Biden admin hostile to fossil fuels and have stated their intention to put them out of business

By Matt Egan, CNN Business
Published 1:30 PM EDT, Wed August 9, 2023

New York
CNN Business
—
Critics accuse President Joe Biden of waging a war on the oil industry that is hurting consumers at the gas pump. And yet, on his watch, US oil production is poised to shatter all-time records set during the Trump administration.

US oil output is now projected to rise to an average of 12.8 million barrels per day this year for the first time ever, according to federal estimates released Tuesday.

For context, that’s about half a million barrels per day more than the prior annual record set in 2019. It’s also more oil than any other country on the planet produces — the next-closest nation, Saudi Arabia, produces about 10 million barrels per day, according to OPEC.


The looming milestone undercuts the argument made by some 2024 GOP presidential contenders that the Biden administration is strangling the oil industry with red tape.

“There’s a narrative out there that US production is dead or dying,” said Hunter Kornfeind, oil market analyst at Rapidan Energy Group. But while its speed is slower than it used to be, it’s “maturing, it’s not dead,” he said.

If anything, the outlook for US oil production has brightened recently – in large part because oil prices have rebounded from recession fears and drillers have become more efficient.

The just-released 2023 production forecast from the US Energy Information Administration, or EIA, marks an upgrade of 200,000 barrels from its prior forecast. Next year, US oil output is projected to climb to another record of 13.1 million barrels per day.

Yet earlier this week, former Vice President Mike Pence vowed to turn back the “failed policies of the Biden administration” and to end “Joe Biden’s war on energy.” The 2024 presidential contender rolled out a new energy plan that includes allowing new drilling on federal lands, cutting permitting time in half and replenishing the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.

US oil output has increased since Pence and former President Trump left office – a time when oil prices were low because of the Covid-19 emergency. The EIA expects US output to top 12.9 million barrels per day later this year. That would mark a 16% increase since January 2021 when Biden took office.

Domestic oil production similarly rose under former President Barack Obama as the US shale revolution took hold, unlocking vast amounts of oil and natural gas in Texas and elsewhere.

“It’s perhaps less about the administration in power and more about the entrepreneurial nature of the oil industry,” said Matt Smith, Kpler’s lead oil analyst of the Americas.

Climate vs. inflation
When and if the oil production record falls, don’t expect any fireworks from the White House.

The Biden administration has faced a delicate balance when it comes to the oil industry — which the president has, at times, blasted.

Last year, with gas prices spiking above $5 a gallon for the first time ever, Biden declared: “Exxon made more money than God last year.”

On one hand, Biden ran the most aggressive climate campaign of any president in US history. Climate scientists say it’s critical to slash planet-warming emissions from the fossil fuels industry and eventually wean the world off oil.

And yet this White House is especially sensitive to spikes in gas prices because voters view pump prices as a key economic barometer.

“Rising pump prices always terrify a sitting president because they hurt consumer confidence and the president’s approval rating,” Rapidan Energy Group wrote in a note to clients earlier this month.

“But the stakes are even higher now since rising oil prices threaten to blow the Fed’s hoped-for ‘soft landing’ off course. It is hard to overstate how worried Team Biden is about rising oil prices.”

Biden officials are aware that US oil companies must steadily increase supply to meet recovering demand.

That’s especially true because Russia, Saudi Arabia and OPEC at large have held back barrels in a strategy aimed at boosting prices. Last week, Saudi Arabia vowed to extend its oil production cut for at least another month. Russia said it will slash oil exports by 300,000 barrels per day in September.

The American Petroleum Institute, an oil trade group that has been critical of the Biden administration’s regulatory efforts, noted that approved federal permits and new federal acres leased have both fallen sharply under Biden.

“American oil and natural gas production is growing to meet rising demand, but that supply growth is largely from existing US projects approved in the 2010s,” an API spokesperson said in a statement to CNN. “American producers are poised to do more to strengthen US energy security and support jobs and local economies, but we need the right policies from this administration to do it.”

