Oops: Woke diversity activists accuse DJ of wearing blackface at school event. Turns out DJ was actually black.



A pair of woke activists in Arizona who push diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts at the Scottsdale Unified School District embarrassed themselves recently when they accused a black entertainer hired for a local school event of wearing wearing blackface.

The episode, first reported by the Arizona Daily Independent, stemmed from an April 9 fundraiser for Phoenix's Hopi Elementary School put on by the Hopi PTA.

The PTA hired DJ Kim Koko Hunter, who is black, to play at the 1970s Disco-themed event. Attendees posted photos from the event on social media accounts, including one photo featuring Hunter in seventies garb with other eventgoers.

Woke Ariz. diversity activists falsely accuse black DJ of wearing blackface https://trib.al/JQYaYp4\u00a0pic.twitter.com/Cs4W8Cwo4r
— New York Post (@New York Post) 1650239154

Two wokesters, Stuart Rhoden and Jill Lassen, who actively work to implement left-wing DEI standards at SUSD saw the image and attacked the Hopi Elementary PTA, accusing the group of hiring a DJ who was in blackface.

Rhoden, who, according to the Daily Independent, is an instructor for Arizona State University and a member of the SUSD's Equity and Inclusion Committee, did not appreciate being called out for claiming Hunter was in blackface and complained on Facebook about parents being "all up in my DMs" over his false accusations. In fact, he even doubled down on the blackface assertions, claiming that Hunter, a black man, was actually in blackface because he allegedly appeared to be "in darker make-up," and blasting critics for assuming he thought the DJ was a white man (while admitting that might have been his assumption, but he wasn't about to cop to it).

"Let me be clear, a Black man, apparently in Black face is an entirely different discussion than a White person," Rhoden wrote. "However I did not state that the person was White. It was assumed that was my intent, and perhaps it was, but nonetheless, looking on his FB page (photos below), it seems at the very least he is in darker make-up if not 'Black face' or I am completely mistaken and it's the lighting of the patio."

The other accuser, Jill Lassen, is the co-chairman of the Scottsdale Parent Council's Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Committee, which pushes the DEI agenda in the SUSD — a privilege for which the school district reportedly pays.

According to messages obtained by the Daily Independent, Lassen sent a letter to Hopi PTA President Megan Livengood, accusing the organizers of using a DJ in blackface.

Livengood was offended by Lassen's letter and replied by smacking both Lassen and the SPC.

"The Scottsdale Parent Council is an organization that claims to encourage diversity and inclusion; accusing the Hopi PTA and myself a hiring a DJ that participated in racist behavior is absolutely against your mission," Livengood wrote. "The DJ that the Hopi PTA hire was, in fact a Black man. It is insulting that you feel myself or PTA condone racist behavior or encourage it by posting on social media. After such a successful event to support our school it’s disheartening to ... believe in organization we pay to be part of [SPC] would send out such an aggressive response without checking the facts first or simply picking up the phone to discuss."

"Your accusations are false and hurtful on both the PTA level and a personal level," she continued. "I know the goal of the Scottsdale Parent Council is to unite the educational community and you are doing the complete opposite. I will encourage Hopi PTA not to be part of this group in the future."

Lassen, likely seeing that vital funding was at stake, attempted to make amends, according to an email published by the Daily Independent.

"You are right, we should’ve reached out and inquired before making such accusations," Lassen wrote to Livengood. "I cannot fathom the hurt, anger and frustration you felt after you and others volunteered countless hours on your event. Again I truly apologize. I hope that you can find it in your heart to forgive me and not harbor resentment towards SPC."

The SUSD and the Hopi PTA did not respond to requests for comment from the Daily Mail.

Hunter addressed the kerfuffle with good humor in an interview with James Harris posted Friday, assuring the host that he had never worn blackface.

He said his initial response to Rhoden's accusations that a black man was wearing blackface was "Whoa" in a way that was "so loud that every horse in the nation came to a screeching halt."

Hunter added that he "would really love to know not just how but why" Rhoden and others would accuse him of being in blackface, when it seemed obvious that he was a black man.

LAPD to residents of crime-ridden city: Don't want to get robbed? Don't walk around wearing expensive jewelry.



As California has grown increasingly soft on crime thanks to the implementation of woke leftist policies over the last several months, California cities have seen crime soar. Now law enforcement is telling citizens to not dress like would-be victims, all while criminals run rampant.

