Top of the Fold

• Biden virtue-signals with tiny tapping of Strategic Petroleum Reserve: In what amounts to little more than a political stunt meant to appear to mitigate the impact of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Joe Biden authorized the release of 30 million barrels of oil from the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki claimed the maneuver would “protect American businesses and consumers, including from rising prices at the pump.” However, with the U.S. consuming on average 18 million barrels of oil a day, Biden’s gesture may temporarily cut prices at the pump by a whopping one cent. Just last November, Biden pulled a similar stunt as gas prices were climbing to decade-old highs, only then he released 50 million barrels. That clearly produced no lasting impact, as prices today are now nearly 30 cents higher at the pump. If Biden was truly interested in reducing the price of gas, he’d reverse his anti-fossil fuel policies that are the most responsible for contributing to the skyrocketing fuel prices and have served to make the U.S. more dependent on Russian oil. As John Hayward insightfully argues: “If you really want to compete with Russia and China to prevent the 21st Century from being dominated by a new axis of evil, you must first defeat the Church of Global Warming. As long as that’s the official state religion of the Western world, we haven’t got a prayer.”

• PolitiFact spins and conflates facts to “debunk” facts: Speaking of the U.S. becoming more dependent on Russian oil, the leftist “fact-check” website PolitiFact went to bat for Joe Biden when it labeled as “mostly false” Fox News anchor Maria Bartiromo’s claim that the U.S. had doubled its oil imports from Russia in just one year. While acknowledging the fact that U.S. imports of crude oil from Russia have indeed more than doubled from 76,000 barrels a day last year to 208,000 barrels today, PolitiFact disingenuously conflated and expanded Bartiromo’s oil reference to include all petroleum-based imports from Russia, which have seen a 28% increase, in order to discredit her. The context of Bartiromo’s claim was clearly a reference to the U.S. import of Russian crude oil, which most affects the price at the pump. As political commentator Erick Erickson contends: “PoliticFact is a dishonest publication designed to bolster Democrats. Fact-checking organizations are the last bastion of a progressive-oriented press corps fully exposed for their biases.” We give his observation a “true” rating.

• Big Tech and Big Oil join mass exodus of businesses from Russia: ExxonMobil announced on Tuesday that it too would be joining the growing list of companies pulling out of Russia. Exxon now makes the third energy giant to end business with Russia, the two others being BP and Shell. But it’s not just Big Oil bolting — Boeing and Apple also announced they are halting business in Russia, which will further isolate and negatively impact the county’s suddenly tanking economy. Exxon explained its decision: “We deplore Russia’s military action that violates the territorial integrity of Ukraine and endangers its people.” The decision will cost Exxon some $4 billion in assets. Apple CEO Tim Cook on Tuesday agreed to Ukraine Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov’s request for the company to stop selling products to Russia as well as removing Russian state-run media from its app store. “We have paused all product sales in Russia,” Apple stated. “Last week, we stopped all exports into our sales channel in the country.”

• In case of a nuclear attack … social distance: In a public announcement from the Biden administration likely brought about by Vladimir Putin’s decision to put his nuclear forces on high alert, FEMA has offered some guidelines. And these are evidently not intended as a joke, but they should be. In case of a nuclear attack, FEMA’s guidelines say people should shelter in place in their basement if possible while encouraging people to also “continue to practice social distancing by wearing a mask and by keeping a distance of at least six feet between.” That’s right — apparently the greatest concern one should have while seeking to survive a nuclear attack is to avoid spreading COVID while folks are huddled together (six feet apart). Seriously, who comes up with this stuff?

Headlines

• Joe Manchin sits with Republicans during State of the Union (Washington Examiner)

• “Beyond humanity … damn them”: Zelenskyy condemns Russian missile attack on Holocaust memorial (Fox News)

• EU countries won’t send Ukraine fighter jets after all (Politico)

• More than 140 diplomats walk out of UN during Russian defense of Ukraine invasion (Washington Examiner)

• Russian state-backed media outlets are getting blocked: TikTok, Meta, YouTube, and other companies are moving to block RT and other outlets (Morning Brew)

• Oil jumps to highest since 2011 as OPEC holds output steady (CNBC)

• Mandatory U.S. military training program pushes soldiers to undergo gender-reassignment surgery (Free Beacon)

• Uncanceled? Biden includes Dr. Seuss in “Read Across America Day” proclamation after excluding him last year (Daily Wire)

• Greg Abbott and Beto O'Rourke win Texas gubernatorial primaries (Washington Examiner)

• New report shatters media lie that CRT isn’t taught in Virginia schools (The Federalist)

• Policy: Fact-checking 10 claims from Biden’s State of the Union Address (Daily Signal)

• Satire: Republican response to State of the Union is just a replay of the State of the Union (Babylon Bee)

For more of today’s editors’ choice headlines, visit Headline Report.

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