Good morning! Here is your news briefing for Monday May 17, 2021
1.) THE DAILY SIGNAL
May 17 2021
Good morning from Washington, where a top Justice Department lawyer who sought Trump’s impeachment tries to torpedo an election audit in Arizona. Fred Lucas reports. Will the Biden administration make sure your children and grandchildren are taught to judge others by skin color? We have a sobering assessment from Lindsey Burke and Inez Feltscher Stepman. On the podcast, author Lindsay Shepherd shares her experience with the shutdown of open inquiry on campus. Plus: six hair-raising pictures of runaway government spending; aid to Atlanta businesses hit by MLB’s virtue signaling; and your letters about the border mess. On this date in 1954, the Supreme Court rules in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka that racial segregation in public education is unconstitutional.
If the Biden administration gets its way, the government soon will be alternatively bribing and threatening every school district to push divisive and damaging curricula on race in the classroom.
In 2017, Lindsay Shepherd, then a teaching assistant at Wilfrid Laurier University in Canada, played for her class clips in which psychologist Jordan Peterson talked about personal pronouns and transgenderism….
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3.) DAYBREAK
Your First Look at Today’s Top Stories – Daybreak Insider
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Over the weekend and on Monday (Fox News). From the Wall Street Journal: As the latest war between Hamas and Israel enters its second week, the narrative is following a familiar script. Hamas fires rockets at Israeli cities, Israel retaliates by bombing the source of the rockets in Gaza, Hamas plays up the civilian casualties, and the world leans on Israel to stop defending itself. Let’s hope this isn’t the trap the Biden Administration falls into as the fighting continues. So far the White House has supported Israel’s right to self-defense. But the weekend bombing of a building in Gaza that housed media offices, including reporters from the Associated Press and Al Jazeera, has led to cries of outrage and an admonition from the State Department to Israel about protecting journalists in combat zones (WSJ). From another story: The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) released footage over the weekend of an operation to target Palestinian terrorists that was called off because officials believed that there were children in the area (Daily Wire).
2.
Jewish Reporter Attacked at Seattle Anti-Semitic Rally
From the story: In the process of covering the event, which was already tense for me as a Jew, I was assaulted by a fringe activist. I was then summarily kicked out of the public rally. As the woman hit me with a Palestinian flag, anti-Israel activists in the crowd did nothing. Some of the assault was caught on cell phone video. I wasn’t the only Jew assaulted.
NY Times: New Influx of Refugees are Here Due to Pandemic
From the story: …the past few months have also brought a much different wave of migration that the Biden administration was not prepared to address: pandemic refugees. They are people arriving in ever greater numbers from far-flung countries where the coronavirus has caused unimaginable levels of illness and death and decimated economies and livelihoods. If eking out an existence was challenging in such countries before, in many of them it has now become almost impossible (NY Times). From Byron York: This is a disaster entirely of Joe Biden’s making. The US would never tolerate such a situation at its airports or seaports. But large parts of the US-Mexico border are open, and people from around the world see an opportunity (Twitter). Meanwhile, from another story: The Biden administration’s Health and Human Services Department diverted more than $2 billion meant for COVID-19 relief to the cost of caring for thousands of child migrants who have come across the southern border as the White House continues to struggle to get a border crisis under control (Daily Wire).
4.
Twitter Suspends Man for Saying a Man Cannot Get Pregnant
And CNN claimed they “never heard of him” (Daily Wire). Later, they discovered they did, in fact know and employ him (Twitter). After all, he shows up 54 times (Twitter) on the CNN website when you search his name (CNN). A look at some of CNN’s Adeel Raja’s tweets (Twitchy).
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6.
Pride Group Wants Police Booted from Marching in NY Pride Parade
Because, the op-ed argues, so few Israelis are killed by terrorists that it releases “the Israeli leadership from political pressure to resolve the Gaza-Israel conflict.”
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Sunburn — The morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics — 5.17.21
Here’s your AM rundown of people, politics and policy in the Sunshine State.
Happy Monday.
The weekend could have gone better for Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran, who managed a more disappointing finish in the FSU prez race than Medina Spirit did in the Preakness. Despite getting rec letters from influential alums and one-time rivals such as former FEA head Fedrick Ingramhe didn’t win, place or show. We’ll be kind and say he finished fourth.
Actually, when you consider the latest development in the Matt Gaetz–Joel Greenberg saga, falling just short of succeeding John Thrasher sounds like a freakin’ blast. According to … well, everyone … disgraced former Seminole County Tax Collector Greenberg is ready to spill his guts to federal investigators. We’d say we hope Gaetz had a fun weekend since it appears it could be his last before an indictment drops, but wild weekends are what got him in this situation in the first place.
To make matters worse, the lengthy ledger of receipts for “tuition” payments aren’t tax deductible — sorry, they have to be for your minor, not ANY minor. And while the rules are lax on what qualifies for the 50% (in some cases 100% this year) business meal deduction, Venmo payments for “food” will likely lead to an audit — even if your dinner guest was on the clock.
For everyone else, however, Tax Day should only be a mild annoyance. Just make sure you file that return, or at least file for an extension, or else you’ll find yourself having a disastrous weekend down the road.
The good news is, if you were clairvoyant enough to bet on Rombauer to win the Preakness, you not only struck it big, you won’t have to pay taxes on the windfall until next year. If you’re looking to blow the winnings on something fun, maybe plan a trip to Tampa Bay. Tourism has been booming there with no signs of a slowdown — in fact, Pinellas County’s tourism revenues in March beat those from the same month in 2019, a year before COVID-19 hit the travel industry like a freight train.
If you bet on Medina Spirit, don’t fret. Sure, you’re out a few bucks, but if you did your duty and got your vaccine, the CDC says you can ditch your mask in most situations, including your next trip to Wally World, Costco, Starbucks, and more. That’s a lot better than the post-shot lollipops of yesteryear. Speaking of which, make sure you grab yourself a cookie on your next grocery run — the Publix freebies are back! Yeah, yeah, it’s a “kids only” treat, but you could probably get away with it if you shave off the quarantine beard or wear pigtails.
___
Florida Politics is flooding the zone with coverage of the Special Session; we have a deviated section on the front page of FloridaPolitics.com where you will find a constant stream of stories about this week’s proceedings.
As for what I think will happen this week, here are three quick thoughts:
Pure, raw politics: Whether you love him or hate him, there is currently not a hotter figure in Florida politics than Gov. DeSantis. The Governor is on the verge of doing something historic (something his predecessor never could) and you better believe the people in his orbit know it. Expect the Governor to lean in heavily this week, essentially daring those from his party to cross him at their own peril. When your name, signature and reputation are this closely tied to the Compact, you leave nothing to chance.
The hometown kids: Just how hot is DeSantis? The Seminole Tribe of Florida has spent big bucks, rather masterfully, on a television advertising campaign linking the Compact with the Governor while also profiling the Tribe as one of Florida’s greatest success stories. Behind the scenes, Jim Allen, CEO of Seminole Gaming, has been making the case directly to lawmakers from both parties on the merits and economic benefits the state will reap from the compact. With a 30-year deal on the table, the Tribe has called on the big guns to carry it over the finish line.
Amendment 3 debate: Depending on who you talk to the gaming Compact is either in violation of Amendment 3 or in accordance with it. What everyone can predict, however, is a post-session legal challenge derby over sports betting in the months ahead. And we haven’t even begun to talk about online gaming. Place your bets and lawyer up.
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Happening tonight — Rep. Elizabeth Fetterhoff will marry John William Ward in a ceremony followed by a reception at the Governors Club and dinner at Il Lusso. 5:30 p.m., Historic Senate Chambers of the old Capitol.
___
Congratulations — Erin Daly Ballas of Public Affairs Consultants and her husband James Ballas are celebrating their 7th anniversary!
Happy 7th anniversary to Erin and James Ballas.
Situational awareness
—@immillhiser: One thing that I really like about Joe Biden is that, if I don’t check the news for a couple hours, I’m confident that he did not taunt any nuclear-armed dictators while I wasn’t paying attention.
—@SenPizzo: I #StandWithIsrael, and hope for peace, just like I do at home. If that makes you unfollow me, dislike me, vote for another, or post things like this while waiting for your mom to bring you more meatloaf, have at it.
—@NikkiFried: It’s not even 6.01.21 and I’m reading a column calling me “telegenic, energetic, and smart” but too “loud” and “acerbic” when holding @GovRonDeSantis accountable. And just “too ambitious.” My announcement is in 2021, not 1951.
—@RexChapman: Matt Gaetz is a young Roy Moore. Republicans love them both.
Tweet, tweet:
—@JasonIsbell: If you’re wearing a mask in public and somebody tells you you don’t have to do that anymore, just say, “I don’t want to be recognized from the Star Wars movies.”
—@ALevine014: @floridastatehas 3 good candidates. But let’s be clear, the letter sent by SACSCOC amounts to a tortuous intrusion into a Presidential search. @FLBOGis the governing body, we have standards, and those standards were being followed. Accreditation bodies have no role in participating or opining on ongoing searches. You CANNOT ACCREDIT that which you participate in. This is not over. I will be inquiring as to what steps we should be taking to ensure the independence of our presidential searches as governed by Florida’s constitution.
—@VoiceofFLBiz: This announcement from Kool Beanz Cafe in Tallahassee is upsetting. Florida businesses need employees in order to keep their doors open. We need workers committed to rebuilding our economy rather than committed to sitting on the couch collecting unemployment.
Days until
‘A Quiet Place Part II’ rescheduled premiere — 11; ‘Tax Freedom Holiday’ begins — 11; Memorial Day — 14; Florida TaxWatch Spring Meeting and PLA Awards — 17; ‘Loki’ premieres on Disney+ — 25; Father’s Day — 34; F9 premieres in the U.S. — 39; ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ rescheduled premiere — 46; 4th of July — 48; ‘Black Widow’ rescheduled premiere — 53; MLB All-Star Game — 57; new start date for 2021 Olympics — 67; second season of ‘Ted Lasso’ premieres on Apple+ — 67; The NBA Draft — 73; ‘Jungle Cruise’ premieres — 75; ‘The Suicide Squad’ premieres — 81; St. Petersburg Primary Election — 99; Disney’s ‘Shang Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings’ premieres — 109; NFL regular season begins — 115; Broadway’s full-capacity reopening — 120; ‘The Many Saints of Newark’ premieres (rescheduled) — 130; ‘Dune’ premieres — 137; MLB regular season ends — 139; ‘No Time to Die’ premieres (rescheduled) — 145; World Series Game 1 — 162; Florida’s 20th Congressional District primary — 169; St. Petersburg Municipal Elections — 169; Disney’s ‘Eternals’ premieres — 172; San Diego Comic-Con begins — 193; Steven Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’ premieres — 207; ‘Spider-Man Far From Home’ sequel premieres — 214; NFL season ends — 237; Florida’s 20th Congressional District election — 239; NFL playoffs begin — 243; Super Bowl LVI — 272; ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ premieres — 312; ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ premieres — 354; “Black Panther 2” premieres — 417; ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ sequel premieres — 508; “Captain Marvel 2” premieres — 543.
Top story
“Joel Greenberg to plead guilty to 6 counts, cooperate with federal investigators in plea agreement” via Monivette Cordeiro, Jeff Weiner, Jason Garcia, Martin E. Comas and Annie Martin of the Orlando Sentinel — Days before he was first arrested for stalking a political rival, Greenberg was in the midst of preparing a fraudulent application for a COVID-19 relief loan, with the help of a government employee he’d later bribe. If there was any doubt of his untoward intentions for the aid funds, Greenberg erased it with a text message. “How quickly can I blow it all on p-ssy?” he asked. Greenberg will plead guilty to six federal crimes — including sex trafficking of a child — in a deal that calls for him to cooperate with federal investigators in the “investigation and prosecution of other persons,” according to an agreement released Friday. The 86-page document laid bare the remarkable brazenness of Greenberg’s behavior.
Joel Greenberg is taking a plea deal, and it doesn’t look good for Matt Gaetz. Image via Reuters.
“Matt Gaetz snorted cocaine with escort who had ‘no show’ gov’t job” via Jose Pagliery and Roger Solenberger of The Daily Beast — When Gaetz attended a 2019 GOP fundraiser in Orlando, his date that night was someone he knew well: a paid escort and amateur Instagram model who led a cocaine-fueled party after the event, according to two witnesses. According to a source familiar with the investigation, the Florida congressman’s one-time wingman, Greenberg, will identify that escort to investigators as one of more than 15 young women Gaetz paid for son. But what distinguishes this woman, Megan Zalonka, is that she turned her relationship with Greenberg into a taxpayer-funded no-show job that earned her an estimated $7,000 to $17,500, according to three sources and corresponding government records obtained by The Daily Beast.
“Gaetz equates sex trafficking investigation with earmarks in Ohio speech” via Henry J. Gomez of NBC News — Gaetz told a crowd of Republican activists Saturday that sexual misconduct allegations involving him are as benign as legislative earmarks. “I’m being falsely accused of exchanging money for naughty favors,” Gaetz said at the Ohio Political Summit, a gathering sponsored by the Strongsville GOP in suburban Cleveland. “Yet, Congress has reinstituted a process that legalizes the corrupt act of exchanging money for favors, through earmarks, and everybody knows that that’s the corruption.” Gaetz’s keynote speech came a day after Joel Greenberg, a former Florida tax official and associate of the congressman, pleaded guilty to six charges and is cooperating in a federal sex trafficking investigation.
Special Session
“‘Feeding frenzy’: Florida’s big push to remake gambling” via Gary Fineout of POLITICO — DeSantis and the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature could be just days away from approving a multibillion-dollar deal designed to reshape gambling in the tourist mecca. Just don’t expect everyone to be happy about it. If state lawmakers sign off on a sweeping package of gaming bills, it will bring sports betting to the nation’s third-largest state for the first time and expand casino-style games at tribal facilities. Politically, it will be a signature victory for DeSantis, who will accomplish something that former Gov. Rick Scott couldn’t pull off. That victory could be short-lived as opponents are already preparing to drag the state into court over the pending deal, claiming it violates the state’s rule that voters must approve future casino gambling.
With a new Seminole Compact, Ron DeSantis accomplished what his predecessors could not. Image via Jason Delgado.
“Ron DeSantis uses sports betting to craft gambling deal that would bring Florida $2.5 billion” via John Kennedy of USA TODAY — DeSantis has navigated between the neighboring worlds of gambling and sports, attracting millions of campaign dollars from casino titans and turning mega-fan while cheering on the NFL champion Tampa Bay Bucs. This week in Tallahassee the Governor will try to mash those worlds together — pushing state lawmakers to approve a $2.5 billion gambling compact with the Seminole Tribe that brings legal sports betting to Florida for the first time. Still, after more than a year of closed-door negotiating, DeSantis’ accomplishment really is powered by something usually elusive, said a longtime industry lobbyist. “Timing,” said Marc Dunbar. “Sports betting has changed the landscape for gaming across the nation. The Governor’s a really smart guy … and he understood the new gaming chessboard.”
“Special Session on Seminole Compact: How we got here” via Scott Powers of Florida Politics — Blame Lawton Chiles. The Seminole Tribe of Florida and Florida’s Democratic Governor for most of the 1990s fought, in and out of court, over whether the Tribe could have slot machines. Lawton’s answer was no. The U.S. Department of Interior eventually backed him up, because slots simply weren’t legal in Florida. Or blame Jeb Bush. In 2004 Florida’s Republican Governor did not want Florida’s big expansion of legalized gambling to happen on his watch and did all he could to delay implementation. Or blame Charlie Crist and Marco Rubio. Crist and the Tribe reached agreement in 2007 for a new 25-year gambling compact, covering slot machines. Rubio was angry that Crist didn’t run it through the Legislature. So he sued.
“Travis Hutson takes center stage as Legislature mulls gambling overhaul” via A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics — Hutson, a Republican from St. Johns County who chairs the Senate Regulated Industries Committee, will carry nine bills into the Senate Appropriations Committee, including the formal deal, and legislation dealing with a revamped state gaming control commission, bingo and fantasy sports. The ambitious larger framework would hold until 2051, as currently contemplated, putting $500 million a year into the state’s coffers from the tribal accord. Hutson anticipates a protracted process and knows that some lifts will be heavier than others. “The votes are going to be there, but some will vote no,” Hutson said, noting that some senators are opposed to gambling altogether.
“Casino opponents pledge lawsuit if Legislature expands gambling, but how strong is the case?” via Michael Moline of the Florida Phoenix — How likely are the anti-casino gambling forces in Florida to take the state to court if the Legislature approves DeSantis’ proposed gambling compact with the Seminole Tribe? You can bet on it. “We’re interviewing lawyers right now,” John Sowinski, president of No Casinos, told the Phoenix in an interview.
“Dog racing’s gone in Florida. Horse racing and jai alai next? Why they may be next to go” via Jeffrey Schweers of USA TODAY — One hundred years after it was first legalized in Florida, could horse racing be going the way of greyhound racing: Out of business? A bill filed for the Special Session would allow Florida pari-mutuels — with the exception of thoroughbred racing — to “decouple” live racing and jai alai matches from their casino operations. That means jai alai frontons and race tracks that have card rooms and slot machines, nicknamed “racinos,” wouldn’t have to run expensive live events that cost more than they earn, relying on the casino profits to subsidize them. Tracks that just want to operate more lucrative card rooms, for instance, could abandon racing.
“Which Broward city stands to gain the most from Florida’s new gambling deal?” via Skyler Swisher of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — The Seminole Tribe’s Hollywood reservation land is home to two casinos, including the Seminole Hard Rock Casino, and a towering guitar-shaped hotel. Up to three more casinos could be built on the Hollywood reservation under the gambling agreement signed by the Tribe and DeSantis. Hollywood would see its share of the revenue fall from 55% to 35%. Davie would see its share increase from 10% to 30%. Davie Rep. Mike Gottlieb said the increased share is justified because the city responds to many of the emergency calls for traffic wrecks and other incidents related to the casinos. But changing the funding balance could set off fighting among competing interests, said Dania Beach Rep. Evan Jenne.
Evan Jenne warns the Seminole Compact could set off various economic battles.
“Hollywood in ‘emergency mode’ over new gaming deal that could cost the town millions” via Susannah Bryan of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Mayor Josh Levy was one of several Hollywood officials shocked to learn Davie would get a dramatically bigger cut at Hollywood’s expense from the state-revenue sharing deal with the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino. “We’re now in emergency mode,” Levy said. “This was a surprise. And a very disproportionate one at that.” Under the current proposal, the state would collect at least $2.5 billion in the first five years alone, with about $75 million going to cities and counties affected by tribal casinos. Hollywood would see its share of the money drop from 55% to 35%, and Davie would see its share increase from 10% to 30%. Those new percentages have plenty of people in Hollywood scratching their heads.
Special Session sked:
House Minority Co-leader Jenne will host a pre-Special Session media availability, 10 a.m. Zoom link here.
The House and Senate start the Special Session to consider a series of gaming issues and ratify the proposed Seminole Compact, 1 p.m., House and Senate Chambers.
The House Select Subcommittee on Authorized Gaming Activity meets, 3:30 p.m., Morris Hall, House Office Building.
The House Select Subcommittee on Gaming Regulation meets, 3:30 p.m., Room 404, House Office Building.
The House Select Subcommittee on the Seminole Gaming Compact meets, 3:30 p.m., Reed Hall, House Office Building.
The Senate Special Order Calendar Group meets to list bills to be heard on the Senate floor, 15 minutes after the Appropriations Committee, Room 412, Knott Building.
Dateline Tally
“Motorola urges DeSantis to veto LERS contract” via Drew Wilson of Florida Politics — Motorola Solutions sent a letter to DeSantis on Thursday asking him to veto a budget item that grants Harris Corp. a contract to upgrade and maintain the state’s police radio network. The 2021-22 budget passed by lawmakers includes $165 million in nonrecurring funding to upgrade the Statewide Law Enforcement Radio System and awards the company a 15-year contract at $31.5 million a year — $19 million to oversee the system and $12.5 million to lease radio towers controlled by the company.
“Jason Fischer’s cybersecurity work will factor into his Senate run” via Haley Brown of Florida Politics — In a world where everyone wants their technology to work, but no one wants to know how it works, Jacksonville Rep. Fischer has embarked on the sometimes thankless job of stepping up the state’s tech infrastructure. Fischer is chairman of the House Government Operations Subcommittee, which is where a bill to update the state’s cybersecurity infrastructure originated during Session. But it turns out understanding technology is not the only thing you need to get a tech bill passed in the Florida Legislature, where members don’t always want to dive into the minutiae of technology best practices. “I usually try to start out with the personal side of things and say, ‘has anyone ever hacked your Facebook?’” Fischer explained.
Jason Fischer steps up his tech game for a Senate bid. Image via Colin Hackley.
“Anika Omphroy fails to disclose how she spent $47,994 in campaign cash. Prosecutor looking at whether she violated election law.” via Anthony Man of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Rep. Omphroy, a two-term Broward Democrat, is under investigation for violating Florida election law. The existence of the investigation was disclosed in an executive order signed by DeSantis, in which he appointed Miami-Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernández Rundle to handle the case. The order, signed Wednesday by DeSantis, states “that allegations have been made against Anika Tene Omphroy for violation of the Florida Election Code” but doesn’t give any more information about what the case is about. Omphroy said Friday she didn’t know what it was about. “I have no idea what it is,” she said in a telephone interview, adding that she planned to file a public records request to try to find out.
“Despite a prison system ‘in crisis,’ Florida again fails to pass major criminal justice reforms” via The Gainesville Sun editorial board — Florida’s prison system “is in crisis,” in the words of one Republican state senator, yet lawmakers once again failed to pass reforms that would reduce recidivism and the prison population. The GOP-controlled Legislature considered numerous criminal justice reforms in the recently ended Session, but most weren’t approved. Instead of working on the issue in a bipartisan manner, Republican lawmakers prioritized passing divisive measures such as a blatantly unconstitutional anti-protest bill backed by DeSantis. Lawmakers should prioritize reforms that save taxpayer money while improving public safety by helping former inmates get jobs and reacclimate to society after their release. The Legislature also made limited progress on reforms that help restore trust between police and the public.
Statewide
“Gov. DeSantis appoints three to Citizens Property Insurance Board of Governors” via Jason Delgado of Florida Politics — DeSantis on Friday appointed Jillian Hasner, Erin Knight and Nelson Telemaco to the Citizens Property Insurance Board of Governors. Hasner, of Boca Raton, serves as the President and CEO of Take Stock in Children, a group that helps children from low-income families succeed in school by connecting them with mentors. She is a graduate of Nyack College. Knight, of Coral Gables, is president of Monument Capital Management and a Florida State University graduate. Telemaco of Coral Springs is the CEO of Proximity Works and a University of Pennsylvania graduate. The Florida Legislature created Citizens Property Insurance Corporation in 2002 as a not-for-profit alternative insurer. The corporation exists to provide insurance to property owners who cannot find coverage in the private insurance market.
Assignment editors — Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried joins the UCF Veterans Community History Project for a virtual panel discussion on documenting the experiences of veterans in the state’s agriculture community. The Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services is part of the project to honor and memorialize the state’s veterans in agriculture, 10:30 a.m.Zoom registration here.
“And then there were three: FSU president search committee cuts locals, sticks with academics” via Byron Dobson of the Tallahassee Democrat — The Florida State University Presidential Search Committee whittled its list down to three finalists Saturday afternoon, following a marathon, two-day interview blitz with nine candidates. In the end, the committee stuck to academics with impressive resumes, cutting four quasi-internal candidates, who were either employed by the university or who held deep Tallahassee ties. Candidates selected to move forward next week for on-campus interviews with faculty, staff and students were: Robert Blouin, executive vice chancellor and provost, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill; Richard McCullough, vice president for research, Harvard University; and Giovanni Piedimonte, M.D., vice president for research at Tulane University and professor of pediatrics in the Tulane School of Medicine, Tulane University.
“Ralph Turlington, former Speaker of House, education commissioner, dies at 100” via Mickie Anderson of The Gainesville Sun — Turlington, who used keen political skills to create laws that shaped his home state, died Wednesday in North Carolina at age 100. He wrote and pushed through legislation that changed Florida: the Government in the Sunshine law, the state employees’ pension system, lowering the voting age to 18 and the state’s first corporate income tax. He represented Alachua County for 24 years in the state Legislature and along with state Sen. William Shands and state Rep. Osee Fagan secured a huge prize for their hometown: the initial funding for a medical center at the University of Florida — now the statewide system known as UF Health.
RIP: Ralph Turlington helped shape modern Florida.
“Company challenges Florida on denial to use a chemical to combat citrus greening” via Karl Schneider of the Fort Myers News-Press — A South Carolina-based pesticide manufacturer is appealing a Florida agency’s denial to use a chemical to combat citrus greening. AgLogic Chemical filed May 11 for an administrative hearing with the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services claiming the application to use the pesticide aldicarb was denied in an “erroneous manner.” … “The Department’s denial threatens to deprive the beleaguered Florida citrus industry of an important tool to fight the most devastating pest in its storied history,” the filing says. Fried said in a news release that AgLogic’s application does not meet the requirements of state law and will therefore deny the registration of aldicarb for use in Florida.
2022
“Congressional candidate Barbara Sharief suggests legislator-opponents should quit current jobs now” via Anthony Man of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — The large number of elected officials running to fill the job left vacant by the death of Congressman Alcee Hastings is creating a domino effect of turnover in their jobs, all of which will be filled by appointments or special elections. One result: Some Broward and Palm Beach County voters may go unrepresented for most or all of the 2022 annual state Legislative Session in Tallahassee. In an attempt to avoid that, congressional candidate Sharief said Wednesday that three of her competitors for the nomination to succeed Hastings should consider resigning their current jobs right away.
If you want Alcee Hastings’ seat, Barbara Sharief says you should give up your own seat first.
“Sarasota congressional candidate touting MAGA views once called Donald Trump wretched and his supporters bigots” via Zac Anderson of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune — Sarasota Republican Martin Hyde has steeped himself in all things MAGA as he tries to challenge Republican U.S. Rep. Vern Buchanan from the right. Hyde wears Trump hats and T-shirts, decorated his house with a “Trump Santa” for Christmas and attended Trump’s rally in Washington, D.C., that precipitated the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol. During a “Save America Patriot Rally” in Bradenton last month, Hyde called Trump “a man that came out and stood up for each and every one of you.” Yet while Hyde praises the former President now, five years ago, he had a much different description of Trump, calling him “wretched” and saying he was “horrified” by the “bigotry and bullying” by Trump supporters.
Corona Florida
“Florida adds 2,482 coronavirus cases, 22 deaths Sunday” via Romy Ellenbogen of the Tampa Bay Times — Florida’s weekly case average continued its more than three-week-long decline Sunday, from just under 6,000 cases announced per day to about 3,171 cases announced per day. The Florida Department of Health announced 2,482 coronavirus cases Sunday, bringing the total number of infections found statewide to 2,292,004. Another 22 deaths were recorded. In Florida, 36,798 people have died from the virus. About 67,000 tests were processed Saturday, resulting in a single-day positivity rate of 4.36%. As of Sunday, 9,577,875 people in Florida are vaccinated, an increase of 39,765 from the day prior. Of those vaccinated, more than 7 million are fully immunized.
“CDC says you can ditch your mask. Not so fast, Florida. What do the rules mean for you?” via Howard Cohen of the Miami Herald — So, to all those who waited in lines, worked your computers to get an appointment the way Stevie Wonder works a keyboard and took the single dose Johnson & Johnson or the two-dose Pfizer or Moderna and waited two weeks afterward to be considered fully vaccinated: Toss that mask in the trash and wave your hands in the air like you just don’t care. Right? Not so fast. The new CDC guidelines say that masks are still required when traveling in any public conveyance. You’re flying. You’re masking. Same for health care settings and visiting inmates at correctional facilities. Fully vaccinated shoppers and workers will no longer have to wear masks inside Publix supermarkets starting Saturday, May 15.
Can vaccinated Americans ditch the mask? Not so fast. Image via AP.
Corona local
“Publix will no longer require facial coverings starting Saturday” via David Harris of the Orlando Sentinel — Starting this past Saturday, Publix shoppers who are fully vaccinated against the COVID-19 virus will no longer be required to wear facial coverings, the Lakeland-based company said on Twitter on Friday night. “In accordance with CDC guidance, face coverings are optional for fully vaccinated individuals inside Publix stores unless required by a state or local order or ordinance beginning May 15,” the company said in the Tweet. In another tweet, Publix said, “Individuals who are not fully vaccinated will be reminded of face-covering requirements through store entrance signage. We expect everyone in our stores to do their part to help limit the spread of COVID-19.”
“Sarasota Mayor unleashed fury over vaccination video that didn’t feature him, employees say” via Timothy Fanning of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune — Hagen Brody was furious. An 18-second video posted on the city of Sarasota’s Facebook page of a vaccination event at the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall did not star the ceremonial Mayor or give him proper credit for organizing the March 29 event. Brody decided there was one person to blame: Jan Thornburg, Sarasota’s senior communications manager, who had filmed the event that weekend. Thornburg instead put Mary Bensel, the performing arts hall executive director, in the spotlight, city employees say. The 39-year-old mayor’s response was sudden, fierce and unspooled over nearly two hours, according to staff members. His actions so jarred city employees that three of them filed written statements with the Human Resources department recounting the incident.
Corona nation
“Feds won’t issue COVID-19 vaccination mandates, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky says” via Craig Torres and Yueqi Yang of Bloomberg News — “It may very well be that local businesses, local jurisdictions, will work toward vaccine mandates,” CDC Director Walensky said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “That is going to be locally driven and not federally driven,” Walensky spoke in four Sunday-morning interviews, days after the CDC announced that Americans vaccinated against COVID-19 were clear to shed their face masks at most times. The decision was kept under wraps among a small circle of top White House aides last week as they began making arrangements for the president to address the watershed moment on Thursday. The move has created confusion, though, about who should continue to wear masks and who should be responsible for checking on peoples’ vaccination status.
Rochelle Walensky insists there will be no COVID-19 vaccine mandates.
“Some fear the CDC is moving too fast in lifting COVID-19 mask rules for the vaccinated” via Rong-Gong Lin II of the Los Angeles Times — Some health experts are questioning whether federal officials moved too fast in relaxing mask recommendations that would allow for people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to shed face coverings in most indoor and outdoor settings. And they are suggesting California and local leaders move a bit more cautiously in easing mask mandates. Dr. John Swartzberg, a clinical professor emeritus of the UC Berkeley School of Public Health’s infectious diseases division, said, “There is good science to support changing our policy. On the other hand, I’m surprised they came out with it this soon. I would’ve liked to have had another month under my belt of seeing the numbers continue to come down.”
