Commentary

There were a couple of golf games … a visiting son … my wife’s birthday … and an outpatient procedure, but all the while, I stashed material I wanted to share with you in my “stack of stuff.”

Before I get into that, however, you need to know my selection for March Fool’s Day honors.  No, it’s not Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who chalked up another job failure after mishandling the supply chain crisis, the chaos over airline cancellations with his lack of attention the Ohio railroad derailment. That would have been too easy. 

The same goes for Vice President Harris, who outdid her fascination with yellow school buses with a chuckle-interrupted discussion of her love for Venn diagrams.

My selection is the First Lady Jill Biden …. excuse me, Dr. Jill Biden … who I criticized here before, not only for failing to counsel Joe not to run in 2020, but encouraging him to do so.

This week, while American families in the small community of Palestine, Ohio were experiencing toxic air and water following a train derailment, the First Lady was in Africa, comforting drought victims with U.S Aid.  What ever happened to America First?  We know.

During her appearance there she was asked about President Biden’s intention to run again in 2024.  As if her husband doesn’t appear to be an embarrassment to her, she said, “I’m all for it, of course.  He’s not finished what he started, and that’s what’s important.”  How sad.

When she adds, “Look at the man.  Look at what he’s doing.  How many 30-year-olds could travel to Poland, get on the train?  Go nine more hours to Ukraine?” the leftist media is too polite to remind her of his two more stumbles – one boarding Air Force One to return home.

And, as we “look(ed) at the man,” we saw him take another trip to Delaware prior to his trip abroad, where he showed more interest in Ukrainians than Ohioans back home.   

The 2024 Presidential Run

In my February 22, 2023 post I invited Republicans to run, stating that the water’s fine, with former President Trump and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley having announced.

Since then, a relative unknown to those who don’t watch Fox News Channel, Vivek Ramaswamy, a 37-year-old native of Ohio, who attended Harvard and earned a law degree from Yale, decided to jump in.

He will be a formidable candidate if he can muster the funds and polling to make it to the debates, but he’s not someone I think can win.

Speaking of the debates, newly reelected Republican Party Chair Ronna McDaniel is suggesting that GOP presidential candidates will have to pledge to support the eventual primary winner to gain access.  Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, though not a declared candidate, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, with a book out that’s already on top of the Amazon book list, has been making appearances in a few unlikely locations – New York City, Philadelphia and Chicago – speaking to law enforcement groups about crime.

News of Electric Vehicles and Drilling

Germany and Italy are threatening to block the EU’s ambitious agenda to combat climate change by banning the internal combustion engine in 2035.

Meanwhile, in an interesting twist on an EV automotive “fix,” Ford and Tesla are no longer installing AM radio in their newer models, because … wait for it … they’ve learned that their motors generate electromagnetic frequencies on the same wavelength as AM radio signals. 

It’s hard to believe an electrical engineer wouldn’t have a “real” fix, but FEMA is concerned because AM radio provides emergency alerts and warning information during natural disasters and extreme weather events.

Drilling – In 1999, ConocoPhllips acquired drilling leases in the Willow area of Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve, set aside by Congress for oil development, with expected production of 180,000 barrels of oil a day, and 600 million over 30 years.

The Willow plan has passed every environmental analysis, and in addition to the oil, it would also gush revenue while providing union labor, but approval later this month is the hands of President Biden, who has repeatedly lied about the oil industry not utilizing drilling permits.  The decision is due later this month.

Liberal ideology run amuck

In related news, the House and the Senate (with the help of Democrats Manchin and Tester) stepped up to overturn the Biden administration’s regulation that would allow retirement fund managers to consider climate change and other factors when making investment decisions, but look for Biden to veto it.

It falls under the left’s effort to have financial institutions consider environmental, social and governance issues under the heading of ESG. 

Attorneys general from a number of Republican states have launched an investigation into six large U.S. banks citing policies requiring banks in the alliance to set carbon emission reduction targets in their lending and investment portfolios.

But ESG, as the name implies, also requires banks to address social factors – how an organization treats people, and governance factors too – looking at executive compensation, lobbying and diversity.  ESG regulation forces companies to follow the liberal agenda.

Finally, the Biden administration has so far imposed 517 regulatory actions with some $318 billion in costs. Regulatory costs to the economy are now said to be at least $2 trillion, or roughly 8 percent of our GDP.

 In President Trump’s full four years, he imposed 1,340 rules at a cost of $64.7 billion.

May God continue to bless the United States of America.