Month: February 2022

Commentary: Gas-Price Change, Not ‘Climate Change,’ Is What Matters to Americans

Admin

There are few more easily observable measures of the cost of everyday living than the price of gasoline at the pump. As has been widely reported, gas prices in the United States recently hit a seven-year high. The striking thing, however, is not just how high gas prices have gotten, but how fast and far they have risen.

Based on statistics from the U.S. Energy Information Administration—the statistical arm of the Department of Energy—weekly average retail prices for regular unleaded gasoline in the United States increased 94 percent in less than two years. Average gas prices rose from $1.77 per gallon during the week ending April 27, 2020, to $3.44 per gallon during the week ending February 7, 2022—nearly doubling in the process.

That was the largest percentage increase in gas prices within a two-year window since October of 2005, more than 16 years ago. In the election of 2006, Republicans—then the party in power—lost 30 House and six Senate seats, thereby losing control of both chambers, before losing the presidency two years later.

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Latest Durham Revelations Put Biden’s National Security Adviser in Uneasy Light

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Jake Sullivan

Special Counsel John Durham’s investigation isn’t just imposing accountability for Hillary Clinton’s 2016 political trick to dirty up Donald Trump with the FBI; it’s also encroaching on the credibility of President Biden’s current chief foreign policy adviser and point man for the current Russia-Ukraine crisis.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan was a senior adviser to Clinton’s 2016 campaign and, by his own admission, spread the word to reporters back then that Democrats believed Trump was colluding with Vladimir Putin to hijack the election and had a secret computer channel to the Kremlin. Neither proved true.

But long before that Russia collusion narrative crumbled like a stale Starbucks muffin, Sullivan gave sworn testimony to the House Intelligence Committee disputing that anything the Clinton campaign spread around Washington was misinformation.

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Washington, D.C. Lifting COVID Mask, Vaccine Mandates but Face-Covers Still Required in Schools

Admin

Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is lifting the city’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate and will not extend its mask requirement into March.

The Democratic mayor also says that as of Tuesday many businesses in the nation’s capital will no longer be required to check that customers have at least one dose of the vaccine before allowing them to enter. However, they will still be allowed to make such a request on their own, according to dcist.com.

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‘Scientific Malfeasance’: Economists Point Out Flaws in Biden Nominee’s Signature Research

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Dr. Lisa D. Cook

President Joe Biden’s latest nominee to the Fed has faced criticism for embellishing her resume, but recently some economists have raised the possibility that her most famous research contains fatal flaws.

Lisa Cook, a professor of international relations and economics at Michigan State University, was nominated to serve on the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System on Jan 14. Three weeks later, on Feb. 5, an anonymous Twitter account pointed out a mistake in Cook’s 2014 paper, “Violence and economic activity: evidence from African-American patents, 1870-1940.”

The anonymous tweet sparked a flurry of blog posts criticizing Cook’s paper. Andrew Gelman, a statistics professor at Columbia University, compared Cook’s dataset with a more recent dataset from the Brookings Institution and said the results did not match. “Hey—this is a lot different!” wrote Gelman.

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Commentary: The Fascist Left Has Run Amok Thanks to COVID-19 and Americans Are Sick of It

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President Joe Biden meets with staff while he talks on the phone with Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and energy company executives from areas impacted by Hurricane Ida, Tuesday, August 31, 2021, in the Oval Office of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Adam Schultz)

The real pandemic in this country is one of growing fascism from our so-called political Left.

The far-Left Democratic Party doesn’t care about your essential freedoms—from speech and the free flow of ideas to freedom of assembly—particularly when those freedoms stand in the way of their pursuit of power. 

This is the party, after all, who opposed Abraham Lincoln and stood in the way of integration well into the 1960s. Where Democratic hatred of freedom has become glaringly apparent in recent times is with their obsession with COVID vaccine mandates and mask mandates, most especially for school-aged children. This “pandemic” has exposed what is truly afoot here, fascist authoritarianism at its most potent and dangerous.

