Biden set to cancel Keystone XL pipeline and right out the gate enrages Canada

U.S. president-elect Joe Biden has indicated plans to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action on his first day in office, sources confirmed to CBC News on Sunday. A purported briefing note from the Biden transition team mentioning the plan was widely circulated over the weekend after being shared by the incoming president's team with U.S. stakeholders. The words "Rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit" appear on a list of executive actions supposedly scheduled for Day 1 of Biden's presidency. 

 

 Monica Showalter   "Well isn't this coming Biden administration special?

"Joe Biden has gotten word out that he intends to use his pen and phone to cut dead the Keystone XL pipeline, kicking off his presidency by annoying Canada.

"According to CBC Canada:

U.S. president-elect Joe Biden has indicated plans to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline permit via executive action on his first day in office, sources confirmed to CBC News on Sunday.

A purported briefing note from the Biden transition team mentioning the plan was widely circulated over the weekend after being shared by the incoming president's team with U.S. stakeholders.

The words "Rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit" appear on a list of executive actions supposedly scheduled for Day 1 of Biden's presidency. 

The list shown to stakeholders is a lengthier version of a list already reported in the media based on a memo released publicly over the weekend by Biden's chief of staff Ronald Klain. That publicly reported memo from Klain did not mention Keystone XL, but cautioned that the memo was not a complete list of planned actions.

"Nice detail there about Biden omitting that planned executive action in the publicly circulated memo. Apparently he didn't want the adoring media, or the Americans set to lose their jobs, or the Canadians -- to see it right away.

"The Canadians, though, have gotten wind of it, their not-so-adoring press has printed it and they're enraged: . . ."

 

Martin Luther King, Jr. birthday

Rich Terrell

'Where Do We Go from Here?' King's question amid the chaos of the '60s still resonates today  . . . "That debate is similar to the one raging today between youthful leaders and supporters of Black Lives Matter and older establishment leaders. Then as now, race was front and center. The youngsters of SNCC had kicked whites out of the group, while the SCLC and other organizations were strong proponents of integration. "

. . . "A schism developed among Black people after Stokely Carmichael, the SNCC leader from 1966-67, raised a clenched fist and shouted, “Black Power,” and said Blacks should cut ties to whites. He was also part of the effort that led to name changes from centuries-old labels of “colored” and “Negro” to African American and Black, which once was deemed an insult.  

"We at the New York Times were puzzled at first over which term to use in our reporting. Executive Editor A. M. Rosenthal finally threw up his hands and instructed writers to use whichever term their sources preferred. For a while, we did just that, until Black and African American became the standards.  

"The decades of the '70s and '80 marked a significant shift with slow but sure progress. More Blacks were elected to political office; there was economic improvement and more progress for other ethnic groups; and the general racial climate began to improve.  

"Recent elections have propelled even more nonwhites and women into elected office. ...  

Not the America of MLK’s Dreams  . . . "But a robust and competitive marketplace of ideas depends on a responsible and free press -- not the Pravda-like agitprop arm of the government we have today -- free expression via any medium on any topic, a virtuous society, and an educated population -- all of which are in jeopardy today. 

"Today’s Democrat message is one of “let hatred, not freedom, ring.”  For whites, as the quintessential scapegoat for all of Black America’s problems, constantly accusing us of racism does little to promote unity and only builds resentment.  While Democrats shroud this hatred as “justice,” it has the bloody stench of revenge. 

"Most of us haven’t done anything racist or supremacist, but revenge is being exacted against us because we are white." . . .

Left Radicals Exploit African Americans

 

Spiritual advisor to Barack Obama and George W. Bush sentenced to 6 years for multi-million dollar China bonds fraud

Yahoo

• The spiritual advisor for both Barack Obama and George W. Bush during their time as President has been sentenced to six years for his role in a multi-million dollar investment fraud scheme.

• Kirbyjon H. Caldwell, 67, was sentenced by US District Judge S. Maurice Hicks on Wednesday in Shreveport, Louisiana, where he and his co-defendant, Gregory Alan Smith, were indicted in 2018.

• He spoke at the 2000 Republican National Convention, delivered the benediction at Bush's 2005 inauguration, and officiated his daughter Jenna's 2008 wedding, the New York Times reported

• The spiritual advisor for both Barack Obama and George W. Bush during their time as President has been sentenced to six years for his role in a multi-million dollar investment fraud scheme.

• Kirbyjon H. Caldwell, 67, was sentenced by US District Judge S. Maurice Hicks on Wednesday in Shreveport, Louisiana where he and his co-defendant, Gregory Alan Smith, were indicted in 2018.

• Caldwell was formerly the Senior Pastor of Windsor Village United Methodist Church, a mega-church in his native Houston, Texas, which has around 14,000 members, the Associated Press reported. . . .

