Good morning! Here is your news briefing for Wednesday January 22, 2020
THE DAILY SIGNAL
| Jan 22, 2020 Good morning from Washington, where the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump is off to a ponderous start. Fred Lucas finds something more interesting: the pro-impeachment record of the House’s prosecutors. Mainstream media outlets clearly don’t like gun rights advocates in Virginia, Jarrett Stepman writes. Plus: the Supreme Court hears a big school choice case, and the downside of diversity and inclusion. On this date in 1973, by a 7-2 decision in Roe v. Wade, the Supreme Court legalizes abortion on demand. NEWSHouse’s Prosecutors Supported Impeachment Well Before Trump’s Ukraine CallBy Fred Lucas Four of the seven impeachment managers voted for at least one of the previous impeachment resolutions, while others spoke in favor of an impeachment inquiry.MoreCOMMENTARYThe Media’s Shameful Depiction of Pro-Second Amendment Protests in VirginiaBy Jarrett Stepman Way back in 2009 the press did a number on tea party protests, often portraying them as driven by racist rage. Now they’re turned to smearing Second Amendment advocates.MoreANALYSISWhat You Need to Know About Religious School Case at the Supreme CourtBy Daniel Davis Should families be able to use school choice tax credits on religious schools? That’s the key question in Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, which the Supreme Court is hearing today.MoreNEWSSupreme Court Won’t Rush Obamacare Case, Dealing Setback to DemocratsBy Kevin Daley The Supreme Court will not fast-track two petitions that ask the high court to again review the constitutionality of the Affordable Care Act’s mandate for individuals to buy health insurance.MoreCOMMENTARYDiversity Isn’t Always the AnswerBy Walter E. Williams Most of the diversity and inclusiveness insanity has its roots in academia.More The Daily Signal is brought to you by more than half a million members of The Heritage Foundation. Donate to The Daily Signal Find us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter How are we doing? We welcome your comments, suggestions, and story tips. Please reply to this email or send us a note at comments@dailysignal.com.The Daily Signal 214 Massachusetts Avenue, NE Washington, DC 20002 (800) 546-2843 Add morningbell@heritage.org to your address book to ensure that you receive emails from us.You are subscribed to this newsletter as rickbulow74@live.com. If you want to receive other Heritage Foundation newsletters, or opt out of this newsletter, please click here to update your subscription. |
THE SUNBURN
| Last week Floridians were almost evenly split on whether the U.S. Senate should convict President Donald Trump and boot him from office. And his 2020 chances seemed even grimmer.Today, a new poll from the Florida Chamber of Commerce shows some rays of sunshine for POTUS.Donald Trump gets a ray of sunshine in Florida.The Chamber found Trump would snag Florida’s 29 electoral votes no matter which of the top Democrats gunning for his job appeared on the November ballot — he’d beat U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren or South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg by 7%, former NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg by 5%, and former VP Joe Biden by 4%.Another positive trend is waning support for his ouster. More than half those polled opposed conviction while 43% approved.Republicans are as united as ever, with 87% standing behind the Commander in Chief. Democrats, meanwhile, want him gone by a 73%-20% margin. There’s also lukewarm support for removal among independents, who leaned that direction 50%-46%.Trump’s rising tide wasn’t the most eye-popping result of the Chamber poll, however. That distinction goes to Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is enjoying near-record approval numbers. More than two-thirds of Floridians said they thought the Governor was still acing it a year into his first term compared to 18% who disapprove.DeSantis’ rock-solid showing is undoubtedly being helped along by Florida’s current state of prosperity, which also didn’t go unnoticed — 63% of voters said the state is heading in the right direction compared to 24% who perceived a downward trend.The high level of positivity doesn’t mean voters don’t want a few things handled during the 2020 Legislative Session.According to the poll, Florida voters are most concerned about the cost of health care (18%), followed by jobs and the economy (12%), the environment (9%), education (9%), and immigration (6%).“Floridians are confident in Gov. DeSantis and, while they’re concerned about health care costs and workforce quality, support his efforts to help keep Florida moving in the right direction and champion solutions,” Florida Chamber President and CEO Mark Wilson said.___Welcome to the world — Turner Easton Hutson, born 9:26 p.m. on Monday, weighing 7 lbs. 7 oz. Congratulations to Turner’s proud parents — Tonya and Sen. Travis Hutson.Congrats, Hutson family.Get ‘Session-ed’ with ‘He Said, She Said’ — On the latest episode, Michelle and I welcome a 2020 Session update with a pod full of special guests: State Sens. Jeff Brandes and Rob Bradley, as well as Alexis Lambert.But first, we recap our favorite moments from the annual Gasparilla Children’s Parade, one of the longest-running Schorsch family traditions.On to politics: Brandes gives an early update on the Senate Appropriations Committee, which includes Bradley’s criminal justice reform bill. It should hit the House floor later in the week. Brandes also talks about the need to address several major problems plaguing Florida’s criminal justice system, such as outdated sentencing for many incarcerated citizens.I review a story first reported by Florida Politics over the weekend: Donald Trump Jr. calling out Senate President Bill Galvano for accepting campaign contributions from Bloomberg’s Every Town for Gun Safety.Bradley, a Republican from Orange Park, gives his take on the opening week of Session. He and Michelle talk about her favorite bill so far — a ban on sunscreen bans — and discuss why such a sunscreen ban could be harmful to residents and visitors to the Sunshine State. (Hint: The keyword is “sunshine.”)Lambert joins the pod to talk about proposed legislation to create an exemption from the blanket gift ban law in cases of serious illness, allowing state employees to receive funds from GoFundMe. She shares her story of battling Stage 3 colon cancer at 39. Between various doctor’s appointments and scans, Lambert spent $8,000 out-of-pocket in seven days. Because of the state’s gift ban, she was unable to accept help, even from close friends.Two bills — SB 1490 and HB 1435 — would modify Florida’s gift ban rules. Bradley and Pace Republican Rep. Jayer Williamson are sponsoring them, respectively.Moving to pop culture, Michelle and I wrap up with an update on the British Royal Family’s “Megxit” situation, as well as the shows we’re currently watching on Netflix and beyond.To listen and subscribe, visit Apple Podcast, Google Play and Stitcher. |
| Today’s Sunrise Banning sunscreen bans is on the agenda for the Senate, which seeks to overturn a local ordinance in Key West that prohibits the sale of certain chemical sunscreens. Meanwhile, the House is talking about abolishing the Constitution Revision Commission.Also, on today’s Sunrise:— Bradley’s sunscreen bill is on the fast track in The Capitol, while the House version passed through its second committee.— The Senate Health Policy Committee approves a bill raising the legal age for tobacco or vaping products from 18 to 21.— A Boston terrier named Allie is the guest of honor at the Senate Criminal Justice Committee. Allie was standing on top of the speaker’s podium as lawmakers debated a bill named in her honor.— Sen. Jason Pizzo is pushing a bill that creates a loophole in the law prohibiting lewd and lascivious behavior. He wants to carve out an exemption for clothing-optional beaches and nudist colonies. Fortunately, he did NOT bring any witnesses (or visual aids) to the hearing.— On Sunrise is Stephanie Smith, who was a staffer for former Governors Jeb Bush and Charlie Crist. Smith is now lobbying for Uber … as the ride-sharing giant gears up for the Super Bowl in South Florida.— As for Florida Man (or Woman, in this case): 46-year-old Stephanie Saladino was pushing an 11-month-old infant in a baby stroller when she passed out on a sidewalk in Clearwater. Saladino and the baby were rushed to the hospital, where police say her blood-alcohol level was .338. That’s more than four times the legal limit for driving (and nearly fatal). Saladino told officers she drank some wine before taking the child out for a stroll.To listen, click on the image below: |
| Situational awareness —@MaryEllenKlas: To avoid a water shortage in Florida’s future, economist Amy Baker says forecasters say the state will need to spend $1 billion for “alternative water supply options.”—@SContorno: The head of the Florida GOP is introducing a bill on behalf of someone who has espoused anti-immigrant views, made hateful comments toward Muslims, spread conspiracies about Parkland student survivors and falsely claimed Las Vegas shooter was ISIS-affiliated.—@MDixon55: There have been a lot of dereg bills over my time in Tallahassee, most of which have stayed off the radar. They are not high profile annual fights. It’s different this year. Good example of the spotlight a governor can grab when they put their shoulder into an issue—@ArekSarkissian: Watching vacay rentals bill. Call me crazy, but I think someone on the House panel just rambled about taking bets, or cupcakes — something — if he did or didn’t vote on the bill. He may have brought up a python at some point. It’s only week two, people. Keep it together.—@Fineout: So — there’s a bill to up sovereign immunity limits in place. One lobbyist cautions against it, saying it would “allow more to come to the trough.” These are lawsuits filed against local and state governments where people have been killed or injured …—@SamanthaJGross: I have a lot of things on my mind today, not least of which is … impeachment milk—@JohnLuxFL: 2 cities in FL on list. The avg. annual wage for a Floridian working in the film, TV and digital media industry is $82k+ per year. We need to attract these jobs, not push them to other states.—@NWSMiami: Jan 21 — This isn’t something we usually forecast, but don’t be surprised if you see Iguanas falling from the trees tonight as lows drop into the 30s and 40s. Brrrr!—@MarkSchlueb: Being stuck in traffic isn’t as bad in Florida because you can distract yourself by looking for all the Silver Alert cars. It’s the new license plate game.—@Amy_Hollyfield: To the valet guy that put on my heated seats as I drove away from frigid #Tallahassee, I thank you |
| Days until Sundance Film Festival begins — 1; “Star Trek: Picard” premiers — 1; Annual Red Dog Blue Dog Celebrity Bartender Benefit — 4; New Brexit deadline — 9; Super Bowl LIV in Miami — 11; Great American Realtors Day — 12; Iowa Caucuses — 12; Eighth Democratic presidential debate in Manchester — 17; Capitol Press Corps press skits — 20; New Hampshire Primaries — 20; Pitchers and catchers begin reporting for MLB Spring Training — 20; South Beach Wine and Food Festival — 28; Ninth Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas — 28; Roger Stone’s sentencing — 29; Nevada caucuses — 31; “Better Call Saul” Season 5 premiers — 32; 10th Democratic presidential debate in Charleston — 34; South Carolina Primaries — 38; Super Tuesday — 41; Last day of 2020 Session (maybe) — 51; Florida’s presidential primary — 55; “No Time to Die” premiers — 75; Florida Chamber Summit on Prosperity and Economic Opportunity — 114; “Top Gun: Maverick” premiers — 156; Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee begins — 173; Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” premiers — 177; 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo start — 184; Florida primaries for 2020 state legislative/congressional races — 209; Republican National Convention begins in Charlotte — 215; First Vice Presidential debate at the University of Utah — 259; First Presidential Debate scheduled at the University of Michigan — 267; Second presidential debate at Belmont — 274; 2020 General Election — 286. |
| Top story Wednesday is Florida Tourism Day at the Capitol.The agenda event kicks off at 9 a.m. with a program at the Donald L. Tucker Civic Center, where DeSantis and Senate President Galvano are expected to speak.The afternoon will feature a “Rally for Florida Tourism” attended by Lt. Gov. Jeanette Núñez in the plaza level of the Capitol. At the same time, the evening will bring a street party to the corner of Adams St. and College Ave.The Partnership for Florida Tourism has billed the day as a celebration of Florida tourism. However, it comes as most in the tourism industry are wondering if they’ll have anything to celebrate after the 2020 Legislative Session wraps.The primary stressor: the uncertain future of VISIT FLORIDA.In the 2019 Legislative Session, lawmakers slashed the tourism marketing agency’s budget to $50 million, down from $76 million the year prior.Though it survived, the cuts forced the VISIT FLORIDA Board of Directors to cut $3.65 million in payroll and $17.8 million in marketing spending.Though the agency has enjoyed strong support from the Governor and the Senate was amenable to fully funding VISIT FLORIDA last year, the House — including House Speaker José Oliva — entered the 2019 Legislative Session with no intention of renewing VISIT FLORIDA’s authorization.The compromise was akin to a stay of execution. Though funding was authorized, lawmakers only extended the agency’s authorization by a year. If lawmakers don’t reauthorize VISIT FLORIDA in the 2020 Legislative Session, it’ll cease to exist.VISIT FLORIDA President and CEO Dana Young has been making a case for renewal since she was appointed to the post shortly after DeSantis took office.Throughout 2019, the former state Senator touted every fact and figure she could to showcase the value of the agency.Tourism numbers have increased every year for nearly a decade. Metrics show every dollar spent on marketing grows the state economy by $2. VISIT FLORIDA has seen encouraging growth in emerging sectors, such as adventure tourism, which grew by 27% in 2019 after a concentrated marketing campaign.To Young, that stat serves as a counter to claims by House Budget Chief Travis Cummings and others that VISIT FLORIDA isn’t what’s driving tourism, it’s county tax levies, and ad campaigns mounted by tourist meccas such as Disney and Universal that draw in crowds.Still, Young is not without allies. Galvano has been a consistent backer, telling Florida Politics last month that the agency is needed to counter headlines with the potential to scare off visitors.“From my perspective, there are issues such as red tide, Zika, hurricanes that get mismessaged or overmessaged elsewhere that we need some sort of counterbalance to,” he said. “That’s where we are.”Most of the state’s major business groups are also hoping lawmakers agree to keep VISIT FLORIDA around.During a speech delivered at the Florida Chamber of Commerce’s Future of Florida Forum, Young called on business leaders to join the effort to save VISIT FLORIDA. She cited the $88.6 billion tourism adds to the state economy annually. Without visitors, she said, the average Florida family would have to pay more than $1,500 a year in increased taxes to balance the state budget.“If the Legislature does not reauthorize us this Legislative Session, we will cease to exist on July 1. Florida’s tourism industry would go silent nationally and internationally,” she said at the October event. “If you believe that VISIT FLORIDA adds value, speak up.”Her plea was met with a warm reception. The 13 statewide trade associations behind Florida Tourism Day are hoping lawmakers are as welcoming when they show up at the Capitol.To watch a video explaining how VISIT FLORIDA “works for Florida,” click on the image below: |
| Dateline: Tally “Ron DeSantis appoints Stoneman Douglas victim’s dad Ryan Petty to state Board of Education” via Anthony Man of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Petty has become a prominent school safety advocate in the 23 months since his daughter, Alaina, was killed in the Feb. 14, 2018, massacre at the high school in Parkland. He is a member of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas Public Safety Commission, which was formed to analyze what went wrong leading up to and during the massacre and recommend improvements. He is the founder of the WalkUp Foundation, which works to prevent school violence. Pending confirmation by the Senate, he will serve a four-year term on the statewide board that sets education policy.Parkland parent Ryan Petty is now a member of the Florida Board of Education. Image via the Sun-Sentinel.Clemency board approves new rights restoration rule — Acting as the state clemency board, the Governor and Cabinet adopted new rules that would allow some felons to have their civil rights restored even if they owe fines, fees or restitution, Gary Fineout of POLITICO Florida reports. The clemency rule applies to applications to restore all civil rights, not just voting rights, which was the subject of Amendment 4. The board also has the ability to civil rights, such as the ability to run for public office or own a gun. The new rule applies only to violent felons, who are required to wait seven years after they complete their prison term and post-release supervision before applying to have their rights restored.“More disarray at nonprofit that paid former CEO $761,000” via Samantha Gross of the Tampa Bay Times — Former state Sen. Denise Grimsley stepped down as the interim president and CEO of the state’s largest domestic violence nonprofit organization after just a two-month tenure. Grimsley confirmed she left her position at the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence. The Sebring Republican stepped into the role after the former CEO and president, Grimsley’s close personal friend Tiffany Carr, gave up her leadership role. Her departure came after reports the coalition has not fulfilled document requests issued in a state audit going on more than a year. After she left, she continued to be paid as a consultant. While Carr drew a hefty salary for her work, Grimsley was not paid by the coalition for her work as its temporary leader.“Will this agency release records on ousted banking regulator?” via Lawrence Mower of the Tampa Bay Times — Attorneys for Florida’s former banking regulator reached an agreement with Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis in a long-running feud over public records. Attorneys for Ronald Rubin, fired last year over an allegation of sexual harassment, are narrowing the scope of their request for records about why he was forced out of the job. Rubin sued Patronis and the Office of Financial Regulation in September, claiming that they were stonewalling him on records requested under the state’s public records law. By law, agencies are supposed to provide public records in a “reasonable” amount of time. Yet what’s “reasonable” isn’t defined in state law.“Could El Salvador’s draconian abortion ban become part of Florida’s debate?” via Tim Padgett of WLRN — Two months ago, Democratic state Rep. Cindy Polo visited a prison in El Salvador. Polo met an inmate named Berta Margarita Arana, a Salvadoran woman serving eight years for attempting an abortion. Human rights groups and the U.N. say that happens all too frequently in El Salvador — usually with little medical evidence. But it’s part of the reality in that Central American country: El Salvador bans all abortions under any circumstance. Polo and the others in the U.S. delegation also wanted to use the El Salvador experience to more effectively confront what they see as a trend at home: states, including Florida, pushing abortion bans in the U.S.“Hundreds rally in Tally for more education choice for special needs students” via Florida Politics — Hundreds of students, parents and educators from around Florida rallied at the Capitol to urge DeSantis and state lawmakers to expand a cutting-edge scholarship for special-needs students that has become the biggest of its kind in America. Created in 2014, the Gardiner Scholarship now serves 13,000 students with autism, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and other special needs, but has another 3,500 on a waitlist. Lawmakers have expanded funding for the program every year — to $147.9 million last year — with nearly universal bipartisan support. Parents hope that will continue this Session, given still-growing demand. DeSantis said he and lawmakers made it a priority to clear last year’s waitlist and would do their best again this year.Hundreds of students, parents and educators rallied at the Capitol to urge Ron DeSantis to expand the Gardiner Scholarship program. Image via redefinED.FANA celebrates ‘National CRNA Week’ — The Florida Association of Nurse Anesthetists will spend the week educating the public on the role of certified registered nurse anesthetists in providing safe and effective anesthesia care. The effort is part of FANA’s 21st annual National CRNA Week celebration. The association said it is especially grateful for a proclamation from DeSantis for recognizing CRNA week in Florida. “It is an honor and a privilege to take our patients through anesthesia and a safe surgical experience,” said FANA President Jose D. Castillo III, who is also a CRNA. “Surgery and anesthesia can be intimidating, but we stay with our patients, administering their anesthetics, and watching over their vital signs — advocating for them throughout the surgery. We take great pride in being there for every heartbeat.” |
| Legislation “DCF accountability bill clears first Senate committee” via AG Gancarski of Florida Politics — SB 1326 (“the DCF Accountability Act”) was OK’d by Children, Families, and Elder Affairs. The goal of Sen. Wilton Simpson’s bill is to bring “accountability” over four years of implementation to the Department of Children and Families. With DCF moving toward a “prevention” model, the bill would create the Office of Quality Assurance and Improvement within the organization, shoring up foster care and adoption services. “One office in the agency that focuses on child welfare and behavioral programs,” Simpson said. Secretary Chad Poppell would appoint a Chief Quality Officer, who would monitor performance standards, with the goal being “exemplary services” and “direct accountability for quality assurance” in child welfare.Wilton Simpson is seeking more accountability from DCF.“Lawmakers revisit post-Parkland school safety, student mental health” via Emily Mahoney and Megan Reeves of the Tampa Bay Times — This time, school safety might not prompt the tornado of emotional debate, pain and controversy of years past, when lawmakers were particularly torn over whether teachers should be allowed to be armed. This year’s proposal, Senate Bill 7040, passed unanimously through the Senate Education Committee, after mild questions and discussion by lawmakers. The 39-page bill incorporates some recommendations from a statewide grand jury convened to investigate compliance with school safety laws, as well as the post-Parkland commission, which studied the shooting for months before recommending fixes. The bill proposes that all training for teachers or other school staff who volunteer to be armed on campus would be offered or directly overseen by a sheriff’s office.Moffitt funding boost approved — The Senate Health Policy Committee unanimously approved a bill that would boost the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center and Research Institute’s share of the net cigarette tax, Alexandra Glorioso of POLITICO Florida reports. The measure would raise Moffitt’s cut from 4.04% to 7% through 2023, after which it would rise to 10%. The plan is predicted to increase Moffitt’s annual revenue from $15.6 million to $26.9 million under the 7% plan. Come 2053, annual revenues are expected to hit $38.4 million.“GOP Senators back Medicaid payment change” via Christine Sexton of the News Service of Florida — A Senate health panel split along party lines as Republicans pushed through a measure to permanently eliminate a 90-day period that seniors and disabled people previously had to apply for Florida’s Medicaid program. The legislation would put in law changes lawmakers made to save money in the state’s main safety-net health care program. Democrats on the Senate Health Policy Committee tried to amend the proposal (SB 52) so that the change in the Medicaid enrollment process would end in July 2021. Opponents of the measure — which the committee approved in a 6-3 vote — argued that the state shouldn’t make a permanent change until legislators had data about how it would impact the lives of seniors and people with disabilities.“David Simmons’ Tobacco 21 bill gets Senate health panel nod” via Scott Powers of Florida Politics — Legislation to push the legal possession age for tobacco and vape products to 21 received a strong show of support from the Senate Health Policy Committee. Senate Bill 810, as amended, would do more than increase the minimum age from 18. It also would fully incorporate vape products, including e-cigarettes and the like, into state regulations for cigarettes, cigars and other tobacco products. That provision drew strong objections from vape product manufacturing and retail representatives, who contended they’re being blamed for product abuses and for a rising wave of reported deaths and serious illnesses attributed to vaping, which are not the fault of the already-regulated and law-abiding industry, but the black market.David Simmons’ Tobacco 21 bill advances.“Watered-down pharmacy-benefit manager transparency bill clears first committee” via Janelle Irwin Taylor of Florida Politics — The House Health Market Reform Subcommittee approved a proposed committee bill that would require pharmaceutical manufacturers to notify pharmacy benefit managers of any price inquiries at least 60-days before prices go up and to provide an annual update to the Office of Insurance Regulation (OIR) outlining which drugs increased in price and why. The bill would also require pharmacy benefit managers to provide updates to the OIR outlining their revenue sources. It would also offer protections to pharmacies by enforcing laws already in place about how and when pharmacy benefit managers can audit them. While the bill passed, it did so with intense pushback from pharmacists, small pharmacy owners and representatives, health care professionals and some lawmakers.“PIP repeal legislation advances through first Senate committee” via Sarah Mueller of Florida Politics — Sen. Tom Lee’s bill (SB 371) to repeal Personal Injury Protection (PIP) overcame its first hurdle. The Brandon Republican got the win, in a 6-1 vote in the Senate Infrastructure and Security Committee, on his birthday. Lee’s legislation would do away with PIP in favor of bodily injury liability coverage. It would require drivers to carry at least $25,000 in liability for the death or injury of one person in a crash and $50,000 for the injury or death of two or more people in a crash. There is still a $10,000 coverage mandate for property damage. Under the current PIP law, the insured person can get up to $10,000 for an emergency condition and up to $2,500 for a nonemergency situation.“Senate panel advances Jeff Brandes bill limiting attorneys’ fees in insurance claims cases” via Ryan Nicol of Florida Politics — The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee approved legislation via a 5-3 vote that would limit the amount of attorneys’ fees awarded in cases involving property insurance policies. Republican Sen. Brandes sponsored the measure (SB 914). At issue are instances where insurance companies are seeking to deny a claim by an insured individual. Those individuals may sue in response, seeking a claim payout. But in some circumstances, insured individuals can struggle to afford competent counsel, forcing an attorney to take a case on contingency. In those cases, should an insured individual prevail, a court can award a contingency fee multiplier to compensate the attorney for taking a risk on the matter.Randolph Bracy bills seek closure for victims of the 1920 Ocoee Election Day riots — As the sponsor, Sen. Bracy announced both SB 1262 and SB 1264 passed favorably in their first hearing in the Judiciary Committee. The 1920 Ocoee Election Day Massacre began when a black landowner, Julius “July” Perry, was lynched for attempting to exercise his right to vote. Ocoee’s African American population was forced to abandon their homes and property or risk a fate like Perry’s at the hands of a deputized mob and local government officials. According to census records, an estimated fifty black residents were murdered during the riot. Bracy’s bills create a Descendant Compensation Program and direct the state to explore ways to teach the incident in schools, incorporate into museums, and in the naming of state parks to recognize victims.“Domestic abusers could lose contact with pets” via News Service of Florida — Victims of domestic violence could request that judges temporarily prevent abusers from having contact with pets, under a bill approved by a House panel. The bill (HB 241), sponsored by Winter Haven Rep. Sam Killebrew, would allow judges to grant exclusive care, custody, and control of pets to people who file domestic violence injunctions. It also would allow judges to determine whether domestic violence perpetrators should have any contact with pets as cases are heard.“Senate panel moves bill to shield lawmakers’ addresses from public” via AG Gancarski of Florida Politics — SB 832, a bill filed by Sen. Kelli Stargel, would shield from public disclosure identifying information about legislators and their families and staff. The bill passed Ethics and Elections, its first committee. Information like birthdays, addresses, and places where people work would no longer be accessible in public records. The cause of this nondisclosure: an atmosphere increasingly hostile to politicians.“Pro stadium funding targeted again” via Jim Turner of the News Service of Florida — A proposal is once again in play to eliminate an untouched pool of state money set aside in 2014 to help build and renovate professional sports stadiums. The House Workforce Development & Tourism Subcommittee quickly backed the proposal (HB 6057), which would repeal a controversial funding program that spells out steps for state dollars to become available for stadium construction and renovation. Without a Senate version of the bill, House Ways & Means Chairman Bryan Avila said the repeal language might be included in any tax package the House develops. The bill’s next scheduled appearance is the Ways & Means Committee, which in past Sessions, has been the source of his chamber’s tax packages.Bryan Avila says a repeal of the pro stadium renovation fund could end up in a general tax package.“Lawmakers renew push for school board term limits” via Jeffrey Solochek of the Tampa Bay Times — Rep. Anthony Sabatini sponsored the proposal to force board members from office after eight consecutive years in office for the second year in a row. He contended the concept would have broad appeal in large and small counties, rural and urban ones. Polls show backing that nears 80% regardless of party affiliation, Sabatini told the PreK-12 Innovation subcommittee, the first of three panels to hear the resolution for a constitutional amendment vote. He stressed that HJR 157 would not enact term limits. “This is a bill to give the voters the opportunity, if they wish, to vote to enact term limits,” he said. Support in the hearing room was split fairly evenly for the idea.“Professional deregulation bills move along” via Scott Powers of Florida Politics — Senate Bill 474, sponsored by Republican state Sen. Ben Albritton, retains more state requirements for training of cosmetologists and replaces licensing with a registration process for higher-qualified interior designers, provisions that gained widespread support from professionals in those two occupations, and significant support from Democrats on the Senate Committee on Innovation, Industry, and Technology. Meanwhile, House Bill 1193, from Republican state Rep. Blaise Ingoglia, got through the House Business and Professions Subcommittee with a split, largely partisan vote, after professionals in those same occupations and others criticized the bill for going too far, jeopardizing student financial aid for people attending technical schools and creating some unresolved concerns about how interior designers might work on government contracts.“Annette Taddeo’s water bottling tax proposal postponed” via Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics — A bill proposing a significant tax on bottled water companies drawing directly from Florida’s water supply was temporarily postponed. State Sen. Taddeo, the sponsor of the bill (SB 1112), asked for the postponement at the end of the Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee. At the meeting, Committee Chair Joe Gruters unsuccessfully pushed for an amendment turning the tax into a penalty only on water taken over permit limits set by water management districts. Taddeo, a Miami Democrat, had proposed a 12.5-cent-per-gallon levy for pulling the water from the ground. She said that would ensure bottling companies paid a fair share.“Chip LaMarca hopes to plug in $500K for broadband access study” via Renzo Downey of Florida Politics — A House budget panel gave the first thumbs-up to a study on broadband coverage across the state. Rep. LaMarca hopes to get $500,000 for the study, to which the Government Operations & Technology Appropriations Subcommittee gave unanimous approval. The study would task researchers with identifying rural and urban areas lacking “efficient and equitable” investment and service for high-speed broadband access. “One of the most important things we can do is identify where some of the underserved areas are,” LaMarca said. That study, funded by HB 9221, should be finished within six months of the appropriation being made, LaMarca said.“Specialty tag bill passes first House committee” via Sarah Mueller of Florida Politics — State Rep. James Grant’s legislation (HB 1135) revamping how the state creates specialty license plates breezed through the House Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee with a 13-2 vote. Grant’s bill would cap the number of specialty tags at 125 and allows new tags to replace the lowest-performing ones in the program. It would also create specialty plates for three out-of-state schools: Auburn University, the University of Georgia and the University of Alabama. The proceeds from the sale of those plates would go to scholarships for Florida students who had attended a state high school and are now attending one of those schools. They have to meet the Florida Bright Futures program criteria.“Laura Loomer, ‘most banned, censored woman in the world,’ backs Joe Gruters social media bill” via Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics — Internet provocateur Loomer declared herself “the most banned, censored woman in the world.” Speaking to the Florida Capitol Press Corps, the self-described conservative investigative journalist said she got banned by every major media site “by telling the truth, by speaking facts, by speaking up in America where we supposedly have free speech.” Sen. Gruters, a Sarasota Republican, credited Loomer as one of the main inspirations behind his anti-censorship bill. He said platforms like Facebook and Twitter have grown to the level that they can no longer be treated as private chat spaces. “The major social media websites have knowingly created a Digital Public Square,” Gruters said at a news conference with Loomer.Joe Gruters with Laura Loomer, who is backing his social media bill.“’We have an iguana problem,’ South Florida Senator says. His bill aims to solve it.” via Samantha Gross of the Miami Herald — While Floridians pondered whether the state’s invasive and pervasive green iguanas would freeze and fall from the sky, a bill was introduced that aims to stop the “chicken of the trees” from proliferating. The bill adds green iguanas to the list of species that cannot be kept as pets or sold in pet shops across the state. The Senate Environment and Natural Resources Committee voted 4-0 on the bill, which still has two committee stops before it goes to a floor vote. Bill sponsor Sen. Gary Farmer said the bill would hopefully help solve what he calls the “iguana problem” he sees in his hometown, which is largely built near canals. |
| Today in Capitol Among the bills up for consideration during the Senate floor session include SB 172 from Bradley, which seeks to block local regulation of over-the-counter drugs and cosmetics, 10:30 a.m., Senate Chamber.On the agenda for the House floor session is HJR 301 from Reps. Brad Drake and Anthony Sabatini, which seeks to abolish the Florida Constitution Revision Commission, 3:30 p.m., House Chamber.The Senate Military and Veterans Affairs and Space Committee meets, 8:30 a.m., Room 37, Senate Office Building.The Senate Rules Committee meets, 8:30 a.m., Room 110, Senate Office Building.The House Children, Families & Seniors Subcommittee meets, 8:30 a.m., Room 12, House Office Building.The House Civil Justice Subcommittee meets, 8:30 a.m., Room 404, House Office Building.The House Local Administration Subcommittee meets, 8:30 a.m., Room 212, Knott Building.The House Oversight, Transparency & Public Management Subcommittee meets, 8:30 a.m., Morris Hall, House Office Building.The House Higher Education & Career Readiness Subcommittee meets, 9:30 a.m., Room 306, House Office Building.The House Higher Education Appropriations Subcommittee meets, 12:30 p.m., Morris Hall, House Office Building.The House PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee meets, 12:30 p.m., Reed Hall, House Office Building.The House Transportation & Tourism Appropriations Subcommittee meets, 12:30 p.m., Room 404, House Office Building.The Senate Agriculture, Environment and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee meets, 1:30 p.m., Room 110, Senate Office Building.The Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Subcommittee meets, 1:30 p.m., Room 37, Senate Office Building.The Senate Education Appropriations Subcommittee meets, 1:30 p.m., Room 412, Knott Building.The Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee meets, 4 p.m., Room 412, Knott Building.The Senate Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development Appropriations Subcommittee meets, 4 p.m., Room 110, Senate Office Building.The Senate Finance & Tax Committee meets, 4 p.m., Room 401, Senate Office Building.Assignment editors — Gruters and Rep. Chuck Clemens join retail owners and business leaders for a news conference calling for action on SB 126 and HB 159 — which require the collection of online sales tax — 9 a.m., Senate Chamber, 4th-floor Rotunda.Assignment editors — Rep. Kimberly Daniels will join other lawmakers for a news conference on HB 6507, which would compensate Clifford Williams for his forty-three years of wrongful incarceration in Florida’s criminal justice system, 11:30 a.m., Room 333, The Capitol.Assignment editors — Rep. Tyler Sirois will hold a news conference highlighting HB 389, which would allow local pharmacists to test and treat Influenza and Streptococcus, 1 p.m., in front of the House Chamber, 4th-floor Rotunda.Assignment editors — The ‘Floridians Unite for Health Care’ coalition will hold a news conference on HB 607, relating to Advanced Practice Registered Nurses and physician assistants to practice independently, 2 p.m., in front of the House Chamber, 4th-floor Rotunda. |
| Gov. Club buffet Chicken tortilla soup; mixed garden salad with dressings; yucca salad; jalapeño corn salad; deli board with lettuce, tomatoes, cheeses and breads; chicken enchiladas; grilled Mexican salmon with black bean and avocado salsa; mojo pork; cilantro and lime rice; corn with peppers and onions; sweet plantains; and caramel flan for dessert. |
| Statewide “Faculty members held jobs in China while working for UF, report says” via Justine Griffin of the Tampa Bay Times — For years while he taught at the University of Florida, a veteran chemistry professor also worked for a Chinese university and rose to be a vice president of that school in 2017. He told none of this to his bosses at UF. Known for now as “Faculty 1,” his story is part of a legislative report that contains explosive new information about the widening investigation into foreign interference in the nation’s academic research. The report details how the faculty members participated in Chinese recruitment programs, worked directly for Chinese research institutions and accepted research grants from China — all without the required disclosures to UF or the federal government providing them with grant money.“Recreational marijuana supporters fire back” via Jim Saunders of the News Service of Florida — Lawyers for the political committee Make It Legal Florida filed a 51-page brief urging the Florida Supreme Court to sign off on the proposed amendment. The filing came after lawyers for Attorney General Ashley Moody, the House and the Senate argued that the Supreme Court should reject the amendment, at least in part because it wouldn’t inform voters that marijuana remains illegal under federal law. Make It Legal Florida said in its brief that Moody, the House, the Senate, and other opponents are raising “policy-driven criticisms” that are not a basis for the Supreme Court to reject the proposed amendment.AG Ashley Moody is getting pushback from supporters of legal recreational pot.“Electric scooters thrive in Florida as they vanish from some other parts of U.S.” via David Lyons of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Customer demand remains strong in Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando and Tampa, says Lime, one of the scooter companies. “In the state of Florida, we’ve had over 900,000 trips and out of those trips, we have had over 1 million miles traveled,” said Uhriel Bedoya, Florida general manager for Lime. Bedoya said he likes the company’s prospects in Florida because of a continued increase in ridership. But that differs from Lime’s performance elsewhere: The company has halted service to four U.S. cities and eight abroad, saying growth in those locations was too slow. Earlier this month, after setting up shop in 15 countries and more than 120 cities worldwide, management announced it would leave Atlanta, Phoenix, San Diego and San Antonio.“Airbnb reports that 2019 rent topped $1 billion in Florida” via Scott Powers of Florida Politics — In 2019, the company’s vacation rental home clients combined to receive $1.2 billion in supplemental income through the rental of vacation rentals to 6.6 million guests to the state in 2019. That far surpassed the 2018 numbers of a combined $810 million in vacation rental home income from 4.5 million guests drawn to rent properties through Airbnb’s platforms. The figures mirror the record-setting pace of travel and tourism in Florida. “Last year demonstrated another strong year of growth for Airbnb in the Sunshine State as more Florida homeowners than ever embraced the incredible economic opportunity that home-sharing offers and guests took advantage of unique and affordable options on the platform,” Tom Martinelli, Florida policy director for Airbnb, stated in a news release. |
