Month: September 2021

Poll: Republican Trust in Media Lower Than Ever as Partisan Divide Widens

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people using their phones while standing

The percentage of Republicans who say they trust the news has plummeted over the past five years despite Democrats’ faith in media remaining high, as the partisan gap in media trust continues to widen.

When asked “how much, if at all, do you trust the information that comes from national news organizations,” only 35% of Republicans said they have at least “some” trust, down from 70% in 2016, according to a Pew Research Center poll released Monday. Meanwhile, 78% of Democrats said they have “a lot” or “some trust” in the national news media, a slight drop from 86% in 2016.

The partisan divide in media trust is at its widest, and Republican trust in national news is at its lowest, since Pew Research Center began asking the question in 2016.

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Commentary: Our Afghan Nightmare

Admin

Joe Biden’s scripted or no-questions press conferences, and the clean-up afterward by Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan, and Jen Psaki, have been some of the most misleading episodes in modern presidential history—mostly in what was not said rather than was exaggerated, warped, and misrepresented.

The more Joe Biden mutters “The buck stops here” or “I take full responsibility,” the more we know he will not—and not just because of his now reduced mental state, but because 1) he repeats the same opportunist messaging that he has for the last 50 years of his political career, and 2) the only true thing he could say was “I ordered a withdrawal in the most reckless manner in U.S. military history.”

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Report: Home Prices 41 Percent Higher Than Previous Peak in 2006 Before Great Recession

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A beige house in a suburban community during the day

Home prices in the U.S. are more than 41% higher than the previous peak recorded in 2006 during the housing boom that preceded the Great Recession, according to a national index.

Home prices hit a new peak in June, increasing at an annual rate of 18.6%, and 2.2% compared to May, according to the S&P CoreLogic Case-Shiller U.S. National Home Price Index published Tuesday. The index is 95% higher than it was in 2012 when the housing market bottomed out following the recession.

“June 2021 is the third consecutive month in which the growth rate of housing prices set a record,” S&P DJI Managing Director of Index Investment Strategy Craig Lazzara said in a statement. “The National Composite Index marked its thirteenth consecutive month of accelerating prices.”

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Exclusive: In Secret Texts, U.S. Military Officials Lamented Leaving Americans Behind in Kabul

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President Biden declared to a puzzled country on Tuesday that the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan was an “extraordinary success,” while his Pentagon portrayed a prosaic, workaday process to repatriate Americans still stranded in the war-torn country.

But text messages between U.S. military commanders and private citizens mounting last-minute rescues tell a far different story, one in which pleading American citizens were frantically left behind at the Kabul airport gate this past weekend to face an uncertain fate under Taliban rule while U.S. officials sought to spread the blame between high-ranking generals and the State Department.

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Commentary: A School Movement Targeting Minorities That Works, Progressives Don’t Like It

RealClearWire

Michael Landsbaum hit bottom after his father lost his job and couldn’t pay rent, leaving the teenager homeless in Dallas. He slept on friends’ couches for months until he was rescued by an unlikely source: his high school.

But Pathways in Technology Early College High School did much more than provide him with a place to stay at a counselor’s home. Its accelerated program, including college courses, gave Landsbaum the drive to get through the tough times and the hope for better days.

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Apple and Google Face First Major Challenge to Their App Store Dominance

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smartphone app store

Apple and Google might change their app store business practices because of a new South Korean law similar to recent legislative efforts by U.S. lawmakers.

The new law would prohibit app stores, including Apple’s App Store and the Google Play Store, from forcing developers to use the tech giants’ payment systems, The Wall Street Journal reported. The bill, passed by South Korea’s National Assembly, will become law once signed by President Moon Jae-in.

The Korean bill is similar to a bipartisan bill introduced by Sens. Richard Blumenthal, Amy Klobuchar, and Marsha Blackburn to the U.S. Senate earlier this month that seeks “to promote competition and reduce gatekeeper power in the app economy, increase choice, improve quality, and reduce costs for consumers.” Both bills prevent app stores from requiring the use of their billing systems and take aim at the tech giants’ commission structure.

