Free Republic

What gives here? Conservative talk show host, Mark Levin, makes an excellent observation as well as ask an excellent question. First the Obaminator: "...and the Department of the Interior has announced that they will be sending Swat teamns to the Gulf to inspect all platforms and rigs." Mark Levin: "Swat teams from the Department of the Interior? When I was Deputy Secretary of the Interior Department (during the Reagan administration), I don't remember any Swat teams. Now you heard hims say that the Department of the Interior was going to send Swat teams, I didn't know that they had Swat...

The White House on Sunday condemned a conservative social media activist for ridiculing an openly-gay Interior Department official on the site X, describing her posts as “cruel and unacceptable.” Chaya Raichik, who created the @libsoftiktok account on X, formerly known as Twitter, sparked a debate online this week after posting and reposting several times about Tyler Cherry, Interior’s principal deputy communications director. The posts appeared to criticize his appearance, referred to him as one of the “total weirdos” the Biden administration has hired, laughed at photos of him in a dress that the New York Times published in a piece...

James “Jim” Watt, a former U.S. Secretary of the Interior from Lusk, died recently at the age of 85 in Arizona.Born, raised and educated in Wyoming, Watt rose to national prominence when President Ronald Reagan nominated him for the high post at Interior in 1980.

Around 15 years ago CTH outlined the inclusive goal of the progressive movement, modern Democrats as they were evolving, was to deconstruct the U.S. economic system so that Americans would be forced to live in government-controlled poverty. Essentially reduced to circling a campfire, eating sustainable algae cakes and picking parasites off our family members.Most people understandably scoffed and said we were being hyperbolic. However, what we were highlighting was the natural conclusion of a visible ideology and set of policies. The modern democrat ideology is based on a worldview that feudalism is superior, and Democrats are elite in their global...

WASHINGTON — The Department of the Interior today announced a list of candidate replacement names for more than 660 geographic features with the name “squaw,” which was officially declared a derogatory term as a result of Secretary’s Order 3404. The Department has initiated Tribal consultations and an opportunity for public comment to recommend and review proposed replacement names. Secretary’s Order 3404 established the 13-member Derogatory Geographic Names Task Force, which includes representatives from the Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, National Park Service, Office of Diversity, Inclusion and Civil Rights, Office...

Researchers at ETH Zurich have demonstrated in the lab how well a mineral common at the boundary between the Earth’s core and mantle conducts heat. This leads them to suspect that the Earth’s heat may dissipate sooner than previously thought. The evolution of our Earth is the story of its cooling: 4.5 billion years ago, extreme temperatures prevailed on the surface of the young Earth, and it was covered by a deep ocean of magma. Over millions of years, the planet’s surface cooled to form a brittle crust. However, the enormous thermal energy emanating from the Earth’s interior set dynamic...

HELENA, Mont. (NMB) – Former Congressman and Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has officially announced that he will be running for one of Montana’s two seats in the U.S. House of Representatives in 2022. Zinke, a Republican, was elected to Montana’s at-large seat in the House in 2014 but stepped down after being named President Donald Trump’s Interior Secretary. Zinke resigned from that role in January 2019 and has been the subject of numerous federal investigations into potential ethics violations. Zinke denies any wrongdoing. Montana gained a new Congressional district due to the state’s increase in population, and Zinke says once...

WASHINGTON—U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said at a House committee hearing on June 23 that the Biden administration has no plan to permanently ban new oil and gas drilling on federal land. “Gas and oil production will continue well into the future,” Haaland said during a House Natural Resources Committee hearing. “I don’t think there is a plan right now for a permanent ban.”Haaland’s comments came after a federal judge on June 15 blocked the Biden administration’s temporary ban on new leases to drill for oil and gas on public lands and waters. The Biden administration in January suspended new...

A past link to an activity described as eco-terrorism should disqualify President Joe Biden’s nominee to head the Bureau of Land Management, according to a Republican senator. Sen. John Barrasso of Wyoming responded critically to nominee Tracy Stone-Manning’s role in sending a threatening letter on behalf of an environmentalist group that committed tree spiking crimes in 1989. “Tracy Stone-Manning collaborated with eco-terrorists,” Barrasso said, according to the Daily Caller. “She worked with extreme environmental activists who spiked trees, threatening the lives and livelihoods of loggers.” “While she was given immunity from prosecution to testify against her companions in court, her...

Haaland, 60, was speaking about being the first Native American woman to hold the position when the funnyman host spotted a guy in a suit on all fours. “Considering I was sworn in by the very first female vice president, also a woman of color, that was really probably the best par —” Haaland said before Meyers cut her off. “I am sorry, Secretary. I am going to interrupt you real quick,” Meyers said as the staffer sneakily ducked behind a desk and out of the frame. “You have a staffer who fully crawled on the carpet behind you —...

