The weirdest thing is going on all over the planet. The more the left and the climate crazies work to abolish fossil fuels to save the planet, the more fossil fuels the world guzzles.
This is an excerpt from the latest International Energy Administration analysis of global production and consumption of oil:
For 2022, oil production hit an all-time high and the forecast for 2023 based on monthly data is headed for another record.
So why are we spending hundreds of billions of dollars a year on green energy programs that no one is using and are making no difference?
And why do we keep pretending that China cares about climate change?
2) Alas, the CDC Has Lost Any Remaining Credibility
Yet another outrageous example of how the public health industry in America has learned NOTHING from Covid. It wants parents to get the Covid vaccine for babies.
Unherd reports:
Earlier this week a US CDC panel of advisers voted 13-1 to recommend new Covid vaccine boosters for all people over 6 months of age, contradicting European and WHO guidelines that focus on high-risk groups...
The new Pfizer and Moderna mRNA vaccines are formulated to the XBB.1.5 Omicron variant, a decision made back in June by the FDA. However recent US data shows that only 3% of infections are now from this particular variant.
Dr. Paul Offit, a leading vaccine advocate known for co-inventing the rotavirus vaccine, is a member of the FDA's Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee that voted to authorize the shots. He's 72 years old and he's skipping the shot for himself this year:
As we have previously reported in the Hotline, the CDC inexplicably INCREASED its order for pediatric boosters to 20 million doses a few weeks ago at $83 each, even though only 4.5 million kids took the last round of boosters.
The full-court press from the Biden administration on child vax seems more about avoiding the embarrassment of throwing most of those doses away than promoting public health – but we expect most of them to end up in the trash anyway.
3) Republicans Always Lose Government Shutdown Fights
Biden and House Republicans look like they are on a collision course for a budget stalemate and a government shutdown as soon as next week.
This would be the 22nd government shutdown since 1978, as Congress and the White House spar over the budget.
Some shutdowns happened with a Republican president and a Democrat Congress. Some have happened with a Democratic president and a Republican running Congress.
But there has been one similarity of each shutdown: the media has blamed every government shutdown on the Republicans. And in most cases, voters have too.
We like the solution that Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma has proposed. If appropriations aren’t signed into law in time, programs are automatically funded at last year’s level until a funding bill is passed.
Lankford tells us that he has support from four Senate Democrats, plus Independent Krysten Sinema. He believes he can get enough Democrats to reach the 60 votes needed to force a floor vote on his amendment. The idea would then go to the GOP-controlled House.
“The Prevent Government Shutdowns Act would do exactly what the title suggests. It’s a simple bill that offers a reasonable solution to one form of recurring congressional gridlock.”
Lankford told the Hotline that under his bill, Congress would have powerful incentives to pass appropriations:
No taxpayer-funded travel allowances for official business
No use of campaign funds by congressional offices for travel
No motions to recess or adjourn in the House/Senate for a period of more than 23 hours
No other votes would be in order in the House and Senate unless they pertain to passage of appropriations.
Lankford says his bill would create a type of Detention Hall for Congress: “We should be forced as members to finish our homework or else stay after class.”
Budget expert Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute has examined the explosive numbers behind the expansion of Food Stamps.
These two charts show what happened. Spending on Food Stamps doubled from 2019-2023. The big jump was during 2019 when Covid lockdowns caused the spending on Food Stamps to soar to an all-time high. Yet in the next two years after COVID ended, the spending only fell slightly even as the economy recovered.
The same phenomenon has been observed with caseloads. They spiked in 2020 and then stayed high.
What happened? We believe two things. First, families got acculturated to receive free food, so they stayed on the government assistance. Second, the work requirements for Food Stamps have been effectively eviscerated. Fewer low-income Americans went back to work after COVID, in order to keep getting the free groceries.
What does this tell us? First, welfare programs ratchet upward permanently after every recession. Second, work requirements are necessary for ALL welfare programs.
Finally, a really smart move by Ron DeSantis. DeSantis has been an A++ governor and he has turned Florida into the fastest growing state in the country with low taxes, school choice, right-to-work laws, record low unemployment, and businesses from blue-state America stampeding in.
FOX News Channel’s Sean Hannity will moderate a red vs. blue state debate between Florida Gov. and Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis and Democrat California Gov. Gavin Newsom, FOX News Media announced Monday.
The 90-minute event will air at 9 p.m. ET on Nov. 30 in Georgia, marking the first time the two prominent governors will face off in a debate.
It is important for Americans to watch this debate. We are two nations today – red states and blue states. Florida is the showcase of red-state prosperity. California is the epitome of blue state decline. Be careful, because Newsom is a slick talker – reminiscent of Bill Clinton. But no slick-talking is going to explain how California has lost three million people – and is now the nation’s capital for the homeless, criminals, and drug users.
