Hold The Line w/ Buck Sexton - 06-22-22

effectively decriminalize a whole range of crimes. And we are now seeing mounting evidence, as if we didn't have enough already, of just how catastrophic this is. Coast to coast and all around the country. For one thing, the twenty twenty to twenty twenty one crime surge and folved a thirty percent national increase in homicide. But if you look year over year, six months into this point, what you find is that we are still not only at record high

levels of crime nationally. There are a number of cities, they're all in the hands of Democrat, they all have progressive prosecutors, they are a function of and a province of Democrat governance, and thinking they actually have worse crime year over year to last year, which was a catastrophically bad year for them. Baltimore. This is from Fox News. Baltimore, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Atlanta, and New York City are all on pace to break their twenty twenty one

levels of violent crime halfway through this year. The nation's largest city, leading the group Coordiny crime data compiled by Fox News, New York City has seen a twenty five percent jump in violent crime at this point in twenty twenty two, six months in compared at the same time in twenty twenty one, despite seeing a small decreasing the

amount of homicides recorded in the city. So violence and lawlessness on the rise, and again in cities where democrats just a few years ago we're touting their new no cash bail policies, their lower prosecution rates and lower incarceration rates for criminal offenders. Well, now we see what the results of this are, and it's predictable and it's tragic. Now there has to be accountability. Here's just to give

you a sense of some of the increases. Remember these are year over year increases from twenty twenty one, which is one of the worst years ever for violent crime, at least in let's say thirty or forty years in America. Atlanta is up five point five percent year over year, Baltimore six percent, Philadelphia seven Los Angeles eight percent, Washing DC twelve percent, New York City twenty five percent. Now

this is a particularly big problem. This is particularly a big challenge for the city to explain because they have a new mayor right here, they are looking at this situation. Look at the circumstance where they the people of New York elected a former police captain to become the mayor of New York City so that he could crack down on violent crime. And sure enough, it is actually going in the opposite direction. And this is also for Fox News.

Los Angeles, Washington, DC, Baltimore, Milwaukee, and Atlanta have all seen homicide numbers outpaced their mark in twenty twenty one, Milwaukee seeing the largest spike of the group, according to crime data. So this is now specifically on homicide. You have Los Angeles, DC, Baltimore, Milwaukee, Atlanta more murders this year. Now I understand you look at this data and you say, well, this is just a procious and everybody can understand that. Everybody can see what an outrage this is. So how

do we change it well. One way to change it would be to stop instituting maniacally reckless policies at the level of city y police department policy, mayoral offices, prosecutors' offices. Here's an example. The Chicago Police Department has unveiled a new policy prohibiting its officers from chasing people on foot simply because they run away or because they have committed

minor offenses. So now, if a officer in Chicago see someone, let's say, steal a purse from somebody or run out of a store with a bagfull of stolen goods, it is now official policy, as it seems, from the City

of Chicago, that that officer should not give chase. And by the way, even if under the rules and regulations, the officer could justify giving chase, would he or she want to knowing that that chase could result in a physical altercation of some kind, and that if the basis for the chase was ruled invalid under departmental regulation, there's always the possibility of some kind of discipline being meted out really, of course, for political reasons against that officer.

So what do you have. You have fewer people who are carrying a badge and a gun in Chicago. And this is true in so many cities who are willing to do aggressive, effective policing against the criminal element that exists in every society and that unfortunately has been emboldened so much in hours. But there are some, I mean, here's the Chicago Police superintendent who says that the foot

pursuit policy makes officers and the community safer. Why And I just want to add as an overview for pursuit policies have been part of law enforces over a decade now. Just because Chicaglo PD is now implementing a permanent when the impacts on crime has been studied and we can look back at foot pursuit policies, it's made officers safer and it's made the community safer in cities that's implementing

this so for a decade. So the expectation for us is, like Bob mentioned, what we're learned and be informed by our documentation and review of how to continue to enhance officers safety as well as enhanced safety of our residents. Fascinating that someone could say that and think that it doesn't sound utterly moronic. How does it make the city safer? It may reduce officer involved officer involved altercations, of course, because they're not enforcing the law. But what does that

do to the law in the city. What does it do to criminality? What happens with those who are now emboldened to break the law more than every because they know they won't be chased. What we've seen is actually these cities deteriorating from a safety perspective. What we've seen is a massive increase in lawlessness. He's gonna say there's a foot patrol policy that is provably better, just absurd. It's just a stupid thing to say, and yet he says it and people are going to go along with it.