| Mother Nature “Florida wades into creating task force on sea-level rise” via Bobby Caina Calvan of The Associated Press — After years of mostly ignoring climate change, Florida lawmakers waded more in-depth into the matter advancing a proposal that would create a statewide Office of Resiliency and establish a task force to begin looking into how best to protect the state’s 1,350 miles of coastline from rising oceans. With DeSantis exerting political muscle behind the effort, environmentalists see an opportunity to begin addressing the problem, even if they say the current legislative proposals fall short of a comprehensive response to climate change. The legislation would establish an Office of Resiliency headed by the Governor’s chief resilience officer, who he appointed last summer as part of a broader effort to address the state’s environmental challenges.“Reports: Flooding risks could devalue Florida real estate” via The Associated Press — Losses from flooding in Florida could devalue vulnerable homes by $30 billion to $80 billion, or about 15% to 35%, by 2050, according to a report from McKinsey Global Institute. Average annual losses for residential real estate due to storm surge from hurricanes could increase to about $3 billion to $4.5 billion by 2050, the McKinsey report said. Furthermore, the impact of a 100-year-storm event could be even more devastating over time, going from $35 billion today to between $50 billion and $75 billion by 2050. A separate report from the climate-risk analytics firm Jupiter Intelligence said the percentage of vulnerable oceanfront properties affected by extreme flooding would rise in Miami-Dade County from 5% in 2019 to 98% by 2050.Sea-level rise could create havoc with South Florida real estate values.“Blue-green algae toxin: People along St. Lucie River breathed it in, but didn’t pee it out” via Tyler Treadway of TCPalm — Exposure to toxic blue-green algae can cause immediate symptoms such as a runny nose, watery eyes and trouble breathing. But no one knows what concentration of the toxin and what length of exposure triggers health problems. Researchers from Florida Atlantic University’s Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institute studied 86 people who lived and worked around the St. Lucie River during the massive blue-green algae blooms in the summer of 2018 and found the toxin microcystin in all their noses. Since then, scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested newly developed microcystin detecting methods and determined the toxin was in the urine of just three of the 86 people studied.“This harpoon-throwing robot is designed to hunt destructive lionfish” via Sara Kiley Watson of Popular Science — The lionfish first made its way from the South Pacific to the Sunshine State in the 1980s as a popular aquarium pet. It now reigns terror up and down the eastern United States and Bermuda. Wildlife agencies have learned firsthand that the only way to tackle lionfish populations is by spearing them. Florida’s answer to this dilemma? A remotely operated vehicle (ROV) that uses a harpoon gun to exterminate its ruffly target. The “reef sweeper” is designed to snag lionfish lurking well below the water’s surface. On land, a trained employee uses a joystick to home in on the target, almost like in a video game. |
| Peachy “And the White House defense is … well, there isn’t one” via Dana Milbank of The Washington Post — The hour of 1 p.m., the designated time for the start of Trump’s impeachment trial, came and went. Chief Justice John Roberts was in the Capitol, cooling his heels. But the Senate remained in recess. Half an hour later, we found out why: Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and his Senate Republicans had been rewriting the trial rules on the fly, minutes before bringing them to the floor for a vote. They are quite literally making things up as they go along.Chief Justice John Roberts waits while the Senate makes some last-minute rule changes in the Donald Trump impeachment trial.“Val Demings makes case for impeachment documents” via Scott Powers of Florida Politics — In a 47-minute argument she made on the impeachment trial’s first day, Demings made a plea for four specific sets of documents that had been referenced in the U.S. House impeachment investigation hearings, but never provided by Trump’s administration. Demings, one of seven House managers making the impeachment case for the Democrats, told the 100 Senators that the impeachment trial should see text messages and WhatsApp messages; emails; diplomatic cables; and personal notes involving several witnesses at the House impeachment hearings, and discussed by them in those hearings. In each of those cases, the House Intelligence Committee subpoenaed the documents. And in all he the cases the U.S. State Department refused to turn them over, under Trump’s orders, Demings said.“Adam Schiff may have mischaracterized Lev Parnas evidence, documents show” via Melanie Zanona of POLITICO — House Intelligence Chairman Schiff appears to have mischaracterized a text message exchange between two players in the Ukraine saga — a possible error the GOP will likely criticize as another example of the Democrats’ rushed effort to impeach Trump. The issue arose when Schiff sent a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler summarizing a trove of evidence from Parnas, an indicted former associate of Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. In one section of the letter, Schiff claims that Parnas “continued to try to arrange a meeting with President [Volodymyr] Zelenskiy,” citing a specific text message exchange where Parnas tells Giuliani: “trying to get us mr Z.” The remainder of the exchange — attached to Schiff’s letter — was redacted.Adam Schiff may have gone a little too far with Lev Parnas’ text messages.“Pat Toomey’s Senate ‘candy desk’ may prevent hangry lawmakers during impeachment” via Laura Olson of The Morning Call — Filling the desk with bag after bag of donated candy could run afoul of Senate ethics rules about gifts to lawmakers. But the candy stash falls into an exception allowing donations of products made in a Senator’s home state, as long as those products are made widely available. With more than 200 confectionery companies operating in Pennsylvania, there’s plenty of variety for keeping the desk stocked. Toomey spokesman Steve Kelly said the current lineup includes Hershey’s bars with almonds, Rolo caramels, Milky Ways, 3 Musketeers bars, Palmer Peanut Butter Cups, and Goldenberg’s Peanut Chews, manufactured by Lehigh Valley-based Just Born.“CBS’ early exit shows decisions networks face on impeachment” via David Bauder of The Associated Press — CBS was the first major network to break away from Trump’s impeachment trial in the Senate, allowing its viewers to watch their regular afternoon fare instead of a debate over a proposed amendment to subpoena White House documents. The decision illustrated the on-the-fly judgments television executives would be facing every day of the trial, juggling concerns over millions of dollars in advertising revenue, news purists cognizant of the weight of history and angry soap opera fans. Uncertainty over the Senate’s schedule from hour to hour, much less day to day, complicates things even further. The decisions were easier when ABC, CBS and NBC dominated the landscape and were very mindful of their public service responsibility. |
| D.C. matters “Donald Trump in Davos: Talking up the economy, brushing off impeachment” via Darlene Superville of the Orlando Sentinel — Trump’s two-day stay in Davos is a test of his ability to balance anger over being impeached with a desire to project leadership on the world stage. He reminded the audience of business and government leaders: “I told you that we had launched the great American comeback.” In fact, Trump’s depictions of the U.S. economy as in the greatest shape ever overstate progress during his tenure. The economy grew 2.9% in 2018 — the same pace it reached in 2015 under Barack Obama — and hasn’t hit historically high growth rates. Former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark said Trump’s “sotto voce message to the American voter was: ‘Look, they’re arguing in Washington about me, but I’m here talking up your jobs.’At Davos, Donald Trump stretches the truth about his role in the ‘booming’ U.S. economy.“Supreme Court won’t hear Obamacare case before election” via Susannah Luthi of POLITICO — The Supreme Court rejected Democrats’ plea to consider a legal challenge that could kill Obamacare, punting a resolution in the case until after the presidential election. The decision deals a blow to Democrats’ hopes to elevate the issue in 2020, but it will come as a relief to Trump and Republicans. A coalition of blue states and the House of Representatives, which are defending the Affordable Care Act in the lawsuit, had pressed the high court to intervene after a federal appeals court last month refused to rule on the law’s constitutionality and sent the case back to a federal judge in Texas who had earlier issued a ruling knocking out the entire law.“Did Marco Rubio hire a Big-Sugar tycoon’s grandson as an intern?” via Jerry Iannelli of the Miami New Times — There appears to be yet another connection between Rubio and the Fanjul family, albeit one the politician doesn’t want to discuss. A photo on Twitter reveals that the Senator’s latest crop of interns includes someone by the name of Pepe Fanjul. Though it’s unclear which Pepe Fanjul that could refer to, Pepe Fanjul Sr. has an 18-year-old grandson named Jose Pepe “Peps” Fanjul III, who appears to be finishing his senior year at Deerfield Academy, a prestigious prep school in western Massachusetts. The photo raises a very simple question: Did Rubio hire the scion of one of his largest political donors — a family already accused of gaming politics to benefit itself — to work in his office?”Local governments reimbursed $3.9M for Trump security” via Antonio Fins of the Palm Beach Post — U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel said federal officials have reimbursed the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office, West Palm Beach Police Department, and Town of Palm Beach $3.9 million for protecting Trump during his visits to the county between November 2018 and April 2019. “Trump’s many trips to Mar-a-Lago have a significant impact on local budgets,” Frankel said in a statement. “This money will provide much-needed relief. I will continue working with colleagues to make sure our community is provided with appropriate, timely federal compensation as long as the President continues to call Palm Beach his home.”“Why are Bill Nelson’s leftover campaign bucks going to his friend instead of charity?” via Noah Pransky of Florida Politics — Instead of contributing the money to charity or another political organization, Nelson gave his campaign treasurer a raise and continued to pay her $126,000 last year for “compliance consulting,” according to federal filings. The $126,000 paid to his treasurer, Peggy Gagnon, via her company Auditech Associates, is a significant increase from the payments she received from the Nelson campaign in 2018 when the campaign had millions of dollars in donations and expenses to keep track of each month. Nelson’s campaign also reported spending $500 per month in the 13 months since the election on a series of cellphones and $6,000 per month for much of 2019 on “donation consulting,” even though few donations were actually made. |
| 2020 “Hillary Clinton on Bernie Sanders: ‘nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him’” via Rashaan Ayesh of Axios — In an interview about Hulu’s forthcoming “Hillary,” the former Secretary of State didn’t let up about her 2016 primary opponent, claiming that Sanders “got nothing done.” and calling him “a career politician. It’s all just baloney and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it.” On possibly endorsing Sanders: “I’m not going to go there yet. We’re still in a very vigorous primary season. I will say, however, that it’s not only him, it’s the culture around him. It’s his leadership team. It’s his prominent supporters. It’s his online Bernie Bros and their relentless attacks on lots of his competitors, particularly the women.”Hillary Clinton on Bernie Sanders: ‘Nobody likes him.’“The voters torn between Sanders and Joe Biden” via Evan Halper and Janet Hook of The Los Angeles Times — Both campaigns believe there is a swath of voters — mostly white, working-class voters, including those who voted for Trump in 2016 after backing Barack Obama twice — who are torn between Biden and Sanders, the race’s old-timers. Both men’s campaigns are fishing in that electoral pond as each candidate looks to expand his base in a tight contest. “There are a lot of working-class voters who are up for grabs, and it is increasingly Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders who they are deciding between,” said Ro Khanna, a co-chair of the Sanders campaign. “The more working class, the better Bernie does. And that is where we run into contention with Biden.”“As primary voting nears, Biden remains strong with black Democrats” via Joshua Jamerson and Ken Thomas of The Wall Street Journal — The former Vice President holds a 17-percentage-point advantage over his 2020 rivals in South Carolina, according to an average of polls compiled by Real Clear Politics. Iowa and New Hampshire, however, both lack a clear front-runner, and Biden is bunched up in a tight race with Sanders, Warren and former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Buttigieg. Nationally, some 33% of black Democratic primary voters are backing Biden, according to a January poll by Quinnipiac University. Sanders was 9 percentage points behind at 24% support, while Warren was at 8%. Some 12% of black Democrats said they didn’t know whom they would support.“Biden picks up more Congressional Black Caucus backing as Frederica Wilson, Alcee Hastings endorse” via David Smiley of the Miami Herald — Kamala Harris’ loss is Biden’s gain in Florida. Biden, the former vice president and a current front-runner for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, announced endorsements from Democratic U.S. Reps. Wilson and Hastings, South Florida members of the Congressional Black Caucus who’d previously endorsed Harris. Harris, a U.S. senator from California, dropped out of the Democratic primary in early December. The endorsements reinforce Biden’s standing with black voters. And they deepen Biden’s large stable of surrogates in Florida, a delegate-rich primary state and a critical general election battleground that could prove pivotal to Trump’s reelection campaign.“In latest campaign ad, Mike Bloomberg calls for Senate removal of Trump” via Scott Powers of Florida Politics — Bloomberg released his new ad “Impeachment” on three national cable news networks and local stations in Florida, Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, North Carolina, and Texas. The commercial shows Bloomberg appearing at what looks like a townhall-style gathering and declaring, “I am running to defeat Donald Trump. In 2016 I warned that Donald Trump was a dangerous demagogue, and when the Republican Congress wouldn’t hold him accountable, I went to work helping run winning campaigns in 21 House seats.” As he makes that boast, a headline from The New York Times appears reading, “How Michael Bloomberg Used His Money to Aid Democratic Victories in the House.”To view the ad, click on the image below:“Lois Frankel: No endorsement for President, but she’s all in on a VP” via Antonio Fins of the Palm Beach Post — The West Palm Beach Democrat reiterated that she has not yet endorsed a Democrat ahead of Florida’s March 17 presidential primary. But she knows who she would like to see in the role of vice presidential running mate: Fellow Congresswoman Val Demings from Central Florida. “They say Stacy Abrams, but I’m with Val Demings all the way,” said Frankel, who called the former Orlando police chief a friend. Demings was elected to the 10th congressional district seat representing the Orlando area in 2016. Her profile has risen steadily throughout the impeachment hearings, and she was named one of seven so-called House Managers who will prosecute the case against Trump in the U.S. Senate. |
| Local “Florida’s Turnpike worker killed his boss after argument over politics, cops say” via Tess Sheets of the Orlando Sentinel — The employee, 28-year-old Mason Toney, was taken into custody on a murder charge following an hourslong search for him. He is accused of killing his boss, William Knight, 28, with a trowel shortly after the two arrived at work. Co-workers who witnessed the killing told authorities Toney and Knight are friends and drove to work together Monday morning. About 10:30 a.m., witnesses said they heard Knight yelling for help. When they ran toward him, they saw Toney standing over him as he lay on the ground. Toney was “repeatedly stabbing him with a trowel.” Witnesses began throwing things at Toney to get him to stop, but he then “began to advance on them with what they thought was a knife.”Mason Toney, 28, was taken into custody on a murder charge when a political argument with a friend turned deadly.“Politics and a power shift shake up downtown Miami agency as acting director resigns” via Daniel A. Varela of the Miami Herald — One week after former Miami Beach Commissioner John Elizabeth Alemán agreed to become acting director of Miami’s tax-funded Downtown Development Authority, she submitted her resignation to the board. She is stepping down amid a flurry of change to power structures at the highest levels of Miami’s city government, shifts that influenced her decision. Her resignation also leaves a void in administrative leadership at the downtown agency two weeks before Super Bowl 54 comes to Miami, an internationally watched event that is supposed to highlight Miami’s downtown waterfront. The agency controls a $12 million budget fueled by taxes levied on 3.8 square miles of Miami’s urban waterfront.“Miami sets ambitious emissions goal: carbon neutral by 2050. How to get there isn’t clear” via Alex Harris of the Miami Herald — The pledge will change everything from what city employees drive to how the city builds to how it powers itself. Miami became the first city in Florida and 96th in the world to join C40 Cities, an international climate organization that helps cities lower their carbon footprint. Mayor Francis Suarez, who signed the agreement, called it a moral imperative for the city to cut its emissions. Exactly how the city plans to go carbon neutral, a hefty goal for a large and car-centric community comes later. Miami’s Climate Ready Plan will tackle broad actions the city can take, like switching out gas-powered city cars for electric vehicles, installing more solar panels, and enforcing energy efficiency in city buildings.“Dolphins announce new Formula One track and schedule as residents fight race plans” via Doug Hanks of the Miami Herald — Hoping to defuse a fight to kill Formula 1’s arrival at Hard Rock Stadium, the Miami Dolphins unveiled a new track design and schedule for the auto race that would drop a county roadway from the route and avoid overlap with local school times. A day before county commissioners are set to consider anti-F1 legislation, the Dolphins’ press office released the new rendering of the Formula 1 Miami Grand Prix race scheduled to arrive in May 2021 and return each year after that. Residents opposing the event call it a nuisance.“Miami Herald to close production plant, move printing operations to Broward County” via the Miami Herald — The South Florida Sun-Sentinel will begin printing the Miami Herald and el Nuevo Herald at its Deerfield Beach facility starting April 26. The newspapers have been printed in Doral since the company moved from its downtown Miami headquarters in 2013. Aminda Marqués González, president, publisher and executive editor of the newspapers, said this “was a very difficult business decision reached after thoughtful analysis and deliberation. As you know, as more readers find their news online, demand for print is declining and publishers, including our sister publications across McClatchy, are consolidating their print operations.’’ |
| Top opinion “U.S. concern at Huawei isn’t bluff or bluster” via Marco Rubio for The Telegraph — When it comes to updating telecommunication networks to 5G, some countries are [using] Huawei, a Chinese state-directed company with a history of alleged intellectual property theft and enabling the spread of digital authoritarianism. Despite warnings from its own experts, I am alarmed to see the UK framing its decision on 5G as a false choice between Huawei today or lagging behind forever. Compelling market alternatives to Huawei exist. Democratic societies also cannot ignore Huawei’s complicity in China’s policy of mass internment in Xinjiang. Since 2014, it has collaborated with China’s public security forces to build surveillance systems in the region. There is also a simpler question at hand: Why rush toward Huawei, while there are other, safer options available? |
| More opinions “Florida provides perfect backdrop for GOP to offer serious climate action” via the South Florida Sun-Sentinel editorial board — With Republicans in control of both chambers of the state Legislature — as well as the Governor’s Office, and two other Florida Cabinet seats — GOP leaders rightfully feel like this is their home turf. It would nice if national Republican leaders started treating it that way. They should make it known that they understand, in no uncertain terms, that Florida — with its 1,200-plus miles of valuable coastline — is ground zero for the growing and costly threat of sea-level rise from a warming climate. That because of what’s happening in this politically crucial state, the time for debate is over. This is the time for action, and the money to back it up.“Joe Henderson: Explanation of tweet by Ron DeSantis worse than tweet itself” via Florida Politics — DeSantis said he didn’t write the tweet about ex-felons that appeared under his name, the one declaring voting to be a “privilege.” I’ll take him at his word. The issue remains undecided, awaiting court rulings that will drag out who knows how long. DeSantis clearly doesn’t like Amendment 4, which was overwhelmingly approved in 2018 by Florida voters. They believed passage of the amendment would restore voting rights for felons who had completed their sentences. No doubt, most voters believed that meant when that person was released from jail. DeSantis said he didn’t support Amendment 4 because “it enfranchises violent felons.” Ehhhhh … no. However, it does is enfranchise everyone who believes a felon’s debt is never paid.“Bill Galvano’s leadership on gun safety is politically risky, but more important, courageous” via the South Florida Sun-Sentinel editorial board — Galvano is championing a bill that, among other things, would not close but would narrow Florida’s so-called gun-show loophole. Simply put, if you’re a licensed firearms retailer in Florida, you have to check and see if the guy who’s trying to buy a gun has been convicted of a felony, which in most cases means he isn’t allowed to buy a gun. No such requirement exists if that same guy goes to a gun show and buys a firearm from an unlicensed dealer. To the annoyance of the National Rifle Association, Senate Bill 7028 would change that. It’s not a perfect answer to the problem, for sure. But at least Galvano is looking for answers.“The Florida Supreme Court ignored precedent and gutted Amendment 4. Now other rights are at risk.” via the Tampa Bay Times editorial board — It is no surprise the most conservative Florida Supreme Court in decades has joined RepublicanDeSantis and the Republican-controlled Legislature in ignoring the voters’ clear intent to automatically restore the voting rights of most felons who have completed their sentences. Even more concerning is how the court reached its opinion on Amendment 4 and what it could mean for other constitutional rights Floridians take for granted. What happens when this Florida Supreme Court gets the challenge to legislation likely to pass this year that would require minors to obtain parental consent for an abortion, when the court previously ruled that restriction violated the privacy amendment in the state Constitution? What happens when this Florida Supreme Court gets a challenge to the expanded private school tuition voucher program that became law last year, when the court previously ruled a similar voucher plan violated the state Constitution?“Teachers belong on state Board of Education” via Mella Baxter for the Orlando Sentinel — Who do you want making decisions about your medical care? Doctors, right? Who do you want making decisions about the safety of your roads, vehicles, and buildings? Engineers, right? Who do you want making decisions about your children’s education? Teachers, right? Guess how many members of the Florida State Board of Education are educators? Zero! That’s right, not a single member of the Florida State Board of Education, the group that makes the rules for the education of your children, is a teacher. Not one member has an education degree. Not one member has any classroom teaching experience. Why on earth would you want people who have no background or experience in education making decisions about your children’s education?“Secretive, million-dollar Florida agency served itself, not domestic violence victims” via the Miami Herald editorial board — Kudos to Rep. Juan Fernandez-Barquin and Sen. Aaron Bean for standing up to the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence (FCADV). The lawmakers propose to strip FCADV of its cushy contract with the Department of Children & Families (DCF). The legislation was crafted with help from DCF and deserves to be passed swiftly and signed in to law by Gov. Ron DeSantis. Like many businesses blessed with not-for-profit tax status and a motherhood-and-apple pie kind of name, FCADV flew under the radar for decades. That changed, Bean said, when FCADV failed to cooperate with state auditors and the more than $750,000 annual salary paid to its longtime president & CEO, Tiffany Carr.“Disabled families in Florida fear cuts — for good reason” via Scott Maxwell of the Orlando Sentinel — Families meet the state’s guidelines to qualify for help. They just don’t receive it. The average wait is around seven years. Some children die before getting help. I share all that with you as prologue to understand the fear these families have, now that Florida legislators have vowed to “reform” the system. I agree the system needs reform — especially if the goal, as lawmakers claim, is to serve more people. But usually, when Florida when legislators vow “reform,” it means citizens are about to get hosed. I agree changes are needed. But first, let’s acknowledge what this system really needs is proper funding — plain and simple.“Carlos Guillermo Smith: Men should care about protecting abortion access, too” via Florida Politics — Men should be just as committed to reproductive rights as anyone else and, as an openly gay man in Florida, I know firsthand that my ability to live life as my authentic self is intrinsically tied to the reproductive freedom of ALL people. The idea of my sister being forced to carry an unplanned pregnancy to term enrages me. I don’t want to see a state where people are restricted from making their own personal medical decisions, or one where my own family member will face reproductive care barriers that have nothing to do with public health and everything to do with a political agenda. Abortion should be safe, affordable, and free from punishment or judgment. |
| Movements New and renewed lobbying registrations:Bill Rubin, Heather Turnbull, Melissa Akeson, Amy Bisceglia, Erica Chanti, Christopher Finkbeiner, Matthew Sacco, Rubin Turnbull & Associates: AuraTravis Blanton, Johnson & Blanton: City of DeltonaRon Book: Lotus Endowment Fund, Lotus HouseJacqueline Corcoran, Corcoran Partners: TeradataMegan Fay, Kenneth Granger, Dean Izzo, Daniel Newman, Capital City Consulting: Florida Association of Health Plans, Memory Garden at Tanglewood, OZ, Take Stock in Children |
| Aloe “SeaWorld shows off new roller coaster under construction” via Gabrielle Russon of the Orlando Sentinel — Brian Andrelczyk pointed out the places he hopes will move you on SeaWorld’s Ice Breaker, its first coaster in nearly three years. Where you feel the airtime as your body floats in your seat. Where you fear getting slammed by a column — only everything turns out fine, it’s just an illusion. Where you ride so low to the ground, you see the grass whizzing by, making you feel like you’re moving faster. Where the train goes through a launch, each time more powerful. “Once you’re off the ride, you’re going to be able to go, ‘Wow, that was that was a pretty big rush,'” said Andrelczyk, the park’s vice president of design and engineering.An artist rendition of SeaWorld’s ‘Ice Breaker,’ its first new coaster in three years. |
| Super Bowl’ing “AT&T says more than $85M invested to boost network coverage during Super Bowl” via Ryan Nicol of Florida Politics — The network enhancements will not just be located at the stadium. AT&T is also touting upgrades throughout the Miami-Dade area. “When fans head to Miami to cheer on their team, we want to keep them connected to share and engage with their favorite experiences,” said Chris Sambar, EVP of Technology Operations. The company will upgrade the in-stadium Distributed Antenna System (DAS) and the stadium parking lot DAS with the aim of increasing capacity at the stadium by 300% from the start of the NFL season. Elsewhere, AT&T is upgrading or installing a new DAS at 29 different locations, “including hotels, airports, convention centers, arenas and more.”“49ers-Chiefs FINALLY gives us a red vs. red Super Bowl” via Adam Stites of SBNation.com — The Kansas City Chiefs wear red and white with a little bit of yellow. The San Francisco 49ers wear red and white with a little more gold than the Chiefs’ yellow. Of course, it won’t be too hard to tell the teams apart on Super Bowl Sunday. One will wear their predominantly white jerseys while the other will wear red. The AFC is the designated home team — it alternates between conferences every year — so Kansas City stakes claim to the red jerseys. As for the 49ers, they will be donning their traditional white tops, gold bottom road uniforms. San Francisco is 2-0 in Super Bowls wearing that combination.The 49rs-Chiefs will be an all-red Super Bowl.“From J. Lo ‘butt cleavage’ to MC Hammer, here are the weirdest Super Bowl prop bets” via Ryan Yousefi of the Miami New Times — With the help of the folks at SportsBettingDime and Bovada, we’ve compiled a list of some of our favorite Super Bowl LIV prop bets: Will Jennifer Lopez show butt cleavage during the halftime show? Yes (+500), No (-1,000); What color will the Super Bowl LIV Gatorade shower be? Lime/Green/Yellow (+275), Purple (+1,400); How many times will Alex Rodriguez be shown during the halftime show? Over 0.5 (+325), Under 0.5 (-550); Will MC Hammer say “Hammer time” in a Cheetos commercial? Yes (-200), No (+150); How many commercials will include a dog? Over 3.5 (-120), Under 3.5 (+120). |
| Happy birthday Best wishes to former Senate President Don Gaetz, Greg Black of Waypoint Strategies, Tim Center, and Dr. Jeff Sharkey of Capitol Alliance Group.It’s not their birthday, but happy 31st anniversary to Debbie and Michael Millner. |
| Unsubscribe Having trouble viewing this email? View in browser© 2020 Extensive Enterprises Media204 37th Avenue North, #182St. Petersburg, FL 33704 |
THE EPOCH TIMES
| Hillsdale College—Pursuing truth and defending liberty since 1844. “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” ROBERT FROSTFord to Ask Supreme Court to Clarify Where It Can Be Sued Proposed Missouri Bill Would Fine, Jail Librarians for Giving Kids ‘Age-Inappropriate Sexual Material’ JCPenney Announces More Store Closures, Shutting Call Center in Kansas Guide to the Trump Impeachment Trial in the Senate President Donald Trump’s attorneys called on the U.S. Senate to dismiss the articles of impeachment sent by the House and immediately acquit the president, calling the charges against the commander in chief a “brazen political act” that must be rejected. Read moreAt least 18,000 Second Amendment advocates hailing from across the country assembled at Virginia’s State Capitol building to rally against a slew of gun control proposals that are in the process of passing through the Democrat-controlled state legislature. Read moreAs the United States and Japan mark the 60th anniversary of the U.S.–Japan Treaty of Mutual Cooperation and Security, a leading critic of the Trump administration from Japan’s academic community said last week that U.S. President Donald Trump may be right to push Japan to pay its fair share for America’s military defense of the island nation. Read moreA bipartisan group of 68 senators and representatives think it’s time that Congress be told how much new legislative proposals are going to increase the interest costs of the national debt before deciding whether to vote for them. Read moreChina reported a fourth death due to a new strain of viral pneumonia, in addition to dozens more infections in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong Province, as a top Chinese health official confirmed that the disease can be transmitted from human to human—raising concerns that the illness has already spread widely across the country. Read moreHuawei’s Chief Financial Officer Meng Wanzhou appeared in a Vancouver court for the first day of her extradition trial, which would decide if she can be transferred to the United States for criminal processing. Read more See More Top StoriesSocialism appears to be on the rise in our country, especially among the young, and we want to understand the extent of that support. That’s why you have been selected by Hillsdale College to participate in a National Survey on Socialism. With your response, you will help Hillsdale College more clearly understand the views of mainstream Americans—views that we will make available to policymakers and opinion leaders. Every month, Hillsdale College is reaching millions of Americans with educational outreach. Your response to this National Survey on Socialism is essential in helping us form the most effective strategy in fighting for the future of our country. As Winston Churchill noted, “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy.” And education is the surest way to defeat it. If you agree, please stand with Hillsdale College as we promote intelligent patriotism and defend liberty through education. One Year and Seven Debates: The Three Reasons the Democrat Race Remains Undecided By Thomas Del Beccaro The Democratic nomination race started within days after the 2018 Midterms. Since then, a year has passed, two dozen have declared their candidacy, and there have been seven debates—and yet there is no clarity as to who will be the nominee. Read moreNot Impeachment, a Nervous Breakdown By Roger L. Simon I was going to write how the impeachment is a farce, as in Marx’s “History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce.” (Actually, it would be the third time. Clinton’s impeachment was also a farce.) Read more See More OpinionsChina Expert Explains the Country’s Chronic Problems By Valentin Schmid (March 10, 2015) No matter where you look, China is swamped with problems. The economy is a gigantic bubble and political infighting is paralyzing the regime. To some, China is still an enigma and most outside of China… Read moreFormer Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein authorized the Justice Department to release text messages between former FBI officials Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, according to a sworn statement by Rosenstein in a Jan. 17 court filing. Rosenstein Says He Authorized Release of Page–Strzok Text MessagesAdvertisement:Copyright © 2020 The Epoch Times, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can unsubscribe from this list or remove my account. |
THE DISPATCH
The Morning Dispatch: We Watched Impeachment All Day So You Wouldn’t Have To
Plus, Boris Johnson’s about to make his biggest non-Brexit decision as prime minister so far.
Happy Wednesday! We may not be coming to you live from beautiful Davos, Switzerland, but we did spend hours and hours staring at C-SPAN yesterday while our brains turned ever-so-slowly into mayonnaise. Who’s ready for a newsletter?!
Side note: Everyone who sent Declan this video of Mitch Trubisky repeatedly failing to complete a pass at the Pro Bowl last year, thank you. [Editor’s Note: Think about that. Mitch Trubisky…”at the Pro Bowl.” Too funny.]
Quick Hits: What You Need to Know
- A man in Washington state was diagnosed with the enigmatic coronavirus, the first reported case in the United States. The virus appears to have originated in China, and at least nine people have died.
- The United States birth rate dropped to an all-time low in 2018, according to a new CDC report. The expected number of births per woman fell to 1.73, down from a high of 3.77 in 1957. “Except for 2006 and 2007, the [total fertility rate] has been below the level needed for a generation to replace itself (2.10 births per woman) since 1971.”
- The Guardian reports that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos’ phone was hacked by Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), crown prince of Saudi Arabia, through a WhatsApp phishing scheme back in 2018. White House senior adviser Jared Kushner has been known to communicate with MBS over WhatsApp.
- The Trump administration is planning to expand travel restrictions on Belarus, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Myanmar, Nigeria, Sudan, and Tanzania. As of publication, the move is not final and subject to change.
- Boeing stock tumbled yesterday on news that the company’s much-maligned 737 Max planes will remain grounded until at least mid-2020, months longer than previously reported.
- American journalist Glenn Greenwald was charged with “cybercrimes” by the Jair Bolsonaro-led Brazilian government for publishing leaked information that painted Bolsonaro’s administration in an unflattering light.
- Longtime Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter and Expos/Rockies outfielder Larry Walker were inducted into the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame.
Impeachment Trial: A Slog of a First Day
In yesterday’s Morning Dispatch, we walked you through Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s plan to keep President Trump’s impeachment trial moving along at a sprightly clip. If the first day of the trial taught us anything, it’s that when it comes to Congress, speediness is relative.
Tuesday’s first marathon day, which began shortly after 1 p.m. and stretched past 1 a.m., played out exactly as advertised, with Democrats and Republicans tussling over procedural questions about how the trial will be run. At issue: the question of whether the Senate should subpoena White House officials and documents the House was unable to obtain during impeachment. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has argued it is crucial to subpoena figures like former national security adviser John Bolton and acting chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, while McConnell insists that the Senate should not take up the question of further subpoenas until at least next week, after the opening arguments have been completed.
McConnell began the day with a concession to the moderates in his caucus. At their urging, he tweaked the rules resolution he introduced Monday ever so slightly, making two token changes requested by Senate Democrats. Instead of having two legislative days to make their opening arguments, each side will now have three, though their time will remain capped at 24 hours. Furthermore, the House’s evidence will now be automatically instead of requiring a majority vote to admit it.
Why did McConnell do this? At the Senate Republican lunch Tuesday, according to a report from CNN’s Michael Warren (an excellent reporter) several Republicans spoke out in favor of the concessions, including a group of conservatives. Further, the insignificant concessions allow McConnell to relieve the pressure on some of the moderates in his caucus, granting their wishes now on meaningless issues knowing that there are difficult votes ahead.
With the likes of Susan Collins firmly on Team McConnell, the day’s outcome was pretty much assured: Schumer and company simply lacked the votes to pass any up-or-down amendments to McConnell’s proposed rules. Most of Tuesday, then, was spent in a series of ultimately meaningless party-line votes, as Schumer proposed one subpoena amendment after another.
That’s not to say there was nothing of value discussed. In arguing for and against each subsequent motion, both the impeachment managers and the Trump legal team signaled how they intended to make their substantive cases: the House, by hammering over and over their findings about Trump and Ukraine and the White House’s repeated attempts to stifle their investigation; the White House, by sticking to an exceedingly simple script on substance—Trump did nothing wrong—and then subjecting impeachment managers to a blizzard of objections, accusations of bias, declarations that Democrats have no evidence to support their claims, and assorted non sequiturs.
Democrats’ desires to see additional evidence, according to deputy White House counsel Patrick Philbin, was a “stunning” indication that Democrats “don’t have the evidence [they] need to support [their] case.”
“If the House has not done the investigation and cannot support its case, it’s not the time once it arrives here to start doing all that work,” Philbin said. “That’s something that’s the House’s role. So this is something that is important for this institution, I believe, not to allow the House to turn it into a situation where this body would have to do the House’s work for it.”
Impeachment managers responded that the evidence they had was more than enough to impeach—but that the Senate would not be doing its due diligence if it failed to fill in the gaps.
“The evidentiary record that we have built is powerful and can clearly establish the president’s guilt on both of the articles of impeachment,” Rep. Hakeem Jeffries said. “But it is hardly complete … The American people agree that there cannot be a fair trial without hearing from witnesses who have relevant information to provide.”
At times, Chief Justice John Roberts, who is presiding over the trial, had to encourage both sides to remain civil. As tempers started to fray shortly before 1 a.m., Roberts admonished the interlocutors to “remember where they are,” addressing “the greatest deliberative body in the world.”
And occasionally, things got weird. At one point, Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow went on an indignant tirade in which he accused impeachment managers of complaining about “lawyer lawsuits,” his voice loaded with angry sarcasm each time he uttered the phrase. “The Constitution allows lawyer lawsuits. It’s disrespecting the Constitution of the United States to even say that in this Chamber—lawyer lawsuits … a dangerous moment for America when an impeachment of a president of the United States is being rushed through because of lawyer lawsuits.”
