Monthly Archives: September 2021

House Democrats are seeking to exploit the reconciliation process with a $3.5 trillion dollar package in pursuit of high priority progressive programs. That wish list includes a litany of items on the left-wing green agenda, with protections against Arctic oil exploration at the top.

Tucked into the massive legislation last week by the House Natural Resources Committee are restored protections to bar drilling within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuges (ANWR) 1002 Area, a nearly 1.6 million-acre patch along Alaskas northern coast opened for oil and gas extraction in 2017.

There isnt a more clear example of congressional confusion than the current move by wildlife-above-human-life extremists to ban oil and gas drilling in ANWRs Coastal Plain, said Rick Whitbeck, the Alaska state director for the energy nonprofit Power the Future. They forget that Congress authorized and encouraged development in that exact area previously, and that banning future development puts the local indigenous people in peril of having to out-migrate from their village to find jobs to sustain their families.

If passed, the package would likely seal the fate of drilling prospects in ANWR until Republicans reclaim both chambers of Congress and the White House to reverse course. The Biden administration, meanwhile, has continued to pull every lever to keep operations offline, from suspending oil and gas leases on federal lands to ordering new environmental reviews reassessing proposed projects.

The 1.6 million-acre stretch opened for exploration in 2017 amounts to less than 10 percent of the total refuge (which is roughly the size of South Carolina) off limits to development in northeast Alaska. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, somewhere between 4.3 and 11.8 billion barrels of recoverable oil remain underneath the surface of the 1002 Area, which would make it one of the most productive oil fields in the country as gas prices reach seven-year highs.

The only tribe living within the proposed boundary for drilling, the Iupiat, have lobbied Congress for decades to allow development projects to move forward. Radical environmentalists seeking to preserve the entire state which constitutes nearly a fifth of the entire nations landmass as an untouched museum theyd maybe like to visit one day, however, have successfully exploited the opposition of a rival tribe hundreds of miles south of the 1002 Area to cloak opposition under the moral righteousness of environmental justice.

The Gwichin Nation, living in Alaska and Canada and 9,000 strong, make their home on or near the migratory route of the Porcupine caribou herd, and have depended on this herd for their subsistence and culture for thousands of years, wrote California Democrat Rep. Jared Huffman as he re-introduced legislation in February to permanently ban the Iupiat from harvesting the resources in their own backyard.

A look into the Gwichin tribes past, however, raises questions about its genuine opposition to drilling in the Arctic Refuge, which remains entirely outside the tribes territory.

In the early 1980s, the Gwichin sought to lease every last inch of its Alaskan Venetie Reserve to oil companies seeking to drill what many thought would be lucrative underground reserves. After exploration turned up short of any prospects for profitable drilling, the Gwichin became vehemently opposed to oil and gas development across the state and partnered with progressive interests in the campaign.

The caribou, meanwhile, remain unbothered by the oil and gas activity on the North Slope 60 miles southwest of the 1002 Area, with populations continuing to rise and decline with their natural cycle.

Matthew Rexford, the tribal administrator for the Iupiat village of Kaktovik within the 1002 Area, labeled his own people refugees on their own lands, prohibited from accessing the lucrative resources under them even though they are located on a flat plain rarely even visited by Alaskans, let alone elites who can afford the high-dollar trip.

We are frustrated that we are not being heard and the Iupiat living in Kaktovik and elsewhere on the North Slope are an inconvenient truth to an administration dead set on shutting down Arctic development, Rexford told The Federalist.

In an August interview, Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy shared the tribes frustrations.

If we were able to do what we wanted to do, wed be one of the richest states by far, Dunleavy told The Federalist.

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Democrats Aim To Choke Off Arctic Drilling In Reconciliation Package - The Federalist

The Washington Post published extremely serious allegations against Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley yesterday, although of course the paper tried to make the centerpiece of the story former President Donald Trumps erratic behavior.

From WaPo:

Fearful of Donald Trumps actions in his final weeks as president, the United States top military officer twice called his Chinese counterpart to assure him that the two nations would not go to war, a senior defense official said Tuesday after the conversations were described in excerpts from a forthcoming book.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley told Gen. Li Zuocheng of the Peoples Liberation Army that the United States would not strike. One call took place on Oct. 30, 2020, four days before the election that defeated Trump. The second call was on Jan. 8, 2021, just two days after the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol by supporters of the outgoing chief executive.

Milley went so far as to promise Li that he would warn his counterpart in the event of a U.S. attack, according to the book Peril, written by Washington Post journalists Bob Woodward and Robert Costa.

The story here, however, is not Trump, no matter how much the corrupt corporate media would have it be so. The story is that a military leader defied civilian control over the direction of Americas foreign policy, and did so through secret talks with our chief adversary on the global stage.

Under every president, we hear about [name] derangement syndrome; there was Bush Derangement Syndrome, and Obama Derangement Syndrome. But only Trump Derangement Syndrome seems to have led the ostensible upholders of norms and democracy to treat as no big deal actual violations of democracys most sacred norms in the service of thwarting Donald Trump.