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Commentary: The January 6 Pipe Bombs Look Like Another FBI Hoax

Admin

In the 15-minute time span before the joint session of Congress convened at 1:00 p.m. on January 6, 2021, two incidents that set the stage for the day’s ensuing chaos happened simultaneously.

First, a man named Ryan Samsel, after taking some sort of direction from Ray Epps, overran a thin line of police and metal racks in what would be the first official breach of Capitol grounds around 12:50 p.m. (Samsel was charged and has been incarcerated for more than a year; Epps faces no charges.) Joining Samsel were members of the Proud Boys and a still-unknown number of FBI informants.

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Virginia State Senate Approves Youngkin’s Emergency Clause in Mask-Optional Bill

Eric Burk

The Senate has approved Governor Glenn Youngkin’s amendments to the recently passed school mask-optional bill. The amendments, which an aide said Youngkin sent to the Senate on Monday evening, include clauses making the bill take effect on March 1.

“As you can probably tell from my remarks, I would like this to take effect yesterday, but that’s not going to happen. And I do believe that we’re going to need a transition time for some of our Northern Virginia school districts and probably elsewhere in the state,” co-sponsor Senator Chap Petersen (D-Fairfax City) said on the Senate floor on Tuesday evening.

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New Book by Arizona GOP Chair Kelli Ward Provides Insider Perspective of Maricopa County Audit

Rachel Alexander

Arizona Republican Party Chair Kelli Ward has a new book out revealing what happened behind the scenes with the independent Maricopa County audit of the 2020 presidential election. Ward was one of the first to call for an audit, and was heavily involved in it every step of the way. “Justified: The Story of America’s Audit” is the story of how it all went down. As someone who was on the ground in Arizona, close to the polling and an ear to intel from the top Republican operatives, Ward’s opinion that there was significant fraud allowing Joe Biden to win Arizona carries weight.

“The state is still very much socially and fiscally conservative — deep red,” she summarized after experiencing the election and audit. “I believed that if every legal vote was counted and every illegal vote was rejected, President Trump would be the uncontested winner of the election.” Ward said the election was far more important than most people realized, “Many people have told me that as Arizona goes, the country goes.”

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Pennsylvania Fiscal Office Expects Lower Revenues Than Governor

Bradley Vasoli

On Tuesday, at the first legislative hearing on Pennsylvania’s next budget, the Wolf administration and the Independent Fiscal Office (IFO) offered divergent near-term revenue projections.

Governor Tom Wolf (D) proposed a Fiscal Year 2022-23 budget last week that would total $43.7 billion, 16.6 percent greater than the current fiscal year’s spending allotment. The plan’s feasibility (without a tax increase) will partly depend on whether the general-fund revenues anticipated by the governor’s Revenue Secretary, C. Daniel Hassell, come to fruition. 

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Wisconsin Gubernatorial Candidate Rebecca Kleefisch Proposes ‘Office of Election Integrity and Public Trust’

Cooper Moran

Wisconsin gubernatorial candidate Rebecca Kleefisch, who is running to replace Governor Tony Evers, proposed establishing an Office of Election Integrity & Public Trust in order to “restore confidence in elections.”

The new organization would be housed within the Wisconsin Department of Justice and have the power to investigate election complaints.

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Minnesota Senators Pass Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund Bill

The Center Square
Eric Pratt of Minnesota

A bill to repay Minnesota’s federal Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund passed the Senate Monday and it will now travel to the House for consideration.

The bill, SF 2677, appropriates $2.3 billion from the state fiscal recovery federal fund and $408.5 million from the fiscal year 2022 general fund to the commissioner of employment and economic development. 

The commissioner would repay the federal government outstanding loans and accrued interest within 10 days of the bill’s enactment. For the 2022 and 2023 calendar years, the base tax rate would be one-tenth of one percent.

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Virginia House of Delegates Passes ‘Divisive Concepts’ Ban

Eric Burk

The House of Delegates passed HB 787, Delegate Dave LaRock’s (R-Loudoun) bill focused on controversial teaching in schools.  On Tuesday, the bill passed 50-49, with Delegate Carrie Coyner (R-Chesterfield) joining Democrats in opposition and Delegate Kim Taylor (R-Dinwiddie) not voting.

