Good morning! Here is your news briefing for Friday January 28, 2022
1.) THE DAILY SIGNAL
January 28 2022
Happy Friday from Washington, where the left wants to pretend a nationwide surge in violent crime isn’t real. Jarrett Stepman gets to the truth by examining eight dangerous cities. America can put distance between Russia and China, Jim Carafano and four other Heritage Foundation experts argue. On the podcast, we welcome South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. Plus: an influential House conservative rips Biden for tracking government employees who decline to get vaccinated; a leading swim coach takes on transgender athletes; and ambulances respond to a Planned Parenthood abotion clinic. On this date in 1915, in the first such incident of World War I, a German cruiser sinks the U.S. merchant ship William P. Frye off the coast of Brazil.
FBI statistics show a 30% increase in violent crime in 2020 compared to the previous year, the largest single-year increase since the agency began tracking those numbers in the 1960s.
It’s no surprise that Gov. Ron DeSantis’ plan is drawing ire from left-wing journalists and activists, who repeat their theme that election fraud isn’t a serious issue.
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3.) DAYBREAK
Your First Look at Today’s Top Stories – Daybreak Insider
As tension mounts over Ukraine (NY Post). From another story: This afternoon a CNN national security correspondent claimed on Twitter that a fellow CNN correspondent had been given an account of President Biden’s recent conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. According to an unnamed source, Biden had said a Russian invasion was virtually certain and that Kyiv could be ‘sacked.”…But the official White House account of the call was very different and the White House specifically pushed back on the CNN report (Hot Air). From Peggy Noonan: the stakes feel high, but there seems a paucity of new thinking. I find myself impatient with confidently expressed declarations that we have no interest in a faraway border dispute, that Russia and Ukraine have a long and complicated history, and in any case the story of man is a tale of organized brutality, so get a grip. That’s not . . . right. A major land war in Europe? The first since World War II? We have no interest in what might be the beginning of a new era of brute-force violations of sovereignty? One involving our allies, with which we have treaties? (WSJ).
2.
Strassel: Supreme Court Nomination Will Not Save Democrats
From the story: No doubt the Biden base is eager for a political win after the demoralizing defeats of their multitrillion-dollar spending bill and voting takeover. And no doubt Mr. Biden will get credit among progressives for fulfilling his campaign pledge and making his “historic” mark on the court. Yet this nomination lacks the drama that animated other Supreme Court fights of recent years. Mr. Biden’s pick will make no difference to the ideological makeup of the court. He’s replacing one liberal with one liberal, while six conservative justices rule on. The nominee is also unlikely to be a surprise—or to produce surprises. Mr. Biden’s short list is necessarily very short, and one of the candidates (Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson of the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia) weathered Senate confirmation only last year (WSJ). From Marc Thiessen: For Democrats consumed with identity politics, the silver lining is Biden’s pledge to appoint a Black woman to replace Breyer. Biden has dispensed with the standard of nominating the best-qualified person, and effectively embraced affirmative action. As George Washington University law professor Jonathan Turley has pointed out, in so doing, Biden has set race and gender conditions for his appointment that the Supreme Court has declared are strictly unconstitutional for admission to public colleges. Ironically, Biden’s appointee will likely hear a case next term deciding whether race-based admissions programs at Harvard and the University of North Carolina are lawful (Washington Post). From Abigail Shrier: While millions of black women have character, intelligence, and integrity, there are only approximately *4 judges* that have anything close to the experience necessary to be a SCOTUS judge. That’s a tiny pool for Biden to restrict his search to (Twitter). From Dr. Albert Mohler: I think future generations and observers of the court will look back and see that Stephen Breyer was one of the last of his kind, one of the last liberal, with a capital “L,” democratically-appointed justices of the United States Supreme Court. Why do I say that? It is because I think we can fully expect now that far radical and even more activists, even more progressivist judges are likely to be appointed by Democratic presidents. I’m not saying that just as a matter of inference. I’m saying that because they basically have told us so and their base makes it necessarily so (Briefing).
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3.
Biden Trumpets “Fasted Economic Growth Since 1984”
And he posted a 9 second clip bragging about the feat (Twitter). From the Wall Street Journal: …by far the biggest contributor to GDP (4.9 percentage points) was a buildup of inventories. This means retailers and other businesses were restocking empty shelves, not making sales. There’s probably more inventory buildup to come due to shortages across the economy, but the fourth-quarter increase is unsustainable. Consumer spending contributed 2.25 percentage points, but much of that came from spending down accumulated savings from all that government largesse. The personal saving rate fell to 7.4% from 9.5% in the third quarter. Real disposable income, after inflation, fell 5.8% in the fourth quarter after falling 4.3% in the third. The consumer sugar high from government transfer payments is wearing off as 2022 begins (WSJ). From Hugh Hewitt: “The economy grew at the fastest pace since 1984 last year, but voters are downright pessimistic about economic conditions and their own financial prospects.” @nytimes B/c inflation is growing faster than income after taxes. Doh (Twitter).
4.
Poll: Republicans Lead Democrats in 13 Key States
The poll covered Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington and Wisconsin and found Republicans with a 6-point lead. One big shock, Democrats have lost their once substantial lead when it comes to who can best handle education (Washington Times). The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee added seven names to their already large number of Democrats in trouble come November (Hot Air). Democrats are preparing to delegitimize the elections after they lose (Washington Examiner).
5.
Gallup: Biden Slips Further in Key Character Traits
Every key trait, from likable to honest, dropped at least 6 points. His two lowest: “Can manage the government effectively” is at 38 percent and “Is a strong and decisive leader” is down to 37.
Male UPenn Swimmer Regularly Exposes Himself in Women’s Locker Room
In a normal world, that’s a crime. But when you are a man who says he’s a woman, it’s protected by the mob. The female swimmers are complaining of being “uncomfortable in our own locker room.” And it’s no secret the male swimmer is attracted to women, and here he is sharing a locker room (Daily Mail). From Katie Pavlich: How is this not a complete violation of women’s rights? Men who pee in public are put on sex offender lists and yet female athletes are being subjected to male genitals in their own locker room. It is outrageous and completely unacceptable (Twitter).
7.
Small Town Police Chief Resigns After Report Finds Half of Budget Covered by Traffic Tickets
Many have suspected other towns of similar efforts.
Biden Poll Numbers Take Harsh Dive in State of Georgia
His job approval in the state is down to 34 percent. More than half say they “strongly disapprove.” Which helps explain why gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams avoided Biden while he was in the state recently. Also from the story: In May, only about 8% of Black voters disapproved of Biden’s performance. That number had more than quadrupled in the AJC’s latest poll, which found disapproval among Black Georgians at 36%. That’s a distressing sign for Democrats, whose struggles go beyond Biden (AJC). From the Wall Street Journal: If Mr. Biden’s demagoguery about “Jim Crow 2.0” didn’t take hold, that’s probably because it flies in the face of what Georgians have experienced. The chart nearby shows the state’s voter turnout by race/ethnicity since 2006, according to Census Bureau data. Can you spot the voter suppression? We see something else (WSJ).
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9.
Chicago Public Schools Declare Sex a Social Construct
A mandated teacher training program also threatens to punish faculty if they don’t use a student’s preferred pronoun, which they are to hide from parents.
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Markets: Volatility continues to be the name of the game on Wall Street, with stocks giving up big gains early in the day to close lower. Netflix managed to avoid the sell-off thanks to billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, who revealed he bought a stake in the company worth nearly $1.1 billion. Ackman said Netflix’s recent stock plunge makes it look “extraordinarily attractive” in the long-run.
Government: Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer formally announced his retirement at the White House yesterday, and President Biden affirmed his campaign promise to appoint the first-ever Black woman to the highest court in the land. He said he’ll make the pick by the end of February.
Earlier this week we wrote that the glory days of meme stocks appear to be over. Same goes for the trading app that propelled them to fame.
Robinhood stock fell 12% after hours Thursday when it revealed that it lost users last quarter and projected Q1 revenue that left investors asking, “…that’s it?”
Investors have been asking lots of tough questions of the company recently. Robinhood’s stock has cratered 84% from its high last August. It was once valued at ~$60 billion; now, it’s worth less than $10 billion.
Sign of the times: Robinhood, which had been the king of the App Store, has fallen to #16 in the finance category alone. Even the IRS app is more popular.
To explain what happened, let’s rewind
One year ago today, Robinhood endured a level of internet wrath typically reserved for Pepsi commercials when it restricted trading on GameStop and other highly volatile stocks. After a period of confusion, CEO Vlad Tenev explained that the company didn’t have enough funds in reserves to support the much-larger trading volume it was experiencing.
While the trading pause was temporary, its effects still linger.
Robinhood was hit with lawsuits alleging the restrictions caused financial harm to individual traders, and paid out its first arbitration award earlier this month.
It also suffered significant reputational harm. Before January 28, 2021, it was seen as the champion of the individual trader—after, it was considered the bedfellow of Wall Street.
In a recent statement on the events of last Jan. 28, Robinhood said it took several steps, including strengthening its net capital position and boosting its compliance and risk infrastructure, so that trading restrictions would never happen again.
Big picture: With stock and crypto prices fluctuating wildly each day in early 2021, the Robinhood app was appointment viewing for a new generation of individual investors. But the app has become less attractive now that meme stock mania has faded, markets are jittery over interest rate hikes, crypto prices are down, and hyperactive day trading has been partially replaced by “buy and hold” strategies, Bloomberg Opinion’s Jared Dillian notes.
Looking ahead…with a share price that’s in the dumps but also a large and desirable user base, Robinhood may become a takeover target, some analysts argue.—NF
Much like that TikTok feta pasta recipe you completely botched, your gas-powered stove may be more damaging than it looks. A Stanford University study published Thursday found that gas stoves leak significant amounts of methane even when turned off, contributing more to global warming than previously thought.
In fact, the study measured the emissions of 53 gas stoves and found that around 80% of the appliances’ methane leaks happen when they’re turned off. The age and brand of the stove didn’t have a noticeable impact on its leaking potential, either.
So why does it matter? Well, for a few reasons:
Gas stoves send about 2.6 million tons of methane into the atmosphere each year, the study found.
Methane contributes far more to global warming than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere (around 80x more, in fact, although it doesn’t linger as long).
Nitrogen dioxide, which can trigger asthma and other respiratory issues, also leaks from gas stoves.
A little perspective: With around 40 million gas stoves in the US, researchers estimate that the appliances have the same effect on climate change as about 500,000 cars (there are at least 250 million registered cars in the country). Researchers suggest switching to an electric stove, or having a professional tighten your gas stove’s connectors.—MK
Our internet services are about to get the same treatment as a Ritz cracker. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted unanimously yesterday to require the Comcasts and Verizons of the world to create broadband “nutrition labels” that lay out cost, speed, and data allowances of internet offerings more clearly for consumers as early as November.
The goal is to 1) provide more transparency so consumers don’t get an extra $40 surprise on their bill and 2) make it easier for them to compare different providers.
