Month: January 2023

Pentagon Still Can’t Account for Roughly $220 Billion in Equipment, Gov’t Watchdog Says

Admin

The Department of Defense (DOD) has neglected to address its inability to keep track of at least $220 billion in equipment provided to government contractors, according to a Tuesday report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Auditors first reported the Pentagon’s failure to account for government-owned equipment or material offered up for use to contracting agencies, also called government furnished property, in 2001, according to the report. DOD has made little improvement since then, increasing the risk that the Pentagon could accidentally overlook errors in the books.

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Commentary: Mike Gallagher’s China Committee Has Its Work Cut Out for It

Admin

A new House select committee on China chaired by U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) can potentially expose the vast scope of the Chinese Communist Party’s efforts to undermine the United States at home and abroad. It’s vital work that comes at a perilous time. The Gallagher committee has an enormous task before it. It will have to investigate the CCP in the diplomatic, economic, military, and technological realms. But that is just the start. The committee will need to show how Beijing influences U.S. domestic politics, American media, Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and our colleges and universities.

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After Seattle Defunded Its Police, Local Business Owners Say Crime Is Worse than Ever

Admin

Two years after Seattle slashed its police budget, local business owners say crime has skyrocketed, with police unable to deal with thefts, homelessness and open-air drug use that plague the city. Seattle and broader King County had more than 13,000 homeless people within its boundaries in 2022, more than every other similar area except Los Angeles County and New York City, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development, while the Seattle Police Department (SPD) lost more than 130 officers, KOMO News reported, as homicides, shootings and motor vehicle thefts increased. Local business owners say law enforcement is failing to effectively deter the rampant drug use and theft disturbing their livelihoods.

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Microsoft Lays Off 10,000 as Major Companies Continue Job Cuts

Microsoft is laying off 10,000 employees, nearly 5% of its workforce, in what the tech company calls a “response to macroeconomic conditions and changing customer priorities,” according to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing Wednesday. The workers will be laid off by the conclusion of the third fiscal quarter this year, the company said.

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House Oversight Chair Says China’s Donations to Penn Biden Center May Have Influenced Administration

Just the News

The House Oversight and Accountability Committee on Wednesday demanded the University of Pennsylvania release information about anonymous donations from China to the Penn Biden Center, where classified documents were found, over concerns the Chinese Communist Party may have influenced Biden administration policies through the contributions.

“The Committee has learned UPenn received millions of dollars from anonymous Chinese sources, with a marked uptick in donations when then-former Vice President Biden was announced as leading the Penn Biden Center initiative,” the GOP-led committee said. “Following the formation of the Penn Biden Center, donations originating from China tripled and continued while Joe Biden explored a potential run for President.”

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‘Extreme’ Gender Ideology Pushes U.S. to Provide Children Greater Access to Transgender Treatment than in Europe

Susan Berry, PhD

The prevalence of radical gender ideology in the United States has driven the nation to offer children greater access to transgender medical interventions than is available in Europe, a study by Do No Harm has found.

Compared to the United States, “Europe goes a safer and more scientific route,” states Do No Harm, a diverse group of physicians, healthcare professionals, patients, and policymakers seeking to “protect healthcare from a radical, divisive, and discriminatory ideology.”

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Soros and Bezos Back Initiative to Raise $3 Trillion Annually to Fight Climate Change

Michigan Star Staff

Left-wing billionaire George Soros and Amazon founder Jeff Bezos are helping a World Economic Forum (WEF) climate financing program that aims to raise $3 trillion annually to help slash emissions and restore “nature loss” by 2050.

The WEF and the Soros-backed Open Society Foundations and Bezos Earth Fund, along with more than 43 other nonprofits, businesses and academic institutions, will become part of the “Giving to Amplify Earth Action” (GAEA) initiative that will fund efforts intended to limit global warming, according to a Tuesday WEF announcement. GAEA and its partners will finance charitable partnerships between public and private entities while identifying where the $3 trillion in funding is most needed.

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DOJ Declined to Monitor Biden Documents Search: Report

Just the News

The Department of Justice reportedly opted against having FBI agents oversee a search by President Joe Biden’s lawyers for classified documents at his private homes.

