WELCOME BACK, CARTER: Tool de Force: CNN’s John Harwood Defends Biden, Insists Inflation Pain Is a GOP ‘Charade.’

Flashbacks:

● CNBC Hack John Harwood Is Really, Really Upset That Al-Baghdadi Was Killed.

● NYT/CNBC’S John Harwood Advises Hillary Campaign, Gloats About Provoking Trump At Debate.

● CNBC’s John Harwood Has No Business Moderating A GOP Presidential Debate.

● CNBC Alters Transcript of John Harwood Question About Hillary’s Email.

● “Everyone in the [CNBC] newsroom knows [John Harwood is] extremely far left.”

UPDATE: CNN’s John Harwood used to think that higher inflation was a bad thing (guess what changed).

(Updated and bumped.)

BUILD BACK BRANDON: It’s not just electricity. We’re heading for shortages of diesel, jet fuel and gasoline.

Our total operating refinery capacity dropped by 4.5 percent between 2020 and 2021 to 17.7 million barrels per day. That’s the lowest level we’ve seen since 2013. The current U.S. stockpile of diesel fuel is at a nearly two-decade low. The distilled fuel oil stockpile also declined precipitously. Meanwhile, the price of jet fuel has been rising due to supply and demand issues. Because the vast majority of food and other goods are all transported by a combination of aircraft and trucks (the vast majority of which use diesel), when those prices rise, the cost of everything goes up. And when the supply of those fuels falters, the supply chain shuts down. We already saw examples of this over the past six months. If something doesn’t change, it’s going to get worse.

All of this is taking place during the same period of time when President Biden has canceled three oil and gas lease sales.

Crises by design: Biden praises high gas prices as part of ‘incredible transition’ of the US economy away from fossil fuels.

AMERICA’S NEWSPAPER OF RECORD: Law & Order: Microaggression Victims Unit (Video).

GOD AND MAN AT THE SAN FRANCISCO EXAMINER: SF Examiner editorial board demands Pope remove archbishop who barred Pelosi from communion over abortion.

K-12 IMPLOSION UPDATE: Philadelphia Reimposes School Mask Mandate.

TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE! White House performs cleanup after Biden says US military would defend Taiwan.

YOU AND I HAVE A RENDEZVOUS WITH SCARCITY: The Age of Scarcity Begins for the Global Economy.

Unless you’re part of the nomenklatura, of course:

I HOPE WE’RE NOT TOO MESSIANIC, OR A TRIFLE TOO SATANIC: Christian influencer warns that ‘Yoga Barbie’ doll spreads Satanism.

REPUBLICANS POUNCE: Who Among Us Has Not Chased Down an Unarmed Black Jogger with a Shotgun?

Oh, and [far-left PA Democrat Senate candidate John Fetterman] chased down a black jogger with a loaded shotgun in 2013. The jogger said Fetterman pointed the shotgun at his chest; Fetterman denies this but allows that his intent was to detain the jogger. At the time, Fetterman was mayor of a small town in Pennsylvania. Trip Gabriel of the New York Times frets, “The GOP use of this 2013 incident . . . has begun.” Gabriel previously published a detailed account of this episode that puts the gentlest imaginable spin on events but . . . Fetterman chased down an innocent, unarmed black jogger with a shotgun and detained him.  

Evergreen:

WHY ELIZABETH WARREN’S NEW ‘ANTI-INFLATION’ PLAN WOULD FAIL MISERABLY:  “So, under Warren’s legislation, we would see more shortages and rationing. This isn’t just economic theory. It’s reality. Peer-reviewed research has shown that during the pandemic, states with similar ‘anti-price-gouging’ laws saw more shortages of COVID-19-related goods such as hand sanitizer than states without them.”

OUT ON A LIMB: They Want You to Suffer.

That’s the President of the United States calling the $5.00 a gallon gasoline that is crushing Americans an “incredible transition.” And lest anyone think I’m misreading him, he means it exactly as it sounds and says as much by citing that we’ll become “less reliant” on fossil fuels in the end.

