Commentary: The Consequences of Delaying Offshore Oil and Gas Lease Sales

Offshore oil rig

Offshore drilling has been a cornerstone of global energy production since the 1800s, fueling the American way of life and powering the global economy. From the early days of “on-water-drilling” to the advancement of the fixed platform units of today, offshore drilling has consistently contributed around 30 percent of global oil production. In the U.S., supply on federal offshore lands in the Gulf of Mexico alone accounts for approximately 15 percent of total crude oil production.

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Dozens of Energy Orgs Ask Congress to Kill Bill They Say Would ‘Inevitably’ Lead to Carbon Taxes

Utah Rep. John Curtis

Dozens of energy policy and advocacy groups signed a Monday letter to Congress to express their opposition to a bill they say could be the first step toward carbon taxes or tariffs.

The letter urges House lawmakers to vote against the PROVE IT Act, a bill that has not yet been introduced in the lower chamber but is expected to be soon. The PROVE IT Act — which has already been introduced in the Senate — would have the Department of Energy (DOE) study the carbon intensity of goods, including aluminum, steel, plastic and crude oil, produced in the U.S. and the carbon intensity of products from other countries, according to E&E News.

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Commentary: The Destructive Generation Proves America’s Weakest Link

Burning American Flag draped over fence

Governor Ronald Reagan, in his 1967 inaugural address, famously remarked, “Freedom is a fragile thing and it’s never more than one generation away from extinction.”

Reagan today might have expanded on his theme by declaring that civilization itself is both fragile and can lost by a generation that recklessly spends its inheritance while neither appreciating nor replenishing it—if not ridiculing those who sacrificed so much to provide it.

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‘Deeply Regressive’: Riley Gaines Slams Biden’s Title IX Rules at Pro-Women Sports Rally

Riley Gaines

The Biden administration’s changes to Title IX will reverse 50 years of progress for female athletes by allowing biological men to keep competing in women’s sports, pro-women’s sports leaders said Friday at an Our Bodies, Our Sports coalition rally.

The event in Lancaster, Pennsylvania was one of the first stops on the coalition’s Take Back Title IX bus tour, which calls on America’s leaders to ensure equal protections for female athletes under the federal regulation.

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Commentary: Republicans Vow to Scorch the Earth After Trump Conviction

Donald Trump

by Philip Wegmann   Spurred by the volcanic temper of their base, Republicans are now preparing to scorch the earth in the wake of former President Donald Trump’s conviction, potentially setting off a chain reaction that could fundamentally alter the American political system entirely. No one knows exactly how far they will go in their response. What is clear is that conservatives have no patience for President Biden’s argument Friday morning that justice was served in Manhattan, that “the American principle that no one is above the law was reaffirmed.” They see the conviction instead as unprecedented “lawfare” meant to interfere with the coming election and, some say, an unprecedented response is now in order. “The good guys must be as tough as the villains or freedom is doomed,” senior Trump advisor Stephen Miller told RealClearPolitics without offering exact details. Rep. Mike Collins, meanwhile, was explicit. “Time for Red State AGs and DAs to get busy,” the Georgia Republican said Thursday, floating the idea that Republicans should begin using the courts to pursue their political enemies. “Hillary Clinton’s campaign-funded Steele dossier is a good start,” Collins continued, referencing how the former Secretary of State’s presidential campaign misreported their spending on the…

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Transgender Alleged Cyberstalker McKenzie McClure Ordered to be Temporarily Released to Mental Health Facility

McKenzie McClure

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – Transgender alleged cyberstalker McKenzie McClure was ordered by a federal district court judge on Monday to be temporarily released to a residential mental health facility rather than stay in federal custody.

McClure’s representation proposed the plan to temporarily release her in a Monday hearing. The prosecution agreed with the plan after negotiating several conditions for McClure’s release and initially preferring that she remain in federal custody. McClure’s charges were not discussed in the hearing.

