Trump, Wife Delight Braves Fans, Upset Liberal Writers by Doing Tomahawk Chop at World Series

Donald Trump and crowd at the MLB Braves World Series game, doing the tomahawk chop

Former President Donald Trump and former First Lady Melania Trump joined Atlanta Braves fans Saturday night in doing the team’s signature Tomahawk Chop during a raucous Game 4 of the World Series.

The Trumps attended the game in a suite at Atlanta’s Truist Stadium, where the hometown team was playing the Houston Astros. The Braves won 3-2 to take a 3-1 advantage in the series.

The former first family joined in when fans started the Chop. Their participation lit up liberals and some sports writers on Twitter.

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Trump: If My Base Turns out to Vote for Youngkin, He Will Win Virginia Gubernatorial Race

Donald Trump sitting at desk

Former President Trump said in an interview on Saturday that Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin will win if his base turns out to vote.

“I think he’s gonna do very well,” Trump said of Youngkin on Fox News’ “Justice with Judge Jeanine”.

Trump compared former Democratic Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s comment in a debate with Youngkin, saying parents shouldn’t tell schools what to teach their children, to Hillary Clinton’s “basket of deplorables” comment of Trump supporters during the 2016 presidential race.

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John Fredericks NFL Picks Week 8: Browns, Chiefs Desperate for Wins as Playoff Hopes Dim

I have been on fire the last three weeks. I went 7-4-1 last week, bringing my season record ATS to 50-25-1. That’s 25 games over .500 through seven weeks. I’d put that up against anybody in Vegas. But you are only as good as your last selection. In the famous words of Big Tuna, Bill Parcells: “You are as good as your record says you are.”

This week features a few must win games: Kansas City has to get it done against a resurgent New York Giants, or they risk missing the playoffs. The ‘Niners debacle last Sunday night at home puts them at risk this week against the Bears to start making January vacation plans. And is Joey Burrow the new sheriff in town? If they lose to the lowly Jets, it’s just the same old Bungles.

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Virginia Education Department Promotes Pro-Critical Race Theory Book, Despite McAuliffe’s Claims the Curricula Isn’t Taught in the State

Young girl in pink long sleeve writing

The Virginia Education Department promotes pro-Critical Race Theory books despite claims from state officials, including Democratic gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe, that the curricula is not taught in its public schools.

The state’s Department of Education (DOE) promotes pro-Critical Race Theory (CRT) content on its “What We Are Reading” tab on its website, which compiles a list of resources from the Office of Equity and Community Engagement to recommend reading and develop its own work, Fox News first reported.

The list includes titles such as “Foundations of Critical Race Theory in Education” that “acts to further spur developments in education policy, critical pedagogy, and social justice, making it a crucial resource for students and educators alike,” according to its description.

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Newt Gingrich Commentary: Youngkin vs. McAuliffe and Their Two Opposing Strategies

Terry McAuliffe and Glenn Youngkin

Virginia was supposed to be a solid blue state. Joe Biden carried it by 10 points. Since 2013, Democrats have won 13 straight statewide elections. Terry McAuliffe is a former governor who started this race with a massive name recognition advantage and presumably a substantial advantage in knowledge about state government.

Yet, today the race is too close to call. If McAuliffe does win, he will barely squeak through in a state the Democrat should be carrying handily.

And, of course, there is a distinctly real possibility (I would say a probability) that Glenn Youngkin will become the next governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

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Commentary: Halloween’s Roots in the Christian Tradition

Person decorating with candles and pumpkins

Conventional wisdom holds that Halloween is essentially a secular and pagan holiday, the result of the Christian Church appropriating an ancient Celtic harvest festival. But one strain of critical opinion tends to the view that the holiday was thoroughly Christian from the start.

In the church calendar, Halloween (All Hallows’ Eve) is the beginning of a triduum of holidays commemorating the dead, continuing with All Saints’ Day on November 1 and All Souls’ Day on November 2. It was common practice among the early Christians to commemorate the deaths of various martyrs at the places of their demise. In the 9th century Pope Gregory IV decided that the time had come for a single universal feast to commemorate all the saints, as well as a day to pray for one’s deceased loved ones. The pope chose a time of year—the end of harvest and the beginning of winter—when many people’s thoughts naturally turned to the idea of death.

