Tex's Place

By Tyler Durden Authored by Tsvetana Paraskova via OilPrice.com, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump has called for opening up the UK North Sea to oil and gas and getting rid of windmills, in response to the recent announcement by Texas-based Apache that it would cease oil and gas production in the region due to the uneconomical windfall tax. “The U.K. is making a very big mistake. Open up the North Sea. Get rid of Windmills!”  President-elect Trump  posted  late on Thursday on social media platform Truth Social. Trump attached an article about Apache’s recent announcement that it would exit the UK North Sea. In November 2024, U.S. oil producer Apache said that it  plans to cease oil production  at its assets in the UK North Sea by 2030, due to the windfall tax on operators. Apache’s parent company APA Corporation said in an  SEC filing  that its assessment of the impact of the windfall tax, officially known as the Energy Profits Levy (EPL), resulted...

By Sister Toldjah On Tuesday, Chief Justice  John Roberts  issued strong condemnations in his 2024 year-end report on the federal judiciary, criticizing attacks from public officials including elected leaders that he says go too far and which sometimes involve attempts to intimidate judges/justices and/or  threaten  their lives if a verdict or ruling doesn't go someone's way. "Attempts to intimidate judges for their rulings in cases are inappropriate and should be vigorously opposed," Roberts suggested in his 15-page  report . "Public officials certainly have a right to criticize the work of the judiciary, but they should be mindful that intemperance in their statements when it comes to judges may prompt dangerous reactions by others." He went on to note that "Every Administration suffers defeats in the court system—sometimes in cases with major ramifications for executive or legislative power or other consequential topics." In recent years, ho...

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) By Lisa Mascaro, Farnoush Amiri and Kevin Freking Republican Mike Johnson won re-election to the House speakership on a first ballot Friday, pushing past GOP hard-right holdouts and buoyed with a nod of support from President-elect Donald Trump. A collection of hardline Republicans convened in the back of the House chamber during a tense roll call on the first day of the new Congress, one by one declining to vote or choosing another lawmaker. The standoff sparked fresh turmoil signaling trouble ahead under unified GOP control of Washington. In the end, however, Johnson was able to flip two remaining holdouts who switched to support him, drawing applause from Republicans. The tally was 218-215. "We don’t have time for drama.” — House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) As the most recent speaker, Johnson’s weak grip on the gavel threatens not only his own survival but President-elect Trump’s ambitious agenda of tax cuts and mass depor...

Charles III may do more damage to the British monarchy than Charles I. An assessment of his highly politicized Christmas Day speech. By GAVIN ASHENDEN In the U.K. and to some extent across the world, the Monarch’s Christmas speech is an essential part of the Christmas festivities. It used to be that the majority of the nation settled down around the TV at 3 p.m. on Christmas afternoon for a “feel-good” broadcast that had the temporary but welcome effect of making the populace feel like an extended family. But several things have changed. The old queen, who somehow glued a rapidly evolving transitional culture together, has gone and a new king has come. As the prince in waiting, Charles was famous (or infamous) for several things. A few decades ago they may have seemed innocuous, but more recently they have become charged with political implication. Charles is well known for having a passion for ecology; as one of the richest men on Earth, he has cultivated close, long-standin...

By Streiff The State Department has  informed Congress  of its intention to recreate its now-abolished Global Engagement Center as a "hub" within the agency focusing on countering foreign influence. The move rebrands the 50-plus staffers and tens of millions of dollars in funding that were assigned to the Global Engagement Center, even though its authorization to operate ceased at midnight on December 23; see  The State Department's Domestic Censorship Group Goes Out of Business at Midnight but the Danger Remains . In the congressional notification, the State Department identified the newly planned body as a “Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference Hub” that will report to the agency’s Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy. AD  “Should the authority for the GEC not be extended, the department plans to realign 51 employees and associated funding from the GEC to a proposed Counter Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (R/FIMI) H...

By Streiff Obama's dream of extending federal control over online delivery had a final stake driven through it by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday. Writing for a unanimous panel, Circuit Judge Richard Griffin, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled that the Federal Communications Commission had no legal authority to regulate internet broadband companies, "The FCC lacks the statutory authority to impose its desired net-neutrality policies through the “telecommunications service” provision of the Communications Act." Net Neutrality has always been much more about an FCC power grab as the reason for its existence, regulating the electromagnetic spectrum, became less important with the advent of internet broadband services. The FCC cloaked its search for continued relevance in the guise of protecting consumers from nefarious corporate schemes to stifle available content. The concept of net neutrality has its roots in the early days of the internet, where the etho...

By BEN BARTEE Vivek Ramaswamy — as a top-tier hedge fund investor, a bona fide member of the parasitic class of financier elites who leech off of American largesse while producing themselves nothing of value — recently recaptured my attention after his vile anti-American rant extolling the superiority of Indian culture over American culture, which is an odd thing to do for someone who could easily hit the airport and retire in his native land and live out the rest of his life in luxury with the millions of dollars, approaching a billion, in ill-gotten gains off the backs of American workers. But it seems like he’d rather stay in the United States and make more money milking the rubes he holds in contempt. For those who haven’t seen it, here’s what Ramaswamy thinks of America, and Americans, dripping with condescension and self-righteousness: A culture that celebrates the prom queen over the math olympiad champ, ...

Reviving the Constitution’s Original Meaning to Combat the Weaponization of Justice. By Paul Ingrassia The Justice Department under the next Trump administration has a duty to remove protected classes for groups that have exploited civil rights laws to garner extra privileges and rights, over and above the rights of American citizens. Of note include illegal aliens and LGBT persons. Neither of these groups should have ever enjoyed the privileges of heightened scrutiny analysis within the purview of Title VII or Civil Rights law generally. These laws were never intended for such persons, however, over years they have been misapplied and misinterpreted, resulting in very real harms to society. In fact, heightened scrutiny analysis has no basis whatsoever in the text of the Constitution itself and can be rightly deemed anathema with the letter and spirit of the Constitution, though that is a separate topic worthy of its own discussion. For decades, America’s civil rights jurisprudenc...

By Bonchie When a man seemingly committed suicide by blowing up a Cybertruck in front of a Trump Hotel on Wednesday, suspicions immediately emerged that the act was connected to a  terrorist attack that occurred in New Orleans just hours prior. The political overtones of having an Elon Musk-produced vehicle and Donald Trump-owned property involved also couldn't be ignored.  While law enforcement announced a day later that they had found no "definitive link" between the two events, that still left plenty of questions surrounding what exactly happened in Las Vegas. Did the man in the truck  really  kill himself? Why did a member of the special forces do such a bad job of creating a bomb that would cause real damage? What would make someone who seemed to have a happy family life suddenly suicidal? Was there an emotional trigger? SEE:  FBI Says No 'Link' Between Bourbon Street and Cybertruck Attackers, and They May Actually Be Right We  may...