Commentary: Five Stupid Things the Left Would Have You Believe

I was on a media panel talking about what the Left has done to the Fourth Estate in America and how that damage might ultimately be repaired. And afterward, I spent a lot of time interacting with sponsors and attendees, and a common thread seemed to run through those conversations.

Namely, the multiplicity of utterly indefensible, absurd propositions that make up the narratives and constructs by which our left-wing current ruling class seeks to base its power over us.

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Arizona State University Cancels Rashida Tlaib’s Speech Scheduled for Friday on Campus After Outrage

Arizona State University canceled a speech by controversial Representative Rashida Tlaib (D-MI-12) a day before she was to speak there on Friday. A spokesperson stated that the organizers had not complied with ASU’s policies for events. Tlaib’s speech was titled “Palestine is an American Issue.”

“Organizers of ASU events using facilities must be properly registered with ASU and must meet all university requirements for crowd management, parking, security, and insurance,” the spokesperson said. “In addition, the events must be produced in a way which minimizes disruption to academic and other activities on campus. The event featuring Congresswoman Tlaib was planned and produced by groups not affiliated with ASU and was organized outside of ASU policies and procedures. Accordingly, that event will not take place today on the ASU Tempe campus.” 

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GOP Presidential Candidate Vivek Ramaswamy to Lay Out Blueprint for ‘Rolling Back the Powers’ of the Administrative State in Major Speech

Republican Presidential hopeful Vivek Ramaswamy on Wednesday will lay out his plan to break the grip of power held by the administrative state.

“There is an unconstitutional, fourth branch of government that is choking American democracy, and it is called the administrative state,” Ramaswamy asserts in an advance copy of a white paper speech provided to The Star News Network by the Ohio entrepreneur’s campaign.

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Kari Lake Speaks to Packed Georgia GOP Convention, Defends Trump

Kari Lake gave the keynote speech at the Georgia Republican Party’s annual convention last week after Mike Pence controversially withdrew. Multiple people complained after Pence was announced and after Lake was announced as the replacement, 900 purchased tickets, more than twice as many who bought them last year.

Lake’s speech focused on election fraud and the indictment of Donald Trump. “The two states that have been fighting the hardest to get our sacred vote are Arizona and the peach state of Georgia,” she opened. She thanked Pence for not showing up, “He’s the reason I’m here tonight.” She said when asked if she could fill his shoes, she responded, “I’m more than willing and able to fill Mike Pence’s shoes,” in a subtle reference to possibly being chosen to be Trump’s running mate in 2024 instead of Pence.

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Republican Presidential Candidate Nikki Haley Calls for ‘Consensus’ on Abortion

In a major speech Tuesday before one of the nation’s most prominent pro-life groups, former South Carolina governor and Republican presidential hopeful Nikki Haley said Americans must find consensus on abortion law. 

Haley didn’t offer specifics on precisely what “consensus” means to her in terms of policy, although she did say the federal government has a role to play in the post-Roe v. Wade world of life, liberty and abortion. 

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Arizona’s Democratic Attorney General Defends Maintaining Database Tracking International Money Transfers

Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes’ is defending her administration’s decision to keep in place a money transfer surveillance program that paves the way for a growing number of law enforcement agencies across the country to keep tabs on the dealings of potentially illegal activity.

With the database originally set up nearly a decade ago under the stewardship of a Republican attorney general, the so-called Transaction Record Analysis Center (TRAC) act was billed as a voluntary agreement with Western Union aimed at combating drug trafficking that has now expanded to touch more than 600 law enforcement agencies.

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Trump Strongly Hints He May Run for President Again at Arizona Rally for MAGA Candidates

Former president Donald Trump held a Save America rally in Mesa, Arizona on Sunday afternoon to support the MAGA slate of candidates he’s endorsed in the state and to talk about the attacks he’s under. He dropped multiple hints at Mesa’s Legacy Sports Park that he may be running for president again in 2024.

Trump said, “We’ll be making a decision soon. I think everyone is going to be really happy.” He added later during the event that he got more votes in 2020 “than any sitting president in history. Now we may just have to do it again. Stay tuned.”

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Biden Makes Surprising, Garbled Deficit Reduction Claim

President Joe Biden is being mocked after he made a garbled claim that he is reducing the deficit this year by one trillion, five hundred thousand dollars, with the number being especially awkward given the vast difference between trillions and hundreds of thousands.

“You know how much, how much I’m reducivethedefcit this year? One trillion, five hundred thousand!” Biden said during a Labor Day speech in Milwaukee, Wisc. It appears the president was attempting to say he’s “reducing the deficit this year.”