Biden’s legal team discussed directly with the DOJ the idea of having FBI agents present during such searches, according to the Wall Street Journal, though both parties ultimately agreed to leave the matter to the president’s own attorneys.

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Hunter Biden in 2018 Claimed Ownership of Delaware Home Where Classified Documents Were Found

Michigan Star Staff

by Debra Heine   Hunter Biden claimed in a 2018 document that he owned the Delaware mansion where Joe Biden kept classified documents in his library and alongside his Corvette in the garage. In a “background screening request,” the younger Biden listed his rent as whopping $49,910 a month and…

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San Francisco’s Reparations Proposal Would Give $5 Million Each to Qualifying Black Residents

Michigan Star Staff

The City of San Francisco is considering a reparations plan that would give $5 million lump sum payments to each eligible black person, according to its 2022 draft plan.

Recipients are required to be 18 or older, to have identified as black or African American on public documents for at least ten years and to meet at least two qualifications from a list of possible relationships one may have with incidents such as drug-related incarceration or slavery, according to the proposal. The proposal also recommends that the city formally apologize for past wrongdoings, establish a new city office to execute the plan and create a committee to “ensure equity and continuity in the implementation of relevant policy initiatives.”

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Michigan to Begin $81 Million Opioid Settlement Distribution

The Center Square

Michigan’s government is expected to receive part of $81 million from two multi-state opioid settlements later this month.

“I am relieved the court ruled in accordance with the law, and I thank the judge for the keen attention she paid to this important matter,” Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said in a statement. “It’s critical that communities throughout Michigan are indemnified for the harm they suffered due to the recklessness of the opioid manufacturers and distributors. The frivolous challenge by Ottawa County delayed millions of dollars from being put to good use to help Michigan residents our communities recover.”

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Commentary: Compared to the Present, Trump Era Was a Golden Age

Michigan Star Staff

Excusing his tendency to hyperbole, one finds it hard to disagree when Donald Trump talks about how much better things were before the “China virus” ruined his reelection effort and set the country on a path of decline. The America that existed before COVID, the George Floyd revolution, and the rigged 2020 election is not so far in the past, but it was a completely different world. 

Gas was cheap, crime was down, the border was secure, and the country was a lot freer. Words like “misinformation” were seldom heard on the lips of bureaucrats or neighbors deputized by them, and one didn’t fear losing employment or the right to travel for refusing an experimental drug. Believe it or not, before those momentous, nightmarish months of violence and upheaval that changed everything, Trump was on a glide path to victory, having been cleared of impeachment over a long-forgotten “perfect phone call” with Ukraine. 

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Music Spotlight: Emily Ann Roberts

Bethany Bowman

NASHVILLE, Tennessee – When I think of what country music ought to sound like, a voice like Emily Ann Roberts’ comes to mind. I suppose part of the reason she sings and talks “right” to me is that she was raised in Knoxville, Tennessee, not too far from where I was reared.

Naturally, I wanted to learn more about this gifted Tennessee girl.

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China’s Population Declines for First Time in over Six Decades, Raising Concern About World Economy

Just the News

China said Tuesday that in 2022 its population declined for the first time in more than six decades, a change that may have implications for the world economy.

The population of mainland China fell by 850,000 last year, to 1.411 billion, according to the country’s National Bureau of Statistics.

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Commentary: Finding the Value in Hard Work

Michigan Star Staff

When I was a boy, my parents instilled in me the value of hard work—the hard way. After school, I, like many other kids, was expected to help around the house. Lawn mowing, weeding, cleaning, and other household activities defined my weekday afternoons. Homework followed chores, and only after that could I hang out with friends.

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Commentary: The Rise of the Single Woke (and Young, Democratic) Female

RealClearWire

Soccer Moms are giving way to Single Woke Females – the new “SWFs” – as one of the most potent voting blocs in American politics.  

Unmarried women without children have been moving toward the Democratic Party for several years, but the 2022 midterms may have been their electoral coming-out party as they proved the chief break on the predicted Republican wave. While married men and women as well as unmarried men broke for the GOP, CNN exit polls found that 68% of unmarried women voted for Democrats. 