You have to wonder, of course, there was a high profile chase that did involve two individuals who had guns, and there there were shots fired by police in response to this huge political uproar of this. That's what the foot chase policies all about, and that's why it's becoming permanent right now. And then you also have it's not just that at the command level of major police departments in Democrat cities. You also have the progressive prosecutors like

George Gascon. As we know chessa Budan in San Francisco is out because people got sick of stepping over needles with their children in public parks, and their houses being broken into constantly, their cars being broken into constantly, the assaults,

the constant threats. It was enough, right well, Los Angeles has many of the same problems, and recently Gascone, the DA came under a lot of well deserved heat because he led gang member who under law, should have been sentenced under a three strikes law let a gang member out who then killed two cops. And Gascone, who is the worst a disgrace to any prosecutorial outfit anywhere in the country, is defending it, saying, yeah, we did the right thing with that gang member who then killed two cops.

Watch this do the outcome in this particular case, given what we knew then, no history of violence, very little contact with a criminal justice system for nearly ten years was appropriate. When people are arrested for serious crimes, we work hard to ensure that there are serious consequences, including lengthy periods of incarceration, But we have an imperfect system. And that's not only hear in Laus everywhere. He's the disgrace.

He should resign, and the fact that he won't just shows what an unethical piece of garbage he is as a prosecutor. We'll have more on this with retired FBI agent James Gagliano in just a moment. Let's talk about protecting your home for a minute. You know that I'm skeptical by nature, So when I first heard about home tittle theft and the idea that thieves can literally steal your home, I was like, really, and some cybercriminal really forged my name off the tittle of my home and

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with Manscape. Violent crime is a major national news story because of exactly the statistics we've been talking to you about on this show. Unprecedented increases in shootings, in murders, and this is across the country, major cities, and it continued beyond the horrific year of a thirty percent nationwide increase in twenty twenty to twenty twenty one. What can we do to combat the situation, and also want to talk about the latest updates from Uvalde. We're joined now

by James Gagliano. He is a retired FBI agent was a member of an FBI hostage rescue team during his time serving. James, thanks for being with us. Did join you Buck as always, So let's just start with the crime data. Looking at the numbers you have even compared to last year was a terrible year nationwide, cities, towns, rural. There were spikes in crime really all over the country starting in twenty twenty and going through twenty twenty one.

But here we are in twenty twenty two in the data in Atlanta, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, DC, New York all showing year over year increases. So it's not like we had a really bad year, We've got it under control. It's actually continuing to get worse in these cities. First off, is that surprising to you just from a criminal justice statistical perspective? And what do you think is pushing these numbers even higher than we've seen them. Yeah, it is

no surprise to me, Buck, absolutely not. There's two things that drive this. One is a permissive environment, because criminals, evildoers, they take the path of least resistance and they will take what you give them. And when you have this influx of progressive prosecutors. And we know that in San Francisco,

chase of Bodin was just recalled. We know that George Gascone in Los Angeles is under fire right now for the fact that he let out a felon who was arrested with a gun and drugs and gave improbation, and that felon went on to kill two police officers recently. You've got Alvin Bragg in Manhattan. You've got Kim Fox in Chicago, You've got Larry Krasner in Philadelphia. These folks, we live in a society where our criminal justice system is imperfect, but it is the best in the world.

But it depends buck on an advertarial adversarial system where the defense has an opportunity to make their case, but the prosecutution represents me and you and the rest of the public, and when the prosecution helps makes the defenses case. That's why we're seeing all these numbers driven up right now. There is no fear right now, there's no repercussions. That's why smashing grabs are going on, grand theft auto is up,

robberies are up. It's because people understand there's a permissive environment and they're going to do whatever it takes to get away with things because they know there are no consequences.

