Is Biden Using the Russia-Ukraine War to Make a Green Economy?

Investing in solar panels and electric vehicles in America is going to defeat the Russians, according to the Department of Energy.

by Drew Allen for American Greatness

Shortly after Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, 2022—a move that Joe Biden, just weeks before, had assured us would happen —he invoked the Defense Production Act to “accelerate domestic manufacturing of clean energy.” 

One might have wondered, “What does investing in solar panels have to do with beating the Russians?” The obvious answer, of course, is nothing. 

There may very well be a number of genuine explanations—none good—for America’s heavy handed involvement in this particular foreign war; such as funding the military industrial complex, laundering money, and even instigating World War III, to name a few. 

But undoubtedly, one of the primary reasons is to justify and accelerate America’s transition away from fossil fuels to green energy—a transition which is tantamount to economic suicide.

On June 6, 2022, the Department of Energy boasted that Biden’s “DPA invocation will boost American production of the critical technologies necessary to lower energy costs, support the clean energy economy, and strengthen national security.” 

When Donald Trump left office, the national average for a gallon of regular gas was $2.39. Prices soared after Biden came in and declared his war on American energy independence. Prior to 2022, the highest average ever recorded had been $4.11 a gallon in 2008. 

By March 2022, the average price per gallon soared to a record high of $4.33. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Biden used the invasion as a convenient scapegoat on which to blame rising gas prices and to present a transition to so-called clean energy as the only solution. Biden created a crisis in order to present Americans with a superficial and premeditated solution to the crisis he caused. 

At the time the Department of Energy made the erroneous claim that Biden’s investment in clean energy was necessary to lower energy costs, the national average for a gallon of regular gas had risen to $4.85, which was $2.46 more than when Trump left office.

U.S. Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm stated, “President Biden has invoked the Defense Production Act so that the U.S. can take ownership of its clean energy independence.” Biden, of course, had intentionally sabotaged the very energy independence his predecessor had achieved. But cheap gas was always viewed by Biden as an obstacle to the green agenda.

In order to accelerate the transition away from cheap gas to expensive and rationed green energy, Biden needed gasoline to become unaffordable.

Notably, the United States imported 245 million barrels of Russian crude oil and petroleum products in 2021, under the Biden Administration. Even as Biden intentionally sabotaged U.S. oil and petroleum production, he increased American reliance on Russian oil by about 24 percent over 2020. 

It’s no surprise that the average price for a gallon of regular gas soared to record highs under the Biden Administration. His war against U.S. oil production combined with his increased importation of Russian oil in the lead up to the Russian invasion of Ukraine provided Biden the perfect disguise to lay out his “solution” to lower energy costs; costs he had intentionally inflated. 

In the summer of 2022, after Russia had invaded Ukraine, Granholm claimed that “for too long the nation’s clean energy supply chain has been over-reliant on foreign sources and adversarial nations. With the new DPA authority, DOE can help strengthen domestic solar, heat pump and grid manufacturing industries while fortifying America’s economic security and creating good-paying jobs, and lowering utility costs along the way.” All of this was done under the guise of supporting Ukraine.

In the same way that COVID was used to undermine the American economy, create chaos, and force a tyrannical economic, social, and constitutional transformation, the Russia-Ukraine conflict is being exploited to invest in the climate agenda. 

Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks even claimed that our abandonment of fossil fuels was a matter of national security. “Reducing America’s dependence on gas and oil is critical to U.S. national security,” Hicks said. “In conflict, fossil fuel supply lines are especially vulnerable.”

Our fossil fuel supply chains are only vulnerable if we rely upon foreign sources, rather than domestic, for energy consumption. Biden made us dependent upon foreign supply chains.

The Biden Administration has recently denied its involvement in blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline, which transported natural gas from Russia to Europe. “It’s a completely false story,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said. 

And yet Biden said on April 28, 2022 that “these actions prove that energy is not just a commodity that Russia sells to help meet other countries’ needs, but a weapon it will use to deploy against those who stand against their aggression.”

The same Biden Administration that openly condemned Europe’s reliance on Russian natural gas and deemed it a “weapon” now claims in defense that Russia sabotaged itself—that Russia would eliminate its own “weapon.” Give me a break.

The Biden Administration is using the Russia-Ukraine War to accelerate and fund America’s transition away from fossil fuels to unreliable green energy, which will decimate American’s economy. They’ve admitted it. 