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Report: Children Under 14 Dying from Fentanyl Poisoning at Faster Rate than Any Other Age Group

The Center Square

Children under age 14 are dying from fentanyl poisoning at a faster rate than any other age group in the U.S., according to a new analysis from Families Against Fentanyl.

In the past two years, synthetic opioid (fentanyl) deaths among children surged.

Fentanyl-related deaths among infants (children under age one) quadrupled from 2019 to 2021; more than tripled among children between the ages of 1 and 4 and nearly quadrupled among children between the ages of 5 and 14.

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Biden Helped Sink CIA Nominee in 1970s with Classified Documents Allegation

Just the News

When President Joe Biden was a senator during President Jimmy Carter’s term, he reportedly used an accusation about the mishandling of classified documents to sink a nominee for director of the Central Intelligence Agency. 

Classified documents from Biden’s tenure as vice president were found in November, December and this month at his former office at the Penn Biden Center in Washington, D.C., and at his home in Wilmington, Del. A special counsel was appointed by Attorney General Merrick Garland last week to investigate the matter. 

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Runbeck: Election Firm Involved in Maricopa County’s Alleged Chain-of-Custody Violations

Admin

As Republican Kari Lake appeals a legal defeat in her lawsuit challenging certification of her narrow loss in Arizona’s Nov. 8 gubernatorial election, she is alleging that ballot chain-of-custody issues occurred at Runbeck Election Services, a company that municipalities across the country use for outsourcing election operations.

Lake is appealing a ruling against her last month in her suit against former Secretary of State and current Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs and Maricopa County election officials demanding the election result be set aside due to alleged failures and misconduct by the county. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Peter Thompson found that Lake failed to meet a legal standard of clear and convincing evidence that intentional misconduct changed the outcome of the election.

In her appeal, which challenges the legal standard applied by the trial court, Lake alleges that Maricopa County’s “massive violations of law and maladministration” included violating Arizona law’s chain-of-custody requirements by not having Election Day dropbox ballots counted at Maricopa County Tabulation and Election Center (MCTEC) before going to Runbeck.

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Commentary: The (No So) Stealthy Democrat Plan to Ditch Biden

Admin

The Democrat powers-that-be have decided! They don’t want senile president Joe Biden to run for reelection now!

How else could anyone explain what happened last week with the emerging story of the president having been caught with his hands in the cookie jar – or more descriptive, his fingerprints on boxes of documents, including a generous smattering of classified information – at his Chinese funded University of Pennsylvania pre-presidency office and then, get this, at his house in Delaware. It’s old news by now, but the garage space that holds Biden’s prize possession – his classic Corvette – also contained papers from his vice presidency days – and so did a room adjoining the garage.

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Commentary: Voters Can No Longer Tolerate Business as Usual, So It’s Time for Ronna McDaniel to Go

Admin

Kevin McCarthy’s speakership vote should have sent a clear message to GOP establishmentarians everywhere: conservatives have real power to leverage against Establishment-era Republicans, and they aren’t afraid to use it.

Even before the battle began on the floor of Congress, polling from Trafalgar Group and Convention of States revealed that Republican voters were dissatisfied with Republican Party congressional leadership. Capitalizing on the frustration of their constituents, a small band of Congressmen rebelled against the status quo and successfully managed to break up business as usual in our broken federal government.

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UFO Sightings Have Skyrocketed Since March 2021, Report Finds

Admin

U.S. intelligence agencies received 366 reports of unidentified airborne objects between March 2021 and August 2022, according to the newly revealed unclassified version of a report provided to Congress in 2022.

A majority of the new reports — totaling 510 over a 17-year period — originated from U.S. military pilots and operators, who say they observed strange flying objects while on duty, according to the report, which the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) released in unclassified form Thursday. Just over half of the 366 new sightings were marked down as everyday objects after a first pass, but government agencies tasked with investigating the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) said 171 required further analysis.

