Month: October 2023

Commentary: Hard Evidence Warranting the Impeachment of Joe Biden

Virginia Star Staff

In a staggering act of journalistic deceit, the New York Times is reporting that Republicans launched an impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden without any “evidence of financial wrongdoing or corruption by the president.” Similar statements have been made by a massive array of media outlets and Democrat politicians.

In reality, overwhelming proof of Joe Biden’s corruption and wrongdoing has been found, including hard evidence like written records and corroborated testimonies from first-hand witnesses. Collectively, at least 12 sets of documented facts leave no reasonable doubt that Biden participated in his son’s illicit businesses deals, bribed foreign officials, and obstructed justice.

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America’s Biggest Bank Posts Another Massive Profit After Government-Assisted Acquisition

Virginia Star Staff

The U.S.’ largest bank had another huge quarter as profits soared after reaching a deal with federal regulators to buy the failed First Republic Bank in May.

JPMorgan Chase reported that, for its third quarter of 2023, net income was up by $13.2 billion, or 35%, but excluding assets acquired from First Republic, it was only up 24%, according to the banking giant’s third quarter earnings report. First Republic was one of a few banks that failed earlier this year after a bank run that shook depositors, which resulted in JPMorgan acquiring the bank after federal regulators seized its assets and auctioned them in order to maintain funds for depositors.

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Commentary: Thales College Restores True Education to the University

Virginia Star Staff

I am delighted to say that I will be joining the new Thales College, as a professor of humanities. What that means, I shall try to describe by way of contrast.

Let us suppose I am at almost any other American or Canadian college. I am considering Caravaggio’s painting of Mary Magdalen. Right there, I’m skating on thin ice. That isn’t just because the painting has a religious theme. It’s because I can depend upon almost nothing, among even the brightest college students, when it comes to knowledge of the history of art, or of the Renaissance in particular; no understanding of why such a painting was impossible to be executed two centuries before, or of why no one would have conceived the desire to paint such a figure, alone as she is, in a moment of intense introspection, careless of the baubles of her trade that lie scattered about her on the floor — baubles that yet have considerable dramatic power, because Caravaggio supposes that we know, as she does not, what they signify, and what momentous events are in store for her.

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Auto Workers Union Just Shut Down Ford’s Biggest and Most Profitable Plant

Virginia Star Staff

The United Auto Workers (UAW) unexpectedly walked off the job Wednesday evening at the largest Ford plant in an escalation of its strike against major automakers.

Around 8,700 UAW members walked off the job at 6:30 p.m. ET at Ford’s Kentucky Truck Plant in Louisville yesterday in a previously unannounced move, completely shutting down the plant, according to an announcement from the UAW. The new strike location comes as UAW workers are already striking at 43 other plants at the Big Three automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — across the U.S. in a strike that started after contract negotiations failed to reach a deal before their Sept. 14 deadline.

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Over $400 Million in Taxpayer Funds Have Been Sent to Gaza Since Hamas Takeover

Virginia Star Staff

Ever since the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas first took over the territory of the Gaza Strip in 2007, the United States has sent more than $400 million in taxpayer dollars to the region.

According to the Washington Free Beacon, documents from the State Department’s U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the $400 million spent over the last 14 years since 2009 has allegedly gone towards development projects. Despite USAID’s insistence that the money could only be spent on humanitarian purposes, many critics have warned that the funds could be used by Hamas to fund its acts of terrorism against Israel and the West.

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Virginia Gov. Youngkin Makes Closing Argument on Abortion with $1.4 Million Ad Buy

Neil W. McCabe

The Spirit of Virginia political action committee run by Virginia’s Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin kicked off a $1.4 million ad buy defending the Republican position on abortion—marking the first serious effort to counter Democrats by any Republican politician since the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned both the 1973 Roe v. Wade and the 1992 Casey decisions the created the so-called right to an abortion.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch captured the reluctance of Republicans to mention abortion in its article about the ad.

