Day: October 5, 2021

20 Arizona Republican Legislators Denounce ASU Video of White Students Kicked Out of Multicultural Center, Considers Defunding

Rachel Alexander

Arizona State Rep. Jake Hoffman (R-Queen Creek) and 19 other legislators issued a statement following a video that went viral of three black students kicking two white students out of Arizona State University’s multicultural center. They demanded accountability and threatened to withhold funding from the university.

They announced, “It has come to light following the racially-motivated harassment of two students and their subsequent removal from one of the campus’ study facilities that ASU has allowed a culture of institutionalized racism and neo-segregation to take hold on its campus. The racially-charged removal of these students from the multicultural center begs the question of why Arizonans are being forced to spend tens, potentially hundreds, of millions of their hard-earned tax dollars on a building at a public university that some of our citizens are not allowed to use?”

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Stony Brook Student Beaten for Backing Amy Coney Barrett Faces Barrett-Backed Vax Rule Expulsion

Neil W. McCabe
Stony Brook University

Supreme Court Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett began her first full session on the high court with lingering doubts from a conservative student in her senior year at Stony Brook University facing expulsion with the loss of all semester credits and tuition, thanks to a Barrett ruling, less than one year after leftists beat the student for supporting Barrett confirmation.

“It definitely really upsets me, because I feel that I fight for good people on social media, and for Amy Coney Barrett in person, where I am physically assaulted, and then she goes ahead and does things that we did not vote her in for,” said Isabella Maria DeLuca, a political science-pre-law major at the school, which is part of State University of New York system.

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During COVID-19, Tennessee Teachers Say In-Person Learning Poses Fewer Challenges Than Remote Learning

Chris Butler

Some of the Tennessee’s educators said in a new survey that they worried about students missing class time during the time of COVID-19. Officials with the Tennessee Department of Education (TDOE) and the Tennessee Education Research Alliance (TERA) on Sunday released what they said were key findings and responses from the 2021 Tennessee Educator Survey from 40,000 educators.

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Commentary: The Senate Must Defeat Communist Saule Omarova for Comptroller of the Currency

Admin
Saule Omarova

 
Every so often we receive a comment to the effect that we are paranoid and should stop seeing a Communist under every bed, however, it appears that based on the views expressed by Prof. Saule Omarova, President Biden’s nominee for Comptroller of the Currency, our concerns about the takeover of the Democratic Party by Socialists and Communists have received some very solid confirmation.

Indeed, Omarova is so far out in Communism’s Left Field that Janet Yellen, Biden’s Treasury secretary (a garden variety liberal Democrat) raised concerns about her taking the post.

And Secretary Yellin’s concerns are amply justified.
In 2019, Omarova posted to Twitter in support of the “old USSR” where there was “no gender pay gap.” She attempted to do damage control after being criticized for it, but failed to fully condemn the Soviet Union.

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January 6 Commission Chairman Once Sympathized with Black Secessionist Group that Killed Police Officers

Admin

Rep. Bennie Thompson, the Mississippi Democrat who chairs the congressional commission investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, has been a vocal critic of an event he deems an insurrection and offered his sympathy to the police officers injured that day. He’s even gone as far as to sue former President Donald Trump for responsibility for the melee.

But as a young African-American alderman in a small Mississippi community in 1971, Thompson placed himself on the opposite side, openly sympathizing with a secessionist group known as the Republic of New Africa and participating in a news conference blaming law enforcement for instigating clashes with the group that led to the killings of a police officer and the wounding of an FBI agent. Thompson’s official biography makes no reference to the separatist RNA.

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Conservative Tech Groups Slam Ex-Intelligence Officials for Defending Monopolies, Urge Passage of Antitrust Bills

Admin

Two conservative tech advocacy groups sent a letter to House lawmakers criticizing former national security officials for attempting to prevent the passage of antitrust bills targeting Big Tech.

The letter, sent by the Internet Accountability Project (IAP) and the American Principles Project (APP) to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy along with lawmakers responsible for overseeing antitrust legislation, urged Congress to pass six bills targeting major tech companies advanced beyond the House Judiciary Committee in June. The letter also criticized twelve former intelligence officials who sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy arguing against the passage of antitrust bills in mid-September.

