I told myself I wasn’t even going to mention this year’s Academy Awards show.  Hollywood is filled with Woke A-holes who almost always make movies either about superheroes I never heard of, or people pushing bizarre causes about which I am greatly unconcerned.  Either way, I’m not paying good money to see that crap.  Although that would be reason enough not to watch the show, when you also have to listen to 3 hours of left-wing harangues from the supremely ignorant, self-centered, self-important, spoiled, overpaid, imbeciles who work in that industry, forget it.  Making prisoners watch that show would be a civil rights violation.  Then, as things turned out, the biggest story to come out of the show had nothing to do with any film.  The big story, the only story we’ve heard for the past week, was that Will Smith bitch-slapped Chris Rock on live TV.  Some critics have complained that the slapping incident took away from the show.  They’re wrong.  Without the slap, the show already would be forgotten.  I gave up watching it years ago.  This year, out of 10 films nominated for Best Picture, I recognized only 3, and saw none of them.  King Richard was familiar only because Serena Williams is on half the commercials on TV.  When she’s not on, Kevin Hart is on.  Too bad Will Smith didn’t slap him too.  I’d heard of Dune and West Side Story only because they’re remakes.  Other than that, there was nothing to see there.  Just 3 hours of so-called celebrities indulging their Woke psychoses by pandering and virtue signaling.  3 hours of rich A-holes, lecturing about how America sucks, Florida really sucks, and life is unfair.  3 hours of chants, slogans and ribbons, full of tripe and bullshit, and signifying nothing.  The Hollywood crowd has to come together for the various awards shows to perpetuate the notion that they somehow play a role in society.  Actors, most of whom have never had said anything that wasn’t written for them by someone else, must show support for the latest Woke cause, and must condemn any action that is insufficiently Woke.  These are the people who spend their time denouncing others whom they claim are “privileged,” yet take no notice of the fact that they are the most privileged group of all.  Woke wingnuts account for no more than about 20% of the population, and that number may be high.  These are the Socialists, Communists,  Anarchists, and other malcontents.  They worship diversity, and they are a diverse group, which includes over-educated blowhards in the educational establishment, many young people who are the victims of educational malpractice at the hands of the first group, and so-called under-served communities, consisting of minorities of all stripes, who preach “equity,” but are just looking for another handout.  And atop the pyramid of Woke wingnuts sit the Hollywood celebrities.  These are the people who bleed for the underprivileged, decry poverty, then go home to their gated estates in Malibu.  They denounce climate change, then get on their private jets and fly to Cannes.  They’re against all privilege except their own.  Any who criticize them are insulted.  Any who fail to conform to their perverted beliefs must be destroyed.  It’s their private world, and  outsiders are not permitted to interfere with them.  It’s almost like organized crime.  Call it La Woka Nostra, or LWN for short.  This woke thing of ours.  Except we can’t call the members of LWN “made men.”  They’re not all men.  Some of them appear to be women, but I can’t say for sure because, after all, I’m not a biologist.  The members of LWN can do whatever they want to one another, but if you ever put your hands on a made member of LWN, you’re dead.  Don’t doubt me.  The Will Smith slap proves this point.  Donald Trump is not a made member of LWN, so they’ve been persecuting him for 7 years for crimes he never committed.  LWN members can advocate beheading Trump without consequences.  They can march and chant, and burn and loot without fear of reprisal, but if a mere citizen dares to protest something like the result of an election, he goes to the D.C. jail and they throw away the key.   LWN will investigate phony crimes over and over again, but when one LWN member slaps another made member on TV, a clear case of assault, there’s no investigation and no prosecution.  La Woka Nostra has no use for the authorities.  