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Inflation Continues to Rise, Federal Data Shows

The Center Square

Consumer prices rose significantly in September, newly released federal inflation data shows, further undoing a trend of slowing inflation that had begun earlier this year.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Thursday released its Consumer Price Index, a key marker of inflation that tracks the cost of a range of consumer goods and services. That index rose 0.4% in September alone, a notable increase that is higher than months earlier this year.

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More Americans Back UAW Strikers than Automakers: Poll

Virginia Star Staff

More Americans support the United Auto Workers (UAW) over the major auto companies as their strike for higher wages and more benefits nears its fifth week, according to the Associated Press.

The UAW is currently engaging in a partial strike against the Big Three automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — and have expanded to 44 different plants across the country since its Sept. 15 start, most recently resulting in workers at Ford’s biggest and most profitable plant walking out of the job on Wednesday. Around 36% of Americans sympathize with the striking UAW workers, while only 9% support the automakers in the dispute, with the rest of the 53% of Americans not swayed either way, according to a recent poll from the AP’s NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

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Biden-Appointed Judge Declines to Block New Mexico Gun Ban

Virginia Star Staff

A federal judge declined on Wednesday to block Democratic New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s ban on firearms at parks and playgrounds.

U.S. District Judge for the District of New Mexico David Urias, a Biden appointee, declined to block Lujan Grisham’s emergency public health order banning firearms from being carried in public parks and playgrounds from taking effect, according to the court document. Urias temporarily blocked Lujan Grisham’s initial 30-day order banning all firearms from being carried in Albuquerque and Bernalillo County on Sept. 13, prompting her to issue the amended order two days later restricting guns only in specified areas.

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Biden’s VP Office Exchanged Emails with Hunter, His Brother Jim, and Both of Their Businesses over 29,000 Times

Virginia Star Staff

More evidence has come to light demolishing Joe Biden’s repeated denials that he ever discussed business with his son. New documents obtained by America First Legal (AFL) show that he emailed Hunter Biden, his brother James “Jim” Biden, and their respective firms tens of thousands of times while he was vice president.

The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) acknowledged in a joint status report published by the Washington D.C. District Court on Friday, that it knew of 4,243 emails between then-Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter, another 1,751 emails between Joe and Jim Biden, 19,335 emails between Joe and Hunter’s private equity firm Rosemont Seneca, and 3,738 emails between Joe and Jim’s Chinese-communist party connected consulting firm Lion Hall Group.

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Mainstream Progressives Abandon Democratic Socialists of America over Palestinian Support in the Wake of Hamas Attack

Admin

Politico The Democratic Socialists of America is coming apart at the seams. Rep. Jamaal Bowman let his membership lapse. Colleague Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez ripped the New York chapter over a pro-Palestinian rally Sunday. And others on the left are struggling to reconcile their views with the group — even disavowing it amid criticism…

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American Colleges Are Partnered with Palestinian University That Praised Hamas as ‘Righteous Martyrs’

Virginia Star Staff

Several American colleges are partnered with Al-Quds Open University, a Palestinian university that called the Hamas terrorists who attacked Israel “righteous martyrs,” according to a Daily Caller News Foundation review of university web pages.

Al-Quds Open University declared Sunday, Oct. 8 as a day to “mourn the souls of the righteous martyrs and to denounce the occupation’s continuing crimes against our people in the West Bank and Gaza,” following Hamas’ invasion of Israel. Al-Quds Open University ended its announcement by stating “glory and eternity to our martyrs.”

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Virginia School Board Adopts GOP Gov’s Parental Rights Policy After Parents Slap It with Lawsuit

Virginia Star Staff

The Virginia Beach School Board approved Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s gender transition notification policy Tuesday after being hit with a lawsuit from parents, according to The Virginia Pilot.

In August, the board voted on the policy but was deadlocked with five votes in favor and five against, effectively stalling the proposal, which prompted several parents to file a lawsuit in September demanding the district protect parental rights. The board took up the issue again this week, however, and voted 9 to 1 in favor of adopting Youngkin’s policy, with one member abstaining, according to The Virginia Pilot.

