Month: September 2021

Florida Commissioner of Agriculture Nikki Fried Opposed to Biden Administration’s Monoclonal Reduction

Grant Holcomb

Florida Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried has indicated her opposition to President Joe Biden administration’s decision to limit the amount of monoclonal treatment therapies being sent to Florida.

The Biden Administration, lead by the Department of Health and Human Services (HSS), announced last week they will be taking over the distribution of the treatments and rationing the amount of treatments states like Florida can receive. The treatment will be allotted on an “equitable distribution” basis.

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Michigan School Principal Criticizes Students Who Wore Pro-Trump MAGA Gear During ‘USA Day’

Cooper Moran
Make America Great Again hat on table

A Michigan school principal criticized students who wore Make America Great Again and other pro-Donald Trump clothing during “USA Day” this week.

WWMT reported students at Parchment High School near Kalamazoo celebrated a “USA Day” theme as a part of their homecoming week, which principal George Stamas said was intended to be “fun and unifying.” Instead, he claimed, it created “division.”

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Florida’s Unemployment Rate Falls, Remains Below National Rate

Steve Stewart

Florida’s unemployment rate fell to 5.0 percent in August, down 0.1 percent from the July reported rate of 5.1 percent.

The Florida Department of Economic Opportunity announced Florida has experienced 16 consecutive months of job growth, gaining 19,400 private sector jobs over the month. In total, Florida has gained 990,400 jobs since April 2020.

“Under the leadership of Governor DeSantis, Florida’s unemployment rate is decreasing,” said Secretary Dane Eagle of the Florida Department of Economic Opportunity. “This positive sign shows that Floridians are returning to work and Florida’s economy continues to provide opportunities for meaningful employment. I look forward to working with Floridians to continue these economic successes.”

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Memo Shows Border Patrol Is Experiencing ‘Critical Shortages’ of Frontline Personnel

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An internal memo within U.S. Customs and Border Protection shows that agency leaders are warning of a major shortage of personnel amid a surge of immigration activity at the country’s southern border.

The memo, dispatched on Sept. 17 and obtained by Just the News via a source, warns that Border Patrol “continues to experience critical shortages of frontline personnel due to the rising encounters of individuals attempting to enter the United States without proper authorization along the Southwest Border.”

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Georgia’s Largest County Considers Stacey Abrams Lobbyist for Top Election Job, Angering State

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Georgia’s largest county is prepared to name a paid lobbyist for liberal voting law activist Stacey Abrams’ group to be the next chairwoman of its election board, drawing immediate condemnation from the state’s top election official.

Fulton County’s Board of Commissioners confirmed Tuesday it is considering hiring Cathy Woolard, a former Atlanta city council president and mayoral candidate, as the next chair of the county’s election board. A vote is expected as early as Wednesday, according to the commission’s meeting docket.

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Tennessee U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty Says Joe Biden Takes America Away from Its Allies

Chris Butler

U.S. Senator Bill Hagerty (R-TN) on Saturday faulted U.S. President Joe Biden for a lack of accountability on Afghanistan and for hurting America’s relationship with its political allies.
Hagerty made these remarks to anchorman Jon Scott on FOX News. “What we’ve seen in our allies is the Dutch Foreign Minister stepped down this week. The same for the British Foreign Minister, both have stepped down, they’ve stepped down over their role or their lack of accountability for Afghanistan. They’ve stepped up and taken responsibility,” Hagerty said.

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Sons of Confederate Veterans ‘Put to Rest for Eternity’ Gen. Nathan Bedford in Columbia, Tennessee

Laura Baigert

COLUMBIA, Tennessee – Confederate Lt. Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest was “put to rest for eternity” Saturday by the Sons of Confederate Veterans at the National Confederate Headquarters and Museum at Historic Elm Springs in Columbia, Tennessee.

The General was reinterred with his wife Mary Ann Montgomery Forrest at a private ceremony that was free to attendees but required a ticket, the number of which was limited to about 2,000.

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Commentary: Biden’s Vaccine Mandate Could Rise or Fall Based on 2012 Roberts Ruling on Obamacare Individual Mandate

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“Construing the Commerce Clause to permit Congress to regulate individuals precisely because they are doing nothing would open a new and potentially vast domain to congressional authority.”

