7 Things: Higher gas prices coming as everyone effs with Biden, another Alabama man convicted in Jan. 6 riot, and more …

7. DeSantis plays nice, Biden says words

• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and President Joe Biden are now working “hand-in-glove” to help Florida recover from Hurricane Ian. DeSantis welcomed Biden saying, “Mr. President, welcome to Florida. We appreciate working together across various levels of government.”
• Biden on the other hand decided to claim the storm was caused by global warming and that other governors have accepted that but DeSantis hasn’t. He told a local mayor that “nobody [effs] with a Biden” referring to their upbringing and told a weird story about his house burning down, which it did not, to commiserate with devastated homeowners.

6. Another pro-lifer targeted by FBI after police passed on charges

• The FBI seems to be going pretty hard after pro-lifers recently,  the latest was a raid that was made with guns drawn on a family home. But the target, who was wanted for the crime of singing at an abortion clinic, was not even home.
• The police, in Mount Joliet, Tenn., already released him on minor trespassing charges for singing in the hallway of a building that housed an abortion clinic. Meanwhile, the Department of Justice will not comment on the lack of arrests involving 150 attacks on pro-life centers.

5. Woman guilty in street-racing crash blamed victims and then ran

• A 23-year-old Birmingham woman was convicted of reckless manslaughter in the death of 52-year-old Brandy Ballard in a 2021 street racing crash. Carmesia Flannigan was racing when she killed Ballard, who was a home health care worker and grandmother of five heading to work at 6 a.m.

• Flanigan became notorious, not only for her street-racing accident but, because when she was released from jail while awaiting trial, she posted two Facebook Live videos blaming Ballard for the crash. She even said, “That old ass lady swerved in my lane,” showing a lack of class and no remorse.

4. Liberal judges continue to push for segregation but the good kind, apparently

• The strange court case surrounding the congressional redistricting in Alabama drew out some interesting arguments from the liberal members, including Ketanji Brown Jackson. Jackson seems to think that racial gerrymandering is legal, but it is not.
• While the media loved this stuff, she will be on the losing side of the argument. The likely decision will allow Alabama lawmakers to keep congressional districts as-is but could impact the ability to draw districts in the state without factoring in race down the line, according to former U.S. Attorney Jay Town.

3. Rapes and murders up, but the reality is probably worse

• The latest FBI report shows rape and murders are up across the United States, but violent crime is actually down because robberies are down 9%. This is after a 30% jump from 2019-2020, so crime is still a major issue.
• The mixed bag that this report shows is fatally flawed, 40% of police departments have chosen not to participate this year. The departments that opted out include New York City and Los Angeles. Time magazine suggests that this could mean that crime is actually down, but that seems highly unlikely.

2. Alabama man convicted of rioting on Jan. 6

• 62-year-old Russell Dean Alford of Hokes Bluff, Ala., has been convicted of entering the U.S. Capitol through doors broken by other rioters and remaining in the building for full 15 minutes.
• His crimes seem rather minor, “entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building,” but he faces three years in prison.

1. OPEC effs with Biden

• Saudi Arabia and Russia decided they would cut oil production by close to 2 million barrels which will lead to higher prices of oil. The increase in oil prices will cause prices of everything either produced or transported with oil to go up. This means everything.
• Strangely, the White House doesn’t like other countries limiting their oil production, “The president is disappointed by the shortsighted decision by OPEC Plus to cut production quotas while the global economy is dealing with the continued negative impact of Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.” But Biden himself has worked to limit America’s oil production making us more reliant on foreign oil. Now, he is depleting the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to the lowest levels in decades and promising more one day after saying they were not going to do that.