Nancy Pelosi appoints Eric Swalwell to a rather unexpected committee

Andrea Widburg

...Pelosi showed humanitarian grace when she chose not to punish him for something that wasn’t his fault. But do you really think of humanitarian grace when you think of Nancy Pelosi?  Pelosi could simply be trolling everybody for the fun of it. That doesn’t sound likely either. Pelosi is all about power and there’s no room for fun there.

"Eric Swalwell has the distinction of being the first American congressman believed to have had a sexual affair with a Chinese spy. Maybe that explains why Nancy Pelosi assigned him to his old seat on the Home Security panel. After all, who has more knowledge about spies than someone whom a spy duped? However, Pelosi may be sending us a few other messages we just have to decode.

"Briefly, in December, news broke that Eric Swalwell, a Democrat congressman from California, had been in a relationship with a woman named Fang Fang, who was almost certainly a Chinese spy. It wasn’t just any relationship. She wasn’t driving him around town as Dianne Feinstein’s chauffeur-Chinese spy had been for almost twenty years. Instead, Swalwell is said to have had a sexual relationship with Fang Fang. You know what that means, right? Pillow talk.

"Swalwell’s affair with Fang Fang leads to a few possible conclusions: Swalwell is dangerously naive, Swalwell is careless, Swalwell is a traitor, or Swalwell is an unlucky but innocent man. Without further information, we don’t know which is true, but the first three possibilities might suggest that you don’t want to put Swalwell on committees involving national security.

"Nancy Pelosi, though, had other ideas. The New York Post tells the story:

Democratic Rep. Eric Swalwell is joining the House Committee on Homeland Security one month after it was revealed he was targeted by a suspected Chinese spy.  . . .

The Trump Era Held Up A Mirror To Our Shattering Culture

 The Federalist

Where the anxieties of the working class and Baby Boomers were channeled into Trump, the anxieties of the left were channeled into a furious, culture-wide censorship campaign.

“ 'The madness of Trump, as bad as it was, it really needed to happen. We really needed a reflection of our world’s greatest problem, which is not climate change, but sociopathy and narcissism. Especially in America. It’s going to kill the world. It’s not capitalism, it’s narcissism.” So said songstress Lana Del Rey, reflecting on the Trump administration this week.

"She’s right to dig deeper than climate change and capitalism, but wrong to finger an incurable element of the human condition for America’s ills. The broader point, however, is important. Del Rey is arguing that Trump’s political ascent exposed or, perhaps, accelerated a cultural clash. She seems to be convinced this exposition will ultimately be constructive.

"I’m not so sure. The problem is not that we’re all as narcissistic as Trump. The problem is that we’re all as anxious. Characterizing Trump as anxious may seem odd—and I’m certainly not invoking the psychological concept—but his central promise to “Make America Great Again” was predicated on a reasonable anxiety that the version of America he knew and loved was slipping away. That resonated immensely, and for some eminently fair reasons.

"Where the anxieties of the working class and Baby Boomers were channeled into Trump, the anxieties of the left were channeled into a furious, culture-wide censorship campaign. Each vessel has profound issues made worse by their inevitable confrontation, which accelerated this painful culture clash in which we’re now engulfed. So why are we anxious?

"While they’re a small fraction of the population, let’s begin by zooming in on the young men who populate the ranks of Antifa and even far-right groups like the Proud Boys. It seems in many ways that we’re harvesting the bitter fruit of a campaign Christina Hoff Sommers identified two decades ago in “The War Against Boys,” coping with a generation of alienated men now aging into their thirties and forties." . . .

Emily Jashinsky is culture editor at The Federalist. You can follow her on Twitter @emilyjashinsky .

Kamala Harris poses for another stupid photo shoot, and is bound to complain she's not taken seriously

  Monica Showalter 

. . . Instead of staying away from social media, Harris just keeps on doing it, like a moth drawn to light. And because it's a pattern, it's starting to show that it's really who she is, the woman of zero political accomplishments, a manic giggle, focused on clothes, making up stories about herself, sleeping her way to power, and now trying to get down and be popular with the social media teenage set. Kind of like those Loughlin daughters from the college admission scandal, whose lifework was to skip class, party down and be social media 'influencers.'

"Turns out she's done it again, this time with a Glamour writeup of a Tik Tok photo shoot, with her wearing loud and stupid socks. Naturally, she got millions of views. According to the New York Post:" . . .

Or maybe these?

"If she doesn't want to be considered a lightweight, why does she keep doing lightweight things? Why the photo exists at all is on her, for starters. Anyone with just a minimum of common sense knows that if you don't want to be known as a lightweight famous for wearing tennis shoes or loud socks, maybe you shouldn't pose for such pictures. Once a picture is taken, it's out there, and yes, the Internet is forever.