Like COVID, this diabolical administration is using the Russia-Ukraine war to kill multiple birds with one stone, but one of those birds is undeniably the American economy and affordable energy. 

Don’t take it from me. The administration has been bragging about it. Investing in solar panels and electric vehicles in America is going to defeat the Russians, according to the Department of Energy.

X22, And we Know, and more- Feb 21

 

Nobody is gonna take my hope away of seeing Hetty come home and get her happy ending with the rest of her team, no one! No matter how long it takes for 1 reliable press site to finally announce when she'll be back. That's a promise I intend to keep.

I’ll Pass on Celebrating Diversity

posted by Derek Hunter at Townhall 

There was a time, believe it or not, when leftists said “Celebrate Diversity” and meant it; when it was largely a slogan on a bumper sticker. Now it’s an order: “CELEBRATE DIVERSITY…OR ELSE!” Sorry, I’m not interested. 

I’ve always had a natural inclination to push back against anything I was forced to do – insist I’m supposed to care about something and the odds that I won’t increase exponentially. Take, for example, US soccer. During the World Cup all the ads were about “We’re going to do this” or whatever their slogan was. The American public simply doesn’t care about soccer and the US sucks at it compared to the rest of the world, but these corporate sponsors had to do something. It made me root against them, which was easy because I knew they’d lose.

Women’s soccer is much more annoying, by the way, they’re little leftists with purity tests demanding obedience. I’m not interested in cheering for people who hate this country while demanding they be cheered. Hard pass.

When it comes to “diversity,” I have the same attitude. Skin color or who you sleep with are the least interesting parts of what anyone is or does. If that defines you it tells me you’re not bringing anything substantive to the table and I’m not interested. 

I’m tall, 6 feet 5 inches; should I demand high fives over that? No. I didn’t have anything to do with it. Hell, I smoked for a long time, so I tried to stunt it. 

Yet, we now have a political party that insists the differences be celebrated, exclusively. That people be treated differently based on their skin color. We used to have a word for that, didn’t we?

What I find even more bizarre are the leftists who buy into it and make it individual. Hearing some Democrat in a town hall or whatever talk about how they’re a “diverse individual” is incredibly odd and, honestly, stupid. But we are dealing with Democrats here…

I want nothing to do with it. Not because I care what these people do, I honestly don’t – if whatever they do is done with other adults who are willing, I couldn’t care less. The problem comes in when they seek to force their will on children.

How many graphically sexual books targeting children need to be highlighted before Democrats think, “Hmm, maybe explicit sex between adults and kids isn’t really something that will help kids learn to read or write?” How about just thinking that things Hustler would’ve edited out of their letter section might not belong in school libraries might not be a good thing?

Democrats, rather than deal with the reality they support for grooming purposes (political grooming mostly, though there is little doubt there’s a lot of the other kind too), simply ignore it when they can. Yet, they also demand the sentiments behind it be celebrated. 

What kind of creep would “celebrate” a drag queen grinding their genitals in front of little kids? Democrats. 

Celebrate diversity…except when it’s a joke you don’t like. Tiger Woods can be attacked over a tampon joke by white ladies because why not? Oddly, these people immediately reverted back to knowing what a woman is when they could take offense at something. 

Kamala Harris MUST be celebrated not only because she’s black, but because she’s also Indian (though she rarely mentions that outside of speaking to Indian or Asian women’s groups, weirdly), but Nikki Haley must be attacked for not being Indian enough because she’s a Republican (both of which were done by NBC News, by the way).

Meanwhile, Harris can tweet out, “My message to Black women and girls everywhere: Never ask for permission to lead.” Are women and girls with other skin colors supposed to wait for permission to lead? By the way, what is a woman?

Nothing that comes out of the mouths of Democrats makes any sense or is remotely intellectually honest in any way. They don’t deserve your respect, they have earned your contempt. Don’t play their game. 

I will celebrate accomplishments, that’s it, and not even all of those. I will choose which accomplishments I deem worthy of celebration and I can promise you that none of those things will have anything do with what people had nothing do with. 

Biden’s New ‘Equity’ Executive Order Is Systemic Racism In Disguise

Shawn Fleetwood reporting for The Federalist 

In a newly signed executive order designed to use federal agencies to forcibly guarantee equality of outcome instead of equality of opportunity for Americans, President Joe Biden tacitly admitted his administration is collaborating with a prominent leftist group to advance neo-Marxism throughout the U.S. government.