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Commentary: Occupational Licenses Are Killing Minority Entrepreneurship

Admin

Ashley N’Dakpri runs Afro Touch, a hair-braiding salon in Louisiana. She wants to hire more stylists to meet demand, but Louisiana’s strict occupational licensing regulations prevent her from doing so.

Ashley legally isn’t allowed to hire new stylists unless they have a cosmetologist’s license, a certification that requires five hundred hours of training and thousands of dollars in fees to obtain. She notes that many potential employees are no longer interested in working for her once they discover the onerous occupational licensing requirements.

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Female Athletes Threaten Legal Action if NCAA Continues to Let Males Compete in Women’s Sports

Admin

An organization of female athletes sent a letter Thursday to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, demanding that the NCAA reverse its policy of allowing male athletes who identify as women to compete on women’s teams, or face legal action.

A group of current and former collegiate and professional female athletes also protested Thursday outside the NCAA convention in San Antonio, after the Independent Council on Women’s Sports, or ICONS, sent the letter.

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During Visit to the Southern Border, New York City Mayor Says His City Has ‘No Room’ for Illegal Migrants

Admin

Democratic New York City Mayor Eric Adams said his city is at capacity and has “no room” for illegal migrants during a visit to El Paso, Texas, over the weekend.

Adams stressed that there’s misinformation going around that New York City is where illegal migrants can obtain housing and jobs, during a news conference Sunday in the border city. The Big Apple mayor has previously complained about the surges of illegal migrants coming to New York City on transports sent by Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, Democratic El Paso Mayor Oscar Leeser and Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis.

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North Carolina, North Dakota, Among States Phasing Out Income Tax

Just the News

Americans in search of economic freedom and opportunity are flocking to Florida, Tennessee and Texas, and at least part of the attraction is that these three states, along with six others (Alaska, Nevada, South Dakota, Washington, Wyoming and New Hampshire), don’t levy an income tax.

Other states may soon follow.

“There are 10 states that are in the process of moving their personal income tax to zero,” President of Americans for Tax Reform Grover Norquist said on the John Solomon Reports podcast.

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House Oversight Chairman Demands Visitor logs to Biden Home, White House Says There Aren’t Any

Just the News

The chairman of the House Oversight and Accountability Committee is pressing President Joe Biden to release visitor logs to his Delaware home where classified documents were found while accusing the National Archives of stonewalling his investigation.

“The Archives isn’t being transparent with the American people, ” Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., tweeted late Sunday.

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New Bill Would Ban Feds from Working with Big Tech to Censor Americans

The Center Square

Leading Republican lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives filed new legislation that would ban federal employees from working with big tech companies to censor Americans.

The bill comes as ongoing reports show that federal law enforcement and the White House have regularly communicated with social media companies like Facebook and Twitter, pressuring the companies to remove posts and accounts for a range of issues, including questioning the COVID-19 vaccine.

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FBI Raided Overseas Chinese Government Police Station in New York, Seized Materials: Report

Admin

FBI counterintelligence agents raided the New York office of an alleged overseas Chinese government police station sometime in fall 2022, The New York Times reported Thursday.

During the raid, federal authorities reportedly seized materials from the third-floor office of America Changle Association, a Manhattan Chinatown organization that claims to serve overseas Chinese, according to the report, which cites FBI agents who spoke on the condition of anonymity. The report comes several months after the Daily Caller News Foundation revealed in October that a March 2021 video conference between Changle and Chinese government officials had identified Lu Jianwang, Changle’s former chairman, as a “propagandist” and “special liaison officer” who worked with the United Front Work Department (UFWD).

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New Polling Finds Republicans Hold Sight Edge over Democrats in Party Preferences

Admin

For the first time in more than three decades, a higher percentage of Americans are identifying as Republicans or saying that they are GOP-leaning than those who are saying they are Democrats or leaning toward the Democratic Party, according to a new poll.

While 44% of Americans say they are Democrats or Democratic-leaning independents, 45% of Americans said they lean toward the GOP, according to a Gallup poll released Thursday.

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Unvaccinated Military Members Still Facing Repercussions Despite Rescinded COVID-19 Mandate

Admin

Despite the Department of Defense rescinding the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, unvaccinated military members are still facing repercussions, including denied benefits, ineligibility for promotion, being non-deployable, and potentially diminished employment prospects for those already discharged.

