Back in 2008, while running for the White House, Barack Obama declared that our planet is “in peril” due to climate change.

He continued, saying one of the major challenges facing the U.S. is “what we will do about our addiction to foreign oil.”

In that address, known as the “New Energy For America” speech, Obama said, “We simply cannot pretend, as Senator McCain does, that we can drill our way out of this problem.”

He went on, saying, “Breaking our oil addiction is one of the greatest challenges our generation will ever face. It will take nothing less than a complete transformation of our economy.”

In June 2013, Obama again mocked the idea of increased oil and gas drilling.

During a speech at Georgetown University, Obama introduced what he called a “new national climate action plan” that he claimed would make the U.S. “a leader — a global leader — in the fight against climate change.”

In that speech, Obama used the word “climate” two dozen times.

He claimed Congress should “end the tax breaks for big oil companies, and invest in the clean-energy companies that will fuel our future.”

The line from that speech that resonates today is this one: “We can’t just drill our way out of the energy and climate challenge that we face. That’s not possible.”

Those speeches haven’t aged well.

The 177,000 signature threshold has now been passed, officially clearing the requirement for an Alberta independence referendum on October 19th.

This is a historic moment for Alberta and signature collection is still continuing.

Mitch Sylvestre has been the driving force behind the movement and gathering the signatures during the petition drive.

A signature drive that will continue until the official cut-off date on 2 May. Organizers want to gather as many as they possibly can in order to offset any challenges. They know there are going to be plenty of those from indigenous First Nations groups and Canadians who are just pissed at what the group is doing.

Some suits challenging the movement's legitimacy have already been filed.

There are chapters in American history that demand to be written not in ink, but in fire.

The Obama administration, cloaked in the sanctimony of intellectualism and the false patina of moral superiority, unleashed a corrosive strain of political malice that did not dissipate with the passage of time.

It metastasized.

It deepened through the first Trump administration, calcified under the Biden presidency, and even now its vestiges linger like a stubborn contagion within the body politic.

This was not governance. This was something far more insidious; a slow moving institutional rot. And now, at long last, the day of accountability may be coming.

On March 19, 2026, in a development that has sent tremors through the upper echelons of the intelligence and law enforcement establishment, former FBI Director James Comey received a federal grand jury subpoena from prosecutors in the United States Attorney’s Office (USAO) for the Southern District of Florida (SDFL).

The timing, reported since March 3, 2026, is no accident. Nor is the venue incidental.

This subpoena seeks documents related to Comey’s role in the drafting and assembling of the January 2017 Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA), the now infamous report that asserted Russia collusion hoax in the 2016 election to benefit Donald Trump.

Not testimony. Not yet. Documents. Paper trails.

The quiet architecture of decisions made behind closed doors.

This is not an isolated inquiry. It is part of a sprawling investigation that has already issued more than 130 subpoenas since 2025. As a nation we must all pause and ask a question that cuts to the marrow: What exactly are prosecutors looking for that requires such breadth and persistence?

There is a small but vocal strain of “America Only” commentary that endlessly repeats a falsehood: “We get nothing from our aid to Israel.”

Au contraire, mon frère.

The truth is, America’s alliance with Israel is not a favor or a handout. It is a major pillar of American strength.

It’s a strategic investment, an extraordinarily inexpensive way for the United States to buy intelligence, military innovation, strategic reach, regional leverage, and a reliable democratic ally in the most dangerous and unstable region on earth.

Even if you strip away every moral, cultural, religious, historical, and civilizational consideration — and there are many — the U.S.-Israeli alliance would make overwhelming sense on the coldest possible national-interest grounds.

Israel is not merely an ally. It is a force multiplier. It makes American power cheaper, smarter, and more effective than it could be otherwise.

And that points to something larger still. Israel is not just a valuable ally. It is the prototype ofTrump’s vision for the rest of our alliances.

How fortunate Massachusetts is to have Bill Galvin!

After almost a half-century in politics, the 75-year-old secretary of state would like nothing better than to close his long career as an elected official and enjoy a comfortable and lucrative retirement.

He has already served a record-setting eight consecutive terms in his current position as the Commonwealth’s chief elections officer and record keeper.

Since Galvin’s tenure as secretary of state began in 1995, Beacon Hill has cycled through seven governors, five House speakers, and seven Senate presidents. Galvin has easily dispatched every challenger, cruising to reelection every four years.

After so many decades in public life, Galvin is amply entitled to let someone else take over the responsibilities of secretary of state.

But this selfless warrior, knowing that there is no one else in Massachusetts who can defend the state’s interests properly, refuses to abandon his post.

“To leave a battlefield in the middle of a battle, it’s something I’m not going to do,” Galvin declared last month, announcing his campaign for a ninth term that would keep him in office through 2031.

That battle seems to never end. When he ran for reelection in 2018, Galvin told the Globe’s editorial board that it was probably the last time.

Four years later, he was back on the ballot for another term — but he made it clear that it would be his last hurrah. “I am certainly done here with this job,” he assured my former colleague Scot Lehigh in 2022.

Alas, circumstances are always conspiring to keep him at his post.

Galvin is hardly an exception. Indeed, he’s practically a role model. The inability to relinquish power is among the most reliable constants in American politics.

There was a very interesting article in European Business Magazine last Friday. This extensive quote explains what's been happening:

For over 300 years, Lloyd’s of London has underwritten maritime insurance for the tankers and cargo ships that carry the world’s oil, gas, and goods.

Its dominance over the Strait of Hormuz — the narrow chokepoint through which approximately 30% of the world’s seaborne oil supply passes — represented one of the most quietly powerful financial monopolies in history.

Control the insurance, and you control who can sail. Control who can sail, and you control the flow of energy that powers the global economy.

Then Iran’s attacks on Gulf shipping spiked maritime insurance rates by 400% overnight. Lloyd’s panicked. Coverage was pulled. 

The energy market consequences of the Iran conflict had just produced an entirely unexpected second-order effect — and into the vacuum stepped America.

The 48-Hour Shift

Within 48 hours of Lloyd’s withdrawal, two things happened simultaneously.

The US Navy, operating through US Naval Forces Central Command, expanded its escort operations across the Gulf — effectively offering the physical protection that insurance underwrites.

And American insurers began moving to replace Lloyd’s coverage entirely, stepping into a market that British financial infrastructure had monopolised since the reign of William III.

The Crown’s 300-year chokehold on global energy insurance was severed — not by war, not by sanctions, but by filling a vacuum created by an institution that blinked at the wrong moment.