Month: December 2020

Commentary: Biden’s Latest Identity Politics Pick is a Radical with a Land Grab Scheme

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New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland — a Native American through her mother’s lineage — is the newest addition to Biden’s identity politics bingo card. Haaland was tapped for Secretary of the Interior, a position with control over conservation and oil and gas drilling on public lands, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and a swath of other agencies like the Fish and Wildlife Service and the Bureau of Indian Education. 

Environmentalists were titillated to see a Native American nominated to take charge of land conservation and Native affairs, especially after President Trump authorized oil drilling, pipelines, and the border wall on land considered by some Native activists to be sacred. 

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MTS Nutrition CEO Marc Lobliner Floats 2022 Run Against Governor Bill Lee, Discovers He’s Not Eligible

Corinne Murdock

Marc Lobliner announced that he would run in 2022 against Governor Bill Lee – if not for the state’s residency requirement. According to the law, an individual must reside in the state for at least seven years prior to the gubernatorial election. Lobliner moved to Tennessee at the end of last summer.

The massive fitness influencer issued the statement in response Governor Bill Lee’s latest executive order. Since Sunday, in-person gatherings have been limited to 10 or less people. The order didn’t indicate what the punishments were if not followed. The order also “strongly urged” employers to implement remote working, and for individuals to maintain social distancing and practice health department guidelines for weddings, funerals, and worship services. The order ends in about a month, on January 19th. 

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Coronavirus Vaccines Can Guard Against New, More Contagious UK Strain, Experts Say

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The two coronavirus vaccines that have been approved for emergency use authorization in the U.S. will be able to combat a new, more contagious strain of the virus in the U.K., experts said Monday.

Vaccines made by pharmaceutical companies Pfizer and Moderna will be effective against the new strain, which is “very similar” to previous strains at the genetic level, University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation affiliate assistant professor Vin Gupta told CNBC. The Food and Drug Administration has approved both vaccines for emergency use authorization after large-scale human trials showed efficacy of more than 90%.

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Pelosi Claims ‘Faith-Oriented’ Lawmakers Say They ‘Don’t Believe in Science’

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Democratic Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said Monday that “faith-oriented” people in Congress have told her they “don’t believe in science.”

The California Democrat spoke Monday on the house floor where she discussed coronavirus relief and the recently approved vaccines, accusing the White House of spreading “quackery” notions of herd immunity.

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Famed Chemist Tells the World: Scientists Are Totally ‘Clueless’ About the Origin of Life

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Students across America are taught an origin of life story that goes a little something like this: billions of years ago, energy from the sun, lightning, and Earth’s heat combined with the planet’s early atmosphere of hydrogen, methane and other gases, creating chemical reactions that formed molecules in a primordial soup that eventually produced a cell, in other words, life.

But one prominent professor argues that that simplistic explanation is not only unproven, it’s highly improbable.

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Cornell Student Government Members Expel Fellow Senators Who Voted Against Disarming Police

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Activist members of the student government at Cornell University are waging an ideological war against fellow Cornell Student Assembly members who recently voted against disarming campus police.

From launching recall petitions and rallying against their fellow representatives in November, to earlier this month ousting some of them from subcommittees or the entire assembly, these activist student government members say they are motivated to set right what a “white-cis-het” group of their peers did in voting down the disarmament resolution.

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Tennessee Nurse Who Fainted After Receiving COVID-19 Vaccine Says It Was Due to Underlying Condition

Corinne Murdock

The nurse who appeared to faint after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine in a viral video has recovered, according to a statement issued by her employer. Tiffany Dover, a nurse at CHI Memorial Hospital, reportedly came close to passing out due to a medical condition unrelated to the vaccination.

The hospital also cited information from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) website, which stated that fainting sometimes occurs after all types of vaccinations.

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Georgia State Senate Report: Election Results Are ‘Untrustworthy;’ Certification Should Be Rescinded

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The chairman of the judiciary subcommittee in Georgia that examined evidence of fraud in the 2020 election, has released a scathing 15-page report calling the results of the 2020 election, “untrustworthy” and recommending that the certification of the results be rescinded.

Georgia State Senator William T. Ligon, Chairman of the Election Law subcommittee, reached that conclusion after reviewing the recount process, the audit process, current investigations taking place, and litigation that is moving forward. His Subcommittee also heard testimonies from witnesses during an open hearing at the Georgia State Capitol on Thursday, December 3, 2020.

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Tennessee Stands Says Gov. Bill Lee Displays ‘Complete Lack of Leadership’ on COVID-19

Chris Butler

Tennessee Stands, based out of Williamson County, on Monday, said Tennessee residents “didn’t elect Bill Lee to have him cancel Christmas and stomp the Constitution.” Tennessee Stands spokesman Gary Humble said this in an emailed newsletter, addressing Gov. Bill Lee’s Sunday announcement that the state will ban indoor public gatherings of more than 10 people in response to COVID-19.