But Sekulow was mistaken. The impeachment manager who preceded him, Rep. Val Demings, had said nothing about “lawyer lawsuits”—rather, she had referenced “FOIA lawsuits,” attempts to obtain White House records under the Freedom of Information Act. (In a move that your Morning Dispatchers are struggling not to see as synecdoche for the whole trial, the White House continues to deny that Sekulow misspoke.)
Impeachment managers will kick off their case against the president after lunch today. Speedy trial or no, we’ve got a long way to go yet.
Stay Huawei From Them!
Moving away from impeachment and skipping across the pond, United Kingdom Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing one of his most consequential (non-Brexit) decisions thus far: whether or not to let Huawei, the Chinese telecommunications company, build out the U.K.’s 5G infrastructure.
Huawei has long been a target of national security hawks within the Trump administration and in Congress. Companies in China maintain little to no autonomy from the Chinese Communist Party, and Huawei’s equipment—cell towers, phones, etc.—could easily be used for espionage purposes, transmitting sensitive information back to Beijing. (The company denies it would ever do such a thing.)
President Trump signed an executive order last May allowing the commerce secretary effectively to ban foreign information and communications technology companies that pose “an unacceptable risk to the national security of the United States.” Later that same day, Wilbur Ross added Huawei Technologies to the Bureau of Industry and Security Entity List, mandating anyone wishing to do business with the company attain a license that the agency had no intention of doling out. “This will prevent American technology from being used by foreign owned entities in ways that potentially undermine U.S. national security or foreign policy interests,” Ross said.
Problem solved, right? Not quite.
Huawei remains the global leader in telecommunications network equipment, and it can generally provide the equipment at a much lower cost than its competitors. As the world prepares to upgrade to a 5G future, countries don’t want to be left behind. The self-driving cars, telemedicine, and smart cities 5G technology promises to unlock could generate billions and billions of dollars.
And that’s where the United Kingdom comes in. In an interview with the BBC last week, Boris Johnson said laid out the dilemma he’s facing quite clearly. “The British public deserve to have access to the best possible technology,” he said. “If people oppose one brand or another, then they have to tell us, what’s the alternative? Right? On the other hand, let’s be clear. I don’t want, as U.K. prime minister, to put in any infrastructure that is going to prejudice our national security or our ability to cooperate with Five Eyes intelligence.” (The Five Eyes refers to an intelligence-sharing alliance between Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Australia, New Zealand, and the United States have already banned the use of Huawei equipment, and the U.S.)
In case Johnson didn’t have enough to consider, the United Kingdom is officially Brexiting from the European Union on January 31. Whichever Huawei decision he makes will alienate either China or America, both of whom he’d like to forge new trade deals with.
According to NBC News, the United States sent a delegation to London in an effort to dissuade Boris Johnson from dancing with the telecoms devil. Marco Rubio wrote an op-ed in the Telegraph arguing that “opening the door to Huawei would effectively expose the inner-workings of British national security, industry, and society to Chinese ears for a generation,” and that it would be “a tremendous mistake.” A source at the GCHQ British intelligence organization told The Times a U.K. deal with Huawei would be akin to “letting a fox loose in a chicken coop.”
Rubio’s op-ed points to Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung as potential substitutes for the Chinese behemoth, and offers the U.K. a spot in a “coalition of like-minded countries determined to ensure effective, market-based alternatives to Huawei are available.” But some, including the Financial Times editorial board, continue to argue that “barring Huawei from Britain’s 5G is too costly to justify,” and that the U.K. should grant the Chinese company a role in 5G network buildout while limiting its access to “core” information. (The United States dismisses this intermediary option as too dangerous as well.)
The decision, ultimately, is Johnson’s to make. We should know soon whether or not the U.S.-U.K. Special Relationship™ has withstood the test of time.
Worth Your Time
- The world may be getting hotter, but human beings are getting cooler—if the researchers Jo Craven McGinty writes about in this Wall Street Journal piece are to be believed. After a century and a half of treating 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit as the beau ideal of body temperature, today’s humans are clocking closer to 97.5 degrees, a sizable shift. “People are taller, fatter and live longer, and we don’t really understand why all those things have happened,” one researcher said. “Temperature is linked to all those things. The question is which is driving the others.”
- Writing at The Undefeated, Rus Bradburd has a gripping profile of Tyresse Williford, a standout basketball player at small Division I school Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville who is also notable for another reason: Six of his former high-school teammates have died to gun violence back home in Chicago.
- And finally, worth a lot of your time, Yuval Levin’s new book, just out yesterday. It’s called: A Time to Build: From Family and Community to Congress and the Campus, How Recommitting to Our Institutions Can Revive the American Dream. Yuval, a scholar AEI and editor of National Affairs, is one of the most compelling thinkers of our time. We make a point to read everything he writes and you should, too. His piece for The Dispatch earlier this month is typical of the quality and depth of his work.)
Presented Without Comment
Billionaires, man. They’re just like you and me.Andrew Kerr@AndrewKerrNCTom Steyer’s campaign has spent $600 on yoga lessons. January 21st 2020249 Retweets893 LikesGreg Hale@GregHale1CHECK THESE OUT!!! @IanMellul special!! Thank you sir!!! @MikeBloomberg @Mike2020 🇺🇸 @lavorgna 🇺🇸t9cWAJanuary 21st 20203 Retweets57 Likes
Something Fun
This year’s round of balloting represented former outfielder Larry Walker’s final chance to make the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame (after 10 years of failing to receive 75 percent or more of the vote, a player’s name is removed from consideration). He made it. He deserved to make it. And his reaction is priceless.MLB@MLBLarry gets the call to the Hall. #HOF2020 January 21st 20202,622 Retweets19,157 Likes
Toeing the Company Line
- Declan is out with a Dispatch Fact Check on Lindsey Graham’s claim that House Democrats “chose not to” hear from high-level Trump administration officials in their impeachment inquiry last fall. Turns out the truth is more complicated than people on either side of the aisle would have you believe!
- Jonah has a new Remnant podcast with Fox News’ Bret Baier. The pair talk about how Baier’s Special Report comes together every night, Twitter, the Democratic primary, and what Steve was like in college. Give it a listen here!
- David’s Tuesday edition of the French Press provided a great curtain raiser on the impeachment trial before delving into some of Pete Buttigieg’s troubling recent comments on religious liberty. Plus, lots of Derrick Henry highlights. Check it out here!
- On the web today: Christian Schneider looks at how the Republicans who didn’t oppose Nixon fared during his impeachment fared (spoiler alert: a couple of them were named Bush and Reagan). And Andrew Cline reports from New Hampshire on who’s leading the Democratic primary there (spoiler alert: oh, just click through).
Let Us Know
Yesterday, in light of Martin Luther King Day, we asked you to send us someone (or something) that is controversial today, but will be near universally beloved a generation or two from now. We’re not sure about all of these, but some of your answers below:
- Edward Snowden
- Phyllis Schlafly
- George W. Bush
- The Intellectual Dark Web
- Nancy Pelosi
- Michael Jackson
- Boris Johnson
- Elon Musk
- Bernie Sanders
- Mark Zuckerberg
- The Dispatch! (awwww thank you guys)
Reporting by Declan Garvey (@declanpgarvey), Andrew Egger (@EggerDC), and Steve Hayes (@stephenfhayes).
Top posts
- The Upcoming SCOTUS Term Is Going to Be NutsPlus, an early look at the new book ‘A Very Stable Genius.’The Dispatch StaffJan 201713
- Iran AttacksPlus, how we got to this point and a quick look at 2020 fundraising numbers.The Dispatch StaffJan 81611
- A Clunker of a Democratic DebatePlus, Justin Amash asks: “Is there any better time to have a president who might be not from either party?”The Dispatch StaffJan 151813
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DAYBREAK
| Your First Look at Today’s Top Stories – Daybreak InsiderHaving trouble viewing this email? View the web version.SPONSORED BYDaybreakInsider.com @DaybreakInsiderWEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22, 20201.Senate Rejects Democrats’ Demands as Senate Trial Begins Democrats, who rushed the process in the House, are happy to cause delays in the Senate (Fox News). From Katie Pavlich: Schiff is claiming the Senate must call “important witnesses” instead of “kicking the can down the road” on calling witnesses and yet, if the witnesses were so important, he could have called them. He refused. He kicked the can down the road to the Senate by not calling them (Twitter). Townhall live coverage (Townhall). From Lindsey Graham: Quite frankly, having Adam Schiff lecture the Senate about fairness and due process is like listening to an arsonist talk about fire prevention (Twitter). From Mark Hemingway: Schiff has been regularly dishonest for years now, and yet he consistently gets a free pass from all the same people who claim to be appalled by Trump’s dishonesty. “Schiff may have mischaracterized Parnas evidence, documents show” (Twitter). More on that (Politico). From Rich Lowry: Adam Schiff must be the first prosecutor to show up at a trial and say, “Gosh, there are a bunch of things I don’t know about this case but would be interested in finding out” (Twitter). Jim Geraghty notes “Beyond the judgment of history, Democrats probably want the impeachment process to make Trump’s reelection less likely. I think it is safe to say that so far they have not achieved that goal, as most polling indicates that Democrats will have to work to beat Trump, and impeachment is unlikely to be a major factor in voters’ minds in November” (National Review). From the Wall Street Journal: Democrats who rushed to impeach in the House are suddenly demanding witnesses and crying “coverup.” Later: Maybe Democrats hope witnesses will turn up something more damaging on Mr. Trump, but our guess is that the real game is political and geared to taking back the Senate. Democrats figure Republicans will vote down witnesses, and they can run from here to November claiming the trial was “rigged” and hid the truth (WSJ). Byron York examines the false claim that Clinton happily turned over 90,000 pages of documents during his impeachment (Washington Examiner). 2.Hillary Claims She was Unaware of Weinstein Abuse of Women From the story: “How could we have known?” Clinton, 72, told the Hollywood Reporter when asked whether she regretted her association with Weinstein. “He raised money for me, for the Obamas, for Democrats in general. And that at the time was something that everybody thought made sense. And of course, if all of us had known what we know now, it would have affected our behavior” (Washington Examiner). Amazingly, the Hollywood Reporter left it at that (Hollywood Reporter). From Becket Adams: … except for all the hints and whispers and the outright public jokes from shows like “30 Rock” and comedians Seth MacFarlane, who could’ve known? (Twitter). Advertisement3.Bernie Sanders Organizer Talks of “Re-Education Camps” for Trump Supporters From the story: How much fun will it be to create the gulag system in the US — excuse us, “re-education camps,” as one Team Bernie organizer puts it — for Republican detention? “Can you imagine Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham” in them, he wonders? At least that would be more humane than the guillotine Martin Weissgerber endorses for the rich. It’s the second such undercover video from Project Veritas of Bernie Sanders’ field organizers, who seem to have a strange affinity for gulags and the Soviet Union for some reason (Hot Air). Meanwhile, Hillary says “nobody likes” Sanders and “he got nothing done” (CNN). Sanders responded with humor: “On a good day, my wife likes me, so let’s clear the air on that one” (Fox News). Meanwhile, Bloomberg is greatly outspending the rest of the Democratic field (FiveThirtyEight). 4.Salem Host Booted from CNN Over PragerU Video From the story: Steve Cortes, a former member of President Trump’s Hispanic advisory council, said that his tenure as a political commentator for the network “just ended” on his radio show Monday. He later reiterated that statement during an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that night. Cortes claimed that CNN took issue with a PragerU video from August in which he argued that Trump’s line about there being “very fine people on both sides” was not in reference to the neo-Nazis who were at the rally. Washington Examiner 5.French Union Members Cut Power to Food Market in Protest of Pension Cuts The left-wing unions will stop at nothing to get other people’s money. NY Post Advertisement6.Newspaper Columnist Says He Was Fired for Noting Only Two GendersThe Denver Post claims to have no litmus test. National Review 7.Studies Show Unborn Babies May Feel Pain as Early as 13 WeeksScience once again exposes the gruesome reality of abortion. Daily Caller 8.City Fines Stores for Shopping Carts Stolen from Them The city of Lakewood, Washington doesn’t like the look when vagrants steal shopping carts and leave them around the city, so they’ve decided to punish the victims. National Review AdvertisementCopyright © 2020 DaybreakInsider.comSUBSCRIPTION INFO This newsletter is never sent unsolicited. It is only sent to people who signed up from one of the Salem Media Group network of websites OR a friend might have forwarded it to you. We respect and value your time and privacy. Unsubscribe from The Daybreak Insider OR Send postal mail to: The Daybreak Insider Unsubscribe 6400 N. Belt Line Rd., Suite 200, Irving, TX 75063 Were you forwarded this edition of The Daybreak Insider? Get your own free subscription Copyright © 2020 Salem Media Group and its Content Providers. All rights reserved. |
THE WASHINGTON TIMES
| Wednesday, January 22, 2020 |
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THE FLIP SIDE
| View this email in your browser Wednesday, January 22, 2020NYT EndorsementsOn Sunday, the New York Times editorial board endorsed both Elizabeth Warren and Amy Klobuchar for the Democratic presidential nomination. New York Times On Monday, Joe Biden tweeted a now viral video from the elevator ride before his interview with the editorial board in which Jacquelyn, a black female security guard, took a selfie with him and expressed support for his candidacy. Twitter Both sides are critical of the decision not to pick a single candidate: “Maybe someone should explain to the editors that endorsing multiple candidates for the same race isn’t actually an endorsement at all… Most ironically, the paper set up their standard as the best chance to beat Trump, and then chose two candidates who can’t even come within ten points of winning the primaries. Warren’s been declining into the second tier for the last three months, and Klobuchar never got a bump out of it in the first place — which means they’re not even Democrats’ choices to represent either of the two directions for the party.” Ed Morrissey, Hot Air “While nearly everyone else in the world of Democratic politics seems to have made up their mind, the board needs more time to choose between a more radical approach to fixing America’s many ills (represented by Warren) and a more conventional one (Klobuchar). The Times editorial page has taken its reputation for careful, sober decision-making to the point of paralysis—calling into question all the ostensible reasons for opening up the endorsement process in the first place… In the end, we learned very little about the board’s beliefs, about politics, or journalism, other than that it is able to recognize the demands of the moment but doesn’t quite have the courage to meet them.” Alex Shephard, New Republic Both sides also expect Biden to benefit from the viral elevator video: “We live in a visual and social (media) world. That 22-second clip of Biden — the thrill of meeting him the woman clearly has, his demeanor and kindness — is the sort of thing that will be shared time and time again by people who see it as a true moment of humanity, a window into what this public figure is really like. Those images are more powerful — as a persuasion tool — than any words the Times wrote about its endorsement(s) of Klobuchar and Warren. To the extent then that the Times endorsement process has an actual effect on real votes, I’d bet it will be the Biden moment that is remembered by voters. In that then, Biden may have won by losing (the Times endorsement at least).” Chris Cillizza, CNN “A deputy editor explained that the news division gathers facts but that the editorial board is composed of people who take those facts and ‘describe the world as it should be’… [And yet] the editorial board couldn’t manage to tell you which Democrat should be the party’s nominee. At the end of their rose ceremony, they cut the flower in half… “The editorial board had talked about how, though they were reassured by Joe Biden’s apparent vigor and health, they found that the case for him was essentially that he’s ‘a warm body’ that can beat Trump. But the camera people caught a glimpse of Joe Biden on the elevator with a black woman who works as [a] security guard in the building. She smiled at Joe and said she loves him, adding, ‘He’s awesome.’ It was the most genuine and least calculated moment of the show. The Times can pronounce on how the world ought to be. But that security guard showed the stubborn way in which the world remains as it is.” Michael Brendan Dougherty, National Review Other opinions below.From the Left“The indecisiveness might have felt less grating if the Times hadn’t put so much effort into turning the endorsement into a spectacle in its own right… As much as the rollout of the Very Special Episode has been about the Democratic primary, it has also very much been about the New York Times and The Role of the New York Times in the Democratic primary. And in this state of hyper-self-awareness and inflated ego, the Times has done what the Times does best: choke. Not unlike a few years ago when the Times’ endorsement of Andrew Cuomo for governor consisted almost exclusively of reasons not to vote for him, the paper’s editorial board has decided that, in lieu of any sort of clear-eyed, moral direction, it will offer readers throat clearing, ambivalence, and a vague gesture at who might possibly be OK.” Ashley Feinberg, Slate Yet “the Times damns Sanders in the crudest terms, concluding, ‘Three years into the Trump administration, we see little advantage to exchanging one over-promising, divisive figure in Washington for another.’ Amazingly, the paper of record does not recognize the contradiction in arguing that Sanders is associated with ‘now mainstream’ ideas that ‘may attract voters who helped elect Mr. Trump in 2016,’ while at the same time dismissing him as too ‘divisive’… If they got out of New York a bit more, they would also recognize that what they imagine to be radical is realistic—and necessary. That’s not where the Times is at, however; indeed, the board’s longing for ‘a single, powerful moderate voice’ is palpable in the editorial.” John Nichols, The Nation “As much as the editorial board calls for unity, their definition of the term is not entirely coherent… While Sanders may not have the bipartisan legislative record or rhetoric of unity that seems to appeal most to the editorial board, he has built a multiracial coalition of working class voters. While Klobuchar and Warren may boast unity across Congressional aisles, Sanders outperforms other Democrats among Independent voters in a head-to-head against Trump and in Independent donor contributions… “[Their definition of ‘unity’] calls into question what the Times means by ‘divisive.’ The policies Sanders has mainstreamed through his candidacy are broadly popular—Medicare for All, in particular. If Sanders’ ‘divisiveness’ is just shorthand for dissent against a violent status quo, how is that a problem? It’s hard, then, not to step back and take a more cynical view of the board’s rationale: The rhetoric of democracy and unity is more about appearances than actual equality and justice for millions of people.” Malaika Jabali, New RepublicFrom the Right“The editorial board’s contempt for Trump is expected. But its outright dismissal of the dominant front-runner, Biden, and leftist leader, Bernie Sanders, as well as its latent contempt for Buttigieg, is eerily foreboding for the state of the media’s relationship with the Democratic Party. They chose two of the candidates, both unfavorable with the nonwhite members of the electorate, overlooking the three candidates most overwhelmingly likely to become the nominee… In a way, its decision was almost a concession that legacy media won’t decide the primary. Why pretend that they can?” Tiana Lowe, Washington Examiner “After grouping the candidates into those who want to return to the status quo ante Trumpus (Biden, Buttigieg, Bloomberg, Klobuchar, and—weirdly—Yang) and those who want a revolution (Sanders and Warren), the Board decides to abdicate its responsibility and instead choose an inferior example of each… If the Board wanted a utopian vision, Bernie was clearly their guy. In his interviews at the NYT headquarters, he came off as populist to the core, promising to be an ‘organizer-in-chief’ who would force Mitch McConnell to play ball or get him kicked out of office by mobilizing a groundswell of opposition among Kentucky voters. Maybe not the most realistic plan, but Warren didn’t handle the question of how she would get things done any better… “In Klobuchar, they found their perfect faux-moderate, rejecting the obvious choice: Joe Biden. If the Board’s intention was to endorse a moderate to balance out Warren, they could have hardly done better than Biden, who seems to be running on a platform that consists entirely of nostalgia for the relative normalcy of the Obama administration. Instead the Board rejected him in favor of Klobuchar because his agenda ‘tinkers at the edges of issues like health care and climate’ and ‘will not get America where it needs to go as a society.’ In other words, the Board committed to endorsing a moderate and then rejected the most moderate of the moderates for being too moderate.” Grayson Quay, The American Conservative Many note that “Klobuchar is certainly far more moderate than Warren, but if nominated, Klobuchar would still be the most radical candidate nominated by a major party in years, despite her claim to the moderate lane in the Democratic primary. Both support a $15 federal minimum wage, far fewer restrictions on abortion, a federal study of reparations for slavery, and the abolishment of the constitutionally-created Electoral College. These stances alone are enough to cast both senators as left-wing progressives.” Tristan Justice, The FederalistOn the bright side… Spotify now has playlists for your dog, your cat and even your hamster. CNNThe Flip Side team spends hours each night scanning the news, fact-checking, and debating one another, so your 5 minutes each morning can be well spent. If you’ve found value in our work, we welcome you to help sustain our efforts and expand our reach. Any support you can provide is greatly appreciated!Were you forwarded this by a friend? Sign up hereOur ArchivesShareTweetForwardCopyright © 2020 The Flip Side, All rights reserved. You can unsubscribe from this list here. |
THE WASHINGTON POST MORNING HEADLINES
| Sign up for this newsletterRead onlineThe morning’s most important stories, curated by Post editors. (Senate Television via AP)Senate adopts ground rules for trial, delaying a decision on witnessesSenate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was also forced to revise his proposed rules at the last minute to quell a rebellion in his ranks, giving House managers and the president’s lawyers more time to present their cases.IMPEACHMENT ● By Seung Min Kim, Felicia Sonmez and Mike DeBonis ● Read more » Chief justice admonishes impeachment lawyers, telling them to ‘remember where they are’Chief Justice John Roberts stepped in after after a particularly pointed exchange between House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler and two lawyers for the president.By Paul Kane and Elise Viebeck ● Read more » Senate Democrats privately mull witness trade in impeachment trial: A Biden for BoltonPublicly, most Democrats have scoffed at the growing GOP clamor to hear a Biden testify. But behind closed doors, a small group is weighing a witness deal that could lead to testimony from former national security adviser John Bolton or other Trump administration officials.By Rachael Bade, Robert Costa and Seung Min Kim ● Read more » Collins and Romney hold the keys in the trial. Here’s what they signaled on Day One.Collins asserted herself to make a rule change, while Romney warned Democrats against excess outrage.The Fix | Analysis ● By Aaron Blake ● Read more » Senator blasts ‘draconian’ restrictions on journalists covering impeachment trialSen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) on Tuesday voiced his “extreme concern and discomfort” about restrictions placed on members of the press covering the Senate impeachment trial, which reporters say have inhibited their ability to question senators.By Michael Brice-Saddler ● Read more » The audacious effort to reforest the planet: How trees can fight climate changeTrees suck Earth-warming carbon out of the atmosphere far more efficiently than any machine. A foundation responsible for planting millions of new trees around the world has inspired hope that trees could become an even more potent weapon in the battle against climate change. The group is part of a growing constellation of campaigns that seek to reforest every continent except Antarctica.Climate Solutions ● By Ben Guarino ● Read more » Trump threatens Europe with fresh tariffs in Davos, deepening a rift with longtime U.S. alliesJust days after he scored big wins with China, Mexico and Canada, the move highlights how President Trump is quickly pivoting to make Europe the next front in his protectionist trade war.By Heather Long ● Read more » More U.S. troops leave Iraq for medical treatment after Iranian missile attack, Pentagon saysPresident Trump and defense officials initially said there were no injuries, but concussion-like symptoms have appeared.By Dan Lamothe ● Read more » OpinionsTrump’s defense is designed to destroy guardrails on presidential powerBy Editorial Board ● Read more » And the White House defense is … well, there isn’t oneImpeachment Diary ● By Dana Milbank ● Read more » If Warren wants to unrig the system, she should focus on the Dream HoardersBy Megan McArdle ● Read more » Black women’s hair is political. Now Ayanna Pressley’s baldness is, too.By Nana Efua Mumford ● Read more » Democrats are hoping Bolton will bring down Trump. Good luck with that.By Marc Thiessen ● Read more » Anything other than a rapid acquittal will deeply damage the presidencyBy Hugh Hewitt ● Read more » More NewsAs candidates fight, Democrats fear a rupture that will help President TrumpSen. Bernie Sanders already was feuding with Sen. Elizabeth Warren and Joe Biden; on Tuesday, his past nemesis Hillary Clinton went after him.Campaign 2020 ● By Matt Viser ● Read more » U.S. screenings for the coronavirus expanded to airports in Atlanta and ChicagoPassengers traveling to the United States from Wuhan, China, will be screened for the pneumonia-like coronavirus at five U.S. airports. On Tuesday, health officials reported the first U.S. case of the virus.By Lori Aratani and Lena Sun ● Read more » Saudi crown prince implicated in hack of Jeff Bezos’s phone, U.N. report will sayData was reportedly taken from the phone not long after the Amazon founder and Washington Post owner got a WhatsApp message from the prince.By Marc Fisher and Steven Zeitchik ● Read more » Michael Avenatti jailed in isolated unit that held El Chapo. It’s ‘for his own safety,’ warden says.Avenatti’s lawyers said the restrictive detention prevents their client from preparing for his trial on extortion charges.By Shayna Jacobs ● Read more » Derek Jeter falls one vote shy of becoming baseball’s second unanimous Hall of Fame selectionThe 14-time all-star shortstop will enter the Hall of Fame a year after his former Yankees teammate Mariano Rivera became the first player to be voted in unanimously. Outfielder Larry Walker, in his final year of eligibility, also was voted in.By Dave Sheinin ● Read more » Wild brawl in Kansas-Kansas State game spills off the court, nearly involves a chair“Obviously, it’s an embarrassment,” said Jayhawks Coach Bill Self, after his third-ranked team’s 21-point win over its in-state rival was marred by the melee.By Desmond Bieler ● Read more » We think you’ll like this newsletterCheck out By The Way for tips and guides that will help you travel better and make you feel like a local wherever you go. Delivered every Thursday. Sign up » |
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THE HILL
| © Getty Images Welcome to The Hill’s Morning Report. It’s Wednesday! Our newsletter gets you up to speed on the most important developments in politics and policy, plus trends to watch. Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver are the daily co-creators, so find us @asimendinger and @alweaver22 on Twitter and recommend the Morning Report to your friends. CLICK HERE to subscribe! The Senate is set to kick off opening arguments in President Trump’s impeachment trial today after the chamber adopted procedures early this morning following hours of rough-and-tumble skirmishes about time allotments and witnesses. Senators wrapped up their rules shortly before 2 a.m. this morning after the Senate moved through 11 proposed Democratic amendments, most of which called on individual witnesses to appear during the initial phase of the trial. All were struck down along partisan lines as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) kept the GOP together. “All of these amendments under the resolution could be dealt with at the appropriate time,” McConnell repeated. “The organizing resolution already has the support of the majority of the Senate. That’s because it sets up a structure that is fair, evenhanded and tracks closely with past precedent that [was] established unanimously.” The Hill: Senate Republicans muscle through rules for Trump. McConnell’s push to adopt a road map for the trial navigated around a group of moderate Republican members, including Sens. Rob Portman (Ohio) and Susan Collins (Maine), who is up for reelection. The moderates forced the majority leader to revise his resolution in order to slow the pace of opening arguments, which initially were limited to 24 total hours packed into two days. Senators for and against Trump’s removal from office will now have three days to lay out their arguments. It’s the same framework approved by senators in 1999 for former President Clinton’s impeachment trial. The move handed Senate Democrats a minor victory, but as Jordain Carney and Alexander Bolton point out, Senate Republicans won the much bigger fight as they fended off Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) effort to subpoena key witnesses. The Democratic leader told reporters earlier on Tuesday that this would be the “real test” for Senate Republicans (The Hill). House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), the lead impeachment manager for Democrats who sent two articles to the Senate asserting abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, cautioned during the first day of the trial that a battle over witnesses and documents was as important as the votes will be on charges against Trump. The decision on witnesses will now come after a significant portion of the trial has taken place. Trump responded to questions about the trial while traveling on Tuesday in Switzerland and tweeted “READ THE TRANSCRIPTS!” (The Hill). He also told CNBC’s Joe Kernan during an interview today that “the facts are all on our side” during a trial he insisted remains a “hoax.” The Hill: House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), White House lawyers clash in late-night debate. The Hill: Collins breaks with GOP on attempt to change impeachment rules resolution. The Hill: What to watch during Day 2 of the Senate impeachment trial. Over a period of more than 12 hours between Tuesday afternoon and the pre-dawn hours of this morning, the Senate tabled a series of votes forced by Schumer dealing with witnesses and documents. His motions singled out individuals the prosecution would like to call to testify, including former Trump national security adviser John Bolton and acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney (The Hill). McConnell’s decision to relax the time allotted for opening arguments prolongs the trial, Bolton notes. By allowing three days, the trial may extend through the president’s State of the Union address scheduled for Feb. 4. McConnell’s original road map could have wrapped up proceedings by the middle of next week. The majority leader also amended his resolution to allow the House impeachment inquiry to be entered into the Senate’s official trial record. The Hill: McConnell keeps press in check as impeachment trial starts. The Washington Post: Senate Democrats privately mull Biden-for-Bolton trade in impeachment trial. NBC News: White House counsel Pat Cipollone: McConnell’s proposal a “fair process.” Niall Stanage: The Memo: Day One shows conflicting narratives on impeachment. Roll Call: Senators bend the rules by wearing Apple Watches to Trump trial. As the trial begins, national polls suggest the American public remains divided about whether two-thirds of the Senate should vote to remove Trump from office. According to a CNN poll released Monday, 51 percent support that idea, but 45 percent say the president should not be convicted of high crimes and misdemeanors. A Gallup poll conducted early this month found the reverse: 46 percent of Americans said they would like their senators to vote to convict Trump and remove him from office, while 51 percent said Trump should remain as president. Within CNN’s survey, 89 percent of Democrats believe Trump should be removed compared to 8 percent of Republicans, while support among independents is split down the middle (48 percent for conviction compared with 46 percent against removal). One idea that has picked up steam among impeachment watchers around the country is a trial that includes witnesses. According to a new Monmouth University poll released Tuesday, 80 percent of voters believe Trump administration officials who did not testify in the House inquiry should be asked to do so in the Senate trial (51 percent believe those officials should be compelled to testify, while 40 percent believe Trump should be deposed, as well) (Fox News). © Getty Images LEADING THE DAYCAMPAIGNS & POLITICS: Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who is currently battling the trial and the primary field, found himself in yet another fight against a familiar foe on Tuesday: Hillary Clinton. The former secretary of State came out swinging against Sanders, charging that “nobody likes” her 2016 primary opponent and pressing that he has a lengthy resume of accomplishing “nothing.” “He was in Congress for years. He had one senator support him. Nobody likes him. Nobody wants to work with him. He got nothing done,” Clinton said during a portion of a four-part Hulu series that will premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this weekend. “He was a career politician. It’s all just baloney, and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it.” Initially, Sanders declined to fire back at Clinton throughout the day, saying that he was focused on the trial. “On a good day, my wife likes me,” Sanders told reporters. “Secretary Clinton is entitled to her point of view. My job today is to focus on the impeachment trial. My job today is to put together a team that can defeat the most dangerous president in the history of the United States.” As Amie Parnes and Jonathan Easley write, the former secretary’s remarks are sure to open old wounds between progressives and establishment Democrats as Sanders escalates his attacks against former Vice President Joe Biden, who has taken a slight lead in Iowa. As Clinton highlighted in her remarks, there are fears on both sides of the party about whether supporters for the losing candidate will back the winner. The comments and questions come as some charge the Sanders campaign with crossing the line with its attacks on Biden, especially after Sanders apologized over the weekend for a column by professor Zephyr Teachout accusing Biden of corruption. The Hill: Clinton responds to backlash: “I will do whatever I can to support our nominee.” With opening arguments set to begin this afternoon, Sanders was forced to cancel a planned late-night rally in Iowa today. Cipollone took a shot at Sanders, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) during the trial, noting that there are places they would rather be these days. “Some of you are upset because you should be in Iowa right now,” Cipollone said. Klobuchar responded soon after: “No. This is my constitutional duty. And I can do two things at once.” Meanwhile Biden and former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg took advantage of the trial and barnstormed the Hawkeye State, which they will continue to do today. Buttigieg will also be in Washington on Thursday morning to appear at the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg will speak at the conference today. The Washington Post: Bloomberg shifts presidential ad campaign to focus on impeachment. CNBC: Warren wants to create a Justice Department task force to investigate alleged Trump administration corruption. During his Davos swing, Trump weighed in on three potential general election opponents when pressed by CNBC. He mocked Bloomberg has a former friend of his who has “no chance,” wondered if Biden can “limp across the line,” and added that it could ultimately be Sanders who he faces off with. “Whoever it is, I’m ready,” Trump added. © Getty Images ***CONGRESS: Rep. Liz Cheney’s (R-Wyo.) decision to remain in the House and not launch a bid to replace outgoing Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) has GOP lawmakers speculating that she could be ready to climb the ladder within the conference, with the top spot potentially within her grasp. While many GOP lawmakers were surprised with the decision to forgo a Senate bid, several lawmakers told The Hill’s Juliegrace Brufke that staying in the people’s House could offer her a quicker avenue to the top spot in the conference. “She has more power and voice here. [She’s] angling to be Speaker if the top two can’t pull it off,” one GOP lawmaker said, adding that the House is “a shorter route to meaningful power than Senate backbench.” At a House GOP Conference meeting on Thursday, Cheney told her colleagues she wants to help make House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) the next Speaker, according to multiple sources with knowledge of her remarks. However, several GOP lawmakers believe a potential “knife fight” between McCarthy, Cheney and House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) for Speaker or minority leader is not out of the realm of possibility. “It’s D.C., everybody has their fangs out. I think she sees a higher profile — Speaker, president, who knows,” a second GOP lawmaker said. “I would keep an eye on how close the majority becomes more and more of a reality. The knives will come out quicker and they’ll come out longer.” © Getty Images IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKESWHITE HOUSE & ADMINISTRATION: The president, vice president, secretary of State and Treasury secretary will be scattered abroad or in flight today pursuing administration agendas in at least five countries. Trump on Tuesday melded economic boasts familiar from his campaign rallies with a vision of American economic dominance abroad during the World Economic Forum held in Davos, Switzerland. As Sylvan Lane reports, the president gave every indication that in the wake of two recent trade victories, he won’t relent in a simmering trade conflict with the European Union. During an interview with The Wall Street Journal and in remarks throughout the day, Trump toggled among three audiences he considers key: European and world leaders, U.S. voters, and senators who began the Senate’s impeachment trial, which he expects to end in his acquittal. The president said he’s confident the administration can reach a trade deal with the EU, adding that he would strongly consider placing tariffs on European automobiles if agreement isn’t reached (Bloomberg News). Trump, who plans to unveil new policies he hopes will appeal to his supporters as he campaigns for reelection, promised a new middle-class tax package within the next three months (The Hill). White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow has described the goal as stimulus that can build on GOP tax cuts enacted in 2017. The Trump campaign anticipates that U.S. economic growth will slow in 2020, and tax reductions signed into law more than two years ago proved more popular with businesses and the wealthy than with average families. “We want to aim this at even faster economic growth going out in the president’s second term,” Kudlow told Fox News last week. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Tuesday defended the 2017 tax law while in Davos, arguing the deal “paid for itself.” Many economists, however, point to rising U.S. deficits and debt as worrisome byproducts (The Washington Examiner). Trump on Tuesday also confirmed reports that the administration will soon expand its immigration travel ban to cover additional, unnamed countries (The Hill). As many as seven nations may be folded into the ban, including Belarus, Burma, Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania, according to recent news media reports. The administration’s crackdowns on immigrants and refugees, pegged to national security concerns, are generally popular among core Trump voters. Meanwhile, brisk staff turnover at the White House is being studied in detail by Brookings Institution political scientist and senior fellow Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, who noted on Tuesday in a new report (with charts) that staff turnover at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. since Trump’s inauguration has reached 80 percent, and that “no prior president comes close to this level of [National Security Council] instability.” © Getty Images OPINIONThe Senate itself is on trial, by Edward Purcell Jr., opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/2Gakhye Senator-jurors who may not be impartial — remove them for cause, by Jonathan Granoff, opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/2G87xbE WHERE AND WHEN📺 Hill.TV’s “Rising” program features Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.); Patrice Snow, press secretary for Tom Steyer’s presidential campaign; Michael Brooks, host of the Michael Brooks Show; and Jane Kleeb, Nebraska’s Democratic Party chair and author of “Harvest The Vote.” Coverage at http://thehill.com/hilltv or on YouTube at 10:30 a.m. ET at Rising on YouTube. The House meets for a pro forma session on Friday at 2 p.m. The Senate convenes today at 1 p.m. to continue the impeachment trial. The president today met with President Barham Salih of Iraq, was interviewed by CNBC and announced he would hold a news conference before departing the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, today. Vice President Pence will depart Washington at 1 p.m. with second lady Karen Pence for an itinerary this week in Israel and Italy. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is in Jamaica for discussions with Prime Minister Andrew Holness. Attorney General William Barr will announce a new Presidential Commission on Law Enforcement and the Administration of Justice at 9:30 a.m., accompanied by Deputy Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen at the Justice Department. Trump signed an executive order in October to create the panel to report to him on preventing crime and improving justice. ELSEWHERE➔ Virus: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed the first known U.S. case of coronavirus, a respiratory illness that originated in China and has killed at least nine people and sickened more than 450. The U.S. patient, described as in his 30s and in good condition in Washington state, recently traveled to Wuhan, China, the apparent epicenter for the viral outbreak. Asked on Wednesday about the virus entering the United States, Trump told CNBC, “We have it totally under control.” …The World Health Organization will meet today to discuss whether the infection, detected to date in five countries, is a global health crisis (The New York Times). The news rumbled through financial markets on Tuesday with worries that travel and consumer behavior, particularly in Asia, could be affected. © Getty Images ➔ Courts: The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected an effort by Democrats to fast-track a challenge to a lower court’s ruling that struck down a key ingredient in the 2010 Affordable Care Act. The high court’s rejection diminishes the possibility the legal dispute finds resolution in this election year (The Hill). …The Supreme Court on Tuesday also turned away a case that could have helped Democrats gain access to an unredacted version of the Russia investigation report by former special counsel Robert Mueller (Fox News). …The high court on Tuesday declined to take up a case involving lead-contaminated drinking water dating to 2014 in Flint, Mich., which means residents can file a civil rights lawsuit against city and government officials (The Associated Press, Scripps National). … James Mitchell, an architect of the CIA’s former waterboarding and interrogation program devised after the 9/11 terror attacks, on Tuesday faced off at Guantanamo Bay against defense lawyers for five defendants who seek to dismiss government evidence against them (The Associated Press). ➔ Afghanistan: Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday that U.S. and Taliban leaders are close to reaching a peace deal that would see the eventual withdrawal of foreign troops from Afghanistan and achieve an end to a conflict now in its 19th year. ➔ Lebanon: A new Cabinet was introduced in Lebanon on Tuesday, three months after former Prime Minister Saad Hariri resigned. Hassan Diab, a 60-year-old professor at the American University of Beirut, now heads a Cabinet of 20 members. The changes are seen as unlikely to satisfy protesters in Lebanon who want sweeping reforms and economic improvements (The Associated Press). THE CLOSERAnd finally … Want a ride from one of the “Bad Boys”? Well, it was a lucky day for four Lyft riders in Miami over the weekend when they hopped in a 2020 Porsche Taycan to find Will Smith as their driver while he promotes his latest film, “Bad Boys for Life.” According to The Associated Press, Smith had one of his passengers FaceTime with his girlfriend after the rider said she watched the original 1995 film “Bad Boys” on a weekly basis. Smith, who has also starred in the “Men in Black” series, informed each passenger they would receive free Lyft rides into this year. Smith appears alongside longtime co-star Martin Lawrence in the film, which premiered over the weekend. © Getty Images The Morning Report is created by journalists Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver. We want to hear from you! Email: asimendinger@thehill.com and aweaver@thehill.com. We invite you to share The Hill’s reporting and newsletters, and encourage others to SUBSCRIBE! TO VIEW PAST EDITIONS OF THE HILL’S MORNING REPORT CLICK HERETO RECEIVE THE HILL’S MORNING REPORT IN YOUR INBOX SIGN UP HEREMORNING REPORT SIGN UPFORWARD MORNING REPORTPrivacy Policy | Manage Subscriptions | UnsubscribeEmail to a friend | Sign Up for Other NewslettersThe Hill 1625 K Street, NW 9th Floor, Washington DC 20006©2020 Capitol Hill Publishing Corp., a subsidiary of News Communications, Inc. |
AXIOS
Axios AMSubscribe
By Mike Allen
⚖️ Day 1 of President Trump’s impeachment trial ended at 1:50 a.m.
