Because our energy companies are in "Who's John Galt?" mode with this administration.
The bulk of the oil production for the US wasn't coming from the large corps, it was these "mom'n'pop" shops. Exxon, BP, Shell... they want a nice, stable price that sits just below the pricepoint that makes exploiting alternate energy technologies financially sound, but high enough that they can maximize profit. It's easy for them to setup an informal keiretsu with OPEC and each other to keep things right at that nice price where you're slowly bleeding the customers dry but aren't going to kill them outright.
Eagle Shale Ford Wildcatters, LLP, however, only makes money when they sell a barrel of oil that they've pumped out of the ground. They don't give a rats ass about managing supply chains to maximize profit or reducing to refinery capacity to manipulate gas prices. They just want you to buy more oil. Now. So they started pumping as fast as they could and thus started threatening the monopoly.
"Drill, baby, drill!" because that's how they get paid.
Add in the lockdowns, and boom... so much oil on the market, prices have to drop. Big Oil is pissed, wildcatters buckle down and do what they can to stay afloat.
So when Biden is installed, the first thing he's ordered to do his Big Oil masters is to kill off these little guys who've been wrecking the plan, but don't hurt us. Pull permits, shutdown leases, shutdown pipelines, make it impossible for "little" guys to build new refineries. Just leave the market up to Big Oil, and they'll take care of everything and have us transitioned over to a new Green Economy that they control by 2030.
And now, here we are. Supply chain and production problems delaying the Green Energy wonder devices. Inexperienced business people just now finding out there's a huge difference between producing a prototype and setting up production at scale. "Uh, boss. We might not be able to hit our projected schedule", is the common refrain in conference rooms of New Energy conference rooms across the country.
The government idiots are starting to realize they've been played. They bet the house on a horse that isn't going to come in on time, and will end up getting hammer smacked by the public for the problems caused by the transition to the Green Utopia. Biden finally senses the trap and realizes he needs more oil in the market, so he starts trying to scrounge it from everywhere he can. He needs a fire truck (the small shale guys that he shut down), but all he's got are a few buckets (federal strategic reserves). He's begging the big guys to step up and help him out (Big Oil and OPEC), but they're like "Nah, you're killing our fossil fuels revenue in like 8 years. Why would put more money in it?"
The wildcatter/shale guys? They took Biden and the Dems at their word. They've shut things down for good and are trying to find ways to get their people moved on to new things. It's going to take milllions in private investment to get things going again, and for what? Going back to a price war with the big guys for 8 years before they get shutdown? That's not even long enough to break even on the loans. No thank you.
You want to increase oil production? Start incentivizing it. Secure loans for small energy companies to get back into the game. Set up training for oil field jobs. Renounce the stupid Green Agenda and instead of dumping money into venture capital for alternative energies, start doing DARPA prizes for tech that can actualy work and help setup the transition to alternative (and hopefully cheaper) energy. Less grants for scams like Solyndra, more for R&D into more efficient PV technology and energy storage solutions like hydrogen fuel cells. Instead of mandating everyone be green by 2030, how about picking one city to be the model and then seeing where the weak points are in the plan?
Don't try to cut the pie into enough slices to feed everyone... just make a second pie.
But that's not happening while this admanglstration is in office becuase they don't see it, and they certainly don't trust it because they couldn't control it.
Was it an actual law that was passed by both the House and Senate and then signed by the President, or was the decision based on policy from the ATF?
Because I think I heard somewhere that there's a major difference in that on is legal and the other is a tad bit unconstitutional...
We should work out a swap with other countries where we offer them one of our "highly-educated" (in gender studies), exceptionally compliant, and socially woke citizens as an even swap for one of their toxic, independent thinking, malcontents.
Let's just save you the time of having to arrest and re-educate the lowest scum in your Perfect Society(tm) while giving you the best of the best of ours. It's a win-win for everyone!
Maybe even do bulk swaps at the city level, like San Francisco for Hong Kong.
I'm pretty sure all states' abortion laws include exemptions for rape/incest, medically necessary situations (ie, ectopic pregnancies).
As for the "disabled" part, how screwed would we be if Stephen Hawkings's parents had said, "Oh no! ALS? Yeah, might as well just hit the delete key now. Save everyone the hassle that's just going to end up in pain and misery."
And if you just want to off a child or you were hoping for a kid with green eyes, there's still like 16 states you can choose from to find a nice hospital with a credentialed physician to help you slake your thirst for innocent life all the way up to the 3rd trimester.
TBH, I hadn't noticed that.
What I did notice is the suspect is screwing around with a cellphone, and after seeing how big that geo-fencing stuff was for 2KM and J6 evidence I'm left wondering how no one at the FBI noticed it either, and why this is still a mystery after a year and a half.