“‘The right decision wrongly handled’: Inside the Joe Biden administration’s abrupt reversal on masks” via Lena H. Sun, Tyler Pager, Yasmeen Abutaleb and Annie Linskey of The Washington Post — During her opening statement before a Senate health committee Tuesday, CDC director Walensky was adamant that the Biden administration’s masking and social distancing policies remained sound. “While we continue to have community transmission,” she told a bipartisan panel of senators who were respecting the social distancing rules of the moment as their masked staffers looked on, “we must also maintain public health measures we know will prevent the spread of this virus: mask hygiene, hand hygiene, and physical distancing.” Even under hostile questioning from Republican senators, including Sens. Bill Cassidy and Sen. Susan Collins, Walensky ticked off a series of statistics to support the CDC’s current guidance.
“Some aren’t ready to give up masks despite new CDC guidance” via The Associated Press — Many are ready to put aside the sadness, isolation and wariness of the pandemic. Ditching face masks — even ones bedazzled with sequins or sports team logos — is a visible, liberating way to move ahead. Yet others are still worried about new virus variants and the off-chance they might contract the virus and pass it along to others, though the risks of both are greatly reduced for those who are fully vaccinated. The CDC last week said fully vaccinated people — those who are two weeks past their final dose of a COVID-19 vaccine — can quit wearing masks outdoors in crowds and in most indoor settings and give up social distancing. Partially vaccinated or unvaccinated people should continue wearing masks, the agency said.
Not everyone is ready to go maskless. Image via AP.
“U.S. schools should maintain mask requirements, CDC says” via Tony Czuczka of Bloomberg — U.S. schools should maintain mask requirements at least through the end of the academic year, the CDC said in its latest guidance, even after saying fully vaccinated adults can safely shed face coverings in most settings. “Universal and correct use of masks should be required” at K-12 schools providing in-person instruction, the CDC said in a statement Saturday. “Physical distancing should be maximized to the greatest extent possible.” The CDC said it’s recommending that schools apply the existing guidance because students won’t be fully vaccinated by the end of the 2020-2021 school year and youth under age 12 aren’t eligible for shots yet. That will allow schools that reopened to stay open, the agency said.
“They aren’t anti-vaxxers, but some parents are hesitant to have their kids get the COVID-19 vaccine” via Jessica Grose of The New York Times — On May 4, Dr. Hina Talib asked the parents among her 33,000 followers if they were hesitant to get the coronavirus vaccine for their 12- to 15-year-olds, and if so, why. Talib, a physician in the adolescent medicine division at Children’s Hospital at Montefiore in New York, was surprised to get 600 messages filled with questions and concerns. More often than not, Talib said, the parents had already had the COVID-19 vaccine themselves and would preface their message with, “I’m not an anti-vaxxer or an anti-masker. I’m just worried.” According to recently released polls, parents across the country share those concerns, with only about 30% saying they would get their children vaccinated right away.
Corona economics
“Disney World, Universal and SeaWorld all drop outdoor mask rules for guests, effective immediately” via Gabrielle Russon of the Orlando Sentinel — Visitors won’t have to wear face masks outdoors at any of Central Florida’s major theme parks, as Universal Orlando, Disney World and SeaWorld relaxed the COVID-19 rule effective Saturday, sparking a mixed reaction among some fans. Universal Orlando was the first to drop the outdoor mask requirement Friday evening. Guests don’t have to wear a mask outdoors at Universal but are still asked to bring masks with them to wear when they go inside, or standing in line for a ride. At Disney World, masks are still required for indoor spaces, including theaters throughout the attractions, on Disney transportation and at restaurants, except when guests are eating or drinking while stationary. SeaWorld announced its policy change after 11 p.m. Friday.
Disney is dropping its outdoor mask mandates. Image via AP.
More corona
“No one actually knows if you’re vaccinated” via Ian Bogost of The Atlantic — If you have been fortunate enough to receive a COVID-19 vaccine, you also possess an essential, high-tech tool for proving your immunity to others. Just kidding, it’s a piece of cardstock. The cards offer no special marker to prove their authenticity, no scannable code to connect to a digital record. At three by four inches, they’re even too awkwardly sized to fit in a wallet. This setup has made things complicated for businesses, employers, universities, restaurants, concert halls, airlines, and any other institutions that want to verify people’s vaccination status as the country reopens. It’s easy to say that customers, employees, or students need to be vaccinated, but it’s much more difficult to check that someone really is.
How can you tell if someone is vaccinated?
“A vaccine for lots of coronaviruses could be in your future” via David Axe of The Daily Beast — The vaccines that the world’s leading pharmaceutical firms have developed to prevent COVID-19 work really well. Against the novel coronavirus, that is. But SARS-CoV-2 isn’t the only coronavirus out there; there are more pathogens like the one that causes COVID-19. And it may be only a matter of time before some new coronavirus jumps from whatever animal population harbors it to human beings. When it does, it could wreak as much havoc as SARS-CoV-2, if not more. That’s what worries a team of scientists led by Barton Haynes and Kevin Saunders at Duke University. And what motivated them, a year ago, to begin work on a new vaccine that could work against a whole bunch of coronaviruses.
Presidential
“Biden’s America: Democrats see competence, Republicans see chaos” via Matt Viser and Sean Sullivan of The Washington Post — Biden’s administration by the middle of last week was confronted with images of long lines at gas pumps. The Middle East had erupted in violence. Headlines were warning that fears of inflation could threaten a fragile economy. “Don’t panic,” Biden urged on Thursday afternoon. He meant it as a plea to drivers worried about filling their tanks, but it captured his message on the flurry of crises he is suddenly facing. As Biden and his aides seek to project steadiness, many Republicans offer an alternative interpretation: The world is increasingly engulfed in chaos on Biden’s watch as gas prices surge, crime rates rise, border crossings grow, and the costs of consumer goods threaten to spike.
How is Joe Biden doing? Depends on who you ask. Image via AP.
“Biden cancels Trump’s planned ‘Garden of American Heroes’” via Zeke Miller of The Associated Press — Biden on Friday put the kibosh on his predecessor’s planned “National Garden of American Heroes” and revoked Trump’s executive orders aimed at social media companies’ moderation policies and branding American foreign aid. In an executive order of his own, Biden abolished the Trump-formed task force to create the new monument, which the former President proposed last year. It was to have featured sculptures of dozens of American historical figures, including presidents, athletes and pop culture icons, envisioned by Trump as “a vast outdoor park that will feature the statues of the greatest Americans to ever live.” Trump himself curated the list of who was to be included, but no site was selected, and Congress never funded the garden.
Epilogue: Trump
“Forty-dollar chicken, Ferraris and mesh masks: Two months in Trump’s Anthony Fauci-free Palm Beach utopia” via Tara Palmeri of POLITICO — When I told a Breitbart reporter I would be leaving COVID-19-wracked New York and my cramped Brooklyn apartment to spend a month and a half in balmy Florida, he called me a “political refugee in the land of Ron DeSantis.” I didn’t know then how right he was. I wanted to get to a fingertip feel for what had become the new center of the GOP’s political universe — Palm Beach, where top Republicans were migrating to soak up the Florida sunshine, liberate themselves from COVID-19 rules they view as overly restrictive and bask in the glow of Trump, who has set up his post-presidential court at his Mar-a-Lago beach club.
“Republican Arizona election official says Trump ‘unhinged’” via The Associated Press — The Republican who now leads the Arizona county elections department targeted by a GOP audit of the 2020 election results is slamming Trump and others in his party for their continued falsehoods about how the election was run. Maricopa County Recorder Stephen Richer on Saturday called a Trump statement accusing the county of deleting an elections database “unhinged” and called on other Republicans to stop the unfounded accusations. “We can’t indulge these insane lies any longer. As a party. As a state. As a country,” Richer tweeted.
Republicans say those behind the Arizona ‘audit’ are ‘unhinged.’ Image via AP.
Crisis
“House members announce bipartisan deal for Jan. 6 commission” via Karoun Demirjian and Colby Itkowitz of The Washington Post — A group of House Democrats and Republicans announced Friday that they had struck a deal to establish an independent commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The proposed 10-member commission, which emulates the panel that investigated the causes and lessons of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, would be vested with subpoena authority and charged with studying the events — with a focus on why an estimated 10,000 Trump supporters swarmed the Capitol grounds and, more importantly, what factors instigated about 800 of them to break inside. On the heels of the deal, House Democrats announced their proposal for $1.9 billion of supplemental funds to pay for security upgrades for the Capitol and other parts of the federal government.
A bipartisan congressional commission will be looking into the Jan. 6 riot.
“411 suspects in Capitol riot” via Axios — Prosecutors have filed at least one charge against 411 suspects in the Capitol riot and have charged about 75 people with assaulting police, The Washington Post reports. Those charged publicly so far with federal crimes hail from 259 counties spread across 44 states and D.C., according to an analysis by The Washington Post of court filings. About 15 are U.S. military veterans. About 44% of those accused in federal court [181 of 411] … are charged solely with low-level crimes, primarily trespassing or disorderly conduct on restricted grounds, which typically don’t result in a jail or prison sentence for first-time offenders.
“Liz Cheney cautions Jan. 6 riot could happen again” via Hope Yen of The Associated Press — U.S. Rep. Cheney criticized GOP colleagues Sunday for downplaying the Jan. 6 riot and condoning Trump’s lies that the 2020 election was stolen, saying they were “complicit” in undermining democracy. In television interviews, the Wyoming Republican said there was “no question” an attack like Jan. 6 could happen again if Trump’s claims go unchecked. Asked if she believes House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Elise Stefanik, who replaced Cheney in the No. 3 leadership job, are complicit, Cheney responded: “They are.” She also said McCarthy should testify before a bipartisan commission investigating the riot because he has key facts about Trump’s “state of mind,” including whether Trump knew the proceedings were turning violent and did nothing to stop it.
D.C. matters
“Riot revisionism, hallway aggression, squashed alliances: The House nears a Cold War” via Sarah Ferris and Nicholas Wu of POLITICO — Four months after a siege on the Capitol, much of the House is still living like it’s Jan. 7. A sizable faction of the House GOP is downplaying Jan. 6’s violent attack by a pro-Trump mob, with one Republican comparing it to a “normal tourist visit.” Infuriated Democrats say remarks like that — plus this week’s public ousting of the most vocal Trump critic in the GOP — is further proof of the extremism overtaking the Republican Party, leaving little chance of healing the political and psychological wounds caused by the deadly assault on Congress. The rift between the two parties over the insurrection is worse today than it’s been at perhaps any point since early January.
“Americans for Prosperity launches campaign against infrastructure plan, targets Stephanie Murphy” via Kelly Hayes of Florida Politics — Americans for Prosperity, a libertarian advocacy group, has launched a campaign in opposition to Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal. The campaign will focus on 27 lawmakers, including Democratic U.S. Rep. Murphy, to drive opposition to the plan. The group launched the campaign Thursday, describing it as a seven-figure national campaign called “End Washington Waste: Stop the Spending Spree.” The goal of the campaign is to rally Americans against the proposal while offering alternatives, according to the organization. The campaign plans to drive opposition by mobilizing grassroots activists across the country, aggressive outreach to Capitol Hill offices, robust media efforts and more.
AFP is targeting one Florida member of Congress — Stephanie Murphy.
“Insuring more Americans’ health shouldn’t require big government spending” via Sally C. Pipes for The Orlando Sentinel — Biden announced late last month that he plans to permanently expand health-insurance subsidies as part of his $1.8 trillion “American Families Plan.” This new spending would be a waste of taxpayer dollars. The vast majority of uninsured Americans already has access to discounted health plans. But for a variety of reasons, they just haven’t signed up. Sometimes, they don’t even realize they’re eligible. Rather than light more taxpayer money on fire in an attempt to marginally reduce the number of uninsured Americans, it’d be far smarter to work with the private sector to help people sign up for plans that meet their needs and budget.
“MacDill AFB finalist for KC-46A tanker aircraft headquarters” via Jacob Ogles of Florida Politics — MacDill Air Force Base could be home to a new tanker aircraft. According to the Air Force Times, the base was named one of two finalists under consideration for KC-46A jets. If selected, 24 of the new aircraft will replace KC-135 Stratotankers at the base now. The only other active-duty base in competition for the jets is Fairfield Air Force Base in Spokane County, Washington. “Tampa is a ‘tanker town,’ and we intend to keep it that way,” Castor said. “Our neighbors are united in support of the missions and military service members at MacDill. … community leaders will make our case to the Air Force to locate the new tankers in Tampa sooner rather than later.”
Local notes
“Jacksonville will get $343 million in federal pandemic budget relief” via David Bauerlein of The Florida Times-Union — Jacksonville will land $343 million from the latest round of federal pandemic relief, a gusher of money that will help fill budget shortfalls and quickly gained attention from opponents of raising the local gas tax who said the federal cash can pay for work such as septic tank phaseouts. City officials reviewed federal guidelines issued this week by the U.S. Department of Treasury for how they can use the money. Opponents of raising the gas tax said the federal relief, which is part of a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 package signed by Biden in March, provides enough money for the city to avoid raising the gas tax.
“Former Broward Sheriff Scott Israel gets job reviewing red light camera footage” via The Associated Press — Israel, who was removed from office by the Governor because of his agency’s response to the Parkland school shooting that left 17 people dead, has found a new job reviewing the footage of red-light cameras. Israel was hired this month by the Davie Police Department as a traffic infraction enforcement officer, the Sun-Sentinel reported. He’ll make $65,000 a year, the same as his retiring predecessor, Davie Police Chief Stephen Kinsey said. The full-time job involves Israel reviewing the city’s five red light cameras and appearing in court if anyone challenges a ticket. The job was posted for two days in early May. Three people applied, and only Israel was interviewed.
Scott Israel takes a job checking red-light camera footage.
“Staff shortages now forcing some South Florida restaurants to go dark, limit hours” via Phillip Valys of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — After months of trying in vain to fill jobs — even enticing new hires with $400 bonuses — some South Florida restaurants have turned off the lights or limited hours to give servers, line cooks and managers time off to recharge. Tucker Duke’s Boca Raton location is now closed on Mondays. So is Plant-Based Mafia, a restaurant that opened in April in Palm Beach Gardens. It posted on its Facebook page: “Our employees are working double shifts all week and need a day to recoup.” While some restaurant owners think collecting benefits at home may explain the employee drought, state unemployment claims are actually plummeting. Hospitality workers in South Florida made 6,861 claims in January, 1,628 in February and 921 in March.
“When the JEA grand jury news goes dark” via Nate Monroe of The Florida Times-Union — Federal prosecutors investigating the JEA privatization controversy may want to hear in the coming weeks from a lengthy list of potential grand jury witnesses who have lower or nonexistent profiles in Jacksonville politics and government, in contrast to many of the recognizable former and current city officials already summoned to the courthouse the past several weeks. Investment bankers, consultants, attorneys at New York law firms — dozens were wrapped into the drawn-out campaign to put JEA up for sale by the utility’s former CEO, Aaron Zahn, who aren’t part of the routine City Hall cast of characters.
“Former Sebastian City Council members Damien Gilliams, Pamela Parris finally will stand trial next week” via Janet Begley of the TCPalm — More than a year after an apparently illegal City Council meeting triggered a political and legal firestorm, two former council members are about to stand trial. As many as 21 witnesses will testify in the trial of Gilliams and Parris, who are charged with Sunshine Law violations and perjury. The trial, which could take several weeks, begins at 9 a.m. with jury selection, after several postponements. The charges against them date back to April 22, 2020, when City Manager Paul Carlisle canceled a City Council meeting and Gilliams, former Vice Mayor Charles Mauti and Parris held their own meeting. All three were removed from office in September by a recall election.
Pamela Parris, Damien Gilliams arrested on crimes stemming from a ‘secret meeting.’ Image via WPTV.
“A Hallandale cop taunted a city commissioner about getting a kiss. Now he’s getting written up.” via Susannah Bryan of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — A veteran police sergeant acted inappropriately when he asked Commissioner Michele Lazarow about giving him a kiss at the polls during early voting last November, an internal investigation has found. Sgt. Pietro “Pete” Roccisano, who was campaigning for one of Lazarow’s opponents, told Internal Affairs he made the comment in jest while off-duty. Lazarow wasn’t laughing. Within hours of the incident, Lazarow emailed the city manager and Police Chief Sonia Quinones demanding an investigation. Because the Internal Affairs case was sustained, it will go on Roccisano’s record. Roccisano joined the department in January 2008. “This is the first blemish on his record,” said Teri Gutman Valdes, a union attorney who represented Roccisano during the Internal Affairs investigation.
“Orlando Sentinel staffers, supporters rally against Alden Capital’s bid to buy Tribune papers” via Stephen Hudak of the Orlando Sentinel — Orlando Sentinel staffers and community supporters staged a rally Saturday at Lake Eola Park to oppose a hedge fund’s impending acquisition of Tribune Publishing, the newspaper company whose properties include the Chicago Tribune and the Orlando paper. “Everyone in this community benefits by having a strong local newspaper,” said Sentinel columnist Scott Maxwell, who cited the Sentinel’s difference-making coverage of corporate tax exemptions, voucher school scandals and the Greenberg-Gaetz mess. Tribune’s board of directors are set to vote Friday on Alden Global Capital’s $631 million offer for the newspaper giant. Alden’s $17.25-a-share bid has worried many inside and outside of Tribune newsrooms because the hedge fund has a track record of shrinking newsrooms of the papers it buys.
Top opinion
“The new mask policy is a moment to savor. This is the beginning of the end.” via The Washington Post editorial board — We can all agree that face masks have been hard to bear, uncomfortable, politicized, smile-defeating, and a powerful symbol of pandemic life and its discontents. So it was joyful to hear the CDC announce on Thursday that fully vaccinated people do not have to wear them, either inside or outside. It feels like an inflection point. Despite clouds over the horizon, this is a moment to savor. For now, at least, the COVID-19 epidemic is ebbing. We’ve said plenty about the foibles and failures of political leaders, including a president who mused about injecting disinfectant, but let’s take a moment to express profound thanks for the remarkable work of scientists who confronted the gravest disease threat in a century and forged an effective response.
Opinions
“Trump killed the old GOP — and he’s getting away with the murder” via Colbert I. King for The Washington Post — So how was it RichardNixon had to skip town, while Trump was allowed to stick around and gleefully watch the Jan. 6 bloody function at the junction of the U.S. Capitol? Trump was on hand for the great insurrection because he had — still has — what Nixon lacked: the backing of a Republican Party controlled by weak-kneed leaders whose notion of duty is limited to what they perceive Trump expects of them. Thus enter Cheney, who believed that the truth about Trump’s presidential defeat should trump his lies, and that integrity deserves a place in her party. Proving her wrong on both counts, the Republican Party showed her the door this week.
“The CDC’s new mask rules just follow the science” via Faye Flam of Bloomberg Opinion — The vaccinated can now go maskless. (Mostly.) Some people are looking with horror at this new recommendation from the CDC, while others react with relief. Some of the fearful reactions might be driven by people getting stuck on earlier reports that the clinical trials didn’t do enough to test whether the vaccines cut down on transmission. But a lot has changed since then. The bottom line: the evidence that vaccines protect others is stronger and more direct than the evidence that masks do. So if you want to protect others, getting vaccinated is more likely to help than wearing a mask — and of course, people are still welcome to do both.
“For economic rebound, vaccinate minority communities” via Jaclyn Karasik of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Florida is a national embarrassment in equitable vaccinations. Nationwide, the state has the 4th most unequal vaccine distribution for Black people. More than half of states have been more equitable than Florida in reaching Hispanic communities. We are leaving behind critical members of our neighborhoods. The state can combat these deep-seated issues with a three-pronged strategy: Make vaccines convenient, engage community leaders and transparently communicate data. Failure to reach Black and Hispanic communities with vaccines could mean continued communitywide outbreaks of COVID-19 and a sluggish economic recovery. We have the tools and strategies to get more vaccines out there, and now we must act quickly — lives and livelihoods depend on it.
“Floridians thought they controlled gambling. Turns out, that was a sucker bet” via the Miami Herald editorial board — It looks like Miami Beach probably has gotten a temporary reprieve from having a casino at the Fontainebleau Resort jammed down the throats of residents by the Legislature. That’s great news. But the Special Session on gambling that starts Monday still is likely to produce a big expansion of gambling in Florida. And it opens the door to even more. That’s some seriously bad news. The deal would all but certainly end up in court on the grounds that it violates a 2018 amendment to the Florida Constitution giving voters control over gambling expansion. And it sets up the possibility for even more online gambling in the state within 36 months from now.
“In final insult, DeSantis, Florida GOP spend our tax dollars to defend taking away our rights” via the Miami Herald editorial board — DeSantis and Republican lawmakers are taking a victory lap around Florida touting their success in pushing through their agenda during the 2021 Legislative Session. What they consider priorities are not only bad for Floridians but they could be deemed unconstitutional if the several groups suing the state win in court. It’s not lost on us that taxpayers will foot the bill for defending these new laws against the legal challenges. But Republicans are emboldened after securing several conservative appointees to federal benches under Trump and to the Florida Supreme Court under DeSantis. Lawsuits can go on for years and cost millions. From 2011 to 2017, the state spent $19 million to cover lawyers who sued the state.
“DeSantis has made a mess of voting in Florida. Here’s how I would fix it” via Charlie Crist for the Tampa Bay Times — If I am elected as Florida’s next Governor, here are five steps I would immediately take to make it easier to vote: First, I would reverse the DeSantis limits on mail ballots. Second, I want Florida to join about 20 other states and automatically register to vote for anyone who seeks a driver’s license or conducts business with the Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles. Third, I would push the Legislature to move the Florida primary from August to the spring. Fourth, I would make Election Day a state holiday, so every voter has a better opportunity to cast their ballots. Fifth, I would make it easier for the Governor and Cabinet to restore felons’ rights — just as I did before.
“Nikki Fried’s bid for Governor is blind ambition” via Mac Stipanovich for Florida Politics — I do not understand why Nikki has embarked on the course she is on, and I am puzzled by the manner in which she is going about it. She is young, telegenic, and energetic. It takes zero imagination to see her as the Democratic front-runner four years from now in a 2026 nonincumbent Governor’s race, when she would be just 47 years old with six-plus years of experience under her belt and the positive name ID and grassroots organization that comes from hard work over time, provided, that is, she could win reelection as Ag Commissioner in 2022. And therein may lie the problem as Nikki sees it.
On today’s Sunrise
It’s Day One of the Special Session on gambling. The fun starts at 1 p.m.
Also, on today’s Sunrise:
— Now that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says you don’t need to wear a mask if you’ve been vaccinated, Florida businesses are trying to figure out how to keep customers safe. They still have the right to require masks and — under a new Florida law — they cannot ask you for proof of vaccination.
— Former Seminole County Tax Collector Greenberg has a date in federal court. He’s agreed to a plea bargain in a federal investigation of sex trafficking and testify against others. Gaetz is not mentioned by name in the plea deal.
— Carlie Brucia‘s killer will get another chance to overturn his death sentence. The state’s highest court has ordered new hearings for Joseph Smith and four other death row inmates.
— Florida added 10 new names to the state’s Law Enforcement Hall of Fame.
— And finally, a Florida Man used to be a sheriff; now he reviews video of red-light runners.
“‘How did he get up there?’ Florida man makes like Spider-Man atop South Beach light pole” via Howard Cohen of the Miami Herald — South Beach seldom fails to deliver the wacky. On Friday at about 5:25 p.m., Miami Beach police say Todd Fitzroy Boothe clambered atop a traffic light pole at the corner of 10th Street and Collins Avenue in the city’s bustling entertainment district. There, Boothe, 29, inched along the pole on his butt, lanky limbs under his 5-foot, 11-inches frame, dangling astride the pole for balance. That’s when crowds, armed with cellphones — naturally — started taking and posting a video onto Twitter and Instagram, et al. You can hear the hoots and hollers below from the sidewalks and street But that’s only one reason Boothe, of Miramar, was arrested and charged with disorderly conduct and breach of the peace, according to court records.
Tweet, tweet:
Happy birthday
Celebrating today are Deputy Chief Financial Officer Julie Jones, former lobbyist Karen Skyers and Jeff Wright. Belated best wishes to Sen. Tom Wright, Matthew Ubben, and Rick Watson.
___
Sunburn is authored and assembled by Peter Schorsch, Phil Ammann, Renzo Downey and Drew Wilson.
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Good morning. 100 years ago this month, a white mob leveled Tulsa’s Greenwood District in an incident described as the single worst episode of racial violence in US history. It’s not really well known—some Americans only became aware of the event after watching HBO’s Watchmen series last year.
Greenwood, home to a thriving ecosystem of Black-owned businesses, was known as “Black Wall Street.” So to commemorate the anniversary of the massacre, we’re spending this week talking about Black Wall Street; not only the one in Oklahoma 100 years ago, but the one today. In a series of articles, we’ll explore how the relationship between Black Americans and finance is being reshaped in 2021 thanks to fintech, crypto, and the post-George Floyd reckoning.
Catch the first piece in the series after the news.
Markets: If tech companies starred in 2020, energy companies are the big market winners of 2021 (so far). Shares in oil and gas companies are up 40% this year compared to the S&P’s 11% gain.
Crypto: Bitcoin is in a slump and Elon Musk is making things worse for the cryptocurrency. He implied on Twitter yesterday that maybe Tesla will sell off (or has already sold) its entire bitcoin holdings, but honestly you never know whether the guy’s being a troll or not. Either way, the price of bitcoin hit its lowest point since February.
AT&T is preparing to spin off its entertainment business, WarnerMedia, and merge it with competitor Discovery, Bloomberg reported yesterday.
What’s included?
WarnerMedia is home to storied brands including CNN, Cartoon Network, Warner Bros. film studios, and HBO, plus streaming service HBO Max, which celebrates its first birthday next week.
Discovery Inc., in addition to its namesake TV channel, offers a variety of lifestyle and reality brands: Animal Planet, Oprah Winfrey Network, Food Network, TLC, and HGTV…brands you can also catch on its three-month-old streaming platform, Discovery+.
If the deal pans out—and it could be announced as soon as today—that’s a pretty compelling content catalogue to stand up against streaming heavyweights Netflix and Disney+, which boast 200+ million and 100+ million subscribers, respectively. Combined, WarnerMedia and Discovery would be worth $150 billion, the Financial Times estimates.
It’s a U-turn for AT&T
WarnerMedia was created just three years ago through AT&T’s $85 billion acquisition of Time Warner. The deal was overshadowed by a multiyear fight with the Department of Justice, which sued to block the acquisition on antitrust grounds, but lost.
So why’s AT&T changing course now?
CEO John Stankey, who assumed the top job last summer, has been offloading some of AT&T’s less profitable divisions. The company is paying down hefty debt loads from recent acquisitions and, in an attempt to catch up to leading wireless providers Verizon and T-Mobile, making expensive investments in 5G and fiber optics.
While AT&T has funneled resources into production for HBO Max, it’s gotten rid of some other media assets.
In December, AT&T sold anime streamer Crunchyroll to Sony.
In February, it reached a deal with TPG to spin off DirecTV operations.
Big picture: Owning distribution and content is tough, and a WarnerMedia-Discovery merger “would underscore the difficulty telecom companies like AT&T and Verizon…have had finding a payoff from their media operations,” Bloomberg writes. Verizon recently sold its media assets to Apollo Global Management for $5 billion.
Congrats on completing the most confusing tax return of your life. Ready to talk about the potential changes for next year?
Something’s going up
For businesses…to pay for his ~$2 trillion infrastructure plan, President Biden proposed raising the corporate tax rate to 28%, though he recently said he’s open to negotiating down to 25%.
For households…if you can’t watch Succession because it hits too close to home, get ready to pay more. Biden proposed raising income taxes on individuals earning $400k/year to 39.6% and hitting capital gains at the same rate for individuals earning $1+ million/year. He’s also proposed closing a “trust fund loophole” on large inheritances.
Even if those measures pass, collecting taxes is another issue. The White House has also proposed sending $80 billion to the IRS to fund audits and recoup the estimated $1 trillion in taxes that doesn’t get collected annually.
Zoom out: Democrats have a decent chance of pushing through some proposals, including raising taxes on corporations and income taxes on the wealthy. But capital gains and estate tax hikes could prove harder, Politico writes.
As many of you took the first steps into a new, maskless era in the US this weekend, other parts of the world made big Covid-related moves.
Europe: Starting today, people in England will be able to see what the inside of a pub looks like for the first time in months thanks to an easing of restrictions. And countries including Greece and Portugal are gradually opening their borders for the all-important summer tourist season. But at least in England, officials are worried about the growing prevalence of the highly transmissible B16172 variant first found in India.
Southeast Asia: Despite early successes at taming the coronavirus, Singapore and Taiwan are clamping down aggressively to combat new outbreaks. Singapore is sending most kids back to Zoom school this week, and Taiwan is limiting indoor social gatherings to five people.
North America: The one-week average of new cases in the US hit its lowest level since June. Meanwhile, the Canadian government has started to discuss reopening the border with the US, which has been closed since March 2020.
Sure, you take recycling seriously (maybe a little too seriously), and you could write a how-to guide on composting, but there’s more than one way to make a positive impact on the world—including sustainable investing.
With E*TRADE, , while still having the potential to achieve competitive returns.
E*TRADE makes it easy for you to integrate sustainable investing into parts (or all) of your portfolio. Whether you prefer to invest using Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) factors, or would rather have a portfolio built and managed for you, E*TRADE makes it easy to .
So while it’s cool that you can make reusable grocery bags out of old t-shirts, you can do more by investing in sustainable industries like clean water and clean energy with E*TRADE.
Stat: 63% of people who bought a home in the US last year made an offer without seeing the property, according to a survey by Redfin. That’s the highest level in the survey’s history dating to 2015.
Quote: “The world will know less about what is happening in Gaza because of what transpired today.”
Gary Pruitt, the president and CEO of the Associated Press, commented on an Israeli airstrike in Gaza on Saturday that flattened the office building that was home to the AP’s bureau and other news organizations.
Read: Why are non-alcoholic spirits so expensive? (InsideHook)
Yes, that’s ABBA. You’ll see why we chose that pic in just a second…
Economic data: Is this wild housing market starting to cool down? We’ll find out from a few reports this week, including housing starts on Tuesday and existing home sales on Friday.
Earnings: Retail companies, it’s your time to shine. Target, Walmart, Macy’s, Home Depot, and Lowe’s all report earnings this week. Expect to hear about the effects of the $1,400 stimulus checks and updates on mask guidance.
Everything else:
The Eurovision Song Competition begins on Tuesday.
Ford reveals its all-electric F-150, called Lightning, on Wednesday.
In sports, the PGA Championship starts on Thursday and the NBA playoffs tip off on Saturday. Sixers all the wayyyyyyyyyy.
We all know the story: Without much else to do in 2020, bored Americans turned to stock trading to fill the time. They were so enthusiastic, or bored, or both, that last year individual traders accounted for a larger share of market activity than at any time during the past 10 years.
Here’s the lesser-known story: That surge in individual trading was led by more Black investors getting into the stock market.
In Part 1 of our series on Black Wall Street, 100 Years Later, we explore how the “Robinhood effect” of democratizing investing reached a population that had been historically excluded from the stock market.