Reports out of the Golden State have repeatedly detailed brazen instances of stealing in which criminals just waltz out of stores with their arms and bags full of goods as so-called security guards stand by and do nothing. Americans have also seen the woes of jewelry shop owners and staff who have had to watch helplessly as perps smash-and-grab their ways through stores.

The Associated Press said this week that robberies in Los Angeles to date are up 18% over this time last year, and robberies with a gun are up 44% over the same time period.

The latest instance of California headline-grabbing robberies came out of Tinseltown this week. According to KABC-TV, robbers armed with sledgehammers smashed the windows of a Beverly Hills jewelry store in broad daylight Tuesday and made off with millions of dollars worth of jewelry.

Cops told KABC that five masked men walked up to the front window of Luxury Jewels of Beverly Hills at about 2 p.m., smashed the glass, and tore off with multiple items, leaving behind the stolen car they'd arrived in.

According to the store's owners, the robbers left with between $3 million and $5 million worth of jewelry, including a necklace worth almost $500,000, KABC said.

Some passersby were able to get some of the crime on camera.

Beverly Hills smash and grab robbers steal jewelry www.youtube.com

Following the robbery, and while noting the trend in jewelry thievery, the LAPD issued a warning that people should think twice about wearing expensive jewelry in public, the AP said. Dressing in such a way could make a person a target for criminals in a city where robberies are up everywhere.

"Over the last year there has been a marked increase of armed robberies involving victims wearing expensive jewelry while in public," the LAPD said in a statement. "If it is visible, it can be a target."

"The choice to wear expensive jewelry is ultimately theirs," Lt. Giovanni Trejo said in an email, the AP reported.

Luxury Jewels of Beverly Hills owner Peter Sedghi shared with the AP that many of his customers are now afraid to wear their jewelry anywhere other than special events like wedding and galas.

"Beverly Hills is supposed to be a safe area, you should be able to walk around wearing whatever jewelry you want," Sedghi said.

AP and Biden administration are surprised that the Taliban broke its promises about Afghan girls' education



Since the first day of the Biden administration's disastrous pullout from Afghanistan, President Joe Biden's band of experts have exhorted the American people — and the Afghan allies left we behind — to trust the new leaders of Afghanistan, the Taliban.

Few people outside the administration seemed to buy what the president's Cabinet was selling.

Except, apparently, the Associated Press.

In a piece published Wednesday morning, the news agency reported that the Taliban had announced that it would not be providing any education opportunities for girls beyond the sixth grade.

The initial report (which was subsequently edited without bothering to alert readers that any edits had been made), headlined "Taliban nixes girls higher education despite earlier pledges," called the declaration by the terror group that now controls Afghanistan a "surprise decision" from "the hardline leadership of Afghanistan’s new rulers."

This means that nothing has really changed for girls in country since the Taliban took power in mid-August on the heels of the United States' abrupt and much-maligned exit from the South Asian nation — which falls in line with what most serious analysts expected from the Taliban.

However, the AP went on to repeatedly note how "unexpected" the move was.

"The unexpected decision came late on Tuesday as Afghanistan’s education ministry prepared for the new year opening of school, which was expected to herald the return of girls to school," the AP said in its original report.

"Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers unexpectedly decided against reopening schools Wednesday to girls above the sixth grade," the outlet said in the lede of its edited version of the story.

Like the AP, which called the moved "so sudden," people inside the Biden administration were also caught off guard.

U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West tweeted his "shock and deep disappointment" over the terror group's declaration and ripped the Taliban for betraying its "public commitments" and previous statements that "ALL" off its people have a right to an education.

"I join millions of Afghan families today in expressing shock and deep disappointment with the Taliban’s decision to not allow women and girls to return to school above grade 6," West said.

"Education is a fundamental right of all human beings and is essential to Afghanistan’s economic growth and stability," he continued. "This is a betrayal of public commitments to the Afghan people and the international community."

"The Taliban have made clear that ALL Afghan citizens have a right to education. For the sake of the country’s future and its relations with the international community, I would urge the Taliban to live up to their commitments to their people," West added.

1/3 I join millions of Afghan families today in expressing shock and deep disappointment with the Taliban\u2019s decision to not allow women and girls to return to school above grade 6.
— U.S. Special Representative Thomas West (@U.S. Special Representative Thomas West) 1648044815
3/3 The Taliban have made clear that ALL Afghan citizens have a right to education. For the sake of the country\u2019s future and its relations with the international community, I would urge the Taliban to live up to their commitments to their people.
— U.S. Special Representative Thomas West (@U.S. Special Representative Thomas West) 1648044816

Biden calls Putin a 'war criminal.' Psaki tries to walk back the announcement, says it was because of what the president saw on TV.



Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the U.S. Congress on Wednesday, imploring the American government to help his country and exposing Russian atrocities committed against his people.

The world has witnessed Russian President Vladimir Putin's slaughtering of innocent Ukrainians in his desire to exert Moscow's control over Eastern Europe and regain some of the lost "glory" of the former U.S.S.R.

Shortly after Zelenskyy's speech, a reporter asked President Joe Biden whether Putin is a war criminal.

Biden initially replied, "No." Then, after wandering off, he went back to the reporter and offered the opposite take.

After asking the reporter for clarification about whether she was asking if he would call Putin a war criminal, the president said, "Oh, I think he is a war criminal."

Naturally, the Kremlin was more than a little put off by Biden's declaration. The government's spokesman called the remarks "unacceptable and unforgivable rhetoric," MSN reported, citing Russia's state-run TASS news agency.

So, why did Biden say what he did about Putin?

Was it because of info shared in the presidential daily briefings, as HotAir's Ed Morrissey asked? Was it because of secret intel Biden has been privy to? Was it because of powerful Pentagon surveillance footage?

Apparently not.

According to White House press secretary Jen Psaki, it was because of what Biden saw on TV — just like everybody else.

A reporter pressed Psaki about the president's seemingly premature decision to label Putin "war criminal," which is a significant designation.

"The Russian actions in Ukraine are under close scrutiny for potential war crimes, but today President Biden directly labeled Putin today a 'war criminal.' Has something changed in the administration's assessment?" the reporter asked. "What brought this new remark from the president?"

Psaki replied, "The president's remarks speak for themselves. He was speaking from his heart and speaking from what he's seen on television — which is barbaric actions by a brutal dictator."

.@PressSec Jen Psaki on President Biden calling Putin a war criminal: "He was speaking from his heart."pic.twitter.com/kLX9MgnGiB
— CSPAN (@CSPAN) 1647459216

Another reporter later noted, "This war has now been going on three weeks. So far, the president has declined to use this label. As you note, there is an ongoing sort of formal process before you can use this term. So, something must have changed for the president to feel like he could take this additional step today."

Psaki answered, "The president was answering a direct question that was asked and responding to what he has seen on television. We have all seen it. Barbaric acts, horrific acts by a foreign dictator in a country that is threatening and taking the lives of civilians, impacting hospitals, women who are pregnant, journalists — others."

What caused this walk back? Morrissey has a theory: Biden doesn't want to tick off Russia when he needs them to get back into the Iran nuclear deal.

Moreover, with Biden having established that designation after fumbling it initially, this official walk-back at the White House of it being just Biden’s personal view looks like a retreat in the face of Russian complaints. And that might be precisely what it is, because Biden’s still relying on Russia to accommodate Biden’s desperate ambition to re-enter the Iran deal. Biden has put regional and American security into Putin’s hands in regard to a renegotiated JCPOA while calling him a “war criminal,” and at the same time warning that Putin might use WMDs in Ukraine such as chemical weapons and tactical nukes.

Rather than recognize the insanity of that foreign policy, Biden and his White House have decided that it makes more sense to accommodate Putin and walk back the obvious. That may be many things, but leadership it ain’t.

US labor unions declare their support for Ukraine by ... printing signs with the nation's flag upside down. Photos quickly disappear as mockery grows.



The AFL-CIO wants the world to know that the unions really, truly stand with the people of Ukraine.

The union federation is so serious about backing Ukrainians being killed by Russian forces that they posed for a group photo Monday with their leadership raising their fists in solidarity and holding fancy signs the group had printed declaring, "We stand with Ukraine" — complete with a dove sitting on barbed wire and the Ukrainian flag as the background.

But there was a problem.

The flags were printed upside down.

After several hours of getting ripped a new one, the group pulled down the posting. Unfortunately for them, the internet is forever, and thanks to the Wayback Machine, the image is still accessible.

Image source: Twitter screenshot

Ukraine's flag has blue on top of yellow, which, as Fox News pointed out, symbolizes a "blue sky over a bountiful field."