The macabre aspects which have grown up around Halloween in modern times—the emphasis on witches, ghosts and other ghoulish figures, the glorification of gore and violence—have led many people to doubt its Christian character and many Christians to shun it. Yet according to some historians, these demonic elements of the holiday originated from a distinctively medieval Christian idea of exorcising evil by ridiculing it. Christian theology holds that Jesus conquered sin and death; and death loses its sting precisely when one is able to laugh at it.

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Report: Facebook Lobbyists Are Being Ignored and Banned from Lawmakers’ Offices

Two men in suits shaking hands

Facebook lobbyists are struggling to meet with lawmakers, Politico reported, as the tech giant faces congressional scrutiny and negative press surrounding its business practices.

Several lawmakers’ offices are ignoring Facebook’s policy team and even refusing to meet with lobbyists, Politico reported. Several congressional aides told the outlet that recent news reports on Facebook’s business practices, including its knowledge of how its platform affects teen users and its amplification of “misinformation,” have contributed to lawmakers’ hostile attitudes.

“Mark Zuckerberg has done more to polarize the country probably than anyone else and yet despite that, the antipathy towards him is one of the most bipartisan things that remains in the country,” a Democratic House staffer told Politico.

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New Hampshire School Boards Are Dumping the National School Boards Association After It Called Parents ‘Domestic Terrorists’

The New Hampshire School Boards Association chapter is the latest state-level organization to withdraw its membership from the National School Boards Association.

The New Hampshire School Boards Association (NHSBA) sent out a letter to its members on Thursday that informed them of its plans “to withdraw its membership from the National School Boards Association, effective immediately.” The group cited the National School Boards Association’s (NSBA) actions that “have made our continued membership untenable.”

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New York Attorney General Letitia James Launches Bid for Governor

New York Attorney General Letitia James on Friday officially launched a bid for governor against Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul.

James’ announcement comes just two months after the resignation of Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo due to multiple claims of sexual harassment. As attorney general, James oversaw the five-month investigation into the claims, which the inquiry found to be credible.

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Biden Admin Rescinds ‘Remain in Mexico’ Again Despite Court Ruling

The Biden administration said Friday that it intends to repeal former President Donald Trump’s “Remain In Mexico” policy after a federal judge denied its first attempt, the Department of Homeland Security announced in a statement.

President Joe Biden had originally suspended the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP) program, mandating non-Mexican migrants wait in Mexico until their immigration court date in the U.S., in June. However, a Texas federal judge ruled in August he was violating federal law in the way he went about ending it.

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Commentary: Biden’s Banking Nominee Would Pursue Soviet Economics

Saule Omarova

Magicians try to distract the audience from looking at one hand by dangling something shiny in the other. So do politicians.

The left’s latest magician: Saule Omarova, President Biden’s nominee to head the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. OCC is an important agency — it has power to regulate all national banks and federal savings associations. OCC’s wrong moves negatively affect millions of Americans, making banking and other services more expensive and inaccessible, particularly for vulnerable, unbanked Americans.

Rather than answer serious congressional inquiries about whether she is the right fit for OCC, Omarova has attacked duly-elected members of Congress whose voters empower them to serve their interests. By refusing to answer basic questions about her work and worldview, Omarova has obstructed the constitutionally prescribed legislative process.

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Donated Frequent Flyer Miles Provide 40,000 Flights for Afghan Refugees

Frequent flyer miles donated over a two-month period will provide around 40,000 flights for Afghan refugees, the Associated Press reported.

The Biden administration is considering doubling the number of miles available to refugees, and around 3,200 flights already covered by the donated miles have allowed Afghan refugees to resettle in communities around the U.S. from temporary housing at military bases, according to the AP. Miles4Migrants organized the donations, and the group has provided aid to refugees using donated airline miles and credit card points since 2016.

“Government resources are limited, and we knew that the American people wanted to support Afghans who were arriving and help them find safe homes,” Miles4Migrants Co-Founder Andy Freedman said, the AP reported. “That’s when we turned to the airlines.”

