September 22, 2021 - The Virginia Star

Georgia Election Board Tosses Complaint Against Herschel Walker’s Wife, Refers 12 Others to State Attorney General

September 22, 2021September 22, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

The Georgia State Election Board on Tuesday unanimously voted to dismiss an illegal voting complaint against Julie Blanchard, the wife of GOP U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker, for voting absentee from her husband’s home in Texas.

The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office recommended the dismissal following its investigation into the complaint, for which they found insufficient evidence to prove that Blanchard was ineligible to cast an absentee ballot from Walker’s Texas home in October 2020.

‘Actual Malice’: Courts Greenlight Devin Nunes Defamation Lawsuits Against Mainstream Media

September 22, 2021September 22, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Journalists who get into public spats with politicians may want to rethink their eagerness to pour salt into old wounds, at least in the middle of litigation.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals resurrected a defamation lawsuit by Rep. Devin Nunes against Ryan Lizza and Hearst Media, because the journalist called attention to his article on Nunes and illegal immigrant laborers after the California Republican sued.

Haitians Being Released into the U.S., Report

September 22, 2021September 22, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Many of the thousands of Haitians who have migrated to the Texas border city of Del Rio are reportedly being released elsewhere in the U.S.

Their release is being reported by the Associated Press based on information from two U.S. officials and appears to undercut the Biden administration’s public statements that the thousands in the camp faced immediate expulsion.

Commentary: Angelo Codevilla, ‘The World’s Most Privileged Man,’ Has Died

September 22, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Angelo Codevilla was many admirable things in his long, productive, and amazing life: an immigrant, a student-athlete, a naval officer, a scholar, a husband, a father, a foreign service officer, a Capitol Hill staffer, an adviser to senators and presidents, a distinguished author of great insight and foresight, and—above all things—a patriot. Although he had already accomplished a great deal in his 78 years and faced some recent health challenges, he was determined to overcome these and never abandoned the fight.

Angelo, who died Monday night, was a man of great energy and spirit, raring for the battle, and determined in every way he could to contribute to it.

Virginia Employment Commission Still Overwhelmed by Claims Backlog

September 22, 2021September 22, 2021 Eric Burk

The Virginia Employment Commission is still lagging in processing claims, according to an interim report from the Joint Legislative Audit Review Commission (JLARC) presented to legislators Monday.

“A theme that you will hear in the presentation is that while the agency could not have been expected to be fully prepared to respond to the pandemic, it could have been better prepared,” JLARC Director Hal Greer said. “As you’ll hear, 18 months into the pandemic, the agency is still overwhelmed by backlogs of claims. Its call center continues to under-perform, and the agency is struggling with how to recoup a significant amount of benefit payments that were incorrectly issued.”

Roger Simon Commentary: The Democrats’ War on Blacks Keeps Growing in the Pandemic

September 22, 2021September 21, 2021 RealClearWire

One of the key reasons I left the Democratic Party years ago was the atrocious way they treated black people.

I’m not just talking about “Jim Crow” or LBJ’s well-known patriarchal and racist use of the “n-word” to celebrate blacks voting Democratic forever in gratitude for his ultimately useless early “virtue signaling” called the “War on Poverty.”

(Notice any difference between South Central then and now?)

Afghan Refugees Bringing Numerous Diseases to U.S., Including Measles, Malaria, and Tuberculosis

September 22, 2021September 21, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

The tens of thousands of Afghan refugees being imported into the United States by the Biden Administration are carrying numerous dangerous diseases in addition to the Chinese coronavirus, including malaria, measles, and tuberculosis, as reported by Breitbart.

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) admitted to the influx of diseases through the Afghan arrivals in a statement on Monday, declaring that all of the refugees will be required to take the measles vaccine; however, there are still no measures in place to require them to receive a coronavirus vaccine.

According to the CDC press release, they had been “notified by public health departments of 16 measles cases among the evacuees.” Subsequently, they ordered that “evacuees who are in the United States are required to be vaccinated with MMR and complete a 21-day quarantine from the time of vaccination at U.S. ‘Safe Haven’ designated locations.”

