Month: March 2021

In yet another potential scandal for the already-embattled Governor Andrew Cuomo (D-N.Y.), a new report claims that his family members and others with close ties to his administration were given special priority with regards to early testing procedures for the coronavirus, according to The Hill.

The report, which first came from the Albany Times Union, says that Cuomo’s Health Commissioner Howard Zucker ordered the New York State Department of Health to give priority to those who Cuomo himself specifically designated, which included his brother, his mother, and one of his sisters. Such testing was conducted in their own private residences, with the officials from the Health Department going out of their way to travel to their homes just to give them the tests.

Parler Alerted Feds to Violent Content Ahead of January 6 Riot

Parler, the free speech social media platform maligned by political partisans and their media associates has responded with a letter to the House Oversight Committee which is currently investigating the company for failing to “police” its content before the January 6th riot.

The social media company reports it alerted the FBI more than 50 times of posts indicating the violent action at the Capitol posted on its site. The Wall Street Journal reports:

The social-media site referred a number of posts to law enforcement, including one on Dec. 24 from a user who called for an “armed force” of 150,000 people to “react to the congressional events of January 6,” according to the letter, which included the post and communications with FBI officials among its exhibits and has been reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Top Republicans Seem Open to Some Kind of Gun Control

Congressional Democrats and President Joe Biden have vowed to act on gun control in the aftermath of two mass shootings that left 18 people dead, but despite their majorities in Congress, Democrats’ proposed bills would be extraordinarily unlikely to overcome a Republican Senate filibuster.

Partisan gridlock on guns is nothing new. No major gun control legislation has passed in over 25 years, when Congress passed a 10-year assault weapons ban under former President Bill Clinton. But despite the constant stalemates, some Republicans have offered alternative plans, meaning that the possibility of some form of bipartisan gun legislation may still exist.

Pennsylvania Republican Sen. Pat Toomey said Tuesday that while he did not think the two bills passed by the House would overcome a filibuster, there was still opportunity for compromise.

‘The Crisis Will Continue, and Worsen’: Immigration Experts Say Border Crisis Will Continue Despite Mexico’s Policies Limiting Migration

The current migrant crisis in the U.S. will continue to worsen despite Mexico implementing travel limits on March 18 at its southern border, immigration experts say.

Mexico announced non-essential travel restrictions at its southern border due to COVID-19 as thousands of Central American migrants continue to enter the country en route to the U.S.

“The crisis will continue, and worsen, until such time as the [Biden] administration decides to take steps to end it,” Ira Mehlman, the media director of the Federation For American Immigration Reform (FAIR), told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

CBP Detaining as Many as 9,000 Migrants Daily, Around Half of Them Are Unaccompanied Minors and Families

Customs and Border Protection is detaining as many as 9,000 migrants daily and over half of them are unaccompanied minors and families, a senior U.S. Border Patrol official said Friday.

Around 6,000 illegal immigrants were apprehended Thursday including 1,900 unaccompanied migrant minors and families who were processed under Title 8, according to the Customs and Border Protection (CBP) senior official. Title 42 is still used to expel most single migrant adults and U.S. officials are working with other countries to identify the migrants coming into the U.S., the official said.

Steve Bannon Presents ‘War Room: Pandemic’

An all new LIVE STREAM of War Room: Pandemic starts at 9 a.m. Central Time on Saturday.

Former White House Chief Strategist Stephen K. Bannon began the daily War Room: Pandemic radio show and podcast on January 25, when news of the virus was just beginning to leak out of China around the Lunar New Year. Bannon and co-hosts bring listeners exclusive analysis and breaking updates from top medical, public health, economic, national security, supply chain and geopolitical experts weekdays from 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 noon ET.

Ambassador Callista Gingrich Commentary: The Human Crisis at the U.S. Southern Border

The surge of migrants at the U.S. southern border has dramatically increased in recent months. According to U.S. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro N. Mayorkas, “We are on pace to encounter more individuals on the southwest border than we have in the last 20 years.”

In February, changes in U.S. border policy and the search for a better life incentivized more than 100,000 migrants to travel to the United States and cross the southern border.