The United States Telecom Association, which represents telecommunications-related businesses in the US, said in a statement before the vote that it agrees people should have clear info about services, but…“they already do.” The organization urged the FCC not to create rules that burden providers.
Zoom out. Efforts to demystify internet provider language have been made since the Obama administration, when voluntary broadband nutrition labels were introduced in 2016 and then put on ice. This mandatory label rehaul was launched as part of President Biden’s July executive order that aimed to increase competition in concentrated industries like airlines, agriculture, and tech.—MM
Stat: The US economy accelerated at its fastest pace in 37 years in 2021, capped off by a Q4 in which annualized GDP grew a very nice 6.9% (much higher than the 5.3% projected). Even with this blistering recovery, the economy remains about 1% below levels that had been predicted before the pandemic hit.
Quote: “Never forget.”
Those words rang out across the world yesterday as leaders, survivors, and communities marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The commemoration was punctuated by news that a Tennessee school board removed the Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust, Maus, from its curriculum due to adult content.
The feeling of getting a 5/5 on the Brew’s Weekly News Quiz has been compared to remembering to cancel your seven-day free trial at six days and 20 hours.
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Your friend chooses a random card from a standard deck of 52 cards, and keeps this card hidden. You have to guess which of the 52 cards it is.
Before your guess, you can ask your friend one of the following three questions:
Is the card red?
Is the card a face card? (Jack, Queen, or King)
Is the card the ace of spades?
Your friend will answer truthfully. What question would you ask that gives you the best chance of guessing the correct card?
ANSWER
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Spotify has begun removing Neil Young’s music from its platform after an ultimatum issued by the star earlier this week to the company. Referring to controversial podcasts by Joe Rogan hosted by Spotify, Young said: “They can have Rogan or Young. Not both.”
…
In the past few weeks, hundreds of scientists and medical experts have signed an open letter to Spotify, saying that Rogan had “repeatedly spread misleading and false claims on his podcast, provoking distrust in science and medicine” and had “spread a number of unsubstantiated conspiracy theories.”
…
[Spotify] said it had “detailed content policies in place and we’ve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes relating to Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic.” Rogan signed a $100m deal in 2020 giving Spotify exclusive rights to his show, which features conversations with guests on a range of issues. It is Spotify’s most popular podcast and one of the biggest in the world.
What does the latest economic data say about the U.S economic recovery?
The economy grew at a blockbuster 6.9% annualized rate in the last three months of the year, the Bureau of Economic Analysis said. That strong reading still masks pressure from the omicron coronavirus variant…
Full summaries, images, and headlines for subscribers only.
What are the priorities of Honduras’ new president?
Xiomara Castro, who describes herself as a democratic socialist, has vowed to tackle corruption, poverty and violence, chronic problems that have fuel…
Full summaries, images, and headlines for subscribers only.
How are journalists in Mexico responding to an uptick in murders?
Journalists in dozens of cities across the nation held vigils and demonstrations on Tuesday night, one of the largest mass protests over the murders of media work…
Full summaries, images, and headlines for subscribers only.
Stanford scientists measured methane released from gas cooking stoves in 53 California homes. And unlike most previous studies, they measured how much methane is released when the stove is off. In fact…
Full summaries, images, and headlines for subscribers only.
Context: San Jose, CA, becomes first city in U.S. to require gun owners to acquire liability insurance.
HIGHLIGHTED COMMENTS
“No – Liability insurance is to cover injuries caused by you to another person or property in car accidents or possibly injuries on your property. When you shoot someone, you’re going to go to court and face jail time and have to pay for another person’s medical bills. Why would we shift punishment off of the shooter and onto an insurance company? Also, for this to be a fair law, every police officer will need to have the insurance as well, greatly increasing policing costs that the city may not be able to afford. […] This also does not address the fact that there are probably many illegal gun owners and criminal gun owners who can’t be forced to obey this law with unregistered guns.”
“Yes – 90% of gun owners are fine with treating a gun like treating a car: licenses, insurance, safety. Politically, quie…”
“Unsure – It doesn’t sound like that bad of an idea, given that guns are designed for the purpose of killing or maiming. We’re required t…”
Alyssa Milano Takes on Ted Cruz – The Politics of HollyWeird – Why does Sarah Palin want to keep her Masked Singer performance a secret? by Kelli Ballard – Watch Now
Gotta Get Back in Time – Full Episode – C5 TV – Join the Conservative 5 for the latest and greatest in the political world. by Liberty Nation Staff – Watch Now
LibertyNation.com brings a new generation of writers to the vanguard of political discourse. Our content is entirely original, providing readers and viewers with bold, provocative analysis and commentary on current events.
There are hundreds, probably thousands, of Americans helping refugees — inviting them in, feeding them, helping them orient, driving them, and doing what they can.
The government has fulfilled its promise to make vaccines available to everyone whose bodies can make good use of them. But now it must also cover everyone who cannot benefit from the vaccines.
“Republican Glenn Youngkin began his term as governor of Virginia on [January 15] with executive actions that tackle education and the COVID-19 pandemic, including a ban on critical race theory in public schools and a lifting of school mask requirements.” CBS News
“Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin [is] facing a new legal challenge over his executive action that aimed to let parents opt out of school mask mandates as his order took effect Monday but was ignored by some districts. Youngkin issued the order as one of his first acts after being sworn in as governor Jan. 15… On Monday, some students reporting to class ignored local mandates and went maskless. But there were no reports of major issues or violent confrontations. With the order facing a legal challenge filed last week [by] a group of parents and another filed Monday morning by seven school boards, Youngkin urged patience and asked parents to listen to their children’s school principals for the time being.” AP News
From the Right
The right praises Youngkin’s actions so far.
“In his inaugural address, [Youngkin] reiterated many of the promises he made on the campaign trail. He affirmed the goodness of the American Founding. He said children should be in school, in person, five days per week. He said parents should have a say in education. He said he would cut taxes. He said he would make sure law enforcement is fully funded and supported. And then — this is the crazy part — he started actually doing those things…
“In a flurry of executive orders on his first day in office, Youngkin created a carveout from local mask mandates in K–12 schools for parents who don’t want their kids to mask, prohibited critical race theory in K–12 education, and ordered the attorney general to investigate sexual assaults in Loudoun County Public Schools. He fired every member of the Virginia Parole Board (which had been mired in scandal) and appointed new members ‘to restore integrity and confidence’ in the criminal-justice system. He withdrew Virginia from a regional green-energy initiative that was increasing electricity prices…
“The Left is busy convincing itself that Youngkin has morphed into a radical. Eileen Filler-Corn, the minority leader of the House of Delegates, called Youngkin ‘out of touch’ and said, ‘This is not the type of governor Glenn Youngkin promised to be on the campaign trail.’ But it is exactly the type of governor he promised to be.” The Editors, National Review
Glenn Youngkin writes, “My predecessor issued executive orders at the beginning of the pandemic to accomplish what he viewed as his responsibility. Almost two years later, it is time to adjust our approach to the coronavirus emergency, while considering vaccinations, natural immunity, and the adverse mental and physical health effects on children. A path through the end of this pandemic is possible while also respecting individual freedom and choice. We can keep kids in school, provide a parental opt out to mask mandates, and protect lives and livelihoods…
“For the sake of our future generations, we need to recognize the potentially damaging impacts of mask-wearing on some children. Experts suggest masks can hide visual cues, hinder emotion recognition and reduce students’ abilities to hear teachers clearly. Studies also indicate that masks worn in public settings, school or day care might impact a range of early developmental and processing skills…
“There is no one better to determine what is best for children, especially after two years of a pandemic, than their parents. And only they should be able to decide whether wearing a mask in school is the right choice for their children.” Glenn Youngkin, Washington Post
“Liberals have argued that critical race theory is not taught in classrooms, and for the most part that’s true… However, examples from Virginia’s Loudoun County and other school districts, where ‘anti-racism’ doctrines have been incorporated into teacher training and lesson plans, lay bare the dangers of poor-quality programs, implemented badly, that draw from the tenets of critical race theory…
“When a teacher expresses a partisan attitude or conveys partiality, something as little as an off-hand comment – ‘Your White privilege is showing,’ or ‘I would expect that answer from someone like you’ – can discourage students from forming independent thought…
“[Youngkin’s executive order] acknowledges that we must equip teachers with professional development resources so they can better prepare students to evaluate, analyze and think critically on difficult or controversial topics; to question and verify the credibility of sources; and to make informed judgments – all without imposing the teacher’s personal beliefs. All the while recognizing that most of what is taught in schools is noncontroversial… May his tenure help move us all toward sensible, principled conservative education policy.” William J. Bennett, Fox News
From the Left
The left is critical of Youngkin’s actions so far.
“Youngkin showed why his message is so alluring in a Post op-ed this week in which he insisted on a point no one disagrees with: ‘Parents should have a say in education.’ The problem is how he translates that sentence into policy — which is precisely why he is facing a vigorous backlash against his executive order barring local school boards from requiring masks. Seven school boards have filed suit to overturn the governor’s ukase, arguing that it violates the state constitution, which vests control of education in school boards. Funny how conservatives love ‘local control’ until they want to impose their own preferences from on high.” E.J. Dionne Jr., Washington Post“[Last] Friday, a Virginia mom was charged in Page County with threatening to bring ‘every single gun loaded’ to her kids’ school on Monday. (She apologized, claiming that she was speaking of metaphorical firearms.)… [On Monday] There were dueling rallies between anti-mask parents and school boards demanding compliance. In Loudoun County, students refusing to wear masks were directed to school auditoriums where they did virtual work online. Some parents pulled their kids from school…
“Parents are frayed and starved for leadership. Some leaders have realized that the inflaming of tensions around masks garners votes. The problem is it also destabilizes government authority. Youngkin didn’t just turn student against student, parent against parent, or pit principals against educators and states against federal rules with the stroke of a pen the day he was sworn in. He personally modeled contempt for authority…
“Youngkin’s first week in office showed him to be a Trumpian culture-warrior. He immediately issued an executive order banning the teaching of critical race theory or any ‘inherently divisive concepts’ in Virginia schools…
“Because critical race theory is not actually being taught at K-12 public schools in the commonwealth, the order could only be an attempt to ban the accurate teaching of African American history, which necessarily covers slavery, Jim Crow repression, lynchings, ‘massive resistance’ to school desegregation, systematic discrimination and persistent disparities. If you teach Black history without bringing up any ‘divisive concepts,’ you’re not teaching it at all.” Eugene Robinson, Washington Post
“[Youngkin has] also set up an email tip line that allows parents to report ‘inherently divisive practices’ in schools, including any attempts to enforce mask mandates and, of course, the teaching of what he terms CRT…
“The tip line in Virginia follows closely on other, conservative-led efforts to ban the alleged teaching of CRT and to remove certain books from school curriculums and libraries over various examples of wrongthink. The right is not new to book banning or to censorship writ large. The Christian right, for example, has long agitated against books with LGBT or feminist themes in libraries and classrooms…
“Despite the right’s uncompromising grip on censorship, it’s the left, often, that bears the public blame for cancel culture… [But] a few examples of liberal censorship, or language policing, do not make the left an illiberal force to match the right because Republicans in office are doing the bidding of conservative activists. Democratic governors have launched no snitch lines; there is no left-wing analog to the right’s war on so-called critical race theory in schools… Those who fear cancel culture are correct to do so, but they should be able to identify their real enemies.” Sarah Jones, New York Magazine
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Happy Friday!Smart Brevity™ count: 1,190 words … 4½ minutes. Edited by Zachary Basu.
