Commentary and Opinion on Latest News from The Minnesota Sun

Commentary: President Biden – A Single Point of Failure for America

July 27, 2024 RealClearWire

On Sunday, President Joe Biden made the appropriate decision to drop out of the 2024 presidential race amid pressure and a soft coup attempt from Democrats. While dropping out, Biden, our sitting commander-in-chief, hid in Delaware for almost a week without being seen by the American people, prompting “proof of life” demands. Unfortunately, this past week is not the first time this has happened before – Joe Biden has been missing in action for the last four years as our country has been falling apart around him.

As a retired Navy SEAL and former Marine, I’ve had the honor and duty of serving this country in some of the most challenging and dangerous situations imaginable. Our missions demanded precision, adaptability, and unwavering leadership. Any failure, any gap in our planning or execution, could cost lives. That’s why it is deeply troubling to see the current state of leadership under President Biden, who has become a “single point of failure” as our commander-in-chief. His weakness continues to put America in grave danger as our enemies seek to capitalize from America’s missing leader.

Commentary: Racism and Sexism Are the Campaign Theme of the Harris-Whoever Ticket

July 27, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

Is Kamala Harris the quintessential DEI hire? It’s a legitimate question, given that Joe Biden made it clear during his 2020 election-year campaign that he would only consider a black woman for his VP slot. As president, he also claimed that the choice of Supreme Court Justice replacement for Stephen Breyer would be limited to a black woman. Not even the most qualified black woman, just someone possessing dark skin and lady parts.

Biden could have simply told the country that he was going to choose the most qualified person for either position. Instead, he said that his choice was going to be based primarily on skin color and gender.

Commentary: Obama Decided Biden’s Fate, and Democratic Elite Got Their Way

July 26, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

Obama elevated Biden to presidential prominence; only he could remove Biden from it. Biden’s leftward policies had created a political deficit that his June 27 debate performance proved he could not communicate his way out of. Democrat elite’s efforts to prod Biden off the ticket had not succeeded. With time running short, push came to shove, but to succeed, that shove could not come from them alone.

Despite Biden having spent more terms in the Senate (six) than Obama spent years (four), the latter raised the former to presidential level by making him his vice president. Exact opposites in every respect, Obama had finally done for Biden what Biden couldn’t do for himself in two short-lived, ill-fated presidential runs (1988 and 2008).

Commentary: Government Policies are Exacerbating Evictions

July 26, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

Evictions are soaring, and Americans can’t pay the rent, potentially throwing hundreds of thousands of families out of their homes at a time when homeless shelters are jammed to the rafters with 10 million illegal immigrants.

It’s a useful reminder that the problem with our ruling elite isn’t just President Joe Biden’s dementia. They’ve made a very big bed we’re all going to be lying in.

Commentary: America First and the Role of Unions

July 25, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

The fact that the Republican National Committee invited Teamsters President Sean O’Brien to speak at their convention last week, and the fact that he showed up and delivered an impassioned address to a mostly supportive audience, is yet another example of a historic political realignment.

O’Brien’s presence at the convention was his acknowledgement that support for Donald Trump is higher among union households than among the general public. An ABC News poll conducted earlier this year had Trump beating Biden 50 percent to 41 percent, whereas overall, Biden had 47 percent support to Trump’s 43 percent.

Commentary: Gain of Function, Loss of Everything Else

July 25, 2024 RealClearWire

It did not have to be this way. The COVID-19 pandemic cost American citizens their lives, their livelihoods, education, mental health, reputations and, ultimately, civil and religious freedoms. “The U.S. accounts for less than 5 percent of the world’s population, but more than 25 percent of total COVID-19 cases reported across the globe, and it currently ranks among the top 10 countries in COVID-19-related deaths per capita,” wrote the authors of  2023 commentary in the Journal of the American Medical Association. And for all that, we have government to thank.

For years leading up to the pandemic, the nation had spent billions on preparation and planning for a biohazard attack or event. Whatever we learned was quickly discarded or undone by a lack of accountability, transparency, and humility. Decades of planning and untold man hours of research and training were rendered ineffective by a corrupt culture of greed, self-importance, scientific misconduct, and outright fraud. Because, while the government worked to prevent the worst, it was also helping to create chaos and contagion by funding and facilitating gain of function (GOF) research.