But from a criminal justice perspective, how do you assess new policies that have been put in place in cities like Chicago, where they now have a no foot chase rule, and that extent for for police, meaning that if police believe that somebody is in the course of committing a crime or has committed a crime and runs from them, unless they think it's a serious violent felony that has occurred or the person poses an immediate threat to the public,

the cops aren't even supposed to run after individuals. So you see this, you say, okay, So, let's say a group of organized retail theft and organized retail theft gang goes into one of those fancy handback stores and steals one hundred thousand dollars of stuff in three or four minutes, as they've done in downtown Chicago, for example. Cops arrive on the scene, those individuals run with those handbags. The

cops aren't allowed to chase them. How is there any law and order when that's the policy of the city of Chicago. Yeah. Again, it speaks to It speaks to the fact that the criminal element understands and senses weakness, and in this instance, that's what it is. Look Alvin Bragg in Manhattan, the DA there put out a policy memorandum right after he's elected and stated that he was

not going to be seeking prosecutions for resisting arrest. So what does that tell the potential subject, Hey, I've got a chance to get away, and if I don't get away and I club police officer on the head with a cudgel or punch him in the face, I'm not going to be prosecuted for it. Same thing in Chicago.

Cops have a tough job. We all know that you and I have discussed this many times before, but now they have to make not just the snap judgments that come with the information vacuum they're dealing with when they respond to a crime in progress, but they've got to determine was this an aggravated assault or simple assault. If it's an aggregated aggravated assault, then I can take off and try to catch this guy. If not, I might be subjecting myself to some type of legal ramifications. At

the end of this, it's not worth it. And when you sense that the police departments are having a tough time now with recruiting, they're having a tough time with retention that people are leaving in droves, and police departments are having trouble recruiting young people men and women, to come and be part of this. What does that say. It means we're in a bad spot right now and we've got to change this. But the pendulum always swing

back and course correct. We're going in a bad direction right now, just like we were in the seventies and the eighties and then broken windows became a thing. We don't need to reinvent the wheel. We need to use what worked, things like broken windows policing and I since a lot of cities are going to be moving back to that line of thought pretty soon, James warned to switch to another really important and very difficult topic of the latest on the Uval Day School massacre police response.

There is video now that shows individuals from law enforcement essentially in a stacked position in the hallway and he's ready to go in. They waited for over an hour. Here's the Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steve McGraw saying the suspect could have been stopped within three minute. Why there's compelling evidence at the law enforcement response to the attack at rob Elementary was an abject failure and anathetical to everything we've learned over the last two decades

since the Call of Mine. Massacre three minutes after the subject under the West Building, there a sufficient number of armed officers wearing body armor to isolate, distract, and neutralize the subject. The only thing stopping the hallway of dedicated officers from any room one eleven and one twelve was the unseen commander who decided to place the lives of officers before the lives of children. I mean, that is a stunning indictment to say that he placed the lives

of officers over the lives of children. Based on the facts, though, James, is that just an honest assessment of what happened here? Given that there's video, there's no question and the timeline is not in dispute either, that you had multiple officers in the hallway with long guns and tactical shields and bullet resistant kevlar vests on who waited over an hour while there were still active shooting going on in that classroom. How did this happen? What do you think about this? Police? Well,

I agree with him right there. It was an abject failure. And Buck, I think you know me well enough to know now, I'm very careful on waiting to weigh in until all the facts are at hand, and I know that there is an ongoing investigation. Pieces are leaking out. The things that are leaking out are beyond stressing. They

are it's unconscionable. Now. I think the biggest breakdown in the incident command system here was the fact that you had a police chief who had a six member police department for the school district, and this police chief, Aridondo, who was the unseen commander and making the calls throughout. Now from the time the shooter entered the school until the shooter was neutralized interdicted by a Customs and Border Patrol TAC team I believe was the total of seventy

seven minutes. The fact that post Columbine Post Columbine, which happened in April of nineteen ninety nine, we are twenty three years past that where we learned ainful lessons when law enforcement officers waited in the parking lot for homogeneous tactical team to show up and gave the shooters forty seven minutes from entry to commit heinous crimes killing people, teachers, killing us students. In this instance, I think it was a lesson learned for all of us here, but especially

a painful one in law enforcement. Someone from one of the other agencies that respond, whether it was a federal agency like Customs and Border Protection or the Department of Public Safety for Texas, which is a much larger agency. A sergeant or lieutenant there is the equivalent of a police chief anywhere else, should have taken charge of the scene.

And yes, Buck, to your point, they should have gone to the sound of the guns when young children who are not outfitted in body armor and are covering up with notebooks and chiefs of paper are waiting on the perfect homogeneous tactical team to make entry. Buck, we're doing it wrong. James, appreciate the expertise. Thanks for being with us, Thanks for having me, bubb Coming up, the Senate has advanced a bipartisan gun control measure. What will this really do,

if anything. We'll talk to Cam Edwards of Bearing Arms dot Com next. At first, I want to talk to you you about protecting your online data. A lot of companies promise your privacy is guaranteed, but we know that's not true. That's why you need a new privacy and cybersecurity application tool called Secure. It's spelled SEK. You are. Secure is using proprietary encryption and offering secure instant messaging and email.

