Absurd Truth: It's Oil, Stupid.

Dana Lashes of Sir Truth Podcast, sponsored by Kel-Tec. It's his life mission to make bad decisions. It's time for Florida Man. Oh, this Florida man set fire to his own house during a four hour standoff over shoplifted cigarettes in Deltona, Florida. The resident also grazed the deputy with a bullet, but thank God the deputy will be OK. A deputy in Florida was grazed by a bullet Wednesday during a gunfight with a suspect who fled after being suspected of shoplifting cigarettes and then took part in an hours long standoff before he was taken into custody. The deputy who was shot had non-life threatening injuries, thank God.

And this is according to Fox News here. The suspect was taken into custody Wednesday morning following a four hour standoff during which he set fire to his house, which is located about 30 minutes northeast of Orlando. A worker at a convenience store called deputies after witnessing the suspect stealing cigarettes. The suspect drove at deputies arriving at the store and then attempted to flee, but was hindered by shop sticks a deputy had employed.

Stop sticks, excuse me. The suspect was able to drive to his home on a deflated tire, followed by deputies who commanded him to get out of his truck. When deputies approached the vehicle in an attempt to remove him, the suspect fired at them. The suspect then said fire to the cab of the truck and was forced into his home, where a short time later deputies saw smoke and flames coming from the upper floor. When the suspect was spotted on a balcony, deputies used an armored vehicle to knock down the balcony and bring the suspect to the ground.

The suspect was treated at the scene for unspecific injuries and taken to the hospital. And hopefully he will be, he will be, I just, that dude's got some problems. An armed Florida man was accused of trying to enter a military base as Captain America.

I love Captain America, he's one of my favorite superheroes, by the way, the, but, you know. A Florida man was indicted Tuesday after trying to enter an Air Force base in Tampa last month. In release, investigators say Baruch Roche II, 33 years old, attempted to enter MacDill Air Force Base in his car before being stopped by security personnel at the base gate. He refused to provide identification, instead calling himself Captain America and demanding entry, claiming that he had a meeting with a general to provide top secret information. The U.S. Attorney's Office explained he then became argumentative and threatened to return daily to look for the officers denying him entry. According to the release, he was detained as security personnel searched his car, finding an AR-15 rifle and five magazines loaded with 125 rounds of ammunition.

He was taken into custody and charged with attempted possession of a firearm in a federal facility. And also impersonating a superhero, which might be a federal offense, I'm not quite sure. Too bad he didn't have Cap's shield, he could have just, you know, that shield is pretty amazing. Anyway, speaking of movies that stink, everything Marvel has done since Disney took over in this latest couple phases has been terrible. I like to watch his movies with my kid, my son, and we're really big in the early ones. And then everything that Disney has been putting out lately has been a steaming pile of garbage. I didn't even go see the last one. The reviews were so bad.

But it kind of goes to what I said earlier about Hollywood. They are hemorrhaging. And I think a big part of the reason why they're hemorrhaging is a lot of the stuff they're putting out is just not good. You know what I mean? It's just not good quality.

So there's definitely a problem going on. But it's a shame because those Marvel movies, those superhero movies back in the day, they were great. The whole first four phases, some of my absolute favorites, culminating with Avengers Endgame.

That movie was fantastic. Anyway. Much of what we see happening around us today results from decades of failure in American education. Americans are increasingly divided over what policies are best for our country. So that's why I'd like to invite you to make a year-end gift to Hillsdale College and their mission to preserve the blessings of civil and religious liberty through a proper education. Hillsdale College is leading an American revival. Over three and a half million citizens have enrolled in one or more of Hillsdale's free online courses. Thousands of young Americans are enrolled in over 90 Hillsdale affiliated K through 12 schools and 6.4 million Americans receive imprimis 10 times a year. Hillsdale does all of this while refusing to accept one penny of taxpayer funding.

Hillsdale's independence means that they rely on the support of citizens like you who understand the importance of education and liberty. You can make your tax deductible year-end gift at Dana4Hillsdale.com. That's Dana4Hillsdale.com.