They’ll have a “sit down” and work it out.  “You’re mistaken.  I didn’t see an  assault.”  And if there was, you can’t blame a LWN Best Actor, a Capo di Tutti A-holes.  Oscar host Amy Schumer slipped up and announced the Smith slap left her “triggered and traumatized.”  Schumer was immediately put in her place by a host of LWN  “associates.”  In Forbes, Janice Gassam Asare said the Will Smith slap was only an issue because it took place in front of white people.  “By saying that Will Smith shouldn’t have reacted that way because of how he will be perceived by the largely white audience is the perpetuation of the white gaze.” The Hollywood Reporter’s Eisa Nefertari Ulen went further, “the well-documented norms, policies and images that have damaged Black people” in the Academy could have contributed to that night.  “Rather than punitively discipline Will Smith for his violence, the Academy and the Hollywood machine should take this opportunity to reflect and recognize their part in fomenting it.”  “Race Scholar” Dr. Maia Niguel Hoskin added, “This is about a much larger systemic issue rooted in white supremacist culture designed to police the behavior of Blacks amongst the who’s who in Hollywood and beyond.  Respectability politics suggest that equity and fair treatment require that Black people — both inside and outside of Hollywood — conduct ourselves in a manner deemed acceptable to whites.”  I must say that I agree with them.  My first impression when I heard about the slap was, “why is this news?”  A black man got “dissed” by another black man, and things erupted into violence?  I’m a criminal defense attorney.  Sadly, that happens all the time, albeit not on live TV, and what’s the harm here?  Chris Rock isn’t complaining.  On the contrary, he said, “That was the greatest night in the history of television.”  Maybe Will can slap him every year to boost the ratings.  I’d pay real money to see more of these self-righteous pricks slap the shit out of each other.  Maybe it could be a game show, “The Masked Slapper.”  Anyhow, thank you Will Smith.  If you hadn’t gone all General Patton on Chris Rock’s ass we’d have nothing to talk about.

Corrupt Demented Imbecile Joe Biden is a war-time president.  Some presidents have war thrust upon them, like Lincoln and George W. Bush.  Some presidents, like FDR, see war coming and mold public opinion to prepare for the fray.  Others, like Woodrow Wilson, lie about staying out of war until they’re reelected, and then push us into it.  Joe Biden isn’t like any of those presidents.  Biden wasn’t forced into his war, he never pretended to avoid his war, and he certainly has no regard for public opinion regarding his declaration of war.  Biden planned his war, and he’s waging it every day.  No.  It’s not the war in Ukraine.  It’s not a war against Russia at all.  On the contrary, it’s a war, the prosecution of which, greatly benefits the Russians.  Joe Biden is the first president to declare war on his own country.  That’s right.  Biden has met the enemy, and he’s decided that it is us.  Biden is waging a war on fossil fuels, to the detriment of every single American.  And like everything Biden, his timing really stinks.  The profligate government spending of the past several years was guaranteed to cause the inflation we now are experiencing.  The United States possessed one saving grace to moderate the inevitable inflation.  Energy independence.  When energy prices rise, the price of everything goes up.  Energy is expended by employees going to and from production and transportation sites, energy is expended to produce the goods, and energy is expended to transport and deliver the goods.  So, when oil goes up, the cost of wages and of everything else go up.  Until January 2021, the U.S. was energy independent.  On January 20, 2021, all that changed.  Enter Joe Biden.  Biden likes to blame all his ills on Russia.  The facts contradict his claims.  The following timeline of Biden’s actions is provided courtesy of New York Post columnist Deroy Murdock.  Day one – January 20, 2021.  Gasoline was $2.38.  The Keystone Pipeline is cancelled.   National Climate Advisor (Didn’t we use to call them weather-girls?) Gina McCarthy takes office.  Her policy?  “I want fossil fuels gone.  I want fossil fuels out of products.  I don’t want to help the fossil fuel industry to extend their life.”  