+ In addition to articles, we put together a TikTok series explaining what made Tulsa’s Greenwood district so important to the history of Black business in the US. Check out the first video here.
WHAT ELSE IS BREWING
Microsoft’s board, prior to Bill Gates’s resignation in March 2020, wanted the cofounder to step down due to an affair he had with a Microsoft engineer, according to the WSJ.
University of California schools will completely scrap SAT and ACT scores from their admissions and scholarship decisions.
Starbucks and Publix joined the list of companies that have dropped in-store mask requirements for fully vaccinated customers.
George Soros’s investment firm bought up shares in companies like Discovery and ViacomCBS that were sold off during the Archegos fiasco.
Daniel Ek, cofounder and CEO of Spotify, said his bid to buy the London-based Arsenal soccer team was rejected.
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BREW’S BETS
Data is beautiful: Indeed it is. You can find some awesome charts on the subreddit r/dataisbeautiful including 1) the relationship between political party and county size 2) a striking dogecoin stat and 3) time-lapse charts of global energy production by source.
Practical marketing tips: In our brand-new Workshop series, Marketing Brew is bringing in experts to help you effectively market on different platforms. First up? Pinterest. Sign up here for Wednesday’s event.
The Palisades Fire grew over the weekend to consume over 1,325 acres in western Lost Angeles County by Sunday afternoon, with zero containment as of 1:30 p.m. PT. In the dense chaparral between Malibu and Santa Monica, a mandatory evacuation has affected some 1,000 people in 500 homes, many of which were multimillion-dollar complexes.
…
The Los Angeles Fire Department anticipates that conditions will worsen into Sunday night, as “the vegetation in this area is very dry and has not burned in 50-plus years.” The cause is still under investigation, though the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department announced Saturday that a team was in the “Topanga area in search of arson suspect setting fires.”
…
Though the fire remains relatively small, the blaze is one of several to burn this month in a state reeling from its worst-ever fire season. And while the fire season is traditionally considered to begin in June, researchers at UC Irvine found in a study last month that the “start of the wildfire season has also advanced to May.”
How is Taiwan responding to a surge in Covid-19 cases?
The government reported a record 206 new local cases Sunday. This came after 180 new cases on Saturday, prompting authorities to put the capital Taipei and the…
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Why is cryptocurrency’s mining energy footprint being scrutinized?
Tesla won’t allow people to buy its cars using Bitcoin, CEO Elon Musk said this week, citing the cryptocurrency’s high fossil fuel use. The announcement is a 180-d…
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“No – This is a purely politically motivated effort and is a waste of taxpayer money. After 80 lawsuits and dozens more audits later we’ve found minimal or non-existent fraud across several states yet some Republicans cling to the belief that this election was stolen. Until they find a result that aligns with their beliefs no audit outcome will be good enough.”
“Yes – I’m not expecting this audit to uncover significant fraud…”
“Yes – This election saw a number of firsts – biggest turnout in Maricopa County history, most mail-in ballo…”
“Look, I’ve been a Republican far longer than Donald Trump has, and I’m not going to let him come in and hijack my party and turn it into something that great people like Ronald Reagan and George W. and George H.W. Bush and all the great leaders back didn’t want it to be. I’m not going to let Donald Trump win at that. That’s what the fight is about. I believe in what we used to believe in with 21st-century solutions, though.”
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) – Speaking to NBC’s Chuck Todd – May 16, 2021
A CNN contributor based in Pakistan tweeted in response to the ongoing troubles in Israel, “the world today needs a Hitler.” After learning of the message, CNN cut ties with Adeel Raja, saying, “In light of these abhorrent statements, he will not be working with CNN again in any capacity.” Yet this was not a one-off incident for Raja. As far back as 2014, he wrote, “The only reason I am supporting Germany in the finals – Hitler was a German and he did good with those Jews!”
Something political to ponder as you enjoy your morning coffee.
To speak out against a radical Marxist agenda in America’s institutions is now deemed grounds for demotion. Space Force Lt. Col. Matthew Lohmeier was removed from his command after appearing on a podcast in which he said the 1619 Project teaches that “at the time the country ratified the United States Constitution, it codified White supremacy as the law of the land… If you want to disagree with that, then you start (being) labeled all manner of things including racist.” Apparently, the idea of a racist America is now the prevalent military ethos.
Last Thursday’s UK elections will have lasting implications for the politics and constitutional structure of Britain. Despite 11 years of power in Downing Street, the Conservative Party managed to once again defy the odds and emerge stronger across Britain.
The need for consensus can lead to inefficient policy outcomes, the persistence of destructive status quos, and, in some cases, the violation of minority rights.
A recent poll showed Eric Adams in first place with 19 percent, Andrew Yang with 16 percent, and other candidates with single digit support. 20 percent remain undecided. Change Research
From the Right
The right supports Eric Adams, arguing that he will implement pro-police reforms to reduce crime.
“More than 400 people have been shot in the city since January, an 83.3% increase from 2020 and a 93.5% increase from 2019. Just a couple of weeks ago, the New York Police Department reported that shootings had tripled…
“Luckily, New York City’s mayoral candidates seem to understand that the NYPD isn’t the problem liberals have made it out to be. Former police captain Eric Adams has been a staunch defender of New York’s police officers. And former presidential candidate Andrew Yang, who is one of several candidates running to replace de Blasio, rightly came out against the ‘Defund the Police’ movement…
“But New York officers need more than just vocal support. They also need to be allowed to do their jobs efficiently if the city’s crime rates are to come back down. That might mean reintroducing some of the aggressive policing policies implemented under former Mayor Rudy Giuliani’s administration, during which crime dropped dramatically.” Kaylee McGhee White, Washington Examiner
“New York’s reversal of fortune is no accident. Mayor Bill de Blasio cites the Covid-19 pandemic, lost jobs, and closed schools as excuses for the dramatic rise in violent crime during his last two years in office. He conveniently overlooks four culprits tied closely to his ideological priorities: catch-and-release bail reform; the abandoning of Broken Windows policing; the elimination of plainclothes anti-crime units that spent their nights hunting illegal gun carriers; and the movement to ‘defund’ the police…
“Proactive police officers have no incentive to respond to non-emergency crimes when the mayor has told them to stand down, when they know that the perp will be swiftly released anyway, and when they worry that their faces could be the next ones plastered on screens across the country if an arrest goes wrong.” Craig Trainor, City Journal
“Asked about skyrocketing shootings… gun buybacks don’t work to get rid of the illegal guns we need to eliminate, [Adams] said. He rightly pointed out that 95 percent of the victims of gun violence are black and Hispanic. Prevention is fine, he said, ‘but we need intervention now.’ People are dying now. And Adams is the only Democrat talking about how to stop it. But if we’re heartened by our choice, we’re even more worried about the alternatives. There was a lot of talk about ‘inequities’ and not a lot of specifics on how to actually restore New York City’s economy…
“Apparently, there is nothing that can’t be solved with some more money. Kids should be better educated, but don’t test them. (Adams again stood apart, with Garcia, saying we should keep our selective high school exam.)… Yang was more reasonable, but still dodged almost every question thrown at him… we made the right decision in endorsing Eric Adams.” Editorial Board, New York Post
“During a campaign stop in Times Square [last] Sunday, Yang opined that Gotham ‘can’t afford’ to defund the police… this is probably a smart move on Yang’s part, in addition to just being common sense. He’s running against some very hardcore liberals and socialists who seem to spend more time listening to the talking heads on MSNBC than they do the voters who actually have to live in the crime-ridden streets of New York…
“A recent Ipsos poll showed that ‘defund the police’ is only supported by 18% of Americans. Even among Black respondents, there was just 28% support and those numbers have been reflected in local, New York City polls as well…
“When the BLM movement was calling for defunding (if not abolishing) the police, Bill de Blasio quickly caved and worked with the City Council to steer nearly a billion dollars away from their budget. The results can be seen in the crime statistics which continue to head in the wrong direction. Even while Yang is being trashed on liberal talk shows for this, an undercurrent of support from alarmed residents may continue to push him upward as we approach the June 22nd primary.” Jazz Shaw, Hot Air
From the Left
The left supports progressive policies, and is critical of Andrew Yang and Eric Adams.
“[Kathryn] Garcia’s many years of experience — she first joined the Sanitation Department as a 22-year-old intern — have helped her develop laudable plans for the city that are also achievable: Provide free child care up to age 3 for families earning less than $70,000 a year. Implement bilingual programs in every elementary school…
“Transform Rikers Island into a hub for renewable energy, with charging stations for the city’s electric vehicle fleet. Expand rapid bus lanes. Create more green space in low-income neighborhoods. Address the city’s centuries-old trash problem by getting refuse off the sidewalks and tucked away into nicer-looking, rat-resistant containers…
“She is also committed to reforming the New York Police Department. That begins with speeding up and strengthening the disciplinary process, reforming the promotion process, raising the age for recruits to 25 from 21 and requiring them to live in the five boroughs… Garcia can run a government that delivers for all New Yorkers.” Editorial Board, New York Times
“[Yang is] just a little Trump-like… He has no relevant experience in government, either as a legislator or a civil servant, and has never really run a large organization. The New York Times’ reporting on his stint leading Venture for America was brutal—basically, he raised a ton of money for a project that he promised would produce 100,000 tech jobs, and only yielded 150—and suggests he’s a bit of a showman who exaggerates his accomplishments…
“He [also] seems to have that Trump-like habit of suddenly picking up ideas from whoever he’s talked to last and wants to impress. That’s not always bad—he recently came out in favor of a land tax on vacant lots, which is great!—but makes me doubt how hard he’d fight for any of the good ideas, and worry about which bad ones he’d adopt. Meanwhile, his campaign is basically being run by a lobbying firm staffed by ex-Bloombergites, which further makes me wonder whether you can really trust that he’ll push the more offbeat, progressive plans that make him stand out.” Jordan Weissmann, Slate
“Less than a year since Derek Chauvin murdered George Floyd, in Minneapolis, sparking a summer of historic unrest and nationwide calls for police reform, polling shows that many New Yorkers still support transferring resources and responsibilities from the N.Y.P.D. to other social programs and agencies. But, with the spectre of crime suddenly top of mind for many voters, the language of ‘defund’ has been deemed a political liability…
“The most progressive candidates seem still to be searching for a way to talk about the fraught relationships with both the police and the public which de Blasio is leaving in his wake. On Thursday, the focus on the shootings obscured important policing and reform issues that have been playing out under de Blasio for years: the candidates barely mentioned, for instance, the future of Rikers Island, the city’s massive, dysfunctional jail complex.” Eric Lach, New Yorker
“Can a ‘Stop-and-Frisk’ candidate win New York’s Democratic mayoral primary?…
“The ACLU has determined that during Michael Bloomberg’s 12-year, three-term tenure as New York’s mayor, the NYPD recorded a staggering 5,081,689 stops; even more staggering is that 4.4 million of those stops were of innocent civilians. The ACLU’s report goes on to note that 52 percent of the stops included frisks, and that half of the innocent 4.4 million were frisked—this despite the stop-and-frisk law’s stipulation that the act should ‘be conducted only in the unusual situation when an officer reasonably suspects the person has a weapon that might endanger officer safety.’…
“The report notes that ‘young black and Latino men were the targets of a hugely disproportionate number of stops.’… In August 2013, a federal judge declared Bloomberg’s stop-and-frisk policy unconstitutional, though she stopped short of ruling on stop-and-frisk in general… This is [the] policy that Adams aims to continue and potentially expand.” Toby Jaffe, American Prospect
Photo illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios. Photo: Alex Wong/Getty Images
In a new episode of their “Off the rails” investigative series about the final days of the Trump presidency, Jonathan Swan and Zachary Basu report on his war with his own generals:
President Trump had a deep fascination with military rank and prestige. He initially held an image of both Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, as unreconstructed 1940s generals.
Trump based this almost entirely on their appearance — “straight out of central casting,” Trump would say — and in Mattis’ case, his ill-fitting nickname, “Mad Dog.”
In reality, these two four-star generals disagreed with Trump on everything from the morality of torture to the wisdom of sending active-duty troops onto American streets.
In conversations with friends, SecDef Mark Esper — Mattis’ successor — compared his experience of working for Trump to walking across a frozen pond. Small cracks in their relationship were appearing by the day.
The defining crack came when Esper publicly split with the president at a press conference on June 3, 2020. He said he did not know that Trump would pose for a photo op at St. John’s Church after law enforcement forcibly cleared protesters from Lafayette Square.
The Lafayette episode was a turning point for both men. Esper concluded that Trump was willing to use the military to advance his election prospects and was concerned there were no boundaries. Trump concluded that his SecDef was weak.
Esper did his best to stay away from the White House through the rest of 2020.
Trump fired Esper on Nov. 9. White House chief of staff Mark Meadows called Esper to give him a heads-up just minutes before a presidential tweet named the low-profile Christopher Miller as the successor.
A request by the commander in chief to lead the Pentagon was not something that Miller, a U.S. Army veteran, felt he could turn down, despite pleas from his family and friends.
Miller told associates he had three goals for the final weeks of the Trump administration: #1: No major war. #2: No military coup. #3: No troops fighting citizens on the streets.
🎧 Hear Jonathan Swan on Axios’ investigative podcast series, “How it happened: Trump’s last stand.”
2. 👀 Trump talks to Swan — again
This portrait of President Trump in the National Portrait Gallery — a photo by Pari Dukovic — went on display to the public for the first time Friday, as Smithsonian buildings reopen. Photo: Win McNamee/Getty Images
For this episode of “Off the rails,” Jonathan Swan interviewed former President Trump, who criticized former Defense Secretary Mark Esper for writing what he described as a “very woke” message to the military.
A June 2020 memo from Esper focused on efforts for “Improving Diversity and Inclusion” at the Pentagon.
Why it matters: Trump snapped whenever he saw his Pentagon leaders take actions he perceived as weak or politically correct.
On leaving Afghanistan, Trump said in the interview that he had concerns about leaving behind billions of dollars of equipment during a rushed, logistically complex withdrawal.
“You remember those scenes [in Vietnam] with the helicopters, right, with people grabbing onto the gear? You don’t want that. And I wouldn’t have that,” he said.
Still, Trump had signed an extraordinary “withdrawal in eight weeks” order — without consulting national security officials — to get all U.S. troops out of Afghanistan before President Biden took office.
Trump’s top advisers, aligned against the plan, talked him out of it by painting a vivid picture of Kabul falling to the Taliban if U.S. forces withdrew precipitously.
🎧 Hear Jonathan Swan on Axios’ investigative podcast series, “How it happened: Trump’s last stand.”
3. The new digital extortion
Shoshana Gordon/Axios
If you run a hospital, a bank, a utility or a city, chances are you’ll be hit with a ransomware attack. Given the choice between losing your precious data or paying up, chances are you’ll pay, Kim Hart writes in her new weekly column, “Tech Agenda.”
Why it matters: Paying the hackers is the clear short-term answer for most organizations hit with these devastating attacks. But it’s a long-term societal disaster, encouraging hackers to continue their lucrative extortion schemes.
Colonial Pipeline paid hackers almost $5 million in ransom to restore its systems and get gasoline flowing again after a ransomware attack held the country’s largest pipeline hostage.
“This creates a collective-action problem — the bad guys win so they’ll go out and hit someone else,” said Betsy Cooper, director of Aspen Tech Policy Hub at the Aspen Institute.
Payments to ransomware attackers rose 337% from 2019 to 2020, reaching more than $400 million worth of cryptocurrency, according to figures just released by Chainalysis, a blockchain analysis company.
The average ransom payment rose from $12,000 in the fourth quarter of 2019 to $54,000 in the first quarter of this year.
4. Franklin Graham on “Axios on HBO”: Trump may be too old to run ’24
Photo: “Axios on HBO”
During my “Axios on HBO” interviewat his office in North Wilkesboro, N.C., the Rev. Franklin Graham said a 2024 run by his friend Donald Trump would be “very tough.”
Why it matters: Graham — president of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, and of Samaritan’s Purse, which fought COVID around the world — was among Trump’s top evangelical defenders.
“[E]verything will depend on his health at that time,” said Graham, who recently visited Trump at Mar-a-Lago. “If he still has energy and strength like he does. I don’t.”
“You know the guy does not eat well, you know, and it’s amazing the energy that he has.”
Graham also told “Axios on HBO” he’d be happy to work with President Biden to encourage evangelicals to get COVID vaccines.
“I would work with the Biden administration. I would work with the CDC. I would work with all of ’em to try to help save life,” he said.
Why it matters: An AP/NORC poll in March found that 40% of white evangelicals are unlikely to get vaccinated, a much higher hesitancy number than other Christian groups.
Graham said he doesn’t know whether a PSA by Donald Trump would help. But he said he might suggest it to him.
Watch 2 clips of Graham urging Christians to get vaccinated.
5. Merger opens door to new Jeff Zucker era
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
Friends tell me Jeff Zucker may drop his plan to depart at year’s end and instead remain head of CNN, as a result of the massive merger of AT&T-Discovery media assets to be announced as soon as today.
I’m told that nothing has been decided. But absent this tectonic media shift, Zucker — who’s chairman, WarnerMedia News and Sports, and president of CNN Worldwide — was gone.
Now, the door is open for him to stay.
Why it matters: Zucker is one of the world’s most experienced media executives, running a global machine with an unmatched reach and footprint. And CNN.com is the largest news-organization website.
Discovery CEO David Zaslav, who’s golfing/Hamptons buddies with Zucker, will run the new company, Axios is told.
Zucker, 56, relishes his news and sports roles, and runs CNN with a producer’s passion and eye for detail. He also could have a political career in his future.
The companies’ combined assets will be a stronger competitor for Disney and Netflix in the streaming wars, Axios Sara Fischer writes.
AT&T and Discovery have both launched general entertainment streaming platforms in the past year — HBO Max and Discovery+.
6. Israel escalates bombing as calls mount for ceasefire
Israel unleashed another wave of airstrikes this morning, the heaviest since the violence broke out a week ago, AP reports. Palestinian militants in Gaza have fired more than 3,100 rockets into Israel.
At least 188 Palestinians have been killed in the strikes, including 55 children and 33 women. Eight people in Israel have been killed in rocket attacks launched from Gaza, including a 5-year-old boy and a soldier.
📷 In photos: Israel-Hamas aerial bombardments enter second week.
7. Cameo creates a “whole new set of stars,” CEO tells “Axios on HBO”
Photo: “Axios on HBO”
Cameo — the app that lets fans pay for personalized videos from celebrities — is valued at over $1 billion, following its unprecedented success during the pandemic, when many Hollywood stars were out of work.
CEO Steven Galanis tells Sara Fischer for “Axios on HBO” that Cameo has made over 2.5 million videos:
“The talent set their own price. … We have data and analytics where we can help them price themselves, because we are a business that makes money when the talent make money.”
Carol Leonnig, a national investigative reporter for The Washington Post, is getting ravereviews for her shocking insider account, “Zero Fail: The Rise and Fall of the Secret Service,” out tomorrow.
One Trump administration official, who oversaw the agency and studied the Service’s vulnerability up close, told Leonnig: “[T]hey have to modernize … Technology is the first thing. If anyone has seen the television show ’24,’ they would die if they saw what the Secret Service has. It’s a joke. They would die.”
The Service, Leonnig writes, is “spread dangerously thin.”
Microsoft’s board decided that Bill Gates needed to step down from the board in 2020 amid an investigation into his “prior romantic relationship with a female Microsoft employee that was deemed inappropriate,” The Wall Street Journal reports (subscription).
A spokeswoman for Gates told The Journal: “There was an affair almost 20 years ago which ended amicably.” She said his “decision to transition off the board was in no way related to this matter. In fact, he had expressed an interest in spending more time on his philanthropy starting several years earlier.”
10. Fashion adapts for post-pandemic lifestyle
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
Handbag designers are still making compartments for hand sanitizer — and will probably continue to, Axios’ Hope King and Kadia Goba write.
Camille Wright of Style Consortium, an apparel showroom, said women “cannot get enough dresses … Everyone wants to wear a dress right now. They want to be pretty. … Not a lot of suits and almost anything without a zipper or buttons.”
Men’s purchases also suggest they’re heading back to the office: They’re buying a ton of tops but fewer button-ups. “Everything is kind of comfortable and kind of stretchy,” says Christine Alcalay, owner and operator of Kiwi, a women’s store, and Fig, a men’s retailer.
As the president faces a flurry of unexpected crises, Republicans depict a country in chaos, but the White House says Biden’s response shows he’s in control.
The shift to cleaner energy forebodes greater cybersecurity challenges as the economy adds new technologies and relies increasingly on electricity to fuel vehicles and heat homes.
When former President Donald Trump nominated Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court last fall, opponents immediately raised the cry that she would overturn Obamacare.
With House Republicans within striking distance of winning the majority in 2022, lawmakers aren’t sure what to make of Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s working relationship with GOP pollster Frank Luntz, a critic of former President Donald Trump.
Miss Universe Myanmar Thuzar Wint Lwin used her platform to speak out about the military coup crisis in her home country after winning the national costume competition Sunday evening.
Microsoft board members decided Bill Gates should resign from its board in 2020 after starting an investigation into the co-founder’s prior sexual relationship with a female staffer that was deemed inappropriate, people familiar with the matter said.
At least two people died and approximately 167 were injured after the collapse of a bleacher area during a Sunday service at a synagogue in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan criticized House Republicans on Sunday for booting Wyoming Rep. Liz Cheney from her leadership role, saying they are “doubling down on failure.”
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s leading epidemiologist, said on Sunday “the undeniable effects of racism” have led to disproportionate and unacceptable health disparity that has harmed black people, Hispanics, and Native Americans amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Two were killed and four Birmingham, Alabama, police officers were hospitalized following a shooting at an apartment building Sunday that stemmed from an argument over a dog, police said.
As fighting between Israel and Hamas militants occurred for a week, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Sunday called for a “hard look” into the billions of dollars in annual military aid that the United States provides to Israel.
“She is looking backwards. … Republicans are looking forward. We are unified. And we are talking about conservative principles,” the New Yorker said of Cheney’s rhetoric toward former President Trump.
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18.) ASSOCIATED PRESS
May 17, 2021
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AP Morning Wire
Good morning from Warsaw. Here’s the news to start the week. As the fourth war between Israel and Hamas enters its second week, the Israeli military has unleashed airstrikes on the Gaza Strip targeting militant tunnels and the homes of alleged Hamas commanders. Residents of Gaza awakened by the overnight barrage described it as the heaviest since the war began. Meanwhile, the AP’s top editor is calling for an independent investigation into the Israeli airstrike that targeted and destroyed a Gaza City building housing the AP, broadcaster Al-Jazeera and other media. And in Afghanistan, interpreters and other civilians who served the U.S. and NATO fear Taliban reprisals with the looming withdrawal of troops from their country after two decades of war.
Also this morning:
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Denmark for talks on climate change, Arctic policy and Russia
A dip in the number of coronavirus cases in Mumbai is offering a glimmer of hope for India
Sanofi-GSK reports success in virus vaccine, after earlier setback
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The Israeli military unleashed a wave of heavy airstrikes on the Gaza Strip early Monday, saying it destroyed 15 kilometers (nine miles) of militant tunnels and the homes of nine alleged Hamas commanders….Read More
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Associated Press’ top editor on Sunday called for an independent investigation into the Israeli airstrike that targeted and destroyed a Gaza City building housing the AP, broadcaster Al-Jazeera and other media, …Read More
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — For Mon PMs; XMZ501-516; video (blv LON is filing the video); Spotlight He served as an interpreter alongside U.S. soldiers on hundreds of patrols and dozens of firefights in eastern Afghanistan, earning a g…Read More
BENGALURU, India (AP) — For the first time in months, Izhaar Hussain Shaikh is feeling somewhat optimistic. The 30-year-old ambulance driver in India’s metropolis of Mumbai has been working tirelessly ever since the city became the e…Read More
MOORESTOWN, New Jersey (AP) — Shannon Keeler was enjoying a weekend getaway with her boyfriend last year when she checked her Facebook messages for the first time in ages. A name popped up that stopped her cold. …Read More
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is in Denmark for talks on climate change, Arctic policy and Russia as calls grow for the Biden admin…Read More
PARIS (AP) — Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline’s potential COVID-19 vaccine triggered strong immune responses in all adult age groups in preliminary trials, boosting optimism …Read More
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia’s oldest-ever man has included eating chicken brains among his secrets to living more than 111 years. Retired cattle rancher Dexter…Read More
ROTTERDAM, Netherlands (AP) — Pounding beats? Check. Uplifting lyrics? Check. Huge, backlit white wings? Check. After last year’s Eurovision Song Contest was canceled a…Read More
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Good morning, Chicago. Before we get to our regular coronavirus updates and other news, I wanted to take a moment to introduce myself. My name is Nicole Stock and I’ve been the person behind Daywatch for the last year. I’m an audience editor for the Tribune and a Northwestern graduate, and it’s been a pleasure to bring you the news you need to know to your inbox each morning.
As the Tribune continues to evolve to better meet the needs of our readers, there are also some changes coming to Daywatch. Each week, you’ll get a chance to meet journalists throughout our newsroom and you’ll have the opportunity to share more with us too.
So let’s start right now: What do you want to see more of in this newsletter? What kind of news is important to you? Send me an email and let me know.
Now, for the news of the day. Yesterday, Illinois officials reported 1,248 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 24 additional deaths. There were 53,335 doses of the vaccine administered Saturday and the seven-day rolling average of daily doses is 66,728.
Meanwhile, as people figure out how they plan to navigate the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s seemingly abrupt change in mask guidelines from last week, here’s how Tribune readers told us they feel about it.
Here’s more coronavirus news and other top stories you need to know to start your day.
Several thousand people gathered Sunday afternoon in the Loop, waving Palestinian flags and donning kaffiyehs — Palestinian headscarves — calling for an end to bloodshed and “ethnic cleansing” in the Middle East.
Nearly every major industrial source of ethylene oxide makes it relatively easy for Americans to know how much of the cancer-causing gas drifts into surrounding communities.
Riders are trickling back to buses and trains as more people get vaccinated and go back to restaurants, events and offices. On weekdays, they’re finding open seats on trains and buses that once would have been standing room only and CTA trains that are noticeably cleaner.
Among the most striking facts about epilepsy is the combination of how common it is and how it has not previously had a very high-profile personality who is public about having the condition. That changed in recent weeks as the Chicago Bears traded up in the NFL draft to select Justin Fields of Ohio State, one of the top-rated quarterbacks in college football, with the No. 11 pick.
Fields, ahead of the draft, revealed that he has been managing epilepsy through medication for years, news that reverberated through the epilepsy community perhaps even more strongly than it did through the sports world.
The Chicago Tribune is naming Louisa Chu and Nick Kindelsperger as its food critics, following the departure of Phil Vettel in January after 31 years as the city’s definitive authority on dining.
They bring a wealth of experience, understanding and perspective to the table, just as Chicago’s restaurant industry begins to rebuild in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Get to know them in our announcement of their new roles, and stay tuned for their first restaurant reviews in the coming weeks.
A physical education teacher who served for years as the girls cross country coach at Whitney Young Magnet High School has been placed on leave as officials investigate allegations of inappropriate conduct with students — some dating back more than a decade — that resurfaced last week after a scathing social media post by the teacher’s estranged daughter.
The coach, Robert Geiger, is in his 15th year at Whitney Young, one of Chicago Public Schools’ most competitive selective enrollment high schools on the Near West Side. Nader Issa has the full story…
“We cannot — indeed we must not — characterize these events within the context of war or religious conflict or who shot the first rocket,” said Tarek Khalil, of American Muslims for Palestine. “This is not only false and misleading, but dangerous and dehumanizing.
If BGA President and CEO David Greising were a teacher filling out Lightfoot’s report card, he’d say she has the most “room for improvement” in the category of “works well with others.”
Students allege a gym teacher and cross country coach at the prestigious magnet school was inappropriate and “creepy” for years — but remained on the job.
For the past six years, Frida and Todd Brooks have raised their son, Elliot Brooks, as he struggles with a costly and dangerous genetic condition. Now, with a kidney transplant in the family’s future, they are raising money with help from the Children’s Organ Transplant Association for what they expect will be a lifetime of medical-related expenses.
The Cook County sheriff has told the head of the Illinois Department of Corrections he wants to begin sending hundreds of inmates from the county jail to the state prison system.
Welcome to The Hill’s Morning Report. It is Monday, and it is Tax Filing Day! 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 as of Monday morning, 585,970.
As of this morning, 47.4 percent of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine and 37.1 percent is fully vaccinated, according to the Bloomberg News global vaccine tracker. (To locate three sites near you with available vaccines, text GETVAX — 438829).
A potential second week of destruction, death and violence in Gaza prompted new international efforts to achieve a cease-fire as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled during a national address on Sunday that the fourth war with Gaza’s Hamas rulers would not cease (The Hill).
In a televised address, Netanyahu said the attacks were continuing at “full force” and would “take time.“ Israel “wants to levy a heavy price” on the Hamas militant group, he said, flanked by his defense minister and political rival, Benny Gantz, in a show of unity. The Israeli air assault early Sunday was the deadliest single attack since heavy fighting broke out between Israel and Hamas nearly a week ago, marking the worst fighting since the devastating 2014 war in Gaza (The Associated Press).
Netanyahu defended Israel’s decision to destroy a 12-story building in Gaza occupied for 15 years by The Associated Press bureau as well as Al Jazeera and other news media, claiming the United States shared intelligence showing that Hamas operated in the same building. When asked to verify any such intelligence sharing, the Biden administration told The Intercept, “No comment.”
The Associated Press: United Nations officials seek to end the conflict in Gaza as President Biden’s National Security Council team held an emergency meeting and the president spoke on Saturday with Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City flattened three buildings and killed at least 42 people on Sunday, the heaviest single-day death toll thus far. Hamas also pressed on, launching rockets from civilian areas in Gaza toward civilian areas in Israel.
U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the United States “has been working tirelessly through diplomatic channels” to try to end the conflict and warned that the current cycle of violence will only put a negotiated two-state solution to the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict further out of reach. Israel’s U.N. ambassador called Hamas rocket attacks against Israel “completely premeditated” to gain political power and replace the Palestinian Authority as the leader of the Palestinians.
Reuters: Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed Gaza in calls with Qatari, Egyptian, Saudi foreign ministers.
Axios: Tor Wennesland, United Nations special coordinator for the Middle East peace process, spoke on Sunday to Israel’s national security adviser, Meir Ben-Shabbat, and other senior Israeli security officials as well as Hamas officials and Egyptian intelligence officials in an effort to restore peace.
The New York Times: Questions of war crimes follow fighting between Israel and Hamas.
The Jerusalem Post: Iran nuclear deal talks continued in Vienna over the weekend.
More Biden administration headlines:Does the United States need new laws to deal with the rise of domestic extremism? (The Hill). … In Biden’s America, Democrats see competence, Republicans see chaos (The Washington Post).
