Former Blackrock Adviser Argues at Energy Forum that Divesting from Oil and Gas is Not Sustainable

Terrence Keeley

The environment, social and governance (ESG) investing movement has faced a lot of criticism over the past couple years for undermining fiduciary responsibility and pushing progressive agendas through an undemocratic process.

At the Energy Future Forum presented by RealClearEnergyWednesday, Terrence Keeley, author and former senior advisor at Blackrock, argued that ESG is also misallocating resources and doing nothing for the environment it claims to protect.

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University ‘Decolonizes’ Art Collection Due to ‘Problematic’ Paintings and Sculptures

What does an institution of higher learning do when it has a “problematic” collection of paintings and sculptures?

Answer: It “decolonizes” them. In other words, it replaces “white settler” works with those by Indigenous/Native/First Americans.

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Democrats Could Face Legal Hurdles in Georgia over Potential Effort to Replace President Joe Biden

President Joe Biden

Democrats could face legal challenges in Georgia should they attempt replace President Joe Biden on the November ballot, according to an analysis of state election laws published ahead of his poor debate performance against President Donald Trump on June 27.

The analysis, published to the social media platform X by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project days prior to the debate, notes Georgia, Nevada and Wisconsin “have specific procedures for withdrawal of a presidential nominee,” with each state differing on when a withdrawal must be filed and who can replace the nominee.

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Commentary: Bidengate and the Doom Loop

Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

The entire 2019-20 Biden candidacy and subsequent presidency were predicated on a rotten Faustian bargain. A hale Joe Biden would feign his aw-shucks, Joe from Scranton schtick. And an ossified working-class Joe’s camouflage would get the hard left elected—especially thanks to the changes in balloting laws that often saw only 30 percent of the electorate voting on Election Day in key states.

In exchange, the two narcissistic Bidens would bask in the power and attention of the presidency. From the start, Jill and the media would orchestrate deep cover for Joe’s escalating dementia as well as the true intentions of the now-in-power radical Democratic Party with its neo-socialist agenda. The former Obama acolytes would get their long-dreamed-of third presidential term. And this time they would enact a truly radical agenda while their string puppet mumbled to everyone that he was just old, familiar Joe working for the middle class.

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Corn Growers Join Petition to SCOTUS Over California Emissions Mandate

Corn Harvester

A coalition of energy, biofuel and agriculture groups – including the Illinois Corn Growers Association – are taking their challenge of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s emissions mandate to the nation’s highest court. 

The group filed a petition for a writ of certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court challenging the EPA’s decision to grant a waiver to California for its 2021-2025 electric vehicle mandate. Illinois lawmakers have considered adopting California’s strict EV policies.  

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Democratic Activists Form ‘Pass the Torch’ Campaign to Push Biden to Drop Out of Race

Joe Biden

Democratic activists launched a “Pass the Torch” campaign on Monday to push President Biden to drop out of race after his performance in the first presidential debate.

The “Pass the Torch” website includes a petition that its organizers want DNC delegates and the general public to sign calling on Biden to “pass the torch and pledge to support the new nominee.”

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Comer Takes Aim at White House Physician, Seeks Answers over Alleged Help to Biden Family Businesses

In a blockbuster investigative letter, House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer demanded Sunday that White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor submit to an interview about any efforts on his part to assist the Biden family businesses.

Comer also questioned the doctor’s judgment in his medical treatment of President Joe Biden.

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MIT Grew Staff Size by 1,200 While Enrollment Barely Budged

MIT Campus

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology added more than 1,200 new administrative/support staff positions in less than a decade – including six “diversity, equity, and inclusion” assistant deans in one year, a College Fix analysis found.

Meanwhile, between 2013 and 2022, undergraduate student enrollment remained basically flat.

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House to Expose TSA’s Airport Fiasco with Cuban Agents as Latino Vote up for Grabs

Carlos Gimenez

A House subcommittee is exposing the Transportation Security Administration’s decision to let Cuban agents visit a U.S. airport and tour agency facilities, a potentially embarrassing episode for the Biden administration as polls show Latino voters are up for grabs in the 2024 election.