That was Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts’ majority opinion ruling in 2012 that the individual mandate to purchase health insurance in the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, was unconstitutional under Congress’ Article I, Section 8 power to regulate interstate commerce.

And yet, the mandate was rescued in the very same decision by Roberts, ruling that penalty under the individual mandate was a valid exercise of Congress’ Article I, Section 8 power to collect taxes.

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Former FDA Head Says CDC Guidance Hurt Pandemic Response

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Scott Gottlieb

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidance ultimately hindered the U.S. response to the pandemic, former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb wrote in his upcoming book “Uncontrolled Spread,” set to be released Sept. 21.

Gottlieb said in the book that U.S. intelligence agencies need to play a more active role in preparing for a pandemic, as opposed to leaving plans solely to health agencies like the CDC.

“We need to have human assets in the medical community so we understand when an outbreak emerges,” Gottlieb said, Axios reported. “We need to have the capability of monitoring typical streams of intelligence, like signals intelligence and maybe even satellite intelligence, looking for things that could be trip wires for an outbreak of disease.”

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War Room: Steve Bannon to Steve Moore, ‘We Are the DIP Lenders, No More Continuing Resolution’

Julie Carr

  Stephen K. Bannon welcomed economic writer and political analyst, Steve Moore on Friday’s War Room: Pandemic to discuss the federal government’s budget timeline and how Republicans are now in a position as DIP lenders to say no to more time. Bannon: Ok. Let’s go to Steve Moore. Steve Moore, another bunch of happy talk all over. And I want to make sure people understand this process because the audience and the American people have all the power. In D.C. they don’t have the power. And this is raw politics. Power politics. Money and power. We have midnight on the 30th, the federal government’s budget runs out. They have to get authorization to spend a penny the next day or the Democrats have to shut the government down. And, because of divine providence, on October 15th, 15 days later they run out of the ability to even spend that money because the debt ceiling locks them in and they can’t borrow anymore. So for this audience, if you would have sat there and said I want the government to stop spending. These politicians don’t do it, stop complaining. The power is in your hands. There is no more intermediary. You…

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Ocasio-Cortez Hit with Second Ethics Complaint over ‘Tax the Rich’ Met Gala Appearance

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Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez in her "Tax the Rich" Met Gala dress

New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez may have violated a myriad of House ethics rules for attending the ritzy Met Gala on Monday evening while wearing a “tax the rich” dress, a conservative watchdog group alleged in a complaint obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

The watchdog group, National Legal and Policy Center, alleged in a complaint filed with the Office of Congressional Ethics on Thursday that Ocasio-Cortez’s acceptance of free tickets to the event, which reportedly run at $35,000 apiece, for both herself and her boyfriend violated House Gift Rules. The group also alleged that Ocasio-Cortez received a prohibited gift from a paid attendee of the Met Gala by sitting at a sponsored table during the event, which are reportedly valued at up to $300,000.

In addition, the watchdog group alleged that Ocasio-Cortez may have accepted prohibited in-kind gifts due to her use of her custom-designed “tax the rich” dress and other services and amenities.

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Commentary: A China Story Bob Woodward Chose Not to Tell

Admin

In a just world, if the reporting of Bob Woodward and Robert Costa in their new book Peril is accurate, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley would be sharpening his ceremonial sword and planning seppuku. Woodward and Costa have reported that Milley circumvented the chain of command and made unauthorized calls to CCP Gen. Li Zuocheng.

If Woodward and Costa got the story wrong, however, they should be the ones sharpening their swords. Although more reliable than most in Big Media, Woodward has reported many stories of questionable accuracy over the years. There was the dubious “potted plant” signal for the equally dubious “Deep Throat,” the imaginative deathbed confession of CIA Director William Casey, and the misinterpreted “slam dunk” quote by former CIA Director George Tenet among others.

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Retail Sales Surprisingly Increased Last Month After Plummeting in July

Admin
Woman checking out a business

Retail sales unexpectedly increased last month despite continued challenges facing the economy as it recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.

Sales ticked up 0.7% in August relative to July and totaled $618.7 billion, according to a Census Bureau report published Thursday. E-commerce, furniture, general merchandise, building materials and energy purchases drove last month’s sales increase.