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Analysis: More Than a Third of Unvaccinated Workers Will Quit Their Jobs If Forced to Take Weekly COVID Test

More than a third of U.S. workers who have not been vaccinated for COVID-19 say they will quit their jobs if their employer requires them to take a weekly test or get the shots as a condition of employment, the Kaiser Family Foundation reports.

The data come from the foundation’s COVID-19 Vaccine Monitor, an ongoing research project that tracks the public’s attitudes and experiences with COVID-19 vaccinations. It combines surveys and qualitative research, as well as public opinion on vaccine confidence and acceptance, information needs, messages and other criteria.

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Satanists Convince School to Overturn Ban on Satanic Clothing for Students

A Pennsylvania Satanic organization was able to convince a school district to alter its dress code to remove a ban on clothes that were “satanic in nature,” local news station WPVI-TV reported.

Joseph Rose, the founder of Satanic Delco, told WPVI-TV that the children of Satanists enrolled within the Rose Tree Media School District, which is near Philadelphia, made him aware of the dress code.

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Commentary: The Freak-Out over Tucker’s January 6 Documentary Begins

Capitol 6 riots

Tucker Carlson on Wednesday night played a brief trailer for his three-part documentary looking at the events of January 6. “Patriot Purge” will premiere on Fox Nation, the network’s streaming service, on November 1.

Clips hint that the film compares the prosecution of Capitol protesters and anyone associated with the events of January 6 to the initial war on terror, a wholly legitimate comparison that my reporting confirms. For example, as I explained in April, Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines issued a report earlier this year warning “domestic violent extremists” pose a heightened threat to the nation. Not one for subtlety, Haines included a sketch of the U.S. Capitol in the document; House Republicans at the time blasted Haines for working outside her legal authority—the intelligence community is supposed to hunt foreign terrorists, not MAGA-supporting meemaws—to target American citizens.

Unfortunately, most Americans are unaware that the Biden regime, with a big assist from the news media, is indeed conducting a domestic war on terror aimed at the political Right.

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White Executive Wins $10 Million in Racial Discrimination Lawsuit

A former executive in North Carolina has won $10 million in a lawsuit after he was fired for being White, the New York Post reports.

David Duvall previously served as a senior vice president of marketing and communication at the health care system Novant Health. But in July of 2018, Duvall said that he was fired with no prior warning or justification, around the same time that the company decided that it needed more “diversity” in its executive ranks.

“We are pleased that the jury agreed that Duvall’s race and gender were unlawful factors in his termination — that he was fired to make room for more diverse leaders at Novant,” his attorney, S. Luke Largess, said in a statement after the verdict on Tuesday. “Duvall was a strong advocate of diversity at Novant. We believe the punitive damages award is a message that an employer cannot terminate and replace employees in order to achieve greater diversity in the workforce.”

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Commentary: Keep Slandering Red States, Corporate Media and We’ll Keep Winning

Donald Trump supporters

One of the delights of living in Montana under complete Republican governance is that even though your state can be mercilessly trashed by the arrogant blue state corporate media, they can’t do much to stop you or your neighbors from living your best lives.

I kept that in mind this week with the simultaneous appearance of not one, but two extended hit pieces on the poor, benighted, ignorant, awful, rednecks in Montana: one in Jeff Bezos’ propaganda fishwrap, the Washington Post, and the other in the failing New York Times.

I had low expectations before reading each, and in that sense the articles did not disappoint; but they are worthy of forensic examination, because both, in different ways, provide sterling examples of the arrogant ignorance that epitomizes our failing elite class, and the hysterical desperation they feel as both power and the narrative slip from their grasp.

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Virginia Confederate Monuments on the Ballot in Mathews, Nottoway, and Middlesex Counties

Local voters in three counties are voting in advisory referenda on what to do with confederate monuments in Matthews County, Nottoway County, and Middlesex County. The referenda are non-binding, but are used as a tool to understand public opinion before local officials make a final decision.

In 2020, the General Assembly changed its laws about monuments, finally allowing localities to decide if they want to remove, relocate, contextualize, or cover publicly-owned monuments, as long as they provided two periods of 30-days notice and a public hearing. The law also allows the localities to hold optional referenda.

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Joy Reid Says Youngkin ‘Poster Child’ for ‘Banning Books

MSNBC host Joy Reid, steadily losing viewership since former President Donald J. Trump exited the White House, has found a new boogeyman in Virginia’s Republican gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin.

