Biden EPA Unveils Radical New Rule That Will Decimate American Energy

 Biden EPA Unveils Radical New Rule That Will Decimate American Energy (townhall.com)

The Biden EPA's new rule, Capito added, "is the Biden administration's most blatant attempt yet to close down power plants and kill American energy jobs." 

"The Biden administration announced its latest move in the president's now long-running campaign to "end fossil fuels" and force Americans through an "energy transition" that has destroyed the country's energy independence, driven energy prices higher, and left Americans more vulnerable to blackouts. 

"Something of a retread of the Obama-era "Clean Power Plan," the Biden EPA unveiled its new rule that would mandate most coal- and natural gas-fired power plants in the U.S. to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions by 90 percent over a five-year period beginning in 2035 or be shuttered by federal regulators. 

"This new rule — one that is being inflicted without assent from Congress — will require drastic and expensive retrofits of existing power plants and a redesign of planned future plants in the United States if they intend to remain in or start operations. Currently, only one of the hundreds of coal-fired power plants in the country has carbon-capture technology in place, according to The New York Times. 

"According to the Energy Information Administration, as of 2021, there were 269 plants using primarily coal to generate power and 2,020 using natural gas. Of all U.S. power generation, nearly 20 percent comes from coal-fired plants while almost 40 percent is from natural gas — meaning Biden's rule goes after plants responsible for around 60 percent of America's current electricity production system.". . . 

Kevin McCarthy Cancels Rashida Tlaib’s Antisemitic Event at U.S. Capitol

 Breitbart  "House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) on Tuesday canceled Rep. Rashida Tlaib’s antisemitic event at the U.S. Capitol scheduled for Wednesday and will host a “bipartisan discussion to honor the 75th anniversary of the US-Israel relationship” in its place.

"Tlaib planned a Wednesday event at the Capitol Visitor Center to mourn Israel’s founding. The event was to celebrate the “Nakba,” which is a Palestinian term for the creation of Israel that loosely translates as “catastrophe,” according to the Washington Free Beacon.

"
As the Washington Free Beacon detailed:

Tlaib was scheduled to headline the anti-Israel event with several organizations that support the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement, an anti-Semitic effort to wage economic war on Israel. They include Jewish Voice for Peace, a “radical anti-Israel activist group” that pushes the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement and has come under fire for glorifying Palestinian terrorism. Other organizers include Emgage Action, another BDS supporter that claims Israel is an “apartheid state,” and Americans for Justice in Palestine Action, an advocacy group that claims Jewish money is infecting politics.

"The invitation for Wednesday’s event accuses “Zionist militias” of violently expelling The invitation for Wednesday’s event accuses “Zionist militias” of violently expelling Palestinians from the region when Israel was created in 1948, and maintains that Israel continues to brutalize Palestinians.

“May 15th marks 75 years since the beginning of the Nakba, which means ‘catastrophe,’” the invitation reads. “Seventy-five years ago, Zionist militias and the new Israeli military violently expelled approximately three-quarters of all Palestinians from their homes and homeland in what became the state of Israel.”

"However, McCarthy intervened on Tuesday and blocked Tlaib from hosting the event, replacing it with his own pro-Israel discussion.". . .

Why C.S. Lewis Remains Compelling

 The Stream; Equipping Christians to Think Clearly About the Political, Economic and Moral Issues of Our Day.  ( Published on November 23, 2022)

This week marks the anniversary of both the birth (Nov. 29) and the death (Nov. 22) of C.S. Lewis, one of the most remarkable Christians of the last century. Even today, nearly 60 years after his passing, Christians of all denominations, depth, and discernment continue to learn from Lewis about the nature and substance of faith. The value of the wit and wisdom of this unexpected champion of the faith only becomes more obvious as the central message of Christianity, that “Jesus is Lord!”, sounds more and more strange to late-modern ears." . . .

. . ."Lewis was uniquely effective at slipping behind even the most compelling defenses of materialism. His writing, which could range from popular to academic, demonstrated his warmth and genuineness, his incisive mind, and his passionate loyalty to truths considered radical today.

Lewis Embraced the Faith, In Spite of Himself

"As portrayed in the brilliantly done film, The Most Reluctant Convert, Lewis spent his youth meandering through worldviews and fashionable ideas, a process that could fit snugly within our early 21st-century perception of truth as a journey. Yet, he refused to follow that script. After a road filled with twists and turns — a little atheism and agnosticism over here, a period of pantheism and spiritualism over there — Lewis stumbled back to, first, theism, and then, to his great horror, classical Christianity.