Commentary: The Top Three Vulnerabilities of Kamala Harris

July 25, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

Now that the will of primary voters has been discarded and President Joe Biden has been pressured out of the race by the oligarchs and powerbrokers of the Democrat Party, what are the most potent lanes of valid criticism that could make an already deeply unpopular candidate, Vice President Kamala Harris, even less palatable to sensible Americans?

The three most important vulnerabilities of this radical and untested career politician are listed below.

Commentary: The Second Amendment Is More Crucial than Ever After Attempt to Kill Trump

July 24, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

A 20-year-old man with a rifle, perched atop a nearby roof, fired several rounds July 13 at Donald Trump as the former president spoke at a campaign rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, killing one attendee and wounding at least two others.

As we know now, one round nicked Trump’s right ear and he avoided a serious wound or death with a fortuitous head turn that moved him out of the bullet’s path at the last second.

Commentary: The Big Divide

July 24, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

Whether the economy is currently bubbling along or facing a slowdown, a slow-motion disaster is about to create a real crisis for the government, our future politics, and the shrinking middle class. Half of households have no retirement savings.

This is just one of many shifts in the economy that reflect the declining fortunes of the middle class. Wages have remained mostly flat for most workers—particularly those without a college degree—since the early 1970s. Recent high rates of inflation further cut into the ability of the self-identified middle class to make ends meet. But the biggest change has been the abolition of employer-provided pensions and their replacement with rickety and self-managed 401k savings plans.

Commentary: Democrats’ Favorite Strategy Caused Their Current Chaos

July 23, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

The last few weeks sharply remind us of the old adage – “Man Plans, and God Laughs.” In less than 30 days, the American political world has been upended by a series of shocking events most people are still trying to fully comprehend. From a remarkably disastrous debate for President Joe Biden against former president Donald Trump, to the attempted assassination of Trump a short 16 days later, then two days after that the start of a well-organized and produced Republican convention with an injured but unbowed Trump, to the withdrawal of Biden as the Democratic Party’s nominee for president, it’s safe to say none of us knows what happens next.

One thing we do know – the divisive and hateful rhetoric employed by the left against Trump and his supporters is what has fed both the unraveling of the Democratic Party and the awakening of Americans to the reality of the lies and manipulation we’ve endured since Biden took office.

Commentary: The Culprits Responsible for This Mess

July 23, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

Now that Biden is toast, Trump has a real fight on his hands. Who’s to blame? Clearly, there are incompetents in both campaigns—which doesn’t bode well for America’s fight against an insurgent Russia and Communist China (and Iran and North Korea), possibly in World War III.

One asks in amazement, whose crazy, unbelievably stupid idea was it to have Biden and Trump debate in June? In time, we may find out. But for now, we can only speculate.

Commentary: If Biden Is Not Fit to Run, Then He Is Not Fit to Serve

July 23, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

Why is Joe Biden still the President?

After dropping out of the 2024 presidential race and ceding the Democratic Party nomination and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris for President, but in staying in office to serve out his term, the American people have a right to know why this decision was reached.

Commentary: Democrats Did This to Themselves

July 22, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

by J.D. Foster The Democratic machine is gearing up in a panic to overwhelm President Joe Biden. What a bunch of rubes. Biden is driving the Democratic wagon toward an electoral cliff, but this was foreseen a year ago among leading Democrats. Even as they tried to con and bluff the American…

Commentary: Harvard May Never Have to Face Accountability for Claudine Gay’s Actions

July 22, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

In an ideal world, wrongdoers face swift and exact justice for their misdeeds. In reality, the legal system is costly. Justice comes at a steep price, one that I, and others whose works were allegedly plagiarized by Harvard’s Claudine Gay and others cannot afford.

After months of turmoil and legal back and forth, it is with a heavy heart that I announce that my intended copyright infringement case against former Harvard President Claudine Gay and the Harvard Corporation — a legal complaint that would have requested a jury trial — cannot be filed as planned in the United States District Court for the Middle District of Tennessee. The inability to raise sufficient funds for a trial (a steep minimum of $100,000 to $250,000) and the knowledge that the losing party could be ordered to cover the legal expenses of the victors, to which no limits exist under federal copyright law, gave me pause.

