Month: February 2021

Commentary: How ‘Flatten the Curve’ Became Flatten America

Admin

Joe Biden’s prediction of a dark winter is upon us as many Americans struggle under oppressive Covid lockdowns with no end in sight. How did we go from a common-sense plan to “flatten the curve” to the White House calling for continued restrictions even after Americans are vaccinated? In a word: politics. From the moment the virus arrived on our shores, Democrats used it to their political advantage. They have shown by word and deed that they care less about public safety, and more about control.

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White House Confirms That Hunter Biden Will Divest from Chinese Private Equity Firm

Admin

Hunter Biden is in the process of divesting his ownership stake in the Chinese private equity firm BHR Partners, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki confirmed Friday.

The confirmation follows a report from the Daily Caller News Foundation in January that Hunter Biden continues to hold a 10% stake in the firm despite multiple promises from President Joe Biden during his campaign that no one in his family would engage in foreign business if he won the election.

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Democrat-Sponsored PRO Act Would Invalidate Right-to-Work Laws in 27 States

The Center Square

U.S. House and Senate Democrats have reintroduced the PRO ACT, a sweeping pro-union bill that would wipe out right-to-work labor laws in 27 states.

Democrats argue the PRO Act will create safer workplaces and increase employee benefits by expanding union organizing. Those opposed to it argue it will force small businesses to close, cost an untold number of jobs and worsen the economy, and “impose a laundry list of other union boss power grabs.”

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MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace Paints Trump Supporters as Domestic Terrorists; Points Out That Americans Were Droned During GWOT

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MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace on Friday likened President Trump and millions of his supporters to domestic terrorists while fondly reminiscing about the days when American citizens overseas were killed by drone strikes during the global war on terror.

Wallace, who served the Bush White House as Communications Director in 2005 and 2006, made the comments during an MSNBC panel discussion about the impeachment trial of former President Trump.

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Commentary: Polling and the Truth

Admin

The Berlin Tagesspiegel recently went after a young Protestant theologian whom naïve readers might have mistaken for a polite, unassuming scholar. This figure was outed by an academic colleague who discovered that he wrote for “new Right” publications, a term that in the German context should be understood quite broadly.

One of the venues of this putative extremist is Cato, which is a classical liberal magazine known for making fun of political correctness; his other preferred site is Blaue Narzisse, an educational website on which I, too, have discoursed on literary and philosophical topics. One would have to hang out for several years with the squad in order to be inclined to locate either of these literate publications somewhere on the far-Right. But then the German government and German media apply an expansive definition of the enemy—namely anyone not in line with Islamic, feminist, and LGBT activists or who fails to hate the German language and Western culture sufficiently.

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Music Spotlight: Becca Bowen

Bethany Bowman

NASHVILLE, Tennessee- Becca Bowen is an up-and-coming country artist whose Southern Belle exterior and tomboy personality have earned her the nickname “Country Barbie.” This personal fitness instructor is the single mother of two teenage girls.

Raised in South Carolina, as a child, she participated in pageants and talent shows – but her weekends were spent fishing and enjoying the outdoors with her grandfather. She is a true tomboy with a tiara.

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Former Knox County Court Clerk Pleads Guilty to Theft

The Center Square

A former employee of the Knox County General Sessions Court Clerk’s office has pled guilty to theft of more than $1,000 after an investigation by the Tennessee comptroller’s office.

The comptroller investigation revealed former deputy clerk Steve Harmon stole at least $6,577 from the office between January and October 2019. Harmon was placed on administrative leave in October 2019 and was fired in November 2020.

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Amazon Loses Bid to Delay Unionization Vote at Its Alabama Warehouse

Admin

The National Labor Relations Board denied Amazon’s request to delay a unionization vote in its Bessemer, Alabama warehouse and ensure it’s conducted in-person.

In January, Amazon requested that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) delay the unionization election, arguing that the proposed mail-in ballot election would disenfranchise up to 1,700 workers. The Bessemer, Alabama warehouse’s nearly 5,800 total workers will begin voting in favor or against unionization on Monday.