Signed on Thursday, the order, titled “Further Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government,” seeks to expand the administration’s so-called “equity-advancing requirements for agencies.” Equity is a term regularly employed by leftists to cover up their true goal of dismissing merit and real equality in favor of discrimination on the basis of skin color.

A prime example of “equity” in action can be seen in Virginia, where several high schools in Fairfax and Loudoun Counties admitted to withholding National Merit awards from deserving students in order to avoid hurting the feelings of those not awarded. As The Federalist reported, “Asian American students are highly represented among the recipients, and some believe withholding the awards to be an act of racially motivated biases against Asian students.”

Under Biden’s new executive order, federal departments are instructed to embrace such ideology to construct a so-called “fair” and “inclusive” economy, which would include investing in areas where the administration claims federal policies have “historically impeded equal opportunity … in ways that mitigate economic displacement.”

Buried within the order, however, is a directive for federal agencies to implement what’s called the “Justice40 Initiative.” While the document doesn’t specify what the mission of Justice40 is, a quick trip to the group’s website reveals it to be nothing more than an effort by left-wing activists to advance neo-Marxist policies under the guise of “environmental justice.”

“The Justice40 promise seeks to create an equitable recovery for Americans facing challenges created by aging infrastructure, a frayed social safety net, natural disasters, and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” the organization’s website reads. “Justice40 must address inequities that hinder a sustainable, just society, and that disproportionately harm low-income and communities of color across America.”

Back in July 2021, Biden officially adopted Justice40’s stated goal of providing at least 40 percent of federal investments “in climate and clean energy” to these so-called “disadvantaged communities.” In other words, the administration is distributing taxpayer money to certain jurisdictions based on racial demographics.

The policy is eerily similar to Covid-related guidance the administration released in December 2021, in which health-care providers were advised to prioritize racial and ethnic minorities in the dissemination of Covid treatments such as monoclonal antibodies.

But it’s not just Justice40’s mission that’s tied to neo-Marixst ideology. Several of the group’s listed “movement leaders” have pushed policies and ideas embraced by radical leftist organizations such as Black Lives Matter. On her Twitter profile, Justice40 leader Cassia Herron proclaims she is a “lover” of “revolutions,” and has several posts calling to defund the police.

“We want to defund the police and distribution of wealth,” a July 7, 2020 tweet reads.

Also listed as a Justice40 “movement leader” is Jacqueline Patterson, who during Trump’s presidency in December 2020 seemingly compared the Covid jab rollout to the Tuskegee Syphilis Study, in which the U.S. government secretly conducted experiments on black American men for decades without informing them of viable treatment options. Over a year later, when Biden was in office, Patterson tweeted she was fully vaccinated “from the black batch” and boosted, adding that the risk of Covid “seemed worse with not getting vaccinated.”

The collaboration between the administration and Justice40 represents the latest nail in the coffin of legacy media’s narrative that Biden is some sort of unifying moderate who advances centrist policies. Shortly after his inauguration, for instance, Biden signed an executive order reversing the “Mexico City Policy,” which prevented nongovernmental entities receiving U.S. taxpayer money from using such funds to promote or perform abortions.

Moreover, America’s commander-in-chief has consistently issued racially divisive statements, such as comparing Republicans opposed to his party’s proposed takeover of U.S. elections to segregationists.

“So I ask every elected official in America, how do you want to be remembered? Do you want to be on the side of Dr. King or George Wallace?” Biden asked during a January 2022 speech. “Do you want to be on the side of John Lewis or Bull Connor? Do you want to be on the side of Abraham Lincoln or Jefferson Davis?”

UK Counter-Terrorism Program Flags Shakespeare and ‘1984’ for ‘Encouraging Far-Right Sympathies’

 Very likely coming to a US intelligence agency soon!

UK Counter-Terrorism Program Flags Shakespeare and ‘1984’ for ‘Encouraging Far-Right Sympathies’

Robert Spencer for PJ Media

LEFTERIS PITARAKIS

The UK’s Prevent program, which is supposed to be protecting the Sceptered Isle from terrorism, recently came under fire for treating actual Islamic terrorism as if it were a mental illness. But that doesn’t mean that Prevent has been wanting for terrorists: like its counterparts in the FBI, it has kept busy looking for “far-right extremists” and has now published a helpful guide to spotting those dangerous right-wingers. It turns out that they’re people who read Beowulf, Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, 1984, and other great works of English literature.