After the image was spread and mocked online, the AFL-CIO posted a new photo of the same group in the same positions — but with noticeably diminished enthusiasm — holding new signs. The updated new signs were not nearly as slick and pretty as the original screwed-up versions. Clearly, a staffer had merely printed out a bunch of Ukrainian flags and then pasted onto them cutouts of the AFL-CIO logo and a generic "stand with Ukraine" declaration.

However, the attempt to save face apparently made things worse, because just hours after tweeting the updated group photo, the AFL-CIO deleted the posting.

Image source: Twitter screenshot

But that wasn't the worst of it. After the AFL-CIO posted the embarrassing group photo, the American Federation of Teachers, an AFL-CIO member, posted a close-up photo of AFT President Randi Weingarten and AFT Executive Vice President Evelyn DeJesus holding a screwed-up sign.

Naturally, the AFT also pulled this photo after getting shamed for the glaring error.

Image source: Twitter screenshot

Critics of the left-wing, anti-school choice, pro-mask, pro-COVID lockdown teachers' union had a heyday.

California state Sen. Melissa Melendez (R) responded, "That's the flag of Ukraine alright, upside down. Shout out to teachers union for this promotional piece on the importance of school choice though."

Corey DeAngelis, director of research for School Choice Now, called the AFT photo "free advertising for school choice."

Reopen California Schools, which has long taken the un-AFT stance that all Golden State schools should be reopened, used the photo to critique the union's demands to keep schools closed. "They did to that flag what they did to education these past two years... pretend they care, but really, they just made it upside down," the group tweeted.

Libs of TikTok replied to the AFT photo saying, "This is a great advertisement to homeschool your kids" and later added, "These are the people in charge of your child's education."

House Dems' campaign chairman: Stop blaming voters for thinking we're doing a terrible job. 'The problem is us.'



New York Democratic Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney has his work cut out for him.

As the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, it's his job to, well, make this November less miserable for the Democrats than it currently appears to be shaping up to be.

Any political observer worth his salt has figured out that, thanks largely to President Joe Biden's current job performance, Democrats' midterm election prospects are ... not great.

Now Maloney, one of the top Democrats in Congress, is warning his fellow party members to stop blaming voters for thinking the Democratic Party is doing a terrible job. Instead, he told Democratic lawmakers that they need to understand that they are the problem.

The DCCC chairman issued the admonition during the House Democrats' retreat in Philadelphia over the weekend, the Washington Post reported.

After performing what the Post called a "deep dive" into both the 2016 election, which caught the party by surprise when Donald Trump took down Hillary Clinton, and the 2020 election, which saw the GOP net 11 House seats despite Biden pulling in a record number of votes and winning the presidential election by more than 7 million votes.

Maloney — who appears to be one of the few Democrats in leadership who paid attention to the results of Glenn Youngkin's surprise win in Virginia's gubernatorial race last year — told the Post that voters see Democrats as "divisive" and "preachy" and working to undermine parents.

"They think that we’re divisive and too focused on cultural issues," he said. "They think that we're preachy. They think that we act like we know better than parents when it comes to their kids in schools."

"The problem is not the voters," Maloney continued. "The problem is us."

But it's possible Maloney hasn't learned every lesson he should when it comes to the unpopularity of the president considering he wants Democrats to tie themselves even closer to Biden (which is exactly what Republicans plan to do over the next seven-and-a-half months).

He told the paper that he wants "Democrats to embrace Biden’s style," the Post said.

"He is that person that in many ways we need to become," Maloney said.

Veteran NYPD cop: NYC has 'turned against' the police, so expect crime to stick around for a while



We've seen the fallout of the left's incessant "defund the police" diatribes. More crime. More fear. Less hope.

Though citizens often believe they're bearing the brunt of leftists' anti-police agenda, it's important to remember what cops are experiencing, too.

Scott Welsh spent 29 years as a cop for the New York Police Department before his recent retirement. He grew up in Queens and still lives in Gotham. He loved serving and protecting the people of New York.

But he noticed something insidious happening the last few years: The city has "turned against" the police, and he detailed his experience in an op-ed for the New York Post.

The piece, headlined "As a retired NYPD officer for 29 years, I watched the city turn on us," began with some optimism about the new mayor, but that very limited positivity soon gave way to reality:

Mayor Eric Adams was elected largely based on his promise to return order to New York City. While early indications point to his moving in the right direction, I fear that factors beyond his control will hinder reaching that goal.

Welsh noted that when he came on the job in the early 1990s, the city had more than 2,000 homicides, and Gothamites were begging then-Mayor David Dinkins to "do something!" — which he did by putting 6,000 new policemen on the streets.