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Hawley Amendment Suggests Giving Planned Parenthood’s Federal Funds to Adoption

Admin

Republican Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley introduced an amendment Thursday that would transfer federal funds given to Planned Parenthood to federal adoption and maternal health programs instead.

“Instead of abusing obscure Senate rules and procedures to give handouts to their favored constituents, why don’t Democrats work across the aisle to help mothers and children in need,” Hawley asked. “If Democrats are serious about unifying the country, then now is the time to drop divisive, partisan agendas and come together on an issue that all Americans can agree with.”

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Democrats Unveil Bill That Would Limit Section 230 Protections

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Democrats have unveiled a bill that would limit Section 230 liability shields for social media companies, Reuters reported.

The SAFE Tech Act, proposed by Sens. Amy Klobuchar, Mazie Hirono and Mark Warner, aims to hold social media companies accountable such as Alphabet Inc’s Google, Twitter and Facebook for “enabling cyber-stalking, targeted harassment, and discrimination on their platforms,” according to a statement, Reuters reported.

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Report: Atlanta’s Debt Burden at $1,900 Per Resident

The Center Square

A recent report found Atlanta’s budget deficit would cost each of the city’s 500,000 residents $1,900 to balance, representing the 26th-lowest tax burden among the 75 most-populous cities in the U.S.

Truth in Accounting (TIA) released its fifth annual Financial State of the Cities analysis last week, examining the financial health of 75 of America’s most-populous cities and calculating how much each resident would have to pay to cover all of their city’s bills.

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Minnesota Sees Boom in Gun Sales as New Regulations Loom

Admin

The FBI processed 55% more firearm background checks from Minnesota in January 2021 compared to the same month last year.

In the first month of 2020, the Federal Bureau of Investigation processed 56,561 background checks for gun sales through its National Instant Criminal Background Check System (NICS) in Minnesota. In January 2021, that number jumped to 87,538 amid a record-breaking increase in gun-buying around the country.

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Virginia House Passes Repeal of Adoption Conscience Clause

Eric Burk

The House of Delegates approved Delegate Mark Levine’s (D-Arlington) HB 1932 on Wednesday in a 53 to 43 vote. The bill would remove the child-placement conscience clause which protects child-placement agencies from being forced to place children where it would violate the agency’s moral or religious convictions. Supporters of the bill say it ends discrimination currently protected by the Commonwealth, but Catholic adoption agencies and Republican legislators warn that removing the protection could effectively eliminate thousands of potential homes for children in foster care and adoption programs. The bill is now in committee in the Senate.

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Virginia GOP Candidates Start to Collect Endorsements

Eric Burk

As the 2021 campaigns accelerate, Virginia’s GOP gubernatorial candidates have started to pick up some big name endorsements, including from two former governors for Delegate Kirk Cox and from influential grassroots organizer Martha Boneta for Pete Snyder.

“Pete is the trusted, proven conservative that we need to battle career politicians in Richmond that failed us when we needed them most. I want all Republicans to support Pete for governor,” Boneta said in her endorsement Thursday.

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Michigan House Passes COVID-19 Recovery Plan, Would Also Limit Whitmer’s Powers

The Center Square

The Michigan House on Thursday approved a $3.5 billion bill that would make $2.1 billion in federal education funding contingent on Gov. Gretchen Whitmer relinquishing her power to shut down schools to local health departments.

The Republican’s COVID-19 recovery plan includes $33 million for vaccine distribution and $144 million for COVID-19 testing, allocated quarterly.

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Shelby County Schools Introduces Updated Plan for Re-Entry, Still No Date Established

Corinne Murdock

Shelby County Schools (SCS) unveiled a detailed plan for in-person learning – but they haven’t offered any reopening dates or criteria. These updates were shared on Thursday by SCS Superintendent Dr. Joris Ray. 

SCS also created several simulation videos for what their in-person schooling and transportation would look like. Masked students engaged in all their school activities socially-distanced, including meals. And, students who opt for in-person schooling would still have to learn through virtual instruction.