On Dec. 23, President Biden signed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), the $858 billion defense spending bill that included a measure repealing the mandate. On Dec. 29, the Defense Department followed suit, rescinding the mandate that has frayed military morale and resulted in the discharge of over 8,000 service members who refused the vaccine.

In rescinding the vaccine mandate, the DOD acknowledged the NDAA requires Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to rescind his Aug. 24, 2021 memo issuing the sweeping order.

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Commentary: Reset, Revelation, and Retribution

Admin

The restored Bourbon dynasty is said to have “learnt nothing and forgotten nothing.” But Louis XVIII’s posse had nothing on Republican “moderates” in the recently (barely) restored House majority.

Check out this choice tidbit, in the wake of Speaker Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) bruising, begrudging battle for the speakership, from Representative Nancy Mace (R-S.C.)…

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Michigan Projects $9.2B Surplus, Which Could Trigger a Tax Cut

The Center Square

Despite a possible mild recession, Michigan’s fiscal experts project a $9.2 billion taxpayer surplus that could trigger a tax cut.

Nonpartisan fiscal agencies project Michigan will gather $32.4 billion in revenue for the 2022-23 fiscal year.

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Commentary: The Coming Dark Age, Courtesy of our 21st Century Government

Admin

Certain basic functions of everyday life distinguish us from animals. Our use of fire is among them. We cook with it, heat with it, and light the darkness with it. In many ways, fire on the stove is the center of our family life. In days of our ancestors, we even kept wild animals at bay with torches burning hot with the rendered fat of animals.

Now the United States federal government is coming for our fire. It’s to protect the children, the federal government says, through an unelected bureaucrat who wants to regulate gas cookstoves out of existence.

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Commentary: Illegal Immigration Perpetuates Poverty

Admin

Immigration remains not only one of our nation’s most pressing issues but also one of the most divisive. The common media narrative boils this topic down to say that progressives are kind and welcoming to those experiencing hardship while conservatives are cold-hearted monsters. Sadly, this narrative hides a much more sinister reality: Charitable immigration can severely hurt the global poor and destabilizes the nations that these immigrants come from. Indeed, by accepting mass amounts of immigration, the U.S. is actively working against the very people it is claiming to help.

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Major University Sued over Speech Policies

Admin

Oklahoma State University (OSU) violated students’ First and Fourteenth amendment rights by enforcing policies which police speech concerning political and social issues, according to a lawsuit filed by legal group Speech First on Tuesday.

OSU enforces policies which “deter, suppress, and punish speech about political and social issues of the day,” according to the lawsuit filed in the United States District Court for the Western District of Oklahoma. It specifically challenges three issues Speech First alleges violates student speech rights: the harassment policy, the computer use policy and the Bias Incident Response system.

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The Country’s Biggest School Districts Are Explicitly Hiding Kids’ Gender Transitions from Parents

Admin

The nation’s largest school districts are implementing policies that require educators to keep students’ gender transitions a secret from their parents.

Los Angeles Unified School District, Chicago Public Schools and New York Public Schools are promoting practices and policies that hide a student’s transgender status from their parents. The policies have become a cultural flashpoint amid a battle over the role parents should play in their child’s education, and the extent to which gender ideology has infiltrated K-12 classrooms.

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Elite University Department Bans Use of Word ‘Field,’ Claiming It’s Too Racist

Admin

The University of Southern California (USC) Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work will no longer use the world “field” in its curriculum or its practices as part of its anti-racist framework, according to an email reportedly sent Monday.

The school reportedly stripped the word from use due to alleged ties to “anti-Black” and “anti-immigrant” rhetoric, according to the email sent by the Practicum Education Department to the campus community, faculty, staff and students. The school informed that the word “practicum” would be used instead to “ensure [its] use of inclusive language and practice.”

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Poll: Just 16 Percent of Gen Z Adults Are Proud to Live in America

Admin

A new poll shows that a staggeringly low percentage of adults in the Gen Z generation express pride in being Americans, with only 16 percent saying that they love their country.