January 27, 2021, oil and gas leases are cancelled.  February 14, 2021, Interior Secretary Haaland declares, “We need to keep fossil fuels in the ground.”  This is the slogan of a number of anti-growth, climate crisis fringe groups.  February 25, 2021, Energy Secretary Granholm agrees, “We ought to be doing everything we possibly can to keep fossil fuel energy in the ground.”  March 2, 2021, Climate Envoy (Huh?) John Kerry tells fuel companies to stop producing oil and gas and to start producing “energy.” (Huh?).  April 22, 2021, the Biden Climate Finance Plan “promotes the flow of capital away from” fossil fuel investments.  Translation – “deny loans to oil companies,” which is highly illegal.  May 20, 2021, an Executive Order requires federal agencies to calculate the risk of “global warming” to change the allocation of capital.  Gasoline hits $3.00.  June 1, 2021, Biden cancels Arctic leases.  July 11, 2021, Treasury Secretary Yellen says she wants banks to discourage fossil fuel power generation.  (Which accounts for 80% of all our power).  August 16, 2021, the U.S. Treasury opposes bank financing of fossil fuel projects.  September 23, 2021, Biden appoints Russian-educated Saule Omarova Comptroller of the Currency.  She announces, “We want [fossil fuel] companies to go bankrupt.”  October 28, 2021, the Energy Department calls oil and gas investment “unfortunate and unnecessary.”  November 5, 2021, gasoline hits $3.40.  The Energy Secretary is asked,”What is the Granholm plan to increase oil production in America?”  She replies, “That is hilarious.”  December 10, 2021, Biden orders agencies to stop funding fossil fuel projects.  None of these actions should have come as a surprise to us.  On September 16, 2019, candidate Biden promised, “I guarantee you, we’re going to end fossil fuels.”  Gasoline had reached $3.60 a gallon by the time Russia attacked Ukraine.  Since January 2021, oil prices have doubled.  Wheat is up 35%.  March inflation is expected to be 10%.  That is a 500% increase from recent years.  Biden and his gang could ease the pain by expanding domestic oil and gas production.  They won’t.  They are at war with fossil fuels, and therefore are at war with America and with civilization.  Well, Biden’s at least at war on U.S. fossil fuels.  He’s not opposed to buying oil from Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, Iran, and other enemies of America.  Biden wants to “end fossil fuels?”  The question that should come to mind is, “And replace them with what?”  Tell us, imbecile, with what are you planning to replace 80% of the power used in the U.S.?  The answer?  There is no plan.  They have required 100% electric vehicles by 2030.  Electric vehicles now account for only 3% of all cars.  There’s not only no place to charge millions of electric cars, without oil and gas, there’s also no way to power the charging stations, even if they existed.  Gina McCarthy wants to take fossil fuels out of all products?  The Biden Administration wants to leave fossil fuels in the ground?  Ignorance may be bliss, but putting ignoramuses in charge of energy policy is disastrous.  If the Biden fossil fuel warriors get their way, imagine what our world would look like.  Even if all cars could be electric, and could be  powered by wind, sun and pond scum, oil is needed for jet fuel, diesel fuel and heating oil.  No oil, no air travel, and no fuel for the trucks that deliver every single item you own.  Just stay at home and knit blankets, because you’ve got no heat.  But it gets worse.  Oil is used in more than 6,000 common products.  Among them are all plastics, asphalt for roads, car tires, fertilizer, pesticides, detergents, paints, clothing, disposable diapers, artificial heart valves, trash bags, aspirin, and anesthetic drugs.  The practical effect of removing all the products made with oil would be to return America to the Stone Age, except that if you strike a flint to start a fire to keep warm, the EPA will arrest you.  So that’s the Biden plan.  No oil.  No gas.  No travel.  No heat.  No food.  Plagues of insects.  No detergent to wash cotton diapers.  Stay home, tend your compost heap, and if this gives you a headache, too bad, there’s no aspirin.  This is Biden’s war, and you are the enemy of the State.  Biden will not compromise, and he will not surrender.  He and his kind must be defeated.