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Biden’s Controversial Executive Order Increasing Refugee Resettlement Could Signal New Battle Between Gov. Bill Lee and County Governments/State Legislators

Peter D'Abrosca

President Joe Biden’s plan to resettle 125,000 foreign refugees this year, a 960 percent increase from former president Donald J. Trump’s 12,000 per year, could intensify an ongoing battle between first-term Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, and elected Republican officials in the legislature and across the state.

“On Thursday, Biden signed an order that will set the maximum number of refugees resettled in the U.S. at 125,000 for Fiscal Year 2021,” Breitbart reported. “The refugee cap is simply a numerical limit and not a goal for federal officials to reach.”

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Commentary: Biden’s Rapidly Deflating Honeymoon Balloon

Admin

After just two weeks, a few political realities are starting to encroach upon the Biden fairyland, whose nativity was heralded in Fox News’ Trump-hater Chris Wallace’s assertion that Biden’s inaugural address was the best in over 60 years. 

After all the tear-jerking promises to emancipate Central American waifs from the “Auschwitz-like” cages, as they were called in Pelosi-speak (despite the fact that President Obama set them up), and the compassion-signaling to the open borders advocates, Biden punted. He reopened a “cage” claiming to emancipate the country from the “moral shame” of his predecessor. He is waiting for the reunification of children “ripped out of the arms” of migrant families, although he knows many of the children were brought in as public relations props by people to whom they are not related; in any case, they were abandoned. 

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Analysis: Snopes and the Fact-Checked Claims That Weren’t Really Made

RealClearWire

A fact-checker’s role is to help readers distinguish fact from fiction by analyzing and rating claims. Sometimes, however, fact-checkers seem to create and check claims that no one is making, or, perhaps inadvertently, blame outlets or individuals for false claims that they didn’t make.

In a fact-check published Jan. 5, Snopes contributor Madison Dapcevich analyzed the claim “Legislation proposed in the New York State Senate in 2021 called for the establishment of COVID-19 ‘detention camps,’” rating this a “Mixture” of truth and falsehood.

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Biden Expected to Increase Amount of Refugees Admitted into U.S.

Admin

The Biden administration plans to announce on Thursday that it will increase the cap on the number of refugees to more than eight times the level at which the Trump administration left it.

President Joe Biden is expected to announce the move during a visit to the State Department. The Trump administration had drastically reduced the refugee admissions cap to only 15,000 for this fiscal year, the lowest since 1980, CNN reports. 

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Eleven Republicans Vote With Democrats to Strip Marjorie Taylor Greene of Her Committee Posts

Admin

By a vote of 230 to 199, the U.S. House of Representatives voted Thursday to remove Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia) from her committee posts. Eleven Republican voted with the Democrats to remove Greene from the committees.

Democrats in the House forced the vote after several of Green’s controversial social media posts surfaced, triggering a backlash among liberals.

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Bank of America Gives Customer Data to Federal Authorities After Capitol Protests

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The mega-bank Bank of America has been giving private information about its customers to the federal government following the mostly peaceful protests at the U.S. Capitol on January 6th, as reported by Fox News.

The report comes from Tucker Carlson’s show Tucker Carlson Tonight, which obtained exclusive documents showing that Bank of America went through the private data and transaction history of all of its more than 60 million customers. This was due to the bank coming to an agreement with the federal government to use this information to identify so-called “extremists” who were present for the Capitol protests.

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Commentary: Teachers Unions Continue to Block School Reopenings Across America

Admin

As district school closures enter their 11th month, many parents are frustrated and angry. They may see private schools that have been open for in-person learning since the start of the academic year and wonder why their own children are forced to endure remote schooling indefinitely. They may ask why in some parts of the country district schools have been open for in-person learning for months.

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Steve Bannon Presents ‘War Room: Pandemic’

Admin

An all new LIVE STREAM of War Room: Pandemic starts at 9 a.m. Central Time on Saturday.

Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon began the daily War Room: Pandemic radio show and podcast on January 25, when news of the virus was just beginning to leak out of China around the Lunar New Year. Bannon and co-hosts bring listeners exclusive analysis and breaking updates from top medical, public health, economic, national security, supply chain and geopolitical experts weekdays from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon ET.

