Apparently the democrats have co-opted more words in the English language since the inauguration. Not content with having hijacked words like “patriot” and “nationalist” and turning them into negatives, they have now changed the definitions of “unity” and “bipartisanship” to better serve up their progressive agenda. Whereas unity once meant “the state or quality of being one, or united into a whole”, the definition has now morphed into being united and becoming one, but only when you ascribe to the proposals and ideology of the radical democrat party. Similarly, bipartisanship used to mean “cooperation between competing political parties”. But no. That’s so Clinton Administration. The new scorched-earth definition is when the other side gives up and caves in to the democrat party’s socialist wish list. Fall in line comrade, or else. An exaggeration? Hardly. Witness the mumbler-in-chief, none other than President Joe Biden, slaving over a stack of executive orders signed with a flourish in his first week in the Oval Office. Surely he must be getting writer’s cramp. In an inauguration speech fawned over by the mainstream media with such platitudes as “a balm for a wounded nation”, Mr. Biden used the word “democracy” eleven times, ranking ahead of both Truman and FDR, and used the word “unity” nine times, and even poured a heaping spoonful of God and Bible verse into the mix. But that’s an awful lot of democracy and unity from a guy who spent his first 10 days in office signing 25 executive orders and directives that were anything but unifying and democratic. That’s correct: twenty-five executive orders, which is essentially an end-around Congress rather than having to push your agenda through that dysfunctional morass, surpassing Trump (6), Obama (5) and Bush (2) in what simply amounts to ruling by executive fiat. That’s not the working definition of democracy, Joe.
To wit: In keeping with his party’s green-deal initiatives, Mr. Biden effectively canceled the Keystone XL pipeline on Day One, handing 11000 workers their pink slips in the midst of a pandemic-induced recession. Cynical democrats suggested that these workers could merely retool for a job in the renewable energy sector. And for those of you still swooning from Biden’s inaugural address, that pipeline would have carried crude oil from the sands of Alberta, Canada to Nebraska where it would link up with existing oil infrastructure to transport the oil to refineries in the Gulf of Mexico. This project would not only provide jobs to American refineries, but would benefit the American consumer with low fuel prices while providing, for a change, an oil import source from a non-hostile trading partner. Opposition to the pipeline has been largely political, the pipeline would course through Native American lands, but it is also largely unfounded. In contrast to outrageous claims of environmental calamity, know that Canada has ratified their Paris agreement and has significantly reduced greenhouse gas emissions associated with tar-sands production by up to 30% according to the National Review. Further, the Obama administration found in five separate analyses that the pipeline would have “no material impact on greenhouse gas emissions”. The alternative, shipping tar sand product by rail or tanker would result in a 28% to 42% increase in C02 emissions and more leaks according to the Wall Street Journal. As with any petroleum extraction process, there has to be some trade-off between environmental impact and the benefit of an inexpensive energy source, particularly when it has profound economic benefits, but remind me of the downside in this case. And to compound the pain inflicted on the energy sector, Biden placed a 60-day freeze on new leases on federal lands and permitting, a pause that the WSJ suggests “may soon become a long-term ban”. The Journal reports that federal lands account for 22% of oil production, 12% of natural gas, and 40% of coal. Under Obama era restrictions, much of the drilling and exploration shifted to private lands, a fact that he overlooked when he ironically pointed to the increase in shale oil production during his tenure, taking credit for the boom when industry had effectively adapted to his restrictions. But shale fracking, according to the same Journal article, occurs most often on federal lands in western states where new permitting and exploration is required. Again, quoting the WSJ (Biden’s Fossil Fuel Freeze, January 23-24, 2021): “Federal land accounts for 51.9% of New Mexico’s oil production and 66.8% of it’s natural gas” and nearby Colorado requires federal lands for 41.6% of it’s gas extraction, Utah 63.2% and Wyoming 92.1%. This translates to “18000 jobs in Colorado, 33000 in Wyoming and 62000 in New Mexico according to the American Petroleum Institute”. Yikes. Think you’re business is safe because you’re fracking on private land? Guess again. Biden has also frozen the ability of officials currently in office to approve “easements, right of ways, environmental reviews, and resource management plans for 60 days” on private land to stall further development until he can install his own political appointees into those positions, radical environmentalists who don’t require Senate confirmation, who will etch these green democrat policies in stone and effectively cripple the industry. Recall, these western states derive a significant income from oil and gas exploration in the form of royalties and reap the economic benefits of employment. Oil and gas revenue has been projected to account for 20% of New Mexico’s budget according to the Wall Street Journal with some Internet sources claiming that figure is as high as one-third. Can New Mexico afford to lose a third of its revenue in addition to the loss of 62000 high paying jobs? Our pre-pandemic economy was booming under Trump’s policy of deregulation, unbridling the energy sector, creating energy independence from foreign oil, making the US a net exporter of energy, and keeping Putin in check, preventing Russia from extorting western Europe with control over their natural gas spigot. Will a return to burdensome regulation and oil dependence allow our economy to emerge from the pandemic-induced recession and make the world a safer place? With the improvements in oil sand extraction and net zero emissions from pipeline production, can we not balance the economic benefit of oil and gas extraction with the environmental impact? According to the early signs from the Biden Administration, in the interest of unity, bipartisanship and under the new definition, the answer is a resounding no. Or as the National Review succinctly put it: The Biden Administration is “at war with American energy, which is to say at war with American prosperity.”
