The Conservative Cave

A federal judge has allowed an oil pipeline off the California coast to continue operating, citing federal authority over state objections.

PULSE POINTS
❓ WHAT HAPPENED: A federal judge has ruled that an oil pipeline off the coast of Santa Barbara in California can continue to operate.

📺 DETAIL: Operated by Sable Offshore Corporation, the pipeline can continue operating under federal oversight. The ruling was made despite objections from California regulators and green groups, which have characterized it as an “egregious trespass on public land.” The pipeline has been closed since 2015, but was reopened earlier this year. The pipeline was reopened by an emergency order from the Trump administration, which cited increased energy demands arising from the outbreak of the Iran war. The administration utilized the Defense Production Act (DPA) to restart the pipeline. Subsequently, Judge Stephen Wilson ruled this week that the federal order pre-empted state regulations, allowing the pipeline to operate. “The Trump administration remains committed to putting all Americans and their energy security first… Unfortunately, some state leaders have not adhered to those same principles, with potentially disastrous consequences not just for their residents, but also our national security,” said Energy Secretary Chris Wright.

💬 KEY QUOTE: “Finally, as the Court has now discussed, the DPA Order does, as a matter of law, preempt the enforcement of any state law that conflicts with Sable’s ability to operate the Onshore Pipeline, including the trespass claim,” wrote Judge Wilson in his ruling.

The Jason Arday story keeps getting worse, and better.

When the story first hit, I didn't expect to wind up writing a bunch of posts about it; to me, it was interesting because it exposed the fundamental corruption of DEI ideology and, of course, the institutions captured by it.

True enough, as far as that went, but as the story unfolded, the depth and breadth of that corruption just grew and grew, as did the efforts to defend the indefensible. I shouldn't be surprised, of course, because I write about these topics separately all the time, but just about every single issue I write about regularly, save gender ideology, is all wrapped up in this one tight little ball of a story.
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Like Richard Dawkins, I find it especially noteworthy that this all took place at Cambridge University; if it were an obscure university or community college, it would have been a laughing matter. But Cambridge is at the top of the academic pyramid, and it declared Jason Arday at the very top of its pyramid of intellectual leading lights.
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And the body that is dying is not Cambridge, which is merely a few cells in the grey matter of that brain. It is the entire academic elite, which is a subset of the cultural and political elite of Western society. Western culture itself is dying, and the cancer is Critical Theory.

There is now a movement to create "Arday's Law," which would punish people for discussing scandals like this too much, and it has the support of UK elites and backers like Amnesty International.

Thousands of protesters have gathered to celebrate the life and chant the names of his "accusers" to shame them for...telling the truth. Some are baying for blood, and Ghent University in Belgium has suspended the professor who originally revealed (in public) the plagiarism that set this in motion. I say "in public" because, in reality, all the major players already knew Arday was a fraud, and they helped him perpetrate it.

This is where the U.S. State Department comes in, and it is only doing so thanks to Marco Rubio having a backbone made of titanium and a moral sense that is usually absent in anybody who reaches the heights of power.

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The United States Mission to Belgium condemns, in the strongest terms, Ghent University’s retaliation against an American scholar following his accurate whistleblower reporting on academic fraud.

The United States government regularly funds and supports research, academic exchanges, and other engagements with overseas universities.  Dishonest, corrupt institutions that engage in, or reward, scapegoating mob behavior are not desirable partners for us.  This is particularly true where the purpose and effect of the scapegoating is to punish accurate journalism unearthing academic dishonesty.  We are therefore reviewing any relationships we have with Ghent University.

An Alabama jury has awarded former Alabama basketball player Kai Spears $9.25 million after finding The New York Times defamed him by incorrectly linking him to the 2023 killing of Jamea Harris in Tuscaloosa.

The eight-person federal jury reached its verdict Thursday following a nine-day trial.

Spears sued the Times in 2023 after the newspaper reported that he was a passenger in a vehicle involved in the shooting.

The report was wrong. The passenger was an Alabama basketball team member, not Spears.

The Times later corrected the story and acknowledged the error.