Commentary: Following the ‘Science’ Amongst COVID-19 to Protect Unscientific Bias

Throughout the Trump years and in particular during the 2020 COVID pandemic crisis, the nation was lectured by the Left “to follow the data,” as the Democrats proclaimed themselves the “party of science.” As sober and judicious children of the enlightenment, they alone offered the necessary disinterested correctives to Trump’s supposed bluster and exaggeration—and to his anti-scientific deplorable following (often dismissed by Biden as dregs, chumps, and Neanderthals).

In truth, leftists and Democrats have become the purveyors of superstition. Their creation of a fantasy world is not because they do not believe in science per se, but because they believe more in the primacy of ideology that should shape and warp science in the proper fashion for the greater good. What prompted Paul Ehrlich, Al Gore, or Representative Alexandra Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) hysterically and wrongly to forecast widespread demographic or climatological catastrophe in just a few years was not ignorance of science per se, but a desire to massage science for our own good.

‘Neutrobots’ Breach the Blood-Brain Barrier to Treat Brain Cancer in Mice

March 27, 2021March 26, 2021 RealClearWire

In one microscale step for machine, but a potentially significant leap for the treatment of brain cancer, researchers at the Harbin Institute of Technology in China have created controllable microrobots that can breach the blood-brain barrier and deliver cancer drugs to tumors in the brains of mice.

They detailed their efforts in the journal Science Robotics.

GoFundMe Pulls Parents Against Critical Theory Page

March 27, 2021March 26, 2021 Eric Burk

GoFundMe has taken down Parents Against Critical Theory (PACT) Founder Scott Mineo’s page, meant to help fund his efforts to fight critical race theory implementation in Loudoun County Public Schools. He said that GoFundMe didn’t say why it were removed his posts, but he has a guess.

“Because I’m anti-[critical race theory], that’s it,” he said.

First Battlefront Drawn in Georgia in Epic Fight over Future of American Elections

March 26, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Over just a few hours Thursday, Georgia’s Legislature and Gov. Brian Kemp drew the first battle line in the high-stakes struggle to decide how American voters will cast ballots in the future after the pandemic-ridden election of 2020.

The Republican-controlled state put itself firmly in the camp of voter ID requirements, limited drop boxes and expanded weekend voting. And depending on the eye of the beholder, it was either a win for election integrity or a return to the era of Jim Crow voter suppression.

Virginia Gov. Northam Signs Restaurant Styrofoam Ban, Issues Ban on Single-Use Plastics for Some State Agencies

March 26, 2021March 25, 2021 Eric Burk

Governor Ralph Northam signed a ban on executive branch state agencies using single-use plastics. On Tuesday, he announced Executive Order 77 at the Environment Virginia Symposium held at Virginia Military Institute. He also announced the signing of Delegate Betsy Carr’s (D-Richmond) food vendor Styrofoam ban bill.

Commentary: The Nature of Chinese Communist Party’s Contempt for Us

Last week in Anchorage, Alaska, Chinese diplomats dressed down Biden Administration Secretary of State Antony Blinken and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan. Both seem stunned by the Chinese broadsides.

Apparently, as elite Americans readily confess to inherent white supremacy and racism—highlighting the complaints of BLM and Antifa—the Chinese are happy to agree that such admittedly toxic Americans should not dare to criticize China’s racist policies.

Commentary: What Does the Republican Party Stand for?

For two fleeting years after Trump was elected president, the GOP controlled the White House and both houses of the U.S. Congress. This level of one-party control for the GOP was almost without precedent. Apart from 2003-2007—the end of George W. Bush’s first term in office and the beginning of his second—you have to go back all the way to 1953, the first half of Dwight Eisenhower’s first term, to find a GOP president and a GOP-controlled Congress.

Over 23,000 Illegal Aliens Released into U.S. by DHS in Two Months

Under Joe Biden, the Department of Homeland Security has overseen the release of over 23,400 illegal aliens into the United States since February, according to Breitbart.

These illegals were released after they had already been detained at the border for attempting to cross. Of that 23,400, around 15,600 were released in the month of March alone. This is in addition to the thousands of more illegals who have similarly been released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) over the same period, with the exact numbers currently being unavailable.

Nearly Every Lawmaker Overseeing Privacy, Antitrust Issues Received Big Tech Money in 2020: Report

Nearly all members of Congress who oversee privacy and antitrust issues have received donations or lobbying money from Big Tech, according to a Public Citizen report.

