(FREE) PAINE IN THE MORNING: What you need to know this Monday – January 9, 2023

Here’s what you need to know today, Monday – January 9, 2023.

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Media Blackout Over Terror Incident At Vegas Power Plant – The US power grid is under attack as extremists shoot, sabotage, and vandalize electrical equipment at power stations. One of the highest-profile attacks was when two men used guns to paralyze a substation in Washington state on Christmas Day, leaving thousands without electricity. The incident made national news, but strangely enough, another attack last week on the Las Vegas power grid went unnoticed by the national press.

Mohammad Mesmarian, 34, rammed his car through the gate of a solar power generation plant outside Las Vegas on Wednesday and set his car on fire, intending to damage a massive transformer, 8 News Now reported. – READ MORE

Biden administration quietly confesses killing Keystone XL hurt America – In a required report that was released without even any public notification, the Biden administration has confessed that the president’s decision to kill the Keystone XL pipeline – part of his larger war against the American energy industry – cost billions and hurt families.

Fox News reports the details are from a “congressionally mandate report highlighting the positive economic benefits the Keystone XL Pipeline would have had” … “if President Biden didn’t revoke its federal permits.” – READ MORE

Biden Administration Touts Drained Emergency Oil Reserves as Top 2022 Accomplishment – The Biden administration is touting its decision to drain America’s emergency oil reserves to historically low levels—and sell millions of barrels to China and other foreign entities—as one of its “top accomplishments in 2022.”

President Joe Biden’s Energy Department in a Dec. 23 press release included its release of “190 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve” as second on its list of top 2022 accomplishments. The department said the reserve sales protected “global energy security”—a far cry from its reasoning behind the sales in April, when the department said a release of 30 million reserve barrels would aid domestic consumers by addressing “the pain Americans are feeling at the pump.” – READ MORE

White House Delays Refill Of Strategic Oil Reserve, Balks At “Too Expensive” Offers – The Biden administration had no problems aggressively draining the SPR by 1mmb/d at market prices in the immediate aftermath of the Ukraine war, in hopes of lowering the price of gasoline ahead of November’s elections and avoiding an inflationary midterm rout. However, when it comes to refilling the SPR, now that US emergency inventories are down to the lowest level since November 1983 and not too far from an all time low which threatens the structural integrity of the salt caverns the oil is deposited in…

… the White House has “unexpectedly” gotten cold feet.

One month after the White House said it will start refilling the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, and made an initial order of 3mm barrels of sour crude (a tiny fraction of the 200 million released in 2022), in what it said was a clear message to oil companies that they can freely invest capital in boosting output cause, well, Biden’s got their backs, overnight we learned that there was a rather sizable caveat in the White House’s brilliant plan. – READ MORE

‘Shockingly High’ Winter Natural Gas Prices Hit California — as Planned – While natural gas prices are in “free fall” on the national market, California’s prices to customers are doubling and in some cases tripling to “shockingly high” levels at a time when people on the West Coast, Messed Coast™ use energy the most. Freezing out Californians in winter is part of the state’s energy plan. It is rationing by another name. Try to look surprised.

California’s biggest energy companies, among them SoCalGas, announced Friday that, due to a spike in prices, “January bills are likely to be shockingly high. … While we don’t set these prices (they’re set by regional and national markets), nor does SoCalGas actually profit from rising prices, we want our customers to know that we understand that this may be a shock and a hardship for some” [emphasis added]. – READ MORE

Bank of America Chief Economist: It Will Take ‘Two Years, If Not Three’ to Get Inflation to Target – During an interview with CBS News on Friday, Bank of America Chief Economist Michael Gapen stated that it “will probably take two years, if not three years to get inflation back down to the Fed’s desired 2% level.”

Gapen said, “I think the numbers tell us that the labor market is still quite hot. The unemployment rate number that you mentioned is the lowest we’ve seen since 1968. So, it’s about a five-decade low. 223,000 jobs added in the month of December. That pace has come down, but that’s a robust number in any normal expansion. So, I think job-seekers right now are probably still meeting with a lot of success and I think labor demand remains exceptionally strong.” – READ MORE

Bed, Bath, & Beyond To File For Bankruptcy “Within Weeks”: Report – Bed Bath & Beyond shareholders’ day just went from worst to worsterer…

After the stock closed down 30% today (following the company saying it was running low on funds and considering several options), The Wall Street Journal is reporting that, according to people familiar with the matter, BBBY is preparing to file for bankruptcy within weeks after the home-goods retailer said that sales for its third quarter, which ended in November, are expected to fall by nearly a third and that losses are expected to widen nearly 40% to $385.8 million. – READ MORE

Amazon to Fire 18,000 Employees in Latest Corporate Layoff – Amazon.com Inc’s layoffs will now increase to more than 18,000 roles as part of a workforce reduction it previously disclosed, Chief Executive Andy Jassy said in a public staff note on Wednesday.

The layoff decisions, which Amazon will communicate starting Jan. 18, will largely impact the company’s e-commerce and human resources organizations, he said. – READ MORE

Poor People Five Times More Likely Than Average Earner To Be Audited by Biden IRS – Poor people faced a significantly higher chance in 2022 of being audited by President Joe Biden’s IRS than both rich and middle-class earners, according to a Syracuse University study.

In fact, no group faced as much scrutiny from the IRS as those who made below $25,000, the university’s data-gathering center found. Among families that benefited from the earned income tax credit, a rebate on income and payroll taxes made available to the nation’s poorest families, 1.27 percent were audited. The IRS in 2022 audited just 0.19 percent of the vast majority of taxpayers, meaning the poorest families were at least 550 percent more likely to have the IRS knock on their door than the average filer. – READ MORE

Report: Democrat-Run Border City Clears Out Migrant Encampments Ahead of Biden Visit – Democrat-run El Paso, Texas, is clearing out large migrant encampments from downtown streets ahead of a scheduled visit on Sunday by President Joe Biden.

Since last week, police have moved hundreds of migrants to less visible areas of the city, as carjackings, stolen property, and drug distribution spiked with the arrival of thousands of illegal immigrants, the Washington Examiner reported. Law enforcement agencies said businesses have struggled with crime as migrants, primarily from Venezuela, have camped out on city streets. – READ MORE

‘A Wonderful Christmas Present’: Zelensky Hails Single Biggest US Arms Package At One Time – The US is going to send Ukraine Bradley Fighting Vehicles for the first time in a new weapons package worth nearly $3 billion, US officials told The Associated Press late this week.

The $2.85 billion aid package was formally announced on Friday, and marks the single largest arms package for Ukraine the US has pledged at one time. The package will include 50 Bradleys, which are designed to transport infantry troops with armored protection that are equipped with a 25 mm gun. – READ MORE