Good morning! Here is your news briefing for Thursday January 30, 2020.

THE EPOCH TIMES

“Failure is simply the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently.”

HENRY FORDGood morning,

In response to China’s growing military threat, the U.S. military has been developing a new fighting style.

Named “mosaic warfare,” the strategy utilizes all military assets to create unique configurations to fit each scenario.

“These individual warfighting platforms are put together to make a larger picture, or in this case, a force package,” according to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Read the full article here.

US Industries Unprepared for China Supply Shock

Republican Senators Believe They Have the Votes to Block Impeachment Witnesses

Justice Gorsuch: Nationwide Injunctions Raise ‘Serious Questions’ Over Scope of Courts’ Powers

Fed Keeps Interest Rates Unchanged Amid Concern for Below-Target Inflation

A declassified Jan. 7 order, released by Presiding FISA Court Judge James Boasberg, revealed that the Department of Justice has determined that two of the four FISA surveillance applications on former Trump 2016 presidential campaign adviser Carter Page were “not valid.” Read moreThe Democrat-controlled legislature of Virginia has seen a flurry of contentious legislation this season, some of which sparked outrage among Republicans. The bills focus most prominently on curbing the right to possess firearms. Read moreA new report contains blunt warning signs of an approaching fiscal crisis in federal trust funds backing Social Security, Medicare, flood insurance, and many other programs, according to Senate Budget Committee Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.). Read moreThe outbreak of a new coronavirus in China has raised concerns about the disease’s potential impact on the Chinese economy, causing volatility in global stock markets and oil prices. Read moreAs a deadly coronavirus outbreak ravages China, the communist regime’s omission of critical details about the virus’s spread has come to light. Read more
See More Top Stories US Industries Unprepared for China Supply Shock
By James Gorrie

In 2018, President Trump warned the U.S. military establishment against overreliance on China for critical parts and elements. His “Buy American” initiative was intended to avoid supply chain leverage that China could use to hobble the United States… Read moreWhy America Needs a Trump vs. Sanders Election
By Roger L. Simon

The Democratic Party presidential race these days appears to be tilting toward Sen. Bernie Sanders. It could turn into a runaway if Bernie wins by solid margins in the rapidly approaching Iowa caucuses and New Hampshire primary… Read more
See More Opinions Central Bank Action Fuels Global Gold Rally
By Valentin Schmid
(January 23, 2015)

Since Gold reached an all-time high of $1,923 in 2012 it is still down 33 percent in dollar terms. As global central banks started their easing efforts, gold now paints a much different picture in euros, yen and Canadian dollars. Read moreAt Turning Point USA’s 2019 Student Action Summit, we sit down with James O’Keefe, founder and president of Project Veritas, and two whistleblowers who came to his organization—Cary Poarch, a former CNN employee who shed light on what he saw as political bias at CNN, and Eric Cochran, a former software engineer at Pinterest who exposed evidence of how Pinterest appeared to censor Christian and pro-life content.
Two Project Veritas Whistleblowers On Why They Blew The Whistle on Pinterest, CNN—With James O’Keefe Copyright © 2020 The Epoch Times, All rights reserved.

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THE DAILY SIGNAL

Jan 30, 2020

Good morning from Washington, where the Senate holds a marathon question-and-answer session in President Trump’s impeachment trial. Fred Lucas has highlights, as well as a report on the president’s signing of a new trade agreement with Canada and Mexico. Plus: the FBI’s improper applications to spy on the Trump campaign, school choice as a safety issue, and a heartbreaking end-of-life case in Texas. On this date in 1969, the Beatles play in public for the final time in an unannounced filmed performance on the roof of their Apple Corps headquarters in London.

	NEWS6 Scenes From Day 8 of Trump Impeachment Trial By Fred Lucas Yesterday was question-and-answer day in the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump. Senators acting as jurors, and in some way judges, submitted questions to Chief Justice John Roberts.MoreCOMMENTARYWarrants to Spy on Trump Campaign Lacked Probable Cause, DOJ Admits By Stephanie Neville Two of the FBI’s four applications for warrants under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act to spy on a Trump campaign adviser lacked probable cause and should not have been made in the first place. That’s the stunning admission by the Justice Department.MoreCOMMENTARYBaby Tinslee Lewis and the Difficult End-of-Life Care Debate By Robert Moffit Current Texas law gives the hospital virtually unilateral power to make the life-or-death decision.MoreNEWSAmid Impeachment Trial, Trump Signs Major Trade Deal With Canada, Mexico By Fred Lucas “I keep my promises and I’m fighting for the American worker. And we’re all fighting for the American worker,” says Trump.MoreCOMMENTARYSchool Choice Lets Parents Pick Safer Schools By Jude Schwalbach A 2017 Gallup survey found that 3 in 10 parents are concerned for their children’s safety at school.MoreCOMMENTARYProblematic Women: Trump, the Impeachment Trial, and Teen Vogue (Again)By Lauren Evans Elizabeth Slattery, legal fellow at The Heritage Foundation, joins the show to break down the impeachment proceedings at a 101 level.MoreANALYSIS‘Cowed Into Silence’: Dave Rubin Warns of ‘Cancel Culture,’ Mob Mentality By Virginia Allen “If you are 19, 20 … you live in the freest society in the history of the world. And if you’re walking around right now … self-censoring yourself, well, we’ve lost already,” says Rubin, host of “The Rubin Report.”More

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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 @DaybreakInsiderTHURSDAY, JANUARY 30, 20201.Reporting on Trump Defense 100 Percent Negative
And, according to Newsbusters, 95 percent positive for Democrats (Newsbusters). Meanwhile, Schumer is coming to the realization that Democrats don’t have the votes to run this Senate trial (Hot Air). From Martha McSally: I have heard enough. It is time to vote (Twitter).

2.Poll: Trump Leads All Challengers Among Independent Voters
While the overall poll of registered voters shows Trump trailing most of the others (Washington Post), he holds a small lead among the critical independent voters (Twitter).

Advertisement3.Liberal Writer Cancels Promotional Tour Due to Danger from ProgressivesJeanine Cummins wrote a story depicting what she called “tragedies facing immigrants.” But she was accused of stereotyping Mexicans and the cancel culture went nuts (ABC News). John Sexton notes the book “was initially praised by Oprah Winfrey and several Hispanic celebrities. However, strong pushback from the left over the authors identity has led some of the celebrities to delete their endorsements” (Hot Air).

4.White House: Bolton Book Contains Classified Information
From the story: “It also appears that some of this classified information is at the TOP SECRET level,” Ellen J. Knight, the senior director for records, access, and information security management wrote in the letter dated Jan. 23 and obtained by several media outlets and the Associated Press on Wednesday (NY Post). A video surfaced showing Bolton praising the Trump call (Fox News).

5.Sanders Continues to Surge as Primaries Edge Closer
From the story: In New Hampshire, Iowa and California, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden has surrendered his lead to the senator from Vermont, who doesn’t even call himself a Democrat (Washington Times). From FiveThirtyEight: The Iowa caucuses are now just five days away, so pollsters are busy trying to give us their final looks at where the candidates are heading into Iowa. But for those of you hoping for a clearer picture of where things stand, I’m afraid there’s no such luck (FiveThirtyEight).

Advertisement6.EU to Britain: “Put Your Flags Away, You’re Leaving and Take Them with You”
This followed a feisty goodbye from Nigel Farage, shown above (Twitter). From Peggy Noonan: How graceless the EU’s last words to Britain were: “And take your flags with you” (Twitter). From the Wall Street Journal: December’s election campaign was the most ideologically interesting since the 1980s as Britons weighed a stark choice between bold ideas right and left. They wiped out a Labour Party whose urban progressives no longer represent blue-collar voters, and cleared the way for a new breed of economic reforming, one-nation conservatism (WSJ).

7.Coronavirus Reaches Every Province in China
As other countries battle to keep it out (New York Times). From another story: British Airways halted all flights to China and American Airlines suspended Los Angeles flights to and from Shanghai and Beijing as efforts to contain a new virus intensifies (Washington Times).

8.Hillary Refuses to be Served Gabbard’s Defamation Lawsuit
Her secret service detail told them to take it to Hillary’s lawyer, who told them he can’t accept it on her behalf.

NY Post

Advertisement9.Study: Average Parent Spends Just Five Hours Face-to-Face With Their Kids Per WeekOut of Britain. From the story: More than half of surveyed moms and dads with children under the age of 18 said they feel “distant” from their kids. In all, 43% blamed their measly family time on their kids spending too much time in front of the television, with another 51% saying their kids spend too much time in their bedrooms. Another 44% said their familial disconnect is a result of their kids logging inordinate amounts of time on their phones during traditional “family time” in the evening.

Study Finds

10.Man in Blackface Robs Bank
The question is, what will be the greater outrage?

NY Post

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THE DISPATCH 1

Annual memberships to The Dispatch are now available for $100. If you haven’t yet joined and would like to support our early efforts, you can do so here.Don’t Believe Anyone Who Says Bernie Sanders Can’t WinIf he wins the nomination, he would have triumphed over impossible odds and a chorus of skeptics. Sound familiar?David FrenchJan 30 There is now enough polling evidence to conclude that Bernie Sanders is surging, and he’s surging at exactly the right time. I’m writing this piece less than a week before the Iowa caucus, where he leads three of the last four polls. I’m writing two weeks from the New Hampshire primary, where he’s been up in each of the last six primary polls. And if he wins both states in consecutive weeks, watch out. As we know from past presidential primaries, victory creates its own momentum. Sanders may well be the Democratic nominee. Most smart people accept this possibility. He almost won in 2016, after all. But could he win the general election? Key figures in the Democratic establishment have a singular message, “Don’t risk it!” Key figures in the Trump camp are practically cackling with glee at the prospect of taking on Bernie. “All the Democrats have to do is not be crazy,” they say, “and Bernie is crazy.” Writing in The Atlantic, David Frum made the case that “Bernie Can’t Win”—in part because Bernie is a gold mine for opposition researchers. When he goes from insurgent outsider to major party nominee, Frum says Bernie is in for a pummeling:The members of the team around Sanders are experts in Democratic Party factional infighting. Few have dealt with people who do not play by the rules of the mainstream Democratic Party. They have always been the rule breakers, the people who got inside the other team’s decision cycle. They have been the Minute Men fighting the Redcoats, picking off the other side’s regulars from behind trees and fences. Now they are about to experience what happens when a militia faces off on an open field against a ruthless modern army with cluster bombs and napalm. They will be shredded and torched.Consider me dubious. Make no mistake, I don’t think Bernie is the Democrats’ most formidable general election challenger, but I think he can win. And I don’t think it’s that hard at all to understand why. Let’s start with the central organizing fact of modern American politics—negative polarization. The New York Times’s Thomas Edsall stated the problem well. Gathering a host of data from multiple sources, he declared, “Hostility to the opposition party and its candidates has now reached a level where loathing motivates voters more than loyalty.”Let’s put it another way, every single factor that caused reluctant Republicans to hold their noses and vote for Trump will apply to reluctant Democrats. “Binary choice,” they’ll hear. “Judges,” they’ll declare. And, unlike 2016, when a host of people on both sides of the aisle thought there was no way that Hillary Clinton would lose to Donald Trump, not a single member of the Democratic coalition will be complacent. They’ll attack the election with fierce moral urgency. In other words, don’t hold your breath waiting for a “Never Bernie” movement in progressive media. Next, when considering the effect of negative polarization, never forget that Team Blue is simply bigger than Team Red. Republicans have one exactly one popular vote since 1988, and they won that (in 2004) by a mere 2.4 points. The difference is particularly staggering if you look at voting peaks. Donald Trump won 62,984,828 votes in 2016, more than any GOP candidate in history. In 2008—when America had a smaller population—Barack Obama won 69,498,516. Bernie Sanders is no Barack Obama, but the Democrats have a higher floor, and a higher ceiling. Yes, I know all about the Electoral College, but to give you a sense of the fragility of Trump’s lead, just remember that two of his states—Wisconsin and Michigan—would be blue if Hillary had been able to generate Obama’s 2012 turnout in just two cities, Milwaukee and Detroit. Republicans have hope because of Trump’sElectoral College win, but it’s debatable whether they should have confidence. There’s no “red wall.” There is barely a red picket fence. The bottom line for Democrats is simple: Turn out Team Blue, and they win. What about all of that opposition research about Bernie? It’s real. Just today I saw a video on Twitter of a shirtless Bernie singing “This Land Is Your Land” in the Soviet Union during his honeymoon. He’s written strange things. He’s demonstrated an odd affinity for loathsome left-wing regimes. M. Mendoza Ferrer@m_mendozaferrerBREAKING: @SenSanders like you’ve never seen him!! Bernie and Jane on their honeymoon in Russia singing “This land is Your Land” with their Russian comrades!! Trigger Warning: Bernie is sitting at a table shirtless in his briefs. So are most of the rest of the men… January 28th 20196,485 Retweets8,532 LikesBut Bernie isn’t running against normal Republicans—men whose “scandals” include a long-distant DUI or placing a dog on the roof of his car. Trump could toss away his phone tomorrow and do his best Reagan impersonation from now until Election Day, and the leaked stories from his first three years will match or exceed anything Trump throws at Bernie. And we know he won’t toss away his phone. We know he won’t act like Reagan. Yes, Trump’s behavior is “baked in,” but it’s baked in both directions, and a majority of Americans don’t like it, or him. America’s relatively few swing voters will be looking for an excuse to vote for Bernie. Moreover, the atmospherics of the two campaigns will be profoundly different. Trump will run on dystopia. Bernie will run on utopia. Remember this campaign ad, from 2016?Now imagine not just a theater full of young, hopeful faces. Imagine stadiums. Imagine that enthusiasm and sense of hope magnified by a mainstream media (especially online) that will march happily behind Bernie’s banner. Trump will call Bernie dangerous. He’ll mock Bernie. He’ll rage at Bernie. Trump’s supporters will claim that Bernie will “end America,” and Bernie’s people will respond—as they so often do—with simple messages. “How is health care dangerous?” “How is college dangerous?” “How is peace dangerous?”Oh, and there’s the small matter that only two of the last 22 head-to-head polls show Sanders trailing Trump. Moreover, we cold-hearted analysts and nerds always seem to underestimate the power of victory and hope. If Bernie wins the nomination, he would have triumphed over impossible odds and a small army of scoffers. Just like Trump. If Bernie wins, his core base voters will start to believe that their dreams can be a reality, and they’ll stand with him even if he shoots a man on Fifth Avenue. I know there are effective tactical and strategic responses to each element of the Sanders campaign and the Sanders platform. I’ll say again—I agree that other Democrats have better odds of beating Trump. Bernie would alienate at least some of the suburban voters who voted Democratic in 1998. While I believe that Sanders would frighten conservative voters in the same way that Barry Goldwater frightened liberals, I disagree with the idea that Sanders carries Goldwater’s downside risk. America’s a profoundly different nation than it was in 1964, and we’ve reached a point in our national polarization when both parties can nominate previously unthinkable candidates and still enter the general election with a real chance for a win. Primary voters rule American politics, and the lesson many of them have learned from the last three presidential elections is clear—compromise loses. Devotion wins. And of all the Democratic candidates in the field, nobody inspires devotion quite like Bernie Sanders. When election night ends this November, it’s entirely possible that the exuberant Republican joy of 2016 will have transformed into abject despair. The improbable presidency of Donald Trump may well have paved the road to the unthinkable presidency of Bernie Sanders. And we’ll have our hatred to blame.Photograph of Bernie Sanders at a campaign rally in Queensbridge Park on October 19, 2019, in Queens, New York City by Bauzen/GC Images.You’re on the free list for The Dispatch. For the full experience, become a paying subscriber.Subscribe© 2020 The Dispatch Unsubscribe
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THE WASHINGTON TIMES

MORNING EDITION

Thursday, January 30, 2020

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‘Promises kept’: Trump signs ‘truly fair’ USMCA deal, says someone had to actPresident Trump signed his rewrite of the North American trade agreement in a White House ceremony Wednesday that bolstered his … more

POLITICO Playbook: What Adam Schiff and Hakeem Jeffries want

By JAKE SHERMAN and ANNA PALMER

01/30/2020 05:47 AM EST

Presented by

Reps. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) and Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) spoke for a total of 685 of the 1,277 Democratic minutes during the party’s impeachment presentation, according to a tally by C-SPAN. | Alex Wong/Getty Images

DRIVING THE DAY

WHAT THE HILL IS BUZZING ABOUT … PALACE INTRIGUE … “How Trump’s impeachment created two Democratic superstars,” by Jake and Heather Caygle: “The House Democratic Caucus has long been dominated by a gaggle of also-rans: men and women who, while good enough for Congress, proved to be underwhelming on the larger stage of national politics. That’s changed.

“Sitting shoulder to shoulder on the Senate floor as they argue for the president’s removal from office, two men — Adam Schiff of California and Hakeem Jeffries of New York — have been catapulted to the front of the nation’s consciousness, to the top of the Democratic Party and have become the fulcrum for speculation about a host of prominent positions both in the House and beyond.

“Neither man — nor their staffs — would talk on the record about their next steps in the rapidly shifting caucus, and the larger Democratic Party. But they didn’t need to.

“In a series of conversations, people close to Schiff and Jeffries did nothing to discourage the rampant speculation about the men’s ambitions, and described it in unusually rich detail.

“Schiff is said to be interested in the Senate (California Sen. Dianne Feinstein is 86),a spot in a potential Democratic administration or speaker of the House. Jeffries, meanwhile, has scant interest in running for mayor of New York — a job he was rumored to be eyeing. He wants to be House speaker — and is taking steps to get there.”

INTERESTING TIDBITS: SCHIFF has been wearing different House lapel pins from different Congresses with each suit jacket he wears during the impeachment trial. … SCHIFF is an answer in the NYT mini crossword today.

— C-SPAN tallied that Schiff and Jeffries spoke for a total of 685 of the 1,277 Democratic minutes during the party’s impeachment presentation. Schiff spoke for 505 minutes, and Jeffries for 180 — the top two talkers.

SPEAKING OF JEFFRIES AND SCHIFF … JOHN BRESNAHAN (@brespolitico) on the Q&A session Wednesday night: “Interesting moment – when @SenatorCollins asked why the House mentioned bribery in impeachment articles but didn’t charge it, @RepJeffries responded yet didn’t answer. Collins sat at desk shaking her head, clearly unsatisfied. @RepAdamSchiff then went back at issue later.” Igor Bobic said Collins mouthed, “He didn’t answer my question”

WE ARE ABOUT TO ENTER DAY TWO of the question-and-answer session, and yes, indeed, we expect that senators — both individually and in groups — will have more questions! The Senate cloakroom tallied that senators asked 93 questions in Wednesday night’s session, which ended in the 11 p.m. hour.

— PBS NewsHour’s Lisa Desjardins (@lisadnews) breaks it down:“70 were ‘friendly’ to help lawyers from your party … 11 were ‘challenging,’ tough or needling questions to the other party … 11 were ‘open’, seemed to be genuine, neutral questions seeking information/thought.”

HOW WILL THIS PLAY IN CHILMARK? — WAPO, via Erica Werner, Karoun Demirjian and Elise Viebeck: “President Trump’s legal team offered a startling defense Wednesday as senators debated his fate in the impeachment trial, arguing that presidents could do nearly anything so long as they believe their reelection is in the public interest. The assertion from Alan Dershowitz, one of the attorneys representing the president, seemed to take GOP senators by surprise, and few were willing to embrace his argument.” WaPo

AFTER QUESTIONS END TONIGHT, the Senate will move into debate Friday over whether they should call witnesses — four hours, equally divided — and the general consensus among Republicans and many Democrats is that Senate Majority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL will be able to block witnesses. Again, we’ll see, because this is clear as mud at this moment, but the GOP leadership seems more confident as each day goes by. CNN’s Ted Barrett and Manu Raju wrote that Republican leaders are “closing in on the votes necessary to block any witnesses”

BURGESS EVERETT and JOHN BRESNAHAN: “Senate and John Roberts face possibility of epic tie on witnesses”: “For weeks, Republicans and Democrats alike have been confident that Roberts would not break a tie vote during Trump’s impeachment trial, citing past precedent, the Constitution and their own gut feelings about how it would play in a polarized nation. …

“It’s a hypothetical that Democratic leaders have privately considered for months, as soon as it became clear the House was going to send impeachment articles over to the Senate, according to Democratic aides. They have sought guidance from the Senate parliamentarian’s office on the issue, although so far, that hasn’t been forthcoming as it hasn’t formally arisen during the Trump trial.”

— BUT HE DID WEIGH IN ON THIS: “John Roberts blocks mentions of alleged whistleblower’s name,” by John Bresnahan, Burgess Everett and Heather Caygle

JOHN HARRIS — ALTITUDE COLUMN: “What Kind Of Man Gets Impeached?”

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Good Thursday morning. PHIL RUCKER and CAROL LEONNIG are No. 1 on the NYT bestseller list for their book, “A Very Stable Genius.” They are No. 1 in both combined e-book and hardcover, and hardcover

SMART ASHLEY PARKER … WAPO: “All the president’s disloyal men: Trump demands fealty but inspires very little”: “But the short gestation period — less than five months — between Bolton’s September exit from the administration to his damning book manuscript underscores an uncomfortable truth for Trump: For a president who demands absolute loyalty, he inspires strikingly little of the same, with former aides, advisers and associates turning on him with thrumming regularity.

“They are, en masse, all the president’s disloyal men and women — an unofficial club that includes Rex Tillerson, Trump’s former secretary of state, Omarosa Manigault Newman, a former White House senior adviser, and Michael Cohen, the president’s former personal attorney and fixer now serving three years in federal prison for crimes committed while working for Trump.”

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NYT’S TRIP GABRIEL in Dubuque, Iowa: “As Biden Makes Push in Iowa, His Ground Game May Have Some Gaps”: “[A]s Dan Corken, one of Mr. Biden’s most fervent volunteers, knocks on doors here, he is dubious about the candidate’s prospects just days out from Monday’s caucuses. ‘If you want to look at the Biden community in Dubuque, the average age is probably about 72,’ he said. ‘I’m having difficulties imagining some of the people I’m talking to door-knocking getting out on February 3 in the cold to go caucus.’ …

“Caucuses are low-turnout affairs, making grass-roots organizing an essential factor for doing well in Iowa. Well-tooled campaigns depend on a paid field staff and armies of volunteers to identify supporters, ensure they turn out and provide leadership in the many school cafeterias and churches that serve as caucus rooms. But according to nearly a dozen county Democratic chairs and Biden activists around the state, Mr. Biden’s ground game has weak spots that threaten him with underperforming his polling in Iowa, where he has consistently been at or near the top.”

— MORE SIDE DEALS: “Biden, rivals privately pitching caucus night deals,” by David Siders, Elena Schneider and Eugene Daniels in Des Moines: “Joe Biden and other leading candidates are actively courting lower-polling campaigns in the final days before the Iowa caucuses, hoping to forge election night alliances designed to pick up the supporters of candidates who fail to move past the first ballot.

“Biden’s campaign has approached at least two rival primary campaigns, seeking to broker agreements ahead of the Monday night’s caucuses, according to sources familiar with his overtures. And an aide to Tom Steyer said Wednesday that his campaign had been approached by ‘multiple candidates.’

“The Biden campaign reached out to Andrew Yang staffers, according to sources familiar with the conversation, and three Biden aides also approached a senior adviser to Amy Klobuchar’s campaign, Pete Giangreco, this week about a potential deal, sources said. The New York Times first reported the meeting. In each case, the campaigns said they rebuffed advances.” POLITICO

MIKE BLOOMBERG has hired Sabrina Singh from the Cory Booker campaign as national spokesperson, and Miryam Lipper (Eastern regional comms director) and Eduardo Silva (regional comms manager).

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NEW … NEW YORK’S 2ND CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT — which has been represented by Republican Peter King since 1993 — could shape up to be a hard-fought district for both parties. The district went for DONALD TRUMP by 9 points in 2016, and King won by 6 points in 2018.

THE DCCC has added Jackie Gordon to their Red to Blue list for that district. She was born in Jamaica, served in the Army and is a teacher. The 1:53 bio spot

ALLY MUTNICK: “Vulnerable House Democrats fend for themselves in air war”

NEW: REP. DOUG COLLINS is leaving the top GOP slot on the Judiciary Committee to run for Georgia’s Senate seat. More from Mel Zanona

TRUMP’S THURSDAY — The president will receive his intel briefing at 12:15 p.m. in the Oval Office. He will leave the White House at 1:15 p.m., traveling to Harrison Charter Township, Mich. He will arrive at the Selfridge Air National Guard Base at 3 p.m. At 3:10 p.m., he’ll leave en route to Dana Inc. in Warren, Mich., and receive a tour at 3:50 p.m.

AFTERWARD, HE’LL DELIVER A SPEECH on the USMCA. At 4:50 p.m., he’ll depart and travel to Des Moines, Iowa. Trump will deliver a speech at a political rally at Drake University at 7 p.m. CST. Afterward he will return to Washington, arriving at the White House at 12:20 a.m.

PLAYBOOK READS

**PHOTO DU JOUR:** Lev Parnas waits in Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s office during the Senate impeachment trial on Wednesday, Jan. 29. | Patrick Semansky/AP Photo

BOLTON VS. THE WHITE HOUSE … NYT’S JULIAN BARNES: “National Security Council lawyers and staff members believed they had little choice but to keep the book’s details closely held, according to people familiar with their decision making. White House officials had faced accusations of a cover-up last year after deciding to initially block Congress from receiving the whistle-blower complaint about the president’s dealings with Ukraine that set off impeachment proceedings.

“Though Mr. Cipollone was briefed about the manuscript, lawyers for the National Security Council — the foreign policy arm of the White House — withheld the draft from other White House officials, administration officials said. The lawyers asked career civil servants, not political appointees, to review the book, in an effort to ensure it was handled similarly to any other book written by a former official with access to classified secrets, the officials said. …

“The political appointees among the national security lawyers, Michael Ellis and his boss, John A. Eisenberg, saw the manuscript but had no direct role in scouring the document for potential classified material, according to a person familiar with the matter.” NYT

— NATASHA BERTRAND: “‘I’ve had it take years’: Bolton’s book could be tied up past November”

SUBTWEET DU JOUR … FROM BOLTON’S AGENT … JAVELIN’S @keithurbahn: “The best is the ‘writing and selling books is gross’ critique from people who have personally pitched, pleaded and begged us to represent their books.”

IMPEACHMENT READING — “21 Hours With Alan Dershowitz,” by Esquire’s Tom Chiarella: “Over the course of one week, Tom Chiarella watched Donald Trump’s TV-loving lawyer prepare for his biggest argument to date. He still can’t make sense of it.”

COMING TO A TRUMP TWEET NEAR YOU — “U.S. life expectancy increases for first time in 4 years,” by Brianna Ehley and Dan Goldberg: “Life expectancy in the United States increased in 2018 for the first time in four years, driven largely by a drop in cancer-related deaths and a historic decline in fatal overdoses.

“New CDC data released Thursday provides hope that the major contributors to three years of stagnant or declining life expectancy may be relenting. Still, other factors such as suicide ticked up in the past year.” POLITICO

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WUHAN CORONAVIRUS LATEST — “Wary of irking China, Trump offers rosy take on virus threat,” by AP’s Darlene Superville, Aamer Madhani and Jonathan Lemire: “Aides and confidants say Trump’s careful approach is part of a political strategy crafted to avoid upsetting the stock market or angering China by calling too much attention to the virus or blaming Beijing for not managing the situation better, according to a White House official and a Republican close to the White House. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss private conversations.” AP

— SARAH OWERMOHLE and BRIANNA EHLEY: “Trump has so far dodged becoming face of coronavirus crisis”

— HAPPENING TODAY: a new WHO meeting on whether to declare the coronavirus a global health emergency. SCMP’s Catherine Wong has more … Death toll climbs to 170 as cases near 8,000 worldwide

THE POLICY PRIMARY — “Elizabeth Warren’s Plan for Disinformation Pictures Big Tech and Government Sharing the Burden,” by Gizmodo’s Dell Cameron: “Casting a spotlight on the U.S. government’s lack of preparedness for handling the deluge of disinformation circling the 2020 elections, White House hopeful Senator Elizabeth Warren on Wednesday released a 14-bullet-point plan for combating the spread disinformation on social media—should she win the day.” Gizmodo … The plan

HOT ON THE LEFT — “Sanders or Warren? Why Not Both?” by The Nation editor D.D. Guttenplan

MEDIAWATCH … NYT’S CHARLIE WURZEL: “Newsrooms still aren’t ready for the trolls”: “Twitter is a Gordian knot of news and opinion that can’t be untangled. Inside publications, news and opinion bleed together; opinion writers report while reporters opine via news analysis. Partisan commentary, once a third rail for objective reporters, is omnipresent on Twitter.

“In the past, news organizations — and the people who work for them — would never have called the president a racist. Some now do so explicitly. Newsrooms and even the platforms have struggled with finding a new standard in the Trump era of disinformation; meanwhile, journalists are expected to sort it out in real time, while on the job. And to get it right or face consequences.”

PLAYBOOKERS

Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at politicoplaybook@politico.com.

SPOTTED: retired Adm. William McRaven going into the Walgreens on M Street on Wednesday. … Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Wendy Teramoto and Mike Walsh having lunch at the Hay-Adams after the USMCA signing Wednesday.

SPOTTED at RIAA’s annual charity event at the 9:30 Club on Wednesday night to benefit “Musicians on Call”: Democratic Reps. Suzanne Bonamici (Ore.), David Cicilline (R.I.), Jimmy Gomez (Calif.), Darren Soto (Fla.) and Lauren Underwood (Ill.), Robert Edmonson, Michael Long, Tyler Grimm, Judd Smith, Sam Negatu, Elliott Tomlinson, Didier Barjon, John Roberts, Bertha Guerrrero, Toby Knapp, Morna Willens, Brendan Daly, Kim Atterbury, Cary Sherman, Tom Manatos, David Israelite, Stan Pierre Louis, Julia Massimino, Kurt Bardella, Jay Cho, Karyn Temple and Alissa Clees.

SPOTTED at a performance of “Silent Sky” at Ford’s Theater on Wednesday night: Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, Lauren Gunderson, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) and Ritu Ahuja Khanna, Kevin Martin, Jana Plat, Suhail Khan, Marilyn Henson, Susan Dio and Jim Moran.

TRANSITIONS — A’shanti Gholar will be president of Emerge, which recruits and trains Democratic female candidates. She most recently was the group’s political director, and is a DNC and Department of Labor alum. … Colleen Shogan will join the White House Historical Association as SVP and director of the David M. Rubenstein National Center for White House History. She most recently was assistant deputy librarian of collections and services at the Library of Congress.

BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La.) is 48. What he’s reading: “‘Love Your Enemies,’ by Arthur Brooks. My friend Arthur and I think a lot alike, and I love the message of this recent work. I currently serve as both the chairman of the Republican Study Committee and co-chairman of the bipartisan Honor and Civility Caucus, and I enjoy explaining to audiences why those are not mutually exclusive pursuits. We can and must fight for our core principles, and still show dignity, respect and compassion to those who disagree. As a Christian, I can do nothing less. As an American, I should do nothing less.” Playbook Q&A

BIRTHDAYS: Former VP Dick Cheney is 79 … Del. Michael San Nicolas (D-Guam) is 39 … Mike Sommers, president and CEO of the American Petroleum Institute, is 45 … POLITICO’s G. Robert Hillman, Natasha Korecki and Mackenzie Mays … King Abdullah II of Jordan is 58 … Federal Trade Commissioner Rohit Chopra … Chris Jansing, MSNBC senior national correspondent … Chris Ariens, managing editor and director of video at AdWeek … Max Taves … former Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) is 81 … Alfred C. Liggins III … Nels Olson, vice chairman and co-leader of board and CEO services at Korn Ferry … Lisa Desjardins, correspondent for the “PBS NewsHour” … Colleen Bell … BuzzFeed’s Sarah Mimms … CBS News Radio’s Steven Portnoy … Jeff Naft, the new comms director for Rep. French Hill (R-Ark.) (h/t Sungkwan Jang) … Todd Sloves, legislative director for Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.) (h/t Mitchell Rivard) …

… Walker Gallman, manager of House relations at Heritage Action (h/t Noah Weinrich) … Rachel Rosenthal of Bell Flight … Nick Erickson of the RNC … Bob Ryan … Maeve Reston,CNN national political reporter … David Cordish is 8-0 … Len Bickwit of Miller & Chevalier (h/t Megan Duero) … Josh Kram, executive director of Middle East affairs at the U.S. Chamber, is 41 … Drew Bond … Philip Montante … Christina Wilson … Eileen McMahon … Erin Waters … Cecil Swamidoss … Nathan Leamer, VP of public affairs at Targeted Victory, is 34 … Caitlin Poling … Hastie Afkhami, head of digital at S-3 Public Affairs … Peter Lauria (h/t Liana Baker) … Alexis Serfaty … Andrew Ireland … Doug Coulter … ABC7’s Kelly Lamp Wasilefski … Caroline Gallrein … Lea Hutchins … Brice Anderson is 62 … Evan Glass … Wanda Moebius of Johnson & Johnson … Marcela Sanchez, senior communications officer at World Bank … Erica Chemtob … Ileana Futter

A message from Google:

Anna Palmer @apalmerdc
Jake Sherman @JakeSherman

THE DISPATCH 2

The Morning Dispatch: Can the White House Block John Bolton’s Book?

Plus: Senators finally get to speak at the impeachment trial, and the Republican rift in Georgia widens.

The Dispatch Staff

10 min

Happy Thursday! The actual biggest news of the day was an independent arbitrator ruling in favor of the Cubs in the Kris Bryant service-time grievance, but we’ve been told that’s “too niche” of a newsletter topic. So here’s a couple thousand words on impeachment, John Bolton, and Doug Collins instead.

Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories

At a ceremony on the South Lawn of the White House, President Trump officially signed the USMCA trade agreement into law.
The Federal Reserve announced it would continue holding interest rates steady in an effort to boost inflation toward its 2 percent targets.
Life expectancy in the United States increased in 2018 for the first time in four years, according to CDC data.

Q&A Time in the Senate

Looking back, when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell announced last week that the White House and Democrats would each have three session days to make their opening arguments in the impeachment trial, it seems we didn’t fully grasp exactly what that entailed. Three days, it turns out, is a staggeringly long time to hear a group of people present a single, protracted case. Of the small group of political junkies who even tried to pay attention to the entire thing, we’re reasonably confident not one managed to maintain their focus the whole time—and that includes all 100 U.S. senators.

But you know what’s more engaging than back-to-back three-day lectures? That’s right: Q&A. The current leg of the trial, which began Wednesday and wraps up today, is reserved for senators to question the impeachment managers and White House lawyers. That hasn’t led to much in the way of rhetorical fireworks: In keeping with the staid and somber tone that’s supposed to govern these proceedings, senators remain silent and submit their questions in writing. But it has led to some interesting and enlightening exchanges Wednesday and will doubtless lead to more today.

The most crucial question might have been the one that came first. Sens. Susan Collins, Mitt Romney, and Lisa Murkowski—the three GOP moderates whom Democrats hope might yet be gettable for a vote to subpoena new witnesses—asked the White House counsel what the Senate should do if they assessed Trump to have had both a personal and a public motive in his dealings with Ukraine. What they were asking was: What if Trump wanted to pressure Ukraine into committing to investigations both to hurt a political opponent and to root out an instance of political corruption while he was at it? Is that impeachable?

Attorney Patrick Philbin argued that it didn’t matter whether or not Trump had a personal interest in those investigations. In order to justify impeachment, Democrats would have to prove there was no “possible public interest motive” to Trump’s actions. If such a potential motive was in any way plausible, it simply didn’t matter whether Trump harbored corrupt intent.

“To have even a remotely coherent theory, the standard [impeachment advocates] have to set for themselves is establishing there is no possible public interest at all for these investigations,” Philbin said. “And if there is any possibility, if there is something that shows a possible public interest and the president could have that possible public interest motive, that destroys their case.”

This striking line of argument was taken several steps further later in the day by another Trump attorney, Alan Dershowitz. Instead of simply arguing that it didn’t matter if Trump executed an element of his foreign policy to take down a political opponent because theoretical motives exist for doing such a thing in the national interest, Dershowitz claimed that Trump’s wanting to take down a political opponent could qualify as a public-interest motive in and of itself.

“Every public official that I know believes that his election is in the national interest,” Dershowitz said. “And if a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment … A complex middle case is: ‘I want to be elected. I think I’m a great president. I think I’m the greatest president there ever was. And if I’m not elected, the national interest will suffer greatly.’ That cannot be an impeachable offense.”

Getting to 51 votes.

It’s worth keeping in mind that, while all this rhetorical sparring was going on in public yesterday, Sen. Mitch McConnell and his allies were hard at work on the more private, more consequential argument of the day: Trying to wheedle the fence-sitting GOP moderates back onto his team and prevent a vote to subpoena more witness testimony from the likes of John Bolton. If they get there, that’s pretty much the ball game—without new witnesses, Republicans will move like lightning to acquit the president, and our nation’s third ever impeachment trial will be history.

And after a day of seeming uncertainty, McConnell and Co. are sounding more and more confident that they will get there. If the moderates are picking up what GOP leadership is laying down, keep an eye out for a moment in today’s questioning where they signal that impeachment managers have “lost” them. There’s a growing chance this whole thing ends not with a bang, but a whimper.

And Speaking of John Bolton…

Yesterday afternoon, Chuck Cooper, John Bolton’s attorney, publicly released an email he sent the senior director of the NSC Access Management Directorate asking the NSC to complete its prepublication review of Bolton’s manuscript, which is set to publish in about six weeks.Jake Tapper@jaketapperStatement of Charles J. Cooper, attorney for @AmbJohnBolton, along with email he sent to NSC asking for relevant chapter of his manuscript dealing with Ukraine to be reviewed ASAP. January 29th 20201,544 Retweets3,457 Likes

There’s plenty of confusion surrounding this process, and for good reason. Here’s a summary of what we know.

