Day: February 25, 2021

Once-Secret FBI Informant Reports Reveal Wider-Ranging Operation to Spy on Trump Campaign

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Once-secret reports show the FBI effort to spy on the Trump campaign was far wider than previously disclosed, as agents directed an undercover informant to make secret recordings, pressed for intelligence on numerous GOP figures, and sought to find “anyone in the Trump campaign” with ties to Russia who could acquire dirt “damaging to Hillary Clinton.”

The now-declassified operational handling reports for FBI confidential human source Stefan Halper — codenamed “Mitch” — provide an unprecedented window both into the tactics used by the bureau to probe the Trump campaign and the wide dragnet that was cast to target numerous high-level officials inside the GOP campaign just weeks before Americans chose their next president in the November 2016 election.

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Review: Stephen R. Soukup’s New Book ‘The Dictatorship of Woke Capital’ Explores Big Business’ Role in Pushing Wokeness

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During the 2019 shareholder season, Justin Danhof, general counsel for the National Center for Public Policy Research, tabled a shareholder proposal at Amazon’s annual meeting. “Diversity in board composition is best achieved though highly qualified candidates with a wide range of skills, experience, beliefs, and board independence from management,” it read. Uncontroversial, one might think, but Danhof was booed and heckled throughout his presentation. Afterward, a representative for Arjuna Capital (which “works with high net-worth individuals,” its website says) told Danhof that he was simply trying “to protect white males.” A representative of the Nathan Cummings Foundation (with $424 million of cash and investments, on its most recent balance sheet) made clear that Danhof was unwelcome and should hasten, lest he be late for his next Klan meeting or book burning.

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Report: DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Plans to Gut ICE Immigration Enforcement

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Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has introduced a plan to “reorganize”  ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations to the point where it will no longer be about enforcing the nation’s immigration laws, the Washington Times reported.

The Cuba-born Mayorkas floated this plan to essentially “abolish ICE” last week during a telephone conference call with agency personnel in Texas, according to the Times’ sources, who claimed Mayorkas proposed “taking members of the country’s 4,000-strong deportation force off the streets and converting them into criminal investigators.”

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Biden Administration Is Lying About the Reason for a New Migrant Child Detention Center, Former Border Official Says

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Illegal Alien Detention center

A new facility to hold unaccompanied migrant children was opened in Texas this week because the Biden administration is encouraging illegal immigration, a former border official said Wednesday.

The Carrizo Springs facility was not opened to comply with COVID-19 regulations as the Biden administration has said, according to former Acting Commissioner of Customs and Border Protection (CBP) Mark Morgan in an interview with Fox Business.

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GOP Lawmakers Demand Investigation into National Institutes of Health’s Relationship with Wuhan Lab

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Dozens of Republican members of Congress wrote a letter to National Institutes of Health Acting Inspector General Christi Grimm on Tuesday demanding a “prompt and thorough investigation” into the NIH’s relationship with a Chinese lab that studied coronaviruses.

The 28 lawmakers demanded Grimm investigate the total amount of funding the Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) has received from the NIH, as well as whether any NIH officials communicated with the lab or its U.S. sponsor at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic to quell debate surrounding the theory that the virus could have accidentally escaped from the lab.

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Johnson & Johnson’s Coronavirus Vaccine Offers Strong Protection, Reduces Spread, FDA Analysis Finds

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Johnson & Johnson’s one-dose vaccine is effective in preventing severe and fatal coronavirus cases, and may reduce the virus’s transmission among vaccinated people, the FDA said in new analyses Wednesday.

The drug maker announced in January that its vaccine was 72% effective against the virus in the United States and 64% effective in South Africa, where a mutated, more transmissible strain has become dominant. Its vaccine was 86% effective in preventing severe virus cases in the U.S., meaning that a vaccinated individual is at a far smaller risk of being hospitalized or dying from COVID-19.