Civilian control over the military is not something to be jettisoned when you disagree with the peoples choice. Generals playing politics at the highest levels of the military is a game as old as the country, but secretly speaking with Americas foreign enemies to defy the policy decisions of the elected leader of the United States crosses a line, a bright red one. With all the blabber about norms, here is one that truly matters.

The American people deserve to know the content of those phone calls. If this reporting is true and it must be taken with a grain of salt given Bob Woodwards track record Gen. Milley must be fired and, depending on the content of the calls, may even be justly prosecuted.

Under the guise of saving democracy from Trump our media, intelligence services, government bureaucrats, and corporate overlords have kamikazed faith in every one of the institutions keeping America the stable democracy it has blessedly remained for over 200 years. Millions of Americans feel the system is so rigged that they despair of anyone in our ruling elite being held responsible for any action, no matter how obviously over the line.

Let us hope that, in the case of Gen. Milley and his alleged flaunting of bedrock principles not only of the American system, but any non-banana republic, those Americans are wrong.

Inez Feltscher Stepman is a senior contributor at The Federalist. She is also a senior policy analyst at Independent Women's Forum and the Thursday editor of BRIGHT, a women's newsletter. Find her on Twitter @inezfeltscher.

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Milley's Alleged Secret Calls Are One More Reason Americans Think The System Is Rigged - The Federalist

France announced on Friday that the country will pull its ambassadors from the U.S. and Australia after Australia ditched its existing submarine deal with France in favor of a U.S. partnership.

President Joe Biden announced on Wednesday that the U.S. struck a deal with Australia and the United Kingdom that administration officials said would provide the Land Down Under with the technology and capability to deploy nuclear-powered submarines. Its a move that, even though it hurt an ally, the administration claimed was necessary to push back on Chinas desire to control the South China Sea.

We need to be able to address both the current strategic environment in the region, and how it may evolve, Biden said. Because the future of each of our nations and indeed the world depends on a free and open Indo-Pacific enduring and flourishing in the decades ahead.

It is believed to be the first time France withdraws ambassadors from the two countries, BBC reported, referring to the United States and Australia. French diplomats in Washington had already cancelled a gala to celebrate ties between the US and France in retaliation.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that the retaliatory decision to remove ambassadors, which was ordered by President Emmanuel Macron, comes in the wake of unacceptable behavior between allies and partners whose consequences directly affect the vision we have of our alliances, of our partnerships and of the importance of the Indo-Pacific for Europe. He also said it feels like a stab in the back after Australia canceled its roughly $40 billion deal with France for diesel-electric submarines in favor of another deal with the United States.

We built a relationship of trust with Australia, and this trust was betrayed, Le Drian said. This is not done between allies.

Le Drian also said he is angry and bitter and that this brutal, unilateral and unpredictable decision reminds me a lot of what Mr. Trump used to do.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Is This What Global Respect Looks Like? France Recalls Ambassadors From US - The Federalist

Less than a week after President Joe Biden announced his tyrannical vaccine mandate, Knox County Mayor Glenn Jacobs said his county would not comply with the lawless order.

In Knox County, we know what we stand for. We stand for freedom. We stand for the rule of law. We stand for the Constitution, Jacobs, who is also professional wrestler Kane of WWE fame, said in a letter addressed to the president. And you can rest assured that we will stand against your blatant and egregious executive overreach.

The order mandates that all businesses with 100 or more employees require COVID-19 vaccines or weekly testing for all workers. The Tennessee mayor, who also defended his county from statewide stay-at-home orders, said citizens would suffer drastically from vaccine mandates.

As the chief executive of an organization that employees 2,700 individuals, your action adds financial, legal, and regulatory burdens that will ultimately impact Knox County taxpayers, he said. In addition, it potentially hinders our ability to attract quality employees since many folks in our community will not work somewhere that unjustly imposes vaccine mandates.

Tennessee Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III wrote a similar letter to Biden on Thursday, saying the mandate likely violated federal law. He is one of 24 Republican state attorneys general demanding that Biden remove the unlawful and harmful mandate.

This vaccine-or-test mandate appears to be an unprecedented expansion of federal power and fails to consider the steps individuals, employers, and our state have already made, Slatery said.

Slatery mentioned specific concerns about the mandate, including that the order fails to recognize religious liberty, free speech, and bodily autonomy.

As a fellow elected official who has sworn an oath to uphold the U.S. Constitution just as you have, I am alarmed by the alacrity with which you issued this order, contradicting both Article 1, Section I which vests legislative power in the Congress and the Tenth Amendment which recognizes the sovereignty of the states or the people over matters the Constitution does not delegate to the federal government, Jacobs wrote.

Referencing a retweet by Ron Klain, Bidens chief of staff, that said, OSHA doing this vaxx mandate as an emergency workplace safety rule is the ultimate work-around for the Federal govt to require vaccinations, Jacobs said the Biden administration was intentionally abusing its power and gloating like the cat who ate the canary.