- The Senate reconvenes at 1 p.m. for the House managers’ arguments — 24 hours over three days.
1 big thing: America’s hardest places to grow up
Graphic: Brandeis University’s “Child Opportunity Index 2.0“
Researchers at Brandeis University used factors like poverty rate and green space to assign an “opportunity score” for what it’s like to grow up in all 72,000 neighborhoods in the U.S, Axios’ Erica Pandey writes.
- The hardest place to grow up — according to the report, “The Geography of Child Opportunity” — is Bakersfield, Calif., where more than half of residents under 18 live in low-opportunity neighborhoods.
- The best is Madison, Wis.
- Cities in the South generally have lower scores than those in the Northeast.
The researchers’ Child Opportunity Index finds whopping differences even within metro areas.
- In Detroit, there’s a neighborhood with a score of 95, among the best in the country for kids, as well as one that scored 2. A kid born in the better neighborhood will likely earn much more and live up to seven years longer than another child born a few miles away.
- Other cities with big opportunity gaps include Baltimore and Philadelphia.
- Opportunity is distributed far more equally in New York, L.A. and Dallas.
Of the close to 10 million kids living in low-opportunity neighborhoods, 4.5 million are Hispanic and 3.6 million are black.
2. What matters: Trump trial edition
Chief Justice John Roberts arrives at the Capitol yesterday. Photo: Cliff Owen/AP
We’re all going to be flooded with information and distractions over the course of the impeachment trial. Here’s what deserves your attention, narrated by Axios editors David Nather and Margaret Talev:
1. The rules of engagement: It matters how much time House impeachment managers get to present their case, how long Trump’s legal team gets to respond — and what evidence is allowed.
- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell backed down quickly on his original plan to make House managers and Trump’s team each present 24 hours of arguments over two days.
- By spreading it over three days each, McConnell can better balance pressures from the White House, which wants a speedy trial, and vulnerable Republicans like Susan Collins of Maine, who pushed for more time.
2. The new facts: We’ve learned some new information since the House impeachment vote, such as the Government Accountability Office’s conclusion that White House Office of Management and Budget violated the law by withholding military aid to Ukraine.
- To learn more — not just summarize what’s already come out — Democrats would need majority support in the Senate to call witnesses, like former national security adviser John Bolton, or subpoena evidence.
3. Chief Justice John Roberts’ role: Things likely would have to go pretty far off the rails, even by 2020 standards, for Roberts to end up having much of a substantive impact on the proceedings, Axios’ Sam Baker reports.
- Roberts has some power to decide evidentiary questions, which could include calling witnesses, but the Senate largely makes its own rules for impeachment trials.
- But it wouldn’t look great to for senators to overrule the chief justice, or be contradicted by him.
4. What Trump does: He has a legal team to fight for him — as long as he doesn’t say anything that causes himself more problems.
3. Democrats to watch at the trial
White House counsel Pat Cipollone speaks in the Senate chamber. Sketch: Dana Verkouteren via AP
Sen. Doug Jones, running for re-election in deep-red Alabama, is being targeted during the impeachment trial with a $1 million ad campaign by the pro-Trump group America First Policies.
- Jones has said there are “gaps” in the House case, and could be a vote to acquit.
Two other Democrats who could flip:
- Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona.
⚖️ 4. Trial diary
Clockwise from upper left: White House counsel Pat Cipollone, House manager Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Trump lawyer Jay Sekulow and House manager Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.). Photos: Senate TV
Here’s what mattered yesterday, Axios’ Alayna Treene reports from the Senate chamber:
- Senators voted along party lines on Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer’s amendments to introduce new evidence.
- So all of them were tabled and the original resolution introduced by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell passed without any changes.
It wasn’t a total defeat for Democrats, who used each debate to their advantage, and took their time to argue to subpoena documents and witnesses.
- Why it matters: That created free time to argue their case outside of the 24 hours they are given for opening arguments.
Trump’s team chose to treat this solely as a procedural process, and rejected extra time to defend the president.
- The result: Viewers see a meticulous defense of the articles of impeachment from House managers, starkly contrasted against the Trump defense team’s attempts to paint the entire trial as bogus.
What it’s like: Senators’ desks are piled high with papers, binders, and notepads. Many senators scrawled copious notes.
- Sen. Mike Lee of Utah was particularly ferocious— he was almost always scribbling in a big notebook.
Not on camera: To get around the rule of silence, senators flashed each other notes, grade-school style.
🇨🇳 5. Breaking: Huawei stockpiles supplies, fearing U.S. ban
“Huawei, the Chinese telecoms giant that Washington views as a global security threat, is scrambling to stockpile up to a year’s worth of foreign supplies for its core telecoms equipment business,” Nikkei Asian Review reports.
- Why it matters: The move comes ahead of “a widely-expected toughening of U.S. technology sanctions that may come as soon as next month.”
6. Exclusive poll: Women lock in on 2020
Data: Benenson Strategy Group online poll of 800 likely 2020 presidential voters, Dec. 5-12. Margin of error: ±3.39 percentage points. Chart: Naema Ahmed/Axios
Democratic women say they’re more interested in this election than they were in 2016, according to a new survey by American University’s Women & Politics Institute and the Barbara Lee Family Foundation, provided exclusively to Axios’ Alexi McCammond.
- Why it matters: That’s a warning sign for the GOP, which has been losing female voters to Democrats at a fast rate over the last few cycles.
By the numbers: 39% of Democratic likely women voters said they’d be more involved in this year’s political issues or campaigns. That compares with just 23% of Republican women.
- Four in 10 millennial women and women of color said they planned to be more involved.
7. 💰 Asset managers’ new top risk
With the China trade deal signed, asset managers now say November’s election is the top market risk, Axios Markets editor Dion Rabouin reports from the Bank of America Securities’ latest global fund manager survey.
- Why it matters: The trade war dropped to the No. 2 concern among respondents for the first time since May.
- Worries about a “bond bubble” popping rose to No. 3.
8. Elon Musk’s last laugh
Cover: Bloomberg Businessweek
Elon Musk and Tesla face “an informal yet obsessive global fraternity of accountants, lawyers, hedge fund managers, former Tesla employees, and some randos who just love trolling,” writes Dana Hall for Bloomberg Businessweek.
- “Lately, Musk and his company have had the upper hand. Tesla’s share price has more than doubled since October, thanks to a surprise quarterly profit, January’s announcement of record deliveries, and the start of production in China.”
- “Tesla short sellers lost more than $2.8 billion in 2019.”
9. Davos dispatch: Big Tech nears tax deal
Officials in Davos are close to a deal between the U.S. and France on taxing Big Tech companies like Amazon and Facebook, per AP.
- Negotiators are working on a plan for France to suspend its tax on U.S.-based digital giants.
- In return, the U.S. is expected to agree to an international approach to the issue and hold off retaliatory tariffs on Europe.
10. 1 plane thing
Swiss Air Force Base in Dübendorf, Switzerland, used for Davos arrivals, during Davos 2016. Photo: Arnd Wiegmann/Reuters
The global elite pouring into Davos on private jets have a fuel option available that’s designed to be at least a bit more green, reports Bloomberg’s Tara Patel.
- “So-called sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, will be available at Zurich airport, according to … a coalition of groups representing business jet operators, manufacturers and fuel suppliers.”
- The group claims “a 30% blend with conventional jet fuel can lower CO2 emissions by about 18% on a comparable 1,000-nautical-mile flight.”
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CAFEINATED THOUGHTS
| Connect: Facebook Twitter YouTubeView this email in your browser“Delight yourself in the Lord, and he will give you the desires of your heart,” (Psalm 37:4, ESV).Biden Rises, Buttigieg Declines in IowaBy Shane Vander Hart on Jan 21, 2020 06:20 pm Joe Biden has climbed in the last two polls taken of likely Democratic Iowa Caucus goers while Pete Buttigieg has dropped in the last three polls. Read in browser » The Chicken or the Egg—and the RoosterBy Dr. Jane Orient on Jan 21, 2020 10:00 am Dr. Jane Orient: Could we get rid of natural, complementary sex, and strong men, without getting rid of humanity? Read in browser » Getting Right Back to Work for Iowa: Passing USMCA and Securing a Trade Deal with ChinaBy Joni Ernst on Jan 21, 2020 09:26 am U.S. Senator Joni Ernst: I’m proud to work with President Trump to deliver real results for Iowa’s farmers and manufacturers. Read in browser » Recent Articles: Virginia Pro-Second Amendment Rally Draws Thousands Fully Funding K-12 Education In Iowa Taylor Accuses King and Feenstra of Debate Dodging Martin Luther King Jr: The Drum Major Instinct WHO TV Offers Misleading Coverage About the Prolife Life Amendment VoteLaunched in 2006, Caffeinated Thoughts reports news and shares commentary about culture, current events, faith and state and national politics from a Christian and conservative point of view. Caffeinated Thoughts P.O. Box 57184 Des Moines, IA 50317 (515) 321-5077 Editor, Shane Vander Hart Connect: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.ShareTweetShareForwardCopyright © 2020 Caffeinated Thoughts, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. |
CONSERVATIVE DAILY NEWS
ROLL CALL
Morning Headlines
View from the gallery: Senators struggle to sit in silence at Trump trial
It was an unusual first day of buttoned-down decorum for the exclusive club of 100 senators-turned-jurors, who were made to stay in their floor seats, not eat, not talk and not tweet during only the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history. Read More…
Potential ballot confusion complicates California special election for Katie Hill’s seat
Democratic activists and some candidates are concerned about confusion over two elections happening on the same day for former Democratic Rep. Katie Hill’s Southern California district. But there is also worry about a new digital voting system that prompts voters to click through multiple screens to view all of the candidates. Read More…
It’s still difficult to see Trump losing Iowa in November
ANALYSIS — So far, there is little reason to believe that more than a trickle of 2016 Donald Trump voters are ready to defect (or, more correctly, return to the Democratic Party), and that, plus the state’s rural Republican voters throughout the state, make it difficult to see Iowa supporting the Democratic nominee in November. Read More…Click here to subscribe to Fintech Beat for the latest market and regulatory developments in finance and financial technology.
When it comes to Trump’s future, ‘the people’ would rather do it themselves
OPINION — The Founding Fathers understood that there is an alternative to impeachment, and it’s called an election. It’s a truth Democrats have decided to ignore in their loathing of this president and rush to placate their angry base. Read More…
Abortion policy activism heats up for Roe v. Wade anniversary
Groups pushing for the advancement of abortion rights and those looking to limit the procedure have an ambitious agenda starting this week, foreshadowing a year that could be critical for advocates on both sides of the debate. Read More…
Lobbying firms post big earnings gains for 2019
K Street’s top-tier firms posted sizable gains last year, fueled by technology, pharmaceutical and big-business interests concerned with such policy matters as trade, health care, taxation and government spending. Read More…
Congress saw more bills introduced in 2019 than it has in 40 years, but few passed
Lawmakers are on a pace to introduce more bills and joint resolutions than they have since the 1970s, when Congresses routinely saw 20,000 or more introduced. Still, the total of 105 laws enacted during 2019 is among the lowest in this millennium. Read More…
Impeachment comes with its own rules, or lack thereof, on standard of proof
Some legal experts have argued that the seven Democratic House managers must prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that the president abused his office and obstructed justice, as in a criminal trial. Others contend they must merely present a “preponderance of evidence” to support their impeachment articles, as in many civil cases. Read More…
Senators bend the rules by wearing Apple Watches to Trump trial
At least seven senators had Apple Watches strapped on their wrists in the chamber at the start of President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial Tuesday, despite guidelines from Senate leadership that all electronics should be left in the cloakroom in the provided storage. Read More…
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THE EPOCH TIMES
“When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate.” CARL JUNGSenate Rejects Democrats’ Effort to Subpoena Documents in Impeachment Trial Trump Says Tariffs on European Cars Are Coming If Trade Deal Falls Through House Impeachment Managers Target Top Trump Lawyer, Claim He’s ‘Material Witness’ Trump: US Will Join One Trillion Trees Initiative The impeachment trial of President Donald Trump formally opened on Jan. 21 with the defense and prosecutors arguing over rules that will govern the proceeding. Read moreThe Supreme Court has rejected requests by the House of Representatives and Democratic-led states to expedite a review of a lawsuit challenging the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, meaning the future of the health care law is unlikely to be decided until after the 2020 presidential election. Read morePresident Donald Trump hailed his economic and trade accomplishments in his opening remarks on the first day of the economic summit in Davos on Jan. 21, saying that the United States is “winning again like never before.” Read moreU.S. health authorities have upgraded a travel warning for China on Jan. 21 after they confirmed the first case of a viral pneumonia that first broke out in the central Chinese city of Wuhan. Read moreChina has sentenced the former president of Interpol, Meng Hongwei, to 13 years and six months in prison for accepting more than $2 million in bribes. Read more See More Top StoriesWorking Hard Versus Hardly Working By Stephen Moore Almost all of us know (because President Trump boasts of it in nearly every speech) that our 3.5 percent unemployment rate has reached a 50-year low. Read moreEach Generation Needs to Confront the Reality of Socialism By Michael Walsh Oscar Wilde once quipped that second marriages were the triumph of hope over experience—that having failed once at something as challenging as “til death do us part,” the odds of succeeding a second time are iffy. Read more See More OpinionsHong Kong Democracy Activist Calls China’s Communist Party an ‘Evil Empire’ By Valentin Schmid (March 5, 2015) When you fight for freedom, sacrifices have to be made. Even well-to-do hedge fund managers like Edward Chin of 2047 HK Monitor are not exempt. Read moreThe Democratic nomination race started within days after the 2018 Midterms. Since then, a year has passed, two dozen have declared their candidacy, and there have been seven debates—and yet there is no clarity as to who will be the nominee. The reasons why are simple and don’t bode well for the Democrats going forward. The 3 Reasons the Democrat Race Remains Undecided | OpinionCopyright © 2020 The Epoch Times, All rights reserved. Want to change how you receive these emails? You can unsubscribe from this list or remove my account. |
BRIGHT
| Share with a friend you think would love this!Wednesday, January 22, 2020 #Impeachgate Update: The Trial Begins It became clear yesterday during Senate opening statements why Democrats wanted to bounce the President’s lead counsel in the impending impeachment trial, as attorney Pat Cipollone laid out the case against the House’s articles. At one point, after referencing the release of the Ukraine call transcript, Cipollone looked right at Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and said “how’s that for transparency?” More from John Daniel Davidson: “Lead White House counsel Pat A. Cipollone made a fiery opening statement Tuesday in the Senate impeachment trial, arguing in favor of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s proposed rules and saying that once the senators hear the initial presentations, they will conclude President Trump has done ‘absolutely nothing wrong’ and that there ‘is no case’ against him.” More impeachment reads:Pelosi Knows Impeachment is Weak – Rep. Doug Collins (MSN)An in-depth analysis of the impeachment charge text – Eric Felten (RealClear Investigations)Why Schiff was a bad choice if Dems are hoping to sway votes – Erielle Davidson (The Federalist)From the 30,000-foot perspective, given the likelihood of a partisan or near-partisan acquittal and possible re-election of a president after being impeached by the House, what will this episode do to one of Congress’ most important Constitutional tools? Dave Marcus says partisan use of impeachment is a “dangerous new normal,” while over at the newly-revived Federalist Radio Hour (yaaaaaaas), Gene Healy of the Cato Institute makes the opposite argument – we should be impeaching presidents a lot more often! Meanwhile, most Americans, even contestants on Jeopardy, don’t even know who Adam Schiff even is, bless their souls. Impeachment inside the Beltway:The rest of America:Democratic Establishment Comes for Bernie While Republican infighting always results in headlines and CNN contracts for whichever group is mad at the party, the serious divisions in the Democratic Party have not received the same attention. The latest round of shots fired comes from Hillary Clinton, who slammed Bernie Sanders in her docuseries set to premier at Sundance (because of course). “He was in Congress for years. He had one senator support him. Nobody likes him, nobody wants to work with him, he got nothing done. He was a career politician. It’s all just baloney, and I feel so bad that people got sucked into it,” Clinton said in the self-titled Hillary. When asked about the comments in an interview in the Hollywood Reporter, Hillary doubled down, echoing Elizabeth Warren in accusing not just Bernie, but his team and supporters, of sexism. Clinton also declined to give a straight answer to the question of whether or not she would support Sanders if he were to secure the nomination. I’m on record multiple times making the argument that Republicans should fear Bernie Sanders in 2020 more than Biden. With pluralities or outright majorities of each side expressing real anger about the way things have been run for the last three decades, Republicans would be foolish to write off Bernie. An old Communist he may be, but an authentic one, which is why the accusations from congenital liars like Warren and Clinton seem to ring so false. I predict the establishment attacks on Bernie will only help him in the primary, if the octogenarian can raise himself to the challenge of actually counterattacking those knifing him in the back. Fashion Moment of the Week A little YouTube preview of 2020’s biggest trends, including polka dots, oversize blazers, fashioned-up trenches, and a continuation of the 2019 statement sleeve craze. (THANK THE LORD, bike shorts are on their way out. Whew.) Hot tip: if you don’t want to sit through the product placement, start around 2:30 in the video. Wednesday Links Trump addresses Davos forum. (RealClear Politics) Walter Russell Mead on the populist nightmare of the Davos set. (WSJ) VDH on progressive petards. See: hoisted on one’s own. (American Greatness) Tim Tebow got married and there are pics. (USA Today) Greta Thunberg scolds both Davos attendees and Trump on climate. When does she go back to school, exactly? (AP News) The latest Lady Gaga single, “Stupid Love,” gets leaked and it’s an early-Gaga reminiscent bop. (Page Six) BRIGHT is brought to you by The Federalist.Today’s BRIGHT Editor Inez Feltscher Stepman is a senior policy analyst at the Independent Women’s Forum and a senior contributor to The Federalist. She is a San Francisco Bay Area native with a BA in Philosophy from UCSD and a JD from the University of Virginia. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, Jarrett Stepman, her puggle Thor, and her cat Thaddeus Kosciuszko. You can follow her on Twitter at @inezfeltscher and on Instagram (for #ootd, obvi) under the same handle. Opinions expressed on this website are her own and not those of her employers. Or her husband.Copyright © BRIGHT, All rights reserved. www.GetBRIGHTemail.com Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list Note: By using some of the links above, Bright may be compensated through the Amazon Affiliate program and Magic Links. However, none of this content is sponsored and all opinions are our own. |
THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER
| Washington Examiner’s Examiner Today NewsletterView this as website ADVERTISEMENT HIGHLIGHTSImpeachment, Democrats, and those 90,000 documents‘That’s enough’: ICE turns up the volume in campaign against sanctuary citiesMore US troops flown out of Iraq for ‘potential injuries’ from Iran missile attacks ‘Pissing in the wind’: Why not a single Republican is poised to vote to convict Trump Republican voters’ overwhelming opposition to impeachment and aggressive maneuvering by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell are conspiring to deliver President Trump a unanimous GOP vote of acquittal at his trial in the Senate. After slamming Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton clarifies that she will support the Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton said she would support Bernie Sanders if he received the Democratic nomination after blasting him in an interview. ‘I’d get up today and do it again’: CIA interrogator defends waterboarding in 9/11 trial hearing The architect of the CIA’s enhanced interrogation program sparred on Tuesday with a defense lawyer during a military court appearance in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Lisa Murkowski says she called Trump to clarify that she does not ‘hate’ himSen. Lisa Murkowski said she had to clear the air when she heard that President Trump thought she hated him. ADVERTISEMENT Editorial: Senate Democrats call for impartiality while declaring Trump guilty Senate Democrats can’t get their message straight. Is the Senate impeachment process like a court trial with senators serving as impartial jurors? Or is President Trump axiomatically as guilty as sin? Ex-CEO accuses Grammy Awards of sexual discrimination and rigging nominationsThe former CEO of the Grammy Awards accused the organization of gender discrimination in a complaint on Tuesday, alleging that the group was a “boy’s club” that ignored sexual harassment and suppressed rape allegations against its former president. Tulsi Gabbard criticizes her coverage compared to fellow veteran Buttigieg Tulsi Gabbard expressed frustration with media coverage of her campaign compared to that of Pete Buttigieg, even though both are veterans. Store owner charged with battery after video released of attack against reportersA California man was charged with vandalism and battery a day after police say he was filmed yelling at and attacking reporters who came to his store to speak with him. Unmaking the Presidency authors made ‘terrifying’ edit after learning Andrew McCabe might be prosecuted The co-author of a new book about President Trump said he made a “terrifying” last-minute edit after learning the Justice Department was considering criminal charges against fired FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe. Trump-aligned group spending $1M on anti-impeachment ads in key states The nonprofit affiliate of pro-Trump super PAC America First announced a $1 million anti-impeachment ad spenditure in three key states on Tuesday, a move designed to pressure vulnerable Democrats up for reelection in states President Trump won in 2016. National Weather Service warns Floridians about falling iguanas The National Weather Service warned Florida residents to be alert for falling iguanas as temperatures plunge in the South. Hispanic police officer scrutinized after invoking ‘one-drop rule’ to identify as a black man A Hispanic police officer in Miami is facing calls for his resignation after he said he identifies as a black man. THE ROUNDUPCoronoavirus is challenging China’s leadershipTrump threatens Europe with fresh tariffs in Davos, deepening a rift with longtime U.S. alliesSanders campaign privately urges restraint after Clinton attackADVERTISEMENT |
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CHICAGO TRIBUNE
| VIEW IN BROWSERJANUARY 22, 2020CHICAGOTRIBUNE.COMDAYWATCH1O’Hare among airports to begin screening passengers for symptoms of new coronavirus spreading through Asia as U.S. confirms its first caseWEDNESDAY, JAN 22O’Hare International Airport will begin screening travelers for symptoms of a new respiratory virus as health officials said a man in Washington State is infected with the coronavirus, the first confirmed case of the illness in the United States.The virus has killed at least nine and infected about 440 people in China. The U.S. is the fifth country to report seeing the illness, following China, Thailand, Japan, and South Korea.Health officials around the world are keeping a close watch on a new virus in China. Here is what to know about the new coronavirus outbreak.2Recreational weed is legal in Illinois, but applications for medical marijuana cards are up. Here’s why.WEDNESDAY, JAN 22Since recreational weed went on sale in Illinois three weeks ago, long lines have formed outside dispensaries, stores have established buying limits and some have run out of product.All that was expected, based on what’s happened as other states legalized cannabis. But there’s also been a less anticipated result: More people want medical marijuana cards. 3Senate approves Trump impeachment trial rules after marathon session of nearly 13 hoursWEDNESDAY, JAN 22The U.S. Senate plunged into President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial with Republicans abruptly abandoning plans to cram opening arguments into two days but solidly rejecting Democratic demands for more witnesses to expose Trump’s “trifecta” of offenses.A marathon session of nearly 13 hours started Tuesday with a setback for Republican Senate leader Mitch McConnell and the president’s legal team, exposing a crack in the GOP ranks and the growing political unease over the historic impeachment proceedings unfolding amid a watchful public in an election year. But it ended near 2 a.m. Wednesday with Republicans easily approving the new trial rules largely on their terms.Editorial: Impeachment is a stain on Trump’s record. Censure would be another.4Abortions in Illinois increased about 7% over one-year period, latest data showsWEDNESDAY, JAN 22The number of abortions performed in Illinois has increased about 7%, with about 3,000 more terminated pregnancies reported in 2018 compared with the previous year, according to the latest data from the Illinois Department of Public Health. The report shows 42,441 pregnancies were terminated statewide in 2018, up from 39,329 in 2017.The newest Illinois abortion statistics come as the country grows increasingly polarized over reproductive rights amid mounting threats to the landmark 1973 Supreme Court case Roe v. Wade. Today marks the 47th anniversary of that historic and controversial decision, which legalized abortion nationwide. 5Secretive, exclusive ‘pocket listings’ are no more, but Chicago area real estate agents have a new way to preview homes for saleWEDNESDAY, JAN 22The long-debated realty agent practice of “pocket listings” — involving agents’ close-to-the-vest lists of eager buyers and sellers — is now officially over.As an alternative, a new “coming soon” category of listings will likely benefit both home sellers and buyers by making full and complete information available to all, while maintaining the advantageous air of whisper networks, say MRED officials and agents.Expansive 81-acre Michigan estate of former WLS-Ch. 7 anchor Diann Burns sells for $1.8 million6Greeting card retailer Papyrus closing all storesWEDNESDAY, JAN 22Greeting card and gifts chain Papyrus is closing all its stores, including six in Illinois, according to employees at two Chicago-area stores.The employees said they were told last week that all stores were expected to close in the next four to six weeks. Closing sales have already begun in stores and online, the employees said. 7Chef Tony Hu opening a hot pot restaurant in space that once held the oldest restaurant in ChinatownWEDNESDAY, JAN 22Chef and restaurateur Tony Hu will open Xiaolongkan, a huge high-end hot pot chain from China, in the space that once held Won Kow, once the oldest restaurant in Chinatown.Architectural renderings show a dramatic transformation of the historic three-story building built in 1928 on Wentworth Avenue. Won Kow owner Peter Huey closed the then 90-year-old restaurant in 2018, but still owns the building. The once glamorous restaurant, where legend has it that Al Capone kept a regular table, had faded in recent decades.8Comcast isn’t the only carrier without a deal with the Cubs’ Marquee Sports NetworkWEDNESDAY, JAN 22With the conclusion of the 2020 Cubs Convention, it’s worth taking stock of what was and wasn’t said about the team’s new channel, the Marquee Sports Network, which is a joint venture with Sinclair Broadcast Group. Among the details learned at the fan fest is that Comcast is not the only carrier that has yet to reach a deal with the network, though it does cover a large portion of the Cubs’ fan base.advertisement UNSUBSCRIBE | NEWSLETTERS | PRIVACY POLICY | TERMS OF SERVICECopyright © 2020 | Chicago Tribune | 160 N. Stetson Ave., Third Floor, Chicago, IL 60601ABOUT THIS EMAIL You received this email because you are following the Daywatch newsletter. |
POLITICO PLAYBOOK
POLITICO Playbook: Why Democrats and Republicans are winning on impeachment
By ANNA PALMER and JAKE SHERMAN
01/22/2020 05:59 AM EST
Presented by
DRIVING THE DAY
THERE ARE TWO WAYS TO LOOK AT WHAT HAPPENED on Tuesday.
SUBSTANTIVELY, SENATE REPUBLICANS defeated every effort by SENATE DEMOCRATS to alter the rules of the impeachment trial to allow for guaranteed access to witnesses and documents. This gave Senate Majority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL the trial he wanted, save a few alterations that allowed the admission of evidence without a vote, and gave three days instead of two for oral arguments. Burgess Everett and John Bresnahan on McConnell’s retreat that allowed him to keep a firm grip on the trial
POLITICALLY, THOUGH, there is some upside for Democrats. If you accept the argument that President DONALD TRUMP is likely going to be acquitted, isn’t it better for Democrats to own no part of the trial, so they can call it a sham and beat Republicans over the head with it later this year? They will lose these procedural fights, complain loudly about it and wave the trial in the faces of vulnerable Republicans as an example of the party’s fealty to TRUMP.
REPUBLICANS, of course, believe they benefit from the way things have shaken out, too. A speedy trial that allows vulnerable Republicans to move on from impeachment to something — in fact, anything — else is a goal. Plus, Republicans stuck together, defeating all 12 of the Democrats’ attempts to influence the proceedings.
THE TRIAL IS AN ACUTELY PERILOUS ISSUE FOR MANY SENATORS, but perhaps for no one more than Sen. SUSAN COLLINS (R-Maine),who is up for reelection this fall and has built her brand around demonstrating independence from her party. She said she would likely vote for witnesses, but not until after both sides present their case.
SENATE MAJORITY PAC — the super PAC supporting Senate Democrats — has brand new polling in Maine that shows the following: 53% of Maine voters believe TRUMP has abused his office, 71% want documents and to call witnesses, and 51% say if COLLINS votes to acquit TRUMP, it’s for political expediency. The poll memo
TODAY: With the rules now in place, oral arguments in the impeachment trial begin as House managers present their case to remove the president from office. The proceedings will kick off around 1 p.m., and could last until 9 p.m. or a tad later.
TRUMP’S MOOD … NYT A1, by Annie Karni, David Gelles and Peter Baker: “Mr. Trump appeared to relish the escape offered by the World Economic Forum and the friendly — to his face, at least — crowd of elites in the snow-covered Alps. He was in a jovial mood, according to people who spoke with him, engaging in animated conversations with chief executives like Brian Moynihan of Bank of America, Sundar Pichai of Alphabet and Marc Benioff of Salesforce.
“He congratulated them on their companies’ stock performances and joked that he should have bought shares but that he had been forced to sell his holdings when he took office. As Mr. Trump and his family members darted among meetings in makeshift pavilions, they studiously avoided questions about the drama back home, where the Senate engaged in a fierce clash over the rules for putting the president on trial.” The NYT’s two-column headline: “GOP BLOCKS BID TO ADD EVIDENCE AT START OF TRIAL”
— NOTE: Benioff is also the owner of Time magazine, which he bought in 2018.
THE PRESIDENT will hold a news conference before leaving Davos, he said this morning, according to WaPo’s Anne Gearan, today’s pooler.
QUICK IMPEACHMENT LOOK AROUND …
— MARIANNE LEVINE: “Chief Justice John Roberts admonishes House managers and White House counsel”: “The Senate exploded in acrimony after midnight on Wednesday as the House impeachment managers and White House counsel traded insults, prompting Chief Justice John Roberts to scold their lack of decorum during President Trump’s impeachment trial.
“‘I think it is appropriate at this point for me to admonish both the House managers and president’s counsel in equal terms to remember that they are addressing the world’s greatest deliberative body,’ Roberts said, in a rare comment. ‘Those addressing the Senate should remember where they are.’
“Roberts’ remarks came after a sharp exchange between House impeachment manager Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) and White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, amid debate over Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s amendment to subpoena former national security adviser John Bolton.” POLITICO
— SARAH FERRIS, HEATHER CAYGLE and MELANIE ZANONA: “Stuck in their seats, senators confront trial tedium”: “The Senate chamber remained eerily quiet as lawmakers were forced to remain in their rigid, wooden seats as they took in hours of procedural arguments from each side’s designated speakers. No cellphones, no coffee and no staff to sit in their place for a brief reprieve. …
“Senate rules also ban all talking on the floor — a rule flouted by Sens. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) and Tim Scott (R-S.C.), who began whispering and chuckling after Sasse slipped his neighbor a handwritten note. Later, Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) worked to stifle laughter as he received a note from Sasse and Scott.” NYT drawing of a snoozing Jim Risch (R-Idaho)
THE NEW YORKER’S SUSAN GLASSERon the scene in the Capitol.
A message from Blue Cross Blue Shield Association:
Today, 90 percent of Americans have health insurance. Let’s close the gap that leaves 10 percent vulnerable, without disrupting coverage and care for millions who already are covered.
NEW … TRUMP TO JOE KERNEN on CNBC’s “SQUAWK BOX,” from Davos: TRUMP said he watched “some of” the impeachment trial. …
… TRUMP on 2020 … KERNEN: “Do you have a preference for an opponent — I came up with the three Bs: Biden, Bernie and Bloomberg.”