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‘We Will Use the Full Range of Tools’: Trade Representative Says U.S. Will Enforce Phase One Trade Deal with China

Admin
President Donald J. Trump, joined by Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, sign the U.S. China Phase One Trade Agreement Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2020, in the East Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)

U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the Biden administration would enforce the Phase One trade agreement negotiated by the Trump administration with China while giving a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Monday.

“For too long, China’s lack of adherence to global trading norms has undercut the prosperity of Americans and others around the world,” Tai said in prepared remarks. “China made commitments that benefit certain American industries, including agriculture, that we must enforce.”

China has fallen short on the purchase totals it agreed to as part of the agreement, increasing its purchases by only 69% as of July 2021, according to the non-partisan Peterson Institute for International Economics (PIIE).

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Newly-Released ‘Pandora Papers’ Reveal Billions Hidden from Tax Laws by the Wealthy

Admin

A new comprehensive study of 12 million internal files from 14 major international firms has revealed even more than previously known about how much the world’s wealthy elite have hidden their wealth from domestic tax requirements, according to CBS News.

The report, dubbed the “Pandora Papers,” was conducted by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, which consisted of over 600 journalists from 150 media outlets in 117 different countries. The findings, released on Sunday, included celebrities, politicians, businessmen, and religious leaders, among others; these and other figures went to great extents to hide their wealth in offshore assets such as yachts, mansions, beachfront properties, and other properties for the last 25 years.

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Future Teachers will be Separated into White, BIPOC Affinity Groups at Education College

Admin

Bank Street Graduate School of Education recently touted its new “affinity groups” for White students and “students of color.”

The New York City-based college announced the groups in a September 23 blog post, telling prospective students that “becoming part of an ongoing conversation about race and ourselves as racial beings is one way to engage in this necessary aspect of the work we need to do.”

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U.S. Authorities Seize 1.8 Million Illicit Pills Laced with Fentanyl, Point to Social Media for Rising Drug Traffic

Admin

U.S. authorities criticized social media for an uptick in drug trafficking following a massive seizure of over a million fentanyl-laced pills and hundreds of drug dealer arrests.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced Monday that it, alongside various law enforcement partners, seized over 1.8 million fake pills laced with fentanyl and arrested over 800 alleged drug dealers over the course of a two-month drug bust beginning in August. Authorities have criticized social media companies that have failed to stop the sale of these illicit drugs on their platforms.

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‘Non-Partisan’ Colorado Newsline Editor Quentin Young Demands Eliminating University’s Conservative Scholar Program

Admin

In his recently published op-ed, Colorado Newsline editor Quentin Young has one demand for the University of Colorado Boulder: eliminate the school’s dedicated conservative teaching position.

Every year since 2013, the Conservative Thought and Policy Program at CU Boulder brings one scholar to campus to discuss conservative thought in the fields of “policy, military, and media communities, among others.”

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Commentary: How the COVID IP Waiver Could Sabotage Crucial Cancer Research

The Center Square
Doctor with mask on holding COVID-19 Vaccine

President Joe Biden craves a cure for cancer. In a speech to Congress this spring, he vowed to “end cancer as we know it.” And as vice president, he helped start the Cancer Moonshot initiative.

Yet by giving his backing to a global waiver of intellectual property (IP) rights for COVID-19 vaccines, President Biden may have endangered millions of Americans living with cancer.

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Commentary: After Disastrous September and 2022 Midterms Looming, Biden May Have Lost His Mandate to Govern

Admin

Following a catastrophic U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, the highest inflation since 2008,pushing unpopular COVID vaccine mandates, rationing COVID treatments to red states and finally, watching his domestic legislative agenda falter in Congress, President Joe Biden is already upside down on his job approval ratings, according to the latest average of polls compiled by RealClearPolitics.com.

Reuters/Ipsos on Sept. 29-30 had Biden’s approval at 46 percent and disapproval at 50 percent.

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Congress Wants to Know What the Intel Community Is Doing to Make Spying More ‘Inclusive’ and ‘Diverse’

Admin

A top House panel approved the 2022 intelligence community funding package, including a provision requiring officials to brief Congress on their diversity initiatives.