"In a sense, Lewis embraced the faith of his fathers in spite of himself. As he wrote in God in the Dock, “I didn’t go to religion to make me happy. I always knew a bottle of Port would do that. If you want a religion to make you feel really comfortable, I certainly don’t recommend Christianity.”

The Brilliance and Skill of Lewis  

"Lewis also had a knack for making people feel smart, for taking some of the most complicated concepts imaginable and explaining them in such a way that the reader responds with, “Oh, I already knew that.” Lewis’ brilliance as a writer and his skill as an apologist enabled him to hone the craft of describing deep truths in simple forms. He seemed to instinctively understand that though the eternal truths of God remain as true as ever, we must offer them to our neighbors using today’s terms. And yet, at the same time, we must not alter those truths in order to make them more palatable or believable. Faith, after all, must lift our hearts, minds, and imaginations beyond this world.

"His skill in doing that gives his works an almost insidious quality. Just as tens of millions of people in the past decades have unknowingly absorbed huge amounts of a Christian worldview through The Lord of the Rings films, skeptics who pick up Lewis’ books are in immortal danger of Christian infection. His light style and engaging manner keep readers off their guard just long enough for truth to get under their skin. While they think they are reading the words of an unusual Christian who “gets it,” little by little many find that his Christianity is getting them." . . .Please continue...

John Stonestreet serves as president of The Colson Center for Christian Worldview. He’s a sought-after author and speaker on areas of faith and culture, theology, worldview, education and apologetics. Timothy D. Padgett (PhD) is a Resident Theologian at The Colson Center for Christian Worldview. 

Chicago gay bars dropping Bud Light, Goose Island amid backlash for transgender ad campaign

 Chicago gay bars dropping Bud Light, Goose Island amid backlash for transgender ad campaign (msn.com)   "Robertson and Mike Sullivan, who own four LGBTQ bars on Chicago’s North Side, decided to pull the company’s products — Bud Light, as well as the Chicago-based Goose Island — from its shelves, as have other Chicago bar owners who feel Anheuser-Busch’s decision was a reversal from its rainbow-branded support of the LGBTQ community.". . .

Paul Cascioli, director of operations, sorts through the bar's beer cooler that no longer contains
 Anheuser-Busch products Tuesday, May 9, 2023, at 2Bears Tavern in Uptown.

. . ."The company’s response came as in-store sales of Bud Light dropped throughout April, according to data from Bump Williams Consulting, a Connecticut-based firm that specializes in the alcoholic beverage industry."

Wither Mr. Carlson?

 

The threat of Tucker + Twitter to the progressive media oligopoly has got them scared - American Thinker    "It’s becoming a lot of fun to watch the propaganda organs react to the recently announced plan of Tucker Carlson to use the recently liberated Twitter as his future platform, post-Fox. The combination of Elon Musk, who has become a free speech disciple, and is not-so-incidentally one of the world’s richest people and widely admired by the public for his pioneering entrepreneurship, with Tucker Carlson, who already was the most important political commentator in America, has got them scared." . . .

Pre-2016 Fox: What Happens to the 3 Million ‘Tucker’ Viewers? (americanpigeon.org)

What we do know is that the firing follows a $787.5 million settlement between Fox and Dominion Voting Systems after the latter alleged that the outlet promulgated disinformation about the company rigging the 2020 election in favor of Joe Biden. 

Tucker Carlson announces his move - American Thinker   . . ."In a brief video posted to Twitter titled "We're Back," his second since his top-rated show Tucker Carlson Tonight on FOX News was abruptly canceled on April 24, Carlson announced that Twitter will soon be his new media home." . . . "That wasn't the only news yesterday about Tucker Carlson.  In an equally compelling development, AXIOS reported in an exclusive "scoop": "Tucker Carlson accuses Fox of fraud, contract breach.' "

Close Friend Reveals Tucker Carlson Preparing For “War” Against Fox News – enVolve (en-volve.com)   . . ."Fox News made the decision to cut ways with Carlson public last month, though it is still unclear why.

"Since Carlson has not yet been released from his $20 million per year contract, which bans him from working elsewhere in the business for an additional 20 months, Carlson has not technically been dismissed.

"That implies that the well-liked anchor would be totally barred from actively covering the 2024 presidential race.

“ 'His team is preparing for war. He wants his freedom,” a close friend told Axios, adding that Carlson had previously said he wanted to “get this done quiet and clean” but his team was now “going from peacetime to Defcon 1.”

"Several behind-the-scenes Carlson footage have already made their way to left-leaning media groups, despite Fox News’ denials that they are to blame.". . .