On behalf of our friends at Hillsdale College, have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. By the way, the new Corvette is coming out electric 0 to 60 in 2.9 seconds. Are you going to drive that one? I'm going to give it a show. The Creepy Whisper is back. Welcome back to The Dana Show. It's me, Rich, Zioli, in for Dana today.

Happy Friday. Yeah, that's when Biden does that creepy whisper, you know, I'm upstairs. I'm upstairs. I'm in the house. It always sounds like a serial killer to me.

He really does. A creepy 50s horror movie. I'm upstairs. What are you wearing?

So creepy. Anyway, Biden's administration today announced another attempt to kill American energy independence. The White House has unveiled strict hydrogen regulations and a victory for environmental kooks.

Guidance will stunt the growth of a critical industry before it has ever even begun. Senator Dan Sullivan of Alaska, I'm sorry, the White House unveiled highly anticipated guidance, placing significant restrictions on the type of hydrogen power that will be eligible for generous federal tax credits. The proposed guidance released Friday morning in a joint announcement by the White House, Treasury Department and Department of Energy tethers the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act's highest production credit of three dollars per kilogram of hydrogen produced to tight green energy standards.

The restrictions have been supported by environmentalists and some green energy companies, but opposed by business and clean power industry groups because hydrogen is amazing and hydrogen would absolutely be a win for energy, a win for the environment, a win all around. But it's not renewable. You see, you got to realize that the left, the climate kooks, all they care about is what is so-called renewable energy, wind, solar and water.

That's it. They don't want anything else. They're not reasonable people. They don't want nuclear. They don't want hydrogen. They don't want natural gas. Nothing.

No, no, nothing. It's not it doesn't matter if natural gas is clean burning. Doesn't matter. Doesn't matter if hydrogen is completely clean.

It doesn't matter. They only insist on so-called renewables. That's why they want to build these massive wind turbines up and down the entire East Coast, which are killing whales and dolphins and killing birds and destroying sight lines, destroying the coast. But they don't care. They're obsessed with this stuff. It's why they want to have all these solar panels that are made in China. It's why they keep having these kids, these slave mines for these cobalt batteries. You know, these kids are doing all this.

I mean, it's terrible. And they don't. But they don't want it done in the United States of America. As a mandate, everybody has to have a electric car. And hydrogen is a no brainer. I mean, it really is a no brainer in terms of energy and what the United States could do and provide. It's it's scientific.

It's absolutely safe. And yet it's not renewable. So therefore, they're against it.

That's it. They're just against it. John Podesta, President Biden's clean energy czar, said, quote, The Inflation Reduction Act's hydrogen tax credit will help build a clean hydrogen industry that will be critical in reducing emissions from harder to decarbonize sectors like heavy industry and heavy transportation. Jennifer Granholm, the secretary of energy, said today's announcement will further unprecedented investments in a new American led industry as we aim to lead and propel the global clean energy transition. Hydrogen has the potential to clean up America's manufacturing industry, power the transportation sector and shore up our energy security, all while delivering good paying jobs and new economic opportunity to communities in every pocket of America.

So what's the problem? Well, hydrogen has been widely pegged as a key technology for reducing future greenhouse gas emissions, especially in hard to decarbonize sectors like shipping, heavy trucking, cement, steel manufacturing. The transportation and industrial sectors account for nearly 60 percent of its use.

60 percent of the United States end use emissions. Overall, the hydrogen production tax credits are some of the most generous clean energy incentives earmarked under the Investment Inflation Reduction Act. But the formulation of tax credits has sparked an intense debate in recent months. And the problem is that the credits will be available for 10 years, starting on the date a hydrogen production facility is placed into service for projects that begin construction before 2023.

The Clean Hydrogen Production Credit aims to make production of clean hydrogen with minimal climate pollution more economically competitive and accelerate development. But now critics are pointing out, and this is the key thing, the proposed rules represent a major milestone and will eventually kill the industry before it even gets off the ground. Because in addition to the tax credits, the Biden administration came out and unveiled all kinds of sweeping regulations on top of the hydrogen industry.