Gee, you’d almost get the idea that the Leftist culture warriors who control Prevent, Britain as a whole, and the U.S. as well, want to destroy the civilization of which those works and writers are a hallmark. And you’d be right.

Prevent casts a wide net. The UK’s Daily Mail reported Friday that among the “potential signs of far-Right extremism” and “key texts” for “white nationalists/supremacists” that Prevent flagged were the “comedies Yes Minister and The Thick Of It, the 1955 epic war film The Dam Busters, and even The Complete Works Of William Shakespeare.”

And much more: “A report by Prevent’s Research Information and Communications Unit (RICU) described how far-Right extremists promoted ‘reading lists’ on online bulletin boards.” These include “The Lord Of The Rings by JRR Tolkien, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent, 1984 by George Orwell and the poems of GK Chesterton. It also referenced films including The Bridge On The River Kwai, The Great Escape and Zulu.”

Other books, shows and films on Prevent’s list included that bane of freshmen literature majors everywhere, Beowulf, and other monumental works including Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales and John Milton’s Paradise Lost. Historian and broadcaster Andrew Roberts marveled: “This is truly extraordinary. This is the reading list of anyone who wants a civilised, liberal, cultured education.”

Yeah. It almost seems as if the Prevent top dogs don’t want people to get a civilized, liberal, cultured education. After all, when you want people to believe that — to note some stateside examples — Rachel Levine is a woman, Karine Jean-Pierre is a competent government official, drag queens are suitable entertainment for primary schoolers, and Joe Biden is a formidable candidate for 2024, you don’t exactly want to encourage critical thinking.

Roberts went on to note that the Prevent list “includes some of the greatest works in the Western canon and in some cases — such as Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent — powerful critiques of terrorism. Burke, Huxley, Orwell, and Tolkien were all anti-totalitarian writers.” Now, why might a Leftist government consider reading “anti-totalitarian writers” to be a sign of “far-Right extremism”? The answer is as obvious as it is chilling: those who imbibe the thoughts of “anti-totalitarian writers” might find themselves becoming disposed to resisting the imposition of totalitarianism.

Prevent, which the British government funds to the tune of 49 million pounds ($59 million) a year, “had prioritised countering far-Right activity above tackling the prime Islamist threat.” Christopher Wray and Merrick Garland must have been taking notes. But now that the truth about Prevent’s deliberately wrong focus and attempt to demonize those who value Britain’s culture and heritage has come out, the British government is backtracking.

Home Secretary Suella Braverman admitted that Prevent had “defined the extreme Right-wing too broadly, encompassing the respectable Right and the centre-Right.” A Home Office spokesman added: “The Home Secretary made clear that Prevent will now ensure it focuses on the key threat of Islamist terrorism, as well as remaining vigilant on emerging threats.”

Well, that remains to be seen. As the recent Leftist bowdlerization of the works of children’s book author Roald Dahl demonstrates, the Left’s efforts to destroy English literature and prevent it from being able to inspire readers to deviate from the Leftist line is far larger than just the Prevent program alone. Those who have been running Prevent are embarrassed now, but there is no indication that they’ve been convinced that they were wrong, and once the media and government heat is off, they’re likely to follow the Leftist pattern of going back to what they were doing before.

The war against Western culture and civilization is being fought on all manner of fronts, and only a few who value that culture and civilization are even aware of how comprehensively it is being challenged and undermined. Prevent is ridiculous; the next assault on Western civilization from those who are supposed to be guarding it will likely be less so.

Here’s What Trump Needs to Do if He Wants to Beat DeSantis in 2024

posted by Jeff Charles at RedStateVIP 

Former President Donald Trump is intent on occupying the Oval Office once again after 2024. In fact, he is already ramping up his campaign after having become the first Republican to announce his presidency right after the 2022 midterm elections.

While others are expected to make a run for the White House in the next election, none are seen as serious contenders to challenge the former president except Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has become a darling on the right. Earlier, I wrote about what DeSantis would need to do to defeat Trump and secure the GOP nomination. Now, I will explain how Trump would need to handle his campaign to ensure that DeSantis is forced to wait until 2028 to seek the White House.

For starters, it is worth noting that what worked for Trump in 2016 against the likes of Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, and others will probably not be effective against DeSantis in 2024. The former president has already started launching rhetorical attacks against the governor and has even been trying out various nicknames with which to label his opponent.

