Month: December 2022

Analysis: Interrogated by Cruz, Diplomat Gives False Testimony About Biden’s Billion Dollar Bribe

Minnesota Sun Staff

During a November 30th hearing of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, a senior State Department official gave false testimony about a billion dollar bribery scandal involving Joe Biden. The official, George Kent, is Joe Biden’s appointee to be the next U.S. ambassador to Estonia.

At Kent’s nomination hearing, Senator Ted Cruz (R–TX) questioned him about Biden’s actions in Ukraine that occurred while Kent was overseeing anti-corruption efforts in Europe and working in Ukraine. At the time, Biden was the vice president and serving as President Obama’s point man for Ukraine.

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Report: New Jersey High School Hosts Secret Student Drag Show for Adult Staff During School Hours

Minnesota Sun Staff

Parents are outraged after high school kids in New Jersey performed in drag for their adult teachers in a secret, student-led drag show on school property during school hours.

The performance, which took place on October 27th at Hunterdon Central Regional High School in Flemington, NJ, was put on by the Student club P.U.L.S.E. (People Understanding Love Serves Everyone), and led by faculty advisor Heather Baldwin, Libs of TikTok reported on Thursday.

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California Could Give over $200K in Reparations to Each Black Resident

Minnesota Sun Staff

Black residents of California could receive $223,200 each in reparations payments, according to an estimate by the state’s reparations task force reported by The New York Times.

The nine-member task force, authorized by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, recommended $569 billion total in reparations for black residents due to the effects of housing discrimination, though the number could increase before the final recommendations are due June 2023, according to the NYT. Currently, 6.5% of California’s population, or 2.5 million people, identify as black or African-American.

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Former Business Partner Alleges Crypto Executive Offered Them Hush Money for Alameda, FTX Counterfeit Scheme

Minnesota Sun Staff

An apparent former business partner of the now-bankrupt trading house Alameda Research alleged that the trading house’s former CEO, Caroline Ellison, offered them $600,000 in hush money to stop investigating whether Alameda and now-bankrupt crypto exchange FTX had counterfeited the partner’s proprietary cryptocurrency, on a Tuesday evening episode of The Crypto Roundtable Show, organized by prominent members of the crypto community.

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Twitter Docs Released by Musk and Journalist Suggest Democrats Could Manipulate Speech on Platform

Just the News

Twitter owner Elon Musk, through alternative journalist Matt Taibbi, released a series of internal documents on Friday suggesting that the Biden campaign and Democratic National Committee were able to manipulate speech on the platform through tools that Twitter made available.

That manipulation included the censorship of the Hunter Biden laptop story first reported by the New York Post. The emails appear to cite requests from “the Biden team” and “DNC” and include confirmations that Twitter “handled” their requests to delete posts.

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U.S. Senate Joins House in Enacting Rail Contracts to Avert Strike

The Center Square

The U.S. Senate on Thursday passed legislation to avert a nationwide railroad workers’ strike, but an Illinois congressman says the government should not be negotiating private sector labor deals.  

The legislation, which was approved by the U.S. House on Wednesday, enacts new contracts providing railroad workers with 24% pay increases over five years, immediate payouts averaging $11,000, and an extra day off.  

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Sens. Ron Johnson, Rand Paul Lead Demand for Senate Vote on Ending Military COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate

Susan Berry, PhD

Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) are leading their Republican colleagues in an effort to demand Senate Republican leaders insist on an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) that would end the military COVID-19 vaccine mandate.

In a letter Wednesday to Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and Senators John Thune (R-SD), John Barrasso (RWY), and Roy Blunt (R-MO), Johnson and Paul joined 11 of their Senate GOP colleagues in voicing their opposition to forging ahead with the NDAA for the Fiscal Year 2023 without a Senate vote on an amendment that would ban discharges from the armed services due to failure to take the COVID shot.

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Experts: Minnesota School District Can Now Conceal Students’ Gender Identity from Parents

Admin

The Burnsville-Eagan-Savage School District adopted a new transgender student policy that experts say will permit students to change their gender identity at school and allow the district to conceal that information from parents.

According to the new policy, adopted on Nov. 17, “all students have a right to privacy, including the right to keep private one’s transgender or gender expansive status at school.”

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Victor Davis Hanson Commentary: If You Really Wanted to Destroy the United States, Then . . .

Minnesota Sun Staff

First, you would surrender our prior energy independence. 

Reduce new gas and oil leases on federal lands to the lowest levels of any president in history. Cut back production at precisely the time the world is emerging from a two-year lockdown with pent-up consumer demand. 

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Supreme Court Keeps Biden Student Loan Forgiveness Plan on Hold, Will Hear Case in February

Minnesota Sun Staff

The Supreme Court announced on Thursday that it will hear a lawsuit challenging President Joe Biden’s student loan forgiveness program in February, while the plan currently remains blocked.

The court released a miscellaneous order late Thursday afternoon from Justice Brett Kavanaugh granting the six states involved in the lawsuit the opportunity to present oral arguments. Biden’s student loan forgiveness plan remains blocked by an injunction, pending a further ruling from the court, who will hear arguments in February 2023.