Then came the election of Rudy Giuliani and appointment of Police Commissioner Bill Bratton, which brought a "seismic shift" to the NYPD and the street of New York.

"And it worked," Welsh wrote. "Crime, especially homicides, plummeted. The city came back. Construction and tourism soared."

But things the last few years have taken a turn, and "there has been another seismic shift — this one against the police."

"Even those who once supported us seem to have turned against us," Welsh said, linking to a February story of New York City Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou's recent comments ripping cops attending a funeral for slain NYPC cop Jason Rivera.

He then offered a personal story of the moment he realized the city had turned on the police.

One morning my partner and I were flagged down by a young woman. She told us that a male whom she didn’t know had walked up to her and repeatedly punched her in the face, breaking her nose. We called an ambulance for her, got a description, and went looking for the perpetrator. We spotted the perp, a white male, a few blocks away. As soon as we exited the car, he attacked us. After I got one cuff on his wrist, he managed to get out of our grasp and punched me in the head with my own handcuffs, opening a laceration on my forehead. We managed to get him down and cuff him, but he was still trying to fight.

So as per procedure, we called for an Emergency Service unit to bring leg restraints. As we were waiting for ESU, a crowd gathered. Building supers, people on their way to work, mothers with strollers, the people whom I was there to help and protect. And they began verbally abusing us. Yelling about police brutality as I was holding down a struggling perp with blood pouring out of a cut on my head. Calling us racists despite the fact that both myself and the perp were white. Yelling “Let him go” despite not knowing that he was being arrested for assaulting an innocent woman for no reason.

As I waited in St. Luke’s emergency room to get stitches in my head, I was far more troubled by the reaction of the community than I was by the cut on my head. That day, for the first time, I began contemplating retirement.

Welsh then ended with an admission and a warning.

"I hate to admit it, but just before I left, I ignored people who I knew based on my experience were probably carrying guns," he said. "I knew that as soon as I, a white police officer, stopped a black person, 10 people would whip out cellphones and start recording as they shouted about racial profiling and hurled abuse at me."

"So while Mayor Adams can do his part to back the NYPD, unless we can get our communities on board, we will never be able to restore public safety," Welsh concluded.

USA Today fact-checks clearly satirical Babylon Bee report that Biden sold Alaska to Russia



Big Media just can't help themselves.

The scolds in the liberal press can't hide their disdain for popular satire site Babylon Bee. The site is funny, insightful, punchy, and can be cutting-edge. But the big problem, it seems, is that the Bee, which is conservative and Christian, is effective at driving home points using the power of satire.

So the media have gone on the attack. For example:

  • The New York Times was forced to retract what the Bee called defamatory and misleading statements about the satirical site when the paper referred to the Bee as a "far-right misinformation site" that "sometimes trafficked in misinformation under the guise of satire."
  • Snopes beclowned itself when it fact-checked a Bee satire piece that was clearly a joke to anyone who read it and had at least a room-temperature IQ, but the humorless Karens at Snopes couldn't help themselves.
  • USA Today actually fact-checked a Bee piece that said the liberal Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals overturned the death of late SCOTUS Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.

And now USA Today, the nation's biggest newspaper, is at it again. On Tuesday, the paper posted a fact-check of the Bee's recent piece saying that President Joe Biden sold Alaska back to Russia.

pic.twitter.com/WUsP1AyRb0
— The Babylon Bee (@The Babylon Bee) 1646841601

In the satirical item, the Bee mocked Biden's refusal to drill in the U.S. (because he wants to satisfy the green agenda) but willingness to push Saudi Arabia and Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro to increase their oil output.

"The deliberate and premeditated invasion of Ukraine by brutal dictator Vladimir Putin has forced the US to reassess the importance of energy independence," the Bee wrote. "With this new resolve, the Biden Administration has taken its first step toward increasing oil production for Americans by selling Alaska back to Russia so we can start drilling for oil there again."

"Folks, nobody wants to ruin America’s beautiful Alaskan wilderness with oil trucks and drilling rigs, come on!" Biden said in a made-up quote by the Bee. "But I’ve never had a problem getting oil from Russia, so there you go, go get him."

The "news" was clearly a joke — as anyone with any sense understood.

But USA Today wasn't sure people were smart enough to see through the Bee's nefarious "reporting."

So the paper ran a fact-check to make sure everybody understood: "There is no evidence Biden said he plans to sell Alaska."