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The internet has changed a lot since 1996 — internet regulations should too
– Protecting people’s privacy
– Enabling safe and easy data portability between platforms
– Preventing election interference
– Reforming Section 230
LEADING THE DAY
CORONAVIRUS: Confusion is cropping up across the U.S. in the aftermath of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) guidance that fully vaccinated individuals can forgo wearing masks in almost all settings.
Although last week’s federal decision to encourage vaccinated people to eschew masks was welcome as the government urged unvaccinated Americans to get inoculated, the new direction caught many off guard, The Hill’s Alex Gangitano, Nathaniel Weixel and Sylvan Lane write, raising questions about how new policies are to be implemented.
The guidance sent states and cities scrambling to determine whether to change their own rules to match the new federal advice. Health experts, business leaders and labor groups said the new recommendations are too ambiguous and too wide-ranging. The administration says it will not take a federal position on “vaccine passports,” leaving the question of proof of vaccination up to businesses and industries. The CDC promises to update its specific recommendations for workplaces, restaurants, schools, summer camps and other settings and circumstances.
“Millions of Americans are doing the right thing and getting vaccinated, but essential workers are still forced to play mask police for shoppers who are unvaccinated and refuse to follow local COVID safety measures. Are they now supposed to become the vaccination police?”Marc Perrone, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, said in a statement.
Backing up last week’s announcement, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky appeared on four Sunday shows, maintaining that vaccine mandates are not the right way to go, all the while imploring unvaccinated Americans to get a jab sooner rather than later (or never) (The Hill).
“If you are not vaccinated, you are not safe,” Walensky told “Fox News Sunday,” saying that the science surrounding past recommendations that fully vaccinated people wear masks only weeks ago has “evolved” (The Hill).
A major question continues to swirl around children as the vast majority remain unvaccinated after the CDC greenlighted those aged 12 to 15 to begin receiving Pfizer’s shot. Walensky told CNN’s “State of the Union” that the status quo remains for unvaccinated children and that they should continue to wear masks.
“We recognize the challenge of parents who can’t leave their kids at home,” Walensky said, adding that children “should be masked in those settings and to the best of their ability to keep a distance.”
“The recommendations for those settings have not changed,” she continued (The Hill).
The Associated Press: Some aren’t ready to give up masks despite new CDC guidance.
The Hill: NIH’s Anthony Fauci: Vaccinated people become “dead ends” for the coronavirus.
The Washington Post: India’s coronavirus vaccination drive is faltering just when the country needs it most.
The Associated Press: Great Britain yet to decide on Pfizer offer to vaccinate Olympians.
*****
CONGRESS: Today is tax filing day for 2020, and the coming weeks will be crucial for Democrats on the tax front as they determine how to potentially pay for their proposed $4.1 trillion infrastructure and jobs package going forward.
As The Hill’s Alexander Bolton writes, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) face an uphill battle on the issue as their top priority — restoring the state and local tax (SALT) deduction — faces opposition from corners of the Senate Democratic conference.
Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) have both signaled their opposition to reinstating it, while others, including Sens. Chris Coons (D-Del.) and Tim Kaine (D-Va.) are lukewarm on the idea. A full restoration would cost as much as $500 billion, or more than the amount of revenue that would be collected by raising the corporate tax rate to 25 percent.
Reintroducing the SALT deduction could also spark issues among progressives, as the lion’s share of the benefit goes to the rich. Fifty-seven percent of the tax cut would benefit the top 1 percent, and 25 percent would benefit the top 0.1 percent.
Meanwhile, as Americans race to file their taxes today, lawmakers are debating the president’s push to strengthen tax enforcement against high-income individuals and businesses, as they consider ways to reduce the amount of uncollected taxes.
As The Hill’s Naomi Jagoda points out, Biden has proposed providing the IRS with $80 billion for enforcement and other purposes and increasing the amount of information that banks have to report to the agency. According to the administration, the proposal would generate on net $700 billion in revenue.
Democrats have spoken highly of Biden’s approach. Across the aisle, GOP members are on board with ensuring that people pay the taxes they owe. However, they argue that the White House’s proposal will not generate as much revenue as it estimates and could lead to government overreach.
>Voting brouhaha: Schumer is facing big headaches in trying to get a sweeping voting rights bill through the Senate as Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) continues to oppose the For the People Act.
Schumer, who is pushing to retain the slim Democratic majority in 2022, is under fierce pressure from progressives who warn that the party will face major consequences politically if it fails to pass the bill. As The Hill’s Jordain Carney notes, Schumer has shown no signs of budging, having promised to bring the sweeping bill to the floor one way or another.
The Hill: Push to combat sexual assault in U.S. military reaches a turning point.
IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES
POLITICS: The Trump Party is here to stay, according to Republican lawmakers who appeared on Sunday’s talk shows to explain how voter support may continue to be former President Trump’s force field inside the GOP. Conservative lawmakers say those who imagine bucking the former president as head of the party do so at their own political peril, even following the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol that put members of Congress in physical danger.
Even Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), ousted last week by the House GOP from its No. 3 leadership post because of her ferocious opposition to the former president, concedes she’s outnumbered. “The majority of the Republican Party is not where I am,” she said during an ABC “This Week” interview (The Hill).
Cheney said she can’t ignore Trump because he “continues to be a real danger” (The Hill). She added that there’s “no question” another attack like the one on Jan. 6, or worse, could occur as a result of persistent false claims by Trump and his followers about the legitimacy of the 2020 election (The Hill).
Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), a frequent Trump critic, believes Republican lawmakers are mired in the former president’s rhetoric about a stolen election. They won’t repudiate Trump’s myth because, following his defeat, they’ve anointed him the party’s leader. “Policy doesn’t matter anymore,” Kinzinger said, comparing the former’s president’s hold over his party to the autocratic rule of Kim Jong Un over the people of North Korea. “It literally is all your loyalty to Donald Trump. … No matter what policy comes out, you’re loyal to the guy” (The Hill).
Michigan Republican Rep. Fred Upton, appearing on CNN, said on Sunday that he cannot understand his conservative colleagues who try to downplay the attack on the Capitol on Jan. 6 and called efforts to gloss over what occurred “bogus.”
“I don’t know what their motivation is, but I know that as I talked to some colleagues, even again this week, who were in the chamber, it was terribly frightening,” he said.
The GOP’s public debates about Trump’s influence over the party and his viability as a potential presidential contender in 2024 continue to be combustible, underscoring that as long as grassroots voters say they support the 45th president, candidates and GOP lawmakers pay heed.
Recent polls, however, suggest support for Trump among Republican voters has softened since he’s been out of office. Support for the party itself and what it stands for could be on the rise (NBC News). Trump is unpopular in certain key House districts, according to recent surveys that help gaze ahead to the 2022 midterms (MSNBC, The Washington Post).
On NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) argued that Republicans could not simply “excommunicate” Trump from party ranks, although the congressman declined to say whether he believes Trump is the “legitimate leader of the Republican Party” (The Hill). Cheney, Kinzinger and Upton voted to impeach Trump.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), viewed as a potential White House candidate from the GOP’s more traditional mold, described Trump as “toxic for the Republican Party and for the country.” The GOP will not win back control of the White House or Congress if it does not expand into a “big-tent party” and “appeal to a majority of people,” he said on CNN.
“We’ve got to find a way to get the Republican Party back to the party of Lincoln and Reagan, get back to the more traditional big-tent party that can appeal to a majority of people,” he added. “Otherwise. we simply aren’t going to have control, we’re not going to get the White House back, and we won’t have control of the House and the Senate” (The Hill).
More politics: Republicans seize on conservative backlash against a critical race theory (The Hill). … Lawmakers are on edge following last week’s decision by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) to confront and taunt Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) in the halls of Congress as reporters looked on (The Hill).
Biden should fight the inflation the Fed ignores, by Matthew Yglesias, opinion contributor, Bloomberg Opinion. https://bloom.bg/33O8Eci
A MESSAGE FROM FACEBOOK
Why Facebook supports updated internet regulations
2021 is the 25th anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the last major update to internet regulation. It’s time for an update to set clear rules for addressing today’s toughest challenges.
TheSenate will convene Monday at 3 p.m. and resume consideration of the Endless Frontier Act.
The president returns to the White House from Delaware at 9:15 a.m. Biden and Vice President Harris will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9:50 a.m. The president will speak about the administration COVID-19 response and vaccination program at 1 p.m. in the East Room.
Blinken is in Copenhagen, Denmark, for a full day of meetings, including with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, Queen Margrethe II and His Royal Highness Crown Prince Frederik of Denmark and Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod, with whom the secretary will also hold a joint press availability. Blinken will tour the Quantum Materials Lab at the University of Copenhagen in the afternoon and meets this evening with personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Copenhagen.
The White House press briefing is scheduled at noon.
➔ ECONOMY: An unexpectedly sharp April increase in inflation poses a potential political problem for the White House and Federal Reserve. Biden’s critics take issue with policies they fear could have long-range impacts on inflation and interest rates (The Hill). While economists say there’s no cause for alarm now, some fear the implications.
➔ HACKERS & EXTORTION: The decision by Colonial Pipeline to pay extortionists last week put a spotlight on the morality and the consequences of paying hackers in order to regain access to breached networks (The Hill).
➔ PAW PATROL: Top environmental groups and figures are calling on the U.S. to reintroduce the jaguar in southwestern portions of the country, saying that human intervention will be needed to make it happen. Experts with the Wildlife Conservation Society, the Center for Landscape Conservation and other organizations believe a 3,125 square-mile area in the mountains of central Arizona and New Mexico could support between 90 to 150 of the big cats, which have rarely been spotted north of northern Mexico. While male jaguars have been spotted in Arizona in recent decades, there is no evidence that any female jaguars are there, eliminating the chance of the cats breeding in the United States. Jaguars are present in only 19 countries (The Associated Press).
THE CLOSER
And finally … Revenge can be sweet, as Canfora Bakery in Milwaukee demonstrated after the shop was burgled and robbed last month. Thinking creatively after searching the shop’s security cameras and reporting the break-in, the owners put the suspected thief’s face on 100 unique sugar cookies and urged the community to help them identify the culprit.
“Come Take a Bite Out Of Crime at Canfora Bakery,” owners Eric and Karen Krieg wrote on Facebook. “We invite the Bay View community to come on in and take a bite out of the thief while supplies last — one per family” (NDTV, New York Post and Food & Wine).
It worked. Just hours after the Kriegs posted the photo cookie, the community tips handed the Milwaukee Police Department an ID.
The Morning Report is created by journalists Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver. We want to hear from you! Email: asimendinger@thehill.com and aweaver@thehill.com. We invite you to share The Hill’s reporting and newsletters, and encourage others to SUBSCRIBE!
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The Supreme Court has agreed to review Mississippi’s ban on nearly all abortions after the 15-week threshold of pregnancy. https://nbcnews.to/3wfAgTF
The first reason this case is big : The new 6-3 conservative majority in the Supreme Court raises the chances of success for anti-abortion advocates.
The second reason this case is so big: “Mississippi’s abortion restriction was the first to reach the court from a wave of state laws intended to challenge the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision, which declared that access to abortion was a constitutional right.”
When the court will hear the case: Next term, which starts this fall
It’s Monday — welcome back, friends! I’m Cate Martel with a quick recap of the morning and what’s coming up. Send comments, story ideas and events for our radar to cmartel@thehill.com — and follow along on Twitter @CateMartel and Facebook.
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The internet has changed a lot since 1996 — internet regulations should too
Today is the Internal Revenue Service’s deadline to file 2020 federal taxes.
What time are they due?: If you’re mailing them, they must be postmarked by today. If you’re filing online, you have until midnight. https://bit.ly/2RnVVKN
Need some extra time? Here’s how to file a tax extension: Via CNBC: https://cnb.cx/3bx0yc9
Via USA Today’s Kelly Tyko, here’s a list of Tax Day freebies and specials: https://bit.ly/3onMruZ
My personal, openly biased favorite: “Every Monday through May 24, get a free medium coffee and a free Original Glazed doughnut. No purchase is necessary, and this offer is open to everybody.” That is in addition to Krispy Kreme‘s free doughnut special for vaccinated customers.
The House is moving towards setting up a commission to investigate the Jan. 6 siege on the U.S. Capitol. https://bit.ly/3oqTnYy
Timing: After months of disagreements over the commission, the top Democrat and Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee came to an agreement — and agreed to an even number of Democrats and Republicans on the panel.
New tidbit: Via Roll Call’s Chris Marquette, “Capitol Police faced equipment shortage during Jan. 6 attack: Rioters in many cases had more, and better, protective equipment than the officers they were fighting.” https://bit.ly/33SnBtM
The two votes this week: “The [first piece of] legislation calls for an investigation into the riot and ‘the interference with the peaceful transfer of power’ … [the second bill is] a $1.9 billion funding bill meant to address weaknesses in the Capitol complex made clear during the Jan. 6 attack.”
WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING ON CAPITOL HILL THIS WEEK:
A bipartisan effort to combat China’s competitiveness: “Senate Majority Leader CharlesSchumer (D-N.Y.) has teed up The Endless Frontiers Act, which cleared the Commerce Committee last week and would invest billions in science and emerging technologies in an effort to compete with China.”
Condemning the Atlanta shootings: “The House will vote on a resolution condemning a series of shootings around Atlanta in mid-March that killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent.”
Via The New York Times’s Marc Santora and Dan Bilefsky, “As the grinding and increasingly bloody conflict between Israel and Hamas militants moved into the second week, the violence showed no signs of abating as Israel pounded targets in Gaza overnight and Hamas continued to unleash a barrage of rockets at towns across southern Israel.” Live updates: https://nyti.ms/3eVzG86
“The Israeli military on Monday said it had destroyed nine miles of tunnels in its most recent barrage of airstrikes on the Gaza Strip and leveled the homes of nine Hamas commanders.” https://bit.ly/3uU71FL
BECAUSE THE CONFLICT HAS SUCH A LONG HISTORY — HERE ARE A FEW HELPFUL READS:
‘After years of quiet, Israeli-Palestinian conflict exploded. Why now?’: Via The New York Times’s Patrick Kingsley: https://nyti.ms/2QnvoN4
Why Facebook supports updated internet regulations
2021 is the 25th anniversary of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, the last major update to internet regulation. It’s time for an update to set clear rules for addressing today’s toughest challenges.
^For those who haven’t been to a Trump rally, those songs are almost always played.
Via The Daily Mail’s Rob Crilly, former President Trump is expected to resume his political rallies in June, with plans to ramp up the frequency of his appearances. https://bit.ly/2SS62b3
BEDMINSTER? HASN’T TRUMP BEEN IN MAR-A-LAGO?:
Yes, but Trump left his Florida Mar-a-Lago resort on Mother’s Day and will be spending his summer at his Bedminster, N.J. resort. https://bit.ly/3uTokqw
The Daily Mail mentioned that Trump has been seen at Trump Tower in New York. https://bit.ly/2SS62b3
Three Capitol Police officers talked to CQ Roll Call under the condition of anonymity to speak candidly about the department’s failures regarding equipment for the Jan. 6 insurrection. Most officers fought that day without helmets, face shields or gas masks that would have better protected them from chemical irritants and blunt force. Read more…
Republicans were excited this month when Florida Democratic Rep. Charlie Crist announced that he would challenge Gov. Ron DeSantis next year rather than seek a fourth House term. Crist’s departure puts his district within reach for the GOP in the midterms, when Democrats will already be at a historical disadvantage. Read more…
Dozens of Customs and Border Protection employees violated policies by posting offensive and unprofessional content on social media, including an anti-immigrant cartoon of children locked in kennels, according to a new government watchdog report. Read more…
Click here to subscribe to Fintech Beat for the latest market and regulatory developmentsin finance and financial technology.
A former staffer’s allegations that Rep. Doug Lamborn let his son live in the Capitol basement and directed employees to complete personal tasks could make the Colorado Republican the subject of an ethics investigation. Read more…
Neera Tanden, CEO of the Center for American Progress, will become a senior adviser to President Joe Biden, a White House official confirmed Friday. Tanden’s nomination to be Office of Management and Budget director was withdrawn in early March after it became clear she didn’t have enough support to win Senate confirmation. Read more…
Sen. Roy Blunt estimates that the Senate Rules and Administration Committee has a spirited debate about as frequently as the Brood X cicadas descend on the D.C. region (about every 17 years). Meanwhile, CQ Roll Call photographer Bill Clark captured a squirrel eating a Snickers bar outside the Capitol. Watch here…
Ducklings, a squirrel eating a Snickers bar and the election of a new House Republican Conference chair highlight this week’s best photos from Capitol Hill. Here’s a look at the week as captured by CQ Roll Call’s photojournalists. Read more…
CQ Roll Call is a part of FiscalNote, the leading technology innovator at the intersection of global business and government. Copyright 2021 CQ Roll Call. All rights reserved Privacy | Safely unsubscribe now.
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25.) POLITICO PLAYBOOK
POLITICO Playbook: McCarthy has another Trump problem on his hands
Presented by
DRIVING THE DAY
FLY-PARTISAN — Presidents come and go, but flies remain at the White House — like, lots of them — and they’ve become a point of agreement between a Trump official and a Biden official who don’t have much else in common. JARED KUSHNER recently called Biden senior adviser CEDRIC RICHMOND to offer any help he could provide in the new job, but the conversation soon turned to the critters, a source familiar with the chat told us. (The flies have persisted going back at least to the Obama White House; some staffers in Trump’s West Wing used bug zappers.)
“Yeah man, they’re like bats,” Kushner told Richmond. “Good luck.” When we asked Richmond for comment, he emailed us back: “I prefer not. lol.”
MCCARTHY’S LATEST TRUMP CONUNDRUM— Just days after making nice with DONALD TRUMP by leading the ouster of Rep. LIZ CHENEY (R-Wyo.) from his leadership ranks, House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY this week will once again find himself in a tough spot via-a-vis the former president.
One of his close allies and a member of his whip team, Rep. JOHN KATKO (R-N.Y.), struck a deal with Democrats on a 9/11-type commission to investigate the Jan. 6 riot — and it’s set to come to the floor this week. That means McCarthy will once again have to choose between one of his members and Trump, who — let’s face it — will be none too pleased with any sort of independent commission investigating his actions.
We made some calls about this Sunday night, and here’s what you need to know going into the week:
—McCarthy appeared to diss the deal onFriday, telling reporters he hadn’t seen the details and doubling down on his belief that any commission should also probe violence that occurred amid racial tensions last summer. But multiple sources tell us that Katko was asked by McCarthy to negotiate with Democrats and was in touch with the leader’s office about what he wanted. They also said Katko got almost everything McCarthy asked for.
—Indeed, Democrats agreed to multiple demands from McCarthy and Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL, including equal representation and subpoena power for both parties, and finishing its work before 2022, when the midterms will kick into high gear. Notably, the bill tracks closely with a GOP bill introduced earlier this year that has 30 Republican co-sponsors.
—Katko’s team has told some Republicans that while the agreement’s language doesn’t specifically mention violence by left-wing protesters last summer, the commissioners can go there if they think it will help illuminate what happened on Jan. 6. (We’ll see if Democrats dispute this interpretation of the text.)
— Given all of that, some Republicans supportive of the deal aren’t pleased that McCarthy is keeping his distance — though they understand the bind he is in. “I think Kevin was hoping that the Democrats would never agree to our requests — that way the commission would be partisan and we can all vote no and say it’s a sham operation,” said one senior House Republican aide. “Because he knows Trump is going to lose his mind” over this commission.
—Don’t forget the context: The vote comes as some Republicans have started to equate what happened on Jan. 6 with regular protests, and as Cheney — appearing Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” — accused her party of trying to “whitewash” what happened.
THREE THINGS TO WATCH AS THE DRAMA UNFOLDS:
— The big question on House Republicans’ minds right now is whether McCarthy and House Minority Whip STEVE SCALISE (R-La.) will whip against the deal. Leaders are well aware that if they decided to muscle members to move against it en masse, they’d be effectively throwing Katko under the bus.
— Watch Trump. How vocal he is about this commission could determine its fate. It is almost certain to pass the Democratic House this week but then will need 10 Republican senators to go along.
— What will ELISE STEFANIK do? The New York Republican is close with Katko — but also just won her new position because she’s a fresh face in alliance with Trump. How does she navigate this vote in her first week on the job as conference chair?
THE COMING WELFARE DEBATE — The Biden administration is arguing with Republicans (and a few Democrats) about whether enhanced unemployment benefits are preventing some Americans from entering the labor force. And several Republican-led states have now decided not to accept the money from the federal government.
But many families are about to see another boost of support from Washington. The Treasury Department will announce today that on July 15 the expanded Child Tax Credit will kick in, and some 39 million American households with kids will start to receive monthly payments of as much as $300 per child under 6 and up to $250 per child over 6.
The program, which is set to expire after this year, is estimated to lift 5 million children out of poverty. President JOE BIDEN wants the program renewed through 2025, and other Democrats are pushing for a permanent extension.
Considering the program’s scale and cost ($1.6 trillion over 10 yearsif it were renewed), it sailed through Congress tucked into the American Rescue Plan with remarkably little debate and nary a Fox News segment attacking it. But as with expanded unemployment benefits, which most Republicans supported under Trump, if the labor market continues to struggle, look for the tax credit to come under attack from the right as a welfare program impeding full employment.
This could be a trend. As we saw in the Obama years with the Affordable Care Act, passing progressive legislation is one thing. Implementing it competently and defending it from GOP court challenges, state-level attacks and federal repeal efforts is quite another.
Biden is entering a phase where he will try to do both: pass two more enormous bills loaded with new climate, infrastructure, tax and social welfare policies, while simultaneously implementing what’s already been passed. That will offer new targets for his opponents.
BE BEST —Look out,MELANIA: The Biden White House has its own anti-bullying initiative — but it’s directed at its own staffers, who’ve been abuzz since Friday when a memo landed in their inboxes laying out the Biden administration’s “Safe and Respectful Work-Place Policy.” It states that “discrimination, harassment, sexual harassment, retaliation, and bullying violate the respect owed to every employee at the White House.” Employees will receive compliance training, and they can report alleged infractions anonymously. The White House personnel office, in conjunction with the White House counsel, will investigate alleged violations.
The memo also includes this line: “The White House reserves the right to take any disciplinary action up to and including termination of employment.”
Good Monday morning. Thanks for reading Playbook, where we (almost) never bully each other. Send us an email if you know why the White House sent this memo four months after Biden’s civility pledge — we’ll also let you report it anonymously: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri.
BIDEN’S MONDAY — The president will leave Wilmington, Del., at 8:20 a.m. and get back to the White House at 9:15 a.m. Biden and VP KAMALA HARRIS will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 9:50 a.m. Biden will deliver remarks about the pandemic and vaccines at 1 p.m. from the East Room.
— Press secretary JEN PSAKI will brief at noon.
THE SENATE will meet at 3 p.m. to take up the motion to proceed to the Endless Frontier Act, with a vote to invoke cloture at 5:30 p.m.
THE HOUSE will meet at noon, with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m.
BIDEN’S WEEK AHEAD — The president will head to Dearborn, Mich., on Tuesday to visit and speak at the Ford Rouge Electric Vehicle Center. On Wednesday, he’s off to New London, Conn., to deliver the Coast Guard Academy commencement address. South Korean President MOON JAE-IN will arrive Friday for a bilateral meeting, including a press conference with Biden.
PLAYBOOK READS
INFRASTRUCTURE YEAR
TAX WARS — Our colleagues Ben White and Sarah Ferris are out with a pair of stories about the collision looming between corporate America and Democrats over Biden’s tax hikes. Reading the two pieces, you get the sense that someone is really, really miscalculating.
— Here’s Ben, writing about the business community “dismissing the threat” that tax hikes will pass:“Corporate executives and lobbyists in Washington, New York and around the country say they are confident they can kill almost all of these tax hikes by pressuring moderate Democrats in the House and Senate. And they think progressive Democrats don’t really care about the costs of new programs and will be happy to push through as much spending as they can and then run on tax hikes in 2022 rather than actually pass them this year.
“Interviews with over a dozen executives, lobbyists and business group officials turned up a similar theme: While Democrats might be able to push through a slightly higher top corporate rate, when it comes to higher taxes on the rich, on capital gains, on financial transactions or private equity profits, forget it. It’s not happening.”
— Meanwhile, Sarah has the dish on Biden and Democrats gambling that tax hikes can be popular (at least when levied on the rich …): “Poll after poll shows those proposals are broadly popular with voters, particularly amid a deadly pandemic that’s exacerbated the nation’s already stark economic divisions. While Democrats acknowledge that touting a tax hike — even if it’s just for top earners — carries risk, they see a dramatic shift in the politics of taxing the rich that they’re ready to use to their benefit.”
POLICY CORNER
AMERICAN FAMILIES PLAN WRANGLING — “Biden’s Plan for Free Community College Faces Resistance,”WSJ: “Republicans and some academics on both the left and right say that community college is already inexpensive and making it free wouldn’t sufficiently address deep-seated problems with the system: high dropout rates and entering students being unprepared for college-level work. …
“The Biden plan as introduced also relies on states contributing funds—about $1 for every $3 from the federal government—raising the question of whether states will go along. … Taking all sources into account, the U.S. spends more than any other developed country on its colleges and universities … and more per student, too. Advocates of community colleges say the sector is underfunded and underappreciated.”
CLIMATE FILES — “Biden’s climate agenda targets Black America with innovation, HBCU funding,”TheGrio: “The Biden administration is putting Black America at the center of the solution for climate change by expanding electric vehicle power stations into Black neighborhoods and dumping funds into HBCU renewable energy research.
“This as President Joe Biden is set to tour a Ford Electric Vehicle facility Tuesday. In an exclusive interview with theGrio, Energy Secretary JENNIFER GRANHOLM discussed this engagement as part of President Biden’s equity initiative that sparks tangible creativity and innovation from people who are not normally at the table or in the research lab.”
AMERICA AND THE WORLD
LATEST IN THE MIDDLE EAST — “Calls mount for Gaza-Israel cease-fire, greater U.S. efforts,”AP: “U.N. Security Council diplomats and Muslim foreign ministers convened emergency meetings Sunday to demand a stop to civilian bloodshed as Israeli warplanes carried out the deadliest single attacks in nearly a week of unrelenting Hamas rocket barrages and Israeli airstrikes.
“President Joe Biden gave no signs of stepping up any pressure on Israel to agree to an immediate cease-fire despite calls from some Democrats for the Biden administration to get more involved. His ambassador to the United Nations, LINDA THOMAS-GREENFIELD, told an emergency high-level meeting of the Security Council that the United States was ‘working tirelessly through diplomatic channels’ to stop the fighting. … Appeals by other countries for Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers and Israel to stop their fire showed no sign of progress.”
— On Capitol Hill on Sunday night, Sens. CHRIS MURPHY (D-Conn.) and TODD YOUNG (R-Ind.), the chair and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations subcommittee with jurisdiction over the Middle East, released the first of what’s likely to be many bipartisan calls for peace this week as the death toll rises.
POLITICS ROUNDUP
CAN’T TOUCH THIS — “Teflon Joe muddies GOP’s midterm strategy”: David Siders’ lede says it all: “When the National Republican Senatorial Committee sought to attack four vulnerable Senate Democrats in a series of new ads this spring, President Joe Biden was nowhere to be found. Instead, the NRSC juxtaposed photographs of the senators — RAPHAEL WARNOCK of Georgia, MARK KELLY of Arizona, MAGGIE HASSAN of New Hampshire and CATHERINE CORTEZ MASTO of Nevada — next to House Speaker NANCY PELOSI.
“Interviews with more than 25 GOP strategists and party officials depict a president whose avuncular style and genial bearing make him a less-than-ideal foil … In response, Republicans are preparing to break with time-honored custom and cast the president less as the central character in the midterm elections than as an accessory to the broader excesses of the left.”
GOP FLIPS THE SWITCH IN N.H. — Senate Republicans have been eyeing New Hampshire as one of their best pickup opportunities next year. Now they think they’ve got a star candidate to take on Hassan — and are using the same strategy Democrats deployed last cycle: recruiting a governor.
Burgess Everett and James Arkinwrite about the “full-court press” to woo Granite State Gov. CHRIS SUNUNU: “Sununu has the potential to be the most important Republican recruit of the cycle. He’s an incumbent three-term governor fresh off a 30-plus-point victory last year in a state Biden carried with relative ease. And he’s political royalty in the Granite State, the son of a former governor and White House chief of staff as well as the brother of a former senator.”
2022 WATCH — “Big stakes for Biden’s agenda, Democrats’ majority in Michigan,”NBC/Detroit: “Rep. ELISSA SLOTKIN, D-Mich., wants her party to be deliberate as it considers President Joe Biden’s proposals to spend $4 trillion on infrastructure, housing and family care … She wants to ‘make sure there’s nothing hidden on page 1,000 that dings the middle class’ and that any actions in Washington ‘keep our corporations competitive.’ …
“Their position on the front lines of the battle for control of the House means [Rep. HALEY] STEVENS and Slotkin could be a strong barometer for the viability of Biden’s proposals … Because Michigan is losing a seat, at least two of the state’s 14 House members … will be placed in the same district. … And it remains to be seen whether they will get to see the lines before they have to vote on the more controversial elements of Biden’s proposals.”
COMPETING NARRATIVES — “With violent crime spiking, the push for police reform collides with voters’ fears,”WaPo: “[W]ith shootings spiking in cities nationwide during the pandemic, there are growing signs that the thirst for [criminal justice] change is being blunted by fears of runaway crime. … Critical tests of just how far the pendulum has swung will come in the next several days and weeks, with a nationwide flurry of elections for mayor, district attorney and members of Congress.
“Although Republicans have long been skeptical of reform efforts, the races are concentrated in big cities and other areas that are friendly terrain for Democrats. They should offer, at least in theory, fertile ground for the sort of systemic overhauls that protesters who flooded the streets last summer were demanding. Yet the proposals on offer from leading candidates have tended to be more modest.”before they have to vote on the more controversial elements of Biden’s proposals.”
MEDIAWATCH
MEGA-MERGER — “AT&T Is Preparing to Merge Media Assets With Discovery,”Bloomberg: “A deal could be announced as soon as this week … The idea is to combine Discovery’s reality-TV empire with AT&T’s vast media holdings, building a business that would be a formidable competitor to Netflix Inc. and Walt Disney Co. Any deal would mark a major shift in AT&T’s strategy after years of working to assemble telecommunications and media assets under one roof.”
“There were improvements in techniques after JOHN KENNEDY’S assassination. But since then the Secret Service has been stretched thin by its expanding charter; hobbled by inadequate training and obsolescent weaponry; and plagued by mistrust between the rank-and-file and leadership. The agency has also been abused by its overseers … Time and again, in Leonnig’s telling, rather than taking a bullet for the president, the Secret Service has dodged one. … This book is a wake-up call.”
PLAYBOOKERS
IN MEMORIAM — WaPo’s @CarolLeonnig: “The entire @washingtonpost family weeps for 3 of our own. Sports editor David Larimer, who died at 47 after working half his life at the Post; his wife @terri_rupar, a superb editor who made everything better; their daughter Matilda.”