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Commentary: As Families Take to Charter Schools, Cities and Their Teacher Unions Throw Up Obstacles

RealClearWire

A vote by the Los Angeles board of education vote last month to ban charter schools from sharing space at 300 district campuses is the latest big-city attack against alternatives to struggling traditional public schools.

With the strong support of United Teachers Los Angeles, school board members say the ban will protect black and Latino students from the disruption and harm that occurs when charters are placed in buildings used by other public schools. But charter advocates reject the board’s reasoning. Far from hurting disadvantaged students, charters in LA and other cities have established an outstanding track record in accelerating their academic performance compared with traditional schools, according to researchers.

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Virginia Gov. Youngkin Makes Closing Argument on Abortion with $1.4 Million Ad Buy

Neil W. McCabe

The Spirit of Virginia political action committee run by Virginia’s Republican Governor Glenn Youngkin kicked off a $1.4 million ad buy defending the Republican position on abortion — marking the first serious effort to counter Democrats by any Republican politician since the Supreme Court’s 2022 Dobbs decision, which overturned both the 1973 Roe v. Wade and the 1992 Casey decisions that created the so-called right to an abortion.

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Commentary: Offshore Wind Is an Economic and Environmental Catastrophe

Virginia Star Staff

When it comes to “renewables” wreaking havoc on the environment, wind turbines have stiff competition. For example, over 500,000 square miles of biofuel plantations have already replaced farms and forests to replace a mere 4 percent of transportation fuel. To source raw materials to build “sustainable” batteries, mining operations are scaling up, with no end in sight, in nations with appalling labor conditions and nonexistent environmental regulations. But the worst offender is the wind industry.

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Hamas Leader Calls for Global Day of Rage on Friday: ‘This Is the Time for Jihad’

Virginia Star Staff

Khaled Mashal, a leader and founding member of the Islamic terror group Hamas, has called for a global Day of Rage this Friday, saying “this is the time for Jihad.”

Hamas, an Islamic political and military organization that governs the Gaza Strip, carried out a brutal, highly coordinated terror attack on Israel over the weekend, slaughtering more than 1,200 people—including fourteen Americans—and wounding more than 2,100, according to the latest reports. The Palestinian terrorists also took more than 130 civilians hostage and have threatened to execute them on live broadcasts.

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BLM Chicago Deletes Paraglider Tweet, But Doubles Down on Support of Hamas, Palestine

Virginia Star Staff

The Chicago chapter of Black Lives Matter (BLM) issued a statement Wednesday reaffirming their support for Palestine despite deleting a Tuesday tweet with a paraglider that symbolized a mass terrorist attack in Israel.

Chicago BLM posted a picture to Twitter on Tuesday that read “I Stand With Palestine” and included an image of a paraglider, which were used by terrorists to invade a music festival in Israel and kill more than 250 people. BLM Chicago took down the post and said they “aren’t proud” of the messages they sent out, but posted a different statement Wednesday saying “the people will do what they must to live free.”

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Greater Pandemic Learning Losses Reported in School Districts with DEI Officers

Virginia Star Staff

On Wednesday, a new report was released showing that school districts with chief diversity officers (CDOs) and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) officers saw greater losses in learning capabilities during the Chinese Coronavirus pandemic than schools that do not have such positions.

According to Fox News, the report from The Heritage Foundation reveals that 48% of all school districts with 15,000 students or more had a CDO or DEI officer on campus. Despite such positions ostensibly being created in order to increase the performance of minority students, schools with these employees saw bigger losses in academic performance among black and Hispanic students than schools without them.

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Biden Admin Considers Tying Ukraine Funding to Israel Aid Request: Report

Virginia Star Staff

The White House is considering tying more Ukraine funding to a request for a crucial aid package to Israel, in a bid to get Congress back on board with support for Ukraine, The Washington Post reported Monday.