Where does the requirement for prepublication review come from? For most government employees who hold a security clearance, the prepublication review process isn’t mandatory. It’s simply incumbent on the employee to ensure that she doesn’t divulge classified material if she decides to write a book. If a government employee holds a Top Secret/Secret Compartmentalized Information (TS/SCI) clearance, however, prepublication review becomes compulsory, and employees sign a piece of paper agreeing to as much before getting their clearance.

What is the punishment if a former employee with a TS/SCI clearance publishes a book (or op-ed, or speech) without submitting it for prepublication review? The executive branch can sue the employee for breach of contract and establish a constructive trust to collect any funds associated with the book’s publication, including any advance from the publisher and royalties for as long as the book is in circulation.

Some important notes here:

This is a civil suit; there are no criminal penalties for ignoring the prepublication review requirement.
The government can sue regardless of whether the book contained any classified information. Not submitting the work for review is what breached the contract, regardless of the contents published.
At this point, there are no punitive or compensatory damages available to the government. So if the employee published the book in question for free, the government has no damages to collect.
According to Mark Zaid, a leading attorney on classification and related matters, plenty of former TS/SCI employees have ignored the prepublication review requirement, and some even published classified material after doing so. But he could only think of five people who had ever been sued.

So what’s involved in the prepublication review process? Generally speaking, the former employee submits the manuscript to his or her erstwhile agency. The agency, then, lets the author know if it finds any classified information. At that point, the author can either remove the parts in question, or can push back. The problem is that the executive branch determines what is classified, which means even if the author was the original classifying authority, he or she doesn’t have the final say. The former employee can, in theory, go to court and ask a judge to weigh in, but, according to Zaid, the executive branch often, if not always, wins in the end.

This all sounds pretty straightforward so far, right? Not quite. The prepublication review requirement applies to sharing a manuscript with anyone who doesn’t have a clearance. So when she sends the manuscript to her publisher, lawyer, agent, or ghost writer, she is technically violating this requirement. As a practical matter, these cases are never brought because, well, it would be so impractical. But someone like John Bolton—who now has both the attention and the ire of the White House—is walking a fine line between the “this is how it has always been done” policy and the “this is what the piece of paper says we can sue you for” law.

And, of course, the purpose of this whole thing is to prevent the unauthorized disclosure of classified material to third parties. Violating that law obviously has criminal penalties—big ones. If our hypothetical employee’s lawyer sent the NSC for prepublication review a manuscript that the NSC then determined to contain classified information, the employee could be sued for breach of contract for sending it to his or her lawyer without prepublication review and prosecuted for disclosing classified information to the lawyer. And remember, it’s almost exclusively the White House that gets to determine whether the information is classified in the first place.

Squaring Off in Georgia

A few weeks back, we wrote about Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp’s appointment of Kelly Loeffler to the Senate seat Johnny Isakson’s retirement left vacant. At the time, Kemp split from the White House in choosing Loeffler—CEO of a Bitcoin exchange and longtime Republican donor—over Rep. Doug Collins, a reliable Trump ally in the House who became an attack dog for the president throughout the impeachment inquiry.

But Loeffler has quickly won over Trump since she was sworn in during the throes of impeachment on January 6. Just a few days after assuming office, she became one of 26 Republican senators to sign on to Sen. Lindsey Graham’s resolution condemning Nancy Pelosi’s handling of the impeachment articles. This week, she went viral for accusing Sen. Mitt Romney—whose Restore Our Future Super PAC she donated a quarter of a million dollars to in 2012—of wanting “to appease the left” by calling witnesses like John Bolton “who will slander the @realDonaldTrump during their 15 minutes of fame.”

At the White House’s USMCA signing ceremony on Wednesday, President Trump rewarded Loeffler’s loyalty with a shoutout: “Really great. They already like you a lot. That’s what the word is.”

Despite the new Republican establishment lining up behind Loeffler, Rep. Doug Collins went ahead launched a primary challenge anyway, writing that he has for months “given serious deliberation to the role [he] should serve that would best benefit GA, the country and @realDonaldTrump.”

The blowback was ruthless, and it was immediate. “The shortsightedness in this decision is stunning,” the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC) wrote in a statement issued just before 8am. “Doug Collins’ selfishness will hurt David Perdue, Kelly Loeffler, and President Trump. Not to mention the people of Georgia who stand to bear the burden of it for years to come. All he has done is put two senate seats, multiple house seats, and Georgia’s 16 electoral votes in play. The NRSC stands firmly behind Sen. Kelly Loeffler and urges anyone who wants to re-elect President Trump, hold the GOP senate majority, and stop socialism to do the same.”

“This sucks,” former Mitch McConnell chief of staff Josh Holmes wrote. “I really liked Doug Collins.”

“This won’t end well for the Georgia GOP and will cause serious fractures,” conservative radio host Erick Erickson said of Collins’ decision. “It is a mistake.”

Collins, for his part, is attempting to craft an “outsider” narrative. “Don’t be ridiculous,” he shot back at the NRSC. “This is FAKE NEWS coming from the head of a Washington-based group whose bylaws require him to support all incumbents, even unelected ones.”

“There’s no reason Georgia Republicans shouldn’t be able to pick their own Senate nominee,” Collins added.

Collins conducted an internal poll in mid-December that found he held a 32 percent to 11 percent lead over Loeffler. An Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll from mid-January illustrated the ground Loeffler has to make up: Her +2.7 percent net favorability paled in comparison to Collins’ +16.2 percent.

Georgia holds what’s colloquially referred to as a “jungle primary,” in which all candidates for a given office—regardless of party—face off on election day, with the top two performers moving on to a runoff if neither receives more than 50 percent of the vote. A handful of state representatives in Georgia, upset with Kemp’s appointment of Loeffler, are attempting to institute a strictly Republican primary on May 19, but the governor’s team made clear any such legislation would be met with an immediate veto.

“You don’t change the rules at halftime to benefit one team over another,” Candice Broce, Gov. Kemp’s spokeswoman, said.

Worth Your Time

Holocaust survivor Werner Reich gave a TED Talk recently on how magic and kindness got him through the darkest of times. “If you ever know somebody who needs help, if you know somebody who is scared, be kind to them,” he says. “If you do it at the right time, it will enter their heart, and it will be with them wherever they go, forever.”
D.C. is at its most polarized in perhaps decades—and we’re not talking about impeachment. The city has been flooded with electric scooters in recent years, and they are completely reshaping transportation in the city. One of your Morning Dispatchers owns one of his own and rides it to work every day; another one would just as soon smash them all with his car. Jonathan Littman has a great piece for Marker on the phenomenon, and what’s at stake. “As with any paradigm shift, there are skeptics on one side and true believers on the other. This is a fight with dramatic consequences for our cities. When and how micromobility ultimately morphs into a stable marketplace in the near future is an open question.”
We here at The Dispatch are of course excited for J.Lo and Shakira’s upcoming Super Bowl halftime show, but nothing will ever compare to Prince’s in February 2007. Alan Siegel put together a great oral history of Prince’s Super Bowl XLI performance for The Ringer. “You could tell he was very happy with his performance. I was like, ‘You made history.’ And he was like, ‘I always make history.’” [Editor’s note: Some of us here at The Dispatch are not excited at all about J. Lo and Shakira’s half time show and care only about the game.]

Presented Without Comment

Scott Dworkin@funderBREAKING: These sheet cakes are being delivered to all GOP Senators tomorrow. #ImpeachmentCakes #JohnBoltonMustTestify January 29th 20205,545 Retweets20,426 Likes

Something Fun

The Unicode Consortium announced 117 new emojis that will be released later this year. There are some good ones—from bubble tea to roller skates to a woolly mammoth—but this one is by far our favorite:Emojipedia 📙@EmojipediaNew in Emoji 13.0: Pinched Fingers, with skin tone support #Emoji2020 emojipedia.org/pinched-finger…

January 29th 20203,553 Retweets14,784 Likes

Toeing the Company Line

In a jam-packed episode of The Dispatch Podcast, Sarah and the gang dive into the witness dispute at the heart of the impeachment trial before turning to the administration’s Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, the U.K. and Huawei, Trump’s impact on the pro-life movement, and predictions for both the Iowa caucuses and the Super Bowl. Be sure to subscribe here!
If you liked our look at the U.K.’s Huawei decision yesterday, Thomas Joscelyn’s latest Vital Interests newsletter goes even deeper on 5G, security, and China’s endgame. Give it a read here, and be sure to subscribe to get it in your inbox every Wednesday.

Let Us Know

That new “pinched fingers” emoji is going to prove incredibly helpful once it hits our phones later this year. Which of the below do you view as its proper use?

Fingers rubbing together, hinting at the significance of cold hard cash
Accompanying a “mamma mia” or other reductive Italian phrase
Flipped upside down, sprinkling just a dash of salt
Surely some news outlet could misconstrue it for a hate symbol, right?

Reporting by Declan Garvey (@declanpgarvey), Andrew Egger (@EggerDC), Sarah Isgur (@whignewtons), and Steve Hayes (@stephenfhayes).

*Disclosure: Sarah Isgur, staff writer at The Dispatch, was formerly employed by the law firm Cooper & Kirk LLC.

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AXIOS

Axios AMSubscribe

By Mike Allen

Happy Thursday!

Today’s Smart Brevity™ count: 1,140 words … 4½ minutes.

1 big thing: Facebook’s decade of unstoppable growth

Data: Company filings. Chart: Axios Visuals

Despite an onslaught of scrutiny and scandal over the past few years, Facebook closed out the second decade of the millennium stronger than ever, Axios’ Sara Fischer reports.

The tech giant brought in nearly $70 billion in revenue for 2019, up more than 25% from the year before — and up more than 1,300% from 2012, the year it went public.
For the past several quarters, Facebook has warned investors that it expects revenue headwinds in light of increased regulatory scrutiny, particularly around privacy and targeted advertising.

Why it matters: Facebook’s continued ability to post double-digit revenue growth every year shows how well it has been able to innovate and adapt.

Case in point: Even in regions like North America and Europe, where the company’s user growth has plateaued and privacy regulation has been introduced, Facebook has still managed to squeeze significantly more money out of each user every year.
In the U.S. and Canada, Facebook has increased its user base by less than 4% in the past two years — but it has increased its revenue per user there by more than 60%.

The bottom line: Facebook recognizes that there’s a gulf between its prodigious growth and its beleaguered reputation. On an investor call following Facebook’s earnings report Wednesday, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said:

We’re focused on communicating more clearly about what we stand for. One critique of our approach for much of the last decade is that because we wanted to be liked, we didn’t want to communicate our views as clearly, because we worried about offending people. … Our goal for the next decade isn’t to be liked, but understood. In order to be trusted, people need to know what we stand for.

2. ⚖️ McConnell’s endgame

Alan Dershowitz answers a question yesterday. Screenshot via MSNBC

As the Senate prepares for a second long day of Q&A, Republicans seem increasingly confident that at least 51 senators will vote tomorrow to prevent witnesses at President Trump’s impeachment trial, Axios’ Alayna Treene reports.

The whip count is still fluid, but GOP senators are far more optimistic after yesterday’s eight-hour session than they were following their closed-door meeting on Tuesday.

What we’re hearing: Tuesday evening’s meeting was strategically timed — and played the role that Republican leaders had hoped it would.

Sources familiar with the meeting tell Axios that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told his conference that he did not yet have the votes to block witnesses — knowing that the news would likely leak to the media, and alarm some senators who dread both a prolonged impeachment trial and Trump’s Twitter wrath.
McConnell and Majority Whip John Thune thought addressing the conference in a secretive setting would dial up the pressure.

What Republicans up for re-election this year are saying:

Sen. Martha McSally (Ariz.): “I have heard enough. It is time to vote.”
Sen. Cory Gardner (Colo.): “I do not believe we need to hear from an 18th witness.”
Sen. Pat Toomey (Pa.): “I’m very, very skeptical that … criteria is going to be met” to call more witnesses.

Go deeper: Highlights from yesterday’s Q&A session.

3. U.S. life expectancy rises slightly

On average, an infant born in 2018 is expected to live about 78 years and 8 months, the CDC says in a report out today.

That’s up 1 month from the year before — the first time in four years that U.S. life expectancy has risen, AP reports.
Women still live longer: For males, it’s about 76 years and 2 months. For females, 81 years and 1 month.

Why it matters: The rise is due to lower death rates for cancer and drug overdoses.

4. EU bids farewell to U.K. with “Auld Lang Syne”

Photo: Yves Herman/Pool via AP

Above, members of the European Parliament hold hands and sing “Auld Lang Syne” in Brussels yesterday after a final divorce vote on the U.K.

Brexit officially happens tomorrow, Jan. 31, at 11 p.m. GMT (6 p.m. ET).

5. 4 days from caucuses, what Iowans search for

Photograph by Kelia Anne for TIME.

Both parties will tell you that health care was the vital issue in the 2018 midterms, and new data shows it’s also top-of-mind for Iowans.

Google Trends finds that in Iowa over the past week, “abortion” and “health care” were the top searched issues in relation to each 0f the 2020 candidates who have qualified for the next Democratic debate, Axios’ Orion Rummler reports.

Candidate’s top-searched issue: “Abortion”

Joe Biden
Pete Buttigieg
Tom Steyer
Andrew Yang

Candidate’s top-searched issue: “Health care”

Amy Klobuchar
Bernie Sanders
Elizabeth Warren

Among the seven debate-qualifiers, the only ones with notable Iowa searches alongside “Social Security” were Biden, Sanders and Warren.

Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Steyer and Yang were the only ones searched widely with “climate change.”

6. U.S. warned to prepare for worst on virus

Data: The Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins, the CDC and the Chinese health ministry; Map: Danielle Alberti/Axios

Public health experts say U.S. should be preparing for the worst as the Chinese coronavirus spreads, Axios’ Sam Baker writes.

One big lesson from the Ebola crisis … “They need to put someone at the White House in charge,” Ron Klain, who served as then-President Obama’s “Ebola czar,” said this week on Axios’ Pro Rata podcast.

Containing and combating a viral outbreak involves border patrol and national security officials; public health agencies at the federal, state and local levels; public and private vaccine researchers; and coordinating with individual hospitals.

7. #GirlDads trends after Kobe death

Photo: Vanessa Bryant/Instagram

Dads with daughters inspired by Kobe Bryant’s bond with his 13-year-old Gianna took to social media to celebrate their own using the hashtag #GirlDads, AP reports.

Vanessa Bryant used the hashtag in an Instagram post, her first since Sunday’s tragic helicopter crash, that paid tribute to Kobe, Gianna and the others killed in the incident.

The Bryant family set up the MambaOnThree Fund to support the other families affected.

8. Te$la

Data: FactSet; Chart: Axios Visuals

Tesla earned $105 million in net profit in the fourth quarter, ending the year on a positive note and declaring 2019 a turning point for the volatile electric car company, Axios’ Joann Muller reports.

Sign up for Ben Geman’s energy newsletter, Generate, for more on Tesla’s win.

9. 🗞️ Buffett bails on newspapers

Berkshire Hathaway, the corporate holding company owned mostly by billionaire Warren Buffett, will sell its newspaper operations to publisher Lee Enterprises Inc. for $140 million.

Why it matters, via Axios’ Sara Fischer: Buffett loves the newspaper business. His first job was a newspaper delivery boy for the Washington Post — and he has long been a vocal supporter of local news.

The fact that he is finally giving up on the industry, which he has warned in recent years is “toast” due to terminal advertising decline, is significant and symbolic.

10. 1 stamp thing

Photo: USPS

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser will proclaim today Gwen Ifill Day at a U.S. Postal Service ceremony for the issue of a Forever stamp (always good, even when rates rise) honoring the pioneering journalist as part of the Black Heritage series.

The photo was taken in 2008 by photographer Robert Severi.
USPS says the news will be shared with #GwenIfillForever.

Ifill — an inspiration as she rose to the heights of journalism as a political reporter for the Washington Post, New York Times and NBC News — was co-anchor or “PBS NewsHour” when she died of cancer at 61 in 2016.

From her N.Y. Times obituary: “Ifill was in the forefront of a journalism vanguard as a black woman in a field dominated by white men.”

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AMERICAN MINUTE

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View as Webpage ‌ ‌ ‌American Minute with Bill FedererWould Democrats nominate FDR today? -A flashback to 80 years ago!Franklin Delano Roosevelt was born JANUARY 30, 1882, in Hyde Park, New York.He was a:
New York State Senator, 1911-1912;Assistant Secretary of the Navy, 1913-1920;Governor of New York, 1929-1932;32nd U.S. President, elected in 1932.Considered one of the most powerful Democrat politicians in history, he won the:
1932 election with 57.41% of the popular vote;1936 election with 60.80% of the popular vote;1940 election with 54.74% of the popular vote;1944 election with 53.39% of the popular vote.Elected President an unprecedented four times, Franklin D. Roosevelt was in office longer than any other President, over 12 years, serving during the Great Depression and World War II.
He died April 12, 1945.The 22nd Amendment , limited all future Presidents to only two terms.
It passed with bipartisan support in Congress in 1947, and was ratified by the states in 1951.It is interesting to ponder whether this highly popular Democrat President could have been nominated by the modern Democrat Party.
Though considered a liberal 80 years ago, since then, both the Left and the Right have moved to the left politically, resulting in many of FDR’s statements being such that even conservatives today would be attacked by the media for repeating them.At a campaign event in Brooklyn, New York, November 1, 1940, Democrat Franklin Roosevelt condemned Germany’s National Socialist Workers Party, stating:
“Those forces hate democracy and Christianity as two phases of the same civilization.
They oppose democracy because it is Christian. They oppose Christianity because it preaches democracy.”At Madison Square Garden in New York City, October 28, 1940, Franklin D. Roosevelt warned:
“We guard against the forces of anti-Christian aggression, which may attack us from without.”FDR said in a Fireside Chat, April 28, 1942:
“This great war effort must be carried through … It shall not be imperiled by the handful of noisy traitors — betrayers of America, betrayers of Christianity itself.”Roosevelt stated in his Labor Day Address, September 1, 1941:
“Preservation of these rights is vitally important now, not only to us who enjoy them, but to the whole future of Christian civilization.”FDR addressed Congress regarding the Yalta Conference, March 1, 1945:
“I saw Sevastopol and Yalta! And I know that there is not room enough on earth for both German militarism and Christian decency.”FDR stated May 27, 1941:
“The whole world is divided between … pagan brutality and the Christian ideal. We choose human freedom which is the Christian ideal.”Roosevelt addressed the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, December 6, 1933:
“Early Christians challenged the pagan ethics of Greece and of Rome;
We are wholly ready to challenge the pagan ethics … of our boasted modern civilization.”FDR remarked in his State of the Union, January 6, 1942:
“The world is too small … for both Hitler and God …
Nazis have now announced their plan for enforcing their … pagan religion all over the world — a plan by which the Holy Bible and the Cross of Mercy would be displaced by Mein Kampf and the swastika and the naked sword.”FDR stated July 19, 1940:
“We face one of the great choices of history … the continuance of civilization as we know it versus the ultimate destruction of all that we have held dear — religion against godlessness.”Franklin D. Roosevelt gave a radio greeting to the Boy Scouts, February 7, 1938:
“On this 28th birthday of the Boy Scouts of America we should be especially thankful for a youth movement which seeks merely to preserve such simple fundamentals as physical strength, mental alertness and moral straightness.”For a comprehensive collection of his quotes, see the book The Faith of FDR-from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Public Papers 1933-1945.In a Fireside Chat, March 9, 1937, FDR stated:
“I hope that you have re-read the Constitution of the United States … Like the Bible, it ought to be read again and again.”On October 6, 1935, FDR stated:
“We cannot read the history of our rise and development as a nation, without reckoning with the place the Bible has occupied in shaping the advances of the Republic …
Where we have been the truest and most consistent in obeying its precepts, we have attained the greatest measure of contentment and prosperity.”FDR stated January 6, 1942:
“Our enemies are guided by … unholy contempt for the human race.
We are inspired by a faith that goes back … to the Book of Genesis: ‘God created man in His own image.'”FDR stated November 4, 1944:
“I can’t talk about my opponent the way I would like to, because I try to think that I am a Christian.
I try to think that some day I will go to Heaven, and I don’t believe there is anything to be gained in saying dreadful things about other people.”FDR stated October 1, 1938:
“I doubt if there is any problem in the world … that would not find happy solution if approached in the spirit of the Sermon on the Mount … in conformity with the teaching of Him who is the Way, the Light and the Truth.”FDR stated January 4, 1939:
“An ordering of society which relegates religion … to the background can find no place within it for the ideals of the Prince of Peace.
The United States rejects such an ordering, and retains its ancient faith.”FDR stated January 31, 1938:
“There has been definite progress towards a spiritual reawakening …
I receive evidences of this from all our Protestant Churches; I get it from Catholic priests and from Jewish rabbis as well.”FDR stated December 6, 1933:
“Churches and government … can work hand in hand …
Government guarantees to the churches — Gentile and Jewish — the right to worship God in their own way …
State and Church are rightly united in a common aim.”In a Radio Address, November 4, 1940, FDR stated:
“Democracy is the birthright of every citizen, the white and the colored; the Protestant, the Catholic, the Jew.”FDR stated at Madison Square Garden, October 28, 1940:
“Your government is working … with representatives of Catholic, Protestant, and Jewish faiths. Without these three, all three of them … things would not be as … easy.”Roosevelt had a mixed record in respect to Jews, such as refusing asylum to Jewish refugees on the ocean liner St. Louis in 1939, expecting them to be received in Cuba.
His wartime advisor, James McDonald, confided that FDR discussed plans to resettle German Jews, but it met political resistance.Nevertheless, he issued Executive Order 9417 to create the War Refugee Board in 1944, which is credited with rescuing thousands of Jews from Nazi-occupied countries.Roosevelt nominated a Jew, Felix Frankfurter, to be a Justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, and another Jew, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., to be Secretary of the Treasury, putting him in the presidential line of succession.Hearing of the atrocities suffered by Jews, FDR stated regarding Justice for War Crimes, March 24, 1944
“In one of the blackest crimes of all history — begun by the Nazis … the wholesale systematic murder of the Jews of Europe …
Hundreds of thousands of Jews … are now threatened with annihilation as Hitler’s forces descend more heavily …
That these innocent people, who have already survived a decade of Hitler’s fury, should perish on the very eve of triumph over the barbarism which their persecution symbolizes, would be a major tragedy.”FDR stated regarding Jewish Refugees, June 12, 1944:
“This nation is appalled by the systematic persecution of helpless minority groups by Nazis …
The fury of their insane desire to wipe out the Jewish race in Europe continues undiminished …
Many Christian groups also are being murdered … Nazis are determined to complete their program of mass extermination.”FDR wrote to Rabbi Stephen Wise of the United Palestine Appeal, February 6, 1937:
“The American people … watched with sympathetic interest the effort of the Jews to renew in Palestine the ties of their ancient homeland and to reestablish Jewish culture in the place where for centuries it flourished and whence it was carried to the far corners of the world …
Two decades have witnessed … the vitality and vision of the Jewish pioneers in Palestine.
It should be a source of pride to Jewish citizens of the United States that they, too, have had a share in this great work of revival.”On September 4, 2012, the Democrat Party almost removed “God” from its Party Platform (Washington Post).
Headlines reported (1/29/19) “Dems to strike ‘so help you God’ from oath taken in front of key House committee, draft shows” (Fox News).FDR told the American Youth Congress, February 10, 1940:
“Mankind has always believed in God in spite of the many abortive attempts to exile God.”FDR stated May 27, 1941:
“The Nazi world does not recognize any god except Hitler; for Nazis are as ruthless as the Communists in denial of God …
Will our children wander goose-stepping in search of new gods?”FDR stated September 11, 1941:
“The times call for … inner strength that comes to a free people conscious of their duty and the righteousness of what they do, they will with Divine help and guidance — stand their ground.”FDR stated December 8, 1941:
“With confidence in our armed forces — with the unbounding determination of our people — we will gain the inevitable triumph – so help us God.”The Faith of FDR-from President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Public Papers 1933-1945Schedule Bill Federer for informative interviews & captivating PowerPoint presentations: 314-502-8924 wjfederer@gmail.comAmerican Minute is a registered trademark of William J. Federer. Permission is granted to forward, reprint, or duplicate, with acknowledgment.www.AmericanMinute.com https://www.themaven.net/americanminute/Click to shop AMERICAN MINUTE store Donate to American Priorities. Thank you!Miracles in American History-Volume TWO (D.James Kennedy Ministry)Faith in History TCT Archives Miracles in American History CTVN CBN “Liberty” Special Today’s Bible reading View as Webpage ‌ ‌ ‌

THE WASHINGTON POST MORNING HEADLINES

Sign up for this newsletter Read online The morning’s most important stories, curated by Post editors. Trump’s legal team advances broad defense against impeachment Read more » All the president’s disloyal men: Trump demands fealty but inspires very littleMany former Trump advisers seemingly expect to be betrayed by the president at some point — and behave accordingly.The Debrief ● By Ashley Parker ● Read more » Wavering Democrats face pressure as GOP eyes bipartisan vote for Trump acquittalRepublicans suggested that any Democratic defections would fuel the GOP campaign to dismiss the impeachment probe as a partisan witch hunt while undermining Democrats’ attempts to cast doubt on the fairness of the Senate trial.By Mike DeBonis ● Read more » John Bolton’s attorney contends book does not contain classified materialThe attorney also asked for an expedited review of a chapter about Ukraine in case the former national security adviser is called to testify in the Senate impeachment trial.By Tom Hamburger, Josh Dawsey and Karen DeYoung ● Read more » U.S. life expectancy ticks up as drug fatalities and cancer deaths dropNew numbers by the CDC showed life expectancy remained lower than in 2014 and flat for the 2010s, as the United States lagged behind peer nations.By Joel Achenbach ● Read more » China coronavirus cases growing by more than 1,000 per day, countries scramble to evacuate citizensThe number of cases has surpassed 7,000 and deaths have risen to 170 in China.LIVE UPDATES ● By Simon Denyer and Paul Schemm ● Read more » Grappling with how America should atone for the wrongs of the pastReparations mean more than money for a family whose story includes slavery and Japanese American internment.By Tracy Jan ● Read more » OpinionsRepublicans’ damaging new line of defenseBy Editorial Board ● Read more » Trump’s peace plan won’t have a chance unless Israel shows restraintBy Dennis Ross and David Makovsky ● Read more » Dershowitz ignores the precedent of Nixon’s articles of impeachmentBy Elizabeth Holtzman ● Read more » Iowa is a test of whether Sanders’s surge will endureBy Karen Tumulty ● Read more » Trump’s confederacy of duncesBy Joe Scarborough ● Read more » The Trump-induced agony of the Iowa voterBy E.J. Dionne ● Read more » More News Anti-human-trafficking groups refuse to attend Ivanka Trump’s White House summitAngry over the administration’s treatment of immigrant trafficking victims, leaders of major organizations are boycotting the event, which the president plans to attend.By Jessica Contrera ● Read more » More women testify that Weinstein assaulted themThe witnesses faced down Harvey Weinstein at his criminal trial, describing casting couch promises that lured them into the powerful producer’s orbit before he allegedly sexually assaulted them in the mid-2000s.By Shayna Jacobs ● Read more » Prosecutors appear to back away from prison recommendation for Michael FlynnThe filings, which say that probation remains a “reasonable sentence,” come as Flynn attempts to withdraw the guilty plea he entered during Robert S. Mueller III’s Russia probe.By Spencer Hsu ● Read more » Who’s paying for Trump’s impeachment defense?Ann Marimow explores who is paying for the president’s lawyers. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro tells The Post’s Anthony Faiola that he’s still firmly in control. And Marian Liu looks at the branding genius of K-pop group BTS.Post Reports | Listen Now ● By The Washington Post ● Read more » We think you’ll like this newsletter Check out Carolyn Hax for Post columnist Carolyn Hax’s latest advice column every day. Sign up »

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THE SUNBURN

Hitting double digits at the polls would be a welcome outcome for most running in the crowded Democratic presidential primary.But in Florida, that’s also-ran territory.The March 17 primary will see 219 delegates up for grabs — 76 of them will be awarded based on candidates’ share of the statewide vote tally, 143 will be allotted based on the vote totals in each of Florida’s 27 congressional districts.But to get even one pledged delegate, a candidate has to earn 15% of the vote. In a two- or three-way race, that’s no big deal. For the 2020 Democratic field, the threshold could upset the current dynamic in the race.As it stands, former VP Joe Biden would net the bulk of Florida’s cache. A survey released by St. Pete Polls earlier this week found him with a commanding 41% lead followed by former Mike Bloomberg at 17%.Behind them is Bernie Sanders at 9%, Elizabeth Warren at 7%, Pete Buttigieg at 6%, Amy Klobuchar at 5%, and on down the line.In other words: a bunch of also-rans.If the survey proves correct — and St. Pete Polls’ CV speaks for itself on that front — that would leave Biden and Bloomberg to split Florida’s trove of delegates.Say, 70-30 — based on the current gap?The math could get even more interesting depending on how candidates assess their chances, and their war chests, over the next few weeks. Some could cede ground statewide to focus on clearing 15% in a district or two. Others might leave the state altogether.Either way, Bloomberg’s strategy is looking more viable by the day.___“Red Dog, Blue Dog in Tallahassee brings together party foes to save the pups” via Rosanne Dunkelberger of Florida Politics — Every dog has its day. In Tallahassee, that was Tuesday, Jan. 28. After a push for legislation supporting dogs — and other critters — during Humane Lobby Day at the Capitol, folks adjourned to the Township bar in CollegeTown for an evening of friendly cross-party competition at the sixth annual Red Dog, Blue Dog fundraiser. Eight guest bartenders — four red, four blue — served specialty drinks and hustled for tips that will be donated to local animal rescue groups. Slinging the Red Dog Das Mule were VISIT FLORIDA CEO Dana Young, Sen. Joe Gruters, Rep. Colleen Burton, and Rep. Alex Andrade. Pouring the Blue Dog Gaarden Party were Division of Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz, Sen. Gary Farmer, Sen. Jason Pizzo and Rep. Tracie Davis.Township was the site of the sixth annual Red Dog Blue Dog to benefit the Animal Shelter Foundation, the Leon County Humane Society and Last Hope Rescue at the Township bar and restaurant in Tallahassee. mage via Mark Wallheiser.___Spotted — Online marketing firm Strategic Digital Services founders (and friends of the ‘burn) Matt Farrar and Joe Clements in the latest issue of Florida Trend Magazine, which talks about how they met in 2013 working on a special election for a Pasco County House seat (the candidate lost), and how they bonded over a mutual interest in social media marketing.Good news about some good guys: Matt Farrar and Joe Clements.

Today’s Sunrise Florida’s Emergency Operations Center is gearing up for the Super Bowl — just in case.Also, on today’s Sunrise:— A Senate committee approves a bill that would allow the early release of inmates 65 and older. They also want to speed up the release of inmates with terminal illnesses, so the state doesn’t have to pay for their health care.— Another Senate committee approves a bill to spare VISIT FLORIDA from the budget ax.— While the House and Senate always open floor sessions with a prayer, lawmakers don’t always like what they hear. Sunrise examines why.— Florida Politics publisher Peter Schorsch drops in to talk about the latest goings-on in Tallahassee.— A Florida Woman loses her job at a day care center for writing a note on the belly of an 18-month-old informing the child’s mother she was out of diapers. The big, black letters covered most of the toddler’s torso. The teacher was fired, and the director of the Children’s Education Center on Sanibel Island apologized to the mom.To listen, click on the image below:

Situational awareness —@RealDonaldTrump: For a guy who couldn’t get approved for the Ambassador to the U.N. years ago, couldn’t get approved for anything since, ‘begged’ me for a non-Senate approved job, which I gave him despite many saying ‘Don’t do it, sir,’ takes the job, mistakenly says ‘Libyan Model’ on T.V., and many more mistakes of judgement, gets fired because frankly, if I listened to him, we would be in World War Six by now, and goes out and IMMEDIATELY writes a nasty & untrue book. All Classified National Security. Who would do this?—@zacjanderson: A number of people I spoke to who saw John Kelly speak multiple times in Sarasota Monday remarked that he didn’t seem particularly fond of [Donald] Trump. That Kelly would talk up [John] Bolton’s honesty & say he believed Bolton was just the most notable example of being willing to cross Trump.—@NikkiFriedFL: With the #USMCA’s signing today, we look forward to having Administration officials in Florida to hear firsthand from our seasonal producers on protecting against unfair trade. @FlaFruitandVeg @FlaFarmBureauTweet, tweet:Tweet, tweet:Tweet, tweet:—@ChrisSprowls: A great day for consumer privacy in the Florida House! The bipartisan passage of #HB1189 will ensure that every Floridian’s DNA is private and protected from insurance companies. This first in the nation bill puts Florida well ahead of the curve on protecting your DNA. #flapolTweet, tweet:

Days until New Brexit deadline — 1; Super Bowl LIV in Miami — 3; Great American Realtors Day — 4; Iowa Caucuses — 4; Eighth Democratic presidential debate in Manchester — 7; Capitol Press Corps press skits — 11; New Hampshire Primaries — 12; Pitchers and catchers begin reporting for MLB Spring Training — 12; South Beach Wine and Food Festival — 20; Ninth Democratic presidential debate in Las Vegas — 20; Roger Stone’s sentencing — 21; Nevada caucuses — 23; “Better Call Saul” Season 5 premiers — 24; 10th Democratic presidential debate in Charleston — 26; South Carolina Primaries — 30; Super Tuesday — 33; Last day of 2020 Session (maybe) — 43; Florida’s presidential primary — 47; “No Time to Die” premiers — 67; Florida TaxWatch Spring Board Meeting begins — 76; TaxWatch Principal Leadership Awards — 77; Florida Chamber Summit on Prosperity and Economic Opportunity — 106; “Top Gun: Maverick” premiers — 148; Democratic National Convention in Milwaukee begins — 165; Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” premiers — 169; 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo start — 176; Florida primaries for 2020 state legislative/congressional races — 201; First Presidential Debate in Indiana — 243; Republican National Convention begins in Charlotte — 207; First Vice Presidential debate at the University of Utah — 251; Second Presidential Debate scheduled at the University of Michigan — 259; Third presidential debate at Belmont — 266; 2020 General Election — 278.

Top story “Ron DeSantis may want to keep a teacher bonus plan, but Legislature doesn’t” via Emily L. Mahoney of the Miami Herald — While the early negotiations of the 2020 Legislative Session have only just begun, one major education development already seems settled: No lawmakers are interested in creating a new teacher bonus program proposed by DeSantis. When asked whether the Legislature had ruled out a new bonus program, the lawmaker in charge of crafting the Senate’s education budget, Sen. Kelli Stargel, said: “We have.” Budget chairman Sen. Ron Bradley also said Wednesday that he thinks lawmakers should focus on salaries. After years of watching the evolution of the state’s current teacher bonus program, Best and Brightest, Bradley said, “the fair way to attract and retain good teachers would be to move these dollars to base pay rather than through a bonus program.”Few lawmakers are interested in creating a teacher bonus program proposed by Ron DeSantis.

Dateline: Tally Assignment editors — DeSantis will make an announcement, joined by Florida Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Noah Valenstein, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Executive Director Eric Sutton and Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Chairman Robert Spottswood, 9 a.m., Phillip and Patricia Frost Museum of Science, Coral Reef Exhibit, 3rd Floor — Dive Level, 1101 Biscayne Blvd., Miami. Later, the Governor will join Department of Economic Opportunity Executive Director Ken Lawson for a major announcement, 11 a.m., Florida Keys Aqueduct Authority, 7000 Front Street, Stock Island.Assignment editors — First Lady Casey DeSantis joins state Sen. Manny Diaz Jr. for an announcement, 10 a.m., the Governor’s Mansion, 700 N. Adams St., Tallahassee.“House reveals its teacher pay plan, without bonuses” via Jeffrey Solochek of the Tampa Bay Times — House PreK-12 Appropriations chairman Chris Latvala unveiled a spending plan that included $150 million more for teacher compensation than what the Senate recommended a day earlier. Latvala’s proposal, which heads to the full Appropriations Committee on Feb. 5, calls for $650 million in what he called a “salary enhancement supplement.” Of that amount, $500 million would go toward the goal of increasing the state’s minimum teacher pay. Latvala said the money would help the state reach a base of $47,000 — $500 less than what DeSantis has requested, but still, Latvala added, pushing Florida to second in the nation as the Governor wanted.Chris Latvala released an education spending plan, without teacher bonuses.Senate wants $639M for water projects — The Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Agriculture, Environment, and General Government proposed $639 million in water quality funding for the 2020-21 budget, Bruce Ritchie of POLITICO Florida reports. The total is higher than the $625 million DeSantis asked for, though it includes $37 million for local projects the Governor didn’t include in his budget request. About half the allotment, $322 million, would be used for Everglades restoration. Another $125 million would be set aside for land acquisition and grants.$340 million gap between House, Senate affordable housing plans — The Senate Appropriations Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development Subcommittee is proposing a $13.7 billion budget proposal for the six state agencies in its silo, far exceeding the spending plan put forward in the House. As reported by Matt Dixon of POLITICO Florida, the $340 million gap between the chambers is mainly due to affordable housing plans — the Senate wants a combined $387 million for the State Apartment Incentive Loan and the State Housing Initiatives Partnership, also known as SAIL and SHIP. The House proposal sets aside just $122 million for those programs.“Senate won’t take up death penalty issue” via the News Service of Florida — The Florida Senate isn’t expected this year to address a major state Supreme Court ruling that said unanimous jury recommendations are not necessary before death sentences can be imposed. “I don’t think we’re going to take steps in the Florida Senate to change or address that,” Senate President Bill Galvano. In a 4-1 decision last week, justices said the court “got it wrong” in 2016 when it required changes such as unanimous jury recommendations on death sentences. The 2016 ruling came as judges, lawyers and state leaders tried to move forward after the U.S. Supreme Court had found Florida’s death penalty system unconstitutional. After the 2016 ruling, the Legislature passed a law in 2017 that required unanimous jury recommendations.— Why mess with Mickey? —Shot — “After launching Disney plus, Disney is lobbying lawmakers to cut taxes on streaming video” via Jason Garcia of the Orlando Sentinel — A lobbyist representing Disney and Charter Communications Inc. — the parent company of cable provider Spectrum — has been working directly with the staff of House Speaker José Oliva, on a plan to rewrite the state’s communications services tax, which is charged on a variety of services, from landline telephones and cellphones to cable, satellite television and streaming video. The proposal (HB 701, SB 1174) would make three significant changes. It would ensure the tax is charged on all streaming video services, forcing any providers who may not be collecting the tax to start doing so. It would cut the tax — but force local governments, rather than the state itself, to absorb almost all the revenue hit.Chaser — Anyone who pays attention to The Process knows French Brown works on nearly every tax issue that goes before lawmakers, and anyone who bothered to ask would know Disney isn’t driving the debate on this issue. Instead, the articles goes all-in on an angle that fell flat on its face from the start — in the first paragraph, readers are to believe that Disney is looking looking bring monumental change to communications tax a mere two months after the launch of its premier streaming service? Sure, Disney has a telecom venture now, but they aren’t the driving force in the tax cut push. Not by a long shot. This is an issue that’s been debated by biggest telecom businesses out there for a while now. Side 1: those pushing to streamline the Byzantine collection process. Side 2: Those looking to cut taxes. Delving into the merits of each camp would have made for an interesting story and readers may have even learned a thing or two. It wouldn’t have been as entertaining as this fiction, however.