Gas price forecast ramped higher
That restraint from OPEC, along with extreme heat that sidelined refineries, has driven gasoline prices sharply higher. After months of mild prices, the national average for regular gas recently surged to nine-month highs.

The EIA isn’t expecting dramatic relief anytime soon, calling for gas prices to average $3.63 a gallon through the end of the year. That’s up sharply from its prior forecast of just $3.27 a gallon. The EIA also bumped up its projections for oil and diesel prices.

Of course, prices would be much higher without the support of domestic production. Recent output increases, along with ones likely on the way, should help cushion the blow for consumers.

It’s also true that domestic oil production -— unlike prices -— has been slow to recover from the Covid-19 crash.

Analysts say that is largely because Wall Street has forced the notoriously boom-to-bust oil industry to instill a sense of financial discipline. Investors want the oil industry to focus on returning cash to shareholders, instead of spending lavishly on expensive drilling projects that may or may not pan out.

“The main driver of slower production growth since 2020 is investor sentiment, rather than the Biden administration knee-capping the industry,” said Kornfeind, the Rapidan analyst.

Unearthing racism's Christian roots: How far-right Christianity quietly fueled Jacksonville shooter
Serene Jones - Rev. Dr. LaKeesha Walrond
Thu, August 31, 2023 at 9:00 AM PDT·3 min read
667

This weekend, a racist shooter – Ryan Palmeter – murdered three Black people – Angela Carr, Anolt Laguerre, Jr., and Jerrald De'Shaun Gallion. This is the latest example of overt, growing, and gruesome anti-Black violence in our nation.

We've heard from our leaders time and time again that we need to end racism. But we can't just keep giving the issue lip service. To create true change, we need to peel back the layers, understand how we got here, and defeat the forces that have allowed violence against Black bodies to proliferate.

For us, as people of faith, that means acknowledging the perverse role of a distorted Christianity in fueling rampant racism.

This distorted Christianity is at the core of our nation's deep history of racism. Starting from the very beginning of European settlement, colonists used the Bible to claim Christian explorers had a divine right to seize lands that were not inhabited by Christians. They also argued that they had a godly duty to bring the Bible to native lands. These "Biblical" missions left fields of blood and fire behind them.

Then, as colonists took over the South, Christianity became a lynchpin of slavery. Faith leaders and policymakers professed that the Bible contained passages that clearly supported enslavement. For example, they claimed that Noah's curse on Ham in Genesis 9:20-27 justified the subjugation of Black people. In some areas, slaveholders also distributed tainted Bibles that removed mentions of freedom and equality.

It is these types of distorted uses of the Bible that allowed many Christians to leave church on Sunday morning, and then attend a lynching on Sunday afternoon.

Keep moving through our history, and you'll see endless examples of purported Christians using the Bible for racist ends: Enforcing segregation, blocking civil rights movements, forbidding interracial marriage, creating a racist incarceration system, committing yet more acts of violence, and more.

Fast-forward to today, and far-right Christians continue their hateful crusade. They have supercharged their white supremacist rhetoric and pushed for policies that uplift white communities and denigrate Black and Brown ones. For instance, many far-right Christians have fought tooth and nail to redact our nation's history of brutally enslaving human beings. They have also demonized Black Lives Matter, denied systemic racism at every turn, and conjured fear that white people are in danger. And all of this is imbued with the language of a white supremacist Christian piety.

And the violence continues. In 2015, a white supremacist influenced by Christian nationalism entered a predominantly Black church in Charleston and killed nine people during a Bible study. Last year, a shooter with ties to white Christian nationalism stormed into a grocery store in Buffalo and killed 10 Black people. These are but two of too many instances to date in our country.

Crucially, while the Jackson shooter hasn't yet been overtly connected to Christianity, the racist propaganda that fueled his hatred is grounded in far-right Christian forces. Virtually every white supremacist post, video, meme, and social media group can be traced to our nation's religious history.

It's particularly alarming how far-right Christianity can quietly infiltrate people's lives. A small cohort of white Supremacists has become particularly adept at using online platforms to gently draw in new followers and espouse hateful ideas. Those carefully chosen words quickly translate into discrimination and violence.