The homophobic former blogger set her sights on Younkin during Thursday night’s episode of “The ReidOut.”

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Commentary: This Is Obama’s Third Term

On October 30, 2008, five days before Barack Obama won that year’s presidential election, he promised to “fundamentally transform the United States of America.” He nearly lived up to that promise.

Obama doubled the federal debt. He oversaw the worst economic growth of any president since Herbert Hoover. Under Obama, Americans experienced a stagnant median household income, a decline in homeownership, an increase in health insurance rates, and an increase in the number of Americans on food stamps, to mention just a few lowlights.

By every metric that should have mattered to Americans, Obama had failed. But from Obama’s point of view, he had succeeded. American prosperity is anathema to Obama and the modern-day Democratic Party. The Democratic Party’s power doesn’t come from happy, successful, and independent Americans; but rather from miserable, forlorn, desperate, and impoverished Americans who are dependent upon the government for their salvation.

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Loudoun County Sheriff Rejected School Superintendent’s ‘Extraordinary’ Security Requests for School Board Meetings

Scott A. Ziegler and

Recently-unearthed documents revealed a disagreement between the superintendent of Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS) and the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office (LCSO), after the former requested increased security measures from the latter in order to combat protesting parents at school board meetings, the Daily Caller reports.

The correspondence was revealed by a public records request from the Fight for School PAC. Documents show that superintendent Scott Ziegler’s requests included an increased presence of officers, a K-9 sweep of the meeting venue, and undercover officers in the crowd, among other measures, all of which were rejected by LCSO as excessive.

The LCSO even went so far as to disagree with Ziegler changing the rules for the school board meeting, including the decision to shut down the public comment section of a meeting that took place on June 22nd; LCSO told Ziegler that measures such as this amounted to silencing political opposition.

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Big Tech Companies Apple and Amazon Warn of Worsening Supply Chain Crisis

A ship arriving at the Hamburg harbor.

On Thursday, two of the biggest tech companies in the world posted earnings that fell below market expectations, attributed to the ongoing supply chain crisis that is paralyzing the American economy, according to CNN.

For the third quarter of 2021, Amazon’s net sales amounted to around $110.8 billion, which was a 15 percent increase from the previous year; however, this ultimately fell below market analyst predictions of about $111.6 billion. Amazon’s overall net income for the same period decreased from the same period in 2020 to about $3.2 billion, when predictions estimated around $4.6 billion.

Apple’s sales during the same quarter were $83.4 billion, with iPhone sales at $38.9 billion; both were lower than original projections.

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U.S. Consumer Spending Grew Slowly in September amid High COVID-19 Cases, Supply Chain Problems and Rising Inflation

U.S. consumer spending growth slowed in September, and income dropped due to high COVID-19 cases, supply shortages, rising inflation, and ending unemployment benefits.

Consumer spending increased 0.6% in September, down from a 1% jump in August, the Commerce Department announced Friday. Personal income fell 1% in September, driven by a 72% drop in unemployment insurance benefits that offset a 0.7% spike in wages and benefits, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Economists polled by Reuters projected a 0.5% in consumer spending. Delta variant cases peaked in the middle of September, and the continued supply chain backups have caused shortages and rising prices, making it harder for consumers to purchase their desired goods, the WSJ reported.

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Illinois GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger Won’t Seek Reelection

Adam Kinzinger

Illinois GOP Rep. Adam Kinzinger announced Friday that he will not be seeking reelection next year.

The congressman will leave Capitol Hill after 12 years in office and a final term that was dominated by his vocal criticism of former President Donald Trump.

In a video announcing the end of his House career, Kinzinger spoke about his first race, in which he unseated the Democratic incumbent in 2010. He was told then by supporters to “be my own man and to never do what they tell you to do,” he recalled.

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State Department Partners with Refugee Coalition Groups Supporting Organizations with Alleged Terror Ties

Stephen Heintz and George Soros

The U.S. State Department joined an initiative to welcome Afghan refugees into the country that is sponsored by organizations supporting groups with possible ties to Palestinian terrorist organizations, a Daily Caller News Foundation review found.

