Throughout the final, tortured moments of the 2020 presidential campaign, Donald Trump took to referring to his rival, Joe Biden, as the head of “the Biden crime family.” But as psychologist Mary L. Trump, the soon-to-be-erstwhile commander-in-chief’s niece, and author of Too Much and Never Enough, has suggested, some of Trump’s statements are, in fact, projections of his own behavior. Indeed, Trump’s alpha male posturing and affected bravado — which he used to foment a personal brand of being a savvy businessman and a mover-and-shaker blessed with raw cunning — is bound up in the mythos of the mobster as portrayed in pop culture, film, and TV. However, the realities that seep through that mythos, like blood on carpet, demonstrate why Trump is leaving the White House at a record low in approval. Trump may have tried to affect the steely suaveness of the hyper-competent crime boss, but he failed because, in fact, he’s a blundering thug.
SOMEONE commented that under Trump America was “energy efficient”. I think what the PERSON means is that with Trump America was energy independent.
I think this statement requires more exploration.
One person recently messaged me “Then why are we no longer energy independent, genius?” First, note that I am not going to engage with anyone who approaches me in a hostile or disrespectful manner. I do, however, sometimes engage people who simply disagree and want to express their opinion.
Yet this person raised a question that reflects a belief I have seen expressed many times. That is that President Trump made us energy independent, and now under President Biden we have lost that energy independence. Once again, the truth requires a bit more discussion.
It is true that in 2019 our net imports of crude oil and finished products flipped from positive to negative. By that metric, we became energy independent (at last as far as our oil consumption goes). It is also true that Donald Trump was president when this happened for the first time in October 2019.
But note that this was the culmination of a trend that started in 2006 when U.S. net imports topped 13 million BPD. Most of that march to energy independence happened under President Obama. All President Trump (and President Obama before him) had to do was avoid driving the bus into the ditch, and they would continue to benefit from the hydraulic fracking boom that enabled all of this.
So, in 2009 we began the march to energy independence. Those wishing to credit President Trump for this need to take another look at that net imports graphic to grasp the full picture.
As U.S. consumers experienced record high gas prices days into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, various political figures have said the United States was “energy independent” under the administration of former president Donald Trump and have criticized policy under President Joe Biden. Reuters spoke to experts about the how energy independence can be defined or measured, and factors affecting the balance of energy imports and exports.
Fact check: Despite claims of Trump-era ‘energy independence,’ the US never stopped importing foreign oil
The United States never stopped importing energy from foreign countries under President Donald Trump.
Both before and after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine contributed to a spike in US gas prices, various Republicans bashed President Joe Biden for supposedly abandoning Trump-era “energy independence.” These Republicans have fostered the impression that the “energy independent” US did not need energy from Russia and elsewhere under Trump, but then, under Biden, has been forced to buy this foreign energy once more.
The truth is that the US was never close to genuine independence from foreign energy in the Trump era.
As part of a discussion on extremist right-wing candidates — many of whom believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Donald Trump — running for House seats, Toobin claimed they will be more interested in making headlines than making policy.
As for what charges they will bring against the president, Toobin suggested they will just grab onto some random controversy and try and make a federal case out of it.
“They want to win more than they want to behave honorably,” Toobin explained. “I think that’s the thing that is so striking and frankly disturbing about what’s gone on in the Republican Party is that they will not acknowledge the reality of Joe Biden’s victory. They will not denounce Donald Trump’s lies, all because they think it’s going to get them the majority.”
Here's A Thing... 