🗳️ Situational awareness: When President Biden speaks today at the site of a historic Pittsburgh steel mill, two top Democrats running statewide will be absent because of scheduling conflicts, AP reports.
A top Senate candidate, Rep. Conor Lamb, will attend the event touting America’s manufacturing renaissance.
Why it matters: With Biden’s low polls, some Dems in tough races are distancing themselves.
1 big thing: Salary disclosure push
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
New York City will soon require employers to supply a salary range when advertising a position — the biggest step yet in a growing, controversial pay-transparency movement, Jennifer A. Kingson writes in Axios What’s Next.
Why it matters: These laws aim to give workers, particularly women and people of color, more power in job negotiations. But the rise in remote work is throwing a wrench into the effort.
Under the new law, which takes effect in May, any employer trying to fill a position based in New York City will have to advertise the minimum and maximum salary.
New York’s role as the nation’s financial capital and business bellwether puts the pay-transparency movement front and center.
How it works: For employers, the rule can help stave off pay discrimination claims. For workers, there’s comfort in knowing that your income is in line with what the boss is offering others.
Where it stands: At least eight states and several cities have laws on pay transparency, but most are weaker than New York City’s.
A handful of private employers have taken matters into their own hands. Whole Foods lets employees look up how much their co-workers make. A number of tech companies — Buffer, GitLab and Whereby — post formulas about how salaries are derived.
Reality check: Remote work can give employers an easy way to avoid localized pay-transparency laws, at least for some positions.
Colorado’s strictest-in-the-nation law forces employers of all sizes to post pay information for all jobs advertised, even if they’re for remote positions that could potentially be performed in Colorado.
But experts say that’s actually had a chilling effect, prompting companies to pull their listings from the state.
Other problems: Employee compensation isn’t always an exact or one-size-fits-all science — there can be legitimate reasons why star performers or people with unusual backgrounds get outlier salaries.
2. Meta’s civil-rights chief aims to “turn the knob”
Photo Illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios. Photo: Meta
A year ago, Facebook brought in Roy Austin, Jr. to lead a new team focused on civil rights.
Since then, he has assembled a squad of experts advising parent company Meta on everything from voting rights to hate speech, Axios’ Ina Fried writes in her weekly “Signal Boost” column.
In a series of exclusive interviews, Austin and members of his team took Axios inside their work.
Meta hired Austin following the completion of an external civil rights audit, amid a raft of complaints that the company’s products were having disparate and discriminatory impacts on marginalized groups.
Austin, a civil rights attorney, is a former federal prosecutor and was director of the White House’s Office of Urban Affairs, Justice and Opportunity during the Obama administration.
“At first I wasn’t interested,” Austin told Axios. “But what hit me was a company that touches 3.5 billion people, and I felt like if I could turn the knob just a little bit toward justice with a company with that kind of reach, that that would really be an amazing opportunity.”
States across the country are scaling back contact-tracing efforts, often relying more on Americans to alert close contacts themselves after testing positive for COVID, Axios’ Caitlin Owens reports.
The availability of at-home COVID tests means that public health agencies often aren’t made aware of many positive cases.
Above: At LAX yesterday, figure skater Nathan Chen wore a mask and face shield as he and other members of Team USA walked a red carpet to board a plane en route to Beijing.
Photo: The Yomiuri Shimbun via Reuters
Above: Searchlights flooded the sky last night during rehearsal for the Opening Ceremony at Beijing’s National Stadium, a.k.a. the Bird’s Nest, which viewers will remember from the 2008 Summer Games.
Go deeper: How COVID tests, isolation will work at Olympics.
Russia’s rapid movement into Belarus — which NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said this week was taking place “under the disguise of an exercise” — has convinced some analysts that Putin is planning a major invasion of Ukraine that could target Kyiv, the capital.
U.S. officials say Putin may be “preying” on the domestic vulnerability of Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko, who has relied on Russia’s support to stay in power after mass protests broke out in 2020.
6. Data of the day: Almost there
Reproduced from Renaissance Macro Research. Chart: Axios Visuals
The economy grew at a record rate last year — but U.S. GDP is still about 1% shy of its pre-pandemic trend, according to Renaissance Macro Research.
Why it matters: Fiscal stimulus is behind us now — and pandemic-era problems like supply chain snags are still holding back a full recovery, business editor Kate Marino writes in Axios Markets.
👀 What we’re watching: Chips! The shortage continues to hold back vehicle production, with no clear end in sight.
“When the motor vehicle sector recovers, we will blow right through [the trend line],” says Neil Dutta, Renaissance Macro’s head of economics.
7. Sneak peek: Toyota Lunar Cruiser
Photo: Toyota Motor Corp. via AP
Toyota is working with Japan’s space agency on a vehicle to explore the lunar surface, with ambitions to help people live on the moon by 2040 and then go live on Mars, AP reports.
It’s called the Lunar Cruiser — homage to the Toyota Land Cruiser.
Launch is set for the late 2020s.
Photo: Toyota Motor Corp. via AP
8. 🥇 Lead of the week
Photo: Smith Collection/Gado via Getty Images
Each chicken only has two wings, Axios chief economic correspondent Neil Irwin notes in “The great Buffalo wing inflation.”
Why it matters: When demand for wings surges but demand for the rest of the chicken is steady, it creates big price swings — and a fun study in microeconomics.
What’s happening: Relative demand for fatty, rich, messy parts of the chicken has surged versus the healthy parts of the chicken that most efficiently deliver lean protein.
Wing prices are soaring — not just in absolute terms, but relative to other parts of the chicken. The national retail price of frozen chicken wings was $3.71 a pound last week — 48% higher than a year ago.
In the same span, fresh boneless, skinless chicken breast was up only 7.6%. Whole chickens were actually down slightly.
An apparent culprit: Wings travel well, making them particularly appealing when people don’t want to eat in. Pop-up restaurants and ghost kitchens have sprouted up to fulfill that demand, including Applebees’ Cosmic Wings delivery business.
The White House and its allies are signaling a willingness to play hardball with Republicans who oppose President Joe Biden’s eventual nominee to the Supreme Court, who he vowed will be a black woman “worthy” of retiring Justice Stephen Breyer’s legacy.
Liberal anti-monopolists are celebrating the departure of left-leaning Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer because they expect his replacement to favor more aggressive antitrust enforcement.
As Russian President Vladimir Putin considers whether to order yet another invasion of Ukraine, his partner in Syria, Bashar Assad, continues to consolidate his authority.
When President Joe Biden learned this week that he would have the opportunity to fulfill his pledge to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court, a top Democratic ally was ready with a name.
More than 6,000 federal workers have gotten behind a State Department employee’s effort to challenge the Biden administration’s coronavirus vaccine mandate.
Last weekend, 58 high school students were disappointed when they learned a notification that they received a scholarship from a university was a mistake.
China wants the United States to yield to Russia’s demands for a NATO rollback, a senior diplomat told Secretary of State Antony Blinken just as trans-Atlantic officials offered a written proposal to avert a wider war in Ukraine without complying with Moscow’s ultimatum.
A lifelong aeronautics enthusiast’s elation turned to disappointment when he was forced to abandon his chance to take a three-day SpaceX flight due to his weight.
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Celebrity chef and restaurateur Rick Bayless says a psychological and financial blow after two years of pandemic disruption has left the once-vibrant Chicago restaurant industry on the verge of devastation and in desperate need of federal relief.
“A lot of the restaurateurs and chefs that I’m talking to are just about to give up,” Bayless said. “They’re incredibly discouraged. Nobody knows what to do at this point, because the numbers are so low.”
The restaurant industry has been hard hit by the pandemic, navigating closures, indoor dining restrictions, labor shortages, supplier price increases and declining revenue. Read more about how the one-two punch of the delta and omicron variants has halted the momentum.
Hadiya Pendleton performed at President Barack Obama’s second inauguration with her high school bandmates. But days after the January 2013 inauguration, Hadiya was fatally shot at a South Side park about a mile north of the Obamas’ Kenwood home when a gunman fired into a crowd. Hundreds attended her funeral, including Michelle Obama, who began a years-long friendship with her mother Cleopatra Cowley-Pendleton.
Friday, the former first lady will announce that the Obama Presidential Center, slated to open in 2025 on the South Side, will feature a public space dedicated to Hadiya so that future generations will remember her story. Saturday marks the nine-year anniversary of her death.
Relatives of Laquan McDonald held a news conference, during which they demanded federal charges be filed against former Chicago police Officer Jason Van Dyke, who shot and killed 17-year-old McDonald in 2014.
A 16-year-old on juvenile probation opened fire on the street in broad daylight after seeing a rival flash gang signs, hitting his target in the back — but also shooting 8-year-old Melissa Ortega in the head while she crossed the street with her mother, Cook County prosecutors said in court Thursday.
Emilio Corripio, a teen prosecutors said is a self-admitted member of the Latin Kings, then got back into a car driven by 27-year-old Xavier Guzman, and the two drove around to buy sandwiches and drinks without “a care in the world,” Assistant State’s Attorney James Murphy said.
Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus are expected to be introduced soon at Halas Hall as the new power duo atop the Chicago Bears organization.
It will give Chairman George McCaskey the opportunity to run back his quote from a little more than a year ago, when he declared “Ryan and Matt are our football guys.” That was in reference to Ryan Pace and Matt Nagy, whom the Bears stuck with in 2021 only to clean house.
Poles, 36, and Eberflus, 51, who comes to the Bears after a four-year stint as defensive coordinator of the Indianapolis Colts, are both in their new roles, so there will be elements of learning on the fly.
Ron Grossman writes: “My earliest memories of Christmas are associated with the month of January. That is when my father got an employee’s discount on presents returned to the Goldblatt’s department store at Lincoln and Belmont. Being Jewish, there wasn’t a Christmas tree in our apartment to mark the countdown to my belated gift.”
Here’s the latest news from around the area before the weekend.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, Cook County Assessor Fritz Kaegi decided to give homeowners a break based on his office’s unusual effort to estimate pandemic-related job losses and use those calculations to lower property assessments. It turned out to be a wild miscalculation that worked out well for some but not others, affecting tax bills of every homeowner in the county. Read the full Watchdogs investigation here.
The Cook County assessor cut values based on jobs he thought neighborhoods would lose due to the pandemic. It was a wild miscalculation that worked out well for some, including Mayor Lori Lightfoot, not so well for residents of a poor South Side neighborhood.
Vivianna Lopez and Valerie Gaytan — wives of former Chicago cocaine kingpins Pedro Flores and Margarito Flores — used drug money for 2018 and 2019 trips, newly unsealed affidavit says.