Before hearing the Democratic amendments, House Education Chair Glenn Davis (R-Virginia Beach) explained a Republican amendment, “which makes it very clear that you can teach literature, history, whatever you’d like that takes into account the past or present beliefs that are set in subsection A above, Mr. Speaker.”

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Ohio Mayor Resigns After Joking About Ice Fishers and Prostitutes

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Mayor Craig Shubert of Hudson, Ohio

The mayor of Hudson, Ohio, resigned Monday after saying that allowing ice fishing with shanties could result in prostitution, multiple sources reported

Hudson, Ohio, Mayor Craig Shubert, submitted his resignation Monday morning after saying ice fishing in a shelter could lead to prostitution at a city council meeting in early February, NBC News reported.

“If you then allow ice fishing with shanties, then that leads to another problem — prostitution,” Shubert said, NBC News reported.

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Brad Raffensperger Calls for More ‘Policing’ to Protect Georgia’s Election Integrity

Chris Butler

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger this week said state officials must do more to protect the integrity of the state’s elections, and, toward that end, he said it’s time for the state to provide additional security. Raffensperger called for greater vigilance of elections in a statement that his office published Monday. He also said it was essential for state officials to take extra steps to protect voters and poll workers. Raffensperger said the state can accomplish this by dispatching state law enforcement resources at polling places, early voting locations, and county election offices where officials handle absentee ballots.

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Government Could Increase New Home Construction Costs in Georgia by Mandating They’re Wired to Charge Electric Vehicles, Expert Says

Chris Butler

Some people want to mandate that every new home comes wired ready to charge electric vehicles (EVs), and those mandates, if enacted, would likely raise a home’s construction costs. And the people who want those mandates will likely push for them in about two years, said Home Builders Association of Georgia Vice President Austin Hackney.

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Ohio Bill Would Force School Curriculum, Materials to Be Posted Online for Parents

The Center Square

An Ohio lawmaker wants the state to follow several others across the country and have school districts post its curriculum and instruction materials online to give parents better access to what is being taught in classrooms.

The state teacher’s union, however, believes the idea creates distrust between parents and teachers, while adding to the workload of its members.

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Florida’s Absentee Ballot Proposal, Described as Racist, Less Stringent Than Other States

Steve Stewart

Florida legislators, led by Republican leaders, are considering changes (SB 524, HB 7067) to the absentee ballot verification process that has one critic calling the proposal  “a recipe for disaster” and another implying the new rules are racist.

Under current law, voters enclose completed mail-in ballots inside “secrecy” envelopes or sleeves before putting them inside another envelope to be mailed to county supervisors of elections or submitted at drop boxes manned by supervisors’ staff.

The new legislative proposals would require voters to put their double-enveloped ballots inside a third envelope and mark the last four digits of their driver’s license numbers, Social Security numbers, or state ID numbers – whichever number is on file with the election supervisor’s office – to be counted.

Lake County Supervisor of Elections Alan Hays, a Republican who is a former state senator, said the proposal is “a recipe for disaster.”

“Getting voters to follow instructions is not easy,” Hays told the Senate Ethics and Elections Committee on Feb. 1. “If you think they’re going to follow the instructions with all of these envelopes, you’ve got another thought coming.”

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Survey: More Than One-Third of Wisconsin Businesses Plan to Pay More

The Center Square
woman working in a warehouse

It is a good time to be a worker with in-demand skills in Wisconsin.

Wisconsin Manufacturers & Commerce, the state’s largest business group, on Monday said its latest Employer Survey shows many businesses across the state plan to raise wages by more than 4% at some point this year.

“Wages are rising much faster than they have in recent memory,” WMC President & CEO Kurt Bauer said. “Wisconsin does not have enough people to fill the jobs we have available, and that creates an aggressive competition for talent. We are seeing wages rise at a faster rate, sign-on bonuses, work flexibility and many other strategies from companies to attract and retain talent.”

