Free Republic

President Biden said Thursday that the US is “discussing” the possibility of Israel bombing Iranian oil facilities as payback for a volley of nearly 200 rockets fired at the Jewish state on Tuesday — causing a spike in global crude prices. Biden said the oil strike option was under consideration when asked directly by a reporter as he left the White House. “We’re discussing that. I think that would be a little… anyway,” the retiring 81-year-old president said ... Within 45 minutes of Biden’s remark, crude oil futures spiked to about $74 per barrel from its opening price of $70.10,...

In a startling development, Warren Jones Crazybull, a resident of Idaho, has been formally accused of issuing threats against ex-President Donald Trump. These threats were allegedly made through multiple phone calls to Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in sunny Florida, as revealed by official court filings. The unsettling communications occurred on July 31, a period shadowed by the recent violent attack on the Republican presidential hopeful during a Pennsylvania rally. Crazybull, 64, purportedly conveyed his intentions in no uncertain terms across nine separate calls within the day. His ominous message in the initial call chillingly directed to “Find Trump,” with Crazybull threatening...

Kamala Harris is trying to pretend she never wanted to ban fracking, but Pennsylvania energy workers see through her BS. Harris said in 2020 .. she certainly supported a fracking ban, a fact she is now trying to deny. Her insincere reassurances following on years of the Biden-Harris administration’s war on gas and oil do not impress energy workers ... ... she's out there saying whatever she can to make people try to swing her way ... nobody believes that [she will not ban fracking].” ... don't believe anybody in that [Biden] administration.” Considering Kamala is still affirming her dedication...

He states that there will be “Rapid Approvals” for the following: —— new drillings, new pipelines, new refineries, new power and electric plants, and new reactors of all types (nuclear) —— “This will quickly reduce the prices of everything almost immediately.”

A long-profitable niche for American car makers has been the all-American muscle car. Low-slung, two door sedans with enormous horsepower, wide tires, aggressive styling and the low rumble of those powerful V-8 engines. There’s nothing quite like them, and they sell for a premium. Ford made the Mustang, Chevy the Camaro, and Dodge, the Charger and Challenger. They were initially designed to go fast in a straight line, but as technology improved and suspensions became more sophisticated, they began to hold their own on the racetrack as well as the drag strip, and their internal amenities began to rival luxury...

Following the news that Trans Mountain Corporation will start filling the expanded pipeline in February, with first crude to be loaded from Vancouver in April, Canadian crude prices jumped to the narrowest discount to WTI since August 2023. U.S. refiners used to cheap Canadian crude will need to start budgeting more for the commodity from this spring. Canadian oil producers are preparing for the 890,000 bpd in takeaway capacity growth. ... U.S. refiners used to cheap Canadian oil might need to reach deeper into their pockets to keep buying it. The idea behind the Trans Mountain expansion was to turn...

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon slammed Democratic messaging about MAGA, or “Make America Great Again,” Republicans on Wednesday, telling Democrats to “grow up” and “listen” to supporters of former President Trump. “When people say MAGA, they’re actually looking at people voting for Trump and … they’re basically scapegoating them,” Dimon told CNBC’s “Squawk Box.” “I don’t like how [Trump] said things about Mexico … but he wasn’t wrong about some of these critical issues, and that’s why they’re voting for him,” Dimon continued. “And I think people should be a little more respectful of our fellow citizens.”

It is déjà vu for major oil producers, who are again considering steeper production cuts. It took only a month after the Hamas attacks on Israel unleashed a punishing war for oil prices to fall below their pre-Oct. 7 level. The steep drop in oil prices last week, with Brent crude briefly dropping to $77 per barrel, led to speculation that the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and allied producers (OPEC+) will decide to cut production at its next meeting. OPEC’s last-minute decision to delay the meeting, now scheduled for Nov. 30, will only add to the speculation. U.S....

In a speech to a Seattle crowd Wednesday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm made the claim that lower oil imports improves U.S. energy security. Praising Biden’s historic green energy funding and 100% clean electricity goal by 2035, Granholm said “With all this electrification, we could slash our net crude oil imports by almost 60%, and that strengthens energy security.” Granholm, who appeared with Vice President Kamala Harris also said Harris "has been amazing inside the White House as the champion for clean energy." One of the most common critiques of Biden’s green agenda is that it has thus far achieved the...

The U.S. has for years been giving Iraq tens of billions of dollars to help with its finances on the specific condition that the country reduces its imports of gas and electricity from Iran eventually to zero. Iran has wielded enormous power over Iraq for a very long time indeed through its various political, economic, and military proxies. Iraq will pay with its own oil supplies for the gas and electricity that it has long been importing from Iran. Ever since the U.S. officially ended its ‘combat mission’ in Iraq on 31 December 2021, it has been looking for a...