Dow Jones economists had expected sales to decline 0.8%, CNBC reported. In July retail sales posted a sharp 1.8% decline as coronavirus cases surged, the Census report said Thursday.

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Biden Administration Funds New Project to Bolster Tajik-Afghan Border, Abandons U.S. Border Wall

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While the Biden administration halted construction of the border wall along the U.S.-Mexico border, the United States is funding border security efforts for Tajikistan, a former Soviet republic trying to keep Afghan insurgents and refugees out.

One day after the Biden administration’s Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw from Afghanistan, the U.S. Embassy in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, announced that it had launched a project to construct new facilities for a Border Guard Detachment in Ayvoj, along the Tajik-Afghan-Uzbek border.

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Commentary: Bullets, Ballots, and Books

Admin

The bomb that detonated at Scripps College on the afternoon of February 26, 1969, didn’t injure anyone, but an innocent young woman was badly maimed when another device exploded almost simultaneously in Carnegie Hall at adjacent Pomona College. Hidden inside a shoebox wrapped in brown paper, the second bomb left 20-year-old Mary Ann Keatley blind in one eye and ripped two fingers from her right hand. Keatley, married just five months earlier to an undergraduate at Claremont Men’s College, worked as the secretary for the Pomona political science department. These two explosions, and a third two weeks later, shattered windows, and wrecked buildings.

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Wisconsin Lawmakers Look at Opt-out Option for Parents on Gender and Sex Classes

The Center Square
Girl student standing and holding books in hand in a classroom

Wisconsin lawmakers are wrestling with the question of who should talk to their kids about sexual orientation and gender identity.

The Assembly Committee on Education on Thursday held a marathon hearing on a plan that would allow parents to opt their kids out of classes on both.

“This is merely just a way to give parents a choice,” Rep Bob Whitke, R-Racine, said. “Because there are a lot of concepts now that are coming out in school … it’s being done in a way that parents don’t understand, and parents aren’t notified.

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Posters on Display in California High School Classroom Display ‘F*** The Police’ and ‘F*** Amerikkka’ Phrases

Admin
outside of Alexander Hamilton High School

A California high school classroom displayed what an anonymous parent called “disgusting brainwashing of students with taxpayer dollars” over photos that show F*** the Police and F*** Amerikkka posters and Pride and Black Lives Matter flags, according to a tip provided by a parent to Parents Defending Education.

The parent of a student at Alexander Hamilton High School in Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) shared photos of the posters and flags in the classroom with Parents Defending Education (PDE), a national grassroots organization working to fight “indoctrination in the classroom.”

Photos show an American flag lying on furniture in the classroom, while the Palestine flag, a transgender flag, a Pride flag and a Black Lives Matter flag hang prominently from the blackboard, according to the photos obtained by PDE.

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Mayor of San Francisco Goes to Nightclub Maskless, Breaks Her Own Mandate

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San Francisco Mayor London Breed was seen maskless at a local nightclub Wednesday in violation of the city’s current mask guidance, a local news outlet reported.

Videos and photos show the mayor at the Black Cat jazz club in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, along with the Black Lives Matter co-founder Alicia Garza and Raphael Saadiq, according to Datebook. Most attendees at the concert were not wearing face coverings as mandated by the city.

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Medina County Parent Files Lawsuit over Cloverleaf Local Schools’ Mask Mandate

Cooper Moran
Two young, brunette girls wearing black masks

A parent with a child in the Cloverleaf Local School District in Medina County has filed a lawsuit against the school district board members over the district’s mask mandate.

The lawsuit, filed earlier this month, follows a decision by the board to implement the restriction after allowing masks to be optional at the beginning of the school year

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Florida Attorney General Moody Supporting Challenge to Vaccine Mandate

Grant Holcomb
Ashley Moody

Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody has offered her support for the plaintiffs suing the City of Gainesville over its vaccine mandate policy.

Moody filed an amicus brief in the 8th Circuit Court saying the vaccine mandate does not hold constitutional muster as well as acting as a deterrent for recruiting new members to Florida’s law enforcement agencies.

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Florida COVID Hospitalizations Continue to Drop

Grant Holcomb

For weeks, Florida has been seeing a consistent decline in COVID-related hospitalizations. As of Thursday, Florida has a total of 9,917 confirmed hospitalizations, according to the Florida Hospital Association (FHA) through the Department of Health and Human Services.

