As the post-election hits keep rolling on, some notable highlights continue to emerge. Where to start? How about crime:
Recall right before the election, how NY Governor Hochul was mocking her challenger, Lee Zeldin, about his focus on crime? This, after his daughters were narrowly missed by a drive-by stray bullet entering his home? Hochul said several times that “crime isn’t a major problem as my opponent is trying to say,” only to find that violent crime in NYC is up over 30%+ YoY. In fact, recently-elected NYC DA Bragg has – get this – reduced over 52% of felony arrests to misdemeanors. Wow. Really? But let’s not stop there: Chicago is up over 41% in violent crimes YoY. 41%!! And in an almost funny yet sad turn of events, WaPo (Washington Post, the paper Bezos bought) reported right before the election that the “crime crisis” was only according to Fox News. Yet this week WaPo headlines noted violent crimes up to highest level in three decades (according to them, not the antagonist Fox News). Newsflash: That probably didn’t happen in the last three weeks.
And now numbers are out on the southern border: 1.72 million illegal crossings in 2021. In 2022 we’re passing 2.76 million. 270,000 just in October ’22 alone. And Title 42 isn’t even lifted yet. So far, we have over 4 million illegal crossings since Joe arrived, and now the Supreme Court is very probably going to rule to affirm on a lawsuit from Texas and Louisiana that his DHS can’t “select” which convicted criminals that crossed are allowed to stay; the law very clearly states that if you are convicted of certain crimes, you are deported. Not maybe. Not sort of. You are deported. But Biden’s DHS has not been enforcing this at all.
And what about oil and energy? Well, heating oil is up 68% YoY. Natural gas is up over 20% YoY. And while there are over “9,000 leases” the administration has released, the drillers can’t get permits or past newly revived regulations to even start using those leases … so they can’t get financed … so we are starting to exhaust existing production. But that part isn’t being told to you, huh? Just the “look at all the leases we have released” story. But now it gets even more fun: Chevron has been granted a hall pass from Biden to start producing in Venezuela again, and Biden has given Maduro a sanctions reprieve so they can produce and sell to the US. But let’s not stop there: He’s also requested full immunity be granted to the Saudi Prince (MBS) for the lawsuit over the death of Khashoggi – that Biden accused MBS of masterminding. Amnesty International is having a field day with that one, calling it “beyond cynical”. What next?
How about Climate Reparations? Yup – in the climate conference in October, the US agreed to pay into a climate reparations fund, to pay 134 (or more) countries for losses due to climate change (natural disasters, etc.). Still a lot to flesh out on that deal, but isn’t it funny that China is still being excluded from the deal because the UN still has them classified as a “developing” country – even though they are the largest polluter and the 2nd largest global economy, and they are currently bringing 3,500 more coal plants online. Pardon my cynicism for a moment, but in our quest to become the world’s stabilizing super power from the 1940s onward, our industrialization and resulting polluting actually kept most of those countries from speaking an Axis language… But I digress.
Let’s finish tonight with the railroads. I think a strike will be off the table. But this is almost too crazy: Just before the election, Biden says, “I fixed it. It’s done.” Then after the election we find out that Biden appointed a PEB (Presidential Emergency Board) to get involved. The board recommended more than the union was even asking for (24% pay increases, sick time that was to be taken every year even if not needed, $10,000 back pay, a cadillac health care plan, etc.). 4 of 14 unions and most rail carriers rejected it. Now Biden has turfed it to Congress to force a contract on everyone, which may still result in a strike or a significant hardship on the rail carriers (the legislation is looking very similar to the PEB draft recommendation).
I can’t wait for December. Enjoy your evening!