We simply can't dismantle racism unless we understand and unearth its far-right Christian roots. It's up to all of us to speak truth to power in a way that ensures every life matters. From individuals who can say something if they see something, to faith leaders who can speak and preach messages of love, to lawmakers who can ensure justice rolls down, we all have a responsibility to engage.

Every moment we delay puts more Black and Brown lives in danger. It's time to own up to our nation's history and use the Bible for good.

Read more

about the threat posed by the far-right

A former intelligence analyst with the FBI’s Kansas City division has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for holding on to classified national defense-related documents at her residence, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday.


According to a release from the DOJ’s Office of Public Affairs, Kendra Kingsbury “improperly removed and willfully retained” some 386 classified documents, some of which “contained extremely sensitive national defense information,” at her home in Kansas over the course of her more than 12-year FBI tenure.

Kingsbury, 50, pleaded guilty in October to two counts of unlawfully retaining documents related to national defense. She has been sentenced to 46 months in federal prison and three years of supervised release.

Her sentencing comes weeks after former President Trump was indicted and arraigned on federal criminal charges related to his alleged mishandling of classified materials at his Mar-a-Lago home in Florida after his time in the White House had ended.


The Kansas City Star reported that Kingsbury stored some of the documents in her bathroom. Trump’s indictment also detailed that documents were kept in a Mar-a-Lago bathroom, among other places.

Kingsbury held a “TOP SECRET/SCI” security clearance, with access to national defense and classified information, and received training materials that specifically warned her “that she was prohibited from retaining classified information at her personal residence,” the DOJ said in the release.

Among the materials were reportedly documents classified at the “SECRET” level, including details on government counterterrorism, counterintelligence and cyber efforts, as well as specific investigations and “sensitive human-source operations.”

How can you continually support a crime family?

He clearly knew there were people in that crowd who were ready to and intended to be violent, and he certainly did nothing to discourage that. He not only did nothing to discourage it, he strongly hinted it should happen.

Michigan's House of Representatives has passed a hate speech bill, known as HB 4474, criminalizing the use of hate speech.

This means that if anyone uses words causing someone to feel "terrorized, frightened, or threatened", including using a gender pronoun the "threatened" person does not identify with, they could end up with jail time.

The bill lists "sexual orientation" and "gender identity or expression" as protected classes.

Offenders could face up to five years in prison for committing such a felony offense. They could also be slapped with a staggering $10,000 fine.

The bill reads: "'Intimidate' means a willful course of conduct involving repeated or continuing harassment of another individual that would cause a reasonable individual to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened, and that actually causes the victim to feel terrorized, frightened, or threatened."

The bill passed in the Democrat-controlled House 59-50. It is now set to move to the Michigan State Senate for further reading.

It would be signed into law by the Democratic state Governor Gretchen Whitmer if it passes.

Penalties would be based on how the victims and court would "feel" about individual cases.

State Rep. Emily Dievendorf told CBS News Detroit: "We know that at this time in history, extremism is on the rise. But also, our hate speech has translated into hate actions that put our most vulnerable populations at risk."

It was a different story 70 years ago, when most Americans thought college was only for the wealthy elite. That changed after World War II with the Servicemen's Readjustment Act of 1944, better known as the GI Bill of Rights.

The law made college affordable for a group of veterans who never would have thought of going beyond high school, says John Thelin, a professor at the University of Kentucky and author of A History of American Higher Education.

The GI Bill was an unexpected success, Thelin says, enrolling just under 8 million veterans — 10 times the number the authors of the bill had predicted.

This sudden, enormous demand, Thelin adds, could have pushed college costs higher — but didn't, because states embraced the idea. The booming postwar economy allowed them to spend unprecedented sums of money to expand higher education.

"The biggest problem that was facing governors and legislators was, could we build campuses fast enough?" Thelin says.

While states were investing, the federal government was carving out a new role for itself: helping families pay for college. It spawned the National Defense Student Loan program, later called the Federal Perkins Loan program, which did for civilians what the GI Bill had done for veterans — and opened college gates even wider.