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Commentary: Globalists are Deceiving the Masses in an Age of Fakes

Justin Trudeau

Given the constant stream of Hollywood end-of-the-world calamity blockbuster movies, many are generally distracted from the real-life disaster scenarios we face. The globalists are advancing their evil agenda at every turn, and time is running short to effectively oppose them. They are the real existential threat facing humanity.

This is the threat of an idealization of fake foundations. It begs the question: will our historical era be remembered as the “age of fakes?” We live in an ecosystem filled with fake news, fake policies, fake freedoms, and fake outrage, among many other “fakes.”

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Legal Reporter Rachel Alexander Says Trump Conviction is the ‘Most Twisted Legal Decision’ She’s Seen in Her Life

Rachel Alexander

Rachel Alexander, lead reporter at The Arizona Sun Times and recovering lawyer, said Thursday’s decision by a Manhattan jury to convict former President Donald Trump on 34 counts in the falsification of business records linked to the Stormy Daniels hush money scandal is the “most twisted legal decision” she has witnessed in her life.

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Bill Gates’ Ex-Wife Promises $1 Billion to Pro-Abortion Groups, Left-Wing Organizations

Melinda Gates

The ex-wife of liberal megadonor Bill Gates has committed to spending $1 billion supporting abortion and other left-of-center priorities over the next two years.

Pivotal Ventures, Melinda French Gates’ new charity, announced Tuesday it would be spending to combat “the rollback of women’s rights and headwinds to social progress in the U.S. and around the world.” The philanthropy earmarked $200 million specifically for American organizations focused on “advanc[ing] women’s power and protect[ing] their rights, including reproductive freedom.”

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Commentary: Armed Teachers Save Lives

Nikki Goeser

My husband Ben and I used to run a mobile karaoke business in Nashville, Tennessee. Every Thursday evening, we would load up our vehicle and head to a popular restaurant to help facilitate a night of good music and great memories.

As a woman who was concerned for her safety, I usually carried my permitted concealed handgun with me. But in April of 2009, Tennessee did not allow carrying firearms in restaurants that served alcohol, so I left my handgun locked inside of my vehicle.

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Israel Ministers Threaten to Quit Over Ceasefire, Official Says Biden’s Description ‘Not Accurate’

Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich with Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir (composite image)

Top Israeli ministers are threatening to quit, which would cause the government coalition to collapse, if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agrees to President Joe Biden’s cease-fire proposal.

A senior Israeli official said that Biden’s description of the cease-fire proposal, which he unveiled Friday, was “not accurate,” NBC News reported Monday.

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Democrat Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Announces Pancreatic Cancer Diagnosis

Rep. Shelia Jackson Lee

Democratic Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas announced that she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer Sunday.

Jackson Lee, who has been in office since 1995, made the announcement in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. The Texas representative did not elaborate on the severity of her diagnosis or course of treatment but said that her team of doctors had created the “best possible plan.”

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Psychologist Who Allegedly Failed to Report Violent Threats from Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Identified, Claims Practice Closed in 2022

Audrey Elizabeth Hale

A source provided The Tennessee Star with the name of the psychologist who was reportedly part of the care team for Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale. That psychologist allegedly failed in her professional and legal duty to warn law enforcement after Hale purportedly expressed fantasies about murdering her family members and carrying out a school shooting while under treatment.

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Free Speech Group Files Lawsuit Against Indiana University over ‘Bias Response Team’

Indiana University

Indiana University is violating students’ First and 14th Amendment rights through its “far-reaching” bias reporting policy, a civil rights organization alleges.

Speech First filed a federal lawsuit against Indiana University on Wednesday arguing that the school is violating the rights of students by enacting a speech policy that “is designed solely to deter, discourage, and otherwise ‘prevent’ students from expressing disfavored views about the political and social issues of the day.” Under the policy, students can report others for “any conduct, speech, or expression, motivated in whole or in part by bias or prejudice meant to intimidate, demean, mock, degrade, marginalize, or threaten individuals or groups” on some aspect of their identity, like race or gender identity, according to Indiana University’s website.