Grant: Constitution no ‘political playground’ In the latest episode of the Chamber’s “Bottom Line” video series, Grant explains why the state Constitution should not be a “playground for politics.”The Tampa Republican is currently sponsoring HB 7037, which allows the state’s Supreme Court to ensure any proposal will not violate the U.S. Constitution, as well as provide Florida voters greater transparency about which they are voting. The measure would also increase the signature threshold from 10 to 50% before an initiative gets a court review.As well as discussing Florida’s constitutional amendment process, Grant explains the importance of HB 1, which protects employee paychecks from garnishing union dues without their consent.To view Grant’s appearance on “Bottom Line,” click on the image below:

Legislation “Ballot initiative restrictions move forward” via the News Service of Florida — The House Appropriations Committee approved a controversial bill that would place more restrictions on backers of ballot initiatives. The proposal (HB 7037) would make a series of changes to the petition-signature process and Florida Supreme Court reviews of ballot initiatives. To get proposed constitutional amendments on the 2020 ballot, committees need to submit 766,200 valid petition signatures to the state and receive approval from the Supreme Court of the ballot wording. To trigger that Supreme Court review, committees need to submit 76,632 signatures, or about 10 percent of the 766,200. But as an example of the proposed changes in the House bill that would make the process harder for initiative supporters, the 10 percent threshold would increase to 50 percent.“Senate poised to approve parental consent for abortion in election-year move” via John Kennedy of the GateHouse Capital Bureau — A measure requiring girls under age 18 to get consent from a parent or a judge before having an abortion came under sharp attack from Senate Democrats, who failed in repeated attempts to derail the bill. A full Senate vote is planned for next week — with the GOP-led House also poised to approve a similar bill soon and send it to DeSantis, who has indicated he’ll sign it into law. “It’s not only the right of the unborn, but the right of parents to raise their children,” said Sen. Rob Bradley. “We should be encouraging parental involvement with their children in manners of morality and religion, and this bill promotes that.”Kelli Stargel’s controversial abortion bill is looking likely to pass the Senate.“House moves to block insurers from using DNA testing” via Bobby Caina Calvan of The Associated Press — The House overwhelmingly approved legislation Wednesday that would bar life insurers from using genetic testing to deny policies. The House bill would prohibit life, disability and long-term care insurers from canceling, limiting or setting premiums based on DNA testing. Rep. Chris Sprowls, the sponsor of the House legislation and the next in line to become the chamber’s Speaker, called the bill a matter of genetic privacy. Life insurers oppose the House bill, saying it is too broad and restrictive. “We continue to express our concerns that this bill could disrupt the life insurance market and raise prices on consumers,” said Curt Leonard, the regional vice president for the American Council of Life Insurers.“Lawmakers push legislation to expand Medicaid as Donald Trump moves to scale back” via Sarah Mueller of Florida Politics — Sen. Annette Taddeo is sponsoring a Senate Joint Resolution (SJR 224) that would expand Medicaid coverage for Floridians who are at or below 138% of the federal poverty level. If passed, the state Medicaid agency would have to submit an expansion plan to the Governor by April 1, 2021. The state would have to submit the plan to the federal government by that October. Rep. Cindy Polo is sponsoring a companion House Joint Resolution (HJR 247). Rep. Nick Duran said not expanding Medicaid in Florida means it’s giving up millions of dollars in federal funding. He adds that Florida already makes it hard to get Medicaid. A family of three can’t earn more than $7,000 because of the income limits.“House panel advances ‘accuracy in damages’ bill” via Florida Politics — The House Civil Justice Subcommittee passed a long-sought “accuracy in damages” reform package Wednesday, HB 9 by Rep. Tom Leek. In Florida, when juries calculate damages in personal injury cases, they generally only see the amounts billed. That artificially inflates jury awards, creating perverse incentives and raising the cost of doing business. To address the issue, Leek’s bill ensures that juries base their awards for medical expenses on the usual and customary amounts actually received by medical providers. If the claimant has health insurance or government health coverage, the amounts paid or payable under that coverage are considered the usual and customary amounts.“House OKs bill to protect student-athletes from heat” via Bobby Caina Calvan of The Associated Press — Public schools in Florida would be required to have immediate access to emergency cooling tubs and other lifesaving equipment to save student-athletes from deadly heat strokes, under legislation approved Wednesday in the state House. Lawmakers voted unanimously to advance the legislation, which now awaits action by the Florida Senate. More than 460 student-athletes in Florida were treated for exertional heatstroke during the 2017-18 school year, according to state officials. Florida leads the nation in high school student-athlete deaths from exertional heatstroke, with four since 2011.“Senate passes bill to block local bans on sunscreen” via Brendan Farrington of The Associated Press — Florida cities and counties wouldn’t be able to ban sunscreens containing ingredients that some researchers say harm coral reefs, under a bill passed by the state Senate on Wednesday. The Senate voted 25-14 in favor of the bill after no discussion or debate. If it becomes law, a Key West ordinance to ban the sale of sunscreens containing oxybenzone or octinoxate would be nullified. The Key West ban is set to go into effect next year. Research has shown the chemicals can cause coral bleaching, and the reefs around Key West attract divers, snorkelers and fishing enthusiasts. But Republican Sen. Bradley has said previously that he sponsored the bill because protecting people is more important, and the research hasn’t proven the chemicals actually harm reefs.“Space Florida wants to ‘streamline’ bond process by removing rule requiring Governor’s approval” via Chabeli Carrazana and Jason Garcia of the Orlando Sentinel — Questions under current state law about how exactly Space Florida can borrow money — and who is ultimately on the hook if a deal goes bad — have created challenges for the agency as it seeks to enter into more bond deals. The bill, known as House Bill 717, would strike the provision that Space Florida give 14 days’ notice to the presiding officers and appropriations committee chairs in both houses before presenting the proposal to the Governor and the Cabinet. It would also extend the definition of the word “bonds” to “other types of debt, including bank loans,” which has been a common method of financing for Space Florida in recent years.Senate panel passes resolution defining climate change threats — A resolution enumerating the risks posed by climate change passed the Senate Infrastructure and Security Committee this week with a unanimous vote. SR 1572, sponsored by Orlando Sen. Linda Stewart, includes rising sea levels, freshwater contamination, severe storm events, and changes to agriculture among the challenges facing Florida. “I believe this resolution will bring awareness to Florida’s needs. It is time that the Florida Senate acknowledges climate change and its threats to our environmental and economic security,” Stewart said following the vote.

Today in Capitol The House Judiciary Committee meets, 8 a.m., Room 404, House Office Building.The House Education Committee meets, 9 a.m., Reed Hall, House Office Building.The House Health & Human Services Committee meets, 9 a.m., Morris Hall, House Office Building.The House Commerce Committee meets, 11:30 a.m., Room 212, Knott Building.The House Public Integrity & Ethics Committee meets, 11:30 a.m., Room 404, House Office Building.The House State Affairs Committee meets, 11:30 a.m., Morris Hall, House Office Building.The House will hold a floor session, 3 p.m., House Chamber.The House Rules Committee meets 15 minutes after floor session, Room 404, House Office Building.Assignment editors — Sen. Gayle Harrell and Rep. Jackie Toledo will join pharmacists from around the state to introduce a Florida-specific study on the impact of the pharmacy benefit manager industry on patients and taxpayers, 10:30 a.m., 4th Floor outside Senate Chambers.Happening today — The Florida Supreme Court releases its weekly opinions, 11 a.m.Assignment editors — The Florida Juvenile Justice Association will be holding a legislative reception, 5:30 p.m., The Historic Capitol.

Gov. Club buffet Zuppa Toscana; mixed garden salad with dressings; Caprese salad; antipasto salad; deli board with lettuce, tomatoes, cheeses and breads; chicken Parmesan; roast beef pizzaiola; balsamic roast pork loin; grilled ratatouille; green beans with pancetta; Italian orzo mac and cheese; assorted club baked cookies.

Statewide “Big corporations dispute sponsoring a Florida police charity that mainly pays telemarketers” via Sarah Kleiner and Chris Zubak-Skees of The Center for Public Integrity — At least four of these organizations — Southwest Airlines, the New England Patriots, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Universal Orlando Resort — say they have no record of sponsoring the Law Enforcement Officers Relief Fund, the charitable arm of the International Union of Police Associations, AFL-CIO. The Law Enforcement Officers Relief Fund and the International Union of Police Associations, AFL-CIO, have spent about $82.3 million — 77 percent of their operating expenditures — on fundraising services from around 2011 to March 2018. The executive board of the Law Enforcement Officers Relief Fund and the International Union of Police Associations, AFL-CIO, appear to be strengthening their political connections as the nation barrels toward the 2020 election.“Wells Fargo pulls Florida voucher donations over anti-gay school policies” via Brooke Sopelsa and Ryan Ruggiero of CNBC — “We have reviewed this matter carefully and have decided to no longer support Step Up for Students,” the San Francisco-based bank said of the voucher program. “All of us at Wells Fargo highly value diversity and inclusion, and we oppose discrimination of any kind.” The banks’ decisions come less than a week after an Orlando Sentinel investigation found that 156 private Christian schools with anti-gay views educated more than 20,000 students across the state with tuition paid for by Florida taxpayers.“Floridians believe exorbitant attorney fees risk homeownership affordability, survey says” via Florida Politics — A recent survey shows most Florida voters agree that exorbitant legal fees in property insurance cases are driving up the cost of homeownership. Eighty-seven percent of those polled were especially concerned about the “multiplier fee,” allowing attorneys to collect up to 30 times what a family may get in an insurance dispute. The survey also showed: 75% of polled voters say that limiting lawyer fees will stop greedy lawyers from taking advantage of homeowners; 73% agree that reducing lawsuit abuse will help keep the costs of living down in Florida; 76% said excessive litigation and out of control attorney’s fees are driving our insurance rates up and making it more expensive to buy a home or afford insurance coverage.“’We can’t afford Florida’ shouted renters at a news conference in Capitol” via Danielle J. Brown of the Florida Phoenix — Frustrated renters spoke out at a Florida Housing Justice Alliance news conference in the state Capitol. Trenise Bryant, housing organizer of Miami Workers Center and leader of the news conference, brought attention to statewide housing dilemmas and urged more lawmakers to prioritize accessible housing options for Floridians. A varied group of supporters rallied behind Bryant in a unifying chant. “We can’t…,” Bryant started. “ … Afford Florida!” they finished, echoing the posters and banners dispersed throughout the crowd. Several Florida lawmakers spoke at the news conference to introduce a thorough and comprehensive legislative agenda to promote affordable housing and renter protections across the state.Anna Eskamani speaks about the importance of housing rights. Image via Twitter/New Florida Majority.

Mother nature Counties look to Governor for disaster fund help — A group of Florida counties is asking the DeSantisto allow state agencies to partner up to distribute $900 million in federal disaster recovery money that has sat vacant since Hurricanes Hermine and Matthew. As reported by Arek Sarkissian of POLITICO Florida, East Central Florida Regional Planning Council Chairman Sean Parks wants DeSantis to direct the Department of Economic Opportunity, the Department of Environmental Protection, and the Division of Emergency Management work together to deploy the federal cash. “We strongly recommend the State fortify partnerships among agencies that act as a conduit for Federal resources with agencies that provide mitigation services across sectors to include housing, transportation and green infrastructure,” Parks wrote.“Legislature debating using drones to hunt down pythons in Everglades” via Sarah Rumph of Mediaite — The Burmese python has plagued the Florida Everglades for years, and the state’s Legislature is considering using a new strategy to hunt them down: drones. Florida authorities have employed a variety of strategies over the years to battle the pythons, including offering generous cash prizes for anyone willing to hunt the big snakes. Tracking down the pythons through the hundreds of square miles of Everglades swamps is still a challenge, and that is where drones could provide help. Current Florida law restricts the use of drones by law enforcement agencies to gather evidence or other information, a statute that was passed in response to privacy concerns that this developing technology would be abused by police to conduct warrantless searches of Floridians’ property. This bill would carve out an exception for the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission and the Florida Forest Service to use drones for tasks like “managing and eradicating invasive exotic plants and animals.”Lawmakers are considering using drones in the hunt for invasive species like pythons.“Oak leaves contain potential cure for citrus greening disease” via Paul Brinkmann of UPI — Scientists in Florida have confirmed that oak trees could inhibit citrus greening disease, which has brought the once-thriving Florida industry to the brink of collapse. Oak leaves represent “the first potential organic cure” for the destructive tree sickness, said Lorenzo Rossi, a University of Florida biologist and co-author of a study published in the January issue of the journal Plant Physiology and Biochemistry. Research over the past year at a University of Florida greenhouse in Fort Pierce showed that citrus trees recovered from citrus greening when sprayed and drenched with treated water twice a week for two months. The water was treated by steeping chopped oak leaves in it overnight, allowing leaf compounds to leach out.“Land deals eyed in Sarasota, Columbia counties” via the News Service of Florida — More than 5,700 acres in Sarasota County and 17 acres in Columbia County will be up for purchase by DeSantis and the Florida Cabinet. The property would be acquired through the Florida Forever conservation program. Cabinet aides, in advance of next week’s Cabinet meeting, reviewed the proposed $21 million purchase in Sarasota County from Orange Hammock Ranch, LLC. “This protection ensures that sufficient quantities of water are available to meet the current and future needs of natural systems and the citizens of the state,” a staff review of the proposal said. The state’s cost could be offset by $1.5 million from the Conservation Foundation of the Gulf Coast.“FPL tries a new place to soak in solar power: Floating panels on a Miami lake” via Adriana Brasileiro of the Miami Herald — Flying into Miami can be a feast for the eyes. Now, some may also see 400 solar panels floating on Blue Lagoon right next to the airport — half an acre of panels gleaming in South Florida’s world-famous sunshine. Florida Power & Light on Tuesday launched a solar array that will be visible to Super Bowl fans flying in and out of the city. Drivers along a stretch of the Dolphin Expressway will also be able to see the installation, which measures about 22,000 square feet and will generate 160 kilowatts of electricity, enough to power more than 20 homes per year. “What better way to showcase this city, this county and how innovative we are than with this facility behind us,” said Florida Power & Light CEO Eric Silagy after helping about 10 technicians push the installation into the lagoon.

Inside Trump’s social media machine in 2019, Trump’s reelection campaign set up an advanced social media machine with the goal of reaching out to conservative voters, fine-tune its message and build an impressive email list.Over the past year, The Guardian reports that the Trump campaign spent nearly $20M on over 218,000 various Facebook ads, many of which include images and videos that made news — for having “xenophobic, fearmongering, vitriolic and outright false rhetoric.”Despite that, the campaign also ran a more conventional social media campaign, employing many of the “classic marketing ploys” to collect user data. Even though they were substance-free and noncontroversial, they were quite useful in their ultimate goal — maximize engagement with repetitive requests.Donald Trump has built an impressive social media machine.This mastery of social media has struck fear in many Democrats. Trump’s 2020 reelection campaign manager Brad Parscale had touted this sophistication, particularly on Facebook.“The campaign is all about data collection,” Parscale told the Guardian. “If we touch you digitally, we want to know who you are and how you think and get you into our databases so that we can model off it and relearn and understand what’s happening.”A Guardian examination of all 218,100 campaign ads from the campaign in 2019 — seen between 633 million and 1.3 billion times — found that Trump has vastly outspent his Democratic rivals, including billionaire Tom Steyer, who spent $16.8 million on just 12,704 ads. Former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Buttigieg is the only candidate who came close to Trump’s volume, with 74,286 separate ads.“Of the hundreds of thousands of Facebook ads the Trump campaign ran in 2019,” The Guardian notes, “the most successful could reasonably be described as the most boring.”For example — One of the most effective posts starts with the copy, “TAKE THE OFFICIAL APPROVAL POLL” over a picture of Trump. The link leads the user to an “official approval poll” and a “job performance survey” designed exclusively to collect email addresses. This format amassed nearly 49 million impressions.

2020 “Elizabeth Warren’s latest campaign bet: A ground game in late-voting state like Michigan” via Jess Bidgood of The Boston Globe — The flurry of activity in the Warren campaign’s Michigan headquarters provides a glimpse into a critical bet Warren has placed in the Democratic race. Even as her poll numbers lag in crucial early states, the Massachusetts Senator has built up organizations in places like Michigan, where her campaign was the first of any Democrat to open an office, in a bid to ride out a protracted nomination fight no matter what happens in Iowa. It’s hard to overstate how unusual it is for Warren to have such a large footprint in this Midwestern state, crucial as it is in the general election. The state’s primary isn’t until March 10.Elizabeth Warren’s campaign is turning her focus on later-primary states.“Bernie Sanders search worry some Democrats, but they fear a push to stop him would backfire” via Matt Viser and Annie Linskey of The Washington Post — Even the hint of an organized anti-Sanders movement would risk alienating the Vermont independent’s sometimes belligerent supporters and play into claims that the process is “rigged,” many Democrats say privately. Democratic House candidates in swing districts say they are nervous about running on the same ticket as Sanders, but they, too, are reluctant to say so publicly. That is leading some Democratic centrists to warn that the silence carries a risk of waiting until it’s too late. “People need to start taking Bernie pretty seriously — there is a really substantial risk of him becoming unstoppable if he wins these early states by large numbers,” said Matt Bennett, executive vice president for public affairs at Third Way, a centrist Democratic group.“Twitter users can now report voter suppression, misinformation” via Steven Overly of POLITICO — The company expects the reporting tool will help cut down on misinformation about how to vote or take part in other forms of civic engagement, an issue that has been top of mind for social media companies as the U.S. election and census take place this year. Users can now report tweets that contain misleading voter information, just as they can for those containing harassment, spam or intentions of self-harm. They will then be reviewed against Twitter’s rules, which prohibit content that may mislead voters or suppress turnout, and offenders could face possible recourse. It’s the first time the tool is being used in the U.S.“Inside the messy, awkward, occasionally successful dating scene on the campaign trail” via Lisa Bonos of The Washington Post — In the nerdy, stressful version of adult summer camp that is the presidential race, driven and idealistic young people bond while knocking on voters’ doors during the day and kicking back over cheap beers late At night — so it’s no wonder they fall for one another. And yes, make some passionate mistakes they’d rather forget. Many campaign couples meet as field organizers or while doing advance work, as both jobs are typically held by recent college grads working in small offices in remote towns they’ve never been before. It gets lonely, fast. In 2008, organizers all around Iowa would drive to Des Moines to find other campaign staffers who could relate. Now, Tinder or Bumble can find someone nearby.

Peachy “Senate and John Roberts face possibility of epic tie on witnesses” via Burgess Everett and John Bresnahan of POLITICO — Ahead of a tight vote on whether to hear new witnesses in Trump’s impeachment trial, the Senate is preparing for the possibility that this crucial roll call has an asterisk in the history books: It ends in a tie. And it’s a scenario that would suddenly put a spotlight on Chief Justice Roberts. Ahead of Friday’s widely anticipated showdown over whether to call new witnesses and with GOP leaders moving to lock down on-the-fence Republicans, the Senate is newly abuzz over the uncertainty of what happens if the chamber deadlocks and what Roberts might do in the event of a stalemate. “That is a great unknown,” said Sen. James Lankford.John Roberts could be facing an epic tie.“Poll: Nearly 6 in 10 oppose Donald Trump’s use of executive privilege to muzzle witnesses” via Caitlin Oprysko of POLITICO — Nearly six in 10 voters oppose the president’s invoking executive privilege to block new testimony, according to the latest POLITICO/Morning Consult poll. The latest poll shows that just over a quarter of voters, 26%, think the president should be allowed to use executive privilege to muzzle potential bombshell witnesses like former national security adviser Bolton. That’s compared with 57% who say Trump should not be allowed to invoke the powers of the presidency to block certain witnesses. Though the majority opposed to Trump’s invoking executive privilege was primarily driven by Democrats (86%), that opposition also found a home among 57% of independents.“White House has issued formal threat to John Bolton to keep him from publishing book” via Jake Tapper of CNN — In a letter to Bolton’s lawyer, a top official at the National Security Council wrote the unpublished manuscript of Bolton’s book “appears to contain significant amounts of classified information” and couldn’t be published as written. The letter said some of the information was classified at the “top secret” level, meaning it “reasonably could be expected to cause exceptionally grave harm to the national security.” “The manuscript may not be published or otherwise disclosed without the deletion of this classified information,” the letter read.“On impeachment, Rick Scott poses questions about Democrats, none about Donald Trump” via Scott Powers of Florida Politics — Scott released his list of questions for the impeachment trial of Trump with most exploring what Democrats did or did not do, and none exploring what Trump did or did not do. Scott’s questions include two about former Vice President Biden; one seeking information about the whistleblower whose complaint led Democrats to investigate last year; three about the conduct of Democratic House managers who’ve prosecuted the case against Trump; and one rhetorical question about whether the whole impeachment process is nothing more than a partisan attempt to interfere with the 2020 election. It’s not known when the Senators’ questions might come up on the Senate floor. Nor is it certain if all Senators’ questions will be posed.“Outrage grows over Scott’s ‘hostage’ reference in impeachment” via Anthony Man of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Democrats are expressing outrage over a video from Scott, in which he complains that he’s been “taken hostage,” forced to listen to what he feels is nonsense arguments over impeachment. Scott is clearly, unequivocally, 100% in Trump’s camp — and doesn’t like having to hear the evidence against the president from House impeachment managers. The problematic part, for many, is at the beginning of the two-minute video. “As you may have heard, I’ve been taken hostage, along with 99 other people in the U.S. Capitol. We are receiving only milk and water. And we are being subjected to the cruel and unusual punishment of listening to the rantings of Adam Schiff, a person from a parallel universe.”Tweet, tweet:“Law firm that helped Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman’s political rise cuts its ties” via Be Wieder and Samantha Gross of the Miami Herald — A powerhouse South Florida law firm is where Parnas and his partner Igor Fruman turned to for a variety of tasks during their political rise, Greenspoon Marder. The firm had represented Parnas and Fruman in several matters: Defending them in lawsuits, speaking for them to the press, registering businesses across the country, and even handling Fruman’s divorce from his wife, Liza Naumova. But the relationship appears to have now abruptly come to an end. Last week, the firm withdrew as counsel for Parnas and a business partner, David Correia, in a Palm Beach County lawsuit against a real estate development company, citing “irreconcilable differences.” The firm requested to drop Parnas and Correia as clients in a federal lawsuit related to a failed movie investment, again citing irreconcilable differences.

Chamber cheers USMCA The Florida Chamber of Commerce is celebrating Trump’s signature on the newly ratified U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA).Chamber leaders believe the new deal will “preserve and strengthen U.S. trade ties to Canada and Mexico — two of Florida’s top six countries for Florida-origin exports.”“With more than 2.5 million high-wage Florida jobs depending on international trade, the Florida Chamber of Commerce thanks President Trump for signing the USMCA trade agreement. USMCA will benefit Florida’s agriculture industry, manufacturers and local businesses, and will help grow Florida’s $57 billion in exports of goods and $43 billion in exports of services,” said Bob Grammig, chair of the chamber’s International Trade Division. The International Trade Division will “continue fighting to strengthen Florida’s position as a global trade leader and will continue working to ensure Florida’s exports in goods double and exports in services triple by 2030.”According to TheFloridaScorecard.org, Florida-origin exports are $57.2 billion; the Chamber’s goal for 2030 is to get that number to $114.4 billion. The state also exports $43.3 billion in services and hopes to bring that number to $129.9 billion by 2030. Florida imports $80.6 billion of goods every year.

D.C. matters “Kathy Castor urges DeSantis to ‘be bold’ on climate policy” via Janelle Irwin Taylor of Florida Politics — Castor, chair of the U.S. House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, penned a letter to DeSantis urging him to commit the state to modern energy efficiency initiatives that not only protect the environment and combat climate change, but also save consumers money. “Florida should be a leader in building a clean energy economy and creating economic opportunities with high-quality professions and trades,” Castor wrote. “The most economically competitive states in America will be grounded in clean energy, and the ‘Sunshine State’ should be a world leader.” Since taking office, DeSantis has earned praise for his environmentally-focused priorities on clean water. But while those efforts earned points with environmental groups, it hasn’t been enough to appease them.Kathy Castor is calling on Ron DeSantis it ‘be bold’ on climate change.“Darren Soto, Stephanie Murphy strike deal to get back into VA hospital” via Scott Powers of Florida Politics — The offices of U.S. Reps. Soto and Murphy are headed back into the Orlando Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Lake Nona. However, their office in the hospital is gone, and they’ll be providing constituent services to veterans from a table in a hallway a few days a month. In a news release, Soto and Murphy characterized the result as a compromise solution, following months of negotiations, and accepted that it would allow them to renew, providing what they always asserted was critical assistance to veterans inside the hospital.

The trail “Keep Our Constitution Clean has enough signatures for 2020 ballot” via Drew Wilson of Florida Politics — A proposed ballot amendment that would make it harder for future constitutional amendments to pass has collected enough signatures to secure a spot on the 2020 ballot. Keep Our Constitution Clean had collected 768,096 valid petition signatures as of Wednesday evening, according to the Florida Division of elections website. Constitutional amendments need 766,200 signatures to make the ballot. The committee is pushing a measure that would require future constitutional amendments to be passed by voters twice before they are included in the Florida Constitution. Increasing the necessary rounds of public approval, from one round, would make Florida’s constitution one of the hardest state constitutions to change.“Donna Deegan outraised John Rutherford during last quarter of 2019” via AG Gancarski of Florida Politics — Incumbent U.S. Rep. Rutherford rolled out fourth-quarter fundraising numbers. The Congressman has a cash on hand advantage over likely Democratic challenger Deegan, but he did not raise as much as her during the last quarter of 2019. Rutherford raised $123,850, compared to Deegan, a former broadcaster and cancer survivor, who raised $204,000 in her first quarter in the race. Most of Rutherford’s money came from corporate PACs and the Jacksonville donor class. The congressman is spending also — $70,000 over the last three months of 2019.“Leo Valentin, Carlos Giménez make NRCC’s ‘on the radar’ list for congressional runs” via Scott Powers of Florida Politics — Republican congressional candidates Valentin in Orlando and Miami-Dade County Mayor Giménez are in line for national Republican support for their campaigns, now that the National Republican Congressional Committee has declared both of them to be “On the radar” for the party’s “Young Guns” program. Both are in multiple-candidate Republican primary battles for chances to take on Democratic congresswomen who are being targeted by national Republicans. The “On the radar” designation means they have achieved the first level of campaign thresholds for fundraising, organization, and viability, and have been identified as promising by the NRCC.Tweet, tweet:“Voters to decide in November whether to bring back tax for Conservation Collier” via Patrick Riley of the Naples Daily News — Commissioners this week voted 4-1 to approve ballot language to ask voters this November whether they support bringing back a special tax to continue to buy and manage environmentally sensitive lands. Voters will be able to decide whether they agree with reestablishing a quarter-mill property tax for 10 years. However, Commission Chairman Burt Saunders noted that the proposed rate could be adjusted up until ballots are actually printed. “This is nothing that’s cast in stone,” he said at the hearing on the issue. “So, we can have further discussion, but it’ll get the dialogue started.”

Local “Tampa City Council member uses anti-Semitic slur” via Charlie Frago of the Tampa Bay Times — In the midst of describing why he thought the city of Tampa was being charged too much for construction costs, City Council member Orlando Gudes put it this way to a Tampa Bay Times reporter: “We’re getting Jewed.” Gudes, 52, a first-term council member and retired police officer, immediately retracted his words, saying he shouldn’t have said it. He later said he didn’t want to be misinterpreted as using a slur against Jewish people. “Sometimes, people use the word ‘I got Jewed’ meaning by a Jewish person … And I thought someone could take that the wrong way,” said Gudes, who is African American. “Let’s not go down that road, OK? I’m not a racist.”Tampa City Council member Orlando Gudes put his foot in his mouth with an anti-Semitic slur.“Hillsborough School Board descends on Capitol as teacher pay debate rages” via Janelle Irwin Taylor of Florida Politics — It’s rare for an entire board and an agency’s top executive to all travel together to the Capitol to lobby lawmakers on issues, making the district’s trip a unique opportunity. The group established a list of items to tackle on the trip, matters on which both Republican and Democratic members of the board agreed. The goal was to create a focused platform with achievable ideas by targeting DeSantis and leading lawmakers’ already established priorities. Their goal is to further the conversation on issues by building on or improving measures already working through the 2020 Legislative Session. The group narrowed its list to six topics and are meeting with more than a dozen lawmakers to address them.“South Florida students told to stay home after possible exposure to coronavirus” via Cindy Krischer Goodman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Thirty high school students in Palm Beach County were told to stay home because they may have been exposed to coronavirus at a weekend conference. The group had attended a Model United Nations event at Yale University in Connecticut that was cut short when the university notified participants that a student from China with a cough and fever had been taken to Yale-New Haven Hospital. The Chinese student tested positive for influenza and has been isolated while awaiting test results for coronavirus. According to the Centers for Disease Control, symptoms of coronavirus show up two to 14 days after exposure to the virus. Yale said more than 1,500 student delegates from cities around the world attended.“JEA will ask senior executives to give up unusual benefits in employment agreements” via David Bauerlein of the Florida Times-Union — State law limits severance pay to 20 weeks of compensation for government workers in Florida. Still, the JEA employment agreements say senior leadership team members dismissed without cause also will get consulting contracts after their last day. The total value of those consultant contracts was $1.6 million, according to a City Council Auditor report. No other independent authority in Jacksonville provides guarantees of consulting contracts to dismissed employees. The Jacksonville City Council approved a resolution Tuesday that includes a request for JEA to renegotiate the non-CEO agreements with senior leadership team members. City Ethics Director Carla Miller has called on the executives to voluntarily agree to cancel the contracts as a way to “increase citizen trust in JEA.”“Feds investigating former Florida state attorney’s tenure” via Andrew Pantazi of the Florida Times-Union — A federal grand jury in Jacksonville is investigating the tenure of Jeff Siegmeister, a North Florida state attorney who resigned last month while FBI agents were questioning potential witnesses. Although the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Jacksonville and the FBI said they couldn’t confirm or deny the investigation, Mitch Stone, an attorney for one of the men approached by FBI agents, said the grand jury is investigating what went on in the 3rd Judicial Circuit during Siegmeister’s tenure. His lawyer, Bobi Frank, a Gainesville criminal defense attorney, said in an email, “As the former State Attorney for the Third Judicial Circuit, if he was under investigation for any reason, he would fully cooperate with Federal Agents and Prosecutors-he has nothing to hide.”“Gaming arcades have 30-day deadline to vacate Nassau County after commission vote” via Dan Scanlan of the Florida Times-Union — The vote, which followed a lengthy public hearing with comments from supporters and opponents of the so-called internet cafes, saw many ask to be left alone. But in the end, all five commissioners voted unanimously to shut them down after the Nassau County Sheriff’s Office reported an increase in crime. County attorney Michael Mullin told the audience that gambling is illegal in Nassau County. Yet, there has been a “proliferation” of businesses using a computer or video games and contests “generally associated with legalized casino or gambling outlets.” He said people might be deceived into thinking such devices are legal when the commission finds them “deceptive” and adverse to the county’s quality of life.“Keith Powell bows out as new Tallahassee ethics officer, apologizes for political tweets” via Jeff Burlew of the Tallahassee Democrat — “I’m sorry if my past comments offended members of this community,” Powell said in a news release. “This was never my intent. I am a deeply religious man who wears my faith on my sleeve. For better or for worse, that is just who I am.” Powell’s Twitter feed, which has since been deleted, included sharp jabs at prominent Democrats. In one of the tweets, he complained about a gay kiss shown during the broadcast of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade. In the news release, which was issued by John Reid, attorney for the Independent Ethics Board, Powell said his comments were not made with malice “but rather reflect his conservative views on various social and political issues.”“Who’s a lobbyist? Leon County may strengthen local law after Tallahassee Democrat investigation” via Karl Etters of the Tallahassee Democrat — Commissioner Rick Minor asked County Attorney Herb Thiele to bring back an agenda item clarifying the definition of lobbying to clear up any confusion. In his request for ways to improve transparency, Minor cited recent reporting by the Tallahassee Democrat about the intersection of lobbying, private business and public policy. A handful of unregistered lobbyists met with elected officials in the last year, the paper has reported. The broad interpretation in local ordinances of what is lobbying is causing officials — and ethics watchdogs — concern over who is influencing local politics. No one has ever faced sanctions for violating the city or county lobbying ordinances. The county ordinance does not include language on how violations are monitored or enforced.Leon County Commissioner Rick Minor wants some clarification of just what is a lobbyist.UWF audit expected to last through late March — Lawmakers won’t get to see the results of a review addressing the University of West Florida’s alleged mismanagement of Complete Florida Plus during the Legislative Session. As reported by Andrew Atterbury of POLITICO Florida, the audit was initially expected to be completed by the end of last year, but the State University System Board of Governors now expects to report its findings when it meets March 24. The Legislative Session is scheduled to end on March 13. Speaking at a BOG meeting, state university system inspector general Julie Leftheris said that the audit is ongoing.

Top Opinion “Time has come for taxing Internet commerce” via Bill Cottrell of the Tallahassee Democrat — It could all be done electronically, just like the little code reader at Publix scans each item and detects which ones are sales-taxable. The current law refers to “mail-order sales,” which brings to mind visions of the Wells Fargo wagon coming to town in “The Music Man.” The legislation, Senate Bill 126 and House Bill 159, changes that to “remote” sales. The first big thing to understand (or get over) about the idea is that this is not a tax increase. Nobody likes to start paying a fee they’re able to skip now, and the idea of giving more money to the government may not fill your heart with joyous anticipation, but this is money that’s already owed. And it’s fair.

Opinions “Not a bank of bigotry. Fifth Third pulls voucher-school money until anti-gay policies cease” via Scott Maxwell of the Orlando Sentinel — On Tuesday, Fifth Third Bank became the latest company to say it will no longer steer tax payments to Florida’s voucher-school program. The reason: Fifth Third learned from the Orlando Sentinel that more than 80 schools in the program say they refuse to serve LGBT students or families. Quite simply, it was hard for the bank to preach diversity and inclusion to its customers and employees while also funding schools like Trinity Christian in DeLand, where the handbook says students can be expelled for saying: “I am gay.” It was all too much for Fifth Third, which tweeted: “We have communicated with program officials that we will not be contributing again until more inclusive policies have been adopted by all participating schools to protect the sexual orientation of all our students. We are proud to stand with #LGBTQ students and parents.”“Dishonest posturing by Everglades foundation jeopardizes DeSantis proposal to combat algae blooms” via Brian Burgess of The Capitolist — The group is standing alone in opposition to a high-priority proposal backed by DeSantis that would create additional oversight of leaky septic tanks, add more transparency and data collection to reporting on agricultural water management practices, as well as add a new wastewater grant program to minimize pollution. They are in SB 712 from recommendations by the state’s Blue-Green Algae Task Force. In testimony before the Subcommittee on Agriculture, Environment and General Government, the Everglades Foundation General Counsel Anna Upton told Senators that a proposed compromise amendment would move the bill “backward.” Sen. Debbie Mayfield said. “It takes us forward. We’re trying to set something up that’s going to be a success.”