Commentary: Cancel Culture Backfires on its Leftist Makers After Trump Assassination Attempt Remarks

July 22, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

by David Huber In a perfect world, people like Alison Scott, a teacher in the Oklahoma-based Ardmore City Schools district would have the self-control not to post stupid stuff on social media after a U.S. presidential candidate is almost assassinated. The high school music teacher responded to a Facebook user’s…

Commentary: Trump Supporters Must Avoid Overconfidence

July 21, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump has led his supporters and some, though not all, of his opponents to acquire a greater perspective on the most important things in life. It has also led his supporters to a broader recognition what is not necessarily important in the present campaign. This is a healthy development for the Republican Party and the Make America Great Again movement. Mr. Trump continues to lead and is, again, its presidential standard bearer. Yet, if not properly channeled, the ensuing enthusiasm can engender overconfidence among the campaign and its supporters.

The temptation to feel overconfident is all too human. For quite some time, Mr. Trump had been being persecuted as someone beneath the law by the left’s noxious lawfare cabal and was deemed a threat to democracy to be eliminated by Democrats and their mockingbird media. Following the assassination attempt on Mr. Trump’s life, his supporters and all decent people offered an outpouring of gratitude that his life had been spared. Having witnessed the twist of fate that allowed a turn of Mr. Trump’s head to save him and allow his life and candidacy to continue, two potentially contentious GOP political events possessed far less potential to ignite divisive intraparty arguments.

Commentary: New Paper Finds Childcare Regulations May Be Stifling Fertility

July 21, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

The population bust has made its way into popular discussion about the looming issues we face as a country and a world. After centuries with a growing population, humanity is finally projected to begin to shrink by the end of this century.
The realization of the downsides of fewer brains has dawned on many, including Elon Musk, who views it as a major problem:

Commentary: The Four-Day School Weeks Are a Trend Across America Despite Questionable Results

July 21, 2024 RealClearWire

Next month, the Huntsville School District in Arkansas will join the wave of public schools switching to a four-day week.

The shorter school week, which first emerged in a few rural areas decades ago, is now expanding into suburbs and smaller cities. At least 2,100 schools in half the states have embraced the three-day weekend mostly as an incentive to hire and keep teachers, prompting cheers of support from instructors, unions, and many families.

Commentary: The Once and Future Nationalism

July 20, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

There is no doubt that the events of Saturday, July 13, 2024, were monumental by virtue of how close we came to the course of our history being altered for the worst. No one understands that better than President Trump himself, who is now determined to shape our destiny for the better and on his terms.

As such, the vice presidential selection of Ohio Senator J.D. Vance shows that, while President Trump is undoubtedly shaken by a not-too-distant past, he is already looking toward the future.

Commentary: An Assassination Attempt Reveals DEI’s False Promises

July 20, 2024 RealClearWire

For over a half century the proponents of DEI and its intellectual precursors have fought from high ground, not from a moral position, but a tactical and strategic one secured by Marxist indoctrination that has pervaded nearly every corner of society.

The deliberate and methodical campaign has successfully muted public criticism, although privately most Americans felt that there is something terribly wrong with a philosophy that prioritizes appearance over ability.   DEI’s commanding role in all branches of the military has resulted in no tangible benefits but a myriad of failures—falling morale and standards, recruitment shortfalls, plummeting public confidence in the military, poor leadership, and with the exception of the Marine Corps, the inability to fulfill basic mission requirements at an acceptable level.

Commentary: Seven Takeaways from Thursday’s Iconic Republican National Convention

July 19, 2024 Admin

Delegates celebrated happily Thursday night as they waited during the Republican National Convention to hear Donald Trump accept his party’s nomination for the third time — only five days after he was nearly killed by an assassin’s bullet.

