Good morning! Here is your news briefing for Wednesday January 27, 2021
1.) THE DAILY SIGNAL
January 27 2021
Good morning from Washington, where President Biden takes a flurry of new executive actions to bring about what he calls racial equity. Fred Lucas reports. The new president’s immigration agenda looks like trouble, Heritage Foundation analyst Ana Quintana says on the podcast. Plus: calling teachers’ bluff during COVID-19; zero tolerance for all political violence; and a win for doctors disturbed by the transgender agenda. Seventy years ago today, the U.S. government detonates the first of a series of nuclear bombs at a new Nevada test site, a flash seen as far away as San Francisco.
Teacher unions across the country are keeping schools closed, despite science showing that it’s safe for schools to be open during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Recent media reports reveal that federal investigators have uncovered evidence suggesting that the assault on the Capitol was planned and not just provoked or merely a spontaneous reaction of the crowd.
“I haven’t been able to find a single country in the world where policies advocated for blacks in the United States lifted any people out of poverty,” Sowell says.
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2.) THE EPOCH TIMES
JANUARY 27, 2021 READ IN BROWSER
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3.) DAYBREAK
Your First Look at Today’s Top Stories – Daybreak Insider
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Parents Frustrated as Biden Caves to Teachers’ Union Demands
Remember when Biden vowed to “teach our children in safe schools” in his inaugural address? The union has told him to change course, and he complied (Washington Times). The teachers union president said she was “very pleased” after speaking to Biden’s people (National Review). From Tom Cotton: Once again, there’s a disconnect between what Biden promises—unity and empathy—and his actions. How about empathy for the millions of parents who are watching their kids because schools are closed? (Twitter). Not a new story but new to the New York Times, the CDC is saying science reveals schools are safe (NY Times). From Reason: COVID-19 infection rates at elementary schools in particular have been, compared to the country as a whole, microscopic—0.2 percent for teachers, 0.1 percent for students, according to economist Emily Oster’s database of 5,000-plus K-12 schools. The positive rate in New York City’s program of random school testing—currently standing at 0.52 percent from more than 360,000 tests since October—has consistently been around one-tenth of the overall community positivity rate (Reason). From Mary Katherine Ham: They ain’t going to war with teachers’ unions for you and your kids. They should but they’re not going to. Be prepared that if your public schools haven’t opened yet, they likely won’t in fall. The goalposts will continue to move. Do what you can for your family with that in mind (Twitter). The teachers’ union shut down the scheduled reopening in a New York City suburb, frustrating parents and students (NY Times). From National Review: Parents and community groups in big, Democrat-run cities from New York to Chicago to San Francisco would very much like to reopen the public schools. But parents and community groups in big, Democrat-run cities from New York to Chicago to San Francisco are only incidental inconveniences to the teachers’ unions, who proceed from the assumption — which is far from obviously wrong — that the public schools are run for their benefit (National Review). From Thomas Sowell: The teachers’ unions are the single biggest obstacle to black youngsters getting a decent education — and among the biggest donors to the Democrats (Twitter).
2.
Politico Complainers Get Mary Katherine Ham and Guy Benson Booted from Slot to Guest Write
From Ben Shapiro: Eventually they gave Guy and MKH an excuse — they’d overbooked. The same excuse you give your in-laws to avoid dinner (Twitter). From Katie Pavlich: Not buying the excuse. It would be believable if the response was “hey our bad, we overbooked, but since we reached out to you guys, how about a guest column instead.” That didn’t happen. Because overbooking wasn’t the issue, being remotely conservative is the issue (Twitter). From Hugh Hewitt: I wrote this about @politico’s lurch left before the @benshapiro meltdown and before @mkhammer and @guypbenson were asked to guest edit and then apparently canceled. Very revealing indeed. Politico has been fully revealed (Twitter). From Mark Hemingway: …at the time, when people were praising Politico editors for allegedly standing up to the staff, I said the real test would be if they worked with Shapiro (or other conservatives) again. It appears they failed (Twitter). Ed Morrissey notes we “are getting a very revealing look at the attitudes within Politico toward half of the people they cover. If this is how they react to sharing their space for a single day with an influential conservative, imagine how Politico’s staff reports on conservatives. Some of their reporters do a good job in maintaining a balance, but the overall message from these tantrums over even being exposed to conservative arguments is that Politico is biased against the Right and probably not well-read enough on them to cover conservatives properly, let alone fairly” (Hot Air).
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3.
Nearly All GOP Senators Vote Against Impeachment Trial
Five voted with the Democrats (Washington Post). Byron York asks “Why didn’t Congress pass resolution of censure in 14 days Trump was president after Capitol riot? Would likely have gotten significant Republican support. Even if not, would still have passed House, Senate. Could still pass one now” (Twitter).
4.
Newsweek Edits 2015 Army Ranger Story to Help Out Hit Piece on Senator Cotton
A show of how corrupt the media have become. Newsweek went back to a 2015 story that backed Cotton’s claim and changed it so Salon doesn’t look quite as foolish.
Florida Offers to Host the 2021 Olympic Games in Wake of Japanese Fears of COVID
From the Florida Press Releases: Chief Financial Officer (CFO) Jimmy Patronis issued a letter to the International Olympic Committee encouraging them to consider relocating the 2021 Olympics from Tokyo, Japan to the United States of America, and more specifically to Florida. Recent media reports have stated that leaders in Japan have “privately” concluded that they are too concerned about the pandemic for the 2021 Olympics to take place.
Republicans Are Late in Trying to Stop the Censorship from Big Tech
From the story: … the Republicans had their chance to address the problem of over-mighty Big Tech and completely flunked it. Only too late did they realize that Section 230 was Silicon Valley’s Achilles heel. Only too late did they begin drafting legislation to repeal or modify it. Only too late did Section 230 start to feature in Trump’s speeches. Even now, very few Republicans really understand that, by itself, repealing 230 would not have sufficed. Without some kind of First Amendment for the internet, repeal would probably just have restricted free speech further.
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This is a weird scoop but given the reporting Tuesday about the state’s investigation into several non-profit executives who contract with the Department of Children and Families, it’s timely.
Tyler Russell resigned for personal reasons as Chief of Staff at DCF last week, according to a source within the Governor’s Office. Russell had just started on the job the first week of January after coming over from Gov. Ron DeSantis‘ office.
A source close to Russell — a source close enough to him that they were the same source who first told us that Russell was getting the DCF job — tells ‘burn that Russell was confronted by a reporter, who warned him that if he remained in the position, their media outlet would have to publish a story detailing the conflict of interest they believe existed between Russell running DCF and the, um, issues with Russell’s father (background here). Florida Politics has not been able to confirm this detail with Russell or the reporter; all we know is that Russell is no longer at DCF.
That said, our sources on the Plaza Level tell us that Russell continues to be held in the highest regard by the administration. Look for Russell to take some time off but not for long as he still has the opportunity to continue working within state government.
—
State Sen. Gary Farmer is quarantining after a close associated of his, who is a lobbyist, tested positive for COVID-19, confirms the Senate Minority Office. One of Farmer’s colleagues told ‘burn there is considerable consternation about Farmer’s situation because he had the lobbyist friend of his rapid-tested by the testing system reserved for members and their staff.
Florida Influencers aren’t buying the buzz about an Ivanka Trump Senate bid, but they do have some predictions where some of Florida’s best-known elected officials will land on the 2022 ballot.
Just over a quarter of Influencers told Florida Politics they think the former President’s daughter will challenge U.S. Sen. MarcoRubio, while 73% think she’ll avoid primarying Florida’s senior Senator.
Florida Influencers are not convinced Ivanka Trump will mount a campaign to challenge Marco Rubio in 2022.
Democrats were most likely to predict an Ivanka run, but they still came in at a middling 30%, followed by Republicans at 25%.
Influencers are nearly as certain about plans for U.S. Reps. Charlie Crist and Matt Gaetz, with the majority expecting they’ll run for reelection rather than higher office.
Still, about one in six influencers believe Crist will launch another run Governor next year, while 7% say he’s aiming for U.S. Senate. Outside of the two-thirds who say he’ll stand pat in CD 13, the most popular option was “Who the heck knows … it’s Charlie!”
However, if he were to run for Governor, 12% of Influencers say he’d defeat Ron DeSantis.
He tied with Sen. Jason Pizzo for the third-best chance in the hypothetical, following Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried at 24% and former U.S. Rep. Gwen Graham at 14%. Rep. Anna Eskamani was far behind at 2%, while “Other/NPA” notched 23% and “Someone Else” hit 13%.
Gaetz, meanwhile, is a near-lock to run for reelection. Overall, 74% of Influencers said he’ll seek another term in CD 1, though 14% expect some theatrics, such as a Senate bid that ends in time for him to qualify in the House race.
If not, they predict he’ll land in the Agriculture Commissioner race.
Also on the radar for statewide office: Sen. Lauren Book. About half of Influencers said the South Florida Democrat should challenge Jimmy Patronis for CFO, outnumbering the 45% who think she should run for reelection.
One other note:
— As workers faced layoffs and pay cuts, Tampa Bay Times CEO made more money: It was a less than $1,000 pay bump, but Times Chairman and CEO PaulTash earned more money in 2019 than he did in 2018. That’s despite the fact that the same year his employees suffered pay cuts, and some lost their jobs entirely. Read about my analysis of this slight here.
Situational awareness
—@Elwasson: [Mitch] McConnell on Senate floor suggests that if filibuster ever is nuked, GOP will completely tie up the Senate with endless quorum calls, blocked consent requests for routine matters.
—@MarcACaputo: Progressive firebrand & former US Rep. @AlanGraysonis making calls about running against Republican US Sen. @marcorubio“Repeal Rubio. That’s all I have to say,” Grayson told me when I reached out Grayson ran for Sen in 2016 but lost in the primary to Rep Patrick Murphy
—@MacStipanovich: Democrats need to armor themselves against the socialist, defund the police canard that is the alpha and the omega of GOP political messaging by flinging Val Demings on the invertebrate Rubio.
—@FBSaunders: Hearing some growing frustration from House Dems on the Public Health Subcommittee. Members say the chair, Rep. Will Robinson, won’t allow questions during tomorrow’s meeting with Florida’s surgeon general. That’s despite ongoing concerns about Florida’s vaccine rollout.
Days until
Florida Chamber Economic Outlook and Job Solution Summit begins — 1; Super Bowl LV in Tampa — 11; Daytona 500 — 18; “Nomadland” with Frances McDormand — 24; The CW’s Superman & Lois premieres — 27; 2021 Legislative Session begins — 34; “Coming 2 America” premieres on Amazon Prime — 38; “The Many Saints of Newark” premieres — 44; 2021 Grammys — 46; ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’ premieres — 58; “No Time to Die” premieres (rescheduled) — 65; Children’s Gasparilla — 73; Seminole Hard Rock Gasparilla Pirate Fest — 80; “Black Widow” rescheduled premiere — 100; “Top Gun: Maverick” rescheduled premiere — 156; Disney’s “Shang Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings” premieres — 165; new start date for 2021 Olympics — 179; “Jungle Cruise” premieres — 185; St. Petersburg Primary Election — 209; “A Quiet Place Part II” rescheduled premiere — 233; “Dune” premieres — 248; St. Petersburg Municipal Elections — 279; Disney’s “Eternals” premieres — 282; Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” premieres — 316; “Spider-Man Far From Home” sequel premieres — 324; “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” premieres — 422; “Thor: Love and Thunder” premieres — 464; “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” sequel premieres — 618.
Dateline Tallahassee
“State’s investigation points to these non-profit executives making too much money” via Mary Ellen Klas of The Miami Herald — A Hialeah mental health center, the lead foster care provider in Tampa and agencies that provide child welfare services in Sarasota and mental health services in Pensacola are among the nine nonprofit organizations spending millions compensating executives above the limits allowed by state law, a preliminary report from the governor’s Office of Inspector General has found. The nine agencies are all under contract with the Department of Children and Families andall receive state and federal funding for at least half of their annual budgets. According to a report released late Monday by the OIG, the total excessive compensation adds up to more than $3 million annually, but the amounts range from a high of $1 million in excessive compensation at Pensacola-based Lakeview Center to $8,724 in excessive payments at ChildNet, a community-based care center in Fort Lauderdale.
“Senate poised to review Gov. Ron DeSantis’ budget” via News Service of Florida — In a signal that DeSantis will release a proposed 2021-2022 budget in the coming days, the Senate Appropriations Committee and subcommittees are slated next week to receive a series of presentations about his spending plan, according to a Senate calendar. The Appropriations Committee is scheduled for Feb. 2 to receive a presentation about DeSantis’ recommendations. Five appropriations subcommittees are expected to follow suit on Feb. 3. DeSantis’ office has not announced when it will release the proposal, which will be an initial step as lawmakers prepare to draw up a budget during the Legislative Session that starts March 2. The 2021-2022 fiscal year begins July 1.
Ron DeSantis is reportedly close to dropping a proposed budget for 2021-22.
“Florida should stop doing business with Big Tech, China, Republicans say” via Kirby Wilson of the Tampa Bay Times — The chairman of the Republican Party of Florida filed a bill Tuesday to stop state and local governments from doing business with some of the conservative movement’s top enemies: Facebook, Google, Twitter, Apple, Amazon and the People’s Republic of China. The bill, filed jointly by Sen. Joe Gruters, a Sarasota Republican, the state GOP chair, and Rep. Randy Fine, a Palm Bay Republican, has two main parts. It prohibits state and local governments from entering into any contract that includes purchasing products made at least 25% in China starting in 2023. And starting on July 1, 2021, no state agency or local government can purchase a product or service from those five technology companies.
“No-fault repeal clears first Senate committee” via Drew Wilson of Florida Politics — The Senate Banking and Insurance Committee advanced a bill that would replace Florida’s no-fault auto insurance system with a bodily injury system. SB 54, sponsored by Republican Sen. Danny Burgess, would eliminate PIP coverage in favor of bodily injury liability coverage, which would pay out up to $25,000 for a crash-related injury or death, or up to $50,000 for injury or death in a crash involving two or more people. “Since this is my first bill, I wanted to make sure to ease into the process a little bit and not present anything too controversial or all that substantive,” Burgess, who joined the Senate in November, joked at the outset of the Tuesday meeting.
“Bill to certify victims of reform school abuse progresses beyond last year’s roadblock” via Kelly Hayes of Florida Politics — The Senate Criminal Justice Committee has voted to move forward with Sen. Darryl Rouson’s bill compensating victims of reform school abuse, already making more progress than last year’s bill, which died in the same committee. The committee voted 7-1 on passing the bill to its next committee, with Sen. George Gainer voting against it. Gainer did not comment on his vote. The bill, SB 288, would create a certification process for victims of abuse at the Arthur G. Dozier School for Boys and the Florida School for Boys at Okeechobee to streamline the claims process. The bill would apply to people who attended the schools from 1940 to 1975.
“Guardian ad Litem program draws security” via Dara Kam of The News Service of Florida — The head of Florida’s Guardian ad Litem program defended the agency’s efforts Tuesday to a Senate committee, following a report that said the organization’s funding has increased while the number of children it represents has dropped. Alan Abramowitz, who has served as executive director of the program for more than a decade, pushed back against the report during an appearance before the Senate Children, Families and Elder Affairs Committee. The report, issued last month by the Legislature’s Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability, or OPPAGA, identified several issues in the operation of the program, which receives state and local funds to represent abused, neglected and abandoned children in dependency cases.
Senate committee advances bill covering college tuition for students in DCF custody — Senate Education Committee cleared a bill (SB 52) that would provide tuition and fee waivers for students under the care of the Department of Children and Families, increase access to dual enrollment, and authorize universities to create individualized bonus structures that recognize specific faculty and staff. “Whether they are in the custody of DCF, or living with a relative or foster family, students in the child welfare system have enough trials facing them as they enter adult life and figuring out how to pay for college shouldn’t be one of them,” Senate President Wilton Simpson said.
“Lauren Book bill would eliminate sales tax on diapers” via Ryan Nicol of Florida Politics — Sen. Book is reviving her effort to eliminate the sales tax on diapers and adult incontinence products. The project has been a priority for Book for years, but she hasn’t yet secured enough support from her GOP counterparts controlling the Legislature. Book, who chairs the Senate Committee on Children, Families, and Elder Affairs, is bringing back the same bill once again ahead of the 2021 Legislative Session. The measure simply adds those products to the long list of other items exempt from the state’s sales tax, such as non-prepared food, school books, feminine hygiene products, and others. “The sale for human use of diapers, incontinence undergarments, incontinence pads, or incontinence liners is exempt from the tax imposed by this chapter,” Book’s bill reads.
Lauren Book is seeking to make diapers tax-free. Image via Colin Hackley.
“Bill would expand right for officials to visit jails” via The Associated Press — Florida could expand a law that allows certain state officials to visit prisons any time they also wish to include county and municipal jails under a bill approved by a Senate committee on Tuesday. State law currently allows the Governor, Cabinet members, lawmakers, judges, state attorneys and public defenders to visit prisons unannounced. The bill unanimously approved by the Criminal Justice Committee expands that right to include local government detention facilities. Democratic Sen. Pizzo said he proposed his bill after reports that a woman gave birth while in solitary confinement at a Broward County jail.
“No sandals allowed: After student suggestion, Matt Willhite files bill regulating minors on motor vehicles” via Ryan Nicol of Florida Politics — A new measure from Democratic Rep. Willhite would require minors operating a motorized vehicle to wear closed-toed footwear to help prevent injury. The bill is notable not just due to its substance but its origin. Willhite filed the bill following a suggestion from a local high school student in his House District 86, which covers parts of Palm Beach County. This year, House members were granted seven bill slots, up from the usual cap of six. Willhite, a Wellington Democrat, announced he would be courting suggestions for that extra bill slot from local high school students. After the submission period ended, a proposal from Ethan Douglas of Wellington High School won. “I recognize that young people are the future of our country,” Willhite said.
Frank White hosting House Majority fundraiser in Pensacola — Rep. Paul Renner is holding a fundraiser for the Republican House campaign arm in Pensacola on Thursday at the home of former state Rep. Frank White. We’re told Rep. Michelle Salzman was instrumental in organizing the fundraiser and reaching out to top donors in Northwest Florida. The event is set for 6 p.m. at 4 Hyde Park Road. The invitation suggests a $500 contribution per person. Those looking to attend can send an RSVP to Katie Ballard via Katie@KBallardConsult.com or by calling 954-803-3942.
Legislative committee meetings:
The Senate Agriculture Committee meets for an update of the state hemp program and issues of the Florida Department of Citrus, 9 a.m., Room 110, Senate Office Building.
The Senate Governmental Oversight and Accountability Committee meets to consider SJR 204 from Sen. Jeff Brandes, which would end the state Constitution Revision Commission, 9 a.m., Room 37, Senate Office Building.
The Senate Health Policy Committee meets for a workshop on health care laws and policies affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, 9 a.m., Room 412, Knott Building.
The House Agriculture & Natural Resources Appropriations Subcommittee meets to workshop the upcoming budget, 10 a.m., Room 404, House Office Building.
State Surgeon General Scott Rivkees will update the House Professions and Public Health Subcommittee, 10 a.m., Room 212, Knott Building.
The House Health Care Appropriations Subcommittee meets to workshop the budget, noon, Room 404, House Office Building.
The House Public Integrity & Elections Committee meets for an update on investigations related to research institutions, the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence and VISIT FLORIDA, noon, Room 212, Knott Building.
The Senate Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee meets for an update on additional money the Department of Health received as part of the COVID-19 response, 12:30 p.m., Room 412, Knott Building.
The Senate Transportation, Tourism and Economic Development Appropriations Subcommittee meets for updates from several agencies about potential budget cuts, 12:30 p.m., Room 110, Senate Office Building.
Acting Florida Agency for Health Care Administration Secretary Shevaun Harris will speak at the meeting of the House Finance & Facilities Subcommittee, 2 p.m., Room 404, House Office Building.
The House Government Operations Subcommittee will meet to discuss the history of the state’s information-technology governance, 2 p.m., Reed Hall, House Office Building.
The House PreK-12 Appropriations Subcommittee meets to workshop the proposed budget, 2 p.m., Morris Hall, House Office Building.
The House Regulatory Reform Subcommittee will host a panel to discuss the building-permit process, including local building officials, contractors and developers, 2 p.m., Room 212, Knott Building.
The Senate Agriculture, Environment and General Government Appropriations Subcommittee will meet for an update on the “Clean Waterways Act,” which includes larger fines for dumping pollutants into waterways and new rules for septic tanks and agricultural runoff, 3:30 p.m., Room 110, Senate Office Building.
The Senate Criminal and Civil Justice Appropriations Subcommittee meet for updates from several agencies about budget issues and potential reductions, 3:30 p.m., Room 37, Senate Office Building.
The House Post-Secondary Education & Lifelong Learning Subcommittee will host a panel discussion on “tools and resources available to consumers of the state’s education and workforce systems,” 4 p.m., Morris Hall, House Office Building.
The House State Administration & Technology Appropriations Subcommittee will meet to workshop the budget, 4 p.m., Reed Hall, House Office Building.
The House Tourism, Infrastructure and Energy Subcommittee meets for an update on the effects of COVID-19 on tourism, 4 p.m., Room 404, House Office Building.
The House Criminal Justice & Public Safety Subcommittee meets to consider a bill (HB 1), sponsored by Rep. Juan Alfonso Fernandez-Barquin, which would crack down on violent protests. The bill would create several categories of new crimes to crack down on protests and make it difficult for local government officials to reduce spending on law enforcement, 4 p.m., Room 212, Knott Building.
Statewide
DeSantis orders flags at half-staff for Holocaust Remembrance Day — DeSantis issued a memo ordering all U.S. and Florida flags in the state to be flown at half-staff Wednesday in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In the memo, DeSantis proclaimed that “the State of Florida does not tolerate anti-Semitism or discrimination against the Jewish people in any form.” Wednesday will mark the 76th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the largest Nazi concentration camp and extermination center. In 2005, the United Nations designated Jan. 27 as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The order will last through sundown Wednesday.
Jimmy Patronis’ Olympics pitch makes White House press briefing — Patronis’ letter to the International Olympic Committee reached the White House Press briefing when a reporter asked the White House press secretary Jen Psaki about the possibility of moving the 2021 Olympics from Tokyo to Florida. After the mention, Patronis dinged the White House for not embracing the plan, saying it “missed an incredible opportunity today to encourage the Olympics to move from Japan to the United States of America.” He added, “As Japan’s leaders quietly work behind the scenes to ditch the sporting event, we’ll continue beating the drum for Florida. With the Super Bowl coming to Tampa Bay in the next few weeks, Florida will put on full display its ability to safely and successfully host global events.”
Jimmy Patronis is floating a Florida Olympics if Tokyo falls through. The White House is not warm to the idea.
“Patronis calls out Anna Eskamani for “pushing an anti-law enforcement culture” via Karen Murphy of The Capitolist — Patronis called out Rep. Eskamani, specifically, and other “certain elements of the Florida Legislature” who he said are pushing an anti-law enforcement culture that is sweeping the country in a blistering speech to the Florida Sheriffs Association 2021 Winter Conference today in Ponte Vedra. “Frankly, some of these leaders have no business being in elected office,” he said. “I’m concerned that certain anti-police elements are beginning to take roots in the political institutions of our state. For example, last summer, Eskamani proposed ‘Divest[ing] in Law Enforcement’ and argued that funding police ‘threatens communities.’ Moreover, when Orange County was considering increasing its budget $15 million for the Sheriff’s office, Eskamani railed against the proposal,” Patronis said.
“‘More of a political issue’: Florida National Guard General says Florida troops were ‘fine’ in D.C.” via Jason Delgado of Florida Politics — The Florida National Guard’s top-ranking General on Tuesday said Florida troops experienced “fine” treatment in Washington, D.C., and described the infamous parking garage debacle as a “political issue.” “We really had no complaints with the way D.C. treated our Guardsmen,” Adjutant General James Eifert said. “They were allowed to stay in hotels, and they were fed. I think that was a lot more of a political issue than it was a real issue.” Speaking after a Senate panel, Eifert said Florida Guardsmen were not among the thousands of troops housed in a parking garage while on orders at the nation’s Capital. Instead, he described the debacle as an “optical” problem and said Florida’s troops experienced “great care.”
Florida National Guard troops were treated well during their time in the U.S. Capitol.
“Florida gets boost in tax revenues in December” via The News Service of Florida — The Legislature’s Office of Economic & Demographic Research estimated revenue for December at $336.7 million over a forecast revised in August. What’s more, the $2.999.4 billion in overall revenue was $154.4 million higher than what had been forecast before the pandemic hit. “The December results were above the pre-pandemic estimates for the month by the largest margin seen since the pandemic began,” the revenue report said. Sales tax numbers were up $178.3 million over the revised August forecast.
“Citizens Board approves rate hike proposals” via Jim Saunders of The News Service of Florida — Citizens Property Insurance Corp. leaders Tuesday approved a proposed 7.2% average rate increase for residential policyholders, while also backing a plan that could lead to substantially higher rates in the future for new customers of the state-backed insurer. The Citizens Board of Governors took the steps as it faces a surge in additional policies amid troubles in the state’s private property-insurance market. The troubles have driven up private rates and caused companies to pull back on covering homes, spurring customers to turn to Citizens. Under the proposal, rate changes would vary widely, depending on factors such as types of policies and locations.
Corona Florida
Heads-up>>>Gov. DeSantis is hosting a press conference at 9 a.m. at the Sun City Center Community Center.
“Florida reports 9,594 COVID cases and 227 additional deaths” via Cindy Krishcer Goodman of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Florida reported slightly more cases than the previous day — and significantly more new deaths. Florida reported 9,594 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday and another 227 new resident deaths linked to COVID-19. The state has now reported 1,667,763 cases since the pandemic began. The seven-day average for new cases has been declining since Jan. 8. Public health experts say the virus is considered under control when the COVID-19 test positivity rate is under 5%. But since Oct. 29, Florida has exceeded 5% in its widely publicized calculation for assessing the rate for testing of residents. The state reported a daily positivity rate of 9.19% on Tuesday, down from 9.56% the day before.
“DeSantis reverses COVID-19 vaccine strategy to ensure second doses” via Lawrence Mower of the Tampa Bay Times — In a reversal, DeSantis said the state is now withholding COVID-19 vaccines to ensure seniors and health care workers can get their second doses. As hundreds of thousands of Floridians approach the 28-day deadline this week to receive their second Moderna vaccine dose, DeSantis guaranteed there would be enough supply to meet the demand. “We’re not going to divert second doses away from seniors,” DeSantis said. “Seniors want it. We’re going to do it. So, if the implication is you should be giving those doses away to other people, that’s not the way the FDA has prescribed it.”
Ron DeSantis walks back comments about second-dose vaccines. Image via AP.
“DeSantis fires back, assures seniors they’ll get COVID-19 booster shots” via Jennifer Holton of Fox 13 — DeSantis is responding to White House claims that Florida has used only half its COVID-19 vaccines sent by the federal government, calling it “disingenuous.” “I will note because we’re data-first here, facts-first here, they’ve only distributed about 50% of the vaccines that they have been given in Florida,” press secretary Jen Psaki said Monday afternoon. At first glance, numbers from the CDC support the White House’s claim: 2,908,275 COVID-19 vaccines have been given to the state, but only 1,544,794, about 53%, have been put into someone’s arm. But as the Governor points out, there can be a delay in the federal data of up to 72 hours, depending on the health care provider administering the vaccine.
“Hospitals told to look to health departments for vaccines” via Christine Sexton of News Service of Florida — During a statewide phone call, Department of Health Secretary Rivkees told hospitals they could not use “second dose” vaccine supplies to give initial vaccinations to more people. Rivkees’ remarks came as DeSantis makes vaccinating people ages 65 and older his top priority. But hospital executives pressed Rivkees about the state’s limited supply of “first dose” vaccines and how they can get a share of them. Rivkees, who doubles as the state’s surgeon general, gave no firm answers but told hospital officials that “this is a situation where you can reach out to your county health department. … So speak with them, and we’ll be able to work with you in this situation.”
“Carlos Guillermo Smith urges hospitals to define ‘vulnerable population’ rules for COVID-19 vaccines” via Scott Powers of Florida Politics — Democratic Rep. Smith is urging hospitals to quickly develop criteria to define “vulnerable populations” under age 65 who should be among the first getting COVID-19 vaccination shots. From the start of the vaccination program, around Christmas, DeSantis made those over the age of 65, or those with preexisting medical conditions that make them extremely vulnerable to COVID-19, the first to get the shots. They still are. But little attention has been paid to those with preexisting conditions. The public vaccination system set up in Publix stores and elsewhere is limited to providing shots to people 65 or older. Only hospitals have the authority to define who is or isn’t extremely vulnerable.
“Florida’s public school nurses are on the front line and can get COVID-19 vaccines — but not all are taking the shots” via Danielle J. Brown of the Florida Phoenix — While front-line health care workers in hospitals and other facilities have gotten priority for COVID-19 vaccines, not everyone knows that Florida’s school nurses are eligible for the shots as well. School nurses have regular duties and handle COVID-19 issues, from reporting and isolating potentially infected students to identifying and notifying people who may have been exposed to the coronavirus, called contact tracing. According to the Department of Education, more than 1,500 school nurses are employed in Florida’s public schools as of 2019-20. That state has 67 school districts. The school nurses can get vaccinated, according to an email by the Florida Department of Health.
Corona local
“Broward schools accused of ‘spying’ on teachers — catching them out and about despite COVID-19 fears” via Scott Travis of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — The Broward School District has scoured Facebook pages of teachers working remotely to catch them partying, traveling and failing to wear masks at a time the educators say COVID-19 makes it too risky for them to return to campus. One teacher is pictured at her daughter’s destination wedding in Jamaica. Another attended a political rally for JoeBiden. Others were pictured with cocktails in restaurants or enjoying a Disney or beach vacation with family or friends. The district used about 40 pages of research about remote teachers during an arbitration hearing last week with the Broward Teachers Union, which challenged the district’s decision to end remote work assignments for most teachers.
“In effort to vaccinate Black Miamians, religious leaders, community groups step up” via C. Isaiah Smalls and Samantha J. Gross of The Miami Herald — State Sen. Shevrin Jones knew churches would be a part of early COVID-19 vaccination efforts. In early January, he orchestrated one of the county’s first vaccination sites at a Pembroke Park church, where his father is the founder and senior pastor. But as vaccine distribution continues to stumble in Florida the West Park Democrat now says church partnerships with state and county governments are more crucial than ever for building trust and getting shots in arms. Statistics show that Black Americans disproportionately lag on vaccination rates, and Miami-Dade County is no exception. Seven of the 10 Miami-Dade ZIP codes with the lowest vaccination rates have majority African-American populations released last Thursday.
“Palm Beach County Commissioners furious about Publix vaccine plan” via Jane Musgrave of the Palm Beach Post — County Commissioners lashed out at the Governor’s decision to put Publix in charge of the county’s coronavirus vaccination program, calling his actions disgusting and insisting it will further complicate the already chaotic rollout. “I’m absolutely, absolutely disgusted that the Governor of this state has 100% taken the authority to administer the vaccination program out of the hands of the public health department and given that authority to a corporate entity,” said Commissioner Melissa McKinlay. At McKinlay’s insistence, Commissioners agreed to write a letter to DeSantis, expressing their dismay that the county health department is no longer getting an allotment of vaccines.
Melissa McKinlay is no fan of Ron DeSantis’ Publix vaccination plans. Image via The Palm Beach Post.
“Naval Air Station Jacksonville cancels April air show due to COVID-19 concerns” via Dan Scanlan of The Florida Times-Union — The U.S. Navy’s Blue Angels won’t be flying high, low and upside down this spring at Naval Air Station Jacksonville. After what it called “careful consideration,” the Navy base canceled the 2021 NAS Jax Blue Angels Air Show set for April 10 and 11. “Department of Defense Health Protection Conditions, as well as guidelines imposed by the Centers for Disease Control, and local civilian authorities, currently prevent execution of the air show,” according to the Navy base. The Blue Angels cut their 2020 air tour short because of COVID-19, so there was no October air show in Jacksonville as in years past.
“Polk ‘paramedic of the year’ arrested, accused of stealing vials of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine” via Fox 13 News staff reports — A paramedic in Polk County has been arrested for allegedly falsifying paperwork for stolen vials of COVID-19 vaccines. The sheriff’s office said a Polk County Fire Rescue paramedic, identified as Joshua Colon, is accused of assisting a fire captain in the theft of Moderna vaccine vials. The agency was directed to administer the COVID-19 vaccines to first responders. While going through paperwork filed by Colon, fire rescue officials noticed discrepancies and contacted the sheriff’s office. Each first responder was required to complete and sign a Florida Health COVID-19 vaccine form, collected by the medical personnel providing the dose. According to Sheriff Grady Judd, Colon falsified those documents.
“Wrestling tournament cited in spread of COVID-19” via The News Service of Florida — An estimated 1,700 in-person school days were lost as a result of COVID-19 isolation and quarantining, and one person died after a two-day wrestling tournament that featured athletes from 10 high schools across three Florida counties. The host county had a 7.7% COVID-19 positivity rate when it hosted the event. The tournament on Dec. 4 and 5 was attended by 130 wrestlers, coaches and referees. Public health officials first learned on Dec. 7 that one of the athletes tested positive for the coronavirus. Ultimately, 54 of the 130 attendees agreed to be tested, and 38 cases of the virus were identified. Public health officials determined that those 38 patients had close contacts with 446 people, most of them at school.
Corona nation
“Joe Biden administration seeks to buy 200 million more vaccine doses, to be delivered through the summer” via Isaac Stanley-Becker, Laurie McGinley and Christopher Rowland of The Washington Post — The Biden administration will seek to buy another 200 million doses of the two coronavirus vaccines that have been authorized for emergency use in the United States. The purchases would increase available supply by 50%, bringing the total to 600 million doses by this summer. Because both vaccines are two-dose regimens, that would be enough to vaccinate 300 million people fully. An estimated 260 million people in the United States are currently considered eligible to receive a coronavirus vaccine, though Pfizer and Moderna have initiated trials for children as young as 12, the results of which could expand the pool.
Joe Biden announces a major boost to the country’s supply of the COVID-19 vaccine. Image via AP.
“U.S. surging vaccine to states amid complaints of shortages” via Jonathan Drew and Zeke Miller of The Associated Press — Answering growing frustration over vaccine shortages, Biden announced the U.S. is surging deliveries to hard-pressed states over the next three weeks and expects to provide enough doses to vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of the summer or early fall. Biden, calling the push a “wartime effort,” said the administration was working to buy an additional 100 million doses of each of the two approved coronavirus vaccines. He acknowledged that states in recent weeks had been left guessing how much vaccine they will have from one week to the next. Shortages have been so severe that some vaccination sites around the U.S. had to cancel tens of thousands of appointments.
“As virus grows stealthier, vaccine makers reconsider battle plans” via The New York Times —As the coronavirus assumes contagious new forms around the world, two drugmakers reported that their vaccines, while still effective, offer less protection against one variant and began revising plans to turn back an evolving pathogen that has killed more than 2 million people. The news from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech underscored a realization by scientists that the virus is changing more quickly than once thought and may well continue to develop in ways that help it elude the vaccines being deployed worldwide.
Corona economics
“The pandemic destroyed 225 million jobs worldwide, but billionaires got richer, reports find” via Jennifer Hassan of The Washington Post — At least 225 million full-time jobs disappeared worldwide last year because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a report published Monday by the International Labor Organization, losses four times worse than those from the global financial crisis in 2009. But the ultrarich have seen their wealth soar. According to another report by the anti-poverty nonprofit group Oxfam, the combined wealth of the world’s 10 richest men has risen by more than $500 billion since the crisis began, enough to vaccinate the entire planet and then some, according to the organization.
Even in a pandemic, the rich get richer. Image via AP.
“Cutting off stimulus checks to Americans earning over $75,000 could be wise, new data suggests” via Heather Long of The Associated Press — As Biden pushes for another round of stimulus payments for most Americans, calls are escalating to target the aid solely to low- and moderate-income families, and new data suggests that would provide the most needed and effective boost for the economy. Families earning under about $75,000 typically spend the money quickly, according to a new analysis of how Americans are using the $600 economic impact payments this month by Opportunity Insights, a nonprofit research organization. Families earning above that threshold typically save the stimulus payment, which provides little help to the overall economy and signals the money was not as urgently needed.
“Rent collection is down, and apartment owners feel the squeeze” via Will Parker and Peter Grant of The Wall Street Journal — The apartment business has weathered the COVID-19 pandemic better than most of the real estate sector. That is starting to change. Owners of multifamily buildings are falling behind on loan payments. Banks view a greater number of rental loans as high risk, and fewer lenders are available to help struggling developers with financing. Eviction protections, lower rent collections and unprecedented declines in the asking rent in some urban markets are also taking their toll on apartment owners. Niche corners of the multifamily business that were popular with investors before the pandemic are now some of the worst off. Rating companies have downgraded bonds tied to senior-housing and student-housing properties.
“Top bankers sound alarm that remote work is starting to grate” via Silla Brush and Francine Lacqua of Bloomberg — Senior bankers warn that working from home is at risk of not working anymore. “I don’t think it’s sustainable,” Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer Jes Staley said Tuesday at the World Economic Forum. JPMorgan Chase & Co.’s asset- and wealth-management boss, Mary Erdoes, agreed. In the corporate world, “if you ask anyone today, it feels like it is fraying, it’s hard, it takes a lot of inner strength and sustainability every single day to continue to focus and to not have the energy you get from being around other people,” she said. Staley said the “ultimate economic challenge” would be when enough workers return to employment to send inflation and interest rates higher, and “governments getting to borrow for free may not continue forever.”
More corona
What Fred Piccolo is reading — “CDC officials say most available evidence indicates schools can be safe if precautions are taken on campus and in the community.” via Roni Caryn Rabin of The New York Times — When to keep schools open, and how to do so, has been an issue plaguing the response by the United States to the pandemic since its beginning. Biden vowed to “teach our children in safe schools” in his inaugural address. On Tuesday, federal health officials weighed in with a call for returning children to the nation’s classrooms as soon as possible, saying the “preponderance of available evidence” indicates that in-person instruction can be carried out safely as long as mask-wearing and social distancing are maintained. But local officials also must be willing to impose limits on other settings to keep infection rates low in the community at large, researchers at the CDC wrote.
Schools can be safe from coronavirus, is the proper precautions are in place.
“Israel’s early vaccine data offers hope” via Isabel Kershner of The New York Times —Israel, which leads the world in vaccinating its population against the coronavirus, has produced some encouraging news: Early results show a significant drop in infection after just one shot of a two-dose vaccine, and better than expected results after both doses. Public health experts caution that the data, based on the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine, is preliminary and has not been subjected to clinical trials. Even so, Dr. Anat Ekka Zohar, vice president of Maccabi Health Services, one of the Israeli health maintenance organizations that released the data, called it “very encouraging.”
“WHO officials: Olympic athletes should not receive COVID-19 vaccines before world’s most vulnerable populations” via Tom Schad of The USA Today — WHO officials indicated they do not believe Olympic athletes should receive priority access to COVID-19 vaccines, particularly if it means cutting ahead of the world’s health care workers and elderly population. During a news conference at the WHO’s headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, a reporter asked if athletes should be prioritized in any way, with a little less than six months until the Tokyo Olympics are scheduled to begin. The question followed recent comments from the president of France’s national Olympic committee, who said it would be “extremely difficult” for athletes who have not been vaccinated to compete.
Presidential
“Judge bars Biden from enforcing 100-day deportation ban” via The Associated Press — A federal judge barred the U.S. government from enforcing a 100-day deportation moratorium that is a key immigration priority of Biden. U.S. District Judge Drew Tipton issued a temporary restraining order sought by Texas, which sued on Friday against a Department of Homeland Security memo that instructed immigration agencies to pause most deportations. Tipton said the Biden administration had failed “to provide any concrete, reasonable justification for a 100-day pause on deportations.” Tipton’s order is an early blow to the Biden administration, which has proposed far-reaching changes sought by immigration advocates, including a plan to legalize an estimated 11 million immigrants living in the U.S. illegally.
“Biden’s climate-change policy targets oil industry” via Timothy Puko, Ken Thomas and Andrew Restuccia of The Wall Street Journal — The oil industry is emerging as a primary target of President Biden’s climate policy, setting the stage for a confrontation that could shape the future of the energy sector. The president is expected to issue an executive order Wednesday that would suspend new oil and gas leasing on federal land, people familiar with the matter say, in what is widely seen as a first step toward fulfilling Biden’s campaign pledge to stop drilling on federal lands and offshore. Drilling on federal lands accounts for roughly 9% of U.S. onshore production, but oil industry leaders see a curtailment on future development as a significant threat.