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Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson: Trump ‘Endured Eternal Coup’ During Presidency

Peter D'Abrosca
Ron Johnson

On the heels of massive news proving that former President Donald Trump was intentionally and falsely maligned as a Russian asset and that he was spied upon by intelligence agencies during his 2016 election campaign and his subsequent presidency, one senator took to Fox News in an attempt to set the record straight. 

“For many years now, as I’ve investigated this, I’ve always thought the Russian Hoax was just one intelligence community diversionary operation to basically cover up what they had done during the 2016 campaign,” Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) told host Jesse Watters on Fox News.

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Petition Vowing to Teach Critical Race Theory Regardless of Law Tops 8,000 Signatures

Peter D'Abrosca
Young girl in pink long sleeve writing

A petition by teachers nationwide pledging to teach Critical Race Theory (CRT) to students regardless of whether states pass laws against the practice has reached more than 8,000 signatures.

“From police violence, to the prison system, to the wealth gap, to maternal mortality rates, to housing, to education and beyond, the major institutions and systems of our country are deeply infected with anti-Blackness and its intersection with other forms of oppression,” the Zinn Education Project’s petition page says. “To not acknowledge this and help students understand the roots of U.S. racism is to deceive them — not educate them.”

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Stephanie Kang Alleges in Internal Memo Nashville Public Health Department Has Pattern of Sexism, Racism, Homophobia

Chris Butler

A high-ranking and controversial Nashville Metro Public Health Department (MPHD) official apparently sent a memo to MPHD board members to complain about the department’s alleged instances of bullying, sexism, racism, and homophobia. The Tennessee Star obtained a copy of that memo on Monday. Stephanie Kang, who directs the MPHD’s Bureau of Racial and Health Equity, apparently distributed the memo last week.

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Bill Establishing Three-Year Residency Requirement to Qualify for Tennessee Primary Ballot in U.S. House of Representatives Elections Passes Key Senate Committee

Aaron Gulbransen

Legislation establishing a three-year residency requirement to qualify for the Tennessee primary ballot in U.S. House of Representatives elections passed a key Senate committee.

Tennessee State Senator Frank Niceley (R-TN-08) is the sponsor of SB2616, which states that candidates for U.S. House and U.S. Senate must meet the same residency requirements as Tennessee state representatives and state senators in order to run in a primary in Tennessee. That means a candidate has to have to have lived in the state for three years.

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Sandy Hook Families Reach Settlement with Gun Maker Remington: Reports

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Nine families of victims of the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School mass shooting have reached a settlement in their case against the firearms maker Remington, according to several news reports Tuesday.

The settlement comes roughly seven years after the suit was filed, according to a court document filed Tuesday and reviewed by CNN.

Remington was the maker of the Bushmaster AR-15-style rifle used in the massacre in which the lone shooter killed 20 children and six adults in Newtown, Connecticut.

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States Want a $20 Billion Federal Top-Off to ‘Zuck Bucks’ for Future Elections But They’re Already Sitting on a Pile

RealClearWire
Graffiti of Mark Zuckerberg "You've been zucked"

Drawing on research from a multimillion-dollar Mark Zuckerberg-linked initiative viewed as pivotal in the 2020 presidential election, 14 states carried by Joe Biden have appealed to him for billions of dollars more to secure elections for the next decade. But most of them have spent less than half their shares of previous federal funding to counter alleged Russian election meddling and other “threats” to election security.

The states’ letter to the president cites a report by the Election Infrastructure Initiative, a progressive nonprofit that estimates $53 billion in taxpayer money will be needed to ensure election security over the next decade.

The Election Infrastructure Initiative is an arm of the Center for Tech and Civic Life, which in 2020 distributed nearly $400 million in private grants – $350 million from Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan – to local election offices in 48 states and the District of Columbia for the pandemic-challenged presidential election.

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Commentary: The Woke War Machine vs. America’s ‘Minutemoms’

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Group protesting; "no justice no peace" sign

Critical social justice’s (CSJ) march through America’s institutions is very nearly complete. CSJ, and its woke evangelists, easily penetrated and commandeered U.S. colleges and universities.

