Category: Culture

Commentary: ATF Rule Change Creates a Trap for the Unwary

Michigan Star Staff
A selection of modern firearms on a table

On Friday, the 31st anniversary of the massacre of Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas, the ATF issued new regulations that make it more difficult to comply with federal laws regulating gun dealing and background checks.

Since the 1930s, federal law has required gun dealers to be registered as Federal Firearms Licensees (FFL). The requirements hinged on the meaning of “engaged in the business of” gun dealing. This language has always been ambiguous, and there has never been (even after the announcement of the new rules) a true “bright line” that distinguishes when one graduates from selling a few guns from one’s personal collection into full-fledged gun dealing.

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Military Could Hit Troops with Court-Martials for Refusing to Use Preferred Pronouns, Experts Say

Michigan Star Staff
National Guard troops

The military could seek to formally punish service members for refusing to use another service member’s preferred pronouns under existing policy, according to military experts.

A 2020 Equal Opportunity law opened the door for commanders to subject someone who refuses to affirm a transgender servicemember’s so-called gender identity to the Uniform Code of Military Justice (UCMJ) for charges related to harassment, Capt. Thomas Wheatley, an assistant professor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Such a move would likely infringe on a servicemember’s constitutional rights to uphold their conscience, but it might not prevent leaders from employing more subtle ways of disciplining service members.

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University Antisemitism Reaches Fever Pitch with Calls for Violence Against Jews

The Center Square
Anti-Israel protest

A Jewish Yale student was reportedly stabbed in the eye with a Palestinian flag during a pro-Hamas protest on campus over the weekend, the latest incident highlighting the ongoing tensions on college campuses since the Hamas terror group attacked Israel Oct. 7 and ignited an ongoing war.

Amidst ongoing calls for violence, lawmakers have ramped up calls for accountability for the taxpayer-funded universities as well as groups supporting Hamas, which the State Department has officially labeled a terrorist organization.

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Commentary: To Appease Environmentalists, the FTC Will Cripple U.S. Energy

RealClearWire
FTC Chair Lina Khan

In the movie The Perfect Storm, George Clooney and Mark Wahlberg are among the crew of a boat off the Northeast coast that is caught in the convergence of multiple powerful storms. The combination of tempests ultimately takes down the craft and its crew. We should all hope one of our nation’s most vital industries doesn’t succumb in similar fashion as it is caught in a perfect storm of ideological rigidity, bureaucratic arrogance, and regulatory overreach.

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Alan Dershowitz Says He is No Longer Loyal to Democratic Party After Columbia Protests

Just the News

Dershowitz, a Democrat who has been a major critic of President Joe Biden and the current administration, said his party has been an “extraordinary disappointment” because they have not been very vocal about the pro-Palestine protests at Columbia University.

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Columbia University Shifts Classes Online After Pro-Palestinian, Anti-Israel Protest Takes Over Campus

Admin

Columbia University President Nemat “Minouche” Shafik ordered classes to be held virtually on Monday following an unauthorized pro-Palestinian encampment on campus late last week, calling for a “reset.”

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Medical Associations Silent After Review Finds Weak Evidence for Recommending Puberty Blockers to Kids

Michigan Star Staff

Major medical associations have remained silent after the results of a four-year review commissioned by the National Health Service (NHS) England undermined their recommendations for giving puberty blockers to children with gender dysphoria

The Cass report, conducted by former Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health Dr. Hilary Cass and released April 10, found that there is “weak evidence” for offering puberty blockers to children. It concluded that its findings “raise questions about the quality of currently available guidelines” offered by associations like the World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH) and the Endocrine Society, yet neither organization has committed to reviewing their guidelines.

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Pro-Life Leaders Sound Alarm on Potential Abortion Ballot Initiatives: ‘Bunch of Mini Roe v. Wade’s‘ Nationwide

Admin
Abortion Supporters

Leaders in the pro-life community are warning Americans about the pro-abortion industry’s deceptive ways, as over 20 percent of states face the possibility of voting on an abortion-related ballot measure in November.

