Another item in the long list of ‘thanks Joe Biden‘ stuff.  Shortages in natural gas in windmill chasing Europe have driven up the prices significantly.  The conflict between NATO and their targeted villain in Russia is only making matters worse.

As the EU prices jump to $33/$34 per million British thermal units (BTU’s), the U.S. natural gas selling at $6 per million BTU’s is an absolute bargain.

Liquify that stuff and send it across the pond says any smart energy capitalist.

However, that comes with a problem for us.  Our supplies of natural gas are depleting quickly, our exports are now almost three times more than our production.

LONDON, April 8 (Reuters) – U.S. gas prices have climbed to their highest level in more than a decade as strong demand from overseas has emptied storage and left inventories well below average for the time of year despite a mild winter.

Front-month futures for gas delivered at Henry Hub in Louisiana have risen to $6.40 per million British thermal units, the highest in real terms since 2010. Wholesale prices in the United States are still far below those prevailing in Northeast Asia ($33 per million British thermal units) and Northwest Europe ($34).

[…] U.S. LNG exports rose 13% in the three months from November to January compared with the same period a year earlier, while gas production was up by less than 5%.

(more…)

Another significant filing by John Durham’s special counsel team to the court was made last night.  {READ HERE} Within the filing the staff accidentally did not seal the attachments which are emails between Fusion GPS and many major media outlets.  Whoops.

♦ First, the background.  In a previous liable lawsuit by Alfa Bank against Fusion GPS, the Russian bank was able to get the internal emails between Fusion GPS and major media outlets as part of the lawsuit discovery phase.  Despite the lawsuit failing to advance, those prior emails now become evidence for John Durham to use in the case against Clinton lawyer Michael Sussmann.

Michael Sussmann, a Perkins Coie lawyer, is accused of lying to the FBI about who he was working for when Sussmann was trying to push the Trump-Russia collusion story to trigger an investigation.  Former FBI legal counsel James Baker has said Sussmann told the FBI he was operating independently as a concerned citizen.  However, Sussmann is defending himself by saying: (a) he never said he was not working for Clinton at the time he brought the FBI the material, a demonstrable falsehood; and (b) he was motivated by altruism, unrelated to efforts to help Clinton, another demonstrable falsehood.

As the case has proceeded all of the parties are now claiming legal and work product ‘privileges’ to stop Durham from using their communication and networked conspiracy against Michael Sussmann, and by extension them, in court.  Fusion GPS, Perkins Coie, Marc Elias, Michael Sussmann, Hillary for America (Clinton campaign), Robby Mook (Campaign Manager), along with Tech-Executive-1 Rodney Joffe, are all claiming some form of privilege.

(more…)

U.S. District Judge Robert Summerhays has agreed to issue a temporary restraining order [pdf ruling link] blocking the administration’s planned May 23 lifting of the CDC immigration rule known as Title 42.

(MSM) – […] The judge said he agreed to issue the restraining order after holding an online status conference on Monday between lawyers for the states and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The details of the order, however, remained unclear — the notice said attorneys for the two sides “will confer regarding the specific terms to be contained” in the order “and attempt to reach agreement.” (more)

NBC is reporting that more than 170,000 illegal aliens, most not from Mexico, are waiting on the other side of the U.S. border for Title 42 to be lifted.

(more…)

The Biden administration has created a crisis at the U.S-Mexico border by enticing migrants, removing the remain in Mexico policy, and doing nothing to stop the massive influx of illegal aliens.

When asked if the White House feels any responsibility for the death of National Guardsman Bishop Evans, who drowned while attempting to rescue two drug smugglers, a callous, cold and dismissive Jen Psaki says:

...”I would note that the National Guard worked for the states, and so he is an employee of the Tex- — Texas National Guard, and his efforts and his operation were directed by there, not by the federal government, in this — in this effort, in this apparatus.”

.

The level of callousness in this response is sickening.  Bishop Evans would never have been in that situation if it wasn’t for the specific ideological policies creating unlawfully open borders by the Biden administration.

(more…)

The government of Ukraine is asking western nations to fund their budget.  Volodymyr Zelenskyy has asked for $7 billion per month in financial assistance to retain their government obligations.  Yesterday, Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal reiterated that demand saying, “the cash, in sense of our budget, is very important for social and humanitarian responsibilities of our state to our people.”

l am not wanting to belabor a point that many have discussed here, but there really does come a time when the American people must draw a red line and ask, ‘to what end?‘  The United States government, both the white house and congress, have already pledged $14 billion dollars to Ukraine without a single representative asking the American people if they support it.

Certainly, there is an argument to be made that Ukraine needs the support of the world as they struggle with a conflict in their nation.  However, charity begins at home, and for too long our national leadership has been willing to use our income taxes as tools for their own political agenda.  The brazen expectation by leaders of Ukraine for the United States citizens to finance their government is, in my opinion, the last straw of a series of straws.

The issue would not be so significant if that request was not also accompanied by the visibility of western European nations, supposedly NATO allies, barely spending any money of their own wealth to assist their direct neighbor.  The U.S. financial support is ridiculous when compared to how Europe is responding to the Ukraine crisis.