Lobby regs New and renewed lobbying registrations:Brian Bautista, David Browning, Mercer Fearington, Paul Mitchell, The Southern Group: Apple, Florida Peninsula & Edison Insurance Company, Hillsborough County, Lumina Analytics, South Central Florida ExpressChristian Camara, Chamber Consultants: Florida Association for Office-Based SurgeryMarty Fiorentino, Davis Bean, John Delaney, Joseph Mobley, Mark Pinto, Shannan Schuessler, The Fiorentino Group: CareerSource Northeast FloridaDylan Fisher: Executive Office of the GovernorMathew Forrest, Ballard Partners: Vinik Family OfficeShawn Foster, Sunrise Consulting Group: EverbridgeRichard Fox, Sandra Starnes: Office of Insurance RegulationElizabeth Guzzo: Office of the Attorney GeneralMichael Horner, Macy Island Consulting: Sea and ShorelineJonathan Kilman, Converge Government Affairs of Florida: Enterprise HoldingsAmy Maguire, Shumaker Advisors Florida: Sportradar SolutionsSafia Malin: SPLC Action FundAndre Parke, Sachs Sax Caplan: Zaner-BloserMichael Spinelli: Bay Area Metro, ETC of Central Florida, Orange Lake Resort & Country Club, Rosen Hotels & Resorts, South Florida Quarter Horse AssociationJenna Stevens: Environment FloridaKelley Teague: Orange County Government

Super Bowl’ing “Emergency officials ready for Super Bowl” via the News Service of Florida — State Emergency Management Director Moskowitz said his agency will be at “Level 2” staffing in support of homeland security operations surrounding the game. “We are in a supporting role and not just myself but FDLE and other state agencies,” Moskowitz said, referring to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. “We will have boots on the ground. The (state Emergency Operations Center) is actually going to be open and operating. So, we are going to be ready to support potentially anything that may happen. Except, the only thing I hope that happens is one of those teams has a good game. And that’s the end of that. And people go home in a nice, orderly fashion.”State Emergency Management Director Jared Moskowitz says his agency is ready for the Super Bowl. Just in case.“The most balanced team in the Super Bowl is not the favorite” via Michael Salfino of FiveThirtyEight.com — One team competing this weekend in Super Bowl LIV has proved all season that it is one of the most dominant, well-balanced squads in NFL history. It’s the team widely expected to lose. Given the defensive reputation of San Francisco, it shouldn’t be a shock that the Niners allowed far fewer yards than the Chiefs did this season. But you may be surprised that the 49ers narrowly edged out the Chiefs in terms of total yards gained. In fact, the 49ers are the first Super Bowl team since the 2007 New England Patriots — unbeaten in the regular season — to rank in the top five in both most yards gained (6,097, fourth) and fewest yards allowed (4,509, second).“Katie Sowers is the first woman to coach in a Super Bowl. Her goal: ‘make sure I’m not the last.’” via Adam Kilgore of The Washington Post — It was a common NFL occasion, a coach helping a young player through a test, and yet it was unlike almost any interaction on an NFL sideline. The coach’s name was Katie Sowers. She was not just a striver. She was a trailblazer, a fierce former quarterback who saw a path when one did not really exist. Sowers will become the first woman to coach in the Super Bowl. One of three women who have full-time NFL coaching jobs, she is an offensive assistant on 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan’s staff. Her job consists mostly of grunt work. She is living her dream.“The forever cycle of Chiefs fandom has been broken” via Rany Jazayerli of The Ringer — If it’s darkest before the dawn, well, this was the darkest it’s been for me. I never had to give up on the Chiefs. I’ve been rooting for the Chiefs for longer than most of them have been alive. Patrick Mahomes Senior wasn’t born the last time the Chiefs played in the Super Bowl. Aside from punter Dustin Colquitt, not one member of the roster was even in the organization when it lost to the Ravens in the wild-card round nine years ago. These players can lay claim to the AFC championship, but the end of a 50-year drought is not theirs to claim, nor should they want any part of that.“Who the hell is Raheem Mostert?” via Tyler Dunne of BleacherReport.com — How does a 27-year-old who has been cut again … and again … and again — six times in all — have maybe the best game a running back has ever had in the playoffs? Back when the 49ers were predicting this type of season, there’s zero chance even they could’ve expected the part Mostert would play in it. And yet there he was Sunday, a mic in his face, holding his son Gunnar in one hand and the Halas Trophy in the other as confetti rained. To espouse the virtues of lifting and training and believing in himself. And yes, this 5’10,” 210-pounder with 4.32 speed, veins snaking down his forearms and biceps popping out of a maroon shirt is clearly committed. Or to launch into an attack on the teams that didn’t believe in him. And yes, he keeps the dates of those six cuts in the Notes app on his phone.49ers running back Raheem Mostert is an unlikely legend.“Miami street artists to feature works during Super Bowl” via The Associated Press — Some of the most popular street artists in Miami’s trendy Wynwood district will get a boost from the Super Bowl. Five artists will showcase their work at the stadium, around the city, and on the actual game day ticket. The NFL partnered with the curators of the renowned Wynwood Walls and commissioned five artists to create large scale murals, sculptures, and building wraps into the Super Bowl LIV experience. The Walls, a year-round spot in the heart of Wynwood, features large murals by artists. It has become a popular tourist spot and a colorful selfie backdrop.“Here’s when you can expect Uber, Lyft price surging in Miami during Super Bowl week” via Michelle Marchante of the Miami Herald — How much will an Uber or Lyft cost you during Super Bowl week? Probably enough to make your bank account feel like it’s running on empty. Uber and Lyft declined to say when riders can expect to see price surging or how high it could get during the Super Bowl. Instead, both companies said it fluctuates based on various factors, including traffic, location, time and demand for drivers. While this will be Miami’s first Super Bowl with Uber and Lyft, ride costs did get pricey in other cities during previous Super Bowls. MPR News, a public radio station in Minnesota, tracked Uber surge pricing when Super Bowl 2018 was in Minneapolis. The highest surge it found was 3.9x regular prices at 4:30 a.m. Monday — hours after the game had ended.

Happy birthday Best wishes to Sen. Perry Thurston. Senate Democrats will be in good hands when he takes over as their leader.

LARRY J. SABATO’S CRYSTAL BALL

IN THIS ISSUE:

– Take Two: Can Sanders Broaden His Base?– Democrats’ Dilemma: Ideology and Electability Take Two: Can Sanders Broaden His Base?By Rhodes Cook
Senior Columnist, Sabato’s Crystal Ball

KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE– Unlike in 2016, Bernie Sanders has a real chance to win the Democratic presidential nomination.– However, he likely will have to broaden his base of support to do so.– Namely, better showings in big urban and suburban areas are important, particularly as the field narrows.Sanders 2016: A look backBernie Sanders begins his second bid for the Democratic presidential nomination in possession of something he never attained in 2016: A competitive chance of winning.Sanders’ first try four years ago was respectable. Facing a top-heavy favorite in Hillary Rodham Clinton, he won 22 states — 12 caucuses and 10 primaries, among them the battleground states of Michigan and Wisconsin. He drew 43% of the nationwide Democratic primary vote, which represented more than 13 million voters. As a result, he posted the highest primary vote total in the nation’s history for any candidate not named Obama, Clinton, or Trump.Yet in 2016, Sanders never had a realistic chance of winning the party’s nomination. Two basic stumbling blocks stood in his way: superdelegates and the South. The former, which comprised 15% of the convention delegates, went virtually en masse for Clinton, as she was a part of the Democratic establishment in a way that Sanders never was or could be. And with Clinton’s firm grip on the minority vote, the Vermont senator was never able to penetrate the South. He lost 12 of 13 primaries across the region (all save Oklahoma), polling barely one third of its aggregate primary vote in the process.Sanders’ problem garnering the votes of African Americans and Hispanics extended to other regions of the country as well, helping Clinton to dominate the vote in many of the nation’s leading urban centers and their suburbs. The result: In the 10 states with 15 or more electoral votes, Sanders could carry the primary in only one, and that, Michigan, was by less than 20,000 votes out of 1.2 million cast.Basically, the heart of Sanders’ coalition in 2016 was academic centers and a significant swath of rural America. The latter was an unlikely source of votes for a self-described “democratic socialist.” Antipathy to Clinton was no doubt a major reason for his strong rural vote. So were his full-voiced attacks on what he saw as an insensitive political and economic elite. And in spite of his Bronx accent, his base in rural Vermont gave him a connection to primary voters in smaller states that Clinton could not match.Of the 10 primaries that Sanders won, there were three types: those with a progressive pedigree (such as Oregon, Vermont, and Wisconsin); those that were New England neighbors of Vermont (New Hampshire and Rhode Island); and a mixed band of others (from Michigan and Montana to the unlikely trio of Indiana, Oklahoma, and West Virginia). Sanders also had close losses of two percentage points or less in the Iowa caucuses and primaries in Illinois, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Missouri, and South Dakota. He ran particularly well in states where independents were allowed to vote in the Democratic primary.Sanders’ strength in rural areas was evident in the number of counties he carried in a variety of primary states outside the South. In Wisconsin, he won 71 of 72, losing only Milwaukee County to Clinton. In Oregon, he swept 35 of 36, losing only one small county to Clinton by a vote of 101 to 100. In Oklahoma, Sanders carried 75 of 77 counties. And in Michigan, he took all but 10 of the state’s 83 counties.His victory in the Wolverine State was a microcosm of his strengths and weaknesses in 2016. Clinton dominated the Detroit metro area, winning Wayne County, which includes the city of Detroit, by 60,000 votes. She also carried the city’s two major suburban counties, Oakland and Macomb, the latter the fabled home of blue-collar “Reagan Democrats.” Outside the Detroit area, Clinton picked off Genesee County, which includes Flint, an industrial outpost that is the birthplace of filmmaker and progressive activist Michael Moore (a Sanders backer). But Sanders swept most everywhere else in Michigan, including the county of Washtenaw, which includes the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and nearby Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti.To be sure, the 2020 Democratic nominating race has a different complexion to it than that of four years ago. Then, Sanders was engaged in a one-on-one fight with Clinton where he needed a majority of the vote in primary and caucus states to prevail.This time, that will not be the case, at least in the early voting. Pluralities will do, as the Democrats have a far wider field of candidates, including two billionaires in Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer, whose wealth gives them staying power. At this point, it would be no surprise if the wide field of Democratic candidates persisted well into the glut of March primaries. Sanders’ ardent group of supporters, augmented by his ability to raise impressive sums of money, should keep him as a major player in the Democratic race provided he does not unexpectedly tank in Iowa and New Hampshire.Still, to win the Democratic nomination in 2020, Sanders will ultimately need to be more than the Democratic champion of academe and the rural countryside. Maybe not at the start, but eventually, he will need to show broader vote-getting ability than he did in 2016. That includes breakthroughs in the cities and the suburbs, both critical to Democratic success in the general election, and blue-collar jurisdictions with an industrial heritage such as Flint.This year’s Democratic race could be profoundly affected by rules changes instituted by the party for 2020. Probably the most significant redefines the controversial role of superdelegates, which are party and elected officials given automatic delegate status by virtue of their position. Superdelegates are free to vote for the candidate of their choice regardless of the result of their state’s primary or caucus.In 2016, they were crucial to the nomination of Clinton: She would have won without them, but their backing reinforced her edge. This time they will have no vote at all on the first ballot unless there is already a clear-cut winner going into the convention. It is a change that should work to Sanders’ advantage.But another rules change may not. It encourages states to select their delegates through higher turnout primaries rather than comparatively low turnout caucuses. The latter are a venue that rewards passion, and Sanders’ enthusiastic supporters gave him victories in 12 of the 14 caucus states in 2016, often by lopsided margins. Iowa and Nevada will hold caucuses in 2020, but there will be few other states using the caucus process.What follows is an in-depth examination of Sanders’ 2016 performance. Table 1 shows the difference in Sanders’ showing in caucuses versus primaries; Table 2 shows the primary vote by region; and Table 3 analyzes a series of sample counties, illustrating Sanders’ strengths and weaknesses in different kinds of places across the country.Table 1: Sanders dominated in caucuses, Clinton in primariesIn his first try for the Democratic presidential nomination in 2016, Bernie Sanders dominated in the low-turnout world of the caucuses, where his passionate cadre of supporters almost always carried the day. It was more difficult for Sanders, though, in the higher turnout primary states. There, Hillary Rodham Clinton prevailed in most contests, with particular success in states with a high minority population. Unfortunately for Sanders, there were far more primaries than caucuses, and there will be even fewer caucuses in this year’s nomination fight.
Note: The total number of states won by Sanders and Clinton totals 53, because the District of Columbia primary is included as are both caucuses and non-binding primaries in Nebraska and Washington. In the latter two, Sanders won the caucuses while Clinton took the non-binding primaries. A tally of actual caucus votes was taken in only eight of the 14 states that held them. In the other six caucus states, other measurements of candidate support were used.Sources: America Votes 32 (CQ Press, an imprint of SAGE) for 2016 Democratic primary results; CNN The Republican and Democratic National Conventions Research & Editorial Guide 2016 (Robert Yoon, editor) for 2016 Democratic caucus results.Table 2: Regional breakdown of the 2016 Democratic primary and delegate countWhen the presidential roll call was taken at the 2016 Democratic national convention, Bernie Sanders finished nearly 1,000 delegates short of Hillary Rodham Clinton. Much of his deficit was due to his failure to do better among superdelegates and Democratic primary voters in the South. Of the 13 Southern primaries, Sanders carried only one (Oklahoma). And in more than half the other primaries across the region, he was beaten by margins in excess of 2 to 1. As for the superdelegates, Clinton had a lead in the vicinity of 500 among them.
Note: The delegate count is based on the presidential roll call at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. An asterisk (*) that accompanies Nebraska and Washington indicates that the states held a non-binding Democratic primary, with delegates selected in a separate caucus process. The District of Columbia is included in the list of Democratic primaries.Source: America Votes 32 (CQ Press, an imprint of SAGE), 54-55, for the 2016 Democratic primary vote. The delegate tally is based on the 2016 Democratic convention presidential roll call and was compiled by the author, with assistance from the Frontloading HQ website and Robert Yoon of CNN.Table 3: 2016 Democratic primary results: A sampling of countiesThe following categories of sample counties seek to show Bernie Sanders’ strengths and weaknesses as a vote-getter in the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries. Columns are included that also feature the winner of the Republican primary in each county that is listed, as well as the November 2016 general election winner and their percentage. Wherever candidate percentages appear, they are based on the total vote. A pound sign (#) is used to indicate counties in states where primaries were held after Donald Trump’s last rivals had left the Republican race in early May 2016. All results are based on official primary and general election returns posted on state election web sites.
TYPES OF COMMUNITIESAt its most elemental level, the nation can be divided into three separate types of communities: urban, suburban, and rural. The largest cities are the cornerstone of the Democratic vote. Rural and small-town America are decidedly Republican. The suburbs are often up for grabs and swing between one party and the other, frequently deciding elections in the process. In the 2016 Democratic primaries, Clinton dominated major urban centers with their large minority populations, and tended to have the upper hand in suburban counties as well. As for Sanders, he swept many rural counties, especially outside the South.Major urban centersMajor suburban countiesRural and small-town AmericaRACIAL COMPOSITIONMinorities, especially African Americans, are arguably the most loyal element of the Democratic coalition. And counties with a sizable African-American population consistently gave Clinton her highest proportion of the Democratic primary and general election vote in 2016. The counties with the highest percentage of African Americans can generally be found in the South; those with the highest proportion of Hispanics in Florida and the Southwest. The minority percentages listed below are based on the 2010 census.African-American majorityHispanic majorityLIBERAL BASTIONSOne of the biggest surprises from the 2016 Democratic presidential primaries, at least in this corner, was that Bernie Sanders did not carry San Francisco. Yet he did dominate in other liberal strongholds, especially academic communities. An asterisk (*) indicates that the county or town is the home of multiple colleges. Amherst, Mass., is the site of three colleges: the University of Massachusetts, Amherst College, and Hampshire College. Washtenaw Co., Mich., is the home of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and Eastern Michigan University in neighboring Ypsilanti.College townsUrban centersArtistic communitiesMORE CONSERVATIVE VENUESIt was not so long ago that labor unions were strong and Democrats were champions of the working class. But in 2016, Donald Trump penetrated deeply into the blue-collar vote, which proved to be a major factor in his upset victory over Hillary Rodham Clinton. Democrats hope to be able to effectively compete with Trump for blue-collar support in 2020, but Sanders will have to make a better case than he did the last time that he is the candidate that can do it.Industrial heritageMilitary influenceObama-to-Trump countiesConclusionNew rules and a new field of candidates can make for a changing coalition for a second-time candidate such as Sanders. In the 2008 Democratic primaries, for instance, Clinton lost the African-American vote to Barack Obama. In 2016, she dominated it against Sanders. This time, it is Sanders’ turn to see if he can expand his coalition from last time. To put himself on the road to the White House in 2020, he will need to.Rhodes Cook was a political reporter for Congressional Quarterly for more than two decades and is a senior columnist at Sabato’s Crystal Ball.

Democrats’ Dilemma: Ideology, Electability, and the 2020 Presidential Nomination in Iowa and the Nation

By Alan I. Abramowitz
Senior Columnist, Sabato’s Crystal Ball

KEY POINTS FROM THIS ARTICLE– The Democratic electorate has been getting more liberal, although at the same time, Democrats are not necessarily prioritizing ideology as they select a presidential nominee.– Over time, both Democrats and Republicans have expressed increasingly negative views of the other party’s presidential nominee.– The two leading Democrats, Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders, poll somewhat similarly in hypothetical matchups with Donald Trump, but Biden’s numbers are consistently stronger.Democrats weigh ideology versus electabiltyVoters in primary elections generally have two major goals: advancing their policy preferences and winning the general election. This can lead to a dilemma when these goals are in conflict.For many voters in the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries and caucuses, that dilemma is very real. That is because of two features of this year’s Democratic contest: the wide range of ideological choices offered by the leading candidates and the extreme urgency for most Democratic voters of defeating the incumbent president: Donald Trump.All of the major candidates currently seeking the Democratic nomination are proposing policies that place them well to the left of the Republican incumbent and even, in many cases, to the left of the previous Democratic president. Nevertheless, the candidates occupy a wide range of ideological views, from self-avowed socialist Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren on the left to Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, and Joe Biden, who are closer to the center. Thus, it is common to refer to the candidates in terms of the ideological “lanes” that they appear to be running in. Sanders and Warren are said to be running in the “left lane” while Buttigieg, Klobuchar, and Biden, along with self-funded billionaire Michael Bloomberg, are said to be running in the “center lane.”The good news for the two candidates running in the left lane — Sanders and Warren — is that Democratic voters have been moving to the left since at least the 1990s. Gallup poll data displayed in Figure 1 show that between 1994 and 2018, liberal identifiers increased from a quarter of Democratic voters to just over half while moderates fell from 48% to 34% and conservatives fell from 25% to 13%. A similar trend is evident among Democratic caucus participants in Iowa. According to entrance poll data, between 2008 and 2016, the share of caucus goers describing themselves as very liberal rose from 18% to 28%, while the share describing themselves as either moderate or conservative fell from 46% to 32%.Figure 1: Ideological Identification of Democratic Voters, 1994-2018Source: GallupThere is a clear relationship between ideology and candidate preference among Democratic voters in 2020. Thus, according to data from a Jan. 9-12 Monmouth University Poll displayed in Table 1, Sanders and Warren held a combined 54% of the vote among likely caucus goers in Iowa who described themselves as very liberal but only 22% of the vote among those who described themselves as moderate or conservative. In contrast, the three candidates in the center lane — Buttigieg, Klobuchar and Biden — were winning only 30% of the vote among likely caucus goers who described themselves as very liberal compared with 61% of the vote among those who described themselves as moderate or conservative.Table 1: 2020 Iowa Democratic caucus preference by ideologySource: Monmouth University Poll, Jan. 9-12, 2020.But nominating a candidate who reflects their ideological preferences is not the only, or even necessarily, the most important concern this year among Democratic voters. For many Democrats, perhaps a majority, the biggest concern is finding a candidate who can defeat Donald Trump. While winning the general election is always an important goal for primary voters, it is especially salient this year for Democratic voters because of the intense dislike that many of them feel toward the president. This is readily apparent in Figure 2, which displays the trend over time in the average rating of Democratic and Republican presidential candidates on the American National Elections Studies feeling thermometer scale by Democratic voters. On this scale, zero is the lowest possible score, 50 is described as a neutral score, and 100 is the highest possible score.Figure 2: Mean feeling thermometer ratings of Democratic and Republican presidential candidates by Democratic voters, 1972-2016Source: ANES cumulative file.The data in Figure 2 show that there has been a fairly steady decline in Democrats’ ratings of Republican presidential candidates over the past several decades. This decline is part of a larger trend — the rise in affective polarization within the American electorate. A similar decline is evident in Republicans’ ratings of Democratic presidential candidates and in Democrats’ and Republicans’ ratings of the opposing party. However, the average rating of Donald Trump by Democratic voters in 2016 was by far the lowest for any Republican candidate in the entire series going back to 1972. Trump received an average rating of 12 degrees among Democratic voters with 57% giving him a rating of zero, the lowest possible rating on the scale.The data in Figure 3 show that the decline in feeling thermometer ratings of Republican presidential candidates by Democratic voters has occurred across all ideological groupings. Liberals consistently rate Republican candidates lower than moderates or conservatives, but the average rating of Donald Trump by conservative Democrats in 2016 was substantially lower than liberal Democrats’ ratings of Republican candidates like Richard Nixon in 1972 or Gerald Ford in 1976.Figure 3: Mean feeling thermometer ratings of Republican presidential candidate by ideology among Democratic voters, 1972-2016Source: ANES cumulative file.Opinions of Donald Trump among Democrats have not improved since 2016. Data from the Gallup Poll, which has been tracking opinions of presidential job performance since the Truman administration, show that Trump has been the most polarizing president in the history of modern public opinion polling. During his third year in office, Trump received an average approval rating of 7% from Democrats versus 89% from Republicans. Moreover, the large majority of Democrats don’t just disapprove of Trump’s performance — they strongly disapprove. In a Jan. 8-12, 2020 Quinnipiac Poll, for example, 95% of Democrats disapproved of Trump’s performance with 89% disapproving strongly.This intense dislike for Donald Trump and fear of the consequences of a second Trump term explains why surveys in both Iowa and the nation have found that most Democrats are more concerned with choosing a candidate who can defeat Trump than with choosing a candidate they agree with on the issues. Thus, in a Nov. 1-14, 2019 Gallup poll, 60% of Democratic voters across the country said that choosing a candidate who can beat Trump was most important to them versus 36% who said that choosing a candidate they agreed with was most important. Likewise, in a Jan. 2-8 Des Moines Register/CNN Poll of likely Iowa Democratic caucus attenders, 55% said that choosing a candidate who can beat Trump was most important to them versus 40% who said that choosing a candidate they agreed with was most important.This finding raises an important question: How do primary voters and caucus attendees assess electability? Clearly, a wide variety of characteristics could affect a candidate’s ability to win the general election against the incumbent. At various times during the campaign, candidates and journalists have suggested that a candidate’s age, gender, race, sexual orientation, political experience, and debating skills could be relevant here. However, from the standpoint of political science theory, the characteristic that has received the most attention as a potential influence on electability is ideology.According to the median voter theorem, if ideological preferences are normally distributed, in a two-party system like the United States, the ideal location for a candidate seeking to maximize electoral support is very close to the center of the distribution. And while some candidates have argued that taking more ideologically extreme positions can improve electoral performance by energizing and turning out party supporters, political science research has generally supported the median voter theorem — and so do most Democratic voters.According to recent survey data, Democratic voters generally view ideological moderation as an electoral advantage. In a Sept. 2-5, 2019 Washington Post/ABC News Poll, a national sample of Democratic identifiers, including Democratic-leaning independents, was asked about what kind of candidate would be more likely to defeat President Trump in November: a moderate or a liberal. Thirty-eight percent said that a moderate would be more likely to win while 13% said that a liberal would be more likely to win.Along the same lines, the Gallup Poll has periodically asked Democratic voters to indicate the preferred ideology of their party’s presidential candidate. The results for 2007, 2015, and 2019 are displayed in Table 2. Despite the fact that over this time period there was a marked increase in liberal identification among Democratic voters, there was no increase in the preference for a liberal nominee. In 2019, only a third of Democratic voters indicated that they preferred a liberal nominee against Trump, while two-thirds preferred a moderate or conservative nominee.Table 2: Preference of Democratic voters for ideology of party nomineeSource: Gallup Poll, Nov. 19, 2019.Thus far, former Vice President Joseph Biden seems to be the principal beneficiary of the concern among Democratic voters with choosing a candidate who can defeat President Trump. In a Jan. 16-19, 2020 CNN Poll, a national sample of Democratic voters was asked which Democratic candidate they agreed with the most on the issues and which one they felt had the best chance of beating Trump. When it came to issue agreement, Bernie Sanders was the clear frontrunner. The Vermont senator and self-described socialist was favored by 30% of Democrats followed by Biden with 20%, Warren with 15%, and Buttigieg with 10 percent. When it came to electability, however, the former vice president led by a wide margin. Biden, running as a less liberal alternative, was favored by 45% of Democrats followed by Sanders with 24%, Warren with 8%, and Bloomberg with 7%.Conclusion: Will Democrats choose ideology or electability?One of the surprises of the 2020 Democratic presidential race has been the durability of the support for Biden. Despite some poor-to-mediocre debate performances, lackluster fundraising, and frequent attacks by other candidates for his past positions on issues ranging from the invasion of Iraq to entitlement reform, Biden has continued to lead in most polls of Democratic voters nationally and in several of the early states. Part of the explanation is clearly Biden’s continued strength among African-American voters and among the still large group of moderate-to-conservative Democrats. In addition, however, Biden appears to be tapping into the deep concern of many Democrats with defeating President Trump in November. This may help to explain why a Jan. 20-23 Echelon Insights Poll of Democratic voters across the nation found that in a one-on-one contest, Biden led Sanders by a fairly wide 54% to 38% margin.To some extent, support for Biden from Democrats concerned about electability may be based on evidence from recent national and state polls. Table 3 compares the electoral performance of Biden and Bernie Sanders in matchups with President Trump. I compared Biden with Sanders because Sanders offers the clearest ideological contrast with Biden and because he is just about as well-known as Biden.Table 3: Polling averages of Biden and Sanders vs. TrumpNote: Based on polls including matchups between Trump and both Biden and Sanders.Source: RealClearPolitics, Jan. 27, 2020.The evidence displayed in Table 3 provides some empirical support for the belief of many Democrats that Biden has a better chance of defeating Trump than Sanders. On average, Biden outperforms Sanders in matchups with Trump nationally and in 11 of 12 potential swing states for which polling data are currently available. The difference is slightly larger in the swing state polls than in the national polls. And the differences between the two Democratic candidates are generally small. Thus far, in the national polls and in most of the swing states, including the three that were critical to Trump’s Electoral College victory in 2016 — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — both Sanders and Biden are leading Trump.The fact that the differences in general election performance between Biden and Sanders are fairly small, especially in the national polls, is not surprising given the deep partisan divide that exists over the incumbent. A presidential election with a running incumbent like 2020 is largely a referendum on the incumbent. The vast majority of Democratic voters would be expected to support any of the leading Democratic challengers over Trump. Likewise, the vast majority of Republican voters would be expected to support Trump over any Democratic challenger.But the election is also likely to be very close, like most recent presidential elections. That means the outcome will almost certainly be decided by a small group of persuadable voters in a handful of swing states. And that is where these findings suggest that the Democratic nominee could make a difference.Alan I. Abramowitz is the Alben W. Barkley Professor of Political Science at Emory University and a senior columnist with Sabato’s Crystal Ball. His latest book, The Great Alignment: Race, Party Transformation, and the Rise of Donald Trump, was released in 2018 by Yale University Press.Read the fine printLearn more about the Crystal Ball and find out how to contact us here.Sign up to receive Crystal Ball e-mails like this one delivered straight to your inbox.Use caution with Sabato’s Crystal Ball, and remember: “He who lives by the Crystal Ball ends up eating ground glass!”

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Larry J. Sabato
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THE HILL

© Getty Images Welcome to The Hill’s Morning Report. Happy Thursday! 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! By the time nearly 10 hours of questions from senators had paused for the night during President Trump’s impeachment trial on Wednesday, the notion of acquittal on Friday with no witnesses had gained altitude in the Senate. The trial’s format calls for another day of questions. Senators from both parties, taking their cues from their colleagues’ queries late Wednesday, said the prospect of 51 votes to call witnesses and prolong the trial appeared to have dimmed. To seek new evidence would require at least four Republicans to join every Democrat in the Senate in support of a motion to begin debate on the issue later this week. Jay Sekulow, the president’s personal attorney, said that if witnesses are called, “We would be here for a very, very long time. And that’s not good for the United States.” That’s a view shared by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who believes calling witnesses would create a slippery slope for Trump, the Republican Party and for GOP senators, like himself, who will face the voters in November. The Hill: On fascinating display on Wednesday: A struggle for influence between McConnell and Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah). The Hill: Marathon question session put key senators in the spotlight. Trump is all but assured of acquittal on allegations brought by House Democrats that he abused his presidential authority by soliciting help from Ukraine to try to dig up dirt on a presidential rival, then tried to stonewall Congress to cover it up. Senators from both parties do not dispute that two-thirds of the upper chamber will not vote to remove Trump from office on the basis of the arguments presented by the House prosecutors. Motions that may be introduced on Friday to debate trial witnesses are expected to fall short of the support needed to try to depose former national security adviser John Bolton or any other top Trump aide. Democrats want to fortify accusations of a quid pro quo, or what the House impeachment managers argue was the president’s “corrupt scheme” to enlist the help of a foreign government to improve his chances of reelection. The Wall Street Journal: Democrats say they are stunned by a Trump lawyer’s stance on campaign help from a foreign government. Retired Harvard University professor and legal scholar Alan Dershowitz, a member of Trump’s defense team, told senators on Wednesday that anything any president does to mix policy decisions with personal political considerations is in the public interest and cannot be impeachable. The Hill: Some GOP senators are Bolton admirers. They’re in a tough spot. As Chief Justice John Roberts fielded queries submitted in writing, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) asked if it mattered if there was a quid pro quo. No, responded Dershowitz, who maintained that presidents and politicians see the public good as an offshoot of their reelection. “That’s why it’s so dangerous to try to psychoanalyze a president,” he said (The Associated Press). The House impeachment managers, led by Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), dismissed Dershowitz’s expansive interpretation of presidential self-interest. Senate Republicans said they are confident Roberts will not cast a tie-breaking vote to decide whether to allow additional testimony from witnesses. According to The Hill’s Jordain Carney, GOP senators believe such a move would go against how Roberts views his role in the trial: As ceremonial arbitrator, unlikely to insert himself in a political brawl of this magnitude. “I certainly think it’s a very fraught topic,” said Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.), noting that he had not talked to Roberts about the prospect. “I would guess that he would not break a tie.” Senate Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) added that a 50-50 vote would mean the drive to call witnesses failed. The New York Times: From defense team’s broad version of Trump’s “public interest” to Democrats’ warnings of a toothless future Senate, 6 takeaways from Wednesday’s trial questions. The Hill: Bolton lawyer disputes National Security Council assessment that classified secrets are included in his client’s pending manuscript and must be deleted before publication. NBC News: White House objects to publication of Bolton’s book, demands classified information be deleted first. The Associated Press: Impeachment trial became more pointed with senators’ detailed back-and-forth questions, which continue today. The Hill: Dem senator to force vote requiring Roberts to weigh in on witnesses. © Getty Images LEADING THE DAYCAMPAIGNS & POLITICS: He might not be competing in the first four contests of the Democratic primary, but former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is grabbing the attention of former Vice President Joe Biden’s campaign. As Jonathan Easley and Amie Parnes report, allies of the former vice president are growing anxious about Bloomberg’s presence in the race and potential effect on Super Tuesday, when 13 states (plus American Samoa) will hold their contests. Specifically, they argue the former mayor could siphon off support from Biden pave the way for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to nab the Democratic nomination. Even if Biden successfully beats back challenges from centrists such as former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) in early-voting states, headlined by Iowa and New Hampshire, he’ll have Bloomberg waiting for him on March 3, when nearly 40 percent of convention delegates are up for grabs. There is a lot of overlap between the supporters of the two septuagenarian candidates as they both have deep ties to the Democratic establishment and long relationships with some of the party’s premier donors. The issue potentially facing the two mirrors the one faced by Republicans who opposed Trump in the 2016 GOP primary, where they were unable to settle on one alternative candidate or strategy and Trump rolled without issue toward the nomination. © Getty Images The Washington Post: Biden, Sanders allies have spoken to Andrew Yang’s campaign about caucus night cooperation. The Associated Press: Biden under pressure to prove he can thwart new GOP attacks. While Biden worries about the looming threat from Bloomberg, the danger is more immediate for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). She has seen her support levels fall in recent weeks, putting her in fourth place in both Iowa and New Hampshire according to the latest RealClearPolitics polling average. Her current standing is in stark contrast to only three months ago when she was riding high and could credibly claim the mantle as the front-runner for the Democratic nod. In his latest memo, Niall Stanage examines Warren’s bid and what she needs to do in the coming weeks to survive the early states and eventually land her back into position to contend for the nomination. The New York Times: Elizabeth Warren’s Iowa pivot: from her plans to her plan to win. The Hill: Poll: Biden leads in Iowa, with Sanders in close second. Jonathan Allen: Rival campaigns say Trump Ukraine hits are a warning to Biden. The Hill: Minneapolis NAACP, Black Lives Matter call on Klobuchar to suspend campaign. IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKESWHITE HOUSE & ADMINISTRATION: The Trump administration on Wednesday evacuated about 200 U.S. personnel and citizens to California from China as the death toll from the coronavirus rose to 170 and the transmission rate continued to surge in a nation of 1.3 billion people. The White House announced a domestic task force to monitor the situation with Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar in the lead (The Hill). The health commission for Hubei Province said today that the virus is spreading by 1,000 confirmed cases per day (The Washington Post), pushing the total number of people sickened by the virus closer to 8,000. Patients are being treated in at least 16 countries (Reuters). The World Health Organization will convene an emergency meeting today in Geneva to discuss whether the microscopic organism now poses a public health emergency because of its rapid spread. “In the last few days the progress of the virus, especially in some countries, especially human-to-human transmission, worries us,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a news conference on Wednesday, naming Germany, Vietnam and Japan. “Although the numbers outside China are still relatively small, they hold the potential for a much larger outbreak.” Five cases have been diagnosed in the United States in patients who traveled to the epicenter of the outbreak in China. HHS is not handling the virus as a public health emergency domestically, but medical experts are concerned about the human-to-human transmission rate seen in China, according to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine (The Associated Press). As countries assess their preparedness for any epidemic or potential pandemic, officials with America’s public health infrastructure in states and localities say their budgets are stretched thin (The Hill). Trump has been criticized by Democrats for eliminating a senior director position for global health security and biothreats at the National Security Council during his presidency and for repeatedly proposing budget cuts to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes for Health (The Associated Press). The Washington Post has mapped the ongoing spread of the coronavirus in China and around the globe HERE. > Trade: Trump, with fanfare and an assembled audience on the South Lawn on Wednesday, officially signed the replacement for the North American Free Trade Agreement known as the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (The Hill). The president praised the bipartisan ratification of the revised hemispheric pact, but limited his public accolades to Republican senators (Democrats weren’t invited), joking that in the midst of an impeachment trial, “Maybe I’m just being nice because I want their vote. I don’t want to leave anyone out.” The New York Times: What’s in the USMCA trade pact signed by the president? © Getty Images > Russia: The Treasury Department on Wednesday announced new financial sanctions related to Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula in 2014, targeting eight people. “The coordinated U.S., EU, and Canadian designations limit the ability of these illegitimate officials to do business internationally and highlights the strength of the transatlantic alliance in standing up to Russia’s continued aggression,” Secretary Steven Mnuchin said (The Hill). OPINIONWhy the Ukraine effort by Donald Trump was not business as usual, by Lawrence Friedman, opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/2t8uacZ Iowa is a test of whether Sanders’s surge will endure, by Karen Tumulty, columnist, The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/38IERSO WHERE AND WHEN📺 Hill.TV’s “Rising” program features Washington Monthly senior editor Phillip Longman for a discussion about Democrats’ health care proposals; attorney Hassan Zavareei, whose client is suing the company Ring following the hacking of her home’s security system; David Pakman, host of The David Pakman Show, who discusses the Senate’s impeachment trial and Trump’s Middle East peace plan; and Michael Lind, author of the new book, “The New Class War.” Coverage at http://thehill.com/hilltv or on YouTube at 10:30 a.m. ET at Rising on YouTube. The House meets at 9 a.m. to debate a measure that would limit military action against Iran, including a resolution to repeal the 2002 congressional authorization for the use of military force (AUMF) against Iraq. The Senate convenes today at 1 p.m. to continue the impeachment trial. The president, eager to tout U.S. trade pacts and the economy, flies to Warren, Mich., to speak at Dana Inc. Trump then flies to Des Moines to headline a reelection rally tonight in Iowa. Vice President Pence also is in Iowa for a bus trip beginning in Sioux City at 9:30 a.m., stopping in Council Bluffs at 1:30 p.m., and ending at the Trump-Pence rally at 6:30 p.m. at Des Moines’s Knapp Center. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with staff and families at the U.S. Embassy in London this morning before attending a technology and discussion event with British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab. Pompeo meets with Prime Minister Boris Johnson at 1:15 p.m. in London. Economic indicator: The Bureau of Economic Analysis will report on U.S. gross domestic product in the fourth quarter of 2019 at 8:30 a.m. The longest U.S. economic expansion on record continued last year and analysts anticipate 2.1 percent growth. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg tonight receives the LBJ Liberty & Justice for All Award from the LBJ Foundation during an event at the Library of Congress in Washington. Ginsburg will be interviewed on stage by foundation president and CEO Mark Updegrove. Singer and songwriter James Taylor will perform. Livestream: www.lbjaward.org and www.facebook.com/LBJFoundation. The Council on Foreign Relations hosts “Election 2020: U.S. Foreign Policy Forum” tonight in New Hampshire ahead of the Feb. 11 primary. Location (+ livestream): University of New Hampshire in Durham, N.H., 6 – 7:30 p.m. Panelists include CFR president Richard Haass, former Homeland Security Secretary Jeh Johnson, and former State Department senior policy experts, Kori Schake and Wendy Sherman. New York Times national security correspondent David E. Sanger is the moderator. You’re invited today to The Hill’s newsmaker event, “A More Perfect Union?” from 8 to 11 a.m. in Washington. Speakers include Reps. Will Hurd (R-Texas), Veronica Escobar (D-Texas) and Greg Stanton (D-Ariz.). Information is HERE. ELSEWHERE➔ U.S. economy & Federal Reserve: Chairman Jerome Powell and the Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) said on Wednesday that the central bank will hold interest rates steady. The widely expected decision comes after Fed officials closed out a turbulent 2019 expressing confidence in the U.S. economy’s outlook for 2020, an election year. Powell added that the coronavirus and its impact are new factors on the Fed’s radar. “There is likely to be some disruption to activity in China and possibly globally based on the spread of the virus today and the travel restrictions and business closures that have already been imposed,” he said (The Hill). ➔ Brexit: The European Parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved the departure on Friday of the United Kingdom from the European Union — the final major decision in the four-year Brexit saga. EU nations are already preparing for the possibility that talks on a new trade deal with Britain could collapse by the end of the year, concerned that no-deal contingency planning for a chaotic end to the transition period is necessary (The Associated Press). ➔ Winning footwear: Elite marathoners want to race in Nike’s Vaporfly shoes. That’s because they run faster when they do. The shoes were worn by 31 of the 36 top finishers at the six biggest marathons in the world, so World Athletics, the ruling body for international track and field, is investigating whether the $250 shoes with special foam soles and carbon fiber plates in each heel create an unfair advantage under the rules (NBC News). ➔ In the Know – sports betting: Americans are expected to wager a jaw-dropping $6.8 billion collectively on Sunday’s Super Bowl, according to the American Gaming Association, which released a new survey this week ahead of the Miami contest between the Kansas City Chiefs and the San Francisco 49ers (The Hill). © Getty Images THE CLOSERAnd finally … It’s Thursday, which means it’s time for this week’s Morning Report Quiz! Inspired by the late Kobe Bryant, we’re eager for some smart guesses about the storied career of the longtime Los Angeles Lakers star. Email your responses to asimendinger@thehill.com and/or aweaver@thehill.com, and please add “Quiz” to subject lines. Winners who submit correct answers will enjoy some richly deserved newsletter fame on Friday. After Bryant was drafted 13th overall by the Charlotte Hornets in the 1996 NBA draft out of Lower Merion High School, who did the Los Angeles Lakers trade to acquire his draft rights?Nick Van ExelEddie Jones Vlade DivacElden Campbell Having worn No. 8 throughout the start of his NBA career, in which season did Bryant first wear No. 24? 2004-052005-062006-072007-08 On January 22, 2006, Bryant scored 81 points, the second most points in a single NBA game in league history, only behind NBA legend Wilt Chamberlain’s famed 100-point game. Outside of Chamberlain, which player has the next-highest single game total? Michael JordanElgin BaylorLarry BirdDavid Thompson During his 20-year career, Bryant took part in 18 NBA All-Star games, the second most in NBA history. Who has the most NBA All-Star game appearances? Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Shaquille O’NealLeBron JamesMichael Jordan © 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 HERE MORNING REPORT SIGN UP FORWARD MORNING REPORT Privacy Policy | Manage Subscriptions | Unsubscribe Email 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.