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Expanded background checks for buyers under twenty one, provides grants for states that implement their own red flag laws, etc. Etc. A lot of things going on here. Fourteen Republicans, mental health services, things like that. Fourteen Republicans went along with it. Which a lot of people on the writers saying, what the heck is going on here? Well, when we have a question like that and it has to do with the Second Amendment, gotta ask our buddy, dam Edwards, damn,

what's going on? Hey? Buck? Hey, why are you man? So? First off, any surprises on the Republicans who went along with this, Yeah, Tidy Young of Indiana was a bit of a surprise, although I didn't see a quote from him I think on Monday or Tuesday of this week that indicated like he was, you know, looking forward to seeing what they came up with, So he was a bit of a surprise. Murkowski was not as much of

a surprise to me. And then you know, let's we've had ten Republicans who sat all along like as as long as the final legislation followed that basic framework that they were in support, So I wasn't too surprised. I actually predicted before a vote was held yesterday that this would get sixty five votes and get in sixty four, so I was pretty close. I was one off. So now we are at this point where people of course have been saying until today, well, you don't even know

what's in it. Because the text is in public, so you're just going on you know, hearsay or whatever. Right, this is how the people that want this stuff to pass play games in the media. Now they've actually got a text, now they've actually voted on it. They dropped it, as i'ner stand it last night, eighty pages, so very little time even for the Senate staffers, never mind the senators themselves to go over this and see what's it it based on what we know, Kim, what's in it?

And even more importantly, how do you see this actually being implemented or what happens now if this gets signed, which we believe it will by Biden in the law. Well, I think the biggest impact that folks are going to see right away is going to be the expanded background

checks for eighteen, nineteen, and twenty year olds. So if you're an adult under the age of twenty one and you go to buy a firearm, you're going to see an immediate impact, right because we're basically talking about a three day waiting period, potentially as many as ten business days while the FBI goes into your juvenile records to see if there was any sort of juvenile crime that would make you prohibit or promoning a firearm as far

as adults go. There's also a change in the definition of who is is engaged in the business of selling firearms right because once you're engaged in the business, you have to be a federal firearms license. And it's still not a hardened fast rule, like they didn't say if you sell more than fifty guns a year you need to get an FL. Basically, the new definition is if you are selling guns primarily for profit, then you should

be getting an FL. So, you know, I could see that some gun owners who have quite an extensive collection, who may sell a arm from their private collection on a semi regular basis, I can see that the ATF would now consider them to be a firearms dealer and they would need to get an FL. As far as the red flag stuff goes, I gotta tell you, I don't know that we're going to see a whole lot of changes, because you know, this is left up to the states as to whether or not they want to

implement these red flag laws. States are also eligible now for the same pool of grant money for programs that don't involve confiscating firearms without due process protection. So things like veterans courts, another christ centtervenged programs. If states want to adopt those strategies, they're still eligible for that pool of federal grant funds. So I don't think we're going to see an explosion of red states adopting red flag laws.

Most of the blue states already have them in place, and I think that that's actually well, it's a troubling part of the bill. I don't know how much real world impact it's going to have, at least right away. Dam here's Senator Chuck Schumer. I mean, on this point about what it does, the answer is obviously not a lot that good. If anything that's good or useful might annoy some people or create some hassle's delays for the law abiding, it seems very unlikely this is going to

stop even one shooting. I don't know. I mean, I suppose they're always going to operate under the theoretical premise that, well, it could create a circumstance, right, we'll see. But also this isn't the end of it either. I mean, it's not like Democrats now are going to surround and say we got bipartisan gun reform. We're good now. This is just okay, step one in a much longer journey for disarming the American people. I mean, here's Chuck Schumer saying,

this is just the beginning. Folks. Why while it's not everything we want, this legislation is urgently needed. I'm pleased that for the first time in nearly thirty years, Congress is back on the path to take meaningful action to address gun violence. What do you think, Yeah, listen, here's the thing, and you're right. And this is where we get into the politics right as opposed to the policy of this legislation, and the politics I think are pretty