Over the last seven days, Florida has seen a 19 percent decrease in hospitalizations and approximately a 32 percent decrease over a 14-day average.

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Wisconsin Rep. Gwen Moore and Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar Call for Investigation into Fort McCoy Refugee Conditions

Hayley Feland
Ilhan Omar and Gwen Moore

Wisconsin Representative Gwen Moore (D-WI-04) and Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN-05) are calling for an investigation into the Fort McCoy refugee conditions. In a letter to the U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, they asked for an investigation into “possible mistreatment and/or neglect.” Moore and Omar said that they were requesting that Austin and others take steps to “ensure the safe and respectful treatment” of the Afghan refugees. They said that the refugees have “suffered enough” with “having to leave their country because of threats to their safety and security.”

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Michigan Prepares for Future Electric Cars Usage

The Center Square

A rise in the number of electric vehicles rumbling off manufacturers’ assembly lines and hitting the state’s roads and highways has Michigan planning to build out a network of charging stations.

A state report predicts by 2030, hybrid or electric vehicles (EV) will represent 51% of all vehicle sales; 50% of vehicle production will have Level 2 autonomy or higher; and software will account for more than 50% of the value of a new vehicle.

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Virginia Sen. Kaine Pushing House to Pass Bill Focused on Health Care Worker Mental Health

Eric Burk

Senator Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) is pushing the House of Representatives to pass his Dr. Lorna Breen Health Care Provider Protection Act, focused on addressing mental health in healthcare professionals. On Wednesday, Kaine held a press conference touting the passage of his bill in the Senate.

“You all have a story about how the time of coronavirus has affected you just as I have a story. But in particular, in particular, the effect of the last year-and-a-half on our front-line health care workers has been incredibly dramatic,” Kaine said.

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Arizona Attorney General Brnovich and Nearly Half the Attorneys General Send Warning Letter to Biden About Vaccine Mandate, Include Policy Concerns

Rachel Alexander

After filing the first lawsuit in the country against President Joe Biden over his sweeping business COVID-19 vaccine mandate, Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich next signed onto a letter with 23 other attorneys general to Biden listing their objections, including non-legal ones. The attorneys general stress that the mandate will drive healthcare workers out of hospitals where they are desperately needed. If Biden does not reverse course, the 24 threaten to sue the administration.

“President Biden’s vaccine mandate lacks both legal authority and integrity,” Brnovich said in a statement. “I am proud to stand alongside my colleagues to push back on this assault on state sovereignty and the liberties of Americans.”

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Gov. Bill Lee Not Saying What Options Tennessee Has if Arriving Afghan Refugees Remain Unvetted

Chris Butler

Governor Bill Lee’s staff would not say Saturday what measures he or other state officials could take if Afghan refugees relocate to Tennessee without the feds scrutinizing them first for health or security risks. Members of Lee’s communications team did not return The Tennessee Star’s request for comment before Saturday’s stated deadline.

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Over 10,000 Illegal Aliens Staying Under Bridge in Texas, Waiting for Authorities to Pick Them Up

Admin

U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) confirmed on Thursday the presence of over 10,000 illegal aliens under a bridge in Del Rio, Texas, who are all simply waiting for immigration officials to take them into custody, according to ABC News.

“The Border Patrol is increasing its manpower in the Del Rio Sector,” the CBP said in a statement, “and coordinating efforts within DHS and other relevant federal, state, and local partners to immediately address the current level of migrant encounters, and to facilitate a safe, humane, and orderly process.”

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‘Justice for J6’ Rally Puts Spotlight on Evidence of Political Motives Behind January 6 Prosecutions]

Admin

Are the January 6 Capitol riot defendants “political prisoners”?

Some conservative activists and Republicans have used the terminology, including Matt Braynard, organizer of the Sept. 18 “Justice for J6” rally at the foot of the Capitol.

The former Trump campaign strategist made the accusation in a complaint against the U.S. with the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, and said he met with “one of the commissioners” to discuss the complaint.