Welcome.US is part of the Office of American Possibilities initiative, a project of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, according to its website. The initiative’s main co-chairs include former President Barack Obama, former First Lady Michelle Obama, former President George W. Bush, former First Lady Laura Bush, former President Bill Clinton and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The initiative also formed a coalition composed of nonprofit leaders and organizations, former government officials, corporate leaders and public figures. Businesses, including Starbucks, Uber, Facebook, Microsoft, Walmart and Airbnb, also support the effort.

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Facebook Changes Its Name to ‘Meta’

Illustration of two people looking out on a design of Meta, Facebook's new name

Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg announced Thursday the tech giant was changing its name to “Meta.”

Zuckerberg announced the name change at the Facebook Connect 2021 conference. The new name reflects Zuckerberg’s goal to reorient his social media company to a technology conglomerate with several different products beyond the Facebook social network, focusing on “metaverse” technology. 

The “metaverse” is a virtual environment in which individuals can interact with one another through avatars and across multiple platforms and devices. Facebook called it a “new phase of interconnected virtual experiences using technologies like virtual and augmented reality” in which people interacting online can become much closer to the experience of interacting in person.”

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China’s Hypersonic Weapon Might Be New ‘Sputnik Moment,’ Milley Says

Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, said China’s new hypersonic weapon is “very concerning” and comes close to being a “Sputnik moment,” Bloomberg TV reported.

The top military officer of the U.S. confirmed to Bloomberg that China had recently tested an advanced hypersonic weapon. “What we saw was a very significant event of a test of a hypersonic weapon system. And it is very concerning,” Milley said in an interview for “The David Rubenstein Show: Peer-to-Peer Conversations.”

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Report: ‘They’re Not Oracles’: U.S. Intelligence Agencies Failed to Predict Fall of Kabul to Taliban

aerial view of Kabul

U.S. intelligence agencies failed to predict how quickly Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, would fall to the Taliban, The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Four agencies tracked the Taliban’s gains around Afghanistan starting in the spring of 2020 up until Taliban insurgents overthrew the U.S.-supported government in the capital city of Kabul, according to classified materials reviewed by the WSJ.

Around two dozen of the reports the WSJ reviewed predicted the Afghan government would collapse after U.S. forces withdrew, though none of them thought the government would fall as quickly as it did or with American troops still deployed in the region.

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Commentary: Americans Sour on Biden, But Like Harris Even Less

Market Research Foundation recently pointed out President Biden’s polling numbers are in jeopardy, but a new poll shows Americans have huge hesitations about Vice President Kamala Harris taking over as well.

As a refresher, President Biden referred to himself as “a bridge” to “a new generation of leaders” in the Democratic party when campaigning with Harris in 2020, and Harris is next in line if anything should prevent Biden from continuing to serve as president. At the time, it appeared Biden was implying Harris would replace him soon.

Unfortunately for Democrats, while Biden’s polling numbers are in serious jeopardy, Americans do not appear at all confident Harris is qualified to lead the country.

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Report: Biden Considering $450,000 Payments to Illegal Immigrant Families Separated at Border

The Biden administration is considering paying illegal immigrant families who were separated at the border under former President Donald Trump’s policies up to $450,000 per person, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.

The illegal immigrants filed a lawsuit claiming the federal government detention resulted in major psychological trauma, according to the WSJ. Most of the families were made up of one parent and child who could receive around $1 million in payouts, though the amount could vary by family depending on the circumstances.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) represents some of the families involved in the lawsuit against the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security (DHS) and Health and Human Services, the WSJ reported. Around 940 families filed claims and the number of those who might qualify for the settlement is expected to be lower.

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Narrative of a Perfect 2020 Election Eroding as Wisconsin Becomes Investigative Ground Zero

People at a voting location, voting early at polls

Cognitively impaired nursing home residents in Wisconsin and Michigan cynically exploited for votes. Election mismanagement in Atlanta. Unlawful election instructions in Wisconsin. And 50,000 questionable ballots in Arizona, plus several criminal cases for illegal ballot harvesting and inmate voting.

Eleven months after Donald Trump was ousted from office, the narrative that the 2020 election was clean and secure has frayed like a well-worn shoelace. The challenges of the COVID pandemic, the aggressive new tactics of voting activists and the desire of Democrats to make the collection and delivery of ballots by third parties legal in states where harvesting is expressly forbidden has muddied the establishment portrait and awakened the nation to the painful reality its election system — particularly in big urban areas — is far from perfection.