The Intelligence Authorization Act (IAA) — passed by the House Intelligence Committee in a bipartisan voice vote on Thursday — would require the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to periodically issue reports with “demographic data and information on the status of diversity and inclusion efforts of the intelligence community,” according to the bill’s text.

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Clint Eastwood Wins Millions in CBD Company Lawsuit over Fake Endorsements

Admin

Actor Clint Eastwood and the company that controls the rights to likeness won a $6.1 million lawsuit Friday against a Lithuanian company that used the actor’s image on its products without his consent, the New York Times reported.

Judge R. Gary Klausner of U.S. District Court for the Central District of California ruled in favor of Eastwood and his company Garrapata after Lithuanian company Mediations UAB did not respond to a summons in March, according to the NYT. The Lithuanian company was also ordered to pay for Eastwood’s $95,000 legal charges and is blocked from using his name again.

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‘It was a Game’: ‘Roe’ Baby Says She Will Never Forgive Her Biological Mother for Trying to Use Her for Attention

Admin
Supreme Court with a cherry blossom in the foreground

Pro-abortion activists used Norma McCorvey, her troubled past and her unborn baby to send Roe v. Wade all the way to the Supreme Court. That former baby, who was born before the Supreme Court’s final decision, sat down with ABC News in an exclusive interview that will air live Monday evening.

Shelley Lynn Thornton told ABC that she has never forgiven McCorvey and that she never will. The “Roe baby” said that her mother, who passed away in 2017, should have been more “upfront” about wanting to meet Thornton for media attention.

“I can deal with that,” Thornton said. “I can’t deal with lies and treachery and things like that. To me, that’s like no, sorry, not playing that game with you. And that’s all it was. It was a game. It was a game. I was just a pawn, and I wasn’t going to let her do it.”

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Ohio GOP Committee’s Bainbridge Charges Ex-Chair Timken with Mismanagement, Conflict Amid ‘Financial Trainwreck’

Brian Ball

A leader of the Ohio Republican Party State Central Committee’s reform caucus has offered more details regarding the poor integrity of the state GOP’s financial records and practices as well as a warning to fellow members in a recent letter sent to the Committee’s 66 members.

The latest salvo from Mark Bainbridge, a District 16 SCC member from suburban Columbus, specifically calls out U.S. Senate candidate and former ORP Chairwoman Jane Timken for failing to put in place internal financial controls and practices necessary during her tenure and what he considers a conflict of interest in the selection of an auditor for the party books earlier this year.

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Bates College Considers Requiring All Students to Take Courses on ‘White Supremacy,’ ‘Power and Privilege,’ ‘Colonialism’

Admin

A curricular working group of students and faculty at Bates College is recommending that all students should be required to take two courses that center around “race, white supremacy and colonialism, and intersecting experiences of power and privilege.”

To justify the recommendation, the working group asserts that an “essential part of liberal arts education” is to “critically discern, examine, and discuss the production and operation of difference, power, and equity.”

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Commentary: Vaccine Hesitancy, the Medical Establishment, and the COVID Apocalypse

Admin
"There's no planet B" sign

This month the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its Sixth Assessment Report. As with the previous five reports, it is bursting with dire “projections” about the future of the planet and civilization (they never say “predictions” because there is always some accountability and embarrassment when a prediction turns out to be wrong). 

I’m no climate scientist, so I can’t claim to hold a research-based opinion on “global climate change,” as it is now known. But I remember exactly when I started taking the “projections” of bodies like the IPCC with a grain of salt. It was when the “Climategate” scandal came to light in 2009, in which a hacked server resulted in a leak of internal emails from climate scientists at the prestigious Climatic Research Unit of the University of East Anglia in Great Britain.

The leaked emails clearly showed that researchers were withholding important information from the public—information that would undermine the apocalyptic claims of climate scientists. For example, illustrious expert Kevin Trenberth acknowledged to his colleagues that “The fact is that we can’t account for the lack of warming at the moment and it is a travesty.” But rather than admit this uncertainty, researchers colluded to “hide the decline” from the public. 

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Commentary: The Worst Campus in America for Free Speech is Indiana’s DePauw University

RealClearWire

For the second straight year, survey data shows that a small private school in western Indiana is the nation’s worst college for free speech.

