Panic-buying and fuel-hoarding after the recent outage of the Colonial Pipeline network is the cause of the US gasoline price spike, according to the chairman of Alfa Energy John Hall.
The biggest fuel-carrying infrastructure facility on the US East Coast was targeted by a ransomware cyberattack last Friday. The attack forced the Colonial Pipeline Company, the pipeline’s operator, to halt supplies to the entire network for nearly a week. The company has since reportedly paid the $5 million ransom and is restarting operations.
The U.S. military has gone full woke, and proudly so. For years it has opposed citizen efforts to reverse affirmative action while insisting on the eat-your-vegetables slogan of “Diversity is our Greatest Strength.” West Point currently offers workshops on “White Power at West Point” and “Racist Dog Whistles at West Point” to ensure cadets fully recognize America’s foremost enemy—white racism.
The Navy SEALs, Green Berets, and Delta Force must now heed their first “chief of diversity and inclusion,” Richard Torres-Estrada. Meanwhile, Army General Mark Milley just announced that more black Air Force pilots must be recruited. While 20 percent of the military is black, blacks make up just two percent of these pilots, and are only two of 41 four-star generals. “We must get better,” Milley said. Exactly how recruiting black pilots will improve the U.S. Air Force went unmentioned, aside from the diversity dogma parroted by Pentagon spokesman John Kirby. “Diversity is a readiness issue because it allows different perspectives, additional context, different lived experiences to inform the way we make decisions, the policies that we craft, the operations that we lead,” Kirby told reporters.
Former President Donald Trump slammed the Biden administration on Friday after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s announcement concerning mask-wearing, complaining that his own administration’s names are “not even mentioned” in connection with the development and distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
“Isn’t it incredible that because of the vaccines, which I and my Administration came up with years ahead of schedule (despite the fact that everybody, including [Anthony] Fauci, said would never happen), that we no longer need masks,” Trump said in a statement. “Yet our names are not even mentioned in what everybody is calling the modern day miracle of the vaccines?”
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said that the state will not rescind a recent ban on COVID-19 “vaccine passports” despite pressure from cruise companies which are seeking an exemption from the policy.
Speaking Thursday in Ormond Beach, the Republican governor said the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) requires that 95 percent of cruise passengers and 98 percent of crew members be vaccinated, saying that cruise ships have to embark on 60 to 90 days worth of preparation.
“The problem is the CDC. The problem is not Florida,” he said, describing the CDC’s requirements as illogical. “’Oh, by the way, if you’re sunbathing you have to make sure they’re wearing a mask while they’re sunbathing.’ Are you kidding me? That is an absolute farce. So, we’re challenging the authority of the CDC to be involved to this extent.”
President Joe Biden has a short temper and sometimes unloads outbursts of profanity on his aides, the New York Times reported Friday.
The report notes Biden holds lengthy deliberation meetings and demands obsessive details from his advisors. When advisors get too technical or obscure about an issue, Biden responds with “an outburst of frustration, often laced with profanity.”
Trump aides have four options for June rallies and will choose two in coming days
It will be followed by an event on or around July 3
With multiple crises engulfing President Biden, Trump team believes time to right to return to campaigning
Events are most likely to be held at airports, repeating the outdoor rallies developed last year
Former president relocated from Mar-a-Lago, Florida, to his Bedminster golf club in New Jersey at the start of the week
Former President Trump will hold two rallies in June as he looks to capitalize on a series of crises engulfing President Joe Biden and lay down a marker for 2024, according to an adviser familiar with planning.
Those will be followed by a third event around July 3 and are expected to take the form of the airport rallies that dominated the closing months of last year’s election campaign.
His team is in the process of selecting two venues from four possibilities.
Donald Trump was in New York City at the start of the week after flying north from his winter base in Florida. He is expected to hold two rallies in June as he enters a new phase of his political life
‘The president is anxious to get back out on the trail and we are getting a lot of offers and invitations from both candidates and political causes in different areas,’ said the adviser.