The states that may see these ballot measures are Florida, Maryland, New York, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, and South Dakota.

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Commentary: The Endurance of an Ideological Paradox

Michigan Star Staff
Karl Marx / "How do you do, Fellow Kids" meme

I have written about the death and rebirth of socialism periodically over the years.  But as André Gide said in another context, “Toutes choses sont dites déjà, mais comme personne n’écoute, il faut toujours recommencer”: everything has already been said, but since no one was listening, it is necessary to say it again.

Really, the socialist impulse is a hardy perennial.  How could something so frequently and thoroughly discredited persist in the hearts of men?  Some think it has something to do with the gullibility of the human animal, some (but I repeat myself) with the persistence of the utopian dream.  I suspect there are many explanations, of which the raw desire for power plays an unedifying but also underrated role.  I also favor the explanatory power of original sin, which has profound psychological as well as theological application to many of the more farcical aspects of human experience and what is more farcical than socialism?

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Commentary: Remembering Nixon’s Legacy 30 Years After His Death

Michigan Star Staff
Richard Nixon

Richard Nixon, the 37th president of the United States, died 30 years ago this week—on April 22, 1994. And while it may be hard to remember a Republican the left despised more than Donald J. Trump—Nixon probably takes the cake.

It was not so much how the former California Congressman and two-term Vice President governed or his introverted personality but rather his adversarial relationship with a hostile media, his sheer determination, intelligence, lawyerly command of the facts, exceptional understanding of both foreign and domestic policy, and his effectiveness as commander in chief that caused the left to view Nixon as persona non grata.

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Priest Resigns from a Michigan Church After Protests over His Criticism of a Gay Author

Just the News
Father Tom Held

A Catholic priest at a Michigan church resigned from his position following protests over his comments criticizing a gay author who read a book to preschool children.

LGBTQ activists held protests outside St. Joseph the Worker Church in Beal City, north of Lansing, following his remarks.

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Commentary: The Discovery of Aliens Will Probably Be… Unsatisfying

RealClearWire
Michael L. Wong

There are a least a hundred billion stars in the Milky Way, our home galaxy. And there could be trillions of planets! That leaves a lot of potential real estate for extraterrestrials.

Let’s optimistically assume that we’ll one day find aliens. How might that happen? Maybe it will be like in the movies! They’ll visit Earth with their faster-than-light starships, hopefully coming in peace, like the Vulcans from Star Trek or the squid-like beings in Arrival.

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Commentary: Uncomfortable Facts About Why Fatal Police Shootings Aren’t Declining

RealClearWire
Police arresting suspects

When Dexter Reed died in a shootout with Chicago police on March 21, the incident was quickly grafted onto a narrative that began in 2014 after a policeman killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo. – namely, that the U.S. faces an epidemic of violence by unbridled cops who do not believe black lives matter. “Killing of Dexter Reed raises questions about Chicago police reform. ‘The message is, go in guns blazing,'” blared a headline in the Chicago Sun-Times.

Reed’s death joins a long list of police shootings that have received wide media coverage and political scrutiny – especially those involving African Americans. Over the years, many police departments embraced reforms, including the use of bodycams, to document incidents – an effort bolstered by a public eager to use smartphones to record the behavior of cops. In 2015, the Washington Post created a database logging every person shot dead by police in the U.S.

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Commentary: The Trans Reckoning Is Not Yet Here — But It’s Coming Soon

Michigan Star Staff
Group of trans organizers in the street

Over at Compact magazine on Tuesday, Nina Power wrote “The Trans Reckoning Is Here,” and, as evidence, she cited a report by a British pediatrician named Hilary Cass written for the National Health Service that upturned the faux-scientific basis on which that country has embarked on normalizing “gender-affirming care.”

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Scottish Gender Clinic Stops Prescribing Puberty Blockers for Minors

Michigan Star Staff
NHS Scotland

A Scottish gender clinic for minors announced Thursday that they would no longer be prescribing puberty blockers for patients under the age of 18.