Then, with the civil rights movement as the backdrop, the landmark Higher Education Act of 1965 pushed for greater college access for women and minorities.

At the same time, Thelin says, from "1965 to 1972, colleges and universities dug very deep into their own pockets to provide grants and other forms of student financial aid in partnership with the new federal programs."

Americans flocked to campuses with the expectation that the government was going to foot part of the bill, and college did become affordable for many more Americans.

But a turning point arrived around 1970, Thelin says. With double-digit inflation, an oil embargo and a sputtering economy, a perfect storm began to build. College tuition and fees climbed as much or more than the inflation rate. Private loans, heavily subsidized by the federal government, gradually replaced federal grants as the main source of money for both poor and middle-class college students.

As family income fell, borrowing to pay for college took off, while public investment in higher education dropped. Sandy Baum of the Urban Institute says that drop has been the single biggest reason for the increase in college costs.

"So it's not that colleges are spending more money to educate students," Baum says. "It's that they have to get that money from someplace to replace their lost state funding — and that's from tuition and fees from students and families."

Eric Goldman calls our attention to a rather astounding story out of Florida, involving how various Florida police departments are engaging in what appears to be basically sham “sting” operations online to arrest and shame men as child sexual predators, then steal their cars (sometimes offering to sell them back), and then doing everything possible to hide the records. The whole thing is quite crazy, and I recommend reading the entire thing. It also comes as little surprise that one of the sheriffs deeply involved in this is Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd — who we’ve written about a few times before. Back in 2009 we wrote about Judd using Craigslist to find and arrest prostitutes… and then blaming Craigslist, the very tool he used to track down the lawbreakers. A year ago, Judd got a lot more attention for his plan to arrest parents of some girls who were accused of bullying another girl into committing suicide (though, eventually charges were dropped and almost no evidence of any bullying was found).

Those past stories fit with the same pattern that WTSP’s “10 Investigates” reporter Noah Pransky found in researching these stings. You know the basics of how these stings work, because they appear to be police-led versions of the famed “To Catch A Predator” TV show. But, quite frequently, the actual cases seem to involve the police going after men who were seeking adult companions, and then doing everything possible to try to convince them that they’re interested in minors:

In the case of a 27-year-old Cape Coral man, arrested during the Lee County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO) sting this past May, deputies arrested him even though he didn’t even travel to meet a child for sex. Law enforcement officers responded to the man’s legal “casual encounters” Craigslist ad, pretending to be a 14-year-old girl, even though the ad said, “age for all women must be 18+ no one under email me plz.”

The man repeatedly told the undercover detectives that he was “not OK” with meeting up with an underage girl, but because he didn’t immediately end the conversation, he was arrested for utilizing his phone to solicit a sexual act from a child. Detectives went to his house and arrested him as a sexual predator of children.

Prosecutors decided there was insufficient evidence to prosecute on either of the accused charges, yet the accusations and man’s name remain on LCSO’s online press releases and other media outlets’ news stories.

Even in some cases where this cajoling and pushing by the police led someone to say OK, the details seem fairly questionable:

A 19-year-old man in Orange Co. was accused of soliciting the guardian of a 13-year-old decoy to arrange sex with her. But the evidence proved differently, as the man was merely responding to an innocuous ad from a 26-year-old woman, which was posted by law enforcement. The detective later tried to convince the man to have sex with the woman’s “younger sister,” even though he showed little interest.

According to notes from the prosecutor, “this is a tough case” because of “entrapment issues.” The man chatted with what he believed to be a 26-year-old woman for five days and the “Law Enforcement Officer suggest(ed) sex first on 2nd day.” The defendant said several times he wasn’t interested in the 13-year-old, even suggesting he bring a younger teenager boy for the girl when the detective kept bringing the teenager into the discussion. The prosecutor also noted the “law enforcement officer again suggests illegal sex 2 more times” but the defendant was non-committal.”

Ultimately, after hundreds of text messages, the man agreed to sex with both females, and was arrested upon arrival. The state declined to prosecute, but the accusations and man’s name remain public record.