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Commentary: The Puppet Master of the Republic

The Center Square

“Ya know, reality has a way of intruding. Reality eventually intrudes on everything.”

– Joe Biden

During last year’s Democratic primaries when everyone fumbled the ball, the leftist voters turned to socialist Bernie Sanders. Although the DNC figured Sanders would fizzle with baseline Democrats, they misread their comrades. When Sanders won California and Nevada, they hurriedly regrouped. Their strategy was to pair Joe Biden with a babysitter VP, and use them as their progressive shills.

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Ohio Reps Fault Biden for Bypassing Congress Ahead of Afghanistan Withdrawal

Brian Ball

GOP congressman said President Joe Biden’s decision in early June to dismiss a mandate to confer with lawmakers before withdrawing from Afghanistan contributed to the chaotic withdrawal that officially ended Tuesday.

The Ohio Star contacted the 11 Republican representatives to react to a report from JustTheNews.com that Biden had waived a congressional mandate to receive a Pentagon risk assessment to counter-terrorism operations and the safety to American personnel stationed in Afghasistan to Congress before U.S. troop levels fell below 2,000.

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Youngkin Campaign Blasts McAuliffe for Upcoming Fundraiser with Bill Clinton

Peter D'Abrosca
Terry McAuliffe

Former Virginia governor and current gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, a Democrat, is heading to New York to fundraise with former President Bill Clinton. 

The exclusive $1,000 per plate fundraiser will take place later this week, as the race between McAuliffe and his Republican counterpart, businessman Glenn Youngkin, enters its crucial final two months. For $50,000, donors can be listed as a “co-host” of the event. For $100,000, they can be listed as a “host.” 

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Virginia Supreme Court Upholds Lower Court Decision to Reinstate Loudoun Teacher Tanner Cross

Eric Burk

The Virginia Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s injunction to force Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) to reinstate teacher Tanner Cross. LCPS officials had asked for a review of the decision by the Loudoun County Circuit Court, saying the court was incorrect to find a likelihood of success on the merits of the case, that Cross wasn’t likely to suffer irreparable harm without the injunction, and that the court hadn’t considered the totality of the circumstances.

“We conclude that the Defendants have not established the circuit court abused its discretion in granting Cross a temporary injunction,” the Virginia Supreme Court’s Monday order states.

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Arizona Representative Lesko Calls on Biden and Blinken to Resign over Afghanistan

Rachel Alexander

Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ-08) asked President Joe Biden and his Secretary of State Antony Blinken to resign due to the chaos unfolding in Afghanistan. Under Biden’s leadership and against the warnings of intelligence and top generals, U.S. troops were withdrawn from the country, leaving the Taliban to take over as the remaining Afghan army was unable to stop them on its own. The U.S. failed to withdraw all of the Americans from the country before the takeover, resulting in the deaths of 13 American soldiers on August 23 by a suicide bomber at the Kabul airport. Although the U.S. sent several thousand troops back into Afghanistan to evacuate the remaining Americans as well as Afghans who had worked with the U.S., they were unable to evacuate all of them by the Taliban’s deadline of August 31.

“After numerous intelligence briefings and reviewing the situation on the ground, it is clear that someone must be held accountable for the chaos that has unfolded in Afghanistan and led to the loss of American lives,” Lesko said in a statement. “From the outset, it has been apparent that the Biden Administration had no plan for a safe and effective withdrawal of U.S. military personnel, American citizens, and Afghan allies from Afghanistan.”