The Biden administration is expected to announce a military aid package for Israel after Hamas and Palestinian militants carried out terrorist attacks against the country that killed over 1,000 Israelis and at least nine Americans. But whether the aid package is approved could depend on Congress approving further funding for Ukraine in tandem, even as support in both chambers for Ukraine aid has dropped dramatically in recent months, according to the Post.

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Oklahoma Approves Contract for America’s First Religious Charter School

Virginia Star Staff

The Oklahoma Statewide Virtual Charter School Board approved a contract Monday for the country’s first religious charter school, according to The Washington Post.

The charter for the St. Isidore of Seville Catholic Virtual School was approved by the board in June, but a lawsuit was filed in July in an attempt to block the state from allowing religious groups to use taxpayer funding for schools. The board, however, went ahead with approving a contract this week in a 3 to 2 vote, putting the school one step closer to opening enrollment for the fall of 2024, according to the Post.

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Commentary: Rumors of ESG’s Demise Are Greatly Exaggerated

Virginia Star Staff

Consumer and Republican backlash against Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investments has increased dramatically in the past year as states, Congress and presidential candidates have taken on the issue, promising to rein in the largely green-conscious movement of capital amid spiraling energy and food costs since 2021.

Boycotts of brands such as Bud Light, Disney and Target, coupled with statements by Blackrock CEO Larry Fink that he no longer wanted to call these so-called sustainable investments ESG— at Aspen Ideas Festival on June 25 Fink said “I’m not going to use the word ESG because it’s been misused by the far left and the far right… we talk a lot about decarbonization, we talk a lot about governance … or social issues, if that’s something we need to address…”—and reported outflows from ESG funds in 2023 have painted a gloomy picture for green and socially conscious investing.

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Miyares and 26 Other State AGs Request Federal Government End Catch-and-Release Policies

The Center Square

Twenty-seven attorneys general, led by Florida’s Ashley Moody, are demanding Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas “fix the problem you created” and close the catch-and-release loophole DHS is “currently exploiting to implement its mass release policy at the Southwest Border.”

The coalition filed a Petition for Rulemaking demanding that Mayorkas amend DHS’s catch-and-release policies. In their 6-page letter, they point to how “DHS is releasing aliens at a rate of over one million per year, and that does not include the aliens being released on parole under § 1182(d)(5).”

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China’s Real Estate Crisis Worsens as Companies Risk Default

Virginia Star Staff

Two of China’s top real estate developers both show signs that they may not be able to pay off their international debts as the country’s property sector continues to suffer, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Country Garden, which just one year ago appeared to be withstanding China’s tumultuous real estate crisis, failed to make a payment to international bondholders Monday after it reported disappointing September sales, according to the WSJ. China Evergrande, another major Chinese developer, abandoned a debt restructuring deal after regulators barred it from issuing new securities that it needed to fulfill its obligations due to its subsidiary being under investigation, which could now lead to the collapse of the company.

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Music Spotlight: Annie Bosko

Bethany Bowman

A California farmer’s daughter, Annie Bosko’s soulful, honey-soaked vocals and neo-traditional country sound has been perfected throughout her 10,000 + hours in the music industry. And while she doesn’t quite have that southern twang, her voice is exquisite. Even more importantly, she was raised on traditional country music.

She recalled, “My dad was a farmer. We would drive around in his truck and go look at the crops and he would play me country music. The first person I remember hearing is Patsy Cline. I remember this voice jumping at me through the speakers of his truck and I was like, ‘Oh, my God, what is this?’”

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Ramaswamy Blasts Haley for ‘Irresponsible Reaction’ on Israel

M.D. Kittle

Divergent positions are emerging among GOP presidential candidates on U.S. involvement in Israel’s war against Iran-backed Hamas.

A day after former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley declared that it is time for Israel “finish off” the terrorist group, GOP presidential rival Vivek Ramaswamy blasted Haley for what he described as her “irresponsible reaction.”

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