As the report notes, many of these men are cleared or no charges are ever actually brought against them, but they’re still publicly shamed in press releases, declaring them child predators. To add insult to injury, the police often steal their cars, using questionable asset seizure laws:

Sex stings have become especially rich sources for seizures, since almost every man arrested is accused of traveling to seduce, solicit, or entice a child to commit a sexual act?even though no real children are ever involved in the stings. However, the accusations are felonies, meaning law enforcement can seize suspect’s vehicles, making it extremely difficult for them to ever get them back without paying thousands of dollars ? or more – in cash to the arresting agency.

For example, in one January 2014 sting where the Clearwater Police Department (CPD) and Pinellas County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) arrested 35 men in a single weekend, CPD seized 19 cars as their own under Florida’s Contraband Forfeiture Act.

And even when the people are cleared or charges are dropped, they often have to pay up to get their own cars back, if they can get them back at all:

One 24-year-old man, arrested in the January sting in Clearwater, had to pay $10,000 cash to get his 2014 Lexus returned. And even though all felony charges were later dropped in his case, he will not get the money back for either the negotiated settlement or the fees he paid an attorney to handle the vehicle case.

Grady Judd’s Polk County is also noted as seizing $15,900 from someone and then “negotiating” to give him back half of it and keeping the other half.

And, of course, the police who are engaged in all of this are also lying about the seriousness of “the problem” while doing everything they can to hide the real details from public view. The article quotes Judd again, insisting that men seeking children was a major problem in South Florida, but the actual evidence — obtained by WTSP — shows otherwise, with prosecutors quietly admitting that they have zero cases actually showing that happening.

In 2013, a prosecutor declined to pursue “traveler” charges against a man caught in an Osceola Co. sting because the “state tried to find evidence that the crime of solicitation of minor via computer (parent) was taking place?there are no known cases.”

The prosecutor notes the detective “asked ICAC affiliate + the FBI and was able to come up with about 5 examples Nationwide. None in Central FL.”

Another Osceola Co. prosecutor in the case of a 21-year-old defendant wrote, “biggest concern was entrapment argument b/c the LE Operation was not really addressing on-going criminal activity?There have been NO documented cases in this area of parents being solicited on-line for sex w/their minor children.”

But WTSP was only able to find this out via accessing court records — and not via public information requests.

10 Investigates has pushed to see other records from law enforcement officers responding to legal dating ads on legal dating sites, but almost every request has been refused. Often, public record exemptions are cited, ranging from “active investigation” to “confidential surveillance techniques,” but a Lee County Sheriff’s Office spokesperson said records from their June sting had already been destroyed by July.

Similarly, in a related report, WTSP quoted Judd blocking access to such records:

Judd says the records are exempt from state records laws because all of those men are still “under investigation,” for they may surface in future stings. However, that indicates Judd – and other law enforcement leaders around Tampa Bay and Sarasota who have now used the same exemption to withhold records – have active investigations open on hundreds, if not thousands, of men who did nothing more than legally communicate with adults on legal websites.

That same article notes that of the 1,200 men arrested as “sexual predators,” 97% have zero history of sexual crimes — and further notes how the police have no problem continuing to shame even men who are cleared:

The state’s best-known lawman also showed little concern for due process during a Tuesday press conference to tout arrests since March in predator-style stings. He pointed to 132 mugshots on a giant posterboard and called the men “sexual predators.”

But when 10 Investigates pointed out some of the men had already been cleared of charges, he said they were still fair game because “we have a very liberal – a very forgiving – criminal justice system.”

That system may give defendants the benefit of doubt and assume “innocent until proven guilty;” but Judd makes sure the mugshots and stigma of being arrested for a sex crime haunts the men for the rest of their lives.

That statement is fairly incredible, but it gives you some insight into the mindset of Judd and some others involved in these efforts. These people are guilty no matter what — and they will do anything to get them arrested, and then even once they are cleared of any charges, the police will continue to treat them as guilty.