Full Replay, CNN Broadcasts Trump Townhall, The Culmination of Their Seven-Year Effort to Destroy President Trump, CNN Leaves in Tears -

 The Last Refuge   "A background is really worth considering.  For a full year in 2016 CNN attacked candidate Donald Trump relentlessly, calling him every name in the book and comparing him to the rise of Hitler.  Trump won. CNN then spent the next four years of the Trump presidency shouting at him, yelling at him, calling him names and decrying him as evil incarnate attempting to destroy him; including the promotion of the totally fraudulent Trump-Russia conspiracy theory, which they have never apologized for pushing.  CNN then spends the next two years hiding every Biden scandal they can cover and defending the Biden team as the nation burns down around them.

"Enter 2023…  Hilariously, CNN never learned anything from the previous seven years, asks Donald Trump to come back and sends Kaitlin Collins onto the stage with instructions to be rude, combative, argumentative, snide and nasty.  What happens… Trump fearlessly destroys the effort, and the audience is well entertained.

"Here’s the full CNN Townhall event replay.  {Direct Rumble Link}  CNN cried mercy and cut the Townhall short by 20 minutes, it was scheduled for 90 – they conceded defeat at 70 minutes and ended the broadcast.  The leftists then went into full meltdown pearl clutching in panel reviews everywhere, while the Ron DeSantis team had apoplectic fits of sad."  WATCH Full replay at this site.

Parody: CNN Host Sues Trump For Assault And Defamation After Town Hall | Babylon Bee

"GOFFSTOWN, NH — A visibly shaken Kaitlan Collins announced she will be suing Trump for assault and defamation after being destroyed by the former President on national television last night.

" 'He said things I didn't agree with. Even worse, he said things I didn't like," said Collins in a statement. "It was the most traumatizing experience of my life. It was assault, plain and simple. And defamation. I'm suing Trump for $5 million like that other lady." . . .

Liberals sure like dead black men

 Don Surber

A return to the revolving doors of justice and the demonization of cops served him poorly. But liberals don’t care about black people — or white or yellow or any color. Liberals care not about people. Liberals care only about power. Dead black men serve that purpose, hence the feigned anger of those in the skin game.

. . ."No, this column is about black men killed by non-liberal white people or in the case of George Zimmerman, a Hispanic.

"AOC used the death in a subway train of Jordan Neely to create a new saint for the church of black victimhood. A violent man, he went crazy in a subway train last Thursday afternoon. The transit police were unavailable. Passengers subdued him. He died after being held in what we are told was a chokehold. AOC went on a tweet rant based on few facts and many emotions.

"Judge, jury and executioner, she tweeted, “Jordan Neely was murdered.

“But because Jordan was houseless and crying for food in a time when the city is raising rents and stripping services to militarize itself while many in power demonize the poor, the murderer gets protected with passive headlines and no charges.

“ 'It’s disgusting.”

"Houseless has replaced homeless which replaced bum.

Mainstream Media Utterly Silent On Some Hate Crimes, Murders (tampafp.com)

. . ."It’s astonishingly surreal when it happens, even though it’s expected. Last week, rabid protesters shut down part of New York City’s subway system and hinted at future violence to come if they didn’t get “justice” for Jordan Neely, a seemingly mentally ill man who had a long arrest record and a history of physically attacking innocents on the train platforms and elsewhere.

"Neely, who was black and had been arrested more than 40 times, died after being temporarily put in a chokehold by a U.S. Marine named Daniel Penny, who is white, while the two were riding the subway. Passengers claimed Neely was menacing and threatening them.   

"Since his death on May 1, Neely has continued to be a lead item for the major media eager to ramp up racial conflict — even as there is no evidence that Penny intended to kill Neely or acted out of racism.

"Yet in the middle of the country, we have clear evidence of two racially motivated and premeditated murders, and the national media is utterly silent.

"Why? Because the victims are white and the alleged killer is black." . . .

A Complacent Generation That Loves Making Martyrs (americanpigeon.org)

But the other reaction requires one to protest the city officials that they elected and will continue to elect who are responsible for negligence, that same negligence of those now in the streets demanding justice (from themselves).

All things considered, New York City appears torn that such a good soul will be missed. New Yorkers love to be terrorized, and when there is no one left to do so, they will hold a vigil.

No Biggie, Just the End of Civilization

 Ann Coulter

Whatever you had planned to do for the rest of the day, please drop it and read this right now: Heather Mac Donald's new book, "When Race Trumps Merit: How the Pursuit of Equity Sacrifices Excellence, Destroys Beauty, and Threatens Lives."

