crisis they have created. It is remarkable to see it all packed into one 8-minute segment.  There is so much crazy in here it would take a week of articles to unpack it.

The ultra-leftist Biden Transportation Secretary, Pete Buttigieg, appears on ABC with George Stephanopoulos to discuss the solutions to the massive economic collapse that looms all around us.  Within the interview Buttigieg states the Biden administration goal is to use the high cost of living (policy driven inflation) as an opportunity for the government to take over household expenses and create equity via government distribution.

If reasonable people do not intervene quickly, the executive branch and legislative branch will move to begin subsidizing and controlling medicine, childcare, housing and food costs by diverting tax dollars into the social equity system.  Depending on income, the Biden administration plans to offset higher prices for Americans by providing the essential services and products they need.  In essence, Democrat-Socialism with a filter of equity in distribution, ie “enhanced dependency.”  WATCH:

Remarkably, Stephanopoulos references one of the most insane New York Times op-ed’s ever written around economics {ARTICLE HERE}.  Within the reference, the Democrat legislative proposal is for the government to take over the purchasing of essential products like food, fuel, gasoline and medicine.  The government would then distribute those products.  The entire premise is based on some academic leftist theory of economics that is just nuts. It looks nothing like capitalism.

The baseline for the approach contains the premise that inflation is driven by too many people chasing scarce goods. Thus prices are rising.  This is how the Democrats look at inflation and explain the problem.  Their solution is for government to buy the food at the prices they claim people cannot afford, and then sell the food at prices they claim the people can afford.  [Replace ‘food’ with any item they determine]

(more…)

During an interview on Newsmax, former congressman and current CEO of Truth Social, Devin Nunes, gives his opinion of yesterdays’ arrest of Peter Navarro. {Direct Rumble Link}

Nunes accurately notes the DOJ and FBI have the autonomy to decide whether any congressional subpoena would be politically motivated and modify their approach accordingly.  In the example of Peter Navarro, the intent of congress is entirely politically motivated, and the DOJ/FBI were more than willing to participate.  WATCH:

https://rumble.com/embed/v14n0li/?pub=4

.

(more…)

During press remarks yesterday, Joe Biden implied that Ukraine may need to cede territory in Eastern Ukraine to Russia as part of a “negotiated settlement.”

The statement came at the end of remarks centered around the May jobs report and Biden’s claim that U.S. consumers were in the best economic position of the past decade, therefore the government must begin increasing direct subsidies to offset energy costs and massive inflation pressure.  When Biden was asked, “does Ukraine have to cede territory to achieve some peace?” he stated:

[Transcript] – [F]rom the beginning, I’ve said and I’ve been — not everyone has agreed with me — nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.  It’s their territory.  I’m not going to tell them what they should and shouldn’t do.

But it appears to me that, at some point along the line, there’s going to have to be a negotiated settlement here.  And what that entails, I don’t know.  I don’t think anybody knows at the time.

But in the meantime, we’re going to continue to put the — the Ukrainians in a position where they can defend themselves.  Thank you all so very much. (link)

It has been obvious from the outset that annexing Eastern Ukraine, the region containing a majority pro-Russia population, was always the intended objective of Russian aggression.  With Biden making this admission public, it raises the question then why did we agree to send $40 billion?

(more…)

Former economic and trade advisor Peter Navarro appeared outside the courthouse in Washington DC after his arrest. [Two Videos] WATCH:

.

Full remarks and press conference below.

(more…)

Peter Navarro was the former Senior Trade and Economic Advisor to President Trump and a staunch critic former of U.S. policy toward China.   The January 6th Commission demanded all his documented communication with President Trump and anything that might be related to the authorities of the J-6 Committee.  Navarro did not comply with the Democrat subpoena from the committee.

Attorney General Merrick Garland, acting on the authority of Joe Biden, instructed the FBI to arrest Peter Navarro and bring him to federal incarceration.

Put in more clear terms, Joe Biden is arresting his political opposition for failing to reveal confidential and privileged communication with the former President.

Democrats are using the FBI as the federal police agency to arrest their political opposition. This is happening right now.

This is happening in the United States of America.

Think about it.

(VIA NBC News) […] Navarro, 72, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Thursday for contempt after snubbing a subpoena from the House committee investigating Jan. 6 seeking testimony and documents.

(more…)

There was a really bizarre dichotomy on display today within the teleprompter script prepared for Joe Biden to use.

Dear Leader took to the microphones to brag about his economic accomplishments and remind Americans how all good thinking people should be feeling:

“Since I took office, families are carrying less debt; their average savings are up.  A recent survey from the Federal Reserve found that more Americans feel financially comfortable than at any time since the survey began in 2013.”

[Source Transcript] – {Direct Rumble Link} WATCH:

Do you hear what he is saying?  Americans have less debt, their savings are up, and they are more comfortable financially today than ever before.

If those remarks were based on reality, then why was the following segment stated exactly 52 seconds later in the same script?

…”one way we can make things a little better for families is by helping them save on other basic items their family needs on a monthly basis, like their utility bills, their Internet bills, their prescription drug bills, and other costs like housing. My goal is to make sure that at the end of the month families have a little more breathing room than they — than they have now.” (link) 

These are not two different speeches; these are two paragraphs a few moments away from each other in the exact same speech. [Full Transcript Here]

This speech should ring massive alarm bells, not because of what is being said – but because the people behind Biden are just phoning in the propaganda now and not even trying to hide it or give the illusion of a president in control.  No president, in command of the office and the issues, would read those two paragraphs of a prepared speech and not point out the literal hypocrisy his handlers were telling him to read.

(more…)

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics (BLS) has released the May jobs report {DATA HERE} showing a net 390,000 jobs added overall.

The leisure and hospitality sector gained 84,000, as restaurants and hotels appear to be recovering from the massive pandemic losses.  However, within the reporting there is concern about the sectors that are now showing signs of increased employment weakness, including 61,000 job losses in retail.

The unemployment rate remains the same at 3.6% in May. About 330,000 people joined the labor force, however the participation rate remains below prepandemic levels.

Most analysts like the Wall Street Journal are explaining the contradictory sector specific numbers by saying, “Consumers, who loaded up on goods such as televisions and furniture early in the pandemic, have started to shift their spending to in-person services such as travel or restaurant meals.”  While there may be some truth to that outlook, it appears that most macro-perspectives are still discounting the extreme increases in price that are now baked into this new ‘transitional economy.’

Consumer purchasing is very prioritized because food, fuel, energy and housing are now eating up much more of the average person’s paycheck.  People cannot pay 30 to 50% more at the gas station and grocery store and still retain disposable income for durable goods purchases.  That’s the basic issue.

(more…)