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Commentary: Getting Rid of the SAT Essay Won’t Help Anyone

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It’s official. Last month, the College Board announced that it would discontinue the essay-writing section of the SAT. It’s the latest in a series of recent decisions to reduce the use of standardized testing in college admissions. Proponents of the decision cited claims of racism and bias against underrepresented groups. But those claims don’t hold water. And ditching the writing portion of the SAT is unlikely to help anyone. 

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Commentary: Soviet-Style Equal Opportunity in America

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It’s not every day that the subject of Soviet anti-Semitism—something my family experienced firsthand—is broached in the American media. When it does happen, however, unpleasant comparisons to certain trends in the United States are tough to avoid. 

In a fascinating piece for Tablet Magazine, Julia Schulman and Michael Hsieh profiled several prominent Jewish scientists and mathematicians who encountered racial bias in admission to leading institutes in the old USSR. The subjects of their investigation defied the long odds, eventually rising to the top of their fields despite official policies excluding Jews from Soviet universities.

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Democrats Say No to Mark Green’s Efforts to Protect People of Faith on Equality Act Legislation

Chris Butler

U.S. Rep. Mark Green (R-TN-07) this week submitted — but was unsuccessful in adding — key amendments to Democrats Equality Act legislation. As written, the Equality Act makes it impossible for organizations to turn away biological males who identify as women from women’s spaces such as restrooms, showers, locker rooms, homeless shelters, and domestic violence shelters.

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Banks, Financial Services Firms Next to Bow to ‘Woke Left,’ Ban Conservatives, Warns Rep. Ted Budd

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A new frontier in “cancel culture” is looming on the horizon: Banking and financial services firms could ban conservative customers and others from industries targeted by the left, warns North Carolina Republican Rep. Ted Budd, a member of the House Financial Services Committee.

The targets appear to include Republican members of Congress who voted to challenge the 2020 election results (just as some Democrats did in 2017, 2005 and 2001 without facing financial backlash). Additional possible targeted industries range from fossil fuels and firearms to for-profit colleges and payday lenders.

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Exclusive: Young Operative Targeted by HHS Nominee Beccerra Demands GOP Oppose Him

Neil W. McCabe

  A young California Republican operative and Coast Guard veteran targeted by California Attorney General Xavier Becerra told the Star News Network Senate Republicans are not doing enough to opposed Becerra nomination to lead Health and Human Services. “Xavier Becerra is by far one of the most ruthless, unethical and corrupt politicians in our country,” said Jordan Tygh, a Coast Guard veteran and former campaign staffer for the California GOP in 2020. “If any one of Biden’s nominee’s can be stopped it needs to be him. The GOP needs to stand strong together with courageous Democrats that are serious about unity to stop this man,” he said. “He played a huge role in destroying my life over a blatant lie – along with Senator Padilla he used his office for partisan political intimidation,” Tygh said. “He used it to legitimize false accusations in order to win cheap political points that resulted in harassment, threats of rape and death, and and a complete tarnishing of my reputation that still affects me to this day.” Then-California Secretary of State Alex Padilla is now serving as the state’s junior senator after Gov. Gavin Newson appointed him to fill out the remainder of Vice…

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160 Confederate Monuments Were Taken Down in 2020

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At least 160 Confederate symbols including statues were removed from public spaces following the death of George Floyd in 2020, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

Of the symbols removed 94 were Confederate monuments, including a statue of Confederate General Robert E. Lee that was removed from the U.S. Capitol building after 111 years, according to Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) data. The left-leaning SPLC keeps track of around 2,100 public parks, buildings and statues devoted to the Confederacy through a database called “Whose Heritage?”

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New Georgia Bill Would Limit Secretary of State’s Ability to Enter into Consent Agreements

Chris Butler

Georgia legislators filed a bill this week that, among other things, would limit the ability of the State Election Board and the secretary of state to enter into certain consent agreements. “The State Election Board, the members thereof, the Secretary of State, and any of their attorneys or staff shall not have any authority to enter into any consent agreement with any other person that limits, alters, or interprets any provision of this chapter without obtaining the approval of the General Assembly through a joint resolution,” according to the language of the bill.