"It seems that in the hysteria that followed George Floyd's death in 2020, we agreed to destroy all of Western civilization -- law, music, art, education, policing, science and medicine -- to make up for black people not doing well on standardized tests.

"Mac Donald cites not hundreds but thousands of institutions that have flung aside standards in order to more fully dedicate themselves to the sole, driving purpose of our nation: boosting black people's self-esteem.

"To consider just one arena, I don't think you're going to like the medical care you'll be getting under the new regime. Just like in the wildly successful Soviet Union, science must be subordinated to politics, specifically "racial justice."

"The American Medical Association, the American Association of Medical Colleges and the American Association of Pediatrics (AAP) have all agreed that medicine is racist.

"The New England Journal of Medicine "presents a nonstop stream of articles on such topics as the 'Pathology of Racism,' 'Toward Antiracist Allyship in Medicine,' and 'How Structural Racism Works -- Racist Policies as a Root Cause of U.S. Racial Health Inequities,'" Mac Donald writes." . . .

Luckily, learning to identify and treat disease isn't such a big deal at today's medical schools, anyway. Instead, the faculty are charged with teaching about "systems of power, privilege and oppression." More than half of the top 50 medical schools now require students to take courses in systemic racism, Mac Donald notes. I'm sure that will be a huge relief when doctors miss your brain tumor.

. . . "That's why, Mac Donald says, it falls to the rest of us to never shut up about the tearing down of standards, to put forth "unapologetic defense(s) of color-blind standards," and to "relentlessly provide the data that explain the lack of racial proportionality in meritocratic institutions."

"To paraphrase Orwell: If there is hope, it must lie in the uncancelable."

Emphasis mine. TD

Biden administration targets a Catholic hospital for daring to question its authority

 Biden administration targets a Catholic hospital for daring to question its authority (washingtonexaminer.com)

"Not content to harass just Catholic nuns , the successor administration to the Obama White House has taken up harassing Catholic hospitals.

"In April, Saint Francis Hospital South, which is one of five hospitals in the Saint Francis Health System network in eastern Oklahoma, received an ultimatum from the Biden administration: Extinguish your chapel’s sanctuary lamp, or we will strip you of your ability to accept Medicare, Medicaid, and the Children's Health Insurance Program.

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For context, a sanctuary lamp is a “wax candle, generally in a red glass container, kept burning day and night wherever the Blessed Sacrament is reserved in Catholic churches or chapels,” according to the Modern Catholic Dictionary. “It is an emblem of Christ's abiding love and a reminder to the faithful to respond with loving adoration in return.”

Saint Francis eventually enlisted the aid of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, whose attorneys argued the ultimatum violated the hospital’s First Amendment freedoms. (Full disclosure: Becket is one of several charitable organizations this author has supported over the years. Becket did not solicit this article.)

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On Friday, Becket announced the Biden administration had agreed to allow Saint Francis a “waiver” to keep its chapel flame burning.

“The game was simply not worth the candle for HHS,” Lori Windham, vice president, and senior counsel at Becket, told the Washington Examiner. “It realized it would be playing with fire in court if it stood by its absurd demand, so it chose wisely. We are glad Saint Francis can continue to serve those most in need while keeping the faith.. . .

Now EVERYBODY Hates Bud Light

 At Last, National Unity Is Restored: No One Likes Bud Light – Robert Spencer

If Anheuser-Busch hoped that its false claim that its involvement with Mulvaney was limited to just “one single can” of Bud Light would make the whole thing finally blow over, it was in for a rude awakening.

"Our deeply divided nation is reunited at last! We cannot agree on whether dismembering children in the womb is a monstrous crime or a basic human right. We can’t agree on whether men can become champion female swimmers. We certainly will never agree on whether a jaw-droppingly corrupt kleptocrat deep in the throes of dementia should even have gotten near the Oval Office. We argue over whether the Founding Fathers were slaveowners to be despised or visionaries of freedom to be revered. But there is one thing we do agree on: we all loathe Bud Light.

"The patriots’ rejection of Bud Light after it brought on the transcendently obnoxious fake woman Dylan Mulvaney as its frontman has been remarkably effective. By April 22, Bud Light sales had dropped over 26%. Overnight, a beer that was practically ubiquitous became synonymous with the authoritarian Left’s efforts to force all Americans to accept its increasingly revolting agenda. The King of Beers became the Drag Queen of Beers, “tranny fluid” that no one but other half-men like Mulvaney himself would dare to drink in public or private.