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DESERET NEWS

View this email in your browserThursday, Jan. 30, 2020There could be an invisible killer lurking in your basement. Why aren’t we talking about it?Sen. Mitt Romney wants answers from John Bolton as Senate questions legal teams Why this Super Bowl coach is beloved in Utah and around the league How one Utah senior exercises more than ever at 89 years old (Sponsored)What did Gov. Gary Herbert say at his final State of the State address?Emeritus Latter-day Saint general authority speaks at Bear River Massacre memorial MORE NEWSAmericans took more trips to the library than to the movies in 2019 Too little, too late against the Spurs leads to Utah Jazz’s 2nd straight loss After taking a ‘step backward’ at USF, can BYU bounce back against ‘dangerous’ Pepperdine team?Copyright © 2020 Deseret News, All rights reserved.

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BRIGHT

Share with a friend you think would love this!Thursday, January 30, 2020

Impeachmentgate Continues
(Editors note: If you skip this section, I won’t be offended because like many of you, I, too, have come down with a case of serious impeachment fatigue.)

The House managers and Trump’s attorneys spent a long day answering questions from senators about the president’s conduct towards Ukraine. Politico has a summary of the key exchanges.

There is mixed reporting on whether Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has the votes needed to block witnesses. (The Washington Post says no, while The Hill reports yes.) The news comes as speculation grows over what Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton has to say about the president’s decision to temporary pause military aid funding to Ukraine. (Reminder: Under the Obama administration, Democrats refused to provide *any* lethal aid funding to Ukraine.)

What’s silly about this situation is that if Bolton has something to say, he doesn’t need to be compelled by the Senate (or the House), to say it. Whether the information is helpful or hurtful to the president’s case—it’s already happened, and therefore, could have been said long ago. In withholding information that could be relevant to the impeachment trial, it risks appearing that he’s is using it as a springboard to sell books or make himself relevant in some other way.

Also, if called to testify, it appears Bolton might not be the most reliable witness, anyway.

A decision to call more witnesses would need 51 votes, and would elongate this already long, grueling process. With a 53-seat majority, Republicans can only afford to lose three Republicans.

3 Things Besides Impeachment
(Yes—they exist 🤦‍♀️.) After 47 years, the European Union “grudgingly” let go of the United Kingdom, clearing the way for #Brexit to become official this Friday (AP).President Trump unveiled a new Middle East peace plan that enables Israel to expand its territory, while providing Palestine a path to nationhood (WSJ). Unlike past peace deals, the proposal received favorable responses from many Middle Eastern countries, including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, Bahrain, and Egypt. The Palestinians, along with Iran and many Democrats (The Hill), rejected it (…interesting bedfellows). For more on this, check out Erielle Davidson in The Federalist***, or Ben Shapiro’s latest podcast.Yesterday, President Trump signed the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement, known as the “USMCA” or “new NAFTA.” The new deal “prohibits the signatories from imposing protectionist restrictions on e-commerce … boosts U.S. agricultural producers’ access to the Canadian market to sell dairy and poultry products; and offers new protections for patents” (Daily Signal). Kobe Links
Vanessa Bryant breaks silence on her family’s heartbreaking loss. (NBC News)

More information on what caused the helicopter to crash. (CNN)

The totality of Kobe Bryant’s legacy is complicated, and that’s OK. (The Federalist)

Kobe “being a dad. A girl dad.” (Barstool Sports)

Thursday Links
Michael Bloomberg attempts to shake a dogs … snout. WOOF!

Bud Light Seltzer is now a thing, and I’m team #POSTYSTORE.

Is “Friendship Parenting” a real thing? Because I think (I hope) Marie Claire is making this up.

Trump’s Peace Plan Is A Rejection of Obama’s Anti-Israel Pivot.

And finally, I want to bring your attention to our former BRIGHT editor Ericka Andersen’s latest “Worth Your Time” podcast episode, where she interviews Rachel Barkley. Among other titles, Rachel is a wife, new mom, and former staffer to Republican Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rogers. Three weeks after giving birth to her first baby, Rachel woke up unable to feel her leg. She was rushed into surgery to remove a massive spinal tumor that had been growing for years, and she is now faced with the unthinkable reality of not knowing if she’ll ever be able to fully walk again. Rachel has handled the hardship with grit and grace, and her story is far from over. Listen, and help us by saying a prayer as Rachel continues down her long, difficult journey of healing.BRIGHT is brought to you by The Federalist.Today’s BRIGHT Editor
Kelsey Bolar is a wife, a mom, and a senior news reporter/producer at The Daily Signal, the multimedia news organization at The Heritage Foundation. She is also a Visiting Fellow at Independent Women’s Forum, a contributor to The Federalist, and the 2017-2018 Tony Blankley Fellow at The Steamboat Institute. She previously worked at Fox News in New York City, and now lives in Washington, D.C., where she balances her passion for politics with her affinity for yoga and her Australian Shepherd, Utah. Follow her on Twitter @kelseybolar and on Instagram @kelseybolar. Opinions expressed on this website are her own and not those of any other person or entity.Copyright © BRIGHT, All rights reserved.

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CAFFEINATED THOUGHTS

Connect: Facebook Twitter YouTube View this email in your browser “One who is faithful in a very little is also faithful in much, and one who is dishonest in a very little is also dishonest in much,” (Luke‬ ‭16:10‬, ‭ESV‬‬).S.D. House Passes Bill Prohibiting ‘Sex Change’ Treatment for MinorsBy Shane Vander Hart on Jan 29, 2020 08:10 pm
The South Dakota House of Representatives passed 46 to 23 a bill that prohibits medical professionals from performing “sex change” procedures on minors.
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Iowa Senate Republicans Propose $91.7 Million in New K-12 FundingBy Caffeinated Thoughts on Jan 29, 2020 04:27 pm
Iowa Senate Republicans propose $91.7 million in new funding for K -12 education representing a total increase of more than $300 million since FY 2017.
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Iowa House GOP Bill Removes ‘Gender Identity’ From Civil Rights ActBy Shane Vander Hart on Jan 29, 2020 02:15 pm
Iowa House Judiciary Chair Steven Holt said he has no intention of forwarding a bill that removes gender identity from the Civil Rights Act citing unintended consequences.
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Dan Huseman to Retire from Iowa HouseBy Shane Vander Hart on Jan 29, 2020 10:43 am
State Rep. Dan Huseman, R-Aurelia, announced that he would not seek re-election in 2020, Lynn Evans and Mark McHugh announced they would run to replace him.
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Feenstra Announces 608 County Chairs in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District RaceBy Caffeinated Thoughts on Jan 29, 2020 09:37 am
State Senator Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, announced the public endorsements of 608 Iowans in all 39 counties of Iowa’s 4th Congressional District.
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Recent Articles:
Kim Reynolds Appoints Dana Oxley to the Iowa Supreme Court
Episode 93: A Conversation With Joe Walsh and Dave Dicks
What the Loss of Kobe Bryant Teaches Us
New WOTUS Rule is Welcome News for Iowa Farmers
Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig Endorses Ashley Hinson for CongressLaunched 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.Share Tweet Share ForwardCopyright © 2020 Caffeinated Thoughts, All rights reserved.

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CONSERVATIVE DAILY NEWS

CDN’s Daily News Blast delivers the day’s news first!View this email in your browserCDN Daily News Blast01/30/2020Excerpts:President Donald Trump’s Schedule for Thursday, January 30, 2020By R. Mitchell -President Donald Trump will receive his daily briefing, then head to Warren, Michigan, where he deliver remarks about the USMCA trade agreement signing. Later, the president will travel to Des Moines, Iowa, to host a Keep America Great rally. Keep up with Trump on Our President’s Schedule Page. President Trump’s …President Donald Trump’s Schedule for Thursday, January 30, 2020 is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more.
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Michael Flynn: ‘I Regret Pleading Guilty’By Chuck Ross -Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn on Wednesday denied lying to the FBI during a Jan. 24, 2017 White House meeting, and said that he regrets pleading guilty in the special counsel’s probe. “I am innocent of this crime, and I request to withdraw my guilty plea,” Flynn said in …Michael Flynn: ‘I Regret Pleading Guilty’ is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more.
Read on »

What Ever Happened to Logic?By Amanda Alverez -Logic isn’t a simple talking point. If it were, why are so many Americans – especially Democrats, Never Trumpers, and the media so overwhelmingly rejecting it? Dictionaries define logic as, “the science that investigates the principles governing correct or reliable inference.” For most of us, we would confirm it means …What Ever Happened to Logic? is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more.
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Richmond Proves the Left Hates You and Your GunBy Michael R Shannon -Virginia’s 2nd Amendment rally was a huge disappointment for Big Nanny Mike Bloomberg, Gov. Ralph Northam and gun–grabbing busybodies across the nation. The event failed to produce the Reichstag Fire the left was secretly hoping would occur. Over 22,000 armed 2nd Amendment supporters gathered in the state capital with loaded …Richmond Proves the Left Hates You and Your Gun is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more.
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CouPeachment – A.F. Branco CartoonBy A.F. Branco -Schiff, Nadler and the Democrats are running a coup against President Trump under the guise of impeachment. Political cartoon by A.F. Branco ©2020. See more Branco toons HERECouPeachment – A.F. Branco Cartoon is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more.
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AG Barr Compares Working With Trump And Bush: ‘I Love Both Men,’ But Trump ‘Listens’By Mary Margaret Olohan -Attorney General William Barr discussed working with former President George W. bush and President Donald Trump, saying that he loves “both men” and adding that “Trump listens.” Barr discussed the differences between Bush and Trump during an interview with Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, and co-host, Father Dave …AG Barr Compares Working With Trump And Bush: ‘I Love Both Men,’ But Trump ‘Listens’ is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more.
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Watch Live: President Trump Participates in Historic Signing Ceremony for US-Mexico-Canada Trade AgreementBy R. Mitchell -President Donald Trump will sign the historic US-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement (USMCA) during a South Lawn ceremony Wednesday morning. The agreement embodies the long-overdue overhaul of the flawed North American Free Trade Agreement which was anything but a free trade agreement and is responsible for shipping a massive number of American …Watch Live: President Trump Participates in Historic Signing Ceremony for US-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more.
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Biden: VP Choice Must Be Capable Of Running Country ‘Because I’m An Old Guy’By Ethan Barton -Democratic 2020 presidential candidate Joe Biden said Tuesday that his choice for vice president will have to be “immediately” capable of taking over as commander-in-chief because “I’m an old guy,” he told an audience in Iowa, The remark highlights what is widely considered the former vice president’s biggest political liability. …Biden: VP Choice Must Be Capable Of Running Country ‘Because I’m An Old Guy’ is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more.
Read on »

Senators’ Letter Stirs Mystery Over 4 Classified Footnotes In FISA ReportBy Chuck Ross -The Republican chairmen of two Senate committees asked Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz on Tuesday to declassify information in four footnotes in the report on the FBI’s investigation of the Trump campaign. The senators said the redacted information is “essential” for the public to fully understand what went wrong …Senators’ Letter Stirs Mystery Over 4 Classified Footnotes In FISA Report is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more.
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Mexico Deports Over 2,000 Caravan Migrants Back To HondurasBy Jason Hopkins -The Mexican government announced it has so far deported more than 2,000 members of the latest migrant caravan, demonstrating the immensity of the country’s newfound enforcement of illegal immigration. Mexico deported roughly 2,303 Honduran migrants between January 18 and 27, the National Migration Institute — the department in Mexico that manages …Mexico Deports Over 2,000 Caravan Migrants Back To Honduras is original content from Conservative Daily News – Where Americans go for news, current events and commentary they can trust – Conservative News Website for U.S. News, Political Cartoons and more.
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See all breaking news, conservative commentary, political cartoons and more posted to CDN at our Home Page. Follow on Twitter Friend on Facebook Add on Google PlusCopyright © 2020 Conservative Daily News, All rights reserved.

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ROLL CALL

Morning Headlines

First day of Trump trial Q&A yields some questions lawyers simply can’t answer

The first day of questions and answers in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump raised some questions that each side either couldn’t, or wouldn’t, answer. While many centered on well-trodden topics, some highlighted the boundaries that the House impeachment managers and the Trump defense team wouldn’t cross. Read More…

View from the gallery: Senators swap notes and jockey for questions at Trump trial

On the eighth day of the third presidential impeachment trial in U.S. history, senators strategized and huddled about how to ask questions of the Trump legal team and House managers. Senators were chattier than usual, especially during brief moments of silence between questions. But some also whispered to colleagues during answers. Read More…

Senators engage in ‘political ventriloquism’ during Trump trial questions

Senators in President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial on Wednesday tried to score political points, press their argument or knock down the other side’s claims — they just couldn’t use their own voice to do so. Read More…Click here to subscribe to Fintech Beat for the latest market and regulatory developments in finance and financial technology.

What kind of country do Americans want? Voters definitely have a choice

OPINION — While other nations are still fighting ancient rivalries and coming up with solutions guaranteed to leave someone unhappy — see this week’s proposed Middle East peace plan — America has reason to fret over its own longtime divisions, laid starkly bare in this contentious election season. Read More…

In Florida, Democrats aim to wrap Trump in his offshore drilling plan

After the Trump administration proposed opening Florida’s coastal waters to oil and gas drilling, even elected Republicans in the state sent a loud message to Washington: Stay away. Democrats plan to remind voters in the battleground state that the plan remains shelved, ready to be put into effect if President Donald Trump gets reelected. Read More…

Ahead of House Iran war votes, Trump sends mixed messages

On Thursday the House will debate and vote on two measures that take different approaches to limiting the Trump administration’s military options when it comes to Tehran. Despite veto threats, President Donald Trump urged lawmakers to vote their conscience on the 2002 Authorization For Use of Military Force in Iraq. Read More…

He was ‘Mr. Foreign Aid’

Gerry Connolly spent a decade as a Senate Foreign Relations Committee staffer, and in his mind, the job description was pretty clear: keep the Cold War from getting hot. Now he serves in Congress himself, representing Northern Virginia’s 11th District — and he’s still running into people he worked with back in the ’80s. Read More…

Print or online? New GPO director Hugh Halpern is a publishing ‘agnostic’

After decades of trying to blend into the woodwork, Hugh Halpern comes to the office and sees his own face on the wall. His picture hangs in the lobby. The Government Publishing Office’s new director spent 30 years as a congressional aide, and pushing down his “staffer instincts” has so far been one of the hardest parts of the job. Read More…

Publishing is an art at the Government Publishing Office

Hand binders who work at the Government Publishing Office stay busy behind the scenes adding artful marble trim to GPO publications. CQ Roll Call sat down with head forwarder Joshua Crotty to get an inside look at how the intricate marbling is done. Watch the video here…

Capitol Ink | Rushing ploy

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NBC

From NBC’s Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann. FIRST READ: Senate Republicans appear ready to fall in line on impeachment vote, despite earlier concernsIt’s so revealing how Republicans’ attitudes about the Ukraine scandal have evolved in just four months. We’ve gone from Sen. Lindsey Graham saying evidence of a quid pro quo would be “very disturbing,” to GOP senators not willing to hear from John Bolton, who claims in a new book that President Trump told him he was linking Ukraine’s security aid to investigating the Bidens. Photo by Samuel Corum/Getty ImagesWe’ve also moved from some GOP senators being opposed to a president asking a foreign leader to dig up dirt on a political rival – “Look, it is not appropriate for any candidate for federal office, certainly, including a sitting president, to ask for assistance from a foreign country,” Sen. Pat Toomey said in September – to Trump lawyer Alan Dershowitz now suggesting that a president could do almost anything to win re-election. “If a president does something which he believes will help him get elected in the public interest, that cannot be the kind of quid pro quo that results in impeachment,” Dershowitz said yesterday. “Every public official I know believes that his election is in the public interest.” That evolution tells you where we’re LIKELY headed: With Republicans wanting to wrap up the Senate impeachment trial – maybe as early as Friday. But the rush to a resolution, especially with the Bolton news hanging over the trial, could end up ensuring that the final Senate vote becomes an indelible political moment in this nation’s history. Like the Iraq war vote. Or whether you supported or opposed Nixon’s impeachment. Republicans, eager to move on from this story, are gambling that President Trump will once again bend this controversy to his will, or that the public decides it simply doesn’t care. But what if there are more Ukraine revelations after the trial concludes? And what if the public concludes the trial – and any prohibition of witnesses – was unfair? Democrats, meanwhile, are gambling that history is on their side. But what happens if Trump wins re-election? Will the impeachment exercise have backfired for them? The political battle over Trump’s impeachment MIGHT be coming to a conclusion. But it’s very likely the war will only continue in the months and years ahead.TWEET OF THE DAY: Stumping Trump’s lawyerImpeachment trial update: More Q&ANBC’s Capitol Hill team says that 93 (!!!) questions were asked on Day One of the Q&A between senators and the impeachment managers/Trump lawyers. And on today’s Day 2, the expectation is for another long day.

Where are we?

Last Tuesday: procedural jousting over the organizing resolution; rules passed around 2:00 am ET

Last Wednesday: prosecution opening arguments, 8 hours

Last Thursday: prosecution, 8 hours

Last Friday: prosecution, 8 hours

Last Saturday: White House defense

Sunday: off

Monday: White House defense

Tuesday: White House defense

Yesterday: Senators’ questions

Today: Senators’ questions

Tomorrow: Vote on witnesses? Vote on acquittal?

Saturday: ???

Sunday: Off

Monday: Iowa caucuses

Tuesday: State of the Union 2020 VISION: Biden battles Trump as both stump in IowaWith President Trump holding a rally this evening in Des Moines, Iowa, Joe Biden is using a morning campaign event in the Hawkeye State as a pre-buttal to Trump’s visit, NBC’s Marianna Sotomayor and Mike Memoli report. “Trump and I have already gone one round with each other on health care,” Biden is expected to say in Waukee, Iowa, per advanced excerpts his campaign released. “In 2018, I went to 24 states for 65 candidates. I took on Trump all over the country — and beat him. In fact, we beat him like a drum – and in the process took back the majority in the House.” “We should remember that this year. I believe if we take the fight to Trump on Obamacare again – we’ll beat him again. And we’ll not only win the presidency – we’ll win a majority in the Senate too.”On the campaign trail today: The activity in the Hawkeye State: President Trump holds a rally in Des Moines at 8:00 pm ET, while VP Pence makes multiple stops in the state… Joe Biden stumps in Waukee, Newton and Ottumwa… Pete Buttigieg holds town halls in Decorah, Independence, Marshalltown and Ankeny… Tom Steyer hits Burlington, Muscatine and Davenport… Andrew Yang is in Washington, Cedar Rapids, Dubuque and Cedar Falls… Elsewhere, Tulsi Gabbard and Deval Patrick are in New Hampshire… And Michael Bloomberg is in DC.Dispatches from NBC’s campaign embeds: Pete Buttigieg made a slight change to his stump speech after a swipe by Amy Klobuchar, NBC’s Priscilla Thompson reports. “Buttigieg cut the line from his stump about wanting to turn the channel on impeachment in favor of cartoons (earlier today Klobuchar said she can’t flip the channel because ‘I have a job to do. I am in the arena and that’s what I’m going to do). That being said, the mayor continued to lean into his message that the voters have the ultimate power over the president and the Senate. ‘The senators are jurors when it comes to the president, but the Senate’s on trial too,” he said. ‘And we’re the jurors when it comes to the Senate and the presidency in 2020.’” And less than a week before the Iowa caucuses, Andrew Yang is still receiving questions on his Universal Basic Income proposal, per NBC’s Ben Pu. Pu reports that one town hall attendee asked if those who get federal subsidies would “have to choose between the federal subsidy and the universal basic income.” Yang answered, “The only things that we ask people to make a choice between are cash and cash-like programs that are meant to be used for heating oil or something like that and anyone I’ve talked to is all those programs would prefer cash unconditionally.” DATA DOWNLOAD: And the number of the day is… $681,000.$681,000. That’s the amount of money the anti-Bernie Sanders group Democratic Majority for Israel is spending on ads in Iowa in the final week of the race (Jan. 28 to Feb. 3), according to data from Advertising Analytics. The anti-Sanders ad the group is airing in heavy rotation – one of us saw it air twice within 15 minutes on local TV in Iowa – includes this line: “I do have some concerns about Bernie Sanders’ health considering he just had a heart attack,” a woman says to camera. Here is all of the ad spending for the final week of the Iowa contest (Jan. 28 to Feb. 3): Steyer: $1.4 millionSanders: $1.2 millionUnite the Country (pro-Biden Super PAC): $992,000Warren: $947,000Buttigieg: $854,000Klobuchar: $767,000Democratic Majority for Israel: $681,000Yang: $613,000Biden: $530,000Bloomberg: $51,000Club for Growth: $34,000Rick Scott: $19,000Delaney: $19,000SOURCE: Advertising AnalyticsTHE LID: Raucous CaucusDon’t miss the pod from yesterday, when we reviewed exactly how this whole Iowa caucus procedure actually works.ICYMI: News clips you shouldn’t miss If you missed Day One of the Senate Q&A, here’s what you need to know. Mike Bloomberg’s Super Bowl ad won’t focus on Trump, but on gun violence instead. The mayor of D.C. is endorsing Bloomberg. If Amy Klobuchar isn’t viable at Iowa caucus sites, where will her supporters go? Melissa Holzberg has the latest on that testy Georgia Senate race. Almost all the 2020 action is in Iowa — but here’s what’s been happening in New Hampshire in the meantime. Thanks for reading.

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REALCLEARTPOLITICS

01/30/2020Share: Carl Cannon’s Morning NoteSmith Project, Part 2; ‘1619’ Curriculum; the Lone Ranger

Good morning. It’s Thursday, Jan. 30, 2020. On this date in 1933, as Americans awaited Franklin Roosevelt’s inauguration and banking institutions failed daily, radio listeners in Detroit were treated to the debut of a serial that would put its mark on the nation’s popular culture. It was called “The Lone Ranger.”Inspired by Douglas Fairbanks’ silent film “The Mark of Zorro,” WXYZ program manager James Jewell and writer Fran Striker came up with the idea for a regular program featuring a masked — but not flawed — American hero.He was the right man for the times and would be for decades to come, even as he made the jump to a new mass medium. I’ll have more on this iconic crime fighter 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:* * *Why Our Politicians Leave Americans Wanting. Part 2 of RCP’s “Smith Project” series continues with John Della Volpe’s look at what Pat Caddell’s longstanding polling model has shown. Part 1, which ran Wednesday, can be found here.Blocked March for Life Tweets Raise Free Speech Concerns. Kalev Leetaru weighs in on Twitter’s censorship last week of comments supporting the anti-abortion protest.Media’s NeverTrump Voices Drown Out GOP Perspective. Mark Hemingway cites Max Boot and others as prime examples.Bloomberg’s Big-Money Footprint in Virginia. In RealClearPolicy, Kerri Toloczko examines the billionaire presidential candidate’s spending on state-level politics in the Old Dominion.NYT’s “1619 Project” Already Shaping Kids’ Minds on Race. The Times’ revisionist history is being adopted in classrooms nationwide, despite what top historians call falsehoods and distortions, John Murawski reports for RealClearInvestigations.Woody Biomass Help Cut CO2 Emissions. In RealClearEnergy, Puneet Dwivedi spotlights an overlooked environmental calculation.Addressing State-Level Cyber Perils. In RealClearDefense, Julio Rivera lauds a bill intended to create fluid responses to attacks against municipal, state and federal agencies.Blaine Amendments’ Effects on Catholic Schools. In RealClearReligion, Grazie Christi and Andrea Picciotti-Bayer explain their position on a case now before the Supreme Court.School Choice in Wisconsin. In RealClearEducation, Cori Petersen reports on a push for greater support of vouchers and charter schools. * * *An instant hit, “The Lone Ranger” was soon syndicated nationally by the Mutual Radio Network. By 1939 it was being broadcast three times a week to an audience of 20 million Americans. Ten years later, it made the jump to television, starring Clayton Moore in the title role and Jay Silverheels as his sidekick, Tonto.In both radio and TV, the show would start each week with our hero galloping his steed to the stirring strains of the “William Tell” Overture and his signature shout-out, “Hi-yo, Silver!”Loyal listeners knew that their hero wore a mask to protect his identity from the malevolent gang that had ambushed him. They also knew that the Lone Ranger did not use alcohol or tobacco, always refrained from coarse language, and never shot to kill. But they didn’t know his real name.About Tonto, who first appeared in the 11^th episode, even less was known. Audiences were once told he belonged to the Potawatomi tribe, although television viewers may have assumed from his get-up that he was Apache. (In a 2013 film version, Johnny Depp seems to play Tonto as a Comanche — although his clothes, hair, and headdress are pure Depp.) In all the versions, the Indian scout is wise, brave, and loyal, even if what is most remembered about him today is his much-parodied pigeon English, which featured hokum phrases such as “You betchum.”Some of this kind of thing was to be expected. Neither James Jewell nor Fran Striker had real-life associations with either cowboys or Indians. They were merely looking to fashion a hero, and the exigencies of radio required they create someone the hero could talk to.Television didn’t fundamentally alter that dynamic, but it did change one thing: On screen, Tonto and the Lone Ranger needed to be physically impressive. In casting Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels, the show’s producers got what they wanted.Silverheels was neither Potawatomi nor Apache. He was a Canadian-born Mohawk who had starred in lacrosse and wrestling — competing under his birth name, Harold Smith — and he boxed in New York as a middleweight in the 1930s.Clayton Moore was a stage name, too. He was born Jack Carlton Moore on Sept. 14, 1914 in Chicago. As a boy growing up on the city’s South Side, he’d while away summer days in the movie house watching the film stars of the day — Tom Mix, Ken Maynard, Harry Carey Sr. — and dreaming of joining them.In his autobiography, Moore said he grew up wanting to be a cowboy or a policeman. As the New York Times noted in its 1999 obituary, playing the Lone Ranger enabled him to fulfill both ambitions.Moore had performed as an acrobat as a young man and he was a gifted horseman, meaning that he, too, brought a natural athleticism to the part. But what really made it work was the actor’s total embrace of the role. It’s not too much to say that Clayton Moore became the Lone Ranger.After the series was cancelled in 1957, Moore kept in character, donning his mask, hat, and frontier attire at everything from shopping mall openings to rodeo appearances. In 1979, the corporation that had bought the rights to the Lone Ranger franchise — it was making a new movie — went to court and secured a legal injunction forbidding Moore from appearing as the masked man. They might as well have asked water to flow uphill. Moore took to wearing wrap-around sunglasses in place of a mask, but that was his only concession. After the movie flopped, the producers relented, and at age 70 the Lone Ranger rode again.“This country needs heroes, and there aren’t many left,” Clayton Moore said while explaining his reluctance to abandon the role. “For many Americans, the Lone Ranger is a hero, and people don’t want to see their heroes shot down.” Carl M. Cannon
Washington Bureau chief, RealClearPolitics
@CarlCannon (Twitter)
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REDSTATE

Ex GOP Chair Just Spilled the Beans, McConnell Has Already Beaten the Democrats at Impeachment

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Oracle v Google: We Know We’re Right – Because the Media as One Says We’re Wrong

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NOQ REPORT

NOQ Report Daily

Good move: President Trump forms task force, makes coronavirus a matter of national securityPosted: 30 Jan 2020 05:29 AM PSTThe coronavirus is almost certainly much worse in China than the media is reporting. Considering the incubation period of up to two weeks and the fact that someone can be contagious for a week before showing symptoms, it may be worse in the United States than we know. This is why it’s important that President Trump formed a task force that combines healthcare experts and national security leaders.This is potential epidemic must be taken seriously, as yesterday’s press release indicates:Today, President Donald J. Trump announced the formation of the President’s Coronavirus Task Force. Members of the Task Force have been meeting on a daily basis since Monday. At today’s meeting, which the President chaired, he charged the Task Force with leading the United States Government response to the novel 2019 coronavirus and with keeping him apprised of developments.The Task Force is led by Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar, and is coordinated through the National Security Council. It is composed of subject matter experts from the White House and several United States Government agencies, and it includes some of the Nation’s foremost experts on infectious diseases.The Task Force will lead the Administration’s efforts to monitor, contain, and mitigate the spread of the virus, while ensuring that the American people have the most accurate and up-to-date health and travel information.The President’s top priority is the health and welfare of the American people. That is why, in 2018, President Trump signed the National Biodefense Strategy, which improves speed of action in situations such as this. The Administration, led by the President’s Task Force, will continue to work to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.The risk of infection for Americans remains low, and all agencies are working aggressively to monitor this continuously evolving situation and to keep the public informed. For more information, please visit CDC.gov.Members of the President’s Coronavirus Task Force:Secretary Alex Azar, Department of Health and Human ServicesRobert O’Brien, Assistant to the President for National Security AffairsDr. Robert Redfield, Director of the Centers for Disease Control and PreventionDr. Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the National Institutes of HealthDeputy Secretary Stephen Biegun, Department of StateKen Cuccinelli, Acting Deputy Secretary, Department of Homeland SecurityJoel Szabat, Acting Under Secretary for Policy, Department of TransportationMatthew Pottinger, Assistant to the President and Deputy National Security AdvisorRob Blair, Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to the Chief of StaffJoseph Grogan, Assistant to the President and Director of the Domestic Policy CouncilChristopher Liddell, Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy CoordinationDerek Kan, Executive Associate Director, Office of Management and BudgetWhat we know about the coronavirus is terrifying enough, but it’s even worse when we consider there are many things we still don’t know about it. American must be diligent, take proper precautions, and do what we can to keep it from spreading.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 Good move: President Trump forms task force, makes coronavirus a matter of national security appeared first on NOQ Report – Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes.

Beth Moore attacks discernment on social media. I wonder why…Posted: 30 Jan 2020 05:05 AM PSTOn the upcoming release of her new book, Beth Moore took to Twitter on January 28, 2019 to lob an attack from on her high platform at those beneath her who criticize her and her teachings. Calling criticism slander, Beth Moore took an elitist tone towards the “tens of thousands” of people who on social media have the same capacity, though not the same reach, to speak as she herself does.What’s ironic, though not really, is that Beth Moore is accusing others of what she is doing. She feels affirmed when she accuses. She slanders the brethren as fundamentalists, those unable to differentiate between primary and tertiary issues, for adhering to biblical orthodoxy when she is making it obvious has noticeably deviated from orthodoxy she is believed to have held by championing the Social Justice Gospel and numerous false teachers.This tweet is bait for her critics, like ourselves. This tweet is a reply although not direct to her critics. It’s exactly the same behavior we saw when Richard Caldwell strawmanned discernment blogs. These people do not name names, keeping their words broad. They do not want to empower the discerning believers, the Evangelical Dark Web as we refer to those tens of thousands who because of the internet can compete in the arena of theological debate with the Lifeway Queen herself. Because of such amenities, we can call out and call out effectively the strange doctrines and heterodox behavior of the elitists in Big Eva. And they cannot seem to help themselves by hiding their disdain for discernment.She calls us slanderers, but we have evidence on Beth Moore as part of our Discernment ministry. This verdict is well documented on why we should avoid Beth Moore’s teachings falling just shy of pronouncing her as a false teacher or heretic, but noting that her behavior and ambiguity renders her unqualified for ministry.I want to finish off with a bit of hope. The backlash from Beth Moore is reactive, not preemptive. This means that she has taken damage and is returning fire. When President Trump ordered the attack on the Iranian General, the Iranians were too cowardly to go to war, so they orchestrated a show attack, knowing that they have been bested. The situations are not all identical, though the concepts are the same.There’s a persistent pattern within Big Eva to not name names because they know that if they do it will not end well. Social media has left many elites exposed and information travels fast online. If they attack, say Capstone Report to use a recent example, they know we will rally behind Capstone Report. And that’s exactly what Big Eva does not want, especially as sites like the ones we promote in DarkLinks are thriving. So they want to harm us without confrontation.Originally published on Evangelical Dark Web.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 Beth Moore attacks discernment on social media. I wonder why… appeared first on NOQ Report – Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes.

Twitter launches reporting feature for political election misinformation in U.S.Posted: 30 Jan 2020 04:10 AM PSTElection season is officially upon us in the United States. We know this, not because of the upcoming Iowa caucus or any proclamation from a major news outlet, most of which have been in 2020 election-mode since President Trump’s inauguration. The official word came quietly in the dark of night as a new feature on Twitter’s reporting tool that now allows U.S. Twitter users to label Tweets as “misleading about a political election.”The feature was first announced last year in a blog post ahead of the elections in India and the EU. While it’s intended to prevent disinformation regarding voting logistics such as polling locations and times, registration dates, or voter requirements, some are concerned the new feature will be abused by those who simply disagree with a political stance.You can’t get more subjective than the 4th item on that list which would permit everyone to report as abuse everything they disagree with.— ☆ Peace Through Strength ☆ (@DavidWareHawaii) January 30, 2020The presence of “A/R” groups on Twitter is the biggest concern. “Attack/Report” groups work together to find Tweets they disagree with politically. Then, they report the Tweets en masse to force, at the very least, an algorithmic trigger to instantly hide the Tweet and temporarily suspend the user. At that point, it goes to manual review of the Tweet and the account.While these A/R groups will not be as effective using this feature since political statements that do not present misinformation will likely be reinstated under manual scrutiny, it does mean unsuspecting users Tweeting out jokes about the items covered by the report are vulnerable.Sometimes, it’s not a joke. In 2018, a group of Reddit users from the now-quarantined subreddit r/the_donald pretended to be left-wing Twitter activists, posting the midterm election date of November 7. The election was held the day before. Around 1500 accounts were suspended, prompting an official policy to be released and the new reporting button to manifest.Twitter is an important tool for political campaigns. The company’s choice to ban political ads raises the stakes on campaigns and activists forming aggressive organic strategies to get their message out. Will this new reporting feature be abused?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 Twitter launches reporting feature for political election misinformation in U.S. appeared first on NOQ Report – Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes.

Pam Bondi’s description of Hunter Biden’s Burisma timeline should terrify DemocratsPosted: 29 Jan 2020 03:58 PM PSTHunter Biden’s tenure at Burisma was all about his father’s position of influence. That much was implied by President Trump’s defense attorney, Pam Bondi, at today’s Q&A session in the Senate impeachment trial. The facts she laid out about the timeline of Biden’s stretch with the company was so damaging, it almost makes me wish the Democrats get their wish about calling witnesses.He attended two board meetings. Two. For this, he was paid a million dollars a year, and that’s just on the front end. Who knows how much he was paid on the back end? Conspicuously, his employment ended shortly after his father announced his run for president. Coincidence? Of course not.Pam Bondi Outlines Hunter Biden’s Time, Trips As Board Member Of Burismahttps://t.co/84bvCL2Pv8— Jason Miller (@JasonMillerinDC) January 29, 2020In a righteous world, this impeachment trial would have ended before it began, but Democrats are practically begging for witnesses. Considering the hand grenade Pam Bondi tossed at Hunter Biden today, Democrats may want to reconsider.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 Pam Bondi’s description of Hunter Biden’s Burisma timeline should terrify Democrats appeared first on NOQ Report – Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes.