Commentary: Let the Voters and Not the Deep State Decide Who Will Be the Next President

July 19, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

When Donald Trump seemed to have a lock on the 2016 Republican primary, the Democratic Party concluded that the people could not be counted on to do the “right thing” of electing the Democratic candidate in waiting Hillary Clinton.

What followed were eight long years of extralegal efforts to neuter candidate, then President, then ex-President, and then candidate again, Donald Trump.

Commentary: The Federal Housing Agency Hasn’t Gotten Its Economic House in Order, Under Both Parties

July 19, 2024 RealClearWire

Paul Fishbein’s conviction on rent fraud charges in New York City last year was a feast for the tabloids.

The story was crazy enough to get readers to click. Prosecutors said that Fishbein, 51, somehow convinced local housing agencies that he owned dilapidated apartment buildings that he didn’t, enabling him to move in tenants and skim government rent subsidies meant for lower-income, disabled, and elderly residents. Fishbein kept the con going for more than years. His take: $1.8 million.

Commentary: Trump and the Fate of Western Civilization

July 18, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

Less than a week ago, a lone assassin’s bullet came within millimeters of killing Donald Trump. Had it succeeded, the unrest and polarization we already endure in America would have gotten significantly worse. There will be endless theories and explanations about how this near miss will affect the election, inspire more violence, or stimulate calls for unity and calm. But what is it about Trump that has made him a target of relentless and unified defamation, or worse, from every established American institution for nearly a decade?

Trump represents a movement. It is bigger than him, and it is bigger than MAGA. Trump and MAGA have counterparts all over the world, especially in Europe. The people in these movements all share at least two common grievances: they don’t want their national cultures destroyed, and they don’t want their standard of living destroyed. And in every country where these movements have arisen, that is exactly what is happening, and it’s happening fast.

Commentary: Consumer Choice over Automobile Mandates

July 18, 2024 RealClearWire

The most refreshingly true statements articulated by Gill Pratt at the RealClearEnergy Future Forum are “Not everyone is the same” and “One size does not fit all.” As Toyota’s chief scientist, Pratt understands very well the complex nature of a very diverse consumer base (check the video link above to see his part).

That is why a multi-path approach that enhances the customer’s quality of life is the most productive strategy. America’s motorists come from a variety of backgrounds who purchase vehicles for a variety of purposes. “Our job as a manufacturer is to adapt and provide customers with choices to satisfy their needs and desires,” says the executive.

Commentary: Getting to Know the Hillbilly Conservative

July 17, 2024 Admin

Some quick polling numbers that should give people pause. The New York Times reports that 1 in 10 Americans believe “use of force is justified to prevent Donald Trump from becoming president.”

Commentary: The Power of Courage

July 17, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

Donald Trump in front of the American Flag (composite image)

The iconic photo of Donald Trump standing tall and defiantly after an attempted assassination speaks volumes. It reminds the whole world that Trump is a fighter. In his case, it is more than a metaphor, as “fighter” is for most of the political class. He showed real physical courage, and this cannot fail to impress.

As society has gotten more modern and organized, physical courage has become less necessary and less valued. Physical ability in general, such as the brawn and endurance required to be a cowboy or coal miner, doesn’t have much to do with the ability to analyze Excel spreadsheets, run a cash register, or do any number of office jobs. Softer skills are in higher demand and are rewarded accordingly.

Commentary: The Economics of Early Voting

July 17, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

After the recent assassination attempt on Donald J. Trump, some think the race is Trump’s to lose. I tend to agree that the race is in some ways Trump’s to lose, while at the same time feel very strongly that the left is not going to simply roll over and give up on trying to keep Trump from a second term.

So it’s important to not be over-exuberant; Trump is absolutely riding high right now, from the debacle of a debate for Biden to Judge Cannon dismissing the Jack Smith documents case to surviving an assassination attempt. But the right needs to focus on what takes place between now and November 5th, specifically on how every Republican and conservative can help Trump win by doing one simple thing: casting your ballot early.

Secret Service in Crisis: Inflexible Protocols, Security Lapses in Spotlight

July 16, 2024 Just the News

Inflexible Secret Service protocols, overworked special agents, and a decision against deploying more counter snipers to President Trump’s rally in Pennsylvania all contributed to creating the opening for a gunman to wound Trump, kill a bystander, and seriously injure two others, according to several sources in the Secret Service community.