None of this is to diminish the very horrific and tragic reality of situations that do involve actual sexual predators. Those people should be investigated and caught if possible. But what’s happening in Florida doesn’t seem to have anything to do with legitimately going after predators. Instead, it seems like a combination of entrapment, bogus online stings, high profile shaming of innocent people, stealing their property through asset seizure laws and then abusing public records laws to cover up the details.

Do you SERIOUSLY believe Hunter Biden is innocent of all criminal charges?

“Sweetheart deal!” “Two-tiered justice!” “Mere traffic ticket!”

Republicans had their applause lines ready on Tuesday when Joe Biden’s son Hunter struck a plea deal over unpaid taxes, and gun possession while being a drug user, that is likely to keep him out of prison.

But the Grand Old Party is like the Boy Who Cried Wolf. It has churned through so many wild allegations against the “Biden crime family” that its moment of self-righteous indignation risks getting lost in the noise.

Presidents’ families are inescapably part of the political package, often seen at their side at campaign events or state occasions. There have been past scandals involving Richard Nixon’s brother Don, who was rescued from business failures by the eccentric businessman Howard Hughes, George H W Bush’s son Neil, who directed a failed savings and loan, and Bill Clinton’s half-brother Roger, who spent time in prison for a cocaine conviction.

In such cases, it would be reasonable for any neutral observer to ask whether the commander-in-chief’s family has received special treatment.

Tuesday’s court filing showed that Hunter, 53, will plead guilty to failing to pay more than $100,000 in taxes in both 2017 and 2018 after making more than $1.5m each year. He therefore avoids the politically nightmarish spectacle of a trial and is unlikely to spend time in jail based on the tax loss amount, his status as a first-time offender and his willingness to accept responsibility for his actions.

Legal experts were less shocked than Republicans would have liked. The former federal prosecutor Neama Rahmani, president of West Coast Trial Lawyers, says: “Plea deals are very common in federal cases with just a very small number actually going to trial – only about 2%. Deals done this quickly are much less common and diversion deals are even rarer, but these sorts of charges are generally worked out in plea deals for the most part, so I don’t find it unusual.”

Hunter also reached a probation agreement with the justice department that could enable him to avoid a conviction that he illegally possessed a Colt Cobra revolver in Delaware in October 2018 while “knowing that he was an unlawful user of and addicted to a controlled substance”.

Plea deals are very common in federal cases with just a very small number actually going to trial – only about 2%

The former federal prosecutor Christine Adams, a partner at Los Angeles-based Adams, Duerk & Kamenstein, says: “It is not uncommon for the DoJ (Department of Justice) to make these kinds of deals. When crimes are related solely to someone’s addiction and not to some larger scheme and the individual is a first-time offender, DoJ may take these factors into account and offer the individual pre-trial diversion.”


It should also be noted that the charges resulted from a five-year investigation by David Weiss, the US attorney in Delaware – appointed by former president Donald Trump.

Predictably, however, Republicans cried foul, arguing that Hunter – who has worked as a lobbyist, lawyer, consultant to foreign companies, investment banker and artist – had received favourable treatment because of his dad.

Trump, recently indicted on federal criminal charges that he unlawfully kept national security documents when he left office, wrote on his Truth Social platform: “Wow! The corrupt Biden DOJ just cleared up hundreds of years of criminal liability by giving Hunter Biden a mere ‘traffic ticket.’ Our system is BROKEN!”

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, also running for president, decried the “sweetheart deal” and tweeted that, were Biden “not connected to the elite DC class he would have been put in jail a long time ago”.

Such attacks were amplified endlessly by Fox News, rightwing media and commentators such as Tucker Carlson, drawing a false equivalence with Trump’s extremely different case. Notably, Hunter Biden has also never been a public official.

Congressman James Comer, the Republican chair of the House of Representatives oversight committee, vowed to continue to investigate Hunter and the rest of the family – while turning a blind eye to allegations that Trump’s children Ivanka, Don Jr and Eric and son-in-law Jared Kushner profited off their time in the White House.

