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When Nightwish dismissed their lead singer via open letter, the fallout was so public and intense that even the Finnish prime minister got involved

The Wall Street Journal interviewed 45 Republicans and Democrats about President Joe Biden, who Robert K. Hur described as an elderly man with a bad memory. It’s getting worse. If he’s as sharp as he’s ever been, as Democrats say, we are in major trouble. Most of those interviewed who said Biden performed poorly were […] The post Insiders Describe a Mentally Failing Joe Biden appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Left-wing bureaucrats at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) are working hard to force states to abandon reliable, low-cost, fossil fuel-based energy in favor of unreliable, high-cost, solar, wind, and battery-based power. The EPA’s latest scheme includes a power grab for the grid by imposing several new regulatory commandments that states must follow under the Clean Power Plan and the Clean Air Act. The intended effect of these regulations is to replace the fossil fuel-fired plants that form the backbone of America’s electric grid with renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar. I call it Joe Biden’s plan to wreck the grid — a grid which provides the energy needed to charge our iPhones, access the internet, heat and cool our homes, and power our schools, businesses, factories, farms, and hospitals. This reckless and radical scheme jeopardizes the safety and security of America’s electrical grid and forces all of us to pay far more for the electricity we take for granted. Indeed, the Indiana Municipal Power Agency — which provides electricity to many rural customers — projects a double-digit rate increase under the Biden administration’s Clean Power Plan 2.0. The EPA’s pet project to force the grid to go green is also illegal — which is why my office is fighting these regulations in court. The Good Neighbor Rule The first legal challenge is to the “good neighbor” rule imposed under the Clean Air Act, which requires states to reduce ozone pollution from in-state sources transported downwind into other states.  Although the EPA establishes national air quality standards, Congress has reserved to the states the authority to determine how those standards will be met — including those relating to states’ “good neighbor” obligations. This dual allocation of responsibility between the federal government and the states reflects the Clean Air Act’s “cooperative federalism” model.  As the U.S. Supreme Court noted in Union Elec. Co. v. EPA, each state enjoys “wide discretion in formulating its [air pollution] plan.” Biden bureaucrats apparently never got that memo. In 2022, the EPA arbitrarily rejected the good neighbor plans of 23 states, including Indiana’s. To make things worse, instead of allowing states to remedy any alleged deficiencies in their plans, as the Clean Air Act contemplates, the EPA imposed a one-size-fits-all plan on the states.  In truth, Biden bureaucrats aren’t interested in working with Indiana or any other state. So much for the “cooperative federalism” model; under this Administration, it’s do as you’re told. However, Hoosiers don’t bend the knee to D.C. bureaucrats, which is why my office has joined the attorneys general of Ohio and West Virginia in a legal challenge to the EPA’s “good neighbor” rule. In addition to the dubious legality of the “good neighbor” rule, the EPA has failed to address where the energy to support the electric grid will come from after fossil fuel-based sources are forced offline. The company managing the electrical grid for Indiana and other states, PJM, recently reported that the current pace of new energy sources, such as solar and wind, would be “insufficient” to keep up with expected retirements of fossil-fuel energy sources mandated by the EPA. The report explains that wind and solar energy sources are “intermittent and limited duration resources”—meaning the sun doesn’t always shine and the wind doesn’t always blow. Thus, for each megawatt of electricity generated by fossil fuels lost under the EPA rule, it will take multiple megawatts of wind and solar energy to replace it. Don’t be fooled by the Administration’s green energy gas bags touting the alleged superiority of solar and wind power. They may have a role in meeting America’s future power needs, but they are inferior when it comes to producing reliable power. Joe Biden claims that his energy policies will make electricity more affordable, but Hoosiers know hogwash when they hear it. Great Britain and Germany live under the same mandates the Biden administration pushes here, and people there pay about three times more for electricity than Americans. Rather than being dissuaded by these facts, Biden bureaucrats are doubling down. The EPA just unveiled the final version of a rule regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. I’m proud that my office, in conjunction with West Virginia, is leading a 25-state strong coalition challenging the new rule—a rehash of the Obama-era “Clean Power Plan” found unlawful by the Supreme Court in West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency. Like its predecessor, Clean Power Plan 2.0 would shutter fossil fuel power plants, despite the Court’s rejection of the notion that federal bureaucrats can dictate “how Americans will get their energy.” Given the advent of new technologies with an unquenchable thirst for electricity, regulations that reduce the power supply can only be called reckless. As demand for power grows and these radical green policies suppress supply, electricity prices will surge — jolting the most vulnerable Hoosiers. Joe Biden’s energy bureaucrats are fully committed to their radical and reckless agenda to wreck the grid, despite the untold costs to Americans’ security and pocketbooks. That’s why Indiana and our partner states are committed to challenging their actions in court and pulling the plug on their illegal power grab. * * * Todd Rokita is Indiana’s attorney general. The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