TRUMP: “All very different. You have Mini Mike is spending a lot of money. He’s got no chance. But he’s got a tremendous — you know, he used to be a friend of mine until I ran for politics, and then he went a little off. You should see some of the nice things he said about me before I ran. They’re like the nicest. But he had a deal with Hillary Clinton that he was going to become secretary of State. It was very simple. People know that. And he — wasn’t going to happen. It was going to go to Terry McAuliffe. I mean, so they were playing with Michael.
“And it’s too bad, but he’s spending a fortune. He’s making a lot of broadcasters wealthy. And he’s getting nowhere. His ratings are terrible. His — you look at his numbers. I don’t know if Joe’s going to limp across the line, but you — I watch him. I watch him speaking. He can’t put together a sentence, but it could be him. And it could be Crazy Bernie. I don’t know who it’s going to be. Whoever it is, I’m ready.”
— IS THAT A THING? Do people believe Clinton was going to name Bloomberg to be secretary of State? We, for one, have never heard of that.
Good Wednesday morning. LEGENDARY D.C.-AREA HIGH SCHOOL basketball coach Morgan Wootten died at 88. ESPN
Playbook PM
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JAY SEKULOW spoke to The Forward, the Jewish magazine: “‘I always considered myself Jewish,’ he told me. ‘My heritage and my upbringing and my family’s faith, all of that plays a role in my view of justice.’” Forward
WAPO’S DAN LAMOTHE: “More U.S. troops leave Iraq for medical treatment after Iranian missile attack, Pentagon says”: “More U.S. service members have been transported out of Iraq for medical treatment and evaluations following Iran’s missile attack on military facilities there, the Pentagon said Tuesday, nearly two weeks after President Trump and defense officials initially said no one was hurt.
“The Pentagon said Friday that 11 service members required medical treatment outside Iraq. U.S. military officials declined to say Tuesday how many more are receiving care but said ‘additional’ personnel had been sent to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany.”
NOT ONLY RUNNING FOR PRESIDENT, BUT ALSO CLIENTS — “Biden, Sanders release competing ads on Social Security,” by Matthew Choi
BIG NEWS … ALLY MUTNICK, SARAH FERRIS and HEATHER CAYGLE: “Top progressives, DCCC reach ceasefire over ‘blacklist’”: “Top liberals have reached a détente with the House Democratic campaign arm in a dispute over a policy that inhibits primary challengers to incumbents — a move intended to unify Democrats in this year’s battle to protect their majority and defeat President Donald Trump.
“Some of the House’s most influential progressives, including Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), said they will contribute tens of thousands of dollars to the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, despite a contentious new rule that blacklists campaign consultants who work for candidates taking on sitting Democratic members.
“The decision by the co-chairs of the Congressional Progressive Caucus represents a thawing of monthslong tensions with DCCC Chairwoman Cheri Bustos (Ill.), who had fiercely defended the policy over bitter objections from high-profile Democrats like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez (D-N.Y.).
“The group — Bustos and about two dozen progressive Democrats — sat down privately last week to discuss the 2020 cycle, during which she thanked liberals in the room who have agreed to pay their dues, according to people familiar with the meeting.
“‘I intend to pay the full dues. I have a view that, in 2020, we have to come together to ensure the defeat of Donald Trump and the retaining of our majority,’ said Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), another sharp critic of the DCCC policy who began paying dues in January. … So far, Ocasio-Cortez remains the most prominent exception to the newly improved relationship between progressives and the DCCC.”
TRUMP’S WEDNESDAY (all times Eastern)– THE PRESIDENT had breakfast with CEOs and business leaders, and met with the president of the Kurdistan regional government and was scheduled to meet with the president of Iraq. THE PRESIDENT will leave Davos for Zurich at 6:25 a.m., and arrives at 7:10 a.m. He’s scheduled to take off for D.C. at 7:20 a.m., and land at Andrews at 4:50 p.m. He’s expected back at the White House at 5:10 p.m.
PLAYBOOK READS
JARED’S PAL MBS THE REFORMER SEEMS BUSY! … WHOA IF TRUE — “Jeff Bezos hack: Amazon boss’s phone ‘hacked by Saudi crown prince,’” by The Guardian’s Stephanie Kirchgaessner: “The Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos had his mobile phone ‘hacked’ in 2018 after receiving a WhatsApp message that had apparently been sent from the personal account of the crown prince of Saudi Arabia, sources have told the Guardian.
“The encrypted message from the number used by Mohammed bin Salman is believed to have included a malicious file that infiltrated the phone of the world’s richest man, according to the results of a digital forensic analysis.
“This analysis found it ‘highly probable’ that the intrusion into the phone was triggered by an infected video file sent from the account of the Saudi heir to Bezos, the owner of the Washington Post.” Guardian
— FT’S MEHUL SRIVASTAVA has more:“The forensic analysis, led by Anthony J Ferrante, a cyber expert at the business advisory firm FTI Consulting, said that within hours of the video file being sent by WhatsApp to Mr Bezos ‘a massive and unauthorised exfiltration of data from Bezos’s phone began, continuing and escalating for months.’
“The amount of data hacked from the phone was in the dozens of gigabytes, compared to the few hundred kilobytes daily average in the months before the video file was sent, the analysis found. The report does not claim to have conclusive evidence and its findings could not be independently confirmed by the FT.” FT … Ferrante’s bio… Reuters: “Saudi involved in hacking of Amazon boss Bezos’ phone, U.N. report will say”
— @SaudiEmbassyUSA: “Recent media reports that suggest the Kingdom is behind a hacking of Mr. Jeff Bezos’ phone are absurd. We call for an investigation on these claims so that we can have all the facts out.”
SCOOP … NAHAL TOOSI and ANITA KUMAR: “Trump weighs travel ban expansion in coming days”: “President Donald Trump may expand his controversial travel ban with an announcement expected as early as Monday, the three-year anniversary of the original order, which targeted several majority-Muslim nations.
“The list of countries is not yet final and could be changed, but nations under consideration for new restrictions include Belarus, Myanmar (also known as Burma), Eritrea, Kyrgyzstan, Nigeria, Sudan and Tanzania, according to two people familiar with the matter.” POLITICO
THE NEW YORKER’S ROBIN WRIGHT: “The Staggering (and Uncovered) Legal Bills Facing Impeachment Witnesses”: “Witnesses have accrued as much as half a million dollars in legal fees that are not being covered by the State Department, according to six witnesses, who spoke on condition of anonymity, lawyers, and others involved in helping with the soaring bills.
“The diplomats and other senior officials, most of whom have spent a lifetime in government service earning modest government salaries, have had to tap into personal-liability insurance or relied on the generosity of fellow-diplomats and friends who donated to a legal-defense fund. In some cases, major Washington law firms have slashed fees or, in one case, provided largely pro-bono assistance.” New Yorker
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FIRST IN PLAYBOOK … BOOK CLUB — Garrett M. Graff is writing a new book titled “Watergate,” detailing the Richard Nixon administration scandal and offering “the first comprehensive history in a quarter century and the first written since the release of the final Nixon tapes and the identity of Deep Throat.” The book is set to be published in mid-2021 by Jofie Ferrari-Adler and Julianna Haubner at Avid Reader Press and is being represented by Howard Yoon at Ross Yoon.
MEDIAWATCH — MICHAEL BARBARO PROFILE … NEW YORK’S MATTHEW SCHNEIER: “The Voice of a Generation: Michael Barbaro made the New York Times podcast The Daily a raging success. Or is it the other way around?” N.Y. Mag
— YIKES: “Quibi’s CEO Meg Whitman Compared Reporters to Sexual Predators,” by The Information’s Tom Dotan and Jessica Toonkel
PLAYBOOKERS
Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at politicoplaybook@politico.com.
SPOTTED: HHS Secretary Alex Azar and Reince Priebus having lunch at Ambar on Tuesday.
TRANSITIONS — Sarah Jenkins is joining global communications firm BCW as SVP of brand solutions. She was previously SVP at freuds. … Paige Lindgren is now deputy press secretary at the NRSC. She was previously press assistant for Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.). … Chad Yelinski is now legislative director for Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.). He previously was legislative director for Rep. Mark Meadows (R-N.C.). …
… Rob Santos is now a director at Bully Pulpit Interactive. He previously was digital practice lead and strategist at Golin. … Lauren Ehrsam Gorey is now director of communications for the Commerce Department. She previously was director of strategic communications at the NSC. … Cody Keenan is now a senior adviser at Fenway Strategies. He previously was chief speechwriter for former President Barack Obama.
BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Rebecca Wasserstein, director of hotels and venues for the Republican National Convention. An interesting book she’s been reading: “I’ve always been a huge Malcolm Gladwell fan. I recently finished his latest book, ‘Talking to Strangers,’ and it did not disappoint. The premise of the book is that as humans, our natural operating assumption is that people are honest. Unfortunately, it’s these untainted assumptions that can lead to some of the largest corruption scandals.” Playbook Q&A
BIRTHDAYS: Rep. Steve Chabot (R-Ohio) is 67 … Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) is 54 (h/t Tim Griffin) … Josh Earnest, chief comms officer and SVP at United Airlines, is 45 … Carol McDonald (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … Jim Oliphant, national politics correspondent at Reuters … Jack St. John of GSA … Dave Schnittger, principal at Squire Patton Boggs, is 49 … POLITICO’s Brianna Ehley, Zach Warmbrodt and Jesse Shapiro … Dan Scandling, a senior director at APCO Worldwide … Ado Machida … Chris Lowe … Patrick Mendoza … Josh Riley, a partner at Boies, Schiller & Flexner … Kian Hudson, Indiana deputy solicitor general, is 3-0 … Rob Collins, a partner at S-3 Public Affairs … Rajiv Chandrasekaran … Corinne Clark is 3-0 (h/t Laszlo Baksay) … Melissa Byrne, California grassroots director for Bernie Sanders’ campaign (h/t Eric Heggie) … Elizabeth Ashford … CNN’s Kevin Bohn …
… WaPo’s Julie Zauzmer … Ken Gross,Skadden’s political practice chair … Gregg Pitts (h/ts Tim Burger) … Christa (Bailey) Allen … Prosus Group’s Sarah Ryan … Francie Harris, director of scheduling for EMILY’s List … Tom Daffron … Bram Weinstein is 47 … Heather Kennedy, VP of government relations at the Home Depot … AHIP’s Adam Beck is 32 … Alexander Wells … Ashley Codianni, EP and global head of social and emerging media at CNN … Elise Flick, who last year married WSJ’s Nick Hatcher — pic … Chris Lavery … Derek Dye … Andrea Mucasey … Ginny Simmons … Mark Solomons is 59 … Charlie Meyerson … Nicholas Monck … Carla Jacobs … Laura Allen, press secretary at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation … Cara Baldari … Seema Ibrahim … Anna Sperling McAlvanah … Mike Simmons … Jason Forrester … Paul Roales … David Sanders … Chase Burgess
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THE BLAZE
THE WASHINGTON POST MORNING MIX
| Sign up for this newsletterRead onlineStories from all over. (Philip Marcelo/AP)Iranian student turned around at the airport was deported despite order from a federal judge, attorneys say“We feel this is a pattern of Customs and Border Protection ignoring court orders and ignoring the law,” Kerry Doyle, one of several immigration attorneys working on Shahab Dehghani’s behalf, told reporters.By Antonia Farzan ● Read more » A black man’s lawyer harbored such ‘extreme’ racist views that a court has granted him a new trialAmes was disloyal and entirely indifferent to the fate of his non-white clients, convinced that they were all stupid and deserved to be convicted,” Judge Jacqueline Nguyen wrote in the concurring opinion.By Meagan Flynn ● Read more » ‘American Dirt’ is a novel about Mexicans by a writer who isn’t. For some, that’s a problem.“I wished someone slightly browner than me would write it,” said Jeanine Cummins, the author of the highly anticipated book.By Teo Armus ● Read more » Robert Downey Jr. on ‘Tropic Thunder’ blackface: ’90 percent of my black friends were like, Dude, that was great’“It was a piece of work I was doing, and I cared about doing it as professionally and as honestly as I could,” Downey Jr. said during a recent appearance on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast.By Allyson Chiu ● Read more » Two people in wheelchairs wanted to buy a train ticket. Amtrak tried to charge them $25,000.Amtrak has apologized and will now accommodate the group at its regular $16 ticket price.By Meagan Flynn ● Read more » We think you’ll like this newsletterCheck out The Trailer for news and insight on political campaigns around the country, from David Weigel. 435 districts. 50 states. Tuesday, Thursday and Sunday evenings. Sign up » |
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AMERICAN THINKER
| View this email in your browserRecent ArticlesDemocrats Seek Civil War, But Will Get RevolutionJan 22, 2020 01:00 am Democrats will do their utmost to create a situation where blood is spilled and lives are lost to engender civil war. Read More… Only Trial Witnesses Can Expose the Evil Anti-Trump CoupJan 22, 2020 01:00 am If most Americans knew about the vicious covert war waged by anti-Trump officials at the highest levels of our revered security agencies to usurp the presidency, they would be outraged. Read More… Biden Throws Blacks Another Racist Dog BiscuitJan 22, 2020 01:00 am Not only are Democrats not concerned about strained race relations, they thrive on it. Read More… America’s Most Successful Human Rights Campaign: The Pro Life MovementJan 22, 2020 01:00 am The American pro-life movement may be one of the greatest successes for human rights and general well-being occurring in the 21st century. Read More… Are Americans In Danger from a Possible Iranian Cyber-Offensive?Jan 22, 2020 01:00 am Will the Iranian mullahs turn to cyberwarfare to exact revenge against the United States and other western countries? Read More… China’s Colonial Transformation of AfricaJan 22, 2020 01:00 am China is now the new great colonial power; Read More… Recent Blog Posts Adam Schiff made a fool of himself on Day One of the Senate impeachment trial Jan 22, 2020 01:00 am Schiff is willing to fabricate and twist the tale he tells even though there is no evidence for all of his wild accusations. He’s already been caught misrepresenting the evidence. Read more… Jerry Nadler’s fatal mistake on impeachment Jan 22, 2020 01:00 am Jabba runs his mouth off. Read more… Trump gave a brilliant speech in Davos at the World Economic Forum Jan 22, 2020 01:00 am Trump’s speech was one of his greatest and revealed him, not just as a smart businessman and politician, but as a true visionary. Read more… Barack Obama should be key witness in impeachment trial, not Joe or Hunter Biden Jan 22, 2020 01:00 am Take a closer look at the transcript of Joe Biden’s comments regarding the firing of the Ukrainian prosecutor. Read more… Did Nick Sandmann open the door? Jan 22, 2020 01:00 am Nick Sandmann gets the last laugh. Read more… Hillary Clinton finally gets her revenge against Bernie Sanders Jan 22, 2020 01:00 am In 2016, angry Bernie voters wouldn’t vote for Hillary and may have contributed to her losing the election. Now’s her time for vengeance. Read more… Another Bernie supporter is outed as a Marxist with a lust for blood Jan 22, 2020 01:00 am James O’Keefe is back with another video, this time looking at a South Carolina staffer who boasts about being a Marxist and dreams of guns and guillotines Read more… What’s so vaunted about the GAO? Jan 22, 2020 01:00 am The GAO is as biased as the rest of them. Read more… San Francisco’s Marxist District Attorney accused of purging the DA’s office Jan 22, 2020 01:00 am Boudin’s purge is not just about cleaning out entrenched threats to his control; it’s about a Leftist vision that calls for the end of the criminal justice system. Read more… The hazards of ignorance and unearned wealth Jan 22, 2020 01:00 am Individuals who begin to think themselves godlike does not bode well for any society. Read more… Could Chief Justice Roberts make it as a traffic court judge? Jan 22, 2020 01:00 am What ever happened to the accused having the right to face his accuser? Read more… Google on monopoly power: The epitome of hypocrisy Jan 22, 2020 01:00 am Who can believe that Google is against monopolies? Read more… Why Afghanistan is endless Jan 22, 2020 01:00 am While I was assigned to Afghanistan, the most common phrase in reports coming from all echelons and locations was “progress is being made.” Read more… Prince Charles to make Great Britain’s first official royal visit to Israel Jan 22, 2020 01:00 am The no longer “bonnie” prince carries a historic burden. Read more… Bernie Sanders thunders about ‘corruption’…and gives Joe Biden a pass Jan 21, 2020 01:00 am The socialist’s hypocrisy runs thick with this one. Read more… View this email in your browser American Thinker is a daily internet publication devoted to the thoughtful exploration of issues of importance to Americans. |
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THE FEDERALIST
| Your daily update of new content from The Federalist Be lovers of freedom and anxious for the fray January 22, 2020 As The Impeachment Trial Begins, Democrats Are Losing Their MindsBy John Daniel Davidson Having realized their impeachment gambit is failing, Democrats have resorted to accusing Sen. Mitch McConnell of a coverup and calling the trial ‘rigged.’ Full articleWhy I Love Bernie But Wouldn’t Vote For Him In 2020By Saritha Prabhu Sen. Bernie Sanders’ about-turn on illegal immigration is his Achilles heel, plus some of his followers scare the wits out of me. Full articleSupreme Court To Decide If Atheism Can Keep Its Monopoly On K-12 SchoolsBy Joy Pullmann Today the Supreme Court hears a case that could undo a century of decisions that have attacked and undermined religious beliefs by secularizing public education. Full articleWe’re All Ready For This Impeachment Schiff Show To Be OverBy Kylee Zempel Just when you thought Adam Schiff had reached maximum sleaze, word breaks he likely mischaracterized evidence related to Trump’s impeachment trial. Full articleCMT Just Pledged To Play Male And Female Artists The Same, But Will It Matter?By Emily Jashinsky Country music should amplify the voices of ‘flyover state’ women, often women of faith, who lack proper representation in media and popular culture. Full articleBloomberg’s Plan For Black Americans Doubles Down On The Left’s FailuresBy Willis L. Krumholz Michael Bloomberg’s new plan is a perfect example of the failure of center-left policy concoctions meant to help black Americans, invariably cooked up by rich liberals. Full articleNew York Times Endorsement Of Warren And Klobuchar Reeks Of Ignorant PomposityBy Sumantra Maitra The entire endorsement is a play for the ‘we’re all winners’ generation. To prioritize one candidate would require courage, which cannot be expected from the newspaper that pushes the ahistorical ‘1619 Project’ for clicks. Full articleChinese Ambassador Attempts To Bully Sweden Into Ignoring Human Rights AbusesBy Helen Raleigh Sweden has learned Beijing will not hesitate to use its might to coerce its will onto others, but Chinese diplomats’ belligerent behaviors should be a wake-up call to countries all around the world. Full article‘One Child Nation’ Condemns Abortion Even If Its Director Thinks OtherwiseBy Kody Cooper Nanfu Wang’s opinion notwithstanding, ‘One Child Nation’s’ central message is not a celebration of autonomy. Rather, it is an exposé of evils of abortion. Full articleWhat I Saw At The Richmond Second Amendment RallyBy Todd Hester A large group of people assembled peaceably to air their grievances and to state that, unless something changes, our consent to be governed is being revoked. Full articleSchiff Likely Mischaracterized Parnas Evidence During Impeachment TrialBy Tristan Justice The lead House impeachment manager, Rep. Adam Schiff of California, likely mischaracterized evidence brought forward by Lev Parnas in a letter last week. Full articleAdam Schiff Would Be The Last Person To Get A GOP Senator To ‘Cross Over’By Erielle Davidson If the Democrats want to garner crossover votes in the impeachment trial, Rep. Adam Schiff is the last person who should be managing the impeachment circus. Full articleTrump Attorney Pat Cipollone: ‘The President Has Done Absolutely Nothing Wrong’By John Daniel Davidson In his scorching opening statement before the Senate, Cipollone said there is ‘no case’ against Trump, and that there is nothing to Democrats’ allegations. Full articleImpeachment Has Become A Dangerous New NormalBy David Marcus For 187 years, the United States had only one president face impeachment. Since 1974, three have. This is a disturbing and dangerous trajectory. Full articlePodcast: Impeachment Popularity Contests, Soleimani, And Threat Of WarBy The Federalist Staff Gene Healy, vice president at the Cato Institute, joins Ben Domenech on this episode of The Federalist Radio Hour. Full articleHillary Clinton: Democrats Don’t Have Enough Control Of Media To ‘Influence Americans’ Thinking’By Emily Jashinsky Hillary Clinton thinks Democrats lack power in media. She envies the right’s alleged ‘long game’ success at ‘really influenc[ing] the thinking of Americans.’ Full articleNew England Patriots’ Benjamin Watson Producing Pro-Life DocumentaryBy Chrissy Clark New England Patriots’ tight end Benjamin Watson announced he is producing a pro-life documentary and interviewed Americans on both sides of the aisle. Full articleNew York Times Endorsement Virtue Signals Between Two Far-Left Female SenatorsBy Tristan Justice The New York Times endorsed two female senators on opposite ends of left-wing radicalism who happen to be the only competitive women left in the race. Full articleHillary Clinton Shreds Bernie Sanders And His Dupe Supporters In New Docuseries: ‘Nobody Likes Him’By Chrissy Clark In a pre-interview leading up to the Sundance release of the new docuseries ‘Hillary,’ Hillary Clinton expanded on her problems with Sen. Bernie Sanders. Full article CAUGHT BETWEEN A ROCK AND A HARD PLACE Given the ultimate outcome, the New York Times’s decision to make an unprecedented reality show out of their endorsement process this year seems all the more ridiculous. http://vlt.tc/3v1l Here we have the most powerful old media entity in the country, at the peak of heightened access to any of the candidates for 2020, and after all that, they couldn’t make up their minds? But if failure is a choice, it seems clear that this choice was motivated by being caught between a rock and a hard place – what the Democratic partisan traditionalists at the Times wanted to send as a message, and what they know their readers want to see from the Times after several years of increasing dissatisfaction with their handful of intransigent centrists. Read more of The Transom by signing up for a free trial today. follow on Twitter | friend on Facebook | forward to a friend Copyright © 2020 The Federalist, All rights reserved. unsubscribe from this list | update subscription preferences |
NOQ REPORT
- Adam Schiff’s fatal flaw exposed again: Lies, redactions, and ‘the wrong Mr. Z’
- New song: ‘This Impeachment is a Sham!’
- Mason Trever Toney stabbed pro-Trump childhood friend to death
- Ted Cruz is right. The Democrats are fishing.
- A Bernie staffer proves the left loves guns… but only in their hands
- Adam Schiff misses badly on impeachment trial’s opening day
- Assume lies and cover ups as China’s coronavirus hits the U.S.
- Hypocritical Chuck Schumer was right about impeachment… in 1998
| Adam Schiff’s fatal flaw exposed again: Lies, redactions, and ‘the wrong Mr. Z’Posted: 22 Jan 2020 03:37 AM PSTKudos to Politico for finding a major lie in House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff’s attempts to prove the President should be removed from office. Shame on Politico for then trying to make it all seem like no big deal. It’s a huge deal, one that is indicative of a Congressional investigation in which Democrats have shown they’re willing to do anything to make their feeble case seem solid.An article published by Politico last night reveals a damaging lie committed by Schiff and his staff while digging into documents pertaining to Lev Parnas and Rudy Giuliani. The two had been working to get Ukraine to open investigations into 2016 election interference and abuse of power by former Vice President Joe Biden, who engaged in quid pro quo to force an end to the investigation into Burisma, the company that had employed his son, Hunter. Contrary to popular belief, this push by Giuliani was neither new nor was it kept secret. Long before the impeachment debacle began, Giuliani spoke openly about his activities in Ukraine. In fact, he even Tweeted about it last June.Democrats are trying to convince people that @RudyGiuliani and @realDonaldTrump were engaged in some SECRET plot to pressure Ukraine.In truth, Giuliani OPENLY sought justice from the new Ukrainian government long before the whistleblower or this sham #ImpeachmentTrial. https://t.co/qzEF1n4dzF— JD Rucker (@JDRucker) January 22, 2020Text messages between Giuliani and Parnas reveal they were trying to set up meetings with important people in Ukraine. As House Democrats scoured the texts, they found an “incriminating” one in which Parnas was trying to “trying to get us mr Z.” The interpretation of this that Schiff sent to House Judiciary Committee Chair and fellow House Manager Jerry Nadler was they were trying to score a meeting with Ukrainian President Zelensky. If they were, it would have been damning evidence in the impeachment trial that demonstrated the so-called abuse of power was underway before President Trump had even spoken to Zelensky on the phone.As it turned out, not only was it not the right “mr Z” referred to in the text, but it’s clear Schiff had manipulated the transcript through redaction to make it seem like Zelenksy was the target. According to Politico:The issue arose when Schiff (D-Calif.) sent a letter to House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.) last week summarizing a trove of evidence from Lev Parnas, an indicted former associate of Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani. In one section of the letter, Schiff claims that Parnas “continued to try to arrange a meeting with President Zelensky,” citing a specific text message exchange where Parnas tells Giuliani: “trying to get us mr Z.” The remainder of the exchange — which was attached to Schiff’s letter — was redacted.But an unredacted version of the exchange shows that several days later, Parnas sent Giuliani a word document that appears to show notes from an interview with Mykola Zlochevsky, the founder of Burisma, followed by a text message to Giuliani that states: “mr Z answers my brother.” That suggests Parnas was referring to Zlochevsky not Zelensky.The word document contains a series of questions and answers, but doesn’t identify who is doing the asking or answering. Yet the questions center on the hiring practices at Burisma, while the responses include statements such as “we wanted to build Burisma as [an] international company” and “we also thought it would help in Ukraine to have strong international board figures,” which seems to point to Zlochevsky — not the Ukrainian president — as the respondent.Politico then goes on to assume that it was an honest mistake. No. It wasn’t. The fact that the redacted portion clearly indicates the texts were referring to Burisma founder Mykola Ziochevsky and not President Zelensky tell us they were completely aware of who the real “mr Z” was in the original text. Why else would they redact it? There was no personal information being exchanged or top secret documents being discussed. They redacted it for one reason: To manufacture evidence that could be construed as damning to the President.When House Managers are manipulating documents to manufacture evidence, that tells us two things. First, their impeachment case is weak. Second, Adam Schiff will outright lie if he can squeeze some evidence onto his nothingburger.American Conservative MovementJoin fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. We have two priorities until election day: Stopping Democrats and supporting strong conservative candidates. We currently have 7500+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.First Name Last Name Email Address Comments SubmitMixi.Media NewsThe post Adam Schiff’s fatal flaw exposed again: Lies, redactions, and ‘the wrong Mr. Z’ appeared first on NOQ Report – Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes. |
| New song: ‘This Impeachment is a Sham!’Posted: 22 Jan 2020 01:54 AM PSTPatriotic Americans often give their time, treasure, and talents to help with the cause of keeping America great. One such person is Karen Sokolof Javitch who wrote and produced this wonderful song. Here are the lyrics:This impeachment is a sham!How does Trump get impeachedWhen there’s nothing to impeach him for?It’s such a sham!Pelosi and Adam Schiff are liars, cheats and more!President Trump does so much for our country!He works tirelessly for us all!And what do the Democrats do?NOTHING – but they’re ungluedBecause they know they are going to lose!This impeachment is a sham! What a sham! What a sham!This impeachment is a sham! What a sham!Trump makes America great again!About Karen Sokolof Javitch:Besides Karen’s 15 albums, she has co-written 4 musicals and was the creator and co-host of a popular Omaha radio show, “It’s the Beat.” Her musicals include “Princess Diana the Musical,” “From Generation to Generation,” and “Love at the Café.” These shows have been performed in many cities in the United States. In addition, Ms. Javitch has raised over $350,000 for national and local charities with her original music.American Conservative MovementJoin fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. We have two priorities until election day: Stopping Democrats and supporting strong conservative candidates. We currently have 7500+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.First Name Last Name Email Address Comments SubmitMixi.Media NewsThe post New song: ‘This Impeachment is a Sham!’ appeared first on NOQ Report – Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes. |
| Mason Trever Toney stabbed pro-Trump childhood friend to deathPosted: 22 Jan 2020 01:09 AM PSTWhen William Steven Knight drove long-time friend Mason Trever Toney to their construction work site near Orlando Monday morning, he was aware the man he’d known since elementary school disagreed with him on politics. Knight was a supporter of President Trump. Toney is not. Shortly after arriving at work, Tone stabbed Knight to death with a trowel in front of multiple witnesses.A short manhunt followed and Toney has been taken into custody.UPDATE: Mason Toney has been captured by OCSO and taken into custody without incident. https://t.co/OHuT7gTvUl— Orange County Sheriff’s Office (@OrangeCoSheriff) January 20, 2020Local reports indicate Knight was Toney’s boss. The two 28-year-old men often traveled together to work. According to the affidavit, witnesses told investigators that Knight was a “proud and outspoken American and is pro-Donald Trump. They stated that the suspect is anti-government and very outspoken about his beliefs that the government is bad and out to get him.”MAGA friends this just got personal for me! The man killed below is the grandson of my cousin. Killed over politics! This is absolutely insane! We MUST take our country back! #justiceInAmerca #StopTheInsaneLeft https://t.co/s0jkLrW5EH— marlo45 (@marlo451) January 22, 2020A brand new American flag with the wrapping nearby was placed at the side of the victim’s body. Toney came to work with a backpack that day, something coworkers said was unusual. These pieces of evidence will be used by prosecution to demonstrate the murder was premeditated and, based on the political argument they had earlier in the morning, was predicated on Toney’s anti-government and anti-Trump beliefs.But according to The Blaze, Knight’s mother is skeptical about the motivation behind her son’s murder.“I don’t know, I don’t know what, I can’t explain what happened to my son,” said Julia Knight, the victim’s mother. “I don’t understand. I never thought Mason would do this to my son. But it wasn’t about politics, I can tell you right now.“There’s something wrong with Mason,” she said later in the interview.The family has set up a GoFundMe account to help with the funeral expenses.Opinion: The anti-Trump triggersEver since President Trump was elected, many of those who oppose him have been lashing out. We witnessed it during his inauguration as wild protests have been blamed for higher levels of violence and destruction than anything we’ve seen during political protests in decades.The rise of Antifa and other violent “activists” is not a new phenomenon, but there has been a clear escalation the likes of which this generation hasn’t seen. They’re reminiscent of the protests that consumed America during the Vietnam War era, though somehow the same levels of damage are being done despite a smaller number of people participating.The story of Mason Trever Toney is just the latest example of this rise in hatred turning violent, especially when the person being “triggered” clearly suffers from mental illness. This was no random killing. As the victim’s father noted, “He was a friend of the family. My son went to elementary school with him and to middle school and high school.”Tensions will remain high in America until the election, at which point they may go even higher. We must all try to find calm discourse even as emotions escalate. Mental illness and political battles do not mix well. Pray for our nation to heal.American Conservative MovementJoin fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. We have two priorities until election day: Stopping Democrats and supporting strong conservative candidates. We currently have 7500+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.First Name Last Name Email Address Comments SubmitMixi.Media NewsThe post Mason Trever Toney stabbed pro-Trump childhood friend to death appeared first on NOQ Report – Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes. |
| Ted Cruz is right. The Democrats are fishing.Posted: 21 Jan 2020 11:23 PM PSTThere are few things in life more relaxing than sitting by the side of a river or lake, casting out a fishing line, and waiting for a fish to nibble on the bait. It’s hard to imagine right now as most of America is stuck with weather not conducive to fishing, but we can get our fix by watching the impeachment trial. Specifically, we can watch as Democrats keep casting out their fishing line in hopes that the press, interested Americans, and even a few Republican lawmakers might nibble.Why are they so interested in fishing for more witnesses at the early stages of the impeachment trial? Why can’t they simply call for votes on witnesses after the cases have been presented by both sides, just like it was done in the last presidential impeachment? Senator Ted Cruz has some ideas.Sen. Cruz: ‘Don’t Be Fooled by Democrats’ Last-Minute Fishing Attempt to Bring in yet More Witnesses Into the Senate’“Don’t be fooled by Democrats’ last-minute fishing attempt to bring in yet more witnesses into the Senate. Democrats had months of one-sided partisan hearings in the House, and they explicitly chose to withdraw their subpoena when a witness challenged it in court. The Senate will determine whether or not we need to hear more witnesses from both sides after we have heard opening arguments from both sides – the very same approach that received unanimous bipartisan support from the Senate during the Clinton Impeachment Trial.”The biggest risk to the President is not being removed by the Senate. The biggest risk is for Americans to be confused by the narrative being painted by Democrats, one that is intended to harm him in November. As Ted Cruz said, don’t be fooled.American Conservative MovementJoin fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. We have two priorities until election day: Stopping Democrats and supporting strong conservative candidates. We currently have 7500+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.First Name Last Name Email Address Comments SubmitMixi.Media NewsThe post Ted Cruz is right. The Democrats are fishing. appeared first on NOQ Report – Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes. |
| A Bernie staffer proves the left loves guns… but only in their handsPosted: 21 Jan 2020 10:15 PM PSTJames O’Keefe of Project Veritas Action has released a new video of a Bernie Supporter, proving once again why gun sales are through the roof as well as why so many pro-liberty patriots were in Richmond on Monday.The report on Martin Weissgerber a South Carolina Field Organizer for the Sanders Campaign, has these important bullet [pardon the pun] points:Martin Weissgerber, South Carolina Field Organizer, Sanders Campaign: “Leave it to the Soviets to Make the Most Badass F***ing, Most Effective Gun in the World…AK (47)…The Destroyer of Imperialism and Colonization…That’s Why I Want to Get it (AK-47) Tattooed on Me.”Martin Weissgerber: “I’ll Straight Up Get Armed, I Want to Learn How to Shoot, and Go Train. I’m Ready for the F***ing Revolution…I’m Telling You. Guillotine the Rich.”Why it’s a colossal mistake to frame this debate in terms of ‘pro-gun’ and ‘anti-gun’.This and the previous video shows that we on the pro-liberty right are mistakenly casting this debate as one between those that are ‘pro-gun rights’ and those who are ‘anti-gun rights’. This is clearly not the case in these and other prime examples. While there are vestiges of hoplophobia within the ranks of the nation’s socialist left, this is incorrect in most respects. It is likely that most on the left consider firearms in the mindset epitomized with this quote:“All political power comes from the barrel of a gun. The communist party must command all the guns, that way, no guns can ever be used to command the party.” Mao ZedongThe current contentions over freedom make it patently obvious that this is more than an issue of inanimate objects. It has expanded to others issues of the presumption of innocence, privacy and free-speech.The Bottom line: The Left cannot be seen as opposing liberty.The video released today shows that leftists love guns – they just don’t want them in the wrong hands. That means being possessed by those who want to resist their revolutionary aspirations.Leftists see firearms as a means to an end – in more ways than one. They love the fact that we keep ourselves distracted with the side issue of guns, avoiding the central issue of freedom and unalienable human rights. We need to stop doing this with nonsensical terms such ‘anti-gunner’ or similar terms and remain focused on conserving liberty.American Conservative MovementJoin fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. We have two priorities until election day: Stopping Democrats and supporting strong conservative candidates. We currently have 7500+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.First Name Last Name Email Address Comments SubmitMixi.Media NewsThe post A Bernie staffer proves the left loves guns… but only in their hands appeared first on NOQ Report – Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes. |
