The latest numbers from AAA for gas prices around the country report that Californians pay $6.29 a gallon for unleaded gas. The national average outside of California is now roughly $3.79 a gallon. This means that California motorists now have the privilege of paying a premium of $2.50 a gallon more for gas than residents in other states.
Yet CA Governor Gavin Newsom tells us that California is an “energy model for the rest of the country.” It is? Has he asked people in Florida, Nebraska, and Maine how they would feel about $6 gas?
We may soon find out. Capital Economics, which specializes in energy forecasting, predicts that the oil price will rise to $100 a barrel in the wake of OPEC production restrictions and this is the equivalent of nearly $6 per gallon at the pump nationwide. If that happens gas prices in California could soon exceed $8 a gallon. But to counter those high prices, Newsom wants to put a “windfall profits tax” on energy companies. Of course, that tax will only make gas in the Golden State even more expensive.
2) California To Suspend Doctors If They Dare Challenge Science "Consensus"
Speaking of Crazy California, in case you haven't heard, Gov Newsom just signed a law that would revoke a physician's medical license for conveying “misinformation” (defined as deviation from expert "consensus") about COVID-19 and its treatments. Remember, by the way, this comes from the same people who said that the scientific consensus was to shut down schools and businesses to stop the spread of Covid - a catastrophic and wrongheaded decision.
Now even Leana Wen, a former leader of Planned Parenthood and Baltimore's health czar, warns this law “will have a chilling effect on medical practice."
She worries that physicians could be suspended or have their licenses revoked “for offering nuanced guidance on a complex issue that is hardly settled by existing science.”
Those accused of “misinformation” would be subject to discipline from the Medical Board of California, 13 of whose 15 members are appointed by none other than Governor Newsom.
The law they must enforce doesn’t designate any objective body to make these determinations. So who decides what transgresses scientific consensus? And whatever happened to doctor/patient confidentiality?
During COVID both the Centers for Disease Control and Dr. Anthony Fauci sometimes resembled weather vanes as the "scientific consensus" seemed to shift on the pandemic from day to day. Newsom himself began COVID by first insisting that travel restrictions were racist and unnecessary, that masks were superfluous, and that California had the infection under control. If his censorship law had been around, would doctors who disagreed with him have been found been punished for that?
If God forbid, the COVID speech restrictions are upheld by the Courts, the "climate misinformation" bans will follow fast and the First Amendment can be thrown In the dustbin. This is VERY scary stuff the left is imposing on us.
3) Liberal Fordham Law Prof Says Biden Student Loan Bailout Could Lose 9-0
We've been arguing from day one that the Biden edict on student loan forgiveness is Unconstitutional. (The president doesn't have the authority to spend money not appropriated by Congress.). Conservative states, led by Nebraska and Missouri, are in federal court today in St. Louis making the same point in seeking an injunction against the student loan bailout plan. We could get a decision at the district court level there later this week and then the issue will likely be appealed to the Supreme Court.
We share this cheerful (to us) prediction from a law professor who is a big supporter of President Biden and his loan bailout plan:
The independent website Facts First has calculated the stock market returns under Trump and Biden. Even when counting the once-in-a-half century black swan event of Covid, the contrast between Trump and Biden’s impact on the nation’s wealth is breathtaking.
Keep in mind, this analysis understates the contrast. It ignores the impact of inflation on these stock market returns. Under Trump inflation averaged about 2%. Under Biden inflation has averaged closer to 6%. So in real terms, Biden’s performance has been all the more abysmal.