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Economist: ‘True’ Federal Debt Masked by Draining U.S. Treasury

Janet Yellen

The federal debt continues to climb to unprecedented levels, but the “actual, true” debt is higher if the Treasury weren’t being drained, a national economist says.

Citing Bureau of the Fiscal Service data, E. J. Antoni, Ph.D., an economist at the Heritage Foundation, argues that as the federal debt increases, the “true daily deficit” is being masked by the amount of cash being drained from the U.S. Treasury by Treasury Department Secretary Janet Yellen.

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Georgia Airports Secure Federal Funding Boost

The federal government announced a pair of airport grants for Georgia, including money for an airport in middle Georgia and a statewide grant program.

The funding is part of nearly $187 million in taxpayer-backed grants for 90 airport-related projects in 34 states that the Federal Aviation Administration announced on Friday. The funding was included in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, which some call the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

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Commentary: Trump’s Trial Is a Symptom of a Larger Crisis in American Justice

Donald Trump

Naturally, the cataract of commentary on Thursday’s Stalinist guilty, guilty, guilty verdict against Donald Trump has divided itself into two distinct pools. One is gleeful. The other is alarmed. Rather than anatomize the differences between the two, I’d like to start by simply noting the size and fervor of the response.  There are, I believe, two essential points to bear in mind.

The first is that the outpouring is only incidentally about Trump.  You might find this a surprising statement since the news has been full of little besides Trump.

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First Lady Jill Biden Claims Trump ‘Dangerous’ at Pittsburgh LGBT Pride Speech

Jill Biden at Pittsburgh Pride event

First Lady Jill Biden made a previously unannounced speech at Pittsburgh Pride 2024, held in Allegheny Commons Park on Saturday. During her speech, she branded former President Donald Trump “dangerous” to the LGBT community.

Jill Biden reportedly met with members of the crowd prior to her speech, according to TribLive reporter Renatta Signorini, who posted a photo to the social media platform X showing two members of the crowd holding Biden-Harris campaign signs.

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Pennsylvania U.S. Sen. Bob Casey Claims Guilty ‘Verdict Reflects’ Justice in New York Trump Trial

Sen. Bob Casey, Donald Trump

Senator Bob Casey claimed in Saturday remarks that the guilty verdict reached by a New York jury in former President Donald Trump’s controversial hush money trial accurately reflects the country’s justice system.

Casey initially held his silence on the outcome of the trial after the jury found Trump guilty on 32 felony counts, with Go Erie reporting on Friday, “Casey did not immediately issue a public statement on the conviction.”

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Despite Board Directive Prohibiting It, Arizona State University Asks for DEI Commitments in Hiring

ASU Admin building

Arizona State University continues to ask potential job candidates questions regarding their commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion despite a board policy prohibiting the use of diversity statements in hiring, according to a document obtained by The College Fix.

In August 2023, the Arizona Board of Regents decided public universities in the state can no longer require applicants to submit diversity statements.

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Commentary: Vaccine Mandates Likely Exacerbated Healthcare Worker Shortage, New Research Shows

tired medical staff

In his book Economics in One Lesson, Henry Hazlitt makes a famous distinction between good and bad economists:

The bad economist sees only what immediately strikes the eye; the good economist also looks beyond. The bad economist sees only the direct consequences of a proposed course; the good economist looks also at the longer and indirect consequences. The bad economist sees only what the effect of a given policy has been or will be on one particular group; the good economist inquires also what the effect of the policy will be on all groups.

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Federal Lawmakers Push for Greater Restrictions on ‘Lab-Grown Meat’

Lab and Meat

With the rise of so-called “lab-grown meat” being promoted as a “green” alternative to actual meat, federal lawmakers are beginning to follow the example set by several states as they push for restrictions on this new concoction.