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Commentary: Medical Ethicists Legitimize ‘Woke’ Science, Death Panels

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Since March, the Left has proclaimed itself the guardian of science in dealing with the COVID-19 epidemic. Its champions are the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and Dr. Fauci. All in the past have rendered valuable service to the public, and often life-saving aid.

Yet the mixture of COVID-19, the first national quarantine, and Trump Derangement Syndrome have combined to give us reason to question their judgment. These authorities variously have issued conflicting recommendations to wear, then not to wear, and finally to wear masks. Or they have both criticized and then advised travel bans.

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Bedford County Passes Resolution Opposing Repeal of Qualified Immunity

Eric Burk

The Bedford County Board of Supervisors (BOS) unanimously passed a resolution repudiating efforts to repeal qualified immunity, a legal doctrine that provides extra protection to law enforcement officers from personal liability while on-duty unless they commit willful misconduct. An effort to repeal qualified immunity was defeated in the Virginia Senate during the recent special session.

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Virginia Legislators Blast 5,593 Page House Bill Passed Just Hours After Legislators Get The Full Draft

Eric Burk

The U.S. House of Representatives leadership gave legislators just hours to consider a 5,593-page omnibus spending bill incorporating over $900 billion of coronavirus relief and $1.4 in government funding for fiscal year 2021. The bill was made available on Monday afternoon, with voting beginning on Monday evening, where it passed just after nine p.m.

“After several delays and last-minute haggling, we finally began receiving text of the COVID relief bill at 11:30 am this morning. This bill is likely to be thousands of pages, so I’m canceling my afternoon appointments & digging into the bill. As Reagan said, “Trust, but verify,” Congressman Ben Cline (R-VA06) tweeted.

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New Ohio ‘Stand Your Ground’ Bill Heads to Governor for Signature

The Center Square

If Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signs a new bill into law, Ohioans will no longer be required to retreat first before using deadly force to defend themselves. Where they can defend themselves with deadly force would also expand.

DeWine, who has repeatedly over the past year asked the legislature to pass several pieces of his gun legislation, has not indicted if he would sign the bill.

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Mercer Student Jailed in Caymans For Breaking COVID Lockdown Rules

Peter D'Abrosca

A student at Mercer University in Macon has been ordered to spend four months in jail in Cayman Islands for breaking the British territory’s COVID-19 lockdown rules, according to several reports. 

“Skylar Mack and her boyfriend, Cayman Islands-based competitive Jet Skier Vanjae Ramgeet were jailed immediately after their sentences were handed down on Tuesday,” Fox News said last week. 

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Fulton County Dismisses Election Whistleblowers from Working the Georgia Runoff Election Following Their Testimonies

Corinne Murdock

Fulton County election officials informed two whistleblowers that they were no longer eligible to work in the runoff election. Bridget Thorne and Susan Voyles each received a letter notifying them of their dismissal last week following their testimonies to the General Assembly.

Both women were dismissed suddenly and without notice, after having served without issue in previous elections for years.

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Michigan House Approves $465 million COVID-19 Relief Funding Bill

The Center Square

The Michigan House on Monday approved a $465 million supplemental budget bill to provide relief to Michiganders in the COVID-19 pandemic.

Senate Bill 748 aims to provide $64 million in small business survival relief; $220 million to extend unemployment benefits through April 1, 2021; $75 million for hospitals and health care workers; $22 million for increased testing; and $57 million for vaccine distribution.

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CVS Begins Effort to Administer COVID-19 Vaccinations

Jacob Taylor

CVS announced Monday that it has formally launched its program to administer COVID-19 vaccines to residents and staff of long-term care facilities and will begin its efforts in Virginia on December 28th, according to a press release. 

The company said that its teams will start administering doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine this week across 12 states – including Ohio, Connecticut, Florida and Oregon, among others – and expects to vaccinate a total of four million residents and staff at over 40,000 long-term care facilities through the program. 

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Rep. Ilhan Omar Urges Biden to Cancel $50,000 of Student Debt Per Person

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Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) has introduced a “bold resolution” asking President-elect Joe Biden to federally remove $50,000 of student loan debt per person.

The congress member introduced the resolution alongside Reps. Ayanna Pressley, Maxine Waters, and Alma Adams. The resolution outlines a path for Biden to use “excessive authority” to remove student loan debt while simultaneously ensuring there are no tax liabilities for federal student loan borrowers.

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Ohio Sees Spike in Drug Overdose Deaths as Pandemic Rages

Jordyn Pair

Nineteen counties in Ohio have exceeded or equaled records for the most overdoses in a year as the nation continues to see a spike in drug overdoses during the coronavirus pandemic.

