I have exciting news to share: You can now read The Kitchen Pundit in the new Substack app for iPhone.
With the app, you’ll have a dedicated Inbox for my Substack and any others you subscribe to. New posts will never get lost in your email filters, or stuck in spam. Longer posts will never cut-off by your email app. Comments and rich media will all work seamlessly. Overall, it’s a big upgrade to the reading experience.
The Substack app is currently available for iOS. If you don’t have an Apple device, you can join the Android waitlist here.
Last night, Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards announced he was vetoing the legislative and congressional maps passed by the state legislature in the recent special session on redistricting. He wants them to reconsider based on one-third of the state identifying as an ethnic minority in the most recent census.
What Democrats are proposing is taking the heavily black parts of Lafayette and St. Martin Parishes and adding them, along with St. Landry Parish and possibly even a portion of Baton Rouge and adding them to LA-5, making it just over 50 percent black, meeting the requirement. However, that also potentially pits Julia Letlow and Mike Johnson, two popular Republicans, against each other this year.
The push by Democrats for another majority-minority (and, in theory, Democratic) sear isn't just about race, however. It's also partisan. The national Democratic Party is staring down major losses in Washington D.C. this year and the party has been working overtime across the country to try and mitigate that through map-drawing. They are in a hurry to get this done ahead of the 2022 midterms rather than wait until 2024 to get their second seat.
Assuming, of course, that they get that seat in the election. The second proposed majority-minority district is barely that, and in mid-terms and off-year elections black voters are more likely to not vote. Republicans may be losing a seat in theory, but in practice they could still hold on to LA-5.
For my full commentary on this, check out my column at KPEL 96.5’s website.
Meanwhile, Louisiana saw a record shattered yesterday as the price of gas per gallon rose to an all-time high of $4.04 per gallon. Today, we saw nearly another dime added to that, with the state average currently sitting at $4.13. In Lafayette, where I am, the average jumped from $4.08 yesterday to $4.17 today. The price of diesel in Lafayette is about to top $5 per gallon.
The Biden Administration is pulling out every rhetorical trick in the book to deflect the blame. They want to blame Russia, despite the fact that oil prices began to rise long before Russia began its insane war with Ukraine. They want to blame oil companies for not operating on leases, despite the fact that the Biden administration’s own regulations make it nearly impossible for companies to operate any drilling at a profit or even transport what they drill or produce, for that matter.
Because while that federal land is available, the Biden administration has made it a point to put up as much red tape as possible for onshore drilling while refusing to issue any offshore leases. What’s more, if you do manage to drill, you still have to transport it, and the Biden administration is currently trying to make that impossible, as well. They won’t tolerate any new pipelines and they are pushing a rule banning the transportation of liquid natural gas via trains.
The Biden administration is now trying to pivot to American energy independence.
Except… America was already there when the Biden administration came in, vowing to go after fossil fuel producers no matter what. It doesn’t exactly inspire energy companies to invest in American production when America’s leaders have promised to make it as difficult as possible.
Up until this moment, the administration and its supporters in the media and Hollywood have all parroted the same talking point: Well, make the sacrifice and get an electric vehicle.
The problem is that cost, batteries not holding their charge in the winter, and a power grid incapable of withstanding a sudden shift to electric vehicles all stand in the way. But it feels good for them to say it and for them to talk about their EVs and their hybrids so they can signal their virtues as our societal betters.
The Biden administration has no plan. They keep changing the talking points. They keep adjusting based on polling rather than serious policy. And now, Americans are being punished at the gas pumps for it.