Good morning! Here is your news briefing for Tuesday June 8, 2021
1.) THE DAILY SIGNAL
June 8 2021
Good morning from Washington, where lawmakers on the left prescribe silly solutions to big problems. Chris Rufo shows how that’s working out in San Francisco’s battle against homelessness. The new racism taught in Wisconsin may be a preview of what’s coming to your area schools, the MacIver Institute reports. On the podcast, we get Sen. Ted Cruz’s take on the Hamas-Israel conflict. Plus: post-pandemic America; Florida’s response to China; and a loss for Planned Parenthood in Texas. On this date in 1972, Alabama Gov. George Wallace, a segregationist, weeps when visited in the hospital by Rep. Shirley Chisholm of New York, a fellow Democratic presidential candidate and the first black woman elected to Congress, three weeks after Wallace is shot five times by a would-be assassin.
In the city’s Tenderloin district, men openly hawk drugs on street corners, desperate addicts are crumpled across sidewalks, and first responders dart through the chaos to revive overdose victims.
“Teaching is a political act, and you can’t … be neutral. You are either a pawn used to perpetuate a system of oppression or you are fighting … it,” says a White Privilege Conference speaker in Madison.
Some civilian casualties “are predominantly the result of a decision that Hamas made to use Palestinians as human shields,” says the Texas senator, who just visited the region.
One measure is intended to safeguard public institutions from “undue foreign influence,” Gov. Ron DeSantis says, noting it will prohibit “agreements between public entities and the Communist Party of China.”
Suddenly, the tough talk about retaliation from corporations and other organizations is being exposed for what it is: empty threats from big-mouthed bullies.
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3.) DAYBREAK
Your First Look at Today’s Top Stories – Daybreak Insider
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British Woman Faces Possible Jail Time Over “Transphobic” Tweets
We can thank God for the First Amendment, though there are certainly challenges here as well. From the story: None of this is surprising. Free-expression rights are being assaulted across Western Europe. In Scotland, for instance, though only 5 percent disagree with the statement “Free speech is an important right,” 21 percent believe it should be a criminal offense to say that someone born biologically male cannot become a woman — and 40 percent under the age of 25 believe this. Earlier this year, the Scottish government proposed hate-crime legislation that would come with seven years’ imprisonment for “stirring up hatred.” And “hate speech” laws are gaining momentum here, as well.
Burger King Challenges Chick-fil-A Over Gay Rights
Using a clever bit of bigotry to compare themselves to Christian owned Chick-fil-A by tweeting “during pride month (even on Sundays ) your chicken sandwich craving can do good! we are making a donation* to @HRC for every Ch’King sold.”
AOC Disappointed as VP Harris Tells Illegal Immigrants Not to Come
Alexandria Ocasio=Cortez Tweeted “This is disappointing to see. First, seeking asylum at any US border is a 100% legal method of arrival. Second, the US spent decades contributing to regime change and destabilization in Latin America. We can’t help set someone’s house on fire and then blame them for fleeing.”
Parents of Murdered Child at Protest Sue Atlanta Mayor
From the story: The parents of an 8-year-old girl shot and killed last summer at a protest encampment in Atlanta filed a lawsuit Monday against city officials, arguing that their failure to enforce public safety by clearing the barricade around a fast-food restaurant resulted in the child’s death. The complaint was filed in Fulton County state court by the parents of Secoriea Turner, who died July 4, and named Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, interim police Chief Rodney Bryant and council member Joyce Sheperd, as well as Wendy’s International. “The city knew that this was a dangerous space, and they did nothing about it,” attorney Mawuli Davis said at a Monday press conference in Atlanta.
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Sunburn — The morning read of what’s hot in Florida politics — 6.8.21
Coffee is for closers. So is Sunburn, your morning rundown of Florida politics.
Civil rights lawyer Cecile Scoon has been elected to lead the League of Women Voters of Florida.
Scoon’s election marks the first time a Black woman has been elected to the top post at LWVF. The Harvard and University of Virginia Law graduate has served as the organization’s 1st Vice President since 2018.
She succeeds exiting president Patricia Brigham, who has held the position for the past three years.
Cecile Scoon is the first Black woman to lead the League of Women Voters of Florida.
“Voting is the basic building block of our prized democracy. During our state convention, the League demonstrated how democracy should work when our grassroots members voted for new leadership. In doing this, League members repudiated times in the 1920s and later in the 1960s when white League members were not as welcoming to Black women.” Scoon said.
“My election was a rejection of that troubling past and an embracement of diversity, equity and inclusivity. I love the League because it is primarily a group of powerful women standing up for the rights of all. I look forward to this journey as we work to meet the many challenges of our time.”
Scoon’s 36-year law career began as an assistant staff judge advocate for the U.S. Air Force. She now serves as an owner and managing principal of Peters & Scoon Attorneys at Law in Panama City.
She is a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, which touts other notable members such as Vice President Kamala Harris and former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice Peggy Quince. Scoon has previously held leadership positions within her local chapter of the League of Women Voters and is a life member of the Bay County Branch of the NAACP.
Scoon was elected alongside a slate of officers and directors on June 5, during the organization’s 38th biennial state convention.
The League also announced the election of Marisol Zenteno as 1st Vice President, Shawn Bartelt as 2nd Vice President, Patricia Drago as Secretary, and Mark Songer as Treasurer. Elected directors include Jennifer Adams, Jonathan Hackley, Danielle Irwin, Dr. Julie Kessel and Maegen Pierce.
In other notes:
🏻♂ — Sedition hunters: One would assume it’s top-level investigators with fancy federal bureaus sniffing out those who perpetrated the ugliest parts of the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection. But in some cases, it’s amateurs, or what Bloomberg describes in a must-read profile as sedition hunters, who are using the internet to track down and identify rioters. And in some cases, their hobby sleuthing leads to federal charges. Bust out your magnifying glass and read more here.
— Primaries to watch from afar: All eyes are on Florida races in 2022, but two states are holding gubernatorial Primary Elections today in races FiveThirtyEight is watching. Virginia and New Jersey both went for President JoeBiden last year, and both have Democratic Governors, but Republicans are eyeing the states’ Governors’ mansions this cycle. Find out how the GOP could make inroads in the blue states here.
— Democratic report offers dire warning: Several prominent Democratic advocacy groups put together a soul-searching report finding the party risks losing Black, Hispanic and Asian American support unless they do a better job presenting a positive economic agenda and countering Republican misinformation. The report warns 2022 may not find the nationwide successes seen in the 2020 election, which had DonaldTrump on the ballot if they don’t reevaluate their messaging and voter outreach. Read more about the report, obtained by The New York Times, here.
— With her campaign finance blunder, Nikki Fried hands the GOP a gift that will keep on giving: When Fried updated her financial disclosure reports to show $350,000 in previously unreported lobbying income, she provided a headline that allies of Gov. RonDeSantis will pounce on for months to come. JoeHendersonponders just how catastrophic the error could be for Fried as she heads into her gubernatorial campaign, even if it was just an honest mistake.
— Five questions for Seminole Gaming Chair Jim Allen: The Tribe has been working on a deal for at least five years, negotiations that span two Governors. Now they might finally find success with a 30-year gaming compact that will expand the Tribe’s gaming footprint in the state while providing billions in revenue for the state. The News Service of Florida sat down with Allen to discuss the deal, pending federal approval, including how it finally got done and what it means for sports betting in the state. Read more here.
Situational awareness
—@RealJacobPerry: In the past week, @GovRonDeSantis has spoken about China, censorship, Dr. (Anthony) Fauci, vaccine passports and RebekahJones. Know what he hasn’t mentioned one single time? The mass shootings taking place in South Florida.
—@NateMonroeTU: I’m genuinely curious to see how this effort to turn Ronald DeSantis — a nasally, prickly introvert — into a “rock star” will work in front of a national audience, rather than the Very Online right-wing fever swamps.
—@AnthonySabatini: Psycho Rebekah Jones should NOT have been banned on Twitter. No one should be banned from today’s public square
Tweet, tweet:
Tweet, tweet:
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Days until
‘Loki’ premieres on Disney+ — 1; E3 2021 begins — 4; Father’s Day — 12; Microsoft reveals major Windows update — 16; F9 premieres in the U.S. — 17; ‘Tax Freedom Holiday’ begins — 23; Fourth of July — 26; ‘Black Widow’ rescheduled premiere — 31; MLB All-Star Game — 35; new start date for 2021 Olympics — 45; second season of ‘Ted Lasso’ premieres on Apple+ — 49; the NBA Draft — 55; ‘Jungle Cruise’ premieres — 57; ‘The Suicide Squad’ premieres — 63; St. Petersburg Primary Election — 77; Disney’s ‘Shang Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings’ premieres — 87; NFL regular season begins — 93; Broadway’s full-capacity reopening — 98; 2022 Legislative Session interim committee meetings begin — 104; ‘The Many Saints of Newark’ premieres (rescheduled) — 108; ‘Dune’ premieres — 115; MLB regular season ends — 117; ‘No Time to Die’ premieres (rescheduled) — 122; World Series Game 1 — 141; St. Petersburg Municipal Elections — 147; Florida’s 20th Congressional District primary — 148; Disney’s ‘Eternals’ premieres — 150; ‘Top Gun: Maverick’ rescheduled premiere — 164; San Diego Comic-Con begins — 171; Steven Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’ premieres — 185; ‘Spider-Man Far From Home’ sequel premieres — 195; NFL season ends — 215; 2022 Legislative Session starts — 217; Florida’s 20th Congressional District election — 217; NFL playoffs begin — 221; Super Bowl LVI — 250; ‘Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness’ premieres — 290; ‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ premieres — 332; ‘Platinum Jubilee’ for Queen Elizabeth II — 359; “Black Panther 2” premieres — 395; ‘Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse’ sequel premieres — 486; “Captain Marvel 2” premieres — 521.
Top story
“‘Let’s conspire’: Hundreds of Scott Maddox texts emerge in Tallahassee public corruption case” via Jeff Burlew of the Tallahassee Democrat — Hundreds of private conversations between former City Commissioner Maddox, members of his one-time inner circle, and a who’s-who of movers and shakers inadvertently surfaced as part of the federal government’s public corruption case against him and his co-defendants. The communications, including text messages and secretly recorded talks with undercover FBI agents, provide an unvarnished look into behind-the-scenes machinations that preceded charges against Maddox, Paige Carter-Smith and businessman John “J.T.” Burnette. Appearing in the texts are former Mayor and Democratic gubernatorial nominee Andrew Gillum; Burnette’s wife, Kim Rivers, now CEO of medical marijuana powerhouse Trulieve; and prominent local lobbyists and consultants, including Adam Corey, Drew Jones and Sean Pittman. None have been accused of wrongdoing in the FBI probe.
A treasure trove of text messages gives new insight into Scott Maddox’s corruption case. Image via Phil Sears
2022
“Marco Rubio argues likely 2022 Democratic challenger Val Demings ‘has voted for socialist things’” via Paul Steinhauser of Fox News — The two-term conservative lawmaker, in an exclusive interview with Fox News, took aim at Demings for voting 94% of the time with “the Squad” and 100% of the time with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Asked about Demings, Rubio dismissed any description of her as a moderate. “None of them will admit to being a socialist. She probably won’t. But she certainly has voted for socialist things,” Rubio argued. “How can you vote with ‘the Squad’ 94% of the time and argue that you’re not an honorary member of that group? How can you vote with Nancy Pelosi 100% of the time and argue that you’re not a far-left, liberal extremist? So she’ll have to answer to that.”
Marco Rubio hints that Val Demings leans ‘socialist.’
“Cuba activist Al Fox explores challenging Rubio for U.S. Senate seat” via Romy Ellenbogen of the Tampa Bay Times — Fox has been an advocate for reestablishing relationships with Cuba for the past two decades as the president of the nonprofit he founded, Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy Foundation. On Monday, the Democrat announced he’s forming an exploratory committee for the 2022 Senate race. Fox said he had been mulling a run for the past year, but the Jan. 6 Capitol riot changed things for him. He had known one of the Capitol police officers who committed suicide, Howard Liebengood, since Liebengood was 10 years old, Fox said. Fox previously ran for U.S. Congress in 2006, eventually losing to U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor.
“Donald Trump: ‘I was at the beginning of Ron DeSantis’” via A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics — Trump praised DeSantis, while also taking credit for the Governor’s political ascent and stopping short again of promising DeSantis the number two spot on a prospective presidential ticket in 2024. “I was at the beginning of Ron. I was the first one to endorse him,” Trump made the comments during an interview on the Fox Business Network’s “Varney and Co.,” after extolling Florida’s pandemic response under DeSantis. Host Stuart Varney, a veteran broadcaster familiar with working Trump interviews, pressed Trump on whether DeSantis would meet muster as a running mate. However, the former President was too cagey to commit when asked if he would “consider” running with Florida’s Governor.
DeSantis launches aggressive fundraising tour — As his 2024 stock rises, DeSantis is heading out of state to add more cash to the pile for his 2022 reelection bid. The GOP Governor is heading to California on Thursday for a fundraiser in San Diego and from there he’ll skip around SoCal a bit before heading to Las Vegas where Adam Laxalt, the state’s former Attorney General, is hosting an event with high-dollar donors. The schedule is reminiscent of George W. Bush’s cross-country tour during his 1998 reelection campaign for Texas Governor. “DeSantis is very smart to use his reelection and his national ascendancy to travel the country, raising money and building a network that could serve him well in 2022 and beyond,” said Scott Jennings, a former adviser to Bush.
“‘Lying from the get-go’: Nikki Fried fundraising pitch slams GOP ‘witch hunt’” via A.G. Gancarski of Florida Politics — Friedis turning controversy into cash, with a fundraising pitch slamming inquiries into her finances as a “witch hunt” after recently amended financial disclosures from years gone by. Fried’s campaign for Governor sent out a blistering fundraising appeal Monday: “Lying from the get-go.” That missive offered her view of the GOP reaction to her campaign launch last week. “Now, Ron DeSantis and the Florida GOP are using state resources to attack Nikki, launching a witch hunt against her and her former company,” the “Team Nikki” email contends. The “witch hunt” allegation comes after revelations that Fried failed to disclose more than $350,000 in lobbying income, only fixing the mistake upon launch of her long-awaited campaign for Governor.
Democrats lack top-tier candidates for Cabinet posts — Florida Democrats have yet to land a solid candidate for any of the three state Cabinet posts on the ballot next year, and the few potential AAA recruits that have been recruited have passed on the opportunity, Matt Dixon of POLITICO Florida reports. With two incumbents and Senate President Wilton Simpson potentially running for Agriculture Commissioner, Republicans have a formidable lineup going into a cycle expected to favor the GOP. “We’ve had some really good Cabinet candidates in the last 15 years, but it’s almost radio silence this year,” said Beth Matuga, a veteran Democratic consultant. “It’s a tough sell, and that’s why I think a lot of potential candidates look at it and think, ‘the juice is not worth the squeeze.’”
“Eyeing redistricting, Anthony Sabatini hopes to run for Congress in District 7” via Joe Byrnes of WMFE — Sabatini is no longer challenging Republican U.S. Rep. Daniel Webster in 2022. Instead, Sabatini hopes to unseat U.S. Rep. Stephanie Murphy, the Democrat representing Seminole and northeast Orange counties. Sabatini has filed paperwork to run in Congressional District 7, as have two other Republicans. The pro-Trump politician is basing the decision on a map showing what the districts might be after the Legislature redraws them next year. On Twitter, Sabatini says this would pit his campaign against a, quote, “America-Last, corrupt Democrat.” The unfounded insult is par for the course with Sabatini. His latest tweets, for example, say infectious disease expert Dr. Fauci should go to prison for life.
Anthony Sabatini is eyeballing Stephanie Murphy’s congressional seat.
“Democrat Perry Gregg files to run in CD 8” via Scott Powers of Florida Politics — Gregg, a professional tennis coach and co-developer of several mobile device credit card patents, has filed to run for Congress in Florida’s 8th Congressional District. Yet Gregg also reportedly has indicated he might be sitting out this election cycle. Gregg, 60, of Cocoa, has filed for a chance to take on Republican Rep. Bill Posey in a Space Coast-based district that Republicans have owned for generations. Gregg initially filed to run in February, then reportedly indicated to Brevard Democratic Party officials that he was suspending his effort in favor of a possible future campaign.
“Chris Sprowls committee tops $158K” via News Service of Florida — A political committee chaired by House Speaker Sprowls raised more than $158,000 in May, with a large part of the money coming from Northeast Florida, according to a newly filed finance report. The committee Floridians for Economic Freedom raised $158,350 and had about $1.4 million on hand as of May 31. The largest contributions during the month were $25,000 from Penn National Gaming and $25,000 from a PAC linked to Florida Workers’ Advocates. But the committee also received numerous smaller contributions from donors in Jacksonville and other parts of Northeast Florida. That included $36,500 from donors with Jacksonville or Jacksonville Beach addresses and $17,350 from donors with St. Augustine, Saint Johns or Ponte Vedra Beach addresses.
“Sprowls endorses Adam Anderson as his successor in HD 65” via Janelle Irwin Taylor of Florida Politics — Sprowls is naming his preferred successor. Sprowls endorsed Anderson in House District 65, he announced Monday. Anderson, a local business owner, filed to run for the seat in 2022 on Thursday, with Sprowls facing term limits. He was the first Republican to throw his name in the hat. “I’m proud to stand with Adam Anderson in his bid to represent North Pinellas in the Florida House. Adam is a conservative leader we can count on to stand up for our values, keep Florida moving in the right direction, and lead with courage and conviction,” Sprowls said. After working in wealth management for American Express Financial Advisors, later Ameriprise Financial, Anderson founded MRA Capital Partners.
“Berny Jacques raises $14K in May for HD 66 race” via Kelly Hayes of Florida Politics — Seminole Republican Jacques raised more than $14,000 in his second month since launching his campaign for House District 66. Jacques, a former prosecutor and former conservative analyst for Bay News 9, reported raising $14,127 in May for his campaign. Jacques’ associated political committee, Florida Values Coalition, did not report any fundraising for the past month. Jacques’ opponent St. Petersburg Republican Alen Tomczak, who entered the race in early March, has not yet reported May finance numbers, which are due this Thursday. Tomczak works as a technical lead at Special Operations Command at MacDill Air Force Base.
Berny Jacques posts a solid second month of his campaign.
“Organizers say getting initiatives to expand voting on Florida ballot won’t be easy, but worth the effort” via Mitch Perry of Bay News 9 — Organizers behind the drive to place three separate citizen ballot initiatives on the 2022 ballot that would expand voter registration efforts say that they’re not naive about the formidable challenges ahead of them, but contend that they’ll have the financial resources to make it happen. “Democracy’s worth it,” says Sean Shaw, chairman of the group People Over Profits. “What else is worth this hard effort we’re going to do?” he says. “This is a $15-$20 million effort. This is going to require tons of signatures. You get the signatures, you’ve still got to go before the Supreme Court and hope they don’t kill it.”
“DeSantis joins GOP base in attacking China” via Andrew Atterbury of POLITICO — DeSantis on Monday railed against the Chinese government and the possible origins of COVID-19, playing on issues at the forefront of the conservative base. DeSantis lashed out at China during an event Monday in Miami, where he signed into law a measure targeting undue foreign influence in Florida’s government and education system, a bill the Republican governor said are namely efforts to “start fighting back” against China. As a future Republican presidential contender, DeSantis said academia in the U.S. is “permeated” by outside sources. He spoke at a podium embellished with a “Stop CCP influence” sign. CCP is an abbreviation for the Chinese Communist Party.
Ron DeSantis toes the Party line in bashing China.
“‘A big bipartisan win’: Andrew Learned reacts to DeSantis signing Purple Star School bill” via Kelly Hayes of Florida Politics — Learned is rejoicing in DeSantis’ recent signing of legislation that seeks to help military families across the state navigate schooling. “This is a big bipartisan win,” Learned told Florida Politics. “I’m super proud to get one all the way through the process in my first year — that’s not something that most freshmen Democrats get done.” The bipartisan bill (HB 429), sponsored by Learned and Rep. Patt Maney, establishes the Purple Star Program, which helps schools respond to educational and social-emotional challenges military-connected children face during transitions to a new school. DeSantis signed the bill, along with a slew of veteran-related bills, into law Friday.
Happening today — The VISIT FLORIDA Board of Directors will review the agency’s upcoming budget, 2 p.m. The Hutchinson Shores Resort and Spa, 3793 N.E. Ocean Blvd., Jensen Beach.
“‘Job Growth’ fund ready for proposals” via News Service of Florida — The Department of Economic Opportunity on Monday tweeted that it is accepting project proposals for the Job Growth Grant Fund. “The grants will assist communities in funding workforce training and public infrastructure projects to support growth and employment in Florida,” the department tweeted Monday. The program was included in a $100 billion budget that DeSantis signed last week for the fiscal year that will start July 1. In all, more than $74 million is available for the program, with lawmakers putting $50 million into the budget and DeSantis also able to tap $24.4 million left unspent from 2019.
Christopher Carmody, GrayRobinson: Kirenaga Management Group
Fred Karlinsky, Timothy Stanfield, Greenberg Traurig: Attune Insurance Services
Mark Kruse, Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney: Habitat for Humanity of Florida
Statewide
“Florida’s education budget is the largest ever. Why do districts fear cuts?” via Jeffrey S. Solochek of the Tampa Bay Times — When he signed Florida’s 2022 budget last week, DeSantis declared the state had never spent more on education. He touted the $22.8 billion funding package as one that would boost teacher pay, mental health services, school safety and more. School district financial planners did not share in the enthusiasm. While the numbers look good on paper, they said, the added money won’t make a significant positive impact on local public schools. The districts’ biggest concern is the state’s creation of a $464 million budget item called the “student reserve allocation.” It’s also expected to cover the costs of up to 60,000 additional students receiving state vouchers to pay for private school.
“DeSantis attacks ‘critical race theory’ as state looks to change teaching guidelines” via Ana Ceballos of the Miami Herald — DeSantis is sowing division in Florida’s education system as he targets the concept of critical race theory in the classroom and on the campaign trail, an effort that educators and Democrats, many of them Black, view as a political attempt to “whitewash” and suppress discussions about race. For several months, leading up to the governor’s reelection bid in 2022 and what many believe is a future run for the White House, DeSantis has latched onto a trend coursing through national conservative politics and directed his ire toward the theory because he says it is an attempt to indoctrinate children against the United States. The State Board of Education is set to consider a rule that would place strict guidelines on the way teachers deliver U.S. history lessons.
Ron DeSantis blasts ‘critical race theory,’ facing accusations that he is trying to whitewash history.
“State “listening tours” for proposed standards in civics and other subjects are a big disappointment so far” via Danielle J. Brown of Florida Phoenix — Lare Allen, president of the Osceola County Education Association, went to one of the three “listening tour” stops in Central Florida last week, hoping to observe discussions on proposed new standards in K-12 civics and other subjects. But what he found was about 15 people in attendance. The Department of Education presented a PowerPoint. Only three people provided public comments. Some Floridians have found it difficult to access the tour stops, because the events were not well communicated to the public and there’s been no public video or audio record of the meetings for average Floridians to see. So while the department says it encourages public input, the few stops, sparse attendance, and lack of audio or video recordings limit the public from participating in discussions.
“FPL rate hearings slated” via News Service of Florida — The state Public Service Commission has scheduled a dozen online hearings from June 21 to July 2, according to a notice posted on the Commission website. FPL in March filed a four-year rate proposal, which needs Commission approval. The proposal calls for a $1.1 billion increase in base-rate revenues in 2022 and a $607 million increase in 2023. It also calls for a $140 million increase in 2024 and a $140 million increase in 2025 to pay for solar-energy projects. The proposal also is designed to continue carrying out FPL’s merger with Northwest Florida’s Gulf Power, which formally took effect Jan. 1.
“Ex-Sunland leader alleges privacy violation” via News Service of Florida — A former superintendent of the Sunland state facility for people with developmental disabilities has filed a lawsuit against the Agency for Persons with Disabilities, alleging that her personal medical information was improperly disclosed. Geraldine Williams filed the lawsuit last week in Leon County circuit court and is seeking more than $100,000 in damages. The lawsuit alleges that Agency for Persons with Disabilities Director Barbara Palmer publicly questioned Williams in 2018 and 2019 about a medical condition and treatment, including during conference calls with other people. The lawsuit does not explain the medical condition or the reasons for the alleged disclosure. But it contends that Williams’ privacy rights were violated and that the disclosures violated a federal law known as HIPAA.
Corona Florida
“Rebekah Jones’ Twitter account suspended, citing ‘platform manipulation,’ ‘spam’” via Dana Cassidy and Ana Ceballos of the Miami Herald — Jones, who formerly maintained Florida’s COVID-19 dashboard but was fired last year as she raised concerns about transparency, was suspended Monday from Twitter for “platform manipulation and spam.” The suspension comes after Jones repeatedly shared a recent Miami Herald article about law enforcement officers raiding her home, her observations during her time at the Florida Department of Health and more. Twitter notified Jones that it received an appeal from her regarding the state of her account, according to a screenshot that Jones sent to the Herald. Christina Pushaw, the governor’s press secretary, said on her personal Twitter account the action by Twitter was “long overdue.”
Rebekah Jones gets booted off Twitter.
“Judge set to hear arguments in cruise ship fight” via The News Service of Florida — A federal judge will hear arguments Thursday in Florida’s bid to block federal restrictions on cruise ships during the COVID-19 pandemic, while U.S. Department of Justice attorneys point to a return to cruising by midsummer. U.S. District Judge Steven Merryday will hold a hearing in Tampa on Florida’s request for a preliminary injunction against restrictions imposed by the CDC. The hearing will come after the two sides reached an impasse in mediation aimed at settling the dispute. The hearing also will come after the industry giant Royal Caribbean announced Friday that it plans to begin sailing from Florida ports in July and August. U.S. Department of Justice attorneys filed a brief Monday that said, in part, recent developments “further undermine” the state’s arguments that an injunction is needed.
“COVID-19 wards are emptying out in South Florida. Doctors say it’s proof vaccines work” via Ben Conarck of the Miami Herald — At the height of Florida’s summer COVID-19 surge, there were more than 2,000 people hospitalized with the novel illness in the epicenter of Miami-Dade County. Now, with 1.2 million people in the county fully vaccinated, that number has dropped to below 300 for the first time since mid-October. The plummet comes as hospital COVID-19 units are emptying across the state, where fewer than 1,800 people are being treated for the disease statewide, compared to the late July height of about 9,500.
Corona nation
“Vaccination rates fall off, imperiling Joe Biden’s July Fourth goal” via The Washington Post — Plummeting vaccination rates have turned what officials hoped would be the “last mile” of the coronavirus immunization campaign into a marathon, threatening Biden’s goal of getting shots to at least 70% of adults by July 4. The United States is averaging fewer than 1 million shots per day, a decline of more than two-thirds from the peak of 3.4 million in April, according to The Washington Post’s seven-day analysis, even though all adults and children over age 12 are now eligible.
“Biden’s vaccine push fails to gain traction with African Americans” via Adam Cancryn of POLITICO — The Biden administration knew the key to a successful COVID-19 vaccination campaign would be reaching the most vulnerable populations. But more than five months in, even a blueprint that’s worked with other ethnic and racial groups isn’t doing enough to win over Black Americans. Less than a quarter of Black Americans had received their first COVID-19 shot as of June 3, amid a weekslong stagnation that has defied the government’s ramped-up effort to accelerate vaccinations and reach the nation’s most vulnerable communities. The slowdown has put Black Americans behind the pace set over the past month by other racial and ethnic groups tracked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Joe Biden’s vaccine push rings hollow with Black Americans. Image via AP.
“The South may see a COVID-19 surge this summer as vaccination rates lag” via Jesus Jiménez of The New York Times — In 15 states — including Arkansas, the Carolinas, Georgia and Louisiana — about half of adults or fewer have received a dose. In two states, Alabama and Mississippi, it would take about a year to get one dose to 70% of the population at the current pace of distribution. If there is a summer surge across the South, experts believe it won’t be as grave as last summer’s because at least some people are vaccinated and treatments have improved. But memories of last summer, when cases rose quickly after some Southern states rushed to reopen, are still fresh. Younger people, who are less likely to be vaccinated, will be the most vulnerable during any surge this summer.
“Some U.S. hospitals mark first time being COVID-19-free. Others still see surge of patients” via Christina Maxouris of CNN — More than 22,400 Americans are hospitalized with COVID-19 nationwide, according to data from the Department of Health & Human Services. That’s more than an 83% decrease from the country’s peak in early January when more than 136,000 Americans were hospitalized with the virus. But with uneven vaccination rates across the US, some hospitals are still struggling amid recent upticks in COVID-19 patients, almost all of whom are unvaccinated, and worry about another surge fueled by summer gatherings. Parts of the country have reported their COVID-19 patients have skewed younger, to crowds that aren’t vaccinated.
Corona economics
“Norwegian Cruise Line plans Florida sailings, stands by vaccine requirement” via The Associated Press — Miami-based Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings announced plans to set sail from two Florida ports requiring passengers to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 despite state legislation banning businesses from asking for proof. Norwegian announced sailings from New York, Los Angeles, Port Canaveral and Miami. The cruise lines’ plans appear to be at odds with the new state law. The sailings are contingent on obtaining a certificate from the CDC, and it remains unclear how the plans can be reconciled with Florida law. Norwegian said in a statement that it is in contact with DeSantis’ office on the requirements.
Norwegian Cruise Line doubles down on vaccine requirements to sail from Florida.
More corona
“Scientists begin to unravel the mysteries of the coronavirus and brains” via Ben Guarino and Frances Stead Sellers of The Washington Post — Many COVID-19 patients reported visual and auditory disturbances, vertigo and tingling sensations, among other perplexing symptoms. Some remain convinced after even a mild bout of the coronavirus of persistent “brain fog.” Viruses that invade the brain are tough to eradicate because a barrier protects the brain from the rest of the body. Once viruses enter the brain, the organ can become a refuge for stowaways. Autopsies of the sickest COVID-19 patients have revealed clotting in the brain and other signs of acute damage. They offered little evidence the virus attacks the organ directly. Beyond that, many other neurological details of COVID-19 remain unknown.
“New York City plans a Central Park mega-concert to celebrate reopening” via Emma G. Fitzsimmons and Ben Sisario of The Seattle Times — Brunch crowds are back. Rush-hour traffic is back. Tourists in horse-drawn carriages are back. But the best proof that New York City has returned to its full glory may be a mega-concert in the green expanse of Central Park. Seeking a grand symbol of New York’s revitalization after a brutal pandemic year, Mayor Bill de Blasio is planning a large-scale performance by multiple acts and has called on Clive Davis, the 89-year-old producer and music industry eminence, to pull it together. The show, tentatively set for Aug. 21, is still coming together, with no artists confirmed, though Davis said he is aiming for eight “iconic” stars to perform a three-hour show for 60,000 attendees and a worldwide television audience.
New York City plans a big bash to celebrate reopening. Image via AP.
What Gus Corbella is reading — “Can Americans travel to Spain? Yes, if you’ve gotten the COVID-19 vaccine” via The Associated Press — Spain jump-started its summer tourism season on Monday by welcoming vaccinated visitors from most countries as well as European visitors who can prove they are not infected with the coronavirus. It also reopened its ports to cruise ship stops. Vaccinated Americans may travel from the U.S. to Spain if they present a QR code from the Spain Travel Health portal and a vaccination certificate proving they were vaccinated at least 14 days before arrival. U.S. children under age 6 don’t need any special requirements to enter the country with their vaccinated parents. However, children aged 6 and up will need their own vaccination certificate or negative results from a COVID-19 test taken within 48 hours before arriving in Spain. Alternately, a medical certificate showing recovery from COVID-19 would also be accepted.
Presidential
“Joe Biden embraces symbolism, but substance on some issues proves more difficult” via Tyler Pager and Ashley Parker of The Washington Post — President Biden launched his 2020 campaign with a video response to the deadly White supremacist rally in Charlottesville. Last week, Biden visited Tulsa to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the racial violence that left 35 blocks of the city’s “Black Wall Street” burned to the ground and as many as 300 Black Americans dead. Biden’s early months in office also have revealed the difficulties in matching symbolism with substance. Biden has few tangible accomplishments to point to aside from a handful of executive orders, as well as legislation combating Asian American hate crimes.
Joe Biden wins on style, struggles on substance. Image via Reuters.
