The US President, whoever that is, is conducting a drilling lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). It’s the bare minimum sale the law requires. It closes off 3/4 of ANWR. They are holding the sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s 1002 Area. It is an area set aside in law for […] The post Biden’s “Charade” Shuts Off Lease Sales in ANWR appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

This is truly pathetic. Caitlin Clark went into a white privilege spiel and probably won no one over with her apology for allegedly having it. I won’t be watching the WNBA anymore. I only watched it for her. She caved to the leftist mob. Maybe she didn’t cave and just believes this nonsense, but half the […] The post Pathetic: Caitlin Clark Bends the Knee appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Singer Elton John recently said legalizing marijuana in parts of the United States was misguided because it leads to the use of harder drugs. The 77-year-old EGOT (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, and Tony) award winner expressed his thoughts during an interview with TIME magazine after being named the “2024 Icon of the Year.” John said he didn’t think cannabis should be legalized. “I maintain that it’s addictive. It leads to other drugs,” John told the outlet. “And when you’re stoned — and I’ve been stoned — you don’t think normally. Legalizing marijuana in America and Canada is one of the greatest mistakes of all time.” The outlet noted that John, who practices a sober lifestyle, has helped other famous artists who were experiencing addiction. He was rapper Eminem’s sponsor and helped pop star Robbie Williams get to his first rehab stint. The “Rocket Man” singer tried to help out singer George Michael with his addiction battle but was ultimately unsuccessful.  “It’s tough to tell someone that they’re being an a**hole, and it’s tough to hear,” John said. “Eventually I made the choice to admit that I’m being an a**hole.” The singer went on to discuss how he holds these views on marijuana because of his cocaine addiction, which began in the 1970s.  “You make terrible decisions on drugs,” John continued. “I wanted love so badly, I’d just take hostages. I’d see someone I liked and spend three or four months together, and then they would resent me because they had nothing in their life apart from me. It really upsets me, thinking back on how many people I probably hurt.” CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE John discussed the specifics of his addiction, including abusing alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine, during an interview with Piers Morgan in 2010. “This is how bleak it was: I’d stay up, I’d smoke joints, I’d drink a bottle of Johnnie Walker and then I’d stay up for three days and then I’d go to sleep for a day and half, get up, and because I was so hungry, because I hadn’t eaten anything, I’d binge and have like three bacon sandwiches, a pot of ice cream and then I’d throw it up, because I became bulimic and then go and do the whole thing all over again,” the recording artist said. “And I’m not being flippant when I say that, when I look back I shudder at the behavior and what I was doing to myself.” John added that he would be “very close” to death during the height of his drug use. “I mean, I would have an epileptic seizure and turn blue, and people would find me on the floor and put me to bed, and then 40 minutes later I’d be snorting another line.”