The Sandyford Sexual Health Services to Paediatric Endocrinology, which is the only clinic in Scotland that prescribes puberty blockers for minors, said that it would not be accepting new 16 and 17-year-old patients for hormone therapy until they turn 18, according to the announcement. The clinic cited the National Health Service (NHS) of England’s decision in March to ban puberty blockers for minors and the publication of the Cass Review on April 10, which found “weak evidence” for giving puberty blockers to children.

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Commentary: The Teachers’ Unions Are More Political than Ever

Michigan Star Staff
Becky Pringle

In the past, teachers’ unions concentrated on fighting to keep all teachers employed—competent or otherwise—laying off teachers by seniority when necessary and soaking taxpayers every chance they could. While those activities are still part of their mission, they have, over time, increasingly delved into the political/social realm, promoting Black Lives Matter, Critical Race Theory, DEI, class warfare, gender-bending, etc. And their current level of engagement is staggering.

Americans for Fair Treatment, a national nonprofit organization that educates public employees about their rights in a unionized workplace, recently released a report detailing the National Education Association’s (NEA) financial filings from Sept. 1, 2022, through Aug. 31, 2023.

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Commentary: The Coup d’Etat Against Candidate Trump

Michigan Star Staff
Donald Trump

In 1967, I had the privilege of studying criminal law at Yale University. The teacher was a superpower in the field named Joe Goldstein.

After a short time, we got to a series of cases where a prosecutor had empaneled a grand jury and gotten an indictment against some poor soul — almost always poverty-stricken and often black — who had either no evidence against him (and he was almost always male). That poor soul usually was convicted. He went to prison and that was that.

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Soros PAC Bets Big on White Women to Deliver 2024 Victory for Democrats

Michigan Star Staff
Joe Biden with supporter

A PAC funded by George Soros is bankrolling a political committee that is trying to convince moderate white women to vote for Democrats.

Democracy PAC donated $1 million to the One For All Committee, which produces and runs advertisements aimed at persuading “moderate white women” to vote for Democrats in “key battleground states,” according to a campaign finance disclosure. One For All has, in its past campaigns, supported President Joe Biden, Democratic Senate candidates and Janet Protasiewicz, a Democrat-endorsed Wisconsin Supreme Court candidate.

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Federal Appeals Court Overturns West Virginia Transgender Sports Ban

Just the News
Becky Pepper-Jackson

In a 2-1 ruling, the court ruled that the law violated Title IX, which prohibits gender discrimination in schools.

A federal appeals court on Tuesday overturned a West Virginia law that banned transgender girls from playing on girls’ sports teams.

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Left-Wing Outlet Hurtles Toward Bankruptcy Following Megadonor’s Retreat: Report

Michigan Star Staff
Pierre Omidyar

The Intercept is losing money amid left-wing megadonor Pierre Omidyar’s choice to stop providing funds to the outlet, Semafor reported on Sunday.

The Intercept is hemorrhaging around $300,000 monthly and is on pace to possess less than 1 million dollars in reserves by November, according to internal data distributed inside the outlet in March, Semafor reported. The outlet could potentially deplete its cash reserves entirely by May 2025 after Omidyar’s First Look Media decided to terminate its funding in late 2022.

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New ‘Athenai Institute’ Pushes Universities to Divest from China

Michigan Star Staff
Caleb Max

An advocacy group is recruiting students from both major political parties to push for university divestment from Chinese government-controlled entities.

Athenai Institute co-founder Caleb Max told The College Fix the organization is working to build on the victories it has achieved since he and two other George Mason University students founded it in 2020.

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Newt Gingrich Commentary: The American People vs. Judicial Corruption

Admin

As Americans pay their taxes today, an historic event will begin in New York City. In a moment worthy of “On the Waterfront,” the great movie about corruption and brutality in New York, the New York system will attempt to judicially destroy the chosen champion of more than 80 million Americans.