“Biden’s agenda takes on steep GOP resistance in Senate” via Lindsay Wise of The Wall Street Journal — Many of President Biden’s priorities are in danger of stalling as the Senate returns on Monday, with measures on voting, infrastructure, and other issues facing firm Republican resistance and opposition from a handful of centrist Democrats. The difficulties Democrats face moving ahead in the evenly divided Senate became clearer Sunday when a pivotal centrist, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, said he wouldn’t support the key voting-rules bill that Republicans have already opposed. The Senate’s June work period “will be extremely challenging” and “will test our resolve as a Congress and a conference,” warned Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer.
“Biden’s foreign policy: Reverse the Donald Trump agenda but hit one similar note” via Anita Kumar of POLITICO — Biden now faces enormous scrutiny from world leaders eager to see how he will approach international issues as president in part because of the lack of emphasis on it during his first four-and-a-half months in office. In office, he has struck some similar notes as his predecessor, Trump, including support for a firm withdrawal from Afghanistan. Still, during his upcoming trip, he will try to portray his vision as the opposite of Trump’s America First foreign policy that dramatically disrupted long-standing alliances and actively undermined the U.S.’s leadership role. Biden will have to balance the desire to emphasize domestic priorities when America’s global preeminence seems threatened like never before.
Epilogue: Trump
“Donald Trump, Bill O’Reilly plan to kick off tour of arena shows at BB&T Center in Sunrise” via Anthony Man of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — One of then-President Trump’s last big, mass rallies before the coronavirus pandemic was at the BB&T Center in Sunrise, in November 2019. The former President is teaming up with O’Reilly for a series of four conversations in December. The first date, a public relations firm announced Monday, is Dec. 11 at the Sunrise arena. Like all big arena shows, the tickets go on sale six months in advance. The description of the Trump-O’Reilly conversations, which organizers are calling “The History Tour,” says Trump “will provide a never-before-heard inside view of his administration, which will be historical in and of itself.”
Donald Trump, Bill O’Reilly hit the road. Image via Reuters.
“How the national push by Trump allies to audit 2020 ballots started quietly in Pennsylvania” via Rosalind S. Helderman of The Washington Post — Biden’s presidential victory in Pennsylvania had been certified for weeks when officials in some Republican-leaning counties began receiving strange phone calls from GOP state senators in late December. The lawmakers, who had been publicly questioning Biden’s win, had a request: Would the counties agree to a voluntary audit of their ballots? The push to conduct unofficial election audits in multiple counties, described in interviews and emails obtained by The Washington Post, served as a last-ditch effort by allies of former President Trump to undercut Biden’s win after failing in the courts and the state legislature. The previously unreported lobbying foreshadowed a playbook now in use in Arizona and increasingly being sought in other communities across the country.
“Poll: 51% of Americans support Donald Trump’s 2-year Facebook ban” via Maya Ward of POLITICO — While the majority of Americans have heard about former President Trump’s Facebook suspension, just over half support the platform’s two-year ban. 71% of voters have heard “a lot” or “some” about Trump’s suspension from the social media platform, while 51% of Americans strongly or somewhat support Facebook’s move. The responses were largely divided along partisan lines. While just 15% of Republican voters were in favor of the suspension, support for Trump’s temporary ban was high among Democrats at 86%. Independent voters were a mixed bag, with 46% supporting the suspension, and 40% opposing it.
Crisis
“No. 2 Capitol Police official resigns amid turmoil at department” via Nicholas Wu and Kyle Cheney of POLITICO — Chad Thomas, the No. 2 Capitol Police official overseeing most of its uniformed officers, resigned from his position Monday as the department attempts to chart a path forward after the Jan. 6 insurrection. His departure comes as watchdogs urge the department to shift its posture from that of a police force to more of an intelligence-gathering and protective agency for members of Congress and as rank-and-file officers express frustration with the current leadership. Rank-and-file officers have expressed their dissatisfaction with top Capitol Police leadership, including Thomas and acting chief Yogananda Pittman. In a February union ballot, 96% of voting officers gave Thomas a vote of no confidence and 92% rebuked Pittman.
Amid the turmoil, Chad Thomas exits the Capitol Police. Image via CQ Roll Call.
D.C. matters
“Marco Rubio may still want to be President one day. He’s content to wait out Trump.” via Allan Smith of NBC News — Backers and critics agree that the Trump era was transformative for Rubio, who once thought he wouldn’t last long in the Senate. “If you look at the last four-plus years, it’s been radically different from what he’s accomplished,” a senior adviser said, adding that Rubio’s change of heart about the Senate as an institution is “directly tied to his success.” He hasn’t stopped thinking about the White House for himself — or of himself as the Republican with the transformative vision for a party that has centered some of the cultural, economic and foreign policy issues he seeks to champion.
“How two new Republicans want to reshape the GOP’s immigration agenda” via Olivia Beavers of POLITICO — Two members of the Republican House freshman class are swimming against the Trumpian tide to try to steer their party toward a more welcoming immigration strategy. Reps. María Elvira Salazar and Carlos Giménez are somewhat lonely voices in the GOP, in part because the migration influx soon after Biden took office gave Republicans an opening to paint Democrats as soft on the border. But the Miami Republicans are promoting separate frameworks to overhaul the nation’s flawed immigration system that could help their party build on the surprising inroads Trump made with Latino voters last fall.
Carlos Giménez and Maria Salazar want to help shape GOP immirgation policy.
“Joe Manchin’s opposition clouds future of Dems’ elections bill” via The Associated Press — A key Democratic senator says he will not vote for the largest overhaul of U.S. election law in at least a generation, leaving no plausible path forward for legislation that his party and the White House have portrayed as crucial for protecting access to the ballot. “Voting and election reform that is done in a partisan manner will all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen,″ Sen. Manchin wrote in a newspaper. He wrote that failure to bring together both parties on voting legislation would “risk further dividing and destroying the republic we swore to protect and defend as elected officials.” The bill would restrict partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts, strike down hurdles to voting and bring transparency to a murky campaign finance system.
“Supreme Court rules against immigrants with temporary status” via Mark Sherman of The Associated Press — A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Monday that thousands of people living in the U.S. for humanitarian reasons are ineligible to apply to become permanent residents. Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court that federal immigration law prohibits people who entered the country illegally and now have Temporary Protected Status from seeking “green cards” to remain in the country permanently. The designation applies to people who come from countries ravaged by war or disaster. It protects them from deportation and allows them to work legally. There are 400,000 people from 12 countries with TPS status.
“Supreme Court: Many Haitians, Central Americans with TPS won’t be able to get green cards” via Jacqueline Charles and Monique O. Madan of the Miami Herald — Thousands of immigrants from Haiti, Central America and elsewhere with temporary immigration status in the United States will not be able to become green card holders, or permanent U.S. residents, if they entered the country illegally, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday. Immigration advocates say the impact of the Court’s decision varies from community to community and puts pressure on Congress to pass immigration reform so that immigrants can stop living in legal limbo. The House of Representatives has passed legislation that would provide a path to legal residency and citizenship for immigrants with TPS. But the legislation, known as HR6, faces a tough road to approval.
Local notes
“Police arrest 3 teens linked to gang feud, mass shooting outside a Kendall hookah bar” via David Ovalle of the Miami Herald — Police detectives have arrested three teens who are believed to be part of the South Miami-Dade gang feud that led to a mass shooting at a Kendall graduation party. The three teens are not charged with the drive-by shooting outside a hookah bar early Sunday that killed a state corrections officer. Instead, they are being charged with a shooting that happened minutes later. They “willfully and purposefully pursued” a Nissan Altima that belonged to people who had been at the graduation party and opened fire. The driver of the Altima suffered leg wounds and is in stable condition at Jackson South Memorial. Miami-Dade police found the teens at their home and they confessed “to shooting indiscriminately at the Nissan Altima while unprovoked.”
“Clearwater explores adopting ranked-choice voting system” via Tracey McManus of the Tampa Bay Times — When City Council member Mark Bunker ran for office last year on a platform of standing up to the Church of Scientology, he said he didn’t expect support, or donations, from the business community and unions. With a modest campaign budget, he beat four opponents with 27% of ballots cast, all that he needed in Clearwater’s winner-take-all plurality system. As the City ponders a change to its election system, Bunker said the existing structure allows candidates like himself to have a voice. Earlier this year, Council member Hoyt Hamilton proposed the City move to a majority-win structure.
Mark Bunker’s narrow win has Clearwater rethinking its voting system.
“Raymond Adderly grew up fast after his dad’s murder. Now, at 17, he’s running for Broward School Board” via Ryan Nicol of Florida Politics — Adderly will likely be the youngest candidate competing for a Broward County School Board seat this cycle. But he says he has been on a path toward public office since a tragedy over a decade ago. “Yes, I am a student. Yes, I am 17,” Adderly told Florida Politics during a conversation about his campaign. “But what really happened to me that triggered this passion for activism, this passion for helping others, is the fact that when I was 7 years old, I watched a home invasion turn into a murder.” That murder claimed the life of Adderly’s father, Raymond Adderly Jr. The elder Adderly was a friend of the rapper Rick Ross and was an aspiring rapper himself.
“Esmond Scott lands in Miami Shores” via Mark Sell of the Biscayne Times — Scott replaces Tom Benton who retired in May after 22 years as a manager and nearly half a century of service to the village, from teenage golf course worker to public works director to manager. Benton announced his retirement before the newly-elected council’s first meeting on May 4. At that meeting, the council signaled disapproval of Police Chief Kevin Lystad’s outside work and said they would forward the query to the Ethics Commission. Lystad resigned shortly thereafter. As the city searches for a permanent manager, Scott faces three major priorities: shepherding through the village’s 2021-22 budget, now at $20 million; hiring a new police chief, and determining the best use for the $4 million the village is receiving through the American Rescue Plan.
“Pam Childers: Commissioner overheard making ‘offensive’ sexist comments about county clerk” via Jim Little of the Pensacola News Journal — Escambia County Clerk and Comptroller Childers sent an email Sunday night accusing Commissioner Lumon May of making a sexist comment about her in a closed-door exchange with Commissioners Steven Barry and Jeff Bergosh. “‘I’m f**king pissed, that bitch shouldn’t have said that,'” the email quotes May as saying following Thursday night’s Escambia County Commission meeting. Bergosh, the only Commissioner to respond to the News Journal on Monday, denies being involved in any conversation disparaging Childers. The remarks allegedly came following a meeting where Commissioners held off on moving forward with a proposal from Barry to back-pay Commissioners and senior-level staff for a retirement program they say they weren’t told about.
Uncalled for: Pam Childers overheard an Escambia County Commissioner call her a bitch.
“Jaguars donate JV and varsity uniforms to Confederate schools being renamed — here’s what we know” via Emily Bloch of The Florida Times-Union — The Jacksonville Jaguars will cover about $224,143 worth of Duval Schools’ incoming school renaming expenses by donating team uniforms to the six schools undergoing changes. The schools benefiting from the donation are J.E.B. Stuart Middle which is becoming Westside Middle, Jefferson Davis Middle which is becoming Charger Academy, Kirby Smith Middle, becoming Springfield Middle, and Robert E. Lee High, which is becoming Riverside High. “The Jaguars are committed to supporting after-school athletics and are honored to provide new uniforms for students to wear proudly this fall and beyond,” a spokesperson said in a statement emailed to the Times-Union. The donation will not include away band, JROTC, or team away uniforms.
Top opinion
“Three paths to containing Trump” via Ross Douthat of The New York Times — Last fall and winter, the President of the United States attempted, with ineffectual strategy but violent consequences, to pressure Republicans to overturn an election that he quite clearly lost. Now he reportedly believes that swing-state “audits” will somehow reinstall him in the White House by the end of summer. Non-Trumpist Republicans should be speaking out constantly, in the model of Liz Cheney, against the threat Trump poses to democracy. Whereas if responsible Republican officeholders ignore him, they can hope to outlast him, and even if he retakes the nomination, they will still be there.
Opinions
“Marsy’s Law leads to ridiculous, dangerous secret-keeping in Florida” via Scott Maxwell of the Orlando Sentinel — On its face, “Marsy’s Law” sounded splendid: Empower victims and protect their privacy. Except it was never really that simple. And now we’re seeing proof all over Florida. In Tallahassee, two cops shot and killed two different men, and the city has refused to reveal the officers’ identities, saying the officers were the victims. So who’s responsible for all this? Many of you. Sorry to cast blame so widely. But it’s true. About 62% of Floridians voted for this feel-good-sounding amendment. Some of you might be thinking: Well, how were we supposed to know this other stuff might happen? Because lots of smart people warned you. Legal groups. Watchdog groups. Republican groups. Democratic groups. Pretty much every major newspaper in the state.
“Ashley Moody’s objections to DNA testing don’t serve justice” via the South Florida Sun-Sentinel editorial board — One would hope that every last doubt would be resolved before someone is killed in the guise of justice, especially when a DNA test is feasible. But no, Florida has its rules, and Moody is the enforcer. The better-known inmate is Tommy Ziegler, 75, whose dubious conviction has been publicized nationally. He owned a Winter Garden furniture store where his wife, her parents and another person were found slain on Christmas Eve 1975. Police in his case pursued no contrary leads, rejecting Ziegler’s claim of an attack by an intruder. Moody’s office is asking a judge to block the testing in both cases. The state has argued that advanced DNA testing wouldn’t exonerate the men even if the results were what the prisoners’ lawyers expect. But that shouldn’t matter.
“A wing of Florida’s anti-abortion crowd torpedoes a program to decrease abortions” via the Tampa Bay Times editorial board — Contraception cuts down on abortions. So the idea of putting $2 million in state funds toward increasing access to long-acting contraception for low-income girls and women seemed like the kind of program that everybody could favor, whatever their views on abortion. Senate President Wilton Simpson, an anti-abortion Republican, pushed the idea during the recent Legislative Session. “I am a pro-life Senator. This actually prevents a lot of abortions from happening,” he said. None of this apparently matters to a wing of the anti-abortion crowd. The Catholic Conference urged DeSantis to veto the $2 million, and the governor obliged last week. Make no mistake, the veto of this sensible idea will add to the number of abortions needed in Florida.
“Legislators aren’t doing enough to protect Florida from climate change” via Christian Wagley of the Pensacola News Journal — Florida is dealing with tremendous impacts from climate change, as hotter temperatures stress agricultural crops and natural systems, drive more frequent large hurricanes and intense rainstorms and flood our coastline. In the recently-completed session of the Florida Legislature, the majority Republican delegation chose only to treat the symptoms of climate change rather than to address the cause, continuing to hinder the expansion of renewable energy while favoring corporations over citizens. A bill that would have allowed school districts and local governments to access innovative financing to install solar panels on their buildings went nowhere. Not only did the Legislature not act to treat the cause of climate change, they did the opposite: They worked to protect the oil and natural gas industries that are causing the problem.
On today’s Sunrise
Florida is taking a stand against the Chinese Communist Party. The Governor signed a bill to keep communist cash out of Florida research.
Also, on today’s Sunrise:
— Gov. Ron DeSantis also signed a bill creating a new law prohibiting the theft of trade secrets from Florida companies and institutions. That’s the sort of thing the feds usually prosecute, but the House Speaker says Florida Man deserves a shot at them.
— Road trip! Congressman and candidate for Governor Charlie Crist is spending the next four days in a statewide voting-rights tour.
— Later this week, Second Gentleman Doug Emhoff visits Tallahassee to encourage more people to get vaccinated. Is it wrong to call him Mr. Kamala Harris?
— More than 80 years after it was founded, the League of Women of Florida finally has a Black president. Scoon is a civil rights lawyer and former JAG officer who ended up in Panama City — the Redneck Riviera — courtesy of the U.S. Air Force. Scoon is our guest on today’s Sunrise Interview.
— And finally, the stories of a Florida Man and a Florida Woman who are both in deep kimchi.
“‘America’s North Korea.’ TV host Jimmy Kimmel gets ripped for his joke about Florida” via Madeleine Marr of the Miami Herald — Kimmel ripped the Sunshine State during his monologue that mentioned DeSantis’ recently announced “2021 Python Challenge,” in which wranglers win prizes for capturing invasive snakes in the Everglades. “In America’s North Korea, the Sunshine State, from time to time, we enjoy taking a look at what’s going on, and tonight we are doing it again in a DeSantis edition of ‘This Week in Florida,’ ” Kimmel ribbed while tropical music plays and a fake postcard flashes across the screen. People on Twitter called out Kimmel’s questionable satire and jumped to Florida’s defense. “Imagine if I care about what this guy thinks about my state,” wrote one.
Jimmy Kimmel jokes about Florida, gets immediate pushback. Image via AP.
“AAA predicts a busy summer travel season to Florida and beyond” via Danielle Prieur of WMFE — Mark Jenkins of AAA says flights across the U.S. were up by 14% over the six-day holiday weekend compared with Memorial Day 2020. He says Americans are finding cheaper flights, including first-class tickets for that European vacation they’ve been planning. “What that means is that people can take that dream vacation at a more affordable rate. If they would normally really dream of sitting first class on a flight overseas this could be that opportunity for them to do that.” Jenkins says with such a strong demand for air travel, he expects to see airlines releasing more flights in the coming year. And he says that could drive down the price of flights to popular tourist destinations like Orlando even more. Demand for cruises out of Florida is also rising. Many ships are already fully booked in 2022.
“Florida gas prices forecast to rise by as much as 10 cents this week” via Joe Mario Pedersen of the Orlando Sentinel — Prices at the pump could bounce up 5 to 10 cents this week at Florida gasoline stations, according to a forecast by AAA — the Auto Club. AAA reported that gas prices are believed to be facing upward pressure this week as optimism about rising fuel demand sent crude oil prices to multiyear highs. “Rising crude oil and gasoline futures could drag retail gasoline prices higher this week,” said Jenkins. AAA also expressed a concern that fuel supplies “will not be able to keep pace.” Florida’s average price is at $2.85 — 2 cents less than it was the previous week.
“Amazon is about to share your internet connection with neighbors.” via Geoffrey A. Fowler of The Washington Post — Echo smart speakers and Ring security cameras have the ability to make a new kind of wireless network called Sidewalk that shares a slice of your home internet connection with your neighbors’ devices. And on Tuesday, Amazon is switching Sidewalk on for everyone. Sidewalk raises more red flags than a marching band parade: Is it secure enough to be activated in so many homes? And why didn’t Amazon ask us to opt-in before activating a capability lying dormant in our devices? I recommend you opt-out of Sidewalk, too, until we get much better answers to these questions.
“Tampa Bay’s first Shake Shack opens to enthusiastic fans” via Helen Freund of the Tampa Bay Times — On Monday, the Tampa Bay area’s first Shake Shack opened at Midtown Tampa. Though Monday’s opening marked the restaurant chain’s Tampa Bay debut, 15 locations of the popular burger and shake chain spread around Florida (until now, the closest was in Sarasota, at the Mall at University Town Center). It was one of the most anticipated restaurant openings at Midtown Tampa, the massive mixed-use development and entertainment complex on the southeast corner of N Dale Mabry Highway and Interstate 275. By the time Shake Shack’s doors opened around 11 a.m. Monday, the line had stretched to more than 50 people, with a queue wrapping around the building and down W Cypress Street.
Happy birthday
Happy birthday to (yes, this is a repeat from last year, but it’s still true) two very intelligent, decent men, Chris Hand (who pens the occasional op-ed for #FlaPol) and Brad Miller, the executive director of PSTA. Also celebrating today is Rep. Kevin Chambliss.
___
Sunburn is authored and assembled by Peter Schorsch, Phil Ammann, Renzo Downey and Drew Wilson.
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In a unanimous decision, the Supreme Court eliminated one of the few paths to a green card for immigrants with Temporary Protected Status who entered the U.S. unlawfully. TPS offers humanitarian relief against deportation and provides work authorization for about 400,000 citizens from 12 designated countries that have been impacted by disasters.
…
In Sanchez v. Mayorkas, the justices upheld the decision from a lower court regarding two El Salvadoran nationals [who were denied a green card based on their unlawful entry]. “Because a grant of TPS does not come with a ticket of admission,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote, “it does not eliminate the disqualifying effect of an unlawful entry.”
…
Up until now, TPS holders in states like Ohio, Michigan, Arizona, and California, among others under the jurisdiction of the 6th, 8th, and 9th circuits, have been considered to be eligible for permanent residency without having to apply for re-entry through consular processing abroad—even though they may have entered unlawfully.
Why did Mexico’s ruling party suffer setbacks in midterm elections?
President López Obrador’s Morena party lost its supermajority in the lower house of congress but captured enough seats to form a majority with allies. Morena’s setbacks suggest rising unease with the pre…
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How far into space will Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos reach in his launch next month?
Just two weeks after he steps down as CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos will climb aboard a rocket made by his space exploration company Blue Origin. The flight is expected to last about 11 minutes, and only a sma…
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How could a newly-approved weight loss drug impact obesity treatment?
Wegovy, a weight-management therapy to be manufactured by Danish pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk, is the first Food and Drug Administration-approved weight-loss drug s…
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All votes are anonymous. This poll closes at: 9:00 PST
YESTERDAY’S POLLShould a government-issued ID be required to vote?
Yes
81%
No
14%
Unsure
5%
637 votes, 136 comments
Context: Democrat voting reform bill, HR 1, opposed by Sen. Manchin (D-WV)
HIGHLIGHTED COMMENTS
“Yes – If the root cause of “voter suppression” is these voters can’t get ID’s then why not attack that issue… set up a mobile ID booth. Have event days where the local high school sets up ID days. Let’s help people who you claim don’t have access and let’s give them easier access! Voting is not the only thing you need to have an ID for, it can only help you navigate the rest of your life easier if you get an ID.”
“No – ID? Yes, of course. University, employer, other normal types of photo ID should be requir…”
“Unsure – If so- which is not a bad idea- it must be made easier than having to take off a day of work to visit the DMV. …”
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6.) MORNING BREW
June 08, 2021
TOGETHER WITH
Good morning. New York City officials are planning a mega-concert in Central Park in late August to celebrate the city’s reopening. And while no one asked us, here’s our lineup that best reflects the era:
1st set: Italian tenors sing “Nessun Dorma” from nearby rooftops 2nd set: Celebrities re-up their stirring rendition of Imagine 3rd set: New Yorkers who banged on pots and pans every day for frontline workers Headliner: Cicadas
Markets: The stock market really embraced the concept of a lethargic summer Monday yesterday. Biogen provided the only excitement, popping after the FDA approved its Alzheimer’s treatment; more on that in a bit.
Wondering why your engineering team stopped responding to you yesterday afternoon? Apple kicked off its annual WWDC conference for developers with a keynote address showing off its new software features.
So…what’s new?
Apple’s preparing for post-pandemic life with…a lot of tools that would have been helpful during the pandemic.
FaceTime updates: Video calls will get screen sharing capabilities, integrations with other apps like social media, and crisper audio. Users will also be able to schedule and send links to FaceTime calls (even to their Android friends).
Focus tech: To help you stay on task from 9–5, Apple will let users batch notifications and order them by priority, add a Focus mode to limit interruptions from non-work-related apps and friends, and add work, sleep, or do not disturb statuses to their Messages app.
Privacy: To bolster its reputation as Silicon Valley’s privacy leader, Apple is adding on-device speech processing for Siri, extra private browsing on Safari, and the ability to disable tracking pixels in email.
Tracking pixels? Apple users will be able to block tracking by email senders, a change that could mean big disruptions for businesses that depend on email marketing. If a user disables pixels, companies won’t know if their email even gets opened.
Other highlights: New features for developers to build apps in the cloud. Uploading your ID to Apple Wallet to use for TSA screening. Unlocking your car or front door from an iPhone. Fancier maps. And trusted contacts to get you back into iCloud after you forget your new password.
Between the keynote lines
This WWDC wasn’t unique just because execs spoke before a crowd of Memojis. Yesterday, Apple defended itself and said the App Store has paid over $230 billion to developers since opening in 2008.
The company wrapped up a trial last week with Fortnite maker Epic Games, which is accusing Apple of monopolistic practices for the 30% cut it takes on in-app purchases. If Apple loses, the company may have to rewrite the rules of its money-printing App Store.
Yesterday, the FDA approved Biogen’s aducanumab, the first drug to treat the underlying cause of Alzheimer’s (sticky brain plaques) and potentially slow the disease’s progression in early stage patients. Although far from a cure, aducanumab could mark a new era in treating the leading cause of dementia and the sixth leading cause of death in the US.
Not all doctors are ready to prescribe
Biogen had shelved the drug in early 2019, then surprised the medical community by breaking it back out that October. Last November, an expert panel advised the FDA not to approve aducanumab after a pair of studies showed conflicting results about its effectiveness.
But the agency fast-tracked it, arguing that the benefits of slowing Alzheimer’s outweigh the risks. Since aducanumab’s clinical effectiveness isn’t certain, Biogen still has to conduct post-approval trials, but some health experts worry the FDA made the wrong decision.
Big picture: It’s easier to crack the TikTok algorithm than it is to treat Alzheimer’s. A string of failures led many pharma companies to give up, though some analysts think Biogen’s breakthrough could renew interest, Reuters reports. There’s certainly money to be made: Biogen says the treatment, which will be sold under the name “Aduhelm,” will cost $56,000 a year.
Despite the influx of Office trivia night invites, nature is in fact not healing. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere is at its highest level in modern history and 50% higher than in preindustrial times, according to new findings from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Agency (NOAA) and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography.
In fact, to find a time when Earth’s atmosphere had this much CO2 in it, you’d have to go back at least 4.1 million years ago to the Pliocene Epoch, when sea levels were almost 80 feet higher than today.
But what about the pandemic? Global emissions fell 7% last year due to travel restrictions and the general slowdown in human activity. However, as the new data reveals, that didn’t do much to change the long-term trajectory of carbon emissions.
That’s because every year, the world adds ~40 billion metric tons of CO2 pollution to the atmosphere. A brief commuting break can’t offset the CO2 that sticks around in the atmosphere for up to 1,000 years.
Everyone’s gonna be in their bag this summer. Hittin’ the beach. Hikin’. Hangin’ with pals we’ve gotten used to seeing through screens.
To make sure you can keep up with the festivities and cover your nutrition while you’re at it, make sure to keep some Athletic Greens handy.
Athletic Greens is the ultimate daily all-in-one nutrition essential. No need to fill your pantry with tons of supplements with complicated names—you can get all the nutrients you need to keep the good vibes a-flowin’ from Athletic Greens alone.
This stuff is great for on-the-go sippin’ and is packed with multivitamins, Vitamin C, Adaptogens, Prebiotics, Probiotics, and Superfoods. All that adds up to a great summer, yes—but also great immune support, gut health, and healthy aging.
Stat: NBCUniversal said it will broadcast more than 7,000 hours of Olympics content across NBC, USA, Peacock, and all of its other media properties this summer. For context, there are on average 730 hours in a month.
Quote: “Today we turned the tables on DarkSide.”
Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said that the US had recovered the majority of the $4.4 million in cryptocurrency that Colonial Pipeline paid to the criminal group DarkSide after it had been hacked.
Read: Is our society turning into a zero-sum competition for survival? (Noahpinion)
Jeff Bezos is launching himself into space. In an Instagram post yesterday, Bezos said that he and his brother would be onboard Blue Origin’s first passenger-carrying mission, set for liftoff on July 20.
That leaves only one seat open. So if you’ve been looking to get some Bezos facetime to pitch your startup idea, you can bid for New Shepard’s final seat through Saturday.
As of yesterday, the highest bid to sit sandwiched between the Bezos brothers for an 11-minute space flight reaching an altitude of 62 miles: $2.8 million.
Consider it the most thrilling retirement party ever. Bezos will officially be replaced as Amazon CEO by Andy Jassy on July 5. After announcing his plan to step down earlier this year, Bezos said Blue Origin, his space company, “is the most important work I’m doing.”
Zoom out: Bezos isn’t the only billionaire who wants to go suborbital. Virgin Galactic founder Sir Richard Branson plans to be on his company’s first commercial space flight…whenever that launches. Meanwhile, no update yet on Elon Musk’s Mars colony.
WHAT ELSE IS BREWING
France fined Google $268 million for abusing its dominant position in the digital advertising industry.
Katerra, a SoftBank-backed construction startup, filed for bankruptcy on Sunday.
Dave, a banking app that counts Mark Cuban as an investor, is going public via SPAC at a valuation of more than $4 billion. Yes, it’s ticker symbol will be DAVE.
The airline industry is pleading with the US and the UK to lift Covid-era travel restrictions to spur more transatlantic passenger demand.
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Enter the pool: Check out this retro site (formerly Poolside FM) for the ultimate summer playlist.
Work reset: We could all use one as we adapt to a post-Covid world. Learn how to align your personal values with your professional ambitions in just six steps with the ZigZag podcast. Listen here.
The great plains of the internet reach far and wide. Roaming them solo would be hard, but also just boring! Say hey to Sidekick, our spunky newsletter sliding into your inbox with the internet’s best recs for smarter living. Entertainment. Productivity hacks. Recipes. Sidekick will help up your quality of life, one rec at a time. Read it here.
First, we have another Mini for you today, which you can play here.
Next, for today’s trivia question, this strange blob in the Washington, DC, area was picked up by radar yesterday. But it’s not a weather phenomenon. Do you know what it is?
Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) has become a thorn in the side of the legacy media. Now that he is refusing to back the Democrat electoral reform bill and is insistent that he will not help do away with the filibuster, the Fourth Estate has turned on him. It’s almost as though the supposedly impartial media is fully behind the Democratic Party. In fact, recent coverage of the senator is more akin to that reserved for Republicans.
Something political to ponder as you enjoy your morning coffee.
Vice President Kamala Harris, after appearing to do very little on the border crisis for the last 70+ days, visited Guatemala to “address the root cause” of illegal migration. Her reception was less than favorable. She was greeted by protestors carrying signs with the words “Trump Won” and “Go Home” emblazoned. President Alejandro Giammattei expressed that he fundamentally disagrees with the Biden administration’s position that mass migration is driven by climate change, stating instead that it was Biden’s fault for his welcoming language and policies.
SCOTUS has ruled that immigrants who entered the country illegally yet are allowed to stay on “humanitarian” grounds cannot apply to become permanent residents. Surprisingly even liberal justice Elena Kagan… Read more…
There are possible storm clouds ahead for the U.S. economy as record numbers of consumers turn sour on the current state of the housing market, thinking this is not a… Read more…
The Justice Department on Monday recovered some $2.3 million in cryptocurrency ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline Co, cracking down on hackers who launched the most disruptive U.S. cyberattack on record…. Read more…
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11.) AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE
AEI’s daily publication of independent research, insightful analysis, and scholarly debate.
Democracy reforms will succeed as they have in the past only if they achieve some level of consensus at the federal level or through the hard work of state-by-state reforms.
Policymakers need to take a hard look at the incentives the higher education system is designed to produce and consider the big changes needed to drive better outcomes for each set of payers.
Despite popular culture and the news media’s renewed interest in friendship, signs suggest that the role of friends in American social life is experiencing a pronounced decline. The May 2021 American Perspectives Survey finds that Americans report having fewer close friendships than before, talking to their friends less often, and relying less on their friends for personal support.
“The Group of Seven wealthy democracies agreed Saturday to support a global minimum corporate tax of at least 15%… The [agreement would also let] countries tax a share of the profits earned by companies that have no physical presence but have substantial sales, for instance through selling digital advertising.” AP News
From the Right
The right opposes the agreement, arguing that it will harm US tech firms and undermine US sovereignty.