Harm Reduction Ohio, a drug policy advocacy group which says it is the largest distributor of naloxone in the state, says the biggest increases in death caused by overdoses have occurred in central and east Ohio.

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Athens-Clarke County Board of Elections Rejects Challenge to Remove Voters from Rolls

Peter D'Abrosca

The Athens-Clarke County Board of Elections struck down a challenge to remove nearly 8,000 voters from the the county’s rolls before Georgia’s January 5 U.S. Senate runoff election. 

“For the reasons I will discuss, I don’t believe there is probable cause to challenge these voters,” Athens-Clarke County Attorney Judd Drake said to open deliberations.

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Forty Churches, Schools, and Businesses Ask Northam to Not Enforce Virginia Values Act

Eric Burk

Forty churches, schools, and businesses have signed a letter to Governor Ralph Northam, asking him not to enforce the Virginia Values Act (VVA), which was passed by the General Assembly and signed by Northam last April. In Northam’s press release, proponents of the bill said it would protect LGBTQ Virginians from workplace discrimination, but religious leaders warn that the bill threatens a $100,000 fine if religious organizations refuse to hire someone who doesn’t agree with their beliefs on marriage or sexuality.

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Tennessee’s Congress Members Rushed to Issue Same-Day Vote on the 5600 Page Stimulus Bill

Corinne Murdock

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi scheduled a vote Monday evening for a hefty bill dropped on Congress earlier that same day. The spending bill totals nearly 5,600 pages.

The bill was unavailable prior to this afternoon, a delay reportedly caused by “computer glitch[es].” In addition to the $900 billion in pandemic stimulus spending, the bill includes $1.4 trillion for other expenditures. 

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Nunes Plans Criminal Referrals to DOJ Following Release of Strzok’s Internal FBI Messages

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Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, said Sunday he plans to make new criminal referrals to the Justice Department following the release of internal FBI messages from the account of Peter Strzok, the top FBI investigator on Crossfire Hurricane.

In an interview on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” Nunes said the messages, which the Justice Department and FBI declassified earlier this month, should have been provided to Congress years ago when Republicans began investigating whether the FBI abused the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in order to surveil Trump campaign aide Carter Page.

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NBA Quiet on Chinese Slave Labor

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The National Basketball Association is remaining quiet on the issue of Chinese slave labor, despite new revelations about the nature and sizeUighur Muslim labor camps.

In 2018, three Uyghur regions alone mobilized at least 570,000 laborers into cotton-picking through the government’s forced labor training and transfer scheme, according to a new Center for Global Policy report.  When BBC reporters tried to visit the region to document its “huge industrial expansion” a number of unmarked cars followed them as they filmed the perimeter of the complex when officials stopped them from filming and they were forced to leave.

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Congress Agrees on Coronavirus Relief Package After Months of Negotiations

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Congress agreed on a $900 billion coronavirus relief package Sunday, overcoming several last-minute stalemates over the Federal Reserve’s lending powers and direct cash payments, Senate leaders announced.

“At long last, we have the bipartisan breakthrough the country has needed,” Senate Majority Leader McConnell said Sunday on the Senate floor. “I hope we can do this as promptly as possible.”

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Biden Eyes a Return to the Obama Era Policy to Combat ‘Rape Culture’ on American Campuses

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Earlier this year, President Trump’s often embattled Education Secretary, Betsy DeVos, established new rules on handling sexual assaults on campus to strengthen protections for accused students, almost all of them men.

Joe Biden, who was the Obama administration’s point man for the policies DeVos upended, has made his displeasure clear.

“The Trump Administration’s Education Department … is trying to shame and silence survivors,” the Biden campaign platform declared. “Instead of protecting women,” it has “given colleges a green light to ignore sexual violence and strip survivors of their civil rights.”

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Commentary: Stop the Financial Deplatforming of Conservatives

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Conservatives face all kinds of censorship from the private sector. Big Tech will ban your account and employers will fire you just because of your political beliefs. This free market suppression could escalate into conservatives losing their bank accounts and credit cards due to their political views. For some people, it’s already happened.

We could very well see this nightmare scenario under a President Joe Biden. That’s why it’s imperative for the Trump Administration to do something right now to protect ordinary Americans from the depredations of liberal corporations.

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Court Rules Ohio Must Allow Changes to Birth Certificates of Transgender People

The Center Square

A federal court ruled Wednesday that Ohio must allow changes, or what proponents call corrections, to gender markers on birth certificates, leaving as Tennessee, for the time being, as the only state in the nation not to allow changes.

The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Ohio struck down the policy that prevented transgender people born in Ohio from adjusting the gender marker on their birth certificate. The decision comes in a lawsuit filed two years on behalf of three Ohio women and one man.