"But rest assured there will be outcry from the Harris camp and her minions when despite her exalted title, no one takes her seriously. They of course, are likely to holler racism, but there's no getting around that Harris can't stop herself from being a lightweight. Dianne Feinstein knew it. There are even signs that Willie Brown knew it. Lightweight, yet vice president, and she wants it both ways. Lightweight is dominant though because that's "who she is' ."

Pelosi Just Revealed Our National Security Really Means Nothing to Her With Her Latest Appointment

Swalwell said his focus would be on the threat of “white supremacists  " For years now, really starting in October of 2016, Democrats tried to suggest that President Donald Trump was somehow some sort of agent of Russia. That of course was debunked by the Mueller report. But there are still thousands of folks on the left that fell for that bunk that Democrats and specifically Hillary Clinton paid to help spread. They have never been held accountable, even now, for the things they did to divide this country. Indeed even this October, Hillary Clinton was still claiming that Trump was an “illegitimate” president and making intimations about Russia.

"But one of the people who pressed the false claim of Russia collusion was Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA). Then it was revealed that he had had a continuing relationship with a woman who was alleged to be a Chinese spy. Now you would have thought, given the Democrats’ four years of uproar over the false claims about Donald Trump that the actual facts concerning the effort to compromise Swalwell might have concerned the Democrats and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

"But that would require them not to be hypocritical and to actually care about America’s security, a subject that they seem to let go by the wayside unless it involves somehow consolidating their own control." . . .

I’m honored and excited to rejoin active service on @HomelandDems, where I plan to focus on highlighting and finding solutions to the scourge of white nationalist extremism. pic.twitter.com/JIhh0fOAPk

— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) January 15, 2021

Swalwell demonstrates, yet again, why he doesn't belong anywhere near his national security committees

So with that China stench all over him, who does Swalwell say the big threat to America is? Not China. Not Iran. Not North Korea. Not Cuba. Swalwell advises us it's white nationalist supremacists. Those are the ones we have to watch out for. He'll get 'em, he says, and with that, presumably save America, which leaves a bad taste in the mouth. White nationalist supremacists are a tiny miserable bunch, easily scooped up and put away if authorities wanted to, but for Swalwell, they're politically useful for advancing a narrative that suggests that all of America's ills are the work of white nationalist supremacists. 

It's ridiculous. Anyone with a brain would know that China is far more dangerous as a threat, But Swalwell sees to divert attention from China by trying to convince us that white supremacists are what's really worthy of focus.

Fox News’ Downfall Is Good For The Conservative Movement

RedState

"What’s going on with Fox News?

"It seems that the company is going through quite a storm after it alienated much of its audience with its handling of the presidential election. It’s not looking so good for the network that, for decades, represented conservative thought on broadcast media.

"The company recently restructured its daytime lineup amid plummeting ratings. The network is currently struggling to regain the audience it lost in 2020. Even worse, it is currently performing worse than CNN and MSNBC, which are left-leaning media activist organizations. "It seems that only shows hosted by Tucker Carlson and Sean Hannity are keeping the network afloat.

"Given that nearly all other television news networks function as a propaganda arm of the Democratic Party, Fox News’ it might seem that its troubles spell disaster for the conservative movement and Republican Party. But, in fact, the opposite is likely true.

"Fox News’ current decline will make the conservative movement stronger.

"The network has been the dominant voice in conservative news for years. While other outlets existed, they did not enjoy the reach that Fox has. This meant that the company was the primary influence when it came to shaping viewpoints on the right.

"However, after the company botched the election and further pushed its viewers away by taking a more antagonistic approach to President Trump, other companies began gaining more attention. Outlets like One America News Network and Newsmax have grown in popularity. Republican leaders are appearing on these networks more often. (See: Are We Witnessing the Beginning of the End for Fox News?

The Totalitarian Left Moves to Silence All Dissent

  Pamela Geller  "In an article that was picked up by the Mercury News, Ethan Baron of the Bay Area News Group wrote Tuesday that “A week after false claims of a stolen U.S. presidential election drove a deadly insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, Twitter is allowing a far-right supporter of President Donald Trump to claim the election was stolen.” Baron’s intention was clear: he wants Twitter to ban me, as it banned Trump, for telling truths they want buried. His article shows how monstrous and totalitarian the left really is: leftists think they can publicly call for the censuring and banning of someone whose views they hate, and just like that, you disappear.

"The left and its propaganda arm, the establishment media, are now working hard to make it illegal, and get you banned from social media, to state the obvious fact that the election was stolen. The Democrats are seeking to criminalize and penalize anyone who says theelection was stolen. Their “insurrection” hoax, and impeachment of the president without due process or giving him the chance to defend himself, is designed to shut down any and all talk of their infamous election fraud. This is not the behavior of people who know they won fair and square and are watching their opponents have a tantrum about it. This is the action of the guilty.