The Biden administration is using its final weeks to haul a massive amount of border wall materials away from the southern border to be sold off in a government auction, an apparent effort to hinder President-elect Donald Trump’s effort to secure the border, The Daily Wire has learned. Videos obtained exclusively by The Daily Wire from a U.S. Customs and Border Patrol agent show unused sections of the wall being hauled away on the back of flatbed trucks from a section of the border just south of Tucson, a hotspot for illegal crossings during the Biden administration. The agent estimates that up to half a mile per day of unused border wall is being moved. “They are taking it from three stations: Nogales, Tucson, and Three Points,” the border patrol agent, who was granted anonymity to speak freely, told The Daily Wire. “The goal is to move all of it off the border before Christmas.” Trump made clear during his campaign that he intends to finish construction of the border wall, making use of the materials that have remained untouched at the border since President Joe Biden took office in 2021. If the material brought to the border during his first term is sold off, it will significantly delay any progress on one of Trump’s flagship campaign promises at the border. WATCH: Trucks Take Massive Amount Of Unused Border Wall Off The Border To Sit In Government Auction Site EXCLUSIVE: Weeks before Trump takes office, Biden is racing to auction off unused border wall materials. Video shows trucks hauling wall materials off the border to a government auction site, where a massive amount of wall is waiting to be sold. pic.twitter.com/ogaQMBHw7R — Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) December 12, 2024 The government contractor, DP Trucking LLC, is transporting the pieces of the wall north on Interstate 19 to Pinal Airpark in Marana, Arizona, where it is being auctioned through GovPlanet, a surplus government equipment auction marketplace. “They just started taking all the wall that was not used, which is still totally good and usable, and they started taking it northbound,” the agent said. “They’re pulling it all off the border.” Harold Lambeth, the owner of the trucking company, confirmed to The Daily Wire in a phone call that his company is transporting the unused border wall sections north away from the construction sites. He said he is unable to disclose further information about the work. Video of the GovPlanet auction site where the material is being taken shows seemingly endless piles of unused border wall material. Another video, taken from one of the construction sites on the border, shows DP Trucking LLC trucks passing through with the same style of unused border wall stacked up the back of their flatbeds. The auction website shows that sales occurred as recently as December 4 for precisely the types of materials being pulled off the border. GovPlanet has online auctions set for Dec. 11 and Dec. 18 for more of the border wall material, which is listed on the company’s website as “32.91’ X 7.91’ Steel Bollard Wall Sections w/Grout.” The bidding for each section of wall panels is set to begin at only $5.00, according to the website. Screenshot of GovPlanet.com, a government surplus auction site Rep. Eli Crane (R-AZ), whose congressional district borders the Pinal Airpark where the material is being sold, said the Biden administration is “purposefully hamstringing” Trump before he takes office. “The Biden Administration is well aware they shouldn’t have reversed the construction of the border wall. If it’s true, they’re purposefully hamstringing an incoming president, it wouldn’t be shocking,” Crane told The Daily Wire. “Why would they want to see President Trump succeed with policies they aggressively sabotaged?” The long-time border patrol agent has seen political fights play out over the border before, and believes that the Biden administration is trying to stymie Trump’s ability to quickly secure the border as soon as he returns to office. “When Trump comes back, and he wants to start the border wall all over again, the whole entire funding fight is gonna happen again,” the agent said. “That’s their play. He’s gonna have to fight for this — again.” Segment of border wall up for sale in Arizona by GovPlanet The Customs and Border Protection Agency referred The Daily Wire to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, saying the latter had jurisdiction over the materials until they are erected. From there, The Daily Wire was referred to the Defense Logistics Agency, where an official said the standing policy is to refer all media requests on this to the public affairs team at the Office of the Secretary of Defense. A member of the public affairs team declined to respond to inquiries. Trump is expected to use an executive order to unlock funds to restart construction of the border wall that was halted under Biden, with anticipation that it could be one of his day-one actions. Crane, the Arizona congressman, says the last-minute fire sale by the Biden administration is “a direct affront to the will of the people.” “The American people gave President Trump a mandate in November, which included the fulfillment of his plans to secure the border,” Crane said. “Any last-ditch attempt to obstruct this mandate by the Biden Administration would be a direct affront to the will of the people.” James Lalino is a freelance writer, investigative journalist, and television news producer based in Washington, D.C.

The Pentagon‘s dismissal of the claim that mystery drones flying over New Jersey are linked to Iran was “amateur hour,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew (R-NJ) said on Thursday. Van Drew caused a stir on Wednesday when he revealed that “qualified sources” told him the drones are coming from an Iranian “mothership” off the East Coast of the U.S., but Pentagon spokeswoman Sabrina Singh told reporters at a news conference there was “no truth” to the assertion. “They’ve been incredibly stupid and incredibly weak with this,” Van Drew told Fox News on Thursday, adding that he thought the Pentagon’s Wednesday press conference “was amateur hour … No answers, no focus, no ideas.” There have been reports of “car-sized” drone sightings in New Jersey and elsewhere over the past couple of weeks. Some drones have been spotted near military sites and President-elect Donald Trump’s golf club in Bedminster. The FBI is investigating, but so far has no answers. CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE Van Drew said “of course” people are concerned and stressed that what he did was pass forward information from sources who possess a “high-security clearance.” New Jersey Republican Assemblywoman Dawn Fantasia shared to X on Wednesday details from a briefing in which the drones were described as being up to 6 feet in diameter, operated in a coordinated manner, and appeared to avoid detection by helicopters and radio frequencies. “We know nothing. PERIOD,” Fantasia emphasized. “To state that there is no known or credible threat is incredibly misleading, and I informed all officials of that sentiment.” Singh said during her press briefing that the Pentagon had “no evidence” that the reported drone activity came from a foreign entity or adversary and insisted that no military installation had been threatened. She also denied that people were seeing U.S. military drones. Van Drew argued the drone reports indicate they are too “sophisticated” to be flown by hobbyists or come from a U.S. company. He also contended the drones could be launched from a ship hundreds of miles out at sea, perhaps from China or another country, if not Iran. “Why don’t they take one of them down, analyze it, and let us know what’s really happening,” he said. “I hope they know more than they’re telling us … It’s about time they leveled with the truth.”