But incessantly harping on about “Ron DeSanctimonious,” “Shutdown Ron,” and his latest, “Meatball Ron” isn’t going to cut it. It was a brilliant strategy against people who are already reviled by the base. However, no matter how much Trump’s supporters want to paint DeSantis as an establishment hack, it won’t work against him because he has already proven he is more in line with America First than the Paul Ryans of the world.

If Trump wants to show the base that he still has what it takes to pursue an America First agenda in the White House, he has to focus on his achievements and downplay his greatest weakness: His handling of the COVID-19 pandemic. Currently, he is trying to portray DeSantis as someone who favored onerous lockdown orders. But the success of this tactic relies on the conservative voting base somehow forgetting that Trump championed shutdowns, even going so far as to criticize Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp for opening his state too early.

Trump has to highlight his economic achievements and foreign policy accomplishments. He started no new wars while in office and was working to bring the troops back home. Moreover, before the pandemic hit, Americans were doing quite well economically. Even further, the former president exposed the establishment GOP for what it was: An elitist good ol’ boys club full of feckless opportunists. It will not be easy for DeSantis to counter, which leads to the next point.

DeSantis’ biggest flaw is that he is untested on the national stage. While he has done a decent job governing the Sunshine State, he is an unknown quantity when it comes to foreign policy, trade, and other important matters. Since he has not yet given his stance on these issues, it provides Trump with an opportunity to brand the governor, fairly or unfairly, in any way he wishes. Has DeSantis indicated in the past that he would support foreign military entanglements or trade policy that contradicts what the base wants? Trump better seize on any kernel of evidence to this effect to cast doubt on his America First bonafides.

Next, it is worth mentioning that Trump has a score to settle with the Deep State and those in the GOP who dogged him throughout his presidency. DeSantis has shown he knows how to take the fight to the left – especially when it comes to the activist media. But it does not seem likely that, if elected, he would do much to combat the overt and covert forces seeking to advance a progressive agenda even with a Republican president in charge.

This is not to say he would take no action against these forces, but let’s face it: Trump wants revenge and will likely do anything to get it. The former president smells blood and would relish the opportunity to fight these people on the national stage now that he knows what he is dealing with. This would probably not be one of DeSantis’ priorities and he might not be as keen on draining the swamp.

Of course, this means Trump will have to explain why he failed to drain the swamp while he was in office. It will also mean that he will have to sell his base on his plan for addressing issues pertaining to the Deep State and how he will reverse the disastrous course President Joe Biden has set this country on. He will also have to persuade voters that he is the best bet they have for ensuring Democrats no longer control the Executive Branch.

Last, but not least, Trump must get out of his own way. Even those who love Trump understand that he is his own worst enemy. Sometimes makes statements that are highly effective. Other times, he pulls out his revolver, aims it squarely at his foot, then pulls the trigger three times. He has to restrain himself from becoming enmeshed in silly and irrelevant feuds on social media. Now that he is allowed back on Twitter, this could become an issue. Unfortunately for him, Trump just can’t help himself, so this is not likely to happen. But it was still worth mentioning.

All in all, Trump has a favorable chance of picking up the GOP nomination again even though DeSantis would present a formidable opponent. The former president has history on his side and a die-hard conservative base that would love to give him another chance at the presidency. The question is: Can Trump and his team be disciplined enough to craft and employ a winning message?

‘Not Acceptable’: DeSantis Slams Biden For Handing Ukraine A ‘Blank Check’

Evita Duffy-Alfonso reporting for The Federalist

In an interview on Fox and Friends Monday, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis blasted President Joe Biden for handing Ukraine a “blank check,” gallivanting around Ukraine while the U.S. border is in shambles and involving the United States in an alarming proxy war with China.  

On Monday, President Biden announced the U.S. would be providing half a billion dollars in military aid to Ukraine (that’s in addition to the $113 billion we’ve already given). According to DeSantis, Biden’s “blank check” policy with Ukraine is not only irresponsible but dangerous. “They have effectively a blank check policy with no clear, strategic objective identified, and these things can escalate, and I don’t think it’s in our interests to be getting into a proxy war with China, getting involved over things like the borderlands or over Crimea,” DeSantis said. 

“So I think it would behoove them to identify what is the strategic objective that they’re trying to achieve,” he continued, “but just saying it’s an open-ended blank check, that is not acceptable.” 