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Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported each morning this week: Monday, 866,540; Tuesday, 868,512; Wednesday, 872,126; Thursday, 876,066; Friday, 878,476.
Within weeks, President Biden says he will nominate the first Black woman to be a Supreme Court justice and set in motion what Democratic senators hope will be a speedy confirmation to succeed Justice Stephen Breyer when he retires in late June or early July.
The president, standing with Breyer at the White House on Thursday, said he’s in the early stages of considering female candidates and will cast a wide net before announcing the first high court nominee of his presidency. The White House, in fact, has been prepared well before Breyer’s private retirement alert to the president last week, and Biden has begun to review candidates’ opinions and weigh the process and politics that loom large this spring.
“I’ve made no decision except one: The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character experience and integrity,” Biden said. “And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court. It’s long overdue in my view. I made that commitment during my campaign for president, and I will keep that commitment” (The Hill).
In his first year in office, the president nominated 62 women to the federal judiciary, including 24 Black women, a White House official told NBC.
Breyer, 83, who has served on the high court for nearly 30 years, held his pocket copy of the Constitution aloft and reiterated that the survival of America’s experiment in democracy rests with the next generation. “Of course, I’m an optimist,” he said with a smile, implicitly acknowledging an increasingly partisan process that will seat a liberal woman on the bench who will be 30 or 40 years his junior. “I’m pretty sure it will” (The Hill).
CNN: Democrats expect to hold hearings and votes on a justice-in-waiting before Breyer officially steps aside at the end this term.
FiveThirtyEight: Why Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) in a 50-50 Senate will probably vote for Biden’s Supreme Court pick.
Breyer’s departure has created a major opening for Senate Democrats, allowing Majority Leader Charles Schumer (N.Y.) to go on offense after months of struggling to implement the Biden agenda.
As The Hill’s Jordain Carney writes, the stakes are high for the New York Democrat, who is now tasked with shepherding Biden’s nominee through an evenly divided 50-50 upper chamber. But, in a break for the Democratic leader, judicial nominees have been easier unifiers for his caucus, starting him off on easier footing than fights over the Build Back Better package or trying to reform the filibuster.
“It will be as much of a victory for Chuck Schumer as it will be for Joe Biden. … Schumer’s got a difficult caucus, obviously, and this is going to be a historic nomination,” said Meagan Hatcher-Mays, Indivisible’s director of democracy policy.
One source familiar with Schumer’s planning told The Hill that he is eyeing a similar timeline to the one Republicans used to confirm Justice Amy Coney Barrett in 2020. She was confirmed only 30 days after then-President Trump formally nominated her to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
> Aisle crossing: Progressives have made their feelings known about Manchin in recent months. Now, Republicans are starting to do so with their checkbooks.
Ken Langone, a billionaire GOP donor and founder of Home Depot, donated $5,000 to Manchin’s Country Roads leadership PAC, becoming one of the first Republican heavyweights to support the centrist Democrat. The total is the most an individual contributor can give to this type of political action committee in any single year.
In early December, Langone, 86, told CNBC that he was hopeful to hold a fundraiser on Manchin’s behalf. The West Virginia lawmaker is up for reelection in 2024.
“I don’t see leadership any place in this country. Thank God for Joe Manchin,” Langone said at the time. “I’m going to have one of the biggest fundraisers I’ve ever had for him. He’s special. He’s precious. He’s a great American.”
NBC News: Activists are aiming at Sinema. But she’s winning Republican friends.
LEADING THE DAY
ADMINISTRATION: Rolling waves of diplo-speak and Western entreaties to Russia appear, for the time being, to have created an uncertain pause in what had been American and NATO expectations that Russian troops would roll across Ukraine’s border at any minute.
The outreach to Moscow is from a host of interested parties: French President Emmanuel Macron today will speak by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin to urge more security talks (The Associated Press).
NATO Secretary General JensStoltenberg on Wednesday promoted the idea of more direct meetings with Moscow. “We have invited, I have, as chairman of the NATO-Russia Council, invited all 30 allies and Russia to a series of meetings where we are ready to sit down and to have substantive discussions on a wide range of issues,” he said.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba predicted on Thursday that Russia is likely to remain on a diplomatic track with Kyiv and the West for at least two weeks ahead of a planned meeting in Germany, but he said Moscow will continue its efforts to destabilize Ukraine (Reuters). “The good news is that advisers agreed to meet in Berlin in two weeks, which means that Russia for the next two weeks is likely to remain on the diplomatic track,” he said.
Responding to a hand-delivered written response from the U.S. and NATO to its demands, the Kremlin slammed the Biden administration and Western allies, complaining Russia’s views were not adequately considered. The Kremlin continues to deny Russia will order its more than 100,000 troops along the border to move into Ukraine (CNBC), while Biden continues to warn of the potential for a mid-February Russian attack against Ukraine (Bloomberg News and The Associated Press).
Meanwhile, Germany under Chancellor Olaf Scholz remains focused on de-escalating tensions and was lampooned in Kyiv for offering 5,000 helmets for Ukraine’s defense, described by Kyiv’s mayor as “a joke” (CNBC).
German economy minister Robert Habeck told Der Spiegel during an interview published on Tuesday that his government is intent on getting diplomacy back on track.
“Russia knows that crossing red lines would immediately trigger painful sanctions that have already been prepared. And it is clear that Russia is heating and stoking this conflict,” he said. “But it isn’t enough to simply leave it at that. The efforts of Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock to get diplomatic efforts back on track is absolutely vital. … It must be clear to the Russian regime: Russia has a lot to lose if it goes to war, and it can win if it pulls back its troops and de-escalates.”
The Hill: With Russia-Ukraine tensions, the Biden administration risks another hit to U.S. prestige abroad.
The Hill: Biden’s foreign policy experience is being tested by Putin, who thus far hasn’t seemed swayed by a U.S. carrot-and-stick approach. The U.S. president seeks to ward off a second Ukraine-Russia fight.
> Pentagon & civilian casualties: Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and his senior advisers — under pressure from Congress following a series of investigations by The New York Times and outside reports including details of botched U.S. airstrikes that slaughtered civilians — on Thursday ordered an overhaul of policy rules and cultural norms to prevent civilian deaths and harm at the hands of U.S. military forces. The Pentagon’s challenge is whether a two-page directive from Austin can result in concrete changes in the field.
The New York Times reports that “the U.S. military has long been taught that the laws of war prevent intentionally targeting civilians or carrying out strikes where the anticipated scale of bystander deaths is disproportionate to the combat aim. Military leaders and presidents have long articulated a policy of minimizing or trying to prevent collateral damage. In recent years, a number of military officials said, loopholes in the regulations routinely allowed Special Operations forces to sidestep safeguards.”
Austin’s memo directs Pentagon officials to take immediate action on the establishment of a standardized system for reports of civilian harm and the creation of the Pentagon center that would focus on how to prevent, mitigate and respond to civilian harm. The defense secretary also gave officials 90 days to develop what the Pentagon calls a “civilian harm mitigation and response action plan” to implement recommendations from recently completed Pentagon-commissioned studies, including a report from RAND, an inspector general’s inquiry into a drone strike in Kabul and a review of a 2019 airstrike in Syria.
> Some student loan debts expunged: Student borrowers say they are in shock over sudden zero balances in their loan accounts after applying years ago and being rejected for help. Tens of thousands of teachers, health care workers, military members and other public servants have had their student debt erased or have qualified for debt forgiveness after the Biden administration overhauled the system last fall (NBC News).
> Vice President Harris on Thursday arrived in Honduras to meet one-on-one with President Xiomara Castro as the democratic socialist was inaugurated by her countrymen. During an official meeting, the pair discussed additional COVID-19 vaccine donations by the United States and root causes of migration (The Hill).
The Hill’s Rafael Bernal reports that Harris’s prominent diplomatic boost for Castro represents a bet on the Central American leader despite continued political instability.
NPR: Harris flew thousands of miles looking for a fresh start on migration issues in Honduras.
Reuters: Honduras inaugurates first female president; Harris vows closer U.S. ties.
> Feline politics: Cat lovers, your time has come: The White House officially has a cat in-house. First lady Jill Biden this morning released pictures of Willow, a 2-year-old Tabby from Western Pa., who joins Major and Commander Biden in the world of presidential pets.
IN FOCUS/SHARP TAKES
POLITICS: It was a day of ups and downs on the polling scene for the president on Thursday as surveys showed him leading a pair of potential 2024 opponents, but that his standing in a key swing state has fallen precipitously over the past year, foretelling big problems for Democrats in 2022.
On the bright side, a poll conducted by Marquette Law School found that 43 percent of adults nationally would support Biden compared to only 33 percent for Trump if the 2024 presidential election were held today. Sixteen percent of respondents said they would choose another candidate. Six percent said they would not vote.
The margin tightens slightly if Biden is pitted against Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), with the president raking in 41 percent, versus 33 percent for the Sunshine State’s chief executive (The Hill). According to the poll, 71 percent of those surveyed said they did not want to see Trump on the ticket. Just 29 percent of those polled said they want to see the former president run again.
Houston Chronicle: Trump to headline rally in Conroe, Texas, on Saturday.
However, Biden’s standing in Georgia is another matter and presents a dire situation for the party heading into the midterm elections. According to a new poll by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, only 34 percent of Georgia voters approve of Biden’s performance. Sixty-four percent of respondents disapprove.
Biden’s dismal numbers are unsurprisingly rubbing off on two of the state’s leading Democrats. Stacey Abrams, the party’s likely gubernatorial nominee, trails in head-to-head matchups against Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) (48 to 41 percent) and former Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.) (47 to 43 percent).
In the fight for the upper chamber, Republican Herschel Walker leads Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) with 47 percent to 44 percent for the incumbent senator.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Kevin Nicholson joins the Wisconsin Republican primary for governor, compares himself with Trump.
The Hill: Former Rep. Mark Walker (R-N.C.) to stay in North Carolina Senate race, bucking Trump, who had tried to push him to run for the House instead.
CORONAVIRUS: San Francisco announced on Thursday that effective Feb. 1, its indoor mask mandate will be rolled back at locales such as gyms and offices as case totals drop significantly after an omicron-fueled surge earlier in the month.
In its place, the city is reimplementing the local mask exemption that was in place before omicron spread like wildfire.
“As we come out of this latest surge and face a future in which COVID-19 will remain among us, San Francisco will take a balanced approach in our response to COVID-19 by aligning with state requirements and guidelines where we can do so safely,” said San Francisco Health Officer Susan Philip. “We also acknowledge areas where we can, San Francisco can be further ahead in easing restrictions, such as the indoor mask exemption for stable cohorts, given our highly vaccinated and boosted population” (The Mercury News).
The Wall Street Journal: COVID-19 curbs eased further in Europe as new version of omicron spreads in places.
OPINION
Putin is threatening to wreck Biden’s Asia strategy, by Josh Rogin, columnist, The Washington Post. https://wapo.st/3g5Gj7j
Can Medieval sleeping habits fix America’s insomnia? By Derek Thompson, staff writer, The Atlantic. https://bit.ly/3KSfd1A
WHERE AND WHEN
The House meets at 9 a.m. for a pro forma session.