“Mr. Biden hopes to fund his domestic spending blowout by milking American companies for more revenue, and he’s figured out his tax increases will undermine American competitiveness unless other governments go along. That strategy already is failing now that Ms. Yellen could secure agreement only to a 15% rate, rather than the 21% she first sought…
“Ms. Yellen also had to agree to a digital tax aimed primarily at U.S. tech companies. The tech tax is a startling surrender for a Treasury Secretary. Ms. Yellen appears to have acquiesced to European demands that the tax be tailored so narrowly that it would apply primarily to U.S. digital companies and not large European manufacturers. In doing so, she’s surrendering Washington’s ability to tax American companies as Congress sees fit…
“One country that almost certainly will not sign up for this is China. Beijing refuses to be drawn into these negotiations because it wants to retain control over its tax policy as a tool to encourage more investment. Chinese officials must be chuckling over their tea as they read the G-7 communiqué.” Editorial Board, Wall Street Journal
“If an agreement is reached through the OECD, the administration is likely to enact it as a ‘multilateral instrument,’ somewhat akin to the Paris Climate Accord, and avoid submitting it to the Senate as a tax treaty… This approach would transfer significant national sovereignty over corporate taxation, key to overall economic policy, to some yet-to-be-defined international regime under the guidance of the OECD, an unelected multilateral institution…
“We need to know how far this transfer of authority would extend and what institution or process would handle disputes and enforcement. Would the negotiated rules be incorporated automatically into the tax laws of signatories, much like EU rules have immediate force of law in member states? If Arizona wants to give tax abatements to a domestic or foreign semiconductor firm to build a fabrication plant, would it have to get the approval of OECD experts? Would other nations have a way of challenging such tax incentives?” Thomas J. Duesterberg, Wall Street Journal
“Rather than having to respond to competitive pressure being applied by neighbors or up-and-coming business destinations, [the US and UK] are taking steps to make sure their competition is stilted. It is in their national interest to prevent other countries from offering a more competitive rate — but not obviously in the interest of employees or consumers (who see the cost of corporation tax reflected in their wages and costs)…
“It is not just the policy, but what it represents, that is the real cause for concern. The world’s richest countries are in the process of undercutting economic principles — mainly competition and the ability to attract business — that have been responsible for increasing people’s prosperity across the globe. It’s easy to see why they’ve done it: the short-term gain may well be to their advantage. But the long-term economic consequences could be harder to avoid — even for those at the top.” Kate Andrews, Spectator USA
“Here’s the rub. Not all multinational corporations have a profit margin of over 10 percent. Amazon, for example, had a profit margin of 6.3 percent of its $386 billion global profits in 2020. In other words, it is not going to be caught by this tax at all. Many other companies who do currently have profit margins above 10 percent will presumably already be thinking up ways of engineering margins below this threshold. It is astonishing that the world, or part of the world at any rate, can sit down to work out a tax reform designed to trap what many consider to be industrial scale tax-avoidance by tech giants — and end up exempting at least one of those tech giants.” Ross Clark, Spectator USA
From the Left
The right opposes the agreement, arguing that it will harm US tech firms and undermine US sovereignty.
“Last week the Guardian reported that an Irish subsidiary of the US tech giant Microsoft paid no corporation tax at all last year, on profits of $315bn (£222bn). This is because Microsoft Round Island One, which collects licence fees for Microsoft software, is ‘resident’ for tax purposes in Bermuda. Since Bermuda does not levy corporation tax, the only payout came in the form of bumper dividends for Microsoft shareholders, worth a total of $55bn. Over recent decades, such shameless chicanery has become the way of the world. But at the weekend, G7 finance ministers took a first step towards dismantling this footloose, beggar-thy-neighbour version of capitalism, which has deprived treasuries of hundreds of billions of pounds in tax receipts…
“The 15% minimum is not much above the low corporation tax rates currently set in countries such as Ireland and Switzerland, and falls a long way short of the 21% rate first pressed for by Joe Biden, the US president. Nevertheless, an important principle of cooperation between states has been established, restoring a sense of political control over the manoeuvres of the global business elite.” Editorial Board, The Guardian
“Historically, governments have always been several steps behind corporations as those corporations have expanded their scope. In the U.S., the railroads were the first corporations to expand beyond a single state’s borders in the years following the Civil War, amassing levels of wealth and power that dwarfed those of state governments, which the railroads frequently purchased and controlled. It was not until the 1890s that movements arose that tried to corral corporate power on a level commensurate with the corporations—that is, on the national level. It was not until the 1930s, when the New Deal was created, that national government finally rose to that challenge, however partially and imperfectly…
“It’s now nearly half a century since multinational and then global corporations arose, eroding the capacity of national governments to set or defend the social democratic accords on wages, taxes, and regulations that they’d enacted between the 1930s and the 1970s. In a tepid and half-hearted way, the European Union has created numerous cross-border regulations over the past few decades, but nothing remotely so ambitious as a minimum tax, much less a global one… Biden’s proposal signals that it may finally be time for the world’s governments to play catch-up—and not a moment too soon.” Harold Meyerson, American Prospect
“Between 1985 and 2020, the average corporate tax rate across major economies fell from 49 percent to about 23 percent as countries tried to spur more investment at home and make themselves more appealing destinations for big multinationals looking for lighter levies…
“When the Trump administration cut the top U.S. corporate rate from 35 percent to 21 percent in 2017, it imposed a few measures meant to discourage tax-haven abuse. They included a somewhat weak minimum tax on overseas profits known as the GILTI, which was designed to eventually max out at about 13 percent, and was mostly aimed at profits from intellectual property. The results haven’t been impressive so far. In 2019, U.S. multinationals still booked 61 percent of their post-tax profits in the seven biggest tax havens… The Biden approach is vastly more aggressive, and uses America’s enormous economic sway to force global change…
“One reason to be optimistic about this plan is that the United States does not need every country in the world to go along with its idea for a global minimum tax to be effected… just 10 countries are home to the companies that generate about 80 percent of profits from multinationals. If only [a] handful followed the U.S.’s lead, it would make a major difference.” Jordan Weissmann, Slate
A libertarian’s take
“Ireland dragged itself from poverty by making itself a relatively welcoming place in which to do business. No wonder Paschal Donohoe, the country’s finance minister, told global minimum tax fans to pound sand. He says that Ireland will keep its 12.5 percent rate for the foreseeable future. Other countries saw Ireland’s success and emulated it with low tax rates of their own. That’s especially true in Eastern European countries that had to hustle to catch up with market-oriented economies after the collapse of Soviet bloc socialism. They, too, are unimpressed by tax cartel schemes…“If the U.S. and other Group of Seven governments set a minimum tax without buy-in from the likes of Hungary and Ireland, they risk making those low-tax countries more competitive than ever. And those countries have little incentive to join the rush to a tax cartel since they built their prosperity with environments including low rates. So, White House National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan may be a little premature when he boasts that ‘[t]he world is closer than ever before to a global minimum tax.’ That’s true only if you define the world as developed economies that don’t feel a need to offer attractive environments but would rather sit back and milk the herd.” J.D. Tuccille, Reason
Happy Tuesday!Smart Brevity™ count: 1,179 words … 4½ minutes. Edited by Zachary Basu.
💻 Please joinAxios Local‘s Alex Golden and Worth Sparkman today at 1:30 p.m. ET (12:30 p.m. CT) for a Smart Take event on the future of Northwest Arkansas. Guests include Rep. Steve Womack (R-Ark.) and U. of Arkansas Center for Business & Economic Research director Mervin Jebaraj. Sign up.
1 big thing: Capitol Police saw attack plans weeks before riot
Capitol Rotunda on Jan. 6. Photo: Mostafa Bassim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
A Senate report out this morning finds that the Capitol Police intelligence division was gathering data online about plots to breach the Capitol — including maps of tunnels — in December, but the threat wasn’t relayed.
Capitol Police leadership, rank-and-file officers and federal law enforcement were left in the dark — and thus unprepared for the worst attack on the Capitol since the War of 1812, Axios’ Alayna Treene and Orion Rummler write from the 127-page report.
Capitol Police “began gathering information about events planned for January 6 in mid-December 2020,” the report says.
“Through open source collection, tips from the public, and other sources, [the intelligence division] knew about social media posts calling for violence at the Capitol on January 6, including a plot to breach the Capitol, the online sharing of maps of the Capitol Complex’s tunnel systems, and other specific threats of violence.”
Then there were intelligence, operational and security failures, the senators found: The information wasn’t shared, up or down the line.
The report — by the Democratic chairs and ranking Republicans on the Senate Homeland Security and Rules committees — found:
Capitol Police had no operational or staffing plan for the Jan. 6 joint session to count and certify the 2020 Electoral College votes.
Capitol Police officers didn’t have adequate equipment or training.
The intelligence wasn’t relayed to the FBI and departments of Homeland Security, Justice or Defense.
The Pentagon wanted to avoid looking over-militarized after its response to Black Lives Matter protests.
DOJ was the lead federal agency for security and response on Jan. 6, but never created a security plan and didn’t coordinate a response, former Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy told the committees.
2. Axios-Ipsos poll: 50-50 split on vaccine mandate in workplace
Americans are returning quickly to things we haven’t done in a long time — and see little risk in pre-pandemic lifestyles, Axios managing editor David Nather writes from the Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index.
Even though Americans are still divided by party over COVID precautions, there’s been a huge drop in anxiety across the board over the past three months.
87% of Republicans, 58% of Democrats and 70% of independents said they saw little to no risk in returning to pre-pandemic life.
Americans were split nearly down the middle on whether employers should require vaccines before employees can return to the workplace.
With Pride Month underway, Gallup reports this morning that U.S. support for legal same-sex marriage hit a record 70%.
It’s a 10-point gain since 2015, when the Supreme Court ruled that states must recognize same-sex marriage.
For the first time, Republicans show majority support (55%).
Age breakdown: 84% of young adults, 72% of middle-aged adults, and 60% of older adults.
4. 🗳️ Virginia Democrats hold primary today
Among the five Democrats in Virginia’s gubernatorial primary today is Jennifer Carroll Foy, a former state delegate who shaved her head when she became a Rat — a first-year Virginia Military Institute cadet.
“I wore a man’s uniform,” she told me over coffee as she campaigned in Old Town Alexandria. “And it was some of the most trying times and experiences that I’ve ever had.”
“I graduated,” she said. “I marched, sweat, and bled beside over a thousand male cadets — and they all knew my name.”
Foy, 39, a lawyer who’s from Petersburg and lives in Woodbridge, today has another ferocious fight — running against former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, 64, the huge favorite in today’s primary.
“When I travel throughout the Commonwealth,” Foy told me, “what I’m hearing is that Virginians want a governor who has walked in their shoes … who has that ‘Virginia-lived’ experience.”
The big picture: The question for voters is whether McAuliffe, with decades of experience, is right for the moment in a state in the throes of unsettling change, AP writes.
The field also includes state Sen. Jennifer McClellan, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and Del. Lee Carter, a socialist.
5. Earth’s C02 hits 4.5 million-year high
Carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere has reached its annual peak, climbing to 419 parts per million (ppm) in May, Axios’ Andrew Freedman writes from a report by scientists at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and NOAA.
Why it matters: It’s the highest CO2 reading since reliable instrument data began 63 years ago. Evidence shows it’s also a peak since well before the start of human history.
Policy issues — foreign policy, climate, voting rights — account for a much bigger share of political ads on Facebook under President Biden vs. the Trump era, Axios Media Trends author Sara Fischer writes.
Why it matters: Ad spending can be a good proxy for the issues gaining traction among policymakers and interest groups.
Big Tech has become one of the biggest topics in recent weeks, accounting for 6% of all political and advocacy ads on Facebook. Ads from Facebook itself have driven some of that increase.
“Fake news” has virtually disappeared from Facebook ads compared to last year. At one point ahead of the 2020 race, that was the biggest topic for Trump campaign ad spending on Facebook.
“Antifa” and “far-left” have fallen from the high levels they reached during last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests.
The James S. Brady Press Briefing Room returned to 100% capacity yesterday — all 49 assigned seats filled, and people in the aisles.
The White House Correspondents’ Association had been running a rotation system, allowing reporters to socially distance in the seats.
8. Renaissance for Venus
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
NASA is sending missions to Venus for the first time in more than 30 years, breathing new life into the scientific quest to understand the oft-ignored planet, Axios Space author Miriam Kramer writes.
Why it matters: Understanding Venus is a key to learning more about how habitable worlds form in our solar system — and outside it.
The big questions: Scientists think Venus could have evolved in one of two ways. One theory posits the world once had a magma ocean that effectively ruined it from the start, creating the thick atmosphere enveloping the planet today.
The other theory holds that Venus was habitable, with water on its surface before extreme volcanic eruptions created the runaway greenhouse effect seen there today.
Dr. Rick Warren delivers the invocation during President Obama’s Inauguration in 2009. Photo: Jason Reed/Reuters
Evangelical megachurch pastor Rick Warren — author of “The Purpose Driven Life,” which he says has been translated into 137 languages and sold 50 million copies — announced his retirement after 42 years of leading Saddleback Church in Southern California.
Warren, 67, told his congregation by video Sunday that he’ll continue as lead pastor until a successor is in place, The Orange County Register reported (subscription).
“That’s always been my goal, to serve God’s purpose in my generation,” Warren said. “God has given me the privilege to serve multiple generations.”
Saddleback has grown to 14 locations in Southern California (average weekly attendance: 30,000), plus four international campuses.
Warren told The New Yorker’s Michael Luo in December that during the pandemic, he was encouraging congregants to attend virtual services, meet online in small groups and volunteer at pop-up food pantries.
Warren told Luo by email: “Shepherds (that’s what ‘pastor’ means) are called to protect God’s Flock not expose it to danger, and I’m not willing to risk people’s health just to have a live audience to speak to.”
The findings represent the most detailed — and bipartisan — public account to date of the security failures that led to the Jan. 6 riot. It comes as Congress is debating legislation to fund safety improvements at the Capitol.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s pick to replace New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio is an anti-victim bail reform advocate who would cause the city’s double-digit crime wave increase to spiral to uncontrollable heights, experts told the Washington Examiner.
Although most media coverage suggests that reaching President Joe Biden’s goal of having 70% of adults at least partially vaccinated by July 4 is unlikely, not everyone is pessimistic.
While the Biden administration is hailing the commitment from the Group of Seven wealthy nations to a global minimum tax, actual implementation is still quite a way off on a path fraught with obstacles.
President Joe Biden has proposed substantial spending increases he says will transform the economy, but a pair of recent disappointing jobs reports have some analysts wondering whether these investments will really pay off.
BUCHAREST, Romania — Government ministers in the former Soviet and communist countries along the Black Sea basin are bracing for President Joe Biden’s meeting with Vladimir Putin of Russia next Wednesday in Geneva. But analysts are warning them to keep their expectations low.
The Biden administration has completed its 100-day review of four critical supply chains and is recommending remedies for supply chain deficiencies through the use of the Defense Production Act (DPA) and a host of other measures.
Former President Barack Obama singled out Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as one “brave” Republican who fought back against the so-called “Big Lie.”
More than seven months after the election and nearly five months after President Joe Biden’s inauguration, Republican Rep. Mo Brooks maintains former President Donald Trump is the rightful winner.
Federal prosecutors issued subpoenas for communications related to New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s controversial book deal about his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report.
Key lawmakers in charge of potential election reforms in Pennsylvania appear split on whether a third-party audit of the state’s November election results will occur.
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18.) ASSOCIATED PRESS
June 4, 2021
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AP Morning Wire
Good morning. Here is today’s selection of top stories from The Associated Press at this hour to begin the U.S. day.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The chief executive of the massive fuel pipeline hit by ransomware last month is expected to detail his company’s response to the cyberattack and to explain his decision to authorize a multimillion-dollar payment when he testifies…Read More
Democrats and voting rights groups scrambled Monday to figure out their next move after a key senator’s opposition seemed to doom a sweeping election overhaul bill and raise the prospect that no voting legislation would pass Congress amid what expe…Read More
LOD, Israel (AP) — Israeli security forces guard the streets of Lod, weeks after rioters torched patrol cars, synagogues and homes. Attackers who killed an Arab and a Jewish resident are still at large. …Read More
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate investigation of the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol has uncovered broad government, military and law enforcement missteps before the violent attack, including a breakdown within multiple intelligence agencies and…Read More
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Six years had passed since Glenda Valdez kissed her toddler goodbye and left for the United States — six years since she held Emely in her arms. But here she was, at Texas’ Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, tearfully embr…Read More
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Authorities in Australia and New Zealand said Tuesday they’ve dealt a huge blow to organized crime after hundreds of criminals were tricked int…Read More
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan is more than half done, and U.S. officials say that while it could be completed by July 4, the final exit of equipment …Read More
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s parliament speaker has scheduled a vote for Sunday on a new government that would end Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s 12-year rule, the longest …Read More
Here’s a collection curated by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists of what’s arriving on TV, streaming services and music platforms this week. MOVIES — Summer mov…Read More
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Good morning, Chicago. Yesterday, Illinois officials reported some of the lowest coronavirus numbers we’ve seen since the beginning of the pandemic. There were 244 new and probable cases of COVID-19 and 14 additional deaths recorded, while the seven-day statewide positivity rate dropped to 1.1%.
As Chicago approaches a full reopening, some of the city’s biggest hotels are also preparing to reopen their doors. Here’s a look at how the third-biggest hotel plans to welcome back guests for the first time in nearly 15 months.
Meanwhile, in contrast with some of the city’s plans for big events later this summer, the village of Oak Park announced its annual Fourth of July parade and fireworks have been canceled, citing a need to take a “cautious approach” to hosting large events during the summer.
— Nicole Stock, audience editor
Here’s more coronavirus news and other top stories you need to know to start your day.
When Chicago and Illinois enter phase five Friday it will be the first time in more than a year that there are no limitations on the size of gatherings and most public activities.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker confirmed the plans for a full reopening. Pritzker said it this way: “Thanks to the hard work of residents across the state, Illinois will soon resume life as we knew it before — returning to events, gatherings and a fully reopened economy, with some of the safety guidelines we’ve adopted still in place.”
With just two weeks left to the school year, teachers at the city’s Urban Prep Academies’ three charter high schools hit the picket line Monday, striking over what educators say is a lack of support for special education students.
The strike was declared after Urban Prep administrators and the Chicago Teachers Union were unable to land an agreement during a weekend bargaining session, CTU spokesperson Chris Geovanis said.
As Northwestern searched for an athletic director to fill the role Jim Phillips held for more than a decade, Derrick Gragg’s name came up as a wish-list candidate. When the university reached out to request an interview, he decisively passed, preferring to concentrate on his fairly new job as the NCAA vice president for inclusion, education and community engagement.
Northwestern eventually promoted former deputy athletic director Mike Polisky — and a fiasco ensued, leading to Polisky’s resignation only nine days after his hiring was announced. It gave Northwestern another shot at Gragg. This time, he reconsidered.
Many people have gotten used to a more hands-off approach to grocery shopping during the COVID-19 pandemic, ordering staples online and minimizing trips to the store.
Bob Mariano, the former head of some of Chicago’s biggest grocery chains, is betting some are eager to get back to shopping — and dining — in person. His new store, Dom’s Kitchen & Market, is set to open this morning. The team is already planning additional locations with a goal of growing the model in the Chicago area before expanding elsewhere.
Niquenya Collins cooks irresistible food — just ask fans of her takeout-only restaurant Cocoa Chili, her family and the guy who once stole some right off her backyard grill, Tribune food critic Lousia Chu writes.
Cocoa Chili has appeared on nearly every best and hot restaurant list in the city since opening in February. The beautifully executed dishes have not necessarily developed from family recipes or global travel — but many are born from Collins’ careful study of food that is quintessentially Chicago.
Two months before R&B superstar R. Kelly is set to face trial in federal court in Brooklyn, his two leading Chicago-based defense attorneys asked Monday to withdraw from the case.
However, two remaining members of Kelly’s defense team say attorneys Steve Greenberg and Michael Leonard were fired by the singer before they made their request. Jon Seidel has the full story…
But two remaining members of Kelly’s defense team say attorneys Steve Greenberg and Michael Leonard were fired by the singer before they asked to withdraw Monday.
The panel can’t order homeowners to do anything, but could suggest ways to defray the cost of tree trimming, removal and replacement or how to find money to support Chicago’s under-funded Bureau of Forestry.
Chicago artist and actor Tony Fitzpatrick says the mural, a tribute to the late Steppenwolf artistic director Martha Lavey, will be his last public artwork in Chicago.
Welcome to The Hill’s Morning Report. It is Tuesday! We get you up to speed on the most important developments in politics and policy, plus trends to watch. Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver are the co-creators. Readers can find us on Twitter @asimendinger and @alweaver22. Please recommend the Morning Report to friends and let us know what you think. CLICK HERE to subscribe!
Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported each morning this week: Monday, 597,628; Tuesday, 597,952.
Country roads are guiding the Senate, as the two West Virginia senators, Shelley Moore Capito (R) and Joe Manchin (D), hold the keys to the future of a bipartisan infrastructure measure and the Democratic agenda.
Capito, the lead GOP negotiator on an infrastructure package, is expected to speak once again with President Biden today. However, she indicated on Monday that the two sides could be moving down a road that’s heading nowhere, telling reporters that despite a new offer from the White House last week worth $1 trillion, the two sides remain miles apart, with precious few signs that the chasm between the two offers can be gapped.
“I don’t know where we’re going from here,” Capito said. “We made a good, robust effort. The biggest infrastructure package ever, pay-fors that we delineated. And he said, ‘That’s not enough.’ So I accept that. I mean, I have to. He’s the president” (NBC News).
The West Virginia Republican added that the GOP’s offer was “still not enough” and that the White House is “looking at other ideas.”
“So that sounds pretty definitive to me,” she added.
The comments come amid an important stretch for the two sides, especially with Biden set to depart on his first foreign trip on Wednesday, meaning that any progress will need to be made by then. The White House on Monday said that it still sees a path forward for a bipartisan deal.
“The time is not unlimited here … nor is the president’s willingness to compromise,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said at a briefing. “He made clear that the proposal the offer put on the table didn’t meet his own bar. But we’re very open to where the discussion goes from here.”
As The Hill’s Brett Samuels points out, Psaki signaled multiple potential paths for a possible bill, although none of them are clear at the moment, especially if a bipartisan bill is the goal. Among the key hang-ups in talks with Capito remains the amount of new money included, with Biden calling for at least $1 trillion, compared with $300 billion in the GOP’s latest offer, which was nearly $1 trillion overall.
Adding to the infrastructure dynamics, a bipartisan working group outside of the Biden-Capito negotiations is preparing a blueprint of their own. The group of roughly six senators, including Sens. Mitt Romney (R-Utah), Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Manchin are expected to shop their $880 billion proposal to a broader group of roughly 20 centrist-minded senators, known as the G-20, this week.
“We’ve pretty much agreed on the spending level. I’m sure there will be some adjustments as we go along, and the pay-fors. …We have a proposal that we’ll take to the entire group and see how they feel about it,” Romney said. “Maybe they’ll just throw it out altogether” (The Hill).
Across the aisle, Manchin has become the focus of attention on the Democratic side after announcing his opposition to legislation that would overhaul the election system and voting rights, reiterating for the umpteenth time that he will protect the legislative filibuster.
However, criticism of the West Virginia senator has reached a crescendo within progressive circles. Rep. Jamaal Bowman (D-N.Y.) responded to Manchin’s opposition to the For the People Act, saying that he is “the new Mitch McConnell.” More importantly, it’s prompted the left to answer multiple questions over how to implement its agenda.
As The Hill’s Hanna Trudo writes, Democrats could go public with their pressure against Manchin and hope for an assist from the White House (though after last week, that might not be a great idea). Alternatively, they could accept reality and tweak their proposals with the goal of winning over the moderate Democrats vote.
Liberals are also wondering if Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) will get tough with Manchin, as he holds multiple leverage spots over the two-term lawmaker, including the power to yank his chairmanship of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. As Alexander Bolton notes, Schumer does not have a reputation for getting tough with colleagues, but the Democratic agenda could hinge on whether he can get Manchin in line with the majority.
Niall Stanage: The Memo: Political winds shift against Biden. Politico: The left hates Manchin. His fellow Senate Dems are staying quiet.
The Washington Post: Democrats grapple with way forward on Biden agenda after Manchin throws up roadblocks.
> Jan. 6 fallout: House lawmakers are increasingly pressing party leaders in the Senate to take another stab at establishing an independent commission to examine the violence at the Capitol that day.
Senate Republicans last month had blocked bipartisan legislation to form a 9/11-style panel to investigate the Capitol attack, launching an internal Democratic debate about how best to examine the riot without eroding the public’s trust in the outcome. As The Hill’s Mike Lillis reports, a number of rank-and-file members believe their first choice remains the best and are urging Schumer to bring the commission vote to the floor for a second time.
“I hope Leader Schumer finds the votes and gets the independent commission back up for a vote,” said Rep. Madeleine Dean (D-Pa.). “That is the best path forward.”
The Hill: New report highlights severe intelligence failures on Jan. 6.
NBC News: Senate report cites Capitol Police failure to respond to threats ahead of Jan. 6 riot.
The New York Times: Senate poised to pass huge industrial policy bill to counter China.
– Protecting people’s privacy
– Enabling safe and easy data portability between platforms
– Preventing election interference
– Reforming Section 230
LEADING THE DAY
ADMINISTRATION: Vice President Harris offered a tough-love message on Monday in Guatemala City, emphasizing the U.S. aim to see more economic “hope at home” and less corruption in the impoverished country while telling residents of struggling Central American nations not to make the trek to the U.S. in search of a better life. “Do not come. Do not come,” she said while meeting with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei (pictured below) (The Associated Press).
Harris is making her first international trip as vice president and will be in Mexico today. She has been tasked by the president with tackling the “root causes” of Central American migration and championing a more holistic and less punitive approach to immigration and refugee policies than had been implemented under former President Trump.
Harris also announced a handful of new initiatives, including a joint task force to combat human trafficking and smuggling, a young women’s empowerment program, and a U.S. anti-corruption task force, reported The Hill’s Morgan Chalfant and Rafael Bernal.
Harris said that the United States would invest in agricultural businesses and affordable housing and help support entrepreneurs in Guatemala. The White House said that it plans to invest $48 million over four years to boost economic opportunity in the country. Harris also said the U.S. would send a half-million surplus coronavirus vaccine doses to Guatemala as part of a broader effort to boost the global vaccine supply.
> DOJ ransom recovery: The Justice Department announced on Monday that it recovered the majority of a multimillion-dollar ransom payment to hackers after a cyberattack that caused the operator of the nation’s largest fuel pipeline to halt its operations last month. The government’s operation to recover the cryptocurrency from the Russia-based hacker group is the first undertaken by a specialized ransomware task force created by the department and reflects what U.S. officials say is an increasingly aggressive approach to deal with ransomware threats. Colonial Pipeline officials in May said they took their hacked pipeline system offline and decided to pay a roughly $4.4 million ransom in order to try to restore operations. The 63.7 bitcoin ransom — a favored currency of hackers because of the perception that it is more difficult to trace — is currently valued at $2.3 million (The Associated Press and The Hill).
How did the federal government claw back most of the ransom? NBC News reports the seizure of DarkSide’s bounty took place in Northern California, within the reach of U.S. law, and involved the FBI’s access to hackers’ “private key” or password to a bitcoin wallet.
The Associated Press: Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount will appear before the Senate Homeland Security Committee today.
At the same time that cryptocurrency is publicly being identified with criminal schemes concocted to try to slip through international traces, cryptocurrency companies are prodding U.S. regulators to develop clear rules — and they want to write those regulations. The industry is concerned about Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s crackdown on digital currency that would require crypto transfers to be reported to the IRS. Gary Gensler, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, testified to Congress last month that he would like to see more regulation of crypto exchanges to protect investors (Reuters).
The Washington Post: Separately, the FBI and Australian police created an encrypted communications app loaded into custom cellphones. In a police sting spanning the United States, Australia, New Zealand and Europe, the app became a trap for criminals who began to use it, resulting in arrests and detentions of criminal gang suspects.
> Biden departs Washington on Wednesday for a weeklong trip in Europe that will conclude on June 16 with a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva. Russian-condoned and ordered cyberattacks will be on Biden’s list of face-to-face complaints. Reuters summarizes key topics expected to be on the president’s international itinerary, which is intended to show U.S. support for allies, international institutions and NATO. NPR reports how the Biden administration describes what it wants in dealings with Russia.
> CNN: During a phone conversation on Monday, Biden invited President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine to visit Washington in July and referenced U.S. plans to provide 900,000 COVID-19 vaccine doses to the country.
Politico: Biden’s foreign policy: Reverse the Trump agenda but hit one similar note.
> The White House released a preliminary report this morning drawn from Biden’s ordered review and creation of a task force with a focus on U.S. supply chain disruptions. A 250-page report about semiconductor manufacturing and advanced packaging; large capacity batteries; critical minerals and materials and pharmaceuticals and active pharmaceutical ingredients is HERE.
More administration news: The Biden economic team and the Federal Reserve are each focused on inflation worries while also selling the American public on a vision of confidence about U.S. economic recovery, reports The Hill’s Sylvan Lane.… The Hill’s tax reporter, Naomi Jagoda, analyzes the many questions raised by the weekend agreement among Group of Seven finance ministers to back a global minimum tax of at least 15 percent levied on multinational corporations. One big U.S. hurdle: It faces dim prospects for congressional passage at the moment.
IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES
POLITICS: It’s a primary election day for Democrats in Virginia who are eyeing a potential successor to Gov. Ralph Northam (D), who completes the state’s four-year term next year. The primary race has been dominated by former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, 64, who is keen to win a return engagement to the executive mansion in Richmond. Polls throughout the primary have consistently shown the fundraising dynamo and former Democratic National Committee chairman leading a five-person primary field. Governors who win nonsequential new terms are rare in U.S. political history (Jerry Brown in California, Terry Branstad in Iowa and John Kitzhaber in Oregon are examples). Virginia primary opponents are encouraging voters to back new blood, particularly from the progressive wing of the party, The Hill’s Julia Manchester reports.
It’s never too early to take the temperature of political politics in the Sunshine State, home of several potential Republican White House wannabes. For Biden and Harris, one of many calculations for reelection would be U.S. policy toward Cuba and the effect on Florida voters. The Hill’s Max Greenwood and Celine Castronuovo point out that Biden has kept in place Trump-era restrictions on Cuba following back-to-back Florida defeats for the Democratic tickets in 2016 and 2020. The shift in turnout for Democratic presidential nominees recorded in those years in Miami-Dade, the state’s largest county, tells part of Florida’s political story.
CNN: Former Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani in 2019 coaxed members of the Ukrainian government to investigate baseless conspiracies about then-candidate Biden, according to new audio obtained by the cable news outlet. CNN reports that the 40-minute audio undermines Trump’s claim that “there was no quid pro quo” involving potential U.S. government support if Ukraine’s president agreed to do political favors to undermine Biden.
*****
CORONAVIRUS: Poor and developing countries are set to press the Group of Seven (G-7) nations this week to ramp up financial donations and donations of COVID-19 vaccine doses in an effort to end the pandemic in the developing world.
Although the G-7 nations have committed millions of vaccine doses, health officials and leaders from developing countries are calling on them to commit more resources for poorer nations, which lag far behind most richer countries in inoculating the masses.
“This is the most important G-7 in history, because this one can dictate how fast we can get out of this pandemic, and whether we save trillions of dollars and millions of lives,” Bruce Aylward, senior adviser to the director-general of the World Health Organization and leader of a partnership of international health groups told The Wall Street Journal.
According to an International Monetary Fund proposal, a donation of 250 million doses to poor countries this summer is needed in order to keep jab programs on track.
Axios: Poll: America says goodbye to the pandemic.
The New York Times: How the “Alpha” coronavirus variant became so powerful.
It is time to designate Pakistan as a terror sponsor, by Akhil Ramesh, opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/3uVaJOM
Fossil fuels are definitively the new tobacco, by Andreas Karelas, opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/3x6KB58
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.
The House meets at 10 a.m. for a pro forma session. Lawmakers resume legislative work in the Capitol next week.
TheSenate meets at 10 a.m. and will resume consideration of the nomination of Julien Neals to be U.S. district judge for the District of New Jersey.
The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 10:15 a.m. Biden has no public events on his schedule.
The vice president is in Mexico today for meetings tied to immigration and economic issues and returns to Washington tonight.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken will testify about his department’s fiscal 2022 budget (and many related international issues) to the Senate Appropriations Committee at 10 a.m. and to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at 2:15 p.m.
Economic indicator: The Census Bureau reports at 8:30 a.m. on U.S. trade in April, following data from March that showed a record trade deficit.
The White House press briefing is scheduled at 1 p.m., to include White House international economic advisers. The administration’s coronavirus response team will brief journalists at 10:15 a.m.
➔ ALZHEIMER’S: The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Monday approved Biogen’s aducanumab, the first drug in more than two decades to be approved to combat Alzheimer’s disease. Aducanumab is also the first drug cleared by the FDA to slow cognitive decline caused by the disease, which is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Public pressure has been mounting for the drug’s approval since 2016, when it showed promise in slowing cognitive decline (CNBC and The Associated Press). The drug is being approved without really knowing if it works. Clinical trials provided incomplete evidence to demonstrate its effectiveness, so the government granted approval on the condition that the manufacturer, Biogen, conduct a new clinical study (The New York Times).