AND A NICE CHIANTI? — NPR White House reporter Tamara Keith tweeted a video of live cicadas, asking for your best recipes for … consumption. We’re curious if she went through with it. If Keith wants some variety in her bugs — a bug salad, perhaps — there are many to be had at the White House.
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — WHITE HOUSE ARRIVAL LOUNGE: Second gentleman Doug Emhoff has added Rukku Singla as deputy director for policy, Megha Bhattacharya as comms assistant and Zaina Javaid as deputy director for advance. Singla was most recently at the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, Bhattacharya on Sen. Jon Ossoff’s (D-Ga.) campaign and Javaid at Sunshine Sachs.
— Eva Millona will be assistant DHS secretary for partnership and engagement. She currently is president and CEO of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition.
— Mike Davis, Ian Prior, Will Chamberlain and Andy Surabian launched a new 501(c)(4) “The Unsilenced Majority,” to fight against cancel culture.
D.C. TIPTOES BACK TO MASKLESS LIFE: Olivia Reingold emails with some details about D.C.’s first weekend after the new CDC mask guidance:
CDC Director ROCHELLE WALENSKY framed the new mask rules as one step closer to normalcy, but the new Washington looked a lot like the old pandemic one. Checking in with mainstays like the Smithsonian museums and Politics and Prose bookstore made it clear they are continuing to ask patrons to wear masks until D.C. rules officially catch up with the new federal guidance. Despite the recent news that kids 12 and over can now get the Pfizer vaccine, schools like Georgetown Day say they don’t intend to revise their mask policies anytime soon.
One reader — a fully vaccinated 20-something ready to shed her mask and go drinking — saw no fewer than eight signs reminding her to mask up during an afternoon in Adams Morgan. Another said he was yelled at by a neighbor in the halls of his Dupont Circle apartment building for not wearing a mask.
Meanwhile, one high-ranking Democratic aide said his office didn’t have new guidance yet. “We’re just taking the weekend to make sure we understand from the Office of the Attending Physician to the CDC,” the person said, adding that they’re working on crafting an updated office mask policy. “I don’t know if legal counsel is going to suggest anything. We’re just reaching out to make sure we have all of our ducks in a row.”
They added that each Senate office already has its own Covid culture and that the new CDC guidance probably won’t do much to change that.
SPOTTED: Sen. JoniErnst (R-Iowa) on the American shuttle from New York to D.C. on Sunday afternoon.
TRANSITION — Lauren Smith is now head of federal regulatory engagement at Cruise. She previously was senior manager at Lyft, and is an Obama White House alum.
ENGAGED — Julie Tsirkin, NBC News Capitol Hill reporter and field producer, and Gavi Reichman, senior account executive at Yext, got engaged at Lansdowne Resort in Leesburg, Va. He surprised her with the proposal and by bringing in their families, close friends and puppy Stevie. The couple originally met freshman year at a Rutgers fraternity party, but didn’t start dating until they bumped into each other two years later at a Penn State/Rutgers football game at Penn State. Pic… Another pic
— Alex Gangitano, a new White House correspondent and soon-to-be-former lobbying reporter at The Hill, and Bryan Petrich, a consultant at Capco and 2021 Georgetown MBA grad, got engaged Saturday in Oxford, Md. He proposed during a beach picnic after kayaking. The couple originally met at Villanova and reconnected in D.C. Pic
WEDDINGS — Allison Auman, who works in comms at Boeing, and Sgt. 1st Class Joseph Anatoly Smith, a senior-level operator for 1st Special Forces Group (Airborne) based out of Joint Base Lewis McChord, got married May 8 in Southern Pines, N.C. They met via modern romance (swiping right). Pic… Another pic
— Lila Nieves-Lee, VP of government affairs at Auto Drives America and a Tim Scott alum,and Adam Farris, legislative director toRep. Byron Donalds(R-Fla.), got married this weekend at Immaculate Conception Church, followed by a reception at the District Winery that featured a cake in the shape of the U.S. Capitol. Pic… Another pic… SPOTTED: Jennifer DeCasper, Kelsey Baron, Saat Alety, Alyssa Richardson, Emily Lavery, Kunal Parikh, Warren and Emily Tryon, Molly Quimby and Naomi Zeigler.
WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Blake Waggoner, director of public relations at PR firm OBI and an Edelman and Targeted Victory alum, and Erin Waggoner, who works on state government affairs at Verizon, on Thursday welcomed Brooks Daniel Waggoner, who came in at 8 lbs, 10 oz.Pic … Another pic
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo (5-0) … NYT’s Mike Shear and Reid Epstein … NBC’s Kelly O’Donnell … Jim Lyons … DCCC’s Mike Smith … Rick Wiley … Kathleen Sullivan … Olivia Petersen of Morning Consult … former Sen. Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) (8-0) … former Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) … BP America’s Wynn Radford … Jeet Guram … Andy Post … Margarita Diaz … MacKenzie Smith … Cheryl Bruner … Camille Joseph … Chuck Raasch of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch … Robin and Abigail Pogrebin … Adi Sathi … Randy Schriver … WaPo’s Peter Wallsten …Jenna Lowenstein … Rebecca Nelson … Megan Heckerman Curatolo … POLITICO’s Maura Kelly, Robin Turner,Sean Scott and Thao Sparling … Mike Farrell … Brittany Desch … Bloomberg’s Jeremy Lin … Rachel Palermo … Eric Sapirstein … Paul Blank … Blake Zeff … Jordan Dunn … Go Big Media’s Phillip Stutts … Derrick Robinson … CBPP’s Shannon Buckingham … Myra Freeman … Deirdre Murphy Ramsey of Precision Strategies … Derek Flowers … Ralph Neas … Leslie Ridle … Tim Del Monico … David Brancaccio … Gabrielle Hopkins … Margaret McInnis of Rep. Marcy Kaptur’s (D-Ohio) office (32)
Send Playbookers tips to playbook@politico.com. Playbook couldn’t happen without our editor Mike Zapler, deputy editor Zack Stanton and producers Allie Bice, Eli Okun and Garrett Ross.
“The good person out of the good treasure of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasure produces evil, for out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks,” (Luke 6:45, ESV).
Kelvey Vander Hart: If you understand what socialism really is you would understand that Jesus Christ, the son of God, was not (and is not) a socialist.
“People hate being made to think,” the educator and classical scholar Edith Hamilton (1867-1963) once said. Laziness of mind is indeed easy to find, even more so today than in her time. It shows up in vapid social media posts, flippant political rhetoric, superficial media coverage, knee-jerk but sanctimonious opinions, …
Saturday brought about the continuation of the conflict between Israel and Palestine. Of course, we all know by now that the terrorist group Hamas is launching rockets from the Palestinian area toward Israel. Thousands of rockets have been launched resulting in injury and destruction. Israel has defended itself, with the …
The wheels are starting to come off the Biden Honeymoon Cruise Ship. We knew terrible polling practices were tainting the numbers, but you cannot hide the truth forever. If you want to slant a favorability poll for a Democrat President or Vice President, poll far more Democrats than Republicans. It …
In this installment of our weekly Sunday Six conversation, PF Whalen and Parker Beauregard of The Blue State Conservative point out the obvious: When given control, leftist policies rooted in totalitarianism and blind to human nature unleash a torrent of predictable chaos, crime, and poverty. #6: Portland, Oregon Parker: It …
Happy Monday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. Regrets are for people who wear pants.
Well, we made it through the weekend. Let us hope that we will be able to say the same thing next Monday.
I wouldn’t put any money on it.
The world certainly does seem to be unraveling during this time that the United States is going without a grown-up president, doesn’t it? I don’t know about all of you, but I thought it was super cool when Donald Trump was president and there was peace in the Middle East. We were enjoying those halcyon days mere months ago, but it seems like years.
That’s what a Joe Biden asterisk presidency will do to a person.
Our close ally Israel is really feeling the pain of having a weak, drooling moron kinda/sorta in charge of the United States. The Hamas terrorists are feeling emboldened by the lack of leadership in the U.S. and have been letting their violent freaks flag fly for days on end now.
On Friday, the Israeli Air Force bombed a building in Gaza that served as headquarters for the Associated Press and Al Jazeera, the pro-Palestinian, Arab propaganda organ.
No one was hurt or killed because the IDF gave a one-hour warning that the building was going to be destroyed. That didn’t stop the AP from issuing a statement from its CEO Gary Pruitt that condemned Israel in the most hysterical terms.
“We are shocked and horrified that the Israeli military would target and destroy the building housing AP’s bureau and other news organizations in Gaza. They have long known the location of our bureau and knew journalists were there. We received a warning that the building would be hit.”
The Associated Press is a biased leftist propaganda organization that has as much to do with real journalism as AC/DC does with jazz music. The posturing and feigned horror over the attack are a bit much to swallow. As Rick noted, the AP knew that they were in bed with Hamas in that building:
After Operation Protective Edge in 2014, former AP reporter Matti Friedman wrote in The Atlantic: “Hamas understood that reporters could be intimidated when necessary and that they would not report the intimidation… The AP staff in Gaza City would witness a rocket launch right beside their office, endangering reporters and other civilians nearby – and the AP wouldn’t report it, not even in AP articles about Israeli claims that Hamas was launching rockets from residential areas.”
Israel’s advance warning was a kindness that no one in that building deserved. One side of this conflict is still somewhat civilized, however.
Speaking of sides, it’s obvious which one the United States should be on. Israel should be able to expect the support of the full might of the American military if they need it. As we are all painfully aware though, the U.S. is a bit rudderless when it comes to big-people issues. The world is saddled with a weak, addled occupier of the Oval Office who spends his days barking at the clouds about masks. Working through a snack baggie of Cheerios is about all that Joe Biden can handle these days, and he probably needs Secret Service help just to do that.
The bad actors of the world are going to be living their best lives as long as the Biden-Harris-Fauci administration is in charge. We’re only witnessing the beginning right now. Remember, Ol’ Gropes has been in office just four months and everything is falling apart. Another year of this and the whole world might be on fire.
But, hey, the leftist election-fraud snowflakes are free from mean tweets.
PJ Media senior columnist and associate editor Stephen Kruiser is a professional stand-up comic, writer, and recovering political activist who edits and writes PJ’s Morning Briefing, aka The Greatest Political Newsletter in America. His latest book, Straight Outta Feelings, is a humorous exploration of how the 2016 election made him enjoy politics more than he ever had before. When not being a reclusive writer, Kruiser has had the honor of entertaining U.S. troops all over the world. Follow on: Gab, Parler, MeWe
Space Force Commander Fired Over Criticism of Marxism, CRT In US Military . . . A US Space Force commanding officer was relieved from duty on Friday after expressing concern on a podcast that Marxist ideologies are becoming prevalent in the US military. Lt Col. Matthew Lohmeier, commander of 11th Space Warning Squadron at Buckley Air Force Base, Colo., was relieved from duty over a “loss of trust and confidence in his ability to lead,” a Space Force spokesperson told Military.com. “This decision was based on public comments made by Lt. Col. Lohmeier in a recent podcast. Lt. Gen. Whiting has initiated a Command Directed Investigation on whether these comments constituted prohibited partisan political activity,” the spokesperson added. Daily Caller
The establishment has been weaponizing federal employment policies, including the security clearance process, to eliminate conservatives from military ranks and the intelligence agencies.
UFC fighter thanks Jesus and dedicates his win ‘to all the people who’ve been hurt by Marxist ideologies’ . . . UFC fighter Beneil Dariush dedicated a recent victory to those hurt by Marxists and thanked Jesus for his win. “First things first, I want to thank my lord and savior Jesus Christ, that’s No. 1,” Dariush said to UFC commentator Joe Rogan on Saturday. “No. 2, I want to dedicate this fight to all the people who’ve been hurt by Marxist ideologies.”
Dariush, a devout Christian who was raised in Iran until his family migrated to America, went on to say that “there are millions” of people affected by Marxist ideologies and that he loves them and understands their pain. Washington Examiner
Unlike the Pentagon’s apparatchiks who forced out Col. Lohmeier from the military for his anti-Marxist remarks, Dariush, an immigrant from Iran, clearly understands the threat of Marxist ideology. This incredible UFC mixed marshal arts (MMA) fighter knows that Marxism and totalitarian government control go hand in hand. They have no place in America, the country of freedom and liberty.
Politics
Poll: Majority view Biden as socially, fiscally liberal . . . A majority of voters said President Joe Biden is socially and fiscally liberal, a new Hill-HarrisX poll finds. Fifty-two percent of registered voters in the May 10-11 survey said Biden is socially and fiscally liberal while half said he’s politically liberal. Thirty-five percent said he’s socially and fiscally moderate while 36 percent said he’s politically moderate.Fourteen percent of respondents said he’s politically conservative while 13 percent said he’s fiscally conservative and 12 percent said he’s socially conservative. The Hill
Elise Stefanik says Trump is the leader of the Republican Party . . . “Voters determine the leader of the Republican Party, and President Trump is the leader that they look to,” said Rep. Elise Stefanik, newly installed as the House Republican Conference Chair after anti-Trump Rep. Liz Cheney was voted out. White House Dossier
FBI reclassifies 2017 shooting of Republican lawmakers as domestic terrorism . . . The FBI, under Republican pressure, has reclassified the 2017 near massacre of more than a dozen Republican lawmakers at a baseball field in Alexandria, Virginia, from “suicide by cop” to an act of domestic terrorism. The new designation of shooter James Hodgkinson as a “domestic violent extremist” is contained in a lengthy FBI report titled “Strategic Intelligence Assessment and Data on Domestic Terrorism.” Republicans began pressuring the FBI on April 15 when Rep. Brad Wenstrup of Ohio, who was at the park that morning of June 14, 2017, disclosed at a public hearing that the FBI officially classified the shooting as “suicide by cop.” Mr. Wenstrup told The Washington Times on Sunday that the FBI changed Hodgkinson’s classification because he and other Republicans had protested that the bureau was minimizing an attack on the country’s legislative branch as the personal act of a troubled man. Washington Times
The ‘troubled’ man who happened to dislike Republicans specifically.
Rise of a megadonor: Peter Thiel makes a play for the Senate . . . A tech billionaire and longtime Trump backer, Thiel’s private power-brokering illustrated his growing influence in Republican politics, but his clout has become even clearer in the weeks since. Thiel has given a pair of $10 million donations to separate super PACs that are backing Ohio Republican J. D. Vance and Arizona Republican Blake Masters. The contributions are the most ever to outside groups supporting single Senate candidates, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan organization that tracks political giving. The largesse has transformed Thiel, an early Facebook investor and PayPal co-founder, into an outsize figure in the fight for control of the 50-50 Senate, providing fuel to two longtime associates who embrace his populist-conservative views. Politico
National Security
Ron Johnson calls cyber attacks an ‘existential’ threat . . . Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) said Sunday that the cyberattack on the Colonial Pipeline that forced its shutdown exposed the “vulnerabilities” in the U.S. electrical grid that could pose an “existential” threat to the country’s energy system. Johnson, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in an interview with John Catsimatidis on his WABC 770 AM radio show that the country should take away from the Colonial Pipeline hack “how incredibly vulnerable our fuel grid is, our electrical grid is.” Johnson argued that President Biden’s plans to transition the U.S. to cleaner energy could further increase the vulnerability of America’s energy systems. The Hill
Nunes Urges Biden to Order Probe of CCP Virus Origin . . . House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) urged President Joe Biden to order a whole-of-government investigation into the origins of the CCP virus. Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee are concerned by circumstantial evidence that the virus could have leaked from a research lab in the central Chinese city of Wuhan that had received millions in funding from the U.S. government. “We have identified substantial circumstantial evidence supporting the theory that a laboratory leak could have been responsible for the origination of COVID-19,” Nunes wrote to President Biden. “It is critical that this possibility be thoroughly examined, particularly in light of the Chinese government’s obstruction of multilateral bio-forensic investigations and its destruction of important evidence.” Epoch Times
Without Congressman Nunes’s efforts to declassify a large body of USG secrets, we would’ve never learned about the extent of the “Trump-Russia collusion” deception operation perpetrated on the American people by corrupt US intelligence and law enforcement officials.
Coronavirus
Covid-19 Vaccine Works, Even if Side Effects Differ for All, Doctors Say . . . Infectious-disease specialists are working to reassure people that they are still getting protection from Covid-19 vaccines, even if they don’t experience the flulike side effects that hit some people after vaccination. Fatigue, chills and other symptoms in the days following vaccination are evidence that the vaccine is having the desired effect on the body’s immune system. The U.S. CDC and the World Health Organization say on their websites that side effects mean the body is “building protection” against the coronavirus. That message may lead some people to infer that the absence of side effects indicates that vaccination isn’t causing the body to build immunity to the virus. Yet infectious-disease doctors say most people get protection from the vaccines, even if they don’t experience side effects. Wall Street Journal
Fauci: Pandemic showed ‘undeniable effects of racism’ in society . . . Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious diseases expert, said Sunday the COVID-19 pandemic had exposed racial disparities in living conditions and access to healthcare across the U.S. that required serious action to fix. During a commencement address given virtually to new graduates of Emory University, the president’s chief medical adviser pointed to higher rates of COVID-19 deaths among Black Americans, Latino Americans, and members of other minority groups as evidence of “social determinants,” such as access to healthcare, that caused the pandemic to hit those communities especially hard. adequate diet, access to health care and the undeniable effects of racism in our society,” he said. The Hill
What nonsense. But let’s follow this government apparatchik and leftist agitator’s logic for a minute. You need a valid ID to go see a doctor. Dems are discouraging blacks and other minorities from obtaining a government-issued ID, which prevents these groups from getting access healthcare.
So, Fauci, Dems, & Co. are fostering alleged “racism” in our society. What am I missing here?
International
IDF Deception Lead To Surprise Attack Against Hamas Terror Targets . . . A clever act of deception may have led to the IDF scoring a massive victory against terror tunnels in the ongoing conflict with Hamas. Israeli officials hinted earlier in the week that an extended campaign against Hamas was likely to come. Defense Minister Benny Gantz said in a Tuesday press conference that “this is just the beginning — the first in a long line of actions we have planned.” At around 9 p.m. local time Thursday night, the IDF began building up armored and infantry battalions along the Gazan border following a week of non-stop rocket attacks from Hamas. IDF’s official English language Twitter account then sent a tweet saying, “IDF air and ground troops are currently attacking in the Gaza Strip,” leading many western media outlets to report that an Israeli invasion of Gaza was imminent. Daily Caller
What an excellent use of D&D by the IDF’s war fighting strategy, to achieve tactical surprise.
Israel Rules Out an Immediate Cease-Fire With the Palestinians . . . Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday ruled out the prospect of an immediate cease-fire with the Palestinians in the deadly flare-up of Middle Eastern violence, defying growing international demands for de-escalation and concerted mediation efforts by regional and world powers. Civilian casualties mounted a week after fighting intensified. With an Israeli goal of eradicating militant missile capabilities, international officials face difficulty finding a path to peace. Wall Street Journal
IDF Strikes Alleged Hamas Outpost, Journalists Claim They Are the Real Target—and Victims . . . In the wake of an IDF attack on Hamas militants housed in an office building shared with the Associated Press, the wire service issued an outraged response suggesting news outlets were in fact the Israelis’ real target. In his statement, AP president and CEO Gary Pruitt did not acknowledge the fact that Hamas militants were operating out of the same building. “We received a warning [from Israel] that the building would be hit,” Pruitt said, noting that “we narrowly avoided a terrible loss of life.” Reporters amplified the AP’s tendentious analysis, the latest illustration of the anti-Israel bias and solipsistic tendencies of the news media. Along with the AP, the Qatari-funded Al Jazeera allegedly worked out of the same building, which doubled as a Hamas outpost. Washington Free Beacon
Can’t make this stuff up. Just removed AP from my bookmarks list. They haven’t been of much use lately anyways.
Money
Biden faces tough path to US economic recovery . . . Joe Biden is grappling with a messy and unpredictable economic outlook as the twin threats of rising inflation and slow jobs growth shake confidence in the steadiness of the US recovery from the pandemic. The US labour department this month reported that the pace of job creation slowed significantly in April. The report showed an unexpectedly steep jump last month in its consumer price index, compounding fears of mounting inflationary pressures.The US has driven the global economic recovery, with the IMF predicting gross domestic product growth of 6.4 per cent in 2021. Financial Times
You should also know
BLM co-founder: Black homeownership is a way to ‘disrupt white supremacy’ . . . Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors, a self-described Marxist, who has a real estate portfolio worth more than $3 million, on Saturday shared a report about the history of racism in the housing market. “Black Americans And The Racist Architecture of Homeownership,” is part of an NPR documentary series, “We Hold These Truths,” on American democracy. According to the report, Black homeownership in the United States has barely budged in the last half-century: In 1970, the national Black homeownership rate was 41.8%; in 2019, is was 42.3%. On her Instagram page, Cullors, 37 suggested that “Black homeownership has always been a way to disrupt white supremacy.” Fox Business
WARNING: THIS ONE IS NOT FOR KIDS.Moms Go Thermonuclear Over NSFW Material In Class Reading Assignments . . . Parents condemned the Loudoun County’s school board during a May 11 meeting over explicit material in reading assignments for high school students. Parents read passages from books, including “Monday’s Not Coming” by Tiffany Jackson, which were apparently assigned to 9th grade students in Loudoun County Public Schools (LCPS). This is the same school board meeting where a mother blasted the school system’s use of critical race theory. Passages from Jackson’s book read by the furious parents included characters discussing sex, a female character being beaten and thrown into a closet and a sexual encounter in a classroom. The book “#MurderTrending” by Gretchen McNeil, was also quoted, where a female character discussed the size of a male friend’s genitalia. Daily Caller
I had to edit out the especially vile language that our kids apparently have been subjected to. We are way past the era of juvenile, distasteful potty humor of ‘Captain Underpants’. With the books like the one on the LCPS reading list, the government run “schools” are now in the pornography territory.
Can Josh Hawley Break the Internet? . . . The Tyranny of Big Tech, Senator Josh Hawley’s excoriation of corporate power, created a media firestorm before it even came out. The original publisher, Simon & Schuster, dropped the book amid the January 6 riots and the Missouri Republican’s insistence on contesting the 2020 election results. Now snatched up by conservative publisher Regnery, it’s selling well—the latest example of cancel culture’s Streisand effect. Hawley knows exactly whom he wants to go after: Facebook, Apple, Amazon, and Google. Hawley’s “corporate barons” don’t even create real physical things. “[T]oday’s tech oligarchs wield immense power, thanks to a combination of government aid and monopoly; like the barons, they are utterly convinced of their own righteousness and their right to govern America.” The book’s main targets are the attention economy these oligarchs created and their censorious behavior Washington Free Beacon
Glad we still have conservative publishers who are not afraid of the senseless mob.
Guilty Pleasures
Oops! AP Reporter Forgets To Remove Hamas Headband Before Going Live . . . In an embarrassing blunder on camera, a Middle East reporter for the Associated Press Forgot to remove his green Hamas headband and ski mask before going live to cover Israel’s latest airstrike.
“This is a shocking war crime,” said AP’s foreign correspondent Mohammed Ahmed Mohammed Mohammed. “Israel is now blatantly attacking journalists. Behind me is the building that was our Gaza bureau of operations before the evil Jews demolished it. Death to Israel. Allahu Akbar.”
The journalist quickly caught himself and realized he was still wearing his terrorist headgear before frantically ducking out of frame. “Sorry folks, technical difficulties. As I was saying, Israel and its supporters in the United States have a lot to answer for in the deliberate targeting of the free press.” He then tried to cut the feed but pressed the wrong button and blew himself up. Babylon Bee
This one is satire. But the Washington Free Beacon article in the International section IS NOT SATIRE.
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Happy Monday! One piece of bookkeeping before we begin: Declan is on vacation this week, which means that for the time being this newsletter fully supports the St. Louis Cardinals, currently three games up on the Cubs in the NL Central.
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
In the wake of updated Centers for Disease Control guidance last week that vaccinated people can safely mingle without masks, a number of states lifted or eased their public-space mask mandates, including Michigan, Colorado, Illinois, Kentucky, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Washington.
Other states, including Connecticut and Delaware, plan to relax their mandates shortly, and still others, like Massachusetts, have said they will issue updated guidance soon. Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland said he would lift his state’s mandate once 70 percent of Marylanders have received at least one vaccine dose.
Israel escalated its airstrikes over the weekend in the Gaza Strip, hitting the home of a senior Hamas leader and destroying a building that was used by the Associated Press and other journalists.
The top Democrat and top Republican on the House Homeland Security Committee reached an agreement on Friday for legislation to create an independent commission to probe the January 6 attack on the Capitol. Top congressional Republicans haven’t embraced the plan yet, saying they have yet to study it. The House is expected to vote on the bill as soon as this week.
The United States confirmed 16,387 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday per the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 Dashboard, with 1.5 percent of the 1,065,253 tests reported coming back positive. An additional 259 deaths were attributed to the virus on Sunday, bringing the pandemic’s American death toll to 585,967. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 27,992 Americans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19. Meanwhile, 2,712,865 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered yesterday, with 157,485,596 Americans having now received at least one dose.
Fighting Grows in Middle East
Fighting escalated between Israeli forces and Palestinians over the weekend. A series of Israeli airstrikes took out buildings the Israeli government said were related to Hamas militants and their ability to attack civilians in Israel. Meanwhile, scores of rockets fired by Hamas filled the skies over the Gaza Strip, with many intercepted by Israel’s Iron Dome defense system and others landing on Israeli soil.
Along with the continued air strikes, the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) announced Friday night it had deployed ground troops to the Gaza Strip for the first time in this conflict. However, the IDF later walked that back, saying there were no ground troops present in Gaza. IDF lieutenant colonel and English-language spokesman Jonathan Conricus took responsibility for the flip-flop, saying he had misunderstood field reports coming into his office.
Some have speculated, however, that the IDF intentionally misled the public to think it had put boots on the ground so Hamas would do the same. The announcement sparked Hamas troops to utilize a network of underground tunnels known as the “Gaza Metro System.” Once the IDF confirmed there were troops in the tunnels, they bombed kilometers of the system, killing “quite a lot of enemy combatants,” an Israeli spokesperson said.
Israel also destroyed a building over the weekend that was home to multiple media outlets, including the Associated Press (AP) and Al Jazeera. According to the IDF, Hamas military intelligence assets were operating from the building, which Israel announced would be bombed ahead of time to permit civilians to evacuate. The move has garnered strong backlash from members of the media.
Last week, the CDC made a long-awaited change to its recommendations: Vaccinated people, the agency said, are very unlikely either to catch COVID-19 or to transmit the virus that causes it, and are thus safe to go out in public without wearing masks. But while many hailed the announcement as the most powerful sign yet that we’re finally getting back to normal, others—particularly policymakers in state and local governments—groused that the CDC had pulled the rug out from under them by flipping its former guidance on its head overnight.
With a few exceptions, including the state of New York, most state and local governments have determined that vaccine passports—systems showing who has been vaccinated and who has not—are more trouble than they’re worth. As a result, the only way to implement the new guidance seems to be to remove mask mandates altogether. It’s a difficult switch for governors and mayors to navigate, given that many have faced heavy opposition until now in following CDC guidelines by keeping such orders in place.
Take for example Quinton Lucas, the mayor of Kansas City, Missouri, who in the wake of the CDC announcement said his mask order would go unchanged—then reversed his position just hours later, arguing there is no practical way as a matter of policy to distinguish between the vaccinated and the unvaccinated. “I don’t know if that’s the type of rule that was written in coordination with anyone who has been a governor or a mayor over the last 14 months,” he told the New York Times.
While we’re on the subject of the CDC’s creaky responses to new COVID-related developments, Derek Thompson of The Atlantic has a good survey of how the agency’s communication during the pandemic “has lagged so consistently behind the research that it’s brought new meaning to the concept of ‘following the science.’” The agency has a hard job, he writes. But that’s not enough to curve their grade over the last year: “In lieu of clear guidance, [the CDC] has routinely delivered confusion and surprise, complicated our ability to grok this virus, and mostly done so in a way that followed the science—with a six-month lag. That’s how you get lurching shutdowns, hundreds of millions of dollars spent on hygiene theater, bans on beach walks, rules against outdoor bars, closed playgrounds, mass confusion about protecting ourselves and our families, and a large number of Americans who have tuned out public-health officials entirely. Guidance is overrated. We needed an actual guide.”
Federal investigators are reportedly looking into potential incidents of “Havana syndrome” in the United States—a set of symptoms experienced by U.S. personnel in Cuba in late 2016, including headaches and nausea, that led government officials to fear a mysterious form of attack by an adversary like Russia or China. A recent report from the National Academy of Sciences argued that the symptoms are most likely caused by “directed, pulsed radiofrequency energy.” In Foreign Policy last week, chemist Cheryl Rofer questioned the science behind those claims. “Aside from the reported syndromes, there’s no evidence that a microwave weapon exists—and all the available science suggests that any such weapon would be wildly impractical,” she wrote. “It’s possible that the symptoms of all the sufferers of Havana syndrome share a single, as yet unknown, cause; it’s also possible that multiple real health problems have been amalgamated into a single syndrome.” She pointed out that proponents of the idea haven’t outlined how such a weapon would work: “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, and no evidence has been offered to support the existence of this mystery weapon.”
In his Sunday French Press, David goes deep on a recent controversy touching a niche subject close to his heart: transracial adoption and the laws that govern it. Last week, America’s largest Protestant foster care and adoption agency, Bethany Christian Services, proposed changes to adoption law to permit case workers to “consider the cultural, ethnic, or racial background of the child and the capacity of the prospective foster or adoptive parent to meet the needs of such background” while placing children with families. This provoked backlash from conservatives, who accused the agency of capitulating to the “woke” left. But it’s a reality, David writes, that families who commit to transracial adoption or foster care face unique challenges for which it’s important they be prepared. “Call something ‘woke,’” he writes, “and too many Americans wall themselves off from engagement and reflexively oppose ideas that should be carefully considered.”
In his Friday G-File, Jonah chews over a common liberal response to the CDC’s latest masking guidance: hand-wringing over the idea that unvaccinated people may soon be able to go without masks, too. “My own response to this is, basically, I don’t care,” he writes. “My family and friends are vaccinated. I’d like the people sitting next to me to be vaccinated too—for their sake. But I really don’t care very much, because even if they’re contagious, I’m extremely unlikely to get COVID. And if I do, the symptoms are going to be mild. That’s what the science says.”
Rep. Liz Cheney, stripped last week of her role as GOP conference chair, joined the Dispatch Podcaston Friday to discuss the 2022 midterms, the future of the Republican Party, and the events that led to her ouster. “At the end of the day,” Cheney said, “if being on House leadership on the Republican side requires the embrace of that lie [that the 2020 election was stolen], that’s not something I’m willing to participate in.”