TheSenate convenes on Monday at 3 p.m.
The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief at 10:15 a.m. Biden will travel to Pittsburgh, Pa., to discuss strengthening the nation’s supply chains.
Economic indicator: The Bureau of Economic Analysis will report at 8:30 a.m. on personal income and outlays in December, offering analysts a snapshot of recent consumer spending. On Thursday, the government reported that the 2021 gross domestic product grew at a brisk 5.7 percent on an annualized basis, the biggest surge since 1984 (The New York Times).
➜ PLANET HEALTH: Every home cook and professional chef who favors natural gas cooktops because they heat quickly and with infinite culinary control may be startled to learn they harm the planet even when the appliances are turned off. Gas cooktops and stoves emit methane, a contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, leading to the same effect in heating the planet over a 20-year period as half a million gas-powered cars, one study estimates (The New York Times). … Much like the situation involving Erin Brockovich and Pacific Gas & Electric Company in the 1990s, a statute of limitations can be a decisive factor when it comes to trying, or even taking on, a toxic exposure lawsuit. These restrictions, which vary in length and detail from state to state, are today playing a role in the litigation emerging following community exposure to “forever chemicals,” or per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances (The Hill).
➜ SPACE JUNK: Look out, moon. On March 4 at 7:25 a.m., a hunk of Elon Musk’s SpaceX hardware (the upper stage of a Falcon 9 rocket that launched in February 2015) will slam into the moon and add to its junked-up surface. The impact will occur on the lunar far side, at about 4.93 degrees north latitude and 233.20 degrees east longitude (Space.com).
And finally … 👏👏👏 An extended slow-clap for this week’s Morning Report Quiz winners who swished questions about the career of basketball’s Kobe Bryant, who died two years ago.
Here are the puzzle champions who went 4/4: Patrick Kavanagh, Ki Harvey, Chuck Henry, Len Jones, John Donato, Michael Palermo, Pam Manges, Jack Barshay and Steve James.
They knew that the only player to be named to more NBA All-Star teams than Bryant (18) is fellow Lakers great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (19).
Bryant’s “Dear Basketball” was awarded an Academy Award for “Best Animated Short Film” in 2018.
Only one player in the past 30 seasons — then-Houston Rockets star James Harden (36.1) in 2017-18 — topped Bryant’s 2005-06 single-season scoring high of 35.4 points per game.
Finally, from our multiple-choice list, Bryant during his career never endorsed Gatorade.
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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POLITICO Playbook: Dr. Oz tries to please McConnell and Trump
Presented by
DRIVING THE DAY
BREAKING OVERNIGHT IN UKRAINE — CNN’s Matthew Chance and Jeremy Herb: “A call between U.S. President JOE BIDEN and Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY on Thursday ‘did not go well,’ as the pair disagree on the ‘risk level’ of a Russian attack, a senior Ukrainian official told CNN. The White House, however, disputed the official’s account, warning that anonymous sources were ‘leaking falsehoods.’ They did state that Biden warned Zelensky an imminent invasion is a ‘distinct possibility.’
“On the call, which the Ukrainian official described as ‘long and frank,’ Biden warned his Ukrainian counterpart that … an invasion was now virtually certain once the ground freezes later in February, according to the official. Zelensky, however, restated his position that the threat from Russia remains ‘dangerous but ambiguous,’ saying it’s not certain that an attack will take place, the official added.”
CRACKING PUTIN’S CALCULUS — The world sits transfixed on Russia, waiting to see what President VLADIMIR PUTIN’s next move will be regarding his pressure on Ukraine. Ryan talked with KURT VOLKER, former U.S. ambassador to NATO and former special envoy to Ukraine, about how NATO and Biden should confront the threat. Plus, journalist ULIANA PAVLOVA from Moscow’s Red Square about the Russian sentiment. Listen and subscribe to Playbook Deep Dive
WHEN OZ WENT TO WASHINGTON — TV doc turned Senate hopeful MEHMET OZ met with Senate Minority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL at the NRSC headquarters earlier this month to lay out why he thinks he can win in the swing state of Pennsylvania.
In normal times, such a meeting between a candidate and party bosses would be as pro forma as they come. But needless to say, these are not normal times in the GOP.
Oz pitched himself to McConnell as the candidate with broad, cross-party appeal — from Black voters to conservative Democrats to DONALD TRUMP. The candidate shared polling data from last fall — before he announced his candidacy as a Republican — showing that his favorability among Black voters was a hair under 50%, while less than 10% had an unfavorable impression of him. (No doubt helpful in that regard: Oz was first introduced to the daytime television audience through OPRAH WINFREY.) The numbers he presented were similarly strong among conservative Democrats.
Oz also talked up his long-standing relationship with Trump.
“It was very friendly, similar to meetings with other candidates President Trump favors, like HERSCHEL WALKER and ADAM LAXALT,” a person with knowledge of the Oz-McConnell meeting said.
Oz was escorted around the building by his campaign aide and former NRSC Executive Director CHRIS HANSEN. He also met with NRSC Chair RICK SCOTT (R-Fla.).
Some political insiders said Oz’s Jan. 11 meeting with a Trump nemesis was a risky move for the candidate as he competes for the former president’s coveted endorsement. For instance, former hedge funder DAVID MCCORMICK, who’s married to former senior Trump aide DINA POWELL, has flexed his MAGA bona fides by hiring HOPE HICKS, STEPHEN MILLER and CLIFF SIMS, as well as consulting with other former Trump aides.
ALSO IN PA — It’s rare for a state-level politician to skip an opportunity to press the flesh with a visiting president from their own party. But that’s what two prominent Democratic hopefuls are doing when Biden arrives in Pittsburgh today. “Lt. Gov. JOHN FETTERMAN, a leading Senate candidate, and state Attorney General JOSH SHAPIRO, the likely Democratic nominee in the race for governor, will be absent,” AP’s Steve Peoples and Marc Levy note. “Another top Senate candidate, Rep. CONOR LAMB, a longtime Biden supporter based in Pittsburgh, will attend. All three had been invited to participate in a photo line with the president.”
KID ROCK TO RUN FOR REAL? — Rock is being recruited by some MAGA members of Congress to run for Tennessee’s 5th Congressional District, where he owns a sprawling estate in Nashville. This push comes fresh off the release of his latest single “We the People” — which bashes ANTHONY FAUCI and Biden with lyrics like “Let’s Go Brandon” — and a phone call with Trump on Wednesday.
In 2018, Rock was accused (but ultimately cleared) of violating campaign law when he promoted “Kid Rock for U.S. Senate” without ever filing to run for office with the FEC. Rock joked to a source who’s recruiting him that he’s open to considering a House run because his faux campaign for Senate was so successful in selling concert tickets. Rock would be naturally positioned for a Trump endorsement — mainly because he’s famous — but the former president just endorsed former State Department spokesperson MORGAN ORTAGUS for the same seatthis week. Another wrinkle to all this: Alex Isenstadt reports that the MAGA wing of the party is outraged over Trump’s decision to endorse Ortagus over Trump die-hard ROBBY STARBUCK.
— 10:15 a.m.: The president will receive the President’s Daily Brief.
— 11:10 a.m.: Biden will depart the White House en route to West Mifflin, Pa., where he is scheduled to arrive at 12:20 p.m.
— 1:25 p.m.: Biden will visit Carnegie Mellon University at Mill 19.
— 2 p.m.: Biden will deliver remarks on the supply chain and infrastructure.
— 3:05 p.m.: Biden will depart West Mifflin to return to the White House, where he is scheduled to arrive at 4:20 p.m.
Principal deputy press secretary KARINE JEAN-PIERRE will gaggle aboard Air Force One en route to West Mifflin.
THE SENATE and THE HOUSE are out.
PHOTO OF THE DAY
PLAYBOOK READS
THE WHITE HOUSE
SCOTUS SCARES — Democrats are urging Biden to move quickly on his pick to replace Justice STEPHEN BREYER — lest nature intervene to upend the entire process, Christopher Cadelago, Laura Barrón-López and Marianne LeVine report. “While Biden has said he intends to make his choice by the end of February, his history of missing major deadlines is causing concern. And some Democrats concede they’re already worried that a single illness, death or retirement could throw it all into chaos. …
“The call to move fast is not merely driven by the realities of the slimmest possible Senate majority. There is also a sense of political urgency in Biden’s orbit as his standing has been on a downward trajectory since last fall.”
The story adds a few new names to the mix of potential high court nominees, citing a source familiar with White House deliberations: WILHELMINA WRIGHT, a district court judge and former Minnesota Supreme Court justice, and MELISSA MURRAY, a New York University law professor.
BIDEN’S CONUNDRUM — The economy last year grew at its fastest clip since RONALD REAGAN was up for reelection, according to numbers posted Thursday. Yet voters are “downright pessimistic about economic conditions and their own financial prospects,” NYT’s Jeanna Smialek and Ben Casselman report in a big-picture look at Biden’s big dilemma going into the midterms. “Faltering consumer confidence in the economy — and in Mr. Biden’s handling of it — could be a liability as Democrats battle to keep control of both the House and Senate.
“Mr. Biden and his top advisers are trying to turn attention toward the positives: emphasizing how rapidly the economy has recovered and that wages are rising, and hailing efforts to fix snarled supply chains and rebuild domestic manufacturing.”
CONGRESS
TO BBB OR NOT TO BBB? — Congressional Progressive Caucus Chair PRAMILA JAYAPAL (D-Wash.)made news Thursday by calling on Biden and Democrats to pass the party’s social spending and climate package by March 1. How better to position Biden for his first State of the Union address, she reasoned, while also noting that Sen. JOE MANCHIN (D-W.Va.) outlined to her directly the parts of BBB he supported.
But Jayapal’s call to action looks like wishful thinking at this point. For one, Manchin hasn’t resumed negotiations, a process that would likely take weeks. Also, as Anthony Adragna, Nicholas Wu and Sarah Ferris noted in Congress Minutes, Speaker NANCY PELOSI earlier this monthdismissed talk of a new BBB deadline. And White House press secretary JEN PSAKI swatted aside a question about the March 1 idea at her briefing Thursday. Another complication: Senate Democrats are about to become very busy working to confirm a Supreme Court justice.
WHAT’S REAL AND WHAT’S FAKE — NYT’s Carl Hulse dives into the bipartisan talks to reform the Electoral Count Act — and suspicions among Democrats that Republicans will yank the rug out if they get close: “As a rump group of senators in both parties has recently ramped up discussions aimed at reaching a compromise on voting legislation, leading Democrats who saw their far broader voting rights package stall in the Senate last week have been wary.
“They worry that the emerging legislation could be a distraction from the pressing issue their bill was meant to address — Republican voter-suppression efforts at the state level — and amount to little more than cover for Republicans who want to appear interested in protecting election integrity despite uniformly opposing Democrats’ voting rights bill.”