“Biden wasting no time naming officials to reverse Donald Trump’s immigration policies” via Priscilla Alvarez of CNN — The Department of Homeland Security, largely hollowed out over the last four years, is moving with urgency to staff agencies with people who had front row seats to the hard-line immigration limits rolled out under Trump, to rescind them. The department was closely tied to Trump’s immigration actions and will continue to play a critical role in the coming months and years as those policies are reversed. Over recent days, the department has started to hire staff with extensive backgrounds in immigrant rights, immigration law and refugee resettlement.
Kamala Harris swears in Janet Yellen as Treasury Secretary. Joe Biden is moving quickly to get his nominees in place. Image via AP.
“All border wall construction projects must stop by Wednesday, contractors are told” via Sandra Sanchez and Julian Resendiz of EFLA — All border wall contractors have been notified that they must stop construction by Wednesday to comply with orders from the Biden administration, a South Texas lawmaker told Border Report. U.S. Rep. Henry Cuellar, vice chairman of the Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee, said he was informed that contractors had been told that they must wrap up all operations and stop construction on the border wall along the Southwest border with Mexico by Jan. 27. Although some activity may continue for safety reasons where it is necessary, analysts say. The stoppage complies with Biden’s executive orders that halted all border wall construction on the Southwest border with Mexico.
“Biden orders end of federally run private prisons, says U.S. government must change ‘its whole approach’ to racial equity” via Aamer Madhani of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Biden ordered the Department of Justice to end its reliance on private prisons and acknowledge the central role government has played in implementing discriminatory housing policies. In remarks before signing the order, Biden said the U.S. government needs to change “its whole approach” on the issue of racial equity. He added that the nation is less prosperous and secure because of the scourge of systemic racism. “We must change now,” the President said. “I know it’s going to take time, but I know we can do it. And I firmly believe the nation is ready to change. But government has to change as well.”
Epilogue: Trump
“Marco Rubio, Rick Scott vote to declare Trump’s second impeachment trial unconstitutional” via WFLA — Florida’s two Republican senators voted on Tuesday to declare President Trump’s historic second impeachment trial unconstitutional. The Senate rejected the Republican attempt to dismiss the impeachment trial, a vote that allows the case on “incitement of insurrection” to move forward but also foreshadows that there may not be enough votes to convict him. A total of 45 Republican senators, including Rubio and Scott voted to stop the trial. The procedural vote to set aside an objection from Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul and puts the Senate on record as declaring the proceedings constitutional and means the trial will begin as scheduled the week of Feb. 8. Paul argues that it was unconstitutional to hold an impeachment trial of a former president.
“Most Senate Republicans join Rand Paul effort to dismiss Trump’s 2nd impeachment trial” via Kadia Goba of Axios — Forty-five Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, supported an effort to dismiss Trump’s second impeachment trial. The vote serves as a precursor to how Senators will approach next month’s impeachment trial, making it highly unlikely the Senate will vote to convict. The House impeached Trump for a second time for “incitement of insurrection” following events from Jan 6. when a pro-Trump mob stormed the Capitol. Sen. Paul, a Kentucky Republican, raised a point of order to hold a vote on the impeachment trial’s constitutionality, now that Trump is out of office. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer then asked for a vote to “table” the motion, thus killing Paul’s point of order.
Rand Paul is leading Senate Republicans in calling Donald Trump’s impeachment trial ‘unconstitutional.’
“Ex-Trump conspiracy theory lawyer, Sidney Powell, creates PAC in Palm Beach Gardens” via Christine Stapleton of the Palm Beach Post — Powell, the conspiracy-theorist lawyer who grabbed headlines for filing baseless lawsuits alleging election fraud in the November presidential election, has created a “super” PAC based in Palm Beach Gardens. Paperwork creating the PAC Restore the Republic was filed with the Federal Election Commission on Jan. 22 using the address of a UPS store on Northlake Boulevard. The treasurer is Jesse Binnall, an Alexandria, Virginia, based attorney who partnered with Powell in challenging the election. Powell and Binnall also represented Michael Flynn, the former national security adviser pardoned by then-President Trump after twice pleading guilty to lying to the FBI. In December, Trump reportedly considered naming Powell special counsel to investigate alleged election fraud.
D.C. matters
“Democrats turn to quick action on Biden COVID-19 relief bill after power-sharing deal in Senate” via Erica Werner, Mike DeBonis and Seung Min Kim of The Washington Post — Senate Majority Leader Schumer said the Senate could vote as soon as next week on a budget bill setting the stage for party-line passage of Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief plan. “The work must move forward, preferably with our Republican colleagues but without them, if we must,” Schumer said. “Time is of the essence to address this crisis.” Schumer spoke at a news conference a day after McConnell signaled he would move forward with a power-sharing agreement governing operations of the 50-50 Senate.
“ACA insurance marketplaces to reopen as pandemic has cost millions of Americans their coverage” via Amy Goldstein of The Washington Post — Biden is scheduled to take executive actions as early as Thursday to reopen federal marketplaces selling Affordable Care Act health plans and to lower recent barriers to joining Medicaid. The orders will be Biden’s first steps since taking office to help Americans gain health insurance, a prominent campaign goal that has assumed escalating significance as the pandemic has dramatized the need for affordable health care — and deprived millions of Americans coverage as they have lost jobs in the economic fallout. Under one order, HealthCare.gov, the online insurance marketplace for Americans who cannot get affordable coverage through their jobs, will swiftly reopen for at least a few months.
“Sens. Marco Rubio, Rick Scott renew push to extend oil and gas moratorium in eastern Gulf” via the Northwest Florida Daily News — Florida’s two Republican U.S. Senators, Rubio and Scott, have reintroduced the Florida Shores Protection and Fairness Act in Congress, according to Friday afternoon announcements from their respective offices. The bill would extend the moratorium on oil and gas drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico for 10 years beyond its currently scheduled expiration on June 30, 2022. The bill to extend the moratorium to 2032 would “help solidify the progress made by President Trump’s September 2020 executive actions to protect Florida’s shores,” according to the announcements from the two Senators’ offices. Trump’s executive order, which could be undone, extended the moratorium from its scheduled June 30, 2022 end to 2032.
Rick Scott and Marco Rubio urge a continuation of the offshore drilling moratorium.
Manny Diaz slams Scott for downvoting Alejandro Mayorkas’ nomination — U.S. Sen. Scott voted against advancing Alejandro Mayorkas’ nomination to lead the Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday, earning him a reprimand from newly elected Florida Democratic Party Chair Diaz. Diaz said Scott “faced an easy decision,” but rather than vote in favor, he “again failed the ‘Country over Party’ test.” Diaz said the nay vote was doubly offensive since Mayorkas is “one of the most highly qualified Hispanics ever nominated to the Cabinet. As a Cuban-American, I will not forget his vote today, and neither will Floridians or Hispanics across our state.” Despite Scott’s vote, the nomination cleared the committee and now heads to the full chamber.
Crisis
“From Navy SEAL to part of the angry mob outside the Capitol” via Dave Philipps of The New York Times — In the weeks since Adam Newbold, a former member of the Navy SEALs, was identified as part of the enraged crowd that descended on The Capitol on Jan. 6. Against all evidence that the presidential election was stolen and people like him were right to rise up. It is surprising because Newbold’s background would seem to armor him better than most against the lure of baseless conspiracy theories. In the Navy, he was trained as an expert in sorting information from disinformation. Newbold bought into the fabricated theory that the election was rigged by a shadowy cabal of liberal power brokers who had pushed the nation to the precipice of civil war. No one could persuade him otherwise.
Adam Newbold took an unusual path from Navy SEAL to Capitol rioter.
“D.C. National Guard deployment extended through end of March” via Natasha Bertrand, Lara Seligman and Andrew Desiderio of POLITICO — The deployment for the entire D.C. According to a memo, National Guard has been extended until March 31 in anticipation of “civil disturbance” throughout the nation’s capital. A National Guard spokesperson confirmed the extended deployment. The memo, signed by D.C. National Guard chief Maj. Gen. William Walker and dated Jan. 25, orders troops to remain on duty at least through the end of March “in continued support of District and Federal civil authorities during anticipated First Amendment demonstrations and Civil Disturbance in the District of Columbia.” The new orders suggest that law enforcement agencies in the nation’s capital are preparing for potential unrest in the coming days and weeks, as Trump’s impeachment trial kicks off and his supporters issue threats to lawmakers.
“Coexistence is the only option” via Anne Applebaum of The Atlantic — Not all Republicans are seditionists, nor is everyone who voted for Trump, nor is every conservative: Nothing about rejecting your country’s political system is conservative. Still, those who do hold these views are quite numerous. In December, 34% of Americans said they did not trust the outcome of the 2020 election. More recently, 21% said that they either strongly support or somewhat support the storming of the Capitol building. As of this week, 32% were still telling pollsters that Biden was not the legitimate winner.
Local notes
“Casselberry residents again demand Mark Busch resign following comments at pro-Trump rally” via Martin E. Comas of The Orlando Sentinel — More than a dozen residents spoke out at a Casselberry Commission meeting on Monday, some in support of Commissioner Busch and others demanding that he resign for making comments at a local Trump rally the day before The Capitol riots that seemed to support the violent uprising. But in the end, Busch will remain as City Commissioner and Vice Mayor. He did, however, agree to step down from two city boards. Many residents said Busch’s actions as a Commissioner created a stain on their city’s image. Emily Orey called Busch’s “dangerous actions and words” at that rally “an embarrassment to the city” because he was elected to represent all residents.
Casselberry City Commissioner Mark Busch angered several residents with pro-Trump rhetoric a day before The Capitol riots. Image via News 13.
This is crazy — “Manatee County Commissioner George Kruse reveals affair, accuses Commissioner of blackmail” via Carlos R. Munoz of The Sarasota Herald-Tribune — Kruse opened up about an extramarital affair at a public meeting Tuesday, over fears he could be blackmailed, as the Commissioners voted to pursue firing County Administrator Cheri Coryea a second time. Toward the end of a two-hour-long meeting discussing Sunshine Law concerns, Kruse decided to clear the air about his extramarital relationship to avoid any appearance of impropriety, and because Commissioner Carol Whitmore had photos of him and the person with whom he was involved. Kruse said he made the statement to move forward and apologized for the nature of a meeting held last Friday with Whitmore that raised Sunshine Law concerns.
“Interstate 4 lawsuit details heavy losses, alleged misconduct, builder discord” via Kevin Spear of The Orlando Sentinel — Marked by deaths, delays and driver angst, the massive reconstruction of Interstate 4 also is at a financial abyss, according to a claim by one of the nation’s biggest road builders that it tried to bail out of the job to cut staggering losses but was blocked by the misconduct of the company in charge. A federal suit in Orlando filed by Lane Construction Corp. alleges that the lead contractor, Skanska USA Civil Southeast, has bumbled financial management of the 21 miles of construction and violated fiduciary responsibilities to the determent of partners. The Lane lawsuit bolsters details of the I-4 overhaul under increasing and intense financial distress, with construction partners at sharp odds with each over a financial plunge that, the suit asserts, will continue.
“Moffitt unveils plans for massive Pasco County research and innovation campus” via Veronica Brezina-Smith of the Tampa Bay Business Journal — Moffitt Cancer Center has unveiled the first phase of its campus that will transform part of a major mixed-use development in Pasco County into a massive research and corporate hub. The entire campus will include over 1.4 million square feet of research lab/office, light industrial/manufacturing, general office and clinical building space within the 775-acre site, which Moffitt closed on last year. “This project is truly a game-changer; words cannot fully express the magnitude of this project,” Pasco County EDC CEO and President Bill Cronin said during the Pasco County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday when the plans were revealed.
Top opinion
“‘Unity’ is not what America needs right now” via Syreeta McFadden of The Atlantic — Much has been made of the word “unity” in the past year. After the Capitol attack on January 6, many Republican legislators called for unity, responding to the righteous ire from their fellow lawmakers who demanded investigations, arrests, and impeachment. The unity theme was also a main pillar of the Biden-Kamala Harris campaign, messaging intended to implore the nation to fight for a new future. Unity, for some, is pure sentiment. A quick, uncomplicated cure-all that is achieved merely by being summoned. However, for others, unity calls for hard work and accountability, or it risks granting unearned forgiveness for harmful transgressions, papering over deep injustices.
Opinions
“The Trump era’s depredations are still emerging” via The Washington Post Editorial Board — It may be a long time before all the depredations of the Trump era are known. Two days after former President Trump left office, The New York Times reported that in his final weeks, he plotted to remove the acting Attorney General and replace him with a Justice Department official willing to promote Mr. Trump’s false election fraud claims — and to use the power of the federal law enforcement agency to act on them. The episode, which occurred between December and early January, shows that Mr. Trump pushed the nation even closer to an extreme crisis than we already knew.
“Trump impeachment 2.0 is as flawed as the first” via John R. Bolton in National Review — I have nothing good to say about Trump’s meretricious argument that Biden stole the 2020 election; or Trump’s trying to steal it for himself by frivolous if not fraudulent litigation and administrative proceedings and intimidating elected officials at all government levels; or his inciting violence on Jan. 6 to preclude Congress from fulfilling its duty to certify the Electoral College vote; or Trump’s sundry efforts to convert the Justice Department into his personal law firm (including trying to suppress my recent book, on the pretext that it contained classified information, which it did not). Nonetheless, like Impeachment 1.0, the 2021 edition is badly conceived, poorly executed, and likely to produce precisely what the first round did.
“The impostor behind the curtain is gone, but Republicans are still lost in the land of Oz” via Leonard Pitts Jr. of the Miami Herald — What is it going to take? For years, that question has weighed upon the rest of us — and even some of its own members — as we watched the Republican Party slide ever deeper into a morass of political extremism, screwball conspiracies, alternate facts and ambient rage incompatible with responsible governance. Every time Republicans obfuscated, equivocated and rationalized, every time they broke rules they once swore to uphold, every time they folded, spindled and mutilated values they once claimed as sacred, the question presented itself anew. What’s it going to take to shock this party back to itself? Mind you, we’ve learned a great deal about what will not do it. Public censure won’t. Logic won’t.
“My dad has dementia. Stop hurling it like a political insult” via Scott Maxwell of The Orlando Sentinel — My father was a brilliant lawyer and volunteer swim coach who won his way into the North Carolina high school hall of fame. Today he is practically immobile and can barely speak. “Only ignorant people use the term dementia as an insult.” Those are the words of Edith Gendron, operations chief for Central Florida’s Alzheimer’s & Dementia Resource Center, a nonprofit that helps families struggling down a dark and scary path. Gendron said that using a disorder as an insult is “reprehensible” behavior that feeds into a stigma that prevents some people from seeking a professional diagnosis and even “from sharing their fears with family members until it is too late to be of real help.”
“Florida’s nursing home lobbyists sink to a new low” via Michael Brevda in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — A bill that has already passed its first committee hearings in the Florida House and Senate (HB 7 and SB 72) would protect businesses from lawsuits over coronavirus infections. However, some businesses are, rightfully, not covered by this proposed law. That includes health care providers, nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Under this bill, nursing homes and ALFs are not afforded immunity if they negligently infect residents, harm or even kill them. And yet, Florida’s Republican majority has promised to deliver an immunity bill for nursing homes and assisted living facilities. Why? Why give nursing homes immunity when they’ve handled the COVID-19 pandemic so poorly?
On today’s Sunrise
— After being dissed by the White House over his complaints about vaccine shortages, Gov. DeSantis flip-flops. Instead of getting the greatest number of shots in arms, DeSantis says the state is now withholding COVID-19 vaccines to ensure seniors and health care workers can get a second dose.
— That announcement is a response to Biden’s press secretary, who said Florida had used only half the vaccines provided by the federal government.
— Two Republican lawmakers, furious that Trump was banished from Twitter, filed bills to punish the tech giants … claiming conservatives are being censored.
— The bill targets Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Alphabet … and China.
— The Senate Criminal Justice Committee votes to close a loophole in the sex offender registry law that allowed a convicted child molester to stay off the list by simply refusing to pay his court fine.
— And finally, a Florida Man named paramedic of the year in 2020 is charged with helping his boss steal the COVID-19 vaccine.
What Frank Mayernick is reading — “‘Tenet’ is destined to become a cult movie” via Keith Phipps of The Ringer — Christopher Nolan’s “Tenet” was supposed to save movie theaters. It didn’t. As a trial balloon to determine whether moviegoers would return to theaters to see big movies in the middle of a pandemic, Tenet fell to earth not long after its much-rescheduled North American release on September 3. Tenet’s financial struggles and role as a pandemic bellwether might have been the whole of its story. Tenet now strangely seems well-positioned for a resurgence as a cult movie.
Tenet may not have saved movie theaters, but it might achieve cult status. Image via AP.
“Disney: Masks required at Blizzard Beach but not in the water” via Dewayne Bevil of The Orlando Sentinel — When Disney’s Blizzard Beach water park reopens, visitors will be required to wear face coverings while in some areas, but not when they’re in the water. “Face coverings will be required in designated areas for each guest age 2 and up, including but not limited to the park entrance and exit, retail areas, and food and beverage ordering areas,” the official Disney World website says on a page for experience updates. “Face coverings will not be permitted while experiencing waterslides or in the water.” There will also be reduced capacity, temperature screenings and physical distancing markings at the attraction, scheduled to reopen on March 7. Unlike Disney World’s theme parks, reservations are not required to visit Blizzard Beach at this time.
Super Bowling
“Air Force flyover scheduled for Tampa’s Super Bowl” via Ileana Najarro of The Tampa Bay Times — Look to the Tampa sky during the national anthem performance at the 55th Super Bowl on Feb. 7 to see a first-of-its-kind flyover of three different Air Force bombers. The B-1B Lancer from Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota, the B-2 Spirit from Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri and the B-52 Stratofortress from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota will fly over Raymond James Stadium, demonstrating their flexibility and ability to deploy from anywhere in the world from the continental United States, according to an Air Force press release. “Supporting this event is a tremendous honor for our command and the U.S. Air Force,” said Gen. Tim Ray, commander of the Air Force Global Strike Command in a statement.
“KN95 masks will be handed out to everybody at Super Bowl LV” via Andrew Krietz of WTSP — Face coverings will be required at Super Bowl LV given ongoing concerns over the coronavirus pandemic, and the NFL is making sure no fan will be left without a mask. The league recently announced that every fan would receive a KN95 mask upon entering the stadium. Staff members at Raymond James Stadium will get them too. COVID-19 spreads from person to person through respiratory droplets, and a mask over the nose and mouth provides a barrier from viral particles reaching another person. Fans and employees need to wear a mask unless actively eating or drinking, the NFL said. Vented face masks and face shields that don’t cover the nose or mouth aren’t allowed.
Everyone at Super Bowl LV gets an N95 mask. Image via AP.
“Southwest, American add Kansas City-Tampa direct flights for Super Bowl” via Jay Cridlin of the Tampa Bay Times — Pandemic or not, Kansas City Chiefs fans are coming to Tampa for the Super Bowl against the Buccaneers. And airlines are working overtime to help them get there. American Airlines and Southwest Airlines have added flights between Kansas City International Airport and Tampa International Airport in the days before and after Super Bowl 55 on Feb. 7 at Raymond James Stadium. Southwest, Tampa International’s largest carrier, has added two direct flights from Kansas City on Feb. 4 and three on Feb. 5. There will be three direct flights from Tampa back to Kansas City on Feb. 8 and one more on Feb. 9.
Happy birthday
Celebrating today is our dear friend Laura Boehmer of The Southern Group as well as smart guy Doug Bell of Metz Husband & Daughton, Bryan Eastman, Cory Guzzo of Floridian Partners, and Deno Hicks.
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Good morning. Would never have predicted that merchant marine folk songs, a 79-year-old senator, and GameStop would dominate culture in January 2021…but here we are.
MARKETS
NASDAQ
13,626.06
– 0.07%
S&P
3,849.62
– 0.15%
DOW
30,937.04
– 0.07%
GOLD
1,849.60
– 0.30%
10-YR
1.041%
+ 0.80 bps
OIL
52.75
– 0.04%
*As of market close
Covid-19 updates: In a day of milestones, the world topped 100 million confirmed coronavirus cases, and the UK surpassed more than 100,000 deaths, the smallest country to hit the mark. The Biden administration said it’s ordering 200 million more vaccine doses and speeding up shipments to states.
Markets: The major indexes didn’t move a whole lot yesterday, but today’s earnings slate of Facebook, Tesla, and Apple could produce fireworks.
If you thought a little school outside Boston liked touting its acceptance rate before…just wait for Class of 2025 stats. Applications for the upcoming fall semester are soaring at elite institutions including Harvard (+42%), Yale (+38%), and NYU (+20%). Princeton is also up 15%.
We stan the confidence
Many schools are waiving standardized test requirements, and with fewer campus visits possible, students are gravitating toward trusted names. Plus, more applications → more potential acceptances → more opportunity for students to find the best price.
Zoom out: Undergrad admissions fell 13% last fall when colleges were presented with a different kind of contagious virus than they were used to. As vaccines roll out, prospective freshmen are expecting more normalcy this fall.
Submissions of the Common Application, a standardized app used by 900+ schools, were up 10% as of Friday.
Not everyone’s feeling the love
Admissions are down for many regional or less-competitive schools. The State University of New York (SUNY) reported a 20% drop in applications across its 64 campuses, particularly among its 30 community colleges. Applications across California’s public university system are down 5%.
Common App administrators have also sounded “alarm bells” for students from underrepresented populations.
Financial aid requests were down 11.4% as of Jan. 1, especially from high schools with a higher proportion of low-income, Black, or Hispanic students.
Applications from first-generation students are down 3%.
Is this a tipping point?
If you stare in a mirror and say “college tuition is too high” three times, NYU Prof. Scott Galloway will appear. Last spring, he predicted that, after a short-term dip, top-50 universities would undergo massive expansion…while the rest crumble.
S&P Global agrees. The financial data firm issued its fourth consecutive negative outlook for higher ed and said Covid-19 has exacerbated long-running problems around enrollment and revenue. It expects colleges that were previously struggling will fall further behind.
Looking ahead…schools will be dealing with Covid in some capacity this fall. President Biden has called on federal agencies to set clearer guidance for reopening.
Rosalind “Roz” Brewer is stepping down as the COO of Starbucks and stepping up as the CEO of Walgreens Boots Alliance. Her move is historic: Brewer will be the only Black woman running an S&P 500 company.
As Brewer comes aboard in the spring, Walgreens CEO Stefano Pessina will move to executive chairman.
The CV: With Brewer, Walgreens is getting a retail vet with a reputation for investing in digital operations.
She joined Starbucks after a five-year stint as the head of Walmart-owned Sam’s Club.
Before that, Brewer worked at Kimberly-Clark, the consumer goods giant. Fun fact: She started there as a chemist.
Brewer is a big loss for Starbucks, which was also forced to replace its CFO this month.
Bottom line: Brewer is entering a “plz fix” situation at Walgreens. With the coronavirus taking a sledgehammer to profits, the drugstore chain’s stock fell 29.4% last year…even as the broader Dow index gained 7.3%.
In his highly anticipated annual letter to CEOs, BlackRock chief Larry Fink called on businesses to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 and do their part to keep global warming in check.
Fink can’t technically make companies do anything. But like a parent who controls your allowance (in this case, almost $9 trillion in assets), he effectively can. And he has before:
In 2018, Fink wrote that profit isn’t everything and companies need to think about their social impact.
In 2020, he called for prioritizing sustainability and committed BlackRock to factoring climate risks into investment decisions.
Under the latest directive, BlackRock will create a “temperature alignment metric” to assess funds. Like calorie counts on a menu, the goal nudges investors into (environmentally) healthier decisions, DealBook writes.
If companies don’t take the carrot, they may meet Fink’s stick. Last year, BlackRock put 191 businesses on a watch list and voted against 64 directors and 69 companies for climate-related reasons.
But Fink would argue there’s a better reason to play along: “The more your firms are seen to embrace the climate transition and the opportunities it brings, the more the market will reward your firms with higher valuations.”
The name of the investment game is (and always has been) diversification. And one tool in the investment-diversification toolbox is Fundrise.
Fundrise lets you invest in a low-cost, diversified portfolio of institutional-quality real estate. They combine state-of-the-art technology with in-house expertise to reduce fees and help maximize your long-term return potential.
Fundrise can potentially help you take your investment portfolio to higher levels than the high-rises and private real estate you’ll be investing in. Their intuitive and easy-to-use platform enables you to closely monitor your investments and provides transparent communications around investment progress.
Earnings szn means two things: 1) a CEO’s small talk skills being put to the test and 2) offhand remarks that reveal a lot about the current state of the business world. For example…
American Express CEO Stephen Squeri is bullish on leisure travel: “…As we get into this summer season, this June, July, August and September, you will see a rush for people to travel, especially air travel.”
Johnson & Johnson CFO Joseph Wolk on the vaccine the company is developing: “The fact that we do not require significant refrigeration beyond the norm, as well as being one shot, certainly does play into the label that some outside the company have called it a game-changer.”
GE CEO Larry Culp defending his potential $47 million payout (in a few years, and only if company stock stays above $10 for at least 30 days): “I didn’t take a salary last year once Covid hit. I think we all sacrificed.”
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella on its blockbuster quarter buoyed by growing demand for video games and cloud computing: “What we have witnessed over the past year is the dawn of a second wave of digital transformation sweeping every company and every industry.”
Every Wednesday, we’re going to take a reader-submitted question about business and the economy and do our best to answer it. Ask your question here.
From Miles in Little Rock: Why is the stock market at a record while the economy is tanking?
The Brew’s answer: Hi Miles, it can definitely be disorienting to see the stock market soaring to all-time highs while millions of Americans are out of work because of the pandemic. Here are four possible explanations for the split screen we’re seeing on Wall Street and Main Street.
The stock market is future-looking. Stock prices reflect investors’ expectations of how companies will perform not now but later—for example, Tesla is worth more than many automakers combined because of its long-term growth potential. A roaring stock market means investors are betting on a healthy economic recovery.
The stock market is dominated by huge companies. And many of these huge companies, such as Amazon, Walmart, and Microsoft, benefited financially from the pandemic.
The economy isn’t as bad as we think. Some sectors of the economy, such as manufacturing and the housing market, are posting their best performances in more than a decade.
The stock market could also be wrong. A number of prominent investors say the stock market is all discombobulated because of the historic stimulus measures deployed by the government.
Roz Brewer is stepping down as COO of Starbucks and will reportedly become Walgreens’s CEO. She’d become the only Black woman currently leading a Fortune 500 company.
The GameStop saga continues: The favorite stock of r/WallStreetBets jumped another 92% (and ~50% after hours), as billionaires including investor Chamath Palihapitiya and Elon Musk tweeted excitedly about the company.
President Biden signed executive actions around racial equity, including one that would end the DOJ’s use of private prisons.
Verizon Fios suffered major outages yesterday, leaving many East Coasters without internet.
Beyond Meat stock jumped 18% after it announced a partnership with PepsiCo.
The CEO of a large Canadian casino company quit after it was discovered that he and his wife traveled to a remote community in the Yukon territory, disguised themselves as motel workers, and tried to get a coronavirus vaccine. The community is home to a large indigenous population.
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Today is Mozart’s 265th birthday: To celebrate, treat yourself to his slammin’ overture to the Marriage of Figaro (you’ll recognize it), work to the achingly beautiful flute and harp concerto playing in the background, or watch the brilliant film Amadeus. If you can’t tell, we’re big fans of Herr Mozart.
As Biden’s Cabinet goes through the confirmation process, it is our duty to make sure you know the names of the people in charge of our country’s top departments. How do we do that? With a little trivia.
Can you name Biden’s picks for the following positions?
Treasury Secretary
Secretary of State
Secretary of Defense
Secretary of Transportation
Commerce Secretary
Secretary of Housing & Urban Development
ANSWER
1. Treasury = Janet Yellen
2. State = Antony Blinken
3. Defense = Gen. Lloyd Austin
4. Transportation = Pete Buttigieg aka Mayor Pete
5. Commerce = Gina Raimondo
6. HUD = Marcia Fudge
** A Note From Fundrise
(Here’s all the legal jargon we know you love reading.)
Forty-five Senate Republicans voted Tuesday to dismiss the trial as unconstitutional. The motion failed by a vote of 45-55, enabling the trial to move forward. But it signifies that a critical mass are leery of the trial and underscores the unlikelihood of finding the two-thirds majority needed to convict. For many Republicans, an argument over the legality serves as a process-based justification to acquit Trump.
…
The motion, led by Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was backed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., whose vote could be influential in the outcome. At least 17 Republicans will be needed to convict. But just five voted to proceed with the trial: Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska.
…
Senate Republicans heard from Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington University, who was a GOP witness in Trump’s first impeachment trial. Turley spoke about the “‘Brandenburg test’ for speech,” a reference to the standard established by a Supreme Court ruling on inflammatory speech that incites violence or illegal action, and he added that Turley “said there’s not a chance in hell that you could convict Donald Trump in any court in the land of incitement.”
After being relegated to minority leader, McConnell had pressed [Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer] to promise to preserve the filibuster, a legislative tool that Senate Republicans can use to delay or block bills brought forth by Democrats unless a 60-vote threshold is met. The Kentucky Republican had asked Schumer to provide him with a written pledge not to touch the filibuster, though he dropped the demand after two Democratic senators, Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, assured him they have no intentions to kill the filibuster.
…
The partisan fight over the filibuster put the Senate on pause and prevented Democrats from bringing Biden’s key priorities, including his proposed $1.9 trillion coronavirus stimulus package, to the negotiating table. The relief bill is facing trouble, and the next round of stimulus might not pass until March unless both parties work together to reach a deal sooner.
…
Sen. Bernie Sanders, an independent from Vermont who caucuses with Democrats, has suggested using a tool called budget reconciliation to bypass the 60-vote filibuster requirement and push through legislation with a simple majority of 51. Vice President Kamala Harris would be the tie-breaking vote. McConnell on Tuesday warned that if the filibuster is overridden, his party will reverse every Democratic policy whenever they take back Congress.
State prison systems hold the majority of the roughly 2.3 million incarcerated people in the country. And of the federal prison population, only 15 percent are held in private prisons. [David Fathi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union’s national prison project] noted that Biden’s order will not touch the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the immigration detention system, nor the private contractors the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) uses for other services, such as medical care.
…
CNN also reported that Biden will sign an executive order reinstating Obama-era limits on the transfer of military equipment to local and state law enforcement. The Pentagon’s 1033 program distributes surplus military equipment to police. Thanks to the 1033 program, 1,114 [Mine-Resistant, Ambush-Protected vehicles] are currently in the possession of American police departments.
…
President Donald Trump, who portrayed himself as a staunch ally of the police, rescinded the Obama memo, including tighter reporting requirements, in 2017. The 1033 program is not the most significant federal source of police militarization, though. The program is dwarfed by Department of Homeland Security anti-terrorism grants to local police, as well as shared revenue from property seizures and forfeitures.
Thousands of farmers have been blocking several roads into New Delhi for more than two months demanding the repeal of three laws Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party passed in September as a part of a plan to make India a $5 trillion economy by 2024. But the farmers are worried that the reforms will leave them at the mercy of large corporations that will buy their crops for low prices, leading to their financial ruin.
…
Farmer’s unions had devised a plan for a peaceful march into the capital on Republic Day, which commemorates the signing of India’s constitution. The Indian government had approved a plan for the farmers — who have been protesting for months — to enter the city at noon. But the farmers’ plans went awry when some protesters began marching toward the capital a few hours ahead of schedule, resulting in a face-off with police, who used tear gas and batons to try to turn them back.
…
The farmers, many of whom are Sikhs from India’s Punjab and Haryana states, also entered New Delhi’s historic Red Fort and raised the Nishan Sahib, a flag of importance to India’s Sikh communities. The Joint Farmers’ Front, which represents a number of Indian farmers unions, issued a statement Tuesday condemning the clashes and separating themselves from protesters who engaged in violence.
The CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, told CEOs at its portfolio companies to outline their plans for getting to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and to show that their board of directors has reviewed the plans. [Ben Ratner, senior director of EDF+Business, a partnership between the Environmental Defense Fund and businesses pledging to decarbonize] said that BlackRock’s call for specific plans could prod companies into revealing details that they have so far avoided disclosing.
…
BlackRock last year made waves when it said it would put environmental sustainability at the center of its investment strategy, including divesting from fossil-fuel producers. The move by Blackrock, with a portfolio over $7 trillion, effectively pressures other finance firms to increase their own climate commitments, according to environmental advocates.
…
BlackRock itself has been called out: The firm still owns $85 billion worth of coal-producing stock, thanks to a loophole in its climate pledge, the Guardian recently reported. It has also been blamed for fueling deforestation in the Amazon through its investments in companies that conduct business in Brazil’s most endangered natural resource.
Benedic N. Ippolito, Joseph Levy, and Amit Jain | The JAMA Network
The outbreak of COVID-19 resulted in large-scale, unprecedented deferment of nonurgent medical and surgical care beginning in mid–March 2020. These volume reductions could threaten hospital solvency.
President Dwight Eisenhower gave his farewell speech to the nation 60 years ago, a speech that became famous for one trope — beware the military-industrial complex.
Operation Warp Speed has often been compared to the government’s programs during World War II to mobilize scientific knowledge to accomplish awesome technological feats in short order.
An “analysis, published Monday by the National Bureau of Economic Research, combed through academic literature on the minimum wage and determined that nearly 80 percent of studies conducted since 1992 have found that an increased minimum wage leads to a decrease in the level of employment…
“The effects are particularly pronounced for teenagers, for whom just one study indicates a significant increase in employment, compared with 18 that find a negative and significant effect. This observation is particularly significant given recent research evidence that finds that minimum-wage increases can lead to an increase in property crime, as young and marginally skilled people are pushed out of the labor market and instead commit crimes to get by.” Charles Fain Lehman, Washington Free Beacon
“The Congressional Budget Office looked at what would happen if we were to raise the minimum wage to $15 an hour, and they found that it would reduce the number of jobs in the low-wage labor market by 1.3 million. That’s a reasonable estimate, but I think they’re lowballing it. I think you would see significantly more jobs lost, coupled with a large drop in the number of people getting hired. While we don’t have a lot of evidence on what happens when you raise a minimum wage to $15 an hour, Seattle had pretty severe employment reductions when wages hit $13 an hour. So I think a $15 national minimum wage mandate would be really devastating to the low-wage labor market.” Michael R. Strain, American Enterprise Institute
“When workers make more, who pays for it? Well, some mix of business owners and customers, though the precise blend is disputed. Notably, many low-wage employers, such as discount retailers and fast-food restaurants, serve lots of low-income customers, and most minimum-wage workers do not live in poor households (because, for example, they’re teenagers or second earners). This policy, therefore, doesn’t just transfer money from well-to-do business owners to poor workers, but also from poor customers to middle-class workers…
“If we think people should be paid more, we should subsidize their wages with tax dollars. At least that way we’ll know who’s paying and who’s benefiting before we set the process in motion, we won’t single out the customers and employers of low-wage workers for punishment, and we won’t risk throwing people out of their jobs.” Robert Verbruggen, National Review
“Costs of living vary significantly across the United States… It’s one thing if cities like Seattle and San Francisco, or even states like New York and Illinois want to impose $15 minimum wages on their workers and businesses. If they set minimum wages above market wages, workers and employers who are priced out of the market at least have the option of going elsewhere to earn a living…
“[In Mississippi] the median wage is $15 per hour. That means that half of all workers in Mississippi earn less than $15 per hour, and half earn more. Imposing a $15 minimum wage on Mississippi would be like imposing a $21.24 minimum wage on California, a $24.14 minimum wage on Massachusetts, and a whopping $35.74 minimum wage on DC. A $35.74 minimum wage in DC would have a lot of lawmakers scrambling to run their offices, considering they currently pay many congressional staffers $20 per hour or less…
“Puerto Rico demonstrates the consequences of an excessively high minimum wage. The federal $7.25 minimum wage equals 72% of the island’s median wage of $10.13. That’s forced many people out of employment entirely—the island has an abysmally low 40% labor force participation rate, and over 40% of residents receive Medicaid and food stamps.” Rachel Greszler, Daily Wire
From the Left
The left supports raising the minimum wage.
“[This is] a fight Democrats should be eager to take on… The first reason is that people need it. At an hourly rate of $7.25 you’re making less than $15,000 a year, which is almost impossible for one person to live on, let alone feed and house a family…
“Second, minimum wage increases are incredibly popular. Polls regularly show them supported by clear majorities, and pretty much every time a state minimum wage increase is on the ballot, it passes easily. There have been 23 minimum wage ballot initiatives since 1998, and every one has succeeded. The latest was in Florida this past November, where Trump won but an initiative raising the minimum to $15 an hour passed by over 20 points.” Paul Waldman, Washington Post
“The country’s very low minimum wage comes at a high cost. And for taxpayers, it adds up to more than $100 billion a year. That number comes from a new analysis of safety-net usage by Ken Jacobs, Ian Eve Perry, and Jenifer MacGillvary of UC Berkeley’s Labor Center. It identifies working families with at least one member who would get a raise if the federal minimum wage were lifted to $15 an hour, and finds that the government spends about $107 billion a year on Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), cash welfare, food stamps, and the earned-income tax credit for those families…
“Raising the minimum wage would not just help them escape poverty. It would also help the government’s bottom line.” Annie Lowrey, The Atlantic
Dated But Relevant: “The conventional wisdom held that productivity growth was the only route to higher wages. Through that lens, efforts to negotiate or require higher wages were counterproductive…
“In the real world, things are more complicated. Wages are influenced by a tug of war between employers and workers, and employers have been winning. One clear piece of evidence is the yawning divergence between productivity growth and wage growth since roughly 1970. Productivity has more than doubled; wages have lagged far behind. The point is not that economists were completely wrong. Productivity obviously plays a role in determining wages. McDonald’s cannot pay workers more money than it collects from its customers. But economists were partly and consequentially wrong. Power mattered, too.” Editorial Board, New York Times
“Don’t be persuaded by the argument that companies can’t afford to embrace higher wages. While it’s true that some employers can’t afford to pay more, many can. The 1,000 largest public companies by market value employ tens of millions of people, and the median pay at roughly half of them is below a living wage. As a group, those companies have been more profitable in recent years than ever before and are widely expected to return to record profitability after the pandemic. Paying workers a living wage is a question of willingness, not ability, for much of corporate America…
“Any setbacks in hiring that a higher minimum wage might introduce to poor areas, small businesses or recession-battered companies can be addressed easily with some minor policy tweaks.” Nir Kaissar and Timothy L. O’Brien, Bloomberg
Some suggest, “[1] give low-wage areas a partial exemption from the federal minimum wage — for example, make it $12 instead of $15. That will greatly reduce any danger of unemployment. It might even entice a few employers to shift to the low-wage areas, giving them some much-needed growth… [2] allow the government to lower the minimum wage temporarily in case of a severe recession… [3] allow small businesses to have slightly lower minimum wages… These are not difficult tweaks, and they could help make sure that the $15 minimum wage doesn’t suffer a backlash.” Noah Smith, Bloomberg
A libertarian’s take
“No matter what you think about the recent literature on the minimum wage, all economic theories imply that minimum wages should be decided at the state and local level, given the economic heterogeneity of the United States. That is the message that you as an economist should be carrying forward. Do you think Puerto Rico should be a state? Should they have a $15 minimum wage too? Come on. Yes, it is easy enough to make an exception for them, and by the way the median manufacturing wage in Mississippi is below $15 as well. Rinse and repeat.” Tyler Cowen, Marginal Revolution
🎬 Coming Sunday: “Axios on HBO” season premiere at 6 p.m. ET/PT on all HBO platforms. Watch the trailer.
Today’s Smart Brevity™ count: 1,194 words … 4½ minutes.
💻 Please join Dan Primack tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. ET for an Axios Virtual Event on global financial inclusion, featuring Institute for Women’s Policy Research president and CEO C. Nicole Mason and Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.). Sign up here.
1 big thing: Wall Street’s populist revolt
A popular rebellion, organized by the powerless against the powerful. It may sputter in politics, but it certainly seems to be working on Wall Street:
The market value of gaming retailer GameStop closed at more than $10 billion yesterday, on record volume of more than $26 billion, Felix Salmon and Courtenay Brown write.
📈 “GameStop” was searched more on Google in the U.S. yesterday than “Biden” or “Tesla.”
The winners: A ragtag group of traders from Reddit and TikTok, led by a man calling himself “Roaring Kitty.”
The losers: Hedge-fund short-sellers who are learning — the hard way — the John Maynard Keynes maxim that the market “can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent.”
How it works: Thanks to Robinhood and other stock-trading apps, trading options in GameStop (or BlackBerry, Bed Bath & Beyond or any other smallish company Wall Street traders have bet against) is easy, fun, and carries a commission of exactly $0.
Giant hedge funds like Melvin Capital now find themselves at the mercy of thousands of small investors using the internet to coordinate buying attacks.
The bottom line: Short-selling — betting that a company’s stock will fall — is a crucial element of efficient markets. But, thanks to Reddit, it’s also never been more dangerous.