Ninety-four percent of lawmakers on Capitol Hill with jurisdiction over key Big Tech issues have received money from the industry, according to the Public Citizen report released Wednesday. Altogether, Big Tech political action committees (PAC) and lobbyists contributed roughly $3.2 million to lawmakers who are specifically tasked with regulating the industry.

Facebook Has Been Used to Organize Migrant Caravans

Thousands of migrants have reportedly used social media apps Facebook and WhatsApp to organize caravans and groups headed to illegally cross the U.S.-Mexico border.

The migrants, who largely originate from Central America, started joining Facebook and WhatsApp groups in the months after President Joe Biden defeated former President Donald Trump in the November presidential election, according to Reuters. Members of the groups reportedly warned others that they should time their border treks to ensure they arrived after Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration.

Jobless Claims Plummet to 684,000 in Latest Sign of Economic Recovery

The number of Americans filing new unemployment claims dropped to 684,000 last week as the economy continued to slowly recover from the coronavirus pandemic, according to the Department of Labor.

The Bureau of Labor and Statistics figure released Thursday represented a large decrease in the number of new jobless claims compared to the week ending March 13, when 781,000 new jobless claims were reported. That number was revised up from the 770,000 jobless claims initially reported last week.

Government Accountability Office Investigates Biden’s Decision to Halt Border Wall Construction

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has opened an investigation into President Joe Biden’s decision to freeze congressional funds allocated for construction of the southern border wall, Politico reported.

Senate Republicans requested the GAO investigate the Biden administration for potentially violating the Impoundment Control Act (ICA), which prohibits the president from altering funding appropriated by Congress without approval, Politico reported. Republicans are referring to the $1.4 billion allocated for border wall construction in the $900 billion COVID bill passed by Congress in December.

Biden Sets New Vaccine Target, Faces Questions on Border Crisis, Senate Filibuster

March 26, 2021March 25, 2021 The Center Square

President Joe Biden on Thursday set a new target of 200 million Americans being vaccinated by the end of April while also facing questions about the southern U.S. border crisis, the potential to end filibusters in the U.S. Senate and other issues.

At the first news conference of his presidency, held later into his first term than recent presidents, Biden said the U.S. was on target to vaccinate more than 200 million Americans by his 100th day in office.

Democrats Introduce Bill to Repeal ‘Racist’ Hyde Amendment

Democratic senators plan to introduce legislation that would repeal the Hyde Amendment, arguing that the decades-old legislation is both “anti-choice” and “blatantly racist.”

The Equal Access to Abortion Coverage in Health Insurance Act will be introduced in Congress Thursday, the HuffPost reported, by Democratic Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth and Democratic California Sen. Barbara Lee. The legislation demands the reversal of the 1976 Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of federal funds for abortions.

Virginia Abolishes Death Penalty

March 26, 2021March 25, 2021 Eric Burk

Virginia became the first state in the south to abolish the death penalty when Governor Ralph Northam announced Thursday that he signed twin death-penalty repeal bills introduced by Delegate Mike Mullin (D-Newport News) and Senator Scott Surovell (D-Fairfax). Virginia joins 22 other states that have also repealed the death penalty.

Biden Team Ignored Warnings from Career Immigration Officials That Their Actions Could Cause a Border Crisis

The Biden administration ignored career immigration officials’ warnings of an impending surge in the number of migrants arriving at the southern border, The Washington Post reported.

The administration has repeatedly refused to refer to the situation as a crisis, despite a seeming inability to curb the increasing flow of migrants, the Post reported. The administration’s mixed messaging, which often appeals to liberal activists, has hampered efforts to halt the influx of migrants at the southern border, according to the Post.

Ted Cruz Commentary: ‘Corrupt Politicians Act’ Rigs Elections for the Radical Left

March 25, 2021March 24, 2021 RealClearWire

Fresh off of ramming through a $1.9 trillion monstrosity of a stimulus bill stuffed with pork spending and liberal pet projects, Democrats are gearing up to try to radically transform our election system and lock in majorities at every level of elected government for decades to come.

DOJ ‘Unlikely’ to Represent FBI Officials Sued by Carter Page for Misconduct in Russia Case

The Justice Department has informed current and former FBI officials sued by Russia probe target Carter Page that it is unlikely to represent them in the civil case, signaling they will need to get private lawyers, according to new court filings.

At least two defendants — fired FBI Director James Comey and current FBI intelligence analyst Brian Auten — have already hired private counsel and notified the presiding judge in the case of their representation.