I'm also wondering how many phones at the Capital on J6 end up being paid for by the DoJ, FBI, and how many foreign SIM cards were hanging around that day.
Can't wait to see the doors to the House chamber kick open as Durham marches in wearing Ultimate Warrior facepaint and just starts slamming people while some CSPAN commentator with a high pitched voice starts screaming, "OH! You can't do that! YOU CAN'T DO THAT!!"
The IRS Criminal Investigation agents are armed and considered law enforcement. There's around 3230 special agents. 700,000 rounds / 3230 agents = 216.718 rounds per agent.
If they do have to hold out against millions of citizens uprising against the injustice of the tax code they won't be doing it long, and the won't be doing it with the benefit of a whole lot practice, either.
IMO, the thing to be freaking out over isn't the 700,000 rounds the IRS bought, but rather WTF do they need 3230 special agents for? Why aren't they cooperating with other agencies who have core competencies that include gunfights? Why can't we bust that number down to like 500 and have them buddy up with a US Marshal or local PD to do the takedowns? Especially since the local PD is probably rocking barely used military surplus hardware?
If this counts as an "attempt", then it's probably way higher than that. Secession is one of those things that's routinely brought up when folks are feeling raw about something and while there may be a lot emotional/sentimental support, it's got less of a chance than a naked Mouseketeer at a DNC Conference.
As for whether it's "legal" or not, that's really more a matter of 'might makes right', isn't it? I mean, China says Taiwan is illegal, but international opinion backed the support of foreign militaries kind of makes China's internal legal opinion as to the status of Taiwan irrelevant, que no?
Europe stayed out of the Civil War because they correctly sensed it was going to be a shit show, the US wasn't the world's sole superpower with a couple of eager contenders for the title, and the South's only real resource to trade with internationally was cotton. Today, it's a massive amount oil, two space launch ports, several major shipping ports, world class tech hubs, and cutting edge medical research... appeals to the UN for support might be more successful and with strong central leadership could possibly prevent a shooting war.
So who knows?
My druthers would be fixing the US and kicking off a golden age of prosperity and enlightenment for everyone, but that's just me.
I will never forget huddling up under a blanket with my niece and nephew, trying to keep them warm through yet another blackout during Snowpocalypse, using the last of my phone's fading battery to check in and see if there was any word on when the water service might be restored. I hit his twitter feed to see if he had any news, only to find a picture of the absolutely beautiful and delicious looking tomahawk steak he'd had that night and decided to food blog.
He also did nothing to get the EPA to budge on the excessive fines they laid down on ERCOT for daring to exceed their carbon emission quotas to try and get people some relief during the storm, either.
2A defense and support was the one, miniscule thing we had left to expect out of him, and Big John can't even swing that... instead of holding the line, he's the first one rushing across the aisle to roll over on his back for a tummy rub.
SecDef Austin was/is involved with Raytheon. I think he was on the board.
When Warren "called him out", he basically said that he'd refrain from voting. Which, uhhhhh... isn't the problem, dude. The problem is that we have a SecDef who's profitting from purchases made by his command to a vendor.
The more ammo he can dump through active combat, "supporting" allies, or just leaving on the ground and writing off, the bigger the replacement order is going to be, the more money he makes.
Pretty sure Gen. "Pleasin' Treason" Milley has a similar sweetheart deal.
Why is the state of the country on us? Why didn't you stand up and stop the primary from being flat-out stolen from Bernie?
Did you think the 2020 general election was the first time they pulled the 2000 mules stunt? Did you not find it suspect that The Bern was leading this massive rally from behind and was laying all the other candidates out, but somehow Captain Lid-Day managed to slowly overtake him despite no one actually liking him?
Biden ascending to the position is on YOUR head. You had a chance to stick up for what you really wanted, but they told you to vote for Biden to put him in position, so you did.
You ordered this pizza, not us... you eat it.
Yes, yes, most of the common items you proles buy are seeing a little of that non-transitory transitory inflation, but overall the inflation averages out to a reasonable 8.6%.
Like, for example, the used VHS cassette market is actually showing deflationary numbers.
And the price of those $10,000 cat vomit flavored jelly beans that can only be bought at the precise moment a full moon is occluding the Pegasus galaxy have remained fairly stable, too.
There also hasn't been much increase in some of the service industries, either. It still costs the same price to have a dominatrix duct tape a badget to your crotch as it did in 1937.
So stop being Debbie Downer and trying to cause a bank run before we're ready.
The end scene with Eddie Willers breaks my heart. :(
But you can't let them use your empathy to hold ya hostage.