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Commentary: Adopting a ‘Woke Culture’ Hurts Diversity and Inclusion

Admin

I have been watching with great personal and professional interest over the past few years as employers, predominantly the larger publicly traded companies, but sometimes the smaller companies as well, have been forcing their employees to make political choices instead of general work condition choices when weighing career decisions. Likewise, they are forcing their customers to make the same sort of political calculus when deciding whether or not to purchase their company’s goods or services.

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Virginia Teacher Says ‘Positive Behavior’ Like ‘Sitting Quietly,’ ‘Following Directions’ Is White Supremacy

Admin

A Virginia high school teacher posted a TikTok video criticizing the state’s disciplinary approach which promotes such rules as sitting quietly and following directions as “white supremacy.”

Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) is a framework adopted by Virginia “to support positive academic and behavioral outcomes for all students” through “evidence-based prevention and intervention behavioral strategies.”

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Clarence Thomas: The Supreme Court Could Be the ‘Most Dangerous’ Branch of Government

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Justice Clarence Thomas warned against politicizing the Supreme Court Thursday, saying that doing so could make the judicial system the “most dangerous” branch of government.

During a speech at the University of Notre Dame, Thomas cautioned against allowing “others to manipulate our institutions when we don’t get the outcome we like.” He reminded the crowd that justices do rule not based on “personal preferences,” according to The Washington Post.

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Nicki Minaj and Juanita Broaddrick Suspended from Twitter for Voicing Concerns About COVID Vaccines

Admin

Two famous individuals from opposite sides of the political divide— Nicki Minaj and Juanita Broaddrick—were suspended from Twitter in the past 24 hours for voicing their concerns about the experimental COVID vaccines, or as Twitter put it, spreading “vaccine disinformation.”

Minaj addressed her 157,000,000 followers on Instagram Live on Wednesday, warning in a powerful speech that the COVID Cancel Culture is turning America into a country like China.

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Judge Ruling Prevents Abbott from Closing Planned Entry Points Along Southern Border

Admin
Greg Abbott

A ruling from a federal judge on Thursday led Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to abandon his plan to close six entry points on the southern border amid a surge of migrants, the El Paso Times reported.

The U.S. District Judge for the District of Columbia blocked President Joe Biden from turning away migrant families with children under 18, citing a health order related to the COVID-19 pandemic, the El Paso Times reported. The order will take effect in 14 days.

Abbott announced Thursday he had directed the Texas Department of Public Safety and the Texas National Guard to close six entry points along the southern border in a statement obtained by Fox News.

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Virginia Tech Professor Apologizes for Her ‘Innate Racism’ in Syllabus

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A human development and family science instructor at Virginia Tech University recently apologized to her students of color for her whiteness and encouraged white students to “join” her “on this journey” of confronting inherent biases.

Duncan Lane created a “Who I Am” section in her Human Development 1134 syllabus to speak on her experience with racism. She began with an extensive description of her demographics.

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New Durham Indictment Exposes Second Leg of Hillary Clinton’s Russia Collusion Dirty Trick

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Nearly two years after evidence emerged that the infamous Steele dossier was a political dirty trick filled with Russian disinformation and disproved allegations, Special Counsel John Durham unloaded a new indictment that exposes a parallel effort by Hillary Clinton’s campaign to flood the FBI with more dubious Trump-Russia collusion dirt.

In painstaking detail, Durham laid out in the indictment Thursday how Democrat superlawyer Michael Sussmann used Clinton campaign funds to construct a now-debunked memo and other evidence alleging that computer communications between a server at the Alfa Bank in Russia and the Trump Tower in New York might be a secret backdoor communication system for Trump and Vladimir Putin to hijack the 2016 election.

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Over 200,000 Illegal Migrants Encountered at the Southern Border for the Second Month in a Row

Admin

Monthly border encounters with migrants attempting to illegally enter the U.S. decreased slightly in August for the first time since President Joe Biden took office but remain near record highs, according to Customs and Border Protection data.

Border officials encountered nearly 209,000 migrants at the southern border in August, down from a record high of 213,500 people in July, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). Officials encountered a record-high number of migrants compared to 50,000 in August 2020 and 62,700 in August 2019.

However, a “larger-than-usual number of migrants” are attempting to illegally cross the border several times so “total encounters somewhat overstate the number of unique individuals arriving at the border,” CBP announced. Officials encountered 156,600 unique individuals in August and 25% of them had at least one prior encounter in the last 12 months.

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