Republicans joined in a letter: ‘A Call For American Renewal’
Signatures include former governors, ambassadors, and Republican Party chairmen
Demands party returns to a rational party, supports free minds, markets, people
Release comes a day after Republicans ousted Liz Cheney from leadership
They call for the nation to ‘reimagine a party dedicated to our founding ideals’
The signers attack ‘disenfranchisement of voters’ and ‘reject populism’
Former President Trump attacked them as ‘losers’ and ‘RINOs’
Comes as Cheney won’t rule out run for president to stop ‘unfit’ Trump
More than 150 Republicans have signed on to a letter calling for people to ‘reimagine a party dedicated to our founding ideals or else hasten the creation of such an alternative’ – signaling the possible formation of a third party as former President Trump cements his takeover of the GOP.
The letter, organized by former ‘Anonymous’ op-ed author Miles Taylor and former CIA officer Evan McMullin, mentions the ouster Wednesday of former GOP conference chair Rep. Liz Cheney.
It raises the possibility of a complete break with the GOP and the creation of a third party in the face of what the signers term ‘despotism.’
Priority repairs in Rio Grande Valley will begin in six weeks
The Biden administration will resume construction of southern border wall levee, Fox News confirms, as the immigration crisis continues to spiral out of control.
The United States Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) will restart construction on a 13.4 mile stretch of levee in the Rio Grande Valley. The decision reportedly follows pressure from local residents and politicians to mend the incessant crossing surge.
Priority repairs are set to begin in six weeks to prevent flooding, followed by the establishment of a concrete levee wall fit with safety barriers in six to nine months. The USACE clarified that the wall will not be expanded on and will only repair the Rio Grande flood levee for the time being.
“Wall construction remains paused to extent permitted by law. Per DHS, we’ve started critical work to repair the Rio Grande Valley’s flood levee, which was excavated to make way for border wall. This remediation work will not involve expanding border barrier,” USACE stated on Twitter.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) explained in a statement that repairs will “protect border communities from physical dangers” left in the wake of the construction. The statement claims that “large holes’ were blown into the Rio Grande Valley’s flood barrier system to make way for the wall which, as a result, requires repairing to prevent “catastrophic flooding.”
UPDATE: @FoxNews has confirmed via the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that construction on a 13.4 mile stretch of border wall levee in the Rio Grande Valley will *RESUME* after pressure from local residents & politicians. The Biden admin previously halted all construction.
Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has announced he will pardon all Floridians who have been legally charged for breaking coronavirus restrictions on mask wearing and social distancing, arguing guidelines should be advisory.
Appearing Wednesday on Fox News with Florida gym owners Mike and Jillian Carnevale, who were arrested on several occasions and threatened with months in prison for allowing people to enter their business without a face mask, DeSantis said he would overrule the “total overreach” against them.
Florida Gov. DeSantis announces pardons will be issued "for any Floridian who may have outstanding infractions for things like masks and social distancing." pic.twitter.com/uID0csQRe0
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) May 13, 2021
“This is exactly what we ordered against last summer, many months ago,” the governor declared, before announcing that “effective tomorrow morning” he would “sign a reprieve under my constitutional authority” that would “delay the case for sixty days.”
DeSantis then also revealed that in the coming weeks he would “issue pardons, not only for Mike and Jillian, but for any Floridian that may have outstanding infractions for things like masks and social distancing.”
“The fact is, it’s not even right to be wearing masks when you’re exercising,” he argued, noting that the World Health Organization “advises against it” and that coronavirus restrictions “should be advisory.”
DeSantis – a close ally to former President Donald Trump – has been a staunch opponent of authoritarian practices during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Unlike many other governors, DeSantis has called coronavirus lockdowns a “mistake,” rejected mandatory face masks, and overruled local authorities’ restrictions.
Earlier this month, DeSantis also banned all businesses and government buildings from requiring Floridians to disclose their vaccination status in order to enter – a more complete ban than other governors, who merely prohibited government buildings, but not private companies, from requiring vaccine passports.