➔ SUPREME COURT: Justices unanimously ruled on Monday that thousands of people living in this country for humanitarian reasons are ineligible to apply to become permanent residents. Justice Elena Kagan wrote for the court that federal immigration law prohibits people who entered the country illegally and now have temporary protected status from seeking “green cards” to remain in the country permanently (The Associated Press). … The Supreme Court also agreed on Monday to decide whether a lawsuit can go forward in which a group of Muslim residents of California allege the FBI targeted them for surveillance because of their religion. It’s the second case the court has accepted for the fall involving a government claim of “state secrets,” the idea that the government can block the release of information it claims would harm national security if disclosed (The Associated Press). … Also on Monday, justices declined to hear a lawsuit alleging that the United States’s all-male military draft amounts to unconstitutional discrimination on the basis of sex. The administration asked the court to decline to hear the case because Congress is weighing some Military Selective Service Act issues (The Hill).
➔ FIRST IN FLIGHT: The U.S. Navy reported on Monday that a drone refueled a U.S. fighter jet on Friday, marking the first time that an unmanned aircraft transferred jet fuel mid-flight. The Navy posted video of the F/A-18 Super Hornet receiving fuel from a Boeing-made drone. Boeing said that the two flying objects flew during the refueling at 20 feet apart (CBS News).
➔ BILLIONAIRES IN SPACE: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, 57, will ride his own rocket into space on July 20, joining the first crew to fly in a Blue Origin capsule. He will be joined for the 10-minute up-and-down hop, which produces about three minutes of weightlessness, by his firefighter brother, Mark Bezos, and the highest bidder in a charity auction. Jeff Bezos is retiring as CEO of Amazon 15 days before his space flight. Virgin Galactic’s Richard Branson also plans to launch aboard his own rocket later this year, after one more test flight over New Mexico. SpaceX’s Elon Musk — who’s transported 10 astronauts to the International Space Station and already sold private flights — has yet to commit to a spaceflight (The Associated Press).
And finally … Today is World Oceans Day, invented in 1992 by the United Nations with leadership from Canada to remind us of human impacts on the planet’s oceans.
Depending on where Americans live, communities are hosting cleanup events at beaches, swearing off single-use plastics, eating less seafood today, and supporting coral reefs and natural habitats dependent on temperature, fewer toxins and minimalist human disturbances. As we all know, 70 percent of Earth’s surface is covered by water.
People around the world are demonstrating a bit of appreciation for oceans today on screen and in person, through art, science exhibits, books and music.
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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Two Senate committees released a 127-page report this morning on the severe intelligence failures that resulted in the U.S. Capitol under siege by rioters while former Vice President Mike Pence and lawmakers were in the building. https://bit.ly/3ct2ymj
The gist of the report: “It pieces together multiple warnings of violence that were poorly circulated and largely went unheeded by top leaders in several agencies. That left Capitol Police forces unprepared for clashes with hundreds of protesters outside and inside the building.”
This is pretty scary — and intensely frustrating: “The report shows how people coming to Washington, D.C., shared online maps of the tunnels underneath the Capitol used by lawmakers. It offers a glimpse of previously unreported threats from those planning to attend the rally and makes it clear people discussed bringing weapons.”
From Senate Rules Committee Chair Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.): “The failures are obvious. I think to me it was all summed up by one of the things in our report where one of the officers was heard on the radio that day asking the tragically simple question: ‘Does anybody have a plan?’ Sadly, no one did.”
The Senate committees that created this report: The Senate Rules Committee and Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee
Full breakdown of the report, via The Hill’s Rebecca Beitsch and Cristina Marcos: https://bit.ly/3ct2ymj
Via The Hill’s Mike Lillis and Scott Wong, House Democrats are calling on Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) to hold another vote on forming an independent commission to investigate Jan. 6. https://bit.ly/3zb7xSA
Why: They think it’s possible to pass the bill.
I’ll lay it out for you: If every Democrat votes in favor of the commission, they would need 10 Republicans to clear the threshold for a filibuster. Six Republicans voted in favor plus retiring Sen. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.) said he would have voted “yes” if he were there for the vote. That means Democrats would need to convince three more Republicans.
Not everyone is convinced that strategy will work: “Privately, some Senate Democrats say holding a second vote won’t lead to passage. ‘The outcome won’t change,’ said one Senate Democrat.”
It’s Tuesday. 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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A MESSAGE FROM FACEBOOK
The internet has changed a lot since 1996 — internet regulations should too
Via The Hill’s Alexander Bolton, “Sen. Joe Manchin’s defiant statement that he will not vote for a sweeping election reform bill nor vote to get rid of the filibuster has progressive groups and some Democratic lawmakers wondering when Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) will get tough with the West Virginia Democrat.” https://bit.ly/3inbw8w
Schumer actually has some leverage here: “Manchin is a member of Schumer’s leadership team and Schumer has several points of leverage, including the power to replace him as chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.”
Yes, but: That’s not how Schumer generally rolls. “He keeps [his Democratic colleagues] close and hardly ever criticizes Democratic senators who cause him headaches.”
“Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Tuesday urged the Senate to approve a sweeping expansion of voting protections, dismissing the objections of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) with warnings that the integrity of elections is at stake.” https://bit.ly/3x7b8ze
In Pelosi’s words: “H.R. 4 must be passed, but it will not be ready until the fall, and it is not a substitute for H.R. 1 … Congressman John Lewis wrote 300 pages of H.R. 1 to end voter suppression. H.R. 1/S. 1 must be passed now. It would be our hope to have this pass the House and Senate in a bipartisan way.”
Keep in mind: “Pelosi did not mention Manchin in Tuesday’s letter, but her decision to invoke Lewis made clear that he was on her mind.”
In a tense back and forth with NBC’s Lester Holt, Vice President Harris, who is In charge of the Biden administration’s response to the flow of migrants, defended her decision not to visit the U.S.-Mexico border. https://bit.ly/3zbz9qA
Holt asked Harris twice about not visiting the border: “At some point, you know, we are going to the border,” Harris told Holt the second time he asked her. “We’ve been to the border. So this whole thing about the border. We’ve been to the border. We’ve been to the border.”
Holt followed up: “You haven’t been to the border.”
Harris responded: “And I haven’t been to Europe. And I mean, I don’t … understand the point that you’re making. I’m not discounting the importance of the border.”
Via CNBC’s Nate Rattner, “Florida and Alabama will no longer report daily COVID cases and fatalities as vaccinations rise and states begin shifting to the ‘next phase’ of the pandemic.” https://cnb.cx/3x7FEcc
Why this is big: “The changes signal a shift in attitudes toward the pandemic as the U.S. averages about 16,000 new infections per day over the past week, a low level not seen since the early days of the outbreak.”
Where the two states stand: “Florida is reporting an average of 8 new cases per 100,000 residents over the past week and Alabama about 8.5 cases, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, far below their pandemic highs of 84 and 87 per 100,000, respectively.” https://cnb.cx/3x7FEcc
The Washingtonian headline: “The Cicadas Are Showing Up on the Freaking Radar Now: There are so many of those things flying around that they’re showing up in weather reporting.”
Lol this line from Washingtonian’s Andrew Beaujon: “The ‘shrimp of the sky’ have finally done it.”
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.
The Senate is in. The House is out. President Biden is in Washington, D.C. and Vice President Harris is in Mexico.
10:15 a.m. EDT: President Biden received the President’s Daily Brief.
11:20 a.m. EDT: Vice President Harris met with Mexican President Andrés ManuelLópez Obrador.
11:30 a.m. EDT: Two roll call votes in the Senate.
2:40 p.m. EDT: Vice President Harris meets with women entrepreneurs at the Sofitel Mexico City Reforma.
3 p.m. EDT: Up to six roll call votes in the Senate. The Senate’s full agenda today: https://bit.ly/3fYYOeC
4 p.m. EDT: Vice President Harris meets with labor leaders.
11:35 p.m. EDT: Vice President Harris returns to Washington, D.C.
WHAT TO WATCH:
10 a.m. EDT: The CEO of Colonial Pipeline testified before the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Livestream: https://bit.ly/3pEVMzqPrimer on the testimony: https://wapo.st/3zc5CwT
10:15 a.m. EDT: The White House COVID-19 Response Team held a press briefing. Livestream: https://bit.ly/3uXX1dP
1 p.m. EDT: White House press secretary Jen Psaki, deputy director of the National Economic Council Sameera Fazili, and senior director for international economics and competitiveness Peter Harrell hold a press briefing. Livestream: https://bit.ly/2RyZzlb
2 p.m. EDT: Bill Nye, yes the science guy (!), testifies on climate change. Livestream: https://bit.ly/3v5cU2h
5:35 p.m. EDT: Vice President Harris delivers remarks and takes questions at the Sofitel Mexico City Reforma. Livestream: https://bit.ly/3vc7aUF
NOW FOR THE FUN STUFF…:
Today is National Jelly-Filled Doughnut Day.
And because I found this video strangely mesmerizing, I thought you should see — here’s an extremely fluffy dog cooling off in the pool: https://bit.ly/3g2nwKX
Or it’s a sloth. Or a lion…
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Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin III’s written declaration of opposition to his party’s signature voting, campaign finance and ethics overhaul did nothing to upend liberal campaigns in support of the measure. Republicans, though, say the bill’s fate is already sealed with Manchin’s latest vow. Read more…
Tykee James, government affairs coordinator at the National Audubon Society, began doing congressional bird walks in 2019 to raise awareness of Audubon’s conservation efforts. Friday’s walk was the first in more than a year, and James kept his head on a swivel, peering down into bushes and up at trees, street signs and lamps. Read more…
A coalition of public officials, private sector stakeholders and educational institutions banded together to bring high-speed, affordable broadband to rural Allendale County, S.C., part of what is called the Black Rural South. Officials who worked on the project say it can be replicated across rural America with sufficient funding. Read more…
Click here to subscribe to Fintech Beat for the latest market and regulatory developmentsin finance and financial technology.
Immigrant advocates are questioning President Joe Biden’s proposal to fund U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement in fiscal 2022 at levels similar to the current year despite plans to narrow agency enforcement efforts and reduce detention. Read more…
The highway bill that the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will mark up Wednesday will include $5.7 billion in earmarks — a little more than one-third of the $14.9 billion that members requested. Committee Chairman Peter A. DeFazio, D-Ore., released the list of projects that made the cut on Monday. Read more…
Cornell University sophomore Jordan Tralins has been producing TikToks and Instagram slideshows to help combat vaccine hesitancy among her generation. See health care reporter Ariel Cohen’s interview with Tralins and learn more about what the Biden administration has done to try to connect with young adults. Watch here…
Chad Thomas, the Capitol Police’s assistant chief of police for uniformed operations, which includes the riot control group that was woefully unprepared for Jan. 6, is leaving the department, according to sources familiar with the departure. Read more…
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25.) POLITICO PLAYBOOK
POLITICO Playbook: Manchin comes face to face with his critics
Presented by
DRIVING THE DAY
BREAKING AT 5 A.M. — “Senators reveal further Capitol riot security failures in bipartisan report,”by Nicholas Wu, reporting on the chamber’s bipartisan, 100-page Jan. 6 autopsy: “Capitol security officials tracking threats of violence on Jan. 6 saw social media posts as early as late December 2020 about a plot to breach the complex — complete with maps of the building’s tunnels and explicit threats of violence against members of Congress.
“‘Surround every building with a tunnel entrance/exit. They better dig a tunnel all the way to China if they want to escape,’ wrote one user on a pro-Trump blog. ‘Bring guns. It’s now or never,’ another user wrote. … [Yet e]ven as the pro-riot chatter continued and tips came into the intelligence division, the full body of knowledge about what would become a deadly threat was not conveyed to the rest of Capitol Police leadership, rank-and-file officers or other law enforcement partners.” More on this below, but first …
MANCHIN MEETS HIS CRITICS — A host of Black and civil rights leaders will visit Sen. JOE MANCHIN to discuss voting rights this morning — two days after the West Virginia moderate announced his opposition to Democrats’ top legislative priority on the matter, the For the People Act (aka H.R. 1/S. 1). We’re told the meeting was recommended by National Urban League President and CEO MARC MORIAL, and was set up a few weeks ago.
Those who know Manchin tell us the senator’s mind isn’t exactly open to persuasion on S. 1 as he heads into this meeting. So, we asked some of the participants how they plan to approach it. Here’s what we heard back.
DERRICK JOHNSON, president and CEO of the NAACP, kept expectations low in an interview Monday night: “The goal of the meeting for us in the civil rights leadership is to establish and build the relationship. There was no particular item on the agenda, but we will have a conversation about our policy priorities and hopes to open up the dialogue so that we can, in fact, have the type of give-and-take opportunity to ensure that all Americans are supported.”
Johnson said he plans to remind Manchin of the steps he took as secretary of state in West Virginia to expand voting.
We’ll be watching especially closely what Rev. AL SHARPTON, who will also be attending, has to say afterward. Sharpton has had some choice words for Manchin (and Arizona Sen. KYRSTEN SINEMA) in the past, telling Eugene in March: “The pressure that we are going to put on Sinema and Manchin is calling [the filibuster] racist and saying that they are, in effect, supporting racism.”
— Other attendees include NAACP Legal Defense Fund President SHERRILYN IFILL and Morial, per NYT’s Astead Herndon.
QUIET S. 1 OPPOSITION? — Manchin might be the only avowed skunk at the S. 1 garden party, but privately a couple of Democratic senators aren’t happy with how expansive the bill is either, per multiple sources familiar. They’re apparently afraid to say so on the record; in fact, every Senate Democrat except Manchin co-sponsored the bill.
That tells you how powerful the progressive base is right now: so powerful that some Democrats are keeping their mouths shut in order to avoid antagonizing it.
SO WHY IS THIS BILL SO CONTROVERSIAL? Our Zach Montellarohas a good read on some of its most contentious provisions. The measure would combat restrictions to voting access that GOP legislatures have adopted recently — as well as mandate nationwide mail-in voting, same-day voter registration and at least two weeks of early voting.
But Zach notes that H.R. 1/S. 1 also includes provisions long opposed by the GOP and even some Democratic constituencies. They include:
— Effectively nullifying some voter ID requirements.
— Instituting new donor disclosure requirements for dark money spending in politics. (The ACLU also opposes this provision as overly broad.)
— Creating a new public financing system for campaigns. (Moderate Democrats privately hate this provision.)
— Shifting the power to redistrict from state legislatures to a national commission. (Several Congressional Black Caucus members dislike this idea.)
SO WHAT’S NEXT ON VOTING RIGHTS IN THE SENATE? S. 1 isn’t passing; that is a fact. But Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER has signaled he will bring the bill to the floor anyway. For one, it gets progressives off his back as he can at least say he tried. For another, it gives him a campaign issue to gin up his base to try to keep the Senate in 2022.
However, Manchin — and more than a few voting rights activists— wants the chamber to pass H.R. 4, a narrower bill that could counter some of the efforts by GOP legislatures. It would resurrect DOJ oversight of voting laws in states with a history of racial discrimination or voter suppression, giving muscle to enforcement. Manchin has said he’d go one step further and make the provision apply to all 50 states.
So far, however, Alaska Sen. LISA MURKOWSKI is the only Republican who’s publicly joined Manchin in his effort. And late Monday night, NBC’s Sahil Kapurreported that H.R. 4, named after the late civil rights icon JOHN LEWIS, faces a “steep uphill climb” in the Senate as well. “It’s a challenging one,” Murkowski told Kapur. “You got to find an awful lot of Republicans to join us on this.”
— One other option HuffPost’s Igor Bobic and Arthur Delaney wrote about Monday night as well: an amended S. 1.They note that “even the left-leaning editorial board of The New York Times argued over the weekend that Democrats should pass a narrower bill, calling their current proposal ‘poorly matched to themoment,’ adding that it ‘attempts to accomplish more than is currently feasible.’” Full story
Good Tuesday morning, and thanks for reading Playbook. Keep reading for a photo of a topless senator. And don’t hesitate to drop us a line: Rachael Bade, Eugene Daniels, Ryan Lizza, Tara Palmeri.
BIDEN’S TUESDAY: The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 10:15 a.m.
The White House Covid-19 response team and public health officials will brief at 10:15 a.m. Press secretary JEN PSAKI, NEC Deputy Director SAMEERA FAZILI and Senior Director for International Economics and Competitiveness PETER HARRELL will brief at 1 p.m.
HARRIS’ TUESDAY:
— 10:05 a.m. CST: VP KAMALA HARRIS and Mexican President ANDRÉS MANUEL LÓPEZ OBRADOR will witness the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding between the United States and Mexico on development programs in the Northern Triangle.
— 10:10 a.m.: Harris and López Obrador will take an official photo at the Palacio Nacional.
— 10:20 a.m.: Harris and López Obrador will participate in a bilateral meeting.
— 1:40 p.m.: The VP will meet with women entrepreneurs at the Sofitel Mexico City Reforma.
— 3 p.m.: Harris will meet with labor leaders at the Sofitel Mexico City Reforma.
— 4:35 p.m.: Harris will deliver remarks and take questions from press at the Sofitel Mexico City Reforma.
— 5:30 p.m.: The VP will participate in a virtual embassy meet and greet with embassy personnel at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico.
— 6:45 p.m.: Harris will depart Mexico City en route to Washington, D.C., where she is scheduled to arrive at 11:35 p.m. EDT.
THE SENATE will meet at 10 a.m. to take up district judge nominations. It will vote at 3 p.m. on moving forward with the United States Innovation and Competition Act of 2021. Secretary of State ANTONY BLINKEN will testify before the Senate Appropriations Committee at 10 a.m. and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee at 2:15 p.m. IRS Commissioner CHARLES RETTIG will testify before the Senate Finance Committee at 10 a.m. Acting OMB Director SHALANDA YOUNG will testify before the Senate Budget Committee at 11 a.m.
THE HOUSE will meet at 10 a.m. in a pro forma session. HHS Secretary XAVIER BECERRA will testify before the House Ways and Means Committee at 10 a.m. VA Secretary DENIS MCDONOUGH will testify before the House Veterans Affairs Committee at 10 a.m. Commerce Secretary GINA RAIMONDO will testify before a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee at 2 p.m.
PLAYBOOK READS
PHOTO OF THE DAY
SUN’S OUT, GUNS OUT … SPOTTED: Sen. TOM CARPER (D-Del.) pumping gas into his minivan — shirtless. We asked his office if bare-chested bravado is the senator’s regular look when he’s driving around his home state in warm weather. “Sen. Carper has one message,” his spox CAMPBELL WALLACE wrote back. “The pristine five-star beaches of Delaware are back and open for business.” (See you at Dewey and Rehoboth!)
THE WHITE HOUSE
A HEADLINE YOU WOULD NOT EXPECT TO SEE —“Biden Justice Department defends Trump in suit over rape denial,”by Josh Gerstein: “The Biden administration is pressing on with a controversial Justice Department defense of President DONALD TRUMP in a defamation lawsuit brought by a writer who accused him of raping her at a New York City department store in the 1990s. The brief filed on Monday night with a federal appeals court is an illustration of how administrations of sharply different political outlooks often flock to the same legal positions in court, even if it means seeming to excuse or immunize alleged bad conduct by their predecessors.
“In the filing with the New York-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the Justice Department insisted that it was not endorsing Trump’s conduct toward the writer, E. JEAN CARROLL, even as it argued that a law governing suits against federal officials justified the government’s move to take over the former president’s defense in the case.”
HARRIS’ MESSAGE — “Harris’ blunt message in Guatemala: ‘Do not come’ to U.S.,”by Sabrina Rodríguez: “Vice President Kamala Harris arrived in Central America this week on a delicate diplomatic mission: Offer a message of hope to the people of Guatemala and other countries in the region. But discourage them from trying to cross the U.S.’ southern border because they won’t be welcomed on the other side.Her approach, on her first foreign trip as vice president, was clear: Be blunt.
“That won plaudits from local activists and civil society leaders as a solid start, but also highlighted the gulf that remains between the U.S. and Guatemalan governments, particularly when it comes to cracking down on corruption. Harris’ ability to close that gulf will, ultimately, be the most important test of her fledgling diplomatic skills, not to mention her political agility as she positions herself for a possible future presidential run.”
THE MORNING MANCHIN
THE ULTIMATE SURVIVOR’S REELECTION THREAT — “How Joe Manchin Survives as a Democrat in West Virginia,”by NYT’s Nate Cohn: “It is far too soon to evaluate Mr. Manchin’s chances in 2024, but early indications are not promising. Mr. Manchin voted to convict Mr. Trump at his impeachment trial in February, and he has been front and center in major legislative debates over enacting President Biden’s agenda.
“According to the Cooperative Election Study, a prominent academic survey, Mr. Manchin had just a 33 percent approval rating in October 2020, while 51 percent disapprove of his performance.
“Mr. Manchin’s departure, whether in 2024 or thereafter, will mark the end of an era. There will be no Senate Democrat whose electoral history and coalition are so completely at odds with the new activist base of the party. Progressives will be free from the burden of trying to lure a senator with such a conservative voting base.”
… WHOSE COLLEAGUES WON’T SAY A WORD — “The left hates Joe Manchin. His fellow Senate Dems are staying quiet,” by Burgess Everett and Marianne LeVine: “Joe Manchin is sparking outright fury from liberals — with some Black Democrats invoking Jim Crow laws and MITCH MCCONNELL as they blast the West Virginian’s resistance to a sweeping elections bill. Manchin’s fellow Senate Democrats are being far more conciliatory….
“[A]ngst is quietly rising inside the Democratic caucus over Manchin’s approach… [But] those who serve alongside Manchin generally see nothing to gain by ticking off their mercurial colleague, at least in public. That’s not just because of how desperately they need Manchin to confirm President Joe Biden’s judicial nominees. Democrats also will have to rely on his vote if they try to push through a sweeping infrastructure spending bill on party lines.”
CONGRESS
MORE ON THE LOPSIDED 1/6 REPORT — Expect a lot of chatter today and in the coming weeks about the Capitol Police’s failure to recognize the looming threat of violence on Jan. 6. But as we read through the Senate Rules and Homeland Security committees’ joint report, we couldn’t help but notice how much blame the chamber is putting on the agency sworn to protect them — and how little the panels said aboutTrump and the White House.
Indeed, the report barely mentions Trump’s own failure to act that day. The panels didn’t try to subpoena former White House advisers, pursuing a narrow scope to begin with.
The report comes as some officers are struggling with PTSD. Others have quit. Two have killed themselves. Many officers want answers about what took the National Guard so long to respond that day. As Wu reported, Sen. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-Minn.), chair of the Rules Committee, said their report was supposed to show “united concern about the leadership of the Capitol Police,” not individual officers. But there’s no denying that the report fails to satisfy the curious.
Look for the document to up the pressure on Democratic leaders to announce next steps for a broader, more detailed investigation, now that the bipartisan commission failed.
POLITICS ROUNDUP
OBAMA SOUNDS AN ALARM — “Obama criticizes Republicans for embracing 2020 falsehoods,”CNN: “Former President BARACK OBAMA said Republicans have been ‘cowed into accepting’ a series of positions that ‘would be unrecognizable and unacceptable even five years ago or a decade ago,’ telling CNN’s Anderson Cooper he is worried about the state of democracy in the United States …
“[S]ome [of] the former president’s most searching commentary came when asked about the root causes to the deep divisions in the country, rifts that Obama attributed, in part, to questions about sources of information and race. ‘We occupy different worlds. And it becomes that much more difficult for us to hear each other, see each other,’ Obama said, something the former president attributed to a nationalization of both media and politics. … The solution, Obama said, is more face-to-face meetings where people are hearing each other’s struggles and stories.”
BEYOND THE BELTWAY
2024 WATCH — “DeSantis cashes in on rising star status with big-money blitz,”by Alex Isenstadt: “The first-term Republican governor is set to hopscotch across Southern California for a half-dozen reelection fundraisers this week, including stops in Los Angeles, Irvine and Manhattan Beach. He will also head to Las Vegas, where former Nevada state Attorney General ADAM LAXALT is slated to host a high-dollar event. In the weeks to come, [RON] DESANTIS is expected to make a fundraising tour through the Northeast as well.
“The blitz comes as DeSantis draws widespread interest from Republican Party donors eyeing the next generation of party leaders, who have praised him for his anti-coronavirus lockdown policies and his combativeness toward the media. With the prospect of a Donald Trump comeback bid still uncertain, many contributors scoping out the party’s bench are flooding DeSantis with five-, six-, and even seven-figure checks for his 2022 campaign in Florida.”
CUOMO INVESTIGATION EXPANDS — “Federal Prosecutors Subpoena Material Related to Andrew Cuomo’s Book,”by WSJ’s Jimmy Vielkind and Corinne Ramey: “Prosecutors working for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn asked for communications related to Mr. Cuomo’s October 2020 book, ‘American Crisis,’ including contracts and materials used to pitch the book to publishers, the people said. They said the subpoenas indicated prosecutors are interested in nursing-home issues in the book, which more broadly recounted the governor’s response to the pandemic.”
HARD TIMES —“Newsmax turned down embattled Republican Matt Gaetz for a job,” by Reuters’ Mark Hosenball: “Gaetz contacted Newsmax early this year, a source at the outlet said. That was around the time that news broke Gaetz was the subject of a federal investigation into possible sex trafficking of a minor. …
“‘Newsmax has had no plans to hire Rep. Gaetz,’ said BRIAN PETERSON, a spokesperson for the website. A source familiar with Newsmax’s policies said: ‘Earlier this year, (Gaetz) reached out and said he might leave Congress early and was interested in TV work.’ The three-term Florida congressman’s approach to Newsmax management was ‘just a conversation’ and Newsmax ‘never told him we were interested’ in hiring him, the source said.”
WHAT WE’RE READING
THE GILDED AGE, from the 1880s to the 1900s,was a time of progress but also hideous retrenchment. How did the U.S. let segregation take hold, ensuring that racial inequities would scar the country for decades? The reason is the Supreme Court struck down civil rights, refused to enforce voting rights and approved the separate-but-equal doctrine. How did economic inequality become so vast — so insanely out of control — that a handful of rich families lived in Versailles-like palaces dripping with gold while immigrant workers lived 10 to a room in New York tenements? The reason is the Supreme Court struck down antitrust actions, declared the federal income tax to be unconstitutional and invalidated efforts to impose labor standards.
One jurist, usually standing alone, rose up furiously in opposition to all these decisions. He was Supreme Court Justice JOHN MARSHALL HARLAN, and his dissents lit a path for future generations to overturn those decisions. If the court had listened to Harlan in the first place, the country would have been spared untold amounts of suffering.
Now is a good time to ask why Harlan saw things so differently from all his colleagues, and how today’s Americans can replicate his courage and vision. That’s the theme of “The Great Dissenter: The Story of John Marshall Harlan, America’s Judicial Hero,” which will be published by Simon & Schuster today. Written by POLITICO’s PETER S. CANELLOS, it is, in the words of Publishers Weekly, a “masterful” evocation of a period in American history marked by judicial and economic extremes.
ADAM HOCHSCHILD, who, as author of “King Leopold’s Ghost” and “Bury the Chains,” is no stranger to narratives of gross injustice, writes, “Peter Canellos has vividly brought to life an absolutely fascinating story that I’m embarrassed I didn’t know: A man raised in a slave-owning family who became one of the greatest champions of civil rights in the history of the Supreme Court, his lone-dissenter opinions cited decades after his death. John Marshall Harlan needs to be added to our pantheon of American heroes.”
DESSERT/THE MUNCHIES
The appropriately named Mike Baker of NYT tweets about “Joints for Jabs” — the latest in ever-more-creative efforts by various states to induce people to get vaccinated.
“You can now get a free joint with your covid vaccine in Washington State,”he writes. “Cannabis retailers can give the joints to adults who get an on-site vaccine.”
PLAYBOOKERS
BIDEN TECH GURU IS LOADED … IN BITCOIN — “Top White House tech critic Tim Wu holds more than $1M in Bitcoin,”by Daniel Lippman: “Tim Wu, a tough critic of tech companies’ power, owns between $1 million and $5 million in Bitcoin, as well as between $100,001 and $250,000 in Filecoin, which is a storage platform for cryptocurrency, according to the disclosure. His investment in Bitcoin is his largest holding in his financial portfolio.
“Wu joined the Biden administration in March as special assistant for technology and competition policy to the president at the National Economic Council. While Wu will not have any involvement in developing policies about cryptocurrency in that role, the disclosures show that one of Big Tech’s most prominent critics is also invested in an asset class that is a major tech world obsession.”
SPOTTED: U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry seated at Gate B14 in Boston waiting to board the 5:30 p.m. American Airlines flight to DCA on Monday. Pic
FIRST IN PLAYBOOK — Lynda Tran is now senior adviser and director of public engagement at DOT. She most recently was a partner at 270 Strategies and a CBS News political contributor.
— Jeanne Moran is now a policy comms manager at Facebook, where she focuses on content and safety. She most recently was a senior director at Forbes Tate Partners.
STAFFING UP — Elizabeth Peace now works in the office of comms at the Department of the Interior. She most recently was director of corporate comms at the Corona Division of the Naval Surface Warfare Center.
TRANSITIONS — Rebecca Christopher is joining Invariant to head its digital media practice. She previously was at Purpose, Mike Bloomberg’s presidential campaign and the DNC. … Miriam Cash is now deputy comms director for Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). She previously was press secretary for Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). … Morgan Butler is now engagement and outreach manager for public policy at Twitter. She most recently was digital director for House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.). …
… Former Rep. Mia Love (R-Utah) is joining Utah State University’s Center for Growth and Opportunity as national outreach director. … Sophie White will be an associate at Gibson, Dunn and Crutcher. She previously was legislative director at the Professional Aviation Safety Specialists.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.) … former Rep. Gabby Giffords (D-Ariz.) … Tim Grieve … Cory Fritz of FTI Consulting … Matt Whitlock … Bloomberg’s Patrick Garrigan … The Atlantic’s Justin Peligri … Eric Kuhn … Sarah Hashemi … Jonathan Collegio of the National Automobile Dealers Association … Kelsey Harkness … Roger Hickey of Campaign for America’s Future … Taylor Mason of KPM Group … Jennifer Dunn of Wells Fargo … Lindsey Wagner-Oveson of Handshake … Paul Winfree of the Heritage Foundation … Strategic Partners & Media’s Russ Schriefer … CNN’s Sonia Moghe … WaPo’s Kris Coratti Kelly … The Bulwark’s Hannah Yoest … Erin Gorman Van Alsten … Chris Good … Lale Morrison … Tom Davidson … Laura Hayes … Kim Duffy … POLITICO’s Mike Shaw, Arjun Kakkar, Emily Keith and Hira Ahmad … Jim Cicconi … Donald Sussman … Julianna Margulies
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.
“Old Hickory” – Andrew Jackson, a fighting General, fiery President, and founder of the Democrat Party during America’s Formative Era – American Minute with Bill Federer
Jackson supported and educated himself, eventually becoming a frontier country lawyer,
In 1788, at the age of 21, was appointed prosecutor of the Western District.
In 1796, at the age of 29, Jackson was elected as a delegate to the Tennessee constitutional convention, where he is credited with proposing the Indian name “Tennessee.”
Tennessee citizens elected Jackson a U.S. Congressman, then U.S. Senator.
In 1798, Jackson served as a judge on Tennessee’s Supreme Court.
Speculating in land, Jackson bought the Hermitage plantation near Nashville and was one of three investors who founded Memphis.
Conflicts with Indians increased, being incited by British.
The New Madrid Earthquake temporarily reversed the flow of the Mississippi River and the Great Comet of 1811 helped convince Indians to back Shawnee Chief Tecumseh, whose name meant “shooting star.”
Indians were armed by the British during the War of 1812.
British backed Red Stick Creek Indians massacred 500 Americans at Fort Mims, Alabama.
“Red Stick” in French is pronounced “Baton Rouge.”
Andrew Jackson was sent to fight the British-backed Red Stick Creek Indians at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1814.
One of Jackson’s soldiers was the young Sam Houston, who was wounded, but kept fighting.
Another soldier was Davy Crockett, who later became a Tennessee Congressman.
Davy Crockett and Sam Houston helped Texas gain independence from Mexico.
Another of Jackson’s soldiers was Thomas Hart Benton, who went on to become one of Missouri’s first U.S. Senators.
During the War of 1812, at the Battle of Tallasehatchee, a dead Creek woman was found clutching her living baby.