Wall Street veterans say the newbies’ lack of experience and diversification mean they’ll eventually get crushed by their trades.
So far, however, the small guys are laughing all the way to the bank.
Why it matters: The new hires will reflect a new generation — one that’s addicted to technology, demands accountability and expects diversity to be a priority.
WashPost executive editor Marty Baronannounced yesterday that he’ll retire at the end of the month, following a monumental nine-year run at The Post, and 45 years in journalism.
👀 Sources tell Axios that The Post has eyed both internal and external candidates, including Steven Ginsberg (the Post’s national editor during the Trump administration), former Post managing editor Kevin Merida (now at ESPN) and National Geographic editor in chief Susan Goldberg (who helped lead that newsroom’s digital transformation).
The trend extends to TV newsrooms:
NBC Newstapped Telemundo veteran Cesar Conde to lead MSNBC, CNBC and NBC News. MSNBC vet Rashida Jones will be the first woman of color to lead a major cable news company when she becomes president of MSNBC in February. Susan Zirinsky became the first female president of CBS News in 2019. Suzanne Scott was named Fox News’ first female CEO in 2018.
What to watch: The next big TV newsroom shakeup is expected at CNN, where the network’s boss Jeff Zucker is reportedly eyeing an exit.
N.Y. Times executive editor Dean Baquet is 64, and chatter about his successor is perennial at the paper.
The big picture: Trust in traditional media is at an all-time low in America.
3. Bill and Melinda Gates warn of “immunity inequality”
Bill and Melinda Gates warn today in their foundation’s annual letter about “immunity inequality” — a deadly gap between wealthy people, with access to COVID vaccines, and everyone else, managing editor David Nather writes.
Why it matters: As long as there are large swaths of the world that can’t get vaccinated, it’ll be impossible to get the pandemic under control.
Melinda Gates writes: “Everything depends on whether the world comes together to ensure that the lifesaving science developed in 2020 saves as many lives as possible in 2021.”
Bill Gates calls for the creation of a “global alert system” to detect disease outbreaks as soon as they happen, as well as the use of “germ games” to help train first responders.
🎧 Hear Niala Boohooof “Axios Today” interview Melinda Gates, including her take on why Amanda Gorman, 22, was so inspiring at the inauguration:
She’s a poet, but there are probably another 10,000 of her who have ideas about how to fix the nation. … We need to put young people forward. They see what’s going on in society.
1 year ago today, Axios debuted a map tracking the spread of a novel coronavirus with 2,000 confirmed cases worldwide, mostly in China, and five in the U.S.
Today, the sea of red says it all, health care editor Sam Baker writes:
100 million cases worldwide, led by the U.S. with 25 million.
5. Rebellion against Silicon Valley (the place)
Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Smith Collection/Gado via Getty Images
For the first time, the Bay Area is facing the prospect of losing its crown as the top destination for tech workers and startups, Axios’ Kia Kokalitcheva reports.
Why it matters: With the Bay Area’s housing crisis and mounting quality of life problems bubbling over, many are using the pandemic to move to cities that better suit their lifestyles.
A small-but-vocal group of investors, workers, and entrepreneurs, including Keith Rabois and Joe Lonsdale, have been loudly advertising their exits from the Bay Area and New York, and encouraging others to follow suit.
Miami and Austin are being praised as new tech hotspots.
The next generation of college-educated Americans thinks social media companies have too much power and influence on politics, Stef Kight writes from a survey for Axios by Cyrus Beschloss’ Generation Lab.
A majority of young Democrats (52%) said major tech companies should be regulated more by the government. A plurality of young Republicans (43%) said the same.
Senate President Pro Tem Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), who’ll preside over the second impeachment trial of former President Trump, swears in members of the Senate.
45 Senate Republicans, including Mitch McConnell, voted to dismiss the trial — signaling Trump is likely to be acquitted.
The 5 Rs who joined all Ds: Sens. Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), Mitt Romney (Utah), Ben Sasse (Neb.) and Pat Toomey (Pa.).
⚡ Scoop … Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows joins the Conservative Partnership Institute, a group run by former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint, Alayna Treene reports.
8. Telework’s tax mess
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
Our tax laws aren’t built for telecommuting, and this new way of working could have dire implications for city and state budgets, Axios @Work author Erica Pandey writes.
What’s happening: By and large, Americans owe income taxes where they work. So if a New Hampshire resident is commuting to a Massachusetts-based company, that person will pay taxes to Massachusetts.
The pandemic upended that system. Now, that same New Hampshire resident is following stay-at-home orders and working from home every day. So does that worker owe Massachusetts any tax money?
It’s a huge question that has reached the Supreme Court.
“When We Gather,” envisioned by artist María Magdalena Campos-Pons, includes a three-minute art film, directed by Codie Elaine Oliver (“Black Love”) and narrated by Emmy and Golden Globe winner Alfre Woodard.
The film will remain online through Feb. 15, then will travel to (or be streamed by) museums, libraries, universities and dance groups. Go deeper.
10. 1 smile to go: “Star Wars” stamps coming this spring
Tied to this year’s 50th anniversary of Lucasfilm (Really! Founded 1971), the pane features: IG-11, R2-D2, K-2SO, D-O, L3-37, BB-8, C-3PO, a GNK (or Gonk) power droid, 2-1B surgical droid and C1-10P (Chopper).
The impeachment trial will proceed on Feb. 9, but a procedural vote made it clear that there are not enough votes for now to convict former president Donald Trump over his role in the deadly Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol.
Senate Democrats, lacking the votes to end the filibuster unilaterally, plan to plow ahead with a “bold” agenda, including an increase in the minimum wage, through a budgetary rule that allows some legislation to pass with only 51 votes.
The Biden administration has rescinded a Trump-era policy that had forced migrant families to be separated at the border so that the adults could be prosecuted for unlawful entry.
The Senate on Tuesday defeated a motion by Sen. Rand Paul to halt former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial on the grounds that it is unconstitutional.
Ben Shapiro claims the controversy surrounding his turn as a guest writer of Politico’s Playbook has extended to conservatives slated to follow him in the editorial role.
Israel Defense Forces Chief of General Staff Aviv Kochavi, in a rare public statement about U.S. foreign policy, urged the Biden administration not to attempt to kick-start the Iran nuclear deal.
White House chief of staff Ron Klain sided with teachers unions on Tuesday against reopening schools without providing additional funds to allow for better compliance with social distancing protocols — despite several reports published by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention suggesting that a viable path to reopening schools exists.
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18.) ASSOCIATED PRESS
Jan 27, 2021
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AP MORNING WIRE
Good morning. In today’s AP Morning Wire:
UK suffers ‘tsunami’ of grief as coronavirus deaths pass 100,000.
US boosting vaccine deliveries amid complaints of shortages.
First Biden-Putin call shows both are cautious on major concerns.
India farmers back at protest camp after deep challenge to Modi.
TAMER FAKAHANY DEPUTY DIRECTOR – GLOBAL NEWS COORDINATION, LONDON
The Rundown
AP PHOTO/JON SUPER
UK’s ‘tsunami’ of grief: Coronavirus deaths pass 100,000 as outbreak still rages; Fatalities in UK worse than WWII civilian toll
The United Kingdom has become the first country in Europe to pass 100,000 coronavirus-related deaths as infections around the globe topped 100 million.
For comparison, the United States, with five times Britain’s population, has four times the number of deaths at over 425,000.
“It’s hard to compute the sorrow contained in that grim statistic,” a somber Prime Minister Boris Johnson said at a televised news conference.
Alongside mass deaths comes mass grief, made even more acute by the social distancing measures in place to slow the virus’s spread. Charities and other groups are urging the government to offer more help to deal with this “tsunami” of grief and a surge in mental health problems, Pan Pylas reports from London.
Civilian Deaths: The U.K. has now suffered its worst civilian loss of life since World War II by a significant number. Some 70,000 non-combatants perished during the six years of war, including 40,000 in the 1940-41 Blitz alone. Three quarters of a century later, it’s 100,000 taken by the pandemic, an enemy no less relentless and fearsome than Nazi Germany was then and one whose defeat is still some time away.
One hundred thousand dead. For perspective: That’s just over 3,000 more than witnessed England’s only World Cup triumph in 1966 at Wembley Stadium as “Sunny Afternoon” by The Kinks topped the pop charts. And it’s 30,000 more than the crowd that gathered two decades later at the same famous venue for the Live Aid concert.
AP PHOTO/KATHY WILLENS
US boosting vaccine deliveries in ‘wartime effort’ amid complaints of shortages; Who goes first? Vaccine rollout forces stark moral choices
President Joe Biden says the U.S. is ramping up vaccine deliveries to hard-pressed states over the next three weeks and expects to provide enough doses to vaccinate 300 million Americans by the end of the summer or early fall.
He acknowledged that states in recent weeks have been left guessing how much vaccine they will have from one week to the next. Shortages have been so severe that some vaccination sites around the U.S. had to cancel tens of thousands of appointments.
Biden called that “unacceptable” and said “lives are at stake.”
Americans can expect a sharp contrast from the Trump administration’s briefings, when public health officials were repeatedly undermined by a president who shared his unproven ideas without hesitation.
Moral Dilemma: Oregon teachers are eligible for COVID-19 shots before senior citizens after Democratic Gov. Kate Brown decided to prioritize reopening schools. The decision has outraged older people and underscores the moral dilemma that state and local officials across the U.S. are facing as they decide who’s first in line for the vaccine.
Ethicists say America hasn’t faced such a stark moral calculus in generations. Everyone from the elderly and those with chronic medical conditions to communities of color and front-line workers are clamoring for the scarce vaccine. And each group has a compelling argument for why they should get priority, Gillian Flaccus and Sara Cline report from Oregon.
Parade-less Mardi Gras: You can’t keep a good city down, especially when Mardi Gras is coming. All around New Orleans, thousands of houses are being decorated as floats because the pandemic canceled the elaborate parades usually mobbed by crowds during the Carnival season and on Fat Tuesday. The “house float” movement started almost as soon as a city spokesman announced in November that parades were cancelled, Janet McConnaughey reports.
AP PHOTO/ALEXANDER ZEMLIANICHENKO
First Biden-Putin call shows both cautious on major concerns; GOP largely sides against holding Trump impeachment trial, but can’t halt it
According to the White House, Biden raised concerns about the arrest of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, Russia’s alleged involvement in a massive cyber espionage campaign and reports of Russian bounties on American troops in Afghanistan, Matthew Lee and Jonathan Lemire report.
The Kremlin, meanwhile, focused on Putin’s response to Biden’s proposal to extend the last remaining U.S.-Russia arms control treaty: a five-year extension of the New START nuclear weapons treaty that expires next month has been welcomed by both sides.
While the readouts from Washington and Moscow emphasized different elements, they both suggested that relations will be guided, at least at the beginning of the Biden administration, by a desire to do no harm but also no urgency to repair existing damage.
Unlike his immediate predecessors — including Donald Trump, who was enamored of Putin and frequently undercut his own administration’s tough stance on Russia — Biden has not held out hope for a “reset” in relations with Russia.
Trump Impeachment: All but five Senate Republicans have voted in favor of an effort to dismiss Trump’s historic second impeachment trial. The vote made clear a conviction of the former president for “incitement of insurrection” after the deadly Capitol siege is unlikely. While the Republicans did not succeed in ending the trial before it began, the test vote made clear that Trump still has enormous sway over his party as he becomes the first former president to be tried for impeachment. A two-thirds vote would be required for Trump’s conviction. Trial arguments begin the week of Feb. 8. Lisa Mascaro and Mary Clare Jalonick report.
A week after leaving the White House in disgrace, Trump has taken modest steps to inject himself in the political debate and raise the prospect of political retribution for those who crossed him. Trump’s involvement in national politics so soon after his departure marks a dramatic break from past presidents, who typically leave the spotlight, at least temporarily,
Tens of thousands of farmers who stormed the historic Red Fort on India’s Republic Day are again camped outside the capital after the most volatile day of their two-month standoff left one protester dead and more than 300 police officers injured.
Their brief takeover of the 17th-century fort, which was the palace of Mughal emperors, played out live on Indian news channels. The farmers, some carrying ceremonial swords, ropes and sticks, overwhelmed police. In a profoundly symbolic challenge to Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government, the protesters who stormed Red Fort hoisted a Sikh religious flag.
The U.S. Justice Department has rescinded a Trump-era memo that established a “zero tolerance” enforcement policy for migrants crossing the U.S.-Mexico border illegally, which resulted in thousands of family separations. A new memo was issued to federal prosecutors across the nation, saying the department would return to its longstanding previous policy and instructing prosecutors to act on the merits of the cases. The “zero tolerance” policy meant any adult caught crossing the border illegally would be prosecuted for illegal entry. Because children cannot be jailed with their family members, families were separated and children were taken into custody. It was a massively unpopular policy responsible for the separation of more than 5,500 children from their parents at the U.S-Mexico border.
Indonesia’s most active volcano has erupted with a river of lava and searing gas clouds flowing down its slopes. An Indonesian volcanology official says the eruption set off Mount Merapi’s longest lava flow since the volcano’s danger level was raised in November. The existing warning for people to keep at least 3 miles from the crater was still in effect as authorities monitor the situation. Merapi is on the densely populated island of Java and near the ancient city of Yogyakarta. It is the most active of dozens of Indonesian volcanoes.
The United States says all soldiers from Eritrea should leave Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region immediately. A State Department spokesperson in an email to the AP cites credible reports of looting, sexual violence, assaults in refugee camps and other human rights abuses. The spokesperson says there is also evidence of Eritrean soldiers forcibly returning Eritrean refugees from Tigray to Eritrea. It reflects new pressure by the Biden administration on the government of Ethiopia, Africa’s second most populous country, and other combatants as the deadly fighting in Tigray nears the three-month mark. The U.S. stance shifted dramatically from the conflict’s start when the Trump administration praised Eritrea for its restraint.
As more Lebanese fall into poverty in the country’s economic crisis, increasing numbers are turning to the financial arm of the militant Hezbollah group for help. The Hezbollah-run organization known as al-Qard al-Hasan provides small, interest-free loans in dollars at a time when Lebanese are desperate for hard currency and commercial banks are not lending. The organization says it has seen a significant jump in clients in the past year. It’s a sign of how Iranian-backed Hezbollah entrenches its role among Lebanon’s Shiite Muslims even as the group comes under enormous criticism from other Lebanese furious at their leadership.
In lighter news, although the winter storm Monday didn’t live up to originally forecast expectations, the storm did drop snow across the Chicago area. Use our map here to see how much it snowed in your area. And, if you want to share photos of your snowy day, or look at what other readers submitted, check out our photo gallery.
Here’s more coronavirus news and other top stories you need to know to start your day.
Chicago Public Schools will halt in-person classes Wednesday as the city makes a last push to reach a deal with its teachers union to reopen schools for elementary students on Monday.
Without an agreement despite months of talks and several delays, the Chicago Teachers Union said its members will still refuse to report to schools and will strike if CPS locks teachers out of remote classroom platforms. It would be their second strike in less than two years.
A handful of Cook County public defenders received a COVID-19 vaccine at the Cook County Jail this week unbeknownst to leaders of the Cook County state’s attorney’s office who told the Tribune they had no idea public defenders were in talks to possibly be designated for earlier inoculations.
U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney on Tuesday accused fellow Republicans of fomenting political division by perpetuating the myth that massive voter fraud denied Donald Trump reelection, and said unity will be difficult to achieve without acknowledging Democratic President Joe Biden won a fair contest.
Romney, in a livestreamed interview with Minnesota Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar on behalf of the Economic Club of Chicago, also said he shared hopes that the Jan. 6 uprising at the nation’s capital might lead to more bipartisanship but said there’s been no sign of any change in rhetoric.
Every police officer in Illinois would be required to wear a body camera by 2025 as part of a massive criminal justice overhaul state lawmakers approved this month, but a lack of additional funding to help agencies pay for equipment and the absence of penalties for those that don’t raises questions about whether the legislation will achieve its ambitious goal.
It might be a new year with a new president, but one thing remains the same: Chicagoans will always eat more pizza. Perhaps the pandemic has us all craving the comfort of dough, sauce and melted cheese. If that’s you, then check out these seven new spots.
Imprisoned Gangster Disciples founder Larry Hoover, who says he’s no longer involved with the gang and is asking for an early release from his life sentence, promoted two men to top posts in the gang while locked up in a federal “super-max” prison in Colorado, according to an indictment unsealed Monday in East St. Louis.
The indictment says the two men threatened to kill anyone who challenged their authority and, on May 18, 2018, shot and killed a rival Gangster Disciples board member on the South Side of Chicago. Frank Main and Jon Seidel have the story…
The Chicago Teachers Union told workers to refuse to report in person Wednesday after failing to come to an agreement with the district over reopening conditions this week.
The Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards approved an ordinance officially granting that designation for the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley House in West Woodlawn, forwarding it on to the City Council.
The mayor had cited funding, officer security and other concerns in opposing the project. But the Committee on Public Safety OK’d the $250,000 crime-fighting experiment anyway.
Restaurants and bars that serve food have now been cleared to reopen at limited capacity in 10 of the state’s 11 regions as infection rates are down to their lowest levels in three months.
Correction: Yesterday’s issue of Morning Edition included a story that stated Chicago’s snowfall had reached 7 inches by Monday morning. By that time, O’Hare International Airport had recorded just over 3 inches of snow.
Welcome to The Hill’s Morning Report. It is Wednesday! We get you up to speed on the most important developments in politics and policy, plus trends to watch. Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver are the co-creators. Readers can find us on Twitter @asimendinger and @alweaver22. Please recommend the Morning Report to friends and let us know what you think. CLICK HERE to subscribe!
Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported each morning this week: Monday, 419,215; Tuesday, 421,129; Wednesday, 425,216.
President Biden said on Tuesday that the administration wants to purchase an additional 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine, which could provide enough doses for nearly every American to get inoculated by the end of the summer.
Continuing his focus on the pandemic, Biden said the government is seeking to purchase 100 million doses from Pfizer and 100 million from Moderna in addition to the 400 million combined doses the companies had already committed to providing to the United States. The president said the administration expects to be able to confirm an agreement soon (NBC News).
“It will be enough to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans to beat the pandemic,” Biden said.
The purchase would ease the country’s reliance on additional vaccines from other manufacturers, which are expected to come on line for emergency use and sales soon. Johnson & Johnson said it will release data for its single-dose vaccine in the coming days. Projections for available new vaccine supplies were not possible in December, according to current and former federal officials, because of uncertainty about manufacturing and instability in the supply chain, The Washington Post reports.
Jeff Zients, coordinator of the White House’s coronavirus response, told governors on Tuesday that federal allocations of coronavirus vaccine doses to states and other jurisdictions are expected to increase by about 16 percent next week, easing shortages that have intensified nationwide. The decision does not fully alleviate current supply problems. The weekly allocation is forecast to go from about 8.6 million doses to about 10 million doses (The Washington Post).
The Hill: Biden to take action on ObamaCare, Medicaid.
The Washington Post: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention finds scant spread of coronavirus in schools with precautions in place.
CNBC: AstraZeneca defends slow supplies to the European Union, but says it ordered doses three months later than United Kingdom.
The Associated Press: International Olympic Committee, Tokyo Olympics to unveil rule book for beating pandemic.
Also on Tuesday, Biden — who was criticized during the 2020 primary contest for his role as a senator in enacting tough-on-crime laws that disproportionately locked up a generation of Black men — signed orders and directives focused on racial equity and criminal justice. Civil rights groups and advocates are pressing for more (The Washington Post).
The Hill: Biden directs the Justice Department to phase out private prisons, and Susan Rice (pictured below), his White House domestic policy adviser, said the president’s racial equity initiatives are “essential” to economic growth (Fox News).
The Hill: Five things to know about Biden’s racial equity executive orders.
NBC News: The Biden Justice Department on Tuesday officially rescinded the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” immigration program, which previously resulted in the separation of more than 3,000 migrant families. The largely symbolic move officially removes the policy from the Justice Department’s guidance to federal prosecutors and instructs prosecutors to use discretion when prosecuting misdemeanor border offenses.
Also on Tuesday, a federal judge in Texas blocked for 14 days Biden’s deportation freeze following a legal challenge in the Lone Star State. The ruling is effective nationwide and represents a swift legal setback for the president’s immigration agenda, which he is expected to expand this week (Reuters).
> Today, Biden is expected to announce a new temporary suspension of oil and gas leasing on federal lands and waters, and order that nearly a third of federally run acreage is conserved for the next decade. The president’s orders will impact mostly Western states, as well as offshore drilling acreage located mainly in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico. Tribal lands, which host significant reserves of oil and gas, will not be included in Biden’s executive actions (Reuters).
> Biden for the first time as president spoke on Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a delicate diplomatic opener in which the 46th president aims to be tougher, more transparent and more effective than was his predecessor on a host of issues, including a New START nuclear agreement. Biden met Putin years ago as vice president (CNN and The Associated Press).
> Secretary of State Antony Blinken (pictured below) got to work on the diplomatic puzzle with Russia and a pileup of other challenging international issues when he became the nation’s 71st secretary of State late on Tuesday. The Senate voted 78 to 22 to confirm Biden’s longtime adviser to lead Foggy Bottom, where he began his career, and he was sworn in immediately (The Associated Press). The Senate has also cleared Cabinet leaders at Treasury and the Pentagon and to coordinate national intelligence (The Hill).
The Hill: Biden’s cyber priorities zero in on Russian hack.
Biden this week has been seen and heard and has answered questions from the White House press corps. His West Wing communications advisers, all of whom are women, are eager to have the president speak regularly to the public (The Hill). Coronavirus-related press briefings conducted via Zoom by government experts, which are now expected to occur three times a week, begin this morning. “Any questions you have, that’s how we’ll handle them because we’re letting science speak again,” Biden said (The Associated Press).
CONGRESS & IMPEACHMENT: Just five senators on Tuesday balked at conservative colleagues who declared former President Trump’s upcoming impeachment trial unconstitutional, signaling the Senate is far, far away from the 67 votes needed to convict Trump on a House charge of inciting an insurrection. This was not a surprise. Seventeen Republican senators would need to join every Senate Democrat to convict Trump, who left office on Jan. 20.
Only five GOP senators rejected an effort by Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky to declare a Trump trial, set to begin the week of Feb. 8, unconstitutional because Trump is no longer president. The five who did not support Paul’s point of order: GOP Sens. Mitt Romney (Utah), Ben Sasse (Neb.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Pat Toomey (Pa.), who is retiring from Congress next year (The Hill).
The Hill and Axios: Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) and Collins pitch Senate colleagues on a Trump censure option.
Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio), who plans to leave the Senate in 2022, supported Paul’s push to debate whether a president who has left office can be convicted on an impeachment indictment under the Constitution. The question of constitutionality and process is central to Senate Republicans’ answer to the article of impeachment received from the House on Monday. Portman says Trump’s words and actions contributed to a violent mob that breached the Capitol on Jan. 6.
“I do have questions about the constitutionality of holding a Senate trial and removing from office someone who is now a private citizen,” he added in a statement. “Today I voted for allowing debate on this issue. … I will listen to the evidence presented by both sides and then make a judgment based on the Constitution and what I believe is in the best interests of the country.”
Constitutional law professor Jonathan Turley, an opinion contributor with The Hill, met with senators on Tuesday to argue a Trump trial is unconstitutional. It’s a line of thinking that is in dispute in the legal community but that is becoming a shield for Republican senators who want to vote to acquit Trump for the second time in a year (The Hill and NBC News).
The Hill’s John Kruzel reports why the trial’s presiding officers will not include Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts. His decision to decline the invitation to be the presiding officer, after spending weeks in that role last year, may reflect his long-stated aim to keep the high court out of the political fray. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), the 80-year-old president pro tempore of the Senate who is expected to preside over the trial in two weeks, briefly went to a D.C. hospital on Tuesday as a precaution after complaining he felt ill. He went home after some tests (The Hill).
The Senate, now narrowly under Democratic control, faces a busy spring and summer. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told colleagues on Tuesday that the upper chamber next week could begin to pave the way for reconciliation on proposed COVID-19 legislation sought by Biden. The reconciliation budget tool takes time and requires a simple majority for final passage rather than a 60-vote threshold (The Hill).
Politico: Senate GOP braces for more retirements after Portman stunner.
POLITICS: Campaign finance experts are increasingly skeptical that companies that have vowed to freeze political contributions to GOP lawmakers who objected to the electoral results on Jan. 6 will move ahead with those pledges in the coming months in a way that makes a difference.
As The Hill’s Alex Gangitano writes, Fortune 500 companies including Amazon and Comcast announced a halt to giving monies to that group of Republicans following the deadly mob attack on the Capitol, decrying attacks on the democratic process and peaceful transition of power. However, a number of companies and organizations left wiggle room for corporate PACs to provide indirect financial support or resume direct support for those Republicans.
When contacted, more than half a dozen companies that took a public stand this month declined to comment on if they would commit to a permanent ban on donations to the GOP lawmakers, despite earlier condemnations of the “direct assault” on the peaceful transition of power and the “appalling” violence exhibited three weeks ago. Whether these companies remain on the sidelines later in the 2022 midterm cycle remains the main question.
“Honestly I am dubious that it will last … Our current system is pay-to-play politics, and most companies are eager to pay the price of admission because the federal government has such power over their bottom line,” said Meredith McGehee, executive director of Issue One, a group that advocates for campaign finance reform.
Politico: A top MAGA gathering finds life complicated after Trump.
> Big Tech: Nearly three weeks after Trump was booted from Twitter for good, with other prominent right-wingers following suit, conservatives have leaned into the idea that they’re being silenced by technology giants and corporate media conglomerates, an argument that resonates with a grassroots base that is deeply angry over how Trump was treated when he was in office.
As The Hill’s Jonathan Easley writes, critics note that many of those making claims about censorship have massive platforms and continue to amplify them today on Twitter and via other methods.
> States & territories: Top officials in Puerto Rico say they believe they can make progress toward statehood after voters on the island approved a statehood referendum and now that Democrats control Congress and the White House (The Hill). … Maryland: Former Democratic National Committee Chairman Tom Perez is taking a look at a possible gubernatorial bid in a blue state adjacent to Washington, D.C., which is governed by popular term-limited Gov. Larry Hogan (R) (Politico).
Does Biden want a bill or an issue? by William Galston, columnist, The Wall Street Journal. https://on.wsj.com/3poCnlb
The teachers’ unions’ ransom demand, by National Review senior editorial staff. https://bit.ly/3qUVN1v
WHERE AND WHEN
The House meets at 9 a.m. on Thursday.
TheSenate meets at 10:30 a.m. The Foreign Relations Committee holds a confirmation hearing at 10 a.m. to consider Linda Thomas-Greenfield to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations. The Committee on Veterans’ Affairs holds a confirmation hearing at 3 p.m. to consider Denis McDonough to be secretary of the Veterans Affairs Department.
The president and Vice President Harris will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9:30 a.m. At 11:45 a.m., Harris will ceremonially swear in Blinken. Biden, with Harris in attendance, will speak about climate change and sign executive actions at 1:30 p.m. in the State Dining Room.
The White House press briefing is scheduled at 12:15 p.m. It will include John Kerry, special presidential envoy for climate, and national climate adviser Gina McCarthy.
The Federal Reserve concludes a two-day meeting with a statement and news conference by Chairman Jerome Powell at 2 p.m..
👉 INVITATIONS: The Hill Virtually Live hosts events as the new administration gets underway: TODAY at 11:30 a.m.: “Relief to Recovery: What’s Next for Small Business?” The discussion features Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), a member of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee, and Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-Mo.), with the House Financial Services Committee and Subcommittee on Consumer Protection and Financial Institutions. Register HERE.
Also TODAY, Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious diseases expert, joins The Hill’s “Challenge of Our Time: The COVID-19 Vaccine” at 1:15 p.m. to discuss vaccine manufacturing. A second expert panel at 2:30 p.m. will discuss distribution. The first panel in addition to Fauci features Francis Collins, director, National Institutes of Health; Mikael Dolsten, chief scientific officer at Pfizer; Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), chairwoman, House Committee on Science, Space and Technology; Soumya Swaminathan, chief scientist, World Health Organization; and Leana Wen, emergency physician and visiting professor, George Washington University Milken Institute School of Public Health.
Here’s the second panel today: Susan Bailey, president, American Medical Association; John Banovetz, chief technology officer, 3M; Mayor Sharon WestonBroome (D), Baton Rouge, La.; John Brownstein, chief innovation officer, Boston Children’s Hospital; Sree Chaguturu, chief medical officer, CVS; Daniel Dawes, director, Satcher Health Leadership Institute; Peter Hotez, co-director, Center for Vaccine Development, Texas Children’s Hospital; Margaret Moss, associate professor in nursing, University of British Columbia; Jay Timmons, president and CEO, National Association of Manufacturers; Wes Wheeler, president, UPS Healthcare; and Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), member, House Ways and Means Committee. Register HERE.
➔ TECH: Amazon on Tuesday rolled out plans to add more than 3,000 additional corporate and technology jobs in Boston in the coming years as the tech and consumer giant expands its footprint in the city. In a press release, Amazon said the jobs will be added across a number of support teams with the company, including Alexa, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Amazon Robotics and Amazon Pharmacy. The jobs will also include roles in software development, artificial intelligence and machine learning, as well as other support roles in management, finance and other departments (The Hill).
➔ MEDIA: Washington Post Executive Editor Marty Baron, who has led the paper for eight years through 10 Pulitzer Prizes, announced on Tuesday that he will retire at the end of February. A successor has not been named (The Washington Post). … Larry Kudlow, the former director of the National Economic Council under Trump, was tapped by Fox Business Network to host a new weekday program and to serve as an economic analyst for the channel. Before his time at the White House, Kudlow was a regular on CNBC, having hosted a number of shows, including “The Kudlow Report” (Deadline).
➔ SPORTS: The National Baseball Hall of Fame announced on Tuesday that no one will be inducted into the Class of 2021. No players cracked the needed 75 percent support as voted on by the Baseball Writers’ Association of America (BBWAA), the first time this has happened since 2013. Curt Schilling, three-time World Series champion and an outspoken Trump supporter, was the top vote-getter with 71.1 percent, falling only 16 votes short of enshrinement. Schilling, who was slated to appear on his 10th and final BBWAA ballot next year, requested shortly after to have his name removed from the writers ballot and leave his fate to a veterans committee (ESPN).
THE CLOSER
And finally … The Pacific Northwest is considered by some enthusiasts to be the most likely area in which to spot a sasquatch (remote forests being an unproven but rumored hideout). But Oklahoma boasts an annual Bigfoot festival near the Arkansas border, and the state’s tourism revenues benefit from the hairy, woodsy version of the Loch Ness monster. That’s why Justin Humphrey, a Republican state representative whose district includes the heavily forested Ouachita Mountains in southeast Oklahoma, introduced a bill that would create a Bigfoot hunting season with a state hunting license and tag. However, the Oklahoma Department of Wildlife Conservation, which oversees hunting in the state, appears unmoved by myth. Micah Holmes, a spokesman, told television station KOCO that the agency uses science-driven research and does not recognize Bigfoot (The Associated Press).
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President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that COVID-19 vaccine supplies to states will increase by 16 percent next week, from 8.6 million to 10 million doses per week. “This is going to allow millions more people to get vaccinated,” Biden said in a national address. “We have a long way to go, though.” Read More…
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25.) POLITICO PLAYBOOK
POLITICO Playbook: McConnell retreats as Trump dominates the GOP civil war
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DRIVING THE DAY
There are two big arguments dominating American politics right now. Democrats are currently in disarray trying to figure out the future. The questions they have are about how bold they should be in using their new powers: More stimulus? Use reconciliation? Kill the filibuster? Abandon outreach to Republicans?
Republicans are mired in a debate about the past: what to do about DONALD TRUMP. The all-consuming conversation about this single political actor is eclipsing everything else on the right: policy debates, political strategy, the advancement of fresh faces.
The spate of threatened primary challenges ripping the party apart are uniformly about loyalty to Trump. The state-level intra-party spats that have made headlines in Arizona, Kentucky and Oregon are not about raising up the best political strategists to steer the local parties forward; they are about condemning Republicans who have criticized Trump. The GOP’s potential 2024 aspirants are frozen in place, still being asked to respond to every scrap of Trump news and stuck in an endless cycle of politicalcalculation about whether it’s safe to unyoke themselves from him.
MITCH MCCONNELL— Mitch McConnell! — suggested he’d finally had enough when, in his words, a “mob” of protesters that “was fed lies” stormed Congress after “they were provoked by the president.” McConnell, the NYT reported, “has concluded that President Trump committed impeachable offenses and believes that Democrats’ move to impeach him will make it easier to purge Mr. Trump from the party.” He never said it out loud, but his team conspicuously declined to contradict the report (and still hasn’t — we checked Tuesday night), and he seemed to be signaling that it was safe for Republicans to contemplate convicting Trump. A window opened for the GOP to rid itself of the former president.
A week later everything has changed again. Most Republicans have moved on from their brief moment of reflection about why Jan. 6 happened and replaced those concerns with fears about the left using the event to crush anyone who ever supported Trump. Exhibit A, in their view, is Big Tech’s deplatforming campaign, and Exhibit B is impeachment.
McConnell was quickly drowned out by the same populist forces that have convulsed America — and that he has struggled to control — for five years. Rep. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-Ga.) unironically said that the “vast majority” of Republicans “are no longer loyal to the GOP” but that their “loyalty now lies with Donald J. Trump.” Rep. MATT GAETZ (R-Fla.) is on his way to Wyoming to troll Rep. LIZ CHENEY (R-Wyo.) and declared that impeachment was just a part of left-wing cancel culture.
On Tuesday, when Sen. RAND PAUL (R-Ky.) forced a vote on whether the trial was legitimate, all eyes turned to McConnell. He voted with all but five of his Republican colleagues in favor of Paul’s objection declaring that the trial was unconstitutional.
Our latest POLITICO-Morning Consult poll has fresh data that underscores what McConnell faced:
—Over half of Republican voters (56%) believe that Trump should either probably or definitely run for president again in 2024. Just over a third of Republican voters (36%) think he probably or definitely should not.
—Republicans and Republican-leaning independent voters are closely split between the Republican Party and the notional Patriot Party that Trump recently floated. A third (33%) said they are more interested in being a member of the Republican Party, and 30% said they would be more interested in being a member of the Patriot Party. A small share (11%) expressed interest in neither party.
McConnell made a point of telling reporters Tuesday that the last time he spoke to Trump was way back on Dec. 15. He declined to answer a question from CNN’s MANU RAJU about whether he believed Trump’s actions were impeachable. So perhaps the window McConnell opened is not fully closed.
FOGGY BOTTOM BLUES: When Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN arrives at Foggy Bottom today to take the helm, he’ll be greeted by a staff of career diplomats feeling beaten down after four years under Trump. Many of them are growing doubtful they’ll be elevated to higher positions despite President JOE BIDEN’S campaign promise to dramatically improve how they’re treated.
Not a single career official was named in the first wave of top appointments that require Senate confirmation. While some in the new administration point to UZRA ZEYA and VICTORIA NULAND as longtime former career officials who have been nominated for undersecretary posts, others note that they left government rather than sticking around through the Trump years.
“None of the people who were there for the last four years, who understand how the world has changed, will be in the room when the big decisions were being made,” says BRETT BRUEN, who before becoming a consultant served on the Obama National Security Council.
The Biden administration has quickly filled 100 of the 150 political appointments that were vacant, which may be adding to the feeling that the department is being taken over by political appointees. And it hasn’t gone unnoticed that the top three positions at State — secretary, deputy secretary and undersecretary for political affairs — have gone to political appointees. It’s the first time since 1997 that’s been the case.
The State Department is expected to announce soon that a number of career officials will be promoted to top jobs. In the meantime, though, we’re hearing some grumbling that the initial round of appointments are a slight to hardworking rank-and-file officials. In the past, they’ve seen expertise and years of service trumped by outsiders and monied donors who end up in top ambassadorships in places like Western Europe.
“The diplomatic corps has been battered and bruised,” said a U.S. diplomat. “Why not come explain your thinking? I’m prepared for disappointment and under-delivering from this team. I don’t expect huge improvements unfortunately.”
A Blinken spokesperson told us: “Under Secretary Blinken’s leadership, career experts will always be at the center of our diplomacy, and he is committed to ensuring that they will help to lead it by serving in many of the Department’s most senior positions.”
BIDEN’S WEDNESDAY — The president and VP KAMALA HARRIS will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9:30 a.m. Then Biden will speak about climate change, job creation and scientific integrity at 1:30 p.m. in the State Dining Room, with Harris attending. Press secretary JEN PSAKI will be joined by Special Presidential Envoy for Climate JOHN KERRY and National Climate Adviser GINA MCCARTHY at her 12:15 p.m. briefing.
— Harris will also swear in Blinkenas secretary of State at 11:45 a.m.
PLAYBOOK READS
CPAC STRUGGLING — Another example of GOP difficulties navigating the aftermath of Trump’s loss: “For decades, the Conservative Political Action Conference has been a staple of Republican politics. In recent years, the conservative confab has been the go-to stop for rising GOP stars, grassroots organizers, and luminaries in the Trump movement. But President Donald Trump’s election loss has created hurdles around programming and guest booking,” report Gabby Orr and Daniel Lippman.
“Stringent coronavirus guidelines in Maryland have pushed the conference outside of the Washington, D.C. area for the first time in nearly 50 years. Previous sponsors aren’t yet committed or have decided to forego sponsorship entirely due to changes to the event’s format or disappointment in the return on their investment last year. And the president that attendees adored so much may not show up to the event at all.”
UP ON CAPITOL HILL
BIPARTISAN COVID TALKS — REAL OR FOR SHOW? There’s been a lot of talk in recent days about the White House trying to win Republican support for Biden’s Covid relief plan. But despite outreach to groups like the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus and the 16 moderates in the Senate, Democratic leaders are preparing to move ahead on reconciliation. Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER said that he’d put a budget on the floor as early as next week. The House will do the same. Those are the first steps to unlocking the fast-tracking tool.
But will moderates who’d prefer to negotiate with Republicans — including Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) — be OK with it? With a 50-50 Senate, Schumer can’t lose a single Democrat. “I’ll guarantee you I can sit down with my Republican friends and find a pathway forward,” he told Burgess Everett. “Let me try first.”
Our sources are also wondering whether Manchin will balk at the $1.9 trillion price tag of Biden’s relief package, making it difficult for Democrats to move quickly.
MINIMUM WAGE FIGHT BREWING — Here’s another Democratic fault line to keep an eye on: Sen. BERNIE SANDERS (I-Vt.), who chairs the budget committee, wants to use reconciliation to push through a $15 minimum wage as part of Biden’s coronavirus proposal. Technically, reconciliation can only be used to make fiscal policy changes that significantly alter federal revenues or spending. Sanders thinks Dems can fudge that rule, but doing so could change Senate rules from here on out — and potentially empower Republicans to try something similar down the line.
It’s already making some Democrats nervous. “I’m not sure it’s the smartest thing to do,” House Budget Chair JOHN YARMUTH (D-Ky.) told our colleagues. But if Democrats don’t try to jam this through with reconciliation, it will never clear the Senate’s 60-vote threshold.
SEN. CORY BOOKER (D-N.J.) will meet with MERRICK GARLAND today. The meeting comes on the same day that Booker and Sen. DICK DURBIN (D-Ill.) are introducing a new plan to eliminate the sentencing disparity for Americans convicted of crack versus powdered cocaine. Garland’s views on racial justice issues are not well known compared with other potential candidates Biden could have picked for A.G., and Booker, who like Durbin sits on the Judiciary Committee, is sure to press the issue when they chat later via Zoom.
McCarthy’s spokesman Mark Bednar told Axios the leader plans to have a talk to Greene about this: “These comments are deeply disturbing and Leader McCarthy plans to have a conversation with the Congresswoman about them.” But critics of McCarthy will be quick to remind people that the leader — unlike some of his GOP colleagues — did little to keep Greene from winning her primary at a time when others tried to stop her election.
THE PANDEMIC
BIG NEWS — “Biden administration to buy 200 million more doses of Covid vaccine,”by Adam Cancryn and Rachel Roubein: “Federal officials negotiating for the new supply expect to receive 100 million doses each from Moderna and Pfizer, in deals set to boost the nation’s total vaccine capacity to 600 million. That would give the U.S. the ability to eventually vaccinate up to 300 million Americans, President Joe Biden said on Tuesday.”
TRACKER: The U.S. reported 3,734 Covid-19 deaths and 144,000 new coronavirus cases Tuesday.
BIDEN’S WHITE HOUSE
PAGING NETANYAHU — “Biden Will Restore U.S. Relations With Palestinians, Reversing Trump Cutoff,”NYT: “The Biden administration will restore diplomatic relations with the Palestinian Authority, more than two years after President Donald J. Trump effectively ended them. The action signals a return to a more traditional and evenhanded approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict after a Trump administration policy that was heavily slanted toward Israel.”