Commentary: The Afghanistization of America

September 22, 2021September 21, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

The United States should be at its pinnacle of strength. It still produces more goods and services than any other nation—China included, which has a population over four times as large. Its fuel and food industries are globally preeminent, as are its graduate science, computer, engineering, medical, and technology university programs. Its constitution is the oldest of current free nations. And the U.S. military is by far the best funded in the world. And yet something has gone terribly wrong within America, from the southern border to Afghanistan.

The inexplicable in Afghanistan—surrendering Bagram Air Base in the middle of the night, abandoning tens of billions of dollars of military equipment to the Taliban, and forsaking both trapped Americans and loyalist Afghans—has now become the new Biden model of inattention and incompetence.

Health and Human Services Whistleblower Calls Federal Government’s COVID Policies ‘Evil at the Highest Level’

September 22, 2021September 21, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

A medical professional who works for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is blowing the whistle on the federal government for pushing dangerous experimental vaccines on an unsuspecting public, calling the malfeasance “evil at the highest level.”

“You have the FDA, you have the CDC, that are both supposed to be protecting us, Registered Nurse Jodi O’Malley told Project Veritas founder and CEO James O’Keefe, “and everything that we’ve done so far is unscientific.”

The whistleblower works at Phoenix Indian Medical Center, an Arizona hospital run by the Indian Health branch of HHS, but perhaps not for long. After contacting O’Keefe, she recorded some of her HHS colleagues raising concerns about the COVID vaccines. Putting her faith in God, O’Malley said that after everything she had witnessed, she was willing to lose her job to expose the federal government’s counterproductive and destructive COVID policies.

U.S. Supreme Court to Reconsider Roe v. Wade

September 22, 2021September 21, 2021 The Center Square

The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday it would hear a case in December that directly challenges the landmark 1973 abortion case Roe v. Wade.

The high court set Dec. 1 as the date it would hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which means a decision could be reached by June 2022.

This case features a challenge to a Mississippi law banning abortions after 15 weeks. The case especially addresses the constitutionality of abortion bans that take effect before a fetus would be viable outside the womb.

Group of State Attorneys General Urge Passage of House Bills Targeting Big Tech

September 22, 2021September 21, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Smartphone with display of social media apps

A bipartisan group of 32 state attorneys general sent a letter to leading lawmakers in the House and Senate on Monday urging the passage of a series of antitrust bills targeting major technology companies.

The letter, led by attorneys general Phil Weiser of Colorado, Douglas Peterson of Nebraska, Letitia James of New York, and Herbert H. Slatery III of Tennessee, was addressed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell. The attorneys general urged Congress to modernize federal antitrust laws and enhance consumer protections by passing a series of bills introduced in the House Judiciary Committee in June that target big tech companies.

“A comprehensive update of federal antitrust laws has not occurred in decades,” the attorneys general wrote. “The sponsors of these bills should be commended for working to ensure that federal antitrust laws remain robust and keep pace with that of modern markets.”

Commentary: The Bidenization of America

September 22, 2021September 21, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Day by day, as the Biden Administration crashes into utter shambles and a cloud of dust reminiscent of 9/11, the Bidenization of America becomes more stark and horrifying.

I can remember no more pitiful words from a senior American government official in 65 years than Secretary of State Anthony Blinken’s complaint that the Taliban government in Kabul was disappointing in its lack of “inclusiveness.” (To be sure, that is not all it lacks, and that could hardly have been a surprise.)

Nor can I think of any diplomatic initiative by a senior American government official more certainly doomed to ludicrous failure than environment ambassador John Kerry’s recent trip to China requesting the collaboration of the People’s Republic in this administration’s hell-bent-for-leather assault on what it is trying to identify as climate change.

Apple Reportedly Developing iPhone Technology That Knows When You’re Depressed

September 22, 2021September 21, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Apple is reportedly working on iPhone technology capable of detecting and diagnosing depression, according to The Wall Street Journal.