America’s “inability to build things” is crippling it, the economics writer Noah Smith wrote in a blog published on Monday. The “things” he’s referring to are housing, transit, solar power, transmission lines, semiconductor production, you name it. They’re being stalled because of permitting and development rules in particular but the NIMBY (or “not-in-my-backyard”) crew in general. Smith is a well-known economics commentator, but his “bit of a rant” struck a chord with many on Twitter, including its CEO, Elon Musk. Smith’s blog post, on his personal Substack, stresses that America used to be unwilling to spend on building things, but...

At long last, the Biden administration is admitting what experts have always known: reckless energy policies have disastrous consequences. This time, the Department of Energy quietly released a report highlighting the positive economic benefits of developing the Keystone XL pipeline from Canada, an energy project canceled by President Biden in the hours following his inauguration. But the DOE’s report is a proverbial day late and a dollar short. The cancelation of the Keystone XL pipeline has already cost the United States thousands of jobs and billions in economic growth while families suffer under the weight of record high energy prices....

Pipeline workers who had secured jobs on the Keystone XL project before President Biden revoked its federal permits said they are still struggling to recover two years later. The workers told Fox News Digital that they and their fellow workers lost their jobs on the pipeline after Biden’s decision nearly two years ago in January 2021 and have since struggled to make ends meet. Immediately after taking office, Biden signed an executive order effectively shutting the project down despite the thousands of jobs it was expected to create and arguing the U.S. “must prioritize the development of a clean energy...

Just how bad was Joe Biden’s decision upon taking office to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline? We now have an admission directly from Biden’s own administration. According to a newly-released report from the Department of Energy, which cited a variety of studies on the economic impact of the pipeline’s construction, the cancellation of Keystone XL cost somewhere between 16,149 and 59,000 jobs. Lost GDP from the project is also estimated to be between $3.4 billion and $9.6 billion. Even when you only consider the SEIS, which is the government’s environmental impact study, the numbers of jobs and money involved aren’t...

Age is nothing but a bleepin’ number, according to President Biden. The oldest-ever commander-in-chief, who turned 80 last month, has “vented to allies” about how much the topic is discussed in the media as he sizes up a bid for a second term in 2024, Politico reported Tuesday. “You think I don’t know how #####$$ old I am?” an exasperated Biden — who reportedly has a penchant for profanity — ranted to one of his acquaintances earlier this year, according to the outlet.

After nearly two years of rampant price increases that appear to have no end in sight, one thing is clear: The economic forecasters amplified by the corrupt corporate media are always wrong. You wouldn’t know it from headlines suggesting inflation is “easing,” “cooling,” and “slowing,” but November’s consumer price index advanced 7.1 percent since this time last year. Nearly two years into Joe Biden’s presidency, U.S. inflation has reportedly climbed 13.8 percent and is still lingering near the four-decade highs that burdened Americans for the last 24 months. Gas prices last month may have dropped to an average of $3.25...

WASHINGTON — White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre wouldn’t say Tuesday whether President Biden would ask his aides to return 2020 campaign contributions from accused cryptocurrency con man Sam Bankman-Fried, whom the Justice Department has charged with swindling investors out of at least $1.8 billion. “The president received campaign donations [from Bankman-Fried]. Will the president return that donation? Does he call on all politicians … to return those funds?” asked Associated Press reporter Zeke Miller. “So look, I’m covered here by the Hatch Act — [I’m] limited on what I can say and anything that’s connected to political contributions from...

American households' real wealth fell $13.5 trillion in the first three quarters of 2022, ... The 8.6 percent drop from January to September is the second fastest decline on record, behind the financial crisis of 2008/2009. Record-high inflation under the Biden administration is causing a decrease in the purchasing power of assets and liabilities, MarketWatch reports: Nominal net worth fell 4.6% to $143.3 trillion, as the market value of assets fell by $6 trillion and liabilities rose by about $900 billion. Households’ balance sheets—assets minus liabilities—were propped up by a 10% increase in home equity, which is the greatest source...

WASHINGTON — President Biden wrongly claimed Tuesday that he lowered the national debt by $1.7 trillion — when in fact the debt grew by nearly $3.7 trillion during his first 23 months in office. Biden made the error while using the terms “deficit” and “debt” interchangeably during remarks touting the slight decline in the annual inflation rate to 7.1% in November. “We’ve done all of this while lowering the federal deficit in the two years we’ve been in office $1.7 trillion,” Biden said before incorrectly adding, “Let me say that again — $1.7 trillion we’ve lowered the federal debt.” The...

A leftist nonprofit group that funded the private takeover of government election offices during the 2020 presidential election just announced its new round of beneficiaries for the 2024 cycle. The Center for Tech and Civic Life — one of two groups that funneled $328 million (colloquially termed “Zuckbucks“) from Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to the blue counties of swing states to mobilize potential Democratic voters and swing the race for Joe Biden — has said it will distribute $80 million in election grants in the next five years to the following counties and cities: Contra Costa County, California Shasta County,...