As reported by the Associated Press, lab-grown meat is not yet available in grocery stores or served in restaurants anywhere in the United States. Several states, including Florida and Arizona, have already passed laws to ban the sale of such products, while Iowa has forbidden the distribution of such food in schools.

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Analysis: 89 Percent of Independents Say Trump Conviction Makes Them Either More Likely to Support Trump or No Difference

Donald Trump

15 percent of independents said that the New York City of conviction would make them more likely to support former President Donald Trump in 2024 election against incumbent President Joe Biden, with only 11 percent saying it would make them less likely, an NPR-Marist poll taken May 21 to May 23 shows. 74 percent said it would make no difference.

In addition, the poll had 10 percent of Republicans saying the conviction would make them less likely to vote for Trump if convicted and 7 percent of Democrats saying more likely to vote for Trump, a +3 percent advantage for Biden.

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Commentary: Teachers Also Think American Public Schools Are in Decline

Teacher

Eighty-two percent of teachers say that the general state of public K-12 education has gotten worse over the past five years. This is according to a new Pew Research Center survey conducted in October and November of 2023. That’s not the only shocking statistic from the survey, either, which overall offers a grim statistical map of the fault lines fracturing our education system. However, these trends may offer some insight into how to fix our schools.

First, the teachers. Most teachers (77 percent) find their job frequently stressful, and a large majority (70 percent) say their school is understaffed, which may contribute to the fact that over 80 percent of teachers say they do not have enough time in the work day to complete all necessary tasks.

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Psychologist Who Allegedly Failed to Report Violent Threats from Covenant Killer Audrey Hale Identified, Claims Practice Closed in 2022

Audrey Elizabeth Hale

A source provided The Tennessee Star with the name of the psychologist who was reportedly part of the care team for Covenant School killer Audrey Elizabeth Hale. That psychologist allegedly failed in her professional and legal duty to warn law enforcement after Hale purportedly expressed fantasies about murdering her family members and carrying out a school shooting while under treatment.

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Commentary: Joe Biden’s Dangerous Natural Gas Game

Joe Biden

If the devil is in the details, bureaucracy is hell on earth. Though terrain familiar to the Biden administration, Republicans must prepare to navigate it.

Witness the debacle over liquefied natural gas exports, wherein the White House, by “pausing” most new approvals, has catapulted the energy security of key U.S. allies straight into the buzzsaw of its climate ambitions. (The category of exports that will continue to be authorized is tiny.) The Department of Energy claims that a multifactor impact study due in early 2025 is required to determine whether and how the moratorium will be lifted.

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China Lands on the Far Side of the Moon in Historic Mission

China Moon Landing

by Madeleine Hubbard   China on Sunday landed an unmanned spacecraft on the far side of the moon in a landmark mission to retrieve what is expected to be the first ever rock and soil samples from the dark lunar hemisphere. The Chang’e-6 craft, which is equipped with its own launcher, landed in a large impact crater before 6:30 a.m. Beijing time, China’s state-run Xinhua news agency reported. The mission “involves many engineering innovations, high risks and great difficulty,” the China National Space Administration said, as translated. The craft will collect samples by drilling into rocks and soil on the moon and taking samples from the lunar surface. “Landing on the far side of the moon is very difficult because you don’t have line-of-sight communications, you’re relying on a lot of links in the chain to control what is going on, or you have to automate what is going on,” said Neil Melville-Kenney, according to Reuters. Melville-Kenney, a technical officer at the European Space Agency, is working with China on one of the Chang’e-6 payloads. The accomplishment is a leap for China in the lunar space race as many countries, including the United States, are hoping to use lunar minerals for long-term astronaut missions within…

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Rule of Lawfare: Jury Instructions from NY Judge to Manhattan Jurors in Trump ‘Hush Money’ Case Contained Made-up and Selectively Chosen Language

NY Judge Juan Merchan

A New York jury found former President Donald Trump guilty on all 34 criminal counts related to falsifying business records last week, prompting outcry that New York Judge Juan Merchan, who was handpicked to handle the case and who donated to Joe Biden, committed misconduct during the trial, including how he handled the jury instructions. A CNN senior legal analyst reported that the case was full of so many legal stretches that employees of Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office referred to it as the “zombie case.”