Mr. President, if we, as elected officials, ignore, disregard, and contravene the laws which bind us, how can we expect our fellow citizens to respect and follow the laws which bind all of us as a society? he asked.

We are not the country we claim to be, Jacobs continued. America needs to figure out what this nation stands for or risk losing freedom.

As an American, I am appalled by your statement: This is not about freedom or personal choice, Jacobs admonished Biden, quoting Bidens speech last week. On the contrary, in America, it is always about freedom.

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Knox County Mayor: We Will Not Comply With Biden's 'Egregious' Mandate - The Federalist

The Biden administration is cutting back on sending free doses of monoclonal antibodies to red, southern states where they were used as ahighly effective treatment for COVID-19 patients.

In a new policy shift that began Monday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced the distribution of monoclonal antibodies to states will now be centralized, moving away from the previous process which was based on direct orders and demand.

HHS will determine the amount of product each state and territory receives on a weekly basis, an HHS spokesman told the Washington Post. State and territorial health departments will subsequently identify sites that will receive product and how much.

HHS did not explicitly explain the reasoning for restricting delivery of the treatments but claimed its new system will help maintain equitable distribution, both geographically and temporally, across the country, providing states and territories with consistent, fairly distributed supply over the coming weeks.

Florida is just one of the Republican-led states affected by this change. For weeks leading up to the change, Florida was one of seven southern states including Alabama, Texas, Mississippi, Tennessee, Georgia, and Louisiana that have been using about 70 percent of the national supply.

Now, its leaders are scrambling to reckon the states COVID-19 treatment regimes with the newest bureaucratic for no specific reason. Gov. Ron DeSantis office said that the treatment reduction came with no warning and little explanation from the federal government.

They had a vague statement about equity but sorry that doesnt cut it. No explanation of how the allocation was determined. No explanation of why its only Florida and a few other red states being restricted. No warning, a DeSantis aide told Real Clear News Philip Wegmann.

Days before the HHS announcement, Biden promised that the administration would increase the average pace of shipment across the county of free monoclonal antibody treatments by another 50 percent. The White House also pledged in the presidents Path Out of the Pandemic plan that the administration would implement this change in September.

Monoclonal antibody treatments have been shown to reduce the risk of hospitalization by up to 70% for unvaccinated people at risk of developing severe disease. As hospital systems experience increased COVID-19 cases, many have identified monoclonal antibody treatment as a key tool to improve health outcomes, prevent hospitalizations and reduce the strain on overburdened hospitals, the plan reads.

Now, its clear that the White Houses goal will fall short as the national supply has considerably decreased and states should expect lower amounts of therapeutics available for shipment in the coming weeks, as a Texas health department spokesman warned.

This reeks of politics. This is the Biden administration punishing Florida, Sen. Marco Rubio said in a video posted to Twitter. Theyre saying to states like Florida, Oh yeah, youre not gonna have mandates? Youre not gonna do what we want you to do? Well then guess what, were gonna cut off your antibody treatments and your access to them.'

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Biden Cuts Back Highly Effective COVID-19 Therapy From Red States - The Federalist

Congressional Democrats proposed tax hikes, which are endorsed by the Biden administration, will violate the White Houses promises to spare Americans who make less than $400,000 annually from any tax increases.

President Joe Biden and the White House are framing the Democrat-led tax increases as a historic middle-class tax cut, but their promises to put the dollar burden on just the wealthy and large corporations are false.

New data from the Joint Committee on Taxation shows that the Democrats $3.5 trillion spending bill would raise taxes for middle-class Americans in less than six years.By 2027, Americans making as little as $30,000 a year would be subject to tax hikes. In 2031, these increases are designed to climb even more for Americans making $50,000 or more annually. Millions of businesses will also be affected by these increases.

Its a plan that Biden and his team appear to endorse but one that clearly violates their promises on the campaign trail and from the Oval Office that normal Americans would be spared from paying more money to the government.

The President remains committed to his pledge from the campaign that nobody making under $400,000 a year will have their taxes increased, White House press secretary Jen Psaki repeated in March. Later, she qualified her statement by claiming that only families would be spared by the $400,000 limit and that any married individuals who bring in $200,000 or more each could be affected by the hike.

If you make less than $400,000 per year, Ill never raise your taxes one penny. But if youre at the very top, its time to pay your fair share. We need to reward work in this country not just wealth, the presidents Twitter account stated.

The White Houses official Instagram account posted the same quote days later and claimed, The Build Back Better Agenda is a historic tax cut for the middle class paid for by making sure the wealthy pay their fair share.

Republicans called out the Biden administration for misleading Americans with enticing rhetoric and said that climbing taxes will absolutely bankrupt America for future generations.

Democrats have already broken their promise not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $400,000 per year.Whether its higher prices or higher taxes, Democrats are taking a sledgehammer to Americans paychecks, National Republican Congressional Committee Spokesman Mike Berg said in a statement.

Jordan Davidson is a staff writer at The Federalist. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

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Report: Democrat Tax Hikes WILL Raise Taxes On Middle Class - The Federalist