So they're hiding this by going, look, we have tax credits for you. But then when you peel back the layers of the onion, you find out there's all kinds of regulations built in to basically kill the industry. The proposal is facing significant pushback from industry groups and hydrogen companies that have argued that the federal government, in order to begin the implementation of the tax credits, will in turn require regulations that are devastating. Groups like the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Fuel, Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association and the Clean Hydrogen Future Coalition, in addition to hydropower and nuclear groups, have argued strict regulations like those unveiled today will deter investment, increase the cost of hydrogen, lead to fewer projects in the coming years and discriminate against existing low carbon power sources. Quote from the president and CEO of the Fuel, Cell and Hydrogen Energy Association, the guidance announced today by the Biden-Harris administration will place unnecessary burdens on the still nascent clean hydrogen industry. The nation needs common sense solutions for this tax credit that are aligned with the congressional intent to spur robust economic development and create jobs while reducing carbon emissions. Congress intended the tax credits to spur domestic clean hydrogen production and allow the United States to maintain an internal competitive advantage. Not to be an inadvertent backdoor to regulate use of the electricity grid. But of course, that's how the Biden administration works, right? They want to satisfy the base.

The environmental kooks want nothing but renewable. So they'll turn around and they'll say, hey, tax credits, look. But in order to get them, you got to agree to regulations and these regulations will destroy your industry, making the tax credits useless. But nevertheless, am I right?

Tax credits, woo hoo. Anybody with a brain looks at this and goes, why are you doing this? I mean, this could be this could be great for international use as well. The United States could be a leader, an international leader in hydrogen power. You know, right now, Vladimir Putin, for example, as we keep spending, sending all this money to Ukraine, no strings attached forever and ever and ever while our borders wide open. Vladimir Putin is selling his natural gas at record levels to countries like France, Sweden and Spain. Now, France, that's an interesting one, right? Because we keep hearing that if Putin defeats Ukraine and wins that war, he's going to then march into Europe, just like Hitler, and take over Europe. We keep hearing this all the time.

So it's either stop him now or you're going to have to fight in Europe. Now, France is very familiar with what it was like to fall to the Nazis. When the Nazis were goose stepping through the Champs-Élysées and all the Nazi banners were flying, you would think France of all countries would be acutely aware of what that threat is like. So then why is France keep buying Vladimir Putin's natural gas? Well, for two reasons. Number one, they don't believe the hype.

And number two, they need it. Same thing with Spain, same thing with Sweden. So Putin's getting rich selling natural gas because the United States of America will not harness what we have. We could build a huge liquid natural gas export facility right outside of Philadelphia to serve the entire world. But we won't do it because the left hates natural gas. Even though natural gas is clean burning, they don't care. It's not renewable. Therefore, we hate it.

That's their mindset. And there's no negotiating with them. So now you have the United States looking to achieve energy independence and also looking to achieve a clean environment. And as the industry said, the United States cannot achieve its climate goals without clean hydrogen. And these proposed regulations and requirements will unnecessarily hold back our domestic industry, driving investment, manufacturing and technology leadership overseas. Marty Durbin, the president of the United States Chamber of Commerce Global Energy Institute, said the guidance will stunt the growth of a critical industry before it has even begun. Andy Marsh, the CEO of hydrogen fuel cell systems developer Plug Power, said this framework will fall woefully short in achieving the administration's decarbonization objectives.

Meanwhile, the guidance is likely to also deface congressional opposition, including from several Senate Democrats who have argued that the investment or inflation reduction act was designed to allow for a slow phase in of stringent guidance. But, you know, the problem, though, is that whenever a new technology comes around that the United States of America says we don't want because it's not renewable, then that means that some other international actor is going to take it up and then they're going to invest in it and they're going to crush us and make us eat our lunch. The best irony of COP 28. So COP 28 was the climate summit where they all went. You know, they took their private jets and then when they were there, they were chauffeured around in big SUVs that, of course, were not electric. They did have electric cars there, though. But the best part about that is that the electric cars would hook up into the grid in Dubai. The grid in Dubai is completely powered by oil.

That's right. Dubai is an oil rich country and they're so invested in oil. This is my favorite part of the story. They are actually building new islands to further their exploration for oil drilling. Yes, they're not even just stopping what they have. They're building new islands so they can do more offshore drilling. They're all in an oil.