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Members of Georgia’s Congressional Delegation Label Biden’s Actions ‘Dangerous,’ Demand He Resign or Face Impeachment

Chris Butler

U.S. Representative Drew Ferguson (R-GA-03) on Tuesday reprimanded U.S. President Joe Biden and said the president ignored members of Congress, military leaders, and intelligence agencies before he abandoned Americans in the Middle East. Just the News reported Tuesday that Biden, in June, waived an important congressional mandate. That mandate would have forced members of the Pentagon to inform Congress, in depth, about the risks of withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

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Expert Tells Georgia Legislators How COVID-19 and Too Few Experienced Prosecutors Contribute to High Crime Rate

Chris Butler

If Georgia officials want to reverse soaring crime rates then they must keep more experienced prosecutors on the job, and they must also contain the spread of COVID-19 so jails can hold more prisoners. This, according to Prosecuting Attorneys’ Council of Georgia (PACGA) Executive Director Pete Skandalakis. He spoke Tuesday at a hearing before Georgia State House Public Safety and Homeland Security committee members. Committee members met at the state capitol to discuss crime in Atlanta.

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Michigan Republicans Launch Citizens Initiative to Implement Election Integrity Laws

Cooper Moran

Michigan Republicans are launching a citizen initiative to implement election reforms after the 2020 vote, WWMT reported.

The legislature has been making progress on a package of 39 bills that would require photo ID to vote, and provide proof of ID when submitting an absentee ballot application, among other things. Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), whose signature would be required to enact the potential law, has vowed to veto the legislation.

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Biden Officials at Kabul Airport Warned American Rescue Plane to Turn Back or Be Shot Down

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A private airplane that was flying into Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) in Kabul, Afghanistan to rescue stranded American citizens and Afghan allies allegedly was told to turn back or they would be shot down.

In the past 24 hours, American officials in charge of giving clearance at the airport told fellow Americans they would be fired upon if they didn’t leave, Mary Beth Long, a former Department of Defense official, told American Greatness in an exclusive interview.

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Florida Department of Education Will Withhold Salaries from Alachua and Broward School Boards

Casey Owens

In an announcement made by the Florida Department of Education (FDOE) on Monday, the Department said it will officially withhold monthly salaries of school boards in Alachua and Broward counties for issuing mask mandates for their students in violation of state law.

In July, Governor DeSantis signed an executive order banning school boards and districts from placing mask mandates in Florida schools, referencing the Parents’ Bill of Rights that DeSantis established in the 2021 legislative session.

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U.S. Department of Education Investigating States over Mask Mandate Bans

Grant Holcomb

The U.S. Department of Education (U.S. DOE) announced they are investigating state laws across the country pertaining to mask mandate bans. The states subject to investigation are Iowa, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah. Notably, Florida was not included in the list regarding the initial investigation.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed an executive order banning mask mandates on July 30 kicking off a month of threats, legal action, and defiant school boards.

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Questions over Federal Renters’ Assistance Linger After Eviction Moratorium Tossed

The Center Square

Billions of available federal dollars for rental assistance remain in limbo after the U.S. Supreme Court for a second time rejected President Joe Biden’s plans to perpetuate a federal eviction moratorium without Congressional approval.

“If a federally imposed eviction moratorium is to continue, Congress must specifically authorize it,” the court ruled in a 6-3 decision late Thursday, with the court’s three liberal justices dissenting.

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Michigan State University Sued over Vaccine Mandate

The Center Square

A Michigan State University (MSU) employee sued over the school’s recently announced vaccine mandate, saying she has naturally acquired immunity to COVID-19 after recovering from the virus last year and doesn’t need the vaccine.

Jeanna Norris is a supervisory administrative associate and fiscal officer at MSU, which has threatened disciplinary action, including termination, if employees do not comply with the school’s mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy for the Fall 2021 semester, according to a lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan.

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Tennessee Congressman Says Democrats Will Not Hold Joe Biden Accountable on Afghanistan

Chris Butler

Members of Tennessee’s GOP delegation said Tuesday that U.S. President Joe Biden has behaved in an  untrustworthy manner on the matter of Afghanistan.

Just the News reported Tuesday that Biden, in June, waived an important congressional mandate. That mandate would have forced members of the Pentagon to inform Congress, in depth, about the risks of withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan.

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