Rep. Carlos Giminez, R-Fla., the chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Maritime Security, has scheduled a hearing Wednesday titled “Protecting the Homeland – Examining TSA’s Relationships with U.S. Adversaries” that will focus heavily on the episode a few weeks ago at the Miami airport that has drawn widespread condemnation, particularly in the Cuban ex-pat community in America.

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Commentary: Trump Has Been Leading National Polls Since September 2023

Donald Trump

Don’t look now, but former President Donald Trump has been leading a majority of national polls, nearly 53 percent, according to RealClearPolling.com, since the polling for the 2024 election cycle began back in 2021, 182 out of 346 polls taken.

President Joe Biden has led just 114 of those polls, or almost 33 percent.

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Administrations Lay Plans to One-Up America’s Largest Offshore Wind Farm

Offshore Wind Farm

Installation of the country’s largest offshore wind farm began in earnest just two months ago off the coast of Virginia, and the Biden administration announced Friday it will be auctioninganother even bigger wind energy lease sale off the coast of the commonwealth. 

Dominion Energy leased the approximately 113,000 acres that would become the site of the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project in 2013. After installing two pilot turbines in 2020, the utility began the installation of the rest of its 176 turbines in May.

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Check’s Not In Mail: Postal Service Re-Organization Failed to Stem Billions in Losses

USPS Trucks

The U.S. Postal Service has now accumulated a whopping $98 billion in losses since it went into the red in 2007 and its much-ballyhooed reorganization has failed to reverse the trend as expected, according to a sobering new report from the iconic mail agency’s watchdog.

The Postal Service inspector general reports that the mail service recorded losses of $950 million in 2022 and $6.5 billion in 2023, in the first two years after implementing its decade-long Delivering for America (DFA) reorganization plan.

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Oklahoma Becomes Latest State in Court over Illegal Immigration, Arguing It’s a State Issue

Oklahoma Atty Gen. Gentner Drummond

Oklahoma is the most recent state facing a legal battle with the Biden administration on the issue of illegal immigration, with a federal judge blocking legislation that would make entering the country illegally a state crime. 

Oklahoma’s House Bill 4156 makes it a crime to be in Oklahoma without legal status. The legislation was signed into law on April 30, but was blocked by a federal judge in June after the Biden administration filed a lawsuit against the state. 

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Duke University Dumped Doc Who Exposed Lack of Evidence for ‘Racism’ as a Public Health Crisis

Dr. Kendall Conger, Duke University

Two years ago this month, the University of Pennsylvania law school stopped accusing a tenured professor of making up statistics about black student performance, which she called defamatory, after ignoring requests for the supposedly correct statistics going back four years.

Dean Ted Ruger still sought “major sanctions” against Amy Wax for “intentional and incessant racist, sexist, xenophobic, and homophobic actions and statements,” and disgraced ex-President Liz Magill approved a hearing board’s recommended one-year suspension, slashed pay and mandatory scarlet letter in her public appearances.

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Audit: Georgia SOS Should Act to Ensure It Meets Federal Reporting Requirements

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger

Georgia’s Secretary of State’s office should take additional action to ensure it meets federal reporting and inventory requirements tied to federal election grants.

The Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts included the finding in a new audit following a March 2022 examination.

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Commentary: Stephanopoulos, Biden, and the Lord Almighty

ABC News' Stephanopoulos interviews President Joe Biden

George Stephanopoulos’ interview of President Biden was painful to watch — unless, probably, you’re Donald Trump. Even partisan Trump supporters could feel sorry for the president — though that would be a mistake: if you were in Biden’s shoes, he would not feel sorry for you.

At least some people were not sure Stephanopoulos would ask, and then press, hard questions. He did. But there was no real reason to suppose he would let Biden off lightly: he surely wants the Democrats to win the election as much as any other partisan Democrat, and letting Biden remain the party’s candidate is — now, clearly — not in their best interest.

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Commentary: The Emerging Trump Coalition

Donald J. Trump

Will Hispanics and young voters help propel former President Donald Trump to a second term in the White House? New polling suggests so, strongly.