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U.S. Supreme Court to Hear Colorado Case Pitting Speech Rights Against Minority Groups’ Rights

The Center Square

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear oral arguments starting next week in what could be a landmark case centered on a Colorado small business owner’s free speech rights.

Lorie Smith, owner of graphic design company 303 Creative in Littleton, Colo., is challenging the state’s public-accommodation law, which she argues is compelling her speech. Smith wishes to create wedding websites only for straight couples, citing her religious beliefs.

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Appeals Court Shuts Down Special Master Review of Mar-a-Lago Documents

Just the News

A federal appeals court on Thursday ruled that a Trump-appointed judge erred in appointing a special master to independently review the documents the FBI seized from his Mar-a-Lago estate in August.

An 11th Circuit Court of Appeals panel unanimously determined that U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon was incorrect both to appoint a special master to independently assess Trump’s executive privilege claims and to bar the Department of Justice from conducting its own review, Politico reported.

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JPMorgan Strategists Predict Stock Plunge, Recession as Early as First Half of 2023

Minnesota Sun Staff

Strategists at JPMorgan Chase predicted a recession as soon as the first half of 2023, coupled with a major stock market slide, in a research note Thursday, according to Bloomberg.

The strategists expected the S&P 500 stock index to decline roughly 12% in the first half of next year, before rebounding to end 2023 up 3% as inflation cools and the Federal Reserve slows or reverses its aggressive campaign of interest rate hikes, Bloomberg reported. Despite the expectation that the stock market will rebound by the end of next year, the analysts anticipated that U.S. corporate earnings would fall roughly 9% as demand slumps and economic conditions limit companies’ ability to set higher prices.

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Commentary: Europe Shows a Clear Link Between Immigration and Crime

RealClearWire

Violent crime is becoming common in Sweden, shocking residents of the famously placid Scandinavian nation, where horrific acts of violence have become “all too familiar,” according to Common Sense Media, part of a Swedish nonprofit organization.   

Since 2018, Swedish authorities have recorded an estimated 500 bombings, while what they describe as gang shootings have become increasingly common. The country reported a record 124 homicides in 2020 and many residents were shocked in April when violent riots injured more than 100 police officers.  

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Half of Americans Believe Wokeism Is Undermining the Military

Minnesota Sun Staff

Half of Americans believe “so-called ‘woke’ policies” cause the military to be less effective, according to a poll published Thursday by the conservative Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute.

The National Defense Survey, which was conducted in November, found that overall, perceived politicization among the military’s top brass continues to drive historically low levels of trust in the institution among Americans. Half of respondents, mostly Republicans, identified “woke” policies, such as a focus on race and gender diversity in the U.S. service branches and training academies, as one of the greatest threats to the military’s overall effectiveness and the greatest contributor to decreased trust.

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Commentary: A GOP Majority Will Pushback on Corporate America

RealClearWire

The results of the 2022 midterms will be dissected endlessly. But among the political ramifications is a very important question for American business executives: With Big Business increasingly involved in political debates (and usually taking sides against Republicans), how will the relationship between the two change under a new GOP House majority?

One answer is that companies should be ready for a wake-up call. This Republican majority will be more populist and less deferential to massive corporations than any that has come to power in the past. Never has the disconnect between executives, employees, and customers been so apparent.

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House Democrat Blasts Biden over ‘Fancy Dinner’ that Includes Maine Lobster

The Center Square

A U.S. House Democrat blasted President Joe Biden for his planned ritzy dinner with France’s leader Emmanuel Macron.

Rep. Jared Golden, D-Maine, called out Biden on Twitter, suggesting the president is a hypocrite for crushing the lobster industry with strict regulations while purchasing 200 lobsters from Maine for the state dinner with Macron.

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Businesses Add Fewest Jobs in Two Years as Manufacturing Craters

Minnesota Sun Staff

Private companies added 127,000 jobs in November, missing investor expectations by more than 70,000 to post the worst result since January 2021, according to private payroll firm ADP and CNBC Monday.

The addition represented a sharp decline from the 239,000 new jobs reported by the firm in October. Industries that were most directly impacted by higher interest rates, such as construction, were hit the hardest by job cuts, while consumer-facing industries, such as hospitality, largely weathered the storm, according to ADP.

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HHS Whistleblower: Americans’ Tax Dollars Spent on Trafficking Children Into ‘Hands of Criminals’

Susan Berry, PhD

A whistleblower within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) alleged Americans’ tax dollars are being spent to place unaccompanied migrant children into the hands of human traffickers, Project Veritas revealed in a new undercover video investigation.

Tara Lee Rodas, who works within the Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity & Efficiency (CIGIE), volunteered to help HHS process unaccompanied migrant children, and was subsequently sent to the Emergency Intake Site (EIS) in Pomona, California, Project Veritas reported Tuesday.

