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.

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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]

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The first round of public J6 Committee hearings is scheduled to begin this upcoming week on Thursday, June 9th.  To highlight the intent of the committee hearings, they will not be held during regular congressional business hours, instead the committee has decided to hold the hearings at 8:00pm ET each day; an effort to reach a prime-time television audience.  Yup, that tells us how insufferably scripted, produced and directed the DNC fiasco has become.

To help set the stage for the performance, the advanced J6 marketing team scheduled Adam “Shifty” Schiff, the likely candidate to replace House leader Nancy Pelosi in the minority after she announces her retirement post November 2022 shellacking, to appear with the bubble-headed propagandist for the regime, Margaret Brennan on CBS Face the Nation. [The Transcript is Here]   WATCH:

Shifty Schiff calls the 2020 election, “the first non peaceful transfer of power in our history,” pretending not to know that President Trump’s inauguration day in Washington DC, January 20 2017, consisted of a full-scale riot of DNC and Democrat activists; including looting, arson and destroyed property.  Meanwhile while Hollyweird/DNC activists put genitalia on their heads and screamed around town.

Then again, Democrats must pretend in order to retain the false premise of their ideological arguments.  Of course, the DC Democrats also know their subservient media stenographers will never call them out on their nonsense, so they do it more openly.

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For his weekly monologue Neil Oliver hits on a subject very near and dear to the heart of CTH.  Mr. Oliver is making his acceptance known today, CTH has been making our acceptance of the reality known for over ten years; hence, the name “The Last Refuge.”  The bottom line, governments now represent corporate interests – not people.  The policy makers now consider the interests of the state, not the interests of the people.

Anyone who is still pretending, particularly post-COVID examples, that any western government is applying a principle of citizen representation to their policy is lying.  There are many people still pretending government is designed to represent the people; however, their pretense is based on their inability to cope with the alternative.  All around us are the signs showing traditional, representative, western government has collapsed.  We are in this weird place where we pretend it hasn’t.  WATCH:

[Transcript] – “If you cannot – simply cannot – understand what’s happening in this country and in the world now, I might have the explanation.

You may, at least until recently, have been labouring under the misapprehension that the State has your back – that those in power have your best interests at heart. Let me make it clear that I use the word State deliberately. These words are not directed solely at the Government, or even just Parliament – but at the whole edifice of those in positions of power – elected and not.

If like me you no longer believe the State has your back, it’s at least likely that you know, indeed are surrounded by, many that still do. You, or those around you, may still believe that decisions are being taken, plans set in place, by those at the top of the food chain, with a view to securing and perpetuating the world your ancestors worked for, in some cases gave their lives for. You or they may have thought that the indigenous culture of these islands, nurtured for a thousand years, was still held dear by those occupying positions of power and responsibility.

But no, as far as I’m concerned, that is no longer the case and hasn’t been the case for a good long while. Understand and accept this much, at least, and the otherwise bewildering sense of confusion goes away at once. It is such a relief.

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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

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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.

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Democrat House of Representatives member David Cicilline (Rhode Island) delivered remarks during a congressional hearing about the second amendment rights of Americans.  Within his prepared remarks Representative Cicilline says the quiet backroom part out loud and introduced the modern democrat perspective on the constitution.  WATCH:

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When people show you who they are, what their priorities maintain and how they structure their outlooks, it is generally the best idea to accept it.

If constitutional rights are “bullshit,” then what control mechanisms remain to restrain excessive government power?

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The issue within the DOJ filing an appeal to force U.S. airlines to reinstate the masks for air travel has nothing to do with public safety or benefits of mask wearing on airlines. The core issue is raw government power.

At the same time as the European Union has lifted all mask wearing restrictions for airline travel, Joe Biden is filing an appeal with the eleventh circuit court of appeals (Tampa, Florida) to overturn a judge’s ruling that lifted the mask mandate for airlines.  The extreme leftists within the Biden administration want to retain the power over people as an essential element within their larger agenda.

Freedom and self-determination are antithetical to the Build Back Better agenda, which necessarily includes the power of the federal government to make unilateral decisions that impact the lives of the people beneath it.  The airline mask mandate is just one small visual demonstration of the power of government over the people.

The need for raw power and forced edicts is why Biden cannot allow his fiats to be ignored.

WASHINGTON – The Department of Justice has appealed a federal judge’s ruling that vacated the federal mask mandate for public transportation.

A filing was made Tuesday, hours before the deadline and more than a month after the DOJ said it had filed a notice of appeal following the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention saying it was requesting the challenge.

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With barely more than a third of the country supporting the installed occupant of the White House, Joe Biden took to the podium tonight to demand a litany of new gun restrictions.  Biden called for the banning of assault weapons and high-capacity magazines through reinstating the 1994 Federal Assault Weapons Ban, noting that if that can’t happen, the government should raise the legal age to purchase such weapons from 18 to 21.

Biden also called on congress to construct new federal background checks, which sounded a lot like a federal registration of gun ownership.  Also, he is demanding “red flag” laws that will allow schools, counsellors, doctors and others to flag an individual as a threat to themselves or others, thereby removing their right to gun ownership.   Biden also said he want’s congress to ban large capacity magazines limiting all firearms to five bullets.   WATCH:

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Michael Avenatti, a man of exceptionally low moral character and failed integrity, who was also the mainstream media’s one-time all-star favorite liar, was convicted of fraud and theft from his former Client Stormy Daniels.  Today he was sentenced.

Avenatti is currently serving a 30-month prison sentence for corporate extortion of Nike and was just sentenced to an additional four years in prison for wire fraud and identity theft in the Stormy Daniel Case.

(Via CNN) – Disgraced attorney Michael Avenatti was sentenced to four years in prison for stealing nearly $300,000 from his former client, adult film actress Stormy Daniels.

District Judge Jesse Furman said Avenatti’s conduct was “so brazen and egregious” adding, he “took advantage of a vulnerable victim given her unorthodox career and somewhat unorthodox beliefs.”

Avenatti was convicted in February of one count of wire fraud and one count of aggravated identity theft. He faced as much as 20 years on the wire fraud charge and a mandatory two-year sentence for aggravated identity theft.

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