But first some background on the larger macro shifts in the electorate and party identification: Bigger picture, the populist-nationalist revolt continues to reshape politics in America in ways that are systemic and, likely, generational. This political tectonic shift is transforming the Republican Party into a party of workers, claiming whole demographic groups that were formerly considered the political provenance of the Democrats.

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California Joins 26 States in Requiring Students Take Personal Finance Class

Students in Class

Over half of U.S. states now require high school students to receive a financial literacy course before they graduate after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill passed by the California Legislature.

With the passage of California’s law requiring schools to offer a course in personal finance by the 2027-28 school year and requiring the class of 2031 to receive at least one class, a total of 26 states now require students to take a course on how to manage money, according to a nonprofit spearheading efforts to pass such laws.

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Four Years Later, CDC Documents on COVID-19’s Origin in China Emerge as Oversight Wanes

Newly released documents from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reveal early evidence and analysis four years ago in which U.S. government officials indicated that COVID-19 originated in Wuhan, China.

These findings in the CDC documents obtained by The Heritage Foundation’s Oversight Project, dating from about six months after the disease’s initial outbreak, are coming to light only now because of the government’s repeated delays in releasing relevant documents through the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

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Biden White House Staff Is Largest Since Nixon, Costs Taxpayers $225 Million

Joe Biden Staff

President Joe Biden has spent $225 million paying hundreds of White House staffers since the 2021 fiscal year, federal records show.

The president’s spending on staffers totaled $60.8 million for the 2024 fiscal year, marking the highest level adjusted for inflation recorded over the past two presidential administrations, according to an analysis conducted by Open The Books. Biden employed over 500 staffers in three of the four fiscal years he has been in office, including 565 during the 2024 fiscal year, a headcount benchmark not hit since the Nixon administration in 1971.

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Unemployment Insurance Claims Continue to Rise

Unemployment Insurance Claims Office

The number of insured unemployed individuals increased by 26,000 to 1,858,000, in the week ending June 29, the highest level since November 2021.

Seasonally adjusted initial unemployment claims reached 238,000, marking an increase of 4,000 from the previous week’s revised figure of 234,000. 

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The List of Elected Democrats, Donors, and News Outlets Calling for Biden to Step Aside Grows

As of now there are five House Democrats out of 287 Democrat elected members of Congress and governors asking Biden to end his campaign. The list of Democrats and major news organizations calling for President Joe Biden to step down as the Democratic candidate in the presidential election is growing.

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Biden Admin Spent Millions in Taxpayer Dollars Moving Illegals Across America According to House Report

Illegal Immigrants

The House Judiciary Committee and the subcommittee on Immigration Integrity, Security, and Enforcement released a report Wednesday detailing the Biden administration’s spending of millions of taxpayer dollars on services that support illegal immigrants.

“[F]ar from imposing consequences on illegal aliens and removing them from the country, the Biden Administration encourages illegal aliens to arrive at the border, chauffeurs them into the interior, and then rewards them with concierge services, all on the taxpayers’ dime and at the expense of public safety,” the report stated.

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Peer-Reviewed Study Shows All Cause Death Risks Higher for Vaccinated vs. Unvaccinated

Vaccine Shot

A new peer-reviewed study concludes that all cause deaths were higher for those vaccinated with one and two doses compared to the unvaccinated.

“Subjects vaccinated with two doses lost 37 percent of life expectancy compared to the unvaccinated population,” Italian researchers found. The booster doses were determined to be ineffective.

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A Fifth Democrat Calls for Biden to End Reelection Bid After ABC Interview

Joe Biden and Angie Craig

Democratic Rep. Angie Craig of Minnesota called on Saturday for President Joe Biden to end his reelection bid, even after his interview with ABC meant to reassure voters.

Biden has faced calls to step down from the race since CNN’s debate on June 27, during which he froze and made multiple verbal gaffes, and he sat down with ABC News host George Stephanopoulos in a pre-recorded interview that aired on Friday. Craig is the fifth House Democrat to urge Biden to drop out.

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Municipalities Hiring Temps to Meet Elections Demands Raise Concerns About Security, Irregularities

Municipalities across the country trying to meet the demands of collecting and tabulating election ballots with their set workforce have resorted to hiring temporary workers, which has contributed to election irregularities and security concerns.