"That said, the election was stolen. The mountains of evidence of election fraud were never examined in any court, and then we were told that there was no evidence at all, or if there was any, it had already been dismissed in court challenges. The court cases were all dismissed on technicalities and procedural issues, not because there was no evidence of voter fraud. That evidence has still not been examined.

"But it is a hallmark of the rapidly advancing totalitarianism of our age that thumbsuckers like Ethan Baron think they can kill you with righteous indignation. He wrote: “Anti-Muslim activist Pamela Geller, in a tweet Monday about banks freezing political donations after a pro-Trump mob stormed the seat of the U.S. government, said the banks’ decision was, ‘Further proof the election was stolen.’” I am not “anti-Muslim” any more than foes of the Nazis were “anti-German,” but that’s another story. Baron offered no counterargument to my contention about the banks. He just presented it as if it were self-evidently false and egregious.

"Baron knew, of course, that he didn’t have to show that what I said was inaccurate. All he had to do was point out that I had deviated from the leftist line, and the jackbooted neo-fascists who run Twitter and the other social media platforms would spring into action." . . .

Fox News reportedly considering top executive firings over their post-election ratings collapse

 Thomas Lifson

I do suspect that unless there are changes far more dramatic than those announced a couple of days ago, Fox News will not regain any lost ground quickly. Trying to be CNN-lite won’t cut it. Roger Ailes discovered a niche that was, as the late Charles Krauthammer joked, "half the country." That is a market position that is enviable, and worked like a charm for many years. Discarding it was a mistake.

 If Fox News wants to restore its cable news ratings dominance, changes will have to be visible far lower in its organization than what is being reported.

Though I was angry over its election night coverage and have been dismayed at the behavior of a number of its on-air personalities, I take no joy in the ratings crisis that seems to be engulfing Fox News. For all its faults, its reach, resources, and stable of outstanding talent like Tucker Carlson make it an essential voice in a nation whose media scene is getting scarier by the day. There is no doubt in my mind that if FNC disappeared or lost its cable system distribution, as at least one of its rivals seems to be advocating, conservatism would be in a much weaker position." . . .

Antifa Activist Who Posed As Trump Supporter Arrested

 OANN   "John Earle Sullivan — who is a supporter of Antifa, BLM and the leader of Insurgence USA — is arrested and indicted in Utah.

..."Resurfaced videos — filmed by Sullivan himself — show that he was an active participant in clashes at the U.S. Capitol. The far-left activist even broke a window during the protest and admits it’s not the first time he’s posed as someone else.

IMPEACHMENT: Meet the Republicans Who Betrayed their President and Party

 Todd Starnes  "Democrats shamefully impeached President Trump for the second time — again without any evidence of wrongdoing – not a single shred of evidence.

"Sadly, a handful of back-bench Republicans turned their backs on voters and sided with the Democrats.

"In doing so they brought great shame upon themselves and their congressional districts.

"Among the leaders of the Republican backstabbers was Rep. Liz Cheney, the third-ranking Republican in the House.

" 'The President of the United States summoned this mob, assembled the mob, and lit the flame of this attack,” she said in a statement. “Everything that followed was his doing. None of this would have happened without the President. The President could have immediately and forcefully intervened to stop the violence. He did not.”...

Historians will one day discover that President Trump’s greatest political enemies were in fact not Democrats, but Establishment Republicans.

    There Is No Future For A Liz Cheney GOP

"The most successful aspect of election efforts in 2020 is indisputable: It’s Kevin McCarthy and the House Republicans. That’s not something you can argue against. Look at the scoreboard. In an election where all the smart people said they would lose seats, they didn’t just gain, they gained significantly. They did this through smart recruiting, wise expenditures, and by hitting the right political tone in a very challenging cycle.

"Mitch McConnell and the Senate leadership team did not do this. Ultimately, their people were proven wrong in their predictions, both in anticipating disaster in November and then in projecting arrogant confidence that the 600 vs. 2,000 thing wouldn’t hurt them in the Georgia runoffs. I was told their ground game was excellent, and it would do the job. Instead, both candidates lost by enough that you can’t even blame it on a Trump beef with the secretary of state or, even more ludicrously — looking at you, AEI folks — signing the NDAA.

"Liz Cheney was not a part of this uniquely successful cycle. She was in no way a meaningful part of this. Electoral politics, recruitment, fundraising — it is not really her thing. But she claimed credit for it at the time nonetheless, so leadership House folks who know the way Liz can be just rolled their eyes and moved on.

"As a member of leadership, when Cheney’s stance in favor of impeaching President Trump was announced, it was trumpeted widely by the media." . . .