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Commentary: North Carolina Could Be Ground Zero for the Gen Z Revolt Against Democrats

Michigan Star Staff
Gen Z Trump Voter

What began as imprecise theories among a handful of forward-looking political observers and youth organizers is materializing this election year, and poll after poll is now showing young voters deserting Democrats in droves.

Mainstream news outlets have little choice but to acknowledge the vast, double-digit declines in support for Biden among younger voters, a group which supported him by 25 percentage points in 2020. Now we are seeing tentative coverage of the youth shift and warnings to Democrats in Vox, NPR, CNN and other mainstream outlets.

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Saving Whales Started as Left-Wing Cause, but Now Conservatives are Taking Up the Fight

Just the News
Whale breaching the surface

Saving the whales was once a leading cause of left-wing environmental groups like Greenpeace. But offshore wind development has created an ironic twist in which conservative groups are now the loudest voices raising concerns about the North Atlantic right whale’s extinction.

The Heartland Institute, Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) and the National Legal and Policy Center, want to draw attention to what they say is a connection between an increase in dead whales along the East Coast and industrialization of the U.S. Coast. A new study by an independent acoustician concludes that they may be right.

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Commentary: Faith’s Proven Role in Overcoming Mental Illness

Michigan Star Staff
Therapy Session

by Carrie Sheffield   “There is an important body of conservative thought that is now nearly or completely absent on the faculties of many eminent universities,” former Harvard University President Derek Bok wrote in Harvard Magazine following Hamas’ terrorist attacks Oct. 7 in Israel and the ensuing campus chaos. He recommends “some immediate progress by trying…

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Commentary: Female Liberation Can Be Found in Marriage

Michigan Star Staff
Marriage

What does a fulfilling, self-focused life look like, according to liberated feminism?

Spa nights alone in a fancy apartment, perhaps. A boss babe CEO who enjoys hooking up on the weekends. Plastic surgery and perhaps a cute pet to post on Instagram.

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Commentary: DEI Cronyism and Woke Grifters

Michigan Star Staff
Fani Willis

When ideology replaces meritocracy or provides immunity from the consequences of illegal behavior, systemic mediocrity follows.

Under toxic National Socialism, Stalinism, and Maoism, millions of cronies and grifters mouthed party lines in hopes that their approved ideology would allow them to advance their careers and excuse their lawbreaking.

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Majority of Colleges Tie Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion to Graduation Requirements: Report

Michigan Star Staff
Graduation Ceremony

A majority of colleges and universities require students to take courses related to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in order to graduate, according to a new report.

Speech First, a pro-free expression organization, examined the policies of 248 colleges across the country and found that 67 percent of them required DEI coursework to “satisfy general education requirements.” Students enrolled in these courses are “subjected to courses advocating far-left ideological perspectives and pushing far-left political advocacy,” the report notes.

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Report: Michigan Might Lose 700,000 Residents by 2050

The Center Square
Moving Boxes

A Michigan report says up to 700,000 people could leave the state by 2050.

An April report, which does not measure inbound migration, from the Michigan Center of Data and Analytics says Michigan’s population has shifted to mostly older people and more residents are dying than being born.

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Commentary: Clinton Allies Attack ‘Good Guy with a Gun’

Michigan Star Staff
Good guy with a gun

A left-wing group led by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 Campaign Chairman claims a “good guy with a gun” is a bad thing. Tell that to the good guy with a gun in Fort Worth who saved his own life, and maybe his children’s lives as well, from shooter JaDerek Gray, who opened fire on him in a road rage incident on I-35 West.

Gray was driving his motorcycle between lanes, which is illegal in Texas. The hero, driving an SUV next to Gray, couldn’t see him and tried to change lanes. Gray, furious, passed the SUV and parked his motorcycle in the middle of the highway, stopping traffic, witnesses said. Gray then pulled a gun and pointed it at the hero, who was in his vehicle with his children.