In other words, this is all intentional. Biden and his handlers saw an opportunity to destroy the energy market and have done everything in their power to make that a reality. The most recent example came after the administration canceled more oil and gas leases that could have helped relieve price pressures long-term.

* * * * * * * *

We’ve moved past the point of simple political disagreement and into the realm of purposeful sabotage in order to obtain a delusional partisan goal. They aren’t even hiding the ball anymore. These people want you to suffer.

Related: Ouch: Ron Klain’s 2021 tweet bragging about gas prices soon ‘tumbling below $3’ makes new brutally hilarious rounds on Twitter.

GOVERNOR OF GEORGIA HAS HER “DEPLORABLES” MOMENT: Stacey Abrams Calls Georgia The ‘Worst State In the Country’ As She Runs For Governor.

Not only that, I’ve heard from the president of United Earth that it’s the worst state in the entire United Federation of Planets, to boot.

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Huge Jif peanut butter recall after salmonella outbreak in 12 states — Here’s how to check yours.

I’M SENSING A THEME HERE:

● WSJ Editors Eviscerate Hillary, Lapdog Media in Blistering Op-Ed About Russia Collusion Lies.

—Mike Miller, RedState, today.

● We Know for Sure: The Media, the Democrats, and Joe Biden LIED About EVERYTHING Concerning Hunter.

—Warner Todd Huston, The Lid today.

Just think of the media as Democratic Party operatives with bylines, and it all makes sense.

Evergreen:

THE 21st CENTURY IS NOT TURNING OUT AS I HAD HOPED: Pride festival in Gran Canaria — which was attended by 80,000 people — is linked to Spanish monkeypox outbreak as well as two cases in Italy while European total reaches 100.

UPDATE: After 100 Monkeypox Cases Reported in Europe, WHO Calls Emergency Meeting. “Monkeypox causes a wide array of symptoms (headaches, muscle aches, fever), but is most noted for skin lesions that are usually seen after 1 7-14 day incubation period. Normally, there are few cases detected outside of Africa. That was, until 2022.”

FINALLY: Jurassic Park Gets Canceled.

The supposed issue revolves around the age difference at the time the movie was filmed between leading lady Laura Dern and leading man Sam Neill. According to an interview in the Sunday Times’ Culture section with the actor and actress, that’s now an example of the toxic patriarchy.

The Sunday Times noted that “Laura Dern was 23 when she starred in Jurassic Park with Sam Neill, who is 20 years older.”

I’ll admit to being completely confused by this. How is it the patriarchy to have a younger woman making millions of dollars to be a star in a movie that is co-starred by an older man? Is the suggestion here that she shouldn’t have ever been given the role? That seems rather silly and self-defeating. Of course, she’s only saying this 29 years later, after she’s been made fabulously wealthy by the long-running popularity of “Jurassic Park.”

Besides, when you are casting, you are casting for the part, not who the actor/actress may or may not be in real life. On the other side of this debate, older women are often cast to play younger women. Is that out of bounds now? And as to Dern, she played a character who was an accomplished P.hD in her field. She presented as someone in her early 30s in the movie, both in her stated experience and her appearance. Even still, in the film itself, Dern wasn’t even in a relationship with Neill’s character.

So again, what exactly is the problem here? It’s now the patriarchy when a younger woman is cast to play opposite an older man? Dern cites this “moment of cultural awareness,” but I’d suggest this is just the ultimate example of inventing victimhood out of thin air. A 23-year-old getting rich starring in a movie is not a victim.

Considering that Cary Grant was 58 and Audrey Hepburn was 33 when they filmed Charade in 1963, better buy a copy on Blu-Ray before that once-classic film gets memory-holed as well.

ANNALS OF LEFTIST AUTOPHAGY: Antifa protests World Economic Forum in Davos.

OKAY, GROOMERS: National Science Teachers Association (NSTA) Guide Advises Against the Use of “Parent,” “Male,” Female,” “Mother” and “Father.”