But Republicans have proved their own worst enemy by flooding the zone with attacks on Hunter, making it hard to discern legitimate concerns from crazed conspiracy theories about his business dealings in China and Ukraine.

James Comer
James Comer has vowed to continue to investigate Hunter. Photograph: Stephanie Scarbrough/AP

The fixation seems a kind of displacement. Republicans have never found targets as rich as Barack Obama, the first Black president, or Hillary Clinton, who aimed to the be the first female president. Biden never excited the base in the same way. Hunter and his troubles are a poor substitute.

Trump’s ravings about Hunter’s laptop in the 2020 election failed to capture the dark magic of “Lock her up!” four years earlier. Republicans have sought to raise questions about Biden’s knowledge of his son’s activities in Ukraine and China but never made a compelling connection.

When Hunter described in a 2021 memoir dealing with substance abuse issues, including crack cocaine use and alcoholism, Republican attempts to exploit it again backfired. Many voters shrugged or expressed empathy, perhaps connecting with struggles in their own families.

Nevertheless, the constant attacks might take a toll on Biden, who embodies the maxim that grief is the price we pay for love. His son Beau died in 2015 of cancer and his daughter Naomi Biden died as an infant after a car accident that also killed Biden’s first wife.

His two surviving children, Hunter and Ashley, would ordinarily be an asset on the campaign trail. Ashley spoke last week at Juneteenth concert on the White House south lawn; Biden said: “She’s the love of my life and the life of my love.” But Hunter risks becoming a distraction, more wayward Prince Hal than steely Henry V.

Asked about him on Tuesday, the president replied simply: “I’m very proud of my son.”

[color=red]This article is a preprint and has not been peer-reviewed [what does this mean?]. It reports new medical research that has yet to be evaluated and so should not be used to guide clinical practice...[/color]

...Before formal publication in a scholarly journal, scientific and medical articles are traditionally certified by “peer review.” In this process, the journal’s editors take advice from various experts—called “referees”—who have assessed the paper and may identify weaknesses in its assumptions, methods, and conclusions. Typically, a journal will only publish an article once the editors are satisfied that the authors have addressed referees’ concerns and that the data presented support the conclusions drawn in the paper.

Because this process can be lengthy, authors use the medRxiv service to make their manuscripts available as “preprints” before certification by peer review, allowing other scientists to see, discuss, and comment on the findings immediately. Readers should therefore be aware that articles on medRxiv have not been finalized by authors, might contain errors, and report information that has not yet been accepted or endorsed in any way by the scientific or medical community.

bringing into question the value of this risk classification definition.

The Presidential Records Act (PRA) changed the legal status of Presidential and Vice Presidential materials. Under the PRA, the official records of the President and his staff are owned by the United States, not by the President.

* The Archivist is required to take custody of these records when the President leaves office, and to maintain them in a Federal depository...

..."§2202. Ownership of Presidential records
"The United States shall reserve and retain complete ownership,
possession, and control of Presidential records; and such records shall
be administered in accordance with the provisions of this chapter...

..."(f) (1) Upon the conclusion of a President's term of office, or if a
President serves consecutive terms upon the conclusion of the last term,
the Archivist of the United States shall assume responsibility for the
custody, control, and preservation of, and access to, the Presidential
records of that President.

The sitting President of the United States just arrested his political opponent

his lawyers will argue that under the PRA, he has done nothing illigal -- records were being returned under his direction

Presidential Records Act (PRA)

In 1978, Congress passed the Presidential Records Act (PRA), which states that any records created or received by the President as part of his constitutional, statutory, or ceremonial duties are the property of the United States government and will be managed by NARA (The National Archives and Records Administration) at the end of the administration.

The Presidential Records Act (PRA) changed the legal status of Presidential and Vice Presidential materials. Under the PRA, the official records of the President and his staff are owned by the United States, not by the President.

* The Archivist is required to take custody of these records when the President leaves office, and to maintain them in a Federal depository.
* These records are eligible for access under FOIA five years after the President leaves office.
* The President may restrict access to specific kinds of information for up to 12 years after he leaves office, but then records are reviewed for FOIA exemptions only.
* This legislation took effect on January 20, 1981, and the records of the Reagan administration were the first to be administered under this law...