Compounding this issue is our own American economy and the serious pain being felt by American workers and taxpayers as the spending creates even more massive inflation that we have to cope with.   We gained national independence around the premise of taxation without representation from England, and yet here we are again sending scarce income, without consultation or representation, to DC elites who send that money overseas.

(more…)

In the discussions surrounding John Durham’s investigation, eventually conversations end up sounding like Charlie Brown’s teacher.  Blah, blah, blah, – blah, bla, blah blah. This interview is a case study. However, in the interest of fairness for those retaining hope that John Durham is going to deliver accountability, former Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe whips up a batch of hopium.

Video prompted to 09:40 where the subject of the latest court filings by John Durham surfaces.  Ratcliffe is optimistic that John Durham intends to charge more characters from the Clinton group with a “conspiracy to commit fraud” against the government.  WATCH

.

(more…)

Given the scale of the stakes for western government; and given the professed intentions of govt-aligned big tech to control the story; it is almost impossible to have an honest and open dialogue on the internet about what is happening in Ukraine.  That said, for those who have been using independent resources to form their own opinion of the events in/around Ukraine, this interview highlights some important aspects.

First, notice how Prime Minister Shmyhal is not the least bit bashful about saying cash is important because American taxpayers, the working American people, have a duty to fund the pensions and retirement accounts of the Ukrainian people, including govt politicians. [03:37] Indeed, much of the financial assistance Joe Biden has been sending to Ukraine (beyond the weapons to support the proxy war) is going toward paying the wages and salaries of corrupt Ukranian leadership.

Let that first point settle in deeply, as we consider how working Americans are being financially destroyed by U.S. monetary/fiscal policy, yet the same U.S. officials wiping out your bank account are funding the bank accounts of people in Ukraine.  Interview WATCH:

Second point.  Notice [06:02] how Prime Minister Shmyhal hedges, pauses and thinks about the response to the question of ‘what is victory’, a stalemate or Russian exit?  In the U.S. proxy war against Russia, Shmyhal is not the person who can answer that question, only the White House can.

(more…)

This interview is gag-worthy as two condescending leftists wax philosophically about how progressive U.S. foreign policy should dictate global society.  However, it does show just how flawed the ideology of the interventionist political leftists has become, and why their expansionist ideology always culminates in conflict.

Example: Right now, China is threatening to put military bases in the Solomon Islands.  Australia and the collective west are aghast and ready to draw “red lines.”  At the same time the U.S/NATO put military forces ever closer to Russia and are shocked that Putin would eventually respond to the red lines he previously drew.  The geopolitical hypocrisy is ridiculous.

That hypocritical example above highlights the ironic point made in an interview between Margaret Hoover and former US Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch as they discuss President Trump.

If Trump had won reelection, there was no reason for Putin to invade Ukraine because Donald Trump was not trying to expand pressure on Russia or any other foreign government.  Yovanovitch admits directly that Trump foreign policy did not create conflict; yet, Yovanovitch pretends not to see the cause and effect in her leftist intervention advocacy.  WATCH (prompted to 14:42):

(more…)

Robert Lighthizer was the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) under the Trump administration.  Lighthizer was exceptionally strong in developing and structuring the America First trade policy that included the effective use of tariffs to get fair trade outcomes.

In this video Ambassador Lighthizer discusses the current trade policy of the Biden administration with former National Economic Council Chair Larry Kudlow.  The discussion centers around U.S-China trade policy, the phase-1 trade deal that was interrupted by the pandemic, and the future of the existing trade tariffs against Beijing that Biden is reportedly going to remove.  WATCH:

As noted by Lighthizer, if Biden drops the Chinese tariffs, it will only make the trade imbalance worse and push the U.S. deeper into the cycle of lost jobs and economic contraction.  He’s correct.

(more…)

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has promised more weapons for Ukraine according to Reuters. “British Prime Minister Boris Johnson spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday to confirm Britain will supply fresh weaponry to support Ukraine’s defence against Russia’s invasion.” (link)

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin are heading to Kyiv tomorrow for talks with Zelenskyy. “[I]n what would be the highest-level visit by U.S. officials to Ukraine since the start of the war. The Defense Department and State Department declined to comment. Mr. Zelensky, speaking to reporters in a subway station in Kyiv on Saturday, said he would discuss military supplies and the pace of their delivery with the U.S. officials. The Ukrainian president has pressed Western countries for more weapons and support, and the U.S. and allies have raced to supply Ukraine with NATO-standard heavy weaponry.” (link)

Meanwhile Russia is reporting to have captured a massive Ukranian military weapons cache near Kharkiv (northeastern Ukraine).  The video is quite remarkable:

https://youtu.be/A5u101ZsDdE

When you watch that video, it’s hard not to wonder where all that military hardware came from previously, and how long the buildup of that particular Kharkiv weapons depot had been happening.  There are thousands of tons of weapons and ammunition in that video.

Additionally, Russia’s defense ministry said on Saturday that its forces had shot down a Ukrainian Su-25 fighter jet and destroyed three MI-8 helicopters at an airfield in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. There was no immediate reaction from Ukraine regarding the Russian claims.

(more…)