Day: July 17, 2021

Governor’s Race Draws Record-Breaking June Fundraising; McAuliffe Out-Raises Youngkin

Eric Burk
Terry McAuliffe and Glenn Youngkin

Glenn Youngkin and Terry McAuliffe have already raised a combined $40 million, according to new finance data through June, reported by the Virginia Public Access Project. A VPAP graphic shows that previous years through 2001, previous fundraising through June never reached $20 million. The June period is the first reporting period after the parties nominated their candidates.

Due to $12 million in personal loans, Youngkin out-raised McAuliffe in the January through May period. But McAuliffe’s June fundraising beat Youngkin. McAuliffe raised about $7.5 million in June, while Youngkin raised about $3.6 million.

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Commentary: Inflation Has Arrived

Virginia Star Staff

Wildly excessive federal spending is causing major inflation and shortages, which may lead to a recession and perhaps a financial crisis. Despite the evidence of inflation, Congress is proposing to spend $3.5 trillion on top of the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill passed earlier this year and the intended $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. For comparison, federal revenue is only expected to be $3.8 trillion this year.

Evidently, the Democratic Party and President Joe Biden have adopted Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) to the peril of every American citizen. MMT, which is similar to Keynesian economics, says that the U.S. should not be constrained by revenues in federal government spending since the government is the monopoly issuer of the U.S. dollar. MMT is a destructive myth that provides cover for excessive government spending. And it’s not modern, since reckless government spending has been around for thousands of years.

Embracing MMT is similar to providing whiskey and car keys to teenage boys. We know the outcomes will not be good.

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Commentary: The Capitol Cover Up

Virginia Star Staff
United States Capitol at night

Judge G. Michael Harvey sounded floored.

During a detention hearing this week for Robert Morss, arrested last month for his involvement in the Capitol protest, a federal prosecutor told Harvey she needed permission from the government before she could turn over to him a slice of video related to Morss’ case. Joe Biden’s Justice Department continues to seek pre-trial detention for people who protested Biden’s election on January 6; prosecutors want to keep Morss, an Army ranger and high school history teacher with no criminal record, behind bars until his trial can begin next year.

But assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Jackson hesitated when Judge Harvey asked to see the footage captured by the U.S. Capitol Police surveillance system cited as evidence in government charging documents.

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Black Lives Matter Issues Statement of Support for Cuba’s Communist Regime

Virginia Star Staff
Miguel Diaz-Canel

The official Black Lives Matter organization is facing widespread criticism after releasing a statement in support of the Communist dictatorship in Cuba, as reported by the Washington Free Beacon.

The Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation issued its statement earlier this week, amidst the sudden grassroots protests that broke out in Cuba against the incumbent regime. In it, the organization claims, with no evidence, that “the U.S. government has only instigated suffering for the country’s 11 million, of which 4 million are black or brown.”

BLM further claims that the ongoing American embargo on Cuba, which has been in effect since the Cold War, is “at the heart of the crisis,” and went on to praise Cuba’s “strong medical care.” The far-left group’s rhetoric closely matches that of Cuba’s current dictator, Miguel Diaz-Canel, who explicitly blamed the United States for the protests.

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Longtime FBI Signature Expert Says Hunter Biden Signed Receipt for Abandoned Laptop

Virginia Star Staff
Hunter Biden

A retired FBI counterintelligence agent with longtime expertise in signature analysis tells Just the News that Hunter Biden signed an April 2019 Delaware computer repair shop receipt, adding fresh evidence that a controversial laptop turned over to the bureau with eye-popping emails about Ukrainian and Chinese business deals belonged to the president’s son.

Retired Special Agent Wayne A. Barnes, a 29-year FBI veteran who mastered signature analysis while unmasking Soviet spies during the Cold War, says the “R.H. Biden” signature — short for Robert Hunter Biden — on the receipt issued in spring 2019 from John Paul Mac Issac’s repair shop in Delaware matches those on documents known to have been signed by the president’s son, such as Social Security cards, driver’s licenses and other public documents.

“The signature on the computer repair store from April 2019 was signed by RHB,” Barnes wrote in a 24-page report commissioned by Just the News.

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House Republicans Launch ‘Freedom from Big Tech Caucus’

Virginia Star Staff
Ken Buck and Lance Gooden

Republican Reps. Ken Buck and Lance Gooden announced Friday the launch of the Freedom from Big Tech Caucus, a group of House Republicans working towards reining in major tech companies.

The caucus will focus on addressing anticompetitive and monopolistic practices by major tech companies, political censorship, and Big Tech’s relationship with China, Buck and Gooden announced in a statement. The caucus will also include Reps. Madison Cawthorn, Burgess Owens, and Paul Gosar, according to the announcement.

“Big Tech has abused its market power for decades, and Congress must act to hold these companies accountable and preserve the free market, promote competition and innovation, protect the freedom of speech, and foster a thriving digital economy,” Buck said in the statement.

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U.S. Retail Sales Increased as States Ended Restrictions

Virginia Star Staff
Male checking out on Square program at retail store

U.S. retail sales jumped in June, boosted by states widely loosening coronavirus restrictions and businesses returning to full capacity.