The other Indian women refused to care for the infant boy, so Jackson brought him home and raised him as his son, naming him Lincoyer.
Andrew Jackson drove the British out of Pensacola, November 9, 1814, then left the city in the control of the Spanish.
He went on to defend Mobile, Alabama, then New Orleans, Louisiana.
A strict battlefield officer, Jackson was described as being “tough as old hickory,” leading to his nickname “Old Hickory.”
Against overwhelming odds, Andrew Jackson defeated 10,000 British at the Battle of New Orleans on January 8, 1815.
Aided by Jean Lafitte’s French pirates, along with Kentucky and Tennessee sharpshooters, over 2,000 British were killed or wounded, as compared to only 71 American casualties.
Considered the greatest American land victory of the war, General Andrew Jackson wrote to Robert Hays, January 26, 1815:
“It appears that the unerring hand of Providence shielded my men from the shower of balls, bombs, and rockets, when every ball and bomb from our guns carried with them a mission of death.”
In 1817, President Monroe charged Jackson with stopping Seminoles in Florida from raiding into Georgia, resulting in the First Seminole War.
With Spain exhausted after Napoleon’s invasion, and with Mexico fighting for Independence, the Spanish government agreed to cede Florida to the U.S. in 1819 in exchange for payment, according to John Quincy Adams’ Adams-Onís Treaty.
This led to Jackson serving as Florida’s first territorial governor.
The city of Jacksonville is named for him.
Circuit-riding preacher Peter Cartwright wrote of meeting Jackson (Autobiography of Peter Cartwright the Backwoods Preacher, pp. 192-194):
“I then read my text: ‘What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?’
After reading my text I paused. At that moment I saw General Jackson walking up the aisle; he came to the middle post, and very gracefully leaned against it, and stood, as there were no vacant seats.
Just then I felt someone pull my coat in the stand, and turning my head, my fastidious preacher whispering a little loud, said: ‘General Jackson has come in; General Jackson has come in.’
I felt a flash of indignation run all over me like an electric shock, and facing about to my congregation, and purposely speaking out audibly, I said, ‘Who is General Jackson? If he don’t get his soul converted, God will damn him as quick as he would …’
… Shortly after … I met the General on the pavement; and before I approached him by several steps he smiled and reached out his hand and said:
‘Mr. Cartwright, you are a man after my own heart. I am very much surprised at Mr. Mac, to think he would suppose that I would be offended at you. No, sir; I told him that I highly approved of your independence; that a minister of Jesus Christ ought to love everybody and fear no mortal man.
I told Mr. Mac that if I had a few thousand such independent, fearless officers as you were, and a well-drilled army, I could take old England.”
Peter Cartwright continued:
“General Jackson was certainly a very extraordinary man … He always showed a great respect for the Christian religion, and the feelings of religious people, especially ministers of the Gospel. I will here relate a little incident that shows his respect for religion.
I had preached one Sabbath near the Hermitage, and, in company with several gentlemen and ladies, went, by special invitation, to dine with the General.
Among this company here was a young sprig of a lawyer from Nashville, of very ordinary intellect, and he was trying hard to make an infidel of himself.
As I was the only preacher present, this young lawyer kept pushing his conversation on me, in order to get into an argument. I tried to evade an argument … This seemed to inspire the young man with more confidence …
I saw General Jackson’s eye strike fire, as he sat by and heard the thrusts he made at Christian religion.
At length the young lawyer asked me this question: ‘Mr. Cartwright, do you really believe there is any such place as hell, as a place of torment?’ I answered promptly, ‘Yes, I do.’
To which he responded, ‘Well, I thank God I have too much sense to believe any such thing.’
I was pondering in my own mind whether I would answer him or not, when General Jackson for the first time broke into the conversation, and directing his words to the young man, said with great earnestness: ‘Well, sir, I thank God that there is such a place of torment as hell.’
This sudden answer made with great earnestness seemed to astonish the youngster, and he exclaimed: ‘Why, General Jackson, what do you want with such a place of torment as hell?’
To which the General replied, as quick as lightning, ‘To put such d—–d rascals as you are in, that oppose and vilify the Christian religion’ …
The young lawyer was struck dumb, and presently was found missing.”
Jackson’s wife, Rachel, was divorced and abandoned by her first husband, but she was unaware that he had failed to file the paperwork, leaving her still legally bound when she met and married Jackson.
Jackson defended his wife’s honor, even challenging slanderers to duel him.
His many duels left him with so many bullet fragments in his body, that they said he “rattled like a bag of marbles” when he walked.
Jackson described his wife as the most pious person he ever knew.
He wrote to her, December 21, 1823:
“I trust that the God of Isaac and of Jacob will protect you, and give you health in my absence, in Him alone we ought to trust, He alone can preserve, and guide us through this troublesome world, and I am sure He will hear your prayers.
We are told that the prayers of the righteous prevaileth much, and I add mine for your health and preservation until we meet again.”
During his Presidential campaign, the vicious personal attacks on his wife brought her so much stress that she suffered a stroke and died.
Her last words before collapsing were: “I’d rather be a doorkeeper in the house of God than to live in that palace in Washington.”
Rachel was buried Christmas Eve, 1828, on the Hermitage estate, dressed in the inaugural gown she would have worn in Washington.
Weeping profusely, Jackson said:
“I know it’s unmanly, but these tears are due her virtues. She has shed many for me … In the presence of this dear saint, I can and do forgive my enemies. But those vile wretches who have slandered her must look to God for mercy.”
Jackson stated:
“Heaven will be no heaven to me if I do not meet my wife there.”
Three months later, Jackson was sworn in as the 7th President, March 4, 1829.
In his 2nd Inaugural Address, Andrew Jackson stated:
“It is my fervent prayer to that Almighty Being before whom I now stand, and who has kept us in His hands from the infancy of our Republic to the present day …
that He will … inspire the hearts of my fellow-citizens that we may be preserved from danger.”
Andrew Jackson is considered the founder of the modern Democrat Party.
Like many Presidents, Jackson has detractors, as he made both negative and positive decisions
A recent example of such is Democrat President Bill Clinton.
Clinton was impeached in 1998 for perjury in a sexual scandal and introduced confusion into the military with his “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell” sexual policy;
yet he balanced the budget, reduced welfare recipients, and signed the Defense of Marriage Act — defining marriage as one man and one woman.
Andrew Jackson, the first Democrat President, made negative and positive decisions.
He supported slavery and signed the infamous Indian Removal Act — a big government solution disregarding Indian sovereignty;
yet he paid off the national debt — the only President to do so, and curtailed the power of globalist-type bankers in The Bank War.
The Bank War began when Nicholas Biddle sought to have his Second Bank of the United States gain monopoly control over the nation’s financial system.
Twenty percent of the bank was owned by foreign investors.
Andrew Jackson withdrew Federal funds out of the Second Bank of the United States and vetoed a renewal of its charter, stating in 1832:
“Controlling our currency, receiving our public moneys, and holding thousands of our citizens in dependence, it would be more … dangerous than the naval and military power of the enemy …”
He continued:
“Some of the powers … possessed by the existing bank are unauthorized by the Constitution, subversive of the rights of the States, and dangerous to the liberties of the people.”
Andrew Jackson told his Vice-President Martin Van Buren:
“The bank, Mr. Van Buren, is trying to kill me, but I will kill it.”
On May 6, 1833, Jackson was on his way to lay the cornerstone for the monument to George Washington’s mother, Mary Ball Washington.
Stopping at Alexandria, Virginia, Robert Randolph came up and struck the President, then ran away.
He was chased down by those accompanying the President, including writer Washington Irving, but Jackson refused to press charges.
Then, on January 30, 1835, following a funeral in Washington, Richard Lawrence approached Jackson and fired two pistols at him at point blank range, but both misfired, possibly due to a fog dampening the gunpowder.
Davy Crockett wrestled the assailant down.
Senator Thomas Hart Benton wrote how the incident:
“… irresistibly carried many minds to the belief in a superintending Providence, manifested in the extraordinary case of two pistols in succession — so well loaded, so cooly handled, and which afterwards fired with such readiness, force, and precision — missing fire each in his turn, when leveled eight feet at the President’s heart.”
King William IV of England heard of the incident and expressed his concern. President Jackson wrote back, exclaiming:
“A kind Providence had been pleased to shield me against the recent attempt upon my life, and irresistibly carried many minds to the belief in a superintending Providence.”
Since Andrew Jackson’s wife had died before he took office, his nephew’s wife, Emily Donelson, served as the unofficial First Lady.
When Emily Donelson died suddenly, President Jackson wrote to her husband, Colonel Andrew Jackson Donelson, December 30, 1836:
“We cannot recall her, we are commanded by our dear Saviour, not to mourn for the dead, but for the living …
She has changed a world of woe for a world of eternal happiness, and we ought to prepare as we too must follow … ‘The Lord’s will be done on earth as it is in heaven.'”
On March 25, 1835, Andrew Jackson wrote in a letter to Ellen Hanson:
“I was brought up a rigid Presbyterian, to which I have always adhered.
Our excellent Constitution guarantees to everyone freedom of religion, and charity tells us (and you know Charity is the real basis of all true religion) and charity says judge the tree by its fruit.
All who profess Christianity believe in a Savior, and that by and through Him we must be saved …”
Jackson concluded:
“We ought, therefore, to consider all good Christians whose walks correspond with their professions, be they Presbyterian, Episcopalian, Baptist, Methodist or Roman Catholic.”
On JUNE 8, 1845, “Old Hickory” died.
Jackson had stated, referring to the Bible:
“That book, Sir, is the Rock upon which our republic rests.”
During the War of 1812, General Andrew Jackson penned his 2nd Division Orders, March 7, 1812:
“Who are we? and for what are we going to fight?
Are we the titled slaves of George the third? the military conscripts of Napoleon the great? or the frozen peasants of the Russian Czar?
No, we are the free born sons of America; the citizens of the only republic now existing in the world;
and the only people on Earth who possess rights, liberties, and property which they dare call their own.”
“And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him,” (Colossians 3:17, ESV).
Shane Vander Hart: Biblical narratives serve as a warning, but also an encouragement as we are reminded of God’s faithfulness for those who follow Him.
Summary: President Joe Biden will receive his daily briefing on Tuesday. There is nothing else on his schedule for the day President Biden’s Itinerary for 6/8/21: All Times EDT 10:15 AM Receive daily briefing – Oval Office White House Briefing Schedule 1:00 PM White House Press Briefing [Live Stream] – …
Vice President Kamala Harris told Guatemalans considering journeying to the U.S. not to come during a press conference with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on Monday. Harris asked Guatemalans to discourage their friends and family members from making the trip because only coyotes benefit from the journey. She said U.S. officials …
Attorneys for Chicago Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot said Monday they would provide a sworn declaration to clarify a policy that denied interviews to white journalists. During the Monday hearing related to a suit brought by the Daily Caller News Foundation and Judicial Watch, a district judge ordered Lightfoot’s office to …
A June 2 ruling from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia allows the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to continue enforcing an eviction moratorium. This comes despite federal courts in three states (Ohio, Tennessee and Texas) ruling the ban on evictions unconstitutional. The CDC, a …
The U.S. government recovered much of the cryptocurrency ransom payment worth approximately $4.4 million that Colonial Pipeline made to hackers last month, the Justice Department announced. U.S. law enforcement was able to track and seize the transaction back to a cryptocurrency wallet belonging to DarkSide, the eastern European group that …
EcoHealth Alliance has received at least $37.5 million from a Department of Defense subagency dedicated to countering weapons of mass destruction, federal records show. While receiving funding from the Defense Threat Reduction Agency to study and combat viruses in Malaysia, Western Asia and Africa, EcoHealth provided taxpayer funds to the …
A parent criticized members of the Carmel Central School District school board for “emotionally abusing” the children and teaching them “communist values” in Putnam County New York, at a school board business meeting Thursday. Tatiyana Ibrahim, whose child attends one of the schools in the district, criticized the school board …
On schools, the Father of the Reformation, Martin Luther, said: I am much afraid that the universities will prove to be the great gates of hell, unless they diligently labour in explaining the Holy Scriptures, and engraving them in the hearts of youth. I advise no one to place his …
Republicans swept Texas’ mayoral elections over the weekend, relying on increased Hispanic support to win in large and mid-sized cities alike. In Forth Worth, a city of just over 1 million, 37-year-old Republican Mattie Parker cruised to victory against Democrat Deborah Peoples, making her the youngest mayor in the city’s …
Google settled an antitrust case with the French competition authority, agreeing to pay a nearly $270 million fine and accept regulators’ demands including sharing data with competitors. Google agreed to the fine, which was levied due to the tech company’s “abuse” of its dominant position in the online advertising market, …
MIAMI — Republican Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed two bills Monday aimed at combating the influence of the Chinese Communist Party in the U.S. The first bill is intended to safeguard public institutions from “undue foreign influence,” DeSantis said at a press conference, noting that the bill will prohibit “agreements …
White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan hold a briefing Monday. Content created by Conservative Daily News is available for re-publication without charge under the Creative Commons license. Visit our syndication page for details.
“Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space,” Jeff Bezos wrote in an Instagram post. “On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend.” Bidding is underway now at BlueOrigin.com and concludes with a live online …
Some of our nation’s biggest heroes come from humble beginnings. Army Cpl. Rodolfo Perez Hernandez can attest to that. The son of migrant farmers joined the Army to help earn money for his family in the late 1940s. He left the service a Medal of Honor recipient. Hernandez was born …
Happy Tuesday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. There are only so many things that need to be flannel.
Do we really want to get along? I find myself wondering that a lot these days. In more normal times, finding ways to be less contentious and better to each other would be a noble goal. With Congress almost evenly divided some bipartisanship might be helpful.
We hear a lot about how divided we are as a nation. Worst time ever, and whatnot. I don’t know, from everything I’ve read, the politics in America during the Civil War seem to have been pretty heated. There was a fair amount of tension here in the late 1960s too. We’re sniping a lot at each other right now, but are we really at an all-time low?
I’m usually a big fan of political battles, especially now that the Democrats have moved to the left of Cuba. It would be nice if we could get along better but it’s just too much work now that common ground has practically disappeared into the ether.
Our alleged president is most certainly not the centrist uniter we were promised during the campaign. We’ve now been treated to almost six months of a governing philosophy that is driven by nothing but a desire to undo everything President Trump did.
Here’s the thing though: Trump did a lot of good things. Republicans still want what’s best for America, Democrats want what’s best for Democrats.
At the beginning of the month, I wrote a column about an Arizona sheriff lamenting the consequences of Biden signing an executive order ending the construction of the border wall almost immediately after he was sworn in. The overwhelming urge of Biden and his handlers to unravel Trump’s legacy began having unpleasant domestic consequences right away.
Do they care?
Nah.
Now the Biden administration’s hatred for all things Trump is trying to sweep international peace under the rug.
Imagine being so anti-Trump that you would throw even historic peace agreements between Israel and neighboring Arab nations down the memory hole just because President Donald Trump brokered those deals.
Well, according to a report from the Washington Free Beacon, that’s exactly what’s happening. According to the report, based on emails reviewed by The Washington Free Beacon, Biden’s State Department is discouraging employees from “referring to the historic peace agreements signed by Israel and its Arab neighbors by its official name, the Abraham Accords.” The name “Abraham Accords” has also “been erased from a wide array of official State Department communications as the new administration presses officials to refer to the Trump-era deals as ‘normalization agreements.’”
A search of the State Department website still contains references to “Abraham Accords.”
It’s no secret that the Democrats were broken by their hatred for Trump. It’s a real sickness, though, if they need to pretend that peace in a historically war-torn region isn’t a good thing. Objectively, the Abraham Accords are something to be celebrated. Being so consumed by partisan bile that they can’t acknowledge them is not a good look for Biden or the Democrats. Then again, as has been noted by many people, Joe Biden has spent almost 50 years on the national stage being on the wrong side of foreign policy issues.
Barack Obama left quite a foreign policy mess to clean up when his eight years in office were over. At this pace, Biden could do as much damage in a year as Obama did in two terms.
We get it, Dems, you loathe Trump and still haven’t managed to emotionally break up with him. Maybe try to take a breath and be honest with yourselves about the policies and achievements of his that worked out well for you too.
This lashing-out-like-a toddler- in-mid-tantrum way of governing is getting old.
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
Biden Budget Refers to Mothers as ‘Birthing People’ in Nod to Woke Activists . . . President Joe Biden embraced the woke terminology favored by radical left-wing activists in his 2022 budget proposal, which refers to mothers as “birthing people.” The text of Biden’s record-breaking $6 trillion budget, unveiled last month, includes a section highlighting more than $200 million in health care spending aimed at reducing the “high rate of maternal mortality and race-based disparities in outcomes among birthing people.” Washington Free Beacon
More lunacy.
Yale lecturer: ‘I had fantasies of unloading a revolver’ into ‘any White person that got in my way’ . . . A New York psychiatrist recently revealed during a public lecture that she had cut all her White friends out of her life and even had “fantasies” about murdering random White people. On April 6, Dr. Aruna Khilanani gave a lecture at the Yale School of Medicine’s Child Study Center titled, “The Psychopathic Problem of the White Mind,” in which she said White people are “out of their minds” and “sound demented” when addressing issues such as race.
“This is the cost of talking to White people at all. The cost of your own life, as they suck you dry,” Dr. Khilanani said, according to an audio recording of the talk obtained by journalist Katie Herzog reported on Bari Weiss’ Substack blog. “There are no good apples out there. White people make my blood boil. ” Washington Examiner
Sounds like this “psychiatrist” needs some urgent psychiatric help.
Ilhan Omar says America, like Hamas and the Taliban, has committed ‘unthinkable atrocities’ . . . Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., on Monday appeared to place America in the same category as the Taliban and Hamas, saying the U.S., Israel and the terrorist groups have all committed “unthinkable atrocities.” Omar, a member of the progressive “Squad,” posted a tweet that said that the U.S. needs to “have the same level of accountability and justice for all victims of crimes against humanity.” Fox News
There’s a logical solution to these ladies’ problem, or anyone else’s who has a problem with America. They could simply relocate to a country with no white people, where no “unthinkable atrocities” are committed. There, these ladies’ blood will not boil and they will feel comfy. Iran, North Korea, China – plenty of options across the globe. This is what I did, upon my mother’s advice that she gave me when I was still a child. As a young person, I left my totalitarian socialist homeland and came to the land of freedom.
Trump to conduct ‘history tour’ of his presidency for ticket holders in December . . . Former President Donald Trump announced Monday that he will go on a “history tour” to discuss his presidency for paying customers at arenas in Florida and Texas in December. “I will be focusing on greatness for our Country, something seldom discussed in political dialogue.” Mr. Trump said. Fox News
Politics
Political winds shift against Biden . . . The atmosphere is changing fast for President Biden.
Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) opposition to weakening the filibuster has thrown the president’s legislative agenda into flux. The COVID-19 vaccination push has hit serious resistance, meaning Biden could fail to meet a key benchmark for the first time. And the economic picture is mixed, with some weaker-than-expected employment data and new fears about inflation, even as jobs return and businesses reopen. It all marks an abrupt change from Biden’s first months in office. The Hill
Biden’s Plan to Kill the American Dream . . . As part of President Joe Biden’s $2.3 trillion infrastructure plan, the Biden administration wants to incentivize local governments to eliminate zoning for single-family home lots to make way for apartment buildings. The administration claims it’s a way to ease a national affordable housing shortage and combat racial injustice in the housing market. Current zoning laws that favor single-family homes, known as exclusionary zoning, have disproportionately hurt low-income people who can’t afford to move to the suburbs, the administration said. Their only choice is living in crowded apartment buildings. Americans for Limited Government led the effort to abolish a similar scheme to destroy the suburbs during the Obama-Biden era. Patriot Post
Central American leaders say Biden policies are provoking illegal immigration . . . As Kamala Harris lands in Central America to try to convince those countries to change decades or even centuries of corruption and mismanagement, the leaders of those nations are saying that the Biden administration is incentivizing people to come to the United States. White House Dossier
Kamala Hands Out Cookies Of Herself On D-Day, Gets Heckled By Local Guatemalans . . . Vice President Kamala Harris reportedly gave out cookies resembling herself to people aboard Air Force Two on D-Day before arriving at a Guatemalan airport where she was heckled by protestors. Harris reportedly handed out cookies depicting her official White House portrait and Air Force Two to members of the press before protesters with various signs telling her to go home greeted her at an air force base in Guatemala on Sunday. One sign said “Kamala mind your own business” and another read “Kamala go home,” according to the Floridian Press. Others said, “Kamala, Trump won” and “no constitutional reforms, Guatemala is pro-life.” Daily Caller
Palestinian Government Pays $42,000 to Family of Terrorist Who Killed Israelis . . . Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas authorized the payment on Sunday of $42,000 to the family of a terrorist who killed two Israelis through a policy that incentivizes and rewards terrorism against Israel. Laila Ghannam, governor of Ramallah’s Al-Bireh district, personally handed the money to the family of Muhannad Al-Halabi, a member of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror group on Sunday. Al-Halabi fatally stabbed two Israeli civilians in 2015 before being shot by police. The $42,000 payment was given to Al-Halabi’s parents “on behalf of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas to ‘complete the payment of the cost’ of their home, which was demolished by Israel following the attack”. Washington Free Beacon
Federal prosecutors subpoena materials related to Cuomo’s book deal: Report . . . Federal prosecutors issued subpoenas for communications related to Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s controversial book deal about his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new report. People involved in editing early versions of American Crisis: Leadership Lessons from COVID-19 Pandemic were subpoenaed last month by prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn seeking information about contracts and promotional materials to sell the book to publishers. The subpoenas signal the scope of the investigation is widening far beyond the original focus of COVID-19 deaths in New York nursing homes. Washington Examiner
Fearful Facebook Bans Trump for Two Years . . . On Friday, Facebook dealt another blow to free expression when it announced that Donald Trump would be suspended for two years from its Facebook and Instagram platforms. It was the highest penalty possible under cowardly Facebook’s new content moderation rules, and it was a compliment of sorts for the 74-year-old former Republican president, who continues to live rent-free in the heads of Democrats and Big Tech titans everywhere. It’s a pathetic state of affairs indeed when political palookas can tell a former U.S. president what he’s allow to say and when. Interestingly, Hillary Clinton also questioned the results of a presidential election — the one she lost to Trump. We’re still waiting for her to be banned for having told everyone who cared to listen that the 2016 election was “stolen,” and that Trump was an “illegitimate” president. Patriot Post
Trump eyeing Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis as possible 2024 running mate . . . Former President Donald Trump revealed Monday he would consider ditching Mike Pence for Florida’s tough Gov. Ron DeSantis as his 2024 presidential election running mate.
“Sure I would … I would certainly consider Ron,” Trump, 74, told Fox Business‘ Stuart Varney in a phone interview Monday. “I was at the beginning of Ron,” he said of the 42-year-old former Navy officer who graduated both Yale and Harvard Law School. “I was the first one to endorse him when he came out as a congressman that a lot of people didn’t know, and my endorsement helped him tremendously,” Trump said. Still, he left the pick open — though without mentioning his former vice president, Pence. New York Post
DeSantis cashes in on rising star status with big-money blitz . . . When Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis addresses a group of well-heeled Republican Party donors on Thursday, he won’t be on home turf like Naples’ “Millionaires’ Row” or in Indian Creek Island’s “Billionaire Bunker” — he’ll be across the country in San Diego, one of the GOP’s few traditional power centers in California. The appearance is part of an aggressive summertime out-of-state fundraising swing, with DeSantis capitalizing on his rising profile to stuff his reelection coffers and cultivate a national donor network that could power a prospective 2024 presidential bid. Politico
‘How Am I Losing In Polls To A Mental Retard?’: New Book Claims Trump Lost It When Biden Polled Well . . . Former President Donald Trump reportedly lost it when he learned that President Joe Biden was beating him in polls leading up to the 2020 presidential election. According to a new book from The Wall Street Journal’s Michael Bender, Trump interrupted an Oval Office policy meeting to complain about it, asking, “How am I losing in polls to a mental retard?” Daily Caller
Trump statements spread far on social media even after ban, analysis finds . . . Despite a ban from most major platforms, former President Donald Trump’s online statements are reportedly spreading far and wide on social media. Many of Trump’s statements after his January social media ban have received as many, if not more, likes or shares online as they did before. Before his ban, due to his role in the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, Trump’s social media engagement generated a median of 272,000 likes and shares, primarily on Facebook and Twitter. After the ban, his median engagement dropped to 36,000 likes and shares, but 11 of his 89 statements in the past few months have been either just as popular or more popular than before the ban. Washington Examiner
National Security
Supreme Court asked to review men-only draft registration law . . . The Supreme Court is being asked to decide whether it’s sex discrimination for the government to require only men to register for the draft when they turn 18. The question of whether it’s unconstitutional to require men but not women to register could be viewed as one with little practical impact. The last time there was a draft was during the Vietnam War, and the military has been all-volunteer since. But the registration requirement is one of the few remaining places where federal law treats men and women differently, and women’s groups are among those arguing that allowing it to stand is harmful. Fox News
Poll: Majority of New York City Voters Want More Police on the Streets . . . A large majority of likely voters in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary want more cops on the street, according to a recent NY1/Ipsos poll. Seventy-two percent of likely voters polled in May agreed with the statement “The NYPD should put more officers on the street.” And 46 percent said “crime or violence” is the main problem facing the Big Apple. Washington Free Beacon
Senators reveal further Capitol riot security failures in bipartisan report . . . A new bipartisan report cataloging failures of the Capitol Police’s intelligence division ahead of the Capitol riots. Now-acting Capitol Police Chief Yogananda Pittman told congressional investigators that data on the pro-riot social media chatter was sent only to “command staff” and never reached the department’s highest level of Capitol Police leadership. The intelligence failures are only one facet of the first official congressional accounting of the Jan. 6 insurrection, a nearly 100-page report released Tuesday morning by a bipartisan duo of Senate committee leaders. The report raps the Capitol Police and federal agencies for security lapses leading up to and during the attack. Politico
‘Trojan horse’ app sparks global operation against organised crime . . . At least 250 people have been arrested around the world in an international police operation that used “Trojan horse” technology to target drug dealers, mafias and other organised crime organisations. Australian police said on Tuesday that they had disrupted 21 murder plots and seized 3.7 tonnes of drugs during the operation, which covertly monitored an encrypted communications platform used by criminal gangs. The FBI in the US gained access to the AN0M platform, enabling Australian police to monitor more than 25m messages sent in real time. The communications allegedly detailed murder plots, drug smuggling and other illegal activities, Australian and US investigators said at a joint news conference that detailed the three-year police operation. Financial Times
Colonial Pipeline Chief to Testify in Senate Panel on Ransomware Hack . . . The chief executive of the pipeline company hit in a multimillion-dollar ransomware attack last month is expected to testify Tuesday on Capitol Hill about the company’s cybersecurity practices and its decision to pay the hackers. Joseph Blount of Colonial Pipeline Co. is scheduled to appear before the Senate Homeland Security Committee, roughly one month after his company suffered a ransomware attack on its business computer systems. The attack prompted Colonial Pipeline to shut down the 5,500-mile pipeline pumping gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other refined products from the Gulf Coast to Linden, N.J. On Monday, the Justice Department said authorities had recovered roughly $2.3 million in digital currency paid to the hackers, a suspected Russian gang known as DarkSide. Wall Street Journal
Biden administration launches supply chain task force to tackle disruptions . . . The Biden administration on Tuesday announced the formation of a new task force to address supply chain disruptions, which will include Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack. The task force is set to minimize the impacts of supply chain disruptions on workers, consumers, families, and businesses, according to a senior administration official. It will address near-term supply and demand mismatches and bring together stakeholders to help alleviate bottlenecks and supply constraints. The Hill
More talk and perfunctory for-show tricks by the bureaucrats.
International
Brussels warns it is ready to intensify action against UK over N Ireland . . . Brussels has warned that it is ready to intensify retaliation against the UK if Boris Johnson further postpones applying the two sides’ deal on Northern Ireland, in another sign of strained relations ahead of talks this week. EU Brexit commissioner Maros Sefcovic, warned that “unilateral action” by the UK to ease the requirements of the post-Brexit trading arrangements for Northern Ireland would meet a firm response.
“The EU will not be shy in reacting swiftly, firmly and resolutely to ensure that the UK abides by its international law obligations,” Sefcovic wrote, as he urged joint solutions to irritants that have emerged with the post-Brexit trade rules since they were applied in Northern Ireland at the start of this year. Financial Times
Russia Puts the Squeeze on Social Media to Police Its Critics . . . Russia’s government was quick to use social media when it tried to steer the course of U.S. elections, American officials say. It isn’t quite as eager to see its own opponents at home try the same thing. Ahead of a parliamentary vote later this year, the Kremlin has been fine-tuning its strategy to pressure platforms such as Twitter, YouTube and TikTok to remove antigovernment content, classifying a growing number of posts as illegal and issuing a flurry of takedown requests. Kremlin uses Twitter and other platforms to advance its goals overseas, but is now trying to prevent its opponents from using the same tools. Wall Street Journal
But we haven’t seen any of The Big Tech cowardly hypocrites de-platform Putin, Xi, or any other similar characters, have we?
Coronavirus
Opinion: America’s Covid Groupthink Functioned Like China’s Repression . . . What we eventually learn about the origins of Covid-19 may implicate China’s government in failure and falsehood on a grand scale. But this episode has also exposed layers of rottenness in critical institutions of American civil society that are similarly damning. Scientists, bureaucrats, journalists and executives of Big Tech companies suppressed the story not out of fear of imprisonment or death, like many of their Chinese counterparts, but of their own volition, out of ideological or even venal motives. The lab-leak theory was not “debunked,” as news organizations repeatedly told us when anyone tried to raise it a year ago. It wasn’t even permitted to be considered. Discussion of the topic was deliberately extinguished on tech platforms, in the respectable scientific journals and in newsrooms. Some highly influential figures in the “scientific community” were the first to block serious consideration of the thesis that the viral pathogens escaped from a Chinese government laboratory. Wall Street Journal
This is the kind of suppression of speech that happens in totalitarian regimes. Self-censorship – which occurred in this case is an advanced and sophisticated form of censorship. The populace already knows what to say and think, without the treat of physical oppression by the government.
Money
Former McDonald’s CEO: $15 minimum wage directly related to food industry’s automation push . . . Former McDonald’s CEO Ed Rensi is warning that the fight for a $15 minimum wage is directly contributing to the restaurant industry’s push toward automation. McDonald’s current CEO Chris Kempczinski confirmed during Alliance Bernstein’s Strategic Decisions Conference last week that the company is testing an automated, voice-recognition based drive-thru ordering system at 10 of its Chicago locations. Kempczinski noted that the artificial intelligence technology has 85% accuracy with filling orders, with workers having to step in for approximately one in five orders. Fox Business
Arrogant and not so smart government bureaucrats thought that they could outsmart common-sense business leaders.
Treasury Secretary Yellen: On second thought, let’s not have inflation . . . Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is apparently rethinking her approval of higher inflation, which was extinguished at great pain the the U.S. economy decades ago. She said that her comments about higher inflation throughout the rest of the year are being misinterpreted. After the G-7 meeting in London, where plans for a 15% global minimum tax were announced, Yellen said that inflation could be a point higher than the Federal Reserve’s goal for the rest of the year, remarks that drew headlines. “We have, in recent months, seen some inflation, and we, at least on a year-over-year basis, will continue, I believe, through the rest of the year, to see higher inflation rates, maybe around 3%,” she said. “But I personally believe that this represents transitory factors.” White House Dossier
Special-Needs Trusts: How They Work and What Has Changed . . . First, many people with disabilities and chronic illnesses, thanks to advances in medicine, are living longer lives—and, as such, are outliving their parents and primary caregivers. That makes the need for long-term planning all the more vital.