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Johnson & Johnson Files for Emergency Authorization for Its Coronavirus Vaccine

Admin

Johnson & Johnson filed for emergency use authorization from the FDA on Thursday for its coronavirus vaccine.

The drug maker’s application followed its announcement that its vaccine was 72% effective in combating the virus. Although that’s slightly lower than Pfizer and Moderna’s vaccines, Johnson & Johnson’s requires one dose instead of two.

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Metro Arts Receives $50,000 to Relaunch and Expand Racial Equity Leadership Program

Corinne Murdock

Nashville’s Racial Equity in Arts Leadership (REAL) program received a $50,000 jump-start this week to continue its work. The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) awarded the program in its Grants for Arts Projects on Thursday, along with over 1,000 other programs across the country. The NEA awarded over $27.5 million in grants.

The REAL program focuses on advancing racial equity in the arts through its speaker series. Topics have included “The New Being: Perception and the Spiritual Existence of People of Color” and “Radical Inclusion.” Participants are leaders in their field that engage in seminars and workshops focused on racial equity within procedures such as hiring or programming events. 

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U.S. Added 49,000 Jobs in January, Unemployment Rate Fell to 6.3 Percent

Admin

The U.S. economy reported an increase of 49,000 jobs in January while the unemployment rate fell to 6.3%, according to Department of Labor data released Friday.

Total non-farm payroll employment increased by 49,000 in January, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics report, and the number of unemployed persons fell to 10.1 million. Economists projected 50,000 Americans to be added to payrolls and the unemployment rate to increase to come in at 6.7% prior to Friday’s report, according to the WSJ.

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Georgia Representative Introduces Voter ID Legislation She Says Will Help Secure Georgia Elections

Chris Butler

Georgia State Rep. Charlice Byrd (R-Woodstock) this week introduced Voter ID legislation that she said would prohibit people from using certain types of identification for in-person voting. That bill, HB 228, would, if enacted into law, require Georgia residents who are not U.S. citizens to have “BEARER NOT A U.S. CITIZEN — NOT VOTER ID” printed on their licenses, permits and/or identification cards. People who present a license, permit, and ID with this information on it could not present them to a poll worker to vote, according to Byrd’s legislation.

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Controversial Biden Executive Order on New Refugees Likely to Find Support in Virginia

Peter D'Abrosca

Based on the past actions and statements from Virginia’s Democrat Governor Ralph Northam, President Joe Biden’s controversial executive order increasing refugee resettlements is likely to find support in Virginia. 

After a 2019 executive order by former president Donald J. Trump giving localities autonomy over refugee resettlement, Northam wrote a letter to then Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, saying the state would happily continue accepting refugees. 

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Democrats Kill Right-to-Work Repeal in Virginia House

Eric Burk

Delegate Lee Carter’s right-to-work repeal died in crossover Friday, much like in the previous two years, but on Wednesday, Carter fought to give it one last chance. On the floor of the virtual House session, Carter raised a motion to discharge the bill from committee, a procedural move that would allow delegates to vote on hearing the bill in the House even though it had not been passed out of committee.

Carter said, “I’ve introduced this bill for the last three years running, and its fate in both previous years has been to die in crossover without a recorded vote on its final disposition.”

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Timken Leaves Ohio GOP Chairmanship for Likely Run at U.S. Senate

Jack Windsor

  COLUMBUS, Ohio – Jane Timken announced Friday her immediate resignation as Chairwoman of the Ohio Republican Party (ORP).  The message came during a spur of the moment meeting of the Ohio Republican Central Committee during which Timken did not say whether she was leaving to pursue a seat in the U.S. Senate. The Ohio Star reported that Timken was a likely candidate for the seat U.S. Senator Rob Portman said he would not seek for a third time in 2022. Although she did not officially say she is running, Timken was re-elected chairwoman of the ORP January 15 – Portman announced his decision on January 25. Today, I am announcing my resignation as Chairman of the Ohio Republican Party. I am confident that the work we have done over the last four years will leave our party in the best possible position to support Republican candidates up and down the ticket. https://t.co/04GSI5STlo — Jane Timken (@JaneTimkenOH) February 5, 2021 Timken has been officially involved in the ORP since 2010, taking over the chair in 2017.  However, for decades her husband’s family (Timken), as well as she and her husband, often topped the list of GOP donors. Timken has never…