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Minnesota Lt. Gov. Suggests Bigotry to Blame for Opposition to Haaland Appointment

Peter D'Abrosca

Without evidence, Minnesota’s Democrat Lieutenant Governor suggested that opposition to the appointment of Rep. Deb Haaland (D-NM-01) to be the United States Secretary of the Interior is rooted in anti-Native American bigotry. 

“Boozhoo! This is Peggy Flanagan. I’m a member of the White Earth Band of Ojibwe and Lieutenant Governor of Minnesota,” Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan said in a video on Twitter, urging her followers to support Haaland.

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Virginia General Assembly Approves Styrofoam Ban

Eric Burk

The General Assembly passed a polystyrene (Styrofoam) ban for serving food in restaurants and similar vendors in Virginia. The bill, passed on Wednesday, will first take effect in July 2023 to large vendors with more than 20 locations; in July 2025, it will apply to all vendors, although vendors can apply for temporary exemptions to their localities. Violation can result in a $50 per day fine.

Senator Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax) pushed HB 1902 in the Senate as a compromise to allow the House of Delegates to pass a bill adjusting regulation of new recycling technology. Republicans opposed the polystyrene ban, saying it would harm small businesses, but supported Senator Emmet Hanger’s (R-Augusta) advanced recycling regulation bill.

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Ohio Donut Shop Calls Police on State Rep over COVID Concerns

Peter D'Abrosca

In West Chester, a battle is raging after a donut shop called the police on a Republican state congresswoman who was holding an event inside their establishment. 

“We didn’t think we’d be a shop that would have to make a post like this, but here we are… Our staff in West Chester were bombarded with a large group of people for a Facebook event ‘Coffee Chat with Rep. Jennifer Gross’. This was NOT approved by us, nor did anyone call to tell us that this was happening,” Holtman’s Donut Shop said on it’s Facebook page.

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DoorDash Giving $3,500 Grants to Small Virginia Restaurants

Eric Burk

Food delivery service DoorDash is giving about 125 small Virginia restaurants $3,500 each in partnership with the Virginia Restaurant Lodging Travel Association (VRLTA) but time is running out — the deadline to apply for the grant is 5 p.m. March 1.

“Virginia’s restaurants have faced unprecedented challenges the past year,” VRLTA President Eric Terry said in a press release. “DoorDash’s donation to the state’s restaurant relief efforts will offer much-needed help to small businesses.”

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Bill Would Remove Concealed Handgun Carriers’ Responsibility to Promptly Notify Ohio Officers

The Center Square

A bill before the Ohio House would eliminate the requirement for those carrying a gun to tell law enforcement officers they have it. Instead, they only would need to mention it if asked.

Rep. Scott Wiggam, R-Wayne County, said the state’s current law is unclear and its penalties are too harsh. His bill, House Bill 89, changes that.

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Georgia Senate Approves Election Reform Package, Including Absentee Ballot Signature-Match Overhaul

The Center Square

The Georgia Senate approved four measures Tuesday that make changes to the election process as a response to November’s presidential election.

Georgia gained national attention after a close presidential election prompted three recounts and lawsuits and threats from former President Donald Trump’s campaign and supporters. Several questions and allegations arose from Georgia’s absentee-ballot process.

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State Senate Advances Measure That Changes the Way Tennessee’s Attorney General Is Selected

Laura Baigert

The Senate Judiciary Committee advanced a resolution Tuesday that would change the way the state’s Attorney General and Reporter for Tennessee is selected.

Senate Joint Resolution 1 would make the current process for nominating the attorney general more transparent and give the Tennessee General Assembly a say in the selection through a change to the Tennessee Constitution.

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