simple for both sides here. Democrats are looking for something that they can call a win, that they can present to their base and say, look, we're not completely inept. Look we can actually get stuff done. Please come out and vote for us come November. And this is it. Republicans. Meanwhile, I've had a lot of folks ask me, Okay, well,

what are Republicans got out of this? I think you have to look at the polls that we've seen, particularly since Guivaldi, showing that crime and quote gun violence has become one of the top concerns of voters. It's not as high as inflation. It's not as high as the economy, but it is on the mind of voters. And look,

this is a red wave environment for Republicans. They're looking to try to increase their margins, increase their majorities, and if they feel like they can win more votes by approving this deal than they're going to lose from single issue second amendment voters. Listen, you're going to see the murder turtle, Mitch McConnell, roll the dice and take that bet.

I think that is the political calculation for Republicans that most single issue two way voters are not going to stay at home on election day because their matter Republicans for voting for this deal. They still want to vote Democrats out. They are tired of five dollars a gallon gas. And Frankly, and I hate to say this, I'm not sure how many single issue voters there are right now unless that single is you is the economy or inflation.

You know that's impacting all of us. And I think that it's given Republicans a little bit of wiggle room to play for the middle as opposed to try to appease the base. Yeah, it seems like I think that's various student analysis. Mitch McConnell certainly has no fear about what this will do to his reelection prospects. He put out a statement, I support the bill texts at Senator

reported in our colleagues have produced. For years, the far left falsely claimed that Congress could only address the terrible issue of mass murders by trampling on law abiding americans constitutional rights. This bill proves that false. Our colleagues have put together a common sense package of popular steps that will help make these horrifying incidents less likely while upholding Second Amendment rights of law abiding citizens. I honestly just

don't believe they're going to make them less likely. I think that's a huge leap. But even apart from that, the notion that this in some way will result in good faith from the Democrats. Now, okay, Republicans don't just want to watch lots of people die in gun violence all of the country and do nothing. We're not going to use that talking point anymore. No, they're going to use that talking point tomorrow. Cam You and I both

know it absolutely. But now Republicans can say, no, they're wrong. Look, we took action right, So no, They're not going to convince Democrats, but they may convince independence. Right, they may be able to convince folks who were on the fence or maybe not even thinking about voting this year. Although I don't have any Americans, there are like that out

there these days. Again, I think this was a sort of a political prevent defense move on the part of Republicans, right, They're they're they're just trying to appear not crazy or at least less crazy than Democrats, and to give that that that sort of you know, moderate squishy middle another reason to vote for them. And now when Democrats say Republicans don't care about your kids, Republicans can say, yeah, we do, because look at what we did. We just

spend seven billion dollars for school safety. We just know, prove mental health access for adolescents who are at risk. So you know, they checked the box here as far as how effective these policies are going to be. Look, Expanded background checks for eighteen, nineteen, and twenty year olds might pick up some teenagers who were convicted of some pretty aineous crimes who you know, are now free and cleared to buy a gun as an eighteen year old.

Maybe that stops somebody. I'd like to think, you know, I'd like to think that the additional mental health spending, if it doesn't stop a school shooter, maybe it stopped somebody from killing themselves. Right, maybe it stops somebody from bullying another kid. I don't know. Is that worth seven billion dollars? I don't know. You know, again, I would have preferred to have seen each and every one of these things broken out and voted on on a standalone basis.

But Democrats every would have gone along with that because then their gun control a part of the package would have failed. Right, So this is the political calculation that was made for Democrats and for Republicans. Am I satisfied with the bill? No? Is that unusual for me to

be dissatisfied with Congress? No? So, you know, unfortunately, I think even though you know, Chuck, she was talking about how this is like the biggest thing to happen in gun control in thirty years, I think this is still gonna be status quo for a lot of folks who follow politics closely. You know, we're watching watching NDC A treat what is I think a very real problem through a political lens, and I think that that stopping is from actually reaching some of the real solutions that we

should be looking for. Damn, next time, you have to give you the secrets of how to grow a beard that long, so I can kind of up my game here a little bit. But we appreciate you join Haitians patients. That's all it takes. Yeah, thanks Bud, Thank you, my friend. All right, coming up, Biden talks about a gas tax Is that really going to do anything. We'll discuss that with Jeff Dice of the Kneeses Institute. Thick around. You were to decide to go for a federal gas tax holiday,

do you believe Congress would support that? And how would you feel about the fact that Bose funds are used for something that is a big priority for you to pare of roads and infrastructure and all of that. Is that word. Look, it will have some impact, but it's not going to impact on major road construction in major repairs. A decision, Well, let me put this way. I'm in the process. I'll have a decision before the week is out.