And Dubai, their philosophy is when the rest of you idiots around the world deplete all your resources, you're going to need us and we'll be here to help you. But of course, like anything else, you're going to have to wet my beak. You know what I mean?

And now all of the news you would probably miss. It's time for Dana's quick five. California transit officials say lingering rotting corpse smell is nothing to be concerned about. Bay Area commuters have been puzzled over a pungent odor that has been in the air for months over a specific area of the BART tracks, the Bay Area Rapid Transit System. And according to Reddit posts, going back at least two months, the smell is detectable in Oakland for a long stretch of the railway. And they've been consulting one another, wanting to know if they also smelled it. People asking each other, you know, and some people wrote back and said, what am I hard of smelling? They're saying the smell is coming from a rotting corpse, lightly belonging to a critter or maybe a body.

Others say it's more of a burning or chemical smell. But the mystery goes unsolved. But perhaps for not long, the smell is starting to become the subject of local news articles. And right now, the officials are saying, don't worry about it. We're aware of it.

But it poses no threat to riders. Maybe it's Jimmy Hoffa's body man arrested after his girlfriend falls from a cliff. Turns out he was asking her to marry him and then she fell off a cliff in Turkey.

Well, the thing about it is that she said no. And so he shoved her off the cliff and she died. So now he's under arrest for murder. That's all I got for that.

Just a reminder that sometimes those really fun engagement stories can have a very dark, twisted ending to them. A passenger was charged after allegedly vaping and exposing himself and urinating on a Jetstar flight in Australia. That's right. He did all those things.

He vaped, exposed himself and urinated on the flight. The big three. I would just think maybe pick one. You know, pick one.

Just either vape, but don't vape and expose. You get the point, right? In Vancouver, a senior fends off a home intruder with a shovel. But what's interesting about the story is that the home intruder was nude. A naked man tried to break into her house with a pointed metal rod. A metal rod. OK, Vancouver police department says it happened just before nine thirty p.m. on Tuesday, December 19th.

The man was swinging the rod at the woman throughout the encounter. She got a shovel that was nearby to protect herself and basically chased him out of the house and cornered him until officers arrived. Thankfully, some astute neighbors heard the commotion. I got to think it's got to be a cop's worst nightmare. Whenever you got to deal with a nude suspect, don't you think? That's got to be the absolute worst. I mean, being a cop is a tough job as it is when criminals have their clothes on, when they don't.

It's even worse. And a grenade like dog poop bag. Wait, a grenade like dog poop bag dispenser.

OK, let me say that again. Grenade like dog poop bag dispenser caused a scare at McMinnville Middle School in Oregon. A suspect suspected hand grenade that briefly caused a stir at the middle school was actually a plastic bag dispenser for cleaning up dog poop. Police department said on social media Wednesday that officers responded to a grass field near the middle school's track at ten thirty five a.m. for a potential hand grenade on school grounds. Arriving officers secured the area and contacted the Oregon State Police bomb squad. The students were OK. They were safe. But it turns out it was just simply a poop dispenser bag or something.

Anyway, so I hope that they do that and they need to do that. And, you know, Hunter Biden, I mean, it's extraordinary that he thumbed his nose the way he did at Congress. And you can only think that the reason that he did that was because he knows that he has his father's pardon power in his back pocket. Exactly right, Miranda Devine. Exactly right. Welcome back to The Dana Show. It's me, Rich Zioli, with you this afternoon. Thanks for being here. Appreciate it very, very much. Hope you and your family have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

I'll be back with you on January 2nd. Records released by House Republicans show that Joe Biden repeatedly emailed Hunter Biden's business associates in 2014. Democrats say the emails were routine and that Hunter Biden's business associate worked as Joe Biden's financial adviser. And helped the then vice president file his tax returns. Now, does that not sound like something's rotten in Denmark to you?