Multiple FEMA officials attended a ritzy climate conference in the Middle East last month, where they pushed climate activism and complained about white women in leadership, as the agency faced criticism over its response to devastating hurricanes and skipping over of homes with Trump flags in Florida.  From around November 14 to November 20, FEMA’s Victoria Salinas and Samantha Medlock attended the United Nations Climate Change Conference, known as COP29, in Baku, Azerbaijan. The pair pushed climate activism at the conference and said there were too many white women in relief work. During the conference, participants proposed a tax on meat, and approved a deal that would make countries like the United States pay developing countries $300 billion per year.  Salinas is a Biden-Harris appointee serving as the senior official performing the duties of deputy administrator for FEMA, while Medlock serves as Assistant Administrator for Resilience Strategy. It is unclear how much it cost taxpayers to send the two FEMA employees over 6,000 miles across the globe to attend a climate conference. The trip came a month after Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas said that FEMA may run out of emergency funds amid its ongoing response to the devastation of Hurricane Helene. To date, nearly 5,000 people in Western North Carolina are without homes and forced to stay in hotels due to the torrential flooding that destroyed homes and killed over 200 people across the southeast.  Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) told The Daily Wire that FEMA should not be diverting resources away from disaster relief. “FEMA sent its employees to Azerbaijan for the United Nations’ climate change conference — during the height of the Hurricane Helene response,” Rep. Scott Perry (R-PA) told The Daily Wire. “Diverting attention and resources from the needs of the American People — during a crisis, no less — to focus on the globalists’ climate change agenda is the perfect depiction of our government under the Biden Administration for the last four years.” Perry, the chair of the House Subcommittee on Economic Development, Public Buildings, and Emergency Management, asked FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell about the cost of the trip as she was grilled on November 19 over guidance from a FEMA employee in Lake Placid, Florida, for relief workers to “avoid homes advertising Trump.” Criswell maintained during her testimony that the guidance was an isolated incident, and punted many of the questions from Republican lawmakers to the status of an ongoing investigation. Since her testimony, whistleblowers in Georgia and North Carolina have alleged that FEMA employees discriminated against Trump supporters. The embattled director’s testimony took place as Medlock and Salinas pushed Biden administration policies in Baku. After being given an extended deadline, FEMA asked whether they could wait to comment until after publication. A schedule posted by the State Department indicates that FEMA hosted several panels at the conference. Both Salinas and Medlock were interviewed by the State Department’s Secretary’s Office of Global Women’s Issues during their time at the conference.  On November 14, Medlock was on a panel called “Resilience at Scale: A New Paradigm for U.S. Government Infrastructure Investments.” According to the State Department, this panel was meant to show how the United States was a “leader in building a more climate resilient and sustainable world.”  During that panel, Medlock talked about how FEMA was focused on helping local leaders “prepare for the impacts of the climate crisis that we know can no longer be avoided.” She also discussed how the agency had pushed “low carbon materials and net zero policy.” The next day, Salinas spoke on a panel called “With Equality and Resilience for All: Women Influencing Climate Action,” according to a recording of the event posted by the State Department. The point of this session was to teach participants to “discover how gender-responsive climate action creates more resilient communities for all.”  “Not all impacts of the climate crisis are felt equally,” the State Department wrote. “Women and girls, in all their diversity, experience unique livelihood, education, health, and safety challenges associated with natural disasters and resource scarcity.”  CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE During the event, “Love is Blind” television personality Taylor Krause talked virtually about“female political leaders being especially effective in effectuating climate policy” and how “family planning and reproductive rights have a dramatic impact.”  On the panel, Salinas talked about how the number of women in FEMA had “grown by the thousands” and said that it was great that it was now “led by a woman.” Salinas pointed to herself as a woman in charge of 2,000 employees as a sign of progress and said that it was necessary to “get more women into decision-making roles.” Salinas speaks during a panel at COP29. She also complained about the number of white women in leadership at FEMA, referring to that as a “new challenge.”  “So at FEMA, our leadership team may be 50% women, but it’s predominantly white women. And that’s OK, but it’s not good enough. Right? Because the people we serve in the United States, the intersection of identities … We know that to be a woman, but to be a woman of color, to be a woman of color with a disability, it goes on and on, leads to so many different experiences and different challenges.”  That same day Salinas appeared on a panel hosted by the America Is All In coalition alongside leftist Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller. America Is All In is a group that partners with groups like Bloomberg Philanthropies and the United States Climate Alliance to work “alongside the federal government to develop a national climate strategy that meets the urgency of the climate crisis” and scale “climate action around the country.”  CHECK OUT THE DAILY WIRE HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE During the panel discussion, Salinas praised President Joe Biden’s “Inflation Reduction Act” and infrastructure bill, both of which dumped tens of billions of dollars into green energy companies and projects. Salinas also appeared to criticize local leaders who made requests for FEMA projects without considering climate-friendly materials.  ”We fund what is demanded,” she said. “People oftentimes may not know that they should be envisioning the project with low embodied carbon materials and that the government would fund it.”  Salinas also praised the Biden administration’s Justice40 initiative, which stipulates that at least 40% of certain federal benefits go to “disadvantaged communities that are marginalized by underinvestment and overburdened by pollution.” On November 19, FEMA helped organize a panel to “showcase” how the federal government had addressed “climate change” and “inequity.” Medlock participated in another panel on “climate resilience” on November 20, according to the State Department schedule.  Other things pushed at the conference include a push from the True Animal Protein Price Coalition for COP29 attendees to issue a statement encouraging the transition “away from animal protein overconsumption according to national or global dietary guidelines by implementing greenhouse gas emission pricing mechanisms in agri-food systems.” COP29 also featured a lecture from Al Gore saying that he presses his “own buttons these days.”