Second, recent changes in tax laws—and, in particular, the rules governing inherited retirement accounts—mean that families, at the least, should review their financial plans as they apply to children with special needs. A special-needs trust can be set up to protect the assets of a person with a disability or other medical conditions. For instance, parents who have a child with autism could create and fund such a trust. The trust, in turn, could help pay for various goods and services for the child: medical equipment, education, home furnishings, etc. “Generally, the better move,” experts recommend “is to exchange assets like traditional IRAs for more tax-efficient assets like Roth IRAs and life insurance to accomplish the post-death planning objectives that people are looking for.” Wall Street Journal
You should also know
FDA Approves First New Alzheimer’s Drug in Nearly Two Decades . . . U.S. health regulators approved the first new Alzheimer’s drug in nearly two decades, casting aside doubts about the therapy’s effectiveness. The approval Monday of the therapy, which will be sold as Aduhelm, marked a watershed in Alzheimer’s drug research after billions of dollars in investment. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, explaining its decision, said scientific evidence indicated Aduhelm reduces a sticky substance in the brain called amyloid—which is associated with Alzheimer’s—and is likely to produce a benefit to patients. Wall Street Journal
Such miracles can occur only in a capitalist country. Capitalism equals freedom of thought, equals creativity and innovation, equals prosperity. This is why America has achieved unprecedented success in a number of critical industries: medical research, pharmaceuticals, information technology, engineering, defense and the list goes on. Socialism will kill our ability to innovate. It will lead, gradually to deterioration. Everyone will be worse off, equally. Although, ordinary Americans will be more ‘equally’ worse off than the government apparatchiks who are in charge of the re-distribution of wealth and rationing of scarce quality goods and services. Then, if you criticize the system, the government will come down hard on you.
Everything was free (or virtually free) in the USSR – education, medical care, housing, theatre, movies but nothing was available for ordinary people. The government apparatchiks shopped in different shops, received medical care in different hospitals, and had many other privileges. Ordinary people struggled daily.
Apologies for the rant. This socialism business in America scares the heck out of me.
Networks Program Children With LGBT Agenda During Pride Month . . . Lots of parents today wouldn’t think twice about sitting their kids down in front of the Disney Channel or Cartoon Network. And that, conservatives warn, is exactly the problem. Like so many other moms and dads, they’re expecting the same kind of harmless storylines they watched in the ‘70s and ‘80s. What their children are seeing is anything but. Say goodbye to the regular plot lines of “Blue’s Clues” and “Scooby-Doo”—and say hello to a 21st-century lesson in transgenderism, sex, homosexuality, nonbinaries, and drag queens. That’s the new reality of radical programming on some of America’s favorite shows—especially, parents are discovering, during June, which is Pride Month. Loveable animals like Arthur and My Little Pony have been commandeered by the far left for lessons that would make most adults’ jaws drop. Daily Signal
Child abuse.
Guilty Pleasures
Loose donkey trots down Rhode Island road . . . A driver on a Rhode Island road captured video of an unusual pedestrian wandering in the roadway: a loose donkey. The city of Johnston famously dealt with a loose steer that escaped on its way to a slaughterhouse in February, and the animal was on the loose for nearly two months before being recaptured. The city’s authorities also dealt with a trio of nuisance turkeys that caused traffic hazards for weeks in 2018. Mayor Joseph Polisena said the donkey could prove difficult to corral.
“He looks like he’s in good shape. He’s fast,” Polisena told The Providence Journal. “I’m hoping my animal control people can keep up with him.” UPI
Happy Tuesday! Jeff Bezos announced yesterday he is going to space next month, and Mark Zuckerberg posted a video of himself training to throw spears. What do the billionaires know that we don’t?
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
The Food and Drug Administration approved a new treatment for Alzheimer’s disease on Monday for the first time in more than 15 years. Many scientists sharply criticized the agency’s decision, saying there is not enough evidence that the new drug, Aduhelm—which was rejected by a panel of independent experts convened by the FDA in November—is actually effective at slowing the progression of disease.
The Justice Department announced Monday that it had recovered a majority ($2.3 million) of the $4.4 million in cryptocurrency that Colonial Pipeline paid to its ransomware attackers last month. “Today’s announcement demonstrates that the United States will use all available tools to make these attacks more costly and less profitable for criminal enterprises,” Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco said yesterday.
There is now more carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere than at any point in human history, according to scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Last year’s shutdowns had “no discernible impact” on the rate of increase, according to the report.
Vice President Kamala Harris is visiting Guatemala and Mexico this week as part of the Biden administration’s diplomatic efforts to curb migration to the U.S. from Central and South America. “I want to be clear to folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border: Do not come,” Harris said. “The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our border.”
Axios reported yesterday, however, that preliminary Customs and Border Protection data show “the number of migrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border this fiscal year is already the most since 2006—with four months left to go.”
The United States confirmed 15,161 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday per the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 Dashboard, with 2.6 percent of the 573,310 tests reported coming back positive. An additional 319 deaths were attributed to the virus on Monday, bringing the pandemic’s American death toll to 597,946. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 16,585 Americans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19. Meanwhile, 1,213,339 COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered yesterday, with 171,310,738 Americans having now received at least one dose.
Progressives Learning That No Means No
Democrats can’t say Sen. Joe Manchin didn’t warn them.
On November 9—just days after the 2020 election was called for Joe Biden and it had become clear that control of the Senate would come down to two runoff elections in Georgia—the West Virginia Democrat joined Bret Baier on Fox News. “When they talk about packing the courts or ending the filibuster, I will not vote to do that,” Manchin said. “I want to lay those fears to rest, that that won’t happen, because I won’t be the 50th Democrat voting to end the filibuster or to basically stack the court.”
Democratic leaders didn’t mind the comments much at the time—at least not publicly. The party needed to win a decent chunk of Republicans to flip the Peach State, and in turn the Senate, blue, and Manchin’s promises of moderation might well have made the prospect of a Democratic majority less threatening to Georgia voters.
But Manchin didn’t change his mind once Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock won their races. And he didn’t change his mind once they were sworn in. “If I haven’t said it very plain,” he told Politico on January 25, “I want to basically say it for you. That I will not vote in this Congress, that’s two years, right? I will not vote [to change the filibuster].”
Reporters have asked him—conservatively—eleventy gazillion times in the five months since if and when he plans on changing his mind. The answer has always been no, sometimes emphatically. “JESUS CHRIST!” he shouted back in March. “What don’t you understand about NEVER?!”
As we mentioned last week, the Chinese Communist Party recently decided to scrap its two-child policy for married couples and replace it with a three-child policy. In a piece for the website, Harvest Prude dives into the context surrounding the switch—and what the CCP hopes to accomplish with it.
When and why did the Chinese government start restricting birth rates in the first place?
The CCP instituted a “one-child” policy in 1980 to dampen population growth and facilitate an economic boom. In part, this was due to concerns that the burgeoning population would overtake the food supply. In the 1950s, Mao Zedong ushered in his “Great Leap Forward,” a centrally executed government plan to rapidly industrialize China’s largely agrarian economy. A devastating famine resulted, killing tens of millions of the country’s citizens between 1959 and 1961. After that, the government began promoting birth control and later marriages. In 1980, the one-child policy, which primarily applied to members of China’s ethnic Han majority, took things further.
For nearly three decades, the bureau tasked with enforcing the government’s family planning policies would carry out its mission in ways that often violated human rights and sparked international criticism. In addition to steep fines and social pressure, officials forced women to get abortions and sterilized those who broke the rules. The policy also resulted in a gender imbalance: A preference for male babies resulted in about 119 boys being born for every 100 girls.
In a piece for The Atlantic, Katherine J. Wu explores the dangers mutations pose to the precision of coronavirus tests. Wu gives readers a rundown on how tests detect RNA, the rejiggering of coronavirus’ genes, and the dangers of false negatives. “With the virus mutating into new and concerning variants, a few of the tests designed to recognize its original iteration are now getting duped,” Wu writes. “What was once a singular target has split itself off into many, many bull’s-eyes, each a little different from the next, and we’re having trouble taking aim. … It’s hard to ignore the game of whack-a-mole we’ve locked ourselves into. No test can be completely impervious to evolution’s hijinks.”
In his work as president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, Greg Lukianoff has had plenty of experience dealing with the dangers of academic cultures that stifle individual thought and squelch dissent. Over at Persuasion, he’s written a sort of manifesto for “what K-12 education could look like in a free and small-‘l’ liberal society, based on insights taken from U.S. jurisprudence, ancient wisdom, and modern psychology.” From “no compelled speech, thought, or belief” to “foster the broadest possible curiosity, critical thinking skills, and discomfort with certainty” to “don’t reduce complex students to limiting labels,” it’s a rallying cry for anyone uncomfortable with the current trend of U.S. primary education.
Trump praises @Sen_JoeManchin for his refusal to do away with the filibuster: “It’s a very important thing. He’s doing the right thing, and it’s a very important thing.” https://t.co/O2iy4KGwb2
On Monday’s Advisory Opinions, David and Sarah walk listeners through last week’s ruling from a federal judge striking down California’s assault weapons ban. They then dive into a bit of Supreme Court drama involving Sonia Sotomayor, a decision that includes references to COVID vaccines, and whether civic education can reduce negative partisanship in America.
New reporting intern Tripp Grebe has a standalone piece up on the site today, and it’s a good one: What’s the latest on the 2021—née 2020—Tokyo Olympics? The U.S. Olympic Committee is confident the games will go on as scheduled, despite a recent coronavirus surge in Japan. “We are fully intending to take two delegations this summer,” a senior U.S. Olympic official told Tripp. “We have very serious safety protocols in place domestically, and we’re confident in the mitigation policies put in place by the Tokyo Organizing Committee.”
Mary Chastain: “Rebekah Jones needs some serious help. I’m worried about her. The woman has a constant victimhood attitude and an obvious need for attention. It’s disturbing and not normal.”
Leslie Eastman: “In terms of the very likely COVID-lab-origin cover-up, each new addition to the revised timeline has been more troubling than the last. One has to wonder what else lies behind the masking of the coronavirus origins. The Great Unmasking of the COVID-Origin Coverup Scheme Continues.”
David Gerstman: “Prof Jacobson blogged that UNRWA, the UN agency devoted to the Palestinians (and, which, by the way, perpetuates the Palestinian grievance rather than addressing it) charged that Hamas had a terror tunnel underneath one of its schools. Vijeta Uniyal blogged last month that the head of UNRWA admitted that Israel’s bombing of terror targets in Gaza was remarkably accurate – until he was force to retract by Hamas. It’s kind of interesting that UNRWA has gotten off-message so substantially in recent weeks. I’m sure it won’t be long before Hamas reasserts message discipline on the supposedly independent agency.”
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Cyber, Cyber, Cyber
Cybersecurity is the word these days as U.S. companies and infrastructure are relentlessly pounded by waves of cyberattacks, many of them emanating from Russia. In fact, just weeks after a Russian-linked group knocked the Colonial Pipeline offline (and with it a major gasoline portal to the eastern seaboard), another Russian hacking group took down JBS, the world’s largest meatpacker.
Over the weekend, Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo said U.S. companies should brace for the reality that “[cyber]attacks are here to stay, and if anything, will intensify.” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm echoed Raimondo, stating that in her estimation, U.S. adversaries were capable of shutting down the U.S. energy grid.
The Senate sergeant at arms has issued similar warnings, stating on Saturday that she views a cyberattack on the government as more worrisome than another January 6th style event.
It’s striking, then, that Congress, which has held nearly 10 hearings on January 6th while investigations are ongoing by the Inspector General at the Department of Justice, has not bothered to hold even a handful of hearings on the clear and present danger posed by nation-state hacks.
Meanwhile, President Biden is on a foreign swing that ends in a meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin himself. As more and more cyberattacks on the United States initiate in Russia, possibly with state backing, Biden will need to put Putin on notice. However, his administration has already taken key leverage off the table, waiving sanctions a key Russian gas pipeline, the Nord Stream 2, in May.
TikTok Gives Itself Permission to Collect “Faceprints” and “Voiceprints” on Users
If you use TikTok, or your children do, the app will now record their faces and voices in addition to the troves of other data it already collects, including location, IP addresses, data sent in messages on its app, metadata from uploaded content, the app and file names on your device, battery status, and even your keystroke patterns.
Gathering this data is creepy enough, but the lingering questions surrounding the app, which is owned by Beijing-based ByteDance, is where it is stored and what parties can access it.
The Trump administration initiated the process of banning TikTok for this reason. Or, as Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) put it in a congressional hearing last year, “A company compromised by the Chinese Communist Party knows where your children are, knows what they look like, what their voices sound like, what they’re watching and what they share with each other.”
TikTok denies it shares data with the Chinese government, though its protestations are largely moot given the passage of a Chinese cybersecurity law which gives the government access to all the data owned by companies operating within its borders.
Here in the U.S., we lack both a federal privacy law, and only a handful of states have biometric privacy laws. Earlier this year, TikTok reached a $92 million settlement in a class action lawsuit brought against it for violating the state laws of Illinois.
For the Oenophiles…
A little bit of a different take this week, but in addition to tasting and teaching wine, I read a lot about it as well. If you’re looking for some great wine writing, or just interesting stories around wine, here are three book recommendations:
Adventures on the Wine Route, by importer Kermit Lynch is a delightful early look at the French wine industry before exporting became a way of life.
The Billionaire’s Vinegar, by Benjamin Wallace is a fascinating story of a wine fraudster that fooled, well, everyone. None of the experts come out looking good in this story!
And in Case You Missed it
The Senate is about to pass a bill providing more than $80 billion for research areas including biotechnology, medical technology, genomics, and synthetic biology — without prohibitions on creating or destroying human embryos, using aborted fetal tissue, or even against creating human-animal chimeras.
And if you’re in the mood for something seriously wonky, Josh Hammer makes the case for a conservative legal movement centered around “common good originalism” in the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy
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Jun 08, 2021 01:00 am
In the past eighteen months, Americans have been overwhelmed by too much, often conflicting information, and it’s time for some clarity. Read More…
Jun 08, 2021 01:00 am
Once discrimination was encoded in law as a Bad Thing, it was natural for all Good People to go to work to eliminate discrimination from the land. Read More…
Is Blinken blinking on Iran?
Jun 08, 2021 01:00 am
The secretary of state’s pessimistic report on re-joining Obama’s Iran nuclear deal does not sound good — for two reasons. Read more…
Dow Chemical is boasting – about how woke it is
Jun 08, 2021 01:00 am
The once-great chemical company’s latest recruiting email focuses on diversity, sustainability, and equity without ever touching on its corporate mission. Read more…
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By the end of June, Chick-fil-A just might be thanking Burger King for mocking the chicken sandwich giant. What happened? Burger King in a tweet last Thursday said it’s making a donation to the Human Rights Ca … Read more
In the absence of religious faith, fear reigns and freedom recedes. Discerning the origin of the current, fear-based American social climate is not difficult. Don’t blame scientists in China for releasing the angst virus assaulting traditional American liberties. Blame the tech engineers operating in Silicon Valley laboratori … Read more
The problem isn’t that Fauci weighed costs and benefits. It’s that he was willing to impose life-and-death costs on unwitting Americans in order to benefit himself.
If conservative voters have reason to think GOP campaign promises about the Supreme Court were all a grift, they will begin to nominate politicians who make Trump look like Mahatma Gandhi.
Many people have a bit extra time over the summer to read, so here’s what I have on the docket at the moment in case something here strikes your fancy too.
If Congress follows the president’s lead and does not renew the Hyde Amendment, court precedents may require state Medicaid programs to cover abortions in most if not all cases.
Paxton Smith’s graduation speech is a product of today’s cynical, narcissistic culture. Instead of ‘speaking truth to power,’ she merely conformed to it.
After Gov. Gretchen Whitmer flew to Palm Beach during coronavirus orders on another group’s dime, the Michigan GOP is filing a complaint alleging wrongdoing.
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40.) REUTERS
The Reuters Daily Briefing
Tuesday, June 8, 2021
by Linda Noakes
Hello
Here’s what you need to know.
Hundreds are arrested in a global crime sting, websites rumble back to life after a major outage, and Biden sets up a ‘strike force’ to go after China
Today’s biggest stories
A person is detained by Australian Federal Police after Operation Ironside against organized crime in this undated handout photo released June 8, 2021.
The operation by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, Australian and European police ensnared suspects in Australia, Asia, Europe, South America and the Middle East involved in the global narcotics trade.
High traffic sites including Reddit, Amazon, CNN, Paypal, Spotify and the New York Times all experienced problems.
Fastly is one of the world’s most widely-used cloud based content delivery network providers.
Guatemala’s President Alejandro Giammattei and U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris arrive to attend a news conference at the Palacio Nacional de la Cultura, in Guatemala City, June 7, 2021
U.S.
An effort by President Joe Biden to reunite migrant families separated by the previous administration is moving slowly, with only seven children reunited with parents by a task force launched in February, according to a Department of Homeland Security report.
Meanwhile, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris said she had “robust” talks with Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei on the need to fight corruption to help deter undocumented immigration from Central America to the United States.
Several top Senate Republicans rejected Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen’s G7 deal to impose a global minimum corporate tax and allow more countries to tax big multinational firms, raising questions about the U.S. ability to implement a broader global agreement.
The Justice Department recovered some $2.3 million in cryptocurrency ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline, cracking down on hackers who launched the most disruptive U.S. cyberattack on record.
Thousands of police have been drafted in from across Britain to beef up security for what organisers promise will be disruptive protests when G7 leaders gather for a summit this week. “We will be loud. We will be disruptive. We will be annoying,” said the Kill The Bill group, one of about 20 activist organisations to have joined a ‘Resist G7 Coalition’.
Laboratory technician Sara Zemmahi was running to be a local councillor backed by French President Emmanuel Macron’s ruling party until last month when it withdrew its support. Her transgression: wearing her hijab in a campaign poster.
A roaming herd of 15 wild elephants is on the move again after resting for a day in a patch of forest on the outskirts of the city of Kunming in southwest China, resuming a year-long, 500-kilometer trek that has captured the public’s imagination.
BUSINESS
The United States will target China with a new “strike force” to combat unfair trade practices, the Biden administration said, as it rolled out findings of a review of U.S. access to critical products, from semiconductors to electric-vehicle batteries. We look at how more Chinese firms could fall under Biden’s broader investment ban.
The London Metal Exchange has abandoned proposals to close its open outcry trading floor, the last such venue in Europe, but it believes electronic trading is the future. The floor was closed in March 2020 for the first time since World War II to allow for social distancing.
Latinos finally get their shot with ‘In the Heights’
Lin-Manuel Miranda is hoping his movie musical changes the conversation in Hollywood about Latinos, just as ‘Crazy Rich Asians’ did in 2018 for the Asian community.
Paleontologists estimate the dinosaur reached a height of 5-6.5 meters at the hip and was 25-30 meters in length, making it as long as a basketball court and as tall as a two-storey building.
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One proof of the argument that the “Antichrist” is a human being spiritually possessed by the devil, Satan, is Paul’s testimony in 2 Thessalonians 2 that “He will oppose and… Read more…
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45.) CONSERVATIVE BRIEF
HOTTEST STORIES TODAY
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Biden’s DOJ Sides With Trump – Tells Court to DROP It
This is something most Americans agree with.
Top Dem Under Federal Investigation – Feds Issue Subpoenas
He’s in big trouble over this.
Guatemalan President Confronts Harris on Camera – And She Obeys
How pathetic and embarrassing.
NYT’s Gay Whines She Saw ‘Dozens of American Flags,’ Which Was ‘Disturbing’
This how Dems view America.
WH Issues Stunning Statement on Kamala Harris
Many have been saying this for a while.
GOD BLESS AMERICA!
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47.) ABC
June 8, 2021 – Having trouble viewing this email? Open it in your browser.
Morning Rundown
Security, intelligence failures led to Jan. 6 insurrection: A bipartisan Senate investigation of the deadly Jan. 6 insurrection found security and intelligence failures at every level of government that led to the breach of the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob as lawmakers in a joint session were certifying the 2020 election. The 95-page report by the Senate Homeland Security and Rules Committees found significant breakdowns ranging from “federal intelligence agencies failing to warn of a potential for violence to a lack of planning and preparation by (U.S. Capitol Police) and law enforcement leadership.” According to investigators, numerous warnings of potential violence circulated on social media prior to the insurrection and law enforcement failed to recognize it. An intelligence unit inside the Capitol Police also allegedly knew of the gravity of the threat but failed to share that assessment widely, leaving rank-and-file officers vulnerable. “This was a failure of leadership,” said Senate Rules Committee Chair Amy Klobuchar. “This can never happen to our country again.” While the report primarily focuses on what happened on the day of the attacks and not the root cause of it, the scope of the report is low. Because of this, lawmakers are still left with a host of unanswered questions and are certain an independent bipartisan commission is essential. But Republicans blocked the creation of one last week. In an effort to avoid another violent incident, lawmakers next week will examine a list of recommendations made by the Capitol Police inspector general.
New Alzheimer’s drug is 1st of its kind to be FDA approved: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the use of a new drug, Aduhelm (aducanumab), for treating early Alzheimer’s disease. The development is a major one for patients and the biotechnology industry, and is the first time in over two decades that a treatment for Alzheimer’s disease has been approved. The drug, which was made by the biotechnology company Biogen, is the first of its kind to slow down disease progression. Currently, there are only a few existing options for managing the debilitating disease. “This is something that is potentially encouraging news for the 1 in 9 Americans over the age of 65 who are facing a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s,” Dr. Jennifer Ashton, ABC chief medical correspondent, said. Specialists say that Aduhelm could help people whose Alzheimer’s disease is caught in the early stages. While the approval of Aduhelm is a milestone for Alzheimer’s treatment, some disease specialists argue the drug’s benefits are unlikely to outweigh the risk of serious side effects. To determine if the drug is effective, the FDA is requiring Biogen to conduct a new, large clinical trial and reserves the right to rescind the approval in the future.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos announces he will fly into space next month: Jeff Bezos, founder of Amazon, announced on Monday that he and his brother Mark Bezos will be joining the auction winner on New Shepard’s first human flight next month. “Ever since I was five years old, I’ve dreamed of traveling to space,” Bezos wrote in an Instagram post. “On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother. The greatest adventure, with my best friend.” The auction, which will conclude on Saturday, has already reached $2.8 million with nearly 6,000 bidders from 143 countries hoping to take part in the flight. The 30-minute flight will fly passengers to the edge of space where they will then get to unbuckle and float for three minutes before the capsule returns to Earth.
Co-workers donate their kidneys to save each other’s husbands: When co-workers Susan Ellis and Tia Wimbush ran into each other in a bathroom at work, their chance encounter turned into a lifesaving kidney transplant chain. Ellis and Wimbush, who have worked together at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for more than a decade, both knew each other’s husbands needed a kidney transplant. During their conversation, they discovered that Wimbush’s blood type was a perfect match for Ellis’s husband, Lance, and Ellis’s blood type was compatible with Wimbush’s husband, Rodney. “My thought immediately was that we could help each other and stop the suffering of two families,” Wimbush told “GMA.” After undergoing testing, the two were approved as kidney donors for Lance and Rodney, and both kidney transplants, which happened in March, were successful. Wimbush and Ellis now call each other “kidney sisters” and described themselves as having a bond for the rest of their lives. Both couples also hope their story encourages others to look into becoming a living organ donor.
GMA Must-Watch
This morning on “GMA,” on National Best Friend’s Day, we are sharing the exclusive world premiere of the trailer for the new Disney+ movie, “Ron’s Gone Wrong.” Plus, Kaylee Hartung has a recap of Bachelorette Katie meeting the men looking to find love. And “In the Heights” creator and star Lin Manuel Miranda joins us live to talk about the excitement surrounding the big summer movie. All this and more only on “GMA.”
A newly released bipartisan Senate report blames profound intelligence and security failures by Capitol Police for the Jan. 6 riot. The Justice Department moves to continue its defense of former President Donald Trump in a defamation case stemming from a sexual assault claim. And major websites including the New York Times and Amazon have been hit by a massive internet outage this morning.
Capitol Police knew Trump supporters were planning to infiltrate the Capitol complex and target Democratic members of Congress on Jan. 6, but failed to act on those threats, according to a new Senate report released Tuesday citing what it says were profound intelligence and security failures.
Through tips from the public and other sources, the Capitol Police “knew about social media posts calling for violence at the Capitol on January 6, including a plot to breach the Capitol, the online sharing of maps of the Capitol Complex’s tunnel systems, and other specific threats of violence,” the report said. But the police force’s intelligence division “did not convey the full scope of known information to USCP leadership, rank-and-file officers, or law enforcement partners.”
The report also found that the Capitol Police command system broke down during the riot, with one officer saying a lieutenant asked via radio, “does anybody have a plan?”
The Biden administration’s Justice Department filed court documents Monday that seek to defend former President Donald Trump in a defamation lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll, who has accused Trump of sexually assaulting her in the mid-1990s. The move comes despite President Joe Biden criticizing Trump for using the DOJ like his own “private law firm” multiple times.
The country had appeared on pace to clear Biden’s goal of getting at least one Covid-19 vaccine dose into the arms of 70 percent of adults by the Fourth of July, but the pace of inoculations has slowed as states grapple with vaccine hesitancy.
As Biden heads to Europe this week for his first overseas trip as president, he’s expected to filter his agenda through a domestic policy lens. “Get ready for a lot of ‘foreign policy for the middle class,'” said one White House official.
MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell’s August election conspiracy says a lot about the people who still have Trump’s ear — and the inability of Republicans to push back against even the most ludicrous ideas.
A growing number of civil engineering experts and tunneling industry veterans are questioning Elon Musk’s Boring Co., which promises to quickly and cheaply bore tunnels under major U.S. cities as a solution to major transportation issues.
Get into the post-pandemic ‘charcuterie craze’ with these wooden boards and knife sets.
One sleepy thing
Even elephants get pooped sometimes.
A herd of wild Asian elephants paused for some rest outside Kunming City, capital of southwest China’s Yunnan Province, on Monday on their way of marching north.
An official said it was the first time they saw all the elephants within the herd to lie down to sleep together in the 12 days since they started monitoring the herd.
As you might expect, the little one is a bit of a kicker…
From NBC’s Chuck Todd, Mark Murray and Carrie Dann
FIRST READ: The left is livid over a stalled voting rights bill. But did it ever have a chance?
Progressives are livid at Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V. – once again.
Civil-rights leaders are meeting with him today to express their displeasure. And they’re also planning a “Moral March” in his home state of West Virginia.
REUTERS/Mikala Compton/File Photo
All over a bill – HR1/For the People Act – that doesn’t have 50 votes in the Senate, that President Biden hasn’t barnstormed the country for (like he has on infrastructure), and that doesn’t address the issue of state officials possibly subverting the vote count in future elections.
It’s hard to think of an issue where there’s been a bigger disconnect between the activist left and Dem leadership, especially when Democrats have controlled both the White House and Congress.
And especially when HR4/the John Lewis Voting Rights Act has Manchin’s support and backing from at least one Senate Republican (Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska), though it’s unclear if there’s any other GOP support for the proposal.
HR1/the For the People Act was designed as a messaging bill that includes not only voting-rights protections – but also redistricting and campaign-finance reform.
And now Democrats have an activist base that’s upset and disappointed – over a bill that never had a chance for passage in a 50-50 Senate.
Blaming the homeowner’s alarm system, not the burglar
A new Senate report released this morning finds “profound intelligence and security failures” that contributed to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, NBC’s Ken Dilanian and Frank Thorp report.
But the report does NOT deal with the instigation for the attack or coordination between the attackers.
It’s akin to blaming the homeowner – or the homeowner’s alarm/security system.
Not the burglar who committed the crime.
Meet Virginia (and New Jersey)
It’s Primary Day in Virginia, where Democrats will select their nominee for governor, as well as in New Jersey, where the GOP will decide who will face incumbent Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy in the fall.
The relatively sleepy Virginia contest offers Democratic primary voters a choice: Stay the course and nominate former Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who’s the frontrunner?
Or go in a new history-making direction – by picking either former Del. Jennifer Carroll Foy or state Sen. Jennifer McClellan, who would become the state’s (and country’s) first Black female governor.
Also vying for the nomination are current Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax and state Del. Lee Carter.
The winner will face GOP nominee Glenn Youngkin, in what’s sure to be the marquee general election later this fall.
In New Jersey, the Republicans running to challenge Gov. Murphy in the fall are former state Assemblyman Jack Ciattarelli, businessman Hirsch Singh and pastor Phil Rizzo.
Murphy goes into the general election as the strong favorite.
Final poll places in Virginia close at 7:00 pm ET, and they close in New Jersey at 8:00 pm ET.
TWEET OF THE DAY: Return of the Mack(er)
Data Download: The numbers you need to know today
33,542,314: The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States, per the most recent data from NBC News and health officials. (That’s 14,453 more than yesterday morning.)
601,227: The number of deaths in the United States from the virus so far, per the most recent data from NBC News.(That’s 299 more than yesterday morning.)
302,851,917: The number of vaccine doses administered in the U.S.
38.8 percent: The share of all Americans who are fully vaccinated, per NBC News.
53.0 percent: The share of all American adults over 18 who are fully vaccinated, per CDC.
Talking policy with Benjy: SCOTUS punts immigration to Congress again
For those who don’t follow immigration policy closely, a common question is why undocumented immigrants don’t simply “get in line” and apply for legal status. In fact, Donald Trump reportedly asked DREAMers the same thing before he ran for president.
The Supreme Court on Monday offered a reminder that for many residents, even some with legal permission to work in America, there is no “line” to get into. In a major case, the nine justices unanimously ruled against holders of Temporary Protected Status, making it nearly impossible for many to ever obtain a green card and citizenship without intervention from Congress.
TPS covers about 400,000 people from 12 countries, who are caught in a kind of legal limbo. They are migrants who are allowed to live and work in America because the federal government decided their home countries are too dangerous for them to return, either due to natural disaster or violence. Their status has to be renewed every 18 months, but many of them have lived in the U.S. for decades at this point and have spouses and/or children who are citizens.
Federal law bars people who crossed the border illegally from applying for a green card, however, which includes many TPS recipients and DACA recipients as well. The plaintiffs in the case argued that because they got TPS, they had effectively been “admitted” to the country as legal immigrants, making them eligible for a family member or employer to sponsor them for permanent residency. Both the Trump and Biden administrations disagreed, and the court sided with the government.
The ruling is especially significant because TPS recipients face a more precarious situation in the post-Trump world in which the GOP is more hostile toward both legal and illegal immigration. Trump sought to end TPS for over 300,000 people, but lost re-election before he could finish making them eligible for deportation.
“Like all things in immigration law, it is both arcane and also high stakes,” Michel Kagan, Director of the UNLV Immigration Clinic, said of Monday’s ruling. “It leaves people legally here and able to work, but with a very uncertain future, in perpetuity. It constantly depends on the will of the president.”
Congress could address the situation. The 2013 immigration reform bill that passed the Senate – but not the House – would have granted TPS recipients a path to citizenship, and they’re likely near the front of the line if any immigration legislation advances this year, potentially through reconciliation. But a bill is an uphill climb and the Democratic majority is precarious in 2022 and beyond. It may be a long time before their situation is resolved one way or another.
ICYMI: What ELSE is happening in the world?
A massive outage has taken major websites offline, including the New York Times and CNN.
In Guatemala, Kamala Harris warned potential migrants: “Do not come.”
The DOJ recovered millions of dollars in ransom paid by Colonial Pipeline to a Russian-linked criminal organization. Also, a tornado in Colorado carved out a 14-mile path of destruction. All that and all that matters in today’s Eye Opener. Your world in 90 seconds.
Vice President Kamala Harris sent a stark warning to migrants in her first foreign trip. Senior White House and political correspondent Ed O’Keefe reports.
For the first time in three years, visitors can return inside Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial, atop Arlington National Cemetery. The National Park Service recently completed a three-year overhaul of the national memorial that united the descendants of General Robert E. Lee and enslaved people who once lived and labored on the plantation. Only on “CBS This Morning,” Jericka Duncan was there when they met up for the first time in person.
First on “CBS This Morning,” Grammy-nominated artist Mike Posner talks about his adventure climbing Mount Everest. Posner joins the show alongside his trainer and mountain guide Jon Kedrowski and tells how he is helping the Detroit Justice Center in his hometown – and what’s next for him.
Plus: ACLU identity crisis, Texas bans vaccine rules, and more…
Is your encrypted messaging app being monitored by the FBI? Newly unsealed court documents show that the federal law enforcement agency for years ran an encrypted communications service called Anom.
“The FBI opened a new covert operation, Operation Trojan Shield, which centered on exploiting Anom by inserting it into criminal networks and working with international partners, including the Australian Federal Police (“AFP”), to monitor the communications,” reads to a May 18 affidavit filed by FBI Special Agent Nicholas Cheviron. The FBI, AFP, and their developer source “built a master key into the existing encryption system which surreptitiously attaches to each message and enables law enforcement to decrypt and store the message as it is transmitted.”