In her Friday Uphill, Haley surveyed the grim reality of how those lies have filtered down into the rank-and-file of the Republican conference—all while leadership continues to deny there’s an issue at all. “I don’t think anybody is questioning the legitimacy of the presidential election,” House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy said last week. “A lot of people question it, to be frank with you,” House Freedom Caucus chair Rep. Andy Biggs said hours later. “Republican lawmakers—who see Trump as essential to their efforts to retake the House—are wary of contradicting him,” Haley writes. “If you ask them whether Joe Biden lawfully won the presidency, most won’t give you a straight answer.”
Kemberlee Kaye: “I think it’s now abundantly clear (if it weren’t before) that unelected bureaucrats have waaaaay too much power.”
Mary Chastain: “This jerk deleted the tweet without an apology, but I’m not shocked since he has a history of anti-Semitic behavior. Twitter hasn’t suspended him or deleted his account. But at least we don’t have mean tweets from Trump or those awful videos from Project Veritas, right!? Do you know what really disturbed me? The tweet had over 500 likes. It’s appalling there are people who legit think the world needs another Hitler.“
Leslie Eastman: “I will say this for the Biden Administration: I feel young again, inasmuch I am reliving bits of my childhood in the 1970’s. Welcome Back Carter Week at Legal Insurrection“
Vijeta Uniyal: “As Hamas’s murderous rockets rained down on Israeli civilians for the seventh day in a row, the Israeli military is intensifying the targeting of terrorist bases and leading operatives inside Gaza. The targets include rocket launch sites, tunnels, terrorist cells and top leadership. The strikes came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended his country’s counter-terrorism measures and vowed to continue with the military operations.”
David Gerstman:“Vijeta Uniyal blogged about Israel’s attacks on Hamas’ infrastructure in Gaza, including the Hamas tower that housed AP offices. Despite the indictment of AP’s newsgathering abilities and objectivity, the news organization seems to want to keep the matter in the news.”
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Gaza City and the Absence of Diplomacy
As fighting escalates in Gaza City, we’re reminded of what the political experts told us throughout the Trump presidency. Newt Gingrich wrote:“The experts told us the Middle East would explode in December 2017, after President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
The experts similarly predicted catastrophe 15 months later, when the Trump administration recognized Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, a strategic region on Israel’s northern border previously controlled by Syria.
And yet, each time life continued in the region as it had before. There were some protests and a few isolated instances of violence, but that’s it. Journalists, commentators, the diplomatic establishment — they were all wrong. So too was the prevailing conventional wisdom, which had dictated Washington groupthink for decades.
In fact, rather than spur chaos, the Trump administration’s staunch support for Israel, tough posture toward the Palestinians, and campaign of maximum pressure against Iran actually yielded Arab-Israeli peace in the form of the Abraham Accords.”
Now, just over a 100 days into the Biden presidency, the chaos is coming into fruition. Over the weekend, Israel continued targeted attacks against Hamas after Hamas shot rockets at Israeli citizens. From Fox News/AP:
“Israeli airstrikes on Gaza City flattened three buildings and killed at least 26 people Sunday, medics said, making it the deadliest single attack since heavy fighting broke out between Israel and the territory’s militant Hamas rulers nearly a week ago.
…
Earlier, the Israeli military said it destroyed the home of Gaza’s top Hamas leader, Yahiyeh Sinwar, in a separate strike in the southern town of Khan Younis. It was the third such attack in the last two days on the homes of senior Hamas leaders, who have gone underground.
…Israel has leveled a number of Gaza City’s tallest office and residential buildings, alleging they contain Hamas military infrastructure. On Saturday, Israel bombed the 12-story al-Jalaa Building, where the office of The Associated Press was located. The building also housed the TV network Al-Jazeera and other media outlets, along with several floors of apartments.
“The campaign will continue as long as it is required,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. He alleged that Hamas military intelligence was operating inside the building.”
Michael Goodwin of The New York Post wrote:“[T]he Jewish state is defending itself with superior weaponry. But it’s also fighting a rear guard diplomatic action against the Biden White House.
Anticipating the new president would unfairly urge Israeli restraint, officials effectively told the U.S. to buzz off.
‘International intervention is a reward to the Palestinian rioters and those who back them’ and Israeli official told Axios.
Sad but true, and everybody knows it.
Besides, Biden already restored the funding to Palestinians the Trump administration ended and resumed the Obama-era habit of talking down to Israel, as if it’s an undeserving supplicant instead of a friend and strategic ally.”
CDC Guidelines Continue to Confuse, Not Clarify
Restaurants thrown back into chaos amid conflicting mask mandates (Hot Air)
Analysis Shows Restaurants, Gyms, Hair Salons Were Not A Significant Source Of COVID Transmissions, But There Are Caveats (The Daily Wire)
CDC’s about-face on masks appears politically motivated to help a struggling Biden (Joe Concha at The Hill)
The Left’s Pro-Mask, Anti-Vaxxer Movement Is Built On Contempt (The Federalist)
The View’ Derails As Meghan McCain And Joy Behar Go To War Over Vaccine Guidelines – ‘It Violates My Civil Rights’ (The Political Insider)
Some states and retailers usher in return to normalcy for people vaccinated against Covid-19 (CNN)
New mask guidance does not grant permission for widespread mask removal: Walensky (ABC News)
🤷🏻♀️
What I’m Reading This Week (ICYMI)
I’m a fast reader, but not that fast. From last Thursday’s BRIGHT:
That Summer by Jennifer Weiner. From the description:
“Daisy Shoemaker can’t sleep. With a thriving cooking business, full schedule of volunteer work, and a beautiful home in the Philadelphia suburbs, she should be content. But her teenage daughter can be a handful, her husband can be distant, her work can feel trivial, and she has lots of acquaintances, but no real friends. Still, Daisy knows she’s got it good. So why is she up all night?
While Daisy tries to identify the root of her dissatisfaction, she’s also receiving misdirected emails meant for a woman named Diana Starling, whose email address is just one punctuation mark away from her own. While Daisy’s driving carpools, Diana is chairing meetings. While Daisy’s making dinner, Diana’s making plans to reorganize corporations. Diana’s glamorous, sophisticated, single-lady life is miles away from Daisy’s simpler existence. When an apology leads to an invitation, the two women meet and become friends. But, as they get closer, we learn that their connection was not completely accidental. Who IS this other woman, and what does she want with Daisy?”
A Case of the Mondays
#TheHonorProject Is Here To Help Remember Our Veterans This Memorial Day (The Federalist)
Ad Seeks To Place ‘A Pair Of Destructive Demon Cats Who Stink Up Your Home’ (The Federalist)
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May 17, 2021 01:00 am
In a divided America, the FBI focus on one group of politically motivated people, while ignoring others who are more violent, cannot end well. Read More…
May 17, 2021 01:00 am
The dirty cloth rags that hundreds of millions of Americans wore over their faces were “useless as designed and could not stop” respiratory viral spread. Read More…
Who put the 1979 calendar on the wall?
May 17, 2021 01:00 am
Who knew that it would take 42 years for another Democrat to displace the nice man from Plains, Georgia as the worst president of our lifetimes? Read more…
Common sense isn’t common anymore
May 17, 2021 01:00 am
The last two decades seem to have depleted the store of American common sense that helped make our nation so great. Read more…
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Parents with children who qualify for President Joe Biden’s expanded child tax credit will begin to receive their monthly payments on July 15, the administration said Monday.The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service … Read more
American Airlines confirmed Wednesday the company is investigating a Texas pilot who criticized an education plan that introduces critical race theory into his local school district.What is the background?After a video went viral three years ago showing teenage students using the N-word at a party in Southlake, Texas, the Carroll … Read more
It’s not possible to both uphold the U.S. Constitution and the identity politics regime. The only option is to choose which master Americans will serve: Ordered freedom or sexual chaos.
David Frum’s dangerous argument is part of a larger effort to suggest that if China attacks democratically ruled Taiwan, helping Taiwan is not worth the risk of war with China.
Whether you’re just looking for your morning coffee fix before work or a remote workplace with lots of ambiance, chances are you have far better options than Starbucks.
The biggest threat to the economy is the Federal Reserve’s continued monetary expansion to fund proliferating government spending despite warning signs of rising inflation.
As American adults breathe free without that little sting behind the ears, our children remain needlessly constrained by symbolic fabric face coverings.
A U.S. Space Force special unit commander was fired from his post last week after he discussed the infiltration of Marxist ideology into the U.S. military Read More
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40.) REUTERS
The Reuters Daily Briefing
Monday, May 17, 2021
by Linda Noakes
Hello
Here’s what you need to know.
Israel kills an Islamic Jihad commander, AT&T and Discovery conjure up a new entertainment giant, and why finishing work on time could be a lifesaver
Today’s biggest stories
FILE PHOTO: Cast members arrive for the premiere of the film ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2’ in New York, July 11, 2011. REUTERS/Lucas Jackson
U.S.
AT&T, the owner of HBO and Warner Bros studios, and cable and streaming network Discovery, the owner of lifestyle TV networks such as HGTV and TLC, are to combine their media assets.
The proposed deal would put together one of Hollywood’s most powerful studios, home to the Harry Potter and Batman franchises, with Discovery’s stable of home, cooking, nature and science shows.
A former Florida official central to the federal probe into whether U.S. Representative Matt Gaetz trafficked a minor for sex will plead guilty today and agree to cooperate with prosecutors, which may spell trouble for the Republican congressman.
Microsoft conducted a probe into co-founder Bill Gates’ involvement with an employee almost 20 years ago after it was told in 2019 that he had tried to start a romantic relationship with the person, the company says.
A Palestinian firefighter reacts at the site of Israeli strikes in Gaza City, May 17, 2021. REUTERS/Mohammed Salem
WORLD
Israel killed a senior Palestinian militant commander in Gaza in air strikes which it said also targeted underground tunnels used by Hamas, and Islamist groups renewed rocket attacks on Israeli cities.
Myanmar’s Miss Universe contestant, Thuzar Wint Lwin, used the pageant to urge the world to speak out against the military junta, whose security forces have killed hundreds of opponents since it seized power in a February 1 coup.
Global shares hit the pause button and gold briefly reached a three-month high as surging COVID-19 cases in Asian countries and inflation pressures tempered demand for riskier assets.
Bitcoin rallied from a three-month low in a volatile session that saw investors initially selling and then buying cryptocurrencies in the wake of Tesla boss Elon Musk’s tweets about the carmaker’s bitcoin holdings. In his latest tweet, Musk said “Tesla has not sold any bitcoin”.
Euro zone governments’ borrowing costs are at multi-month highs and German 10-year bond yields are rising towards 0%, yet ECB policymakers and investors appear unruffled, a sign that they view the bloc’s ongoing economic recovery as the real thing.
Quote of the day
“I shall be hugging literally everyone I can get my hands on. I shall snatch babies from their mothers, and lean over zimmer frames”
On the edge of Moroccan desert, surfers give kids a taste of freedom
In a small fishing town wedged between the Atlantic Ocean and the Sahara, a group of idealistic young surfers are teaching local children to brave the waves.
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Three federal police officers wrenched the man’s arm behind his back, choked him, and slammed him to the ground, causing damage that required surgery. And you won’t believe what the U.S. veteran’s ‘offense’ was. See the video for yourself.Read more…
‘Lt. Gen. Whiting has initiated a Command Directed Investigation on whether these comments constituted prohibited partisan political activity.’Read more…
A judge in Seattle has canceled a restraining order that had been imposed against a street preacher who was targeted by an unidentified critic. Officials Pacific Justice Institute say they… Read more…
(FREE BEACON) – Little League baseball coaches in Alexandria, Virginia, will be required to take a diversity, equity, and inclusion course this month. In an email to coaches on Thursday,… Read more…
(CNBC) – Cloudera exited some Bay Area office space early last year with plans to sublease it and move employees south to the software company’s Silicon Valley headquarters. But the… Read more…
(GATEWAY PUNDIT) – Recently, Commanding General MG JP McGee issued new guidelines for unvaccinated soldiers of the 101st Airborne Division during a virtual town hall Tuesday night. As of today,… Read more…
(STARDIA POST) – The victor of a $26 million California Lottery prize may have in a real sense washed the opportunity of a fortune down the channel. The triumphant SuperLotto… Read more…
(SUMMIT NEWS) – Facebook owned Instagram has decided to introduce a feature allowing users to pick from a list of 41 pronouns, thus saving on characters in the bio, but… Read more…
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47.) ABC
May 17, 2021 – Having trouble viewing this email? Open it in your browser.
Morning Rundown
CDC director clarifies guidance on mask removal: After a weekend of confusion over new guidance that vaccinated people can mostly ditch face masks, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said the guidance does not grant permission for widespread removal of masks. “If they’re vaccinated, they are safe. If they are not vaccinated, they are not safe. They should still be wearing a mask or better yet, get vaccinated,” Dr. Rochelle Walensky said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” Since the new mask guidance was announced Thursday, many states, local governments and businesses have updated their mask ordinances based on the CDC’s recommendation that vaccinated individuals can be maskless indoors, outdoors or in large crowds. Some states, including California and New York, are keeping their universal mask mandates intact. The guidelines still call for masks to be worn on public transportation, and in homeless shelters, hospitals and prisons. The CDC is recommending that schools continue its COVID protocols for the current school year, including masks and recommended distancing, as most students are not fully immunized.
Protesters take to US streets amid growing Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Pro-Palestinian protesters took to the streets in cities from Atlanta to Los Angeles over the weekend to call for an end to Israeli airstrikes over the Gaza Strip, which have killed more than 140 people and injured more than 1,000. The protests in the U.S. fell on Nakba Day, which commemorates the 1948 displacement of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians amid Israel’s declaration of independence, according to the Associated Press. The fighting has increased after tensions over the prospective eviction of six Palestinian families in East Jerusalem. Clashes between police and protesters at al-Aqsa Mosque, the third holiest site in Islam, prompted a rocket assault from Hamas into Israel. In turn, Israel responded with airstrikes of its own, and the two sides have continued to trade assaults since. Gaza is described by many human rights groups as an effective “open-air prison.” “It is unavoidable to have to have civilian casualties when there is shelling or airstrikes,” Suhair Zakkout, a spokesperson for the International Committee of the Red Cross in Gaza, told ABC News.
Black teen athlete speaks out after being forced to cut hair: Nicole Pyles, a Black 16-year-old high school student from North Carolina, said she felt “disrespected” and “humiliated” after being told her hair style, beaded braids, violated the rules of a softball game. According to Pyles, an umpire told her he was unable to see her uniform number due to her hairstyle. After a second complaint, Pyles said she was given the choice to remove the beads or stop playing. “I truly felt like in my heart that it was not a choice,” she said, also adding, “My hair means a lot to me … I’m not going to let braids take away from who I am on the field and off the field, but it is a part of me, and no, I don’t want that to be stripped away from me.” Durham Public Schools called the ban on hair beads “problematic.” “As reflected in our school board’s unanimous resolution in support of the CROWN Act (an acronym for Creating a Respectful and Open World for Natural Hair, legislation banning hair discrimination), Durham Public Schools supports our students’ right to free expression and opposes unreasonable or biased restrictions on Black women’s hairstyles,” the district said in a statement.
Kidney, donor recipient become ‘family’ after 1st meeting: A man who nearly died while waiting for a kidney for more than four years met his kidney donor for the first time two years after the lifesaving donation. Booker T. Washington, 41, of California, met his donor, Lisa Sorlie, 53, of Wisconsin, on May 2 at a Milwaukee Brewers’ baseball game. The first meeting came almost exactly two years after Sorlie underwent surgery in Wisconsin to remove her kidney, which was then airlifted to California and transplanted into Washington’s body just hours later. Strangers at that time, Washington and Sorlie would only find each other later through a Facebook group for kidney donors. Their first in-person meeting was delayed due to COVID-19 but was even more special when it did happen. “She’s family now,” Washington said. Added Sorlie of the meeting, “It wasn’t like, ‘Hey, you’re the guy who has my kidney.’ It was more like, ‘Hey, you’re the friend I’ve been waiting to meet,’ and that kidney was a conduit. It was awesome.” During the baseball game, Washington surprised Sorlie with a sign on the scoreboard that read, “Happy transplant anniversary [I love you]. With all my kidney, you’re my hero, Lisa Sorlie.”
GMA Must-Watch
This morning on “GMA,” we’ll reveal our Summer Concert Series lineup! Plus, author Jennifer Weiner joins us live to talk about her latest book, “That Summer,” and her 20th anniversary in publishing. And the new Miss Universe joins us live to chat about her new title. All this and more only on “GMA.”
Today we look at growing pressure for a ceasefire as the Israel-Gaza conflict enters its second week and the latest on military operations there, plus why President Joe Biden needs to worry about the price of lumber.
Here’s the latest on that and everything else we’re watching this Monday morning.
The Israeli military continued to pound the Gaza strip early Monday, a day after dozens of Palestinians were killed in Israeli air raids and amid growing international calls for an end to the bloodshed.
Hamas also pressed on launching rockets at southern Israeli cities in the early hours.
There were no official reports of the number of casualties from the latest strikes after 42 Palestinians were killed in a series of air raids Sunday — the deadliest day yet in the escalating violence between Israel and the Hamas militant group that rules Gaza.
The latest confirmed figures put the death toll in Gaza at 197, including 58 children and 34 women, while ten people have been killed in Israel, including two children, according to health authorities on both sides.
The United Nations Security Council convened Sunday to discuss the crisis. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said the violence was “appalling” and had wrought “unconscionable death” and immense suffering.
“Fighting must stop. It must stop immediately,” he said.
Read the latest on this fast-moving situation here.
Also over the weekend, press freedom advocates condemned Israel’s airstrike Saturday on a Gaza building that housed offices of foreign media, including The Associated Press and Al-Jazeera.
And have you been wondering how this conflict began? Our explainer spells out how tensions in the region had been simmering for over a month.
Skyrocketing prices of lumber and other commodities could be a troubling sign for the post-pandemic economic boom President Joe Biden and congressional Democrats are counting on.
After hitting new heights in Rio, the shot-putter hit a serious low. She and other athletes preparing for the Summer Games are hoping to make their well-being a priority.
They’re loud but brilliant, particularly for their ability to be mini-time capsules that push through the soil and remind us of earlier versions of ourselves.
A fresh garden doesn’t have to be outside — we asked experts how these indoor garden systems can help you grow herbs and produce right from your kitchen.
One fun thing
Unable to resist the urge to wave at the end of Zoom calls? You’re not alone.
Yet psychologists and body language experts agree: Waving at the end of video calls is a good thing — an indication that just because we have been socially distanced for the last 14 months does not mean we have become socially inept.
From NBC’s Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann
FIRST READ: Biden battles new crises as honeymoon fades
It’s Day 118 of Joe Biden’s presidency, and we can safely say that the honeymoon phase for the new president is now over.
There’s been days of violence in the Middle East between Israelis and Palestinians, with NBC’s Andrea Mitchell reporting on increased calls for Biden to step up U.S. involvement to end the crisis.
“The only leader in the world that we believe that can stop this is President Biden,” said Nihad Awad, the national executive director of Council American-Islamic Relations, on “TODAY.”
REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque/File Photo
There are the continued gas shortages along the East Coast, although Coastal Pipeline has resumed its operations after the cyberattack that shut down its network.
And on top of it all, there was the confusing CDC guidance on masks, with the government saying vaccinated Americans can now shed their masks indoors and outdoors in most cases – but with less helpful guidance for other Americans.
TODD: If you live in a mixed vaccinated household and you’re fully vaccinated, do you go out — what do you do?
CDC’s ROCHELLE WALENSKY: You know, I think that that’s going to be family by family. People are going to have to decide whether their children will understand that if they’re younger than the age of 12 that they’re going to have to wear a mask if the rest of the family is not.
We don’t know if it’s just been a bad week for Biden or the beginning of a bad turn.
But now that we’re beyond 100 days, the going is definitely getting tougher.
What to watch in politics over the next month
Here are some of the key dates and stories we’ll be following over the next month:
Thursday, May 20: Third Democratic debate in the VA-GOV race
May 25: Anniversary of George Floyd’s death
June 1: NM-1 special election; also fourth and final Democratic debate in VA-GOV
June 8: Democratic primary in VA-GOV; also primaries in NJ-GOV
Data Download: The numbers you need to know today
198: The Palestinian death toll in Gaza as the current Israeli-Palestinian crisis stretches into its second week.
33,102,342: The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States, per the most recent data from NBC News and health officials. (That’s 88,483 more than Friday morning.)
590,611: The number of deaths in the United States from the virus so far, per the most recent data from NBC News. (That’s 2,125 more than Friday morning.)
273,545,207: The number of vaccine doses administered in the U.S.
34.3 percent: The share of Americans who are fully vaccinated.
TWEET OF THE DAY: Busted Gates
The latest in Virginia
In the Democratic contest for governor in Virginia, Jennifer Carroll Foy is up with a new TV ad airing in the Richmond and Norfolk media markets.
“I’ve spent my life helping people beat the odds,” she says in the ad. “We can do so much better than the status quo, to lift up every last one of us. That’s why I’m running for governor.”
Meanwhile, Jennifer McClellan will announce a new endorsement in Richmond at noon ET.
SHAMELESS PLUG
Be sure to tune into NBC’s Nightly News’ focus tonight on Orlando, Fla., where Lester Holt will interview local restaurant owners about the city’s comeback, as well as theme park and cruise ship employees. Additionally, “Nightly News” will look at the affordable housing crisis, speaking with residents who are struggling and the efforts to help them
Deaths mount in Gaza and Hamas rockets hit Israel as the conflict in the region continues to escalate. Also, a train carrying explosive material went off the tracks, causing a fiery explosion in Iowa. All that and all that matters in today’s Eye Opener. Your world in 90 seconds.
There is growing confusion around the CDC’s new guidance that people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can go without a mask outdoors and indoors.
Plus: Cult panic, what the AT&T merger means, and more…
Convicted under unconstitutional sodomy laws, they’re still fighting for freedom. In 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that laws criminalizing oral sex and sodomy were unconstitutional. For hundreds of years, these laws had been used to prosecute people for same-sex sexual activity and, less frequently, to prosecute unmarried people for having sex. With the advent of sex offender registries, sodomy convictions could come with not just imprisonment for a discrete time but a lifetime of stigma and foreclosed opportunity. But that’s all behind us now, right?
No—as Randall Menges’ story makes clear. Montana is fighting to keep Menges on the sex offender registry for gay sexual activity he engaged in nearly 30 years ago.
Now 45, Menges was convicted as a teenager for having consensual sex with two other male teens. Menges was then 18, and they were both 16 (which was then the age of consent in Idaho, where the acts took place). Idaho prosecutors charged him with “crimes against nature,” which the state treated as a ban on anal and oral sex. Menges wound up serving seven years in prison for it. Upon release, he was added to Idaho’s sex offender registry and, when he moved to Montana, to that state’s registry—a designation that has cost him work and friends, he toldThe New York Times.
Finally, last week, a federal court declared that Menges’ punishment is unfair. Menges was on the registry “because he was convicted of engaging in oral or anal sex with a person of the same sex, not because he had oral or anal sex with a minor or because such contact was nonconsensual,” wrote U.S. District Judge Dana Christensen. “Under Montana’s constitutional scheme, having consensual intimate sexual contact with a person of the same sex does not render someone a public safety threat to the community. Law enforcement has no valid interest in keeping track of such persons’ whereabouts.”
“In sum, Montana has no rational basis for forcing Menges to register as a sexual offender,” wrote Christensen.
“It should not have required a lawsuit to enforce the Supreme Court’s command from 18 years ago,” said Menges in a statement. “But I’m happy that it’s over.”
The judge ruled that by this upcoming Friday, “The state of Montana must: Remove Menges from Montana’s Sexual or Violent Offender Registry; expunge all records indicating Menges was ever required to register; and alert all agencies, such as courts, police departments, sheriff’s departments and the FBI, that Menges’ registration information is no longer valid,” the Daily Montananreports.
But Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen’s office said he will appeal the court’s ruling. A spokesperson for Knudsen said it “weakens our state’s sex-offender registry law, making kids and families less safe.”
Yes, in the year 2021, Montana is effectively contending that failing to brand someone who had consensual gay sex as a sex offender is a danger to families and kids.
Of course, prosecutors say that this is simply about process. Since Menges is also challenging Idaho’s requirement that people with sodomy convictions register as sex offenders, and that case is ongoing, he has no right to challenge his registration in Montana, state prosecutors argued.
“Montana hasn’t enforced its sodomy prohibition since 1997 and even formally repealed it in 2013,” notes Menges’ lawyer Matthew Strugar. “And Montana never required people convicted under its old sodomy prohibition to register as sex offenders. But Montana does require anyone with a conviction from another state that is registerable in that state to register if they move to Montana. So, despite taking measures to decriminalize gay life in Montana, the state still enforces Idaho’s backwards and homophobic treatment of old sodomy convictions”
Menges isn’t alone in his struggle. His case “comes amid a larger struggle over laws that have historically been used to discriminate against L.G.B.T.Q. people,” notes the Times:
Today, eight states still have anti-sodomy laws on the books but only three states — Idaho, Mississippi and South Carolina — have laws requiring sex offender registration for people convicted of sodomy, said Matthew Strugar, one of Mr. Menges’s lawyers.
Last September, Mr. Strugar, along with the A.C.L.U. of Idaho, filed a federal lawsuit challenging Idaho’s law on behalf of Mr. Menges and another man who was forced to register as a sex offender because he was convicted 20 years ago in another state for performing oral sex on his wife.
For now, the Montana ruling applies only to Menges’ Montana registration. But it could have broader implications. “The decision suggests that states cannot require sex-offender registration based on convictions under outdated and now unconstitutional ‘crimes against nature’ laws,” University of Montana law professor Anthony Johnstone told the Times.
FREE MINDS
Are we in a new age of cultism—or a new cult panic? Jesse Walker explores this question in an excellent feature from the June 2021 issue of Reason:
America has always been haunted by cults, but the hauntings are more acute at some times than others. “From the 1970s through the 1990s, from Jonestown to Heaven’s Gate, frightening fringe groups and their charismatic leaders seemed like an essential element of the American religious landscape,” Ross Douthat wrote in The New York Times in 2014. “Yet we don’t hear nearly as much about them anymore, and it isn’t just that the media have moved on. Some strange experiments have aged into respectability, some sinister ones still flourish, but over all the cult phenomenon feels increasingly antique, like lava lamps and bell bottoms.”
Seven years later, it is Douthat’s diagnosis that feels antique. Cults themselves may or may not be more common now than in 2014, but we’re awash in a flood of cult stories, cult rumors, and cult rhetoric. It’s still “nothing like where things were in the early ’90s,” says J. Gordon Melton, a professor of American religious history at Baylor. But “dislike of cults has never really gone away…and we’ve seen a heightening of that over the last couple of years.”
The interesting part of this is less the merger part and more that as part of this deal, AT&T would be breaking itself up and spinning off all of its media properties into a new company. That seems like an admission that its strategy of combining telecom + media didn’t work. https://t.co/RuJIlWQYHd
— James Surowiecki (@JamesSurowiecki) May 17, 2021
• The New York Times’Ben Smith explores “how hundreds of ‘Jeopardy!’ contestants talked themselves into a baseless conspiracy theory — and won’t be talked out of it.”
• Sally Satel criticizes the new menthol cigarette ban, warning that “attempts to improve public health by bans of widely used products – and addictive products, in particular – have a bad track record. The war on drugs and alcohol prohibition, which drove users into the arms of criminal dealers and unsafe markets with their riskier substances, stand as object lessons.”
• Former President Donald Trump continues to spread crazy conspiracy theories about voter fraud:
Wow. This is unhinged. I’m literally looking at our voter registration database on my other screen. Right now.
We can’t indulge these insane lies any longer. As a party. As a state. As a country.
— Stephen Richer—Maricopa Cnty Recorder (prsnl acct) (@stephen_richer) May 15, 2021
• Mastercard’s new porn rules hurt sex workers:
your reminder that this is what the abolitionists want / scare politicians and policy makers into agreeing to, making it next to impossible to be compliant so that sex workers are pushed off yet another means of making a living https://t.co/EI8VMmZbX4
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.
The simplest messages always work best. We as conservatives can sometimes get into the weeds when it comes to explaining what we believe. Calling Joe Biden an idiot over jobs and the border only gets … MORE
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55.) REALCLEARPOLITICS MORNING NOTE
05/17/2021
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Carl Cannon’s Morning Note
Infrastructure; PA Amendment; Watergate Wise Men
By Carl M. Cannon on May 17, 2021 08:41 am
Good morning, it’s Monday, May 17, 2021. Forty-eight years ago today, the American people were riveted by a spectacle that would result in the end of a presidency. With North Carolina Democrat Samuel J. Ervin Jr. presiding and Tennessee Republican Howard H. Baker Jr. serving as co-chairman, the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities commenced its much-anticipated public hearings.
Sam Ervin’s record on race relations wouldn’t fully pass muster today: 76 years old at the time of the Watergate hearings, he was a product of his time in a segregated South. But Ervin had served his country nobly in World War I and had the combat citations and Purple Heart to prove it. He had been among the leaders in the 1954 Senate move to censure Joseph McCarthy.
The televised hearings he chaired, complemented by a special prosecutor’s investigation, the sentencing of a cast of burglars by Judge John J. Sirica, the work of a Washington grand jury, and reporting by the Washington Post and other news organizations — along with a probe by the House Judiciary Committee — all would culminate in the resignation of Richard M. Nixon.
In a moment, I’ll have a brief word on one enduring lesson from that national crucible. First, 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. We also offer original material from our own reporters, columnists, and contributors:
* * *
Infrastructure Isn’t a Partisan Issue — It’s an American Issue. Chris Spear and Ian Jefferies argue that a user-funded pay-for could breach the divide in Congress over President Biden’s proposal.
Wolf Politicizes PA Amendment Process Ahead of Primary. Kyle Sammin spotlights the lack of neutral language the governor’s administration has used in referendum questions that would curb his emergency powers.
Pat McCrory’s N.C. Resurgence a Loss for Cancel Culture. Erich J. Prince outlines the former governor’s strategy in running for Senate.
RCP Takeaway. In the latest podcast episode, Greg Orman joins Andy Walworth, Tom Bevan and me in discussing the implications of CDC guidance on mask wearing and Biden’s economic relief efforts.
Securing Freedom by Multiplying Associations. Peter Berkowitz considers a call for “microlateralism” in foreign policy to address China’s aggressive actions.
Convicted Former Congressman Gets $55K Annual Pension. At RealClearPolicy, Adam Andrzejewski of OpenTheBooks reports on the legal loopholes that allow Chaka Fattah to “retire” on the government dime despite being sentenced to 10 years in prison in 2016.
Socialism Is Not What You Think. Neither Is Fascism. At RealClearMarkets, Walter Block offers a short course on the three basic ways to organize an economy.
Can Americans Remain Both Ignorant and Free? RealClearScience editor Ross Pomeroy reminds readers of Thomas Jefferson’s admonition regarding freedom, which he called the “first-born daughter of science.”
Wesleyan Cracks Down on Single-Sex Greek Life. At RealClearEducation, John Hirschauer has the story.
