January 1, Biden demands boost in oil production amid rising gas prices, dire climate report

Good morning Americans,

The Biden administration is leaning on OPEC to boost oil production to combat rising gas prices — an apparent about-face from when he imposed restrictions on oil companies in January. “Higher gasoline costs, if left unchecked, risk harming the ongoing global recovery. The price of crude oil has been higher than it was at the end of 2019, before the onset of the pandemic,” said Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s National Security Advisor. Biden’s push for lower gas prices juxtaposes the administration’s goal to decarbonize the economy by 2050. Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) lambasted Biden over his contradictory priorities. “It’s pretty simple: if the President is suddenly worried about rising gas prices, he needs to stop killing our own energy production here on American soil,” Cornyn said.

The chair of the Minneapolis Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) doubled-down on a recent op-ed in which he argued that the burning of a local police department’s precinct last year was an “act of pure righteousness.” On May 28 of last year, rioters lit fire to the Minneapolis PD’s Third Precinct—just three days after George Floyd’s death. DFL Chair Devin Hogan recently wrote an opinion piece entitled ‘The cops started it,’ which describes the act as a “proportional response” to police brutality. Though the work attracted staunch criticism from others within the DFL, politicians, and media outlets, Hogan defended his writings. “The truth hurts,” Hogan wrote in a Facebook post. “Accurately describing reality is not a call to arms. Explaining the conditions of violent repression with the reasons why and how people react to that oppression is not condoning violence.”

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) received a seven-day suspension from YouTube on the grounds of posting a video that violated COVID-19 misinformation. “We removed content from Senator Paul’s channel for including claims that masks are ineffective in preventing the contraction or transmission of COVID-19, in accordance with our COVID-19 medical misinformation policies,” YouTube said in a statement. “We apply our policies consistently across the platform, regardless of speaker or political views.” Paul referred to his YouTube suspension as a “badge of honor” and released a statement saying that the company has a right to police its platform.

The contractor tasked with the audit of the 2020 election in Maricopa County, AZ missed a deadline to provide information about the audit to a Congressional panel. Cybersecurity firm Cyber Ninjas was supposed to provide the House Oversight and Reform Committee with information by July 28. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) said that Cyber Ninjas must “provide complete transparency over its questionable activities and sources of funding, and answer Congress’s questions without further delay.”

White House press secretary Jen Psaki questioned why Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis wouldn’t want to receive ventilators in light of the rising COVID-19 cases in his state. “As a policy, we don’t send ventilators to states without their interest in receiving the ventilators. I think the most important question here is why would you oppose receiving the ventilators when clearly you need those in your state given the percentage of hospitalizations that are occurring?” Psaki said. The White House sent 200 ventilators to the Sunshine State by request, though DeSantis said he was unaware of who made the request.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had to adjust its COVID-19 tracking for Florida after complaints from the state’s health officials. When the CDC website showed a record high for Sunday, the Florida Department of Health accused the agency of combining multiple days of cases into one report. The CDC initially reported 28,317 cases on Sunday, while Florida claims 15,319. The CDC finally adjusted its number to 19,584.

Be well,

Fraser Dixon

Sources

• Biden demands OPEC boost oil production amid rising gas prices
• Minneapolis DFL chair calls burning of police precinct ‘revolutionary moment,’ ‘act of pure righteousness’
• YouTube suspends Rand Paul after misleading video on masks
• Arizona audit contractor misses congressional deadline to provide information
• Psaki takes aim at DeSantis over Florida ventilator request
• CDC amends Florida’s COVID-19 numbers after pushback from state officials