Nowhere has that story become more clear than the battleground state of Wisconsin, where a local sheriff on Thursday dramatically held a nationally televised news conference alleging he had found evidence of felony crimes involving ballots sent to nursing home residents.

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New Polls, Ads, and a Stunt from The Lincoln Project Point to a Nail-Biting Finish for Gubernatorial Race

GOP gubernatorial candidate Glenn Youngkin crept past Democrat Terry McAuliffe in polling averages on Friday, thanks to a Fox poll that showed the Republican ahead by eight points, well outside the three point margin of error. A Washington Post poll released Friday showed a tighter race, with Youngkin trailing McAuliffe by one point. Youngkin now leads the Real Clear Politics polling average by a hair — 0.9 percentage points. That’s setting Virginians up for a nail-biter on Tuesday evening, but depending on how close the results are, the winner might not be clear for days, since mail-in-ballots can be counted if they’re received by noon on Friday.

“Youngkin has as good a shot as we’ve seen in a decade. Also, attorney general tends to run two-to-three points ahead of governor for us,” Prince William County GOP Vice-Chair Willie Deutsch said. “I’m confident we have a legit shot but I wouldn’t put much money on anyone.”

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‘Will Your Daughter be Next?’ Brutal Ad Targets McAuliffe After Alleged Loudoun County Rape Coverup

An ad launched by the American Principles Project, which describes itself as “the premier national organization engaging directly in campaigns and advocacy on behalf of the family,” blasts Democrat gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe in connection with the rape of a girl in Loudoun County. 

“In Loudoun County, Virginia a 15-year-old girl was brutally raped by a male student wearing a dress in the girl’s bathroom,” the ad says. “Democrats covered it up. A few weeks later, the same male student raped a 14-year-old girl.”

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Amherst County and Emporia City Holding Referenda on Proposed Rosie’s Gaming Emporiums

Voters in Emporia City and Amherst County are voting on local referenda about whether or not to allow the Colonial Downs Group to bring slots-style pari-mutuel gaming with new Rosie’s Gaming Emporium locations. Proponents say the facilities will bring local jobs and revenue for the locality, but opponents say that profit could come at the expense of locals.

“Voters approving pari-mutuel wagering in Amherst County will allow a Rosie’s to open. That means that dozens of new jobs will need to be filled. 100 new jobs will be created as a result, offering at least $15/hr and a $47,000 average annual salary with benefits,” Amherstwins.com states.

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Youngkin: Trump Not Coming to Virginia Before Election

Former Governor Terry McAuliffe is campaigning for reelection with the help of national Democrats, even the currently-unpopular President Joe Biden, but GOP candidate Glenn Youngkin says he wants to keep the race focused on Virginia. Youngkin is largely avoiding the in-state presence of national Republicans, and he highlighted the contrast between the two campaign strategies in comments about his bus tour. On Thursday, Youngkin said that former President Donald Trump would not visit Virginia before the election.

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Commentary: Americans Pay for Biden’s Immigration Agenda with Blood and Trauma

Crowd of immigrants

Throughout Joe Biden’s 2020 campaign for president and his nightmarish first year in the White House, he and his acolytes have extolled the virtues of near-limitless immigration. His campaign talked about immigration as an “irrefutable source of our strength” and how it is “essential to who we are as a nation, our core values and our aspirations for the future.” Anyone who suggests that we bring immigration to safe, manageable levels is shamed with a retort of “that’s not who we are.”

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Commentary: A $10K Bank-Snooping Threshold Would Intrude on Many Millions

Man standing at an ATM

Bowing to pressure from banks and taxpayers concerned about a proposal to require financial institutions to report to the IRS gross inflows and outflows for just about every account in the country, Democrats have attempted to quell concerns by raising the threshold. Unfortunately, even the raised threshold is still laughably low to accomplish Democrats’ stated purpose of cracking down on wealthy tax cheats.

The original proposal would have required financial institutions to report on any account (be it a checking account, savings account, stock portfolio, etc.) which handled more than $600 in inflows and outflows in a given year. Obviously, that’s just about every account.