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University of Michigan’s IT Department Told to Stop Using Word ‘Picnic’ as it Could ‘Harm Morale’

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“Crack the whip.” “Master/slave.” Even the term “picnic” has been deemed offensive, according to a lengthy list of words and phrases put out recently by the University of Michigan’s Information and Technology Services’ “Words Matter Task Force.”

“To effectively communicate with customers, it is important for ITS to evaluate the terms and language conventions that may hinder effective communication, harm morale, and deliberately or inadvertently exclude people from feeling accepted to foment a healthy and inclusive culture,” states the memorandum obtained by The College Fix.

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Rep. Ayanna Pressley Calls Loeffler, Perdue and McConnell ‘the Bonnie and Clyde of Corruption’

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Democratic Massachusetts Rep. Ayanna Pressley on Friday compared Republican Georgia Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to “the Bonnie and Clyde of corruption.”

Pressley criticized “this GOP-led Senate” on MSNBC host Joy Reid’s “The ReidOut” for sticking with the Trump administration’s policies and criticized them for being distant from challenges Americans face due to COVID-19. Pressley criticized President Donald Trump and said he permitted the economic challenges.

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Republican State Senator Emmett Hanger Still Seriously Considering a Bid for Governor

Jacob Taylor

As the 2021 elections inch closer and begin to dominate almost all political talk in the Commonwealth, Sen. Emmett Hanger (R-Augusta) is still exploring a potential run to become the 74th governor of Virginia.

Hanger, 72, recently discussed the gubernatorial election and the difficulty of securing the GOP nomination in an interview with The Virginia Star. 

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Minnesota Attorney General Sues Two More Restaurants Open for Dine-In Service

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Keith Ellison

Attorney General Keith Ellison’s office yesterday filed lawsuits against two restaurants that have been open for dine-in despite the governor’s executive orders. Cornerstone Café in Monticello and Cork in Anoka are Ellison’s latest projects.

Ellison’s office issued a statement that says these restaurants have been running in “open violation” of Gov. Tim Walz’ orders, putting the “community at risk by violating ban on on-premises dining intended to slow the spread of COVID-19.”

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Richmond Mom Accessed Explicit Content on School-Issued Virtual Learning Computer

Eric Burk

Richmond Public Schools (RPS) has tightened content filtering restrictions on school computers after Janet Kelly discovered she could access explicit YouTube content on her elementary-aged son’s computer. Kelly is pleased that the school responded to her concerns, but she’s worried about long-term harms linked to having children in front of computers constantly for virtual learning.

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Governor Lee Bans Gatherings of More Than 10 People

Peter D'Abrosca

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee (R) announced in a five-minute address Sunday evening that the state will ban indoor public gatherings of more than 10 people in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I’m signing an order that will limit indoor public gatherings to 10 people,” Lee said in a televised message to Tennesseans.

“We now have around 10,000 Tennesseans getting sick every day,” he said, adding that Tennessee was “ground zero” for the COVID-19 pandemic, and that cases have surged in the state since Thanksgiving.

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State Rep. Alleges Georgia House Speaker David Ralston ‘Lied to Trump’ About Following Through on Efforts to Convene a Special Session

Chris Butler

In an interview with The Georgia Star News on Friday, State Rep. David Clark (R-Buford), alleged that Georgia Speaker of the House David Ralston (R-Blue Ridge) has no intention to follow through on a promise he made to President Trump in a phone call earlier this month.

Clark alleged that in that phone conversation, Ralston promised President Trump he would use his power and influence to convene a special session of the Georgia General Assembly, for the purpose of reviewing the qualifications of Electors in the aftermath of the November 3rd election, fraught with allegations of voter fraud.

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Commentary: Joe Biden’s ‘First Hundred’ Daze

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Often during spring training, the Hall of Fame baseball manager of the Reds and Tigers, Sparky Anderson, was asked about how his team would fare in the upcoming season. To put off the question without appearing rude, the skipper would say, “we’ll know after the first 40 games.”  Interestingly, the jury is still out on whether Sparky actually believed this, because after the first 40 games he slyly put off the question for more and more games until his team had patently proven its competitive mettle (or lack thereof) to reporters and fans.   

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Commentary: On the First day of Christmas…Teachers Got a Legal Headache Over Blurring the Line Between Church and State

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During a school year disrupted by pandemic-related closures, students across the U.S. will soon be absent for a scheduled reason: the annual Christmas break.

In New York City, the U.S.‘s largest school district, children will be off from Dec. 24 to Jan. 1. Officially called “winter” recess, the December hiatus coincides with Christian celebrations, adding to the number of approved days that many students take off from school on religious holidays, including Eid al-Fitr and Yom Kippur.

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