NEW SHERIFF IN TOWN — “First Biden-Putin call shows both cautious on big concerns,”AP: “According to the White House, Biden raised concerns about the arrest of opposition figure Alexei Navalny, Russia’s alleged involvement in a massive cyber espionage campaign and reports of Russian bounties on American troops in Afghanistan. The Kremlin, meanwhile, focused on Putin’s response to Biden’s proposal to extend the last remaining U.S.-Russia arms control treaty.”
INVESTIGATIONS UPDATE PART I — “Probe of Capitol riot swells further,”by Josh Gerstein: “Law enforcement has identified more than 400 suspects and has brought federal criminal charges against over 150 people for actions related to the storming of the Capitol.”
INVESTIGATIONS UPDATE PART II — “Proud Boys Under Growing Scrutiny in Capitol Riot Investigation,”NYT: “The leadership of the Proud Boys has come under increased scrutiny as agents and prosecutors across the country try to determine how closely members of the far-right nationalist group communicated during the riot at the Capitol this month… At least six members of the organization have been charged in connection with the riot, including one of its top-ranking leaders, Joseph Biggs.”
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK, via Holly Otterbein: Hillary Clinton’s former rapid response director, Zac Petkanas, is launching a new group aimed at helping Biden push through a major stimulus package and other big public investments.Invest in America and its 501(c)(4) sister arm will use TV ads, digital spots, polling and surrogates to try to take on what Petkanas calls “fear-mongering” about the deficit. 1-minute ad
Top funders include Facebook-co-founder-turned-Facebook-criticChris Hughes, the philanthropic group Omidyar Network and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. The organization, which is starting with “a mid-seven-figure budget,” plans to brief the Hill on its survey showing 77% of registered voters want another stimulus bill.
“Everybody remembers what happened during the last economic crisis, where big, bold action was necessary, but it had to be negotiated with those who were saying we couldn’t afford to take action,” Petkanas said. “We weren’t going to be caught by surprise this time.”
— Denise Dunckel has been named CEO of the American Fair Credit Council. She was a political appointee in the George W. Bush White House and spent 16 years in D.C. in the financial services sector and economic policy realm.
MEDIAWATCH
— BUZZ IN THE POST NEWSROOM ABOUT NEXT EDITOR: The news the Washington Post newsroom has been bracing for the past year arrived Tuesday: MARTY BARON is retiring, and a reordering of the senior ranks is coming. But many Post reporters didn’t expect the announcement so soon, predicting their longtime leader would stay on at least through the summer.
Word in the newsroom is that FRED RYAN, the Post’s publisher and CEO, does not want a lengthy transition period between editors. So there’s internal speculation that perhaps he’s further into the hiring process than people realize, especially since folks saw this coming monthsago.
STEVEN GINSBERG is seen as the most likely internal candidate. The affable head of the national desk has a reputation for supporting his reporters and is beloved by them. He led a big chunk of the newsroom through the Trump years as the president made a sport of attacking the media, including some Post reporters. But Ginsberg is white and male at a time when the diversity of newsroom leadership is under heightened scrutiny.
KEVIN MERIDA, the highly regarded former Post editor who left for ESPN a few years ago, is the other most-talked-about name. He’d be the first non-white male executive editor of the Post at a time when many in the newsroom feel it’s about time. Merida, who grew up in Prince George’s County, has also worn several caps at the Post, from writing political profiles to editing the Style section and taking a turn as national editor in the early Obama years. Baron also made Merida his managing editor, the second-ranking position in the newsroom, before he left for ESPN.
Others could emerge, some Post employees say. One name that’s surfaced is ANNE KORNBLUT, a former Post reporter and editor who left for Facebook in 2015. Another is Baron’s current No. 2, managing editor CAMERON BARR. But if Barr doesn’t get it and leaves, Ryan would be in position to bring on two new top editors in short succession.
— Former Trump economic adviser LARRY KUDLOW has landed at Fox News Media, but another Trump staffer, KAYLEIGH MCENANY, wasn’t so fortunate. A source familiar with the negotiations said McEnany was also in talks to move over to Fox (as was revealed in her financial disclosure forms), but the network’s conversations with the former White House press secretary stopped after the Jan. 6 invasion of the Capitol. The source said the door isn’t closed for McEnany — the talks have just been put on ice and may pick up again in the future. More from the NYT
— The Atlantic is adding three senior editors: Daniel Engber on the science desk, joining from Wired; Chris Ip in the culture section, joining from Engadget; and Honor Jones on the magazine staff, joining from the NYT.
STAFFING UP — Mieke Eoyang will be deputy assistant secretary of Defense for cyber policy. She most recently has been SVP for national security at Third Way and an MSNBC contributor.
TRANSITIONS — Charlotte Clymer will be director of comms and strategy at Catholics for Choice, which is also adding John Becker and Randi Garcia. Clymer most recently was press secretary for rapid response at the Human Rights Campaign. … Christian LoBue is now chief campaigns and advocacy officer at NARAL Pro-Choice America. She most recently was chief of staff at Voting Rights Lab. … Sam Paisley is now press secretary for Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.). She previously was press secretary for MJ Hegar’s Senate campaign in Texas. …
… Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) has added Michael Brewer as comms director and Meredith Brasher as press secretary. … Madeline McDaniel is now comms director at Invest in America. She was previously deputy press secretary at Everytown for Gun Safety. … Manuel Bonder is now deputy comms director for the Democratic Party of Virginia. He previously was comms adviser at the South Carolina Democratic Party (for Jaime Harrison’s Senate campaign) and is a Pete Buttigieg alum.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Josh Teitelbaum, senior counsel at Akin Gump and an Obama Commerce and Kay Hagan alum, and Emily Teitelbaum, VP of comms at Wells Fargo, welcomed Samuel Alexander Teitelbaum on Monday.Pic
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Chief Justice John Roberts … WaPo’s Holly Bailey … C-SPAN’s Howard Mortman … Ben Owens, legislative assistant for Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick (D-Ariz.) … Nomiki Konst … Emily Skor, CEO of Growth Energy … Josh Teitelbaum, senior counsel at Akin Gump … Heather Nauert … Nick Mason
“Jews of the United States … were free … In a comparatively short time, prospered … in a degree unexampled in Europe”-London Jewish Chronicle, 1862 – American Minute with Bill Federer
After seven centuries of Islamic occupation, which included episodes of forced conversions and massacres, Ferdinand and Isabella drove the last of the Muslims out of Spain in 1492.
The same year they sent Columbus on his voyage to find a sea route to India and China, as Muslims had cut off the land route.
Under the pretense that some Muslims might be staying in Spain posing as Jews, possibly to attempt an assassination or coup, King Ferdinand decided to order all Jews to convert or leave, thus ending one of the largest and most prosperous Sephardic Jewish communities in the world.
This was similar to Jews being expelled from England by Edward I in 1290.
Jews that converted and stayed in Spain were called Marrano or Converso, some of whom risked arrest by continuing to practice their Jewish traditions in secret.
In regret of this, on December 13, 2016, King Felipe VI of Spain addressed the Conference of European Rabbis:
“Our European identity cannot be understood nor complete without taking into account the decisive contribution of the Jews, who have lived in the continent since the dawn of history …
Now — as it did then — Europe needs the invaluable contribution of its Jewish communities, because we need to be honest and respectful to both our common Judeo-Christian values and origins …
Esteemed rabbis, I welcome you to Spain, an open and tolerant country in which respect for diversity is a defining characteristic.
We are also filled with pride by Spain’s active and flourishing Jewish community … (whose) rites, liturgy, renowned surnames, ballads, proverbs and seasonings … should never have allowed to be lost … “
King Felipe VI continued:
“(In) 1992 … after entering the Ben Yaacob Synagogue in Madrid, the official welcome was marked by the words of my father King Juan Carlos: ‘Spanish Jews are in their homeland’ …
Spain’s efforts in recent years to return the country’s Jewish culture to its rightful state are simply a duty in the name of justice.
The Sephardim’s unyielding love and loyalty towards Spain represents a powerful example … who, for five centuries, stayed true to their heritage.”
In 1492, some of the exiled Jews went to the Ottoman Empire, or Morocco, Tangier, Fez, and areas of North Africa, though they later suffered much persecution and bloodshed.
Some went to Portugal, but when King Manuel I of Portugal married the daughter of the King of Spain, he instituted the same policy in 1497, of convert or leave.
Some Jews fled to the Madeira Islands.
Other Jews went to the Netherlands, which was Europe’s center of religious toleration.
Jews migrated to the Netherlands’ largest city, Amsterdam, which went on to become the wealthiest city in the world in the 1600s.
Some Jews settled in the city of Leiden, Holland.
From 1575, the University of Leiden became known as a center of the study of Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac, even having a Jewish rabbi as a professor.
In 1607, the Pilgrims fled from King James I of England, crossed the English Channel, and settled in Leiden, Holland, where they became acquainted with the Jews.
The Pilgrims identified with the Jews, whose ancestors covenanted together with God, fled from the persecution of Pharaoh, crossed the Red Sea, and entered into the Promised Land.
In 1620, the Pilgrims, having fled from the King of England, sailed across the Atlantic Ocean to settle Plymouth, Massachusetts, – their new Promised Land.
Scholars of the era were called “Christian Hebraists,” as they were fascinated with the ancient Hebrew Republic and Israel’s concept of a people in “covenant” with each other under God.
Notable “Christian Hebraists” were:
Thomas Erastus (1524–1583);
Bonaventure Vulcanius (1535–1614);
Joseph Scaliger (1540–1609);
Johannes van den Driesche (1550–1616);
Isaac Casaubon (1559–1614);
Johannes Buxtorf (1564–1629);
Daniel Heinsius (1580–1655);
Hugo Grotius (1583–1645);
John Selden (1584–1654);
Thomas Hobbes (1588–1679);
James Harrington (1611–1677);
Petrus Cunaeus (1586–1638), who published The Hebrew Republic in 1617; and
John Sadler (1615-1674), whose sister, Ann, married John Harvard, namesake of Harvard University.
Christian Hebraists were Protestant and Catholic scholars, who, in the century between the Reformation and the Age of Enlightenment, studied:
the ancient Hebrew republic;
the Hebrew language;
Jewish historian Josephus (37–100);
the Jerusalem Talmud (2nd century AD);
the Babylonian Talmud (4th century AD);
Jewish philosopher Maimonides (1135–1204); and
Rabbinic literature.
Just as Oxford and Cambridge in England taught Hebrew, in America, Harvard students were required to study Hebrew.
In 1685, Harvard’s commencement address was delivered in the Hebrew language.
Other early American colleges, such as Yale, Dartmouth, and Columbia, had Hebrew taught at Harvard, Yale, Columbia, and other universities. also had requirements for students to learn Hebrew.
In 1722, Harvard hired Judah Monis, its first full-time Hebrew instructor, who published A Grammar of the Hebrew Tongue (1735) – the first Hebrew textbook published in North America.
Columnist Don Feder gave an address to the Friends of Israel, titled “America & Israel–Two Nations Joined At the Heart” (Grand Rapids, MI, May 15, 2014):
“More than Athens … more than Roman Law, and English Common Law – Israel shaped America.”
Many Jews that had been expelled from Spain sailed with Dutch merchants to settlements around the world, including the South American city of Recife.
There, Jews built the first synagogue in the Western Hemisphere, Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue in 1636.
When Spain and Portugal recaptured Recife from the Dutch, the Jews were pressured to flee again.
Twenty-three Jews sailed from Recife to Port Royal, Jamaica.
Then they boarded the French ship Sainte Catherine and headed north, but were soon robbed by a Spanish privateer and stripped of their valuables.
Arriving in the Dutch Colony of New Amsterdam on August 22, 1654, they were considered the first Jews to settle in North America.
Being totally destitute after their voyage, members of the Dutch Reformed Church took care of the Jews that first winter.
New Amsterdam would eventually become the richest city in the world in the early 20th century.
New Amsterdam Director-General Peter Stuyvesant attempted to expel the Jews, as he had previously tried to expel Lutherans.
The Jewish arrivals were allowed to stay, though, because the directors of Dutch West India Company shared a common sympathy with them, as both experienced suffering under Spanish tyranny.
The Dutch were in a global contest with Spain, Portugal, and England over possessions in Indonesia, India, Africa and South America, and as a result, they wanted to quickly populate the colony of New Netherlands for its defense and profitability.
In 1657, Oliver Cromwell allowed Jews back into England, reversing the expulsion of Jews dating back to King Edward I in 1290.
In 1657, the first Quakers arrived in New Amsterdam, but Director-General Stuyvesant banished them.
In their defense, 31 residents signed a petition, the Flushing Remonstrance, but the signers, too, were arrested.
In 1663, the directors of the Dutch West India Company, after reading a lengthy protest letter written by Quaker John Browne, sent instructions to Stuyvesant:
“Immigration … must be favored at so tender a stage of the country’s existence, you may therefore shut your eyes, at least not force people’s consciences,
but allow everyone to have his own belief, as long as he behaves quietly and legally, gives no offense to his neighbors and does not oppose the government.”
Jews were allowed to stay in New Amsterdam, but were initially not allowed to own a home, or worship outside their residences, or join the city’s militia.
In 1664, near the beginning of the Second Anglo-Dutch War – a war in which British Admiral William Penn, Sr., fought – English forces took control of New Amsterdam and renamed it New York.
This resulted in Jews having more freedom.
In 1730, Jewish citizens in New York bought land and built the small “Mill Street Synagogue,” the first Jewish house of worship in North America.
During the colonial era, America’s population grew to 3 million, which was approximately:
98 percent Protestant
around 1 percent Catholic; and
less than one tenth of 1 percent Jewish.
By the time of the Revolution, America’s Jewish population was estimated to be somewhere between 1,000 to 2,500, located in seven Sephadic congregations:
Shearith Israel, New York City, begun 1655;
Yeshuat Israel, Touro Synagogue, Newport, Rhode Island, begun 1658;
From the 3rd century on, Jews scattered around the world followed the teaching of Rabbi Samuel of Nehardea in Babylonia, namely, that “the law of the land is the law.”
This resulted in Jews refraining from trying to change the politics of the host countries they lived in, similar to the practice of early Christians during their first three centuries.
This teaching is diametrically opposed to fundamental wahhabi Islamic teaching, which attempts to overthrow governments of host countries to establish sharia law.
During the Middle Ages, the Jew’s insistence on non-involvement in city politics unfortunately caused them to be held suspect by all political parties.
The American Revolutionary War was the first time since being exiled from Jerusalem that Jews fought alongside of their Christian neighbors as equals in the fight for freedom.
Jewish merchants, such as Aaron Lopez of Newport and Isaac Moses of Philadelphia, sailed their ships past British blockades to provide clothing, guns, powder and food to the needy Revolutionary soldiers.
Some merchants lost everything.
An estimated 160 Jews fought in the Continental American Army during the Revolutionary War, such as:
Lieut. Col. Solomon Bush fought in the Battle of Long Island and the Battle of Brandywine, where he was wounded and his brother, Capt. Lewis Bush, was killed;
Francis Salvador of South Carolina, the first Jewish State Legislator, who was killed in the Revolutionary War;
Col. Mordecai Sheftall of Savannah was Deputy Commissary General for American troops, 1778;
Abigail Minis supplied provisions to American soldiers in 1779; and
Capt. Reuben Etting fought in the Revolution, being captured at Charleston. He was later appointed U.S. Marshall for Maryland by Thomas Jefferson, 1801.
Jewish physician, Dr. Philip Moses Russell was George Washington doctor, who even suffered with him at Valley Forge.
President Calvin Coolidge recounted, May 3, 1925:
“Haym Solomon, Polish Jew financier of the Revolution. Born in Poland, he was made prisoner by the British forces in New York, and when he escaped set up in business in Philadelphia.
He negotiated for Robert Morris all the loans raised in France and Holland, pledged his personal faith and fortune for enormous amounts,
and personally advanced large sums to such men as James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, Baron Steuben, General St. Clair, and many other patriot leaders who testified that without his aid they could not have carried on in the cause.”
In 1975, a U.S. postage stamp honored Haym Solomon, with printing on the back:
“Financial hero-businessman and broker Haym Solomon was responsible for raising most of the money needed to finance the American Revolution and later saved the new nation from collapse.”
Yale President Ezra Styles identified the country as “American Israel.”
Harvard President Rev. Samuel Langdon gave an address at the New Hampshire ratifying Convention, titled “The Republic of the Israelites an example to the American States,” June 5, 1788:
“The Israelites may be considered as a pattern to the world in all ages … (of) government … on republican principles …
How unexampled was this quick progress of the Israelites, from abject slavery, ignorance, and almost total want of order, to a national establishment perfected in all its parts far beyond all other kingdoms and States!
From a mere mob, to a well regulated nation, under a government and laws far superior to what any other nation could boast!”
After Rev. Langdon’s address, New Hampshire’s delegates voted to ratify the U.S. Constitution, and being the 9th State to do so, put the Constitution into effect, June 21, 1788.
On June 19, 1790, George Washington sent a letter to the Levi Sheftal and the Jewish Congregation in Savannah, Georgia:
“May the same wonder-working Deity, who long since delivered the Hebrews from their Egyptian oppressors, planted them in a promised land, whose providential agency has lately been conspicuous in establishing these United States as an independent nation, still continue to water them with the dews of heaven.”
On August 21, 1790, President Washington responded to a letter from Moses Seixas and the Hebrew congregation of Newport, Rhode Island:
“The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for having given to mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy … All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship.
It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people, that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights.
For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance requires only that they who live under its protection should demean themselves as good citizens, in giving it on all occasions their effectual support …
May the children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit in safety under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. (Micah 4:4)
May the Father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.” (Job 36:30; Psalm 119:105; Isaiah 42:16)
Ashkenazic Jews were few in America until a persecution in Bavaria in the 1830s resulted in many thousands immigrating.
The Jewish population in America grew from a tenth of one percent to nearly 2 percent.
President Martin Van Buren sent a letter to the Muslim Ottoman Turks requesting that they stop killing Jews in Syria during the Damascus Affair:
“on behalf of an oppressed and persecuted race, among whose kindred are found some of the most worthy and patriotic of American citizens.”
David Yulee, “Father of Florida Railroads,” was the first Jew elected to the U.S Senate in 1845.
He was joined in 1853 by Senator Judah P. Benjamin from Louisiana.
Governor David Emanuel of Georgia was the first Jewish Governor of any U.S. State.
In 1818, Solomon Jacobs was the “acting” Mayor of Richmond, Virginia.
In 1832, Pittsburgh’s 7th mayor was Samuel Pettigrew, the first full-time Jewish Mayor in America.
Uriah P. Levy was the first Jewish Commodore in the U.S. Navy, fighting in the War of 1812 and commanding the Mediterranean squadron.
He was responsible for ending the practice of flogging in the Navy. A chapel at Annapolis and a WWII destroyer were named after him.
When Jefferson’s Monticello home was decaying, Levy bought it in 1836, repaired it and opened it to the public. He commissioned the statute of Jefferson which is in the U.S. Capitol rotunda.
Samuel Mayer Isaacs, editor of the Jewish Messenger, wrote of the United States, December 28, 1860:
“This Republic was the first to recognize our claims to absolute equality, with men of whatever religious denomination.
Here we can sit each under his vine and fig tree, with none to make him afraid.” (Micah 4:4)
In 1862, the London Jewish Chronicle reported:
“We now have a few words of the Jews of the United States in general … The Constitution having established perfect religious liberty, Jews were free in America … They … in a comparatively short time, prospered and throve there in a degree unexampled in Europe.”
At the time of the Civil War, the population of the United States was 31 million, including around 150,000 to 200,000 Jews.
An estimated 7,000 Jews fought for the Union and 3,000 fought for the Confederacy, with around 600 Jewish soldiers dying in battle.
Jewish Union Generals were: Leopold Blumenberg; Frederick Knefler; Edward S. Salomon; and Frederick C. Salomon.
Jewish Confederate officers included:
Judah P. Benjamin, Secretary of War;
Colonel Abraham Charles Myers, Quartermaster General;
Dr. David Camden DeLeon, Surgeon General;
Surgeon Dr. Simon Baruch served on General Robert E. Lee’s personal staff.
Major Raphael J. Moses was Commissary Officer of Georgia, and after the war began Georgia’s peach industry.
During the Siege of Vicksburg, General Grant issued his notorious General Order 11 expelling Jews from the military, which Lincoln immediately cancelled.
Later as President, Grant appointed more Jews to high offices than any of his predecessors, including Governor of the Washington Territory, Edward S. Solomon.
Grant openly condemn the persecution of Jews, specifically the anti-Jewish pogroms in Romania.
He even sent a Jewish consul-general from America to Bucharest to “work for the benefit of the people who are laboring under severe oppression.”
Just as the first Catholic U.S. Army chaplain was appointed during the Mexican-American War, the first Jewish chaplain was appointed by Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War.
His name was Rev. Jacob Frankel of Philadelphia’s Congregation Rodeph Shalom.
On March 1, 1881, Tsar Alexander II of Russia was assassinated and a pogrom began against Jews, leading to over 2 million fleeing to America.
This was memorialized in the play Fiddler on the Roof.
By 1916, the United States population was 100 million, of which 3 million were Jewish.
During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson wrote:
“Whereas in countries engaged in war there are 9 million Jews, the majority of whom are destitute of food, shelter, and clothing; driven from their homes without warning … causing starvation, disease and untold suffering …”
Wilson added:
“The people of the U.S. have learned with sorrow of this terrible plight … I proclaim JANUARY 27, 1916, a day to make contributions for the aid of the stricken Jewish people to the American Red Cross.”
Imprisoned Gangster Disciples founder Larry Hoover, who says he’s no longer involved with the gang and is asking for an early release from his life sentence, promoted two men to top posts in the gang while locked up in a federal “super-max” prison in Colorado, according to an indictment unsealed Monday in East St. Louis.
The indictment says the two men threatened to kill anyone who challenged their authority and, on May 18, 2018, shot and killed a rival Gangster Disciples board member on the South Side of Chicago. Frank Main and Jon Seidel have the story…
The Chicago Teachers Union told workers to refuse to report in person Wednesday after failing to come to an agreement with the district over reopening conditions this week.
The Committee on Zoning, Landmarks and Building Standards approved an ordinance officially granting that designation for the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley House in West Woodlawn, forwarding it on to the City Council.
The mayor had cited funding, officer security and other concerns in opposing the project. But the Committee on Public Safety OK’d the $250,000 crime-fighting experiment anyway.
Restaurants and bars that serve food have now been cleared to reopen at limited capacity in 10 of the state’s 11 regions as infection rates are down to their lowest levels in three months.
Correction: Yesterday’s issue of Morning Edition included a story that stated Chicago’s snowfall had reached 7 inches by Monday morning. By that time, O’Hare International Airport had recorded just over 3 inches of snow.
“Seek the Lord while he may be found; call upon him while he is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts; let him return to the Lord, that he may have compassion on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly pardon,” (Isaiah 55:6-7, ESV).
By Shane Vander Hart on Jan 27, 2021 12:34 am
Last Friday, we marked the 48th anniversary of the infamous Roe v. Wade decision. In 48 years since the Supreme Court conjured a right to abortion, an estimated 62.5 million unborn babies have been slaughtered in the womb. From 1975 to 2012, the United States saw more than one million abortions per year.
It’s horrific.
And we now have a president who celebrates this anniversary.
The joint statement from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris underscores that he will be the most pro-abortion president in history:
In the past four years, reproductive health, including the right to choose, has been under relentless and extreme attack. We are deeply committed to making sure everyone has access to care – including reproductive health care – regardless of income, race, zip code, health insurance status, or immigration status.
The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to codifying Roe v. Wade and appointing judges that respect foundational precedents like Roe. We are also committed to ensuring that we work to eliminate maternal and infant health disparities, increase access to contraception, and support families economically so that all parents can raise their families with dignity. This commitment extends to our critical work on health outcomes around the world.
As the Biden-Harris Administration begins in this critical moment, now is the time to rededicate ourselves to ensuring that all individuals have access to the health care they need.
He wants to codify Roe v. Wade, something that Congress has been unwilling to do since 1973.
He wants to eliminate the Hyde Amendment so that we have to pay for domestically. He plans to reverse the Mexico City Policy so that we can pay for abortions abroad.
He also appoints Xavier Bacerra as his Health and Human Services Secretary, one of the worst picks imaginable.
During his inaugural address, President Biden says he wants to unify us.
This is not unifying and it is a radical agenda that a majority of Americans oppose.
José H. Gomez, Archbishop of Los Angeles and President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, made a poignant statement about abortion when addressing the inauguration of the nation’s second Catholic president.
For the nation’s bishops, the continued injustice of abortion remains the ‘preeminent priority.’ Preeminent does not mean ‘only.’ We have deep concerns about many threats to human life and dignity in our society. But as Pope Francis teaches, we cannot stay silent when nearly a million unborn lives are being cast aside in our country year after year through abortion.
Abortion is a direct attack on life that also wounds the woman and undermines the family. It is not only a private matter, it raises troubling and fundamental questions of fraternity, solidarity, and inclusion in the human community. It is also a matter of social justice. We cannot ignore the reality that abortion rates are much higher among the poor and minorities, and that the procedure is regularly used to eliminate children who would be born with disabilities.
Gomez added that he hopes the president will work with the Catholic Church and those of goodwill rather than impose further expansions of abortion and contraceptions.
I hope President Biden does this as well, but it’s unlikely he will. He has sold out to the abortion industry. There is not a single restriction that he supports.
I commit to praying for President Biden and when he seeks to implement sound policy I will celebrate that success.
His abortion agenda must be resisted. There is no middle ground.
Launched 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.
Now Shut Up and Obey! Dr. Fauci, the highest-paid public official in the land, wants you to wear two face burkas. That’s right, if one works, why not two? One expert even suggested three masks, but he said that could cause breathing difficulties. “Could?” It’s hard enough to breathe wearing just one of the damn …
President Joe Biden will receive his daily briefing Tuesday morning then, in the afternoon, the president will outline his plan to tackle climate change and sign executive orders. Keep an Eye on the president at Our President’s Schedule Page. President Biden’s Itinerary for 1/27/21 – note: this page will be updated during the day if …
Google said it will no longer contribute to elected officials who voted against certifying the election results prior to the Jan. 6 U.S. Capitol riot. Google’s political action committee NetPAC will no longer fund the campaigns of members of Congress who voted against the presidential election results after the company reviewed its political contribution activities, …
The United States Supreme Court has voided lower court rulings upholding a ban on abortions in Texas during the coronavirus pandemic. “The judgment is vacated, and the case is remanded to the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit with instructions to dismiss the case as moot,” the court announced in list of orders …
A top official with the World Health Organization said in a recent press conference that it is “definitely too early” to conclude that the novel coronavirus originated in China. Michael Ryan, the executive director of WHO’s health emergencies program, made the statement in a press conference Friday in Geneva, just as a team of WHO-backed …
HIDALGO, Texas—U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Office of Field Operations (OFO) at the Hidalgo International Bridge arrested a 21-year-old woman, a U.S. citizen after detecting $2,278,000 worth of alleged methamphetamine concealed within the pickup truck she was driving. “Our frontline officers continue to work hard and remain dedicated to the CBP mission of keeping dangerous …
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki was forced to water down and walk back several statements that President Joe Biden made yesterday on Coronavirus vaccination. During the White House press briefing Tuesday, several reporters asked for clarification on the timeline in which Americans should expect to have full access to the vaccine and when herd …
President Joe Biden outlines his racial equity agenda on Tuesday and signs executive actions to promote it. The event is scheduled to begin at 2:00 p.m. EST. Content created by Conservative Daily News and some content syndicated through CDN is available for re-publication without charge under the Creative Commons license. Visit our syndication page for details and …
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and White House Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice hold a briefing Tuesday. This post will be updated with notes and analysis during and after the briefing. The full video is at the bottom of the page. Susan Rice note: unless in quotes, notes are paraphrased for clarity and brevity …
The Trump campaign has explicitly disavowed the MAGA Patriot Party in an effort to distance former President Donald Trump from the rogue conservative group, according to an FEC filing on Jan. 25. In the Patriot Party’s original filing with the FEC, they claim to have entered a joint fundraising agreement with the Trump Campaign, prompting …
Left-wing activists weren’t happy simply getting MyPillow products thrown out of Kohl’s, Wayfair, and Bed Batch and Beyond, now they’ve suspended the highly-successful conservative CEO from Twitter because they don’t like what he has to say. Navigating to @realMikeLindell, CEO Mike Lindell’s official account on Twitter, renders this page: At last count, Mr. Lindell had …
Former President Donald Trump endorsed Sarah Huckabee Sanders for governor of Arkansas on Monday through his Save America PAC, Fox News reported. Trump’s said that Sanders will “always do what’s right” for Arkansas’ citizens and “do what is right,” according to the statement, Fox News reported. “Thank you President Trump for your endorsement and for …
The American public continues to be swindled and hoodwinked by the medical establishment. As I have written before, there are only two possible explanations for it at this point: Either people like Anthony Fauci are genuinely bad at their jobs or they are intentionally misleading this country in the hopes of securing greater control over …
At Monday’s press briefing, Press Secretary Jen Psaki said that it was not ‘a fair articulation’ to say that Biden called Trump xenophobic due to his travel bans. Psaki made the comments as she was pressed for answers regarding Biden’s latest set of travel restrictions around the coronavirus. While Psaki says it is not a …
After months of waiting for the federal government to do more for struggling small businesses and restaurants, Dave Portnoy, founder of media empire Barstool Sports, stepped up and created the Barstool Fund. The crowdsourced fund has raised over $25 million to date for American businesses, and Portnoy, your prototypical sports bro, has transformed into a …
Happy Wednesday, my dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. It’s OK, you don’t have to remove your shoes. Feet gross me out.
Who’s ready for week two?
No, seriously, I checked the calendar, it’s only been that long. I’ve never found myself wishing that we are sims more than this past week. It’s time for the alien teenager playing the game to get bored and start us over.
As we travel through the Weirdesphere that is Harris-Biden Hell it’s important to keep our heads on a swivel so we can avoid getting hit by goal posts that the Democrats are forever moving. It’s a world full of new rules that are being changed about every hour or so since last Wednesday. The constantly shifting landscape can be rather dizzying at times. If you check out for even an hour or two you might return to find that we’ve all been given a new playbook for this highly divisive political game we’re playing.
This is more confusing for conservatives and Republicans. We prefer to have some structure over here on this side of the aisle. And consistency. That sort of thing.
The Democrats are bound by no such thing, They want power. They will say and do anything to get and keep it. It’s popular to say that all politicians in Washington are like that, and it may be true to an extent. There are, however, widely varying degrees. The Democrats are hanging out at the corner of Godless and Shameless for this one.
Right now, they would have us believe that they are firmly encamped on the moral high ground and that’s why they’re proceeding with Impeachment 2, B.S. Boogaloo.
As Brits from 1950 liked to say: poppycock.
Yeah, I know the story. They keep insisting that President Trump was responsible for what happened at the Capitol on January 6th, which is garbage. The quickest way to know it’s false is that Jake Tapper keeps saying it’s so.
The real reason they are going ahead with this is that — as we discussed yesterday — Democrats have an unhealthy obsession with Trump and it won’t be going away any time soon. That’s it. Nothing more. They’re not driven by principles because they don’t have any.
The impeachment charade is the first of two big betrayals of the sales pitch they gave the American people to help get Biden into the White House. We were told that America was deeply divided and — again — it was all President Trump’s fault. The pitch was that we needed him out of Washington in order for the nation heal and move on.
Apparently the Democrats have not moved on from him.
The other betrayal has to do with the pandemic. I’m going to go with the Democrats’ rules for my indignation here.
We were constantly told throughout last year that every moment President Trump and Republican leadership weren’t spending dealing with COVID-19 was directly responsible for people getting sick and dying. “Blood on their hands” was an oft-used phrase.
We were led to believe that the new president and congressional leadership would be fixing their gazes on dealing with the pandemic.
Maybe Joe should have directed the efforts of Pelosi and Schumer towards fulfilling that promise.
Every moment they waste on impeachment is killing Americans.
Senate GOP signals it’s likely to acquit Trump . . . Senate Republicans seem ready to hand former President Trump his second acquittal in an impeachment trial in a little more than a year after just five GOP senators on Tuesday rejected a motion that the trial was unconstitutional. Most GOP senators haven’t formally announced how they will vote on convicting Trump, and, in a shift from 2020, most are not rushing to defend him after a mob, egged on by the then-president, sacked the Capitol. But Tuesday’s vote, which sidelined the effort from Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.), sends a clear signal to everyone in Washington that the trial is highly unlikely to end with a Trump conviction vote. At least 17 GOP votes to convict would be needed to reach the two-thirds majority. The Hill
Just five GOP senators vote Trump impeachment trial is constitutional . . . The Senate sent a strong signal Tuesday that there are not nearly enough votes to convict President Trump in an impeachment trial when only five GOP senators rejected an effort by Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) to declare the looming trial unconstitutional. The Senate voted 55-45 to set aside Paul’s motion, with all but five GOP senators siding with Paul. GOP Sens. Mitt Romney (Utah), Ben Sasse (Neb.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska) and Pat Toomey (Pa.) voted with Democrats to table Paul’s point of order. The Hill
Senator Rand Paul calls Trump impeachment trial ‘dead on arrival’ . . . Rand Paul declared former President Trump’s Senate impeachment trial “dead on arrival” on Tuesday after 45 Senate Republicans voted against holding the proceeding, viewing it as unconstitutional. Rand, a Kentucky Republican, had called for a procedural vote regarding holding a trial, claiming the Senate shouldn’t address the article of impeachment against Trump filed by the House this month because Trump is now out of office. If a trial were to proceed, Trump would become the first former president to face an impeachment trial. In Paul’s view, the votes of 45 Republicans against holding a trial proved his point – and likely rendered any upcoming trial to be moot. Fox News
Coronavirus
Global COVID cases surpass 100 million as nations tackle vax shortages . . . Global coronavirus cases surpassed 100 million on Wednesday, as countries around the world struggle with new virus variants and vaccine shortfalls. Almost 1.3% of the world’s population has now been infected with COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, and more than 2.1 million people have died. One person has been infected every 7.7 seconds, on average, since the start of the year. Around 668,250 cases have been reported each day over the same period, and the global fatality rate stands at 2.15%. Reuters
Biden Admin to Vaccinate Most Americans by End of Summer . . . The Biden administration on Tuesday said it would boost the supply of coronavirus vaccines sent to states by about 16% for the next three weeks and will purchase enough additional doses to vaccinate most of the U.S. population with a two-dose regimen by the end of the summer. Senior admin officials said the feds are working to purchase an additional 100 million doses each of the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines, increasing the total U.S. vaccine order by 50% to 600 million from 400 million. Officials said they expect the additional doses to be delivered over the summer. The purchases will provide enough supply to vaccinate 300 million Americans in a two-dose regimen over the summer. The vaccine is not approved for people under 16 years old. Wall Street Journal
WHO Official Said It Is ‘Too Early’ To Conclude That COVID Originated From China . . . A top official with the World Health Organization said in a recent press conference that it is “definitely too early” to conclude that the novel coronavirus originated in China. Michael Ryan, the executive director of WHO’s health emergencies program, made the statement in a press conference Friday in Geneva, just as a team of WHO-backed scientists were beginning an investigation in Wuhan into the origins of the virus.
“I think we have to say this quite plainly; all hypotheses are on the table and it is definitely too early to come to a conclusion of exactly where this virus started either within or without China,” Ryan said. Daily Caller
How a Legitimate Theory About COVID Emerging From Lab Got Dismissed by Fact Checkers . . . As COVID-19 spread across the world, President Donald Trump suggested in an April press conference that the virus may have emerged from a lab in Wuhan, China. Fact checkers sprang to check out the claim, often dismissing it summarily by noting there was little to no evidence backing it up. While there was no direct evidence, there was mountain of circumstantial evidence. The fact checkers and reporters, while focusing on the more wild claims that China deliberately created and released the virus as a bioweapon, often dismissed out of hand the less aggressive possibility that it simply leaked out of a lab. Then, in January of 2021, things changed. An investigative essay published in the New York Magazine’s Intelligencer dove into the lab theory and found a number of surprising discoveries. Daily Caller
Was that because the “fact checkers” key objective was to contradict Trump and appease China rather than check the facts?
Declassified US intelligence bolsters Wuhan lab theory in COVID outbreak . . . U.S. intelligence findings recently declassified by the State Department provide fresh evidence for the theory that the COVID-19 pandemic likely began at the Wuhan Institute of Virology, China’s sole high-security laboratory that has links to the country’s military. The department, in a report made public this month by the outgoing Trump administration, disclosed for the first time that several workers at the Wuhan institute, where research on deadly viruses is conducted, were sickened in the autumn of 2019 with COVID-19-like symptoms. The report also made public U.S. intelligence that the People’s Liberation Army conducted secret research on covert biological warfare at the institute. Washington Times
At least some of the fact checkers are willing to check the facts.
Politics
Biden elected with help of $145 M in “dark money” . . . President Joe Biden benefited from a record-breaking amount of donations from anonymous donors to outside groups backing him, meaning the public will never have a full accounting of who helped him win the White House. Biden’s winning campaign was backed by $145 million in so-called dark money donations, a type of fundraising Democrats have decried for years. Those fundraising streams augmented Biden’s $1.5 billion haul, in itself a record for a challenger to an incumbent president. That amount of dark money dwarfs the $28.4 million spent on behalf of his rival, former President Donald Trump. White House Dossier
Trump’s post-presidency clout puts GOP on notice, Dems on high alert . . . Former President Donald Trump is behaving like he never left office. Out of power for one week, Mr. Trump has created an “Office of the Former President,” staffed with former White House aides to “advance the interests of the United States and to carry on the agenda” of his administration. He is handing out political endorsements. He has backed Kelli Ward for a second term as chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party (she won) and former White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders for governor of Arkansas in 2022. Still cut off from social media, Mr. Trump released the statement endorsing Mrs. Sanders through his new political action committee, Save America. A top Trump official, former Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought, announced Tuesday the formation of two more organizations to keep driving the momentum of the Trump agenda. Washington Times
Biden’s Asia Policy Czar Helped Found Group ‘Heavily Influenced by the CCP’ . . . Joe Biden’s incoming Asia policy czar was a top leader at a nonprofit group that was bankrolled by the head of a Chinese propaganda front group and partnered with a Chinese foreign mission. Kurt Campbell, a former Obama State Department official and businessman, was until August 2020 listed as board vice chairman of the U.S.-China Strong Foundation, ostensibly a nonprofit group that promotes student language exchanges with Beijing but whose leaders included prominent members of the Chinese government’s overseas propaganda fronts, according to State Department and Department of Justice records. Campbell is slated to serve as the chief coordinator for President Joe Biden’s Asia policy on the National Security Council, but his leadership role with the foundation is raising concerns with China hawks in Washington. Washington Free Beacon
Biden Education Pick Is Leading Opponent of Return to Classrooms . . . President Joe Biden’s pick to be deputy secretary of education is still fighting to keep students out of the classroom in San Diego, where she’s school superintendent. Cindy Marten, the longtime superintendent of the San Diego Unified School District, has been a vocal opponent of bringing back in-person instruction for public school students. The district had pledged to give a timeline for reopening on Jan. 13, but Marten failed to follow through, announcing after the deadline that no date for return will be set. Washington Free Beacon
Biden Orders End to Private Prisons in Package to Achieve ‘Racial Equity’ . . . Denouncing what he called “systemic racism that has plagued our nation for far, far too long,” President Joe Biden signed executive actions Tuesday aimed at “racial equity,” including a measure to end the use of private prisons to hold federal inmates. “We are in a battle for the soul of this nation and the simple truth is, our soul will be troubled as long as systemic racism is allowed to persist,” Biden said before signing the executive orders, adding: We can’t eliminate it. It’s not going to be overnight. We can’t eliminate everything. But it’s corrosive. It’s destructive and it’s costly. It costs every American, not just [those] who felt the sting of racial injustice. Daily Signal
Here are five things to know about President Biden’s racial equity orders . . . Biden took strides toward advancing racial equality on Tuesday with the signing of four new executive orders.
