DeSantis, Crenshaw, and Old Whine in a New Bottle

So, apparently Ron DeSantis weighed in on Ukraine and Putin, and the result is everything you would expect from a GOP operative given the coordinated "Blame Biden" strategy currently being employed across the conservative landscape.  He thinks Putin invaded because Biden is "weak", then tried to claim that Biden is somehow destroying domestic oil production (by curtailing Russian exports?  How does THAT work?), and lamenting the loss of the Keystone Pipeline.  And while he didn't exactly PRAISE Putin, he didn't much criticize him, either, finding fault, instead, with Putin's STRATEGY, of all things.  After calling Putin's invasion "half-hearted" and rife with "miscalculations," this is about as pointed as Ron's criticism of Putin reached:  “If you go into another country with an armed population that is hell-bent on resisting you, I mean, it’s going to be death by a thousand cuts for the Russian army."

That's it.

As to his other complaints, well-- it will shock none of you that he is full of shit. DeSantis has built a career dependent on telling the hard right what they already believe, no matter how disconnected that might be from reality. Biden is literally central to an international coalition that is crippling Russians with sanctions. The ruble is at an all time low, at the moment. About the only additional step Biden could take at this point is to send troops, which the GOP is currently waffling about-- if Biden does it, they'll be SHOCKED that he would do such a thing, and if he doesn't, they'll claim he's weak and demand to know why he didn't.

Likewise, DeSantis' claim that Biden "stepped on the neck of our domestic energy" is nothing but pure, unadulterated bullshit. The price of oil went down due to excess supply compared to shrinking demand. The proper response to that according to Republican cant is to reduce production, but ironically 2/3 of the reduction in production came from OPEC, and non-OPEC reduction being led by.... wait for it... Russia.

But, hey-- who knows? Maybe Biden used Obama's time machine to go back in time and gain control of the entire world's oil production, right?

Don't take my word for it. BP-- you know, the highly liberal green energy company that produces a massive amount of fossil fuels-- their statistical review of WORLD energy production had already predicted a decline in energy consumption of roughly 2.5% which, due to impacts of the pandemic, turned into nearly twice as large a decline. Again, GLOBAL impacts.

As you can see from these illustrations, DOMESTIC oil production (despite Republican lies) dramatically increased under Obama, took a brief hiatus in the transition to Trump, recovered nicely, and then dropped with the pandemic-related collapse of the economy under Trump's watch. It has since been recovering nicely under Biden. While exports have not significantly GROWN during the pandemic, they also appear to be recovering nicely, especially at the end of 2021. QED, the claim that Biden has "stepped on the neck" of domestic energy is nothing other than bullshit. period.

As to the Keystone claim? DeSantis is not the only Republican asshole to try to pretend that Keystone has anything to do with Russia invading Ukraine.  DeSantis tries to tie it to his "Biden killed the energy sector" argument, but other morons such as Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) also weigh in. Crenshaw's argument is that if we had Keystone, we wouldn't import oil from Russia.  Now, note-- in the above illustration, it should already be apparent that we import very little oil from Russia. But both arguments-- DeSantis' and Crenshaw's, are bullshit for a host of other reasons, as well.

Much of the oil that would have been transported by Keystone STILL comes into the US via rail, which makes the impact of Keystone even less relevant than it might appear on the surface, and it already wasn't that relevant on the surface. 

• Keystone is bringing Canadian oil-- IMPORTED, not domestic production-- into the US. 
• Imports of Canadian crude have DOUBLED since 2008, and the absence of Keystone hasn't curtailed that growth, at all. 
• Most of this Canadian oil that would have been shipped via Keystone would go to Gulf Coast refineries which, in turn, EXPORT the production. 
• The Trump administration itself argued that approving Keystone would have only a "minimal" effect on the US petroleum market.  
• The type of oil being brought in from Canada is an entirely different type from Russian oil, so even should one presume that we could replace Russian oil with Canadian, it would not be a one-to-one replacement.

QED, Keystone has little impact on domestic production, and DeSantis or Crenshaw pretending it does is merely an effort to hurt Biden by relying on the ignorance of the Republican rank and file.

Top to bottom, the GOP is more concerned about retaking power in the US to continue their efforts to convert the US to autocratic, one-party rule than they are about domestic oil production, Ukrainian security, or common sense.