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Minnesota College Pledges to Expand All-Gender Housing Following Student Complaints

Minnesota Sun Staff

Macalester College pledged to increase its all-gender housing options following student complaints in the student newspaper, Fox News reported.

Joe Linstroth, a Macalester College spokesperson, told Fox News that the college is “working in partnership” with students to “create living and learning environments that support the needs of our community.” The response comes on the heels of a string of complaints listed off by Macalester students in a November article published in the student newspaper The Mac Weekly.

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Commentary: Rebuilding the Right in the Age of the Moderate Majority

Minnesota Sun Staff

The failure of the Republican Party to achieve its much-ballyhooed red wave is a reflection of just how badly the GOP has failed its voters and the nation. While it is fair to lay some of the blame at the feet of former President Donald Trump, the rest of the party must carry an equal, if not greater, share of it. 

This failure comes down to one thing: misapprehending the permanently changed dynamics of the electorate. 

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Florida School Boards Flip Red, Immediately Oust Superintendents Who Oversaw Mask Mandates

Minnesota Sun Staff

Two school boards with conservative majorities parted ways with their schools’ superintendents in November, both of whom oversaw the implementation of mask mandates into the fall of 2021.

On Nov. 29, Sarasota County Schools Superintendent Brennan Asplen agreed to step down after the school board criticized mask mandates which Asplen backed, while on Nov. 22 Brevard County Superintendent Mark Mullins, who faced backlash for supporting an extended mask mandate, agreed with the school board to enter into separation negotiations. Both school districts extended their mask mandates into the fall of the 2021-2022 school year.

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Commentary: A Blueprint for Tackling America’s Crippling National Debt

Minnesota Sun Staff

Our debt is too large. Inflation is too high. We rarely pass a budget anymore — this year neither Budget Committee even bothered to come up with one. This is how great nations become weakened nations, and with all the threats on the world stage, it is urgent we make a change now.

What we need is a budget that changes our fiscal trajectory away from one where the debt is growing faster than the economy, to one where it is stabilized and then gradually brought down.

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Commentary: Climate Change Skeptics Have Ready Allies in Africa

Minnesota Sun Staff

This is a question without an answer. But for nearly three weeks in November, over 35,000 people including heads of state and the global corps d’elite, pretended they were solving what they claim is the most urgent crisis in the world—the climate emergency—while ignoring the only relevant question. What is a practical alternative to fossil fuel?

Also ignored at the latest U.N. Climate Change Conference, an event sponsored by some of the world’s biggest corporations and covered, uncritically, by the biggest media conglomerates on earth, was the primary reason for environmental challenges in the 21st century. It’s not fossil fuel. It’s population trends.

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County Under a Cloud: Maricopa’s Decade-Long History of Election Issues, from 2012 to 2022

Just the News

As voters, poll workers, and observers have voiced their concerns about issues they witnessed on Election Day in Maricopa County, Ariz., a review of the county’s history shows 10 years of election issues under various election officials.

Numerous issues occurred at vote centers on Election Day in Maricopa County earlier this month, from election machine problems to hours-long lines, according to widespread reports. However, election issues are not unique to the 2022 midterms in Maricopa, as some began a decade ago.

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Fentanyl Overdose Deaths Skyrocket over 1,000 Percent in Los Angeles County

Minnesota Sun Staff

Los Angeles County saw accidental fentanyl overdose deaths increase more than twelvefold from 2016 to 2021, according to a new County Public Health Department report.

Accidental fentanyl overdoses killed 1,504 people in the county last year, a roughly 1,280% rise compared to the 109-individual death toll in 2016, according to the report released Tuesday. Total accidental drug overdose deaths more than doubled in that time, with deaths from accidental opioid overdoses and methamphetamine overdoses both rising by over 300%.

Adults from 26 to 39 years old had the highest accidental fentanyl overdose rate of any age group in 2020, while 18- to 25-year-olds had the highest fentanyl overdose hospitalization rate that year, based on the report’s data. Men died of accidental fentanyl overdoses at a far higher rate than women.

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Kristi Noem Bans TikTok Use on South Dakota State Devices

Minnesota Sun Staff

Republican Gov. Kristi Noem of South Dakota issued an executive order banning the use of TikTok on Tuesday, according to a state press release.

The order prohibits any South Dakota state agency or government employee from downloading or using the TikTok application on a state-issued device, as well as from visiting the TikTok website. Additionally, it extends these prohibitions to any contractor and their personnel doing business with the state.

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Republican, Independent Voters Are Fleeing to States That Align with Their Beliefs: Poll

Minnesota Sun Staff

Many Republican and independent voters are either moving or planning on moving to states that align with their beliefs, according to a new poll.

Of 1,084 respondents, 10.4% of Republicans and 9.6% of independents said that they plan on moving to an area that aligns with their beliefs in the next year, while only 2.1% of Democrats said they would move, according to a Trafalgar Group/ Convention of States Action poll. Furthermore, some respondents have already moved to new areas based on their beliefs, with 4.4% of Republican and 4.1% of independent respondents saying they had done so in the last three years.

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