The tech giant is developing the iPhone features to reliably detect and diagnose depression as well as cognitive decline, people familiar with the matter told the WSJ. The technology is being developed in partnership with researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and pharmaceutical company Biogen.

The technology is in its early stages of development, according to the WSJ, but will collect data on iPhone users’ mobility and sleep patterns, physical activity, and other behaviors. However, researchers are still unsure whether they can create algorithms that reliably detect the mental health state of users.

Commentary: IRS Guidance Would Punish Small Business Owners with Families

September 22, 2021September 21, 2021 RealClearWire

Most IRS guidance documents make for poor pleasure reading. Then again, most IRS guidance doesn’t effectively impose a retroactive tax on small business owners merely for having a family. IRS Notice 2021-49, issued on August 4, includes a bizarre interpretation of the law that will effectively raise taxes for business owners with close relatives, even if their family members have no involvement in the company.

A core goal of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed early on in the pandemic was to assist businesses in keeping employees on their payroll even as they dealt with the economic effects of lockdowns. Part of the plan was the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC), which provides a tax credit against employer payroll tax liabilities.

Commentary: One Simple Change to Begin Reversing the Left’s Takeover

September 22, 2021September 21, 2021 Virginia Star Staff

Take heart. The resurgence of a freedom-based conservatism has already begun. On the other side of the pandemic tyranny, the debacle in Afghanistan, and the catastrophic reckoning with inflation, Americans will be ready to be rid of the screechy pseudo-intellectuals who ruin everything. When that day comes, it’s critical we take steps to eliminate the Left’s toxic syndicate that indoctrinated so many Americans. It’s not enough to beat them back. We must look to the source of this poison that almost overtook our country.

There are so many problems that need to be unwound. Leftist authoritarianism has infected everything as indoctrinated graduates began assuming leadership roles in heretofore apolitical organizations from churches to school boards to the military. Instead of trying to fight the battle on every front, we should look first to stopping it at its source: Academics unmoored from market incentives.

Tea Party Patriots to Hold Nationwide Protests Against Medical Mandates

September 22, 2021September 21, 2021 Cooper Moran

Tea Party Patriots Action (TPPA) announced on Tuesday that they will hold nationwide protests against Democrat-led mandates for COVID-19 vaccines and masks.

The movement, entitled “Just Say No,” describes mandates as a power move, rather than for public health, and encourages individuals to not comply.

Virginia Redistricting Commission Sees First Maps of Whole Commonwealth

September 22, 2021September 21, 2021 Eric Burk

Partisan map drawers presented the first set of maps of the whole commonwealth to the Virginia Redistricting Commission Monday. The commission is nearing the end of its allotted time to create maps for the Virginia General Assembly; the maps are expected to be submitted between October 10th and October 24th. But the maps presented to the commission are drafts, and the commission still needs to analyze public comment and political data and how that should affect the maps. Additionally, the commission has to find a way to turn the two sets of proposals from the Republican and Democratic map drawers into one final draft.

“We’re three weeks away from when we’re supposed to vote on final maps to be presented to the General Assembly. So the clock is really moving quickly now. So think about your ideas on how to reconcile the two versions of each map that we have,” Co-Chair Greta Harris (D) told the commission.

Stafford County Board of Supervisors Denounces Critical Race Theory

September 22, 2021September 21, 2021 Eric Burk

The Stafford County Board of Supervisors (BOS) voted six to zero with one absent to pass a resolution denouncing the use of Critical Race Theory, the 1619 Project, and requiring students to identify preferred pronouns. The resolution also warns that the BOS will review all school board appropriation requests and block any that fund those items.

“BE IT RESOLVED by the Stafford County Board of Supervisors on this the 21st day of September, 2021, that it be and hereby does denounce the teaching of the 1619 Project and critical race theory (CRT) and related principles in Stafford County Public Schools; and BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Board does not support students of Stafford County Public Schools being required to identify their chosen pronouns,” the resolution as passed states.