Biden Administration Opens Yet Another Facility to Hold Surging Numbers of Immigrant Children

A second temporary facility will be opened for unaccompanied migrant minors crossing the border in Texas, officials announced Tuesday.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will reopen a temporary facility called “Carizzo Springs II ICF” capable of holding 500 unaccompanied migrant minors in hard-sided structures with the ability to expand to soft-sided structures if needed, a spokesperson for the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) said Tuesday.

Majority of Black and Hispanic Americans Are in Favor of Voting ID Laws, According to Poll

A new poll indicates that an overwhelming majority of Americans, including majorities of black Americans and Hispanic Americans, are in favor of stricter voting ID laws and other measures to combat voter fraud, according to Breitbart.

The poll comes from the Honest Elections Project (HEP), and its results were detailed in a memo sent to members of Congress by HEP’s executive director Jason Snead. The memo was sent to Congress in anticipation of Wednesday’s hearing in the Senate Rules Committee over H.R. 1, a bill that has passed the House and now faces the Senate, which proposes numerous radical changes to election laws and procedures on the federal level.

Wuhan ‘Bat Lady’ Denies U.S. Intelligence That Her Lab Secretly Works with Chinese Military

The Chinese scientist responsible for overseeing research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology said Tuesday that the U.S. government is incorrect in stating that her lab engages in secret projects with the Chinese military.

Dr. Shi Zhengli, known as the “bat lady” in China for her work on bat-based coronaviruses, gave the comments in response to a question from World Health Organization advisory committee member Jamie Metzl during a seminar Tuesday hosted by Rutgers University.

Commentary: Governor Kristi Noem Strikes Out

“I’m just worried about our perception, said State Senator Reynold Nesiba, a Sioux Falls Democrat, “because I think, generally, South Dakotans are a welcoming people.”

Nesiba was speaking to reporters about South Dakota House Bill 1217, a measure intended to limit transgender participation in sports. The measure would be uncontroversial in saner times, or at least those during which most people were still aware of the basic physical differences between the sexes. But we no longer live in sane times.

Virginia Wedding Venue Appears in Court to Fight COVID-19 Capacity Limits

March 25, 2021March 24, 2021 Eric Burk

Outdoor wedding venue Belle Garden Estate (BGE) appeared in court Wednesday in a lawsuit against Governor Ralph Northam. BGE’s lawyer Tim Anderson argued that Northam’s executive orders violate the establishment clause of the First Amendment, since religious weddings have no capacity limits, but secular weddings are capped by executive order. Northam’s lawyer argued that the right to have a wedding is not infringed, just the capacity allowed at a wedding. BGE sought an injunction blocking enforcement of executive orders that limit wedding venues differently from other businesses.

Bomb Threats Called into Hampton Courthouses for Second Time This Month

March 24, 2021March 23, 2021 Peter D'Abrosca

For the second time this month, Hampton’s courthouses have been subject to a bomb threat, forcing occupants to evacuate.

“Hampton Police and [the Hampton Fire Department] are investigating a bomb threat at Hampton General District Court. All three court houses have been evacuated as a precaution and surrounding streets are closed. Call received at 8:29 a.m. Nothing further at this time,” according to a Tweet from the Hampton Police Department (HPD).

Commentary: Today’s Real Systemic Injustice with COVID and Our Kids

Black Lives Matter. Believe All Women. Everybody wants to be on the right side of contentious civil rights issues — that’s why the debate over what that “right side” is becomes so intense. But the most quantifiable systemic injustice in our nation today is not black versus white, or male versus female. It’s old against young.

During the coronavirus pandemic, abandonment of adult responsibility in respected institutions — medical, educational, and parental — is indicative of sweeping moral collapse. Making sacrifices for future generations used to make sense in a grown-up world. But baby boomers, those children of the ’60s who have controlled the country for 30 years, have desensitized our culture with their apathy and entitlement. Why should healthy children be held to the same medical standard as a 70-year-old “boomer” with multiple comorbidities? Why have young people, who beat COVID-19 quicker than the annual flu, been forced to surrender a year of their lives to satisfy the anxieties of a paranoid gerontocracy? The calculated hysteria of our politicians has accelerated institutional fragility, a condition of paralysis in which medical and educational leaders refuse to acknowledge prejudicial restrictions on the young and the healthy.