...Types of Presidential records

* Textual records: includes letters, memos, schedules, briefing papers, and publications
* Electronic records: email messages, electronic files (i.e. word processing files, spreadsheets), digital images, social media content, and digitized content
* Audiovisual records: audio and video recordings, photographs

NARA provides courtesy storage to the incumbent administration under the provisions of the PRA. The records are in the physical custody of NARA while the White House retains legal custody. Legal custody of the Presidential records transfers to NARA at the end of a presidential administration.

The text of the bill below is as of Nov 4, 1978 (Passed Congress).

"§2202. Ownership of Presidential records
"The United States shall reserve and retain complete ownership,
possession, and control of Presidential records; and such records shall
be administered in accordance with the provisions of this chapter.
44 use 2203. "§2203. Management and custody of Presidential records
"(a) Through the implementation of records management controls
and other necessary actions, the President shall take all such steps as
may be necessary to assure that the activities, deliberations, decisions,
and policies that reflect the performance of his constitutional, statu-
tory, or other official or ceremonial duties are adequately documented
and that such records are maintained as Presidential records pursuant
to the requirements of this section and other provisions of law.
"(b) Documentary materials produced or received by the President,
his staff, or units or individuals in the Executive Office of the
President the function of which is to advise and assist the President,
shall, to the extent practicable, be categorized as Presidential records
or personal records upon their creation or receipt and be filed
separately.
Disposal, "(c) During his term of office, the President may dispose of those of
notification to his Presidential records that no longer have administrativ^e, historical,
Archivist. informational, or evidentiary value if—
"(1) the President obtains the views, in writing, of the Archi-
vist concerning the proposed disposal of such Presidential records;
and
"(2) the Archivist states that he does not intend to take any
action under subsection (e) of this section.
Disposal "(d) In the event the Archivist notifies the President under sub-
schedule, section (c) that he does intend to take action under subsection (e), the
submittal to President may dispose of such Presidential records if copies of the
congressional
committees. disposal schedule are submitted to the appropriate Congressional Com-
mittees at least 60 calendar days of continuous session of Congress in
advance of the proposed disposal date. For the purpose of this section,
continuity of session is broken only by an adjournment of Congress
PUBLIC LAW 95-591—NOV. 4, 1978 92 STAT. 2525

sine die, and the days on which either House is not in session because
of an adjournment of more than three days to a day certain are
exchided in the computation of the days in which Congress is in
continuous session.
"(e) The Archivist shall request the advice of the Committee on Consultation with
Rules and Administration and the Committee on Governmental Affairs congressional
of the Senate and the Committee on House Administration and the committees.
Committee on Government Operations of the House of Representatives
with respect to any proposed disposal of Presidential records whenever
he considers that—
"(1) these particular records may be of special interest to the
Congress; or
"(2) consultation with the Congress regarding the disposal of
these particular records is in the public interest.
"(f) (1) Upon the conclusion of a President's term of office, or if a
President serves consecutive terms upon the conclusion of the last term,
the Archivist of the United States shall assume responsibility for the
custody, control, and preservation of, and access to, the Presidential
records of that President. The Archivist shall have an affirmative duty
to make such records available to the public as rapidly and completely
as possible consistent with the provisions of this Act.
"(2) The Arcliivist shall deposit all such Presidential records in a
Presidential archival depository or another archival facility operated
by the United States. The Archivist is authorized to designate, after
consultation with the former President, a director at each depository
or facility, who shall be responsible for the care and preservation of
such records.
"(3) The Archivist is authorized to dispose of such Presidential
records which he has appraised and determined to have insufficient
administrative, historical, informational, or evidentiary value to war-
rant their continued preservation. Notice of such disposal shall be Publication in
published in the Federal Register at least 60 days in advance of the Federal Register.
proposed disposal date. Publication of such notice shall constitute a
final agency action for purposes of review under chapter 7 of title 5,
United States Code.

The dems have represented their constituents very well.