"And initially, Leftist half-men did rally around a beer that ordinarily most of them would have scorned. On April 15, far-Left Congressman Ted Lieu (D-California SSR) tweeted an embarrassingly staged photo of himself holding a Bud Light as if he were a space alien who had never held an earth object before. Standing with him, supposedly engaged in casual conversation and also holding cans of Bud Light, albeit a trifle less gingerly, were three of Lieu’s Golden State colleagues: Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Get Trump), Judy Chu (D-Workers’ Paradise), and Mark Takano (D-Newsomland).

"Lieu wrote no caption for the pic, but the message was clear: the Leftist elites stand with men who think they’re women." . . . 

How dare you, madam vice-president?

 "But what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Harris attempted (and gloriously failed) to twist one of the most sacred phrases in world history for her own convenience and to further her own political ambition. And so it is only fair that we say in response: How dare you, madam vice president?"

Washington Examiner   "The high point of Kamala Harris ’s otherwise disastrous vice presidency came in May 2022 when she delivered a fiery speech that rebuked the leaked draft of the Supreme Court decision that would eventually overturn Roe v. Wade.

"For a vice president that had sorely lacked positive press up until this point, the virality of her condemnation of the court’s leaked decision — punctuated by her impassioned delivery of the rhetorical question, “how dare they?” — boosted her political stock in the weeks that followed. The moment inspired numerous think pieces in select legacy outlets , which all said essentially the same thing: At long last, the veep had found her voice.

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"So it was no surprise that Harris attempted to recreate that moment last week on the 50th anniversary of the original Roe decision, a date on the calendar year that has long served as the occasion of the March for Life in Washington D.C. Speaking in front of roughly 1,500 people outside of the Florida statehouse in Tallahassee, Harris once again delivered the successful catchphrase:

" 'I've said it before, and I'll say it again,” she began. “How dare they? How dare they?"

"Somewhere in a picket line in Scandinavia, Greta Thunberg blushed."...

“America is a promise. … It is a promise of freedom and liberty, not just some, but for all. A promise we made in the Declaration of Independence, that we are each endowed with the right to liberty and the pursuit of happiness" (emphasis mine).

. . ."The omission of the word “life” was impossible to miss. Even the most hyper-progressive, anti-American neo-Maoist in attendance would have noticed its absence. After all, the phrase is perhaps the most well-known and oft-repeated in the Western world. Americans, as well as many non-Americans, have it memorized by the time they’ve learned to tie their shoes. Either Harris is an even less formidable intellect than we’d imagined, or her estimation of the public is so low that she thought she could pull a fast one.

"Either way, the moment was a gift for the pro-life movement as it continues to struggle for the hearts and minds of the nation in the post-Roe era." . . .

Black Grievance Politics Is Destroying Civilization ›

Without security, there is anarchy. And where there is anarchy, the state can command neither legitimacy nor respect.

 American Greatness (amgreatness.com)  "Arguably, the greatest indictment of leftism is its preference for the vagrant and the criminal over the law-abiding citizen and victim. In politics, there are all kinds of disagreements about the role and scope of the state, but the one thing the state must do is protect the innocent.

"Without security, there is anarchy. And where there is anarchy, the state can command neither legitimacy nor respect. Yet racial idolaters on the Left have pushed society to forgo basic expectations of public order and civilized conduct. Demanding anything more than day-to-day chaos would be cruel to “marginalized” people like deranged homeless black men on the subway.

"The Left has a warped infatuation with society’s most entitled, recalcitrant, and destructive elements. Their latest martyr is a lunatic named Jordan Neely, who was killed while threatening commuters in Manhattan on Monday morning. The man, portrayed by sympathetic media as a “Michael Jackson impersonator,” was throwing garbage at people and making vaguely threatening statements about his willingness to go to prison for life. A reasonable person would feel afraid in this situation, as passengers doubtless did. A heroic vigilante intervened and put Neely in a chokehold. Two other men helped restrain Neely, who later died. 

"Seldom is the line between civilization and savagery drawn so clearly as it was in Jordan Neely’s subway car. The Left has demonized the vigilante for his “barbaric” supposed “lynching,” but this gets it precisely backward. Barbarism on the subway is a daily occurrence; it is part of the atmosphere. Barbarism is forcing commuters to fear for their lives and property on a Monday morning. It’s what you call it when vagrants shove people to their deaths in front of moving trains, and all the state can do is shrug.

"In places like New York City, criminals are a protected class. Just days ago, a homeless man stabbed a commuter with an ice pick. Jordan Neely himself had 42 prior arrests and an open warrant for assaulting a 67-year-old woman at the time of his death. He is widely reported to have been a menace to the safety of others, in short, a net negative on society." . . .