President Biden saying we got to have a little gas tax holiday because the price of gas is so high right now, and the biggest problem for Democrats is that they're getting blamed for it because you know, they're in power and they've made a whole bunch of bad decisions. Well, let's talk about what this would actually mean. Join me now as the president of the Mesa's Institute, Jeff Dice. Jeff, thanks for being with us. Thank you very much for having me, Buck. So let's just start with this, the

notion of a gas tax holiday. What would this mean? How does it strike? Well, I wouldn't mean a lot for average people. We're just talking about the federal end of things. If you happen to live in California or Pennsylvania, for example, you're getting charged more than fifty cents per gallon at the state level, So this is eighteen point four cents. At the federal level, it'd be a couple dollars per phillip. Hey, I'll take it. You know, in

terms of revenue, it's almost meaningless. A few billion dollars a month. The federal government sneezes a few billion dollars a day. I mean. But what's so interesting about this, Buck is Biden doesn't really believe in this. I mean, he campaigned on getting rid of fossil fuels. So when he talks about this sort of thing, it's just it's an obvious political point. I guess we should appreciate that he's actually sentient enough at the moment to make a

political calculation. It shows more spark than he's shown of late. And one of the issues that the Democrats have right now to tackle. There are a lot of issues, right, Jeff. But one thing they gotta make sense of is that it was it long ago that Barack Obama himself was making the case that a gas tax change of any kind really was a gimmick. This was the word that

he used back in two thousand and eight one. But for us to suggest that thirty cents a day for three months is real relief, that that's a real energy policy, means that we are not tackling the problem that has to be tackling. We are offering endemics, offering gimmicks. I actually it sounds like Obama was right. Actually that's a gimmick. Am I missing something? Yeah, this is gimmicky. It's it's

not a lot of money. But here's the thing. You got to understand that their entire worldview is that this is a cost to government. Everything implicitly belongs to the government. When they allow you to pay a little less than

somehow they're giving you something. So that's I think first and foremost, and I mean I would hate to see Americans go through a really bad summer with exceedingly high gas prices and god forbid, let's say, rolling blackouts in the electrical grid when the whole country seems so hot

at you know, maybe this is what it takes. Maybe that silver lining would be that we have to expose Biden and these people for this absolutely insane idea that we're going to stop burning oil and coal and natural gas anytime soon and still have you know, reasonably priced gasoline at the pump and air conditioning and all the things we rely on every day. It's it's just unsustainable.

Green energy is not going to cut it here, and so in that sense, you know, it's gimmicky, but it maybe it helps us normal people start to see the light. I mean, let's be pro energy for God's sake. Well, it's also fascinating that you're hearing more openly than ever before the Biden administration essentially saying, hey, you know, look, your gas price is high, but it's really a lot

of it Poutin's fault. And so this comes down to you want to stop the war in Ukraine and stand up for democracy and stand up against Putin or pay high gas or you know, or pay low gas prices. That's the choice that we have. Here's what Biden said. For all those Republicans in Congress criticize me today for high gas prices in America. Are you now saying we were wrong to support Ukraine? Are you saying we were

wrong to stand up to Putin? Are you saying that we would rather have lower gas prices in America and Putin's iron fist in Europe? What do you make of that? Putin's iron fist in Europe? Wow, the next hitler, I suppose. Look, the gas prices were rising before Putin invaded Ukraine for one. The second, an exceedingly small portion of US imported oil comes from Russia, so it's not a key player. This

is a refining issue in the United States. Doesn't matter how much oil we drill here or how much we import. The bottleneck is refining because we haven't built any refinery since the seventies, and the big oil companies won't invest in them because it's a big capital investment, takes decades to repay, and you know everyone's telling us we're going to be electric, so you got to understand they're a little reluctant to do so. The idea that this is

on Putin is just absurd. Now, if you live in Germany where they shut down all their nuclear plants and they impourt a hell of a lot of oil from Russia as a result, I guess you could blame Putin, but more likely you should be blaming Angela Merkel. But either way, it's just an absurd statement by Biden. And then you have the inflation situation, which obviously energy prices play into this, and it's all interconnected at some level.