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Trump Levels Blistering Attack on Democrats, and Biden’s Supreme Court Nominee

Donald Trump speaking

Sounding ever more a candidate seeking the White House again, former President Donald Trump on Saturday night attacked Democrats as a party of “socialists and communists” so extreme that they chose a Supreme Court nominee who “can’t even say what a woman is.”

“A party that’s unwilling to admit that men and women are biologically different in defiance of all scientific and human history is a party that should not be anywhere near the levers of power in the United States,” Trump told a raucous rally in rural Georgia.

In a 90-minute speech, Trump also rallied Republicans to get behind gubernatorial candidate David Perdue and football star-turned-Senate candidate Herschel Walker and to defeat incumbent GOP Gov. Brian Kemp.

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Commentary: Seven Major Failures of the Biden Presidency

Joe Biden

With President Joe Biden set to deliver his first State of the Union address on Tuesday night, it’s a good time to ask: How has Biden done as president and what is the actual state of our union?

According to the American people, things aren’t going great.

A CNN poll in early February asked Americans what they thought of Biden’s presidency and what he’s done right since entering office Jan. 20, 2021.

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House Physician Lifts COVID Mask Mandate in Chamber Ahead of Biden’s State of Union Speech

The House over the weekend lifted its COVID-19 mask mandate, ahead of President Biden’s State of the Union on Tuesday night in House chambers before a joint session of Congress.

The change, which makes masks optional, was announced Sunday by Capitol Physician Brian Monahan.

“Individuals may choose to mask at any time, but it is no longer a requirement,” he said in a letter to lawmakers, who are returning Monday to Capitol Hill.

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Commentary: They Can’t Make Trump Go Away

Donald Trump

In the election of 2016, Donald Trump appealed to citizenship, sovereignty, and borders. This was a direct entreaty to the people as the ultimate source of sovereign authority, bypassing the ruling-class elites that dominate the media and the universities; his appeal also ignored political experts, pollsters, and government bureaucracy. In the postmodern world, the nation-state is under attack everywhere as the source of all evil, the cause of war, selfishness, racism, white privilege, misogyny, homophobia, transphobia, Islamophobia, and all the other irrational phobias that make up the universe of political correctness. The idea of the nation-state itself is said to be irrational and arbitrary.

All of this overwrought criticism of nationalism and the nation-state overlooks a very significant point developed in my new book, The United States in Crisis: Citizenship, Immigration, and the Nation State: the nation-state is the only form of political organization that can sustain constitutional government and the rule of law.

No empire has ever been a constitutional democracy or republic, nor will constitutional government exist in global government. If, as is widely alleged, the dialectic of History is inevitably tending toward global governance and universal citizenship, then it is also tending toward tyranny.

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University of Minnesota Beats First Amendment Challenge to ‘Heckler’s Veto’ Against Ben Shapiro Event

Ben Shapiro speaking

Sixteen minutes after learning that a University of Minnesota student group booked conservative commentator Ben Shapiro to speak at its main campus in Minneapolis, then-president Eric Kaler declared, “I do not want this in the middle of campus.”

All he knew at that point, four months before the February 2018 event, was that Shapiro was “a right wing speaker and he made some appearances on other campuses.”

Citing security needs, the university ended up putting Shapiro in a venue on its St. Paul campus, far from student housing. Demand far exceeded capacity, and a regent accused the university of passing over a larger venue on the main campus that was easier to secure.

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Commentary: Refugee Plans Repeat the Mistakes of the Afghanistan Campaign

The chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan has produced moving scenes of disorder and desperation. Some see American fecklessness. Others, the rancid fruit of attempting to cultivate Afghanistan in our image. Finally, others see the Biden Administration making a hash of what was fundamentally a good policy of planned withdrawal. Even for those who supported withdrawal—as I did—the events of the last week undeniably were emblematic of the ongoing humiliation of the United States and its military. 

Defending his decisions, Joe Biden gave a surprisingly good speech, which could have just as easily come from Donald Trump or Ron Paul. But considering the circumstances, the tone was off. The speech only justified the withdrawal in general and avoided taking responsibility for its particulars, including the grim scene at the Kabul airport, for which Biden and his administration bear some responsibility. Biden defied credulity when he said, “We planned for every contingency.”

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Mom Says School Board Threatened to Sue Her for Seeking Public Information on Critical Race Theory in Curriculum

Nicole Solas was surprised to find her name listed on the meeting agenda of her local school board, especially since it said the board was considering taking legal action against her in response to her many requests for public records.

The Rhode Island mother of two began filing records requests with the South Kingstown School District several months ago, when she learned that teachers were incorporating critical race theory and gender ideology in the curriculum.

But she didn’t expect the school board to talk about suing her.