The directives come on the heels of more than two dozen signed since he took office just a week ago and cover a wide breadth of issues: better federal enforcement of federal housing laws; increased communication with and support for Native American tribes; criminal justice reform; and the condemnation of xenophobia. See the five things about Biden’s orders in The Hill
Federal Judge blocks Biden 100-day moratorium on deportations . . . A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked President Biden’s attempt to put a moratorium on deportations for 100 days. After Texas sued over the policy, the judge blocked Biden, via a temporary restraining order, from moving forward for 14 days. Texas’ lawsuit claims that the administration would be violating an agreement it has with the Department of Homeland Security – and would require at least 180 days’ notice, as well as consultation, prior to implementing changes in immigration policy. It is unclear whether those terms are enforceable, but similar agreements were struck with several other states under the former administration. White House Dossier
Biden’s Refugee Policy Will Serve the Interests of the United Nations . . . It does not take a political science degree to know that with Joe Biden as the 46th president of the United States, things will be very different from the last four years. Much of what the Trump administration had done in tax, energy, health care, and immigration policy, as well as how former President Donald Trump related to the United Nations, are likely to be reversed. What many do not know is that what the nascent Biden administration is already doing on immigration is far more than just undoing what Trump did. It is embracing and implementing the United Nations’ global view of what our immigration laws should look like. Daily Signal
Unions Move the Goalposts On School Re-openings to the Detriment Of Children . . . Many of the nation’s largest school districts are approaching one year since they closed for in-person instruction, and some teachers unions are pushing to further postpone a return date. Fairfax County Public Schools, the largest school system in Virginia, was anticipating a phased-in return to in-person instruction beginning Feb. 16. Fairfax Education Association, a teachers union, said that its members were comfortable returning to in-person instruction as long as staff had received both vaccine doses. However, the union later said they want to delay the start date until students are vaccinated. Since children do not yet qualify to receive the vaccine, and research on the effects of the vaccine in children are not complete, that could mean several more months of virtual learning. Daily Caller
National Security
Israel’s military is refreshing operational plans against Iran . . . Israel’s top general said on Tuesday that its military was refreshing its operational plans against Iran and that any U.S. return to a 2015 nuclear accord with Tehran would be “wrong.” The remarks are an apparent signal to U.S. President Joe Biden to tread cautiously in any diplomatic engagement with Iran. Such comments by Israel’s military chief of staff on U.S. policymaking are rare and likely would have been pre-approved by the Israeli government. Reuters
Head of Israeli military cautions against US return to Iran nuclear deal . . . Israel Defense Forces Chief of General Staff Aviv Kochavi, in a rare public statement about U.S. foreign policy, urged the Biden administration not to attempt to kick-start the Iran nuclear deal. Kochavi, speaking virtually at the Institute for National Security Studies think tank’s annual conference on Tuesday, said that even if a potential deal could improve on the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, it would not be the right move for regional security. “With the changing of the administration in the United States, the Iranians have said they want to return to the previous agreement,” the military commander said. “I want to state my position . . . returning to the 2015 nuclear agreement or even to an agreement that is similar but with a few improvements is a bad thing, and it is not the right thing to do.” Washington Examiner
Biden and Russia’s Putin discuss nuclear arms treaty in first phone call . . . Joe Biden warned Vladimir Putin that the US would respond to “malign actions” by Russia as the two presidents closed in on a crucial nuclear weapons deal during their first phone call.
According to the White House’s account of the call on Tuesday afternoon, Mr Biden and Mr Putin discussed a five-year extension of the New Start arms control treaty, agreeing “to have their teams work urgently to complete the extension” before its expiry on February 5. Mr Biden “reaffirmed” America’s “strong support” for Ukraine’s sovereignty, and addressed the SolarWinds hack, the bounties placed on US soldiers in Afghanistan, interference in the 2020 election, and the poisoning of opposition leader Alexei Navalny, the White House said. Financial Times
No leaks of the conversation? Any promises of more ‘flexibility’ to Putin?
International
Russian parliament OKs New START nuclear treaty extension . . . The lower house of Russian parliament on Wednesday quickly approved the extension of the last remaining nuclear arms control pact days before it’s due to expire.
The State Duma voted unanimously to extend the New START treaty for five years. The vote came a day after a phone call between Biden and Putin, in which they voiced satisfaction with the exchange of diplomatic notes about extending the New START treaty. They agreed to complete the necessary procedures in the next few days, according to the Kremlin. The pact’s extension doesn’t require congressional approval in the U.S., but Russian lawmakers must ratify the move. . Associated Press
Vietnam’s Communist Party chief nominated for re-election: state media . . . Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam’s ruling Communist Party chief, has been nominated for a rare third term, a Party official said, according to several state media articles that were published on Wednesday then subsequently amended, removing the comments. On Monday, more than 1,600 delegates began nine days of mostly closed-doors meetings at the Party’s five-yearly Congress, during which a new leadership team will be picked to bolster Vietnam’s ongoing economic success – and the legitimacy of the Party’s rule. Reuters
Money
Fewer American households should receive $1,400 checks, study suggests . . . President Biden this week indicated he is open to negotiating the terms for an additional round of direct payments to American households – and a new study suggests that lowering the cutoff threshold may be economically prudent. An analysis conducted by nonpartisan, nonprofit Opportunity Insights of the most recent round of direct payments found that households earning more than $78,000 (and singles earning more than $50,000) are likely to spend just $45 of the $600 checks over the first month. Fox Business
Microsoft earnings jump on pandemic-driven cloud, videogaming demand . . . Microsoft Corp. posted record quarterly sales underpinned by pandemic-fueled demand for videogaming and accelerated adoption of its cloud-computing services as businesses continued to embrace new digital tools during the health crisis. The remote-work era has been a boon for Microsoft. In addition to its videogaming and cloud-computing products, the company has notched strong sales of its Surface laptops as people bought devices to facilitate working from home and distance learning. The use of Microsoft’s Teams workplace-collaboration software has jumped during the pandemic with its offering of such services as text chat and videoconferencing. Fox Business
Walmart to fill online orders with help from robots at some US stores . . . Walmart will add small robot-staffed warehouses to dozens of its stores to help fill orders for pickup and delivery, as Americans shift their spending online amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The robots will work behind the scenes, picking frozen and refrigerated foods as well as smaller general merchandise items from inside the warehouses, or local fulfillment centers, that will carry “thousands of frequently purchased items.” Store staff, meanwhile, will go to the sales floor to fetch fresh produce, meat, seafood and larger general merchandise items like large-screen TVs, then returning to the centers to finish assembling orders, the company said. Fox Business
Walgreens Poaches Starbucks Executive Rosalind Brewer for CEO . . . Walgreens named Starbucks Corp. operating chief Rosalind Brewer as its next chief executive, setting her up to be the only Black woman leading a Fortune 500 company today. The first African-American and first woman to lead a Walmart business unit, Ms. Brewer joined the retail giant in 2006 after two decades at Kimberly-Clark Corp. , where she started as a chemist. She is a graduate of Spelman College, where she chairs the board of trustees. She previously served on the boards of Lockheed Martin Corp. and Molson Coors Beverage Co. “Roz has a fabulous combination of traits. She is a scientist by training, she is deeply operational and she has a broad worldview. That combination just makes her a dynamo,” said Jamie Gorelick, a fellow Amazon board member who has worked alongside Ms. Brewer for nearly two years. Wall Street Journal
This is the kind of beautiful success story that dems should be promoting, instead of spreading the divisive false narratives of systemic racism that purportedly plagues the American culture. Not to mention the abhorrent policies that the Democratic Party has been pursuing towards minorities for decades, which ultimately amount to government control and psychological enslavement aimed at our fellow Americans. Roz Brewer, Candace Owens, Kim Klacik of Baltimore, are just a few examples that should inspire our daughters to pursue their dreams based on free will rather than false expectations of government “help” and “protection.”
Sorry, this got too long. I’ve got a lot to say about this one. 🙂
You should also know
My Pillow guy Mike Lindell permanently banned from Twitter . . . Twitter banned My Pillow CEO Mike Lindell from the platform after he used his account to spread baseless claims about fraud in the presidential election. Twitter said Tuesday that it permanently suspended Lindell — a staunch ally of former President Donald Trump — because of his “repeated violations” of the company’s civic integrity policy, which it implemented last fall to clamp down on misinformation.
Twitter didn’t say which of Lindell’s posts pushed it over the edge. New York Post
Facebook still has Holocaust denial content 3 months after Zuckerberg pledged to remove it . . . Holocaust denial content remains on Facebook three months after pledging to ban all content that “denies or distorts the Holocaust.” That’s according to a new report from the ADL (Anti-Defamation League), which gave FB a “D” for its efforts. ADL’s CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said the report released Wednesday on Holocaust Remembrance Day shows that Facebook and other major social media platforms are “still struggling to address anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial effectively.” Among the pieces of content cited by the ADL that FB did not take down: a post promoting an anti-Semitic video that claims to expose “lies” about the Holocaust and a private Facebook group dedicated to “Holocaust Revisionism.” FB removed the content after being contacted by USA TODAY. USA TODAY
Ben Shapiro: Politico Playbook canceled other conservatives set to guest write . . . Ben Shapiro claims the controversy surrounding his turn as a guest writer of Politico’s Playbook has extended to conservatives slated to follow him in the editorial role. In a Twitter thread posted Tuesday evening, the editor emeritus of the Daily Wire claimed Townhall’s Guy Benson and Mary Katharine Ham, a CNN commentator, were uninvited from serving as guest writers after his own turn in the role attracted controversy. Shapiro said the two right-wing political personalities were told that the magazine was “overbooked,” but he speculated that the motivations for the cancellations were more biased in nature. Washington Examiner
McEnany, Fox News talks on pause . . . Former White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany in financial disclosure documents published Tuesday indicated that she had an agreement in place to join Fox News this month, but a source familiar with the matter says those discussions are now paused.
A Fox News spokesperson said McEnany “is not currently an employee or contributor” at the network. McEnany and Fox held initial conversations after the 2020 election about a role, but those discussions were paused, according to a source familiar with the matter. The network remains open to hiring her in the future, however, the source said, given it does “not condone cancel culture.” The Hill
Surge of Student Suicides Pushes Las Vegas Schools to Reopen . . . The spate of student suicides in and around Las Vegas has pushed the Clark County district, the nation’s fifth largest, toward bringing students back as quickly as possible. This month, the school board gave the green light to phase in the return of some elementary school grades and groups of struggling students. Firmly linking teen suicides to school closings is difficult, but rising mental health emergencies and suicide rates point to the toll the pandemic lockdown is taking. Superintendents across the nation are weighing the benefit of in-person education against the cost of public health, watching teachers and staff become sick and, in some cases, die, but also seeing the psychological and academic toll that school closings are having on children nearly a year in. New York Times
Jilani: Lack of social support from in-person classes damaging students’ mental health . . . Journalist Zaid Jilani addressed reports that teen suicides and suicidal ideation are up amid the social isolation of school closures, saying inequalities in school systems likely exacerbate mental health issues. “I think a lot of the K-12 education system just isn’t set up for this,” Jilani said in a Monday Hill.TV interview. “I think lots of students don’t have access to proper facilities to even take part in it.” These inequalities, he said, contribute to “a really difficult situation for a lot of students, particularly students who don’t have good internet access or students who just don’t have a good home life,” with in-person schooling pre-pandemic frequently serving as a de facto “social support facility” for students from troubled or low-income backgrounds. The Hill
Biden Chief Of Staff Says Schools ‘Haven’t Made The Investments’ To Reopen Safely . . . White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain said Tuesday that most schools had not made the proper investments to ensure that it was safe for students to return to the classroom. Klain told CNN’s Erin Burnett that the primary issue was money and that some schools were not able to reopen yet because they had not been able to make the necessary adjustments recommended by health officials. Daily Caller
Guilty Pleasures
Truck carrying thousands of bees flips in Texas, unleashes angry swarm . . . An 18-wheeler carrying a load of honeybees in Texas flipped over — unleashing an angry swarm. Authorities had to call in beekeepers to help with the mass of stinging insects buzzing over a San Antonio highway on Sunday morning. The truck, owned by a bee removal business, turned over at around 11 a.m. while trying to navigate a turn. The semi was hauling at least 400 hives — each holding an estimated 20,000 to 25,000 bees. At least a thousand bees escaped, prompting authorities to close a stretch of I-35 for several hours and to urge locals to stay inside while they worked to clear the stingers. The hives that remained in the truck were killed by a foam sprayed by the San Antonio Fire Department for safety reasons. This truck crash made quite the buzz. New York Post
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Happy Wednesday! Unless you are one of the guys who was angling to get into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Then today is not a happy Wednesday at all.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
President Joe Biden said yesterday his administration is working toward purchasing an additional combined 200 million doses of COVID-19 vaccine from Pfizer and Moderna, which, if secured, would be manufactured and delivered this summer. The 200 million doses would be in addition to the combined 400 million the two companies have pledged to provide the United States.
Biden issued a series of executive orders yesterday as a part of his “racial equity agenda.” Among them was an order designed to phase out the Justice Department’s contracts with private prisons, citing the need to “reduce profit-based incentives” for the mass incarceration of people of color. The president also issued a memorandum directing the Department of Housing and Urban Development to examine the federal government’s role in “systematically declining to invest in communities of color and preventing residents of those communities from accessing the same services and resources as their white counterparts.”
All but five Senate Republicans—Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Susan Collins, Ben Sasse, and Pat Toomey—voted against tabling a motion introduced by Sen. Rand Paul dismissing former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial as unconstitutional. Senate Democrats successfully tabled the motion, but the GOP support Paul’s point of order received is likely a preview of what to expect at next month’s impeachment trial.
A federal judge in Texas issued a temporary restraining order barring the Biden administration from enforcing its 100-day deportation moratorium, saying that the administration had yet “to provide any concrete, reasonable justification for a 100-day pause on deportations.” The Department of Justice did, however, officially rescind a memo that instituted the Trump administration’s “zero tolerance” U.S.-Mexico border policy that resulted in thousands of family separations. The move was largely symbolic, as President Trump had issued an executive order in June 2018 ending his administration’s family separation policy.
The Senate voted 78-22 on Tuesday to confirm Antony Blinken as Biden’s new secretary of state.
Biden on Tuesday spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time since he assumed office last week. According to a White House readout of the call, the two spoke about extending the New START Treaty, the SolarWinds hack, Ukrainian sovereignty, and the poisoning of Alexei Navalny.
Maj. Gen. William Walker—the commanding general of the District of Columbia National Guard—told the Washington Post that the Pentagon restricted his ability to respond without higher-level authorization ahead of the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Several thousand D.C. National Guard troops will remain deployed through March “in continued support of District and Federal civil authorities during anticipated First Amendment demonstrations and Civil Disturbance in the District of Columbia.”
The United States confirmed 146,701 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday per the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 Dashboard, with 8.8 percent of the 1,674,947 tests reported coming back positive. An additional 4,099 deaths were attributed to the virus on Tuesday, bringing the pandemic’s American death toll to 425,062. According to the COVID Tracking Project, 108,957 Americans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 44,394,075 COVID-19 vaccine doses have been distributed nationwide, and 23,540,994 have been administered.
States Seesaw on Pandemic Restrictions
At the outset of the coronavirus pandemic last March, Tomas Pueyo wrote a widely read piece outlining how governments around the world could balance public health and economic viability: The Hammer (a few weeks of mandatory total lockdown), followed by the Dance (limited restrictions on activity that loosen or tighten based on virus prevalence, until the population is vaccinated). The United States’ execution of this model has been patchwork and clunky, but it’s more or less the path most states have tried to follow.
For most Americans, the Hammer period ended somewhere between mid-May and early June, depending upon where they lived. Then came the Dance. As the virus whipped across the Sun Belt in the summer, for example, states like Texas and Florida temporarily closed bars again and placed some restrictions on dining. Governors in much of the Midwest adjusted public health guidelines in the fall to deal with a surge in the virus. For many states on the coasts that were hit hard by the virus early on, December and January have been particularly difficult.
The restrictions did not always make gallons of sense. New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy, for example, announced in November that indoor dining could continue in the state—but only until 10 p.m. The Supreme Court struck down Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s attendance limits on religious services. California Gov. Gavin Newsom banned outdoor dining in December, despite a paucity of evidence showing the activity to be dangerous and parts of California actually being warm enough to enjoy it. And then there’s the whole “keeping schools closed despite study after study finding in-person learning does not contribute to virus spread if appropriate precautions are taken” thing.
But with the number of new cases and hospitalizations falling in recent days, even governors and mayors who have proven themselves most heavy-handed with coronavirus restrictions are beginning to ease up. Restaurants in Michigan will be allowed to reopen at 25 percent capacity starting February 1. In Illinois, it happened over the weekend. California Gov. Gavin Newsom canceled the state’s stay-at-home order this week, and Gov. Andrew Cuomo in New York said Monday that “we can start to adjust that valve and start to open up more economic activity and reduce some of the restrictions.”
What’s driving this shift? Some local officials believe repealing restrictions on certain activities will actually help contain the spread of the virus. “If we have people and give them an outlet for entertainment in the restaurant space, in the bar space, we have much more of an opportunity, in my view, to be able to regulate and control that environment,” Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot said this month, advocating for the reopening of restaurants and bars. She had opposed Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s restricting indoor dining in the fall. “People are engaging in risky behavior that is not only putting themselves at risk, but putting their families, their co-workers, and other ones at risk. Let’s bring it out of the shadows. Let’s allow them to have some recreation in restaurants, in bars, where we can actually work with responsible owners and managers to regulate and protect people from COVID-19.”
Others have begun prioritizing the economic effects of the restrictions. “We simply cannot stay closed until the vaccine hits critical mass. The cost is too high,” Cuomo said January 11, echoing a line of argument of which he was highly critical earlier in the pandemic. “We will have nothing left to open. We must reopen the economy, but we must do it smartly and safely.”
In a Washington Post op-ed, Michael Gerson, former speechwriter for George W. Bush, urges Americans to fully process and learn from the events of January 6. Unfortunately, he writes, “collective amnesia” seems to have set in among Republican politicians, ostensibly in the name of national unity. “If the Capitol attack is not fully and completely repudiated, then ‘January 6!’ will be strengthened as a radical rallying cry. And an un-convicted Trump would do his best to ensure it,” Gerson writes. “By convicting Trump, Senate Republicans would be saying that the insurrection was something very different: the last gasp of a dying presidency, a uniformly condemned outbreak of hatred and an act of eternal dishonor.”
Less than a week into his presidency, President Biden has already built upon the Trump administration’s “worst economic thinking,” Kevin Williamson argues in a piece for National Review. Biden’s “Buy American” executive order, he argues, is nothing more than “corporate welfare in patriotic drag.” You don’t “make the country as a whole better off by overcharging Peter to overpay Paul,” Williamson concludes. “What you do is make everybody worse off by inhibiting the normal functioning of markets, in which the division of labor and comparative advantage work together to make the world more prosperous by making the most of the necessarily limited resources we have.”
As mentioned above, Fairfax County teachers are pushing to delay school reopenings until students have been inoculated. So why have teachers been prioritized to receive the vaccine themselves? About 5,000 teachers have received a first dose and 22,000 more are slated to get the jab soon. “The simple truth is that the Fairfax school system wants the benefits of heroism without taking a heroic action,” writes Fairfax County parent Rory Cooper. “The excuses pile up faster than the half-inch of snow that typically shuts down school operations.”
For yesterday’s edition of The Sweep, Sarah spoke to Doug Kronaizl about pivot counties in both 2016 and 2020. Plus, a contribution from special guest Chris Stirewalt!
RealClearPolitics editor A.B. Stoddard joined Jonah on the latest episode of The Remnant to chat about Senate Republicans’ path forward in a post-Trump era. What external pressures—political and personal—might inhibit GOP lawmakers from following their conscience? Are there legitimate legal and logistical arguments to be made by Republicans in opposition to convicting the president?
Let Us Know
Once (knock on wood) the pandemic is over, what do you think we are going to look back on as having been the biggest mistakes we made in responding to it?
Leslie Eastman: “Gavin Newsom’s meal at the French Laundry may be the most expensive one he ever had….it may cost him his future political career.”
Stacey Matthews: “So apparently the president of the United States not answering questions from reporters about his conversations with foreign leaders is suddenly okay again. Amazing how much the standards shift when a Democrat holds office.”
Legal Insurrection Foundation is a Rhode Island tax-exempt corporation established exclusively for charitable purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code to educate and inform the public on legal, historical, economic, academic, and cultural issues related to the Constitution, liberty, and world events.
For more information about the Foundation, CLICK HERE.
Impeachment Trial Basically Over Before It Begins
From Daily Wire:
“Forty-five Republican senators voted in favor of a motion introduced by Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Tuesday to dismiss the impeachment article against former President Donald Trump as unconstitutional.
The point of order, which was defeated 55-45, argued that the Senate does not have the constitutional authority to try a president after he has left office.
The House on Monday delivered to the Senate one article of impeachment against Trump for allegedly ‘encourag[ing]…imminent lawless action at the Capitol’ after a mob breached and vandalized the Capitol on Jan. 6 after his rally.
Among those who voted in favor of Paul’s motion was Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), who at first reportedly expressed support for Trump’s impeachment to colleagues.
Though the motion was not upheld, it suggests that the Senate will not have the requisite 67-vote supermajority to convict Trump in a second impeachment trial, in which 17 Republicans would have to vote with the Democrats.”
Watch Senator Paul’s speech laying out the weak case of “incitement” against Trump here.
Trust Matters
Highly recommend this essay in The Federalist by Heritage Foundation’s Mike Gonzales, which lays out in terrifying detail why our current crisis is worse than the period of violence and unrest in the 1960s.
“One of the flashing insights the country should have was that the centripetal forces that used to keep America united lie exhausted or are no longer existent. This makes our current ‘regime politics’—our deep existential disagreement about how the country should be constituted—dangerously unstable.
In other words, if people have reason to believe that, as President Trump told the crowd on Wednesday, ‘If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore,’ some will fight like hell, and the most-addled minds might even commit violence…
For a very long time, [Jonathan Haidt] said, America had figured out how to ‘tone down the tribalism’ with a shared consensus around the ‘American civic religion.’ But, “when those centripetal forces weaken you can expect revolution, chaos, a cycle of decline in trust, and the decay of a society.’
In the 1960s, America faced centrifugal forces that were even more violent than in this decade, Haidt said, adding ominously, however, ‘But the centripetal forces, holding us together, were so much stronger then, that the nation was able to make it through. Now, we have very little holding us together.’”
Unfortunately for all of us, it turns out that 1776 matters. Institutional trust matters. Speaking of which…
The Revolution Will Be Cosplayed
From yours truly:
“One of the stranger elements of the current era is the juxtaposition of the cataclysmic and ridiculous.
No one denies that riots in the Capitol have a certain end-of-the-line feeling about them. At the same time, the aesthetics of the riot itself, with House floor invaders dressed in wolf pelts and snapping selfies, make the whole thing a little difficult to take seriously. It reminds one of cosplay, in which people dress up as their favorite action heroes, or of LARPing, live-action role-playing: both are essentially acting out video games.
Sure, we’ve been facing a collapse of institutional trust and what is likely to be continued and escalating political violence since summer, but put me face to face with the country’s most reviled “terrorist,” and I’m not sure I could keep from laughing…
It’s bad enough that the end of the American experiment in self-government seems more of a realistic possibility than at any point in most of our lifetimes, but to confront that it might come to such a ridiculous end is at once too much to bear and perfectly appropriate. Perhaps not knowing whether to laugh or cry is a feature, not a bug.
Maybe this combination of tragedy and farce is exactly the kind of mind-numbing bizarro world we should expect when the most powerful cultural and political faction of the age, woke technocratic neoliberalism, can be summed up neatly as an empathy-based movement devoid of any genuine empathy.
The ridiculous appearance of most of the Capitol rioters and blue-haired, genderless Antifa members lends the very real havoc they create a kind of television sheen. It can’t possibly be the case that the greatest republic in the history of mankind will be brought down by such transparent losers. Their LARPy veneer permits the rest of us watching to remain detached from each other as well as the outcome of the games, which, incidentally, will be officiated by Lady Gaga…
The right cosplays 1990, while the left pretends 74 million Americans will vanish into thin air if Jack yanks them off Twitter. If a global pandemic, economic collapse, and violence in our streets and seat of government cannot shake us from our decadent stupor and turn us to the difficult task of rebuilding institutions worthy of the public trust, it remains to be seen what can.”
Further thoughts on the subject with Emily Jashinsky on Radio Hour.
Fashion Moment of the Week
It’s not only our politics that feel surreal; the runways at the moment are distinctly fantastical. From Dior’s tarot-card inspired Pan’s Labyrinth knockoff, to medieval brides at Chanel, to a more modern but still Dali-esque vision at Valentino, today’s runways may reflect our fading sanity as we sit behind our screens and forget the outside world.
Wednesday Links
Federal judge blocks Biden’s deportation freeze. (The Federalist)
Biden delivers two important gifts to Russia in first week in office. (The Federalist)
Americans don’t want woke neoliberalism, but it’s what the Biden admin will deliver. (Spectator USA)
Florida offers to host the Olympics if Japan backs out. (Yahoo! News)
Alexei Navalny outmaneuvers Putin with bravery that inspires protests. (Wall Street Journal)
Inez Feltscher Stepman is a senior policy analyst at the Independent Women’s Forum and a senior contributor to The Federalist. She is a San Francisco Bay Area native with a BA in Philosophy from UCSD and a JD from the University of Virginia. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, Jarrett Stepman, her puggle Thor, and her cat Thaddeus Kosciuszko. You can follow her on Twitter at @inezfeltscher and on Instagram (for #ootd, obvi) under the same handle. Opinions expressed on this website are her own and not those of her employers. Or her husband.
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Jan 27, 2021 01:00 am
Biden voters were victims of a four-year propaganda campaign to smear Donald Trump and drag the Democrat nominee across the finish line — any nominee — truth be damned. Read More…
Jan 27, 2021 01:00 am
President Biden has highlighted the importance of Critical Race theory for his administration and Congressman Cohen has highlighted the malign influence of whiteness in the military. This essay modestly proposes a means of ridding the military of whiteness. Read More…
Evangelicals’ faith in Trump
Jan 27, 2021 01:00 am
The political and social relationship between the evangelical community and President Donald Trump has to be one of the strangest and most ironic — as well as strong and committed — relationships in presidential history. And it is not going away Read more…
Where will the Trump presidential library go?
Jan 27, 2021 01:00 am
There are two sides to the question of where the eventual Trump presidential library will be built. Where would Donald Trump want it to go? And where would it be allowed to be built? Read more…
The scales have fallen
Jan 27, 2021 01:00 am
When rot enters a healthy body and its defenses are not aroused, that body’s survival depends only upon the life cycle of the disease. Our Republic lives now at the sufferance of its illness. Read more…
Global warming: Facts vs. media misrepresentation
Jan 27, 2021 01:00 am
Why do the media continue to repeat the conspiracy that humans and their oil cause global warming and climate change when the scientific data show that that is false? Read more…
American Thinker is a daily internet publication devoted to the thoughtful exploration of issues of importance to Americans.
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Christopher Ruddy, the CEO of Newsmax and longtime friend of former President Donald Trump, said that he can now become the “president of the world” after leaving the restrictions of politics behind. Ruddy made the comments Tuesday in an interview with Greg Kelly on Newsmax. Kelly asked Ruddy to comment on Trump saying that he … Read more
Just this week, we learned that thousands of Guardsmen could remain in Washington DC ‘indefinitely.’ Certainly through President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial.
In Ryszard Legutko’s latest book, ‘The Cunning of Freedom: Saving the Self in an Age of False Idols,’ the Polish professor and survivor of communism warns that the coercive attempts of modern liberals to redefine freedom are more destructive than liberating.
Susan Rice can’t be trusted to protect Americans’ rights. She failed in upholding her oath of office while being a puppet for Hillary Clinton on Benghazi.
The Transom is a daily email newsletter written by publisher of The Federalist Ben Domenech for political and media insiders, which arrives in your inbox each morning, collecting news, notes, and thoughts from around the web.
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40.) REUTERS
The Reuters Daily Briefing
Wednesday, January 27, 2021
by Linda Noakes and Hani Richter
Good morning, .
Here’s what you need to know.
‘A loss is actually a victory’
Forty-five Senate Republicansbacked a failed effort to halt Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, in a show of party unity that underscored the likelihood he will not be convicted of inciting insurrection.
Republican Senator Rand Paul made a motion that would have required the chamber to vote on whether Trump’s trial violates the U.S. Constitution.
Only five Republicans joined Democrats to reject the move, far short of the 17 votes needed to convict Trump.
“It’s one of the few times in Washington where a loss is actually a victory,” Paul told reporters. “Forty-five votes means the impeachment trial is dead on arrival.”
Top U.S. Capitol security officialsapologized for “failings” during the deadly attack on the building on Jan 6.
Meanwhile, Joe Biden tried to make good on his pledge to heal America’s racial divide with executive orders including curbing the government’s use of private prisons and bolstering anti-discrimination enforcement in housing.
Today’s biggest stories
Pandemic
Global coronavirus cases surpassed 100 million as countries around the world struggle with new virus variants and vaccine shortfalls. Almost 1.3% of the world’s population has now been infected with COVID-19 and more than 2.1 million people have died.
The European Union is asking AstraZeneca to publish the contract it signed with the bloc on COVID-19 vaccine supplies, an EU official said, in an escalation of the row over delivery delays. The company pulled out of a meeting with the European Union scheduled for Wednesday.
Hundreds of police guarded the historic Red Fort in the heart of the Indian capital following violent clashes between farmers and authorities in which one person was killed and at least 80 injured.
With shops boarded up and riot police out in force, it was relatively calm in Dutch cities on Tuesday night after three days of violence during which nearly 500 people were detained. A nighttime curfew to curb the spread of the coronavirus prompted riots.
London has no desire for a bonfire of regulations to retain its positionas a top international finance center after Brexit but it is ready to act if the European Union blocks access, the City of London’s political leader said.
Nissan Motor said all its “new vehicle offerings” in key markets would be electrified by the early 2030s, as part of the Japanese automaker’s efforts to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Breakingviews – Corona Capital: Blackstone in India, Swedish banks
“Nobody would have predicted that I and Dr. Fauci would be so prominent in these really evil theories. I’m very surprised by that. I hope it goes away.”
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Voters can be fickle, as every politician knows. One minute they love you, the next minute – well, not so much. In relatively short order, Americans are registering displeasure with the newly minted president’s executive orders and possible plans. Here are the top three that take win, place, and show in this week’s race card.
Article by Leesa K. Donner originally published at Liberty Nation.
For The Win: The Keystone Pipeline
Heralded on “day one” as repudiating Donald Trump, President Joe Biden blocked the Keystone XL pipeline’s further construction. One would think those 80 million who voted for Biden would be jumping for joy. But it appears this is not sitting too well with likely voters. A new survey from Rasmussen Reports finds “only 36% of Likely U.S. Voters think it is a good idea to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline that would transport oil from Canada to the U.S.” Just in case the new administration wants further evidence, another 60% of voters said they oppose halting construction because gas prices are likely to rise.
Indeed, Americans appear to have put one and one together and come up with two – something the new administration might want to consider when people turn against its policies. That will likely occur when the voters feel the sting of three and four dollars per gallon at the pumps this summer.
Biden folks could always point to the silver lining in this survey. A whopping 8% say the repeal of the Keystone pipeline order will “lead to lower gas prices.” More sarcasm coming right up …
For Place: The Country’s Direction
How do the American people feel regarding the country’s direction after just one week of a Biden administration? Hold on to your race card: Yet another Rasmussen survey found only 21% approve. When asked whether the country was headed in the right direction, 72% said no. “A year ago at this time, 45% said the United States was heading in the right direction,” asserted Rasmussen. For comparison, it also pointed out, “This is the lowest number since President Trump was elected four years ago.”
For Show: Immigration
Another Rasmussen poll conducted on Friday, Jan. 22, was headlined, “By 2 to 1 Margin, Voters Want Migrant Caravan Stopped at the Border.” To be fair, the new president is hemming and hawing and has thus far done nothing to encourage the annual caravan to keep trekking toward the U.S.-Mexican border. That’s probably a wise lack of action. Rasmussen’s survey on immigration reveals that 60% of likely U.S. voters say the caravan should be halted at the border. This is the same border that was the subject of yet another executive order by the new commander in chief. Biden’s day-one EO stopped the building of the border wall.
Speaking of halting wall construction, voters appear evenly divided over that edict: 48% say it’s a poor move, but 45% like the idea.
It isn’t easy to correlate these figures with what the legacy media are reporting as Biden’s widespread popularity. Could it be they like the man but not his policies? Similarly, was it Trump the man that voters repudiated and not his policies? Many would argue that all this depends upon an accurate portrait of the November election. However, that battle has been fought and Biden declared the winner. Such as it is, these polls and future ones will reveal what the public wants, and prudence dictates that the new administration should be judicious in overturning policies from the Trump era.
COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.
We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 11,000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz announced today that:
The DOJ Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is initiating an investigation into whether any former or current DOJ official engaged in an improper attempt to have DOJ seek to alter the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election. The investigation will encompass all relevant allegations that may arise that are within the scope of the OIG’s jurisdiction. The OIG has jurisdiction to investigate allegations concerning the conduct of former and current DOJ employees. The OIG’s jurisdiction does not extend to allegations against other government officials.
The OIG is making this statement, consistent with DOJ policy, to reassure the public that an appropriate agency is investigating the allegations. Consistent with OIG policy, we will not comment further on the investigation until it is completed. When our investigation is concluded, we will proceed with our usual process for releasing our findings publicly in accordance with relevant laws, and DOJ and OIG policies.”
What do we make of this? Many Trump supporters are naturally breathing a sigh of relief, believing that this is actually an investigation into the 2020 Election. I’ve seen so many posting that finally this will place President Trump back in his rightful place in the White House. However, when you take a closer look at what was actually written, it points us in a much more dangerous and sinister direction.
Nowhere in the statement did the DOJ say that they were going to investigate claims of voter fraud, dead people voting or Dominion Voting Systems algorithms. Instead, they mentioned specifically “former or current” DOJ officials that seemed “to alter the outcome of the 2020 Presidential Election.” This is very vague language, yet specific at the same time. It’s clear to me that this is an attempt to root out any leftover Trump supporters from within the Department of Justice.
We are seeing an attempt by the Deep State, Democrats and the Establishment Elites to gain complete control of our government for the rest of our lifetimes. This is Cancel Culture to the extreme.
Guys, we have to save America. This means we do not let up, but keep pressing forward, using our weapons of Truth and Transparency to red-pill as many Americans as possible. We can do this… the future of our great country depends upon us!
COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.
We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 11,000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
Sometimes questions yield the best lines of inquiry, which was of course the whole point of the Socratic method. In our present epoch, we need to ask why are extremists of the nation’s socialist left still talking about the “Capitol Riots”. We use the plural in this context because that is what they are using. For most people, this was a singular event that took place over 3–4 hours almost 3 weeks ago.
For our extremist radicals in the national socialist media, it’s the ‘Capitol siege’ [implying that it is still going on] and other words evocative over violent imagery. This is why they pushing the useless and divisive ‘impeachment trial’ and why they keep on bringing it up with any excuse they can imagine.
Watch what the magician is doing with his other hand
In this case, we have the trick being played before our very eyes in the guise of the “Impeachment” trial on the fact that “Donald John Trump incited the erection“ as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer asserted the other day on the Senate floor.
While we’re being distracted by that, the extremist left wants to set in stone the methods by which they cheated in past elections with HR 1 as know as the “For The People Act“. This would radically change the way elections are handled, from the free and fair system run by the states to a nationalized similar to the Californian election system. As noted in the editorial that accompanies the video presented here:
“Under H.R. 1, [people] could freely go house to house and apartment to apartment collecting unknown thousands of ballots and then dump them all in a ballot dropbox. No one would have any idea if those ballots had been tampered with at any point along the way or would there be any way to prove it if they had been tampered with,“ he continued.
“H.R. 1 also makes it harder for election observers to file complaints about any of this because complaining is racist.“
“A system like that is suicidal for democracy and no other free country would tolerate it.“
Carlson further pointed out that Canada and France have prohibitions on mail-in ballots, while the party in power in the U.S. seeks the opposite remedy.
The radical extremist left is suddenly ready to pay the price for suppressing freedom.
The video we’re presenting here also deals with several important issues from the radical extremist left tearing off the mask and fully embracing the suppression of free speech and censorship. To their ongoing obsession with something no one in the mainstream of liberty Conservatism cares – or even knows about ‘QAnon?’ [We’re not even sure of the spelling of that…]
Nevertheless, our betters over on the national socialist media seems to be all concerned about this non-existent issue, to the point that we need to be censored because of it. No, we can’t follow that ‘logic’ either.
There is always a moral price to be paid for ripping off the the mask of the pretense of being ‘liberal’ and going all in for the suppression for basic civil rights. While the “Civil liberties folks” on the left [as they falsely refer to themselves] even now may still think they are supporters of liberty. The reality is that false assertion is quickly fading.
The far left is going full fascist.
To be sure, the radical left has always wanted to go full fascist and shut down the opposition for good. But thy had to maintain certain pretenses to gain power and claim moral authority at certain cocktail parties. That has all changed – at least in their minds – they have attained power and they are trying put in place measures to keep them forever. They have stormed the Bastille and taken the battlements, now they are rhetorically burning the drawbridges so they can never be deposed.
The advantages in shutting down the opposition are worth the loss of moral authority as well as the pretense of being ‘liberal’ or supporters of freedom. Being the ones with the megaphone means they can shout the false claims without anyone responding with a contrary opinion.
They have taken control and that is all that matters to them. If their voices are preeminent, then they get to set the facts and define the terms of debate. If that means that ‘freedom is slavery’ then so be it.
COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.
We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 11,000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
The World Health Organization (WHO) is finally coming clean about the PCR (polymerase chain reaction) testing scandal that resulted in untold millions of people falsely testing “positive” for the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) – but only because Joe Biden has now been coronated as “president.”
Article by Ethan Huff originally published at Natural News.
All throughout 2020 with President Donald Trump at the helm, PCR testing protocols were fraudulently calibrated to perform an excessively high number of cycles. The higher the number of cycles, we learned, the more “positive” results were generated.
This was clearly done on purpose to make Trump look bad, and to justify locking down the country in order that Trump’s high-performing economy was shot to dust. Now that the Biden regime is occupying the White House, however, everything is magically changing for the better.
Suddenly the WHO and other health “authorities” are admitting that PCR testing is not being done correctly, which has been known for a while now.
“The cycle threshold (Ct) needed to detect virus is inversely proportional to the patient’s viral load,” the WHO admitted in a statement released not even an hour after Biden was “inaugurated.”
“Where test results do not correspond with the clinical presentation, a new specimen should be taken and retested using the same or different NAT technology.”
In other words, if an individual tests “positive” but does not show any corresponding symptoms, the high Ct value produced is more than likely incorrect and needs to be adjusted.
So coronavirus was a political weapon after all
This is the type of information that, in a fair and honest world, would have been revealed months ago while Trump was still recognized by everyone as being in office.
Heck, The New York Times knew about it back in August, having published an article revealing that upwards of 90 percent of coronavirus test results in at least three states did not in any way correspond to active illness.
The left’s response was that these were merely “asymptomatic carriers” of COVID-19. Asymptomatic spread, however, is not a real thing and appears to have been used merely to drum up fear about the plandemic.
Many epidemiologists warned that PCR test cycles were calibrated too high. However, it was not yet politically expedient to make any changes until Jan. 20 when Biden was “sworn in” as America’s “46th president.”
Keep in mind that Anthony Fauci, a television “doctor” whom many leftists view as the “god” of the coronavirus plandemic, admitted roughly a year ago that “asymptomatic carriers” do not contribute to disease spread. This narrative later changed, though, when it became apparent that the plandemic could be weaponized to tarnish Trump’s reputation.
Fauci also knew back in July that the PCR test cycle count needed to be reduced to pull up more accurate results. Even so, he refused to do anything about it, playing a complicit role in the perpetuation of coronavirus hysteria.
As it turns out, any PCR test that shows a positive in the absence of symptoms is meaningless if the Ct was set at higher than 30 – which nearly all of them were while Trump was still in office.
“When you think about the lengths the permanent fusion party had to go to, to get their candidate over the finish line: constant media bombardment against Trump, nationwide lockdowns, social media blackouts, election fraud, false flag events, and a militarized inauguration, I have to imagine it’s a pretty fragile win,” wrote one Zero Hedge commenter about the fiasco.
More of the latest news about the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) and how it is being retooled under Biden can be found at Pandemic.news.
COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.
We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 11,000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
National Guard troops were sent to Washington, ostensibly to protect the precious politicians and THEIR capitol from the dredges of humanity, i.e. from the austere pruning shears of the taxable land-dwellers. But maybe that wasn’t the primary reason. Maybe there was a subliminal Freudian message: That message might be:
“Don’t forget we’ve got soldiers in our happy (actually unhappy) ‘shining city on a hill’ so we can have war whenever we want. We can send them over there on your dime and we can point their guns at you over here, still on your dime. Citizens, taxpayers be damned, we are the Washington governing class.”
Probably Freud would agree; either as a psychologist or as a pacifist.
One prominent syndicated radio talker in Houston, Michael Berry, predicted the U.S. would find new fields to which it could sow warfare by June now that Trump had been overthrown–he was overthrown by political stealth, not electorally defeated. As it turned out Berry was over 4 months too late with his prediction.