I guess there are Democrats, and then there are Democrats.  In the face of the Great Depression, FDR told Americans we have nothing to fear but fear itself.  89 years later, another Democrat sits in the White House – Corrupt Demented Imbecile Joseph Robinettte Biden, JRB.  Faced with the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the message we’re getting from JRB is very different – We have nothing to fear but Vladimir Putin.  It’s true that we’re getting mixed messages from different factions, all of whom have selfish agendas.  Ukrainian President Zelensky’s agenda is obvious, and is wholly understandable.  He wants his country, first and foremost, and secondarily himself, to survive what has been a shameful and unprovoked invasion, which has featured numerous atrocities, and which has left thousands of helpless and faultless civilians either dead or displaced.  President Zelensky’s motives may be pure, but that doesn’t mean we should join the war against Russia.  All the other actors have motives that are suspect.  Chief among them are the various and sundry members of Congress who are advocating for U.S. involvement in Ukraine to include the deployment of U.S. troops on the ground, or the deployment of air forces, or the establishment of a “No Fly” Zone to encompass all of Ukraine.  Every one of these actions would have the same result – the involvement of the U.S. in a shooting war with Russia.  Not a good idea.  The motivation for these Chicken Hawk Congress-people is obvious.  These are the Neo-Cons who are in favor of wars everywhere and anywhere.  It’s good for defense contractors, and those are the people they really represent.  Americans may have to die, not anyone they know, just the usual cannon-fodder they don’t care about.  It’s mercenary and shameful, but that’s who they are.  Business is business.  Then there’s the Biden Administration.  Far be it for me to offer aid and comfort to the enemy, but Sleepy Joe is in the middle of a genuine mess.  That being said, he certainly hasn’t covered himself in glory.  Far from it.  Biden has taken a bad situation and only made it worse.  As the supposed leader of the free world, it’s imperative for a president of the United States to project strength to the rest of the world.  Biden projects nothing but weakness.  One thing can be said for Vladimir Putin.  He’s done precisely what he promised to do.  He made no secret of his plans.  He wants to put the old Soviet Union back together.  He told the world he was going to invade Ukraine, the price of oil went high enough to finance his plans, and he invaded Ukraine.  Biden had to know this was coming.  Donald Trump knew.  Instead of sending Ukraine helmets and blankets like Il Duce Obama, President Trump approved the delivery of weapons to Ukraine.  You’ve been hearing about the Ukrainians using Javelin missiles to take out Russian tanks and Stingers to take out Russian planes.  They got those weapons from Trump.  A new delivery was due to go to Ukraine in February 2021.  Biden delayed it, fearing it would trigger a Putin escalation.  In Summer 2021, Biden delayed it again, for fear of what Putin might do.  Biden delayed the delivery again in the Fall of 2021.  Mustn’t trigger Putin.  In February, Putin pulled the trigger he had been promising to pull all along.  Still, Biden vacillated, fearing a Putin escalation.  While Zelensky begged for help, Biden dithered.  Polish MIGS were offered to Ukraine.  Biden killed the plan.  Why?  Fear of Putin.  Now untold thousands are dead in Ukraine, untold thousands of Russian troops are dead, and millions of Ukrainians are refugees.  All for fear of Putin; a bully, and a thug.  Putin has become the living embodiment of a Bond villain, like Dr. No, Eric Blofeld, or Auric Goldfinger.  “Do as I say or I’ll destroy the world.”  In the movies, James Bond, Agent 007, would be sent out to find the villain, kick his ass, and save the world.  Instead of 007, Joe Biden sent V.P. Kamala Harris, 00-Stupid, to Poland, where she made a mockery of herself and the United States of America.  You could almost hear evil villain Putin’s laughter.  In truth, I think Joe Biden is happy to have Putin.  He’s a distraction from open borders, runaway inflation, $7 gasoline, unaffordable food,  supply chain chaos, Covid mandate nonsense, and a $30 trillion debt.  Putin is a convenient scapegoat, and Biden has taken advantage of his opportunity.  Putin is to blame for inflation, gas prices, and everything else.  I’m not in favor of going to war with Russia, but cowering in the corner for fear of all things Putin is not acceptable.  FDR didn’t deny Great Britain American destroyers in Lend Lease for fear of triggering Adolph Hitler.  FDR sent food, fuel and other necessary supplies without fear that it might cause Hitler to escalate his atrocities.  It’s usually a bad idea to compare people to Hitler, but there is one apt parallel between him and Putin.  Like Hitler, Putin has made no secret of his intentions.  Europe burned and millions died because Hitler’s promises weren’t taken seriously enough by leaders other than Churchill until it was too late.  Biden is no Churchill.  He’s no FDR.  He’s not even a convincing Neville Chamberlain.  During World War II, the U.S. produced and supplied fuel to the entire world.  There was gasoline rationing in the U.S. during the war, not because there was a shortage of gasoline, but because there was a shortage of rubber for tires.  The world needed oil, and FDR delivered.  By contrast, although the U.S. has enough oil and gas to supply all our needs, Weakling in Chief, JRB won’t let us produce it.  He prefers to deal with our enemies in Iran, Venezuela, and the Middle East.  Is it any wonder Joe Biden didn’t do enough to help the Ukrainian people?  He won’t even lift a finger to help his own people.  After denying Ukraine the promised weapons that might have deterred an invasion, Biden now wants to keep the war going long enough to distract attention from his abject failures.  We deserve better than this crooked insult to the presidency.