When Students Cheat. Also at RCEd, former congressman Todd Tiahrt examines the impact of online cheating tools such as the website Chegg.
* * *
“We are beginning these hearings today in an atmosphere of utmost gravity,” Senate committee Chairman Sam Ervin intoned on this date 48 years ago. “The questions that have been raised in the wake of the June 17 break-in strike at the very undergirding of our democracy. If the many allegations made to this date are true, then the burglars who broke into the headquarters of the Democratic National Committee at the Watergate were in effect breaking into the home of every citizen of the United States. If these allegations prove to be true, what they were seeking to steal was not the jewels, money or other property of American citizens, but something much more valuable — their most precious heritage, the right to vote in a free election.”
When it was his turn to speak, Howard Baker was less dramatic (although he was flanked by a Republican committee lawyer with a theatrical flair: future actor and senator Fred Thompson). Acknowledging Ervin’s main point — that the integrity of the political process had been called into question — the Tennessee Republican emphasized that the committee was not a court or a jury and was not impaneled “to pass judgment on the guilt, or innocence of anyone.” Its task, Baker said, was to find the facts and “assemble those facts into a coherent and intelligible presentation and to make recommendations to the Congress for any changes in statute law or the basic charter document of the United States, that may seem indicated.”
Today, Baker isn’t remembered for that anodyne opening statement, but rather for a question he posed to former White House counsel John Dean during the proceedings: “What did the president know and when did he know it?”
Initially, it seemed that this was as much of a defense of Nixon as it was a damning line of inquiry. At the outset of the hearings, Baker was considered by the White House to be an ally, and not without reason: Three months earlier, he had met privately with Nixon and advised the president on how the hearings would unfold.
But Baker’s searing question is remembered today because it underscores two essential traits of any congressional oversight that are in short supply on Capitol Hill today. The first is a willingness to follow the facts wherever they lead, irrespective of which political party stands to gain. The second, a condition of the first, is that the Senate Select Committee on Presidential Campaign Activities was truly bipartisan, in both the letter and spirit of that concept.
Death has become a major part of Iraq’s daily routine. Pro-Iran militias, death squads, hit lists and cold-blooded assassinations highlight how failed the state of Iraq is despite the international and local denial.
The Center for Security Policy held an important webinar on May 14 to discuss the recent Palestinian violence that is posing the worst challenge to Israel’s security – both externally and internally – in decades.
Center for Security Policy Advisory Board Chairman Pete Hoekstra and Center President Fred Fleitz joined John Bachman on Newsmax TV to discuss the recent ransomware attacks on the U.S. Colonial pipeline and the Irish health service.
Since World War II concluded with Japan’s unconditional surrender on the deck of the U.S.S. Missouri, military conflicts have generally not ended, but been suspended.
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62.) 1440 DAILY DIGEST
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Good morning. It’s Monday, May 17, and we’re covering continued violence in Israel, a leap forward for China’s space ambitions, and more. Have feedback? Let us know at hello@join1440.com.
Violence between Israel and militants in the Gaza Strip continued to escalate over the weekend, despite growing international calls for a cease-fire. At least 42 Palestinians were killed yesterday after Israeli airstrikes demolished three apartment buildings it said were home to Hamas officials. Residents said the attack came without warning, unlike earlier strikes.
Separately, Israel also targeted a building hosting international media outfits, including The Associated Press. Officials said it was also home to Hamas military intelligence.
The current strife was precipitated by the looming removal of a number of Palestinian families living inside Israel and clashes between police and protesters at the Al-Aqsa Mosque—one of Islam’s holiest sites.
Since last Monday, an estimated 197 Palestinians have been killed, including a reported 55 children. Eleven Israelis have been killed, including one child, amid more than 2,000 rockets fired by Hamas into Israel.
The fighting is the worst since 2014. Unlike the previous battles, Israel has seen a burst of fighting between Arab and Jewish civilians inside its borders. Arab-Israelis make up 20% of the country’s population.
See photos of the violence here (warning: sensitive content).
China Reaches Mars
Officials in China announced over the weekend the landing of the country’s Zhurong rover on Mars. The feat makes China the second country behind the US to successfully deliver a rover to the Martian surface.
Part of the Tianwen-1 mission, the rover deployed after orbiting the planet for more than three months, and will focus on studying the geology and climate of the planet. The spacecraft touched down in Utopia Planitia (interactive map), inside Mars’ largest impact crater—and the landing site of the 1976 American Viking 2 mission.
China is rapidly realizing its ambitions in space ($$, NYT). Separate from its Mars missions, the country successfully landed a lunar rover on the moon in December and launched the first part of its space station—meant to compete with the International Space Station—in April.
DarkSide Disbands
The Eastern European hacker collective known as DarkSide purportedly disbanded over the weekend, after the group claimed their servers and a stash of Bitcoin had been seized. The ransomware group was responsible for the nearly weeklong shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline, which provides almost half of the East Coast’s gas. It was not clear who or which country was responsible for the seizure.
Officials have pointed to the group as one of the most prominent in the rising phenomenon of ransomware-as-a-service, where hacker groups provide on-demand services to criminal groups or governments to take over IT systems of organizations around the globe. Colonial Pipeline reportedly paid DarkSide $5M to retrieve data and unlock its systems last week. Despite returning to full operations, gas shortages have lingered—more than 80% of stations were out of gas in the nation’s capital as of this morning.
Separately, Ireland was forced to take much of its health IT systems offline over the weekend after being hit with a broad-ranging cyberattack.
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>The late Kobe Bryant, Tim Duncan among nine from 2020 class inducted into Basketball Hall of Fame (More) | Paul Pierce, Chris Bosh headline 2021 Hall of Fame class (More) | Long shot Rombauer wins 2021 Preakness Stakes; Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit finishes third (More)
>Mexico’s Andrea Meza crowned 69th Miss Universe, Miss Brazil Julia Gama is runner-up; pageant had been postponed since last year due to COVID-19 (More)
>Damon Weaver, student reporter who interviewed President Obama at age 11, dies at 23 (More) | Chuck Hicks, Hollywood actor and stuntman whose career spanned seven decades, dies at 93 (More)
>Researchers measure brainwave activity in the hippocampus, the brain’s memory center; surgically implanted microgrid structure demonstrates electrical signals travel back and forth across the region, encoding information (More)
>Socio-political study links political polarization with an aversion to uncertainty; relationship holds regardless of type of political views (More)
>Study finds some mammals, including rats, mice, and pigs, are capable of breathing via their intestines when experiencing oxygen deprivation or respiratory failure (More)
Business & Markets
>US stock markets up Friday (S&P 500 +1.5%, Dow +1.1%, Nasdaq +2.3%) to close worst week since February (More)
>Sources say Microsoft’s board probed an alleged inappropriate relationship between Bill Gates and a female Microsoft employee (More)
>US retail sales see no growth in April, following 10.7% March surge (More) | US retailers including Walmart, Publix, Trader Joe’s, and others update mask policies following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance (More)
Politics & World Affairs
>Average new COVID-19 cases in the US dip below 34,000 per day, the lowest since June of last year (More) | About 60% of US adults have received at least one vaccine shot (More)
>Rep. Elise Stefanik (R, NY-21) elected as House GOP conference chair, replacing Rep. Liz Cheney (R, WY-At large); the 36-year-old ally of former President Donald Trump becomes the highest-ranking female House Republican (More)
>India grapples with flood of corpses washing up on the banks of the Ganges River; officials attempting to determine how many were COVID-19 deaths amid surge in cases (More)
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Clickbait: Three-eyed calf born in Wales (yes, w/photos).
Historybook: Aristides is first winner of Kentucky Derby (1875); Brown v. Board of Education decision outlaws racial segregation in public schools (1954); HBD boxer Sugar Ray Leonard (1956); First same-sex marriages performed in the US (2004); RIP singer Donna Summer (2012).
“Success is attaining your dream while helping others to benefit from that dream materializing.”
– Sugar Ray Leonard
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63.) AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH
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May 17, 2021
Understanding Big Tech Dominance Requires Economics, Not…
By Peter C. Earle | “Censorship” is an arguably specious accusation to level at Big Tech and social media firms. The argument that such platforms are players in a grand, purposeful yet unseen world order, or that they are being ordered to pick…
Will 2020 Prove to Be the Beginning of the End of Modernity?
By Donald J. Boudreaux | “Abruptly starting 16 months ago, we prostrated our panicked selves before our “leaders,” begging that they use their god-like knowledge and powers (called “the Science”) to safeguard us from one particular source of…
By Art Carden | The hits just keep coming. First, lumber prices exploded. Second, there was a terrible jobs report. Third, there was a gas shortage. These are all SAD stories- Supply And Demand. They are also, of course, stories about adaptation,…
War Of Words Over Inflation Stirs Questions for the Fed
By Judy Shelton | “Does it make sense, for a nation founded on the notion of individual liberty, equality under the law, and personal property rights, to allow a government agency to manipulate the value of the currency used by its citizens?
There Is No Avoiding the Long Run: A Low Interest Rate…
By James L. Caton | “We’ve trod down the post-Bernanke path long enough to learn that the cost of following a policy of resource allocation by the Federal Reserve instead of allowing a modestly higher rate of inflation is lower growth of real…
By Vincent Geloso | “The findings of these recent articles are incredible for anyone seeking to bridge the divide between scholarly knowledge and the popular imagination. They show that even the worst-case scenario implies that the Industrial…
“Liberty consists in the right to do whatever is not contrary to the rights of others: thus, exercise of the natural rights of each individual has no limits other than those which secure to other members of society enjoyment of the same rights.” ~Thomas Paine
Thomas Paine’s writings and political advocacy are a stark reminder to us all of a period in history when it was a noble cause to defend your fellow countrymen’s dignity and human rights.
Checks and balances of political systems are not enough to preserve liberty and individual sovereignty; man’s spirit is the last defence against the powers of an ever-encroaching bureaucratic government.
On the menu today: how the conventional wisdom that America has hit the vaccine wall is just flat wrong; how Ohio’s vaccine-encouragement lottery system had an immediate impact; and the risk-vs.-reward calculation of professional athletes when it comes to COVID-19 vaccinations.
I’m not fond of that metaphor, because when you hit a wall, you stop. The daily average of administered vaccines did peak at 3.37 million shots a few days later on April 13, but it’s not like vaccinations suddenly dropped like a stone after that. The average daily rate slowly and steadily declined, to just under 2 million per day.
We’ve enjoyed a nice little bump in the past few days; the preliminary figure for Saturday, May 15, was 2.39 million, and the preliminary figure for Sunday was 2.71 million.
The U.S. was always going to reach a point … READ MORE
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Why Facebook supports updated internet regulations
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“A Florida politician considered key to the investigation of Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) formally pleaded guilty Monday to sex trafficking of a minor and a host of other crimes, agreeing to cooperate fully with prosecutors and testify in court in hopes of leniency for himself,” the Washington Post reports.
“Appearing in court Monday, Joel Greenberg, a former tax collector for Seminole County, Fla., repeatedly said, ‘I do’ in response to questions from the judge, affirming what he had already admitted in a written plea agreement made public last week. His plea and deal to cooperate is a potentially ominous sign for Gaetz, as it signals prosecutors have lined up a critical witness as they continue to investigate the congressman.”
The House of Representatives is looking at Wednesday vote to establish commission to investigate January 6 attack at the U.S. Capitol, CNN reports.
It’s still unclear if House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy will back it, but Republican leaders are not planning on whipping the vote, meaning it would be a vote of conscience for their members.
The bill will also need 60 votes in the Senate to pass.
South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster (R) “signed a bill into law officially bringing back the electric chair and introducing the firing squad to perform executions of death row inmates,” the Columbia State reports.
“Conservative lawmakers pushed the execution legislation forward this year in response to a years-long nationwide reluctance on the part of drug companies to sell their products to states looking to use them in executions. As a result, South Carolina has not been able to obtain the drugs to administer a lethal injection in years.”
“Former President Donald Trump ventures back onto the campaign trail next month, addressing a Republican Party convention in a key swing state: North Carolina,” USA Today reports.
“Trump is to speak at a June 5 dinner during that weekend’s North Carolina Republican Party state convention.”
“North Carolina is central to Republican efforts to regain control of Congress in the 2022 elections. Trump carried the state in both of his presidential campaigns, each race being a close one.”
“A photo emerged of a GOP lawmaker who last week downplayed the Capitol siege and compared the rioters to tourists barricading the House doors with furniture on January 6,” Insider reports.
“Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-GA) said during a House oversight committee hearing on Wednesday that it was a ‘bald-faced lie’ to call the riot an insurrection.”
“After Clyde’s comments, a photographer shared a photo he had taken of Clyde using furniture to barricade the House against rioters trying to force their way in.”
“The Supreme Court on Monday said it would hear a case from Mississippi challenging Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. The case will give the court’s new 6-to-3 conservative majority its first opportunity to weigh in on state laws restricting abortion,” the New York Times reports.
Washington Post: “Abortion opponents for months have urged the court’s conservatives to seize the chance to reexamine the 1973 precedent. Mississippi is one among many Republican-led states that have passed restrictions that conflict with the court’s precedents protecting a woman’s right to choose before fetal viability.”
The case will be the first major abortion dispute to test all three of former President Trump’s three appointees to the top court.
Texas Land Commissioner George P. Bush (R) “is sending strong signals that he’s preparing to launch a primary challenge against Attorney General Ken Paxton, hoping it can center on Paxton’s legal troubles and how he has run his office,” the Texas Tribune reports.
“Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee (R) signed a controversial law regarding access to gender-specific bathrooms late last week, prompting cries of discrimination from advocates for transgender individuals,” The Hill reports.
The law says a person’s gender is “a person’s immutable biological sex as determined by anatomy and genetics existing at the time of birth.”
New research shows “a sprawling online network tied to Chinese businessman Guo Wengui has become a potent platform for disinformation in the United States, attacking the safety of coronavirus vaccines, promoting false election-fraud claims and spreading baseless QAnon conspiracies,” the Washington Post reports.
Guo’s association with former Trump White House adviser Stephen Bannon “became a focus of news coverage last year after Bannon was arrested aboard Guo’s yacht on federal fraud charges.”
“An alarming amount of vaccine-hesitant people who list side effects as a top concern falsely believe the vaccines cause death, DNA alteration, infertility or birth defects,” Axios reports.
“Respondents also listed blood clots, which are a real side effect of some coronavirus vaccines, but extremely rare. This survey suggests that misinformation or a skewed understanding of risk may be behind a sizable portion of vaccine hesitancy.”
“The expanded monthly child tax credit introduced in President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID relief package will begin arriving in parents’ bank accounts on July 15,” Axios reports.
“The credit, part of the administration’s plan to transform the country’s social safety net in the wake of the pandemic, would provide families with $300 monthly cash payments per child up to age 5 and $250 for children ages 6–17.”
Politico: “As discussions heat up about how to pay for trillions in new spending on infrastructure, Biden and his party want to hike taxes on the wealthiest Americans and on companies that have evaded federal taxes for years. Poll after poll shows those proposals are broadly popular with voters, particularly amid a deadly pandemic that’s exacerbated the nation’s already stark economic divisions.”
“While Democrats acknowledge that touting a tax hike — even if it’s just for top earners — carries risk, they see a dramatic shift in the politics of taxing the rich that they’re ready to use to their benefit.”
Politico: “Rep. John Katko (R-NY) has struck a deal with Democrats on a 9/11-type commission to investigate the Jan. 6 attack, with the bipartisan legislation expected to come to the floor this week. But we are watching closely to see what the blowback will be from Donald Trump and his allies — and whether that falls on McCarthy. And if the former president does get involved, how will that impact the resolution?”
“While the GOP leader seemed to dismiss the deal on Friday, telling reporters he hadn’t seen the details and emphasizing his demand that any commission should also probe violence tied to racial unrest. But multiple sources tell our friends over at Playbook that Katko communicated back and forth about the details of the deal and Katko got most of what they wanted. Katko has also told Republicans there is some wiggle room with the language of the agreement, even if it doesn’t specifically mention violence related racial tensions. Democrats may not feel the same way.”
Politico: “Even if Kevin McCarthy wanted to punish Marjorie Taylor Greene for her hallway antics last week, could he?”
“McCarthy no longer can deploy his most powerful weapon: removing her from her two committees. Democrats already used it for him, stripping the Georgia Republican provocateur from her committee assignments earlier this year.”
“There is also the question of whether the GOP leader is willing to do anything. Republicans argue that Greene was unfairly booted from her committees because it was based on social media activity that happened prior to her time in Congress. McCarthy, who is known for being non-confrontational, could decide to make a remark that publicly distances the conference from her behavior or he could move to talk with her privately. TBD if he will… And then TBD if she’d listen to him.”
New York Times: “A year before France’s next presidential election, Ms. Le Pen, 52, is expected to be President Emmanuel Macron’s main challenger in a rematch of the 2017 vote. For the past four years, Ms. Le Pen has been trying to rebuild her credibility following a poor campaign that was marred by an incoherent message and punctuated by a disastrous debate against Mr. Macron.”
“She has tweaked her economic message, shedding the party’s opposition to the euro and European Union, a stance that alienated mainstream conservatives. She now talks of forming a government of national unity by picking the most competent, seasoned individuals, including figures from the left, who would add gravitas to a party whose vice president, Jordan Bardella, is only 25 years old.”
“Police departments in New York City and other large metro areas across the U.S. are bulking up patrols and implementing new tactics to prepare for what they say could be a violent summer,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“States lifting Covid-19 restrictions and more people out in public spaces in warmer weather increase the likelihood of more shootings, as well as less-serious crimes… Many crimes, including violent ones, normally rise in summer. Gun purchases also rose during the pandemic and cities have seen an increase in guns being used in crimes.”
Bloomberg: “New York City is gearing up for the last month of a mayoral race that is coinciding with a spike of gun violence the city hasn’t seen in decades, including a 166% increase in shootings in April from a year before and a shooting in Times Square that’s rocked the city.”
Thirty-eight percent (38%) of Likely U.S. Voters think the country is heading in the right direction, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey for the week ending May 13, 2021.
In the latest evolution of creeping Universal Basic Income, Biden administration officials said on Monday that a poverty-fighting measure included in the COVID-19 relief bill passed this year will deliver monthly payments to households…
A former Jeffrey Epstein insider claims that Bill Gates was a regular at the notorious pedophile’s $77 million Manhattan townhouse, where Epstein held “men’s club” – type gatherings for his closest pals (documented by his home’s alleged…
Update 5/17/2021 0700EST: Musk has taken to Twitter in the early reaches of Monday morning to try and quell speculation that Tesla had sold its bitcoin – following continued selling in cryptocurrencies overnight. “To clarify speculation…
Authored by Sven Henrich via NorthmanTrader.com, The secret is out. It can no longer be denied and it’s up to each and everyone of us to help bring the secret to the forefront of public awareness. For the mainstream financial media won’t…
Update (1920ET): In a Sunday night bombshell, the Wall Street Journal reports that Microsoft’s board of directors wanted Bill Gates gone following an internal investigation into an inappropriate sexual relationship with a female Microsoft…
Authored by Julie Kelly via American Greatness (emphasis ours) A newly-obtained video shows United States Capitol Police officers speaking with several January 6 protestors—including Jacob Chansley, the so-called “Q shaman”—inside the…
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by Eric Hanushek via Hoover Education Success Initiative | The Papers
Considerable uncertainty surrounds the overall state of school finance coming out of the pandemic. As unemployment peaked soon after the economic lockdowns that involved most states after March 2020, states became very concerned about the expected future tax revenues, and they began planning a retrenchment in all spending, including that for schools.
The Hoover Institution has launched a new working group charged with assessing the opportunities and risks presented by breakthrough technologies for America’s economy, democratic governance, and national security interests.
U.S. foreign policy — from the founding era to the present moment — revolves around a recurring debate about the diplomatic means for securing freedom. As the nation grew and the world changed, it was necessary to revise and refine the understanding of America’s role in international affairs and the character and extent of the nation’s alliances.
How Hoover Institution fellow Lee Ohanian made the international news for economic advice given to a candidate vying to replace Newsom in the recall election.
Podcaster and author Julia Galef talks about her book The Scout Mindset with EconTalk host Russ Roberts. Galef urges us to be more rational–to be open-minded about what we might discover about the world–rather than simply defend what we already believe, which she calls the soldier mindset. The conversation is a wide-ranging discussion of our biases and the challenges of viewing the world objectively.
A research fellow at the Hoover Institution, David R. Henderson, joins Paul E. Peterson to discuss the long-term costs of the pandemic response on young people.
Hoover Institution fellow Victor Davis Hanson discusses the “Russian associated” hack of the Colonial Pipeline and what President Biden should do to combat the nation’s current “inflationary cycle.”
On 5 November 2008, Queen Elizabeth II was at the London School of Economics to open a new building. This was just a few weeks after Lehman Brothers had gone bust. In the weeks that had followed, governments and central banks of the rich world had to rescue some of their biggest banks and financial institutions. The queen asked the economists present: “If these things were so large, how come everyone missed them?”
COVID-19 pandemic is probably India’s greatest challenge since independence, former RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan said on Saturday and added that in many places the government was not present to help the people for various reasons.
“I think we have to talk about it more.” “I think we have to talk about it more.” That’s what former First Lady Michelle Obama proclaimed in her interview on Monday with “CBS This Morning,” referring to police threats faced by African Americans.
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.
Thank you for subscribing to the Hoover Daily Report.
This email was sent to: rickbulow1974@gmail.com
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71.) DAILY INTELLIGENCE BRIEF
Daily Intelligence Brief.
Good morning, it’s May 17, 2021. On this day in history, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled racial segregation in public schools unconstitutional (1954); Megan’s Law — requiring police to notify local schools, daycares and residents of registered sex offenders in their communities — was enacted (1996); and Massachusetts became the first U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage (2004).
TOP STORIES
Shocking Discovery Near the Southern Border: Texas Farmer Finds 5 Abandoned Migrant Girls Under the Age of 7
It is simply getting worse.
A farmer making his morning rounds near the Mexico border spotted a group of small children. As the farmer described the discovery, “It was about 8:30 in the morning, just driving along, and all of a sudden I see them there, beside the bank, here on the river, five little baby girls all by themselves, hungry, crying. One didn’t have any clothes on,” reportedKVIA.
The unidentified farmer quickly contacted Border Patrol and the local constable for help.
The children were reportedly from Honduras and Guatemala. Fortunately, they were said to be “uninjured, healthy, in good spirits,” and they didn’t require medical attention. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services took over the care of the girls after they were processed by Border Patrol.
Texas Congressman Tony Gonzales stated, “While we thank God they were found alive, these tragic scenes are happening more and more.”
ATP recently visited the border and saw firsthand the incredibly complicated situation that both migrants and our Border Patrol face. Our organization has decided to get involved and do what we can to aid these migrant children, as well as support the efforts of the U.S. Border Patrol and National Guard.
We encourage our readers to get involved, hold our politicians accountable for their actions in managing the situation, and support the efforts of ATP and our Border Patrol and National Guard in their extremely challenging responsibilities.
We released our in-depth analysis of the U.S.-Mexico border crisis in the DIB Premium and it will be posted on the ATP website soon.
volved in direct combat. Israel endured a barrage of rocket attacks launched by the militant wing of Hamas and its terrorist partner, Islamic Jihad. This is happening at the same time as Israeli Law Enforcementcontinues to struggle against the violent uprisings in ethnically mixed cities in Israel and the West Bank.
The press loves an underdog. This explains their biased sympathy for the current Palestinian plight. Despite media reports endlessly blaming Israel, corrupt leadership in Ramallah is using propaganda to perpetuate the current crisis in the streets, while Hamas terrorist factions in Gaza act as opportunistic vultures, looking for any excuse to show off their Iran-sponsored rockets.
It’s important to understand that, unlike the West Bank, Gaza is not “occupied territory.” In 2005, Israel withdrew entirely from the coastal enclave. Gaza is self-governing and autonomous, but heavily funded and supplied with weapons by Iran. Their publicized hardships are a mess of their own making. So although the press likes to tie the West Bank and Gaza together, the current issues at hand are not one and the same.
Matt Gaetz’s Troubling Reactions to Accusations of Sex Trafficking and Other Impropriety
The Guardian isreporting that Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz is under federal justice department investigation for a variety of potential charges. In addition to the accusations ofsex trafficking a minor and paying numerous adult women for sex, there have been allegations ofsex trafficking trips to the Bahamas and, less salacious but equally illegal, possible corruption through politicallegislation favors for friends in the Florida medical marijuana industry.
Meanwhile, Gaetz’s “wingman,” Joel Greenberg, has beensinging like a canary. Prosecutors have been working on a plea deal for Greenberg with an original deadline of May 15. This was pushed to this week.
Gaetz’s reaction to the allegations has been to deny everything. He showed up on Fox News’ “Tucker Carlson Tonight” and claimed that Carlson and his wife had been to dinner with Gaetz and a female friend whom he said was later “threatened by the FBI.”
Carlson was surprised by this odd statement and later explained that this was, “one of the weirdest interviews I’ve ever conducted.”
Then there is what is being dubbed, the “tour of distraction,” a nationwide “America First Tour” led by Gaetz and controversial representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, meant to drum up support and distract from the scandals. The goal: Attack Democrats and call out any Republicans who were, in their minds, insufficiently loyal to former President Donald Trump.
The tour started on May 7 at the conservative Florida retirement community known as The Villages. During his speech, Gaetz appeared to make alighthearted joke about the serious allegations against him.
“So, today is my birthday. And I already know how CNN’s gonna report it. ‘Matt Gaetz has wild party surrounded by beautiful women in The Villages.’ So just get ready for it.”
He claimed to be a victim of cancel culture and implicated the “deep state” as being behind the sleazy allegations against him.
In America, we believe a person is innocent until proven guilty. These charges are unsettling, and based on Gaetz’s now aggressively deflecting behavior, it does raise a question as to what he’s ultimately going to be charged with, how soon that will happen and whether these speeches may be the death throes of his political career.
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.
From All Things Possible and the Victor Marx Group we aim to provide you with a daily intelligence brief collected from trusted sources and analysts.
Sources for the DIB include local and national media outlets, state and government websites, proprietary sources, in addition to social media networks. State reporting of COVID-19 deaths includes probable cases and probable deaths from COVID-19, in accordance with each state’s guidelines.
Thank you for joining us today. Be safe, be healthy and
Welcome to the FEE Daily, your go-to newsletter for free-market news and analysis, authored by FEE.org Policy Correspondent Brad Polumbo. If you’re reading this online, click here to make sure you’re subscribed to the email list.
Good afternoon! I am so happy to be back from vacation in the Dominican Republic and writing again to you all. My boyfriend and I had an amazing time, but there was one big problem: They don’t have iced coffee! The closest thing they could do was an espresso shot and some water poured over ice… suffice it to say it was not the same. So, join me in grabbing an American-style large cold brew and buckle up for the top free-market stories of the day.
Lockdown-Weary New Yorkers Fled to One Key Free State in Droves, New Figures Show
Composite Image By FEE | Image Credit: PixaBay
When the COVID-19 crisis came to our shores, some states chose to embrace harsh lockdowns and heavy-handed government restrictions while others prioritized personal freedom and economic vitality. Thanks to this natural experiment, Americans got to vote with their feet on what worked best—and new data show that lockdown-weary New Yorkers fled to one key free state in droves: Florida.
“Florida might as well be known as the sixth borough,” the New York Postreports.
Under Governor Ron DeSantis’s much-criticized leadership, Florida reopened schools and businesses and rejected lockdowns far earlier than most other states. It’s experiencing a population boom, with a particular influx from New York.
“New data from the Sunshine State’s Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles offers the latest glimpse of just how many New Yorkers fled south during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Postreport continues.
The DMV data show that roughly 33,500 New York residents swapped their drivers’ licenses for Florida documents from September 2020 to March 2021. That’s 32 percent higher than the previous year. And far more of Florida’s new residents came from New York than any other state, although, interestingly, the other top former states of new Floridians included lockdown-heavy Illinois, California, and New Jersey.
Migrating Americans have come to this realization despite the cacophony of voices insisting otherwise.
Alarmist media outlets decried Georgia’s easing of harsh pandemic restrictions as an “experiment in human sacrifice” and a “death march.” But as FEE’s Jon Miltimore recently reported, “Today the state’s COVID mortality rate stands 30-35 percent lower than many states that enforced strict lockdowns, such as New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and Massachusetts.”
Similarly, many politicians predicted disaster and carnage when Texas and Mississippi decided to roll back their remaining restrictions in March. Said disaster never materialized—not even close.
Pandemic outcomes and economic results alike have resoundingly vindicated free states over lockdown states. So, it’s perhaps unsurprising that tens of thousands of families chose freedom over big government when given the choice to relocate during the COVID-19 pandemic. Let’s just hope that trend continues long after the pandemic.
New Poll Shows Long Term Consequences of Portland Riots
Image modified by FEE, originally by Cristian Castillo on Unsplash
Riots rocked Portland, Oregon throughout 2020 and have continued in 2021. While some peaceful protesters advocated for justice in the wake of George Floyd’s death, violent agitators escalated dozens of these protests into violent riots, doing more than $23 million in damage to businesses in downtown Portland.
New polling sheds light on just how long-lasting the economic and social consequences of this violence may be.
“Residents across the metro area say downtown Portland has become dirty, unsafe and uninviting and many anticipate visiting the city’s core less often after the pandemic than they did before,” the Oregonianreports in new coverage of a poll of 600 residents it conducted. “Asked for their perceptions of downtown, respondents frequently used words like ‘destroyed,’ ‘trashed,’ ‘riots’ and ‘sad.’”
The result? Nearly half of the poll’s respondents said they haven’t been downtown since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, with another 30 percent having only visited a few times. And this isn’t likely to change anytime soon.
“[My 13-year-old-son] is very afraid to go downtown now,” one mother surveyed said. “He loved to go down just to the waterfront and walk around. He loved to go to Saturday Market. These are things that cannot happen anymore.”
Resident Laurie Lago suggested that the government’s response largely allowing the violent riots has contributed to this widespread sentiment: “There seems in the last year to be this permission to do violence.”
Indeed there has been. The “woke” local government allowed much of the property destruction and violence to go unpunished. Here’s a map of the destruction in the city’s downtown area:
The resulting collapse in the rule of law and protection of property rights in downtown Portland is turning it into an economic no-go zone—exactly as Econ 101 would have predicted.
Famed free-market economist Thomas Sowell once said that property rights “belong legally to individuals, but their real function is social, to benefit vast numbers of people who do not themselves exercise these rights.” What Sowell meant is that the protection of property rights does not just benefit property holders—it is a necessary prerequisite for any market economy to function.
When property rights are insecure or routinely violated—widespread looting and arson are prime examples—the very foundation of a community’s economy is undermined. Investors understandably balk at the uncertainty and forego investing there, while entrepreneurs cannot launch new enterprises or even continue current ones without the knowledge that they will be secure in their property.
When property rights are undermined, job opportunities and income streams dry up. And, unfortunately, that looks like exactly what’s happening in downtown Portland.