Such issues surfaced last month in Arizona’s Maricopa County and have been seen in other county or city governments including Detroit, Florida’s Orange County and Georgia’s Fulton County over the prior two election cycles.

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Panama Closes Three Darien Crossings on the Border with Colombia

Darien River, Panama

Panama has closed at least three of the crossing points used by migrants to cross the Darien River, which marks the border with Colombia, with a “perimeter barrier” in order to “channel” the flow of migrants and exercise greater control over this irregular route used by hundreds of people every day on their way to North America, Panamanian authorities reported on Wednesday.

Panama’s National Border Service (Senafront) said in a statement to which EFE had access that “measures were taken to control the massive irregular migration that the Panamanian State faces” in order to “channel irregular migration” to Bajo Chiquito, the first town that migrants reach after crossing the Darien jungle on foot for days.

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Economic Issues Top Voter Concerns in the Pennsylvania Swing State

Polling Station

Economic issues dominate the list of top concerns for Pennsylvania voters ahead of the Nov. 5 presidential election, a new poll finds.

A quarter of voters in the swing state ranked “inflation/cost of living” as the No. 1 issue facing Pennsylvanians in a survey released Tuesday from the Commonwealth Foundation, a conservative-libertarian think tank in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.

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Commentary: Americans Want to Know Who Is Really in Charge in the White House

Presidential Podium

In last Thursday’s presidential debate, we saw the most decisive loss ever by an incumbent American president. Biden’s performance was so abysmal that it raises serious questions about how he can continue to function as president, especially in his role as commander-in-chief.

Donald Trump dominated the debate, making important new criticisms that Biden failed to answer—especially how the surge in illegal immigration during the Biden presidency is hurting social security. Trump put Biden on the defensive, parried tough questions, and pointed out how many of Biden’s statements were incoherent.

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Commentary: An Economy That Only Works for the Rich and Powerful Is Not a Capitalist Economy

Capitalism is disappearing, but Socialism is not replacing it. What is now arising is a new kind of planned, centralised society which will be neither capitalist nor, in any accepted sense of the word, democratic.

George Orwell wrote those words nearly 80 years ago.

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Arkansas Files Lawsuit Alleging Chinese E-Commerce App Temu Is Illegally Gathering Personal Data

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin

Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin has filed a lawsuit alleging the Chinese e-commerce app Temu is “malware” that is illegally obtaining personal data from consumers.

Griffin referred to Temu as a “data theft” business in a press release put out recently.

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New York Judges Disbar Rudy Giuliani for ‘False Statements’ About Election Fraud, But Don’t Consider the Evidence

A panel of five New York appeals court judges this week unanimously disbarred former President Donald Trump’s former attorney, Rudy Giuliani, over statements he made about election illegalities in the 2020 presidential election.

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Trump Plays It Cool While Democrats, Media Turn on Biden

Presumptive GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump has remained largely silent following his June 27 debate in which President Biden gave a halting performance – instead allowing fellow Democrats and the media to criticize or raise questions about Biden’s age and mental acuity. 

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Unemployment Rate Climbs for Another Month as Job Gains Slump

Office Work

The U.S. added 206,000 nonfarm payroll jobs in June as the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.1%, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) data released Friday.

Economists anticipated that 190,000 jobs would be added in June, far fewer than the initially reported 272,000 gain seen in May, and the unemployment rate would remain steady at 4%, according to U.S. News and World Report. Strong topline job gains in recent months have led some top economic officials, like Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, to push back against claims that the economy is stalling, despite slow economic growth and high inflation.

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Bid to Boot President Faces Thin Bench of Replacements

Gavin Newsom and Kamala Harris

As Democratic heavyweights mull swapping out President Joe Biden as the 2024 Democratic nominee in the wake of a dismal debate performance that showed even the truest believers the mental state of the President, they find their efforts stunted due to one significant issue: the selection of an alternative.

Among the most likely selections are Vice President Kamala Harris and Gov. Gavin Newsom, D-Calif. While Harris’s position might seem to position her as Biden’s natural successor, Newsom has long attracted speculation about his own presidential ambitions and even debated then-Republican presidential candidate Ron DeSantis late last year.

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