WHO YOU GONNA CALL? Touring Ray Parker Jr.’s Epic Home Studio:

GOOD AND HARD, AUSTRALIA: ‘Greenslide’ in Oz Dumps Scott Morrison. “Unfortunately, we now have a Labor government committed to a 43 percent reduction in emissions by 2030, with up to twelve Greens and green-minded independents in the parliament who think much more ambitiously. They variously want something between sixty and seventy-five percent. Meanwhile the Liberals are tortured. Should they try to outbid the Teals next time to get those blue-ribbon seats back? Hold on, there’s no outbidding the Teals. Should they then try for those working-class outer-suburban seats, which they’ve never won, by going back to traditional conservative values and common sense? A Trumpian strategy. Seems farfetched. There will be no path back for the Liberals, while “climate change” is the cause du jour.”

BERLIN AIRLIFT IN REVERSE: U.S. Flying Baby Formula From Germany. “There’s some irony in the news today about U.S. military planes flying baby formula from Germany to Indiana. Only this time, the threat isn’t from a foreign power. The threat is from the criminal incompetence of the Biden administration, which ignored the baby formula crisis for months until the media began to report on it.”

UPDATE: As Hot Air’s Allahpundit noted last week, “America doesn’t need a mind-reader as president. It needs a Wall Street Journal reader. Per Jim Geraghty, the Journal had a story about the formula shortage back on … January 12.” And if the Journal is too right-leaning for Brandon’s White House, their cheerleaders at CNN were running articles on baby formula shortages as early as November 16th of last year: Baby formula is getting harder to find.

QUESTION ASKED: Can Adults No Longer Consent?

I take it there is no dispute that Sabatini’s and Knouse’s “fling” was consensual. Rather, Knouse now says that Sabatini “groomed” her into a sexual relationship. It’s a novel theory, but let’s do the math. Sabatini is now 54 years old, and Knouse is 21 years his junior. Their consensual relationship began in 2018. So Knouse would have been 29 years old–a little long in the tooth for “grooming.”

Currently, there is a battle going on in Florida over grooming of 5 to 8 year olds in the public schools, where some teachers want to instruct small children in deviant sexual practices. Liberals vehemently oppose any bans on such grooming. On the other hand, liberals say, “grooming” of a 29-year-old scientist? Outrageous! Ban the groomer for life!

* * * * * * * *

The liberals’ underlying assumption is that women can never be adults. No matter how old they may be, no matter how many graduate degrees they may amass, women are never free actors. They can only, ever, be playthings in the hands of men. Do you believe that? Probably not, but that is what liberals think, and our culture is awash in such nonsense.

But all of this presupposes that the left has any biologists available who can answer another burning question of 2022: What is a woman?

OLD AND BUSTED: Learn to Code.

The New Hotness? Learn What’s a Joke! This story about the NLRB going after the Federalist over a tweet is outrageous.

It was a joke on Twitter, an obvious one, but a left-wing activist decided it was a violation of the law and made it into a federal case which took nearly three years for the courts to set straight.

The whole thing started in 2019 when employees at Vox staged a walkout:

More than 300 Vox Media employees staged a walkout on Thursday as staffers and management failed to come to an agreement for a union contract after more than a year of negotiations.

The walkouts affected Vox Media’s group of popular websites – such as Vox, SBNation, The Verge, Eater, Recode, Curbed, and others – and some were not publishing new content on Thursday.

“Our unit members are taking their sites dark today to show management how important these issues are to us,” tweeted the account for the Vox Media Union.

Ben Domenech, publisher of the Federalist, found it amusing that a left-leaning, pro-union website was being shut down over union troubles and he posted a joke about it on Twitter:

Read the whole thing.

DISPATCHES FROM THE INTERSECTION OF TRUNALIMUNUMAPRZURE AND HYGIENE THEATER:

21st CENTURY HEADLINES: Nearly 50 years ago, astronomers detected what is considered the best evidence of an alien radio signal from space. Now one astronomer says he may have found the star system where it came from.