“I was shocked,” Solas, 37, told The Daily Signal in a recent phone interview. The school board, she said, “did not tell me that [the requests were] a problem.”

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Biden Claims Mandate in First Address to America Since Declaring Victory

Presumptive President-elect Joe Biden Saturday night said he was given a mandate by voters to restore unity and civility after what he called four years of divisiveness under President Donald Trump.

Addressing America from his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware, hours after claiming victory over Trump, Biden said he would lead by example and be the president of all Americans, not just those who voted for him.

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DeWine’s First State of the State Address Focuses on Long Term Plans for Ohio

COLUMBUS, Ohio– Tuesday, Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine addressed a joint session of the Ohio legislature in his first State of the State Address. While he covered several topics ranging from workforce development to infrastructure repair, the speech’s main focus was three key points; the gas tax, greater protections for children, and environmental action. Prior to his remarks, DeWine was asked what, specifically, he would address. He did not mention the raising gas tax. However, almost half of the speech he gave focused  directly or indirectly on the necessity of doing just that. He stated: These are the essential facts: Our counties, cities, villages, and townships have seen their resources for road and bridge repairs dwindle and dwindle over the years. A dollar of gas tax in 2005—the last time the gas tax was raised—now only buys 58 cents worth of road and bridge repairs. And our local partners—townships, villages, cities, and counties—have received no relief for 14 years. Each year, their infrastructure degrades more and more. Each year, they fall further and further behind. And each year, their roads and bridges get less and less safe…by requesting $1.2 billion dollars to fill the budget hole and meet existing needs, let me assure you…

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What to Expect from Ohio Governor DeWine’s State of the State Address

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Ohio Republican Governor Mike DeWine is scheduled to give his first State of the State Address Tuesday, but don’t expect any major revelations from it. In an interview last week, the first term governor stated, “I don’t think you’ll find any great surprises,” adding: We’re going to talk about the things that we’ve been talking about — early childhood development. We’re going to talk about the lead paint problem. We’re going to talk about public health issues. We’re going to talk about early childhood education, the drug problem. While these points have shaped his tenure as Governor thus far, there are two areas he did not note but are likely be addressed. The 18 cent gas tax outlined in his proposed Department of Transportation budget has been controversial at best. Should it pass, there will not be an incremental introduction of the tax. Instead, the entire 18 cent hike will go into effect immediately. Although there is a bipartisan consensus that something has to be done about the severe underfunding of road and bridge repair, the amount and effects have been called into question. The Ohio Speaker of the House, Republican Larry Householder recently stated: So the situation that we’re in…

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Roger Kimball Commentary: Burying the Dead With Bile-Filled Histrionics

by Roger Kimball   The big news last week revolved around the funerals of a 1960s pop singer and an unreliable Republican senator with a cult following among masochistic conservatives and cynical leftists eager to capitalize on his capacity to spread dissension among his nominal allies. I suppose the exploitation of funerals for grubby political ends is nothing new. Mark Antony did it with notable success when he eulogized Julius Caesar in 44 B.C. But there was something especially stomach-churning about the injection of partisan animus into the obsequies of Aretha Franklin and John McCain. Both were reminders—as if we needed any—of how these jangled, hyperpartisan times have the capacity to infect even the most solemn ceremonies of life with bile-filled histrionics, our latter-day version of the theater of the absurd. The race hustling reverends Al Sharpton and Michael Eric Dyson led the bandwagon at Franklin’s funeral, loading their praise of the soul singer with vicious anti-Trump rhetoric. Dyson described the president of the United States as an “orange apparition,” a “lugubrious leech,” a “dictator” and “fascist.” Nicely done, Reverend! The tone at John McCain’s spectacle was more restrained but the message of hatred and contempt for the president was just…

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Commentary: Trump Joins Churchill And Reagan With Warsaw Speech

Tennessee Star

by George Rasley, ConservativeHQ.com Editor   President Donald Trump’s July 6 speech in Warsaw, Poland was a landmark in his presidency, and perhaps the best speech delivered by an American President since Ronald Reagan left office. President Trump eloquently evoked the spirit of Poland’s brave fight against Communism and Nazism to rally, not just the people of Poland, but all peoples who share the culture of the Western Enlightenment to which Poles have contributed so much, to win another war for liberty and to defeat the twin threats of Islamism and globalism. And the President was exactly correct in identifying how that war will be won – if it is to be won: We have to remember that our defense is not just a commitment of money, it is a commitment of will. Because as the Polish experience reminds us, the defense of the West ultimately rests not only on means but also on the will of its people to prevail and be successful and get what you have to have. The fundamental question of our time is whether the West has the will to survive. Do we have the confidence in our values to defend them at any cost?…

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