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National Collegiate Athletics Organization Rules Male Athletes Can’t Compete in Women’s Sports

Michigan Star Staff
NAIA President and CEO Jim Carr

The National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA) announced Monday that only biological females would be allowed to play in women’s sports.

The organization’s Council of Presidents voted to approve a policy allowing “only students whose biological sex is female” in its women’s sports competitions, according to The Washington Post. The policy will go into effect on Aug. 1 in time for the 2024-2025 season.

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Commentary: Is ‘The Great Illusion’ in Ruins?

Michigan Star Staff
President Joe Biden

In 2021, Joe Biden was elected after a bitterly fought campaign that deposed the incumbent Donald Trump. Democrats eventually captured, for a time, both the House and Senate, ensuring the most left-wing government in modern American history.

Americans were then set to witness a great experiment. For the first time in their lives, a truly radical socialist program would supposedly fundamentally transform the way America dealt with the border, immigration, the economy, race relations, foreign policy, energy, law enforcement, crime, education, and social questions such as religion, gender, abortion, and schooling.

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Tuberculosis, Measles Break Out in Chicago Migrant Shelters

Michigan Star Staff
Measles vaccination at migrant shelter

In the city of Chicago, officials announced that there has been an outbreak of tuberculosis (TB) in several shelters currently housing illegal aliens.

As Fox News reports, the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) released a statement confirming that TB had broken out in “a few different shelters” throughout the city. Although the statement did not disclose the total number of cases, officials nevertheless tried to downplay the threat by describing it as a “small number” of cases.

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Prominent Epidemiologist Says Data Proves COVID Lockdowns Failed, and Hurt Population

Just the News
Dr. Harvey Risch

Dr. Harvey Risch, Professor of Epidemiology at the Yale School of Public Health, says lockdowns failed to mitigate the COVID-19 pandemic and had “serious repercussions for substantial fractions of the population.”

“The measures that need to be monitored for a pandemic of this sort are the number of deaths, serious hospitalizations, and serious outcomes of the infection, not the infection itself,” Risch said on a “Just the News, No Noise” special on Friday.

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Commentary: Navigating the Vibe Shift of a Cultural Reckoning

Michigan Star Staff
Masked woman holding American flag

We have been hearing a lot about a “vibe shift” in American culture recently. The phrase has been around for a while. It gained new currency after the commentator Santiago Pliego wrote an essay about the phenomenon, and Tucker Carlson had him on his show to talk about it.

I recommend both.  For one thing, they offer notes of cheerfulness (I almost said “optimism,” but optimism is Dr. Pangloss’s failing) in the midst of our sea of gloominess and despondency. According to Pliego, Americans are awakening from their “dogmatic slumbers,” where the dogmas in question are the rancid pieties of the so-called “progressive” establishment. Have you checked your privilege today, Comrade? How are your pronouns holding up? What have you done to combat “whiteness,” “toxic masculinity,” and “climate change?”

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Movie Would Share ‘Gut-Wrenching Story’ of Man Who Tried to Become a Trans Woman

Michigan Star Staff
Walter Heyer

Cross-dressed by his grandmother as a child, abused by his uncle, confused and hurting, Walt Heyer sought to become a woman. As a young man, he underwent attempted gender-reassignment surgery, lived as a trans-identifying woman for eight years, and ultimately detransitioned.

Heyer, now 83, has spent the past few decades offering support to men and women who also have been taught to believe they were born in the wrong body. As part of that effort, he told The Daily Signal, he’s written a number of books and answered “thousands” of letters from individuals, often men, who seek his help.

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Trans High School Basketball Player Who Knocked Down Female Rival Competes Against Girls in Multiple Sports

Michigan Star Staff
Lazuli Clark

The trans-identified girl’s basketball player who was filmed knocking down a rival player in Massachusetts earlier this year, was allegedly kicked off a rowing team a couple of years ago for leering at, and commenting on a girl’s bare breasts in the locker room.