Starting in 2018, the FBI collected “encrypted messages of all of the users of Anoms with a few exceptions (e.g., the messages of approximately 15 Anom’s users in the U.S. sent to any other Anom device are not reviewed by the FBI),” it says. Since October 2019, the FBI has catalogued “more than 20 million messages from a total of 11,800 devices (with approximately 9,000 active devices currently) located in over 90 countries.”
Most of this monitoring seems to have been in service of the sniffing out drugs. In the affidavit’s “small but representative sample of the criminal content” reviewed, all messages were related to cocaine or narcotics.
Authorities began announcing the results of the operation—including 700 houses searched and more than 800 arrests—at a Tuesday morning press conference in The Hague.
Calvin Shivers of the FBI called it “a shining example of what can be accomplished when international law enforcement partners from around the world work together and develop state-of-the-art investigative tools to detect, disrupt and dismantle transnational criminal organizations.” Jean-Philippe Lecouffe, deputy director for operations of Europol, said the Anom operation was “one of the largest and most sophisticated law enforcement operations to date in the fight against encrypted criminal activities.” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said it “struck a heavy blow against organized crime … around the world.”
But for a global spy enterprise with seemingly unprecedented to criminal communications—spanning tens of millions of messages on thousands of devices reviewed by more than 9,000 cops in 16 countries—the results actually seem … rather lackluster? Internationally, the operation seized 250 guns, 55 cars, and $48 million in cash and cryptocurrency, plus 22 tons of marijuana and marijuana resin, eight tons of cocaine, and two tons of methamphetamine and amphetamine.
Basically, it was a big old Drug War bonanza, dressed up in fancy tech tools.
FREE MINDS
The ACLU’s identity crisis. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) was once known for defending the free speech rights of those with views outside the mainstream. But in recent years, that’s been changing. The organization “has emerged as a muscular and richly funded progressive powerhouse in recent years, taking on the Trump administration in more than 400 lawsuits,” notesThe New York Times. “But the organization finds itself riven with internal tensions over whether it has stepped away from a founding principle—unwavering devotion to the First Amendment.”
FREE MARKETS
Hypocrisy on display in Texas. The same politicians and crowds who complained loudly about governments telling private businesses they had to take certain pandemic-related precautions (like requiring masks) are now cheering governments telling private businesses they cannot take other pandemic-related precautions. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott just signed a law saying that businesses can’t even ask potential customers about vaccination status.
Why not let businesses set their own rules and encourage customers to make their own decisions as to which establishments to visit? That’s how free societies work. https://t.co/Z7j9GXFwW1
“This actually is the toddler’s conception of freedom libertarians get wrongly accused of holding: ‘I’m free to do what I please without regard for others; you’re free to indulge me, because I might feel less free if you get to make choices too,'” commented the Cato Institute’s Julian Sanchez.
“Bad enough that he’d tell business owners how to run their shops, but he’s doing it to pander to people who are keeping the pandemic going,” tweeted conservative blogger and editor Allahpundit.
Why is it so hard for most political figures and their tribes to let people make their own decisions and to apply the same standards of liberty for things they personally agree with to things they don’t? Everyone being in a rush to use government force to push their preferred agendas is how we get the hyper-partisan, crush-or-be-crushed mentality that drives so much of our political dysfunction today.
QUICK HITS
• “The U.S. Supreme Court refused Monday to consider a challenge to the men-only military draft,” NPR reports.
• Louisiana lawmakers vote to lessen penalties for marijuana. “If signed into law, the bill would reduce criminal penalties for possession of marijuana not exceeding 14 grams,” reports The Hill. “In instances where the offender possesses up to that amount, they will be fined no more than $100. The law would apply to cases where the offender is on their first conviction or any subsequent conviction.”
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.
Kamala Harris shattered the glass ceiling by being elected vice president. No, not for being a Jamaican-American or Womyn-American. It’s by being a Cringe-American. She is constantly breaking new fron … MORE
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55.) REALCLEARPOLITICS MORNING NOTE
06/08/2021
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Carl Cannon’s Morning Note
Standing Room Only; ‘Pristine’ Ballots; Up and Away
By Carl M. Cannon on Jun 08, 2021 08:30 am
Good morning, it’s Tuesday, June 8, 2021. The Federal Drug Administration has granted tentative approval to a new Alzheimer’s medicine, the Supreme Court unanimously upheld a federal statute making it difficult for immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally to obtain a green card, Vice President Kamala Harris took both a carrot and a stick to Central America, and billionaire entrepreneur Jeff Bezos apparently really is preparing for space travel.
A puckish critic of Amazon (or the Washington Post) might recall the words of former California Congressman John G. Schmitz. When asked what he thought of Richard Nixon’s historic visit to China, the immortal right-winger quipped, “I have no objection to President Nixon going to China. I just object to his coming back.”
Jeff Bezos and his fellow passenger — his brother Mark — must come back to Earth, however: They’re planning on going into suborbital space aboard one of Bezos’ private Blue Origin rockets — with no destination in mind other than the journey. To that, I say, “Godspeed, gentlemen.”
With that, I’d steer to your RealClearPolitics’ front page, which aggregates, as it does each day, an array of columns and stories spanning the political spectrum. Today’s lineup includes Betsy McCaughey dunning China for the COVID pandemic (New York Post); Hayes Brown on Joe Manchin’s decision not to back the Democrats’ election reform legislation (MSNBC); and George Packer on America’s increasing Balkanization (The Atlantic). We also offer a complement of original material from RCP reporters and contributors, including the following:
* * *
At Long Last, a Full House in the White House Briefing Room. Phil Wegmann captures the scene yesterday when pandemic restrictions were lifted and mask-less reporters filled every seat for the first time in 15 months.
Who Loses When the China Bat Cave Implodes? Charles Lipson assesses the changing narrative regarding the pandemic’s origin now that the long-accepted Wuhan “wet market” theory appear far less certain.
“Pristine” Ballots Put Georgia Vote Fraud on Judge’s Mind. Amid Democratic and media scoffing at vote fraud conspiracy theories, a test of Election 2020 integrity is unfolding in Fulton County, Paul Sperry reports for RealClearInvestigations.
Immigration Not a Simple Solution to Population Woes. At RealClearPolicy, Steven Camerota argues that boosting inflow doesn’t automatically counterbalance the needs of an aging demographic.
School Accreditors Exert Ideological Influence. At RealClearEducation, Peter Wood assails the latest example of accreditors surrendering politically neutrality and interfering in the search process for higher-ed administrators.
ExxonMobil’s Neglected Shareholders. At RealClearEnergy, Bruce Everett questions the priorities of new board members at the oil company.
Why the Early Progressives Rejected American Founding Principles. At RealClear’s American Civics portal, read an excerpt from Ronald J. Pestritto’s newly published book.
President Biden recently tasked the U.S. Intelligence Community to “redouble” its efforts to identify the origin of the COVID-19 virus. The community already has been focused on this for eighteen months.
Iranian militias are vehemently opposed to any American troop presence in Iraq and carry out consistent rocket and drone attacks targeting U.S. military and diplomatic sites in Baghdad’s Green Zone on a near regular basis.
The Biden State Department discourages employees from referring to the historic peace agreements signed by Israel and its Arab neighbors by its official name, the Abraham Accords.
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62.) 1440 DAILY DIGEST
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Good morning. It’s Tuesday, June 8, and we’re covering the approval of a controversial drug, Jeff Bezos’ summer plans, and much more. Have feedback? Let us know at hello@join1440.com.
US health regulators granted approval yesterday to a drug meant to slow cognitive decline in patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. It is the first drug in two decades approved for Alzheimer’s and the first purporting to address what is believed to be a primary driver of neurodegeneration—the accumulation of beta-amyloid plaques in the brain. The drug is meant to slow, but not reverse, the symptoms of the disease, which affects almost 6 million Americans.
The approval marks a significant turnaround for the drug, which was believed to be a failure just two years ago. A number of experts are skeptical of the drug’s impact on cognitive function—Biogen, the company behind the drug, will be required to carry out a large-scale trial demonstrating positive effects to maintain approval.
Biogen saw its stock rise 38% on the news, increasing its market capitalization to almost $60B. The drug will cost around $4K per infusion, or $56K per year.
Watch how Alzheimer’s changes the brain here (via YouTube).
Bezos in Space
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealed yesterday he will join Blue Origin’s first crewed space flight. Bezos, who made the announcement via Instagram, founded the aerospace company in 2000. Joining the hundred-billionaire will be Bezos’ brother, Mark, as well as the to-be-announced winner of a charity auction. Almost 6,000 bids have been submitted in the auction, with the highest to date near $3M.
The flight launches July 20, about two weeks after Bezos steps down as Amazon’s CEO. The spacecraft, designated as the New Shepard (explore here), will be launched via a reusable rocket booster. A detached capsule will briefly rise above the Kármán line—a 62-mile-high boundary regarded as the beginning of space—before parachuting back to Earth.
Audio recordings released Sunday suggest Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Nigeria’s notorious Islamist-militant group Boko Haram, died in May during a confrontation with a rival extremist group. In the tapes, senior members of the Islamic State West Africa Province allege Shekau detonated explosives strapped to his body during a confrontation with the group. The recordings lend weight to earlier rumors picked up by African intelligence agencies.
Shekau has been one of the continent’s most wanted terrorists, having led Boko Haram since 2009. More than 37,000 people have been killed by the group since 2011. Though its influence waned in recent years, the group rose to infamy following the 2014 kidnapping of hundreds of schoolgirls, many of whom are still missing.
Analysts say Shekau’s death—yet to be confirmed—may allow ISWAP to absorb Boko Haram’s fighters, cementing itself as the top extremist group in the Lake Chad region.
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If you didn’t already know, Apollo Neuro is a groundbreaking new wearable device that improves your resilience to stress, so you can calm down, find focus, sleep better, and stay healthy. Developed by physicians and neuroscientists, Apollo’s novel touch therapy has been proven in clinical studies to improve cognitive performance and Heart Rate Variability (HRV), a key metric for health and stress recovery.
But what exactlycan you do with Apollo Neuro? > Use Clear and Focused mode to enhance productivity at work, clear your inbox, and tap into deep focus > Turn to Relax and Unwind mode to help you go from charged to chilled > Melt away stress so you can sleep with Sleep and Renew mode, which has been shown to help users fall asleep more quickly and get higher quality sleep > Use Meditation and Mindfulness mode to relax into flow states and reduce mind clutter. Apollo Neuro proved in a recent study it can be used to deepen meditation practices for beginner and experienced meditators alike. > And so much more!
>Seventeen-year-old American Coco Gauff becomes youngest female to reach a Grand Slam tennis quarterfinal in 15 years (More) | Naomi Osaka drops out of Wimbledon tuneup tournament a week after withdrawing from French Open due to mental health concerns (More)
>NBCUniversal optimistic Summer Olympic games will take place; announces 7,000 hours of coverage across six channels and streaming on Peacock (More)
>John Sacret Young, seven-time Emmy nominated screenwriter and producer, dies at 75 of brain cancer (More)
>Paleontologists discover new species of sauropod, Australotitan, believed to be Australia’s largest dinosaur; the species weighed up to 70 tons and stretched almost 100 feet (More)
>Measurements of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reach 419 parts-per-million, 50% higher than preindustrial levels and estimated to be the highest in 4.1 million years (More)
>Scientists make breakthrough in understanding the physics of blood clot formation; may lead to preventative treatments for heart attacks and strokes (More)
Business & Markets
>Apple kicks off annual Worldwide Developer Conference, details new product features (More)
>The French Competition Authority fines Google €220M ($268M) for abusing its market power by unfairly sending users to its own services (More)
>Private equity giants Blackstone, Carlyle Group, and Hellman & Friedman lead $30B buyout of medical supplies giant Medline; marks the largest leveraged buyout since the 2009 financial crisis (More)
Politics & World Affairs
>US officials recover 63.7 Bitcoin ransom—currently worth roughly $2.1M—from a 75 Bitcoin ransom paid in the hack of Colonial Pipeline; the attack shut down one of the biggest US fuel pipelines for five days (More)
>Vice President Kamala Harris makes first foreign trip, beginning in Guatemala; tells immigrants “do not come” to the US border (More) | Number of southwest border encounters surpassed 178,000 in April (More)
>At least 51 people dead and 100 injured after two trains collide in central Pakistan (More)
IN-DEPTH
The Snitch
Atavist | Jordan Michael Smith. When the FBI secured an early release from prison for Scott Kimball, they believed they had a reliable and high-value informant. Instead, a serial killer was released back into the community. (Read)
The Case for Parking Reform
Slow Boring | Matthew Yglesias. How an under-the-radar policy issue has a big impact on the availability and cost of housing. (Read)
Apollo Neuro is like a wearable hug for your nervous system, telling you that you’re safe and in control. Wear Apollo on your wrist or ankle and use it whenever you need to rebalance—after a workout, an intense emotional experience, or transitioning from work mode to family time. Worn over time, Apollo’s gentle vibrations train your body and mind to bounce back more quickly from stress—the more you use it, the better it works.
Historybook: Muhammad, founder of Islam, dies in Medina, Saudi Arabia (632); Architect Frank Lloyd Wright born (1867); Former first lady Barbara Bush born (1925); James Earl Ray arrested in London for the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (1968); HBD Kanye West (1977).
“The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.”
– Frank Lloyd Wright
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63.) AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH
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June 8, 2021
Problems of Federal Reserve Policy-and How to Solve Them
By Thomas L. Hogan | “To stabilize the economy, informed citizens must study the faults of discretionary central banking and call for reforms to protect against them. ‘Money and the Rule of Law’ accomplishes the first goal. The second is up to us.”
By Ethan Yang | “From the ancient Epic of Gilgamesh to the cutting-edge work of today’s scholars, liberty has shown itself to always be unfinished business. Every generation has stories of struggle and wisdom to share on the maintenance of a free…
AIER’s Leading Indicators Index Remained Solidly Above…
By Robert Hughes | AIER’s Leading Indicators Index posted another slight decline in May, coming in at 83 versus 88 in April. Despite the pullbacks, the May result marks the ninth consecutive month above the neutral 50 level.
By Donald J. Boudreaux | “How I wish that I could make more visible – literally visible – to the eye the economy’s teeming, streaming, pulsing, gargantuan – yet almost completely invisible and silent – interconnectedness and complexity. The person…
FDR Versus Liberalism: Quotations From David Green, 1987
By Daniel B. Klein | Adam Smith helped to christen the first political meaning of “liberal,” essentially, a presumption in favor of ” allowing every man to pursue his own interest his own way.” That meaning of “liberal” remained central in Britain…
By Kevin Dowd & David Campbell | “The 510,000 figure, which turned the world on its head, was a fantasy number churned out by absurd modeling of a zero-probability event. Cummings does not see that the reason why the SARS-CoV-2 outbreak escalated…
Edward C. Harwood fought for sound money when few Americans seemed to care. He was the original gold standard man before that became cool. Now he is honored in this beautiful sewn silk tie in the richest possible color and greatest detail.
The red is not just red; it is darker and deeper, more distinctive and suggestive of seriousness of purpose.
The Harwood coin is carefully sewn (not stamped). Sporting this, others might miss that you are secretly supporting the revolution for freedom and sound money, but you will know, and that is what matters.
“The 1619 Project, it seemed, could serve as both an enduring long-term curriculum for high school and college classrooms and an activist manual for the 2020 campaign season. Unfortunately the blending of these two competing aims usually results in the sacrifice of scholarly standards in the service of the ideological objective.”
On the menu today: Kamala Harris tells Guatemalan migrants, “If you come to our border, you will be turned back. Do not come”; in May 2020, the intelligence division of Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory “made a strong case for further inquiry into the possibility the virus seeped out of the lab”; the DOJ scores a significant win against Russian hackers; and my thanks to generous readers.
Esquire has an excerpt: “Trump’s 226 appointments to the trial, appellate, and Supreme courts will stand as one of his foremost legacies, and all but certainly his most enduring: some appointees, mostly young and with life tenure, will be on the bench late into the twenty-first century.”
“Were Barrett to serve until her late eighties as Ginsburg did, she would be on the court until about 2060; Kavanaugh and Gorsuch could be there past 2050. Trump’s three justices in a single term are one more than Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton each named over two terms. He appointed fifty-four judges to the circuit courts—which are the final word on the overwhelming share of appeals, since the high court accepts few—just one less than Obama over eight years.”
Gallup: “U.S. support for legal same-sex marriage continues to trend upward, now at 70% — a new high in Gallup’s trend since 1996. This latest figure marks an increase of 10 percentage points since 2015, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that all states must recognize same-sex marriages.”
Nate Silver: “The changes we made to our pollster ratings earlier this year — namely, no longer privileging live-caller telephone polls — will have some knock-on effects on our models, since our models use our pollster ratings to determine how much weight to assign to polls from different firms.”
“And as I mentioned, while our models already assume that the errors between different races are correlated, those correlations may be even higher in an era of greater partisanship, so we’ll want to look at that, too.”
FiveThirtyEight’s “deluxe” model fared particularly poorly in toss-up congressional races in 2020, only correctly forecasting 37% of them.
“Sixteen years ago, Texas lawmakers created a small program with a big goal: persuading women not to have abortions. It was given a few million in federal anti-poverty dollars and saw fewer than a dozen people its first year,” the Texas Tribune reports.
“Since then it’s ballooned. Alternatives to Abortion is poised to cost taxpayers $100 million over the next biennium.”
“But the Legislature has required little information about what the program has accomplished.”
Charlie Sykes suggests watching Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) declare that “Texans should have the freedom to go where they want without any limits, restrictions, or requirements.”
“Now imagine how the modern-day GOP would react to the original proposals to require drivers licenses — or license plates on cars.”
Katie Britt (R) announced her candidacy for Alabama’s open U.S. Senate seat in 2022 under the banner of “Christian conservative,” reports the Alabama Political Reporter.
The principal of a Colorado high school resigned, just weeks after a Snapchat picture surfaced of three students re-enacting the killing of George Floyd, the Daily Camera reports
Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) signed legislation “that requires all registered voters in the state to receive mail-in ballots, an expansion of voting rights that counters a movement among Republicans in other states to restrict them,” the New York Times reports.
“A tech vendor that provides constituent outreach services to dozens of House offices was the target of a ransomware attack,” Punchbowl News reports.
“House offices — nearly 60 from both parties — have been unable to retrieve some constituent information for several weeks while the vendor, iConstituent, tries to deal with the attack.”
“Top federal intelligence agencies failed to adequately warn law enforcement officials before the Jan. 6 riot that pro-Trump extremists were threatening violence, including plans to ‘storm the Capitol,’ infiltrate its tunnel system and ‘bring guns,’ according to a new report by two Senate committees that outlines large-scale failures that contributed to the deadly assault,” the New York Times reports.
“An FBI memo on Jan. 5 warning of people traveling to Washington for ‘war’ at the Capitol never made its way to top law enforcement officials.”
Politico: “Capitol security officials tracking threats of violence on Jan. 6 saw social media posts as early as late December 2020 about a plot to breach the complex — complete with maps of the building’s tunnels and explicit threats of violence against members of Congress.”
The Oregon Legislature approved changes to the lyrics of Oregon’s state song to make them more inclusive and to remove racist language, the Oregonian reports.
Hundreds of alleged organized crime figures have been arrested around the world after using an encrypted messaging app that was secretly controlled by the FBI and Australian intelligence services, The Guardian reports.
The app allowed the agencies to look through millions of messages and has directly led to the arrest of suspects in Australia, Asia, South America, and the Middle East.
ProPublica has obtained “a vast trove of Internal Revenue Service data on the tax returns of thousands of the nation’s wealthiest people, covering more than 15 years. The data provides an unprecedented look inside the financial lives of America’s titans, including Warren Buffett, Bill Gates, Rupert Murdoch and Mark Zuckerberg. It shows not just their income and taxes, but also their investments, stock trades, gambling winnings and even the results of audits.”
“Taken together, it demolishes the cornerstone myth of the American tax system: that everyone pays their fair share and the richest Americans pay the most. The IRS records show that the wealthiest can — perfectly legally — pay income taxes that are only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of millions, if not billions, their fortunes grow each year.”
“Sen. Joe Manchin’s defiant statement that he will not vote for a sweeping election reform bill nor vote to get rid of the filibuster has progressive groups and some Democratic lawmakers wondering when Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) will get tough with the West Virginia Democrat,” The Hill reports.
Without Manchin, Schumer has no majority. So it’s not that easy to “get tough” on him.
“Former President Donald Trump will go on a tour with Bill O’Reilly to talk about his presidency, with a series of paid ticketed events planned for December in Florida and Texas,” Deadline reports.
Said Trump: “These will be wonderful but hard-hitting sessions where we’ll talk about the real problems happening in the U.S., those that the Fake News Media never mention.”
As investigators pursue evidence that the COVID-19 virus may have originated in a Chinese research laboratory, many voters doubt that Dr. Anthony Fauci has told the truth about American funding of such research.
Update (0845ET): All of Fastly’s services appear operational, and the global CDN disruption has been resolved. Let’s hope so… * * * Update (0736ET): After an hour of websites and apps worldwide went dark, many are coming back online…
Update (1520ET): Speaking from Guatemala City, Vice President Kamala Harris warned migrants from Central American countries not to make the northbound trek to the United States. ” I want to emphasize that the goal of our work is to help…
Authored by Nebojsa Malic via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity, Watching the media coverage – or lack thereof – of Dr. Anthony Fauci’s emails and what they mean for the origin of the coronavirus, one is struck by how relentlessly…
Authored by Ted Rall, During last year’s campaign, Joe Biden promised to “listen to the scientists.” He repeatedly said his coronavirus-response policy would be “informed by science and by experts.” On issues from the environment to teaching…
A New York parent brought the heat to members of the Carmel Central School District board for ’emotionally abusing’ children by ‘indoctrinating them with communist values.’ In comments at a school board business meeting in Putnam County…
Update (1725ET) : After leaking lower all day, following “scam” comments from former president Trump and the DoJ press conference on ransomware , cryptos just puked hard after the cash equity close with no obvious headline or technical…
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Kamala Harris traveled to Guatemala to discuss the Biden Administration’s immigration policies. After ignoring the border crisis for months, Kamala…Read more…
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Joe Biden must carefully maintain the U.S.-Turkey relationship. After all, if Erdogan was to choose to cater to his anti-American Turkish public and leave NATO—or push the United States out of the Incirlik Air Base—then the alliance could disappear.
with Matt Pottinger via United States Senate Committee On Armed Services
Hoover Institution fellow Matt Pottinger testifies before the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee on “The United States’ strategic competition with China.”
via Battlegrounds: International Perspectives On Crucial Challenges To Security
In this episode of Battlegrounds, H.R. McMaster and former Danish Prime Minister and former Secretary General of NATO Anders Fogh Rasmussen discuss the upcoming NATO Summit, international security, and the future of democracy and free markets.
With this year’s release of Prey: Immigration, Islam, and the Erosion of Women’s Rights, written by Hoover research fellow Ayaan Hirsi Ali, join the author in a discussion to explore the reconciliation of women’s rights on the international stage in Western countries, especially in cities experiencing mass immigration where several million migrants—most of them young men—come from Muslim-majority countries on Friday, June 11, 2021, at 12 NOON PDT.
A 2019 experiment by Hoover Institution senior fellow Larry Diamond shows that Americans have not given up on democracy, but restoring faith in our system will require an intentional effort to engage with people who hold opposing viewpoints.
The most worrying statistic in the latest monthly employment report is that the U.S. labor force declined during the month of May. On net, 53,000 Americans dropped out of the labor force, and the participation rate ticked down, from 61.7 percent to 61.6 percent, despite widespread vaccination and 48 of 50 states reopening or having completely reopened. Job gains of 559,000 were 116,000 jobs short of market expectations, the second month in a row of six-digit misses.
The newly elected president of the largest chapter of California’s powerful Service Employees International Union (SEIU), with nearly 100,000 members, will end the chapter’s political contributions.
Bryan Caplan makes a number of good points about straw manning and steel manning in his critique of philosopher Mike Huemer and in his 2015 post on the same issue. One of the major, and obvious points he makes is that you’re not arguing against a straw man if an actual person you’re arguing with is making the argument you’re arguing against.
The second most asked question to economists at socially distant gatherings — just behind curiosities about the stock market — is about the direction and extent of inflation.
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.
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71.) DAILY INTELLIGENCE BRIEF
Daily Intelligence Brief.
Good morning, it’s June 8, 2021. On this day in history, Islam founder Muhammad died (632); George Orwell’s novel of a dystopian future, 1984, was published (1949); and James Earl Ray, an escaped American convict, was arrested in London, England, and charged with the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. (1968).
TOP STORIES
Trump Will Have to Put Away His Social Media Keyboard Until at Least 2023
On Friday, Facebookannounced that former President Donald Trump will continue to be banned from Facebook and Instagram until, at minimum, January 2023.
Trump’s previous activities on the two social media platforms “constituted a severe violation of our rules which merit the highest penalty available under the new enforcement protocols,” stated Facebook VP of Global Affairs Nick Clegg.
Last month, the oversight board convened to determine appropriate actions regarding the suspension of Trump’s accounts. The additional two-year extension of the ban started on January 7, one day after the riots in the U.S. Capitol complex.
Trump was predictably unhappy with the ban, calling it “an insult.” He went on to complain, “They shouldn’t be allowed to get away with this censoring and silencing, and ultimately, we will win.” He went a step further by stating, “Our Country can’t take this abuse anymore.”
The ban was directly tied to allegations of Trump’s active role in inciting the riot that unfolded at the Capitol on January 6. Clegg went on to clarify Facebook’s position, “In establishing the two-year sanction for severe violations, we considered the need for it to be long enough to allow a safe period of time after the acts of incitement, to be significant enough to be a deterrent to Mr. Trump and others from committing such severe violations in future, and to be proportionate to the gravity of the violation itself.”
After the two-year ban has passed, experts will reevaluate whether Trump’s potentially incendiary posts could continue to be a “threat to public safety.”
Trump’s blog site has also recently been scrapped. Although the press is characterizing it as a giant failure, Trump’s staff called the blog an “auxiliary to the broader efforts we have (been) and are working on.”
ATP comment: Whether one likes or hates what Trump has to say, it’s dangerous territory when the media silences people they disagree with.
While some Conservatives would like to see Trump disappear from the public spotlight and allow other, less-controversial Republicans to step up to the plate, the Left-leaning social media giants would like to do whatever they can to silence him in an attempt to squash any prospect of re-election in 2024.
Protesters Becoming Quite Adept at Playing Judge and Jury in Police-Involved Shootings
Last week, protestors took it upon themselves to throw a tantrum in the aftermath of a new police-related shooting in Minneapolis that resulted in the death of the suspect.
In many ways, this is not surprising, as Minneapolis has been a flashpoint since the death of George Floyd became an international battle cry against law enforcement.
In this most recent police shooting, a U.S. Marshals Service task force confronted a homicide suspect who was wanted for possession of a firearm by a felon. When the suspect chose not to comply with commands and instead pulled out a gun, police found it necessary to defend themselves with force. The suspect died at the scene.
Protesters getting word of the shooting decided to smash windows, loot and light a dumpster on fire near the site of the incident.
Police were delayed in their response by about 40 minutes, but eventually firefighters were called to the scene to extinguish the blaze.
Despite the police presence, some in the crowd stuck around, smashing windows and looting at least two stores. Eventually, police used tear gas to disperse the crowd.
ATP comment: It seems that many protesters have a default visceral reaction to any sort of police actions at this point. They’ve lost all sense of perspective and thrown logic out the window in favor of an “excessive force” narrative that simply does not apply to all situations involving police shootings.
In this case, the “victim” was not only suspected of homicide, but he both resisted arrest and drew a firearm. Anyone who is brazen enough to draw a firearm on police knows exactly what he’s getting himself into.
It’s time for our society to ask the perpetrators of crimes to be held accountable for their actions that may lead to violent results. The anger and intense scrutiny toward law enforcement has resulted in a serious imbalance of the scales. A handful of bad cops doesn’t justify the snap judgments that many protesters are quick to make in the aftermath of every incident.
Increased Violent Crime is a Result of ‘Feckless Misguided Leadership and Legislation,’ Not Inadequate Police Training
The Wall Street Journal published an excellent opinion piece in response toPeggy Noonan’s May 29 commentary, “Defund the Police? No, Fund Them Better.”
Noonan observed, “Violent crime is rising in almost every major American City, after decades of falling.” But in reality, “Violent crimes are rising because of feckless and misguided leadership and legislation in America’s large cities and states,” according to the authorMarc E. Kasowitz.
Kasowitz goes on to say these cities and states have “introduced no-bail laws, disbanded anti-crime units, made it easy for suspects to identify and retaliate against witnesses, ended broken-windows policing and quality of life law enforcement, and embraced policies designed to empty our prisons. As a result, criminals are running rampant in the streets, shooting, murdering and assaulting innocent citizens, including young children and even babies in strollers.“
This is a poignant observation. Is leadership to blame and, if so, how do we fix the system and hold those who fumbled the ball accountable?
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Good afternoon! I hope you’re all having a great day and beating the heat with some iced coffee. Unfortunately, there is crisis-level news on that front: Starbucks is experiencing national shortages!!! Thankfully, I keep a stock of several weeks worth of coffee beans at home. (In order to fresh grind/brew a pot every day and then cool in the fridge for consumption over ice.) But my thoughts and prayers go out to those suffering under shortages in this time of crisis.
Now, on to the news.
Former McDonald’s CEO Just Explained How a $15 Minimum Wage Would Blow Up in Workers’ Faces
Custom Image By FEE | Image Credit: WikiMedia Commons
Proponents of a federal $15 minimum wage like progressive Senator Bernie Sanders argue that it would lift millions of workers out of poverty. But the former CEO of McDonald’s just warned that artificially spiking the cost of labor could hasten the drive toward automation and instead leave many workers replaced with machines.
“They’re going to force the cost of labor up, which means it’s going to force management to find alternatives, which means they’re going to lose jobs,” Ed Rensi told Fox Business.
The former executive said that while mandating higher wages might sound great at first glance, McDonald’s would respond either by hiking prices or finding ways to cut costs, like increased automation.
Per Fox, Rensi argued that “consumers will ultimately end up carrying the costs associated with the wage hike, and that the push toward automation is aimed at maintaining the convenience and speed of fast food. He also warned that automation will allow ‘institutional big guys’ to take over the industry at the expense of small business.”
Indeed, economic research has shown that McDonald’s across the country have raised prices to offset nearly all the costs associated with past minimum wage hikes. Basically, average people were no better off. At some point, if they are unable to keep raising prices, stores will instead be incentivized to start aggressively pursuing automation and cutting current workers out of the picture.
McDonald’s is already exploring this strategy. It is testing new automated voice-ordering technology at 10 Chicago restaurants, so far boasting an 85 percent accuracy rate, with staff needing to assist on just 1 in 5 orders. Artificially spiking labor costs through government mandates will only accelerate this trend.
Of course, there’s nothing inherently wrong with automation or the development of new technologies. At least, not when they come from the natural process of improved productivity in a competitive market. After all, we’re all better off that the automobile industry displaced and “automated” the horse-drawn carriage industry.
The problem emerges when the government puts its thumb on the scale.
Business owners, like all rational actors in our economy, make decisions “on the margin.” They look at the cost of one extra employee, one extra hour of labor, etc. and weigh it against the benefit of that employee, hour, or so on. If the benefit outweighs the cost, they pursue the option—if it doesn’t, they don’t. Yet when the government artificially meddles with the costs and benefits—through arbitrarily spiking labor costs, for example—then businesses end up making different decisions. When it comes to automating labor, that’s a recipe for premature unemployment.
To be clear, the acceleration of automation is not the main consequence of misguided minimum wage hikes. The foremost consequences are direct job losses and price hikes that erode any gains.
But because minimum wage laws artificially alter the incentives employers face, they do encourage a premature shift to automation. And no matter how much progressives like Bernie Sanders wish it weren’t so, workers replaced by a screen won’t be better off.
Virtue, Not Virtue Signaling: Grammy-Winning Pop Singer Unveils Plan to Open Free Private Schools for Underprivileged Kids
Image Credit: Flickr
Most of the time celebrities wade into political terrain these days, all they offer is cheap virtue-signaling or preening condescension. So it’s nice to see a Grammy-winning artist putting his money where his mouth is—and actually taking action to help children failed by the public school system.
Popstar Pharrell Williams, known for hits like “Happy,” just unveiled plans to launch a series of nonprofit private schools in Norfolk County, Virginia, specifically designed to provide tuition-free education to children from low-income families.