But you have a situation now of inflation that looks like it is not only at a multi decade high, but could stay there for quite some time. The FED Chairman Jerome Powell was saying that it is demand, not money printing, that has pushed us this point. Watch this, I just would say, it's clearly both factors are principally

at work here. You couldn't get this kind of high inflation without strong demand, and you certainly couldn't get it without the kind of supply issues that we've had, both in the labor market reflected in high wages, and then in the goods market, reflected in what's happened with durable goods and cars in particularly. Look there, there's it's been this driven by semiconductor shortage. So nothing nothing about trillions of dollars for people to stay at home, Nothing about

two trillion from Biden for the American rescue plan. Didn't rescue the country. That's real dampture. Well, and the Fed added over nine trillion in brand new money to the balance sheet of commercial banks over this COVID crisis as well, So they're basically recapitalizing banks on our backs in terms of inflating the dollars. So he you know, most people don't view gas and groceries as some kind of luxury item, and there's a lot more demand, I mean, demand for

calories and gasoline is pretty steady. People have to buy those things. So I think Powell continues to sound pretty out of touch and pretty aloof and maybe worst of all, he continues to sound pretty political, like he's carrying water for Biden. Yeah, thanks for being well, us appreciate it. Thank you. Buck all right, coming up. An Australian newspaper says that not talking to relatives could lower your risk

of COVID nineteen transmission. You don't say, we'll get into that, and quick hit, it's time for some of those important stories. We haven't gotten to you yet, and we didn't want to let you go to sleep tonight without at least knowing what's going on with all of them. So quick hits, line them up, knock them down. Here we have it,

Harold's Son newspaper. They tweeted this out. A study from proceedings of the National Academy of Science, Giving your co workers and found remembers the silent treatment and texting, not talking it would be the key to getting the COVID pandemic under control. Speaking just four words an hour increases the spread of COVID nineteen ten times more than breathing normally.

So basically, if we're going to stop COVID, which we are never going to do, which is impossible, which is what we've seen now for two plus years, going on three years, give me a break. There's no stopping COVID,

just like there's no stopping the common cold. This should have been known all along, but they're telling you, well, maybe if you just shut up and don't speak peasants, we'll have a better chance of slowing down the virus, which is absurd and insane, and you think yourself, they can't really believe that this is the O. Don't know? They do? They do? They think that this is good advice, you know, they think that this is necessary for people

to hear at this point. And then, speaking of the insane, the CEO of biser CEO named Albert Bula, he's out there telling everybody what I've been saying now for over a year is so it's gonna be a new vaccine every year. And if you believe that the COVID vaccine should be mandatory, it's mandatory shot for everyone, babies to old people, everybody in between, every year and if you won't get it, you should get fired. That's what the Libs believe, which is appalling because they were wrong about

all this. It doesn't stop the spread. You need three shots, and even with the three shots, you can still get sick, and you know the whole thing, and even if you get the three shots, you can still die. In fact, you're less likely too than people who don't get any shots.

But if you're in the high risk category. Yeah, we all know this right, But yet here's the CEO Fiser tell on everybody you might have to get shots every year, just like we said, do you think we're going to get updated mRNA vaccines every season that will be directed to each new variation of the Corona virus? And what we have to take those shots every year? I'm almost certain about it. And I say almost certain because of course regulators can the final say in all of that.

But that's the beauty of mRNA, the beauty of mRNA. Yes, you see, it's almost like a massive multi billion dollar year annuity for companies like Fiser. Just have a little tweaked to the mRNA for the new variant and then make everyone get the shot. Does it help them make a difference? This is just like the flu shot, folks, which kind of works for some people. Sometimes. We didn't make everybody get that because we know a lot of times doesn't do a damn thing. A lot of people

don't need it. We already have the template for how to go forward as a society. Forget about all this not We already know treat the treat COVID like we've treated the flu for the last fifty years, last hundred years, but instead this is where we are more authoritarian, lunacy, more madness from these people. At least we can have some amusement by watching the White House continue to just descend into the abyss of electoral destruction, which is going to be a lot of fun in this mid term.

The new White House Press relatively new White House Press Secretary Karine Jean Pierre, said something, Look, I know it's a little verbal slip up, but kind of funny anyway, watched about I mean, the President has been very clear and making sure that he does everything that he can to elevate to alleviate the you know, the pain that American families are feeling when it comes to gas prices,