| Adam Schiff misses badly on impeachment trial’s opening dayPosted: 21 Jan 2020 02:59 PM PSTThere’s a gif that perfectly exemplifies how House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff performed at today’s impeachment trial in the Senate. He took a shot, offering an aggressive series of speeches designed to impose his will on the proceedings. It became very clear in his smugness that he felt with every utterance that he nailed it, that the President was in real trouble now, and that the American people would be dazzled when they see his legal acumen on display as he dismantled the President’s counsel.Except, he didn’t. It was a valiant effort that amounted to a huge embarrassment on a national stage. This is why this gif is Adam Schiff as the impeachment trial begins.It’s clear he believes he’s still on his turf presiding over his committee. That’s why he was so bold, even mentioning on multiple occasions that preventing witnesses from testifying was a bad thing. Keep in mind, this is the same Adam Schiff who not only denied witnesses requested by Republicans, but also prevented them from asking particular questions of the witnesses.Twitter reacted as expected: annoyed. If there’s one person who can get conservatives on Twitter riled up, it’s Adam Schiff.Worst six words I’ve ever heard:“Mr. Schiff, you have an hour.”— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) January 21, 2020Easy to see why Shifty wanted Pat Cipollone removed from Trump’s team. Shifty got his ass handed to him. Welcome to the harsh light of Truth, Schiff! Your little impeachment fantasy is nothing but a dribble on the Senate floor.— Randy Quaid (@RandyRRQuaid) January 21, 2020I know it’s wrong but I’m throughly enjoying Adam Schiff panic on the Senate floor and descend into total madness. I’m not sure the Democrats understand how bad this really is for them.— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) January 21, 2020Raise your hand if you want Adam Schiff called as a witness in #ImpeachmentTrial. — Tim Young (@TimRunsHisMouth) January 21, 2020Quite frankly, having Adam Schiff lecture the Senate about fairness and due process is like listening to an arsonist talk about fire prevention.— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) January 21, 2020Corrupt Liar Adam “Shifty” Schiff is STILL refusing to release the transcript of the October 4th closed-door testimony of Intelligence Community Inspector General Michael Atkinson.Why?— Trump War Room — Text FIGHT to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) January 21, 2020Deputy Counsel to the President Pat Philbin explains why the Dems’ arguments would be “thrown out of court” and why Adam Schiff would be “sanctioned.”The fact Democrats need more evidence “is stunning admission of the inadequate and broken process that the House Democrats ran.” pic.twitter.com/fuHdlBomdn— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) January 21, 2020Adam Schiff shot his shot and no one even noticed— Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec) January 21, 2020Adam Schiff is now suggesting that Professor Alan Dershowitz is not an expert in constitutional lawSchiff is lying again, Dershowitz is one of the most respected legal authorities in the countryAnd it’s telling that Schiff has nothing more than ad hominem#ImpeachmentTrial— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) January 21, 2020Pat Cipollone has never been on TV in his career—and he is kicking Schiff/Nadler/Pelosi’s tails right now. (Yes, I’m biased, but I’m also right.)— Laura Ingraham (@IngrahamAngle) January 21, 2020Cipollone: “Will Adam Schiff give us documents? We asked for them. We’re still waiting.”— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) January 21, 2020Schiff’s lies to instigate this scam are the real “cover up”. Schiff lied about collusion, the transcript, & the whistleblower. He held secret bunker hearings designed to shift opinion on #impeachment.Dems clamoring for fairness are only trying to “cover up” their flimsy case.— Rep. Mark Green (@RepMarkGreen) January 21, 2020House Democrats legal team after watching Cipollone crush Schiff… pic.twitter.com/7PvihIRWcx— Julie Kelly (@julie_kelly2) January 21, 2020Cipollone is crushing Schiff— John Cardillo (@johncardillo) January 21, 2020What Adam Schiff is arguing right now would elevate Congress above the Executive Branch, ending its status as a co-equal branch of governmentSchiff loves the institutions of our Republic so much, he will gleefully destroy them in order to save them— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) January 21, 2020Cipollone is right. @RepAdamSchiff just called for fairness during the Senate trial, but denied Republicans fairness throughout his #impeachment hearings.Schiff just called for more witnesses, but denied Republicans witnesses during his hearings.The list goes on and on… https://t.co/Hjdj1ihGly— Oversight Committee Republicans (@GOPoversight) January 21, 2020Jay Sekulow Demolishes Adam Schiff on Executive Privilege — by Quoting Him https://t.co/4GpVlKBsA0 via @BreitbartNews— Joel B. Pollak (@joelpollak) January 21, 2020Schiff’s argument was just because the house didn’t admit witnesses and evidence doesn’t mean the Senate shouldn’t demand it.. uh.. No..— Stephen Miller (@redsteeze) January 21, 2020Chuck Schumer complains about the schedule, which may go into “the dark of night.”REMEMBER, Adam Schiff conducted 18 depositions from a bunker in the basement of the Capitol. pic.twitter.com/z7gKCX3spw— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) January 21, 2020The Democrats are terrified right now. Cipollone just REKT their bogus case while Adam Schiff helplessly flailed around, spewing nonsensical conspiracy theories. Make no mistake, the Democrats absolutely know this thing is a total disaster. https://t.co/gPIgOzZ3yO— Dan Bongino (@dbongino) January 21, 2020Prosecutor Adam Schiff says @realDonaldTrump is not innocent! Way to go Democrats. No presumption of innocence, no constitutional guarantees. Welcome to America under Democrat rule. #outrage #prejudice #unfair #unjust #unconstitutional— Jeanine Pirro (@JudgeJeanine) January 21, 2020“Oh, and by the way. Will Mr. Schiff give documents?We asked him for documents when, contrary to his prior statements, it turned out that his staff was working with the ‘whistleblower.’We said, ‘Let us see the documents. Release them to the public.’We’re still waiting” pic.twitter.com/8ki3YO4m0K— Elizabeth Harrington (@LizRNC) January 21, 2020Cipollone: Schiff “manufactured a fraudulent version” of the Ukraine call after making false allegationshttps://t.co/i9HBAtlAKE pic.twitter.com/UOUlA6dDZZ— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) January 21, 2020@JaySekulow “Mr. Schiff also talked about a trifecta. I’ll give you a trifecta…” https://t.co/yNegD08mFQ— Sean Hannity (@seanhannity) January 21, 2020We are literally watching SNL in real time. Only difference is Adam Schiff is playing himself.— Kambree Kawahine Koa – Text EMPOWER to 88022 (@KamVTV) January 21, 2020For good measure, here’s one of Schiff’s opponents on President Trump’s defense team, Pat Cipollone, dismantling the California Democrat.If Adam Schiff woke up this morning with hair on fire, it still would have been a better start than he had at today’s impeachment trial. He’s acting like this is his committee over which he lords. But this is the Senate and his feeble impeachment case is already buckling.American Conservative MovementJoin fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. We have two priorities until election day: Stopping Democrats and supporting strong conservative candidates. We currently have 7500+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.First Name Last Name Email Address Comments SubmitMixi.Media NewsThe post Adam Schiff misses badly on impeachment trial’s opening day appeared first on NOQ Report – Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes. |
| Assume lies and cover ups as China’s coronavirus hits the U.S.Posted: 21 Jan 2020 12:53 PM PSTChina’s government is proud and loathes signs of weakness. They are also in a country that relies more on exports and travel than just about any nation in the world. Add in the fact that they have been secretive and have demonstrated a willingness to lie about internal affairs. This is a combination for disaster when it comes to potential large-scale epidemics like the coronavirus.Today, it has officially been confirmed in the United States as a traveler from China has been diagnosed.CDC confirms first US case of coronavirus that has killed 6 in ChinaA male traveler from China has been diagnosed in Snohomish County, Washington State with the Wuhan coronavirus, according to the CDC. The CDC was expected to make the announcement at a Tuesday afternoon media briefing.Public health officials have confirmed more than 300 cases of the illness, which has evoked memories of the 2003 outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome in China. Health officials have also confirmed cases in Thailand, South Korea, Japan and Taiwan.This weekend, the CDC and Homeland Security began screening people traveling to the United States from Wuhan, China, where the outbreak is believed to have started.This should concern every American as well as those in countries with regular travelers to China (which is most nations) because China has not been known to be forthcoming with their health information. First, they either misunderstood the coronavirus or flat-out lied when they declared early on that it was not transmitted person-to-person but instead was the result of a contamination at a fish market. Then, they downplayed the scope and scale to the international community while internally taking full pandemic precautions to isolate Wuhan where it is believed to have originated.This could not have come at a worst time of the year; the upcoming Lunar New Year period is the largest annual human migration on Earth. People will be crammed on buses, trains, and planes as they travel to be with family. It’s a recipe for catastrophe that means it could be even worse than the 2003 SARS epidemic. Even back then, they were far too reticent with health information and allowed it to spread to both the people of China and nations around the globe. Nearly 800 people died worldwidePrecautions are very straightforward, similar to precautions to prevent flu or other viruses from spreading. Doctors say to wash our hands often, avoiding touching eyes, nose, and mouth. Masks are always a benefit, but they may be hard to come by. Online retailers are running out even as some have started to charge premium prices. They’re selling at over 10x the normal rate.Whatever information we hear from China about the coronavirus, assume it’s even worse. Now that it’s in America, we should all take precautions to prevent it from spreading needlessly. Until it’s handled, we cannot take our chances.American Conservative MovementJoin fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. We have two priorities until election day: Stopping Democrats and supporting strong conservative candidates. We currently have 7500+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.First Name Last Name Email Address Comments SubmitMixi.Media NewsThe post Assume lies and cover ups as China’s coronavirus hits the U.S. appeared first on NOQ Report – Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes. |
| Hypocritical Chuck Schumer was right about impeachment… in 1998Posted: 21 Jan 2020 11:55 AM PSTWith all the conservative anger towards House Democrats Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff, and Jerry Nadler, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has been relatively unscathed. But today is the day he’s coming out of his shell and becoming public enemy #1 for conservatives with the meat of the impeachment trial underway.As we contemplate what tricks he’s going to pull out of his sleeve to smear President Trump and subvert the normal course of affairs in the Senate, let’s consider his words from the last Senate impeachment trial. Thanks to Steve A. Von Loor, a Republican running for Congress in NC-04, Tweeted the video above.Back then, the situation was reversed with a Democratic President impeached by a Republican House before the trial turned fruitless in the Senate. And just as Schumer noted then, there’s no reason to call witnesses for an impeachment trial in which there is zero chance 67 Senators are going to vote for the President’s removal from office.Good morning .@SenSchumer. I have here 1999 Chuck with a message for you. #FakeTearsChuck .@realDonaldTrump pic.twitter.com/gGmqrlUvyk— Steve A. Von Loor for Congress (@steveavonloor) January 21, 2020This, arguably more than anything else we’ve heard from these politicians in the past, demonstrates the unambiguous partisan political nature of this impeachment. This is a complete reversal compared to what he’s saying now.The hits keep coming from Senator Schumer. Here’s a section of a letter he wrote during the Clinton impeachment that certainly sounds very differently from what he’s saying now.“It has shaken me that we stand at the brink of removing a President — not because of a popular groundswell to remove him and not because of the magnitude of the wrongs he’s committed — but because conditions in late 20th century America has made it possible for a small group of people who hate Bill Clinton and hate his policies to very cleverly and very doggedly exploit the institutions of freedom that we hold dear and almost succeed in undoing him.”Chuck Schumer is only capable of arguing on behalf of the party he serves. Just as he adamantly opposed the Clinton impeachment, he uses the opposite reasons to attack President Trump. Hypocrisy, thy name is Chucky.American Conservative MovementJoin fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. We have two priorities until election day: Stopping Democrats and supporting strong conservative candidates. We currently have 7500+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.First Name Last Name Email Address Comments SubmitMixi.Media NewsThe post Hypocritical Chuck Schumer was right about impeachment… in 1998 appeared first on NOQ Report – Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes. |
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01/22/2020Share: Carl Cannon’s Morning NoteImpeachment Gamble; Whistleblower; LBJ, R.I.P. Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Jan. 22, 2020. I mentioned Richard Nixon yesterday, and will do so again this morning. It’s a natural reaction, I suppose, among those of us old enough to remember the momentous events of 1973 and 1974. It’s fair to say, regardless of one’s political affiliations, that Bill Clinton’s impeachment wasn’t as searing a national experience as Nixon’s fall from power. The current Senate trial seems even less so, at least to me, although it surely must be roiling the emotions of those who live and work in the White House.We often forget that these are real people in politics, on both sides of the aisle. Much of this is their own fault: Speaking in robotically predictable partisan sound bites hardly enhances their humanity. Yet, sometimes we are reminded that these people are our very mortal brothers and sisters. Forty-seven years ago today was one of those occasions. Lyndon Baines Johnson passed away at his ranch in Texas.I’ll have a further word on LBJ’s death in a moment. First, I’d point you to RealClearPolitics’ front page, which presents our poll averages, videos, breaking news stories, and aggregated opinion pieces spanning the political spectrum. We also offer original material from our own reporters, columnists, and contributors, including the following:* * *Democrats’ “Hurry Up and Wait” Impeachment Gamble. Susan Crabtree and Phil Wegmann report on the impeachment strategy of pushing for Senate trial witnesses whom the House chose not to subpoena.Whistleblower Overheard in ’17 Discussing How to Remove Trump. Paul Sperry has the story in RealClearInvestigations.Carbon Tax Remains Best Incentive for a Low-Carbon Planet. In RealClearPolicy, Ike Brannon urges the government to create incentives for individuals and businesses to invest in potential carbon-reducing technologies.U.S. Investment Needed to Displace Iranian Influence in Lebanon. In RealClearMarkets, Raphael Badani lays out the stakes in a nation that has long been the proxy battleground of Eastern and Western influences.The Argument for Simply Logging Off. In RealClearLife, Lincoln Michel spotlights the new memoir from onetime Silicon Valley denizen Anna Weiner about the dehumanizing impact of our tech revolution.* * *Lyndon Johnson’s last public appearance had been the week before at the inauguration in Austin of new Texas Gov. Dolph Briscoe. Observers say he seemed to be enjoying himself, not always an easy feat for a man who left the political spotlight before he was really ready to do so.The Saturday before he died, the 36th president of the United States had joined wife Lady Bird in a project dear to her heart — the planting of the first in a planned grove of 100 redbud trees along a road by the Pedernales River near the family’s ranch.Days before that, Mrs. Johnson told a friend who asked about her husband’s health that she had noticed no change, save for one thing: He was quieter than usual. After the planting of the redbud tree, Lyndon confided in another friend present for the occasion that he wasn’t feeling well enough to travel to Washington for Richard Nixon’s second inauguration. Two days after the swearing-in, he was gone.His death, coming less than a month after Harry Truman’s passing, left Americans without a living ex-president — and, although no one knew it, a recently reelected chief executive was headed for very stormy seas. Carl M. Cannon Washington Bureau chief, RealClearPolitics @CarlCannon (Twitter) ccannon@realclearpolitics.com |
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| Marines’ Tag of War over FaithPosted: 21 Jan 2020 08:54 PM PST by Tony Perkins: Her son, Sgt. Cole Wixom, was killed on duty — almost one year ago today. His body was flown home to Michigan a week later, but along the way, his mom says, someone gave the soldier accompanying his remains a dog tag with a Bible verse on it. In a letter, she tells Kenny Vaughan, the founder of Shields of Strength, that she’s “worn it ever since, along with the dog tag that was attached to his coffin. I can barely see the writing anymore. It’s tarnished, but I know what it says. It says, ‘I will be strong and courageous. I will not be afraid. I will not be discouraged.’ You have no idea,” the grieving mom said, “what this little piece of metal has meant to me…'” Cole had just turned 24. Like a lot of families, the news that he’d died came as a complete shock. Robyn never expected that when her son flew out for training, she’d never see him again. This “little piece of metal,” as she called it, is one of the few comforts she’s had. But if the activists at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), other moms won’t have that same consolation. The activists there are desperately fighting to destroy the partnership between Shields of Strength and the military — one branch at a time. The Army was first, announcing late last year that it was pulling its emblem from Kenny Vaughan’s products. As stunning as the news was — “They had asked us to do it!” Kenny said — the idea that the Marine Corps would follow suit was just as astounding. And yet, that’s exactly what the trademark office did after MRFF complained this year that the tags had “poison[ed] the constitutionally mandated separation of Church and State.” “Denying our troops a source of inspiration, hope, and encouragement simply because it contains a religious message is an outrage,” Michael Berry, First Liberty’s Chief of Staff, argued. Especially since, as we pointed out when the Army withdrew its support, this isn’t being paid for by government dollars. It’s simply a nonprofit using the trademark license approval it’s been granted to print the Army emblem. So what grounds does MFRF have to say these can’t be produced and voluntarily worn by our military? According to First Liberty, none. These questions, he explained on “Washington Watch” Friday, “are typically run by what we would all affectionately refer to as government bureaucrats in the bowels of the Pentagon. So I want to make sure our listeners know these are not uniformed people in the military who are making these decisions. These are the suit-and-tie types that that work in the Pentagon. And… each branch… has their own their own office.” Obviously, what no one there seems to understand is that this is not an official government endorsement of religion. “I don’t think anybody who goes into a base exchange and buys one of these thinks that somehow the United States of America and its government is telling them, ‘You must believe a certain thing or you must believe a certain way or have a certain religious belief’ simply because they’re choosing to buy [these tags] with their own money,” Berry pointed out. Yet suddenly, Shields of Strength and other companies who specialize in military memorabilia are all being shut down. “It’s getting really out of hand,” he argued, and all because Mikey Weinstein and MRFF sent a single complaint. And the real victims, Mike insists, are the individual Marines. Just a couple of weeks ago, Shields of Strength was contacted by a unit of about 2,000 Marines who all want these dog tags before shipping out to the Middle East. And Kenny had to tell them, “No, I’m sorry. I can’t fulfill your order right now because I’ve [been threatened] by the Trademark Office.” At least for now, Mike says, the Army seems at least willing to work out some sort of agreement. It was a “lukewarm” response, he admitted, but better than the Marine’s — who’ve threatened to shut the whole operation down. To Berry (a Marine himself) and Kenny, the response is alarming. “It’s frustrating that those who are fighting for our freedom can’t [exercise it] simply because the military is afraid of an outside activist group,” Vaughan said. “I hope the Marine Corps reverses course and restores the ability of our brave military members to own a Shield of Strength.” Tony Perkins’s Washington Update is written with the aid of FRC senior writers. ————– Tony Perkins (@tperkins) is President of the Family Research Council . This article was on Tony Perkin’s Washington Update and written with the aid of FRC senior writers. Tags: Marines’ Tag, of War over Faith, Tony Perkins, Family Research Center, FRC, Family Research Council, To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Education Choice Could Shift The Black VotePosted: 21 Jan 2020 08:32 PM PSTby Star Parker: Sometimes the timing of events is so auspicious that it is hard to attribute it to coincidence. The week of Jan. 26 is National School Choice week. First observed in 2011, for the 10th time, events will take place around the nation that are focused on raising awareness about parental choice in K-12 education and the options available to parents and children. A few days before National School Choice week, the Supreme Court will hear oral arguments in the case Espinoza v. Montana Department of Revenue, which will address the constitutionality of the so-called Blaine Amendments, arguably the greatest obstacle to school choice the nation faces. Named after Rep. James G. Blaine, who attempted but failed to enact a federal ban on funding religious schools, 37 states subsequently adopted the provision in their state constitutions. In the case of Espinoza, the state of Montana passed a law allowing dollar-for-dollar tax credits for funds contributed to scholarship programs that parents could use for paying for education in private schools. In that some of these funds would be used for religious schools, the constitutionality of the program was challenged, and the state wound up trashing the whole program. The hope of many, including me, is that the court will find the rationale behind the Blaine Amendments unconstitutional. It will be a victory for both religious freedom and education freedom. It is perverse that the First Amendment, which is meant to guarantee religious freedom, has become a tool for discrimination against religion. After all, when public funds are available for education of any kind and some parents use those funds for a religious school, this is a private choice, not a government mandate. How can this in any way be understood as government establishing religion? It most certainly interferes with the “free exercise” of religion, which the First Amendment protects. A decision wiping out the Blaine Amendment prohibitions will also be another reason to congratulate President Donald Trump, who has given us this solidly conservative Supreme Court. It’s also another factor in why black voters may realign their political allegiances. Education freedom is an issue that deeply divides Republicans and Democrats. And it is an issue on which blacks are more aligned with Republicans. In a May 2019 poll by Education Next, 70% of black Democrats expressed support for targeted vouchers, 60% for universal vouchers and 55% for charter schools. It makes sense. Black parents understand the importance of education. Yet their kids are trapped in the worst public schools in the country. Black parents understand the simple logic of education freedom and the benefits of parents having the power to choose where to send their children to school. President Trump is now advancing Education Freedom Scholarships, which would provide for up to $5 billion in annual tax credits for donations made to scholarships that fund education-choice opportunities. The Democratic presidential candidates across the board want to slam the door on charter schools and education choice. They all see one answer to K-12 education: more federal dollars for public school monopolies. Democrats have their eye on political contributions from teachers unions, not on what children, particularly black children, need. The electoral model that Republicans need to follow for 2020 is that of the 2018 Florida governor’s race. Ron DeSantis defeated his black opponent, liberal Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum, by a margin of 0.4%. DeSantis got 14% of the black vote and 18% of the black female vote. By most analyses, the explanation for this unusually high black support is that DeSantis is a stalwart on education freedom and parental choice. Education could, and should, be a defining issue in 2020, and be what makes a critical difference in moving black votes into the Republican column. —————– Star Parker (@UrbanCURE)is an author at and president of CURE, the Center for Urban Renewal and Education. CURE is a non-profit think tank that addresses issues of race and poverty through principles of faith, freedom and personal responsibility. Tags: Star Parker, Center for Urban Renewal and Education, CURE, Education Choice, Could Shift, The Black Vote To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| The Show Trial BeginsPosted: 21 Jan 2020 08:24 PM PSTCal Thomasby Cal Thomas: The contrast could not have been starker. One picture showed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi smiling as she signed (with numerous pens) two articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump. She passed out the pens like souvenirs to fellow Democrats. They were embossed in gold with her signature and rested on silver trays. The other picture was of Trump signing Phase 1 of a new trade deal with China. Which picture depicted events of greater long-term benefit to Americans? Unless you are a rank partisan out to remove Trump from office by whatever means, the obvious answer is the China trade deal. The latest wrench thrown into the machinery of government comes from Democrats who released to their compliant media friends a “note to self” written on a hotel notepad supposedly by Lev Parnas, a former associate of Rudy Giuliani, the president’s personal attorney and a frequent flyer to Ukraine. The note said, “Get [Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy] to announce that the Biden case will be investigated.” Democrats claim Parnas was an intermediary in the effort to get Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden and his son, Hunter Biden. Parnas’ credibility would be in doubt were he under oath before a court, instead of “testifying” on various cable TV programs. Parnas heads a company that claims to combat fraud. Oh, the irony! Democrats insist the Senate trial be “fair.” How is it fair when House Democrats continue to leak documents they hope will damage the president and influence senators to vote for his removal from office? Some Democratic senators, who will sit in judgment of the president, have already declared him guilty. It is politics at its worst and opens the door, as some of the Founders warned, for “normalizing” impeachment. Historical background is always helpful and so I consulted the National Constitution Center, a private, nonprofit organization and a leading platform for constitutional education and debate, where I found this: The “high crimes and misdemeanors” language (in the Constitution) remains controversial today. In two essays … Neil J. Kinkopf and Keith E. Whittington looked at the Founder’s vision: The Framers meant for the phrase ‘high crimes and misdemeanors’ to signify only conduct that seriously harms the public and seriously compromises the officer’s ability to continue. If the phrase is given a less rigorous interpretation, it could allow Congress to influence and control the President and the courts …The article continues: “When the Founders wanted to ensure accountability, they mostly relied on elections and the voters to hold government officials responsible for their actions,” said Whittington. “But what might fall into the category of ‘other high Crimes and Misdemeanors’ was still quite unclear.” Trump’s call to Ukraine’s president, which is at the heart of the impeachment articles, does not meet the standard of seriously harming the public or compromising the president’s ability to do his job as shown by the China trade deal and the USMCA trade agreement between the U.S., Mexico, and Canada, both signed and passed days after impeachment. That the Government Accountability Office says the president “broke the law” by withholding $250 million in military aid to Ukraine, aid Congress had approved, doesn’t help the president’s defenders, but does it rise to the level of a “high crime and misdemeanor”? Senators will decide. But they should recall that in 2014 the GAO ruled President Barack Obama’s prisoner deal to exchange Guantanamo Bay detainees for deserter Bowe Bergdahl violated federal law. Obama was not impeached. Pelosi summed up the true motives of Democrats when she said that regardless of what the Senate does, impeachment will be a “permanent stain” on Trump’s legacy. In fact, the stain will be on Democrats. It is Democrats who have plotted ways to reverse the will of voters who elected Trump. It is Democrats who fear he will be overwhelmingly re-elected in November. ——————– Cal Thomas (@calthomas) is a syndicated columnist, author, broadcaster, and speaker with access to world leaders, U.S. presidents, celebrities, educators, and countless other notables. Article shared in The Daily Signal. Tags: Cal Thomas, Show Trial Begins, The Daily Signal To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Senate Trial Begins, Donald Dominates Davos, Richmond RiotsPosted: 21 Jan 2020 08:11 PM PSTGary Bauerby Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Senate Trial Begins The Senate’s phase of the impeachment proceedings begins in earnest today. That said, most of the day is being consumed with procedural debates over the rules that will govern that course of the trial. There will be several hours of debate over competing resolutions offered by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer. McConnell’s proposal, which broadly mirrors Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial, provides: 24 hours for the House impeachment managers to present their case.24 hours for the president’s defense team to present its case.16 hours of senators’ questions.After 64 hours of debate and questions, the Senate could then consider whether it needs to hear from additional witnesses. Republicans would like to see the impeachment trial wrapped up before the president’s State of the Union Address, which is scheduled for February 4th – two weeks from today. But Schumer is demanding the right to call additional witnesses now, essentially continuing the House’s impeachment investigation in the Senate, which could drag on for weeks. That’s an enormous problem for McConnell and the Trump/Pence agenda since Senate rules dictate that the impeachment trial takes precedence over virtually everything else. Most Senate business, including the confirmation of judges, grinds to a halt until the impeachment trial concludes. In related news, the White House announced yesterday that the following members of Congress will assist the president’s legal team during the impeachment trial: Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA)Rep. Mike Johnson (R-LA)Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH)Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-AZ)Rep. Mark Meadows (R-NC)Rep. John Ratcliffe (R-TX)Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY)Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY).Donald Dominates Davos President Donald Trump addressed the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, today. He proudly declared, “The American dream is back, bigger, better and stronger than ever before.” I will paraphrase the rest of the president’s remarks, which you can watch. Trump talked about the greatness of Europe over the centuries. He noted that many European cities have great landmarks built many hundreds of years ago, often constructed with new techniques that defied conventional construction practices of the time. He predicted continued technological breakthroughs that are impossible to imagine today. His point was simply this: Human engineering and innovation have overcome tremendous challenges, and we should reject the naysayers and pessimists. It was a quintessentially optimistic American message and stood in stark contrast to Greta Thunberg’s message of environmental gloom and doom. It wasn’t that long ago when the “experts” said we were all going to starve to death, that energy would be scarce, that we would all freeze to death. They were all wrong. The president took on the globalist, open borders crowd by urging every country to put its citizens, workers and families first. He forcefully rejected socialism, and called on world leaders to support a “pro-worker, pro-citizen, pro-family agenda” to make all nations thrive. In short, President Trump defended everything the left is attacking. He proudly declared that country matters, that workers matter, and that family is the core of society. So today, while Nancy Pelosi, Chuck Schumer and Adam Schiff are being as small as they can possibly be by pushing this sham impeachment, which risks shrinking America in the process, the president was boldly commanding the world stage. What a contrast! Richmond Riots? For the first time in a generation, the left has complete control of Virginia. It immediately set out to expand the right to abortion while limiting the right of individuals to protect their families. For many years people of all economic backgrounds and races have attended what’s known as “Lobby Day” at the state capitol in Richmond to rally in support of the Second Amendment. While the left often criticized the rally, this year was different. For days leading up to the event, the media described it as a gathering of white nationalists and extreme militia members. Apparently these proud Americans didn’t get the memo. CNN and MSNBC led the media smear machine, while Gov. Ralph Northam and progressive Democrats fueled the controversy with a pointless state of emergency that suspended gun rights. (Kudos to the brilliant writers at the Babylon Bee for satirically exposing the media’s twisted hysteria.) More than 20,000 people showed up yesterday, and there was not one incident of violence. There was only one arrest – a 21 year-old woman refused to remove her bandana from her face. How can that be? Where were the riots? Well, these were law-abiding gun owners exercising their rights. Sadly, the left despises them and is trying to turn them into criminals. But it fits a disturbing pattern. The left is trying to marginalize and redefine as “hate” every position central to the conservative worldview. If you believe in the Second Amendment, the left says you’re a militia member who hates government. If you believe in the sanctity of life, the left insists you hate women. If you believe in borders, the left insists you hate foreigners and Hispanics. If you believe marriage is between a man and woman, the left says you’re homophobic. If you believe that men and women really are different, that boys shouldn’t be in girls locker rooms, the left says you’re transphobic. If you are concerned about radicalism in the Islamic world, the left says you’re Islamophobic. If you believe in America, the left says you’re a nativist bigot. As I have said before, the left isn’t just trying to impeach Donald Trump. It’s trying to impeach YOU. It wants to throw YOU out of the public square. My friends, we are in the middle of an epic battle for the heart and soul of America. Please, while you’re thinking about it, make a donation of any amount you can afford to help us defeat the radical left this November. ——————- Gary Bauer (@GaryLBauer) is a conservative family values advocate and serves as president of American Values and chairman of the Campaign for Working Families Tags: Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families, Senate Trial Begins, Donald Dominates Davos, Richmond Riots To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Celebrating Buzz Aldrin’s 90th BirthdayPosted: 21 Jan 2020 08:12 PM PSTAstronaut Edwin E. “Buzz” Aldrin, Jr. saluting the U.S. flag on the surface of the Moon during the Apollo 11 lunar mission. (July 20, 1969, NASA photo)by Ralph Benko, Contributing Author: There were giants in the earth in those days… mighty men which were of old, men of renown. Yesterday we celebrated the 90th birthday of Buzz Aldrin, one of the last living titans of an epic era. Half a century ago, Buzz, with Neil Armstrong, did something that had been synonymous with “the impossible.” They landed their spaceship, the Eagle, on the moon. This was rapidly followed by Armstrong and Aldrin’s doing the very first true “moonwalk.” Enthralled, I watched the landing and that walk on a black and white TV in the student center at Clarion State College. They planted the American flag. Not to claim the moon for America but with a declaration that they had come in peace for all mankind. They collected lunar samples, took photos, accepted a congratulatory phone call from President Nixon. With a felt-tipped pen, Aldrin fixed the ascent engine’s broken circuit breaker that threatened doom. To complete this picture let us now praise the third member of the Apollo XI trio, command module pilot Michael Collins, who, orbiting high above Tranquility Base, entered into possibly the loneliest situation ever experienced by modern man: intermittently alone and out of contact with everyone from Earth to moon, sailing alone, above, over the dark side of the moon. Drama? The very survival of these astronauts was no sure thing. Presidential speechwriter William Safire had pre-written a eulogy should their lives be forfeited. Then, Armstrong and Aldrin blasted off, rendezvoused with Collins, docked, and returned to Earth. These three had challenged the Heavens and returned in triumph. Much of Earth had its eyes turned Heavenward throughout. What visual drama! Three brave souls launched skyward on a pillar of fire of Biblical proportions. They returned dangling from a cluster of parachutes resembling angels’ wings. All the astronauts (and with less fanfare, the cosmonauts) re-enacted this scene. That said, Apollo XI enacted it having just done the impossible. Heroic feats provide great spectacle. This one was a doozy. It was followed by a recovery by the aircraft carrier USS Hornet, ticker tape parades, the Congressional Gold Medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Honors galore. That said, spectacles come and go. A fickle public quickly forgets who did what. Players readily are relegated to an encyclopedia entry, a Jeopardy question, a book or books that make a ripple and disappear. The human flight space program, however, especially Project Apollo and its apotheosis, Apollo XI, was more than a spectacle. It was the most glamorous element of an epic struggle between the United States of America and the Soviet Union. Epics appeal to the most powerful force of the human mind: the imagination. Epics are for the ages. History is one thing. Epics are another. Who doesn’t know the stories of love and war, of the heroic Achilles of the “Iliad” and the story of the “Odyssey” with Odysseus’s homecoming long thwarted by the wrath of a god, the exotic adventures, routing the suitors, the reclaiming of wife, son, home, and Ithaca’s throne? Other epics? Virgil’s “Aeneid,” tale of the travels of the founder of Rome; the epic of “Gilgamesh” and the quest for immortality; the books of “Exodus” and “Kings”; Malory’s “King Arthur”; the “Ramayana” and “Mahabharata.” Fictional epics such as “War and Peace” or “Gone With the Wind.” Indelible. The 20th century was defined by three epic struggles: World War I and the collapse of Empire; World War II and the defeat of Nazism, Fascism, and Japanese Militarism; and the Cold War — really, World War III — and the triumph of liberal republican capitalism over totalitarian communism. America’s rival had shocked the world by launching the first artificial satellite, Sputnik, and again by putting the first man into space, Yuri Gagarin. These landed a blow to the prestige of America. President Kennedy took up the gauntlet, and, on September 12, 1962 announced that America would send men to the moon and return them safely by the end of the decade. After a truly epic effort, embodying the work of many thousands, we did the impossible. America thereby recovered its prestige as a scientific and technological superpower. The astronauts were the knights of our era, clad in the high-tech suits of armor. Our astronauts shared the credit widely and yet were seen as, and were, the tip of the spear. They put their lives on the line to win the crucial Cold War battle for the commanding heights. They won that battle with honor, vigor, and flair. The future will remember our astronauts, especially Aldrin, Armstrong, and Collins whereby the human flight space program reached a crescendo, as paramount figures of our era’s defining epic. The names of the heroes of space will live forever in human memory. Their story was not merely epic. It was an epic. Happy birthday, Buzz Aldrin. ————————— Ralph Benko is Chairman, The Capitalist League and contributor to the ARRA News Service.. Tags: Ralph Benko, The Capitalist League, Celebrating, Buzz Aldrin, 90th Birthday To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Sanders and Biden Clash Over Social SecurityPosted: 21 Jan 2020 06:56 PM PSTby Yuval Rosenberg: With less than two weeks to go before the Iowa caucuses, Social Security has emerged as a major point of contention in the Democratic presidential primary. The fight: Sen. Bernie Sanders recently amped up his criticism of Joe Biden’s record on protecting the safety net program, criticizing the former vice president for what he described as a decades-long record of openness to bipartisan reforms that would cut Social Security benefits or raise the retirement age. The Sanders campaign pointed to Biden statements related to Social Security dating back to 1984 and to Biden’s support in 1995 for a balanced budget amendment. Biden’s camp hit back — and brought more media attention to Sanders’s criticism in the process. Biden on Saturday demanded an apology from the Sanders campaign for circulating what he called a “doctored” video that suggested he agreed with Paul Ryan in 2018 regarding the need to cut Social Security benefits. The video wasn’t altered, but Biden’s camp claims his remarks were sarcastic and taken out of context. (Biden, in those 2018 comments, did go on to say that Social Security “still needs adjustments.”) Biden’s camp insists that the former vice president is “a champion of Social Security” and points out that he’s now pushing for the program’s expansion. “He’s running on a plan to significantly grow its benefits, paid for with new taxes on the wealthiest Americans,” a campaign spokesperson told Reuters. Sanders reportedly acknowledged that the one video in question didn’t provide the whole context of Biden’s remarks, but he continued to hammer away at his broader point. “I think anyone who looks at the vice president’s record understands that, time after time after time, Joe has talked about the need to cut Social Security,” Sanders told reporters Sunday at a campaign stop in Concord, New Hampshire. Sanders’ campaign manager, Faiz Shakir, said Biden “should be honest with voters and stop trying to doctor his own public record of consistently and repeatedly trying to cut Social Security.” Sen. Elizabeth Warren on Sunday joined in on the attack on Biden. “Bernie Sanders and I established the ‘Expand Social Security Caucus’ in the Senate,” she told Politico. “As a senator, Joe Biden had a very different position on Social Security, and I think everyone’s records on Social Security are important in this election.” The context: Biden now calls for preserving and expanding Social Security, including scrapping the payroll tax cap and increasing benefits for older Americans. “There will be no compromise on cutting Medicare & Social Security, period. That’s a promise,” Biden said Monday at the 2020 Iowa Brown & Black Presidential Forum. But, as the Sanders camp says, he has previously been willing to negotiate with Republicans over deals that would have slowed the growth of Social Security benefits or raised the retirement age. “Biden during his time in the Senate publicly expressed an openness to either freezing year-over-year cost-of-living increases, as part of a bipartisan plan to slow federal spending, or raising the retirement age in order to preserve the program while managing the federal budget,” CNN’s Gregory Krieg reports. The Obama administration also negotiated a debt-reduction “grand bargain” with Republicans that, had it not collapsed, would have slowed Social Security cost-of-living increases and raised the Medicare eligibility age in exchange for new taxes. Sanders, meanwhile, has been a consistent advocate for expanding Social Security