But the new proposal isn’t much better. This time, the threshold would be set at $10,000, and exempt payroll deposits. In other words, if a given taxpayer received $20,000 in payroll deposits, they would only exceed the threshold were other deposits and spending, taken together, to exceed $30,000.

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U.S. Economic Growth Slowed to Two Percent in Third Quarter as Supply Chain Worsens

The U.S. economy grew at a 2% rate in the third quarter of 2021 as supply chain issues and the delta variant slowed gains.

The U.S. gross domestic product (GDP), a measure of net services and goods produced, grew at a 2% rate during the third quarter of 2021, the slowest gain of the pandemic era, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) reported Thursday.

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Jobless Claims Drop to 281,000 Holding Near Last Weeks Lower Levels

The number of Americans who filed new unemployment claims decreased to 281,000 last week as employers compete for workers in a tight labor market where inflation and supply chain disruptions plague the country.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics figure released Thursday shows a 10,000 claim decrease in the number of new jobless claims compared to the week ending Oct. 23 when jobless claims dropped to 290,000. This is the lowest level for initial claims since March 14, when jobless claims dropped to 256,000.

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21 House Democrats Call for IRS Reporting Proposal to Be Scrapped

A group of House Democrats on Wednesday called for a tax reporting proposal included in the Build Back Better Act to be scrapped, citing concerns over privacy.

“Americans expect their bank or credit union to safeguard their financial information,” the Democrats wrote in a letter addressed to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Ways and Means Chair Richard Neal. “This proposal would erode trust in financial services providers.”

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The Supply Chain Crisis Could Threaten Rural America’s Internet Access

The telecommunications industry, like other sectors, is suffering from ongoing supply chain chaos, with equipment delays and heightened costs endangering efforts to bring internet access to rural America.

AT&T announced in August that it would miss its target of supplying internet to 3 million new homes, citing supply chain disruptions, while smaller providers and contractors are reporting widespread shortages impacting their ability to complete jobs. The problem is exacerbated by the ongoing semiconductor shortage, causing long lead times, or the time it takes for products to arrive after an order is placed, for broadband equipment requiring a computer chip  like modems and routers.

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Blinken Confirms Internal Review of State Department’s Role in Afghanistan Withdrawal

Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirmed Wednesday the State Department is conducting an internal review into the evacuation of Afghanistan.

“It’s absolutely critical that we capture and benefit from lessons learned,” Blinken said in a speech at the Foreign Service Institute in Arlington, Virginia, attended by lawmakers, diplomats and others.

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China Ramps Up Coal Production Despite Its Climate Promises

The Chinese government ordered its domestic coal suppliers to ramp up production and rubber-stamped approvals for new mines as the country faces an energy crisis, The Wall Street Journal reported.

China, like Europe and many other parts of Asia, has faced rapidly increasing energy costs over the last several months as its economy recovers from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to the WSJ. The rising cost of coal — which accounts for the vast majority of China’s energy supply — has been a main driver of the overall price increases.

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Commentary: Clinton Campaign Spread Alfa Bank Ruse Throughout Obama Admin to Press Trump-Russia Probe

A Hillary Clinton campaign operation to plant a false rumor about Donald Trump setting up a “secret hotline” to Moscow through a Russian bank was much broader than known and involved multiple U.S. agencies, according to declassified documents and sources briefed on an ongoing criminal investigation of the scheme.

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Mexico Commits to Deporting Migrants to Their Home Countries

The Mexican federal government committed to deporting migrants caught traveling north to their home countries, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico announced on Wednesday.

The Biden administration also plans to reinstate former President Donald Trump’s “Remain in Mexico” policy next month, though the success of the program is largely dependent on Mexico’s cooperation, CBS News reported.

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Newt Gingrich Commentary: Ulysses S. Grant and the Forgotten Presidency

More than 150 years after he led the Union Army to victory in the Civil War, Ulysses S. Grant may receive another military promotion.

Recently, lawmakers introduced bipartisan legislation in the U.S. Congress that would promote Grant posthumously to the Army’s highest rank, General of the Armies. This honor has only been conferred twice: to John “Black Jack” Pershing following his leadership during World War I and to George Washington posthumously for the nation’s bicentennial in 1976.

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