Commentary: The Biden Titanic

July 16, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

Joe Biden’s escalating dementia and the long media-political conspiracy to hide his senility from the public are the least of the Democrats’ current problems.

Biden’s track record as president may be more concerning than his cognitive decline. He has literally destroyed the U.S. border, deliberately allowing the entry of more than 10 million illegal aliens. His callous handlers’ agenda was to import abjectly poor constituencies in need of vast government services without regard for the current struggles of a battered American middle class and poor.

Commentary: Alarming Number of Americans Open to Electoral Cheating

July 16, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

Based on all the accusations being hurled back and forth over the past eight years, if there’s one thing everyday Americans agree on, it’s the importance of maintaining faith in our elections.

Electoral integrity is a foundational block in our republic’s Jenga tower that, if pulled away, will topple it. Unfortunately, that may be just what a small but dangerous number of Americans are hoping for.

Commentary: Project 2025 and the Continued Democrat Meltdown

July 15, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

Tying Donald Trump to Project 2025 is the latest desperation tactic from Democrats. But it’s likely to backfire. It might actually create a new generation of Conservatives in the process.

Last year, the Heritage Foundation published the Mandate for Leadership as assembled by a consortium of people and think tanks called Project 2025. It is a compilation of long-standing recommended Conservative policies for the next Republican administration. The Project 2025 group claims the document is “the Conservative movement’s unified effort to be ready for the next Conservative administration to govern at noon, January 20, 2025.”

Commentary: The Two Seconds That Define Donald Trump

July 14, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

How many men have faced the crucible of a near-death experience and came out triumphant? America just watched Donald Trump’s great moment of testing and saw him prove his mettle.

When we tell our children about the assassination attempt on Trump’s lifein Butler, Pennsylvania, on July 13, 2024, we will remember the moment when a man, wounded and bloodied, raised his fist in the air and shouted, “Fight! Fight!”

Commentary: The Shot Heard ‘Round America

July 14, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

Virginia House Speaker Don Scott and Republican Minority Leader Todd Gilbert issued a joint statement just hours after the attempted assassination of former President Donald J. Trump in Pennsylvania:

“We were shocked and alarmed to learn of the violence that took place at the rally today. This is not a reflection of our shared values.

Commentary: Noncitizens Get to Vote in U.S. Elections and How to Stop It

July 14, 2024July 13, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

Most countries allow only their own citizens to vote in national electionsand require voters to prove their eligibility to vote through photo identification when they register and before they cast their vote. Here in the U.S., verifying eligibility and registering voters is left to the states. You would hope that the federal government would want to assist the states, especially when it comes preventing foreign interference, and that election integrity would be a bipartisan issue.

You’d think that a bill requiring U.S. states to obtain proof of citizenship before registering voters would have wide support. Such a proposal, the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility, or SAVE, Act (H.R. 8281), passed the House of Representatives Wednesday—but with only five Democrat votes. And the Biden administration “strongly opposes” it.

Commentary: The Simple Joys of Keeping a Cow

July 14, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

“Three acres and a cow” became a slogan for those who promoted small landholdings in 1880s England. It was thought to represent an ideal setup for the average family. As it happens, I’ve somehow ended up with exactly that: three acres and a cow—specifically, a Jersey-Fleckvie mix gifted to us by my wife’s dairy-farming family.

The cow is an emblem of an age-old form of true civilization, where men tame the wild without destroying it. The grassland is fenced off, given a shape, form, and purpose, and the animal lives quite a comfortable life, except perhaps for its last day, in which it, too, serves a higher purpose.

Commentary: The Reason Biden Is So Insistent on Running

July 13, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

We all come to a time when it is time to take stock. During my years at three major law firms, I barely remember any attorney there who was late into his or her sixties. The hours are demanding and grueling. If the attorney is not that good, he or she would not still have been there past the early forties anyway. The firms are not shy about handing out walking papers because long lines of applicants await a chance at those same high-paying jobs. Moreover, because those lines of vultures are so long, and those applicants are so hungry, the pressure on those with the jobs is intense because “One wrong move, and out you go.” But unlike the aphorism: “and do not turn the lights off, nor close the door behind you, because your replacement is sitting in the reception area ready to pounce in the moment you leave.”