DeSantis also heavily criticized Biden’s “surprise visit” to Ukraine — a trip that’s awarded the president melodramatic praise from the corporate press, Even though it is pretty transparently a publicity stunt to cover for the president’s disastrous handling of the Chinese spy balloon and the East Palestine chemical leak.

“He’s very concerned about those borders halfway around the world. He’s not done anything to secure our own border here at home,” said DeSantis. “We’ve had millions and millions of people pour in, tens of thousands of Americans dead because of fentanyl, and then, of course, we just suffered a national humiliation of having China fly a spy balloon clear across the continental United States.”

Indeed, upon taking office, Biden dismantled former President Donald Trump’s border security provisions and reinstated the Obama-era catch-and-release system, causing a massive spike in illegal immigration and, consequently, human and drug trafficking. 

DeSantis also noted that the war in Ukraine may never have started had Biden not shown so much weakness in office, particularly in his embarrassing and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan. “I don’t think any of this would have happened but for the weakness that the president showed during his first year in office, culminating, of course, in the disastrous withdrawal in Afghanistan,” DeSantis said.

According to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, there are growing concerns that China is sending aid to Russia via a form of “lethal assistance,” and it could further impact the United States’ increasingly antagonistic relationship with China. 

DeSantis notes that Russia has proven it is not a serious threat to America. The real threat is China, and putting America in a proxy war with China is a dangerous game to play. “The fear of Russia going into NATO countries and all of that and steamrolling … that is not even come close to happening,” DeSantis said. “I think they’ve shown themselves to be a third-rate military power. I think they’ve suffered tremendous, tremendous losses.”

“I got to think that the people in Russia are probably disapproving of what’s going on,” DeSantis continued. “I don’t think they can speak up about it for obvious reasons, so I think Russia has been really, really wounded here. And I don’t think that they are the same threat to our country, even though they’re hostile. I don’t think they’re on the same level as China.”

Norfolk Southern CEO Promises East Palestine Will Be 'Made Whole' After Derailment

Norfolk Southern CEO Promises East Palestine Will Be 'Made Whole' After Derailment

Rick Moran for PJ Media

AP Photo/Gene J. Puskar

Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw would not win any popularity contests in East Palestine, Ohio. One of his trains derailed there and spilled some of the most toxic chemicals known to science — several of which he didn’t bother telling anyone the train was carrying.

So when representatives of Norfolk Southern showed up at a town hall meeting on Wednesday, they were forced to beat a hasty retreat after they received several threats. The people were scared. They wanted answers. And Norfolk Southern wasn’t giving any.

So Shaw tried again Saturday. He wasn’t able to satisfy anyone’s concerns. But his presence reassured East Palestine that the company was “going to do the right thing for their community,” and Shaw was “determined to earn their trust,” he added.

That’s a tall order. And many people aren’t buying that it’s safe.

CNN:

A local evacuation order went into effect and was lifted five days after the derailment, after officials deemed the air and water safe for people to return. But many residents are not convinced: some have complained of a lingering chemical stench and adverse reactions like headaches and pains. 

“Why are people getting sick if there’s nothing in the air or in the water,” one resident yelled out during Wednesday night’s town hall.

“I have concerns with dead fish, the smell of the water,” another said. Thousands of fish were killed by the contamination washing down steams and rivers after the wreck, but state officials say the contaminants have since been contained. 

The Ohio EPA is recommending that residents using private wells get the water tested. But those drawing water on the municipal system appear to be in the clear because that water pulled from five deep wells covered by solid steel casing.

The White House press secretary is concentrating on punishing Norfolk Southern. Otherwise, the White House can’t do much.

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre suggested on Thursday that the needs in East Palestine are “much more expansive” than the aid already being provided by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

“We understand the residents are concerned, as they should be, and they have questions – that’s all understandable. And you know, we’re going to get to the bottom of this. We’re going to try and figure out an answer to what occurred,” she said. “So we’re going to get through this together. We’re going to hold Norfolk Southern accountable.”

The National Transportation Safety Board is also looking into the accident and may have found a cause, although, at this early stage, it’s impossible to tell.

“Investigators are reviewing multiple videos of the train prior to its derailment, including one that shows ‘what appears to be a wheel bearing in the final stage of overheat failure moments before the derailment,’ the agency has said,” according to CNN.