4 narratives the GOP must hammer home if they can prevent witnesses from testifyingPosted: 29 Jan 2020 02:26 PM PSTIt seems possible, even probable, that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will get 49 members of his caucus to join him in blocking witness testimony in the impeachment trial and moving to an up-or-down vote on Friday. I believe this may be a mistake from an election optics perspective; Democrats will use this against every Republican running for reelection, including President Trump.With that said, it’s the right move to acquit now. Or, to be more accurate, it’s the righteous move because the President’s actions and the Articles of Impeachment filed against him were not sufficient grounds for removal. Even most Democrats on Capitol Hill know this, but their desire to hurt their counterparts politically superseded an lingering feelings of fair play or adherence to the Constitution.Below are four narratives they must hammer home from the beginning and throughout election season whenever the topic of impeachment comes up, but first, let’s explore potential narratives they may be inclined to use but should avoid at all costs.Their rationale for blocking witnesses must NOT be:“House Democrats didn’t make their case.” Saying they didn’t make their case has an easy counter from Democrats: They didn’t let us. The House Managers did an adequate job of demonstrating precedent for calling witnesses in impeachment cases, and while the actual details have been skewed, the narrative is an easy one for voters to understand.“There was no quid pro quo, pressure, or personal gain for the President.” In light of the potential John Bolton testimony, saying that the President did nothing wrong runs awry to the move to block Bolton as a witness. Democrats would counter that if they’d allowed witnesses, the world would have seen quid pro quo, pressure, and personal gain demonstrated by a former high-level White House staffer with first-hand knowledge.“House Democrats should have called more witnesses.” The problem is, they did. Or at least they tried. Democrats and media would pounce on this narrative from the GOP by saying the House tried to get more witnesses, including Bolton, but their efforts were “obstructed” by the White House. The GOP counter would be that they didn’t fight it in court, but that won’t hold much water to Joe Blow voter who sees it as a giant cover up.“The President is in charge of foreign policy.” This is true. It also opens up the counterargument that he is not allowed to wield his power over foreign policy to help him win elections. Republicans can bring up what President Obama did during the 2016 election, but in the minds of voters, two wrongs don’t make a right. Trying to sell the notion that what’s good for the goose is good for the gander will only make people question President Obama’s actions. It won’t help justify President Trump’s.Now, let’s look at what their narratives should be:The Articles of Impeachment weren’t impeachable offensesAs noted above, this is the reason they should move forward and end the impeachment debacle as quickly as possible. It should have been dismissed from the outset. In fact, the Articles should have never seen the light of day. But here we are, so justifying their decision to block witnesses must come across as the right move.In debates, there are two honest techniques. You can point out the fallacies in the opponent’s facts or you can point out the fallacies in the opponent’s logic. This is the latter. Instead of debating whether or not the House Managers needed more witnesses to establish the validity of their facts, Republicans must cast doubt on the logic behind their Articles of Impeachment in the first place. If there was no crime worthy of removal from office for them to prove, then there’s no need to allow witnesses to help or hinder them from proving them.Point out the partisanship of the HouseIn the Democrat-controlled House, most Democrats voted in favor of Articles of Impeachment while some Democrats and all Republicans voted against them. In the Republican-controlled Senate, most Republicans will vote against calling witnesses while some Republicans and all Democrats will vote in favor of them.The parallels are clear, and the case the GOP has been saying all along—that it was argued in purely partisan manner in the House—can be used as the reason for their defense during the Senate trial.Remind everyone Bolton wouldn’t testify before the HouseJohn Bolton’s testimony will be the one that everyone is harping about if it doesn’t happen. Therefore, the GOP must cast doubt on the validity of his testimony. Thankfully, they have a very logical reasoning for doubting its validity and they can demonstrate this through Bolton’s own actions.His testimony was requested by House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff, but Bolton declined. Why? If he had pertinent, first-hand knowledge about why the President withheld aid from Ukraine and was willing to discuss it before the Senate, why wouldn’t he do it in front of the House? The reason, as Republicans should hammer home, is obvious. He wanted to sell more books and testifying about it in front of the House Judiciary Committee wouldn’t have done him any favors. But offering to testify in front of the Senate and then quietly hoping he never gets called is the greatest book-selling tactic every used.“I wasn’t trying to sell more books,” he could say, “which is evident by the fact that I was willing to testify about it before the Senate.” But he truly hopes he doesn’t have to because now his book will be the most sought-after tell-all this White House has ever had to deal with.“Great news, now get back to work”When the impeachment debacle is over, they’ll finally get back to doing work for the people. This is important, as nothing is getting done while the impeachment debacle is dominating Capitol Hill. It also happens to be a narrative that most, especially the all-important Independents, can agree with being a good thing even if they wanted to hear from witnesses.Democrats and mainstream media will do everything in their power to paint the impeachment trial as a cover-up by Senate Republicans. But the GOP has the truth on their side. If they play the proper notes, they can paint this as the righteous move that it is.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 4 narratives the GOP must hammer home if they can prevent witnesses from testifying appeared first on NOQ Report – Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes.

The left has issued a warning on a new slang term of the far rightPosted: 29 Jan 2020 12:16 PM PSTMany of the authoritarian left are warning of a disturbing new trend in the use of obscure concepts and words that are quickly gaining popularity with the far right. These are ideas expressed on very old documents from the time of the founding of the country. They have gone viral with those who oddly enough want the government to be limited in its powers to do good.This alarming trend is seeing increasing notoriety with the far right fringe. It began as an unconstitutional response to common sense gun confiscation in places like Virginia and is now spreading like wildfire to neighboring states. It’s a dire situation in which people demand their ‘unalienable human rights’ and other dangerous ideas.Leftist insiders are worried that if people begin thinking on their own instead of listening to them, they might actually take matters into their own hands. They might buy guns and express their opinions outside of leftist control.A spokesman for the national socialist groups that study the far-right fringe has noted an increasingly disturbing trend in the use of the word ‘liberty’. “We had to run to the dictionary to find out the meaning of this word when it first cropped up in their social media posts”. “Apparently it’s connected with other words like ‘freedom’ and ‘human rights’”In their study of this strange phenomena, they discovered that these obscure concepts hearken back to the English Bill of Rights 1689 and then to the ‘Declaration of independence’ and the ‘Constitution’. Apparently these ‘documents’ guarantee ‘free-speech’ and ‘the right of the people to keep and bear Arms’, of all things.Said one media insider who we will refer by just the initials of ‘D.L.’: “These ‘boomer rubes’ as we call them actually expect to have these ‘rights’ even though they were written at a time when it took 5 minutes to reload a musket”. “They have it in their heads that certain rights are ‘unalienable’ when this has nothing to do with aliens”.The group of insiders are planning to have a higher level conference on how to stop these dangerous ideas of freedom and liberty from spreading throughout the country. They are deeply concerned that these ideas could cause people to decide to not to listen to the leftists in running their individual lives.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 The left has issued a warning on a new slang term of the far right appeared first on NOQ Report – Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes.

Ben Shapiro on why the right should stop opposing impeachment witnessesPosted: 29 Jan 2020 11:42 AM PSTFrom a legal impeachment perspective regarding the removal of the President of the United States from office, the Republican argument against impeachment witnesses at the Senate trial is sound. As Rudy Giuliani and others have noted, the Articles of Impeachment themselves do not represent charges that warrant removal. Moreover, House Managers did not present enough evidence to prove their case beyond a reasonable doubt. The case should be dismissed prima facie.From an election optics perspective, blocking witnesses could prove to be disastrous, as The Daily Wire’s Editor-in-Chief Ben Shapiro pointed out on Twitter.There seems to be a consensus on the right that the worst case scenario is more witnesses. I can think of a worse one: witnesses are rejected, then go on to drop pseudo-bombshells two weeks from the election, hurting both Trump and Senators who voted against witness testimony.— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 29, 2020Trump is not his own best defense attorney. Bolton isn’t saying anything impeachable. Barring his testimony because you fear political blowback heightens the blowback.— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) January 29, 2020Shapiro is correct. It was a murky subject before the press leak and media interpretations of excerpts of John Bolton‘s upcoming book. Now that it’s out there, it would be nearly impossible to convince people who are on the fence that blocking witnesses is the right move. Democrats are pushing the “cover-up” narrative and blocking witnesses at this stage would jibe with that narrative.Democrats will use such a blockage from now until election day. They won’t just use it against the President. They will use it against Republican Representatives who support blocking witnesses. But most importantly, they will use it against Republican Senators. All of them, even the ones who vote for witnesses such as (potentially) Susan Collins (R-ME). The difference is they’ll take her vote to acquit and use it against her, assuming she does vote that way. If she doesn’t, it won’t matter anyway as she’ll lose too much Republican support to win reelection.The odds of blocking witnesses at this stage are approaching zero. It’s a pickle for Republican Senators because unless they can convince President Trump it’s a good idea to do so, he’s going to continue to spout out against it. Any Republican Senator that votes against the President’s wishes in his impeachment trial is at risk. But they should assume that witnesses will be called and start shifting the narrative to focusing more on the corruption angle. It isn’t just the Bidens and Burisma, either. They have an ace in the hole that nobody seems to be bringing up.While all the focus is on the Biden portion of the call between President Trump and Ukrainian President Zelensky, the other favor asked by the President is equally important as far as witnesses are concerned. Corruption during the 2016 election is an avenue through which Republican Senators could drive a bus full of witnesses. Alleged whistleblower Eric Ciaramella, Alexandra Chalupa, and many, many others are in play if Republicans take advantage of the corruption angle. They’d be foolish to dismiss it.The executive branch has a responsibility to root out corrupting forces who are breaking the law, foreign or domestic. This is the biggest reason why the “abuse of power” Article of Impeachment is bogus. The Constitution allows the President a wide berth on foreign affairs, and while our sensibilities tell us it’s wrong to pursue “dirt” on a political opponent, determining whether the President should be removed from office comes down to one question: If Joe Biden wasn’t running for president, would it have been illegal for President Trump to ask Ukraine to help investigate Burisma? If not, then the Democrats’ case is that presidential candidates get special privileges above the law.Instead of fighting calls for witnesses and giving Democrats the “cover-up” narrative to use against every Republican in DC until election day, the GOP should prepare to scorch earth and call the Bidens, the whistleblower, and others.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 Ben Shapiro on why the right should stop opposing impeachment witnesses appeared first on NOQ Report – Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes.

Spoiler alert: Rick Wilson has always hated youPosted: 29 Jan 2020 09:38 AM PSTI know I’m a little late to the party with this whole Rick Wilson thing. That’s because I wanted to take a little time to organize my thoughts on the latest outrage du jour brought to you courtesy of #NeverTrump and CNN, the First Name in Media Bias, so that I could fully articulate what it is that really bothers me about this episode.To recap, Wilson—a longtime GOP political consultant, in addition to being an all-around toad—appeared on Don Lemon’s show, where he had a grand ol’ time yukking it up over how those cornpone Trumpsters couldn’t care less about the President’s impeachment over Ukraine military aid, mainly because they couldn’t find Ukraine on a map if they tried. Lemon, of course, took great delight in this, particularly when Wilson cracked a painfully canned joke involving the letter “U” and a picture of a crane—although whether he meant the bird variety or a piece of heavy-lifting equipment was left up to the viewer to puzzle out:This is why Trump won and will win again. pic.twitter.com/KfaLnP1KCt— Caleb Hull (@CalebJHull) January 28, 2020First off, let me say that for a guy who holds himself up as an example of erudition and sophistication compared to those Trump rubes, that joke doesn’t exactly speak well of his wit—and since wit is closely tied to intelligence, that particular bomb of a bon mot (rehearsed, no less!) denotes an IQ closer to Chauncey Gardener than Megamind. It’s as if the man fancies himself a Nietzschean übermensch, à la Leopold and Loeb, who thinks he got away with the Comedy Crime of the Century only to be tripped up by the one piece of evidence he could never cover up: He’s just not funny. His is a stand-up style that makes one pine for the comparatively insightful humor of a Michelle Wolf—and trust me, when you’re dying on stage harder than she did at the White House Correspondents Dinner, that’s saying something.Beyond that, however, Wilson’s shtick bespeaks a wholesale disdain for a vast swath of America—a subject that others have already covered here quite eloquently, so there’s not much more I can add to that subject. What strikes me most about this exchange, though, is how nakedly honest it really is. Much like the national news media letting their non-partisan disguise slip in the era of Trump, the political consultant class is letting us know what they’ve always thought of the voters: that we are, in their view, sheep to be herded wherever they want us to go, and that just happens to be in the direction of whoever is paying their fee.In other words, nothing of what they present to us is real. Oh, they might put on a show of being conservative—the better to soften us up to their subtle attempts at manipulation—but in the end, guys like Wilson don’t really give a damn about whether or not this candidate or that policy advances the conservative cause. Quite the contrary, feeding and growing Big Government is great for their bottom line. In that respect, they’re a lot like Democrats who campaign heavily in minority districts come election time, but never seem to be around as the problems they promised to fix go unresolved. Once they’ve got your vote, they don’t much care about your concerns—until you stop paying attention to them, and try voting a different way. Then, all of a sudden, you become the problem, and the results—as we’ve seen—aren’t pretty.Wilson gave the game up when, in the clip above, he referred to voters as “credulous boomer rubes.” Except that he wasn’t just referring to Trump voters—he was talking about pretty much everyone, regardless of their age, who has figured out how the political-media class has been manipulating them all these years and now refuses to go along.It’s the one kind of “woke” that Wilson can’t abide, so it’s no wonder he’s so embittered. What he doesn’t seem to realize, however, is that there is no going back—and that no matter how much he whines and tries to shame the voters, the days of him calling the shots are over.We’re onto you, Rick. Now crawl back into the swamp where reptiles like you belong.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 Submitvar wWidgetConf_b1a6d20b69 = {rows: 4,cols: 1,backgroundColor: ‘rgb(240, 240, 240)’,textColor: ‘rgb(0, 0, 0)’,displayContent: ‘0’,contentSort: ‘0’,contentType: ‘0’,showTitle: ‘1’,showThumb: ‘1’,widgetID: ‘wWidget_b1a6d20b69’};Mixi.Media News(function() {
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To Doug Collins and Kelly Loeffler: Keep it clean and focus on the DemocratsPosted: 29 Jan 2020 08:59 AM PSTAs a lawmaker, Representative Doug Collins is above average. As the ranking member or chair (depending on who controls the House of Representatives) of the House Intelligence Committee, he’s as strong as it gets. As a staunch defender of President Trump and his policies, Collins ranks among the top. This is why I like him and supported him to be appointed Senator by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp last year.The woman who got the nod from Kemp, newly sworn in Senator Kelly Loeffler, has been good so far in her limited time on Capitol Hill. We haven’t been able to see how she votes on legislation, but her willingness to speak out against Senator Mitt Romney over his desire to call witnesses during the impeachment trial gives us hope that she’s at least willing to do what’s best for the country.Both are going to be on the ballot for the “jungle primary” on November 3. That means the chances of either of them winning on the first ballot are essentially nil and a runoff will pit one of them against a Democrat. That is, unless two Democrats take up the top two spots during the primary, though that is highly unlikely in a red-leaning state.The sides are already taking shape with the vast majority of the GOP Establishment siding with Loeffler, including the powerful National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC). Collins’ announced bid complicates the issue as Republicans will have to choose between the two. But those rooting for Collins will say it should have been him appointed in the first place. After all, President Trump called on Kemp to appoint Collins. They’ll say the fact that he chose Loeffler is what put the GOP in a pickle as Collins would have certainly sailed to reelection in November.Now, things are weird.The problem with the Collins run is that it allows the Democrats to unite behind a single candidate while the GOP is divided and will also deprive other key races of money needed to win. There’s no primary in this special election. It’ll be two R’s against one D on one ballot.— Erick Erickson (@EWErickson) January 29, 2020As far as I’m concerned, what’s done is done, the past is the past, and the GOP needs to hold the Senate. Therefore, I’m not picking a side on this one. Not yet, at least. What I WILL do is tell both lawmakers this: Keep it clean. Focus on what you’ll do for America and Georgia. When you go negative (as all campaigns do today), do so against the Democrats. And whatever you do, let’s not tarnish the overall Republican image in the state.Kemp’s victory in 2018 has already rallied Democrats in the state to fight harder this year. Between the presidential election, contentious House elections, and TWO Senate elections (David Perdue has a standard election to go along with the special election to decide the next two years for Loeffler’s seat), there is a lot at stake for Georgia Republicans this year.I would feel a lot better if Doug Collins and Kelly Loeffler both vowed to not attack each other and to focus their assaults on the Democrats. This is too important for shenanigans. May the best man or woman win, as long as he or she is Republican.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 To Doug Collins and Kelly Loeffler: Keep it clean and focus on the Democrats appeared first on NOQ Report – Conservative Christian News, Opinions, and Quotes.

Before the coronavirus, China had a huge pig problem: African Swine FeverPosted: 29 Jan 2020 06:35 AM PSTChina is learning that when it rains, it pours. For the last couple of weeks, their humongous problem with the coronavirus, a problem that may be bigger than they’re reporting, has been making news across the world as fears of it spreading and becoming on epidemic are at top of mind. But they had a problem before the coronavirus that will almost certainly impact their economy, food supply, and culture for months if not years.China’s pigs are dying. Some estimates put it at 1/3rd of their entire pig population has been infected by the deadly African Swine Fever, forcing millions of pigs to die or be killed before getting buried unused. As the world’s largest consumer of pork, which comprises over 70% of the protein the population ingests, this is a devastating development. And now the coronavirus has diverted resources away from addressing the pig problem.The South China Morning Post reported last month that state media blamed “criminal gangs” for spreading the disease so they could buy pigs cheaply and sell them at a premium.But there may be hope on the horizon. Early reports came through yesterday that the U.S. has developed a vaccine.U.S. Says It’s Got a ‘Promising’ African Swine Fever VaccineGovernment and academic experts in the U.S. have developed a vaccine against African swine fever that’s proved 100% effective, according to the American Society for Microbiology.Both high and low doses of the vaccine, developed from a genetically modified prior strain of the virus, were effective in pigs when they were challenged 28 days after innoculation, the report said.“This new experimental ASFV vaccine shows promise, and offers complete protection against the current strain currently producing outbreaks throughout Eastern Europe and Asia,” said Douglas Gladue, the principal investigator at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which developed the vaccine.If China cannot get a handle on the African Swine Fever that’s devastating their nation, the coronavirus could be the least of their problems. Considering how fast the disease is spreading, that’s saying a lot about the largest nation in the world.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 Submit

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A Plan for Shalom in IsraelPosted: 29 Jan 2020 10:24 PM PST by Tony Perkins: Yesterday, President Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu unveiled the long-awaited Middle East peace plan. The 180-page plan, officially titled “Peace to Prosperity: A Vision to Improve the Lives of the Palestinian and Israeli People” offers one of the most comprehensive attempts to broker a deal between the Israelis and Palestinians in decades.

As the president explained, “This vision for peace is fundamentally different from past proposals. In the past, even the most well-intentioned plans were light on factual details and heavy on conceptual frameworks.”

While previous plans have failed because they did not adequately address Israel’s security needs and/or failed to accommodate Palestinian aspirations for a sovereign state, President Trump’s plan seeks to thread the needle by addressing Israel’s military and security needs from border to border while providing for a future Palestinian state. Significantly, the president’s plan calls for achieving mutual recognition of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people and the future State of Palestine as the nation-state of the Palestinian people. The president’s plan is a realistic way forward for a managed peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

As part of the deal, if the Palestinians meet certain benchmarks such as renouncing terrorism, recognizing Israel’s right to exist, and disarming Hamas (which is recognized by the United States and European Union as a terrorist organization), they will receive historic economic and political opportunities. The economic opportunities come in part through a massive investment of $50 billion (mostly coming from the Gulf states) which will spur the Palestinian economy. When implemented, the plan could create more than one million Palestinian jobs, double the Palestinian GDP, and reduce unemployment below 10 percent and cut the poverty rate in half.

Unfortunately, Palestinian leadership has so far indicated they are not interested in coming to the negotiating table. In one sense this is not surprising, given the ongoing dysfunction within the Palestinian Authority. President Mahmoud Abbas, who has led the Palestinian Authority since 2005, has presided over a struggling economy and strained political situation since his election fifteen years ago.

However, as Chris Mitchell, the Middle East Bureau Chief for CBN News told me yesterday, there may still be hope for the peace plan if the Palestinian people signal to leadership they are tired of perpetually poor economic prospects and restricted travel rights due to the PLO’s funding of terrorism. As Mitchell explained, many Palestinians are tired of living under a corrupt government and are ready for peace. This is why despite calls from Palestinian leadership for a “day of rage” in response to the peace plan, many Palestinians are evidently not going along. As Mitchell noted, “I have been hearing that some of the Palestinian people are not necessarily going to go along with this resistance against the plan.”

Congressman Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), who joined me on Washington Watch yesterday as well to discuss the peace plan, pointed to the potential economic boon as a reason Palestinian leadership should consider the plan. “Everybody’s going to win,” Yoho argued.

President Trump himself stressed these economic benefits yesterday in a direct appeal to President Abbas: “President Abbas, I want you to know that if you choose the path to peace, America and many other countries — we will be there. We will be there to help you in so many different ways, and we will be there every step of the way.” He continued, “Your response to this historic opportunity will show the world to what extent you’re ready to lead the Palestinian people to statehood.”

While there are still aspects to be negotiated, the plan released yesterday by the White House once again displays the Trump administration’s knack for tackling perplexing political problems. I commend the president and his team for crafting a win/win proposition; it would ensure security for Israel and enable an identity and economic prosperity for the Palestinians. Christians everywhere should pray for a cessation of hostilities between the Israelis and Palestinians and pray that everyone in the Holy Land may at last experience shalom.

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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: Tony Perkins, Family Research Center, FRC, Family Research Council, Plan for Shalom in Israel, President Trump, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, unveiled, Middle East peace plan To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Red China’s Infection of US ClassroomsPosted: 29 Jan 2020 10:02 PM PSTMichelle Malkinby Michelle Malkin: Dangerous menaces are spreading from mainland China to the United States. Surgical masks and Big Pharma vaccines, however, won’t protect this nation from its infiltration. The problem doesn’t lie with bats. It lies with America’s batty pursuit of globalization at all costs.

Chinese Communist Party agents are using our suicidal pathologies — blind worship of “diversity,” naive exaltation of “cultural exchange” programs, and reckless surrender of our education system — against us for economic espionage, intellectual property theft and world dominance. While Beltway blowhards rail against foreign interference in our elections, Beijing’s hijacking of our classrooms ensues with hardly a peep of political resistance.

On Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Boston announced that the chairman of Harvard University’s Chemistry and Chemical Biology Department, along with two Chinese nationals, have been “charged in connection with aiding the People’s Republic of China.” Acclaimed Harvard chemist and nanoscientist, Dr. Charles Lieber, had served as a “strategic scientist” at Wuhan University of Technology for the past nine years and is accused of lying about his role as a “contractual participant” of China’s infamous Thousand Talents Plan.

Last fall, after years of intel warnings, a bipartisan Senate committee blew the whistle on TTP’s systematic recruitment of an estimated 7,000 academics who have agreed to “transmit the knowledge and research they gain here to China in exchange for salaries, research funding, lab space, and other incentives.” Lieber reportedly received $50,000 a month plus living expenses and more than $1.5 million for a Chinese research lab, all while soaking up $15 million in federal grants from the National Institutes of Health and Defense Department.

It is unknown how many Chinese nationals worked in either Lieber’s America-based or China-based labs. But the two Chinese nationals charged with Lieber were cancer researcher Zaosong Zheng, 29, whom Harvard sponsored on a J-1 work-study exchange visa and Yanqing Ye, 29, whom Boston University sponsored on a J-1. Prosecutors allege Ye is a CCP member and top military lieutenant. Zheng is accused of attempting to smuggle “21 vials of biological research” aboard a flight destined for China.

Those are just a few who got caught. In 2018-2019, China sent the most international students from around the world (369,548 out of nearly 1.1 million) to study in U.S. institutions. More than 71,000 Chinese students headed to Massachusetts; 6,222 of them embedded at Harvard and 10,598 of them enrolled at Boston University. Those figures don’t include their spouses and children, who are also welcomed through their own special visa programs. (And the national security risks of the untold tens of thousands of Chinese nationals on the H-1B tech worker visa is a whole ‘nuther story.)

China has cunningly exploited America’s alphabet soup of temporary visa programs, which are overwhelmed by out-of-control mass migration and are operated by open borders ideologues who put the alleged economic benefits of admitting 1 million international students into the country every year over the national security risks. Top administrators at Harvard and other prestigious universities have continually denounced the Trump administration for increasing vetting of foreign student visas and inconveniencing their wealthy clientele.

But mum’s the word on the treachery taking place under the guise of “cultural” enrichment:

–Last July, the FBI indicted Chinese F-1 student visa beneficiary Weiyun “Kelly” Huang in an alleged visa fraud scheme that allowed more than 2,500 Chinese foreign students on F-1 — including a purported spy for the Chinese government — to extend their stays by claiming employment with a phony internet front she created. The ruse allowed the scammers to take advantage of the uncapped Optional Practical Training program allowing F-1s to stay an extra three years to work. Ji Chaoqun, an F-1 who received a master’s degree in electrical engineering in 2015 from an unspecified U.S. university, paid for Huang’s services and was arrested in 2018 for alleged spying and recruitment of academics and engineers under the direction of the People’s Republic of China.

–In September, the FBI arrested Chinese national Zhongsan Liu in New Jersey for operating a fraudulent J-1 visa racket that imported PRC operatives to staff a New York front group recruiting scientists, academics and engineers to work in China. Liu targeted seven American universities for the scheme, including the University of Massachusetts Boston.

–Just last week, the University of Missouri at Columbia announced it was terminating its partnership with a Chinese government-funded language and cultural program called the Confucius Institute amid widespread national security concerns. The Institute’s teachers were pouring into local K-12 schools through the J-1 visa program unsupervised. The U.S. Government Accountability Office identified more than 500 “Confucius Institutes” worldwide, with 96 located at colleges and universities in the United States as of December 2018 — the vast majority of them publicly funded institutions. A PRC propaganda outfit called Hanban has provided funding ranging from $900,000 to $1.7 million for “model” Confucius Institutes.

While several universities have closed their programs, several Chinese language charter schools and entire school districts, including K-12 public schools in Broward County, Florida, Houston and Seattle, operate “Confucius Classrooms” approved and co-operated with the Chinese government.

Where’s a nationwide public health emergency declaration when you need one?
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Michelle Malkin is mother, wife, blogger, conservative syndicated columnist, and author. She shares many of her articles and thoughts at MichelleMalkin.com. H/T Rasmussen Reports.
Tags: Michelle Malkin, Red China, Infection, globalism, US Classrooms, Confucius Classrooms To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Freebies for EveryonePosted: 29 Jan 2020 09:45 PM PSTJohn Stosselby John Stossel: The Iowa Caucus, the real start of the 2020 presidential primaries, is next week. Who’s favored to win? Sadly, as I write this, the smart money says it’s the candidate who’s promised Americans the most “free” stuff.

Six months ago, my staff and I tallied the candidates’ promises. All wanted to give away trillions — or more accurately, wanted government to tax you and spend your money on the candidates’ schemes.

At that point, Senator Kamala Harris led. Fortunately, her promises did not bring her sustained support, and she dropped out.

Unfortunately, now the other candidates are making even more promises.

So, it’s time for a new contest.

My new video ranks the current leading candidates by how much of your money they promise to spend. We divide the promises into four categories:

Education

Joe Biden would make community college free, cut student loans in half, increase Pell Grants and modernize schools.

Added to his previous campaign promises, he’d increase federal spending by $157 billion per year.

Elizabeth Warren would spend much more. She wants government to “provide universal child care for every baby in this country age 0 to 5, universal pre-K for every child, raise the wages of every childcare worker and preschool teacher in America, provide for universal tuition-free college, put $50 billion into historically black colleges and universities… and cancel student loan debt for 95% of the people.”

She’d outspend Biden — but not Bernie Sanders.

Sanders would forgive all student loans — even for the rich. He also demands that government give everyone child care and pre-K.

Mayor Pete Buttigieg also promises free child care, more pay for teachers, more career education, free college and Pell Grants, plus the refinancing of student debt.

Good try, Pete, but Sanders “wins” in the education category, with nearly $300 billion in promises.

Climate

All the Democrats pretend they will do something useful about climate change. Biden would spend $170 billion per year, Buttigieg $150 billion to $200 billion and Warren $300 billion. Sanders “wins” this category, too, by promising more than $1 trillion.

Health Care

Even the “moderate,” Biden, now wants to “build out Obamacare” and to cover people here illegally.

So does Buttigieg — but he’d spend twice as much on it.

Warren complains the Buttigieg plan “costs so much less” than her plan. She’d spend $2 trillion a year.

Sanders is again the biggest spender. He’d spend $3 trillion of your money on his “Medicare for All” plan.

Welfare

In this category, Biden, to his credit, plans no new spending.

But Buttigieg has been cranking out lots of new promises, like $45 billion for “affordable housing” and $27 billion to expand Social Security payments beyond what people paid in.

Warren would also spend more on “affordable housing” and give kids more food stamps.

Sanders “wins” again. He promises to guarantee everyone a job, provide “housing for all” and give more people food stamps.

Miscellaneous

Then there’s spending that doesn’t neatly fit into major categories, like Biden’s plans for new foreign aid for Central America, Sanders’ high-speed internet, Buttigieg’s expanding national service programs like the Peace Corps and Warren’s plan to force government to buy only American-made products.

Finally, we found a spending category that Sanders doesn’t win. With $130 billion in new plans, Biden wins the “miscellaneous” round.

And what about that incumbent Republican?

Donald Trump once talked about “cutting waste,” but government spending rose more than half a trillion dollars during his first three years.

Now Trump wants $267 billion in new spending for things like infrastructure and “access to high-quality, affordable childcare.”

At least Trump wants to spend less than the Democrats.

Biden and Buttigieg would double Trump’s increase. Warren would quadruple it. She’d increase spending by almost $3 trillion.

But Bernie Sanders blows them all out of the water, with nearly $5 trillion in proposed new spending!

“I’m not denying we’re going to spend a lot of money,” he admits.

He’ll probably win in Iowa next week. Whoever wins… taxpayers lose.
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John Stossel is author of “No They Can’t! Why Government Fails — But Individuals Succeed.” Article shared by Rasmussen Reports
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Confronting China, The Wuhan Virus, Remember In NovemberPosted: 29 Jan 2020 09:31 PM PSTGary Bauerby Gary Bauer, Contributing Author: Confronting China
While the mainstream media have obsessed over impeachment, there are a few stories out there right now that just aren’t getting the coverage they deserve. Both involve China and our national security.

As I have noted before, FBI Director Christopher Wray has identified China as America’s biggest counterintelligence threat. Wray described the Chinese threat as “deep and diverse and wide and vexing,” adding that there are at least 1,000 investigations involving China’s efforts to steal our economic and military secrets.

China’s intense espionage efforts are not new. They have been going on for years and really picked up speed during the Obama era.

This week, Professor Charles Lieber, chairman of Harvard University’s Chemistry Department, was arrested for lying to the Defense Department about his participation in China’s Thousand Talents program.

For at least five years, Lieber, an expert in nanotechnology, was paid $50,000 a month and provided $150,000 a year for personal expenses by the Chinese. At the same time, he was directing research projects from the Department of Defense and the National Institutes of Health.

But wait. . . There’s more!
Federal authorities also announced charges against Yanqing Ye, an officer in the Chinese military, who had been working at Boston University.Last month, Zaosong Zheng was arrested at Boston’s Logan Airport attempting to smuggle vials of biological materials stolen from U.S. research labs.And the state of Florida recently launched a major investigation after ten university faculty members and other researchers were exposed as participants in China’s Thousand Talents program.As FBI Director Wray warned, China’s espionage efforts are “deep and diverse.” According to one estimate, there are at least 80 Confucius Institutes operating at colleges and universities around the country. Confucius Institutes have been more warmly received at American universities than conservative speakers!

These institutes are official organs of the Chinese Communist Party. But like much of U.S. policy toward China, the allure of easy money proved too tempting to resist, regardless of the strings attached.

Thankfully, the Trump Administration is cracking down, and more than 20 Confucius Institutes have closed in the past two years. But much more work clearly remains to be done.

The Wuhan Virus
We’ve seen all kinds of stories in recent days about the Wuhan virus – how fast is it spreading, its kill ratio, how many people are being quarantined, airlines canceling flights, etc. I even read a story about the potential for medicine shortages here due to global supply chain vulnerabilities.

Yesterday, I saw a map showing all the places where the U.S. has set up screening centers to check people coming into the country for evidence of the virus. Not surprisingly, most screening centers are at major international airports, but there are two at the El Paso and San Diego border ports of entry, also for obvious reasons.

What jumped out at me was everything else in between — you know, the vast open border area that Donald Trump has spent the last three years trying to secure. The same border that the left and its media allies have spent the last three years fighting to keep wide open and smearing Trump as a bigot for trying to secure.

The spread of this deadly virus is proof of why the border must be secured. Is there even one “mainstream” journalist in America who thinks this is a story worth writing?

It wasn’t that long ago when our Border Patrol agents were overwhelmed with sick migrants, running more than 50 people a day to border-area hospitals.

We’re also seeing a surge of Chinese nationals illegally crossing the border. And now we have a mystery virus originating in China with a kill rate we have not yet determined.

The president has done a lot to secure the border, but if progressive politicians, judges and pundits had not been so desperate to resist President Trump (and common sense), much more would have been done by now. The risk of the Wuhan virus entering the country from the unsecured southern border could have been greatly diminished.

If Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff and Chuck Schumer had worked half as hard to help secure the country as they have to invalidate the votes of half the country, we’d all be a lot safer right now.

“Danger! Danger! Danger!”
Jay Sekulow, a member of the president’s defense team, reminded senators yesterday of something every American needs to understand: This hyper-partisan impeachment, based on anonymous allegations and differences of opinion, is a serious danger to our constitutional republic.

Within days of Donald Trump securing the GOP nomination, elements of our government that we entrust to keep us safe from terrorists and foreign spies diverted resources to get illegal wiretaps on the Trump campaign. They even set up sting operations to take down various campaign aides.

Before Trump was sworn in, a well-financed campaign was launched to intimidate members of the Electoral College. The media gleefully reported that some electors were wavering but often failed to expose the intimidation taking place.

After Trump was inaugurated, Deep State operatives and their media allies launched the Russian collusion hoax, which consumed the country for more than two years.

A leading proponent of that hoax was Adam Schiff. He regularly appeared on Sunday talk shows and declared that the evidence that Russia and the president stole the election was “in plain sight.” He was lying the whole time, every time.

When that hoax fell apart, the left launched its sham impeachment — the biggest voter suppression effort in the history of the country. Pelosi, Schiff and Schumer are trying to suppress the votes of 63 million people who voted for Donald Trump in 2016, while depriving millions of us the right to vote for him again this November.

They know that their platform of abortion extremism, anti-religious liberty and big government socialism is unpopular. So they are putting the country through a scandalous election-year impeachment charade with the goal of removing Donald Trump from the ballot.

If Vladimir Putin tried to come up with a plan to destroy a duly-elected president and undermine the United States of America, he could not imagine anything better than what Pelosi, Schiff and Schumer, along with their media and Deep State allies, have done over the last three years.

The Wildwood Wonder
We know the president’s policies are growing the economy. Well, in the last two days, Trump turned Wildwood, New Jersey, into an enterprise zone of unexpected economic growth.

Wildwood is a beach community that depends heavily on summer tourism. When the temperatures fall and the days get shorter, much of the town shuts down.

In the last two days, hotels and restaurants all over Wildwood reopened to accommodate the thousands of people who came to see the man many believe is the greatest president since Ronald Reagan. People began lining up more than a day in advance to attend Trump’s rally last night!

Remember In November
Remember Obama’s remark about “bitter clingers”? Hillary’s “basket of deplorables”? Apparently, the left still hasn’t learned how to hide its bigotry.

As I’m sure you know, CNN’s Don Lemon just couldn’t keep it together when a NeverTrumper and a liberal New York Times columnist started mocking conservative Trump voters.

Well, I’m pleased to report that Don Lemon is starring in the latest Republican National Committee ad that urges conservative voters to have the last laugh 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, Confronting China, The Wuhan Virus, Remember In November To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

13 Witnesses. Over 28,000 Pages Of Documents.Posted: 29 Jan 2020 09:35 PM PSTEven The House Managers Say ‘We Heard From Enough Witnesses To Prove The Case Beyond Any Doubt At All’
“[T]he strategy to deluge the Senate also carries significant risks as the House managers tried to hammer home somewhat contradictory messages: their case is ‘overwhelming,’ but at the same time it’s incomplete without calling new witnesses and subpoenaing documents they say are necessary …” (“Dems Unload ‘Overwhelming’ Impeachment Case On The Senate — Even As They Press For More,” Politico, 1/22/2020)

Over 7 Days, The Senate Has Already Heard Testimony From 13 Different Witnesses In 192 Video Clips And Received Over 28,000 Pages Of Documents
During the impeachment trial’s opening phase, 192 video clips of 13 different witnesses were played in the Senate:
1. Gordon Sondland, United States Ambassador to the European Union2. William Taylor, former Acting United States Ambassador to Ukraine3. Tim Morrison, former Senior Director for Europe and Russia on the National Security Council4. Jennifer Williams, special adviser on Europe and Russia for Vice President Mike Pence5. David Holmes, political counselor to the United States Embassy in Ukraine6. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, Director for European Affairs on the National Security Council7. Fiona Hill, former Senior Director for Europe and Russia on the National Security Council8. Kurt Volker, former United States Special Representative for Ukraine Negotiations9. George Kent, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs10. Marie Yovanovitch, former United States Ambassador to Ukraine11. Laura Cooper, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Russia, Ukraine, Eurasia12. David Hale, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs13. Joseph Maguire, Acting Director of National Intelligence(Congressional Record, 1/21-28/2020)“Democrats delivered 28,578 pages of evidence to the Senate on Saturday, marking the formal transfer of the House’s impeachment record that supported their case to remove President Donald Trump from office.” (“28,578 pages of evidence,” Politico, 1/25/2020)

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., arrives at the Senate with carts of documents as work resumes in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020.
AP Photo Caption: “House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., arrives at the Senate with carts of documents as work resumes in the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, at the Capitol in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 25, 2020.” (“Trump Lawyers Argue Democrats Just Want To Overturn Election,” The Associated Press, 1/25/2020)

Yet Sen. Schumer And Other Senate Democrats Insist On New Witnesses And Documents
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): “[W]e must have witnesses and documents in order to have a fair trial.” (Sen. Schumer, Remarks, 1/16/2020)
SCHUMER: “The very least we can do is examine the facts, review the documents, hear from witnesses, try the case.” (Sen. Schumer, Remarks, 1/21/2020)
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA): “[R]esponsibility now rests on the shoulders of each member of the United States Senate…. Which means demanding that the American public and each member of this body receive all evidence, documents and individuals who are witnesses so that we can engage in a fair deliberation and make a decision …” (Sen. Harris, Press Conference, 1/16/2020)

SEN. MICHAEL BENNET (D-CO): “I think it’s imperative that the Senate have witnesses, that the Senate examine records.” (Fox News’ “Cavuto Live,” 1/18/2020)

SEN. PAT LEAHY (D-VT): “We need these witnesses.” (MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” 1/17/2020)

SEN. TOM UDALL (D-NM): “[W]e’ve got to have the evidence, we’ve got to have the documents, we have got to have the witnesses …” (Sen. Udall, Press Conference, 1/23/2020)

Democrat House Managers: ‘We Heard From Enough Witnesses To Prove The Case Beyond Any Doubt At All,’ ‘We Realized We Had The Evidence We Were Going To Get, And That It Was Sufficient To Prove Our Case’
HOUSE MANAGER REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY): “We brought the articles of impeachment because despite the fact that we didn’t hear from many witnesses we should have heard from, we heard from enough witnesses to prove the case beyond any doubt at all.” (CNN’s “Outfront with Erin Burnett,” 1/15/2020)
REP. NADLER: “Those are the facts. They are overwhelming, there is no denying them. Having reviewed the evidence we come to our second question, is the president’s proven conduct impeachable? The answer is simple–is simple, absolutely.” (U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee Hearing, 12/11/2019)CNN’s JAKE TAPPER: “But what do you say to those who say, that’s what exactly what the House Democrats did by not going to court to try to force subpoenas and force witnesses?”