Biden also rescinded the Mexico City policy, a Reagan era proclamation that requires foreign groups receiving aid from the US government to agree not to provide or promote abortion services. This policy has been a yo-yo since introduced by Reagan with successive Democrats canceling the policy, whilst the next Republican administration reinstated it. So in other words, after having invoked God and reciting biblical passages in his inaugural address, Mr. Biden has signaled he is not merely content with promoting abortions in this country, but he wants to use US taxpayers to support baby-killing in foreign countries as well. And we are well aware of the left’s parameters for abortion which, based on Virginia’s Governor Northam’s widely accepted beliefs, can be summed up as anytime, anywhere, and sometimes after birth. No compromise there. And how exactly is this unifying? Perhaps the definition of hypocrisy has changed as well.
Also on Day One, Biden halted the US withdrawal from the World Health Organization. His rationale is, apparently recognizing that WHO is at the very least grossly mismanaged although more likely thoroughly corrupt, that it is easier to reform international institutions from within. Sure it is. WHO director general Tedros Ghebreyesus has repeatedly praised China’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, calling it “very impressive, and beyond words”. Beyond words seems to be more accurate, but not in the way Tedros implied. The Chinese government has punished whistleblowers, destroyed virus samples, spread outrageous conspiracy theories, and impeded WHO investigators. Research on the origins of Covid-19 cannot be published in China without the approval of the Communist Party according to the WSJ, lending a new meaning to the term “refereed” journal in medical research publications. And how exactly does China wield so much influence over WHO? Are they paying for it? Not even close. The US and China are the top two contributors to the World Health Organization. But according to a Fox News Report, the US contributes $893 million, over 10 times the $86 million that China contributes. The payments consist of both a membership assessment as well as “voluntary contributions”. Theoretically the membership assessment is based on a combination of GDP and population. The US and China have comparable GDP but China has four times the population. How then are China’s assessments one half that of the United States? And whilst condemning “growing xenophobia” Biden has issued yet another executive order which effectively directs federal agencies to “ensure” that any “official actions, documents, and statements including those that pertain to the COVID-19 pandemic, do not exhibit or contribute to racism….against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.” So in other words, stop referring to Covid-19 as the “China Virus”, even though it obviously came from China. Duh. Expect a wave of protest about the obviously xenophobic terms “Spanish Flu”, “German Measles”, “Middle East Respiratory Syndrome”, and “Rift Valley Fever”, wherever the heck the Rift Valley is. But wait, the WHO already issued an edict way back in May of 2015 calling on scientists to minimize the “unnecessary negative effects on nations, economies and people” caused by this wanton naming of disease entities. And we obviously take our marching orders from the WHO, so fall in line, people. Even “Swine Flu” is mentioned as it presumably is insensitive to…….uh, swine? And “Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease”, a rare degenerative brain disorder, has been targeted as insensitive although it is named, after and presumably in honor of, the discovering neurologists. How exactly is that oppressive? Is anyone heckling their descendants? And I suppose even the beleaguered residents of Cocksackie, NY deserve a break from being associated with the “Cocksackie Virus”, a leading cause of aseptic meningitis, that was first discovered in fecal samples from the small town on the Hudson River. It’s a fine line between fame and infamy, especially when it’s related to fecal samples. Based on this low bar for intolerance I would imagine that “Kung Flu” is definitely out of the question.