Like a little bit maybe where you'd want to have kind of a firewall between those sort of activities? That's just the first reading of that, I would think. According to the New York Post, Joe Biden exchanged emails with his son Hunter's business associate 54 times while he was serving as vice president. And some of the messages were sent around the time the elder Biden was traveling to Ukraine and his son was working for a Ukrainian gas company. These are all according to records released by House Republicans. A White House spokesperson declined to comment, of course, but pointed to statements by House Democrats that Hunter Biden's business associate Eric Schwerin worked as Joe Biden's financial adviser from 2009 to 2017 and helped him file his tax returns.

Schwerin did not respond to requests for comment. The records released describe the dates of the emails and who exchanged them, but do not include the messages themselves. All told, then Vice President Biden emailed Eric Schwerin in 35 times before and after his 2014 trips to Ukraine. Five emails were exchanged just prior to a trip by Vice President Biden to Ukraine on June 7th, 2014.

Twenty seven emails were sent from the end of June to a second trip to Ukraine by Biden on November 21st, 2014. The bulk of the communication occurred in the lead up and following an appointment for Hunter Biden to serve on the board of the Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma. Which, of course, you know, Hunter was so he had so much free time on his hands, right? I mean, you're spending close to a million dollars on on escorts and strippers and lap dances and making it rain.

You have a lot of time to give your full attention to your client, your consulting expertise. I mean, the guy has no background in natural gas, of course, but he had a lot of time on his hands, except when he wasn't doing cocaine and strippers, which was a lot of time. I mean, that was the bulk of his time, obviously. So maybe it's possible that Burisma wanted Hunter Biden because of his dad. Maybe that if Hunter's last name was not Biden, if it was something else, Smith or something, Burisma might have passed on giving him a million bucks a year.

I don't know. Call me crazy. But then again, maybe they just really like the guy. Maybe he told them great stories about hookers and blow.

I mean, who doesn't love a good hookers and blow story? Am I right? Right. The bulk of the communication occurred around the same time that Joe Biden was over there threatening the prosecutor, making sure the prosecutor got fired and using a billion dollars of your taxpayer dollars as the bribe to make sure that the prosecutor, Victor Shokin, got fired, which is what Burisma wanted and why they were paying his idiot crackhead son a million dollars a year. Because let's face it, Burisma was not paying Hunter Biden for his skills, his acumen, his attention span, his commitment to detail.

They were paying him because of his last name. Earlier this year, Representative Jamie Raskin of Maryland said in a news release that Schwerin told House Ways and Means Committee staff in a March interview that the elder Biden was not involved in the business of his son or any of the relatives. But remember what Hunter Biden said when he came out and gave that speech that day, instead of testifying as he was supposed to do with the congressional subpoena, he said, and I quote, my father was not financially involved in my business, financially involved. That's a very broad thing.

What does that mean? Maybe he means Joe Biden didn't do the payroll. Maybe he didn't do the benefits enrollment. Maybe Joe Biden didn't handle the, I don't know, Christmas party, the accounting for all that, receipts, expenses, that sort of thing. I mean, that's all financial involvement. So that technically would be a true statement, even though it be a material, I mean, you're playing games again, but it could be true. Well, he didn't have financial involvement.

That's correct. He did not handle payroll. If somebody had an expense, Joe Biden did not give them the money back. He didn't pay them back. He didn't handle the expenses and the receipts and the P&L cash flow.

None of that stuff. He didn't do the taxes. He didn't. That was all separate. Did he make money off of it? Oh, yeah, definitely.

But he didn't handle the financial aspects of the business. That's all I meant by that statement. You know, that was left to other people. Don't you think it's kind of a word game playing here?

Yeah, I do. But that's OK. I want my dad a part of me because if he doesn't part of me, I'm going to tell everybody everything. So what I said that day was a warning shot to my dad. Hey, listen, man, if you don't part in me, I'm going to tell everybody about your involvement in my business. But as of right now, I'll just play a little semantic games and say you weren't financially involved in my business. But we all know you were totally involved in my business and every aspect of my business. And I'm happy to tell everybody that unless you give me checky pardon. Thanks for tuning in to today's edition of Dana Lashes absurd truth podcast. If you haven't already, make sure to hit that subscribe button on Apple podcast, Spotify or wherever you get your podcast.