Card 1 - December 12, 2021
Card 2 -March 1, 2022 — The Day of “Ill Begotten Gains”
Card 3 - What kind of Gains?
”Russia producers nearly tripled shipments of oil to the United States in 2021 – in 2020, the United States imported from Russia on average 76,000 barrels per day (bpd), while in 2021, that figure rose to 209,000 bpd, according to data from the Energy Information Administration (EIA) of the U.S. Department of Energy.”
Classic Three Card Monte
In Three Card Monte one of the cards is the Money Card or in this case the truth card. And in this case “The Truth” is that the Money Card is in the hands of the Russians. While Biden publicly wags his finger and chides the Russians warning them that they will “pay a price” for their unwarranted invasion of the Ukraine— it is actually Americans who are paying at the pump and feeding the Russian invasion of the Ukraine. And it is the Ukrainians who are suffering deeply for it.
A Feckless an Dangerous Policy
How did Russia become our greatest source of oil in a now oil dependent America when just two years ago the United States was an oil exporting oil nation?
As Barack Obama once said: “I have a pen and phone.” Here is what Joe Biden has done with his pen and his phone:
”Since assuming the office of the Presidency, Joe Biden has taken several actions to obstruct oil production in the United States, including a suspension of new oil and gas leases on federal lands and blocking oil sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). He also canceled the Keystone XL pipeline within hours of assuming office.”
Prosecuting a war takes money — lots of it. Russia is not a wealthy nation but they do have oil and gas and since Biden shut down a large portion of our oil supply chain we need to import it, lots of it — and despite his rhetoric about making “Russia pay” for their misdeeds he is more than happy to pay Russia for their oil and gas and he’s using our tax dollars to it.
That’s the feckless part because there was no compelling reason to stop the Keystone XL project or to suspend leasing drilling sites in ANWR (the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge) both of which have been found in numerous studies, to pose no risk to the environment — anywhere. The sole reason for stopping those projects is to appease the under educated, ill-tempered, ill-mannered child, Greta Thunberg, and the equally under educated, ill-tempered and ill mannered, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, titular head of the extreme left wing of American politics.
Here’s the Dangerous part: our economy and our national security.
First the economy. That’s easy. This is a graph of the average price of a gallon of gasoline in the US over the last five months. The cost on 28 February 2022 - a simmering $3.95/gallon on the verge of boiling over to unprecedented prices.
The National Security piece is also very easy. What happens if Russia decides that we don’t need that oil and then decides to sell it to ummm - let’s say — China?
You are all smart people so I am certain that you can easily grasp the implications of curtailing domestic production and summarily losing your number one source of crude oil.
IN OUR HOME we pray for the people of the Ukraine every day and we also pray that Joe Biden and whomever he “relies on” for advice are showered with wisdom and an understanding of the truth path that God would have his people follow. I am not a Biblical scholar and I struggle with myself everyday praying for that same wisdom and guidance. I am not a man without sin but I do know this: the intentional infliction of pain and suffering for political advantage is not the path that God has chosen for us.
Union, KY
2 March 2022