“To decrease incarceration levels”, he proclaimed, we will be “phasing out the federal government’s reliance on privately operated criminal detention facilities”. So with another sweeping application of pen to paper, Biden directed the attorney general not to renew contracts with private prisons. In speaking with David Fathi, the ACLU’s director of he National Prison Project, NPR reported that this would affect 14000 federal inmates, although there are reportedly over 120000 inmates in public federal prisons. Mr. Fathi claims that this is the first step in curbing an industry that “profits from” and therefore “perpetuates mass incarceration”. That’s funny; I always thought it was crime that perpetuated mass incarceration. He goes on to suggest that this is a “first step” but laments that it does not apply to immigration detention where he reports that 80% of detainees are kept in privately run facilities. “Extending this order to ICE (immigrations and customs enforcement) is an obvious next step and an urgent next step that needs to happen”. Well Biden sure as hell isn’t planning on building any federal facilities, so where exactly are these inmates and illegal aliens going to go? Back on the streets, most likely, where they will benefit from more warped catch-and-release policies under the guise of immigration reform and even worse, bail reform policies already put in place by idiots like Andy Cuomo. If, as Mr. Fathi claims, “our criminal justice policy should be driven by what’s best for public safety” then how exactly is releasing criminals and illegal aliens onto our streets going to benefit public safety? I fear this is more racially based policy directed at the discrepancy in minority incarceration despite the fact that data suggests there exists disproportionately more crime in minority communities. And of course coupled with “Defund the Police” policies, crime will inevitably fill the void as evidenced by New York City’s 97% increase in shootings. The NYPD blamed the state’s bail reform overhaul on this year’s spike in crime. Recent changes to New York’s bail reform, a wrong-headed piece of legislation intended to reduce pre-trial incarceration, may indicate that both the initial broad definition of “releasable” offenses coupled with removing the power of the court to tailor release to the individual criminal, may have produced disastrous results. Crimes such as sex trafficking, money laundering in support of terrorism, possession of a weapon on school grounds, vehicular assault and any crime that proves fatal have again been deemed “qualifying offenses” that are ineligible for release. And how exactly was releasing these miscreants previously back into the world thought to be increasing public safety? Arson, stalking, burglary, racially motivated attacks, robbery and assault without “serious” injury are among a list of offenses that presumably the public is willing to tolerate by releasing the perpetrator back onto the streets, where statistically they are likely to become repeat offenders, sometimes within hours. Judges have also been given discretion to keep “persistent felony offenders” behind bars. Even though hailed by Republicans as significant changes to “botched bail reform adopted by the governor with one-party rule”, democrats such as Assemblywoman Latrice Walker from Brooklyn called the rollbacks “unfair….when we knew in our hearts it was wrong”. How exactly Latrice knew it was wrong when statistics show that 483 people arrested for “non-bail eligible felonies” were rearrested, some more than once, for 846 new crimes is beyond me. Despite the Supreme Court Decision that pre-trial detention on public safety grounds is constitutionally permissible, New York is unique in that public safety cannot be considered in any aspect of pre-trial release. Read that again so it sinks in: New York is unique in that public safety cannot be considered in any aspect of pre-trial release. And that’s where we’re headed folks. With the democrats behaving like rampaging beasts in Ionesco’s play Rhinoceros, they are running amok over the rights of the law-abiding public, trampling on our safety, our property rights and our constitutional freedoms. Coincidentally, Ionesco’s play is considered to be an example of the theater of the absurd where the rhinoceros represents fascism and the message was that there is no hope for human beings in a world dominated by beasts. Theater of the absurd. That’s about where we are.
Lastly, I bring you the Paris Climate Accord. Day One saw Uncle Joe enthusiastically re-enlist for this devastating, economy-busting nonsense that even fanatical greens called “nothing but words”. Even USA Today, not habitually critical of leftist policy, called the Accord “poorly negotiated” imposing “unfair and unrealistic targets on the United States for reducing carbon emissions”. The same article quotes the National Economic Research Associates who concluded “it would cost the American economy $3 trillion and 6.5 million industrial sector jobs by 2040.” Meanwhile, the Accord gives developing countries a free pass to continue polluting for a decade. That’s right: ten years. Falling into the developing nations category? You guessed it: China. With low-cost coal reserves, both China and India would have a huge manufacturing advantage over their carbon-hobbled American manufacturing counterparts. And this is after the United States has led the world in reducing combustion-related carbon emissions since 2005. A brief analysis of 2018 C02 emissions reveals that China produced 27.8% of C02 emissions worldwide, ranking first, with the second place US producing nearly half at 15.2% of the total. India, a distant third produced only 7.3% of the world total. But more telling is the direction in which these trends are headed. Since the Kyoto protocol in 1998, the US reduced their greenhouse emissions by 12.1%. In that same time frame, China increased their emissions by 54.6% while India increased their emissions by a whopping 105.8%. The largest driver in reducing emissions in the US has ironically been the shale gas boom, according to Forbes, whereby cheap natural gas displaced coal consumption. Under Biden’s assault on the energy sector, what will take the place of shale gas? Certainly not a return to coal.
Although the US must take responsibility for historically emitting the most C02 into the atmosphere, given the trends and with no restrictions directed at China, the Chinese will surpass the US as the largest historical emitter of C02 into the atmosphere within that restriction-free decade. And please note: this will occur, disturbingly, not during a time when the US was virtually the sole large scale emitter, but in an era where India, South Korea, Iran and Saudi Arabia are combining to dump additional billions of metric tons of carbon into the atmosphere at double digit rates of increasing percentage. But it is the US that will bear the burden. Of course. It would appear that the Biden Administration, in an effort to appease the far left, Green New Deal wing of the democrat party, is willing to sacrifice our economy, our manufacturing, our jobs and most of all, our standing in the world. China has made it plain that they intend to usurp the dollar as the global currency standard. It is only the strength of our economy and the US financial influence that has kept both China and Russia from seeking to pressure the world into accepting alternatives to the dollar. How long will that strength and influence last under the weight of Biden Administration regulation? Andrew Sheng of the South China Morning Post put it succinctly: “How the US President steers the exorbitant privilege of the US dollar is critical to the long overdue reforms the global financial system needs to stop penalizing the poor and emerging economies”. So in essence, China, a self-declared emerging nation itself, will be poised to reform the global financial system of privilege in the name of equality. Sounds like a perfect marriage of Biden Administration policy and the goals of our global competitors. But has the Biden Empire ever sought to further their financial ambitions at the expense of Americans? To answer that question, you have to ask what’s in it for them, then follow the money. Hardly recipes for unity and bipartisanship. At least not for America.
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