DePauw University again finished last in the 2021 College Free Speech Rankings, the second annual campus-speech-related survey and rankings project sponsored by the research firm College Pulse, the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), and RealClearEducation. More than 37,000 students at 159 colleges and universities participated in the survey, and their responses helped determine each school’s place in the 2021 rankings.

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After Backing McAuliffe in 2013, Virginia Black Caucus Endorses Youngkin

Peter D'Abrosca

The Hampton Roads Black Caucus (HRBC), a group that endorsed former Gov. Terry McAuliffe in his successful 2013 campaign, has now endorsed McAuliffe’s opponent Glenn Youngkin as the for the same position.  

“I am so honored and humbled, and it just reflects the fact that there is broad-based support for a platform that’s going to bring down our cost of living and cut taxes so people can keep more of their paycheck,” Youngkin said of the endorsement. 

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North Carolina School District to Discipline Educators Who Teach America is Racist

Admin

A North Carolina county school board has passed a policy that will discipline or fire teachers who undermine the U.S. Constitution, tell students that American historical figures weren’t heroes or portray racism as systemic in America.

The vote Friday by the Johnston County school board is part of a larger campaign to stamp out critical race theory from American schools.

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Arizona Democrat Attorney General Candidate Defends Left-Wing Activists That Harassed Senator Sinema in Bathroom

Cooper Moran

Arizona State Representative Diego Rodriguez (D-Phoenix), who is running for Arizona Attorney General, on Sunday seemingly defended left-wing activists who followed and harassed U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) in a public restroom.

The individuals ambushed and followed Sinema while she was leaving her classroom at Arizona State University, where she teaches a class.

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Estimates Show Arizona Prevented Billions in Unemployment Fraud

The Center Square

A new report from the Arizona Department of Economic Security says the state has prevented more than $75 billion in unemployment benefits fraud during the COVID pandemic.

DES Director Michael Wisehart said the department began looking at the effectiveness of its fraud prevention efforts shortly after the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program came to an end in early September.

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Facebook Whistleblower Says Company ‘Paying for Its Profits with Our Safety’

Admin

Facebook knowingly chooses to prioritize its profits over the safety of its users, Frances Haugen, a whistleblower and former Facebook employee, said in an interview with “60 Minutes” on Sunday.

“The thing I saw at Facebook over and over again was there were conflicts of interest between what was good for the public and what was good for Facebook,” Haugen told Scott Pelley on “60 Minutes” Sunday night. “And Facebook, over and over again, chose to optimize for its own interests, like making more money.”

Haugen, a former Facebook product manager, leaked thousands of internal company documents to The Wall Street Journal last month which detail the inner workings of the company. The leaked documents showed that Facebook employs a separate content review system for high-profile accounts, the company has conducted research into the harms its Instagram platform has on teen users, and it stokes controversy by boosting inflammatory content.

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Hate Crime Hoax Exposed in Atlanta-area Neighborhood

Peter D'Abrosca
Douglasville Municipal Building

  An African-American woman in Georgia has been charged with eight counts of making terroristic threats after she allegedly bombarded a black community with racially charged notes. Over a period of several months, a 30-year-old woman named Terresha Lucas left intimidating notes in mailboxes on Manning Drive in Douglasville, according to that town’s police department. The notes ranged from threatening to burn down homes if residents did not move out, to threatening to kill residents of the neighborhood, Detective Nathan Shumaker reportedly said. At least seven people received the notes, which also contained the N-word, discussed lynchings, and threatened children. Lucas described herself as a tall white male with a red beard, and claimed to be a member of the Ku Klux Klan. She allegedly left the notes in Manning Drive mailboxes at night, beginning in December. “Subsequent notes with similar verbiage were placed in residents’ mailboxes on Feb. 17, Feb. 22, March 1 and March 3. After a six-month absence, the final note was placed on Sept. 6. Shumaker said there were likely more notes written,” the Douglasville Police Department statement said. After police determined that the notes had been written by the same person, the case stalled. But…

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Ohio Taxpayers Owe $5,400 Each to Pay State’s Bills, Report Finds

The Center Square

Ohio again found itself receiving a near-failing grade in an annual report by Truth in Accounting that reviews financial information for all 50 states.

The 2021 Financial State of the States report, released earlier this week, showed the state finished the 2020 fiscal year needing $20.7 billion to cover all of its obligations. That represented a taxpayer burden of $5,400, a representation of what the state owes per taxpayer.