HOUSE MANAGER REP. ZOE LOFGREN (D-CA): “We did go to court, as you know.”

TAPPER: “But you didn’t pursue it in court. You ultimately…”

LOFGREN: “Ultimately…”

TAPPER: “… withdrew the cases and went to the Senate.”

LOFGREN: “… we realized we had the evidence we were going to get, and that it was sufficient to prove our case.” (CNN’s “State of the Union,” 1/26/2020)
REP. LOFGREN: “You know, we have evidence proving the case through, for example, at the meeting when Bolton said it was a drug deal, well, we have fact witnesses, Hill was there, Vindman was there, Sondland was there.” (MSNBC, “Live,” 1/27/2020)HOUSE MANAGER REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D-CA): “It is true that the record compiled by the House is overwhelming. It is true the record already compels the conviction of the President in the face of unprecedented resistance by the President. The House has assembled a powerful case, evidence of the President’s high crimes and misdemeanors that includes direct evidence and testimony of officials who were unwilling and unwitting in this scheme and saw it for what it was.” (Rep. Schiff, Congressional Record, S380, 1/21/2020)
REP. SCHIFF: “That is certainly the most serious allegation against the president, now proven by the House in this case.” (MSNBC, 1/28/2020)REP. SCHIFF: “Donald Trump was impeached in article I for abuse of power, and that article provides that: … ‘President Trump solicited interference of a foreign government, Ukraine, in the 2020 election.’ That has been proved. He did so through a scheme or course of conduct that included soliciting the Government of Ukraine to publicly announce investigations that would benefit his reelection, harm the election prospects of a political opponent, and influence the 2020 Presidential election to his advantage. That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. Article II: Obstruction of Congress. … In his conduct of the office of President of the United States–and in violation of his constitutional oath faithfully to execute the office of President of the United States and, to the best of his ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States, and in violation of his constitutional duty to take care that the laws be faithfully executed–Donald J. Trump has directed the unprecedented, categorical, and indiscriminate defiance of subpoenas issued by the House of Representatives pursuant to its ‘sole Power of Impeachment.’ That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. … This has been proved. … That has been proved. … That has been proved. President Trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, or profit under the United States.” (Rep. Adam Schiff, Congressional Record, S560-S561, 1/24/2020)
House Managers: ‘The Evidence Is Already Overwhelming’
REP. SCHIFF: “Our view is the evidence is already overwhelming.” (CNN’s “New Day,” 1/27/2020)
REP. SCHIFF: “And so, this is a threat to the integrity of the upcoming election, and we don’t feel it should wait — in particular when we already have overwhelming evidence of the president’s misconduct.” (MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show, 12/2/2019)REP. SCHIFF: “But look, we have provided overwhelming evidence in this report of a scheme to pressure the current president to the Ukraine to conduct these political investigations. … [B]ut there is I think grave risk to the country with waiting until we have every last fact when we already know enough about the president’s misconduct to make a responsible judgment about whether we think that is compatible with the office of the presidency.” (Rep. Schiff, Press Conference, 12/3/2019)REP. SCHIFF: “The evidence of the president’s misconduct is overwhelming and uncontested …” (Rep. Schiff, Press Conference, 12/10/2019)REP. NADLER: “There is an overwhelming case beyond any reasonable doubt that the president betrayed the country …” (Rep. Nadler, Press Conference, 1/15/2020)

HOUSE MANAGER REP. VAL DEMINGS (D-FL): “And, look, my message to the president and his lawyers, after listening to their presentation on yesterday, would be, regardless of what you say, the truth still matters, and the evidence against the president is overwhelming. … while the evidence that we have is overwhelming in our case.” (ABC’s “This Week,” 1/26/2020)
REP. DEMINGS: “The evidence against this president is overwhelming. It’s overwhelming.” (MSNBC’s AM Joy, 1/26/2020)REP. DEMINGS: “Senators, I know we have covered a lot of ground, but as we have shown, there is overwhelming and uncontradicted evidence of the President’s scheme to solicit foreign interference in this year’s Presidential election.” (Rep. Demings, Congressional Record, S510, 1/23/2020)HOUSE MANAGER REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): “We presented overwhelming evidence of the president’s misconduct.” (CBS’ “Face the Nation,” 1/26/2020)

HOUSE MANAGER REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES (D-NY): “The facts are uncontested. The evidence is overwhelming.” (MSNBC, 1/23/2020)
REP. JEFFRIES: “We have provided overwhelming evidence of President Trump’s guilt.” (Rep. Jeffries, Congressional Record, S556, 1/24/2020)HOUSE MANAGER REP. SYLVIA GARCIA (D-TX): “So as this first slide indicates, in this portion of our presentation, we will discuss the evidence that shows overwhelmingly that President Trump directed this scheme with corrupt intent, with one corrupt objective: to obtain foreign assistance in his reelection bid in the 2020 United States Presidential election.” (Rep. Garcia, Congressional Record, S493, 1/23/2020)

“We have an overwhelming case.” (CNN’s “State of the Union,” 1/26/2020)

And Many Senate Democrats Have Been Saying, As Far Back As October, That ‘I Think The Evidence Is Clear,’ ‘The Case Is Already Overwhelming,’ ‘For Many Of Us, This Isn’t A Mystery That Still Needs To Be Unwound,’ ‘After Those Arguments I’d Be Certain That … The President Would Be Convicted’
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): “The arguments of the House managers were overwhelmingly on the merits, on the facts…. I thought about this as I was listening. If this was an actual trial, and you were a jury, after those arguments I’d be certain that the [House] managers would prevail and the president would be convicted.” (Sen. Schumer, Press Conference, 1/22/2020)

MSNBC’s KATY TUR: “If the vote was put to you today, I know this is an ‘if,’ to convict the president in the Senate and remove him from office would you be voting yes?”

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA): “Yes, based on everything I’ve seen. Yes…. The main subject of the impeachment, which is the issue of yet again, Donald Trump eliciting help from a foreign government to interfere in our election of our President of the United States. In this case we’ve basically got a confession. We’ve got a display of consciousness of guilt and attempt to cover up. You know, I don’t know how much more we need … But based on everything we know, including an admission by this president, I don’t know that it leads in any other direction except to vote yes, which is what I believe I will do based on everything I know.” (MSNBC’s “MSNBC Live,” 10/07/2019)

FOX 11 LOS ANGELES’ ELEX MICHAELSON: “Have you seen enough evidence so far to impeach? Have you seen enough evidence to convict, yourself?”

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), Presidential Candidate: “Yes!”

MICHAELSON: “So you would vote right now to remove our president?”

SEN. WARREN: “Look, I think the evidence is clear.” (“Sen. Warren Says She’d Vote To Convict President Trump,” Fox 11 Los Angeles, 10/4/2019)
SEN. WARREN: “So I think the presentations are just overwhelming. I mean, it’s really just walks us through step by step by step the corruption of Donald Trump and his entire Trump administration…” (CNN’s “Special Report,” 1/23/2020)CNN’s DANA BASH: “From what you have seen, is there any chance that you would vote to acquit the president?”

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), Presidential Candidate: “At this point, I don’t see that. But I’m someone that wants to look at every single count. I have made very clear I think this is impeachable conduct.” (CNN’s “State of the Union,” 12/01/2019)

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): “Trump’s actions threaten our democracy. But the greater threat would be if America became a place where such misdeeds went unpunished. Fortunately, our Constitution tells us in no uncertain terms that the president’s actions deserve the strongest penalty Congress can provide — removal from office. If the rule of law means anything, we must follow its command.” (Sen. Blumenthal, Op-Ed, “Yes, Trump Is Guilty Of Bribery,” The Washington Post, 12/03/2019)
Headline of Sen. Blumenthal’s December 3^rd Op-Ed: “Yes, Trump is guilty of bribery” (Sen. Blumenthal, Op-Ed, “Yes, Trump Is Guilty Of Bribery,” The Washington Post, 12/03/2019)>/li>
SEN. BLUMENTHAL: “After lengthy fact-finding & compelling public testimony, the case is clear: President Trump tried to trade away our national security for a personal political favor. Merely soliciting a bribe is bribery. Ineffective criminals are still criminals.” (Sen. Blumenthal, @SenBlumenthal, Twitter, 12/18/2019)SEN. BLUMENTHAL: “… the case is already overwhelming.” (Sen. Blumenthal, Press Conference, 1/16/2020)MSNBC’s HALLIE JACKSON: “So there is a possibility you’ll vote to acquit him? You could maybe vote to acquit him is what I hear you saying.” SEN. MAZIE HIRONO (D-HI): “No, that is not what I’m saying at all, Hallie. What we have on one side is all of the factual evidence on the House side that led to the articles of impeachment. We have that…. So we have all the factual evidence. What I want to hear from the president is, what are his defenses? Does he have an explanation that exonerates him? Short of that, I’m going to vote on the basis of the facts. And the facts are that he committed an impeachable act and I will vote to convict him.” (MSNBC’s “MSNBC Live with Hallie Jackson,” 12/19/2019)
SEN. HIRONO: “I would be prepared to vote to convict him.” (Politico, 1/03/2020)SEN. HIRONO: “In my view, Adam Schiff, who read the two articles of impeachment, made a clear case for how the president abused his power and obstructed Congress.”SEN. HIRONO:/u> “But what’s already there is damning enough of what the president did.” (CNN’s “Erin B urnett OutFront,” 1/22/2020)SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): “I think the first thing to note is that, for many of us, this isn’t a mystery that still needs to be unwound. The evidence that we have thus far makes it crystal clear, to me at least, that the president directed a vast conspiracy to defraud taxpayers of dollars to try to convince a foreign power to intervene in the United States’ 2020 presidential election. So, I think it’s first important to make clear that, for many of us, we think the story is pretty well filled in.” (MSNBC’s “The Beat With Ari Melber,” 1/6/2020)
SEN. MURPHY: “The president’s actions are impeachable and worthy of removal, and personally I think it would be kind of disingenuous to not share my opinion given how much information I have in front of me.” (Politico, 1/03/2020)SEN. MURPHY: “This is still an unfolding scandal, but all the evidence tells one story: the President committed an intolerable act of corruption, one that cannot stand in a democracy.” (Sen. Murphy, @ChrisMurphyCT, Twitter, 1/16/2020)SEN. BOB CASEY (D-PA): “You’re dealing with a president, clearly, I think by the evidence, who solicited the interference of a foreign government in the upcoming election and also, as part of that, made a request to that government to investigate a political opponent and at the same time to investigate a debunked, loopy theory about the last election. So it’s a grave matter. I think senators take it very seriously.” (CNN, 1/22/2020)
SEN. CASEY:“This record, which came over from the House, is substantial, it is compelling and I think it lays out the fundamental case for both abuse of power and obstruction of Congress.” (Sen. Casey, Press Conference, 1/23/2020)Tags: 13 Witnesses, Over 28,000 Pages Of Documents To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

‘Retire Nancy’: Led by Trump, GOP takes aim at HousePosted: 29 Jan 2020 06:23 PM PSTHouse Minority Leader Kevin McCarthyby Free Press International News Service: House Republicans and President Donald Trump believe the 18-seat net gain needed for the GOP to re-take control of the House from Democrats is within reach this November, especially after House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s record-setting fundraising effort in 2019.

“We need to win back the House to retire Nancy once and for all, and to elect Kevin McCarthy as speaker,” Trump told Breitbart News. “Kevin is tough, loyal, and smart — he has what it takes.”

According to a report by Breitbart on Monday, McCarthy’s four fundraising entities — Take Back The House 2020, McCarthy Victory Fund, Kevin McCarthy for Congress, and Majority Committee PAC — combined took in that $52.35 million last year, $8 million more than the previous record set by then-House Speaker Paul Ryan in 2017.

Republicans in the 2020 election need to flip a net of 18 seats to take back the majority in the House. There are 30 districts represented by Democrats that Trump won in 2016.

“This election isn’t just about politics — it’s about what we want our country to be,” McCarthy told Breitbart News. “With candidates that better reflect our nation’s diversity, we will compete for every seat, in every district. Together with President Trump, we are building a Republican Party that can win now and in the future.”

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich who oversaw a GOP resurgence in 1994 when Republicans took back the House majority in the midterms during President Bill Clinton’s first term, told Breitbart News he believes the Republicans will retake the House majority in 2020.

“Kevin McCarthy’s tireless work ethic has produced a new dynamic, united, and aggressive House Republican Party,” Gingrich told Breitbart News. “Thanks to his efforts, Republicans enter 2020 from a position of strength — with the necessary resources, recruits, and message to win. Kevin’s leadership, along with President Trump on the ballot are why I’m convinced this will be a one-term Democratic majority, and we will be hearing from Speaker McCarthy in 2021.”

McCarthy noted that 13 of the 30 Trump-won districts represented by Democrats are districts Trump won in 2016 by six percent or more.

Breitbart News said the 30 districts currently represented by Democrats that Trump won in 2016 are as follows:

ARIZONA:
Rep. Tom O’Halleran — Arizona’s 1st Congressional District

GEORGIA:
Rep. Lucy McBath — Georgia’s 6th Congressional District

ILLINOIS:
Rep. Lauren Underwood — Illinois’ 14th Congressional District
Rep. Cheri Bustos — Illinois’ 17th Congressional District

IOWA:
Rep. Abby Finkenauer — Iowa’s 1st Congressional District
Rep. Dave Loebsack — Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District
Rep. Cindy Axne — Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District

MAINE:
Rep. Jared Golden — Maine’s 2nd Congressional District

MICHIGAN:
Rep. Elissa Slotkin — Michigan’s 8th Congressional District
Rep. Haley Stevens — Michigan’s 11th Congressional District

MINNESOTA:
Rep. Angie Craig — Minnesota’s 2nd Congressional District
Rep. Collin Peterson — Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District

NEVADA:
Rep. Susie Lee — Nevada’s 3rd Congressional District

NEW HAMPSHIRE:
Rep. Chris Pappas — New Hampshire’s 1st Congressional District

NEW JERSEY:
Rep. Andy Kim — New Jersey’s 3rd Congressional District
Rep. Josh Gottheimer — New Jersey’s 5th Congressional District
Rep. Mikie Sherrill — New Jersey’s 11th Congressional District

NEW MEXICO:
Rep. Xochitl Torres Small — New Mexico’s 2nd Congressional District

NEW YORK:
Rep. Max Rose — New York’s 11th Congressional District
Rep. Sean Maloney — New York’s 18th Congressional District
Rep. Antonio Delgado — New York’s 19th Congressional District
Rep. Anthony Brindisi — New York’s 22nd Congressional District

OKLAHOMA:
Rep. Kendra Horn — Oklahoma’s 5th Congressional District

PENNSYLVANIA:
Rep. Matt Cartwright — Pennsylvania’s 8th Congressional District
Rep. Conor Lamb — Pennsylvania’s 17th Congressional District

SOUTH CAROLINA:
Rep. Joe Cunningham — South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District

UTAH:
Rep. Ben McAdams — Utah’s 4th Congressional District

VIRGINIA:
Rep. Elaine Luria — Virginia’s 2nd Congressional District
Rep. Abigail Spanberger — Virginia’s 7th Congressional District

WISCONSIN:
Rep. Ron Kind — Wisconsin’s 3rd Congressional District
————————
Free Press International News Service
Tags: Retire Nancy, Led by Trump, GOP, takes aim at House To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

If Bolton Says Trump ‘wanted’ to Freeze $391 Million of Military Aid to Ukraine Until Investigations Were AnnouncedPosted: 29 Jan 2020 06:08 PM PST. . . why was it never communicated to Ukraine?
by Robert Romano: “President Trump told his national security adviser in August that he wanted to continue freezing $391 million in security assistance to Ukraine until officials there helped with investigations into Democrats including the Bidens, according to an unpublished manuscript by the former adviser, John R. Bolton.”

That was the New York Times’ preview of potential testimony by former National Security Advisor John Bolton at the impeachment trial of President Donald Trump, where the President allegedly told Bolton “he preferred sending no assistance to Ukraine until officials had turned over all materials they had about the Russia investigation that related to Mr. Biden and supporters of Mrs. Clinton in Ukraine.”

That, we are led to believe, if and when he ever testifies, will be Bolton’s description of the President’s intent with regards to the aid, which was ultimately released on Sept. 11, the same day Bolton was fired.

“Wanted.”

“Preferred.”

And yet, neither the White House nor the State Department never directly conveyed any such conditions to Ukraine, despite the aid being frozen in July, until after Politico broke the story of the aid being frozen on Aug. 28, undercutting the key part of the House’s prosecution — that military assistance to Ukraine was threatened unless investigations were announced.

Even then, the only official who conveyed such conditions, U.S. Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland, said in House testimony he was simply presuming the aid was being conditioned: “No one told me directly that the aid was tied to anything. I was presuming it was.”

According to both former ambassador to Ukraine William Taylor and former Senior Director for European Affairs at the White House and the National Security Council Tim Morrison’s testimony, Ukrainian officials were unaware of any pause in the funding until the Politico story was published a month after President Trump spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 25.

Zelensky later said in September there was “no pressure.”

Yet, the Articles of Impeachment say Trump “conditioned two official acts on the public announcements that he had requested—the release of $391 million of United States taxpayer funds that Congress had appropriated on a bipartisan basis for the purpose of providing vital military and security assistance to Ukraine to oppose Russian aggression and which President Trump had ordered suspended.”

Now we learn from Bolton that Trump “preferred” it that way.

This amounts to a kind of thought crime. Kind of like that time the President “wanted” to fire former Special Counsel Robert Mueller but never actually did. Here, the government never told Ukraine there were conditions attached to aid.

But even if it had been conditioned, those are all things the President has the power to do constitutionally under Article II and legally under laws passed by Congress. That is, reviewing military assistance to a non-treaty partner to see if it serves U.S. interests, or whether Ukraine is simply too corrupt to deal with.

In this case, the question is on military assistance to Ukraine, which is not in NATO but is embroiled in a civil war with pro-Russian forces, that could lead to a wider regional war in Europe or a global one involving the U.S. and Russia, risking a nuclear exchange, raising national security concerns. Of course the President should be reviewing such a hotspot to ensure it doesn’t lead to a wider war. That’s his job to keep us out of wars.

The funds were initially frozen in July by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) under the agencies authority under 31 U.S.C. 1512 to conduct apportionments while the President considered whether or not to request a rescission of the funding under the Impoundment Control Act.

The Office of Management and Budget says it did nothing wrong, with OMB communications director Rachel Semmel issuing a statement saying, “As has been well documented, we fully complied with the law and decades of precedent with respect to these funds. Congress is notified if the administration intends to rescind, defer, reprogram or transfer funding, but in this case none of those things occurred and the funding was obligated as planned.”

Under 2 U.S.C. Section 684 or 2 U.S.C. Section 683, the Impoundment Control Act, the President has the power to propose deferring funds on a temporary basis or rescinding them altogether, subject to Congressional approval.

The hold on Ukrainian aid came amid a wider freeze and review of overall State Department and USAID foreign aid spending in August. The Articles of Impeachment do not allege this wider freeze constituted criminal conduct.

The President has discretion to ensure that all relationships with foreign governments — even treaties — continue to advance the administration’s foreign policy agenda.

If Bolton were to testify, Senators might want to ask him about his career of encouraging presidents to terminate treaties with foreign governments under the President’s inherent Article II executive powers. This is the same unitary executive legal doctrine under which presidential impoundment of monies has historically been exercised. The first presidential impoundment occurred in 1800 by then President Thomas Jefferson, available to subsequent presidents until the Impoundment Control Act was adopted in 1974.

During the administration of President George W. Bush, Bolton supported unilaterally withdrawing from the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia, which Bush ultimately did in 2002. Bolton wrote in his memoirs, “it was absolutely critical to get out of the ABM Treaty unambiguously. Then, whether we succeeded or failed in broader negotiations with Russia, we would be free to pursue a missile defense system to protect Americans from current threats,” calling it mockingly a “sacred scroll” to arms control advocates.

The decision was legally justified with a Nov. 2001 Justice Department Office of Legal Counsel opinion from then-Deputy Assistant Attorney General John Yoo and Robert Delahunty, who argued that the President could unilaterally withdraw from treaties without any Congressional action, including from the Senate, citing the 1793 Proclamation of Neutrality by George Washington, suspending a mutual defense treaty with France when it went to war with Great Britain, FDR’s decision to rescind a treaty with Japan in 1939 and Jimmy Carter’s withdrawal from a mutual defense treaty with Taiwan in 1979 as ample precedents.

Yoo and Delahunty wrote, “The President’s power to terminate treaties must reside in the President as a necessary corollary to the exercise of the President’s other plenary foreign affairs powers. As noted before, the President is the sole organ of the nation in regard to foreign nations. A President, therefore, may need to terminate a treaty in order to implement his decision to recognize a foreign government. Or, for example, the President may wish to terminate a treaty in order to reflect the fact that the treaty has become obsolete, to sanction a treaty partner for violations, to protect the United States from commitments that would threaten its national security, to condemn human rights violations, or to negotiate a better agreement.”

In 1793, Alexander Hamilton wrote of the President’s treaty withdrawal power in defense of the Proclamation of Neutrality: “though treaties can only be made by the President and Senate, their activity may be continued or suspended by the President alone.”

Bolton would later pen an oped with Yoo in the Wall Street Journal in 2014 arguing for unilateral presidential withdrawal from the 1987 Intermediate Nuclear Forces Treaty with Russia, which President Trump ultimately did in August 2019.

So, a good question would be why Bolton thinks presidents can unilaterally terminate treaties that require Senate ratification with military allies to keep us out of an unintentional war, but not pause appropriated military assistance to a non-treaty partner when it could drag us into one.

Either way, this boils down to a policy disagreement between Bolton and Trump, not a high crime or misdemeanor, and certainly not an act of bribery or treason. If this is all the House has, the President’s acquittal is all but certain.
——————-
Robert Romano is the Vice President of Public Policy at Americans for Limited Government.
Tags: Robert Romano, Americans for Limited Government, If Bolton Says, Trump ‘wanted’ to, Freeze $391 Million of Military Aid, to Ukraine, Until Investigations were Announced, never communicated, to Ukraine To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Boozman Initiative: Boost VA Suicide Prevention Efforts Clears Senate CommitteePosted: 29 Jan 2020 04:22 PM PST Dr. Bill Smith: A legislative initiative led by U.S. Senators John Boozman (R-AR) and Mark Warner (D-VA) is one step closer to becoming law. The measure to create a Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) grant program to leverage veteran-serving non-profits and other community networks in order to reduce veteran suicides would potentially save lives.

The Senate VA Committee included language from the Senators’ IMPROVE Well-being for Veterans Act as a provision in a comprehensive bill that expands veterans’ access to mental health services. The legislation unanimously passed the committee and now awaits consideration by the full Senate.

“This is a great step in the right direction to getting our veterans the resources, services and care they need. Coordinating and sharing information between the VA and veteran-serving organizations that have the common goal to save lives will have a positive impact,” Boozman said.

“Our nation’s veterans have faithfully served our country, and they deserve to know that, as they face the invisible wounds of war, we will do everything we can to make sure they receive the help they need. Currently, we are facing an alarming rate of suicide deaths among our veteran population and we’ve got to make tackling this issue a priority. With today’s markup of our bill, we are one step closer to making sure veterans get the services and resources they need,” Warner said.

This legislation enhances coordination and planning of veteran mental health and suicide prevention services and would better measure the effectiveness of these programs in order to reduce the alarming number of veteran suicides.

The VA estimates that around 20 veterans commit suicide each day. That number has unfortunately remained roughly unchanged despite the drastic increase in funding. Over the last ten years, Congress more than tripled the VA’s funding for suicide prevention efforts to $222 million.

Only six of those 20 veterans are receiving healthcare services at the VA. That’s why Boozman and Warner are empowering the VA to share information with veteran-serving non-profits and requiring it to develop a tool to monitor progress so that resources can be concentrated on successful programs.

The IMPROVE Well-being for Veterans Act was introduced in June 2019. Days later, VA Secretary Robert Wilkie called the bill “key” to unlocking the veteran suicide crisis at a committee hearing.
Tags: Dr. Bill Smith, editor, ARRA News Service, Senator, John Boozman, Initiative, Boost VA Suicide Prevention, Efforts Clears, Senate Committee To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

CouPeachment . . .Posted: 29 Jan 2020 04:03 PM PST. . . Schiff, Nadler and the Democrats are running a coup against President Trump under the guise of impeachment.

Editorial Cartoon by AF “Tony” BrancoTags: CouPeachment, Schiff, Nadler, the Democrats, running a coup, against President Trump, under the guise, of impeachment, AF Branco, editorial cartoon To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

America Safe for Quagmires?Posted: 29 Jan 2020 03:56 PM PST by Paul Jacob, Contributing Author: It happened: “The measure asking all foreign troops to leave . . . passed.”

We are talking about Iraq . . . and the U.S. military.

So, not much else has happened.

After that parliamentary vote, Ron Paul explains, “when the Iraqi prime minister called up Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to request a timetable for a US withdrawal, Pompeo laughed in his face.”

I am with Dr. Paul on this one. The U.S. should take this opportunity to get out . . . “before more US troops die for nothing in Iraq.”

But is it for nothing?

Once upon a time, Americans were afraid of military “quagmires.” Now somehow we’ve come to accept permanent quagmire status in multiple theaters.

Could it be that when President George Herbert Walker Bush said, following the First Persian Gulf War, that “By God, we’ve kicked the Vietnam Syndrome once and for all,” he was speaking of its psy-op effect on the American electorate?

Pushing us into World War I, President Wilson claimed to be “making the world safe for democracy.” Perhaps Papa Bush made America safe for never-ending “regime-change wars.”

Before becoming vice president and then president, and going on to claim victory over “Vietnam Syndrome,” Bush headed the Central Intelligence Agency, the original regime modification professionals. And certainly endless, pointless foreign warfare has been the health of . . . the Deep State.

“The pressure for the U.S. to leave Iraq has been building within the country,” argues former Rep. Paul, “but the U.S. government and mainstream media is completely — and dangerously — ignoring this sentiment.”

Put American soldiers — not some secret or not-so-secret Deep State agenda — first. Bring them home.

This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
——————
Paul Jacob (@Common_Sense_PJ) is author of Common Sense which provides daily commentary about the issues impacting America and about the citizens who are doing something about them. He is also President of the Liberty Initiative Fund (LIFe) as well as Citizens in Charge Foundation. Jacob is a contributing author on the ARRA News Service.
Tags: Paul Jacob, Common Sense, America, Safe for Quagmires? To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Why These 8 Americans Attended the March for LifePosted: 29 Jan 2020 03:26 PM PST“It’s really great to be here for such a great cause,”
Dimitri Kearney, 21, says Friday at the March for Life.by Virginia Aabram & Allison Schuster: Tens of thousands of men, women, and children from across the nation gathered in Washington to declare their belief in the sanctity of life and protest abortion as the taking of life.

The 47th annual March for Life, like its predecessors, protested the Supreme Court’s landmark 7-2 ruling in Roe v. Wade in 1973, which legalized abortion on demand across the nation. This time, the march featured a speech by President Donald Trump, who became the first president to attend.

Meet eight of the regular Americans who joined the march.

1. Gisele Flores, Louisiana
“I had an abortion when I was younger, and I feel very strongly that it was a mistake,” Gisele Flores says, when asked why she was at the March for Life. “You live with that for the rest of your life.”

She and her future husband aborted their first child when they were dating, Flores, 60, says. It wasn’t until she became a Christian, she says, that she realized that what she aborted was a human life.

“When I was saved 30 years ago, and I found out that I was a sinner who needed a savior, one of the first things that came up is that I thought about my first child, and how that child was a human life and that I had made a huge mistake,” Flores says.

Although Flores is actively involved now in the pro-life movement, she says her mother remains extremely pro-abortion after being raised in Nazi-occupied France.

“They had Nazis living with them for five years, and my mother absorbed that mindset,” Flores explains. “She’s anti-Semitic, very pro-abortion, and does not believe in life at all. I have four girls, and every time I was pregnant, my mother told me to abort.”

One of those daughters now works in the pro-life movement in Washington, D.C., promoting adoption over abortion.

2. Tim Johnson, Madisonville, Kentucky
Tim Johnson, 60, says he has been avidly pro-life for his whole life, and he finally made it out to the March for Life this year.

A fan of the president, Johnson says he decided late Thursday that he ought to go to support the movement and hear Trump and evangelist missionary Franklin Graham speak at the rally Friday.

Johnson says he drove from Madisonville, Kentucky, to Nashville, Tennessee, where he caught a plane to Washington and made it in time for the president’s address.

Johnson says his son, now 33, was born with major heart defects. About one in 1,000 babies are born with such a condition. Doctors encouraged abortion, Johnson says, but he chose life for his son.

Johnson says his son had to undergo open heart surgery at 6 years old, but has lived a healthy life since. He argues that the medical community can do more rather than look at abortion as an easy out.

“My son, he’s a missionary to Haiti. He’s a nurse practitioner, he takes a medical team down there, he is living a vibrant and active life,” Johnson says. “To think that someone could have tried to bring that to an end.”

Johnson says he has studied the issue of abortion since he was a teenager, and wants everyone to choose life because it is a moral issue.

“When someone aborts life, they’re aborting their own eternal life,” he says.

3. Nicholas Bitterling, Nashville, Tennessee
For Union University freshman Nicholas Bitterling, 18, a passionate pro-life advocate, standing for life is an essential part of being a Christian.

Union University’s Life 139, a pro-life organization inspired by Psalm 139: 13-16, brought a group of students to the march from the school in Jackson, Tennessee.

Life, Bitterling says, begins at conception.

“It’s pretty obvious to see when looking at an ultrasound; you see a baby,” he says. “You can’t look at it and see a clump of cells … It’s another person, it’s very obviously another person.”

Bitterling says he strongly believes that all life matters, no matter what shape or size, and that he attended the march to stand up for all human lives.

“I think all murder is wrong, and it doesn’t matter—as my sign says—how big someone is,” he says.

Bitterling made his own sign for the March for Life featuring the character Baby Yoda from Disney’s “The Mandalorian,” the latest TV spinoff of the “Star Wars” movie franchise.

The sign displays a quote from the movie “The Empire Strikes Back,” when Yoda admonishes Luke Skywalker for doubting his power because of his size.

4. Linda Laudiero, Manassas, Virginia
Linda Laudiero, 59, says she has been going to the March for Life for nearly 40 years, and in that time her commitment to the movement has never wavered.

“I’m here because I was a little baby one time,” Laudiero says. “Because life is sacred from conception, and if you don’t protect the babies in the womb, that you won’t protect life outside is evident.”

She says she was especially excited for this year’s march because of Trump’s presence.

“President Trump being here today makes this march unique. He’s the best president ever,” Laudiero says.

In the nearly 40 years since she first started participating in the march, Laudiero says, she has noticed more young people attending and the event has become better organized.

5. and 6. A.J. Rotkis and Jonathon Liu, South Bend, Indiana
St. Joseph Catholic High School students A.J. Rotkis, 16, and Jonathon Liu, 17, attended the March for Life with their school and snuck away to hear Trump deliver his speech.

Because Trump is the first president to attend the event, Liu says, he thought he also could make a difference in the pro-life movement by marching.

“I’m here because I think it’s remarkable how such a high percentage of the country could think that this is OK,” Liu says of abortion. “I think that anyone with common sense knows that this is wrong.”

Both students say they participated out of a moral conviction that abortion is wrong.

“My parents taught me that abortion is wrong because every person deserves the right to life, liberty, and happiness, and to take that away is just not good,” Rotkis says.

7. Dimitri Kearney, Cocoa Beach, Florida
Dimitri Kearney, 21, says his Catholic faith inspired him to demonstrate against abortion.

“Being Catholic, I really value and respect life,” Kearney says. “It’s really great to be here for such a great cause.”

His time at Ave Maria University in Florida gave him the opportunity to put those beliefs into action by going to the March for Life for the first time.

“I know [abortion is] an important thing, especially from being at Ave Maria, which has a very strong Catholic faith,” Kearney says. “I also knew that Trump was speaking, and I wanted to come for that.”

8. Amber Dabish, Flushing, Michigan
This was the first time that Amber Dabish, 17, attended the March for Life.

“I’ve always wanted to come, and since my school offered a trip, I was really glad to be able to come,” Dabish says.

She says she believes strongly in the mission of the pro-life movement.

“I believe that the March for Life is important because every life matters,” she says. “Everyone has a right to life.”
——————-
Virginia Aabram is part of the Young Leader’s Program at the Heritage Foundation and interns at The Daily Signal.
Tags: Why these, Americans, attend, March for Life, Virginia Abrams, 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!

Fake Atomic Scientists Warn Not Believing the Media Will Destroy the WorldPosted: 29 Jan 2020 02:45 PM PST by Daniel Greenfield: Every year, Rachel Bronson, President and CEO of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, who has a degree in political science from Columbia, gets up in front of a fake clock to announce that the world is doomed.

And the media eagerly covers the annual imminent warning of doom as if it came with an open bar.

Bronson is not an atomic scientist. Or any kind of scientist. Unless you believe politics is a science. And if politics is a science, then Bronson is the Lysenko of the field, predicting doom out of bias and ignorance.

This year, the Doomsday Clock had its hands set forward to 100 seconds to midnight. After setting the clock at 2 minutes to midnight in honor of President Trump two years ago, it’s all out of minutes.

Now it’s down to seconds. At this rate the fake clock will soon be down to negative numbers.

If you don’t believe Rachel, maybe you’ll listen to Jerry Brown, former California governor and executive chair of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. Jerry is not an atomic scientist, but he did nuke California.

According to Jerry, “If there’s ever a time to wake up, it’s now.”

But Jerry doesn’t want people waking up. He wants them to go back to sleep. And stay that way.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, led by atomic scientists like Rachel and Jerry, demand that, “the international community should begin multilateral discussions aimed at establishing norms of behavior, both domestic and international, that discourage and penalize the misuse of science.”

Like people claiming to be atomic scientists when they’re actually political hacks?

The Bulletin had been set up by lefties who were actual scientists to warn of a nuclear war. But, no matter what Rachel does with her big clock, a nuclear war is less likely than ever. So, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, which is short on atoms, scientists and apocalypses, threw in global warming.

But global warming isn’t enough. The Doomsday Clock is at 100 seconds to midnight because of the threat of nuclear war and global warming, also fake news, deepfakes, AI, the internet, the Space Force, and mainly President Donald J. Trump. We’ve gone from nuclear scientists warning of nuclear war to political scientists warning that “national leaders have increasingly dismissed information with which they do not agree as fake news.” I wonder whom the Bulletin of the Political Scientists could mean.

“Leaders intent on blurring the line between fact and politically motivated fantasy—are a profound threat to effective democracies,” the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists warns.

That’s ironic because the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a politically motivated fantasy.

Speaking of fake news, the Bulletin’s Editor-in-Chief, John Mecklin, had previously helped launch Key West Magazine. He is not an “atomic scientist”. Neither is Dan Drollette, who has an MA in science journalism from NYU. Nor is Elizabeth Eaves, a former opinion editor at Forbes.

Who else would be convinced that calling media lies fake news moves us 100 seconds to doomsday?

The current issue of the magazine that no one reads begins with warnings about nuclear doom by John Mecklin, which must be more exciting than writing about events at Key West, another by Alexandra Bell, a Center for American Progress alum with an MA in International Affairs from the New School.

Also featured is James N. Miller, an Obama admin vet with a BA in Economics from Stanford “where he played tennis for a team that won several national championships”, along with Bruce G. Blair with a BS in Communications from the University of Illinois and a PHD in Operations Research from Yale. Also contributing is Brad Roberts who has a PhD in International Relations from Erasmus U, and Matt Korda who boasts an MA in International Peace & Security. If only tennis and political science were atomic.

The best of the bunch is Hans Kristensen, a former Greenpeace activist, who went on to become a special advisor to the Danish Defense Commission, a senior researcher at the Nautilus Institute, a consultant to the Nuclear Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, and finally, the Director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists.

The most impressive thing about Hans’ resume is that his education seems to have concluded at a Gymnasium: the Danish equivalent of high school.

Not only don’t you need to be an “atomic scientist” to write for the Bulletin, but you can even run the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists because you finished high school.

The Bulletin’s doomsday bulletin warns that the “political antagonism toward science and a growing sense of government-sanctioned disdain for expert opinion” is driving the world to an apocalypse.

But this is what “expert opinion” and “science” looks like. Experts means a bunch of people with degrees in political science, in communications, or in nothing except agitating for Greenpeace.

Expert opinion and science have become shams used for political purposes by radical ideologues.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is a bizarre relic of another time when “atomic scientist” was a job description and children were taught to crouch under desks in the event of a nuclear war. But, like the NAACP or HIAS, whose names alone make their complete irrelevance in 2020 clear, it won’t go away.