Data of the Day: Gas prices spiked 2.5% in just 5 days after last week’s Colonial Pipeline hike, new data show, continuing the concerning upward trend in gas prices. (Spoiler alert: Big government is contributing to this problem).
P.S. I have a new podcast out now interviewing free-market economist Alex Salter of Texas Tech University on the faulty premises behind big-spending “Bidenomics.” Listen now on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or watch us on YouTube.
You don’t always have time to read a full in-depth article. Thankfully, FEE Fellow Patrick Carroll is here to give you the key takeaways from one highlighted article each day.
Of the many problems in the world today, perhaps one of the most pervasive issues is laziness of mind. Simply put, people don’t like to think. From social media to mainstream media to political rhetoric, many of our conversations are superficial and fueled more by emotion than by reason.
Edith Hamilton, who lived from 1867 to 1963, also found herself surrounded by people who refused to think. But Hamilton was different, as Lawrence Reed explains in his latest article on FEE.org. She loved thinking and strove to apply reason in every area of her life.
Hamilton grew up in Ft. Wayne, Indiana where she was homeschooled by her parents. After earning honorary doctorates from Yale, the University of Rochester, and the University of Pennsylvania, she served for 26 years at the Bryn Mawr School, a college preparatory institution for girls in Baltimore, Maryland. Then, after retiring in her mid 50s, she decided to begin a new career as a writer.
One of her favorite topics to write about was ancient Greece. She loved their culture, their history, and their philosophy of life. Her first book, The Greek Way, was published in 1930 when she was 62, and she published multiple books after that and became very successful.
One of the things she loved most about the Greeks was their love of the mind and respect for the individual. “The Greeks were the first intellectualists,” she maintained. “In a world where the irrational had played the chief role, they came forward as the protagonists of the mind.”
After she died in 1963, The New York Times published an obituary, and it featured one of her quotes where she expressed worry that the Greek spirit of individualism was fading.
“That frightens me much more than sputniks and atomic bombs,” she opined. “Greeks thought each human being different, and I take a lot of comfort in the fact that my fingerprints are different from anybody else’s.”
So let’s not bow to the groupthink, cancel-culture or political correctness that pervades our society. Rather, let’s strive like Hamilton to be true individuals, and to value the things that make us unique.
At $15 an hour, many unskilled workers simply won’t be able to effectively compete against skilled workers and against automation, and we’ve therefore handicapped America’s most vulnerable workers by taking away from them the most effective strategy they have—the ability to offer to work for a competitive wage that is consistent with their lack of skills.
Even though the curricula have developed, the essence has stayed the same. Children are still taught in a standardized and industrialized way. It is highly inefficient, bureaucratic, and wasteful.
17 Benjamin Franklin Quotes on Tyranny, Liberty, and Rights
Gary M. Galles
Attention to what Benjamin Franklin said about American liberty has often been crowded out by his other accomplishments. On his January 17 birthday, we should remember some of those inspirational words.
Sykes Wilford, founder and CEO of smokingpipes.com joins us this week to discuss his experience as a successful entrepreneur in an industry that has shrunk by 98 percent and that the government has targeted for eventual obliteration.
The FEE Store has the books, magazines, and merchandise you’re looking for to begin or deepen your knowledge of the economic, ethical, and legal principles of a free society. 100% of the proceeds go to advance FEE’s mission. Support by shopping now!
What you’ve missed: Evidence proving the presence of Hamas in AP building in Gaza is shown to the Biden administration, and AOC denies science saying she will keep masking after vaccination.
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The Boys Scouts of America organization has released a lengthy letter iterating their support for the BLM organization and explaining the implementation of new diversity measures.
“The Boy Scouts of America stands with black families and the black community because we believe that Black Lives Matter. This is not a political issue; it is a human rights issue and one we all have a duty to address.”
“We will also continue to listen more, learn more and do more to promote a culture in which every person feels that they belong, are respected and are valued in Scouting, in their community and across America,” adding that it will review the names of everything in their organization, including any and all insignia, to “ensure that symbols of oppression are not in use today or in the future.”
Diversity training will also now be mandatory for all employees of the organization, with another version forthcoming for volunteers as well, and a “specific diversity and inclusion merit badge” has now been made a requirement in order to achieve the rank of Eagle Scout. This badge will “require scouts to learn about and engage with the other groups and cultures to increase understanding and spur positive action.”
“As a movement, we are committed to working together with our employees, volunteers, youth members, and communities so we can all become a better version of ourselves and continue to prepare young people to become the leaders of character our communities and our country need to heal and grow,” concludes the statement.
The Boy Scout organization itself doesn’t exactly have an untarnished past when it comes to issues such as racism and homophobia:
They didn’t integrate until the 1970s;
Gay kids were banned from the organization all the way up to the year 2014;
Individual councils are still allowed to discriminate in terms of which adults are allowed to take part in the organization.
The Scouts have been embroiled in historical and recent sexual assault scandals, to the tune of a whopping 7,800 leaders and 12,000 scouts being involved over several decades. Also the organization has fallen on financial hard times, and even had to file for bankruptcy last year.
Thousands of Torontonians gathered at Queen’s Park for the weekly anti-lockdown march, which was held in conjunction with cities across Canada as part of a “World Wide Rally for Freedom” from COVID-19 restrictions.
The event drew a significantly larger crowd than usual.
“People need to see that more and more are saying no to lockdowns!” one protestor said.
“What does not being able to buy an extension cord at the store have to do with our safety?” another said, criticizing the way the Doug Ford government had the few businesses still allowed to open cordon off “non-essential” goods.
People’s Party of Canada leader Maxime Bernier was in attendance. When asked what brought him out today, he said “Freedom,” adding “Provincial governments all across the country are not respecting the constitution. What they’re doing with lockdowns and curfew and stay-at-home orders… it’s unconstitutional, it’s illegal, it’s unfair.”
Many passersby were not impressed with the crowd.
“You don’t care!” one called out. Others made obscene gestures. “What about this don’t you understand?” one protestor replied, as the passing crowd called to re-open small businesses.
Oxford University has recruited undergraduates at its school to research how its science curriculum can be “decolonized” to be made less “Eurocentric,” The Telegraph reports.
The university’s faculty suggests that imperial measurements are “tied deeply to the idea of the Empire,” and that changes could potentially be made in Oxford’s maths, physics and life sciences.
The undergrad students, working alongside scholars, will draw up proposals for lectures that will includes recommendations to “diversify” math and science courses taught on its campus.
The Telegraph has viewed the plans proposed, which reportedly advocate for a “cultural shift” in Oxford’s teachings so students can understand the “global historical and social context to scientific research,” and assess the “historical work revising older narratives of scientific progress.”
This eight-week decolonizing project follows a pledge made by Oxford’s vice-chancellor last summer following the Black Lives Matter protests to embed teachings on colonialism into the university’s courses.
The university’s minister Michelle Donelan spoke out against so-called “decolonization” in February, saying that “‘so-called decolonization’ of the curriculum mirrored the Societ Union and was ‘censoring history.'”
An Oxford spokesman stated that “the university supports the diversifying STEM curriculum project, which is looking at how curricula might change to acknowledge questions of diversity and colonialism. We value the input of students into this work; all recommendations arising from the project will be referred to departments to consider next steps.”
Marjorie Taylor Greene released the full footage of scrum she participated in involving MSNBC, or as she calls it, MSDNC, so that when the network inevitably chops it up, she will have receipts of her full remarks.
The video shows Rep. Greene (R-GA) speaking to reporters in front of the Capitol Building in Washington. A reporter asks “Can you tell me about why you think it is so important to ask Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for a debate, and she says she feels threatened by it?”
“She feels threatened to be able to discuss the policy of the Green New Deal, is that what she’s saying?” Greene asks.
“No, the manner in which you––” the reporter says, indicating that AOC takes issue with Greene personally.
“Since I have been a member of Congress I have been kicked off of my committees by the Democrats when there were no ethics violations against me––not one––I did nothing wrong,” Greene said.
She recounted an incident in which Rep. Cori Bush (D-MO) walked by Greene screaming at her “to put on a mask.” Greene spoke about another incident where the delegate from the US territory of Guam marched the National Guard to her Congressional office.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)published an article on Sunday accusing Alexander Graham Bell of trying to “assimilate” deaf kids by teaching oralism, a method that looks to teach deaf people to communicate with lip-reading and speaking rather than sign language.
Author Katie Booth, who grew up in what she calls a “mixed hearing/deaf family” but has normal hearing herself, wrote about the trauma many deaf people still carry today from Bell’s teachings in her book The Invention of Miracles: Language, Power and Alexander Graham Bell’s Quest to End Deafness.
“I can’t even begin to express the deep, deep, deep trauma that so many deaf people still carry from those educations,” said Booth.
Critics say that the harmful ripple effect of oralism teachings exists in the deaf community to this day, with not all deaf people possessing the ability to learn spoken language. They argue that some deaf people are being left behind in a hearing society.
Alexander Graham Bell, the famous creator of the telephone, used the earnings from his invention to focus on the education of deaf people, which he had experienced through his mother who had become deaf later in her life.
“I think Bell saw the way she was able to operate in the world. And just, first of all, assumed all deaf people should be able to do that. And I think maybe he glamorized it a little,” Booth said.
Bell taught at the Boston School for Deaf Mutes a speech method he developed called visible speech, which had its bases in a phonetic alphabet representation created by his father.
When DNC staffer Seth Rich was murdered in 2018, the mainstream press reported that his death might have stemmed from a botched robbery in which nothing was taken, but the newly released FBI files on Rich allude to something different.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the deadly bombing of the Gaza Strip would continue despite an international outcry and efforts to broker a ceasefire.
Morgan Stanley has more than 15,000 financial advisors calling clients each day with investment recommendations that are frequently engineered inside the firm. (These are known as in-house or proprietary products.) For the past two decades, we have been reading about regulatory fines against Morgan Stanley for abusing its customers in these home-grown offerings.
Researchers at Toxic-Free Future, Indiana University, the University of Washington and Seattle Children’s Research Institute studied 50 samples of breast milk from American women from all over the country, representing a range of socioeconomic backgrounds. All 50 samples contained per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) at levels nearly 2,000 times the amount considered safe for drinking water.
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Welcome to the Monday edition of Internet Insider, where we dissect the weekend online. Today:
Chick-fil-A review-bombed after Black worker speaks out in viral video
Conservatives are saying they ‘identify as vaccinated’ following CDC’s new mask guidance
A high schooler asked why their Black classmate is ‘not in chains’ in racist Snapchat—a petition is now calling for their expulsion
BREAK THE INTERNET
Chick-fil-A review-bombed after Black worker speaks out in viral video
A Chick-fil-A location is getting review-bombed after one of its now-former workers seemingly accused its management of racism and of dismissing her concerns after she complained about getting “touched inappropriately” while on the clock.
The worker recounted what happened in a now-viral Twitter video, captioned “i worked at Chick fila and today I quit. here is a summary as to why.”
“He just tried to fire me for calmly vocalizing how I felt,” as she tearfully recalls how the operator—a term Chick-fil-A uses to refer to the employees who run its locations—allegedly reacted to her complaint of being inappropriately touched. “I think the problem is … I’m a Black woman, and I vocalize my issues.”
In response, reviewers are accusing the operator of everything, from “peeing” in their lemonade to putting them in a chokehold and super-slamming them “across the entrance.”
“I came here to pick up my food and instead was picked up by the ambulance,” part of a Google review reads.
This is not the only example we saw this weekend of netizens using the online platforms at their disposal to try and hold people accused of such behavior accountable. A high schooler called their Black classmate a racial slur and questioned why he was “not in chains” in a Snapchat post. A petition is now calling for the expulsion of the “racist bully.” Read more on that and catch up on what else you may have missed below.
Never stress about your kids losing their masks again
Keeping a mask on your kids’ faces is about as easy as teaching a cat to fetch. That said, at least if you stock disposable masks you don’t have to lose it when their cloth masks vanish for the 57th time.
Armbrust’s child-sized mask subscription will keep your household stocked and save you 30% off the cost at the same time. And with blue, pink, and orange to choose from, you can be sure they’ll never be bored with this now-crucial daily accessory.
Conservatives are saying they ‘identify as vaccinated’ following CDC’s new mask guidance
Right-wing Twitter users are “identifying as vaccinated” in the wake of new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) announcing relaxed mask recommendations for vaccinated Americans.
As a growing number of businesses begin to allow vaccinated individuals to enter their stores without a face covering—although providing proof of vaccination isn’t necessary—conservatives have begun spreading the anti-vax talking point online.
As noted by behavioral scientist Caroline Orr Bueno on Twitter, countless conservative users are now repeating the increasingly unoriginal joke. “It’s the new anti-vaccine talking point,” Bueno tweeted Saturday.
Twitter users were quick to push back, mocking the remarks from the apparent anti-vaxxers. Others argued that the CDC and other government agencies failed to implement a better system for identifying vaccinated individuals, pointing to fake vaccination cards being sold online.
Many also pointed to the joke’s origins, which is intended to make fun of transgender people.
Despite the pushback from some on the agency’s decision to relax its guidelines, CDC head Dr. Rochelle Walensky cited “evolving science” on Sunday while defending the announcement.
“Right now, the data, the science shows us that it’s safe for vaccinated people to take off their masks,” she told NBC News. “I, as the CDC director, promised the American people I would convey that science to you as we know it.”
A high schooler asked why their Black classmate is ‘not in chains’ in racist Snapchat—a petition is now calling for their expulsion
A Connecticut high schooler was arrested after calling a classmate a racial slur on social media, according to various reports.
According to ABC 7, the Fairfield Warde High School student took a photo of Jamar Medor, who is Black, and posted it to Snapchat writing: “Why is there a [N-word] in my homeroom? Why is he not in chains?”
The Fairfield Police Department told the Daily Dot that the 16-year-old student who posted the photo “was arrested and charged with Ridicule on Account of Creed, Religion, Color, Denomination, Nationality or Race and Breach of Peace in the 2nd Degree.”
The student was also reportedly suspended for 10 days; however, more than 29,000 people have signed a petition calling for their expulsion.
“Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) shouldn’t have to encounter this type of racist harassment from other students in a predominantly white institution,” the petition reads. “Fairfield Warde High School should take racism seriously, and the student who posted the racist comment should be expelled immediately.”
China’s Plot to Kill the Dollar
(and Your Retirement Savings)
If you think the dollar has lost value now—just wait.”China’s economy has come back roaring from the depths of the pandemic, and its currency has joined the ride…”Act now to protect your wealth:Get Your Free Guide: Death of The Dollar.
Here’s How China is attacking your retirement:
China is poised to strike the dollar and other foreign currencies while the rest of the world is still on its heels. This would cause a global market collapse that could destroy your retirement savings.
Attack Front #1 – China Buying Gold at Record Levels
In an effort to manipulate currency even further, China intends to become the world’s leading holder of gold. Most prominent financial analysts are convinced that China will continuously purchase and stockpile gold in an effort to manipulate their currency and ultimately weaken the dollar.
China’s gold stockpiling directly attacks the US Dollar and Stock Market.
Currency manipulation from China kills US Manufacturing.
A weak Dollar diminishes your retirement value, often without warning.
Attack Front #2 – China’s Obsession with African Resources
Chinese loans to African countries were backed with future natural resources to be mined from the country. Resources like oil, lithium, nickel, gold and other rare-earth minerals. They were also backed with collateral from their national infrastructure, like 46 sea ports and over 3000 miles of rail lines. When the financial crisis hits Africa, China will flourish, gaining another global foothold on natural resources, ahead of America.
The global price of goods will rise, causing inflation.
US Manufacturing will vanish with the rise in resource costs.
The US Government cannot do anything to intervene.
Attack Front #3 – China’s Digital Yuan Cyber-Currency Launch
With the world’s economic system still slowed by the consequences of the pandemic, the Chinese Communist state recently released an introductory model for a digital crypto-currency form of the yuan. The digital currency is the first shot in the war on cash in China. This cybercash version also produces the alarming probability that the Chinese government will be tracking or even fully controlling the consumer spending of nearly 2 billion Chinese people.
Controlling the spending habits of the Chinese population will eliminate US produced goods, killing the US economy and your retirement!
The US Dollar will be shut out of the World Digital Economy, which could make your retirement savings plummet.
A Gold IRA Can Shield Your Wealth from China’s Anti-Dollar Policies
A Gold IRA can help protect from runaway inflation, increased taxes, and economic uncertainty caused by China and their anti-Dollar currency manipulation..
In fact, if you already have a 401(k) or IRA, it’s not difficult to convert it into physical gold and silver without having tax consequences.
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NNPA NEWSWIRE — “In all, about 1,400 Black soldiers enlisted, and of these, 1,000 had been born in slave states. Raised at Camp Ward, the troops were commanded by White officers, paid no bounty, and allotted ten dollars per month with one ration per day, while three dollars of their monthly pay was deducted for clothing.”
BLACK VOICE NEWS – In California, a total of $993 Million was awarded to 175 health centers. At $37 million, Borrego Health is the state’s highest awardee of the grant, with a total of $37MM (or four percent) of available state grant.
THE FLORIDA STAR | THE GEORGIA STAR – “Go out and make some history. Find ways to serve your country in its time of need and make this world a more just and decent place,” Austin told graduates from the College of Social Sciences, Arts and Humanities. “We don’t get to choose our times, but we do get to shape them.”
NNPA NEWSWIRE — NNPA Newswire has reached out to all 50 Senate Democrats and Independents seeking their position on the filibuster. While some responded, others have held their positions close to the vest. “If we want to get things done in the Senate, then we must abolish the filibuster,” declared Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). “It is an antiquated, Jim Crow rule that overrides the majority and halts progress. It’s got to go.”
NNPA NEWSWIRE — I saw the news. I read the media reports online and on social media. It was clear, based on those reports, that I was not displaying the type of respiratory symptoms that the majority of COVID-19 patients were reported to have been experiencing, such as shortness of breath or having a heavy cough. There were also reports that the only way a person could be tested was if they were elderly or a first responder. I was deeply concerned.
NNPA NEWSWIRE — Having already been indicted on a series of state charges that include felony murder and aggravated assault, Georgia, Travis and Gregory McMichael now face a host of federal crimes. Each were hit with one count of interference with Arbery’s right to use a public street because of his race and one count of attempted kidnapping. The McMichael duo also faces one count each of using, carrying, and brandishing a weapon.
NNPA NEWSWIRE — Several scholars told the Black Press that the United States, its police forces, and politicians now face a solemn question, “from the Klan to White supremacy, where does America go from here?”
PRECINCT REPORTER GROUP NEWS – The chaos and confusion of the past four years have left many in the community emotionally spent, now the one year anniversary of the George Floyd murder and the recent police killing of Daunte Wright.
THE BIRMINGHAM TIMES – Crutch and Clay are nationally recognized for their successful company, WEAR BRIMS, the first Black-owned luxury hat brand sold by luxury retailer Nordstrom.
VOICE AND VIEWPOINT – The American Medical Association has stated, “Marginalized and minority patients have and will suffer disproportionately during the COVID-19 crisis due to the inequities in society perpetuated by systemic practices.” The County of San Diego has stated, “Racism is a Public Health crisis.”
CHICAGO DEFENDER – Black/Life in America 2020 documents one of the most challenging years in powerful art and imagery. Obi Soulstar captures the pandemic, racial unrest and aspects of black life in Chicago in stunning black and white photographs taken over the course of the year.
ATLANTA DAILY WORLD – According to Black News, attorney Roy Miller, who lives in Macon, Georgia, succeeded in accomplishing a feat that started with the disappointment of his niece. Through his efforts, Miller was able to effectively petition a major dictionary, published by Funk & Wagnalls, to remove a racial epithet that is considered by some to be the most distasteful word you can say.
FLORIDA COURIER – A heart-smart eating plan is especially important for more than 30 million people in the U.S. living with type 2 diabetes who are at double the risk for heart disease and stroke compared to those without diabetes, according to the American Heart Association and American Diabetes Association’s Know Diabetes by Heart initiative. When managing diabetes and heart health, building a consistent eating plan with the right balance can be a powerful tool.
ATLANTA DAILY WORLD – “In terms of the African American community … the president wants to almost triple the funding to Title I schools so that schools in poor communities and communities that disproportionately house African American students that their resources are not one-third of what communities in more affluent neighborhoods have,” explained Richmond.
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‘States need to put political circus aside and take a page out of Tennessee’s book – and Tebow’s – to address one of the most horrific crimes that this nation witnesses every single day.’ Read more…
‘Every single company, organization and nonprofit that claims to care about women or promote traditional family values or that is pro-life needs to be an example to the world and have a generous paid family leave policy in place for their employees.’ Read more…
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82.) SEAN HANNITY
May 17, 2021
Latest News
REALITY DENIED! Bernie Says US Not Going Back to Work Because We Hate ‘Starvation Wages’
Far-left Senator Bernie Sanders continued to deny reality this week after April’ […]
We need your help to keep doing our work that holds politicians, corporations and other leaders accountable. Help us thumb our noses at political correctness and remind Americans everywhere that there are millions of us who remain clear-eyed about our country’s greatness. Patriots will be able to read Daily Caller without any of the ads that we have long used to support our mission, will have access to all premium content, and can participate in chats with our team. We can save America together. Become a Daily Caller Patriot today.
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🖥 Microsoft investigated Bill Gates before he stepped down from the firm’s board in 2020, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
😷 Ricky Schroder, former “Silver Spoons” and “NYPD Blue” star, is seen confronting a Costco employee about mask mandates in a video.
🎧 On today’s 5 Things podcast, listen as the United Nations works to de-escalate violence in Israel and Gaza. You can listen to the podcast every day on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your smart speaker.
Here’s what’s happening today:
It’s time to file your taxes
Monday is Tax Day, so if you haven’t already filed, it’s time to get moving. But don’t panic: If you’re pressed for time, here’s how to file for an extension. One thing to keep in mind though: Even if you get an extension, your payment is still due at the tax filing deadline. So if you don’t pay your estimated tax due by May 17, the IRS will charge you interest on the unpaid balance.
Israeli warplanes strike Gaza City as conflict enters second week
Israeli warplanes unleashed a series of heavy airstrikes at several locations of Gaza City on Monday, as fighting with the Islamic militant group Hamas continued into a second week. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned the attacks on Hamas, which rules Gaza, would continue . His comments came after Israeli airstrikes killed at least 42 people Sunday, according to Palestinian medics. It was the deadliest single attack in the latest round of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
Huge brush fire burning in Los Angeles forces evacuations
Firefighters on Monday continue to work towards containing a fire that forced the mandatory evacuation of about 1,000 people in the Pacific Palisades area in Southern California. The L.A. Fire Department said blaze – which started late Friday – may head northwest, threatening homes. Officials said the cause of the fire was “suspicious’’ and under investigation. Arson investigators identified one individual who was detained and released. Investigators then detained and questioned a second suspect.
Other things to read this morning:
📚 On the 67th anniversary of Brown v. Board of Education, Americans have much to learn, writes Ross Wiener for USA TODAY Opinion.
🔵 The coronavirus variant that first appeared in India is in the U.S. Here’s what you need to know. For the latest coronavirus updates, tap here.
🎤 Grab your (golden) popcorn! The MTV Movie & TV Awards returned Sunday – and it was a jam-packed night.
🏀 In most cases throughout his NBA career, LeBron James did not want to see Stephen Curry to succeed. Now he explains why he views Curry as NBA MVP.
Matt Gaetz associate expected to plead guilty to sex trafficking, other charges
A key witness in the scandal surrounding Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., is scheduled to appear in court Monday following a plea deal with federal prosecutors. Joel Greenberg will plead guilty to six of the 33 federal charges against him, including sex trafficking a minor, and has agreed to provide “substantial assistance” in other federal investigations. The plea deal adds pressure on Gaetz, who is facing a Justice Department investigation over whether he had sex with a 17-year-old girl and paid for sex with adult women. Gaetz has denied the accusations.
Starbucks lets you drop the mask (if you’re vaccinated)
Starbucks joins a host of other national restaurant chains that are easing mask requirements in the wake of new guidance last week from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). The coffee giant said masks will be “optional for vaccinated customers beginning Monday, May 17, unless local regulations require them by law.” Trader Joe’s, Walmart, Sam’s Club, Costco and Publix are some of the chains now allowing mask-free shopping for fully vaccinated customers except where required by state or local mandate.
‘It’s just terrifying’: 4-year-old boy found dead on Dallas street, police say; suspect arrested
📸 Miss Mexico lifts Miss Universe crown 📸
Andrea Meza beat out Miss Brazil at the end of Sunday’s Miss Universe contest, screaming when the announcer shouted “Viva Mexico!” Want to see all 74 contestants?Tap here for our gallery.
Andrea Meza, Miss Universe Mexico 2020 is crowned Miss Universe at the conclusion of the 69th Miss Universe Competition® on May 16, 2021 at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino in Hollywood, Florida. The new winner will move to New York City where she will live during her reign and become a spokesperson for various causes alongside The Miss Universe Organization.
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Republican members of Congress have introduced “The Defund the Wuhan Institute of Virology Act.” It would permanently cut U.S. funding to the Wuhan Institute of Virology in China. A growing number of scientists have said they believe Covid-19 leaked from the lab. Despite confusion, misleading statements from some public health officials and politicians, and much […]
– May 12, 2021 – Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America If there were long and horrible gas lines like this under President Trump, the Fake News would make it a national outrage! Did Joe Biden put Hunter in charge of our energy, with all of his Burisma […]
The following is a brief excerpt from an article in Medscape.com by Patrice Wendling: The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is recommending patients and caregivers keep cell phones and smart watches at least 6 inches away from implanted medical devices, such as pacemakers and defibrillators. Today’s warning comes on the heels of recent research reporting that high field strength magnets […]
Seventy-one percent (71%) of U.S. adults predict the average price of houses in their area will increase over the next year. That’s up from just 40% a year ago at the start of the pandemic, according to a recent Gallup poll. The 71% expectation of the rising home prices surpasses the previous, pre-recession high of […]
My last batch of signed books is now available. The timing couldn’t be better. Give to somebody you care about in these uncertain times. Information is power. Find out what’s behind the death of the news, and who’s behind big tech censorship. There’s hope.
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Chicago’s rat problem is so bad that they released 1,000 feral cats in the city to hunt them
Chicago has a lot of great things to offer. It’s super windy, freezing in the winter, scorching in the summer, the homicide rate is off the charts, and there are legions of rats roaming the streets.
Rachel Maddow said she has to “rewire” herself to not see maskless people as “a threat” based on the CDC’s new guidance
Rachel Maddow was thoroughly shocked Thursday by new CDC guidelines saying it’s okay for vaccinated people to take off their masks most places.
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99.) MARK LEVIN
May 14, 2021
Posted on
On Friday’s Mark Levin Show, The debate over America’s history with slavery should not be conflated with the current push for critical race theory. It should also be abundantly clear that the Democrat Party started the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow and fought against the Civil rights act. Karl Marx despised socialists because they gave cover to the capitalists. Marx felt that capitalism must be destroyed and started anew. This is why the Democrats pretend to fix things that can’t be fixed. Critical Theory gets applied to all areas of American life, not just race. This type of collectivist thinking damages the psyche of all races through the victim/oppressor dynamic that Marxism thrives on. Then, in a strategic military maneuver, the IDF faked a ground surge and 160 Israeli fighter jets dropped 450 bombs on Hamas terrorists that were hiding in a series of underground tunnels beneath Gaza City. This triggered Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez gave a passionately naive speech on the floor of the House condemning Israel for defending itself. Later, Why is Stacy Abrams important? Liz Cheney is more important than she’s ever been because she’s been stirring the pot against Donald Trump. Abrams hasn’t won an election but she’s a perpetual thorn in the side of Republicans which helps Democrats so the media will embrace her. In her interview with Anderson Cooper, she disparaged the Arizona vote audit, yet she never conceded her own electoral defeat because she felt her race for governor of Georgia was stolen from me. Afterward, prosecutors are pressuring the current CFO of the Trump Organization, Allen Weisselberg, by going after his grandson’s school donations to find any ‘dirt’ they can on Trump. Neither Trump nor Weisselberg has done any wrongdoing; this is simply a fishing expedition in search of anything they can make look like a crime (because they don’t have one). Until Republicans treat Democrats reciprocally, this injustice will not end.
Rumble
Elise Stefanik Speaks After Elected To Replace Liz Cheney
The podcast for this show can be streamed or downloaded from the Audio Rewind page.
Image used with permission of Getty Images / M. Borchi./
100.) WOLF DAILY
Wolf Daily Newsletter
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A poverty-fighting measure included in the COVID-19 relief bill passed this year will deliver monthly payments to households including 88% of children in the United States, starting in July.
If you thought the store closures and bankruptcies in 2020 were surprising… you haven’t seen anything yet. Something much bigger is just around the corner. [Sponsored].
A Union Pacific train hauling hazardous materials derailed and then caught fire in the city of Sibley, Iowa, authorities said on Sunday, leading to the evacuation of dozens of people although there were no reports of injuries or fatalities.
“Working 55 hours or more per week is a serious health hazard,” killing hundreds of thousands of people a year in a worsening trend that may accelerate further due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the World Health Organization said on Monday.
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“Biden” is groveling on his belly to these savages. “Iran Has Built Islamic Resistance Bases From Tehran To Baghdad, Beirut, Syria, Yemen, Horn Of Africa, In Order To Fight The Cancerous Growth That Is Israel.”
Facebook Twitter Google+ The Washington Post said they won’t fact check Joe Biden. He routinely says things that aren’t true, and someone has to do it. Therefore, The Geller Report will fact check false statements President Biden makes …
“We now know why the Maricopa County Board of Supervisors have been fighting this subpoena so hard.” Every battleground state requires a deep forensic audit.
WH Press Sec. Jen Psaki(Screenshot)It’s not that federal subsidies to unemployment insurance benefits have made it more attractive for people to stay home than to return to work, it’s that other factors, such as the…
The mission of the Media Research Center is to create a media culture in America where truth and liberty flourish. The MRC is a research and education organization operating under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, and contributions to the MRC are tax-deductible.
Liberals are full of it. Especially AOC and Ilhan Omar. They say they believe in science as they continue to pump the country full of misinformation. In this episode, I discuss the latest controversy, as well as the crisis in Israel.
For years now people have been migrating, on net basis, from blue states to red states. That has accelerated recently, with New York hemorrhaging the most residents of any state from 2019-2020, and California recording their first ever population decline. States like Florida and Texas have attracted the most blue state refugees.
Texas Reports Zero Covid Deaths for First Time Following Biden’s “Neanderthal Thinking” Comment
After Texas allowed all businesses to reopen at full capacity back in March, President Joe Biden blasted the decision as a “huge mistake,” describing it as Neanderthal thinking. “The last thing we need is Neanderthal thinking that in the meantime everything’s fine, take off your mask, forget it. It still matters,” he said.
‘Lt. Gen. Whiting has initiated a Command Directed Investigation on whether these comments constituted prohibited partisan political activity.’ Read more…
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