So, if the weaker attorneys are gone by their forties or fifties, that would leave only the strong ones to be there into the sixties. But the strong ones make boatloads of money, in the many millions, and the cost-benefit analysis weighing the hours and pressure versus the opportunity to retire with millions and while still in reasonably good health leads the rest of them to retire by their early sixties. Among the few elders still hanging around at the mega firms, there are only three types of exceptions:

Commentary: Addressing the Root Cause of Our Veterans’ Suicide Epidemic

July 13, 2024 RealClearWire

On June 27th, I hosted a Special Order speech on the House floor to raise awareness of veteran Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). I chose this date for a reason: June was National PTSD awareness month, and June 27th was National PTSD Awareness Day.

According to the National Center for PTSD, ten percent of all Veterans suffer from PTSD. PTSD is the leading cause of the Veteran suicide epidemic, claiming between 17 and 44 Veteran lives each and every DAY – a cumulative loss of nearly 150,000 Veteran lives since 9/11. This figure is 21 times greater than the 7,000 servicemembers we lost in post-9/11 warzones, making PTSD exponentially more lethal than combat.

Commentary: Republicans Must Stop Retreating on Abortion

July 12, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

While President Joe Biden’s halting performance in the first 2024 presidential debate generated the most significant commentary, it was some of former President Donald Trump’s remarks that raised concerns for pro-life voters. Those remarks ended up foreshadowing the recently proposed Republican platform’s surrender on the abortion issue.

Trump’s first misstep was his contention that “everybody” wanted abortion regulated at the state level. “Fifty-one years ago you had Roe v. Wade,” Trump argued, “and everybody wanted to get it back to the states, everybody, without exception, Democrats, Republicans, liberals, conservatives. Everybody wanted it back… Ronald Reagan wanted it brought back” (emphasis added).

Commentary: The Elites Abandon Biden

July 12, 2024 RealClearWire

The New York Times op-ed dropped just minutes before President Biden headed for his motorcade, and as he was driving across town to meet with union workers, all of Washington devoured the words of George Clooney, the movie star publicly calling on the president to step aside.

“It’s devastating to say it, but the Joe Biden I was with three weeks ago at the fundraiser was not the Joe ‘big F-ing deal’ Biden of 2010. He wasn’t even the Joe Biden of 2020,” Clooney wrote, setting up a betrayal worthy of the big screen. “He was the same man we all witnessed at the debate.”

Commentary: The Huge American Sex-Abuse Scandal That Educators Scandalously Suppress

July 11, 2024 RealClearWire

Every day millions of parents put their children under the care of public school teachers, administrators, and support staff. Their trust, however, is frequently broken by predators in authority in what appears to be the largest ongoing sexual abuse scandal in our nation’s history.

Given the roughly 50 million students in U.S. K-12 schools each year, the number of students who have been victims of sexual misconduct by school employees is probably in the millions each decade, according to multiple studies. Such numbers would far exceed the high-profile abuse scandals that rocked the Roman Catholic Church and the Boy Scouts of America.

Commentary: Gavin Newsom Must Never Become U.S. President

July 11, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

As President Biden’s age threatens to derail his reelection campaign, waiting in the wings and trying not to appear too eager is Gavin Newsom. It’s not easy. Wanting to be president with an intensity that might make Gollum’s lust for the One Ring appear prosaic, California’s governor knows that if Biden drops out, he’s the oddsmakers’ favorite.

But there is absolutely nothing Gavin Newsom has ever done that qualifies him to be president of the United States. If Newsom becomes the next U.S. president, he will accelerate a process that is already well underway and must be stopped at all costs: turning all of America into California.

Commentary: The World Needs Fossil Fuels

July 10, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

It’s summer, and the Sierra Club says: “This is climate change in action. We are living it.”

The United Nations’ secretary-general declares that “a fossil fuel phaseout is inevitable.” And The Lancet, a respected medical journal, insists that nations must swiftly transition away from hydrocarbons.