Even White House occupant Joe Biden speaks incessantly about “white supremacy.” The Department of Homeland Security tells us white domestic terrorism is the top threat to America.

Not to be left out, corporate America has proclaimed its total fealty to woke ideology. Leaked documents show companies like Coke imploring their employees to “be less white.” Raytheon—whose laser-guided bombs are disproportionally dropped on people of color—tells its white, straight, Christian, able-bodied, English-speaking employees to deconstruct their identities, “identify [their] privilege,” and “step aside” in favor of other identity groups. AT&T offers employees training that says racism is a “uniquely white trait,” telling white employees that they “are the problem.” It’s pure racism, of course. But not a single Fortune 500 CEO has spoken out against it. They’re too frightened to do so.

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Members of Tennessee’s Congressional Delegation Seek Greater Transparency Within the Tennessee Valley Authority

Cooper Moran

U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) on Wednesday reintroduced a bill that aims to improve transparency within the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA).

The legislation, known as the Tennessee Valley Authority Transparency Act, received bipartisan support among members of the Tennessee congressional delegation, as Representatives Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) and Mark Green (R-TN-07) cosponsored the measure.

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Vermont Poised to Become First State to Guarantee Right to Abortion in its Constitution

Susan Berry, PhD

With support from its Republican governor, Vermont is on a course to become the first state in the nation to guarantee a right to abortion and contraception in its constitution.

The Vermont House voted 107-41 for Proposition 5, a proposed amendment that would guarantee sexual and reproductive freedoms to Vermonters once it is placed on the ballot and voters give their support in November.

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Pelosi Evasive on Extending Individual Stock Trading Ban to Spouses of Lawmakers

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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi

Democrats are weighing whether to extend an individual stock trading ban to spouses of lawmakers.

The Ban Conflicted Trading Act “prohibits a Member of Congress or certain congressional officers or employees from (1) purchasing or selling specified investments, (2) entering into a transaction that creates a net short position in a security, or (3) serving as an officer or member of any board of any for-profit entity.”

The legislation in its current form would not apply to the spouses of lawmakers. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s husband Paul has made headlines over the years with his millions of dollars in stock purchases, particularly with technology companies.

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Commentary: Protect Small Businesses from the Scourge of Stolen and Counterfeit Goods

RealClearWire

Recent images from the Los Angeles railyards of a sea of cardboard wreckage, the remnants of thousands of stolen packages, have made national headlines. Union Pacific railroad said criminal rail theft in LA has increased by more than 2.5 times since December 2020. Yet while most media coverage focuses on this third-world scene, little has been made of the consequences for the small business sellers ripped off by this grand theft.

Whether it comes in the form of widescale package theft by criminal enterprises or organized smash-and-grab robberies at brick and mortar stores, theft has become a big problem for small businesses. A new survey finds that nearly all small business owners experienced an increase in theft in 2021.

This isn’t the shoplifting of your parent’s generation. Elaborate criminal networks steal and resell goods at below-market rates on internet marketplaces such as Amazon, Facebook, eBay, and Alibaba. The cost of lost inventory and ensuing cut-rate online competition puts tremendous pressure on small business margins that are already strained by the highest inflation in 40 years and severe supply chain disruptions.  

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Biden Administration Silent After Border Patrol Agents Rescue Illegal Migrants from Raging River

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Border Patrol agents on Saturday morning saved the lives of an illegal immigrant family trapped in the Rio Grande River. The Biden administration has been publically silent on the daring rescue.

Del Rio Sector Border Patrol agents at about 7:40 a.m. saw what appeared to be a family attempting to cross the river, according to a Customs and Border Protection press release. As the group neared the U.S. border, the ground collapsed beneath them. The family struggled to swim as the current carried them downriver.

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NFL’s San Francisco 49ers Hit by Ransomware Attack

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The San Francisco 49ers team fell victim to a ransomware attack affecting key corporate operations, the team announced Sunday.

Hackers using BlackByte ransomware tools listed the San Francisco 49ers on a dark web site identifying the team as a target for extortion attempts, The Record reported. The team confirmed to The Record on Sunday that it had been the victim of a ransomware attack.

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