The Biden administration has already gotten the war-ball rolling with convoys moving into Syria. I refer to the Biden administration and not Biden himself because what “Biden himself” knows is anybody’s guess. He may not be aware he has been appointed president. Nevertheless, he and his substandard pseudo-warriors in the Pentagon and the neocon clubhouse are again locked and loaded and on the warpath.
If the Washington establishment follows its usual lobbyist military-industrial-complex (as Eisenhower’s ghost groans) strategy we will have wars scattered throughout the globe before you can say, “bang bang.” Of course the asinine concept of the president as “leader of the free world” will be hammered daily by the theatre of the mindless (the so-called news media). It, of course, is his duty to bomb or strafe those who would loathe “freedom.”
Another asinine concept, of course, is that the president is commander in chief of the “country” and not simply of the “military” when constitutionally appropriate.
But what do the taxpayers know about such a complicated and complex document as the Constitution (about 7000 words in basic high school English)? They are supposed to write checks to Washington, not spend time reading.
Hence, troops come and go and are killed and crippled while pretty little politicians sit safely behind desks and rank and rave while collecting high salaries, and pretty pensions; and, of course, the under-the-table and wink of an eye payment at their favorite lobbyist.
But these political types do manage to show up for the coffins at the airport so they may demonstrate a pretentious tearful display for their brave warriors who died for the likes of Max Boot or Bill Krystol. They will give the grieving wife, children, or parent a flag (which they insist they kneel for at the ballgame) and pursue their next appropriation bill for whatever war is available.
Oh, “Washington,” once a name said with humility and pride. Now you don’t say it without poking your finger down your throat.
One of Donald Trump’s great sins (maybe the unforgivable one to them) was his commitment and directing of American troops from overseas and homeward bound. Enough already, he announced, and most voters agreed.
The silly, stupid, worn-out bromide of “If we don’t fight them over there, we’ll have to fight them over there,” hopefully discarded to the trash bin of speciousness.
So, he started bringing them home. And the neocons and lobbyists and industries that make a fortune off of war began screaming. The corrupted professional politicians, Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, and, of course, the most corrupt of all, our lovable “intelligence community,” began a campaign to “bring Trump down.” Beginning with the preposterous and expensive Mueller Report to the sham impeachment in 2019, along with the also farcical “news” media, the attacks were constant (and still are).
We must understand that we now have those to fight over here; that is against the fifth columnists, the domestic terrorists. You know, the buzz for the liberals now is: “All enemies, foreign and domestic.” The buzz-word of course is “domestic.” That translates to conservatives, non-establishment Republicans, and especially anyone in the majority of voters who are, of course, Donald Trump supporters as the enemies.
The same people who probably couldn’t pass a ninth-grade civics test on the Constitution, suddenly hang on every word of it.
The National Guard is not a federal army unless nationalized by the president. It is the arm of the states, of the Union. The one that supposedly was written under guidance to “make it more perfect.”
Domestic enemies, eh? Ask 75 Million voters who those enemies really are.
COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.
We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 11,000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
While Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer whines about impeachment for the sake of “healing,” it seems practically impossible he will get his wish. A vote prompted by Rand Paul to declare the impeachment of a private citizen unconstitutional was supported by 44 other Senators.
The Senate just voted on my constitutional point of order.
45 Senators agreed that this sham of a “trial” is unconstitutional.
That is more than will be needed to acquit and to eventually end this partisan impeachment process.
An impeachment conviction against Donald Trump would require two-thirds of the Senate. If we assume Senator Pat Leahy can still vote despite the unprecedented move to have him preside over the impeachment, then Democrats would need 67 total votes. At this point, it seems the best they can get is 55. According to The Epoch Times:
Republican Sens. Mitt Romney (Utah), Ben Sasse (Neb.), Susan Collins (Maine), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Pat Toomey (Pa.) voted with Democrats to reject Paul’s order, suggesting the five senators will vote to convict Trump. Romney was the only Republican senator to vote to convict Trump during his first impeachment trial in early 2020.
The Senate ultimately voted 55–45 to table Paul’s point of order, meaning that the impeachment trial will go forward. The House voted to impeach Trump earlier this month on the sole impeachment charge of “incitement of insurrection,” with Democrats claiming he incited violence at the U.S. Capitol earlier this month. Trump called on the protesters not to engage in violent acts and later told them to “go home in peace.”
Trump is the first president to be impeached twice, and the first president to undergo an impeachment trial after leaving office. Ahead of the vote, Paul warned that he wanted to force his colleagues to go on the record.
But this is more than just a good sign for President Trump. It also marks the clearest line in the sand ahead of the impeachment trial of which Republicans are opposed to him and his supporters. None of the five Republicans who voted to table Paul’s motion are surprising, but now they’re officially on record as hating the GOP base that put them in office.
The second impeachment is a huge distraction, perhaps even more than the first. The five GOP Senators who support it are running cover for the disastrous Biden agenda and helping to dismiss discussions surrounding election manipulation.
COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.
We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 11,000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
An estimated 12,000 illegal-alien criminals will be released every month into American communities as a result of President Biden’s executive actions, warns former White House adviser Stephen Miller.
Biden’s orders have included a 100-day “moratorium” on deportations, which already has drawn a legal challenge from border state Texas, and the release of all detainees “immediately.”
“This is the most extreme directive, I would argue, really in the history of modern law enforcement that’s ever been issued,” Miller said of the moratorium in an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson on Monday.
He explained that the order from acting Department of Homeland Security Secretary David Pekoske has only “narrow exceptions,” so most aliens who fall short of the “terrorist” label could not be deported any longer.
“But the 180,000 people that ICE removed last year? Those same 180,000 people could not be removed this year as a result of that deportation moratorium. Of those 180,000, Tucker, 92% of them are criminals, either charged or convicted of a crime,” Miller said.
“In this memo there is no exceptions clause for criminals, I repeat, there is no exceptions clause for criminals.”
Miller said that means, operationally, that “the work of ICE officers will grind to a halt beginning February 1st.”
“Why February 1st? Because that’s the date by which ICE has to come up with implementing guidance for the memo,” Miller said.
“And so every sheriff’s office, every police department, every correctional facility in the country that for years has been handing over illegal aliens to ICE to pick them up and take them home, which is the bread and butter of ICE’s work, all of those people will not get picked up any more,” he said. “Why won’t they get picked up? Because you cannot arrest someone you can’t deport. That’s a foundational principle to immigration law. ICE is not a jail. ICE has detention exclusively for staging people for removal. You cannot pick up somebody that you’re not going to remove.”
See the interview:
Miller said that in just a few days, about 12,000 criminals a month are going to be released into U.S. communities.
“I’m basing that 12,000 number on what the average was last year on the number of arrests that were given in a particular month, or how many arrests were made in a particular month,” he said. “It could actually be higher than that because last year with the pandemic obviously numbers went down a bit. With the vaccine, you’d expect them to go back up. So 12,000 to 15,000 criminals a month … are going to be loosed back into U.S. communities.”
Even worse is that the order also prohibits deportation of those who come into the country legally but refuse to go home when ordered, such as students and workers on temporary visas.
He explained the order means that aliens, including criminals, cannot be removed even if they’ve been ordered to leave.
“The whole system is dismantled,” Miller said.
COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.
We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 11,000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
On multiple occasions over the last week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has proclaimed justification for President Trump’s upcoming impeachment trial by claiming it’s about “healing.” This isn’t just placate-speak coming from a Democrat, which we often hear. This is absolutely accurate from his perspective. And therein lies the real reason this impeachment trial is going forward.
NOT A JOKE: Schumer Says Only an Impeachment Trial of Trump Can ‘Bring Healing’ to the Country https://t.co/LzwlDanQ80
Most speculation has surrounded the stated notion that impeaching him will prevent him from running for office again. They have to jump over some constitutional landmines in order to demonstrate that an impeachment trial in the Senate for a private citizen is even legal, and if it’s legal if it has any binding status at all. They’re already undoing centuries of precedent by holding a Senate impeachment hearing without the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presiding. Do they really think they can get the votes, manipulate laws, and upend the Constitution for the sake of keeping Trump from running for president in 2024?
Sen. Chuck Schumer: “The only way to bring healing is to actually have real accountability.” pic.twitter.com/GIJ3oAzCAi
The actual reason Democrats are dead set on holding this impeachment trial comes back to what Schumer said. It’s about “healing.” Many conservatives have taken to social media to express the logical conclusion that an impeachment trial will stir up further hatred from the right. It will not bring the “unity” that the Biden administration has turned into a canard. But we’re missing the point. We’re not thinking like a leftist. Schumer and others are sincere when they say they believe this will help the country heal. It’s just not the type of healing a conservative can understand.
Lest we forget, Democrats have become a full-blown post-truth party. Reality isn’t what we see or know. Reality is personal, and in that personal reality we can find what they believe to be absolute truth. Let’s look at some examples.
Science may say that a biological male is a male, but to the post-truth left the science is misreading the feelings associated with gender. Logic may tell us that a border wall is a necessary tool in fighting illegal immigration, but to the post-truth left a border wall’s symbolism is more important than its efficacy. Everything from science to religion may tell us that a human being in early stages of development is present in the womb and therefore should enjoy the rights of personhood, including the right to exist, but the post-truth left disregards these rights for the sake of convenience.
They truly believe these things. Keep that in mind as we look at the notion that an impeachment trial will bring healing. To the post-truth left, all Trump-supporters suffer from a delusion of some sort. We’re brainwashed. Programmed. We need to be shown what the leftist mind knows with a certainty, facts be damned. To the left, President Trump represents the manifestation of all conservative evils and the only way to purge this evil from our minds is to purge Trump himself.
As impossible as it may seem to a conservative, the left truly believes they are doing what’s best for us by trying to make us see the error in our ways. That’s what a lifetime embracing Cultural Marxism does to people. To them, we’re not all bad people. We’re just misguided. Brainwashed. Programmed. To Chuck Schumer and most on the left, the only way we can be saved from ourselves is through a publicly humiliating display of flogging Donald Trump.
It isn’t just impeachment. It’s in everything they’re doing. They don’t just want President Trump’s legacy erased. They want HIM completely erased. In their minds, only then can his supporters be redeemed. They think they’re “healing” us. Sad.
COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.
We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 11,000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
Today, The Two Mikes hogged the show for themselves to discuss the farce that is calling itself the Biden Administration. The actions it has taken since January 20th amount to something very near a declaration of war against the Constitution, white people, blue-collar Americans, infants, the economy, and the republic’s traditions and history.
In one area Biden has declared war on all Americans. He freed 14,000 illegal-alien criminals from ICE detention, and these felons will reinforce the Democrats’ terrorist army of BLM, Antifa, and all the other felons that were freed by Democratic governors during the Chinese Flu. We also noted that Biden has rewarded foreign interference in our election.
It appears that Biden and his family will assume the task of providing the same information to their masters Beijing. As an opening gift to China, moreover, Biden issued an executive order giving the Chinese the go-ahead to become owners of parts of the U.S. power grid. From these few things, it seems clear that the Democrats are both traitors and insurrectionists, and so must be removed.
COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.
We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 11,000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
Seton Motley, Contributing Author: Newly ensconced President Joe Biden is – with his mad flurry of Executive Orders (EOs) and actions – dramatically ramping up government in one large swath of the economy after another.
“Overregulation puts an extreme burden on small and family-owned farms and is a contributing factor to many farms going out of business. Policies during the Obama administration such as the rules under the Waters of the U.S. Act threaten to increase that regulation. As does policies proposed through the Green New Deal, which your climate plan embraces….“How do you plan to decrease the regulatory burden on farmers and businesses as a whole.”Biden’s answer was utterly incoherent, unrelated to anything Ms. Ballay asked – and filled-to-overflowing with lies. In other words – a typical Biden response.
Well Ms. Ballay – you now have your actual answer.
We all will be….
—————————— Seton Motley is the President of Less Government and he to ARRA News Service.
Tags:Seton Motley, Biden’s ‘Buy American?’, He’s Making It Impossible, for Anything to Be Made, in AmericaTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Tony Perkins: If the cancel culture thought they’d have a pushover in Mike Lindell, they were mistaken. The MyPillow founder has never lost any sleep over the Left’s attacks — and he doesn’t plan to start now. When a handful of companies decided to drop the popular line over Mike’s concerns over the 2020 election, he wasn’t rattled. He just vowed to stand taller for any business who might be next.
It started over the weekend, when stores like Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Kohl’s, HEB, Wayfair, and others abruptly decided to cut ties with the brand because of Lindell’s outspoken support for Donald Trump. “As soon as I went public [with my frustrations about voter fraud], within a couple of days, all of these box stores got attacked…” For the most part, he doesn’t even believe the complaints are real. What he has found is that these leftists just sit in a war room and create fake accounts that they can use to issue boycott threats to stores that carry certain products. “[It’s] a hired hit job by the Left and cancel culture,” he said on “Washington Watch” — just hours before Twitter permanently banned his account.
These corporate executives, Mike shook his head, “They all live in fear. Everyone lives in fear. That’s how cancel culture works.” At the end of the day, corporate America is so terrified of the liberal mob that they’ll succumb to anything. “And they’re the ones who end up losing, because their real customers are very upset when they [make political decisions to blacklist conservatives]. I’m hearing it [from] all over the country — people who are cutting up their credit cards [and switching brands] because of this targeting.” We can’t let this happen, he insisted. We have to send a message. “So, I’m not backing down.”
And no one else should either. Look at what happened when Goya CEO Bob Unanue refused to apologize for his partnership with Donald Trump. The Left threw everything they could at the company, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). And what happened? Americans rewarded Goya, sending sales 1,000 percent higher! Most CEOs are in such a hurry to do the mob’s bidding that they don’t stop to consider conservatives’ buying power. They’re playing the short game of appeasement, which almost always backfires. And they make these irrational decisions — alienating entire consumer bases — based entirely on fear.
“You know,” Mike pointed out, “I have 2,500 employees. We’re like a big family. And they know — we’ve been down this road before. When I spoke out in the Rose Garden [about bringing] God back into our schools and reading our Bible, I was attacked then too.” Looking back, he said, “I guess it’s good that we went through that before, so we know it’s not real. People come out and support us [even more] — and the losers end up being the big box stores that thought they were satisfying the [Left]. [In the end,] they’re losing out on the sales from the other stores that have stuck with us. They make the money, and they get the customers.”
A good example is Costco. “They [said], ‘We’re going to stick with MyPillow and with our contract.’ And, boy, they’re busier than ever… And so, people have to look at what’s real and what’s not.” In the meantime, Mike insisted, “I’m standing up for every business they think they [can boycott].”
When people call Mike and ask, “Is there hope?” Despite all that’s happening in our country and to him personally, he doesn’t hesitate. “Absolutely,” he tells them. “God’s got his hand in all this. I put 100 percent of my faith in the Lord.” And we should too.
The cancel culture would love nothing better than to shut up Christians and drive them from the public square. That’s a lot harder to do when we refuse to live in fear of anyone but God. “The Lord is on my side,” the psalmist says. “…What can man do to me?”
It takes a lot of courage to speak the truth when your livelihood is on the line. So when these business leaders are attacked — like Mike and Bob Unanue — we need to support them. Maybe you don’t need another pillow or mattress pad — buy one anyway. There are so many spineless and cowardly people out there. When you actually find one who’s going to stand up for their convictions — a pastor, business leader, or politician — stand with them. That’s how we fight back. That’s how we win.
———————— Tony Perkins (@tperkins) is President of the Family Research Council . Article on Tony Perkins’ Washington Update and written with the aid of FRC senior writers.
Tags:Tony Perkins, Woke Companies, Try to Smother, MyPillowTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Gary Bauer: BREAKING NEWS: BIDEN BLOCKED
Responding to a lawsuit filed by the state of Texas, federal Judge Drew Tipton (a Trump appointee) today imposed a nationwide injunction blocking enforcement of President Biden’s 100-day deportation ban.
Expect more of Biden’s unprecedented executive orders to run into a buzz saw of Trump-appointed judges.
The Apologies Begin
Pop quiz: How can you tell when a liberal Democrat administration is in office? It begins by apologizing to the world for America’s imaginary sins.
Exhibit A: Special Climate Envoy John Kerry. While addressing the United Nations Climate Summit yesterday, Kerry told the delegates that he “regretted” America’s “absence” from the Paris climate accord, and he promised to “do everything in our power to make up for it.”
The idea that the United States, with just a little over four percent of the world’s population, must stop our economic activity to save the world from climate change is laughable. Moreover, many of the technological breakthroughs that can mitigate climate change are happening in the U.S.
Telsa has put electric vehicles on the map. Fracking has given us the most environmentally friendly form of mass energy other than nuclear power, which the left hates. Our cities don’t have to lock everyone down because of horrific pollution, like China and India frequently do.
Before John Kerry apologizes for America again, he should read the latest U.N. report, which shows the United States is leading the world in greenhouse gas emission reductions — without the Paris climate accord.
Impeaching You
I want to remind you again about why Democrats are obsessed with impeaching President Trump. This whole effort really isn’t about Donald Trump.
It’s aimed at you and every American who might have buyer’s remorse four years from now. The left is terrified of Trump running again, and they don’t want you to have the opportunity to vote for him again.
While I can’t count 17 Republican votes the Democrats need to convict Trump, I am worried about the final outcome. Just as Democrats don’t want to see Trump run again, a significant part of the GOP establishment also doesn’t want him to run again. That’s why there is talk of making the impeachment vote a secret ballot.
This fake impeachment is a sham, and it should be aggressively opposed! Taking such monumental action with no accountability to the voters would be a supreme act of cowardice. I hope every Republican senator understands that they cannot hide behind procedure.
Kudos to Sen. Rand Paul for forcing his colleagues on the record!
Immediately after senators were sworn in as impeachment trial jurors, Sen. Paul offered a resolution declaring the impeachment of a private citizen unconstitutional and out of order. Only five Republican senators (Collins, Murkowski, Romney, Sasse and Toomey) opposed Paul’s resolution.
About That Poll. . .
I know there is a lot of frustration with the GOP. I share it.
And I know there is a lot of sentiment for Donald Trump to start a new party. There was a lot of buzz yesterday about a new poll that showed the GOP coming in third place behind a Trump-backed “Patriot Party.”
But the main point from the poll is this: With the conservative vote divided, the Democrat Party easily dominates.
If the country is divided 50/50 and you split the conservative vote, we lose. And that does nothing to advance the conservative cause.
Thankfully, President Trump appreciates that reality, and he publicly disavowed the newly formed Patriot Party. According to a senior adviser, Trump’s goal “is to win back the House and Senate for Republicans in 2022.”
Stop Vaccinating Teachers. . . Unless
I bet that headline got your attention. Let me explain. More and more teachers unions are refusing to return to their classrooms, with many making outrageous demands.
Over the weekend, 71% of the Chicago Teachers Union voted to refuse to return to the classroom. Given the poor results, however, online learning is a poor substitute.
In Fairfax County, Virginia, the teachers union is once again moving the goal posts, this time demanding that all students be vaccinated before schools reopen. That’s absurd!
The vaccines haven’t been approved for children under the age of 16. But, more importantly, the science shows us that students are not at serious risk of getting or transmitting the disease.
Nevertheless, many states and localities have taken steps to prioritize teacher vaccinations in order to get schools reopened. Fair enough. But if they won’t agree to return to their classrooms, then there is no reason to put them ahead of others who want a vaccine.
To be clear, if teachers agree to go back to their classrooms, then, and only then, should they receive the vaccine on a priority basis.
The education bureaucracy is one of the biggest, if not the biggest, burden on every state and county budget. What are parents getting for it?
What many parents and children are getting instead of a decent education is a lot of frustration and heartache. Sadly, it took a significant spike in child suicides to get one school district to reevaluate its pandemic policies and priorities.
Turning A Corner?
Thankfully, there is some good news. New COVID cases fell 21% last week. COVID-related deaths dropped nearly 7%, and the test positivity rate fell to its lowest level in two months.
Now, let’s be clear about this: Joe Biden has been in office for just seven days. Nothing he has done is responsible for the drop in new cases and deaths because he hasn’t done anything yet. In fact, it sounds like he’s surrendering.
After mandating we all wear masks, Biden said, “There’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic.”
Wait a minute. . . Biden said repeatedly that he had a plan to defeat the pandemic. And if there’s nothing we can do, what’s the point of the continued lockdowns? That self-inflicted economic and psychological damage is, in many ways, worse than the disease.
Hopefully, we are beginning to turn the corner on this national nightmare. Thanks to President Trump’s leadership, we were hitting Biden’s goal of one million vaccinations a day before he took office.
—————————– The Apologies Begin, Impeaching You, Stop Vaccinating TeachersGary 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, The Apologies Begin, Impeaching You, Stop Vaccinating TeachersTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
“Conservative Republicans are sending a strong statement to
congressional leaders: We will not stand idle as radical
Democrats work to end the ban on taxpayer-funded
abortions,” Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., says.
The Republican congressmen sent a letter Tuesday to congressional leaders pledging to oppose any legislation eliminating or weakening the Hyde Amendment, which bans the use of federal funds for abortions. Biden has repeatedly promised to repeal the amendment should he become president of the United States.
“Conservative Republicans are sending a strong statement to congressional leaders: We will not stand idle as radical Democrats work to end the ban on taxpayer-funded abortions,” Banks told The Daily Caller News Foundation. “I pray this show of solidarity will save the Hyde Amendment and save thousands of innocent lives.”
The letter describes Democratic attacks on pro-life legislation as a “pro-abortion crusade” and notes that protections like the Hyde Amendment are “long-standing, bipartisan” measures preventing the federal government from using Americans’ taxpayer dollars for abortions.
“Repealing these pro-life provisions would destroy nearly half a century of bipartisan consensus,” the letter said. “Each year since 1976, Congress has included Hyde protections in annually enacted appropriations. No president in American history has ever vetoed an appropriations bill due to its inclusion of the Hyde Amendment.”
The letter states that the signers pledge “to vote against any government funding bill that eliminates or weakens the Hyde Amendment or other current-law, pro-life appropriations provisions.”
Biden, who formerly said he was opposed to abortion as a Catholic, supported the Hyde Amendment up until June 2019. At the time, presidential candidates Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, along with former Mayor Pete Buttigieg and then-Sen. Kamala Harris, had pledged to repeal the Hyde Amendment should they become president in 2020.
Biden’s campaign confirmed to NBC on June 5, 2019, that though he supported Roe v. Wade, he still supported Hyde. The statement was greeted with strong backlash from pro-abortion groups, left-wing activists, and fellow candidates.
The National Abortion Rights Action League spoke out against Biden’s stance, saying it “further endangers” those “facing enormous hurdles” in obtaining abortion.
Within 24 hours of reaffirming his support for Hyde, Biden announced on June 6, 2019, that he could “no longer support an amendment” that cuts off abortion funding. The former vice president cited attacks on abortion legislation from GOP lawmakers as a reason for his switch.
Biden’s vice president, Harris, attacked him for his flip on Hyde soon after his June 2019 statement during the July Democratic presidential primary debate. Harris pointed out that Biden only changed his stance on Hyde after he began running for president. She called his former stances on abortion “unacceptable.”
“Why did it take you so long to change your position on the Hyde Amendment?” Harris asked Biden. “Why did it take so long until you were running for president to change your position on the Hyde Amendment?”
“Because there was not full, federal funding for all reproductive services prior to this point,” Biden responded.
Biden, who was inaugurated Jan. 20, marked the 48th anniversary of Roe v. Wade by promising to appoint judges who respect the ruling as precedent Friday. The newly elected president also said he and Harris were committed to codifying Roe v. Wade.
Biden will also revoke the Mexico City policy that prevents federal funds from going to abortions abroad, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Thursday.
———————- Mary Margaret Olohan writes for The Daily Caller and shares articles with The Daily Signal.
Tags:>Mary Margaret Olohan, The Daily Signal, 200 Republicans, Pledge Support, for Hyde Amendment, as Biden Takes Aim, at Pro-Life LegislationTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Marvin L. Covault, Lt General, US Army retired: Assertion: If you watch/listen to/read the main-stream media following the mob assault on Congress on 6 January, it is unlikely that your impression of what President Trump actually said is correct.
I have read the verbatim transcript of the entire speech; It’s 11,400 words long. There are three subjects.
1) His positive achievement over four years on behalf of all Americans.
2) Election results.
3) the march from the White House to Capitol Hill.I will not belabor his achievements here.
My intent is to amplify what we have heard about election fraud and to clarify President Trump’s alleged “insurrection.”
ELECTION FRAUD: First, an assumption. The President used a lot of rounded-off numbers in describing election fraud. Many of you have probably already seen some of those numbers but my assumption is that they were assembled primarily from hundreds of sworn affidavits provided by the patriots who observed the fraudulent activity and had the fortitude to speak out under risk of being charged with perjury if they lied. In the interest of brevity, I plucked them out of some long, rambling sentences and short paragraphs, hopefully, without losing the context.
The president said to several thousand supporters at the rally: “In every single swing state, local officials, state officials, almost all Democrats, made illegal and unconstitutional changes to election procedures without the mandated approvals by the state legislatures, that these changes paved the way for fraud on a scale never seen before.”
PENNSYLVANIA: President Trump went on to point out the following….
Over 8,000 ballots were cast by people whose names and dates of birth match individuals who died in 2020 prior to the election.
Over 14,000 ballots were cast by out-of-state voters.
More than 10,000 votes were counted, even though they were received after Election Day.
25,000 ballots were requested by nursing home residents, all in a single giant batch, indicating an enormous illegal ballot-harvesting operation.
The day before the election, the State of Pennsylvania reported the number of absentee ballots that had been sent out. Yet this number was suddenly and drastically increased by 400,000 people.
WISCONSIN: President Trump said……
Over 170,000 absentee votes were counted in Wisconsin without a valid absentee ballot application.
In Madison, 17,000 votes were deposited in so-called human drop boxes in complete defiance of cease-and-desist letters from the state legislature. They came in duffle bags.
According to eyewitness testimony, postal service workers in Wisconsin were also instructed to illegally backdate approximately 100,000 ballots.
The margin of difference in Biden’s win in Wisconsin was less than 20,000 votes.
GEORGIA: President Trump pointed out…..
The absentee/mail-in ballot rejection rate was more than 10 times lower than previous levels. In other words, in a year in which more people were voting by mail for the first time, the rejection rate was drastically lower than it had ever been before. If Georgia had merely rejected the same number of unlawful ballots, as in other years, there should have been approximately 45,000 ballots rejected.
In Fulton County, republican poll Watchers were rejected from the room under the false pretense of a burst water main, which we now know was a total lie. Then election officials, when not being monitored, pulled boxes and suitcases of ballots out from under a table. (many of you saw this on television) and illegally scanned them for nearly two hours totally unsupervised. That coincided with a mysterious vote dump of up to 100,000 votes for Joe Biden, almost none for Trump. That was at 1:34am.
Over 10,300 ballots were cast by individuals whose names and dates of birth match Georgia residents who died in 2020 prior to the election.
More than 2,500 ballots were cast by individuals whose names and dates of birth match incarcerated felons in Georgia prison.
More than 4,500 illegal ballots were cast by individuals who do not appear on the state’s own voter rolls. Over 18,000 illegal ballots were cast by individuals who registered to vote using an address listed as vacant, according to the postal service.
At least 88,000 ballots were cast by people whose registrations were illegally backdated. 66,000 votes were cast by individuals under the legal voting age.
At least 15,000 ballots were cast by individuals who moved out of the state prior to the November 3rd election.
Senator William Ligon, chairman of the Georgia Senate Judiciary Subcommittee, and highly respected on elections, has written a letter describing his concerns with Dominion in Georgia. He wrote, and I quote, “The Dominion voting machines employed in Fulton County had an astronomical and astounding 93.67% error rate. In the scanning of ballots requiring a review panel to adjudicate or determine the voter’s interest, in over 106,000 ballots out of a total of 113,000. The source of this astronomical error rate must be identified to determine if these machines were set up or destroyed to allow for a third party to disregard the actual ballot cast by the registered voter.” Trump commented that the national average for such an error rate is far less than 1 percent. The letter continues, “There is clear evidence that tens of thousands of votes were switched from President Trump to former Vice President Biden in several counties in Georgia. For example, in Bibb County, President Trump was reported to have 29, 391 votes at 9:11 PM Eastern time. While simultaneously Vice President Joe Biden was reported to have 17,213. Minutes later, just minutes, at the next update, these vote numbers switched with President Trump going way down to 17,000 and Biden going way up to 29,391. ‘And that was very quick, a 12,000-vote switch, all in Mr. Biden’s favor.’
Despite all of this, the margin in Georgia was only 11,779 votes.
ARIZONA: President Trump said….
Over 36,000 ballots were illegally cast by non-citizens.
2,000 ballots were returned with no address.
More than 22,000 ballots were received back by election officials before they were supposedly mailed out.
11,600 more ballots and votes were counted than there were actual voters.
150,000 people registered in Mariopa County after the registration deadline.
NEVADA: President trump continued….
The accuracy settings on signature verification machines were purposely lowered before they were used to count over 130,000 ballots.
There were more than 42,000 double votes in Nevada.
1,500 ballots were cast by individuals whose names and dates of birth match Nevada residents who died in 2020, prior to November 3rd election.
More than 8,000 votes were cast by individuals who had no address.
17,000 ballots were cast by individuals whose names and dates of birth matched people who were deceased.
MICHIGAN: President Trump pointed out….
In Wayne County (Detroit), 174,000 ballots were counted without being tied to an actual registered voter.
Also, in Wayne County, poll watches observed canvassers re-scanning batches of ballots multiple times.
In Detroit, turnout was 139 percent of registered voters.
Four witnesses testified, under penalty of perjury, that after officials in Detroit announced the last votes had been counted, tens of thousands of additional ballots arrived without required envelopes. Every single one was for a Democrat.
At 6:31am, after voting had ended, Michigan suddenly reported 147,000 votes. An astounding 94 percent went to Joe Biden.
COMMENT: Following the election, President Trump’s lawyers filed approximately 60 lawsuits alleging massive election fraud. Most were based on sworn affidavits from election workers. All of the lawsuits were thrown out by judges. Why?
In our country, when there is reason to believe a crime has been committed, the following sequence of events follows:
There is an investigation by law enforcement officers; police, sheriff, State Bureaus of Investigation, FBI, Special Councils, etc.
Evidence would be gathered and presented to a prosecutor.
If the prosecutor was convinced of a crime it would go to a grand jury. If upheld, individuals would be indicted.
A trial would be convened, and for the first time, a judge would become involved.
Two things happened in this election fraud scenario; 1) There is little information to indicate that any of the governors seriously set out to conduct an investigation.
2) Three weeks after the election US Attorney General Barr stated, “to date, we have not seen fraud on a scale that could have effected a different outcome in the election.”
Because the Trump legal team had no authority to conduct interviews or request warrants to view ballots, the only alternative was for Trump lawyers to take lawsuits directly to the appropriate judge, where they were generally denied because the individuals’ sworn affidavits were considered to be “uncorroborated hearsay”. No thorough investigation.
There was another factor in play, time. It was impossible, between 3 November and 20 January to conclude investigations in suspect states and complete a speedy trial. Is that a sufficient excuse to do nothing? I think not. But it begs the question, if we cannot successfully prosecute election fraud in a timely manner, how can we expect to ever have a free and honest election?
CONCLUSIONS concerning election fraud:
There will not be an investigation emanating from the Biden administration. Even if there was an investigation, it would take at least a year and a few folks might go to jail, but would it solve the problem? Probably not. So, what to do?
Justice resulting from a long investigation might be satisfying but will it solve the problem? Probably not, and if only10% of President Trump’s above assertions are correct, we need to bring these injustices to an end, forever.
In fact, we neither need an investigation of the last election, that train left the station, nor do we need to recount votes.
There is a simple solution. Voter ID Cards (not voter ID, but a special card); name, photo, expiration date, and an individual voter ID number. When your card is swiped for in-person voting, a ballot will be printed with all of your data on it. Absentee ballot applications must include your voter ID number. Having done that, it is a simple software command that only ballots that have an ID number can be “read” and ballots will be rejected if that ID number has been used during the voting cycle.
All Congress has to do is be proactive and pass a simple Voter ID Card law. With Voter ID Cards, every alleged voter fraud activity cited by President Trump during his 6 January rally would have been impossible to execute. For a more extensive discussion of Voter ID Cards, see WeThePeopleSpeaking.com, EVERY CITIZEN SHOULD HAVE A VOTER ID CARD, dated 10 December, 2020.
Given the alleged magnitude of fraud in this past election, without Voter ID Cards, not just voter ID, it is unlikely that we will ever have a legal election again. Next time it will be the Republican’s turn and then it will become a contest to see which political party can out-fraud the other. You can stick a fork in this country, we will be done. A cornerstone of our republic, free and honest elections, will be ripped out of the foundation.
If you agree with this, please send it along to your Representative and Senators.
Break, Break (Army speak for “new subject”): back to WHAT PRESIDENT TRUMP REALLY SAID AT THE 6 JANUARY RALLY IN WASHINGTON DC.
If your primary source for current events is the main-stream media, you would believe that on 6 January President Trump riled thousands of supporters into a rabid frenzy and said, grab your M-15 and follow me, we are taking down Congress.
Not quite: I plucked every reference to Capitol Hill out of his speech. Here is what he actually said….
“We’re going to walk down Pennsylvania Avenue and we’re going to the Capitol,”
“We’re going to walk down to the Capitol, and we’re going to cheer on our brave senators, and congressmen and women.” “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
“So, let’s walk down Pennsylvania Avenue. I want to thank you all. God bless you and God bless America.”
Later, after the rioting began, he tweeted, “I am asking for everyone at the U.S. Capitol to remain peaceful. No violence! Remember, we are the Party of Law & Order, respect the Law and our great men and women in Blue. Thank you.”
A second tweet, “Please support our Capitol Police and Law Enforcement. They are truly on the side of our Country. Stay peaceful.”
CONCLUSIONS concerning 6 January riots and follow-on impeachment.
It is obvious from 20/20 hindsight that the rally was a monumental mistake. The president’s intent to administratively change the outcome of a formal affirmation of the Electoral College victory, was ill-conceived and doomed to failure.
Since descending on the escalator at Trump Tower five and a half years ago, candidate/President Trump has led hundreds of rallies without a hint of violence by right-wing radicals. My theory is that, with that track-record, the domestic violence intel folks and Capitol Police believed the likelihood of an attack on the Capitol Building was low to none. Had they been better prepared, perhaps the outcome would have been less tragic.
One week later, without investigations by House committees and without the opportunity to mount a defense, President Trump was impeached by a House up-or-down vote for “incitement of insurrection.”
Whether or not President Trump should have been impeached by the House goes to the question of intent. What did he mean by “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”? I believe it is abundantly clear the president’s words spoken to the thousands of supporters were not intended to promote violence by radical thugs, a very small percentage of the total rally participants.
The impeachment has to do with one thing, Pelosi’s intent. She is without a doubt the most vengeful, hate-filled senior elected official in my long lifetime of following politics.
As Victor Davis Hanson to eloquently pointed out a few days ago, “From now on, House impeachment will be used by the out-party as a periodic club to wound a first-term president”.
Bottom line: While listening to President Biden’s single-subject inauguration speech, I was hopeful that his words would be followed with commensurate actions. For example, a simple private phone call to Pelosi could have eliminated impeachment and sent a positive message to 74 million Trump supporters. Instead, the Biden administration’s intent is very clear, they will continue to foster a culture of hate for everything President Trump did for this country.
—————————— LT GEN, MARVIN L. COVAULT, US ARMY retired, author of VISION TO EXECUTION, a book for leaders, a columnist for THE PILOT, a national award-winning local newspaper in Southern Pines, NC and the author of a blog, WeThePeopleSpeaking.com.
Tags:Marvin L. Covault, Lt General, US Army retired, What President Trump, Really Said, At The January 6 Rally, In Washington DCTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Lt. Governor Tim Griffin: On Jan. 1, Arkansas’s top income tax rate fell from 6.6 percent to 5.9 percent. Not long ago, it was 7 percent, and Arkansas stuck out like a sore thumb: the highest income tax rate in the entire southeast.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson and the General Assembly deserve tremendous credit for the commendable progress made over the last six years. We are now within striking distance of some of our regional competitors, such as Missouri (5.4 percent) and Oklahoma (5.0 percent).
However, there is much more work to be done. Now more than ever, states are competing–for jobs, new movers, skilled workers, and quality of life. Arkansas needs bold ideas if we are to make our state the best possible place to live, work, and raise a family.
That’s why I’m calling for a complete phase-out of Arkansas’s income tax, not immediately, but in the coming years. And we need to do it without raising other taxes in exchange.
Eliminating the income tax will incentivize work and productivity, attract high-quality good-paying jobs, and unleash Arkansas small businesses. I am ready to chart a course that leads Arkansas to a brighter future–one with zero income tax.
President Reagan once said, “If you want less of something, tax it.” That timeless truth certainly applies to our income tax, which penalizes work, productivity, and presents a barrier to job creation.
Our current laws already acknowledge this fact in two specific ways:
    1. In the 1970s, our lawmakers exempted residents of Texarkana from paying the state income tax because they share a border with Texas, which has zero income tax.
    2. I worked with the Legislature and the governor in 2017 to eliminate the income tax on military retirement income. We want more veterans to retire to our state, so we incentivized them to do so.
I’m glad that residents of Texarkana and our military retirees pay no income tax. Now, I want to expand that same benefit to every Arkansan.
Letting Arkansans keep more of what they earn will be a huge windfall. A family earning the median household income of $47,000 would realize a savings of more than $1,500 per year on their tax bill. That’s money families can put to good use by purchasing reliable transportation, paying for their kids’ college tuition, or achieving the dream of homeownership. I trust Arkansas families to spend their hard-earned paychecks better than the government.
Americans want to live in states with a very low- or zero-income tax, and they are voting with their feet. From 2005-2016, the high-tax states of California, New York, Illinois, and New Jersey lost over 5.2 million combined residents (net migration).
Meanwhile, the low-tax states of Texas, Florida, North Carolina, and Arizona gained nearly 4.1 million net new residents. In fact, I recently received an email from a man in West Virginia who read a news article about my proposal. He told me that he and his wife are retiring in a few years and that this policy is one that would make Arkansas an attractive place to retire.
This trend has certainly been accelerated by covid-19 and the draconian lockdown policies of many of the high-tax states. I want Arkansas to compete for these new movers in the decade to come. This is one of the primary ways we can do it.
Nine states (Alaska, Florida, Nevada, New Hampshire, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wyoming) have already achieved this feat. That’s nearly 1 out of every 5 states.
Eliminating the income tax won’t be easy, and it won’t happen overnight. It could take 10 years, 15 years, or possibly even longer. How long it will take to achieve this goal will depend on several factors, including our rate of economic growth and our commitment to spending discipline and reform of state government.
Identifying $70 million in technology savings, like Louisiana has done, or over $50 million in real estate savings, like Tennessee has done, will certainly speed up the timeline. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg: Whether it’s vehicle fleet management or purchasing, there are dozens of other areas where states have been able to identify significant savings.
Anytime a bold idea threatens the status quo, there will be naysayers. There are those who will mislead and say that phasing out the income tax will bankrupt our state and threaten vital government services, but that’s nonsense. We will be responsible and do it in a way that funds government services, especially for our most vulnerable citizens.
Arkansas’s Revenue Stabilization Act positions us well in this regard. It requires that the core functions of state government, such as education, public safety, and a safety net for our most vulnerable citizens receive top priority when it comes to state revenue.
Others say the only way to lower a tax is to raise another one in exchange for it. Why would I give a taxpayer $1,000 in income tax savings and pay for it by charging them $1,000? That would be pointless. The goal is not simply to lower the income tax but lower the overall tax burden–the total amount of money the government takes. And raising a tax to cut a tax assumes that all the money state government spends is spent wisely with no room for improvement. We all know that’s not true.
To skeptics who think it can’t be done, I’m simply talking about continuing to lower the income tax as we have been doing the last six years, but with a laser-like focus on spending reforms and efficiencies in state government to help us reach the finish line faster.
Tax triggers are an important tool that other states, such as North Carolina, have used to reduce taxes, and they can be helpful here. A tax reduction trigger is a provision of law that automatically reduces a tax rate when government revenue exceeds a set amount. This ensures that as our economy grows, the benefits of that growth are returned to the taxpayers.
Even though phasing out our income tax won’t be easy and could take several years, this goal should be our North Star. Every tax-related decision in state government should be made through the prism of whether it moves us closer to or further away from this goal. I know from conversations with both legislators and Arkansans from all corners of our state that they are ready for this bold idea.
In Arkansas, we’ve always punched above our weight. From Johnny Cash to Sam Walton, we’ve achieved far beyond expectations and left an indelible mark on this nation. There’s no reason to stop now.
To me, this is personal: I’ve got three children, ages 13, 10, and 3. When they grow up, I don’t want them to have to move to Dallas or Atlanta to find a job. I want our children to be able to raise their children right here at home. Phasing out the income tax helps us achieve that.”