Al Roker is a family man through and through. He and his wife, Deborah Roberts, married in 1995 and share a daughter, Leila, and a son, Nicholas. Al is also the father to daughter Courtney Roker. This Christmas is particularly fun for Al Roker now that he has a granddaughter, Sky Laga. The little girl is gearing up for Christmas, and Al is eating up all of the holiday magic. He shared a sweet pic of Sky’s first visit with Santa Claus, which fans loved.  View this post on Instagram A post shared by Al Roker (@alroker) Al Roker’s Granddaughter Did Cry When She Met Santa But it sounds like Courtney sure did when she was a little girl. Al posted a picture of Sky and Leila on Instagram, looking as a picture. He wrote, “My little girl’s first visit with Santa. She did much better than her Mom’s first time with the jolly old elf!” A fan wrote, “What wonderful pictures! What a beautiful family and nice Santa was around! Hope he’s good to you and your whole family.” This person hoped for an old pic of Courtney, “Such great pictures! I definitely thought the second one was going to be a throwback to your daughter’s first time with Santa.” Fans shared lots of compliments. “Courtney is a smart Mommie! Sitting with Skye & Santa made it less scary for her. Such a beautiful child! View this post on Instagram A post shared by Al Roker (@alroker) Al is positively smitten with Sky. He loves to post sweet pictures of his only grandchild on Instagram and is a very proud grandfather. He shared a sweet anecdote in the fall along with procures of the two together. Al Roker wrote of his granddaughter, “I can’t help but smile when I am around Sky Roker Laga. This kiddo brings such joy. I am definitely not laboring on this day to smile. It just comes naturally.” This story’s featured image is by Kathy Hutchins via Shutterstock. The post Al Roker Shares Adorable Pic of Granddaughter’s First Visit with Santa appeared first on InspireMore.

Color me shocked

'But Bondi’s hallmark has always been her selfless drive'