Commentary: The Nationwide 500,000 Electric Vehicle Charger Charade

July 10, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

The word charade has several meanings, and including an act or event that is clearly false (Cambridge Dictionary), something done just for show (Vocabulary.com), or a situation in which people pretend that something is true when it clearly is not (Oxford Leaner’s Dictionary).

The charade I refers to is President Biden’s $7.5 billion dollar investment to install 500,000 electric charging stations along America’s highways by 2030. A reliable and convenient public EV charging infrastructure is critical to achieve the President’s goal of meeting the recent EPA CO2 emission regulation that require nearly 72 percent of U.S. new light vehicle sales to be fully electric or plug-in hybrid by 2032. Without diving deeper into the announcement, one would likely assume that $7.5 billion is sufficient to construct the 500,000 charging stations, one every 50 miles along the nation’s highways.

Commentary: Bidengate and the Doom Loop

July 9, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

The entire 2019-20 Biden candidacy and subsequent presidency were predicated on a rotten Faustian bargain. A hale Joe Biden would feign his aw-shucks, Joe from Scranton schtick. And an ossified working-class Joe’s camouflage would get the hard left elected—especially thanks to the changes in balloting laws that often saw only 30 percent of the electorate voting on Election Day in key states.

In exchange, the two narcissistic Bidens would bask in the power and attention of the presidency. From the start, Jill and the media would orchestrate deep cover for Joe’s escalating dementia as well as the true intentions of the now-in-power radical Democratic Party with its neo-socialist agenda. The former Obama acolytes would get their long-dreamed-of third presidential term. And this time they would enact a truly radical agenda while their string puppet mumbled to everyone that he was just old, familiar Joe working for the middle class.

Commentary: Trump Has Been Leading National Polls Since September 2023

July 9, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

Don’t look now, but former President Donald Trump has been leading a majority of national polls, nearly 53 percent, according to RealClearPolling.com, since the polling for the 2024 election cycle began back in 2021, 182 out of 346 polls taken.

President Joe Biden has led just 114 of those polls, or almost 33 percent.

Commentary: Stephanopoulos, Biden, and the Lord Almighty

July 8, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

ABC News' Stephanopoulos interviews President Joe Biden

George Stephanopoulos’ interview of President Biden was painful to watch — unless, probably, you’re Donald Trump. Even partisan Trump supporters could feel sorry for the president — though that would be a mistake: if you were in Biden’s shoes, he would not feel sorry for you.

At least some people were not sure Stephanopoulos would ask, and then press, hard questions. He did. But there was no real reason to suppose he would let Biden off lightly: he surely wants the Democrats to win the election as much as any other partisan Democrat, and letting Biden remain the party’s candidate is — now, clearly — not in their best interest.

Commentary: The Emerging Trump Coalition

July 8, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

Will Hispanics and young voters help propel former President Donald Trump to a second term in the White House? New polling suggests so, strongly.

But first some background on the larger macro shifts in the electorate and party identification: Bigger picture, the populist-nationalist revolt continues to reshape politics in America in ways that are systemic and, likely, generational. This political tectonic shift is transforming the Republican Party into a party of workers, claiming whole demographic groups that were formerly considered the political provenance of the Democrats.

Commentary: Americans Want to Know Who Is Really in Charge in the White House

July 7, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

In last Thursday’s presidential debate, we saw the most decisive loss ever by an incumbent American president. Biden’s performance was so abysmal that it raises serious questions about how he can continue to function as president, especially in his role as commander-in-chief.

Donald Trump dominated the debate, making important new criticisms that Biden failed to answer—especially how the surge in illegal immigration during the Biden presidency is hurting social security. Trump put Biden on the defensive, parried tough questions, and pointed out how many of Biden’s statements were incoherent.

Commentary: An Economy That Only Works for the Rich and Powerful Is Not a Capitalist Economy

July 7, 2024 Virginia Star Staff

Capitalism is disappearing, but Socialism is not replacing it. What is now arising is a new kind of planned, centralised society which will be neither capitalist nor, in any accepted sense of the word, democratic.

George Orwell wrote those words nearly 80 years ago.