As reported by the Daily Caller, the Morning Consult survey focused on adult members of Generation Z, also known as “Zoomers,” between the ages of 18 and 25. With only 16 percent saying that they were proud to be Americans, they are by far the least-patriotic generation. In the same poll, Millennials were revealed to be the second-lowest, with only 36 percent saying they were proud to be Americans.

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Professor Instructs Class to Watch Gay Porn to Learn If They Are Bisexual

Admin

by Alexa Schwerha   A Pennsylvania State University sociology professor reportedly instructed straight students to watch “gay or lesbian porn” to learn if they are bisexual, Fox News reported. Sam Richards told students in SOC 119 that watching porn could make them realize that they are attracted to members of the same…

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Watchdogs Have Long Warned About Biden’s Pay-to-Play Penn Biden Center

M.D. Kittle

The Penn Biden Center for Diplomacy and Global Engagement opened in 2018 as then-former Vice President Joe Biden’s “think tank.” It was founded, according to the institution, “on the principle that a democratic, open, secure, tolerant, and interconnected world benefits all Americans.” But it looks like Biden, his 2020 presidential campaign, his liberal allies, and perhaps some foreign friends have grabbed the brunt of the center’s benefits.  

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Nation Health Agency Spends Millions on Equity, LGBT Issues Instead of Researching Cures

The Center Square

Congress’ recent $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill increased the budget for medical research funding at the National Institutes of Health to nearly $50 billion in 2023 alone. A closer look at the agency reveals that NIH is increasingly spending its time, and funds, on equity and LGBT issues as well as “systemic racism and inequities.”

The National Institutes of Health has devoted millions of taxpayer dollars toward these kinds of issues for their research, taxpayer money that did not go to the federal health agency’s primary research goal of finding cures and medical treatments.

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Democrats Defied Twitter to Spread ‘Russian Bot’ Hoax

Admin

In the 14th installment of the Twitter Files, journalist Matt Taibbi revealed how Democrats chose to falsely accuse their opposition of being “Russian bots” even though Twitter directly disagreed with this assessment.

As reported by Fox News, shortly after then-Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee Devin Nunes released his famous memo detailing the efforts that were undertaken to spy on the Trump campaign by intelligence agencies, high-profile Democrats began spreading the lie that Nunes’ information was being promoted by “Russian bots” on Twitter.

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‘Noncitizen Workers’ May Avoid Deportation if They Report Their Employers’ Labor Violations

Just the News

The Department of Homeland Security announced on Friday that it would streamline a deferred action process for noncitizens who report labor violations so as to help them avoid deportation.

The agency hopes that the policy will help it to identify exploitative work environments by protecting those who come forward from “immigration-related retaliation from the exploitive employers,” according to a press release. DHS contends that workers often avoid reporting labor violations for fear that their employers will retaliate on the basis of their immigration status.

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Star News Network’s Kittle on Bannon’s WarRoom: No Action Taken on 2020 Complaint that Multi-Million Dollar ‘Anonymous’ Gifts from Chinese Sources to PennBiden Center Violated Federal Reporting Requirements

Admin

Friday on WarRoom: Battlefield, host Bannon welcomed National Political Editor at The Star News Network to the show to discuss the anonymous donations received by the Penn Biden Center and other higher learning institutions linked to the Chinese Communist Party.

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Commentary: Wokeness Is Hollowing Out The Fed

Admin

Are you wondering why checking out at the grocery store these days feels like making a mortgage payment? This week’s four-decade-high inflation is a direct result of the Federal Reserve taking its eye off the ball over the last two years. Instead of focusing on its mandate of keeping prices stable, it has been more concerned with financing massive federal deficits and kowtowing to liberal ideology.

But now the Fed chair is claiming just the opposite.

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Commentary: Is the Justice Department Blackmailing President Joe Biden?

Admin

by Robert Romano   In 2016, the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, Hillary Clinton, had an FBI investigation because she was storing classified information on her private server for the convenience of reading her classified emails on a smartphone. Details of the investigation came out throughout the campaign, resulting in former…

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