A satellite experiment has revealed that the heaviest known neutron star is unexpectedly large, which suggests that the matter in the star’s inner core is less “squeezable” than some models predict. NICER measures the size of a neutron star by tracking the x-ray emission from “hot spots” on the surface as the star rotates. These spots occur at the magnetic poles of the star, where the field slams particles onto the star surface. Neutron stars are “cosmic zombies”­—corpses of massive stars that collapsed in violent explosions after running out of fuel. By studying these ultradense objects, researchers hope to understand...

**SNIP** Trump’s four years in office greatly empowered anti-government extremists. His Interior Department repeatedly hosted people who want to see federal lands sold off. Fierce critics of endangered species protections and federal land management were tapped for powerful department posts. William Perry Pendley, a conservative lawyer with extreme anti-environmental views who spent his career lobbying for the sale of federal lands, was put in charge of Interior’s Bureau of Land Management. Trump issued pardons for people like Utah state Rep. Phil Lyman (R) - who in 2014 led anti-federal land protesters on an illegal ATV ride on public lands that...

In Joe Biden's caretaker administration, it's amazing how many misdeeds can be erased through the useful tool of identity politics. Take his nomination Deb Haaland, a congresswoman representing greater Albuquerque, who's a registered member of a Native American tribe ... and a tax cheat, energy ignoramus, persistent welfare recipient, and marijuana booster, who has now advanced in the Senate as his nominee to run the $12 billion U.S. Department of the Interior. Her trump card in qualifications after all those red flags? That she's half-Native American and has mastered the identity politics games of victimhood. What could go wrong? Unlike,...

Over the weekend, Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) announced that he was “deeply concerned” with Joe Biden’s cabinet nominee for the Department of the Interior, Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM). He vowed to block Haaland’s nomination if his needs were not addressed. Daines’ statement following his conversation with Haaland reads as follows: “After our conversation, I’m deeply concerned with the Congresswoman’s support on several radical issues that will hurt Montana, our way of life, our jobs and rural America, including her support for the Green New Deal and President Biden’s oil and gas moratorium, as well as her opposition to the Keystone...

This month’s announcement from Party City that it’s closing more than 40 stores as it grapples with new challenges, including diminishing helium supplies, likely came as unwelcome news to customers who count on the store for their balloon and event planning needs. But for scientists like Mark Elsesser, the announcement was something of a relief, inflating hopes that the public, and the government, might start paying closer attention. “When it comes to helium, we’re at a tipping point,” said Elsesser, who is the associate director of government affairs at the American Physical Society, a nonprofit association of physicists. “Party City...

The Trump administration reportedly notified hundreds of Interior Department employees Tuesday that they will have 30 days to relocate to western states or face the potential of job terminations. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is relocating 27 employees from Washington, D.C., to the agency’s new headquarters in Colorado and another 220 to field offices out West, Government Executive (GE) reported Tuesday. The relocated employees reportedly have until Dec. 12 to agree to the move; if they don’t accept the terms, then they’ll be fired. This is not the first time federal employees have been asked to relocate. Department of...

Somebody is having trouble with the deep state, and this time it’s not President Trump. Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy (R) is asking the president for help tackling what he views as entrenched workers in the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (yes… I’m serious) who have been working to thwart oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR). Bet you didn’t see that one coming. (Government Executive) A governor is asking the president to intervene with career federal employees, accusing them of “undermining” the sale of lands that would benefit his state.In a letter to President Trump dated...

Aurelia Skipwith has a BS in biology from Howard University, a Master’s in molecular genetics from Purdue and a law degree from Kentucky. She has worked as a molecular analyst and sustainable agriculture partnership manager. She was also co-founder and general counsel for AVC Global, a Washington, D.C.-based agricultural supply chain development company that helps small farmers link up with multinational buyers and with agronomy, business, financial and other service providers. For two years, she served as Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Interior Department, where she performed her duties so well that last October President Trump nominated her to become...

“Bernhardt got this nomination as a reward for months of work cramming America’s natural heritage into a wood chipper,” Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a statement. “He’s already done more damage to our environment than anyone else in Interior Department history. Confirming him as Interior secretary would be a boon to polluters and a colossal disaster for our public lands and endangered species.” Center for Western Priorities' Executive Director Jennifer Rokala called Bernhardt's nomination "an affront to America's parks and public lands." "As an oil and gas lobbyist, Bernhardt pushed to open...

President Trump announced Monday afternoon he will nominate Acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to serve as the next Secretary of the Interior. Donald J. Trump ✔@realDonaldTrump I am pleased to announce that David Bernhardt, Acting Secretary of the Interior, will be nominated as Secretary of the Interior. David has done a fantastic job from the day he arrived, and we look forward to having his nomination officially confirmed! 18.7K 12:13 PM - Feb 4, 2019 Twitter Ads info and privacy 6,746 people are talking about this Bernhardt took on the acting position last fall when then Interior Secretary Ryan...