Daniel Street, an attorney in Louisiana who writes about lawfare, told The Tennessee Star the jury instructions were “terrible.”

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Three Tennessee Cities Among Top 20 Places Most Americans are Moving to, Report Says

A report from POD, the moving and storage company, says that three cities in Tennessee are among the top 20 in America where people are moving. 

“We’re seeing more people move to the Southern Appalachian region, which includes states like North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, and Alabama,” the report said. “Tennessee tied with Florida for the third most popular state for new moves.”

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Emails Suggest Fauci Aides Miswrote Names to Evade FOIA

Dr. Anthony Fauci

Dr. Anthony Fauci became a punchline for reportedly claiming to “not recall” more than 100 times in his transcribed interview with the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic how he ran the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases during COVID-19.

His former chief of staff, Greg Folkers, may have a tougher sell: convincing lawmakers he is just coincidentally bad at spelling proper nouns likely to be searched in Freedom of Information Act requests related to COVID origins and federal funding of a suspected outbreak source.

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Tennessee Politicians, Others Celebrate Pride Month

LBGTQ supporters

On the first day of June, politicians, political organizations and private companies took to X, formerly Twitter, to celebrate gay pride month. 

“Happy Pride, everyone!” said disgraced former Nashville mayor turned congressional candidate Megan Barry. “I proudly stand with the LGBTQ+ community. Let’s celebrate love, diversity, and equality for all. Together, we can build a Tennessee where everyone feels seen, heard, and valued.”

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AP Wire Service Partners with Outlets Funded by Liberals to Launch ‘Nonpartisan’ News Initiative

Journalist

The Associated Press announced that it would partner with five other outlets to create a nonpartisan news initiative prior to the upcoming 2024 election. These outlets appear to be predominantly, if not exclusively backed by liberal donors.

The AP announced Tuesday that it would be partnering with five local outlets in order to “expand the reach of local news ahead of the 2024 U.S. presidential election and increasing access to AP’s nonpartisan journalism, especially in communities that may have limited access to fact-based news.”

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Europe Embraces Border Walls in What Critics Say Is a Stark Contrast to Biden’s Policies

Poland Border wall

NATO nations are bolstering their borders, with Poland taking particularly robust measures, in response to threats posed by Russia and Belarus, which critics of the Biden administration say is markedly different from the current security at the U.S. border.

Poland, Ukraine, Finland, Norway and the Baltic States agreed to create a “drone wall” last week, but Poland stepped up support for its border officials after a Polish Army soldier was stabbed by a person attempting to enter from Belarus on Tuesday.

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Companies Scale Back Pride Month After Last Year’s Public Response Cost Them Millions

Starbucks

June 1 will mark the start of “Pride” month, in which advocates of LGBTQIA+ causes celebrate that movement. In recent years, June has seen major corporate chains feature an array of “Pride”-themed merchandise and decorations, though some offerings have prompted considerable backlash from a non-receptive — even hostile public — in recent years.

2023 saw major retailers such as Target become the subject of boycotts over more controversial products marketed for children. Other companies, such as Anheuser-Busch came under scrutiny over marketing campaigns that failed to resonate with their traditional clientele.

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Jim Jordan Requests Bragg Testimony After Trump Verdict

Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg

House Judiciary Chairman Jim Jordan on Friday requested testimony from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg and prosecutor Matthew Colangelo for a hearing related to former President Donald Trump’s hush money trial.

Trump was convicted on all 34 counts of falsifying his business records on Thursday, to hide a hush money payment to former porn star Stormy Daniels. Trump has maintained his innocence since the guilty verdict, and vowed to appeal the ruling, which experts have predicted will be overturned. He will be sentenced on July 11.

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