———————- Op-ed was originally published in the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette on January 24, 2021.
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Tags:Sinking Fast, Democratspush for a $15.00, minimum wageTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Patrick Buchanan: Under Xi Jinping, said Blinken, China seeks to “become the leading country in the world — the country that sets the norms, that sets the standards.” In short, China’s geostrategic goal is to replace the U.S.-created world order with a new world order of its own.
“The United States acknowledges that all Chinese on either side of the Taiwan Strait maintain there is but one China and that Taiwan is a part of China. The United States… does not challenge that position.”
Thus did President Nixon, in the Shanghai Communique of 1972, accept China’s territorial claim to the island of Taiwan.
In 1979, Jimmy Carter severed relations with Taiwan, recognized Beijing as the legitimate government and dissolved the U.S. mutual security treaty with the Republic of China on Taiwan.
We ceased to be obligated to go to war to defend Taiwan.
Fast-forward four decades to the first weekend of President Joe Biden’s administration. Saturday, China sent eight nuclear-capable bombers and four fighter planes into the air defense identification zone of Taiwan.
Sunday, Beijing sent 16 military aircraft into the same region.
Observing U.S. arms sales to Taiwan and visits by U.S. officials, China is issuing us a reminder: “You Americans are encouraging those on the island who seek independence. Not going to happen. Rather than let Taiwan go, we will fight. Taiwan is a part of China and is a red line for us.”
Beijing is said to be seeking a face-to-face meeting with Biden.
Why? Perhaps because incoming Secretary of State Antony Blinken in his confirmation hearings said that President Donald Trump “was right” to take a “tougher approach to China.”
Blinken also agreed with outgoing Secretary Mike Pompeo, who had called China’s treatment of its Uighur minority “genocide,” and added that our commitment to Taiwan is “something that we hold to very strongly.”
Under Xi Jinping, said Blinken, China seeks to “become the leading country in the world — the country that sets the norms, that sets the standards.” In short, China’s geostrategic goal is to replace the U.S.-created world order with a new world order of its own.
Before we proceed further down this road to collision, questions need to be answered.
To whom does Taiwan belong? If the answer is what it has been since 1972 — “Taiwan is a part of China” — then is not encouraging the 25 million Taiwanese to seek independence an “incitement to insurrection” from Beijing’s standpoint? And if China uses force to compel Taiwan to repudiate any right to independence, are we prepared to fight a war with a nuclear-armed China over the island’s political status and orientation?
When Chinese Communists in 1950 conquered Tibet and began its ethnic and cultural cleansing of the region, what did we do?
Basically, nothing.
When China occupied and fortified rocks and reefs across the South China Sea what did we do?
Basically, nothing.
When China crushed the Hong Kong democracy protests we encouraged, and imposed a new national security law on the island’s 7 million people, what did we do?
Basically, nothing.
Now, Xi Jinping has bluntly told America that how China treats Tibetans, Uighurs, Christians and Falun Gong, all citizens of China, is no more the business of the United States than was our treatment of the indigenous peoples of North America the business of Imperial China.
China’s model of political and economic development has enjoyed success in this century as an alternative to the Western model of liberal democracy.
Beijing does not believe in untrammeled freedom of religion, or of speech, or of the press. She does not believe in choosing leaders by the ballot box.
China is not an egalitarian society. She does not believe in the equality of all races, religions and ethnic groups. She does not celebrate diversity but fears it, seeing what ethnic diversity did to the Soviet Union, tearing it apart into 15 nations.
She does not believe in racial quotas for advancement, but in a meritocracy that rewards loyalty and performance. And Chinese student test scores are among the highest in the world.
While China steals intellectual property from U.S. factories in China, who moved the factories there to take advantage of cheap labor where a worker could be hired for $2 an hour?
Beijing says any attempt to impose our “universal values” on China would amount to interference in her internal affairs. And any attempt to sever from Beijing her jurisdiction over Taiwan or the Spratly or Paracel Islands in the South China Sea will be resisted by force.
Moreover, as none of the disputed rocks and reefs in the South and East China Seas involves any territory claimed by the U.S., and we have conceded for 50 years that Taiwan is “part of China,” why are we sending carrier battle groups into these seas and through the Taiwan Strait?
What are we threatening?
On Sunday, a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group, led by the USS Theodore Roosevelt sailed into the South China Sea on a “freedom of navigation” exercise, the first such operation under President Biden.
This was the same day that those Chinese bombers and fighters flew into Taiwan’s air identification zone. We need to talk.
——————– Patrick Buchanan (@PatrickBuchanan) is currently a blogger, conservative columnist, political analyst, chairman of The American Cause foundation and an editor of The American Conservative. He has been a senior adviser to three Presidents, a two-time candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, and was the presidential nominee of the Reform Party in 2000.
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by Stephen Moore: About two years ago, one of my wife’s best friends began to turn down invitations to get together. Then, out of the blue, she unfriended my wife on Facebook.
That’s kind of a rude way to brush off someone, so my wife finally asked her: What gives? Have I offended you? Her terse text response was full of self-righteousness: “John (her husband) and I are so appalled by the things that Steve writes that we don’t want to associate with you anymore.”
I wasn’t offended that they disagree with my positions or even that they felt our political disagreements are so wide that we probably shouldn’t hang out together anymore. After all, we are two Americas today.
What stuck in my craw was the word “appalled.” It was her way of saying: “We are better people than you. We have higher standards.” “Appalled” is the outrage you feel when someone gets drunk and starts hitting on your wife.
I recite the incident because it is an example of how liberals have anointed themselves as not just intellectually but morally superior to those on the right. Welcome to the “religious left.”
A case in point: the Boston Globe recently printed a front-page opinion piece by the paper’s liberal columnist Yvonne Abraham, who denounced the idea of any “unity” agenda with Republicans or conservatives. “Here’s the thing about unity,” she snuffed. “To achieve it, you have to believe in a common good. And most members of this Republican Party have demonstrated over and over that they simply don’t.” You can’t find common ground with a movement “defined by lies.”
Of course, the irony here is that it is President Joe Biden, not Republicans, who is pledging an agenda to unify the country. But so far, the new administration’s position seems to be: Why bother to find common ground when you control all of the levers of governmental power and you can steamroll over them instead?
What is to be gained by uniting with people who are “white supremacists” or “insurrectionists”?
Most everyone I know on the right agrees that violence is rarely, if ever, an acceptable form of political protest.
Do liberals? The new vice president of the United States called the liberal mobs who ransacked cities this summer “social justice warriors.” Apparently, it is excusable to burn down a building or assault a police officer if you are protesting racial injustice, climate change, abortion rights or cuts in social programs.
The Trump Haters say that the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol are guilty of a treasonable offense. OK, but several years ago, when many thousands of “social justice warriors” (i.e., union thugs) stormed past the police and occupied the domed Capital building in Madison for days, the media celebrated.
Abraham is right about unity. America is now a country divided into Hatfields and McCoys. In just his first four days in office, it’s clear there isn’t going to be any unifying of the country under Biden. That was a hollow campaign slogan that has swirled down the drain as the White House issued executive orders, such as killing the Keystone XL pipeline, that have infuriated conservatives. The absurd House snap-impeachment of former President Donald Trump a few days before he was to leave office was absurd enough, but not nearly as divisive as the apparent Senate plans to go ahead with a trial.
Biden said he “doesn’t see red states and blue states, only sees the United States.” Really? Then why is one of his first proposals a blue-state bailout to the tune of $350 billion — to be paid by the Republicans in red states. That is a financial insurrection against the half of the states that are not run by Democrats.
The left doesn’t want unity with the right. It wants submission. They don’t think we live up to their standards of proper behavior and righteousness.
If these are the people that are collectively “unfriending” us on Facebook and in the grocery stores, that’s fine by us. Frankly, the feeling is mutual.
—————————- Stephen Moore is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and an economic consultant with FreedomWorks. H/T Rasmussen Reports.
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by Star Parker: As the new Biden-Harris administration assumes power, the most basic American freedom of speech and expression is under unprecedented threat.
For the first time ever, I am concerned about my freedom to do my work, to run a policy institute addressing issues of culture, race and poverty from a conservative perspective.
Technology — the internet — which was largely nonexistent just 25 years ago, now plays a huge role in our lives as a tool of communication.
In a survey just published by the Pew Research Center, 86% say they “often” or “sometimes” get their news from a digital device — smartphone, tablet or computer. This compared with 68% who say they “often” or “sometimes” get their news from television, 50% who get it from radio and 32% who get it from print publications.
According to Statista.com, the United States has 223 million Facebook users, almost the size of the entire U.S. population over age 18. Per Pew, 22% of U.S. adults use Twitter.
These developments have put enormous power at the disposal of technology firms over what we see and read.
Power alone doesn’t worry me. Exclusive power, power to control, does.
The decision by Twitter to kick the president of the United States off of Twitter, disconnecting him from the 89 million who follow him, is mind-boggling.
President Trump has noted, with total legitimacy, that he turned to social media as his platform of preference to communicate with the country because of widespread bias in the mainstream media.
What gives the technology companies so much discretion over communication, the oxygen of our free country?
This comes from a provision of the 1996 Communications Decency Act that was passed to set the ground rules for the powerful new technologies that were emerging. Technology companies are protected from liability for the content they carry: The liability exists with whomever provided that content. But they were also given discretion over what they choose to carry.
The discretion part comes from logic that the operators of these platforms should be able to refuse truly inflammatory, dangerous content. But what about content that is normally protected by the First Amendment?
Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter, appointed himself judge and jury, deciding that President Trump incited the assault on the Capitol building and banning the president from Twitter for life.
We know that President Trump’s own words were that the demonstration on Capitol Hill should be “peaceful.” The point is, if Donald Trump broke the law, this should be determined through legal channels, not by the subjective decision of a businessperson with a net worth of some $12 billion accrued because of American freedom.
I produce a weekly television talk show, “CURE America with Star Parker.” The show was booted off Vimeo because the far-left Southern Poverty Law Center identifies one of our Christian advertisers as a hate group and one pastor said that homosexuality is a sin.
Now quoting the Bible, expressing views of a believing Christian, is out of bounds — banned from the nation’s major media platforms?
We must recognize that our nation’s most precious commodity, our freedom to speak, to act and to assemble, is seriously being threatened.
Because those controlling these technology companies disproportionately have political sympathies to the left, it is the freedom of conservatives that is most seriously under siege.
Fortunately, many are now concerned.
The argument is made that First Amendment speech protections only pertain to government action, not private companies. But technology has enabled a concentration of private power not previously imagined.
The Communications Decency Act could be amended such that speech on technology platforms receives the same protections as all speech protected by the First Amendment.
Another possibility would be to amend the Civil Rights Act to include those with religious conviction based on teachings of Judaism and Christianity as a protected class.
Conservatives must push for new law and new platforms.
—————————- Star Parker (@UrbanCURE) is an author at and president of CURE. Freedom of Speech Slipping Away. CURE is a non-profit think tank that addresses issues of race and poverty through principles of faith, freedom and personal responsibility.
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New revelations in the Crossfire Hurricane case show that FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith didn’t act alone.
by Douglas Andrews: Yesterday we learned that the Justice Department’s inspector general, Michael Horowitz, will open an investigation into whether Donald Trump’s DOJ “engaged in an improper attempt” to overturn Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.Democrats have been hyperventilating about this non-story for some time now, with some going so far as to say the Trump administration’s efforts amounted to “an attempted coup.”Got that? In leftist parlance, any effort toward uncovering the truth about a deeply flawed election is “an attempted coup.”Speaking of attempted coups, though, a couple of real ones took place during the Trump years. As our Mark Alexander has pointed out, both involved the use of deep-state operatives within the FBI and CIA in order to remove Trump from office or, at the very least, cripple his “America First” agenda. One of these coup attempts came via a phony impeachment, while the other came via the Obama administration’s willful spying on the Trump campaign under the false pretense of it having colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election. And Obama’s fingerprints were all over that one.Remarkably, more than four years after the fact, the specific details of this so-called Spygate coup are still being uncovered. But we gained additional insight into the Obama administration’s corruption when, during his last days in office, President Trump ordered the release of a trove of heretofore classified documents.Those documents, as we noted last week, put to rest any claims that the Obama administration wasn’t spying on the Trump campaign. It was spying, and the FBI’s tasking instructions to longtime FBI informant Stefan Halper, which told him to infiltrate the Trump campaign by posing as someone who wanted to work for the GOP nominee, confirm this beyond a shadow of doubt. After all, a person who secretly collects and reports information on the activities, movements, and plans of an enemy or competitor is the very definition of a spy.As for the latest revelations, which have come via newly submitted court filings from Special Counsel John Durham on behalf of former Trump campaign associate Carter Page, we learn what we long suspected: that mid-level FBI lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, a Trump hater who doctored an email to hide the fact that Page had been a CIA source and therefore not a Russian asset, didn’t doctor that email in a vacuum.Others above Clinesmith in the Obama DOJ also knew Page wasn’t working for the Russians. But they kept that information from the FISA court in order to secure a warrant for spying on him — and thus spying on the entire Trump team.
As we wrote back in August, “Clinesmith was a soldier, a guy at the ground level who did the dirty work. He answered to captains such as Peter Strzok and Andrew McCabe, who in turn took orders from an underboss, former FBI Director James Comey. And the bosses? The untouchables? The ones with the cutouts to give them plausible deniability? That would be Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton.”
So far, Clinesmith is the only Obama-era crook to have faced even a modicum of justice, having pleaded guilty last year to a single count of making false statements. But these new court filings make clear that he didn’t do this alone. (As part of his plea deal, Clinesmith agreed to “be personally debriefed” about “FISA matters and any information he possesses.”)
As Paul Sperry of RealClearInvestigations reports, “For the past year, defenders of the FBI have consistently downplayed the significance of [Clinesmith’s crime as] a rare lapse in judgment by an overworked bureaucrat. It was not, his apologists say, part of any broader conspiracy to conceal exculpatory information from surveillance court judges. … But such explanations are challenged by new revelations from court papers filed in the case, which some civil libertarians call the most egregious violation and abuse of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) since it was enacted more than 40 years ago.”
Sperry continues, “Several officials within [Clinesmith’s] tightly compartmentalized chain-of-command — including former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe [who actually hired Clinesmith], his counselor Lisa Page and counterintelligence chief Peter Strzok — learned of Page’s role with the CIA before they first sought to wiretap him during the 2016 presidential campaign. The CIA had confirmed his role two months earlier in an August 2016 memo it sent to the FBI. And Page’s status as a CIA contact had been documented in the FBI’s own electronic files going back to 2009.”
Yet while all of these Trump haters withheld this crucial information from the FISA court, only the lowly Clinesmith has been fingered. So far.
“It’s a very brazen move doctoring email from another agency; it’s unlikely Clinesmith would have been so brazen if he didn’t know he had protection from above,” said former FBI Assistant Director Chris Swecker, who served in the FBI’s legal counsel division for two years and is familiar with the role of attorneys like Clinesmith in such national security investigations. “It makes perfect sense from Clinesmith’s guilty plea that McCabe is in legal jeopardy.”
And if McCabe is in legal jeopardy, perhaps others above him are as well.
Tags:Douglas Andrews, The Patriot Post, Real Coups, Fake OnesTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Cal Thomas: There is a perception, supported by many surveys, that what passes for contemporary journalism is more biased, even propagandistic, than in earlier times. One of the definitions of “journalism” on Dictionary.com will affirm that attitude for many: “writing that reflects superficial thought and research, a popular slant, and hurried composition.”
Journalism has, in fact, been infected by bias and sensationalism from the start. In his book, “Infamous Scribblers,” Eric Burns suggests that colonial journalism would often make today’s tabloids look like real news. Their slogan could have been “all the unfit news we print.”
Newspapers of those days published unverified scandals and statements by rival politicians that would today be considered slanderous, even libelous.
George Washington coined the phrase Burns used for his book title. The summary on Amazon.com reads: “The journalism of the era was often partisan, fabricated, overheated, scandalous, sensationalistic and sometimes stirring, brilliant, and indispensable. Despite its flaws — even because of some of them — the participants hashed out publicly the issues that would lead America to declare its independence and, after the war, to determine what sort of nation it would be.”
Fast-forward to 1920. Warren Harding is elected president. Initially, the press gushing over Harding could be compared to what today’s media are saying about President Joe Biden.
As Leesa Donner recalls on LibertyNation.com: “Historian David Pietrusza’s riveting book ‘1920: The Year of the Six Presidents’ puts forth a ‘dazzling panorama of presidential personalities, ambitions, plots and counterplots,’ but in the end, it was the least offensive man who won. To say that the media was in love with Warren Harding is putting it mildly. . . . Pietrusza quotes Washington journalist Edward G. Lowry, who he tags as ‘often-acerbic’ portraying Harding thusly: ‘Kindliness and kindness . . . fairly radiate from him. He positively gives out even to the least sensitive a sense of brotherhood and innate good-will toward his fellow man.’ American author Irvin S. Cobb gushed: ‘I think I never met a kindlier man or a man of better impulses or one with more generous and gracious opinions of his fellow man.'”
After his death in 1923, the Teapot Dome scandal and an extramarital affair came to light, erasing the virginal political image of Harding created by the press.
Which brings me to the media “reporting” on Joe Biden’s inauguration.
The conservative website News Busters has compiled some examples that make the gushing over Harding and other politicians (JFK and Barack Obama come to mind) seem mild.
On January 20, New York Times editor Lauren Wolfe tweeted: “Biden landing at Joint Base Andrews now. I have chills.” That recalls former MSNBC host Chris Matthews who said he “felt this thrill going up my leg” after an Obama speech.
CNN political director, David Chalian: “Those lights that are just shooting out from the Lincoln Memorial along the reflecting pool, it’s almost extensions of Joe Biden’s arms embracing America. It was a moment where the new President came to town and sort of convened the country in this moment of remembrance, outstretching his arms.”
Major Garrett of CBS News compared Biden’s Inaugural Address to that of a priest: “The beginning had a soaring rhetoric. A tiny bit at the end. The middle it sounded like a homily. … But like a priest explaining something from the Bible or something. ‘I’m breaking it down for you so we can all have a common language and a common understanding.'”
Please pass the Communion wafer.
Former Clinton adviser and ABC News co-anchor George Stephanopoulos said Biden’s speech had “echoes of Abe Lincoln.” Really?
There’s plenty more and will be more to come. Some of these people should receive awards from the SPCA because of their role as lapdogs for Biden.
————————– Cal Thomas is America’s most-syndicated columnist, is the author of 10 books. H/T Jewish World Review.
Tags:Cal Thomas, Jewish World Review, Is Modern Media, More Biased,Than BeforeTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Bill Donohue: Any investigation of the Capitol riot on January 6 must start by asking what provoked these men and women to act. While thousands showed up, roughly 200 of them managed to enter the Capitol.
That small portion of Trump supporters must be held accountable, but we can’t get to the bottom of this until we understand why most of the crowd—the non-violent ones—were there in the first place.
What fueled the anger of this mob were many things, among them being the passive reaction of the ruling class to the wave of violence that encapsulated American cities in 2020. The police were told to stand down and prosecutors refused to hold the rioters accountable. When Americans saw their flags being burned, cops attacked, stores looted, and police stations set on fire—with no pushback—they knew the anarchists were winning. What they witnessed was a total collapse of authority.
It was worse than this. Mobs took sledgehammers to statues of American icons, and trashed historic landmarks. The anarchists, most of whom were white, took great delight in sticking it to the American people. Religious symbols were also targeted. Catholic churches, schools and graveyards were vandalized, and statues of saints were toppled. All of this was done with impunity, week after week, month after month.
The decision by Democrats in urban areas to allow their cities to be destroyed by Antifa and Black Lives Matter protesters must be investigated. City mayors, city councils and city prosecutors—along with their counterparts at the state level—must be held accountable for their role in fanning the flames. They set the stage for January 6. Did they really think there would be no pushback?
Democrats act as though the origin of the Capitol riot rests with Trump and his supporters. But choosing to focus exclusively on the rioters is myopic. It would be like focusing exclusively on the black rioters of the 1960s without ever addressing the social and economic conditions that inspired them to act. If the reason why blacks rioted in the 1960s was in response to long-standing grievances, why is it so implausible to believe that the Capitol riot was in response to long-standing grievances in the white working class community?
One part of the probe must explain why the white working class has been demonized by the ruling class. To be specific, those who work in the media, the entertainment industry, colleges and universities, Big Tech and Wall Street have long exhibited an animus against these Trump supporters. We need to get to the origins of their pathology.
The ruling class shares a strong anti-Christian bias. Throwing around terms like Christian Nationalism are designed to marginalize Christian voters, suggesting they are engaged in some kind of conspiracy to take over the nation. This is all madness, but it is a madness embraced by pundits and the media.
Many of the working class are veterans, and are proudly patriotic. But patriotism is seen as provincial by elites, if not worse. Of course, most of those in the ruling class have never served a day in their life. Many are embarrassed by their country, which is why smashing American symbols and burning the American flag doesn’t bother them.
The working class is acutely aware of how the ruling class sees them. When they are called “Nazis” by TV commentators, and when their president is compared to Osama bin Laden by Democratic congressmen, it incenses them. That few in authority call out these lunatics for their lies is just as bad.
What really gets under the skin of blue-collar workers is the sight of white privileged men and women joining Antifa and Black Lives Matter protesters in burning down our cities. To cite one example, it is nauseating to watch young white brats, at least half of whom are women, leave their tony Brooklyn neighborhoods so they can take over bridges and tie up traffic. None had a permit to protest and none practiced social distancing norms.
To sum up, the root cause of white working class fury is traceable to how the Left destroyed our cities while the ruling class looked away; this is still going on in Oregon and Washington. The fact is that leading Democrats in major urban areas nurtured a year-long culture of violence, and it was this reality that played a major role in enticing Trump supporters to swing into action. Moreover, not once in the four days of the Democratic National Convention did anyone even make reference to the anarchists.
The sooner we get on with a serious investigation—not the kind of political farce being considered—the sooner we can prevent the kind of mayhem that took place on January 6 from ever happening again.
———————— Bill Donohue (@CatholicLeague) is a sociologist and president of the Catholic League.
Tags:Bill Donohue, Catholic League, How The Ruling Class, Fueled, The Capitol RiotTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Cliff Kincaid: In his column “Clinton’s Brilliant Strategy,” Dennis Cuddy suggests that the fate of Donald J. Trump, who is going out of office under questionable circumstances, is a function of Hillary and Bill Clinton’s revenge. He writes, “Bill Clinton and the Democrats correctly believed that with Trump’s political inexperience, he could as president easily be ‘set up.’” Trump was elected, he writes, because the GOP base, comprised mostly of the Tea Party and Christian Right, “were tired of promises by the Republican Establishment never being fulfilled.” They wanted an outsider – Trump. But this turned out to be Trump’s Achilles heel. He didn’t understand the forces out to get him.
The strange thing is that Senate Republicans seem eager to embrace these dangerous forces.
Cuddy, an astute observer, notes the Clintons’ involvement in the World Government movement. This is critical to understanding the direction of the Democratic Party and the media’s role in masking our fate.
You can find on my YouTube page a video entitled “Hillary Clinton, Walter Cronkite and World Government,” featuring Hillary Clinton and Walter Cronkite at a World Federalist Association meeting in1999. On that occasion, Cronkite, the former CBS Evening News anchorman, received the “Norman Cousins Global Governance Award.” Through a closed-circuit hook-up, Hillary praised Cronkite for his promotion of a one-world government.
Cronkite’s association with the World Federalists had been known for years, but in his speech to the group, he disclosed that he was asked decades ago to be a Washington lobbyist for the group. “I chose instead to continue in the world of journalism,” Cronkite said.
Bringing the picture up to date, with the “election” of Joe Biden, Cuddy goes on to point out that Democratic Party control of all branches of government (with the Supreme Court to be expanded and controlled as well) will allow Biden to implement his “New World Order.” I fought one aspect of this when Biden ran the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and tried to ram through the UN’s Law of the Sea Treaty. I was part of a coalition that stopped its passage.
The “Norman Cousins Global Governance Award” was also given to Clinton Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott, who, as a columnist for Time magazine, had written about a world in which nation-states would disappear and people would become world citizens. On that occasion, President Clinton sent a note to the gathering wishing them “future success.”
Biden’s open endorsement of a New World Order actually came in a Wall Street Journal article titled “How I Learned to Love the New World Order.” He backed U.S. military intervention in the Balkan war, supported the invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, voted for the war on Iraq in 2003, and, as vice president, backed the U.S. military intervention in Libya. We can expect greater use of U.S. forces for UN peacekeeping missions.
As researcher Trevor Loudon told me in an ASI TV interview and as he documents in his book White House Reds, Biden owes his political career to a group called the “Council for a Livable World.” It was started by alleged Soviet agent Leo Szilard. The Council was supported by money from Al Gore, Sr., who in turn was funded by Soviet agent Armand Hammer.
All of this will now play a role in America’s future.
The Socialist International calls this a “New Horizon” for the United States, while columnist Bob Knight points out that, in an editorial, the Communist Party USA said that the Democrats’ total control may be temporary, so what they have to do in the next two years “is crucial.”
The World Economic Forum, one of many globalist groups committed to the “Great Reset,” calls this “the new global situation.” It says heads of states and governments, and chief executives and leaders from civil society, will convene under the theme of “A Crucial Year to Rebuild Trust.”
In true Orwellian fashion, that “trust” will be enforced through censorship and arrests of dissenters.
Rushing to accommodate Biden, Senate Republicans joined Democrats in confirming John Brennan loyalist Avril Haines as director of national intelligence by a vote of 84-10. She will play a crucial role in overseeing the 18 agencies that make up the U.S. Intelligence Community, at a cost of over $62 billion a year. Another $23.1 billion is to be spent on the Military Intelligence Program.
A partisan Democrat and member of the Deep State, Haines was on the advisory council and the governance board for a group called National Security Action, dedicated to “Building a strong, unified, progressive opposition to the Trump administration’s dangerous policies….” On September 10, 2020, it sponsored a forum for “rising progressive voices” to “take on Trump’s failed approach and champion a progressive foreign policy vision for 2021 and beyond.”
A total of 36 Senate Republicans voted for her nomination. Only 10 Republican Senators voted against her: Blackburn (R-TN), Braun (R-IN), Cruz (R-TX), Ernst (R-IA), Hagerty (R-TN), Hawley (R-MO), Lee (R-UT), Marshall (R-KS), Paul (R-KY), and Risch (R-ID).
Ernest, a combat veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said she had “serious concerns over Ms. Haines’ strong support for the disastrous Iran Nuclear Deal,” which largely benefited Iran.
Interestingly, Haines’ previous work included serving as a member of the “high-level simulation exercise for pandemic preparedness and response” sponsored by the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security in partnership with the World Economic Forum and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which was held just a few months before the China virus was unleashed on the world.
In addition to being a former Deputy Director of the CIA, she served as a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Geopolitics. This panel was designed to “offer intellectual support to the Forum’s work on the Great Reset initiative, particularly the pillar devoted to promoting global cooperation and revitalizing the multilateral system.”
Biden’s nominee as director of the CIA, William J. Burns, was a member of the same panel.
Strangely, Senator Marco Rubio, R-Fla., the top Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, worked to expedite a vote on someone who is widely expected to push for more power and authority for the United Nations as part of the “Great Reset.”
It appears that the Deep State has reaffirmed its control of both political parties, a fact that can only generate more hatred by the grassroots of the Republican establishment.
————————– Cliff Kincaid is president of Cliff Kincaid
Tags:Cliff Kincaid, Renew America, Senate Republicans, Endorse, Biden’s Deep State, PicksTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Paul Jacob: Former CIA Director John Brennan raised eyebrows, last week, when he said on MSNBC that officials in the new administration “are now moving in laser-like fashion to try to uncover as much as they can about what looks very similar to insurgency movements that we’ve seen overseas, where they germinate in different parts of the country and they gain strength and it brings together an unholy alliance frequently of religious extremists, authoritarians, fascists, bigots, racists, Nativists, even libertarians.”
Tellingly, he doesn’t mention any specific groups by name. Like antifa (cough). But in America there have been a few violent groups engaged in what might be called “insurgencies.”
It is almost as if Brennan has forgotten the groups that this past year have gone so far as to set up political territory within major American cities, proclaiming independence from these United States. Such “autonomous zones” (hastily and violently constructed in Seattle and elsewhere) existed for days and weeks on end but failed to spark the Democrats’ “laser-like” attention as did the capitol break-in, which just so happened to be an assault upon them.
Why ignore antifa but focus on . . . “even libertarians”?
While libertarians defend freedom and peaceful change, the Democratic Party and the Deep State seem to find mass protest combined with violence in causes they like helpful (“Black Lives Matter,” etc.). For increasing their insider power, no doubt, and ramping it up to new, oppressive levels. But mass protest (say, against the lockdowns) they regard as dangerous — because corrosive to their power.
Violence is not something we should be cavalier about. Or partisan about. Oppose it all. Period.
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, Even LibertariansTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
Urge the Senate to reject the unconstitutional impeachment of former President Donald Trump! by Robert Romano: The Senate trial of former President Donald Trump will begin on Feb. 8, according to a joint agreement between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).The announcement came as 29 Senate Republicans and counting are already opposing the trial, which they say is unconstitutional since Trump is no longer in office, and comes as almost 9 out of 10 Republicans say they oppose convicting former President Trump in polls.It is practically guaranteed that any Republican Senator who votes to convict Trump will eventually face a primary challenge.And so, more than likely, Senate Democrats will not be able to find 67 votes to convict Trump, which would require 17 Senate Republicans to come on board.Just like that, once again, Republican voters are unified. This time in opposition to impeachment.Usually, after a new administration comes to power, it can take months before the opposition gets its act together and begins galvanizing its partisan base, usually leading to favorable outcomes in midterm elections for the party that lost the White House.In fact, in midterm elections dating back to 1906 through 2018, the party that occupies the White House usually loses on average 31 seats in the House, and about three seats in the Senate. And that’s without any additional incentives. It’s enough that the party out of power will be more motivated to vote in the subsequent elections.Which could mean House Democrats’ first act of office to impeach the former President — which is bringing Republican voters together and instantly activating them at a time when they might have been tuning out — might become one of the biggest historic blunders in U.S. political history.
It may well be that former President Donald Trump may be the gift that keeps giving — for Republicans. There will be backlash. Thanks to Democrats’ impeachment fever, the 2022 midterms could be Tee-Ball for the GOP.
Provided, of course, that Senate Republicans actually pay attention to what their own constituents are saying.
The case against impeachment is not hard to make. For starters, it is not even constitutional to hold a trial for “removal” after President Trump’s term will have already expired. Article II, Section 4 of the Constitution states “The President… shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors.”
And Article I, Section 3 states “Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than to removal from Office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of honor, Trust or Profit under the United States…”
That is all inclusive. It only says a sitting president can be removed. There cannot be an impeachment of a former president, and there cannot be a removal of a former president who is already out of office. Meaning, Trump cannot be convicted, and so he certainly cannot then be disqualified from ever holding office again.
And then on the merits of the charge, “incitement of insurrection” for the speech Trump gave on Jan. 6 at the Save America Rally, there is no merit, no matter what occurred after the rally.
In fact, Trump explicitly <urged those protesting the certification of the election results by Congress to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
Moreover, evidence is emerging that planning for the riot at the Capitol that followed the speech began days and weeks prior to the rally and was done on social media outlets like Facebook, according to Justice Department court filings. If the riot and attacking Capitol Police was premeditated and pre-planned, then it was not a spontaneous outcome of Trump’s speech.
Public support for the impeachment is already waning. A Reuters-Ipsos poll now finds 51 percent support convicting Trump—the slimmest of majorities. And that is down from 56 percent in an Ipsos poll just a week ago.
Where will public sentiment be on Feb. 8, almost a month into President Joe Biden’s term, let alone after the American people actually get to hear the defense mounted on behalf of former President Trump?
That’s right. The pendulum has not even swung yet. Americans have been fed just one side of this story for almost a month now about what happened at the Capitol. When they hear the other side of the story, they’re going to be angry, particularly when they learn that the violence was not a result of the speech, but of the actions multiple groups who pre-planned the riot.
Tags:Robert Romano, Democrats’ Impeachment Fever, will make the 2022 midterms, Tee-Ball, for RepublicansTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
President Joe Biden’s immediate removal of the bust of
former British Prime Minister Winston Churchill from the
Oval Office is attracting growing attention across the Atlantic.
by Nile Gardiner: In his inaugural address, President Joe Biden pledged to “repair alliances.” Yet one of his first moves in power was to remove a bust of the late British Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill from the Oval Office, as President Barack Obama did in January 2009.
This was a slap in the face for Great Britain on Day One of Biden’s presidency and sends the wrong signal to America’s closest friend and ally.
The Churchill bust is a sensitive issue for U.S.-British relations. The bronze bust, created by sculptor Jacob Epstein, was originally a loaned gift to President George W. Bush from British Prime Minister Tony Blair in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The bust is a symbol of the British people standing shoulder to shoulder with their American brothers and sisters following the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history. Another bust of Churchill, which has been on the second floor of the White House since the 1960s, is outside the Treaty Room.
When Obama decided to send the Oval Office Churchill bust back to the British Embassy within days of taking office, the move attracted a great deal of negative publicity in the United Kingdom. It was strongly condemned by then-London Mayor (and now Prime Minister) Boris Johnson.
The Churchill bust was returned to the White House when Donald Trump became president in 2017, and was in the Oval Office until this week.
The location of the Churchill bust is a sensitive issue in U.S.-U.K. relations, not least because the great World War II leader is so greatly revered on both sides of the Atlantic as a savior of the free world, but also because its removal over a decade ago suggested an impending weakening of the special relationship between London and Washington.
Indeed, under Obama, the partnership between the two allies was not as close as it was under Bush. At the time, many British conservatives viewed the Obama administration as being at best lukewarm toward Britain, and on occasion even hostile.
In April 2016, ahead of the Brexit referendum, Obama warned the U.K. that it would be at “the back of the queue” for a trade deal with the U.S. if the British people dared to vote to leave the European Union. His remarks, made in London, were seen as both insulting and an unacceptable direct intervention by the U.S. president in British politics.
To this day, Obama’s comments draw widespread derision from backers of Brexit and are viewed as a textbook example of a diplomatic disaster on the part of the White House.
Nearly five years later, Biden’s immediate removal of the Churchill bust from the Oval Office is attracting growing attention across the Atlantic and has already been strongly attacked by some British politicians, including former Brexit Party leader Nigel Farage.
Johnson has held back from directly criticizing the White House over its Churchill decision, but he is a devotee and biographer of Churchill. Many supporters of Johnson’s ruling Conservative Party will undoubtedly be dismayed by Biden’s reckless action.
There are real concerns in London that Biden may translate his antipathy toward Brexit and his well-known admiration for the European Union into a downgrading of the Anglo-American alliance in favor of appeasing Brussels and the continental European powers of Germany and France.
Such a stance would be a huge mistake.
The U.S.-U.K. partnership is the beating heart of the free world. Any move by Biden to weaken the special relationship would undermine the United States and Great Britain. Taking Churchill out of the Oval Office is the worst possible start.
————————— Nile Gardiner a leading authority on transatlantic relations, is director of The Heritage Foundation’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom. Shared article on The Daily Signal.
Tags:Nile Gardiner, The Daily Signal, Biden’s Eviction, Churchill Bust, Signals Weakening Ties, With UKTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
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47.) ABC
January 27, 2021 – Having trouble viewing this email? Open it in your browser.
Morning Rundown
Biden plans to purchase 200M more doses of Pfizer, Moderna COVID-19 vaccines: President Joe Biden announced Tuesday that his administration is working with coronavirus vaccine makers to buy another 200 million doses that would arrive this summer. Of those doses, 100 million will be from Pfizer and 100 million will be from Moderna. This raises the total to 600 million and ensures the U.S. will eventually have two shots for nearly every American. “We expect these vaccines to be available in production over the course of the summer,” a Biden official said. Biden also said the federal government will be increasing the number of doses shipped to states — from 8.6 million doses a week to 10 million a week for the next three weeks. They’ll also start notifying states how many doses they will receive three weeks in advance. While the announcement does not resolve the major shortages the nation is currently experiencing and does not suggest the Biden administration has found a novel way to ramp up production quickly, Biden hopes it will allow millions more people to be vaccinated earlier. “This is going to allow millions of more Americans to get vaccinated sooner than previously anticipated,” he said. “We’ve got a long way to go, though.”
Senators sworn in for Trump’s 2nd impeachment trial, vote on its constitutionality: As senators were sworn in on Tuesday as jurors for former President Donald Trump’s second impeachment trial, they were faced with the question of whether holding an impeachment trial is constitutional. “He is a private citizen,” Republican Sen. Rand Paul said of Trump, who was impeached by Congress for “incitement of insurrection” after a violent mob of his supporters breached the U.S. Capitol. “The presiding officer is not the chief justice nor does he claim to be. Therefore, I make a point of order that this proceeding which would try a private citizen — and not a president, a vice president, or civil officer — violates the Constitution and is not in order.” But in a vote of 55-45, senators killed Paul’s effort to dismiss the impeachment trial as unconstitutional, with five Republicans siding with Democrats. “It makes no sense whatsoever that the president or any other official could commit a heinous crime against our country and then could evade Congress’ impeachment power,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. While Paul’s effort failed, many members of the Republican conference still voted with him, which is an indicator that the constitutional question for some Republicans will be an intense focus during the trial starting Feb. 9. In order to convict Trump, the Senate would need at least 17 Republican senators to join the 50 Democrats.
Biden signs 4 executive actions pertaining to racial equity: In an effort to tackle the racial inequity crisis in the U.S., President Joe Biden signed four executive actions on Tuesday to address systemic racism, which he said “has plagued our nation for far, far too long.” Among them was an order directing the attorney general to not renew contracts the Department of Justice has with privately operated criminal detention facilities. “This is the first step to stop corporations from profiting off of incarcerated — incarceration that is less humane and less safe, as the studies show,” said Biden, who vowed on the campaign trail to end federal government use of all private facilities for any detention, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement facilities. “We need to make the issue of racial equity not just an issue for any one department of government, it has to be the business of the whole of government.” Biden also signed a memorandum to combat xenophobia against the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities amid a rise in hate crimes and harassment over coronavirus’s suspected origins in Wuhan, China. “This is unacceptable and it’s un-American,” Biden said before signing the actions. “It’s time to act now, not only because it’s the right thing to do. Because if we do, we’ll all be better off.”
Teacher and her kindergartners receive response letters from Joe Biden, Kamala Harris: When El Paso, Texas, teacher Martha Tavarez, and her students sent a congratulatory letter to President Joe Biden after the election, getting a response back from him was the last thing on their minds. But earlier this month, they received the surprise of a lifetime when he replied by snail mail. “I don’t expect anything in return, but I open my mailbox and it made me happy to know I was heard,” said Tavarez, who sent the letter to Biden after a lesson on the presidential election, in which she held a mock election for her students through virtual learning. In his note, Biden thanked Tavarez, mentioned his vision for the future and how he remains “heartened by the spirit and resilience of the American people.” He added, “I am forever grateful to you.” Tavarez said her students are now motivated to write cards and a book for the president. “They’re super motivated,” she said.
GMA Must-Watch
This morning on “GMA,” Ricki Lake joins us live one year after first revealing her decades-long struggle with her hair and the perspective she’s gained since then. Plus, Rami Malek talks about co-starring in “The Little Things” alongside Jared Leto and Denzel Washington. And Jennifer King, who was just announced as the first full-time Black female coach hired by the NFL, will talk about her history-making move. All this and more only on “GMA.”
A Senate vote may indicate the way the political winds are blowing for former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. The Biden administration says more vaccines are on the way — don’t worry, we’re keeping track of what the numbers say.
Here is what we’re watching this Wednesday morning.
Nearly all GOP Senators voted against Trump’s impeachment trial. Here’s what that may mean for conviction.
Most Senate Republicans on Tuesday embraced the argument that trying a former president is unconstitutional — dealing a substantial blow to Democrats’ chances of convicting former President Donald Trump over his role in the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Forty-five Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, agreed with Sen. Rand Paul’s motion to dismiss the proceeding as unconstitutional because Trump is no longer in office.
Just five GOP senators joined Democrats to kill the motion by a vote of 55-45, clearing the way for the trial to move forward. They were Mitt Romney of Utah, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Susan Collins of Maine, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.
The vote doesn’t necessarily indicate the final outcome, as some senators who voted to dismiss haven’t ruled out a conviction.
But it revealed that for a majority of Republican senators, their loyalty to Trump remains steadfast.
Seventeen Republicans would have to break ranks and join the Democrats to reach the two-thirds majority, or 67 votes, needed to convict Trump.
“I think it’s pretty obvious from the vote today that it is extraordinarily unlikely that the president will be convicted,” Collins told reporters. “Just do the math.”