and opposed cuts proposed during the Obama administration. Last year, he reintroduced legislation to shore up the program’s finances and raise benefits by increasing payroll taxes on incomes above $250,000 and imposing a new tax on investment income. Why it matters: The latest battle, and Biden’s current position, highlights a shift in the Democratic Party. “In proposing a Social Security plan during the primary with none of the cuts or changes he once countenanced, Biden has moved more toward Sanders — a triumph for a progressive movement that fought for years to ensure Democratic politicians would only consider growing the program, instead of raising age eligibility requirements or freezing cost-of-living adjustments to make it pay out less,” Politico’s Marc Caputo and Holly Otterbein wrote recently. The political question now is just how vulnerable Biden might be with the Democratic electorate, or facing off against Trump, given his past positions. So is the idea of a grand bargain dead? “[T]he Sanders campaign is doctoring fiscal reality, which is that Social Security can’t continue in its present form. As early as this year Social Security benefits will exceed the amount collected in payroll taxes. This means benefits will have to be paid out of trust-fund asset reserves set to run out in 2035,” The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board argued. “It’s possible the Social Security attack will hurt Mr. Biden in Iowa, which has an older population than most states. But the larger damage will be to the cause of fiscal compromise if a Democrat wins the White House. Mr. Trump has little interest in reforming entitlements, and House Democrats would block him anyway. The best chance at a bipartisan reform would be a Democrat like Mr. Biden or Michael Bloomberg working with a GOP Congress.” Given Biden’s latest pledge to protect Social Security, any bipartisan “grand bargain” might have to take a very different form than the last one. ————————— Yuval Rosenberg (@yuvalrosenberg) is the editor for The Fiscal Times. Tags: Sanders, Biden, Clash Over, Social Security, Yuval Rosenberg To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Progressive PetardsPosted: 21 Jan 2020 06:28 PM PSTby Dr. Victor Davis Hanson: Since at least 2016, CNN has mostly ceased being a news agency, but that hasn’t stopped it from being an active participant in #TheResistance. The network is so caught up in the fervor of this movement that many of its guests and regular hosts have been fired, reprimanded, or apologized for threats to the president or general obscene references (e.g., Reza Aslan, the late Anthony Bourdain, Kathy Griffin). Many of its marquee reporters have resigned, were fired, or reassigned for fake-news bias (e.g., Thomas Frank, Eric Lichtblau, and Lex Haris), or came under fire for false reporting (Jim Sciutto, Marshall Cohen, and Carl Bernstein) or have had to offer retractions and/or apologies (Gloria Borger, Eric Lichtblau, Jake Tapper, and Brian Rokus.) Its anchors have apologized for obscenity (Anderson Cooper) or simply making up false statements (Chris Cuomo), while analysts have been caught in a number of contradictions about their own role in on-going scandals (James Clapper). The common denominator has been the new journalistic ethos that aborting the Trump presidency justifies any means necessary to achieve such noble ends. Throughout CNN’s descent into parody, progressives still smiled at the usefulness of CNN for the larger project of delegitimizing the Trump presidency. Few understood the Thucydidean concept that once nihilists destroy norms and protocols of ethical behavior for perceived short-term advantage, they usually rue the loss when they themselves become victims of their own biased zealotry and are in dire need of the civilizational help they recently ruined. So it was last week, when CNN moderator Abby Phillip warped the recent Democratic presidential primary debate by not asking, so much as accusing, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) about a claim that he said a woman such as Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) could not be elected president—in the fashion of a “When did you stop beating your wife?” question: “Senator Sanders, CNN reported yesterday, and Senator Warren confirmed in a statement, that in 2018 you told her that you did not believe that a woman could win the election. Why did you say that?” Leftists were outraged at the CNN host’s flagrant bias—as if there was gambling really going on in Casablanca, as if CNN’s own Candy Crowley had not attempted to hijack the second 2012 presidential debate to aid favorite Barack Obama, or as if CNN’s Donna Brazile had not leaked a debate question to aid Hillary Clinton in 2016. Diversity Drama The same irony is on display with the Democratic presidential field. One strange theme has been dominant since the primary debates began: the more the white frontrunners pontificated on “diversity” and deplored “white privilege,” the whiter the Democratic field seemed to grow—until there were no nonwhite candidates left. Those who followed the Democratic field were vexed, given that for three decades the Left has canonized its two fundamental identity politics principles of “proportional representation” and “disproportional impact.” These are the rather strange ideas that racial, ethnic, and gender groups must be represented in coveted jobs and billets according to their percentages in the general population—and its addendum that if there was not proper proportional representation, then no evidence of bias or discrimination was needed to take reparatory action to ensure that race governed hiring and admissions. Thus, according to progressive doctrine, the white liberals and democratic socialists on the Democratic debate platform, not Democratic voters, pollsters, and donors themselves, are in a way culpable for the absence of candidates of color, whether or not a Biden, Buttigieg, Sanders, or Warren was guided by prejudicial behavior in beating a Booker, Castro, Harris, Patrick, or Yang. Perhaps if the Democratic candidates lived by the rules they had enforced on universities or other public agencies, then an underrepresented Cory Booker or Julian Castro would have been by fiat reinstated on the debate stage and an “overrepresented” Bernie Sanders or Pete Buttigieg, the beneficiaries of centuries of “white privilege,” would be passed over from the opportunity—for the greater societal good of diversity. The idea that a Biden or Warren “earned” their stronger polling or greater fundraising, based on any meritocratic notion of out-debating, out-hustling, out-campaigning, or out-politicking a Harris, Castro, or Booker would be considered not just absurd, but proof of the bias of any who embraced such a structurally racist position. Absurd? Perhaps, but for the rest of the country that has been lectured unceasingly by progressive elite scolds, it was pure schadenfreude. Impeachment Indiscretion Democrats may also be hoisted by their own petard in the ongoing impeachment psychodrama. They more or less rigged the House impeachment proceeding, by using their majority to depart from past practice. They monopolized the witness lists, selectively leaked, and rushed to indict Trump on the theory that every day the president was not impeached was another day the country was endangered. Then when bipartisan support never appeared, when there was no special counsel’s damning report, when there was no public majority support, and when there was not the appearance of constitutional indictments for treason, bribery, and specific high crimes and misdemeanors, the impeachment writs simply sat, ossifying as if the House prosecutors suddenly wished to be sober, judicious, and reflective, when in truth they were finagling ways to fortify their anemic writs before what they feared would be a disastrous and embarrassing Senate acquittal. Democrats insisted that the Senate trial have witnesses and that Republican senators conduct the proceeding in a nonpartisan fashion antithetical to the partisan manner in which they had rammed through impeachment in the House. In other words, Democrats demanded that Senator Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) not replay the roles of Reps. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), and Adam Schiff (D-Calif.). Yet the obvious expectation in such a free-for-all impeachment and trial circus was always that Hunter Biden and Joe Biden would be the most preeminent witnesses called, given Trump’s logical defense that the younger Biden was utterly corrupt, was known to be corrupt but found useful by Ukrainians, and thus naturally such a high-profile case justified presidential suspicions of Ukrainian requests for aid—with the corollary that the elder Biden, the font for Hunter’s ability to leverage money for access, would not be able to testify honestly about the degree to which he knew of his son’s skullduggery. Joe Biden, despite his senior moments and his lifelong reckless speech, may be for now the Democrats only hope to carry the Midwest swing states that sent Donald Trump to the White House. Thus, the Democrats in the very fashion they have conducted themselves throughout this impeachment farce, may be insidiously destroying the candidate with the best chance of regaining the White House—even while likely enhancing Donald Trump’s polls. That the Democrats realized such risks and ignored them, either suggests the Left wants to finish off the Biden candidacy, or their obsessions with destroying Trump outweighs any practical considerations of replacing the president with one of their own. Blinding Rage These are strange times, in which progressives grow near quiet when courageous Iranians hit the streets to protest a murderous government, but express remorse over the killing of one of the most murderous of all Iranian autocrats. For years, leftists have decried the bipartisan kid-gloves treatment of China, as its mercantilism systematically hollowed out the old Democratic blue-collar base in the Midwest—only to blast the first president who agreed that China had to be confronted before it eroded what was left of the American industrial heartland. And we were always warned to fear the government overreach of the intelligence agencies, even as ex-high officials go on liberal networks, warping their use of their security clearances, to contextualize their own previous unethical behavior. Of all the strange symptoms of Trump Derangement Syndrome, progressive self-immolation is the strangest. ———————— Victor Davis Hanson (@VDHanson) is a senior fellow, classicist and historian and Illie Anderson Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution where many of his articles are found; his focus is classics and military history. He has been a visiting professor at Hillsdale College since 2004. Hanson was awarded the National Humanities Medal in 2007 by President George W. Bush. H/T American Greatness. Tags: Victor Davis Hanson, Progressive Petards To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Working Hard Versus Hardly WorkingPosted: 21 Jan 2020 06:07 PM PSTStephen Moore, Economistby Stephen Moore: Almost all of us know (because President Trump boasts of it in nearly every speech) that our 3.5% unemployment rate has reached a 50-year low. But this official decline in joblessness doesn’t tell the entire story of the improvement in the job market in the United States. And it doesn’t fully capture the change in direction between what happened under President Barack Obama and Trump. In the Obama years, the unemployment rate kept falling after 2010. That’s great. But the untold story was that the number of people moving from the living room couch into jobs was exceeded by the number who dropped out of the workforce, or, as was the case with millions of 20-somethings, never got a job. From January 2009 to December 2016, almost 10 million jobs were added, but amazingly, 1.6 million working-age people dropped out of the workforce. The percentage of people participating in the labor force fell from 65.7% to a low of 62.7% under Obama. Generally, in a recovery, job seekers rise as jobs reemerge. A chart from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the trend in labor force participation and the unemployment rate adjusted for labor force dropouts from 2009-2019. The strange thing about the Obama recovery was more jobs and less willing workers. When a person isn’t looking for a job, for whatever reason, they do not get labeled as unemployed. The joke a few years ago was that Obama would shrink the unemployment rate to zero through the magic formula of driving millions out of the workforce. In a world where everyone is living off of welfare or a trust fund, and no one is looking for a job — there are officially no unemployed people. Under Trump, we are experiencing the best of all worlds. Unemployment is down, and the labor force participation rate is finally starting to grow again, albeit still slower than needed. Some 2.3 million more people have entered the workforce under Trump. Part of the rise in the workforce is undoubtedly due to the steady increase in wages, which attracts workers to come off the sideline. Is the healthy job market today due to a continuation of the Obama recovery? Hardly. My Heritage Foundation colleague John Merline ran the numbers. When Obama left office, the Congressional Budget Office, or CBO, predicted the “trend” in hiring. For example, the CBO forecast the unemployment rate would never get below 4.4% and would start rising again in 2019. The current unemployment rate is now a full percentage point below the CBO’s forecast, with 1.6 million more jobs than the Obama trend line would have predicted. The CBO also predicted at the end of the Obama years that the labor force participation rate would continue to fall under Trump. Wrong: It rose. One last point: When I was studying economics in college in the 1970s, the professors and the textbooks instructed us that an unemployment rate of about 4% was “full employment.” Can’t go any lower than that. How good is the job picture today? We now have an unemployment rate a half a percentage point below full employment. So, on a scale of 1 to 10, how does this job market rate? It’s an 11! ——————— Stephen Moore, (@StephenMoore) is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and an economic consultant with Freedom Works. He is the co-author of “Fueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy.” Moore encouraged the ARRA News Service editor at SamSphere Chicago 2008 to blog his articles. His article was in Rasmussen Reports. Tags: Stephen Moore, Steve Moore, Rasmussen Reports, Working Hard, Versus Hardly Working To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Is Mass Civil Disobedience Our Future?Posted: 21 Jan 2020 05:58 PM PSTby Patrick Buchanan: Virginia gun owners believe their moral obligation to protect families, friends and themselves in a violent society justifies their right to keep and carry firearms, no matter what the Virginia legislature says. On the holiday set aside in 2020 to honor Martin Luther King, the premier advocate of nonviolent Gandhian civil disobedience, thousands of gun owners gathered in Richmond to petition peacefully for their rights. King had preached that there was a higher law that justified breaking existing laws that mandated racial segregation. When Rosa Parks refused to give up her seat in the front of the bus in Montgomery, when Freedom Riders integrated bus terminals, when black students sat at segregated lunch counters in North Carolina, they challenged state law in the name of what they said was a higher law. And Virginia gun owners believe their moral obligation to protect families, friends and themselves in a violent society justifies their right to keep and carry firearms, no matter what the Virginia legislature says. Americans have a long history of breaching laws in the name of a higher law or God-given rights. The patriots of Boston gathered an arsenal at Concord in defiance of the British. To protest a tea tax imposed by parliament, they dressed as American Indians and threw shiploads of imported tea into Boston Harbor. Shays’ Rebellion in Massachusetts, to protest debt collections in 1786-87, and the 1794 Whiskey Rebellion in western Pennsylvania, to protest a tax, both had to be crushed with force. Abolitionists supported the violation of fugitive slave laws, the enforcement of which Lincoln endorsed in his first inaugural as a national necessity to restore and preserve the Union. A constitutional prohibition of the sale of beer, wine and liquor in the U.S., following the enactment of the 18th Amendment, led to massive civil disobedience in the Roaring ’20s, before it was repealed in 1933 by the 21st Amendment. During Vietnam, burning draft cards was a regular feature of anti-war rallies. Historians may describe the racial riots of the 1960s — Harlem, Watts, Newark, Detroit, and 100 U.S. cities including Washington, D.C., after King’s assassination — as popular uprisings, but many required National Guard and federal troops to stop the looting, shooting and arson. By the late 1960s, LBJ, who had passed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, could not visit a college campus without a violent demonstration. This week, Washington hosts the 46th annual March for Life to commemorate the 60 million unborn killed in the abortion mills of America since Roe v. Wade in 1973. In conservative states, restrictions imposed on abortion facilities have put some out of business. The legislators and governors who have done so believe the right to life trumps the Warren Court ruling in Roe v. Wade. Perhaps the greatest manifestation of civil disobedience today is the illegal presence of between 12 million and 20 million immigrants who broke into our country or are breaking the law by being here after their visas expired. Their collaborators are the business owners who hire them and the public officials who refuse to treat them as lawbreakers. “Sanctuary cities” have been created where local and state authorities refuse to cooperate with immigration enforcement. Now, towns, cities and counties are creating “Second Amendment sanctuaries,” where laws restricting gun rights will not be enforced. If state and local police, themselves gun owners, stand with those who defy the new state laws on guns, who enforces the new laws? The Virginia Senate has begun to move bills requiring background checks for gun purchasers including red flag laws to disarm individuals deemed at risk to themselves or others, and bills granting permission for locales to restrict the carrying of arms in government buildings and confining the purchases of handguns to one a month. There are other restrictions the Democratic legislature in Richmond and governor are ready to move, including restricting the number of bullets in clips and magazines and halting sales of rifles like the AR-15. Gun owners see these as the onset of an all-out assault on gun rights. For a republic to endure, there has to be a common consent on the rule of law and what constitutes a good society. But these seem to be at issue again in America. Is abortion the killing of an innocent human being? Do Americans have a constitutional and human right to keep and carry firearms to protect themselves and their loved ones? Who is and who is not a rightful resident of our national home? Do illegal migrants have a right to come here and stay here? Or do their numbers imperil our national identity and existence as “one nation and one people”? Violent crime was greater in America in the early 1990s. Urban riots were far more common in the 1960s. And there is nothing today comparable to the bloodletting of the 1861-65 War Between the States. Still, Americans seem to disagree with each other more and to dislike each other more than they have in the lifetime of most of us. One wonders: How does it all stay together? And for how long? ——————– Patrick Buchanan (@PatrickBuchanan) is currently a blogger, conservative columnist, political analyst, chairman of The American Cause foundation and an editor of The American Conservative. He has been a senior adviser to three Presidents, a two-time candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, and was the presidential nominee of the Reform Party in 2000. Tags: Patrick Buchanan, conservative, commentary, Is Mass Civil Disobedience, Our Future? To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Confronting Trump Derangement SyndromePosted: 21 Jan 2020 05:04 PM PSTby Lloyd Marcus: My wife Mary and I spent a wonderful weekend in California with fellow Trump supporters filming the music video for my Trump Train 2020 song. We boarded our flight back home to the East Coast on Sunday at 8 P.M., arriving at BWI airport in Maryland on Monday at 10:30 am. We were exhausted. The taxi driver taking us to our car was listening to NPR. A radio show host and his caller were lying about Trump, venomously declaring him a serial liar. Perhaps it was because I was so tired that I had zero tolerance. I spouted, “Those guys are lying jerks!” I launched into a rant defending my president. The taxi driver pounced. In a heavy Middle-Eastern accent, with a smirk, he said, “You actually believe the president is not a liar? I have lived in this country for 40 years. I am not stupid. Bush left Obama a horrible economy. Obama made things better for everyone.” My feisty wife jumped into the conversation, passionately educating the duped driver. I tapped Mary on the leg, signaling her to stop talking because as their exchange grew more heated, the driver began flailing, taking his hands off the wheel and eyes off the road. I wanted him to calm down and focus on driving. Clearly, our taxi driver was crazed with fake news media-induced Trump Derangement Syndrome. He was not open to hearing truth. Some people are stuck-on-stupid. Trump-deranged black family and friends believe I am a traitor to my race for not worshiping Obama and supporting Trump. They ignore the truth that blacks moved economically backwards under Obama. Blacks are thriving under Trump, enjoying the lowest black unemployment in U.S. history. And yet, my siblings are routinely asked by fellow blacks, “What is wrong with your brother who supports Trump and votes Republican?” Either these blacks are infected with Trump Derangement or stuck-on-stupid. I’m a former Baltimorian. Several Baltimore blacks insist on remembering their Trump hating late Congressman Elijah Cummings as a hero. Because Cummings was black, they accuse me of betraying my race for writing about Cummings’ corruption. Cummings received over $15 billion in federal funds to clean up his rat-infested, record-breaking black-on-black homicide district which has endless blocks of rundown vacant houses. The federal funds magically disappeared without fulfilling their purpose. Cummings’ loyalists absurdly say I am the bad guy, an Uncle Tom tool of Trump and Republicans. These blacks are stuck-on-stupid. The shocking truth is Elijah Cummings did not give a rat’s derriere about improving the lives of or empowering blacks. The same thing is true about the Democrat party, NAACP, Congressional Black Caucus, Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, fake news media, and other faux advocates for blacks. To these leftists, blacks are nothing more than a faithful monolithic voting-bloc of useful idiots. It does not take a genius to recognize that everything good, liberating, and economically empowering for blacks is vehemently opposed by a coalition of leftist faux civil rights activists. The Evil Civil Rights Empire rolls out the red carpet, welcoming illegals who harm blacks economically. The Evil Civil Rights Empire opposes school choice, sentencing urban black students to suffer in failing violent schools. It opposes traditional marriage and defunding Planned Parenthood which focuses on killing black babies. It also opposes academic standards and black behavioral accountability. By its bigotry of lowered expectations, the Evil Civil Rights Empire insinuates that blacks are inferior. It always insists that standards be lowered to make things fair for blacks. Remember the insulting Democrat lie that requiring a photo ID to vote disenfranchises black voters? When Trump announced at the State of the Union that black unemployment was at an historic low, the members of the Congressional Black Caucus sat on their hands, stone-faced, while everyone else in the chamber applauded and cheered. The CBC does not care about blacks. The Evil Civil Rights Empire only cares about gaining power to control every aspect of Americans’ lives to implement its socialist/progressive and anti-Christian agenda. The disgusting dirty secret is the Evil Civil Rights Empire wants blacks solely dependent upon government and uneducated about their constitutional freedoms. It wants blacks believing the lie that a majority of Americans are white supremacists, obsessed with concocting ways to suppress blacks. Its bogus, divisive, destructive, and insidiously evil narrative is “vote for Democrats to keep rabidly racist white America at bay.” That’s the bad news. But be of good cheer, folks. I am extremely pleased to announce great news. Shockingly, 34% of blacks say they support Trump. Wow! That is awesome! To blacks who have seen the light, welcome aboard the Trump Train! To blacks who insist on staying on the Democrats’ government plantation, “You can’t fix stupid.” Even though the taxi driver was annoying, we tipped him. ————– Lloyd Marcus (@LloydMarcus) is an “Unhyphenated American” and an internationally renowned conservative columnist, singer/songwriter and author. He is Chairman of the Conservative Campaign Committee Political Action Committee. He is a prominent voice of the American Tea Party movement and the singer/songwriter of the ”American Tea Party Anthem.” Marcus has been on Fox News, CNN, PJTV and more. Tags: Lloyd Marcus, Confronting, Trump Derangement Syndrome To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Impeachment Trial Day 1: The Senate BeginsPosted: 21 Jan 2020 03:39 PM PST. . . McConnell releases proposed trial rules and Trump’s legal team releases its brief. by Thomas Gallatin: The Senate’s impeachment trial of President Donald Trump begins today. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell released his proposed rules on Monday evening, which predictably had Democrats immediately crying foul. The biggest curve ball in McConnell’s proposal is a rule requiring that all evidence collected by House Democrats be approved via a vote before being admitted into the trial — and then only after opening arguments by both the House Democrats and Trump’s legal team. McConnell’s rules allow for a vote on whether to call witnesses, which Democrats insist on doing. It’s clear that McConnell wants to avoid a drawn-out process, which is exactly what Democrats are aiming for. McConnell allotted 24 hours over two days for partisans on each side to present their case, starting with House Democrats. Then, following the Trump team’s rebuttal, senators will have up to 16 hours to submit questions in writing to both sides. Only after that process is complete will the Senate consider “the question of whether it shall be in order to consider and debate under the impeachment rules any motion to subpoena witnesses or documents.” Furthermore, if the Senate votes to call witnesses, “no testimony shall be admissible in the Senate unless the parties have had an opportunity to depose such witnesses.” And any deposing of witnesses will be done behind closed doors. Also on Monday, Trump’s legal team released its blistering 110-page brief against the Democrats’ articles of impeachment, calling them “an affront to the Constitution and our democratic institutions.” Team Trump adds that the “two flimsy Articles of Impeachment,” which “allege no crime or violation of law whatsoever — much less ‘high Crimes and Misdemeanors, as required by the Constitution,” will “permanently weaken the Presidency and forever alter the balance of power among the branches of government in a manner that offends the constitutional design established by the Founders.” Trump’s acquittal is almost a foregone conclusion given that it would take the votes of 67 senators to convict, though the Democrats’ real ploy is not conviction but political damage. To that end, their aim is to paint Republicans as unfair if they vote against calling witnesses — witnesses House Democrats didn’t bother to call. Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and company do hold the advantage of needing only a simple majority vote to get their witnesses, whom vulnerable Republicans will feel compelled to vote in favor of calling. By getting witnesses called, Schumer hopes to drag out the trial for as long as possible with the hope of damaging Republicans and aiding the Democrats’ bid to gain control of the Senate in the 2020 election. As we grow tired of noting, the Democrats’ whole despicable exercise is purely partisan political theater. ————————— Thomas Gallatin is a Features Editor at The Patriot Post. Tags: Thomas Gallatin, Patriot Post, Impeachment Trial Day 1, The Senate Begins, where’s the beef To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Milk Dud . . .Posted: 21 Jan 2020 03:29 PM PST. . . Where is Hunter Biden and should he give testimony in the Senate trial if they vote to have witnesses. Editorial Cartoon by AF “Tony” BrancoTags: Editorial Cartoon, AF Branco, Milk Dud, Where is Hunter Biden, should he give testimony, Senate trial, if they vote, to have witnesses To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Axis of Evil – 19 Years LaterPosted: 21 Jan 2020 02:55 PM PSTPresident George W Bush speaks about the ‘Axis of Evil’ at the State of the Union Address in 2002.by Donald Kirk: A detail generally overlooked in all we’ve been reading about the misfired Iranian missile that brought down the Ukraine airliner with 176 people aboard: It was almost certainly made in North Korea and sold to Iran or made in Iran from a North Korean design and technology. The relationship between North Korea and Iran revolves around the export to Iran of thousands of short-to-mid-range missiles over the past 20 to 30 years. They’re the type that Iran also ships to Syria and the anti-Israel groups, Hizbullah and Hamas. The missiles that Iran fired at U.S. bases in Iraq in a show of vengeance for the killing of Gen. Qassem Soleimani would also have been North Korean. The relationship goes deep into the history of the region. George W. Bush, in the first state-of-the-union address of his presidency in January 2002, four months after the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon, described an “axis of evil” binding North Korea, Iran and Iraq, then ruled by Saddam Hussein. Iraq’s membership in that infamous grouping may have ended when Bush ordered U.S. troops into Iraq the next year on the basis of phony reports about his nuclear program, but Iran and North Korea have long been in cahoots on nukes and missiles. North Korea has hundreds of advisors “on the ground now” in Iran providing “technical support and training on a variety of systems and capabilities,” says Bruce Bechtol, who’s been watching North Korea ever since serving as a marine in South Korea, then an intelligence analyst in the Pentagon and a faculty member at Marine Corps University in Quantico, Virginia. Bechtol, the author of numerous books and articles on North Korea’s leadership and military structure, says the North has shipped Scud, Rodong and Musudan missiles to Iran and the technology for the intercontinental Taepodong. “North Korea is the seller and Iran is the buyer,” says Bechtol, but that’s not all. The two also collaborate on nuclear technology originally acquired from Abdul Qadeer Khan, the Pakistani nuclear physicist renowned as “father of the Pakistan atomic bomb.” A national hero for his role in arming Pakistan against its historic foe, India, already a nuclear power, A.Q. Khan made a fortune selling nuclear secrets to Iran and North Korea before he was finally arrested and confined to his estate in the Pakistan capital of Islamabad. Iran has yet to fabricate a nuclear warhead but has had teams of scientists, engineers and technicians on hand in North Korea witnessing all six of the North’s underground nuclear tests, last staged in September 2017, as well as numerous missile tests. The bond between Iran and North Korea confronts the U.S. with a serious question that has yet to come up amid all the speculation about U.S. policy toward both countries. Much as President Donald Trump would like to calm fears of an impending war with Iran and come to terms with North Korea on its nukes, he has not spoken of the de facto alliance between the two. Everywhere Iran supports militias and front groups around the middle east, North Korean advisers are there too telling them how to fire those missiles. But how do these missiles get to Iran? A few may go by boat, eluding capture by the U.S. navy and others committed to stopping the traffic, but the easiest, safest, swiftest route is by air. The planes have to go through Chinese air space, possibly stopping in China, and also may be landing in Pakistan. China has long been providing military aid to Pakistan through which it’s building a road across the Himalayas all the way to the Arabian Sea. Both Pakistan and China count on Iran as a major source of oil. China in turn provides North Korea with virtually all its oil. As Muslim countries, Pakistan and Iran have been on good terms for years. The enduring nature of the Teheran-Pyongyang axis, however, does not mean that a wider war is inevitable in either the Middle East or northeast Asia. Protests in Teheran may force the government to pull back, to avoid conflict, while Kim focuses on economic issues. If Kim does have a “strategic new weapon,” however, it’s certain that Iranian and North Korean scientists and engineers are working on it and both sides will have it. That’s assuming such a fearsome weapon really exists. —————– Donald Kirk has been covering war and peace in the region for decades. FPI, Free Press International Tags: Donald Kirk, Axis o Evil, 19 years later, Free Press international To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Twitter and IranPosted: 21 Jan 2020 02:31 PM PSTby Kerby Anderson, Contributing Author: Two weeks ago, it seemed like there might be a major confrontation between the US and Iran. Garrett Graff, writing in Wired, suggested that Twitter may have helped stop a war with Iran. That might be a bit of an overstatement, but it does illustrate how international conflict might be affected by something as simple as social media. He has written about the Cold War and reminds us how difficult communication was between Russia and the US during the Cuban Missile Crisis. If you are over the age of 60 or if you have watched the movie “Thirteen Days” then you might have some understanding of the struggles the countries had in trying to communicate. Communications moved slowly. It took the US Embassy in Moscow nearly 12 hours to encode a message from the Soviet Union. The Soviet Embassy had to rely on a bicycle messenger from the local DC office of Western Union. Because of all the problems, the two countries developed a hotline between the two leaders. Compare that to what happened the night Iran launched missiles at military bases in Iraq. At 9:32 pm ET, the Iranian foreign minister posted a tweet that Iran has “concluded” a proportionate response. It added that Iran did “not seek escalation or war.” It’s worth mentioning that he speaks fluent English since he received a PhD in international law from the University of Denver and has a Twitter account with 1.4 million followers. Just 12 minutes later, President Trump tweeted to his 70 million followers a sober and encouraging message. It simply said “all is well” and “so far, so good.” Reading between the lines, you could assume that the US would take no further actions, and everyone could go to bed. I doubt anyone involved in developing Twitter ever thought it could be used for international diplomacy. But earlier this month, that is exactly how it was used. —————- Kerby Anderson (@kerbyanderson) is a radio talk show host heard on numerous stations via the Point of View Network (@PointofViewRTS) and is endorsed by Dr. Bill Smith, Editor, ARRA News Service. Tags: Kerby Anderson, Viewpoints, Point of View, Twitter and Iran To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| White House Lawyer Defending Trump in Trial Seen as No ‘Showboat’Posted: 21 Jan 2020 02:23 PM PSTPat Cipolloneby Karen Freifeld, IJR via Reuters: When White House counsel Pat Cipollone argues President Donald Trump’s case in a Senate trial in the coming days, he will also be defending his role in a controversial legal strategy that helped lead to Trump’s impeachment on a charge of obstructing Congress. Democratic lawmakers managing the impeachment case say Trump undertook “an unprecedented campaign” to prevent Congress from probing allegations that he pressured Ukraine to investigate a political rival, former Vice President Joe Biden. One of the main pieces of evidence to support the obstruction charge – Trump was also charged with abuse of power – is a widely criticized letter written by Cipollone on Oct. 8 in which he said Trump could not permit the administration to participate in the Ukraine investigation, which he described as an illegal attempt to remove a democratically elected president. Cipollone’s letter thrust the lawyer to the forefront of the administration’s battle against the impeachment inquiry in the Democratic-led House of Representatives, bringing him public attention that friends and colleagues say he has long eschewed, unlike many of Trump’s lawyers. The arguments and political tone in his letter, uncharacteristic for a White House counsel, drew rebukes from many legal experts, including former law school classmates, who said it distorted the law for “cable news consumption.” While Cipollone declined to comment for this story, Jay Sekulow, another leading member of Trump’s legal team, defended him, saying the arguments in Cipollone’s letter were “exactly what the founders had in mind in crafting a constitution that respects separation of powers.” Now Cipollone will be in a much brighter spotlight in a televised trial that will take him from his second-floor White House office – where he has a photograph of his family, including his 10 children, with Trump – to the Senate chamber, where he will help lead the Republican president’s defense. The trial begins in earnest in the Senate on Tuesday. Democrats have called for Trump’s removal from office, describing him as a danger to American democracy and national security. Trump and his lawyers say he has done nothing wrong and that Democrats are simply trying to stop him from being re-elected. Trump is expected to be acquitted in the trial in the Republican-controlled chamber. ‘RARE COMBINATION’ While Trump was at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for the Christmas holidays, Cipollone was in his office working on his trial arguments on a yellow legal pad, according to a person familiar with his preparations. “He’s going to give a thoughtful, substantively sound presentation,” U.S. Secretary of Labor Eugene Scalia, who attended the conservative-leaning University of Chicago Law School with Cipollone, said in an interview. “He is a rare combination of law review smart and street smart,” said Scalia, who was editor-in-chief of the school’s legal journal when Cipollone was on staff. Though plain-spoken, Cipollone is expected to avoid Trump-like rhetorical bombs when he argues that there were no grounds for House Democrats to charge Trump with abuse of power or obstructing Congress. The 53-year-old Republican will likely say that Trump was exercising his right to protect confidential communications. His argument will follow those of the House managers who are presenting the case against Trump. Cipollone, who became White House counsel in December 2018, was first introduced to Trump by conservative television host Laura Ingraham in 2016, when he was a partner at a boutique Washington law firm. He helped Trump prepare to debate his then-Democratic election opponent, Hillary Clinton. Ingraham, in an interview, described Cipollone as a devoted Catholic who is calm and methodical and a spiritual mentor to her. She said he was not a “showboat.” Cipollone, a 6-foot-3-inch bespectacled man, is the son of an Italian factory worker who named him Pasquale. He goes to mass often, perhaps as often as every day, according to a person who knows him, and participates in the annual March for Life in Washington that protests abortion. Jonathan Missner, managing partner of Stein Mitchell Beato & Missner, the firm Cipollone left to join the Trump administration, noted that Cipollone spent his early years in the Bronx in New York City, where he was raised to prize loyalty and trust. “Pat’s very loyal to his clients,” Missner said. In his Oct. 8 letter to the House leadership, Cipollone appeared to show loyalty to Trump as he argued against the impeachment inquiry and highlighted Trump’s efforts to “fix our broken immigration system” and grow the economy. After the letter, not a single document was produced by the White House, the State Department and other government agencies in response to 71 requests or subpoenas for records, according to the House’s report on the impeachment inquiry. The administration also sought to block current and former officials from testifying. Neil Eggleston, who served as White House counsel to Democratic President Barack Obama, said Cipollone’s response arguably helped lead to the second article of impeachment, obstruction of Congress. Eggleston said it was “a mistake” to announce the executive branch was not going to cooperate. ‘I AM READY’ Despite his conservatism, Cipollone has friends across the aisle. Democratic Representative Adam Smith, a former college classmate of Cipollone’s and fellow debate team member at Fordham University in New York, has remained friends with Cipollone despite their political differences. “We try to see past that,” said Smith, who recalled that Cipollone had supported Senator Al Gore in his unsuccessful bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1988. When Smith, chair of the House Armed Services Committee, was working on a bill to fund the Pentagon, he said Cipollone put in a good word for him with the White House’s legislative team. Smith said he obviously disagrees with Cipollone’s approach on the impeachment inquiry, but “we don’t talk about that.” Melanie Sloan, a law school classmate who describes herself as being politically progressive, said Cipollone was an “enormously smart, honest, ethical person,” and added that she was surprised when he went to work for Trump. She said Cipollone had told her he did not see Trump the way she did. “I can’t explain it,” she said. But being White House counsel was the pinnacle of a legal career, she said, and now Cipollone is about to argue a case that will etch him into history. Scalia, the labor secretary, said he spoke to Cipollone about a week ago. “I said, ‘You’re getting ready?’ And he said, ‘I am ready.’” Tags: Karen Freifeld, IJR, Pat Cipollone, White House Lawyer, Defending Trump, in Trial, Seen as No ‘Showboat’ To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| Brutus Warned Us About Elizabeth Warren And Bernie SandersPosted: 21 Jan 2020 01:21 PM PSTby Gary M. Galles: Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders have led the Democratic charge to add many zeros to what some are to get at other’s expense. They have not, however, been as forthcoming about the Brobdingnagian burdens their profligate Santa clauses would impose on Americans, as if they are trying to rebut the claim that if “taxes are the price we pay for a civilized society,” then the civilization we get must be worth the taxes we are forced to pay. But this issue is hardly new. Over two centuries ago, Antifederalists warned us that the price we would have to pay for government would rise far beyond what is justifiable. They were particularly concerned that the Constitution gave the federal government almost unlimited taxing discretion. One leading Antifederalist was Robert Yates, who withdrew from the Constitutional Convention because it was exceeding its instructions, who wrote as Brutus. And when I read his words, it is hard not to feel that he knew Warren and Sanders. Brutus described federal taxing power as one “that has such latitude, which reaches every person in the community in every conceivable circumstance, and take hold of every species of property they possess, and which has no bounds set to it, but the discretion of those who exercise it.”In addition,”it will lead to the passing a vast number of laws, which may affect the personal rights of the citizens of the states, expose their property to fines and confiscation…It opens the door to the appointment of a swarm of revenue and excise officers to prey upon the honest and industrious part of the community (and) eat up their substance.”In fact, federal taxation “will introduce such an infinite number of laws and ordinances, fines and penalties, courts and judges, collectors, and excise men, that when a man can number them, he may enumerate the stars of Heaven.” Brutus also described how invasive tax collection could become:This power, exercised without limitation, will introduce itself into every corner of the city, and country…it will enter the house of every gentleman…it will take cognizance of the professional man in his office, or study; it will watch the merchant in the counting-house, or in his store; it will follow the mechanic to his shop, and in his work, and will haunt him…and finally, it will light upon the head of every person in the United States. To all these different classes of people, and in all these circumstances, in which it will attend them, the language in which it will address them will be GIVE! GIVE!That sounds very much like trying to enforce draconian taxes. Brutus described the consequences of expansive federal taxing powers. But he was writing only of direct (e.g., excise) taxes and the small federal government they could finance, long before the 16th Amendment made possible a federal income tax in 1913, not to mention the punitive levels it could reach, nor the probably more burdensome, unconstitutional wealth taxes that have been proposed. So Brutus would conclude he was far too optimistic about the burdens of American government. And Antifederalists were not the only founders who would condemn what Warren and Sanders have proposed. James Madison shared their concerns for Americans’ property rights, the cornerstone of productive social cooperation: A just security to property is not afforded by that government, under which unequal taxes oppress one species of property and reward another species: where arbitrary taxes invade the domestic sanctuaries of the rich, and excessive taxes grind the faces of the poor…in violation of that sacred property, which Heaven…kindly reserved to him.——————— Gary M. Galles is a professor of economics at Pepperdine University. Article shared on Issues & Insights. Tags: Gary M. Galles, Issues and Insights, Brutus Warned Us About, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| 7 Reasons Why All The Attacks On Trump Will FailPosted: 21 Jan 2020 01:03 PM PSTby Mario Murillo: Every day someone comes up with a new reason for believing that Trump is finished. However, the FBI found out that conspiring against the President backfires. The media went for ratings by bashing Trump, only to lose ratings and credibility. Mueller’s witch-hunt investigation has flamed out as a political disaster. Americans saw the insanity of it.Comey said his new book would do Trump in. Instead, it was as effective as shooting spit balls at a battleship.CBS believed it had the silver bullet that would end Trump. Recall how they gleefully believed that a Sunday night interview with a porn star would be the end of Trump. Monday came, and they joined a long list of disappointed Trump haters whose weapons did not prosper.400 newspapers declared war on Trump. Now many of them are up for sale and the survivors are fighting to stay in business.I could go on and on. You don’t need to worry about Donald Trump. Let me give you seven reasons why all the attacks on Trump will fail. 1. The poll numbers are skewed against him. Scientists have shown that when people have a favorite candidate who is attacked by the press they go silent. They still support the person, they just won’t tell you. Many, many more than we hear about still support Trump. Even so, Democratic pundits are dismayed at the way Trump survives. They were counting on a major drop in support after Trump’s impeachment. It just never happened. In fact, quite the opposite happened: his poll numbers climbed. 2. Americans have a deep sense of fair play. They go for the underdog. People see through the flagrant, wanton, partisan and disgraceful attacks on Trump by the media. They are giving him a break for that. They also understand his rookie mistakes; he is not a politician. We elected him because we didn’t want a politician, remember? Uber-liberal director Rob Reiner denounced Robert De Niro and other celebrities for their rants against President Trump, saying it only helps the President. And Reiner is correct. 3. It’s the economy. Unemployment is at a 16-year low, and the consumer sentiment levels are at near record highs. When all the background noise settles, and the voter who now has a good paying job, prepares to pull the lever in 2020, the thought of returning to an Obama economy will horrify. 4. President Trump has plenty of time to win back those who have turned against him. Listen to Jake Novak senior editor at CNBC: “Both party establishments still need a vote-getting leader and President Trump already has the White House leadership role they covet. He has enormous executive power at his fingertips and the ability to win over some doubters with just the passage of time.” 5. The other side still looks so much worse. Elizabeth Warren is a shrill-throated hater of the white middle-class worker. Bernie Sanders’ economy from Mars plays well only because pot is legal on campus. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has made socialism so unpopular it has 18% approval. Maxine Waters is a VOTE FOR TRUMP machine. Nancy Pelosi is, well, Nancy Pelosi. Joe Biden is a creepy man. 6. Millions are praying for our nation. There is no way that the fervent prayer of millions will go unheeded in heaven. Sometimes, in the early stages of revival, things look as if they are getting worse before they get better. I know Satan is writhing in agony right now. He knows his time is short. He knows what God is about to do. He is in a futile rage against the inevitable answer. He is spewing deception to make the anointed vessels of God think that no answer is coming. 7.This is the big one: Trump is here by divine appointment. Trump will survive. Not because he’s perfect. Not because his base is fiercely loyal. He will survive even though he is hard for some Christians to take. He is here by divine appointment. Can you hear heads exploding? Yes, you heard me right—he is here because God set him in the White House. Today Maxine Waters said God has raised her up to bring Trump down. Can you guess how that is going to turn out? Donald Trump is here to wreck and dismantle. He is here to apply strong medicine to a self-destructive nation. Nothing else explains why he is still standing after the cruelest and most unrelenting attack on any leader in American history since Abraham Lincoln. More importantly, nothing else explains why none of this has broken his spirit. Deal with it. Someone way bigger than you and me wants him right where he is—doing just what he is doing. Call him ruthless and impetuous, but President Trump is here until he fulfills his purpose. Urgent final remarks: To all the intercessors who cried out for a national miracle—you got it. It’s just a much rougher package than you imagined. He will put another conservative on the Supreme Court. He is standing with Israel. He is against abortion. He is putting prayer back in schools. He is not only securing our borders, but also working to stop other nations from abusing and harming us. Thoughtful believers see past the fog. They see what I see. They are praying for his protection, for wisdom and for God’s continued favor. The big question is why is Trump here? Here comes the chilling answer: Trump is buying time for the sleeping church to wake up and do her job. Trump is the divine stop-gap that has been brought to us by the mercy of God. Nothing could be worse for us than to waste this miracle. Nothing could be more grieving to God than for the American church to be ungrateful for a man—though a rough customer—who is taking the hits for standing for all the values that we cherish. As I said before, he will not be removed from office. And if the rising church continues at the current pace, the next four years, and more, are his. Hate me, laugh at me, despise my writing…it does not matter, I know it’s true. And it is time for the church to rise up and be the church! ———————— Mario Murillo is an evangelist and blogger. Tags: Mario Murillo, Ministries, 7 Reasons, Why All The Attacks, On Trump, Will Fail To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| The Senate Impeachment Trial: 8 Things You Need to KnowPosted: 21 Jan 2020 12:43 PM PSTSupreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts by Thomas Jipping & Elizabeth Slattery: The House of Representatives has chosen members to participate in the Senate impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, and they have presented the articles of impeachment to the Senate. This is only the third impeachment trial of a president in our nation’s history, with the others occurring in 1868 for Andrew Johnson and 1999 for Bill Clinton. Here are eight things you need to know as the Senate prepares to begin Trump’s impeachment trial. 1. When Will the Trial Begin, and How Long Will It Last? Senate President Pro Tempore Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, administered the oath Thursday to Chief Justice John Roberts, who will preside over the trial. Roberts, in turn, administered the oath to all senators. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., announced that the trial itself will begin at 1 p.m. Tuesday. The Clinton impeachment took five weeks, and Johnson’s lasted 11 weeks. The Senate’s impeachment trial rules, adopted in 1986, mandate that the trial should begin at noon and last until the Senate decides to adjourn, Monday through Saturday, “until final judgment shall be rendered.” 2. What Happens at the Trial? An impeachment trial is not like a run-of-the-mill trial, but it does have some similarities. House managers will act as the prosecution, presenting the case for impeachment to the senators, whose role is a combination of judge and jury. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., announced the seven members of the House who will serve as the managers, including Intelligence Chairman Adam Schiff, D-Calif., and Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y. A team of lawyers will put on the president’s defense, including White House counsel Pat Cipollone; Trump’s personal attorney, Jay Sekulow; and former independent counsel Ken Starr, whose investigation into the Whitewater controversy led to Clinton’s impeachment. Roberts will preside over the trial, consistent with Article 3, Section 6 of the Constitution, although it is mostly a ceremonial role. After presiding over Clinton’s impeachment trial, then-Chief Justice William Rehnquist said, “I took a leaf out of [Gilbert and Sullivan’s comic opera] ‘Iolanthe’ … ‘I did nothing in particular, and did it very well.’” When the trial begins, the Senate will adopt a resolution establishing the specific timetable, including the time allotted for each side to present its case, senators to ask questions, and the Senate to consider motions. At that point, if the Senate follows the general pattern of the Clinton trial, the Senate will vote on a motion to dismiss the impeachment and, if that motion fails, on whether additional witnesses or evidence should be considered. During Johnson’s impeachment trial, the prosecution and defense called a total of 41 witnesses. During the Clinton trial, three witnesses provided videotaped testimony. McConnell and several other Senate Republicans have indicated they think the Senate should rely on transcripts of the testimony of witnesses who appeared before the House, while Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and several other Democrats have demanded that witnesses be called to testify. 3. Does the President Have to Appear Before the Senate? No. While the Senate does issue a summons to the individual being tried, its impeachment trial rules allow for an appearance by the defendant or by his attorney. The Senate tried, unsuccessfully, to force Johnson to appear for his impeachment trial. The New York Times published an account of how Chief Justice Salmon Chase asked the Senate sergeant-at-arms to summon the president. “In a loud voice, and amid the stillness of the whole chamber, he called three times, ‘Andrew Johnson, Andrew Johnson, Andrew Johnson!’” but instead the president’s legal team, including Attorney General Henry Stanbery (who resigned the day before) and former Supreme Court Justice Benjamin Curtis, arrived. Clinton likewise did not appear before the Senate during his trial. Trump previously indicated he would “strongly consider” testifying or providing a written statement to the House during its impeachment inquiry, but that didn’t happen. Odds are, Trump won’t be present at the Senate trial. 4. What Are the Rules the Senators Will Follow? Senators are not required to employ a specific standard of proof. During the 1986 impeachment trial of U.S. District Judge Harry E. Claiborne, he made a motion to designate “beyond a reasonable doubt”—the standard in criminal trials—as the standard for his trial. After the presiding officer ruled that “the question of standard of evidence is for each senator to decide individually,” the Senate voted 75 to 17 against establishing a mandatory standard. Similarly, the rules of evidence used in criminal trials do not apply in an impeachment trial. The Senate’s impeachment trial rules state that the Senate’s presiding officer has the authority to rule on questions of evidence. Any senator, however, may ask that the full Senate vote on such matters. That reflects the Constitution’s assignment to the Senate of “the sole Power to try all Impeachments.” 5. Can Senators Be Disqualified for Showing Bias? Senators have taken an oath to “do impartial justice, according to the Constitution and laws” in all things pertaining to the impeachment trial. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., the minority whip, argued that some senators have already failed to meet the “independent and dignified” standard the Constitution envisioned. There have already been calls for the House managers to move to disqualify senators whose impartiality is in question. There is no basis in the Constitution, Senate rules, or history for such an attempt. The only qualification for participating in a Senate impeachment trial is to be a senator. 6. What Happens After the Trial? While the trial itself will be open to the public, the Senate’s deliberations after its conclusion will not be. The Senate will then come back into public session to vote on each article of impeachment. Senate impeachment trial rules say that the Senate must vote on each article in its entirety, and the Constitution requires the vote of “two-thirds of the [senators] present” for conviction. Removal from office is automatic upon conviction, and the Senate may vote separately whether to disqualify the defendant from serving in any other federal office. The Constitution explicitly provides, however, that these consequences by the Senate do not, if the defendant’s conduct is also criminal, prevent “Indictment, Trial, Judgment and Punishment, according to Law.” 7. If the Vote Fails in the Senate, Can the President Be Retried? In theory, he likely could be retried in the future. Although neither the Constitution nor Senate rules address this issue, and no precedent exists for it, a few legal scholars, such as former Obama administration official Neal Katyal, have pointed out that the Fifth Amendment Double Jeopardy Clause does not apply to impeachment proceedings. A retrial on the same charges, however, would seem highly unlikely, and such a retrial would certainly run counter to the general principle of double jeopardy that someone cannot be tried twice for the same offense. What is more plausible and likely is that the House would introduce new articles of impeachment, which it could do. 8. Will the Senate Conduct Other Business During the Trial, and Will It Interfere With the Supreme Court’s Work? Senate committees may hold hearings in the morning of each trial day, but doing any business such as sending bills, nominations, or other matters to the full Senate would require the consent of all senators. The Senate impeachment rules provide that the chamber must suspend its legislative and executive business while the trial is under way. The trial should not affect the Supreme Court’s oral argument schedule. The court has arguments scheduled Tuesday and Wednesday, but those will conclude by 11 a.m. The court won’t meet again for arguments until Feb. 24. Aside from taking up some of Roberts’ time in the afternoon, the trial is unlikely to otherwise affect the court. ——————— Thomas Jipping (@TomJipping) is deputy director of the Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies and senior legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation. Elizabeth Slattery (@EHSlattery) writes about the proper role of the courts, judicial nominations, and the Constitution as a legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation. H/T The Daily Signal. Tags: Thomas Jipping, Elizabeth Slattery, The Senate Impeachment Trial, 8 Things, You Need to Know, The Daily Signal To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
| State of Ignorance: California Pushes False Information to School Kids on the Second AmendmentPosted: 21 Jan 2020 12:15 PM PSTby NRA-ILA: As an incorporated provision of the United States Bill of Rights, the Second Amendment is the supreme law of the land, applying to all U.S. jurisdictions and to the actions of federal, state, and local officials. The U.S. Supreme Court provides the final and authoritative interpretation of that provision, as well as other provisions of the U.S. Constitution. All of this is elementary civics. But the State of California believes it knows better, requiring publisher McGraw-Hill to annotate a discussion of the Bill of Rights in a popular social studies textbook with the state’s own peculiar view of the Second Amendment’s meaning. According to pictures from the California edition in the New York Times, the annotation states: Right to Bear Arms – This amendment is often debated. Originally it was intended to prevent the national government from repeating the actions of the British, who tried to take weapons away from the colonial militia, or armed forces of the citizens. This amendment seems to support the right of citizens to own firearms, but the Supreme Court has ruled it does not prevent Congress from regulating the interstate sale of weapons.The Times article goes on to state that the publisher “said it had created the additional wording on the Second Amendment and gun control for the California textbook.” The same language, however, does not appear in a national version of the same section, according to the Times report. The point of the New York Times article is to suggest that different states emphasize different aspects of U.S. history in otherwise similar textbooks, depending on the prevailing political outlook among the state’s education officials. Whatever might be said of that approach, the problem with California’s account of the Second Amendment isn’t just one of emphasis but of accuracy. California, which prides itself on being one of the most anti-gun states in the nation, simply gets it wrong, using language that falsely portrays the Second Amendment as a “debated” provision that has changed meaning over time and that only “seems” to protect an individual right. Any “debate” about the Second Amendment’s protection of an individual right have been authoritatively settled by the U.S. Supreme Court: The Second Amendment protects “the individual right to possess and carry weapons in case of confrontation,” independent of service in an organized militia. That fact was unambiguously articulated in District of Columbia v. Heller in 2008. That decision, moreover, was based on the public understanding of the Second Amendment at the time it was ratified. In other words, not only was the Second Amendment an individual right as of 2008, it has always been an individual right. As the Supreme Court noted, “virtually all interpreters of the Second Amendment in the century after its enactment interpreted the Amendment as we do.” It is false to suggest, as the California textbook does, that it originally meant something different and then somehow changed meaning in 2008. Regarding the prefatory militia clause, the Supreme Court took pains to explain the difference between the justification for including the Second Amendment in the Bill of Rights and the scope and substance of that right. “The debate with respect to the right to keep and bear arms, as with other guarantees in the Bill of Rights, was not over whether it was desirable (all agreed that it was) but over whether it needed to be codified in the Constitution,” the court wrote. What justified its codification was “the threat that the new Federal Government would destroy the citizens’ militia by taking away their arms … .” But, the court noted, the prefatory militia clause announcing the reason for the right’s codification “does not limit or expand the scope of the operative clause.” That scope, meanwhile, included using arms for “self-defense and hunting,” with self-defense being “the central component of the right itself,” according to the Supreme Court. The California textbook also misconstrues what the term “militia” meant to the founding generation at the time of the Second Amendment’s enactment. It wasn’t just a discrete, organized military force, the court explained, but members of the population “physically capable of acting in concert for the common defense,” whether they were mustered in that capacity or not. Thus, the terms “militia” and “the people” are not at odds with each other in the Second Amendment. The people, with their own arms, are the basis of the militia. To protect the peoples’ private right to arms is therefore to protect the militia’s ability to muster with arms and to preserve its viability. As for Congress’ ability to regulate the interstate sale of weapons, the Supreme Court indicated in Heller that “laws imposing conditions and qualifications on the commercial sale of arms” are part of the “longstanding” history and tradition of the Second Amendment, and are thus “presumptively lawful.” That does not mean, however, that every such law trumps the amendment’s protections, especially if there is no longstanding precedent for it. In any event, the Supreme Court has yet to hear a case that pits the Second Amendment against the Commerce Clause, and it explicitly reserved that and other questions for later consideration. “[S]ince this case represents this Court’s first in-depth examination of the Second Amendment, one should not expect it to clarify the entire field,” the court wrote. “[T]here will be time enough to expound upon the historical justifications for the exceptions we have mentioned if and when those exceptions come before us.” California likes to emphasize how it sees things differently than the rest of the United States. That’s why common consumer products come with warnings that they include substances “known to the State of California” to pose various hazards, including cancer or birth defects. So numerous are these warnings that people at this point are most likely to ignore them as sensational and unreliable. The state’s students would be wise to take the same approach to official state pronouncements about firearms and the Second Amendment. California, as the saying goes, is entitled to its opinions. But it’s not entitled to its own facts. And when it comes to the Second Amendment, the facts are different than the opinions expressed in the California-specific version of McGraw-Hill’s social studies textbook. Activist Wilma Mankiller is quoted as saying, “Whoever controls the education of our children controls our future.” Year after year California chips away at the Second Amendment with its ever-expanding gun control regime. If this continues unabated, the right to keep and bear arms will effectively be nullified for future generations of Californians. What’s worse – if California’s educational bureaucrats have their way – is that those generations will be too ignorant of their liberties to even understand what has been taken from them. Our advice to these students is to exercise their First Amendment rights to learn and speak the truth, and as soon as they are able, exercise the right to vote in favor of those who respect their fundamental liberties, rather than those who try to write them out of history. —————- by NRA-ILA Tags: NRA-ILA, State of Ignorance, California, Pushes False Information, School Kids, Second Amendment To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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| From NBC’s Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann. FIRST READ: “World’s greatest deliberative body”? Start to Senate impeachment trial devolves into partisanshipIf you want to see just how dysfunctional and partisan the U.S. Senate has become in the span of 20 years, just consider these two different votes. Wally McNamee/CORBIS/Corbis via Getty ImagesIn 1999, during Bill Clinton’s impeachment trial, the Senate passed its organizing resolution by a 100-0 vote, after leaders Trent Lott and Tom Daschle struck a deal about how the chamber should conduct the trial. “I knew the votes were not there, and were never going to be there, to remove Bill Clinton, so what I had to figure out working with Tom was how do we fulfill our constitutional responsibility in a respectable way,” Lott told NPR last month. But late last night, around 2:00 am ET, the Senate voted 53-47 – along strict party lines – to approve the organizing resolution for the impeachment trial into President Trump, after Senate leaders Mitch McConnell and Chuck Schumer were unable to do what Lott and Daschle did 21 years ago. Yesterday even included an admonishment from Chief Justice John Roberts, who scolded House impeachment managers and Trump’s legal team over their sharp exchanges. “I think it is appropriate at this point for me to admonish both the House managers and the president’s counsel in equal terms to remember that they are addressing the world’s greatest deliberative body,” Roberts said. When McConnell yesterday talked about the importance and sanctity of the “Clinton Rules,” maybe the most important part of those roles was the 100 percent agreement from the GOP and Dem leaders how the impeachment trial should be conducted, to make the process as fair as possible. A party-line vote – on procedure – isn’t going to convince anyone out there that the process is fair. And that’s on the leaders, especially the one with the title “majority leader.” Other observations about yesterday/last night: The House Democratic impeachment managers were aware of their audience – the American public – and they focused their presentation on the substance of the Ukraine scandal, while the GOP’s defense team focused more on procedure. McConnell found the limits from his GOP caucus, given that he had to retreat on just two days of arguments from both sides (it’s now three), and not allowing the admission of evidence without a vote (the House evidence will now be admitted automatically unless there’s an objection). Still, McConnell and the GOP got the overall rules they wanted to assure a relatively speedy trial. Impeachment trial update: The prosecution’s opening arguments are set to begin The impeachment trial of President Donald John Trump resumes today at 1:00 pm ET, per NBC’s Kasie Hunt, Frank Thorp and the rest of the NBC Capitol Hill team. And on the agenda are the opening arguments by the House Dem impeachment managers. Here’s a quick look at the timeline: Yesterday: procedural jousting over the organizing resolution; rules passed around 2:00 am ET Today: prosecution opening arguments, 8 hours Thursday: prosecution, 8 hours Friday: prosecution, 8 hours Saturday: White House defense, 8 hours Sunday: off Monday: White House defense, 8 hours Tuesday: White House defense, 8 hours Wednesday: Senators’ questions Thursday: Senators’ questions Friday: Senators’ questions Saturday: Vote on witnesses? Sunday: off Monday: Iowa caucuses Tuesday: State of the Union TWEET OF THE DAY: The Notorious R.E.P.Bloomberg provides impeachment air cover to DemocratsIn yesterday’s First Read, we noted how Democrats are being outgunned over the airwaves on impeachment. Of the 11 impeachment-themed political TV ads airing right now, according to Advertising Analytics, all are by Republicans and GOP groups. Until now. Michael Bloomberg’s campaign on Tuesday began airing a TV ad tied to the impeachment trial in 27 states, including in 2020 Senate battlegrounds like Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Michigan and North Carolina, per NBC’s Ali Vitali. “It’s time for the Senate to act and remove Trump from office,” Bloomberg says in the ad. “And if they won’t do their job, this November you and I will.” Bloomberg is doing what the rest of the party isn’t – at least over the airwaves.2020 VISION: Iowa observations from Katy TurMSNBC’s Katy Tur spent Tuesday on the campaign trail in Iowa, and here were her observations: In Cedar Rapids, Pete Buttigieg drew 1,200 people for an evening rally on a weekday night. The campaign touted it as the biggest turnout for any Democratic candidate in the town so far. At this point, no other candidate has Cedar Rapids on their schedule; Bernie Sanders had a rally planned for Wednesday, but had to cancel. One voter told Tur she walked into the event undecided, but picked Buttigieg in that room after hearing him speak. How many of those voters are the senators losing out on? In an exclusive pull-aside with Buttigieg, Tur asked him about his open lane in Iowa, infighting among Democrats, how Democrats’ crowds compare to those of Trump, and about all of those undecided voters. Earlier, in Ames, Joe Biden drew a decidedly smaller crowd of around 100 people. Biden got most fired up when talking about how he won’t hold a grudge against other Republicans because he has to work with them. On the rope line, Tur asked Biden if he was watching the impeachment trial in Washington. His answer was no. But his team is paying attention. On the campaign trail today: The non-senator campaign activity is once again in Iowa: Joe Biden stumps in Mason City and Osage… Pete Buttigieg holds a town hall in Dubuque before heading to DC to raise money… And Andrew Yang and John Delaney hold multiple events across the Hawkeye State… Elsewhere, Tulsi Gabbard remains in New Hampshire. Dispatches from NBC’s campaign embeds: In Iowa yesterday, Pete Buttigieg was trying to close the deal by calling for respect, NBC’s Priscilla Thompson reports. “Speaking about the campaign’s ‘Rules of the Road, Buttigieg emphasized ‘respect,’ a seeming nod to the swipes some candidates have been taking at one another. ‘I mean it should, should go without saying, but especially as we accelerate into the heat of competition among our fellow Democrats and beyond, we got to respect one another,’ he said. ‘Respect everyone we meet respect the office, respect our competitors and their supporters, and we will continue to make that a centerpiece of what holds this campaign together.’” And Joe Biden has flipped on what had been a cardinal rule: to not criticize the president when he’s abroad. Throughout the campaign trail, Biden has consistently supported the idea that “politics ends at water’s edge,” but he took a veiled swipe at the president in Iowa, NBC’s Marianna Sotomayor reports. “‘The president is speaking at Davos, an international conference which I’ve spoken at a number of times,’ Biden said, ‘Saying that he thinks it’s an exaggeration to scare people and to take away people’s jobs. Woah. No global warming, not happening, don’t worry, the environment is fine, guys. This is normal.’” The president arrived in Switzerland yesterday to attend the economic forum.DATA DOWNLOAD: And the number of the day is… $3.8 million.$3.8 million. That’s the total ad spending in Iowa from the pro-Biden Super PAC Unite the County through Caucus Day, according to Advertising Analytics. Combined with the $4.1 million total that Biden’s campaign is planning to spend in the state, that’s nearly $8 million in pro-Biden ads airing in the Hawkeye State. Here’s how that compares with the total spending that other campaigns are planning through Caucus Day. Total ad spending in Iowa as of today – PLUS booked time through February 3 Tom Steyer: $14.2 millionBernie Sanders: $10.3 millionPete Buttigieg: $9.4 millionElizabeth Warren: $5.9 millionAndrew Yang: $5.8 millionJoe Biden: $4.1 millionUnite the Country (pro-Biden Super PAC): $3.8 millionAmy Klobuchar: $2.9 millionMichael Bennet: $1.1 million SOURCE: Advertising AnalyticsICYMI: News clips you shouldn’t miss Joe Biden’s campaign is out with a new video outlining Biden’s work to back anti-corruption efforts in Ukraine and using some salty language to describe President Trump’s telling of the same tale. Hillary Clinton is walking back comments in which she appeared to hesitate to endorse Sanders if he’s the Democratic nominee. Jonathan Allen writes that Trump’s defense looked a little shaky yesterday. Chief Justice John Roberts had to remind impeachment managers and lawyers last night to “remember where they are” after some testy exchanges on the floor. Miss the proceedings yesterday? Here’s what you need to know about how the Senate voted to move forward with the trial. This is a strange story with BIG potential consequences: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos allegedly had his phone hacked in 2018 after receiving a WhatsApp message from the Saudi Crown Prince. Thanks for reading. If you’re a fan, please forward this to a friend. They can sign up here. We love hearing from our readers, so shoot us a line here with your comments and suggestions. Thanks, Chuck, Mark and Carrie. |
CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY
| Highlighted Articles/InterviewsTrump defense team should file 3 preliminary impeachment trial motionsPutin picks the man to build Russia’s high-tech police stateFleitz on Fox: Trump clearly named the radical Islam enemy that Obama deniedTrump was ‘resolute’ in striking Iran terror chief – but the regime won’t stopIran’s red flag of war flies over JamkaranWurmser to head new Center program on global anti-SemitismWashington, D.C. – Middle East expert David Wurmser has joined the Center for Security Policy as a Senior Analyst and the Director of the Center’s Project on Global Anti-Semitism and the U.S.-Israel Relationship. The Project on Global Anti-Semitism and the U.S.-Israel Relationship is an important new Center initiative to address a surge in anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism in the United States and abroad as well as growing efforts to undermine the close relationship between the U.S. and Israel. Click here to read the press release on David Wurmser and the Center’s new program combatting anti-Semitism.China’s newest threat – A deadly holiday-boosted coronavirusAt an emergency meeting today, the World Health Organization will consider the danger posed by a deadly new Chinese respiratory virus believed to be spread through the air from humans to humans, as well as via contact with infected animals. Unfortunately, WHO’s deliberations – and efforts actually to control the spread of this coronavirus – will soon be overtaken by the Lunar New Year, a holiday that sees hundreds of millions of people moving throughout Asia and beyond, mostly in the close quarters of planes, trains and buses.Making matters worse is the Chinese Communist Party’s well-established practice of lying about such public health emergencies. It says there’s nothing to worry about.The first case of China’s new bug – which is similar to its previous highly contagious SARS and MERS diseases – has shown up in Washington State. We better brace ourselves for many more. This is Frank Gaffney.With Russ Dallen, Gordon Chang, Kevin Freeman, and Nina SheaRUSS DALLEN, President & Editor in Chief at The Latin American Herald Tribune, Head of the international investment bank, Caracas Capital Markets, Served as President of Venezuela’s “The Daily Journal”:Tracking the movements of Juan GuaidoThe state of extreme poverty in VenezuelaWhat role should the US play in aiding Venezuela?GORDON CHANG, The Daily Beast contributor, Author of The Coming Collapse of China and Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes on the World, Latest book: Losing South Korea (2019):Analyzing the comments of Tsai Ing-wen after winning the Taiwanese electionWhy the US needs to defend Taiwan against ChinaExamining the Phase One trade dealWhat should a Phase Two trade deal include?KEVIN FREEMAN, Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Policy, Host of Economic War Room on TheBlaze TV, Author of “Game Plan” and “Secret Weapon”:The agenda of ESG (environmental, social and governance) investingHow ESG will impact companies in the fossil fuel sector?Why was the National Security Investment Consultant Institute started?An overview of ‘moral capitalism’NINA SHEA, Director of the Center for Religious Freedom and Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute, Commissioner on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom:An update on the state of persecuted Christians throughout the worldHow Africa’s Christian communities are now in Islamic-extremist crosshairsWhat can the US do to combat the persecution of Christians?TWEET OF THE DAYRetweet, like, and comment!DONATEView this email in your browser Copyright © 2020 Center for Security Policy, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: 2020 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Suite 189 Washington, D.C. 20006 (202) 835-9077 Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list. |
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MANHATTAN INSTITUTE
| January 22, 2020Featuring the latest analysis, commentary, and research from Manhattan Institute scholarsINFRASTRUCTUREPhoto: roman023/iStockClearing a Path for New InfrastructureThe Trump administration is right to streamline the environmental-review process. By Eli Dourado City Journal Online January 21, 2020 NEW YORK CITY & STATEPhoto: Bryan Bedder/Getty Images for United Way of New York CityWhat Eric Adams Gets Wrong: Puncturing Myths About Gentrification in Brooklyn and Across NYC“[Here’s] the thing Adams and the gentrification-obsessed ignore: Most of New York’s new arrivals are not people who had the bad luck of being born in Des Moines or Dayton; they’re from abroad.” By Kay S. Hymowitz New York Daily News January 22, 2020 Photo: Dawid S Swierczek/iStockCuomo’s LaGuardia AirTrain Is Already Off the Rails“There was one takeaway last week for a few New Yorkers who schlepped out to a remote airport hotel for a public meeting: The LaGuardia AirTrain is coming. Cry all you want about its inefficiency and irrationality.” By Connor Harris New York Post January 22, 2020 POLITICSPhoto: Scott Olson/Getty ImagesWhy Obama Won and 2020’s Black Candidates Couldn’tHe gave whites the benefit of the doubt. Booker and Harris took every chance to stoke racial grievances. By Jason L. Riley The Wall Street Journal January 22, 2020 CULTURE & SOCIETYPhoto: fotokris/iStockRecipe for ChaosA disruptive “ethical vegan” launches a religious-discrimination debate in England. By Theodore Dalrymple City Journal Online January 21, 2020 PODCASTPhoto: adrian825/iStockHow Risk Fuels a Healthy EconomyAllison Schrager joins Brian Anderson to discuss how risk propels economic growth and why government efforts that go too far to mitigate risk undermine America’s economic vitality. Photo: David NolesAllison Schrager Joins Manhattan Institute as Senior FellowThe Manhattan Institute is proud to announce that economist and author Allison Schrager has joined the Manhattan Institute as a senior fellow, focusing on economic policy. Her work will expand the Institute’s portfolio of work in the areas of public finance, pensions, tax policy, labor markets, and monetary policy. Read her first piece for City Journal. CIVIL SOCIETY AWARDSNominations are open for the Manhattan Institute’s 2020 Civil Society Awards. This fall, four winners will each receive a $25,000 award for their efforts to keep our social fabric from fraying, assist those who need it most, and help people change the course of their lives. Nominate an outstanding nonprofit by March 20, 2020. Learn more at civilsocietyawards.com.SUBMIT A NOMINATIONCITY JOURNALCity Journal Winter 2020 Our new issue explores the needless panic over disposable plastic, Los Angeles’s epidemic of drug addiction, how the incarceration of fathers affects children, the promise of next-generation nuclear power, ideological purity tests for artists, and more. Get your print copy today! FEATURED BOOKPhoto: Manhattan InstituteDigital CathedralsToday’s global Cloud is society’s first foundationally new infrastructure in nearly a century. It is comprised of thousands of warehouse-scale computers and history’s biggest network of “information superhighways.” Powering this data behemoth consumes more energy than all global aviation. Yet, as disruptive as the Cloud has already become, we are only at the end of the beginning of what digital masons are building for the 21st century. In Digital Cathedrals, Mark Mills explores this new infrastructure through the lens of energy demand, and the implications for policymakers and regulators, who will be increasingly tempted—or enjoined—to engage issues of competition, fairness, and even social disruptions, along with the challenges of abuse of market power, both valid and trumped up.Buy NowManhattan Institute is a think tank whose mission is to develop and disseminate new ideas that foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility. 52 Vanderbilt Ave. New York, NY 10017 (212) 599-7000SUPPORT MICopyright © 2020 Manhattan Institute, All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: Manhattan Institute52 Vanderbilt Ave.New York, NY 10017 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list View this email in your browser |