Virginia Parole Board Investigator Jennifer Moschetti Fired

March 24, 2021March 24, 2021 Eric Burk

The Office of the State Inspector General (OSIG) fired senior investigator Jennifer Moschetti on Monday. Moschetti had investigated and helped write a report detailing violations committed by the Virginia Parole Board. Moschetti had sought formal recognition as a whistleblower from the General Assembly, but when she was placed on leave from her OSIG job, she sued to keep herself from being fired.

More Than $4 Billion to Go to Illegal Immigrants Through Biden Stimulus Checks

March 24, 2021March 23, 2021 The Center Square

The Center for Immigration Studies estimates that 2.65 million illegal immigrants have Social Security numbers and, because of their income threshold and number of children they have, are eligible to receive federal stimulus checks.

In a new report, CIS estimates that illegal immigrants could receive an estimated $4.38 billion from the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 passed by Democrats along party lines.

Two weeks ago, U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said that illegal immigrants would be receiving $1,400 checks through the legislation and introduced an amendment to stop it. Democrats rejected the amendment.

Biden Admin Customs and Border Protection Admits to Releasing Illegal Alien Families Without Setting Court Dates

Under the administration of Joe Biden, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection has begun releasing entire families of illegal aliens back into the U.S. from their custody without setting a date for them to appear before an immigration court, as reported by Breitbart.

Breitbart’s Randy Clark, himself a veteran of the Border Patrol, said that CBP has sent notices to border patrol agents and other immigration enforcement authorities that families are to be released without a formal “Notice to Appear.” Two anonymous officials seemed to confirm Clark’s account.

“This is insane,” one official said. “It is another pull factor that will overwhelm us. We are creating an entirely different class of aliens we will have to deal with years from now. We will never find most of these aliens once they are released.”

Leaked Photos from Texas Border Facility Show Illegal Immigrants Packed Like Sardines into ‘Pods’

Thousands of illegal immigrants are living in overcrowded conditions in a Texas border facility, and leaked photos of the shockingly squalid situation have emerged online.

Monday morning, both Axios, and Project Veritas released photographs from a U.S. Customs and Border Protection temporary overflow facility in Donna, Texas, where an average of 3,000 men, women, and children have been packed like sardines into nightmarish “pods” until the government’s longer-term child shelters and family detention facilities are available.

Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas) provided photos to Axios of the crowded conditions “to raise awareness about the situation.” According to Cueller, “one pod held more than 400 unaccompanied male minors.”

Marty Walsh Confirmed as Department of Labor Secretary in Bipartisan Vote

The Senate confirmed Democratic Boston Mayor Marty Walsh to lead the Department of Labor in a bipartisan vote Monday evening.

The Senate voted 68-29 in favor of confirming Marty Walsh, the current mayor of Boston and former union member and leader. Several Republicans including Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee Ranking Member Richard Burr voted alongside Democrats in favor of confirming Walsh on Monday.

“I am committed to making sure that everyone — including veterans, LGBTQ Americans, immigrants, and people with disabilities — gets full access to economic opportunity and fair treatment in the workplace,” Walsh said during his Senate confirmation hearing last month.

FBI Had Doubts About Russia Informant’s Allegation That Helped Prompt Mike Flynn Probe

Five days before the FBI formally opened the Michael Flynn probe in summer 2016, a confidential informant alleged to agents that Donald Trump’s national security adviser had left a 2014 foreign meeting alone with a Russian woman. Agents ultimately deemed the account “not plausible” and “not accurate” but proceeded to investigate Flynn anyway, newly declassified documents show.

Commentary: The Left’s Hypocrisy on Election Results Denial

Ever since November 2020, the political Left has been pounding on the political Right for failing to respect the outcomes of elections. This charge they add to a whole litany of criticisms of conservatives as breakers of the norms of democracy and nascent authoritarians.

Former President Donald Trump fed this narrative by, well, denying that he lost, and doing so with flourish and hamfistedness. His supporters did him no favors by feeding him thinly sourced tales about Venezuelan software, German servers, late-night ballot dumps, and mischievous postal workers.

But it is profoundly mistaken to call election results denialism solely a habit of the Right or the hobby horse of Trump. The Left has done it multiple times in the past 15 years.

Americans Are Starting to Reemerge from Their COVID Bunkers as Vaccinations Accelerate