Why go on using the name? Because, “Former Key West Editor Predicts End is Nigh” would sound silly.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, its fake clock, its fake scientists, and the media’s uncritical repetition of its talking points shows why the public doesn’t trust expert opinion and science.

And why it’s right not to.

The skeptics are right. And the CNN viewers and New York Times readers who take the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists seriously because they assume anything with that name must be real are fools.

Expert opinion is a house of cards. The experts who are paraded in front of the cameras, who sign open letters, and write op-eds, are facades in the opening of an old western. They look good on a short cable news segment, but once you open the door, there’s nothing inside. And there never was.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is right to be worried. The clock is even closer to doomsday than 100 seconds. The world is about to be destroyed. Not our world, but their world.

“The internet provides widespread, inexpensive access to worldwide audiences, facilitating the broadcast of false and manipulative messages to large populations and enabling millions of individuals to indulge in their prejudices, biases, and ideological differences,” the Bulletin complains.

The internet allows people to get news from outside the media bubble. It allows them to find out that the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists and its Doomsday Clock are a bunch of empty nonsense.

And that’s scary if you’re one of the clan of Washington D.C. experts who are unemployable outside their exclusive field of bashing President Donald J. Trump and warning of the end of the world.

“The international security situation is now more dangerous than it has ever been, even at the height of the Cold War,” the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists claims.

Is the security situation more dangerous than when the human race was on the verge of destruction?

To the hacks of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the destruction of all life on earth is less of a threat than the destruction of their own credibility. The development of the hydrogen bomb (2 minutes to midnight) is a lot less scary than public distrust of the media (1.4 minutes to midnight.)

“Focused attention is needed to prevent information technology from undermining public trust in political institutions, in the media,” the Bulletin demands.

Too late.

Why would anyone believe political institutions and a media that promote a fake clock by a fake organization? The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is the best argument for distrusting the media.

Turn the Doomsday Clock to 100 seconds or zero. The atom has been split, the shockwave is spreading across the media’s high skyscrapers in New York City, and the fallout of fake news is raining down.
————–
Daniel Greenfield (@Sultanknish) is Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and an investigative journalist and writer focusing on radical Left and Islamic terrorism. He blogs at Sultanknish.
Tags: Daniel Greenfield, FrontPage Mag, Sultan Knish, Fake Atomic Scientists, Warn, Not Believing the Media, Will Destroy the World 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 Feds Just Told CA to Stop Forcing Churches to Pay for AbortionsPosted: 29 Jan 2020 02:36 PM PST by Maureen Collins: How radical is California on abortion?

We already know that the U.S. Supreme Court rebuked the state for trying to force pro-life pregnancy centers to speak a message against their mission in NIFLA v. Becerra.

But several years ago, the California Department of Managed Healthcare (DMHC), a state agency, mandated that the healthcare plans of churches and other religious organizations pay for elective abortions through their insurance plans.

Unelected officials at the DMHC made this decision without passing a regulation or allowing for public input. And they did so after being influenced by pro-abortion groups like Planned Parenthood.

This policy change meant that Skyline Wesleyan Church in the San Diego area and Foothill Church of the Los Angeles area were forced to choose between their deeply held pro-life beliefs and providing health insurance to their employees. So both churches filed lawsuits against the DMHC.

But now, the federal government is taking notice!

Today, the Department of Health and Human Services Office of Civil Rights sent a letter to California. The letter informed California Attorney General, Xavier Becerra, that the DMHC was violating federal conscience protections by forcing churches and people of faith to pay for abortions through health insurance plans.

The letter gave the DMHC 30 days to show the HHS Office of Civil Rights that it has changed course or it risks losing federal funding.

Praise God! This is an important step toward ending California’s unconstitutional policy.

But it also sends the important message that government officials must respect religious freedom. Because the First Amendment protects everyone’s right to freely live out their faith—not just those who happen to agree with the government.

What you stand for is what defines you
Across the U.S., female athletes like Selina Soule and Alanna Smith are being forced to compete against biological males. Activists are pushing schools and athletic associations to adopt harmful policies that allow male athletes who identify as girls to compete in high school women’s sports. This isn’t “progress.” And it’s not fair. These policies violate Title IX, which is designed to protect women’s equality in education and sports. And they rob girls of scholarships, athletic opportunities, and dreams of competing at the next level.

Stand with athletes like Selina and Alanna. We can no longer remain silent.
———————-
Maureen Collins writes for Alliance Defending Freedom
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Adam Schiff Lies AgainPosted: 29 Jan 2020 02:15 PM PSTAdam Schiffby John Velisek, Contributing Author: I have been watching the impeachment show trial that the progressive socialist democrats have been putting forth. Once again, they are forwarding the lies that they have been spoon feeding to the media over the past few months. The worst of the liars is the treasonous Adam Schiff.

All of the leftists continue to put forth innuendo and the hearsay from the House impeachment that the partisan career hacks put forth. The only thing missing from these people’s testimony is what the progressive socialists do now want the American people to know. Amb. Sondland’s testimony has been extensively used with the exception of Sondland, saying that there was no quid pro quo. That is essential testimony, but “pencil neck” Schiff and the rest of the socialists did not mention it. When questioned in the House impeachment proceedings, Sondland was forced to admit that he had no direct knowledge of the alleged quid pro quo. Not mentioned is that President Trump had already invited President Zelensky to the White House in a prior call in April 2019. Another fact that pencil neck Schiff conveniently left out.

Selective videos from the House impeachment have been edited for maximum effect. Adam Schiff, along with the rest of the Impeachment managers, has continuously used the footage that they claim President Trump used to state that he can do what he wants under Article 2 of the Constitution. Never once do they tell the truth that it was in the context of firing Special Counsel Mueller. They have to edit it because if they don’t, it doesn’t fit the narrative that they are making part of their lying agenda.

Schiff talked of the temporary withholding of the military aid without mentioning the funding was for future military equipment and was sent by the end of the fiscal year, which was required. The Ukrainians had military equipment from earlier aid packages and only started any aid at all after Obama left office. Once again this was never mentioned by Schiff. And the Javelin anti-tank missiles that Ukraine had requested had already been delivered. During the infamous phone call, President Zelensky even thanked President Trump for the delivery of the missiles. There was no pressure on Ukraine, as told by President Zelensky and the aides that would know. At the time, they did not even know that there was a temporary hold on the military aide.

Wanting the Ukraine government to announce the investigations of corruption, was done to assure that they would be at the forefront of Ukraine-American discussion. This has been discussed on CNN after the story started. Of course, pencil neck Schiff will not mention this because Schiff has proven in the past that confidential information that Schiff can get a hold of, he will dutifully pass it on to the media.

Schiff has continually claimed that there is new evidence of President Trump withholding aid from Ukraine as part of a quid pro quo to destroy Joe Biden in his run for the presidency. The emails, which he reports with his high level of superiority and self-esteem, show nothing more than the effort that President Trump has put forth to assure that taxpayer money was being put to good use. Schiff has also argued that President Trump was not interested in corruption in Ukraine until 2019 and only then was Trump interested because Biden was running for President. Not mentioned is that President Trump did raise corruption in Ukraine in 2017, the first years of his administration. He discussed the corruption with the Ukrainian delegation, Including President Poroshenko. It is informative that Obama not only did not discuss corruption with Ukraine, possibly because he knew of the Biden shakedown of Burisma, but also because he sent Ukraine blankets instead of lethal aid.

The two Articles of Impeachment rushed through the House do not rise to the level of impeachable offenses. The shoddy procedure implemented by the progressive socialists as created by the partisans at the Lawfare Group, do not meet the criteria needed for impeachable offenses. Rather than performing the procedures and legal standards needed for a lawful impeachment proceeding, it was easier for the progressive socialists in charge of the House to procure assistance from the Lawfare Group to upend the legislature and to unlawfully circumvent the Constitution and various rules of law. These changes were made 2 or 3 days after the House turned over to the Democrats and was nothing more than a partisan process to assure that the progressive socialists could attempt the Soviet-style show trial that they are working with the media to push on the American people.

Schiff, Schumer, and others are now throwing a temper tantrum over the Senate not doing the required investigative work that was required in the House. The new emails that they are using as a pretext of needing more witnesses are, in a word, a dud. All it proves is that President Trump was withholding aid in conjunction with an investigation of Ukraine’s corruption.

Schiff, running from his lies and transgressions, has adamantly opposed the request of testimony from the whistleblower and Joe Biden. He has yet to release the ICIG testimony from the House because it will show Schiff’s collusion with the CIA operative who he groomed, along with Lt. Col. Vindman to be the whistleblower for the start of the impeachment. Just like the partisan talking heads that Schiff brought forward in the House impeachment, the whistleblower has zero first-hand experience and was only parroting the talking points given to him.

Schiff has gone even further as to declare himself not a fact witness, also though he lied about meeting with the whistleblower and lied in the opening of the House impeachment. Schiff is definitely a fact witness and should be questioned by the Trump Impeachment managers along with the whistleblower. What Schiff needs to answer to is the revelation that Eric Ciaramella and Sean Misko were discussing the elimination of the Trump presidency in January 2017, days after the Trump inauguration.

Of further note is that Seam Misko joined the Schiff team in July 2019 one day after the President’s initial call to President Zelensky and a few days before Ciaramella submitted the hearsay whistleblower account. The entire impeachment is based on hearsay evidence from a partisan holdover from the Obama campaign whose sole purpose is to remove President Trump. Ciaramella talked to Misko and the rest of Schiff’s staff and did not notify the ICIG that they had spoken. This is illegal, and the assistance that Schiff and his staff gave to Ciaramella is not defined. The only truth that can be told is that Schiff lied on national television when he said neither he or his staff even knew who the whistleblower was.

There are lies in plain sight that pencil neck Schiff uses over and over. One is that President Trump is ignoring subpoenas from the House. Not mentioned by Schiff is that there were no subpoenas, Nancy Pelosi never called for a full House vote on impeachment, and therefore, subpoenas could not be issued. The House never established the impeachment and did not have the ability to use subpoenas via “Judicial Enforcement Authority,” as stipulated in the laws passed by Congress.

There was no authoring vote. This was done by design. What they are trying to pass off as subpoenas was requesting voluntary witnesses and documents. The Pelosi/Schiff/Lawfare group initiated that policy to leave the Executive Branch with no legal recourse, but what did not consider is that it also gives them legal recourse to request witnesses in the Senate proceeding. This process of a non-vote on impeachment means it could not be taken to court where they were concerned about being denied.

So now, they have painted themselves into a corner. The President’s impeachment knows everything written here and will make a concerted effort to make the American Public aware as well. As long as the Schiff lies are allowed to be the main narrative in the media, it has changed nothing. Like claiming that President Trump implored Russia to hack Hillary’s email when said a joke at a rally, and even the press laughed, it will prove once more that the progressive socialist Democrats will do whatever they can, legally or illegally to remove our President.

I caution Adam Schiff as he continues to spew forth words like candy.

NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW, NOT EVEN “PENCIL NECK” SCHIFF.
—————————-
John C. Velisek @sjspecialist, retired U.S. Navy, is a California conservative and contributing author to the ARRA News Service. Follow him on Facebook.
Tags: John C. Velisek, Adam Schiff, Lies Again To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!

Target Trump ForeverPosted: 29 Jan 2020 01:12 PM PST by Dr. Victor Davis Hanson: Destroying the president is not just the only viable trajectory for the Left, but it is also the only possible narrative given that focus on the current left-wing agenda is slow-motion suicide.

The Left has shown that the collusion exoneration last year by the heralded Robert Mueller investigation—all 22-months, the “dream team,” and $34 million of it—meant absolutely nothing.

Nor did it matter that Department of Justice Inspector General Michael Horowitz found no justification of “collusion” in the Steele dossier to justify the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrants it issued to spy on Carter Page.

Both the Mueller and Horowitz investigations confirmed that even the partisan and warped FBI “Crossfire Hurricane” intrigues could find no Russian-Trump collusion.

And yet the House impeachment managers cannot finish a sentence without exclaiming “Russian collusion,” as if it has now transmogrified into some exotic foundational myth.

Remember, no sooner had Mueller found no collusion between Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and the Kremlin and no actionable obstruction than the progressives narrative was recalibrated into Ukrainian quid pro quo—albeit after brief detours in “Recession!” and “Racism!”

Yet it is now as if neither Mueller nor Horowitz ever existed, as if we have forgotten the thousands of hours of investigation that found no Russian collusion, but indeed discovered the systematic warping of the FISA court by allegations of such falsities. As if to prove that the Mueller investigation was never biased, Andrew Weissmann now appears on MSNBC as a legal analyst to continue what he once did for Mueller, in the manner of the post-Russian “collusion” careers of Andrew McCabe, James Comey, and James Clapper.

In truth, impeachment started the very week Donald Trump was inaugurated by articles of impeachment introduced in the House of Representatives by 58 Democrats. Between 2017 and 2019, one effort to remove Trump or members of his administration before the 2020 election followed rapidly and furiously upon another. Reason, logic, moderation, and common sense vanished, replaced by a shrill directive that Trump was evil and thus his administration had to be aborted by the good people, and by any means possible.

Obama Administration holdover and then-acting Attorney General Sally Yates targeted Trump’s national security advisor, Michael Flynn, with the fossilized Logan Act and began to resist Trump’s executive orders. Soon Trump opponents sued Trump under the equally ossified Emoluments Clause in the Constitution. In no time, Democrats were seeking to remove Trump as mentally unfit under the 25th Amendment. Acting FBI Director Andrew McCabe and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein contemplated rounding up cabinet members to declare him insane and the requisite Ivy-League “expert” was pulled out of central casting to diagnose the never-examined patient Trump in absentia as crazy.

Meanwhile, fired FBI Director James Comey leaked confidential memos of conversations with the president, in an admitted—and successful—bid to secure a special counsel to investigate Trump for “Russian collusion.”

At times, various characters, such as the now-indicted Michael Avenatti and now-jailed former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, swore Trump had broken various laws and would be removed from office. An indicted Lev Parnas now takes their place as the Democrats’ new and one real—though, again, criminal—truthteller.

A former Trump liaison, adult film actress Stormy Daniels, held lurid interviews and press conferences about “hush money,” which Trump’s opponents sought, unsuccessfully, to translate into actionable campaign finance law violations. And as soon as Trump was elected, his political opponents sued to release his IRS tax returns.

Resistance from Within
Less formal but even more alarming efforts at removing or neutering Trump were embraced by the Washington elite, federal bureaucracy, and some Trump establishment appointees.

Former Obama official Rosa Brooks wrote an article discussing ways to remove Trump, including the idea of a military coup. An anonymous administration official penned a New York Times op-ed, and later a book, bragging that he was one of many officials in the executive branch trying to disrupt the operation of the administration. Apparently, all these misfits thought they were playing the role of Lieutenant Tom Keefer using his supposedly superior wit to take down a crazy Captain Queeg.

Several tell-all accounts from former Trump appointees, muckrakers, and Washington insider journalists variously alleged that Trump and his family were either criminally minded or unhinged. A “whistleblower” worked with House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to lodge a complaint against Trump, alleging second-hand knowledge of a Trump phone call, purportedly leveraging Ukrainian help in investigating supposed Hunter Biden corruption to release U.S. aid. The whistleblower now is mute and supposedly remains anonymous because if he were to identify himself and testify under oath, his motivations, activism, and prior relationships with Schiff and Joe Biden would transmogrify him from a cult hero into a conniving anti-Trump activist.

And on and on.

So what happens in the never-ending impeachment story, once the current impeachment indictment leads to an inevitable Senate vote of exoneration?

Another Stormy somewhere? A follow-up to Operation Crossfire Hurricane? Tax returns redux? Whistleblower 2.0? Another New York Times anonymous op-ed resister? Bob Woodward’s sequel? More leaked phone calls? Another impeachment hearing, and another impeachment vote? Schiff’s new version of a presidential call? One more Ivy League psychiatrist distance-diagnosing Trump as nuts? An emoluments clause do-over? More FISA warrants? A newly discovered Trump phone call to Poland, Romania, or Mexico? Lt. Colonel Vindman’s twin?

The Weakest Field in Decades
I mention these post-impeachment psychodramas because they are symptomatic of a sick Democratic patient. Yet the endless effort to destroy Trump before the election in the progressive mind has a certain logic given the current Democratic dilemma.

The Democratic Party is currently struggling with the weakest field of candidates since 1972 or 1984, well apart from the irony that a party that hectors the nation on proportional representation and disparate impact is fine with an all-white debating stage.

Joe Biden offers the only chance of winning the Midwest swing states. Yet he seems to be aging on the campaign trail exponentially, with 10 more—and more frantic—months of campaigning ahead.

Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) can certainly be nominated, but he cannot win, because the country knows that he would end the United States as we have known it. The scold Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), sanctimonious Pete Buttigieg, and chameleon billionaire Michael Bloomberg can only make the primary race interesting.

The Democratic platform will likely include the “Green New Deal,” a wealth tax, Medicare for All, tuition debt cancellation, higher income taxes, veritable open borders, an end to deportation and perhaps ICE as well, reparations, and a leftwing version of Obama’s failed foreign policy.

In other words, the Democratic agenda is weaker even than the unlucky candidate who will be expected to run on it.

Given those realities, there is a perverse logic in destroying Trump first, and worrying later about offering an alternative agenda. Democrats accept that if Trump is not removed from office, or is not mired in existential scandals, or not physically destroyed, he will likely win in November. The ensuing eight-year Trump reign would destroy not just the Obama legacy, but weaken the entire progressive project for a generation.

Because Trump is not a traditional Republican, the Democrats are bewildered over how to neuter him. His rally audiences are composed of about 40 percent Independents and Democrats. His entire China reset is predicated on saving manufacturing industries, blue-collar jobs, and the industrial heartland—the erstwhile heart of the old Democratic Party.

The supposedly racist Trump appeals to minorities in a way that previous Republican candidates have not, and in ways that transcend his record. For all his loudness and invective, Trump is seen as authentic. He is not condescending. The thought of Trump rolling his r’s or adopting a Hillary or Joe Biden inner-city patois is impossible. Being rough and genuine is usually seen as preferable to smooth and fake.

The Trump effort to stop illegal immigration and thus empower entry-level American job seekers, to fast track energy development, expand deregulation, recalibrate asymmetrical trade, and avoid expeditionary wars abroad have led not just to the strongest economy of the 21st century, but to a different sort of economy based on the idea of full-employment, energy independence, and changing the role of government from obstructer to promoter of free enterprise.

More, More, More
Democrats don’t talk up their alternate agenda because they know that more regulations, open borders, trade appeasement, banning fracking, and the green new deal, would be the very opposite of Trump’s plan and likely achieve the very opposite of Trump’s results. In this context, destroying Trump is not just the only viable trajectory for the Left, but it is also the only possible narrative. Again, to focus on the current left-wing agenda is slow-motion suicide.

The Democrats know that impeachment will not lead to a conviction. They accept that they are not gaining traction in the polls. They fear that Trump’s wounds heal quickly and what doesn’t destroy him can make him stronger.

So why continue? Again, there is little other alternative. Moreover, addicts do not act logically and the Left is hooked on Trump and cannot quit him. Finally, they hope to destroy Trump physically. He will be 74 in June. By the standards of senior medicine, they feel Trump is locked in a self-destructive cycle: little sleep, little exercise, poor diet, too heavy, too stressed.

Very few politicians in memory could physically endure the invective, hate, and furor aimed at Trump and his family daily over the last three years. Much less, could any president function with 90 percent negative media coverage, moles in the executive branch monitoring his every breath, and an unhinged opposition whose reason to get up in the morning is to end Trump.

The Democrats believe that one more whistleblower, just a bit more impeachment, a little more Nadler or Schiff, a pinch more of Pelosi, or another Ukrainian or Russian liar might finally give Trump a stroke or malignancy. With Trump debilitated, they might have a chance against a more traditional Republican.

We will be down to the elemental after impeachment: if you can’t beat Trump legislatively, judicially, or electorally, and if you can’t impeach, convict him and remove him, perhaps you can simply physically destroy him.
————————
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!
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Be Carefully When Wishing for Regulation of Big Tech and Data”Posted: 29 Jan 2020 12:47 PM PST by Ralph Benko, Contributing Author: The federal government can be described as “Big Daddy.”

That’s a name more evocative of Big Brother than the avuncular Uncle Sam.

The original political Big Daddy was Jesse (Big Daddy) Unruh, ruling California for years.

Benevolent big government, anyone?

Unruh summed up a politico’s ethos bluntly. The bowdlerized version, “If you can’t eat their food, drink their booze, . . . take their money and then vote against them [business] you’ve got no business being up here.”

“Big Data” is a better description than Big Tech for Alphabet, parent of Google, YouTube and some companies you’ve never even heard of.

Also, Facebook. Big Data doesn’t charge us for their services. Nor did broadcast TV.

We’re the audience. They make money by letting advertisers know who their most likely customers are and then delivering the ads. Just like broadcast TV. In the Big Data Zone we also find Amazon and Microsoft and others.

Nielsen has been giving comparable data to advertisers for almost a century. “Soap operas” got that nickname because mainly housewives, customers for detergents, watched them. Not exactly “surveillance capitalism.”

I use Google’s more than any other products, digital or analog. Probably you do too. Big Daddy can take my preferred search engine, email client, browser, alerts system and more when it pries them from my cold dead hand. Big Data doesn’t know, or care to know, me.

It desires only to tell the advertisers what kind of stuff I’m most likely to buy. No big deal.

And yet there’s full sound and fury signifying nothing incoming from the right.

Big Data provides me and billions of happy customers with powerful, convenient, technologies making us way more productive and entertained. Google and Facebook and so forth dominate their niches because their offerings are the best. Ozy reports that my cut of Facebook’s $39B/year would be about $5/month. Not exactly price gouging.

So how is it that a tiny number of vocal “conservatives” are ganging up with socialists like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and progressives like Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.? AOC recently told Ta-Nahesi Coates as reported by Liz Wolfe at Reason.com, that “No one ever makes a billion dollars. You take a billion dollars.”

Such far left nonsense can be traced to Honore’ de Balzac, “The secret of a great success for which you are at a loss to account is a crime that has never been found out. . . .”

This came down to us as “Behind every great fortune there is a great crime.”

It’s shocking to see “conservatives” promoting socialist nonsense.

Great fortunes are almost always made by providing great goods and services to millions of eager customers. Like, for example, Google does. That’s called “capitalism.”

One talented young conservative commentator recently called the statute that protects online platforms from being held liable for what users post as “a sweetheart deal” and a “government subsidy which Google no longer deserves.”

Nonsense.

Repealing that protection would destroy social media and the best of the internet.

Her claim is akin to calling the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of the press a “sweetheart deal” and a “government subsidy” which Newsmax “no longer deserves.”

Nonsense. America has immunized media for being opinionated since Day One.

The First Amendment wasn’t a “sweetheart deal” or a “government subsidy.”

It protects unalienable rights. So does Section 230. A center-left viewpoint (if Google or Facebook or Amazon had one, which the evidence does not well support) wouldn’t, in the least, invalidate Section 230.

What are some “conservatives” pushing Big Daddy government toward?

“Big Dada.” Dada was an absurdist art movement. Marcel Duchamp exemplified it with his urinal-dubbed-“Fountain” and his mustache and goatee penciled onto the Mona Lisa.

According to “Smithsonian Magazine” the name Dada meant “a sign of foolish naiveté. . . . “

Big Dada well describes the foolishly naive proposals being pushed to crush Big Data.

Zachary Karabell at Wired.com says Don’t Break Up Big Tech: It won’t protect small businesses, it won’t preserve our data privacy, and it won’t help promote democracy: “It’s debatable whether antitrust enforcement has ever been particularly effective. … Antitrust was invented during the Progressive Era as a means to address issues of price, access, and competition.” Karabell is beyond dubious that breaking up Big Data would do any of that. So too am I, an old guard red meat conservative, incredulous.

A tiny vocal faction of “conservatives” pushing antiquated Progressive Era antitrust? Policies repudiated by serious modern conservatives from Reagan forward, repudiated?

What a spectacle!

The rock group The Kinks got it right in their classic song, “Lola,” “It’s a mixed up, muddled up, shook up world!”

Welcome to Big Dada!
—————————
Ralph Benko (@ralphbenko) is Chairman, The Capitalist League and contributor to the ARRA News Service.
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MANHATTAN INSTITUTE

January 30, 2020Featuring the latest analysis, commentary, and research from Manhattan Institute scholarsPOLITICSPhoto: Amanda Edwards/Getty ImagesThe Fallacy of ‘Jeopardy!’ Policy-Making“Finding the correct questions to answers makes for great entertainment, but it’s a terrible approach for making policy decisions. Yet, that’s the approach many policy debates have taken.”
By Jonathan A. Lesser
The Hill
January 30, 2020
HEALTH POLICYPhoto: knape/iStockMonopoly Power Isn’t Why Hospital Prices Are So High“Rising prices for hospital care are indeed responsible for much of the rising cost of health insurance, but these prices have risen almost as rapidly in the most competitive local markets as they have in highly consolidated ones.”
By Chris Pope
Economics21
January 30, 2020
CALIFORNIAPhoto: 200mm/iStockDon’t Count on Migrating Californians to Bring Left-Wing Politics to Their New HomesMore than half of Californians are unhappy and want to leave, and that includes a lot of conservatives.
By Steven Malanga
The Dallas Morning News
January 30, 2020
Adapted from City Journal
ECONOMY & FINANCEPhoto: Petri Oeschger/iStockDon’t Treat “Gig Work” Like Regular Work“[The] well-intentioned movement to make gig work more like regular work, with predictable hours and pay, actually makes income riskier for many households.”
By Allison Schrager
Economics21
January 29, 2020
EDUCATIONPhoto: izusek/iStockAn ‘Alienated America’ Needs Community-Building Schools — Something Catholic Schools Have Been Doing for Generations“When states prohibit public support for religious schools in the name of protecting children from the values they impart, the government is showing preference for secularism over religion — and arguably violating the Free Exercise clause of the First Amendment.”
By Kathleen Porter-Magee
The 74
January 29, 2020
Based on a new report
Photo: courtneyk/iStockCharter Schools Benefit Disadvantaged StudentsAmong Democrats, 58% of black voters and 52% of Hispanic voters support charter schools—but their presidential candidates fail to reflect this view. In the latest issue brief in the Issues 2020 series, Max Eden shows how this newfound antipathy flies in the face of the evidence of charter schools’ success in improving educational outcomes for lower-income and minority students.
CULTURE & SOCIETYPhoto: Elsa/Getty ImagesRemembering Kobe BryantHe was a brilliant athlete, a devoted father—and a sinner who worked toward redemption.
By Jennifer Frey
City Journal Online
January 29, 2020
Photo: JenAphotographer/iStockWhither Hypergamy?“It seems that the highly-credentialed alpha female still prefers a mate above her pay grade.”
By Kay S. Hymowitz
Institute for Family Studies
January 29, 2020
PUBLIC HEALTHPhoto: Betsy Joles/Getty ImagesA Threat to HumanityViral epidemics, like coronavirus, represent a danger far more real than climate change.
By Guy Sorman
City Journal Online
January 29, 2020
NEW YORK CITY & STATEPhoto: Gerasimov174/iStockThe City Council’s Mad Meltdown Over Keeping Nuclear Weapons Out of NYC“Between homelessness, classroom disorder and rising crime, it might seem like there is plenty for the City Council to do. But instead of dealing with such humdrum matters, the council’s tackling the threat of nuclear war — by reaffirming New York’s status as a nuclear weapons-free zone, and setting up a commission to oversee compliance with that directive.”
By Seth Barron
New York Post
January 30, 2020
PODCASTPhoto: adrian825/iStockParenting in the CityKarol Markowicz joins Kay Hymowitz to discuss raising young children in New York City.
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 Now Manhattan Institute is a think tank whose mission is to develop and disseminate new ideas that foster greater economic choice and individual responsibility.
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NATIONAL REVIEW

WITH JIM GERAGHTYJanuary 30 2020 Warren Wants to Help You . . . Until It Hurts Her CampaignOn the menu today: how Elizabeth Warren’s claim of Native heritage drove her to an awkward flip-flop on a little-noticed policy issue; a new series of surveys suggests Medicare for All is a serious liability in those key swing states; the endgame in Iowa approaches, with one candidate almost entirely forgotten; and a key voice on Wall Street makes a clear and bold prediction about the upcoming presidential election.Elizabeth Warren’s Big Flip-Flop on Native-American GamblingOn page 80 of Elizabeth Warren’s 2003 book, The Two-Income Trap, she made a brief reference to gambling and its role in contributing to the rising rate of Americans filing for bankruptcy:If the bankruptcy system isn’t packed with frauds and cheats, then why are so many families in trouble?” With a million and a half families declaring bankruptcy each year, one might expect innumerable explanations for all that financial mayhem. During our interviews we heard a wide variety of reasons. Some were victims of crime, some had made bad investments, some had problems with alcohol or gambling and some had lost their homes in a flood or earthquake… Nearly … READ MORE

ADVERTISEMENT TRENDING ON NATIONAL REVIEW1. Stalin’s Fan Club Rises to Power in Spain2. The Irony and Hypocrisy of World Hijab Day3. Don Lemon Did Trump a Huge FavorTOP STORIESMICHAEL BRENDAN DOUGHERTYBrexit Is Discrediting the EUThe Remain campaign was an endless barrage of lies, bullying, paranoiac demagogy, and fraud. We should celebrate …NR PLUS ROBERT VERBRUGGENCram More People into New York CityIt and other ‘superstar’ cities should be denser. DEROY MURDOCKHunter Biden’s Connection to Burisma Has Been Questioned BeforeTrump was just one man among many who asked the same questions and raised the same concerns about Ukrainian …NEWSTom Cotton Claims Coronavirus Epidemic ‘Much Worse’ than China AdmitsCotton has repeatedly pushed for a travel ban to China due to concerns over the spread of the virus. JOHN HIRSCHAUERThe Supreme Court Hears Oral Arguments in a Key Religious-Freedom CaseEspinoza v. Montana represents a strong challenge to state constitutions’ Blaine …MADELEINE KEARNSIs Brexit Nearly Done?Last Friday, Parliament signed Boris Johnson’s withdrawal agreement. This Friday, Britain will leave the European …NEWSFormer Trump Aide Carter Page Sues DNC over Commissioning of Steele Dossier“This is only the first salvo. We will follow the evidence wherever it leads, no matter how high,” said Page’s …WHAT NR IS READINGThe Case for Nationalism: How It Made Us Powerful, United, and FreeBY RICHARD LOWRY“Makes an original and compelling case for nationalism . . . A fascinating, erudite—and much-needed—defense of a hallowed idea unfairly under current attack.” — Victor Davis HansonLEARN MOREPODCASTSEpisode 105: An Especially Deep… Episode 251: A Hair-Brained Scheme PHOTOSUSS Montgomery Czech Dog-Sled Race VIDEOWill Senate Dems, GOP Get… Abbas To Speak To UN… NRPLUS ARTICLESDreaming of a Dreamer Deal The Fifth Circuit Rejects the Lie… Ready for Election Season?National Review subscribers get the most out of National Review. Don’t miss out.SEE MY OPTIONSADVERTISEMENTFollow Us & Share 19 West 44th Street, Suite 1701, New York, NY, 10036, USA
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CENTER FOR SECURITY POLICY

Highlighted Articles/InterviewsDid Wuhan coronavirus escape from a lab in China?Understanding the deal of the century from a Muslim perspective Fleitz: Ambassador Bolton, withdraw your book New report says radical Islam driving rise in Christian persecution Putin picks the man to build Russia’s high-tech police state The “Deal of the Century”: The first viable peace planLost among all the news about impeachment was the initial leaking of the “Deal of the Century,” the US plan for resolving the Arab-Israeli dispute once and for all. The plan was formally unveiled today by the Trump administration.

Read the article by Center Chief Middle East Analyst, David Wurmser.LIVE STREAM TODAY at 12:00pm EST – Socialism and American National Security TODAY, the Center will host a live stream featuring Center Vice President for Government Affairs, J. Michael Waller and Senior Fellow at the Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization, Dr. Juliana Geran Pilon.

Watch the live stream on Secure FreedomYouTube and Facebook.San Antonio strives to lead the nation on grid resiliencyOne of President Trump’s most important – yet least applauded – initiatives is an executive order he issued last March to protect our electric “grid” and other critical infrastructure from electromagnetic pulse (or EMP) attacks that could destroy these assets and our country.Yesterday, I had the privilege of observing firsthand a very exciting and promising effort to operationalize the President’s guidance. Local government officials, the business community and leaders of the nation’s largest military base have joined forces to have San Antonio, Texas become the first city in the country to make its grid resilient against EMP and other threats.While much remains to be done, their shared commitment to create a template for action that will protect San Antonio’s infrastructure and people – and serve as a model for the rest of Texas and America – is as exhilarating as it is urgently needed. This is Frank Gaffney.With Dr. Sean Lin and Dr. Bradley ThayerDR. SEAN LIN,Executive director, Global Alliance Against Communist Propaganda and Disinformation, Served as a director of a laboratory at Walter Reid Army hospital specializing in viral diseases:What is coronavirus?How potent is this strand of coronavirus?What makes this version of the disease so deadly?(PART TWO):What do we know about China’s biological weapons program?How the Chinese Communist Party abuses its own peopleDR. BRADLEY THAYER, Professor of International Security Studies a Tallinn University, Has worked for the U.S. Department of Defense, the Rand Corporation and served as a senior analyst for the National Institute for Public Policy:Parallels between China’s coronavirus and ChernobylHow truthful is the Chinese government being about the origin of the coronavirus?How the misrule of the CCP allowed the disease to spread faster(PART TWO):China’s continual repression of its own peopleWhat is ‘suppression by algorithm’?Could the coronavirus bring down the Xi dynasty?TWEET OF THE DAYRetweet, like, and comment!DONATE View this email in your browser Copyright © 2020 Center for Security Policy, All rights reserved.

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TWITCHY

‘Subverting the will of 63 million voters’: Doug Collins takes House Managers APART (and their little case too) in brutal thread Read Story Now it’s CNN contributor Ana Navarro calling Republican voters ‘fools’; Gets scolded by Adam Housley Read Story GOTTA be kidding us: Twitter’s new feature allows users to report others for tweeting ‘misleading info about a political election’
Read Story Wilbur Ross is getting quoted out of context on his comment this morning on coronavirus and the U.S. economy
Read Story Such a damn LIAR: Adam Schiff’s claim that he doesn’t know WHO the whistleblower is gets taken APART in receipt-filled thread
Read Story Journo who changed jobs from the WaPo to the NYT gets fact-checked on how health insurance works
Read Story ‘Another POOR job at a grade school book report’: Greg Gutfeld tears humorless Mediaite a NEW 1 for botching story about his JOKE Read Story ABC News has suspended Matt Gutman for his major flub on the Kobe Bryant crash Read Story Major OOPSIE: House Managers’ argument about timing on Trump’s interest in Biden contradicts whistleblower’s claims Read Story WATCH: CNN’s Don Lemon accidentally called Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) a ‘d*ck’ on air Read Story Playboy/CNN reporter Brian Karem claims to nail Ted Cruz with a withering interrogation — while he was not in the room Read Story Hillary Clinton has scrubbed another ‘server’ (according to Tulsi Gabbard’s attorney)Read Story ‘Unreal’: Biden campaign tweets that we need a president who respects religious freedom Read Story Politico: Democrats are concerned if Trump loses he might try to ‘outright sabotage the transition’Read Story Sen. Tim Scott asks White House counsel which investigation or agency debunked the Biden/Burisma link Read Story

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Web version ABC Suspends Correspondent Over Major Mistake In Kobe Bryant Crash Report In the minutes and hours just after the helicopter crash that killed NBA superstar Kobe Bryant, numerous erroneous reports emerged. Some said four people had… Read more… GOOD NEWS! Trump’s Drug Policies Have Resulted in US Life Expectancy Increasing for FIRST TIME Since 2014 Thanks to President Trump’s policies the life expectancy in the United States increased for the first time since 2014. Senior Counselor Kellyanne Conway, ONDCP Director… Read more… Carter Page Sues DNC, Fusion-Linked Law Firm Over Bogus Steele Dossier Former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page on Thursday filed a lawsuit in federal court against the Democratic National Committee, the law firm Perkins Coie, declaring… Read more… What a Clown Show: Nancy Pelosi Tries to Take Credit for USMCA Trade Deal That She Sat on for 14 months (VIDEO) What a clown show. Nancy Pelosi tried to take credit for the historic Trump USMCA trade agreement during her Thursday press conference. Speaker Pelosi sat… Read more… HEY SENATORS: Will Someone Ask the Crowdstrike Question at the Impeachment Hearing, Please! In the final day of questioning in the US Senate impeachment hearings, there is one subject that is overlooked – Crowdstrike. This firm supposedly confirmed… Read more… TRUMP SUPPORTERS Line Up More than 24 Hours Early to See President in Iowa …IN 20° Weather They are already lined up to see President Donald Trump in Iowa on Thursday night! And it’s currently 24 degrees and feels like 17 degrees…. Read more… BREAKING EXCLUSIVE: FBI Covered Up Strzok and Page Emails Regarding Seth Rich – Now the FBI Is Doubling Down In their Cover-Up After getting caught lying to the Courts about its actions related to Seth Rich, Christopher Wray’s FBI lies again and claims it did nothing wrong…. Read more… Muslim Immigrant In Charge of Cleaning Up San Francisco’s Streets Is Arrested on Federal Fraud And Bribery Charges To the surprise of few, yet another official in feces-ridden San Francisco has been arrested as part of an FBI investigation. The man who’s in… Read more… CAUGHT ON HIDDEN CAMERA: Conservative Ezra Levant of Rebel News Interrogated Over His Book Exposing Justin Trudeau’s Corruption Rebel News founder Ezra Levant is under investigation and was interrogated by former members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, that specialized in terrorism cases,… Read more… You Might Like Advertisement

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Rick Bulow, New Media

"The New Media is picking up where the Old Media has failed" - Andrew Breitbart

MORNING NEWS BRIEFING – JANUARY 30, 2020

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