“Star Wars: The Acolyte” showrunner Leslye Headland expressed her enthusiasm when an interviewer who called the new series “the gayest ‘Star Wars’” said she thinks it’s “canon” that the character R2-D2 is a lesbian. Headland made the remarks during an interview with The Wrap. The 44-year-old filmmaker seemed surprised that infusing the show with LGBTQ themes would be a big deal. “Is it going to be a talking point?” she asked the interviewer.  “Acolyte” actress Amandla Stenberg chimed in, “Because nerds are gay.” We are happy to report that #TheAcolyte is “arguably the gayest #StarWars” yet. ? Happy Pride Month! ? pic.twitter.com/3oJSykc4Kq — TheWrap (@TheWrap) June 4, 2024 TheWrap’s interviewer replied, “Well, some nerds are very not gay and are very threatened by gay stuff.”  “Well, that’s true. But in my world nerds are gay,” Stenberg said. The interviewer asked if this was meant to be a “fun element,” and Headland replied, “No, I don’t think so, and yet people have told me it’s the gayest Star Wars, and I am frankly … into it.” “I think Star Wars is so gay already. I mean, have you seen the ‘fits? We’d be like, ‘Look how gay this is,’ and send each other a reference photo,” Stenberg said. Headland next shared her thoughts on the sexuality of fictional Star Wars robots. “And are you telling me with a straight face that C-3PO is straight?” she joked. TheWrap interviewer agreed, saying, “They’re a couple. That’s what I think.”  “I think it’s canon that R2-D2 is a lesbian,” Headland replied.  This isn’t the first time the showrunner has brought up LGBTQ themes in Disney entertainment. Earlier this year, a video from the 2023 Star Wars Celebration captured Headland saying how “The Acolyte” would be “coded queer” like the animated children’s film, “Frozen.”  “When I saw Frozen as a grown a** woman, I cried through the entire movie,” she said at the time. “There was just something about the relationship between the sisters, the like devillainization of the classic kind of fairy tale ‘bad guy,’ you know, the concept of true love being between two sisters and not a heterosexual relationship. It just destroyed me, completely.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP She continued, “And I thought, ‘Gosh, I would love to make something like this, for lack of a better term, Disney.’ Meaning something that like my parents would have allowed me to see when I was younger as a queer person, but I would have been able to understand as a queer person. And I think I would have had a completely different life. And so I really was inspired by it and was like, ‘God, I would love to make a story like this.’” In 2021, Headland spoke to The Advocate about having representation on “The Acolyte” and fully intending “to allow her own personal experiences as a queer woman shine through in the finished product.” “In the same way that the original ‘Star Wars’ film, ‘A New Hope,’ is about a young man living in Modesto, California, who doesn’t want to take over his dad’s hardware store,” Headland said. “There’s just no way that me being a queer woman is not going to be reflected in my work. I could try not to do it, but why would I? It just feels like a natural extension of what I do.”

On Tuesday, President Joe Biden issued a proclamation to address illegal immigration at the southern border, outlining areas where an immigrant can claim various fears to avoid deportation. An internal memo from Immigration and Customs Enforcement obtained by the Washington Free Beacon states that Biden’s Presidential Proclamation, Securing the Border, was followed by an Interim Final Rule (IFR) from Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Attorney General Merrick Garland “establishing certain limitations on asylum eligibility and revising certain standards and procedures associated with the expedited removal process.” The document said that the IFR “makes key changes to asylum processing that will be in place whenever encounters are at levels that impede DHS’ ability to apply timely decisions and consequences to the majority of noncitizens encountered at the southern border, as described in the Proclamation.” “These changes include: deeming certain noncitizens who enter across the southern border during circumstances of high encounters at the border to be ineligible for asylum, with limited exceptions; applying a manifestation of fear requirement for those processed for expedited removal to be referred to USCIS for a credible fear interview,” it continued. CBP “will refer the impacted noncitizen for a credible fear interview before U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) only if the noncitizen manifests a fear of return, or expresses an intention to apply for asylum or protection, expresses a fear of persecution or torture, or expresses a fear of return to his or her country or the country of removal,” the document states, adding, “a fear may be manifested verbally, non-verbally, or physically.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE DAILYWIRE+ APP The document then listed examples of “verbal, non-verbal, and physical indicators” “indicative of fear of persecution or torture.” Those included stating “I am afraid to go to (country);” “statements that the noncitizen was previously harmed in their home country or country of removal,” “Statements that, if traveling in a family unit or family group, the noncitizen’s family member was previously harmed in home country or proposed country of removal,” “Evidence of physical injury consistent with abuse (e.g., bruises, scars),” “Evidence of self-harm,” and “Non-verbal actions that may indicate fear such as hysteria, trembling, shaking, unusual behavior, changes in tone of voice, incoherent speech patterns, panic attacks, or an unusual level of silence.”