There’s a popular saying.  There are lies, damned lies, and statistics.  Another saying comes to mind.  Figures don’t lie, but liars figure.  Politicians are fond of using spurious statistics to justify their prevarications.  And so it was this week of skyrocketing oil prices, which have driven the price of regular gasoline above $4.25 a gallon here in New Jersey.  It’s even worse in the People’s Socialist Republic of California.

I love that sign.  I don’t know if it means you need to hit the ATM before filling up, or if the only way to afford a fill up is to hit the Lotto.  When questioned about the Biden Administration’s reluctance to permit U.S. producers to produce more oil, Jen Psaki, Press Secretary to the Mumbler in Chief, offered one statistic and two tried and true lies.  Psaki claimed that U.S. oil production was higher in the first year of the Biden Administration than it was in Year One of the Trump Administration.  That was the statistic.  Here are the lies – 1) Biden’s done nothing to discourage domestic oil production; and 2) It’s all Russia’s fault anyhow.  You’ve really got to hand it to the Democrats.  When they hit on a lie that works for them, they just keep going back to it.  “Russia” has been the Democrats’ go-to excuse for every ill of the past 6 years from the election of Donald Trump to Joe Biden’s hemorrhoids.  The Russians hacked the DNC, elected Trump, and changed votes to fix the election. (That’s the 2016 election.  We now know that, despite counting untold thousands of untraceable mail ballots in 2020, no fraud took place, nothing to see there, just move on!)   Why do Dems constantly blame Russia?  It’s a coping mechanism.  They deflect their misconduct, by  accusing Republicans of doing things they’ve done.  Trump was colluding with Russia?  No, but The DNC paid Russians for the phony Trump dossier,  while Hillary’s campaign chairman, John Podesta, lobbied for Russian companies, including Putin’s bank and Uranium One, the Russian company to which Hillary sold American uranium, and which then coincidentally “donated” $145 million to the Clinton Foundation.  But let’s further explore the lies and the statistic.  Russia is 100% to blame for invading Ukraine.  No one disputes that.  But, is the invasion to blame for the increase in oil prices?  Not so much.  It’s truth time.  On election day 2020, the barrel price of oil was $39, and a gallon of gas a bit over $2.  In December 2020, when the Electoral College confirmed Biden’s victory, oil was $45.  By inauguration day it was $53.  In June 2021, oil hit $70, then $80 in October.  By February 2022, oil was over $90, and the day Russia invaded Ukraine it was $91.59.  So if we’re throwing around statistics, the price of oil increased 133% between Biden’s election and the Russian invasion.  Since the invasion, oil is up 35%.  What about the original Psaki statistic?  It was mathematically correct, as far as that goes, but context is necessary.  In the first year of Trump, economic activity was flat and domestic oil production was depressed by Il Duce Obama’s woke policies.  Which brings to mind a pertinent Trump quotation, “Everything Woke turns to shit.”  How true.  Woketard Democrats oppose fossil fuels.  Trump policies encouraged oil production, made oil leases available on federal lands, and opened the ANWAR Reserve to drilling, industries came back to the U.S., demand for oil increased, and oil production increased to meet that demand.  Before the Wuhan plague, U.S. producers were pumping more than 13 million barrels a day.  Now we’re at 11 million.  2021 domestic production was higher that production in 2017 because the Trump energy policies hadn’t happened yet.  No other reason.  The claim that Biden has done nothing to decrease domestic energy production is a lie so big that Joe Goebbel’s would be proud.  Donald Trump had U.S. producers providing more than enough oil and natural gas to satisfy 100% of our energy needs.  So much, in fact, that the U.S. was selling oil and gas to other countries.  On January 20, 2021, all that changed.  Biden announced he was unilaterally stopping construction on the Keystone Pipeline, which had been approved by Congress.  His Executive Order was illegal, and that’s now in court.  Biden threatened other pipelines.  He illegally cancelled current leases to drill on federal lands, and he banned all future leases.  This was a big deal.  Keep in mind, drilling on federal land doesn’t mean oil rigs in Yellowstone and Yosemite.  