The FBI has identifiedmore than 400 suspects in the Capitol riot. Many of the tips have come from family and friends who were horrified when they spotted someone they knew in the riot footage.
Biden administration orders 200 million more doses of Covid-19 vaccines
The government is working tobuy 200 million more doses of Covid-19 vaccines, a move that could provide enough doses to inoculate nearly every American by the end of the summer, President Biden said Tuesday.
“It will be enough to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans to beat the pandemic,” Biden said.
NBC News’ is keeping track of how the administration is doing on its goal. Check out what the numbers say here.
“A boomerang effect”: Hank Aaron’s death has been falsely linked to the Covid vaccine.
CDC officials sayschools can re-open during the pandemic — but precautions are crucial.
Follow ourlive blogfor all the latest Covid-19 developments.
Video: Biden announces Covid vaccine supply surge to states across U.S.
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Plus
U.S.-Russia relations were always going to be a delicate diplomatic dance for Biden, who spoke with Russia’s Vladimir Putinfor the first time as president on Tuesday. The recent arrest of opposition leader Alexei Navalny and ensuing street protests just made them even more challenging.
From NBC’s Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Carrie Dann and Melissa Holzberg
FIRST READ: Republicans circle the wagons around Trump one more time
A year ago, Republicans argued that Donald Trump shouldn’t be impeached and removed from office because the country was too close to an election.
“Let the voters decide” was the common GOP refrain back then.
Photo by JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images
Well, after voters DID decide – but also after Trump tried to overturn the results – most GOP senators on Tuesday voted that Trump shouldn’t be impeached and removed from office because he was no longer in office (though some say they still haven’t made up their mind whether they’ll vote to convict).
No matter that the alleged offense (inciting an insurrection) took place while he was president.
No matter that it was the GOP who decided not to hold a Senate trial while Trump was still in office.
And no matter that there’s clear precedent (the case of Secretary of War William Belknap) for impeaching and trying someone who just left office.
It all underscores how most Republicans – though not all – refuse to hold Trump accountable for his actions, whether it’s asking Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, or begging Georgia’s secretary of state to overturn the election results or telling his supporters to march to the Capitol to protest the Electoral College count.
And every time Republicans refuse to hold Trump accountable – after “Access Hollywood,” or Ukraine, or the Jan. 6 attack – he puts his party in a tougher spot with his next action.
Yet as the GOP circles its wagons around Trump this latest time, it also comes when the former president has never been weaker.
There’s no powerful office to punish critics and reward supporters. There’s no Twitter account. And there’s no GOP Senate majority (due in large part because of Trump’s actions after Nov. 3).
Democrats’ fragile Senate majority
But speaking of that Senate majority, we got a reminder Tuesday night of just how fragile the new Democratic majority is, with the 50-50 tie in the chamber.
“Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., who will preside over former President Donald Trump’s impeachment trial, returned home after he was taken to the hospital Tuesday evening, a spokesman said,” per NBC News.
All of the discussion about the Dem/Biden agenda; whether to use reconciliation or eliminate the filibuster; and the ability to confirm judges to the court hinges on Senate Democrats keeping every single one of their votes.
Data Download: The numbers you need to know today
25,550,673: The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States, per the most recent data from NBC News and health officials. (That’s 178,944 more than yesterday morning.)
426,586: The number of deaths in the United States from the virus so far. (That’s 4,297 more than yesterday morning.)
108,957: That’s the number of people currently hospitalized from Covid-19 in the United States.
298.45 million: The number of coronavirus tests that have been administered in the United States so far, according to researchers at The COVID Tracking Project.
At least 17: The number of Republican senators required to convict Trump
80: The age of Sen. Patrick Leahy, Democratic senator and president pro tempore of the Senate, who was briefly hospitalized yesterday after feeling unwell.
TWEET OF THE DAY: Buckle up, it’s a Wednesday in January
Biden’s bold prediction on vaccines
President Biden made a bold prediction on Tuesday – that by the end of the summer and toward the beginning of the fall, the United States will have enough supply of the Covid-19 vaccines to vaccinate 300 million Americans.
Here’s how he said that will come to be:
By summer, Biden said the U.S. will be able to purchase 100 million doses of the Pfizer vaccine and 100 million doses of the Moderna vaccine. “We expect these additional 200 million doses to be delivered this summer. And some of it will come as early –begin to come in early summer, but by the mid-summer, that this vaccine will be there And the order — and that increases the total vaccine order in the United States by 50 percent — from 400 million ordered to 600 million. This is enough vaccine to fully vaccinate 300 Americans by the end of the summer, beginning of the fall,” Biden said.
And on the Cabinet front, Biden’s Secretary of State Tony Blinken easily cleared Senate confirmation with a 78-22 vote.
Biden’s pick for the Department of Homeland Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, was confirmed out of committee on a 7-4 vote.
BIDEN CABINET WATCH
State: Tony Blinken (confirmed)
Treasury: Janet Yellen (confirmed)
Defense: Ret. Gen. Lloyd Austin (confirmed)
Attorney General: Merrick Garland
Homeland Security: Alejandro Mayorkas
HHS: Xavier Becerra
Agriculture: Tom Vilsack
Transportation: Pete Buttigieg
Energy: Jennifer Granholm
Interior: Deb Haaland
Education: Miguel Cardona
Commerce: Gina Raimondo
Labor: Marty Walsh
HUD: Marcia Fudge
Veterans Affairs: Denis McDonough
UN Ambassador: Linda Thomas-Greenfield
Director of National Intelligence: Avril Haines (confirmed)
EPA: Michael Regan
SBA: Isabel Guzman
OMB Director: Neera Tanden
US Trade Representative: Katherine Tai
Biden’s day
At 1:30 pm ET, President Biden delivers remarks and signs executive actions on the issue of climate change… White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki briefs reporters at 12:15 pm ET, along with National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy… And the Biden administration holds a briefing on the fight against COVID.
CNN reports on new comments made by Marjorie Taylor Greene (before her time in Congress) when she appeared to support the executions of some Democratic members.
Should stimulus funds be targeted only toward those with lower incomes?
Democrats are pushing a $15 minimum wage bill despite facing hurdles in the Senate.
Plus: Senators call impeachment trial unconstitutional, Biden cancels private prison contracts, Apple sued over Telegram, and more…
Sedition charges in the works for Capitol rioters. On Tuesday, the Department of Justice announced that it will bring sedition charges against people who stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6. The punishment for seditious conspiracy is up to 20 years in prison.
So far, the Capitol riot has spawned more than 150 federal cases and more than 50 cases in D.C. court, FBI Assistant Director in Charge Steven D’Antuono said yesterday, adding that the FBI has opened more than 400 subject case files. (Back on January 15, only 42 people faced federal charges.)
As for seditious conspiracy cases: “Yes, we’re working on those cases, and I think those results will bear fruit very soon,” D’Antuono said.
Calls for sedition charges haven’t stopped with people who stormed the Capitol, with some raising the possibility of sedition charges against politicians who spread election fraud conspiracy theories or encouraged people to come to D.C. to protest.
Under federal law, the crime of seditious conspiracy is defined as two or more people conspiring “to overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the Government of the United States, or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder, or delay the execution of any law of the United States, or by force to seize, take, or possess any property of the United States contrary to the authority thereof.”
“Sedition prosecutions in the U.S. have a particularly shameful history,” as Bloomberg‘s Noah Feldman pointed out last fall in a piece titled “Sedition laws are the last resort of weak governments.”
Not only is their historical use full of horror stories, but their very nature makes them ripe for abuse at any time, as a catchall threat against anyone who challenges government policy or criticizes government actions. They can also be used to escalate criminal acts at any protest around the country into a federal case, as former Attorney General William Barr endorsed last year.
Many of the people who stormed the Capitol deserve some charges, and seditious conspiracy might seem as good as any at a glance. But reviving the use of sedition charges like this could backfire against free speech and protests more broadly.
Law professor and blogger Eugene Volokh explains a little bit more about sedition and seditious conspiracy charges:
This is just a special case of the broader proposition that conspiring to commit a crime can itself be a crime. You can be punished under state law for conspiring to commit murder or theft or what have you. You can be punished under federal law for conspiring to commit bank robbery, or to defraud the federal government. Likewise, you can be punished under the “seditious conspiracy” statute for conspiring to illegally oppose the enforcement of the law.
The current federal statute on sedition is, at the very least, much less severe than its historical counterpart:
[Seditious conspiracy] is quite a different statute from the Sedition Act of 1798 (or from the common-law crime of seditious libel), which punished (among other things) false and malicious speech intended to defame the federal government. And to the extent that the seditious conspiracy law punishes agreements to commit crime, which may be expressed by speech, such conspiracy is viewed as constitutionally unprotected, because it is speech integral to the criminal conduct that is being planned. For more on this, see U.S. v. Rahman (2d Cir. 1999).
IMPEACHMENT UPDATE
Republicans declare impeachment trial itself unconstitutional. The majority of GOP senators designating the latest Trump impeachment trial unconstitutional wasn’t enough to stop it from moving forward. But its ultimate prospects aren’t good. “Lawmakers narrowly killed a Republican effort to dismiss the impeachment charge as unconstitutional,” saysThe New York Times. But the 55–45 vote “strongly suggested that the Senate would not be able to convict the former president.” All Democrats plus at least 17 Republican senators need to vote to convict Trump in order for it to happen.
FREE MINDS
Indiana lawmakers are trying to make it harder for Libertarians to get on ballots. A new measure (House Bill 1134) from state Rep. Ethan Manning (R–Denver) “would require Libertarians to collect signatures of registered voters to run for governor or U.S. Senate. Under current law, Libertarians nominate those offices in a primary convention and are not required to gather signatures required of Republicans and Democrats as part of the primary ballot process,” notesTheJournal Gazette.
Manning’s bill would still allow Libertarians to nominate governor and U.S. Senate candidates via convention but would then also require the nominee to meet the signature requirement, which is 500 registered voters for each of the state’s nine congressional districts.”
“Rep. Matt Pierce, D-Bloomington, said a cynical person would see it as a bill to punish Libertarians because they did well in the last gubernatorial election, and some believe they siphon votes from Republicans. …Rep. Cherrish Pryor, D-Indianapolis, said the bill adds more requirements on Libertarians without giving them any new powers or advantages.”
FREE MARKETS
Apple and Google sued over Telegram posts. “Here’s an interesting lawsuit, brought to you by some familiar names,” writes Tim Cushing at Techdirt. “And by ‘interesting,’ I mean ‘exceedingly stupid.'”
Apparently, former U.S. ambassador and Coalition for A Safer Web head Marc Ginsberg is suing Apple over content posted to encrypted messaging app Telegram, which is not affiliated with Apple except insofar as the Telegram app is available through the Apple app store. Ginsberg argues that some Telegram posts and chats are bad, so Apple shouldn’t even make Telegram available. More from Cushing:
Ginsberg claims the Telegram app violates Apple’s developer guidelines and California’s hate speech law and should be removed from the app store. Because Apple hasn’t removed the app, it has been downloaded and used by people who engage in anti-Semitic speech. (Ginsberg is Jewish.) Because Telegram refuses to remove this content, it somehow leaks into Ginsberg’s life through the app store—even if Ginsberg has never downloaded the app or engaged with its users.
Ginsberg is also suing Google over making Telegram available through the Google Play store.
QUICK HITS
• President Joe Biden is canceling the federal government’s contracts with private prisons. More details here from Reason‘s C.J. Ciaramella.
It’s a good thing, but not even remotely huge. The problem in America is PUBLIC prisons, private prisons are a mere asterisk. And not a single person will be released because of this. https://t.co/b8zqzaZdDl
• A federal judge blocked Biden’s 100-day moratorium on some deportations after Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton challenged the order and sought a temporary order forbidding the Department of Homeland Security from enforcing it.
• Chicago teachers may soon be going on strike. The Chicago Teachers Union “told its members to work from home Wednesday after failing this week to reach an agreement with Chicago Public Schools over reopening conditions, a move that suspends in-person classes that had already resumed and puts the union on the verge of a strike if a deal isn’t reached over the next few days,” reports the Chicago Sun-Times.
• Small websites and apps need Section 230, writes the CEO of MeWe, Mark Weinstein, in the Wall Street Journal:
Those who want to get rid of Section 230 say this would stop social networks and websites from unfairly censoring their users’ political comments. In reality, it would give them an incentive to censor far more aggressively. To protect themselves from being sued over content, they would remove anything remotely controversial. Users would be spied on constantly.
Ironically, this would help Facebook, Twitter, Google and other social-media giants while hurting smaller companies and new startups.
• New legislation in California “aims to change expert testimony and forensic evidence legal standards … to make it easier for falsely accused individuals to challenge wrongful convictions,” reportsJurist.
• A new study examines how Americans use their $600 stimulus check money. Households earning under $75,000 are more likely to spend the money relatively quickly, while higher earners are more likely to save the payment.
• Another Democratic administration, another push to drastically hike the national minimum wage: “House and Senate Democrats on Tuesday reintroduced a bill to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour by 2025, more than doubling the current $7.25 hourly rate,” notesReason‘s Billy Binion.
Elizabeth Nolan Brown is a senior editor at Reason, where she writes regularly on the intersections of sex, speech, tech, crime, politics, panic, and civil liberties. She is also co-founder of the libertarian feminist group Feminists for Liberty.
Since starting at Reason in 2014, Brown has won multiple awards for her writing on the U.S. government’s war on sex. Brown’s writing has also appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Daily Beast, Buzzfeed, Playboy, Fox News, Politico, The Week, and numerous other publications. You can follow her on Twitter @ENBrown.
Reason is the magazine of “free minds and free markets,” offering a refreshing alternative to the left-wing and right-wing echo chambers for independent-minded readers who love liberty.
In a series of new briefs, Manhattan Institute fellows offer actionable ideas for the new Biden administration—proposals for educational pluralism, executive branch prudence, economic revitalization, evidence-based criminal justice reform, fair and efficient health care, near-term fiscal relief, and long-term fiscal discipline. January 26, 2021
Opponents of development shouldn’t be allowed to block new housing through delaying procedures. By Roderick M. Hills, Jr.
City Journal Online January 26, 2021
When will the media acknowledge their role in spreading false and inflammatory stories about police shootings? By Rav Arora
City Journal Online January 26, 2021
Biden should resist the temptation to go big, and focus instead on solutions with bipartisan support. By Jason Riley The Wall Street Journal January 26, 2021
And for the most part, the leaders of those institutions made the right decisions when it mattered the most. By Andy Smarick
The Dispatch January 27, 2021
Photos, left to right: Alex Wong/Getty Images for Meet the Press, Spencer Platt/Getty Images, Mario Tama/Getty Images
Andrew Cuomo’s auto-hagiography makes an illuminating read in conjunction with recent biographies of his predecessors—including his father.
By E.J. McMahon
City Journal Online January 26, 2021
Today at 4:30 p.m. EST, join City Journal editor Brian Anderson as he moderates a panel of longtime City Journal contributors—Nicole Gelinas, Heather Mac Donald, Steven Malanga, and Fred Siegel—commemorating the magazine’s 30th anniversary and taking a look at what the future might hold.
On January 28, join Michael Hendrix for a panel discussion with Alan Cooperman, Tim Dalrymple, and Leah Zagelbaum on the toll Covid-19 is taking on faith communities.
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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You may hear the words “buyers’ remorse” used in the same sentence as “Joe Biden” this week. You’ll probably also read Big Tech ‘fact’ checks that it’s not actually buyers’ remorse. We’ll cross the … MORE
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55.) REALCLEARPOLITICS MORNING NOTE
01/27/2021
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Carl Cannon’s Morning Note
Uighur Advocacy; Canceling Lincoln; Pandemic Plan
By Carl M. Cannon on Jan 27, 2021 08:11 am
Good morning, it’s Wednesday, Jan. 27, 2021. I keep thinking the news can’t get any worse — and then we learn that while most Americans desperately await their chance to get COVID vaccinations, a majority of nursing home workers in this country are refusing to take their shots. President Biden did his part yesterday in announcing stepped up federal efforts and producing more of the life-saving serum, but you wonder sometimes if America is still governable.
On that cheery note, I’d point you to RCP’s front page, which presents our poll averages, videos, breaking news stories, and aggregated opinion pieces spanning the political spectrum. Today’s lineup features Dhruv Khullar (The New Yorker), Rep. Raul Grijalva (The Hill), Jamelle Bouie (New York Times), and Matt Welch (Reason). We also offer original material from our own reporters, columnists, and contributors this morning, including the following:
* * *
Uighur Advocates: Will Biden Actions Match Words on ‘Genocide’? Susan Crabtree reports on the new team’s support for the Trump administration’s stance on China’s mistreatment of the Muslim minority.
Republican Attacks on Liz Cheney Will Backfire. Robert Doar explains why.
A New Generation of Diverse Leaders Helps Expand the GOP. Paris Dennard highlights the election of Rep. Byron Donalds as emblematic of young African Americans drawn to the party’s message of freedom and opportunity.
Facebook Cancels Abe Lincoln. John Cribb describes how the social media giant rejected attempts to place an ad for his historical novel about the 16th president.
Will the Truth on COVID Restrictions Really Prevail? Scott W. Atlas contends that data on state infections/hospitalizations/deaths undermines “the science” behind the closure of businesses and other lockdown measures.
For Stability in Afghanistan, Invest in Women. At RealClearWorld, Farhat Popal urges the Biden administration to protect gains in human rights in negotiations with the Taliban.
RealClearPolicy Webinar on Biden’s Crypto Policies. Highlights from the event (and the full video) can be found here.
Why Warner Bros. Went to Simultaneous Streaming. At RealClearMarkets, Eric Fruits examines the upset created in Hollywood when the film studio changed its plans for releasing films.
Civic Virtues as Moral Facts: Recovering the Other Half of Our Founding. In the latest 1776 Series essay, Daniel J. Mahoney contrasts the moral consensus of early America with the subjective, rights-based morality that defines American culture today.
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62.) 1440 DAILY DIGEST
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Good morning. It’s Wednesday, Jan. 27, and an anticancer compound derived from sea squirts may have powerful COVID-19-fighting properties. Have feedback? Let us know at hello@join1440.com.
The total number of COVID-19 cases reported worldwide surpassed 100 million yesterday, with more than 2.1 million deaths (see dashboard). Five countries—the US (25 million), India (11 million), Brazil (8.8 million), Russia (3.7 million), and the UK (3.7 million)—make up more than half of all reported cases.
In the US, where cases have fallen by about 30% over the past two weeks (see previous write-up), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention called for schools to begin returning students to the classroom. The decision cited accumulating evidence in districts where schools have opened that in-person learning has not contributed meaningfully to community spread of the virus, assuming mitigation measures were in place. See an overview of the data here.
Separately, Johnson & Johnson said it was on track to produce 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine by June, and would present efficacy data early next week. Pending approval, it would become the third available vaccine in the US. Unlike the existing two vaccines, it requires only one shot and can be stored at standard refrigerator temperatures for up to three months (how it works).
As of this morning, the US had distributed more than 44 million vaccine doses, with about 23.5 million administered. Roughly 4,100 COVID-19 deaths were reported yesterday, bringing the total in the US to just over 425,200. See rolling averages for cases and deaths.
Blinken Confirmed
Longtime diplomat Antony Blinken was confirmed as US secretary of state yesterday, passing the US Senate with bipartisan support in a 78-22 vote. Blinken served with then-Vice President Joe Biden as the deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration from 2015 to 2017. Analysts say Blinken is likely to strike a more multilateralist approach than his predecessor—though he has expressed support for the recent Trump administration designation of China’s treatment of its Muslim Uighur population as genocide. Blinken becomes the 71st secretary of state (see full list).
Separately, the Senate voted yesterday to declare the upcoming impeachment trial of former President Trump constitutional, by a 55-45 vote. However, only five GOP senators concurred—Sens. Mitt Romney (UT), Lisa Murkowski (AK), Ben Sasse (NE), Susan Collins (ME), and Pat Toomey (PA). At least 17 Republican votes would be required for a conviction; the trial starts Feb. 9.
Indian Farmers Overtake Red Fort
Tens of thousands of Indian farmers drove tractors into the capital city of Delhi yesterday, clashing with police and overtaking the city’s historic Red Fort. It marked one of the most dramatic escalations thus far of protests over proposed agricultural reforms and came as the nation celebrated Republic Day—a holiday roughly akin to Independence Day in the US.
India’s massive agricultural sector—which employs about half the population, but accounts for just 15% of the economy—primarily relies on government-run markets and guaranteed price minimums for key crops. Among other changes, the reforms would allow for deregulated markets (see video explainer), which supporters say is necessary to modernize the industry. The country’s farmers, half of which are in debt and have seen an epidemic of suicides, say the policies favor large corporate farms.
Another large-scale protest is expected Feb. 1, when the country’s budget is presented to Parliament.
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>No former players selected to Baseball Hall of Fame for the first time since 1960; Curt Schilling (71.1%) and Barry Bonds (61.8%) were closest to reaching the threshold of being on 75% of ballots (More)
>CBS suspends two top TV execs following Los Angeles Times investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct and racism at network TV stations(More)
>The 2021 Boston Marathon to be held Oct. 11 after being canceled in 2020 for first time in 123 years due to COVID-19 (More) | Florida submits bid to host 2021 Summer Olympics if Tokyo is unable to host due to pandemic (More)
Science & Technology
>Plitidepsinshown to be 27.5 times more effective in treating COVID-19 than FDA-approved remdesivir in clinical trials; the anticancer compound was originally derived from the Mediterranean sea squirt (More)
>Twitter to open its entire tweet archive to academic researchers for free; move will help inform the study of online social dynamics (More)
>Engineers create a wirelessly controlled soft brain implant that can control certain neural functions and be charged from outside the body (More)
>Shares of video game retailer GameStop surge 92% as continued retail-investor rally forces short sellers to cover massive losses (More) | Deeper dive into GameStop’s recent surge (More)
>Earnings season: Starbucks sees lower revenues amid pandemic, with same-store sales down 5% (More) | Microsoft’s Azure cloud business grows 50% as the pandemic accelerates the shift to the cloud (More)
>Buffet pizza chain CiCi’s files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, with 318 locations to remain open as company evaluates options (More)
Big ol’ bonus. After meeting the required spending amount with this card, you’ll be rewarded a fat $200 bonus. We would say this card pays for itself, but there’s no annual fee, so pocket your $200 bonus today. #Ad
Politics & World Affairs
>The Netherlands imposes curfew after three consecutive nights of escalating violence in anti-lockdown riots; more than 200 people have been arrested for vandalism and looting since Saturday(More)
>Indonesia’s biggest volcano emits gas and lava flows; Mount Merapi, located on the densely populated island of Java, killed 347 people during a 2010 eruption (More)
>President Biden signs executive orders phasing out federal use of private prisons, bolstering enforcement of racial equity in housing (More) | … and is expected to place a moratorium on new leases for oil and gas drilling on federal land (More) | Judge barsBiden order suspending most deportations for 100 days after Texas legal challenge (More) | Justice Department rescinds “zero tolerance” border policy (More)
Historybook: Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart born (1756); Auschwitz concentration camp is liberated (1945); Paris Peace Accords brings end to Vietnam War (1973); RIP Andre the Giant (1993); RIP American author JD Salinger (2010).
“Be silent, if you choose; but when it is necessary, speak—and speak in such a way that people will remember it.”
– Mozart
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63.) AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH
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January 27, 2021
Two Years to Stop the Spread: Some Countries will Close…
By Jordan Schachtel | “Still, many American ‘public health experts’ have urged legislators to adopt the Australia and New Zealand rights-restricting model for ‘stopping the spread.’ Dr. Anthony Fauci, the long time government health bureaucrat,…
By David Waugh & Byron B. Carson, III | “The kind of information people acquire in their myriad interactions with others is often undervalued as a means of preventative behavior. As helpful as science is for understanding causal mechanisms…
By Gary M. Galles | “The malleability of language has allowed new iterations of statism to masquerade as means to the good society, because linguistic misdirection has made foolish thoughts about social organization more viable. At the same time,…
Consumers Grow More Optimistic About the Outlook in January
By Robert Hughes | The Consumer Confidence Index from The Conference Board rose in January, increasing by 2.2 points to 89.3. The index is constructed so that it equals 100 in 1985. Overall consumer confidence remains well below the pre-pandemic…
By AIER Staff | Preserving the normal functioning society must be the priority in order to maximize the health of the community, and not by focusing on just one pathogen but all aspects of public health.
By Jenin Younes | I envy the reader who can reach the end of Alex Berenson’s Unreported Truths About Covid-19 and Lockdowns: Masks , without tearing her hair out in frustration at the absurdity of the world today, which apparently is not so…
Edward C. Harwood fought for sound money when few Americans seemed to care. He was the original gold standard man before that became cool. Now he is honored in this beautiful sewn silk tie in the richest possible color and greatest detail.
The red is not just red; it is darker and deeper, more distinctive and suggestive of seriousness of purpose.
The Harwood coin is carefully sewn (not stamped). Sporting this, others might miss that you are secretly supporting the revolution for freedom and sound money, but you will know, and that is what matters.
“With The Harwood Reader: Essential Readings in the History of Economic Ideas, we all have the opportunity to gain an understanding into his intellectual achievements, as well as to why and how he was able to exercise such moral courage in the management of AIER, resisting multiple attempts by government to shut down our work.”~Edward Peter Stringham
On the menu today: Joe Biden’s pledges on the pandemic shift from, “I’m going to shut down the virus,” to “there’s nothing we can do to change the trajectory of the pandemic in the next several months”; Biden continues his pattern of making a bold and sweeping promise that his staff has to explain he didn’t really mean; and Patrick Leahy takes a quick trip to the hospital.
The ‘Ready from Day One’ Team Says There’s Nothing They Can Change for Months
On Tuesday Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) raised a point of order that the impeachment of private citizen Donald Trump is unconstitutional. Democrat Majority Leader Chuck… Read more…
Last week Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit against the Biden Administration for its illegal deportation freeze. Biden signed an Executive Order last… Read more…
100 Percent Fed Up – Dominion whistleblower Mellissa Carone has announced her intention to run for State Rep in Michigan’s 46th District. Carone hopes to… Read more…
Texas State Representative Kyle Biedermann introduced a bill on Tuesday that would allow Texans to vote on seceding from the United States. House Bill 1359,… Read more…
Yes, the Presidency was stolen from Donald Trump primarily from phony mail-in ballots introduced into a few key urban centers in pivotal swing states and… Read more…
A majority of Republican voters say a new Patriot Party is a good idea. The movement for a new political party started after Republicans threw… Read more…
Joe Biden signed an executive order today that banned the term “China virus.” It’s not clear how this will help with the pandemic. The coronavirus… Read more…
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Most voters think the country has become more divided since Election Day, and fewer than 1-in-5 say they are very confident President Biden will be able to unite Americans.
Update 935am : Well, if there was any question whether the capitulation of Melvin and Citron would end the furious short squeeze, it was answered moments ago when GME hit anew record high of $385, surpassed its premarket high before the…
Yesterday afternoon, when Gamestop and a handful of the most shorted small cap stocks exploded to never before seen levels, we reported that Melvin Capital had emerged as the first casualty of the Reddit/WallStreetBets forced squeeze/bull…
Update 4:40pm : Well that escalated quickly. Just 20 minutes after Musk’s tweet, GME exploded to $240… * * * Update 4:20pm: Just one hour ago (see below) we said that it is “increasingly likely that GME will hit $200” thanks to the…
Authored (mostly satirically) by CJ Hopkins via The Consent Factory, As they used to say at the end of all those wacky Looney Tunes cartoons, that’s all folks! The show is over. Literal Russian-Asset Hitler, the Latest Greatest Threat…
Authored by Mark Jeftovic via bombthrower.com, #Davos2021 started yesterday. We’ve all been hearing a lot The Great Reset lately, new slogans abound such as Build Back Better, the New Normal, and what seems to be a “new” model called…
Kentucky GOP Senator Rand Paul shredded Congressional Democrats over the second impeachment of former President Trump, arguing in a floor speech in a procedural motion to ‘table or kill’ the proceedings that “Democrats are about to drag…
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A new political group founded by former Trump aide Corey Lewandowski is raising money to run a candidate against the third-ranking Republican in the House, Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY), Axios reports.
Fresno Bee: “The only California Republican who voted to impeach President Donald Trump earlier this month already has three challengers planning bids to unseat him next year, including a Republican who said he’s running because of the impeachment vote.”
“The early interest signals a tough reelection campaign for Rep. David Valadao (R) who defeated Democratic Rep. TJ Cox in November to win a southern San Joaquin Valley district where Democrats outnumber Republicans.”
Politico: “Local and state Republican parties are censuring Republicans for disloyalty in states across the country. The lawmakers who broke with him are weathering a storm of criticism from Trump-adoring constituents at home, with punitive primary challenges already taking shape. In Washington, party leaders who once suggested Trump bore some responsibility for the Jan. 6 violence are backtracking.”
“On Tuesday, 45 Republican senators — all but five members of the GOP conference — voted that putting a former president on trial for impeachment is unconstitutional, all but guaranteeing the Senate won’t convict him. If the Republican Party seemed to be at a crossroads about its post-Trump future, it now appears to have concluded in which direction to travel.”
Politico: “Facebook and Google’s on-again, off-again bans on political ads are hitting campaigns during a crucial fundraising window, cutting off a key pipeline to potential supporters and disrupting early planning for the next round of elections, from state and local races this year to looming midterm elections in 2022.”
“The self-imposed bans — put in place, lifted and then reimposed in some form by both companies since the week before Election Day 2020 — have essentially pressed pause on a political industry that spent $3.2 billion advertising on Google and Facebook in the last two and a half years. Some digital political firms are freezing hiring due to the uncertainty surrounding their biggest ad platforms. And the bans have interfered with organizing and early fundraising efforts piggybacking off a new administration and the start of a new election cycle.”
“Enrique Tarrio, the leader of the Proud Boys extremist group, has a past as an informer for federal and local law enforcement, repeatedly working undercover for investigators after he was arrested in 2012,” Reuters reports.
Politico: “The effort to retain Republicans who have won races in tough states came into focus on Monday when Sen. Rob Portman surprised Republicans by announcing he won’t seek a third term in Ohio. Republicans will still be favored in the Buckeye State but will now have to contend with a primary that already looks crowded, with a laundry list of Republicans considering or already taking steps towards running.”
“And there’s already concern that more could join him in running to the exits as the GOP prepares to serve in the minority for the first time since 2013. Next year’s Senate map has enough swing states that Republicans could retake the majority — but they could just as easily lose more seats.”
“President Joe Biden’s pledge that there will be sufficient vaccines for 300 million Americans by the end of summer represents a bold and politically risky response to criticism his pandemic plan lacks ambition,” CNN reports.
“In effect, the President is putting a date on a return of a semblance of normal life — with no guarantee that he can deliver.”
“Among the dozens of pardons and commutations former President Donald Trump issued before leaving office, one name has left some law enforcement officials reeling: Jaime A. Davidson, notorious in upstate New York for planning a 1990 robbery that ended in the murder of a police officer,” the New York Times reports.
“The commutation bypassed the typical federal process for seeking clemency, and was championed by an advocate who was herself granted a pardon in 2018. Experts said Mr. Trump’s decision to cut Mr. Davidson’s life sentence short was evidence of the problems that arise when presidential allies exert strong influence.”
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows is joining the Conservative Partnership Institute, a group run by former South Carolina Sen. Jim DeMint that operates as a “networking hub” for conservatives, Axios reports.
“Meadows, who is still in frequent contact with former President Trump and has been advising him ahead of his impeachment trial, will now operate behind the scenes to help create more members like Jim Jordan, Ted Cruz, and Josh Hawley — conservative firebrands with strong networks and staffs.”
“Law enforcement has identified more than 400 suspects and has brought federal criminal charges against over 150 people for actions related to the storming of the Capitol,” Politico reports.
New York Times: “The leadership of the Proud Boys has come under increased scrutiny as agents and prosecutors across the country try to determine how closely members of the far-right nationalist group communicated during the riot at the Capitol this month… At least six members of the organization have been charged in connection with the riot, including one of its top-ranking leaders, Joseph Biggs.”
“For decades, the Conservative Political Action Conference has been a staple of Republican politics. In recent years, the conservative confab has been the go-to stop for rising GOP stars, grassroots organizers, and luminaries in the Trump movement. But President Donald Trump’s election loss has created hurdles around programming and guest booking,” Politico reports.
“Stringent coronavirus guidelines in Maryland have pushed the conference outside of the Washington, D.C. area for the first time in nearly 50 years. Previous sponsors aren’t yet committed or have decided to forego sponsorship entirely due to changes to the event’s format or disappointment in the return on their investment last year. And the president that attendees adored so much may not show up to the event at all.”
A new Morning Consult poll finds over half of Republican voters (56%) believe that Trump should either probably or definitely run for president again in 2024. Just over a third of Republican voters (36%) think he probably or definitely should not.
Republicans and Republican-leaning independent voters are closely split between the Republican Party and the notional Patriot Party that Trump recently floated. A third (33%) said they are more interested in being a member of the Republican Party, and 30% said they would be more interested in being a member of the Patriot Party. A small share (11%) expressed interest in neither party.
As California struggles to administer COVID vaccines in a timely manner, questions arise as to what demographic should go first and how the nation can better prepare for similar crises. Dr. Jay Bhattacharya, a Stanford University professor of medicine whose recent research focuses on the epidemiology of COVID-19 as well as an evaluation of policy responses to the epidemic, joins Hoover senior fellows Niall Ferguson, H. R. McMaster, and John Cochrane to discuss COVID lessons learned over the past year and a sensible approach moving forward.
Bruno Retailleau represents the Vendée in the French Senate, where he has been serving as President of The Republican group since 2014. His comments prompted by the storming of the Capitol in Washington on January 6 provide a useful European perspective, an alternative to the polarized discourse that has predominated in the United States.
During the build-up to, and realization of, a new political order in the nation’s capital, I stumbled upon one story that amused me—and another that kept me up at night.
Open smart, I and other economists argued back in March. Don’t just shut lock down the whole economy willy-nilly. An auto-body paint shop (they wear masks and respirators anyway) is not likely to spread covid-19. Parks too. Test widely, randomly, to stop the spread of the disease, not just to diagnose the sick.
How to slow the recovery. The Biden plan should provide enough relief to carry the economy through the worst of the pandemic. One concrete example is the supplemental unemployment benefit, which Mr. Biden proposes to increase from $300 a week to $400. More important, the extra benefits will last at least through September, then phase out automatically as the labor market improves. Both changes are wise. (emphasis added)
Hoover Institution fellow Scott Atlas responds to former White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx’s claim that he provided former President Trump with “parallel data streams” about the pandemic.
Hoover Institution fellow Victor Davis Hanson discusses the Left’s call for reprogramming, attacks on the 1776 Commission report, the Biden administration’s executive order kyboshing girls’ sports, and recall-targeted Governor Gavin Newsom’s newfound desire to loosen lockdowns.
featuring Lucy Shapiro via Carnegie Mellon University
Congratulations to the 2020 recipient of the Dickson Prize in Science, Dr. Lucy Shapiro. Dr. Shapiro is a professor in the Department of Developmental Biology at the Stanford University School of Medicine where she holds the Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Chair in Cancer Research. She is also the Director of the Beckman Center for Molecular and Genetic Medicine.
The Hoover Institution and The Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law at the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies host Global Implications of China’s Belt and Road Initiativeon Thursday, January 28, 2021, at 11:30 a.m. PST.
The Hoover Institution and The Bill Lane Center host the State of the West Symposium 2021: COVID-19 in the Western States on Thursday, January 28, 2021 from 1:00-3:00pm PST.
The Hoover Institution hosts A Decade of US Cyber Strategy: a Hoover Chat Series with Cyber Experts and Defense Leaders, on January 29, February 12, February 26, and March 19, 2021 from 9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. PST.
National School Choice Week has taken on renewed importance this year, as too many families are approaching the one-year mark of crisis online learning provided by their public school district.
At a pivotal point in China-US relations, in the midst of COVID-19, and days following the inauguration of President Joe Biden, the United States and China are facing profound changes in their relationship and must work to bring stability back to the world community of which these nations are two of its most important members, agreed panelists in a session today during the “US-China Relations: The Way Forward” forum hosted by the China-U.S. Exchange Foundation (CUSEF) and the China Center for International Economic Exchanges (CCIEE).
The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hoover Institution or Stanford University.
Former President Trump Opens the Office of the Former President to Further Political Goals
On Monday, January 25, 2021, former President Donald Trump opened the Office of the Former President. An official statement dated January 25, 2021, reads, “Today, the 45th President of the United States, Donald J. Trump, formally opened the Office of the Former President.”
The Office will be responsible for managing President Trump’s correspondence, public statements, appearances, and official activities to advance the interests of the United States and to carry on the agenda of the Trump Administration through advocacy, organizing, and public activism.”
“President Trump will forever be a champion of the American people.”
100 Politico Staffers Write to Letter to CEO After Letting Ben Shapiro Do Newsletter for a Day
This week, conservative commentator and Daily Wire co-founder Ben Shapiro came under fire with allegations from over 100 Politico staffers. The staffers wrote to their publisher, Robert Allbritton, accusing Shapiro of making derogatory remarks about Muslims, African Americans, and others, and are upset he was invited to make a one-day guest contribution to a newsletter called the Playbook. Reports also indicate that the letter blasting Shapiro doesn’t fit the entire view of employees at Politico and that many staff didn’t see the letter.
Allbritton said he invited Shapiro on to mix things up with the publication. Shaprio’s first article breaks down his thoughts on impeachment and cancel culture. Shapiro did not respond to the attempt to cancel him. However, he did retweet a few tweets, suggesting he agrees that some Politico staffers have too much time on their hands and they aren’t in favor of tolerance.
New York Times Opinion Writer Arrested Was Working for the Islamic Republic of Iran
On January 19, 2021, Kaveh Afrasiabi, was arrested by the FBI, and charged with conspiracy to act as an unregistered foreign agent working on behalf of the Islamic Republic of Iran. For years, Afrasiabi was a well-known writer, contributing to the New York Times, Boston Globe, The Asia-Pacific Journal, and Middle East Eye.
The Department of Justice press release on Afrasiabi’s arrest reads, “For over a decade, Kaveh Afrasiabi pitched himself to Congress, journalists, and the American public as a neutral and objective expert on Iran,” said John C. Demers, Assistant Attorney General for National Security. “However, all the while, Afrasiabi was actually a secret employee of the Government of Iran and the Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations (IMUN) who was being paid to spread their propaganda. In doing so, he intentionally avoided registering with the Department of Justice as the Foreign Agents Registration Act required. He likewise evaded his obligation to disclose who was sponsoring his views. We now begin to hold him responsible for those deeds.”
DAILY RUMOR
Did the New Secretary of Defense Say He is Considering ‘Disbanding’ the Military?
A viral picture has been spreading showing Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin saying he plans to disband and defund the military and leave national defense to China. The meme even includes a byline from Joe Gould at Defense News, part of Sightline Media Group, founded in 1940.
Gould spoke out against the picture, saying he never wrote an article suggesting the claims in the viral photo. Additionally, Austin has never said anything about disbanding the military and leaving the national defense to China.
DAILY PERSPECTIVE ON COVID-19
Since the Outbreak Started
As of Tuesday, January 26, 2021, 15,747,287 people in the U.S. have recovered from coronavirus. Also, the U.S. reports 25,994,356 COVID-19 cases, with 434,908 deaths.
Daily Numbers
For Tuesday, January 26, 2021, the U.S. reports 132,758 COVID-19 cases, with 3,516 deaths.
WHAT THIS MEANS FOR US AS AMERICANS
Former President Trump setting up the Office of the Former President with its stated objectives indicates he wants to continue influencing politics in America. At this time, Trump has not provided any further statements on those aims or goals.
The letter from Politico staffers about Ben Shapiro shows how cancel culture continues to grow and influence the media. Politico says it is a non-partisan global news and information company, and Shapiro’s guest article remains on the website. However, the letter attacking Shapiro also suggests that many employees at Politico wouldn’t have an issue with preventing conservatives from publishing content for the website.
With the arrest of Afrasiabi, the New York Times and Boston Globe show that an alleged agent of Iran infiltrated two major U.S. media companies. Afrasiabi used two major media organizations to push views supported and funded by the Islamic Republic of Iran. The New York Times or Boston Globe has yet to issue any statement over Afrasiabi’s arrest.
The Daily Intelligence Brief, The DIB as we call it, is curated by a hard working team with a diverse background of experience including government intelligence, investigative journalism, high-risk missionary work and marketing.
This team has more than 68 years of combined experience in the intelligence community, 35 years of combined experience in combat and high-risk areas, and have visited more than 65 countries. We have more than 22 years of investigative reporting and marketing experience. Daily, we scour and verify more than 600 social media sites using more than 200 analytic tools in the process. Leveraging the tools and methods available to us, we uncover facts and provide analysis that would take an average person years of networking and research to uncover. We are doing it for you every 24 hours.
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