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Michigan Gov. Whitmer Lifts Ban on Contact Sports After Lawsuit

Peter D'Abrosca

  After being sued by a non-profit, high school athletes, and their families, Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) has lifted the state’s ban on contact sports. “And while it’s important that we remain cautious, and adhere to safety protocols to prevent this virus from spreading once more, thanks to our efforts over these last few months – and I mean our efforts, all of our efforts – we are now ready to take a few steps forward in returning to some normal day-to-day activities,” Whitmer said in a Thursday press conference. “Today the [Michigan Department of Health and Human Services] is issuing an epidemic order to allow in-person practice and competition for sports leagues starting on Monday, February 8,” she continued. Originally, the executive order banning contact sports was set to last until February 21. But as reported by The Michigan Star, Whitmer was sued earlier this week over the ban. The lift on the ban comes only one day after Let Them Play, Inc., a non-profit, along with the Michigan Amateur Youth Hockey League and players and parents of high school athletes, filed a lawsuit against Whitmer asking the courts to allow the for the resumption of play. “In part, the lawsuit…

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Governor Northam Wants Virginia Schools to Provide In-Person Option by March 15

Eric Burk

Governor Ralph Northam wants Virginia’s schools to provide in-person learning options by March 15, one year and two days after first ordering schools to close on March 13, 2020. On Friday, the governor sent a letter to school districts instructing them to provide in-person options and encouraged the schools to develop learning-loss mitigation strategies.

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Tennessee Supreme Court Agrees to Hear State’s School Voucher Appeal

Corinne Murdock

The Tennessee Supreme Court has agreed to the state’s appeal on the constitutionality of its education savings account program (ESA). The pilot school voucher program has been tied up in a legal battle for all of 2020 after its passage by the General Assembly in 2019, thereby preventing any planned advancement of the program.

The program was previously ruled unconstitutional by Davidson County Chancery Court Judge Anne Martin. She assessed it would disproportionately impact two counties: Shelby County Schools (SCS) and Metro Nashville Public Schools (MNPS). Those districts reportedly contain about 90 percent of the state’s failing schools list. The Court of Appeals upheld Martin’s decision last September.

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FBI’s Desperate Pretext to Keep Spying on Carter Page: He Might Write a Book!

Admin

Nine months into a relentless effort to spy on Carter Page with the most awesome surveillance tools the U.S. possesses, the FBI had no proof the former Trump adviser had colluded with Russia to hijack the 2016 election.

In fact, the bureau hid from the FISA court the fact that it knew Page was actually a U.S. asset who had helped the CIA and that in a secret recording with an informant he had denied all the core allegations against him with significant proof.

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Tennessee Attorney General Sues Food City for Profiteering on Unlawful Opioid Sales for 15 Years

Corinne Murdock

According to Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery III, Food City unlawfully prescribed opioids solely for profit for well over a decade. Slatery asserted that the grocery chain violated the Tennessee Consumer Protection Act, the public nuisance statute at three of its stores, and the common law by endangering public health.

The attorney general documented these alleged abuses in a complaint totaling just over 200 pages. Accusations included: ignoring or attenuating reports of suspicious prescribers, and fulfilling those prescriptions even after the prescribers were raided, disciplined, arrested, or indicted; selling the opioids to drug trafficking ring members; issuing a rewards card for frequent opioid buyers, making it more accessible and affordable to criminals; pressuring employees to increase opioid sales; illegally and secretly transferring opioids throughout the chain to subvert supplier thresholds; continuing the sale of opioids despite multiple instances of overdoses on property; and selling massive opioid quantities to individuals from foreign countries or far-away states.

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