Retail sales increased 0.6% and totaled $621.3 billion in June, according to the Department of Commerce report released Wednesday. The monthly increase was driven by general merchandise, including food service, clothing, personal care, electronics and gasoline sales, the report showed.

“Sectors that were buoyed by the pandemic are slowing down a little bit, but not to a degree that I’d be concerned about,” Square economist Felipe Chacon told The Wall Street Journal. “Household finances have been bolstered by a few rounds of stimulus spending, so it bodes pretty well.”

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Facebook Working with White House to Censor Content

Peter D'Abrosca

In a Thursday press conference, Press Secretary to President Joe Biden admitted that the White House is colluding with Facebook to censor content on the social media platform.

“We are in regular touch with the social media platforms and those engagements typically happen through members of our senior staff and also members of our COVID-19 team — given as Dr. Murthy conveyed, this is a big issue, of misinformation, specifically on the pandemic,” Psaki reportedly said

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Commentary: The Macro Subjectivity of ‘Microaggression’ Studies

RealClearWire
Micro-Aggression

Ever since the most blatant forms of racism and discrimination in America faded, what are called microaggressions have, in the view of leftist academics and social justice activists, taken their place. These are “a form of racism,”  the slights and insults that, though subtle and small and typically unconscious, are insulting and harmful to their targets.

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Commentary: The Fight for Freedom in Cuba

Virginia Star Staff
2021 Cuban government protest in Naples Florida

Thousands of demonstrators in more than 40 cities and towns throughout Cuba have taken to the streets to protest 62 years of oppression.  In a communist country that suppresses dissent, the recent wave of protests is the most significant grassroots stand against the dictatorship in more than three decades. 

Since the end of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, the Cuban people have lived under the oppressive rule of the Castro dictatorship.  Upon Raúl Castro’s recent retirement, his handpicked successor, Miguel Díaz-Canel seized control of the Communist Party, Cuba’s only legal political party, and the presidency, in an election that was neither competitive, free, nor fair.

As the communist regime attempts to deflect blame for the state of unrest, basic goods and services are in short supply. The fact is Cuba is suffering from a severe economic crisis.  Food is scarce, the health care system is overwhelmed by the COVID-19 pandemic, and electricity outages are a regular occurrence.

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Illegal Immigration Continues to Rise, Border Patrol Announces Over 188,000 Encounters in June

Cooper Moran

Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) announced on Friday that officers with the agency encountered 188,829 persons attempting entry along the U.S. southern border in June alone.

The staggering June numbers demonstrate a continued rise in attempted illegal border crossings — June’s total represented a five percent increase over May.

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Education Department Civil Rights Nominee Rejects Presumption of Innocence for Accused Students

Virginia Star Staff
Catherine Lhamon

The Biden administration’s nominee to lead the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights told a Senate committee Tuesday that a year-old Title IX regulation does not require the presumption of innocence for students accused of sexual misconduct.

The claim drew bafflement from critics of Catherine Lhamon, who held the same job in the Obama administration’s second term.

In response to threats from Lhamon to pull their federal funding, colleges lowered evidentiary standards and enacted policies that treat accusers more favorably than accused students. Courts have been steadily reining in those practices, sometimes citing the pressure from Lhamon’s office as evidence of bias.

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New Poll Spells Bad News for Progressives in High-Profile Ohio Special Election

Virginia Star Staff
Shontel Brown and Nina Turner

Nina Turner and Shontel Brown, the two leading Democrats vying to fill a House seat that includes Cleveland, are tied with 33% support, a new poll shows.

The Aug. 3 special election will likely determine who will succeed Housing Secretary Marcia Fudge, who resigned the seat after getting confirmed in March. Though Turner, a close ally of Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, entered the race as an overwhelming favorite, Democrats seeking a moderate alternative have lined up behind Brown in recent weeks.

Brown has been endorsed by House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, Hillary Clinton, the Congressional Black Caucus and other high-profile members of the Democratic establishment, while Turner has the support of the “Squad” and other progressives.

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Commissioner Land Asks for About $216 Million in ARPA Funds for Virginia Mental Health Hospital System

Eric Burk

Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services Commissioner Alison Land asked for about $216 million in American Recovery Plan Act funds in a presentation to legislators. Her number-one ask was $75 million to increase salaries to retain and attract staff to Virginia’s troubled mental health facilities.

A week ago, Land closed admissions at five of the state’s eight mental health facilities. On Thursday, she told the Joint Subcommittee to Study Mental Health Services in the 21st Century those closures were necessary to help reduce the number of patients at dangerously understaffed facilities.

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‘Let Them Die:’ Fairfax NAACP Leader Wishes Death on Anti-CRT Parents

Peter D'Abrosca
Michelle Leetma

Fairfax’s NAACP Vice President Michelle Leetma appeared outside a Fairfax County Public Schools board meeting Thursday night, where she wished death upon those who do not want Critical Race Theory taught in public schools. 

“So let’s meet and remain steadfast in speaking truth, tearing down double-standards, and refuting double-talk,” Leetma said. “Let’s not allow any double-downing on lies. Let’s prepare our children for a world they deserve.” 

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