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Fulton County School Administrators Fight New TikTok Trend While They Also Want to Keep COVID-19 Mask Mandates

Chris Butler

Fulton County School System officials are currently fighting to keep a COVID-19 mask mandate in place while they’re also trying to clamp down on reported vandalism and violence within the schools. The Atlanta-based Reporter Newspapers said late last week that several parents want a Fulton County judge to issue a temporary restraining order and restrict the schools from imposing a mandatory mask mandate.

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Progressive Group Stalks, Harasses Sinema Around Phoenix

Peter D'Abrosca
LUCHA Arizona protesting outside during the day about the filibuster

A progressive group spent its weekend haranguing Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) over what they see as the moderate Democrat Senator’s unwillingness to further the progressive cause. 

Living United for Change in Arizona (LUCHA), which describes itself as a group “led by community members fighting for social, racial & economic transformation,” protested Sinema at several different locations in Arizona over the weekend.

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Gretchen Whitmer Vetoes Four Election Integrity Bills, Pledges Similar Fate for 35 More

Cooper Moran
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) on Sunday vetoed four election integrity bills the legislature passed to improve training for election clerks and increase database security.

Pandering to a “captive audience,” Whitmer rejected the bills during a National Association for the Advancement of Colored People dinner in Detroit. Democrats argue election integrity legislation discriminates against black people, though recent polling found some provisions, such as requiring an ID to vote, are popular with that voting bloc.

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Group Seeking to Legalize Marijuana by Amending the Florida Constitution

Grant Holcomb

A group behind a proposed ballot initiative to Florida’s Constitution in 2022 is seeking to legalize marijuana growth for personal, recreational use. However, the plan would only afford for 18 plants grown per household.

The organization behind it, Sensible Florida, filed the ballot measure and has a long way to go before it can be validated for approval to the 2022 general election ballot.

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Florida Senate President Proposes Prison Shutdowns

Casey Owens

To combat staffing shortages and high turnover rates of correctional officers in the state, Florida Senate President Wilton Simpson proposed prison shutdowns in a recent interview. Simpson said that the Florida Department of Corrections should shut down prisons to save money, rather than ask for more resources from the Florida legislature. 

In the interview with The News Service of Florida, Simpson criticized the state prison system by blaming the staff shortages and high turnover rates on the “lack of vision” by state prison leaders. 

“We are not just going to write a bigger check because they think they need it. That is not going to happen. They’re going to have to do the right thing. We are not going to waste the taxpayers’ dollars,” Simpson said.

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Canada Invokes 1977 Treaty to Keep Michigan’s Line 5 Flowing

The Center Square
Man grinding a large pipe on a worksite

 A 1977 pipeline treaty between Canada and the United States is being invoked by Canada in order to prevent closure of the Enbridge Line 5 pipeline, which has been in operation under the Straits of Mackinac for the past 68 years.

On Monday, Gordon Giffin, legal counsel for the Canadian government, issued a letter to the U.S. Western District of Michigan Federal Court on Monday, according to a news report by Reuters. In the letter, Giffin noted the 1977 treaty prohibits Michigan and/or the U.S. government from disrupting the operation of Line 5, and asked U.S. District Judge Janet Neff to delay issuing an opinion to allow treaty negotiations between the Canada and the United States to proceed.

Article II of the treaty reads: “No public authority in the territory of either Party shall institute any measures, other than those provided for in Article V, which are intended to, or which would have the effect of, impeding, diverting, redirecting or interfering with in any way the transmission of hydrocarbon in transit.” Article V specifies “an actual or threatened disaster, operating emergency or other demonstrable need” as reasons to shut down the internationally operated pipelines.

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Minnesota Women’s March Featured Drag Queen and Transgender Karaoke Champion

Admin

The Minnesota Women’s March showcased several speakers and performers, among them a female to male transgender who took the stage and bragged about the size of her penis.

The march drew thousands of protesters and was attended by multiple state legislators, U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar and other Minnesota political figures like Erin Maye Quade who rallied to promote abortion. The event also featured a handful of local artists, including drag queen Zon Legacy Phoenix and Mikko Blaze, an award-winning transgender karaoke singer.

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