“If the system is fixed and unfair, then it needs to be broken,” Williams said. “We don’t want lockstep learning where so many kids fall behind; we want bespoke learning designed for each child, where the things that make a child different are the same things that will make a child rise up and take flight.”
“Bespoke learning” is exactly what students don’t get from our one-size-fits-all government schooling system.
It’s heartwarming to see real action being taken. Here are some details about the school Williams and his collaborators plan to open.
“The first school will open this fall in Ghent… for students in the city in grades three through five,” the Virginian-Pilot reports. “The new school’s curriculum will have a heavy emphasis on STEAM — science, technology, engineering, art and math. Collaboration and hands-on learning will be emphasized. The school will initially enroll between 40 and 50 students. Though admission is open to eligible third, fourth and fifth graders, the school doesn’t plan to have grade-level cohorts. Instead, students will be grouped by skill level.”
Of course, we’ll have to wait and see just how effective Williams’ school will prove to be for students. But by empowering families with more options, this small but meaningful development will undoubtedly improve the odds of participating students who will no longer be trapped in a failing, one-size-fits-all system.
Here’s hoping that other vocal celebrity proponents of education reform also back up their rhetoric with this kind of tangible action.
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.
Tonya Smith and her husband, Dimitrios Patlias, had a stroke of luck at a casino a few years ago, but it was quickly followed by a stroke of bad luck. After winning big, they got in their car to head to a restaurant to celebrate. But on their way there, they were stopped by the police. Though nothing illegal was found in the vehicle and they were let off with a warning about changing lanes, the cops seized all their gift cards, an iPhone, and $10,478 in cash.
This may sound extreme, but this is the reality of civil asset forfeiture in America. The policy, which has taken $68.8 billion from Americans since the year 2000, gives police an inordinate amount of power to seize property. What’s more, many people can’t afford the legal fees to get their property back, so police departments often keep the property they seize.
In theory, the Biden administration had promised criminal justice reform that would end practices like this. But as Hannah Cox explains in her latest article on FEE.org, there has been little movement on this front.
One of the major roadblocks to eliminating this practice is a 2017 ruling by the Department of Justice that allows police to seize property even from people who haven’t been charged with a crime, and even in states where the practice is banned. The Biden administration could easily direct the Department of Justice to overturn this ruling, but doing so doesn’t seem to be much of a priority for them.
Thus, instead of taking steps toward meaningful criminal justice reform, the Biden administration is simply allowing this practice to continue, despite the fact that it is a clear violation of property rights and of the Constitution.
It’s a disappointing choice. But then again, given that Biden himself was the architect of the government’s civil forfeiture law, it’s not exactly surprising.
When Orwell worked as a propagandist for the BBC, there was a conference room there numbered 101. This room was the room of which he based the location for some of his more horrifying scenes, making the scenes themselves all the more horrifying.
Australia’s New Anti-Encryption Law Is Unprecedented and Undermines Global Privacy
by Sam Bocetta
If firms don’t have the power to intercept encrypted data for authorities, they will be forced to create tools to allow law enforcement or government to have access to their users’ data.
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In a pre-recorded video, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele made a somewhat shocking announcement in the final hours of the Bitcoin 2021 conference in Miami on Saturday afternoon.
This article ignorantly smears Dr. Naomi Wolf for her anti-vaccine views, even though she is a major voice for progressivism and feminism. This underscores the fact that Big Tech censors issues rather than ideologies and is not just anti-conservative.
Sponsored: The U.S. Department of Energy is now backing continued research of an incredible fuel that has up to three times the energy content of gasoline. More importantly, it could be the only fuel on earth that produces zero emissions when burned.
When Apple released it coin sized AirTags, it said proclaimed “a supereasy way to keep track of your stuff.” In reality, it now appears that your “stuff” may include your children, co-workers, ex-spouses, enemies, lovers and complete strangers
Since the COVID-19 pandemic began over a year ago, the US government has poured billions of your tax dollars into the vaccine program. More than $9 billion of your tax dollars were given to vaccine companies for research and $22 billion of your tax dollars were then used to support vaccine distribution. The feds also shelled out another $10 billion to expand access and currently announced $3 billion more to spend on an ad campaign to combat vaccine hesitancy.
Shares in firearms related stocks nudged higher on Monday after a federal judge in California overturned the state’s ban on assault weapons late last week (which the state has 30 days to appeal before it takes effect on the 4th of July).
A leading virologist who emailed Dr Fauci in January 2020 to tell him that the COVID-19 virus looked like it had been engineered in a lab has gone dark on Twitter, after deleting thousands of posts, then terminating his entire account completely.
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Amnesty International enlisted thousands of volunteers to investigate the use of facial recognition technology as part of a “Ban the Scan” campaign launched this year.
The “Ban the Scan” campaign included having volunteers locate CCTV cameras across the city. Amnesty said it would show volunteers a Google Street View image of intersections in New York, and they would flag whether they saw CCTV cameras and what they were attached to, like a streetlight.
The group announced that it found the NYPD had 15,280 surveillance cameras in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. As the group notes, those borough’s combined account for almost half of all the intersections in the city.
Facial recognition software, particularly its use by the government and law enforcement, has faced immense scrutiny because the technology has been found to have a racial bias. Calls for a ban on government and law enforcement use of facial recognition grew last summer amid Black Lives Matter protests against police brutality and racism.
“This sprawling network of cameras can be used by police for invasive facial recognition and risk turning New York into an Orwellian surveillance city,” Matt Mahmoudi, an artificial intelligence and human rights researcher at Amnesty International, said.
In a statement to the Daily Dot, an NYPD spokesperson defended the use of facial recognition as a “limited investigation tool” and said the department “does not and has never automatically run facial recognition tools against images collected by our security camera network.”
Amnesty International said the NYPD has used facial recognition technology as part of 22,000 cases since 2017, with half of those cases being in 2019.
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Nathan Van Buren, who was arrested after accepting payment from an FBI informant to search a police database in Georgia, had been charged with exceeding his authorized access to the network in violation of the CFAA.
In a 6-3 ruling, the court stated, however, that the 1986 law does not apply to individuals who improperly use systems that they are authorized to access.
In a statement on the ruling, Justice Amy Coney Barrett instead argued that the law applies only to those who access systems without authorization.
The ruling has dealt a major blow to the U.S. Department of Justice, which has repeatedly used the law to convict so-called “insider threats” who use their authorized access to computer networks for unapproved matters.
In statements to Gizmodo, the American Civil Liberties Union has heralded the ruling as “an important victory for civil liberties and civil rights enforcement in the digital age.”
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The cover-up has imploded. Covid-19 was engineered in a lab, and the desperate attempts to hide its true origins are rapidly collapsing.
Over the weekend, even the Wall Street Journal is now catching up to what Natural News reported a year ago, admitting that covid-19 came from a lab.
Today we bring you a well-sourced article and a full podcast covering covid-19 origins and why we now know for sure this was deliberately engineered to attack humans with the spike protein.
This also tells us, with certainty, that the vaccines are intentionally loaded with a toxic nanoparticle (the spike protein) that was developed by the CCP military as a biological weapon. And this means anyone taking the vaccine is injecting themselves with a bioweapon.
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Odd, colorful clouds on Mars spotted by NASA’s Curiosity rover
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A Chinese Communist Party military scientist received funding from the National Institutes of Health after filing a patent for a COVID vaccine in February 2020.Read more…
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82.) SEAN HANNITY
83.) THE DAILY CALLER
08 JUNE 2021
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(John Hinderaker)On Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Roger Benitez ruled that the State of California’s ban on “assault weapons,” which dates to 1989 and basically refers to AR-15 style modern rifles, is unconstitutional. Benitez’s ruling was clearly correct under controlling Supreme Court precedent, in my opinion.
Under District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008), as Benitez wrote, “the Second Amendment protects guns commonly owned by law-abiding citizens for lawful purposes.” Semi-automatic rifles based on the AR-15 platform obviously meet that test. Judge Benitez’s opinion is unusually well-informed and bears reading in its entirety.
While semi-automatic rifles are highly useful for self-defense–the opinion documents a number of such cases–the idea that they play a particularly large role in violent crime is ridiculous, as Judge Benitez writes:
One is to be forgiven if one is persuaded by news media and others that the nation is awash with murderous AR-15 assault rifles. The facts, however, do not support this hyperbole, and facts matter. Federal Bureau of Investigation murder statistics do not track assault rifles, but they do show that killing by knife attack is far more common than murder by any kind of rifle. In California, murder by knife occurs seven times more often than murder by rifle. For example, according to F.B.I. statistics for 2019, California saw 252 people murdered with a knife, while 34 people were killed with some type of rifle – not necessarily an AR-15. A Californian is three times more likely to be murdered by an attacker’s bare hands, fists, or feet, than by his rifle. In 2018, the statistics were even more lopsided as California saw only 24 murders by some type of rifle.
Tellingly, Judge Benitez documents the fact that California’s legislature in 1989 failed even to consider the utility of semi-automatic rifles in self-defense, the core purpose of the Second Amendment. California’s anti-AR-15 statute was a relic of an earlier, and more benighted, era of constitutional jurisprudence.
While Judge Benitez’s opinion did not come as a surprise to anyone who has followed legal developments in this field, it nevertheless prompted howls of execration from the Left. Governor Gavin Newsom issued a statement:
The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, slammed a federal judge’s decision to overturn his state’s three-decade-old ban on assault weapons as “a direct threat to public safety and the lives of innocent Californians”.
In a strongly worded attack, the Democrat added: “Comparing an AR-15 to a Swiss army knife is a disgusting slap in the face to those who have lost loved ones to gun violence.”
Newsom referred to the first sentence of Judge Benitez’s opinion, which noted the versatility of the AR-15 platform: “Like the Swiss Army Knife, the popular AR-15 rifle is a perfect combination of home defense weapon and homeland defense equipment.” I doubt that Newsom read much farther than that. He should have. He might have learned something from Judge Benitez’s 94-page opinion.
These days, Democrats demand that Republican Supreme Court nominees pledge loyalty to the doctrine of stare decisis, interpreting that concept to mean that no precedent should ever be overruled. They are thinking of Roe v. Wade. On the other hand, they are perfectly happy to see precedents that don’t suit their agenda overturned. Like, say, Bowers v. Hardwick.
But that is not what we are dealing with here. District Court judges like Roger Benitez are bound to follow precedents from the Supreme Court and their own Court of Appeals whether they agree with them or not. The relevant issue here is whether Judge Benitez correctly applied the principles that have been laid down by the Supreme Court in Heller and other cases. In my opinion, he plainly did.
But the liberals don’t care about such elementary legal rules. They evidently wanted Benitez to disregard existing law and, instead, rule consistent with their own policy preferences. To anyone who cares about the rule of law, this is an outrage. But I am afraid the Democrats have been spoiled by a number of their own appointees who have been willing to do exactly that.
President Biden, or whoever is governing in his name, will likely have the opportunity to nominate at least one Supreme Court justice. If that day comes, I hope Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee will demand that Biden’s nominee pledge to adhere to the sacred doctrine of stare decisis by upholding the Court’s existing Second Amendment jurisprudence.
(Paul Mirengoff)Kamala Harris is visiting Guatemala carrying this message from Joe Biden: “Guatemalans stay home.” Indeed, according to this New York Post report, Harris pleaded with potential migrants not to come to U.S.
Begging people not to do what they clearly believe is in their interests isn’t much of a strategy for dealing with the border crisis. Thus, it’s not surprising that Harris isn’t being well received.
Protesters greeted Harris with such signs as “Trump won,” “Kamala, Go home,” “Kamala, Mind Your Own Business,” “Guatemala is pro-life,” and “Kamala Stop Funding Criminals.”
It’s not clear from any report I’ve seen how many people participated in the anti-Harris protests. It’s possible that the numbers were small.
But Harris also received disapproval from Guatemala’s president, Alejandro Giammattei. He told CBS News that the Biden administration is to blame for sparking the migration crisis.
That’s certainly true. As Giammattei says, when Biden took office, the U.S. message changed to: “‘We’re going to reunite families, we’re going to reunite children.’ The very next day, the coyotes were here organizing groups of children to take them to the United States.”
Giammattei concluded by stating that he and Harris “are not on the same side of the coin” on migration. I’ll say.
I doubt that Benjamin Franklin could have made much headway selling Biden’s positions on migration to Guatemala. I also doubt that Kamala Harris is taken seriously by officials in that country. Beyond the office she holds, there’s no reason why she should be.
Finally, isn’t it interesting that Biden made Harris his point person for border issues? Clearly, he did her no favor. It seems likely that Biden, or whoever decided to give her this thankless task, did not intend one.
(Steven Hayward)No sooner do I select the most funnest Tweet of the day than Cher steps up with this howler:
She’s so indignant that she can’t even bother to identify the correct Kirsten, because I guess all blonde Kirstens look alike to her.
Gives me an excuse to tell a celebrity story, from almost 30 years ago. For some reason I can’t now recall, I got to have a one-on-one lunch with Sonny Bono, then just finishing up as the well regarded mayor of Palm Springs, and thinking then about challenging Gray Davis for State Controller in 1990 I think. The only thing I remember clearly was his appreciation for my suggested campaign bumper sticker: “Better Sonny Than Gray!”
Of course he later ran for Congress where he turned out to be a pretty serious member of the House before his tragic death in a skiing accident. But looking back now it is probably more understandable why he split from Cher.
Cher must have to work hard to keep up with Barbra Streisand. Becuz Demz r smart.
JOHN adds: Sonny Bono was a rare talent in multiple fields. He succeeded at everything he ever tried, and gave one of the most interesting and entertaining speeches I have ever heard at a Freedom Club dinner, years ago. I still laugh when I remember Sonny’s account of how he decided to get off the celebrity television circuit. The story involved a drunken dwarf with a loaded revolver on a cheesy Fantasy Island back lot with fake palm trees in Burbank. I think it was when he first ran for Congress that he was asked his position on illegal immigration. His reply was along the lines of: “My position? What do you mean, my position? It’s illegal!”
(Steven Hayward)I had no idea this was a thing, and if it wasn’t happening I’d have had to make it up:
You really owe it to yourself to click through to the NewYorkerUnion home page, and take in the photos and statements of the “oppressed” class of New Yorker employees who are demanding justice! I have a hard time seeing any of them walking a picket line in Manhattan on a hot summer day. Most of them look like graduates of Brown or Sarah Lawrence—and all of them easily replaceable. It is hard to pick a favorite, but here are a few nominees:
I’m taking a stand because I refuse to perpetuate a system that allows only rich white kids to shape our culture.
I want my wonderful colleagues to get the fair wages they deserve, and I want to work in a media industry that is more just and egalitarian.
Because we can’t live off prestige.
I am prepared to strike because fair wages are essential to insuring that The New Yorker’s treatment of its staff espouses the same liberal, equitable principles as its content. Having worked at the wage floor ($42,000 a year) for more than two years, I know how difficult life can be on the company’s meagre salaries. Remedying this imbalance is a concrete step that the magazine can take in order to thrive for decades to come.
I think this is my front-runner:
I’m ready to strike because prestige without the pay is élitist.
As Stan Evans said of The New Yorker way back in 1962, “No other journal so elegantly combines the comforts of privilege with the glamor of dissent—that admixture of chic and iconoclasm which in our society marks the received, the anointed, and the superbly upper-middle-class.”
There may not be enough popcorn for this spectacle.
(Paul Mirengoff)The Democrats are said to have high hopes for becoming competitive, and eventually dominant, in Texas. Like they did in Virginia.
The Dems’ dreams could be realized, especially if enough people move from California to Texas — and forget why they left California. Texas is not Virginia, though. Not unless the federal government moves its headquarters to just across the border from the Lone Star State.
Meanwhile, several GOP mayoral candidates swept to victory in Texas on Saturday. John Fund has the details:
Steve has already mentioned the stunning victory by the Republicans candidate in McAllen, Texas. McAllen is 85 percent Hispanic. Republicans hadn’t elected a mayor there since 1997.
Fort Worth also elected a Republican. Fund reports:
Fort Worth is the twelfth-largest city in the country and has more than 1 million people. Only a third of them are Anglo. But 37-year-old Republican Mattie Parker easily defeated Democrat Deborah Peoples, becoming the youngest mayor of a major Texas city.
The race was ostensibly nonpartisan, but the divisions were clear.
“We’ve never had a race that was this partisan,” Kenneth Barr, the former Democratic mayor of Fort Worth, told Politico. “This particular election has moved as far in the partisan direction as any we’ve ever had.”
A Republican also prevailed in Arlington, Texas, a suburb of 400,000 people that borders Fort Worth and is only 39 percent Anglo.
Jim Ross, a former Arlington police officer, was endorsed by several police associations who liked his anti-crime platform. He defeated Michael Glaspie, a former city-council member who was endorsed by the Dallas Morning News and leading Democratic politicians.
Fund’s analysis of these results is consistent with Steve’s. He quotes Henry Olsen, a friend of Steve, as follows:
The results in South Texas show that the shift among Hispanics is more than just a response to the personal brand of Donald Trump. The Left’s emphasis on issues and language that do not support the working-class aspirations of people regardless of their ethnicity is hurting them.
Biden wants to placate both the hard Left and party moderates and keep everyone in his coalition. But there’s no way to [quell] the tension between the two wings. Some on one side or the other will jump ship.
Right now, it’s the working class, including Latinos, that is jumping — as well it should. Fund reminds us:
[Biden’s] major moves tilt to the far left, such as appointing critical-race-theory activists to high Justice Department positions, killing the Keystone Pipeline, dropping sanctions on Russian’s Nord Stream pipeline, and unleashing the forces of consumer-goods inflation. No one should be surprised that nearly one in five Democrats now tell pollsters that Biden’s spending binges are too much for them.
In addition, Biden triggered the current crisis at the border, which is of special concern in Texas. And woke Democrats helped trigger the wave of violent crime, which is becoming a concern all over the country.
Fund concludes:
The revolt of some centrist Democrats is small so far, and it remains largely ignored by the corporate media. But in places like Texas — with its varied populations of aspirational minorities — we can now see through a smudged political window how a potentially big problem for Democrats is getting bigger as the 2022 midterm elections approach.
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“States, like individuals, who observe their engagements, are respected and trusted: while the reverse is the fate of those who pursue an opposite conduct.” —Alexander Hamilton (1790)
JP Sears investigates whether we ought to be teaching Critical Race Theory to kids.
Today’s Opinion
DENNIS PRAGER
The Single Best Thing Americans Can Do to Retake America
If millions of American parents would withdraw from the “educational” system that is actively, deliberately miseducating their children by the tens of millions, the country would turn around as fast as you could say “teachers unions.”
OLIVER L. NORTH AND DAVID L. GOETSCH
The Biden Gun Ban Plans
Sadly, the far-left in the U.S. and their “big media allies” have an obsessive focus on restricting gun ownership while ignoring sociocultural factors fueling gun violence.
STEPHEN MOORE
Sorry, Joe: Fixing Roads and Bridges Doesn’t Cost $2 Trillion
I’ve discovered four pots of money adding to more than half a trillion dollars that should be reassigned for fixing our infrastructure.
GARY BAUER
Biden Bashes America
My friends, we are fighting many important battles. But this battle — the battle for the heart and soul of America — is one of the most important and most urgent.
SALENA ZITO
There Are Deep Roots in These Mountains
My family has lived in Appalachia since they first came here in 1638.
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Vice President Kamala Harris to meet a Biden critic in Mexico, Sen. Joe Manchin to meet civil rights leaders and more news to start your Tuesday.
Happy Tuesday, Daily Briefing readers! We’re running a little late this morning because USATODAY.com was one of the many, many websites that were unavailable after an apparent widespread outage at cloud service company Fastly.
In the mean time, Steve is here with more of Tuesday’s news.
🌎“You can see it from miles away”: A pair of fast-moving wildfires have grown in Arizona, burning more than 100,000 acres, prompting evacuations in some areas.
🎧 On today’s 5 Things podcast, hear how the Department of Justice recovered ransom payments to hackers who shut down the Colonial Pipeline. You can listen to the podcast every day on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or on your smart speaker.
🧑 Hey America. We need to talk. One conversation, even multiplied thousands of times, won’t heal America. But it’s a start. Join us and thousands of other Americans on Saturday, June 12 for America Talks. We will meet one-on-one in video conversations across political divides. 👉 Start here: Take the survey and register to participate now.
What else is happening today:
Harris to meet with Mexican President, Biden critic, Andrés Manuel López Obrador
Vice President Kamala Harris will complete the second leg of her foreign trip Tuesday in Mexico, where she’ll meet with the country’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador. In addition to meeting with López Obrador, a vocal critic of President Joe Biden, Harris will also speak to other Mexican officials and local female entrepreneurs to help deepen ties between the two countries and mitigate migration to the United States’ southern border. The border will be a focal point of Harris’ discussions Tuesday as she seeks cooperation on a politically fraught issue that has dogged the Biden administration in its first months. While visitingGuatemala Monday, Harris announced new initiatives to address corruption and human trafficking in Central America.
In the spotlight: Manchin to meet civil rights leaders amid voting bill discussion
West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, who has announced he will vote against the party’s flagship voting reform package and has repeatedly stated he will not vote to eliminate the filibuster, will meet with civil rights figures, including Rev. Al Sharpton and Marc Morial, in Washington Tuesday. President Joe Biden urged them to visit Manchin to discuss the voting bill and the legislative agenda. Manchin’s opposition to the voting rights bill is such a blow because many Democrats view it as crucial to protecting democracy and a direct response to restrictive new voting laws in Republican-led states.
🔵 Recall could be coming: Dozens of popular sunscreens have been contaminated with benzene, a chemical that can cause cancer, according to a new report.
🔵 “We’re not trying to stick it to anyone”: When a neighborhood association told Wisconsin homeowners that their Pride flag had to be taken down, they found a clever loophole.
A homeowner in Wisconsin washed his home in rainbow flood lights.
Submitted photo; USA TODAY graphic
Suspects in fatal shooting of 6-year-old boy to appear in court
The two men who were arrested in connection to a road rage shooting that killed a 6-year-old boy in California will appear in court Tuesday . Marcus Anthony Eriz, 24, and Wynne Lee, 23, were taken into custody Sunday and are likely to be charged with murder. Aiden Leos, 6, was shot fatally on May 21, as his mother was driving him to school. According to Leos’ mother, Joanna Cloonan, and those who stopped to help her, she made a hand gesture to a car that cut her off, which then drove behind her, and someone fired into Cloonan’s vehicle. Aiden, who was sitting in the back seat, was shot in the abdomen and pronounced dead at a nearby hospital.
Newsmakers in their own words: Teen speaks out after getting his diploma
Ever Lopez, right, and his mother, Margarita, with his diploma
On Tuesday, Amazon Sidewalk will launch on eligible Echo and Ring devices . The program will pool a “small portion of your internet bandwidth” with neighbors in an effort to allow devices to work better and help locate lost ones. Amazon says its Sidewalk feature has multiple layers of privacy and security to protect personal information, but users will have the option to turn off Sidewalk if they decide not to participate. Ring owners with an eligible device can opt out by visiting the control center in the Ring app or Ring website. Customers who own an eligible Echo device can make changes in Settings in the Alexa app.
Aaron Rodgers is happy with Shailene Woodley, not so happy with the Packers
Shailene Woodley and Aaron Rodgers enjoyed a stay at Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort during a vacation to Walt Disney World Resort in Lake Buena Vista, Fla.
Matt Stroshane, Matt Stroshane, Photographer
Duchess Meghan publishes children’s book ‘The Bench’
It’s been a busy few days for Duchess Meghan. After welcoming her second child with Prince Harry Friday – baby Lilibet – the new mom is publishing her debut children’s book, due out Tuesday. “The Bench” was inspired by her husband and their son , Archie Mountbatten-Windsor, who recently turned 2. Meghan says she and award-winning artist Christian Robinson worked closely to illustrate the special bond of fathers and sons through an inclusive lens. “My hope is that ‘The Bench’ resonates with every family, no matter the makeup,” she said. Meghan, 39, and Harry, 36, stepped back from their senior royal roles in early 2020 and moved to California several months later.
📸 Photo of the day: ‘Sea snot’ has become a problem on the Turkish coast 📸
June 7, 2021: An aerial photo of the sea at the Caddebostan shore, in Asian side of Istanbul, with a huge mass of marine mucilage, a thick, slimy substance made up of compounds released by marine organisms, in Turkey’s Marmara Sea. Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan promised Saturday to rescue the Marmara Sea from an outbreak of “sea snot” that is alarming marine biologists and environmentalists.
Kemal Aslan, AP
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has promised to rescue the Marmara Sea from a “sea snot” outbreak that is alarming experts. Erdogan said dumped untreated waste and climate change caused the sea snot bloom.
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93.) ABSOLUTE NEWS
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URGENT – Donald Trump Makes Major Demand – [LEARN MORE]
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Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) is asking the U.S. Justice Department to explain the differences between the prosecutions of rioters at violent and destructive riots over the summer and fall of 2020 and the January 6th Capitol rioters. The letter questions whether the law has been applied equally to the people who participated in riots during […]
It’s hard to think of any major story that the Big Tech and media censors haven’t gotten wrong in the past few years. They have censored true, factual information and outlawed reasonable debate on masks, Covid-19, vaccination, Russia collusion conspiracies, election fraud and more. Is it time to declare the fact-check/gatekeeping/censorship experiment a failure?
The FDA has approved a new, under-the-skin injection called semaglutide for weight loss. That’s according to Medscape. Semaglutide induces weight loss by reducing hunger, increasing feelings of fullness, and thereby helping people eat less and reduce their calorie intake Novo Nordisk company announcement The drug will be sold in the U.S. as “Wegovy.” According to […]
– June 7, 2021 – Statement by Donald J. Trump, 45th President of the United States of America Why does Fox News keep Chris Wallace? His ratings are terrible, he’s “almost” Radical Left, he was acknowledged to have failed badly as a Presidential debate moderator (except for Biden who he totally protected!), and so much […]
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What if I said a good portion of your weight gain, brain fog, and digestive issues may stem from a SINGLE vegetable you eat?
Listen, I realize this sounds far-fetched, but the science is groundbreaking. In fact, we now know of at least one so-called “health food” that could be wreaking havoc on your insides (and your results). What’s worse, it’s probably in your kitchen right now!
And today, my good friend and colleague, Dr. Steven Gundry, is pulling back the curtain on exactly what it is:
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Whiteness is a “parasitic condition” that has no “permanent cure,” according to a new paper in the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association
Is the melanin level in your skin slightly better adapted to cold, low-light climates?
Mexico voted in their midterms yesterday. Insane fact: 97 politicians were assassinated just during this election cycle!
Just a normal midterm election cycle in Mexico, where the cartels call the shots … and send the shots.
Ron DeSantis crashed a music festival this weekend where he torched Fauci and the crowd went absolutely wild
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis made a surprise appearance Sunday night at the Gulf Coast Jam in Panama City, gathering cheers as he blasted Dr. Anthony Fauci and told other governors to open up their dang states.
Okay, these “disappearing” sculptures are pretty cool and I want one
So these sculptures seem to disappear right in front of your eyes and I think it’s time I put one in my backyard.
According to the Lincoln Project, Antifa members are just like the soldiers who fought the Nazis on D-Day 🤣
Okay, this is some next level idiocy right here and it belongs on the Babylon Bee.
Jeff Bezos is going to outer space and I warned you all he might be a Bond villain
A few weeks back, I noted that Jeff Bezos would officially be stepping down from Amazon to spend more time on things like his rocket company and I warned you all that this seems eerily familiar:
Chinese-owned TikTok is now collecting the “faceprints and voiceprints” of its users 😬
So this happened last week:
A great challenge is upon us and we must be resolute in its face: The cicadas are starting to pee.
There are certain things that don’t just naturally spring to my mind when I’m going about my day, such as “when is Justin Bieber’s next album coming out,” or “I wonder what AOC’s thoughts are on… anything.”
Don’t miss the real lesson behind Matt Walsh’s hilarious AOC abuela charity
Nobody likes satire when they are the ones being satirized, or when their lofty ideas or celebrated spokesmen are being scorched through biting humor.
A federal judge just struck down California’s ban on aSsAuLt wEaPoNs and leftists had a meltdown from exposure to so much freedom
For 32 years, Californians have had their right to bear arms infringed based on a law that bans “assault weapons” from the hands of law-abiding citizens, while criminals continue to own semi-automatics rifles and their more fun automatic cousins.
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97.) US NEWS & WORLD REPORT
06/08/2021
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Coronavirus Bulletin
TOP CORONAVIRUS NEWS
Making Sense of the Pandemic Economy
After a once-in-a-lifetime disruption to the economy and everyday life, experts say a new normal may be forming. Read more.
Fewer Americans Social Distancing, Staying Home
A new poll found that just 22% of Americans say they are completely or mostly isolating from non-household members, a decline from 48% in January. Read more.
J&J Vaccine Drive Stalls Out in U.S.
Safety concerns about Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine along with overall flagging demand for vaccinations have slowed its U.S. rollout to a crawl, leaving close to half of the 21 million doses produced for the United States sitting unused. Read more.
Jails Emptied in the Pandemic. Should That Change?
By the middle of last year, the number of people in jails in the U.S. was at its lowest point in more than two decades. Read more.
As India’s Surge Wanes, a Nation Grieves
As India emerges from its darkest days of the pandemic, families across the country are grieving all that they’ve lost and are left wondering if more could have been done to avoid this tragedy. Read more.
Find the Latest Coronavirus Information by State
Each state, plus U.S. territories and Washington, D.C., has online resources about COVID-19. Here’s a guide.
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Everyone Who Believes In God Should Watch This. It Will Blow Your Mind
Dr. Benet’s dangerous discovery reveals this error in the Bible… Those who have used this oil, including many non-Christians, have reported almost “miracle healing”… including relief from arthritis, autoimmune disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, prostate issues, heart disease… and 51 other deadly conditions – see the PROOF in the video above.
This never before revealed discovery can easily be performed by anyone. Watch it before they take it down forever.
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99.) MARK LEVIN
June 7, 2021
Posted on
On Monday’s Mark Levin Show, WREC radio host Ben Ferguson fills in and provides some reflection on why Joe Biden intentionally left out any mentions of the 77th anniversary of D-Day. The days of mutual respect are gone in the Democrat Party, now they pursue a weakened America and expect the public to rely on the government for food, water, and bread. The way you change a country in one generation is by ignoring the significance of historical events where one’s countryman sacrificed their lives in service to America. The extreme left has become the mainstream Democrat Party. Then, Kamala Harris has flown to Guatemala and joined their President to warn Guatemalans to not come to the United States. Harris discouraged illegal immigration despite abandoning the border states where she has ignored the border crisis. Harris has still not flown to the border. Later, federal prosecutors have subpoenaed material related to Andrew Cuomo’s book. They are interested in information related to nursing homes. Afterward, the media is now blaming former President Trump for their own failure to cover the lab leak story that Trump and Sen. Tom Cotton suggested early on. The media called virus skeptics crazy conspiratorial “Trumpers” and those actions benefited communist China, not the United States.
The podcast for this show can be streamed or downloaded from the Audio Rewind page.
Image used with permission of Getty Images / Hulton Archive
100.) WOLF DAILY
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Security at a federal prison camp in the Texas city of Beaumont was so lax that four inmates managed to escape by placing dummies in their beds or having other prisoners pose as them…
An effort by Joe Biden to reunite migrant families separated by the previous administration is moving slowly, with only seven children reunited with parents by a task force launched in February
This technology already exists, and it’s rolling out to manufacturers at this moment. The one company behind it is on the cusp of a potential 20,300% market surge over the next decade. [Sponsored]
A report on the origins of COVID-19 by a U.S. government national laboratory concluded the hypothesis claiming the virus leaked from a Chinese lab in Wuhan is plausible and deserves further investigation, The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the classified document.
It took $100,000 plus expenses, and the opportunity for a reduced prison sentence, for the smartphone developer to collaborate with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) in 2018 and kick-start Operation Trojan Horse, according to a court document.
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Smearing a person with honey was used as an ancient form of torture…. The boy’s mother also accused her husband of physically abusing her and violently punishing their child.
Is it any wonder that Gutfeld has started beating Kimmel in the ratings? Has America’s entertainment industry ever been more out of touch with regular Americans?
xactly 40 years ago the Israeli Airforce carried out one of the most daring military missions in history. Eight Israeli fighter pilots flew 1600 kilometers over enemy territory, while flying just over 100 feet above ground to avoid radar detection. …
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