Thankfully for all the rubes in America, the newspaper was able to determine that the Bee piece was satire.

"Based on our research, we rate SATIRE the claim that Biden plans to sell Alaska to Russia," USA Today ruled.

Oh, and if you're wondering, "Who pays for this nonsense?" the paper has this note at the bottom of the fact-check: "Our fact-check work is supported in part by a grant from Facebook."

Biden advisers ignore basic economics, claim increasing US oil supply would have no impact on price



A common political theme on the right is that American Democrats, leftists, and liberals do not understand basic economics. The stereotype, conservatives will say, despite protestations from the left, exists for a reason.

Imagine conservatives' combined frustration and sense of vindication when President Joe Biden's advisers showed up on cable news Wednesday morning to declare that increasing the United States' domestic oil production would have zero impact on the price of oil.

That's right, as the U.S. continues to see record highs at the gas pump and surging oil prices, it appears that Deputy National Security Adviser Daleep Singh believes oil prices are not connected to supply — even though Monday's announcement of a U.S. and U.K. ban on imports of Russian oil had an immediate effect on oil prices, which even President Biden acknowledged in his statement making the ban on Moscow's oil official.

When pressed by MSNBC's "Morning Joe" cohost Willie Geist on the Keystone XL pipeline, which Biden stopped, and ongoing bipartisan calls for increased domestic production, Singh called the Keystone situation a "distraction" and then added, "Even if we drilled as much as we could, the price of oil is still set globally by the demand and supply conditions, and much of that supply is controlled by tyrants like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin."

Singh claims to know supply and demand exists then proceeds to ignore it.pic.twitter.com/faGswNR5Pj
— Chris Field (@Chris Field) 1646863597

Singh cited "supply and demand" and then showed he has little grasp on what the term means. Additional U.S. oil supply would have an impact on prices — this is known.

And Singh wasn't alone pushing that line in the media today.

White House Director of the National Economic Council Brian Deese went on CNBC to continue the lie.

Deese declared, "There is no amount of domestic production that we can do when we're dealing with volatile global commodity, where the price is set globally, there's no amount of domestic production we can do to reduce or eliminate our vulnerability as a country to that volatility."

Head of President Biden\u2019s economic council ignores basic economics.pic.twitter.com/edivF0KpML
— Chris Field (@Chris Field) 1646863715

Biden, himself, has acknowledged that increasing supply would lower prices — not just in his admission Monday that, because of the ban on Russian oil, gas prices are "going to go up further" but also in his recent (unsuccessful) attempts to woo the House of Saud and Venezuelan strongman Nicolas Maduro to up their countries' oil output.

Buckle up: 'Get ready for $6 a gallon' gas, says former US diplomat to the Middle East



Moms filling up their minivans today are experiencing some serious sticker shock.

Contractors working on a job site with any distance at all from the home office are going to eat some serious travel expenses if they didn't build updated gas and travel costs into their bids.

Drivers and truckers delivering goods to grocery stores, grains to ports, or timber to plants are paying through the nose for diesel to ship what Americans need and want (and they aren't just going to eat the massive spike in fuel prices).

But the news gets worse: If you thought gas was expensive already, just wait. One expert with experience in the Middle East is warning Americans to get ready for $6 per gallon.

David Rundell, a onetime U.S. diplomat in oil-producing nations, told Fortune that the Russian-Ukraine conflict, coupled with our deteriorating relations with Saudi Arabia, spells doom for U.S. consumers' pocketbooks at the pump.

Rundell, who spent three decades as a U.S. diplomat in such oil-producing countries as Saudi Arabia, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, and Tunisia, told the magazine that the U.S. put itself behind the eight ball when it comes to negotiating to get the House of Saud to get more oil flowing.

"Russia and Saudi Arabia are the world’s two largest oil exporters. If we had good relations with Saudi Arabia, they would have stepped in to help as they have done many times in the past,” Rundell told Fortune.

The former diplomat, who is now a partner at Arabia Analytica, a consulting firm focused on the Middle East, added that "our relationship with Saudi leaders continues to worsen. So, get ready for $6 a gallon."

Rundell issued his warning as Americans saw gas prices hit an all-time high of $4.17 on Tuesday, the outlet said. The price is 11 cents per gallon more than it was the day before and 55 cents higher than just a week ago.

His warning also came before President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that the U.S. would bar imports of Russian oil and gas.

During his announcement, Biden told the nation that gas prices are "going to go up further."