GOP MONEY FOR MANCHIN — CNBC’s Brian Schwartz: “KEN LANGONE, a billionaire investor and Republican donor, contributed to Sen. Joe Manchin’s political action committee days after the lawmaker said he would not support Biden’s $1.75 trillion social and climate spending package. Langone and his wife each contributed $5,000 to Manchin’s Country Roads leadership PAC in donations dated New Year’s Eve. That total is the most an individual can contribute to such a PAC in a given year.”
ALL POLITICS
HERE TO STAY — Former North Carolina Rep. MARK WALKER said Thursday night he intends to stay in the state’s Senate race, “despite an endorsement offered in early December by former President Donald Trump if Walker leaves the Senate race and runs for House,” The News & Observer’s Danielle Battaglia reports. The move offered by Trump “would ensure he doesn’t split Rep. TED BUDD’s votes in the Republican primary and give the win to former Gov. PAT MCCRORY.”
CASH DASH — In advance of the midterms, GEORGE SOROS is pumping a whopping $125 million into his Democracy PAC, money that will go to pro-democracy candidates/groups (largely but not exclusively Democrats) in 2022 and beyond, scoops Elena Schneider. His son ALEXANDER SOROS will be president of the super PAC. Among the groups that have already gotten big sums from Democracy PAC: Senate Majority PAC, House Majority PAC, the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, BlackPAC and Vote Rev.
POLICY CORNER
SUICIDE HOTLINE’S DATA PRACTICES SPARK ETHICAL DEBATES — Crisis Text Line is one of the world’s most prominent mental health support lines, a tech-driven nonprofit that uses big data and artificial intelligence to help people cope with traumas such as self-harm, emotional abuse and thoughts of suicide. But the data the charity collects from its online text conversations with people in their darkest moments doesn’t end there, Alexandra Levine reports in an impressive watchdog story today: The organization’s for-profit spinoff, a company called Loris.ai, uses a sliced and repackaged version of that information to create and market customer service software. In turn, Loris has pledged to share some of its revenue with Crisis Text Line. (The nonprofit also holds an ownership stake in the company, and the two entities shared the same CEO for at least a year and a half.)
The arrangement, which a Crisis Text Line official defended as ethical and “fully compliant with the law,” highlights new dimensions of the tech privacy debates roiling Washington, Alex writes.
TV TONIGHT — PBS’ “Washington Week”: Nancy Cordes, Eugene Daniels, Ariane de Vogue and Vivian Salama.
SUNDAY SO FAR …
CBS “Face the Nation”: Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) … House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.).
ABC “This Week”: Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine). Panel: Chris Christie, Donna Brazile, Donna Shalala and Will Hurd.
FOX “Fox News Sunday”: Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.). Panel: Doug Heye, Jacqui Heinrich and Harold Ford Jr.
MSNBC “The Sunday Show”: Rep. Ami Bera (D-Calif.) … Nina Turner … Gloria Avent-Kindred … Karol Mason … Chasten Buttigieg … Ruth Marcus.
CNN “Inside Politics”: Leana Wen. Panel: Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Hans Nichols, Jackie Kucinich and Manu Raju.
Gray TV “Full Court Press”: Leon Panetta … John Kirby.
NBC “Meet the Press”: Panel: Eugene Daniels, Stephen Hayes, Carol Lee and Claire McCaskill.
PLAYBOOKERS
The Bidens have welcomed a new cat, Willow, to the White House. She’s a 2-year-old, gray and white short-haired tabby cat originally from Western Pennsylvania, who met Jill Biden when she jumped on stage and interrupted her remarks during a 2020 campaign stop. She wasted no time making herself right at home.
Cori Bush’s parked car was hit by gunfire in the St. Louis area (not while she was in it).
Joe Biden is set to appear on an NBC special Monday night, “Celebrating Betty White: America’s Golden Girl.”
NBC’s Kevin Tibbles is signing off after a 42-year career — he got a tribute Thursday on “NBC Nightly News.”
MEDIA MOVE — Veteran Capitol Hill reporter Heather Caygle, who joined POLITICO in 2014 as a transportation reporter and became co-congressional bureau chief, is joining Punchbowl News. We wish her the best.
SPOTTED at a surprise celebration for new Congressional Black Caucus Executive Director Vincent Evans on Thursday night, which included a cake in the shape of the Capitol: Cristóbal Alex, Symone Sanders, Michael Collins, John McCarthy, Kamau Marshall, Katie Petrelius, Jotaka Eaddy, Karen Andre, Sharon Weber, Laura Jimenez, Tasha Cole, Michael Reed, Erin Wilson, Trey Baker, Sabrina Singh, Greg Schultz, Allie Panther and a virtual video from Michelle Kwan. Pic
SPOTTED at the Washington Mardi Gras hosted by Louisiana Alive! on Thursday night, which included live music and an oyster bar: John Breaux, Ben Barnes, Wayne Smith, Cedric Richmond, Yebbie Watkins, Hope Goins, Lyndon Boozer, Toby Short, Stephanie Leger, Joe Harris, Warren Tryon, Oliver Kellman, Karen Flecknet,Shashrina Thomas and Tola Thompson.
TRANSITIONS — Kauthar Rahman is joining the Meridian Institute as COO. She previously was COO at the Juvenile Law Center. … Ryan Croft will be a deputy director in CBP’s Office of Congressional Affairs. He most recently was a senior policy adviser for Rep. Glenn Grothman (R-Wis.). …
… Sarah Hodgkins is joining the American Gastroenterological Association as director of government affairs. She previously was a senior legislative assistant for Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.). … Tom Nelson will retire as president and CEO of Share Our Strength at the end of June, after a decade with the organization. There will be a national search for his successor. … Amy Dudley is now head of comms at food startup Shef. She most recently was VP of comms at the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, and is a Joe Biden alum.
HAPPY BIRTHDAY: Justice Amy Coney Barrett (5-0) … Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.) … Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.), Antonio Delgado (D-N.Y.) and Linda Sánchez (D-Calif.) … Fed Vice Chair nominee Lael Brainard … incoming U.S. Ambassador to China Nick Burns … Christy Gibson … POLITICO’s Peter King … Helen Kalla … former Reps. Lou Barletta (R-Pa.), Tom Downey (D-N.Y.) and Brian Bilbray (R-Calif.) … Lynnette Johnson Williams of BHJM Communications … Achim Bergmann … Leslie Jones of American Forests … Matt DoBias … Frank Purcell … Robert Satloff of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy … Skip Rutherford … Ted Greener of the Association of American Railroads … Reginald Darby … Microsoft’s Matt Gelman … John Milewski … Missy Lieberman of the Pew Charitable Trusts … Sam Greene … CNN’s Jay McMichael … Stephanie Adams … USA Today’s Courtney Subramanian … Blaine Volpe of the Millennial Action Project (28) … Terry McNaughton … Grant Campbell … Bloomberg’s Justin Fox … Danny Rickert (6-0)
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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.
Considered one of the five greatest Senators in U.S. history, Daniel Webster’s statue stands in the U.S. Capitol’s Statuary Hall, placed there by the State of New Hampshire.
His career spanned almost four decades, serving as Secretary of State for Presidents William Harrison, John Tyler and Millard Fillmore.
Daniel Webster was born JANUARY 18, 1782, on a farm in New Hampshire.
He attended Dartmouth College, the 9th-oldest institution of higher learning in the United States.
Dartmouth was founded in 1769 by the Great Awakening preacher Rev. Eleazar Wheelock to educate Native Americans in the Christian faith and train Congregationalist Christian ministers.
Rev. Wheelock taught Samson Occom, a Mohegan Indian who became a Presbyterian minister and the first Native American to publish writings in English.
Mohegan Indian Rev. Samson Occom preached at New Haven, CT., 1788:
“Eternal life and happiness is the free gift of God, through Jesus Christ our Lord …
Many of the forefathers of the English … are gone the same way that the holy prophets and apostles went … through sufferings for God; and a great number of them are gone home to heaven, in chariots of fire.
I have seen the place in London, called Smithfield, where numbers were burnt to death for the religion of Jesus Christ … and if there should persecutions arise in our day, I verily believe, true Christians would suffer with the same spirit.”
After graduation from Dartmouth in 1801, Daniel Webster went on to become the highest paid attorney of his day.
He served in the:
U.S Congress 1813-1817; 1823-1827;
U.S. Senate 1827-1841; 1845-1850; and
U.S. Secretary of State 1841-1843; 1850-1852.
He negotiated the Webster-Ashburton Treaty which set the nation’s Northeast boundary.
Webster worked to suppress the African slave trade, stating:
“Traffic in slaves is irreconcilable with the principles of humanity and justice.”
Webster stated December 22, 1820:
“The African slave-trader is a pirate and a felon; and in the sight of Heaven, an offender far beyond the ordinary depth of human guilt …
If there be … any participation in this traffic, let us pledge ourselves here, upon the rock of Plymouth, to extirpate and destroy it …
I invoke the ministers of our religion, that they proclaim its denunciation of these crimes, and add its solemn sanctions to the authority of human laws.
If the pulpit be silent whenever or wherever there may be a sinner bloody with this guilt within the hearing of its voice, the pulpit is false to its trust.”
Webster supported the Greeks in their War of Independence from the Ottoman Empire, 1821-1830.
Petros Mavromichalis, commander of the Greek Maniot forces, sent a letter to Secretary of State John Quincy Adams, May 25, 1821, asking for help:
“Your virtues, Americans, are close to ours, although a broad sea separates us …
We feel you closer than our neighboring countries and we consider you as friends, co-patriots and brothers, because you are fair, philanthropic and brave …
Do not deny to help us.”
Though the U.S. government declined help, private citizens of America, as well as citizens of England, France, and Russia, sent money or fought alongside Greeks.
A notable American supporter of Greek independence was abolitionist, Dr. Samuel Gridley Howe, founder of the Perkins Institute for the Blind in Massachusetts.
Webster described the tens of thousands of Christians massacred on the island of Chios in 1822 as:
“that indescribable enormity; that appalling monument of barbarian cruelty… a scene from which human nature shrinks shudderingly away; a scene having hardly a parallel in the history of fallen man.”
American Colonel Jonathan Peckham Miller of Vermont, a veteran of the war of 1812 and an abolitionist, joined the Greek forces.
Miller witnessed the slaughter of the Siege of Messolongiou, where, in 1824, after two years of being surrounded, attacked and starved, 7,000 men, women and children attempted an escape. Only 1,000 made it.
Jonathan Peckham Miller’s account was sent to Edward Everett, who published in in The North American Review.
President James Monroe addressed Congress, December 3, 1822:
“A strong hope is entertained that the Greeks will recover their independence and assume their equal statue among the nations of the earth.”
The next year, though, James Monroe announced the “Monroe Doctrine,” that no European power should colonize in the western hemisphere and in turn, the United States would not interfere in European affairs.
In the spring of 1823, Jefferson explained in a letter to Adamantios Koraes, who was seeking American support for Greece:
“No people sympathize more feelingly than ours with the sufferings of your countrymen, none offer more sincere and ardent prayers to heaven for their success: and nothing indeed but the fundamental principle of our government, never to entangle us with the broils of Europe, could restrain our generous youth from taking some part in this holy cause.”