The Feds own 28% (640 million acres) of all U.S. land, including 80% of Nevada, 63% of Utah, 61% of Alaska, and nearly half of Wyoming.  The Biden Administration badmouthed fossil fuels at every opportunity.  They have a nutty plan to require all cars and trucks to be electric within 30 years.  It hasn’t occurred to them yet that the electricity doesn’t just leak out of the socket, but has to be produced by some source.  Wind, sun and pond scum won’t cut it.  Germany tried it and almost went broke.  On top of this, Biden is trying to install on the Federal Reserve some Commie witch whose stated plan is to refuse to permit banks and other financial institutions to grant loans to oil producers.  So, after taking away the leases, the financing and a means of transporting the product, Biden’s claim that he hasn’t caused the decrease in production is a colossal lie.  Instead of exporting oil, in the course of a year we are importing it.  Most imported oil comes from Canada and Mexico.  Biden increased importation from Russia, which supplied 8% of our oil.  Now, Biden has finally agreed to stop buying Russian oil (since Russia is using our money to destroy Ukraine).  But he still won’t replace the Russian oil with U.S. crude, which is here right now, is cheaper, is cleaner, will benefit Americans by providing high-paying jobs, and will decrease the strain on American consumers.  The Biden Administration’s position is “Americans be damned.”  Transportation Secretary Marie Antoinette Buttigieg said, “Let them drive Teslas.”  Great solution!  Just get an electric car.  No solace to the 97% of us who still need gas.  Cackling Kamala Harris also chimed in, “Imagine a future with all electric vehicles.”  That’s assuming we have a future.  As FDR advisor Harry Hopkins once noted, “people don’t eat in the long run, they’re hungry now.”  And, as usual, Corrupt Demented Imbecile Joe Biden had nothing to offer.  Two days after announcing he’d do everything he can to reduce gas prices, he flew to Texas and announced, “They’re going to go up.  Can’t do much right now … Russia is responsible.”  I least he tried, he called Communist Venezuela and terrorist Iran looking for oil.  He called Saudi Arabia, but they hung up on him.  Biden could have saved the roaming fees and just called North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, who says his State alone is operating at 400,000 barrels per day below the pre-Wuhan production numbers, and “that can easily be turned back on again.”  That would replace all the Russian oil, and we wouldn’t have to beg Commies, terrorist Mullahs and the thieves in OPEC for anything.  Biden won’t do it. It’s madness.

At the beginning of World War II, in September 1939, the Nazis invaded Poland with armored divisions that swept across the country.  This came to be known as blitzkrieg, the lightening war.  In the wake of the fall of Poland, although the major European powers had declared war on Germany, and indeed were at war, not very much happened until the Spring of 1940.  This period of relative inactivity came to be known as sitzkrieg, the sitting, or phony war.  Recent events in Ukraine have brought to mind a modern day parallel.  There is nothing phony about the Russian invasion of Ukraine.  They have come in with armored columns, artillery, paratroopers, and aerial bombardment.  No doubt the Russian attack is a blitzkrieg.   Since the Russian invasion, and in the State of the Union speech, Joe Biden has expressed our opposition to the incursion, has ordered a variety of diplomatic and financial sanctions, and has vowed to stop the invasion, noting “an unwavering resolve that freedom will always triumph over tyranny.”  Strong words, but in the end only words.  For all his bravado, Biden’s actions have amounted to no more than a sitzkrieg against Putin and his forces.  Not that I’m advocating that U.S. forces go to war with Russia in Ukraine, mind you.  Nobody wants that.  The point is, if all we’re going to do is jawbone the Russians and impose sanctions on them, then shouldn’t those sanctions be focused on the most vulnerable part of the Russian economy?  Love him or hate him, John McCain got one thing right.  Russia is not really a country.  It’s a gas station that happens to possess nuclear weapons.  Oil and gas are not just crucial to the Russian economy, they are the Russian economy.  Other than vodka, can you name one product Russia exports?  