Let's Say Marjorie Taylor Greene Got Her Wish On a 'National Divorce'

posted by Brandon Morse at RedStateVIP 

It was a pretty shocking moment when on Monday, Georgia Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene tweeted out her desire to see a “national divorce” take place. While it’s often a fantasy voiced by both sides of the aisle, seeing it said by a sitting lawmaker is not something you would expect.

As my colleague, Bonchie covered earlier today, the tweet from MTG was met with either enthusiastic agreement or vitriolic resistance with accusations of treason attached.

I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about whether or not what she said was good or bad, or whether you agree or disagree. My purpose in addressing it is simple; even if what she wants to happen did happen, it wouldn’t matter.

As convenient as it would be to have our country split into definable ideological lines where it was never a question as to where a politician or voter stood on an idea, it wouldn’t last long. To understand why, you have to understand the people who want to split off to form Democrat — or more accurately, radical leftist — states.

Let’s say MTG gets her wish and the country miraculously rearranges itself into red and blue territories. Governments were established that, like North and South Korea, are diametrically opposed to one another in government systems, values, and more. On the red side, Judeo-Christian values reign supreme and capitalism is the unquestioned economic method of the realm. Communism and CRT are wholly ousted and made illegal in schools and government alike. Free speech is as common as gun ownership.

On the other side is blue America. It no longer has to fight to become the communist state that it’s trying to make America into currently. Communism reigns supreme, and Christianity is ousted from every aspect of life. Speech is regulated and guns are illegal. There is no male or female as gender is considered fluid by common law. Identity determines your standing in society so everyone has some sort of bizarre, made-up nonsense that makes them “special” or, more often than not, they will claim to have some sort of disability in order to stay off the bottom rung.

Red America would largely be happy with its situation. It would be unfettered by self-serving leftists keeping the country in a state of arrested development and it would proudly march forward technologically. While it wouldn’t be a paradise of unflinching patriotism and real progress — you can’t get a room of individualists to agree on something much less a nation — the one thing it wouldn’t struggle with is socialism and regressive ideals…yet.

Blue America wouldn’t be satisfied with its current status. It would be a nation of squalor and sub-par living conditions. Death, disease, and crime would be rampant within its borders as it is in deep-blue cities today. However, it wouldn’t look at itself and see that it’s been wrong all along. It wouldn’t adjust its laws and values in order to make the lives of its citizens better.

Instead, it would do what all nations like it do, it would blame Red America for its ills. It would somehow reason that the success of Red America comes at the expense of Blue America. The die-hard ideologues of Blue America would point at the shining capitalist cities with their abundance of food, power, and resources, and declare that all of it comes at the abuse of everyone else.

This would naturally lead them to the conclusion that Red America has to be toppled. Thing is, it would be pretty clear that in a straight-up fight, Red America would wipe the floor with Blue America. Blue America would be out-manned, out-gunned, out-missiled, out warshipped, and pretty much out-everythinged. An all-out war would be a horrifying moment that few in Blue America would forget for the rest of their lives. For Red America, it would be Tuesday.

Instead, Blue America would do what it does best; it would begin a slow and methodical transformation of Red America’s culture. It would infiltrate at the bottom and slowly, over the course of decades, rot America’s values and patriotism away through its influence on the youth and the ignorant. It would turn Red America’s values against itself through Alinskyite tactics and radicalize the gullible. It would become a dynamic counter-culture within Red America that would utilize the free speech it doesn’t allow its own citizens to spread the dark gospel among its enemies, masked as morality and bravery.

It would take a while to transform Red America into the America you see today, but not as long as you think. We would eventually return to where we are now, only with a smaller territory.

You may say that Red America would be better prepared against the machinations of Blue America, and that there would be a much better education system in place to educate people on the lies of the communists. Thing is, as much as we don’t want to admit it, communists are a lot more clever than we give them credit for. While most of their foot soldiers are pink-haired idiots who don’t even know what a woman is, there are far smarter, more intelligent people pulling the strings. These people aren’t alone. They’re well-funded from the outside and are absolutely obsessed with the fall of the American experiment.

So splitting America isn’t the answer. We have to defeat social justice and communism by becoming just as adept at fighting them ideologically. We have to retake territory on the main stages of our society. We have to dominate the school systems and airwaves. We have to drag ideologues into the light and challenge them where people can see it.

It’s a long, slow, arduous process, but if they can do it so can we.