Daniel Webster immediately responded by requesting funds for Greeks in their struggle for independence from the Turks.
Webster stated January 19, 1824:
“I have in mind the modern not the ancient, the alive and not the dead Greece … today’s Greece, fighting against unprecedented difficulties … a Greece fighting for its existence.”
Congressman Sam Houston of Tennessee, the future leader of Texas, supported Webster’s motion.
Congressman Henry Clay of Kentucky also backed Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire, January 20, 1824:
“Are we so mean, so base, so despicable, that we may not attempt to express our horror … at the most brutal and atrocious war that ever stained earth or shocked high Heaven?
At the ferocious deeds of a savage and infuriated soldiery, stimulated and urged on by the clergy of a fanatical and inimical religion, and rioting in all the excesses of blood and butchery, at the mere details of which the heart sickens and recoils? …”
Clay continued:
“If the great body of Christendom can look on calmly and coolly while all this is perpetrated on a Christian people, in its own immediate vicinity, in its very presence, let us at least (show) … sensibility to Christian wrongs, and … sympathy for Christian sufferings;
that in this remote quarter of the world there are hearts not yet closed against compassion for human woes, that can pour out their indignant feelings at the oppression of a people endeared to us by every ancient recollection and every modern tie.”
Some did not want to interrupt the drug trade of opium and figs from the Ottoman Empire, to which Henry Clay retorted:
“Sir, attempts have been made to alarm the committee by the dangers to our commerce in the Mediterranean; and a wretched invoice of figs and opium has been spread before us to repress our sensibilities …
Ah, sir! ‘What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul?’ or what shall it avail a nation to save the whole of a miserable trade and lose its liberties?”
In the 1880’s, many Greek immigrants settled in Tarpan Springs, Florida.
Daniel Webster joined with Davy Crockett, Henry Clay, and Theodore Frelinghuysen in protesting the Democrat Party’s Indian Removal Act, which was signed in 1830 by the first Democrat President Andrew Jackson.
When South Carolina threatened nullification, Daniel Webster stated:
“Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and inseparable!”
The U.S. Capitol Building has displayed the quotes:
“Liberty and union, one and inseparable.” -Daniel Webster
“One country, one Constitution, one destiny.” -Daniel Webster
“When tillage begins other arts follow. The farmers, therefore, are the founders of human civilization.” -Daniel Webster
“Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests and see whether we also in our day and generation may not perform something worthy to be remembered.” -Daniel Webster
The Library of Congress Jefferson Building has on the ceiling of the Northeast Pavilion, West Lunette, the quotes:
LET OUR OBJECT BE OUR COUNTRY, OUR WHOLE COUNTRY, AND NOTHING BUT OUR COUNTRY -Daniel Webster, Address at Charlestown, Mass., June 17, 1825.
Cornerstone Ceremonies for Bunker Hill Monument.
THANK GOD, I ALSO AM AN AMERICAN! -Daniel Webster, Address at Charlestown, Mass., June 17, 1843, Dedication of Bunker Hill Monument.
At the Bicentennial Celebration of the Landing of the Pilgrims at Plymouth Rock, Secretary of State Daniel Webster stated December 22, 1820:
“We are on the spot where the first scene of our history was laid; where the hearths and altars of New England were first placed; where Christianity, and civilization … made their first lodgement, in a vast extent of country …
‘If God prosper us,’ might have been the … language of our fathers, when they landed upon this Rock, ‘… we shall here begin a work which shall last for ages … We shall fill this region of the great continent … with civilization and Christianity’ …
Whatever makes men good Christians, makes them good citizens.”
Daniel Webster stated at the Bunker Hill Monument, June 17, 1843:
“I mean to stand upon the Constitution. I need no other platform. I shall know but one country.
The ends I aim at shall be MY COUNTRY’s, my God’s, and Truth’s.
I was born an American; I will live an American; I shall die an American.”
Webster stated:
“God grants liberty only to those who love it and are always ready to guard and defend it.”
When Daniel Webster was once asked what the most profound thought was that ever passed through his mind, he responded:
“Nothing is more deceptive or more dangerous than the pretence of a desire to simplify government.
The simplest governments are despotisms; the next simplest, limited monarchies;
but all republics, all governments of law, must impose numerous limitations and qualifications of authority.”
At the age of 20, Daniel Webster served as the headmaster of Fryeburg Academy in Fryeburg, Maine, where he delivered a Fourth of July Oration in 1802:
“If an angel should be winged from Heaven, on an errand of mercy to our country, the first accents that would glow on his lips would be,
‘Beware! Be cautious! You have everything to lose; nothing to gain …’
The history of the world is before us …
The civil, the social, the Christian virtues are requisite to render us worthy the continuation of that government which is the freest on earth …”
He continued:
“We live under the only government that ever existed which was framed by the unrestrained and deliberate consultations of the people.
Miracles do not cluster.
That which has happened but once in six thousand years cannot be expected to happen often.
Such a government, once gone, might leave a void, to be filled, for ages, with revolution and tumult, riot and despotism.”
At the age of 70, just eight months before his death, Daniel Webster gave an address, “The Dignity and Importance of History,” to the New York Historical Society, February 23, 1852, commemorating Washington’s Birthday:
“We may trust, that Heaven will not forsake us, nor permit us to forsake ourselves.
We must strengthen ourselves, and gird up our loins with new resolution … in the support of the Constitution, prepare to meet manfully … whatever of difficulty, or of danger … or of sacrifice, the Providence of God may call upon us to meet.
… Are we of this generation so derelict, have we so little of the blood of our revolutionary fathers coursing through our veins, that we cannot preserve, what they achieved?
The world will cry out ‘shame’ upon us, if we show ourselves unworthy, to be the descendants of those great and illustrious men, who fought for their liberty, and secured it to their posterity, by the Constitution of the United States …
… We have a great and wise Constitution. We have grown, flourished, and prospered under it, with a degree of rapidity, unequaled in the history of the world.
Founded on the basis of equal civil rights, its provisions secure perfect equality and freedom; those who live under it are equal, and enjoy the same privileges …”
Webster added, hinting of a deep state:
“The Constitution has enemies, secret and professed … They have hot heads and cold hearts.
They are rash, reckless, and fierce for change, and with no affection for the existing institutions of their country …
Other enemies there are, more cool, and with more calculation. These have a deeper and more fixed and dangerous purpose …
… There are those in the country, who profess, in their own words, even to hate the Constitution …
Friends of the Constitution must rally and unite … with immovable firmness, like a band of brothers … looking only to the great object set before them, the preservation of the Constitution, bequeathed to them by their ancestors.
They must gird up their loins for the work. It is a duty which they owe to these ancestors, and to the generations which are to succeed them …
I give … my heart and hand, my entire cooperation to all good men … who are willing to stand by the Constitution …”
Webster concluded:
“I hardly know … the manner of our political death … We shall die no lingering death …
An earthquake would shake the foundations of the globe, pull down the pillars of heaven, and bury us at once in endless darkness.”
Referencing the fall of Babylon spoken of in Scripture (Revelation 18:2; 14:8; Isaiah 21:9; Jeremiah 50:2; 51:8; Zachariah 5), Webster warned:
“Such may be the fate of this country and its institutions.
May I never live, to see that day!
May I not survive to hear any apocalyptic angel, crying through the heavens, with such a voice as announced the fall of Babylon,
(Greek: “Is fallen, is fallen, America the Great has become a habitation of demons and a hold for every unclean spirit.”)
Daniel Webster warned in his address to the Historical Society of New York, February 23, 1852:
“If we and our posterity shall be true to the Christian religion,
if we and they shall live always in the fear of God, and shall respect His commandments,
if we and they shall maintain just moral sentiments and such conscientious convictions of duty as shall control the heart and life,
we may have the highest hopes of the future fortunes of our country …
… BUT if we and our posterity reject religious instruction and authority, violate the rules of eternal justice, trifle with the injunctions of morality, and recklessly destroy the political constitution, which holds us together,
no man can tell, how sudden a catastrophe may overwhelm us, that shall bury all our glory in profound obscurity.”
Hitler’s Battle of the Bulge blunder. History Place.
TWEETS OF NOTE
(@ProfMJCleveland) I’m really curious if the corrupt media knows the amount of blackmail material Russia has on Biden. Do they know and just ignore it? Or are they in such a bubble they are clueless? Tweet.
(@JDVance1) Billions spent on the Kennedy school, grand strategies seminars, and the Georgetown school of foreign service has bought us an elite that’s about to blunder us into a Ukraine war. Our country is broken, especially in how it trains its leaders. Tweet.
MOST CLICKED ITEM YESTERDAY
TEAM BIDEN SEEKS TO STOP YET ANOTHER PIPELINE even as gas prices rise. New York Post.
BONGINO REPORT TOP HEADLINE AT TIME OF EMAIL
Biden Pledges to Nominate “Black Woman” to SCOTUS by End of February BONGINO REPORT.
Plus: With the Afghanistan debacle fresh in memory, the U.S. encourages citizens to get out of Ukraine.
The Dispatch Staff
Happy Friday!Out with general manager Ryan (Pace) and head coach Matt (Nagy), in with general manager Ryan (Poles) and head coach Matt (Eberflus). Look out NFL, the Bears are #Back.
[Editor’s note: Chicago is just jealous of general manager (B)rian (Gutekunst) and head coach Matt (LaFleur).]
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
The Bureau of Economic Analysis reported Thursday that real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 6.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021, and 5.7 percent in 2021 as a whole. The former blew past most analysts’ expectations, and the latter represented the United States’ fastest year-over-year growth since 1984.
Justice Stephen Breyer on Thursday formally announced his intention to step down from the Supreme Court at the end of the court’s current term later this year—on the condition that “by then [his] successor has been nominated and confirmed.” President Joe Biden told reporters he has not yet selected Breyer’s successor, but confirmed he will nominate a black woman for the position—likely by the end of February. Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, a key swing vote on any confirmation, told MetroNews in West Virginia it would “not bother” him if the nominee was more liberal than he is, as long as she is qualified.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Thursday that the United States’ written response to Moscow’s security demands did not include a “positive response” to their concerns about potential NATO expansion to the east. Russian President Vladimir Putin will now review the United States’ response, Lavrov said, and “decide on our further steps.”
Press Secretary Jen Psaki announced Thursday that German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will visit the White House on February 7 to meet with President Biden and discuss “ongoing diplomacy and joint efforts to deter further Russian aggression against Ukraine.” Biden spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the phone yesterday to reaffirm “the readiness of the United States along with its allies and partners to respond decisively if Russia further invades Ukraine.”
The Omicron wave continues to abate, with the average number of daily new COVID-19 cases in the United States falling 29 percent over the past two weeks. But average daily COVID-19 deaths, a lagging indicator, are up 18 percent over the same span.
(Photo by BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images.)