So while Biden is busy threatening to confiscate Russian oligarch’s yachts, and banning Russian airline flights, and threatening to exclude Russia from the banking system, he has yet to strike at the one area that actually could serve to deter Putin from continuing his attack.  The sanctions don’t apply to Russian oil and gas.  There are two reasons for this.  First, the Russian attack was made possible because and only because of the actions of Joe Biden.  And secondly, Joe Biden is funding the continuing Russian war even as this is written.  It has been oft repeated in recent days that “if Donald Trump was still president, Putin wouldn’t have done what he did.”  We’ve heard stories of Trump having warned Putin that, if he attacked Ukraine, Trump would hit Moscow.  I have my doubts about this story because, had Trump done that, it would have been leaked, and he would have been bashed for it, and I don’t remember that happening.  In any event, I think we can take for a given that Putin recognized that Trump was strong, and that Corrupt Demented Imbecile Joe Biden is the weakest excuse for a president since James Buchanan.  The truth is that it wasn’t necessary for Trump to threaten an attack on Russia, because he understood that Russia’s ability to threaten its neighbors is directly tied to the price of oil.  Trump didn’t have to threaten military action because he undertook an energy policy that drove down oil prices.  Russia can only do mischief when oil prices are near or over $100 a barrel.  When prices are low, Russia can’t afford a war.  When Russia invaded Georgia in 2008, oil averaged $100, and went as high as $145.  In 2014, when they invaded Crimea, oil went as high as $108.  During the years of the Trump presidency oil prices averaged between $40 and $65.  At the end of 2019 oil was $57.  When Trump left office, due to pandemic depression, oil was under $40.  Trump created these conditions by opening up federal lands to oil and gas production, granting new leases, and encouraging American producers to produce enough oil and gas to reduce prices, to supply 100% of American energy needs and permit energy exports.  When Trump left office, the U.S. was not importing any foreign oil.  We were selling it to others, in competition with Russia.  On day one of the Biden Administration, that all changed.  To satisfy the new green deal Woketards in his Party, Biden cancelled the Keystone pipeline, he (illegally) cancelled existing leases on federal lands, banned new leases, threatened other pipelines, and is in the process of trying to force lenders to deny any new funding to oil and gas companies.  Our oil and gas production was greatly reduced, and as a result oil prices have risen from $40 to $110 in one year.  The high price of oil permitted Putin to invade Ukraine, which would be bad enough, but it’s worse.  Biden is buying some 595,000 barrels of oil a day – from Russia!  That’s right.  The country we’ve sanctioned, that we are threatening, and condemning as a rogue nation which is engaged in war crimes, our supposed enemy.  People go to jail for trading with the enemy.  Mumbly Joe is not only trading with the enemy, the U.S. is financing Putin’s war with Ukraine.  At currrent prices, while we’re sending weapons to Ukraine, we’re paying Russia nearly half a billion dollars a week.  Germany and the rest of the EU are also sending Ukraine weapons, while simultaneously buying a third of their oil and gas from Russia.  It makes you wonder how serious the EU and the U.S. are about opposing Russia.  Think about it, if you were Putin, and thought they were serious,  wouldn’t you cut off the oil and gas in mid-Winter?  He hasn’t.  That either means Putin knows it’s not serious, or he can’t afford to stop selling his oil and gas.  In either case, our actions don’t make any sense.  Even Nancy Pelosi understands this, as she has announced she’s in favor of ending our purchases of Russian oil.  Of course, she doesn’t want us to produce more oil either.  Mustn’t anger the Woketards.  Pelosi advocates the worst of both worlds.  Remove 595,000 barrels of oil a day from our supplies, don’t replace it with domestic oil, and see gasoline prices go from $4 to $7 a gallon.  Progressive, right?  The bottom line is, Biden’s weakness, his family’s corrupt ties to oil interests, and his single-handed destruction of our domestic energy industries have handed Putin the motive, means and opportunity to carry out his invasion of Ukraine.  Mumbly Joe can rant and posture all he wants, but he’s a phony warrior, waging a phony war.