In addition to basketball and rowing, the 6-foot tall KIPP Academy senior has competed against girls in multiple other high school sports, including volleyball, hurdles, shot put and tae kwon do, predictably shattering records and leading his teams to victory, according to the Australian online magazine Quillette.

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Red States Report More COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects, Study Finds

The Center Square
Vaccine Shot

People living in states with more Republican voters were more likely to report COVID-19 vaccine side effects than those in states that lean blue.

That’s according to a new study that looked at 620,456 COVID-19 vaccine adverse event reports from adults reported to the federal Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System. The study was published in JAMA.

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Total Solar Eclipse on April 8: What It Is and Where People Can See It From

ADN America
Total Solar Eclipse

If you missed the annular solar eclipse that created a “ring of fire” over America last October, don’t worry, because this April 8 an incredible total solar eclipse will be crossing the skies.

North American observers will enjoy the incredible phenomenon that will pass through Mexico, the United States and Canada.

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Commentary: The Case for Marrying Young — From Someone Who Did

Michigan Star Staff
Marriage Rings

“Young people are the future” is a quip every Gen Zer has heard. Unfortunately, the “future” has lost its interest in the future. Young people are increasingly turning their backs on marriage and children, a choice that is hurting their mental and spiritual health, their physical wellbeing, and, ultimately, their happiness and sense of fulfillment with life.

As I approach graduation from college, I also approach my second wedding anniversary. Unfortunately, my husband’s and my young marriage is far from the norm in today’s society, and these new norms are hurting America’s young people.

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Commentary: The Unattainable American Dream

RealClearWire
American flag waving in front of house

Get married, have children, buy a house, and live comfortably on a single income. Not very long ago, that path was the reality, the norm, for the great American middle class.

But America has gone backward in this regard, and struggling citizens know it all too well. Experiencing the kinds of lives enjoyed by our parents and grandparents has become impossible for most Americans, leading to widespread disenchantment and a palpable loss of patriotism and confidence in America.

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Commentary: National Council of Teachers of English Hosts Seminar on How to Teach ‘Gender Queer’

Michigan Star Staff
Maia Kobabe

The National Council of Teachers of English, a professional development organization, hosted remote training to instruct K-12 teachers on how to teach the controversial book “Gender Queer” in their “classrooms, libraries, and communities.”

The NCTE, which boasts 25,000 members around the United States, hosted a panel including “Gender Queer” author Maia Kobabe and an “LGBTQIA+ Advisory Committee” to discuss how to incorporate the pornographic book into school curriculum.

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White House Blames ‘Misinformation’ for Transgender Day of Visibility Outrage

Just the News
Karine Jean-Pierre

“It is actually unsurprising that politicians are seeking to divide and weaken our country with cruel, hateful, and dishonest rhetoric,” the White House press secretary said.

The White House is blaming “misinformation” for the outrage that ensued after it observed Transgender Day of Visibility, which fell on the same day as Easter this year.

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Commentary: Biden’s Big Bet on Military Abortions Falls Flat

Michigan Star Staff
Lloyd Austin

Since the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade in June 2022, President Joe Biden has made it a top priority to use any and all administrative actions to promote and pay for abortions with taxpayer money.

No single related action garnered more attention than Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s announcement that the Defense Department would use taxpayer funds to pay for abortion travel. Now, a new Pentagon report finds that the Biden administration’s abortion travel policy for service members and dependents was used only 12 times from June through December.

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Commentary: Supreme Court Takes on California’s Uber-Disclosure Laws Aiming to Crack Down on ‘Dark Money’ Ads

Michigan Star Staff
San Francisco City Hall

When you watch a political ad, often you’ll see a disclaimer of who the ad was paid for by, usually a political action committee, but what about the donors to the committee? Or the donor’s donors?

That’s the bridge that a San Francisco campaign finance law seeks to cross — now being challenged at the U.S. Supreme Court in No on E v. Chiu — and to prohibit an incredibly common practice in campaign finance, which are donations from anonymous sources.

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