There’s really no better word to describe the U.S. economy right now than “weird.” The unemployment rate is at 3.9 percent, lower than its been at any point since 1970 save April 2000 and mid-2018 through March 2020. Year-over-year wage growth is near its highest level since the metric began being tracked in the mid-2000s. Yesterday, we learned that real GDP grew at a 5.7 percent clip in 2021, its fastest rate since 1984. After a global pandemic led most countries around the world to more or less shut down commerce for several months, the U.S. economy is all of … 1 percent smaller than it likely otherwise would have been.
Yet 72 percent of respondents in a Pew Research Center poll published earlier this week believe the U.S. economy is in only “fair” or “poor” condition. Why do they think so? Because gas costs 50 percent more now than it did a year ago, and beef prices at the grocery store are nearly 20 percent higher. They have to shell out nearly 40 percent more to buy a used car if they can manage to find one, and—although the supply chain crisis is not as dire as viral pictures of empty store shelves can make it seem—there are plenty of products that are harder to come by.
People interact with “the economy” as both workers and consumers, and for many, the benefits of a tighter labor market—one or two raises over the course of the year—are not outpacing the reality of going shopping or paying bills in 2022. Real disposable personal income—which accounts for the effects of inflation—decreased 5.8 percent in the fourth quarter of 2021.
Still, President Biden couldn’t let those record GDP numbers come and go without spiking the football. “For the first time in 20 years, our economy grew faster than China’s,” he said Thursday. “This is no accident. My economic strategy is creating good jobs for Americans, rebuilding our manufacturing, and strengthening our supply chains here at home to help make our companies more competitive.”
Although the Kremlin continues to maintain Russia has no plans to invade Ukraine, pretty much everyone else—multiple countries’ intelligence agencies, national security experts, the White House, the Ukrainian government itself—is more or less convinced that the situation has the potential to get very bad very quickly. On Thursday, President Joe Biden told his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, the United States believes there is a “distinct possibility that the Russians could invade Ukraine in February.”
With that reality in mind, the State Department this week began ordering diplomats’ families to depart from the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine and urging all American citizens in the country to “consider” doing the same. In a piece for the site today, Charlotte explores whether these steps are unnecessarily cautious, or long overdue.
In a press briefing this week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken addressed the Department’s response to the unfolding crisis in Eastern Europe.
“I authorized the voluntary departure of a limited number of U.S. employees and ordered the departure of many family members of embassy personnel from Ukraine,” Blinken said. “And given the continued massive build-up of Russian forces on Ukraine’s borders, which has many indications of preparations for an invasion, these steps were the prudent ones to take.”
But, he added: “I want to be clear that our embassy in Kyiv will remain open, and we continue to maintain a robust presence to provide diplomatic, economic, and security support to Ukraine.”
For more on President Biden’s Supreme Court shortlist, check out the latest Original Jurisdiction newsletter from friend of the Advisory Opinions pod David Lat. Why does he think Ketanji Brown Jackson is the runaway favorite? “First, she has the credentials and experience we look for in SCOTUS nominees (for better or worse): two Ivy League degrees; multiple clerkships, including a Supreme Court clerkship; and judicial experience, including service on the prestigious D.C. Circuit and eight years as a district judge before that,” he writes. “Second, she enjoys strong support in liberal and progressive circles, thanks to her background as a former public defender and rulings against Donald Trump and his administration in several high-profile cases—including the Don McGahn subpoena litigation, when she declared that ‘presidents are not kings.’”
In their criticism of traditional conservatives and classical liberals, members of the new right often claim to be the only ones speaking to the concerns of Republican voters. But as Noah Rothman points out in a piece for Commentary, ideologues like J.D. Vance, Blake Masters, and Tucker Carlson are increasingly out of touch in their defenses of Russian aggression. One recent Pew poll “found that only 9 percent of Republicans viewed Russia as a ‘partner.’ Thirty-nine percent of self-described GOP voters labeled the country an ‘enemy,’ and a majority called it a ‘competitor,’” he writes. “There’s nothing wrong with advocating unpopular positions you believe best advance American interests. Yet, the nationalist front’s loudest voices never entertain the notion that theirs is a minority view because to do so would be to commit to persuading voters rather than hectoring their fellow conservatives.”
Chris’s new Stirewaltisms newsletter has been a pretty strong addition to the Dispatch stable, don’t you think? In yesterday’s edition: The fortuitous timing of Breyer’s retirement, unexpected decency in the wake of the Biden/Doocy flap, the Republican Senate primary in Pennsylvania, mailbag questions, and more. “If this is all done by July, as Hill Democrats are saying, it should be an easy vote for every ‘yea’ and ‘nay,’” he writes of the Supreme Court confirmation process. “This is an election year, though, with potentially open primaries for both parties’ presidential nominations right around the corner. The incentives for stupidity will appear high.”
Fan-favorite Charlie Cooke joined Jonah on Thursday’s Remnant for some exceptionally rank punditry about the first year of Joe Biden’s presidency. Which campaign promises has he kept, and which has he not? Why has Biden proven so unwilling to adjust to different political circumstances?
On today’s episode of Advisory Opinions, David and Sarah talk about—what else—Justice Breyer’s retirement from the Supreme Court. Who are the leading candidates to replace him? Why is all the talk about Justice Kamala Harris or Justice Michelle Obama a bunch of rubbish? Do we expect any real change in the philosophical composition of the court?
An essential daily news roundup, TMD includes a brief look at important stories of the day and original reporting and analysis from The Dispatch team, along with recommendations for deeper reading and some much-needed humor in these often fraught times.
William Jacobson:“SNOWMAGEDDON or SNOWPOCALYPSE? – Southern New England is expecting 1-2 feet of snow Friday night through Saturday with Nor’easter high winds. Blizzard! Lowering the storm shutter because the wind off the water can be brutal. Glad we built a new sea wall a few years ago.”
Leslie Eastman: “Another week in the “two weeks to flatten the curve” has passed, so of course, another variant of the coronavirus causing covid has been identified.”
Stacey Matthew: “Pennsylvania Democratic leaders are coming up with all kinds of excuses to avoid President Biden during his scheduled Friday visit to the state.”
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Good morning. Salt Lake City will have a high of 39° and a low of 17°.
Earlier this week, my husband and I had a conversation about the metaverse — Nike acquiring RTFKT, the first NFT cafe and our friend who’s made a decent side hustle out of selling NFTs. We came to the conclusion that the metaverse isn’t something we’re interested in participating in. And then I read this article about digital fashion and realized — I already do participate. You might, too.
Also on our mind today: why a Utah doctor says rampant COVID-19 is a pandemic of “personal moral character,” a change in hiring at Latter-day Saint schools and Tesla’s plans to make robots instead of new car models.
How a new University of Utah fund will turbocharge startups
What’s happening: Utah philanthropists Tim and Joan Fenton are backing the University of Utah’s new $5 million “Founders Fund.”
Why it matters: The program aims to accelerate promising student and university-connected businesses at earlier stages than might typically be of interest to traditional venture capital funds.
How it works: Students will be involved in finding, vetting and proposing the projects coming out of the University of Utah network that are most worthy of financial backing from the new fund, giving them real-world business experience.
Paul Brown, the James Lee Sorenson Presidential Endowed Chair and Professor (Lecturer) of Entrepreneurship at the Eccles School, will oversee the Founders Fund, working with the Fentons on making final investment decisions.
Funding amounts will vary, but a likely ballpark on individual investments will be $50,000-$250,000, according to Brown.
SB114 would require involving parents on the front-end of the curriculum selection process and would allow them to make recommendations to the local board. The proposed curriculum would be available online for the public to review it and then the school board would conduct a public hearing before voting whether to adopt it.
HB234 would require all Utah public school teachers to post all learning materials and syllabi for each day of instruction.
What are people saying about the bills?
“Oftentimes we have bills where I think we’re looking for a solution to a problem that doesn’t exist.” — Sen. Mike McKell, R-Spanish Fork
“If we truly care about reinforcing principles in the home, wouldn’t we want parents and taxpayers to see what was going on in the classroom before it happened?” — Nichole Mason, president of Utah Parents United
“This bill is insulting, burdensome and will not succeed in increasing transparency, but will certainly succeed in driving people from our profession.” — Heidi Matthews, president of the Utah Education Association
Read more from Marjorie Cortez about the debate over the two bills.
More in Politics
Did Trump just accidentally reveal he’s running in 2024? (Deseret News)
What Utah’s Republican congressmen had to say to Democrats at home (Deseret News)
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox speaks out about taxpayer-funded security project at his Fairview home (Deseret News)
Does Texas’ plan for a ‘Parental Bill of Rights’ put schools and parents in battle mode? (Deseret News)
FROM OUR SPONSOR VOICES UTAH
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Join Deseret News and Utah Business in this VIP limited engagement series featuring Mike Conley, Joe Ingles and more. Attend for personal meet and greets, photo sessions and intimate conversations with the voices who have engaged and captured our attention. Buy tickets for the April 12 event.
COVID
Why this Utah doctor says rampant COVID-19 is a pandemic of ‘personal moral character’ (Deseret News)
Experts already have a prediction about the next COVID-19 variant (Deseret News)
Utah undercounted COVID hospitalizations by scores of patients, new data reveals (The Salt Lake Tribune 🔒)
Faith
BYU, other Latter-day Saint schools will require temple recommends for new Latter-day Saint hires (Deseret News)
‘Reppin’ the Y.’: Holmoe, Darger on unique roles of BYU sports, student-athletes and the Honor Code (Church News)
Missions and mental illness: New film shows one missionary’s journey with depression (Deseret News)
Southern Utah
‘Lesser of 2 evils’: Santa Clara council approves additional fee for power bills (St. George News)
‘If we lose East … we lose a neighborhood’: Iron County school board decides fate of East Elementary (St. George News)
Northern Utah
Cache County School District shortening school day amid ‘unprecedented’ absenteeism (KSL.com)
Salt Lake attorney sent to prison for taking money from clients, lying to bankruptcy court (KSL.com)
Woman accused of stealing luggage from Salt Lake airport (KSL.com)
The Nation
Biden will get a chance to fill a Supreme Court vacancy. Here’s what to expect (NPR)
Crazy winter weather might hit the Northeast this weekend (Deseret News)
The World
U.S. rejects Russia’s demands in new written response. What’s next? (Deseret News)
N.Korea confirms latest weapons tests as Kim visits ‘important’ munitions factory (Reuters)
Trending
Post Malone, who lives in Utah, is on the cover of Billboard magazine (Deseret News)
Tesla moving away from making new car models to making robots (Deseret News)
Iguanas are falling from the sky in Florida (Deseret News)
The Rams needed help in their secondary heading into the playoffs, so they called the former Utes great and 13-year NFL vet to see if he’d pause his retirement for a run at the Super Bowl.
Biden Promises a Black, Female SCOTUS Nomination the Same Day Breyer Announces Retirement
President Joe Biden promised to nominate the first black, female supreme court justice after Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer announced his official retirement yesterday. During the statement, which came at a White House ceremony honoring Breyer’s contribution to the court, the president also mentioned he expects to make the nomination before the end of next month.
“I’ve made no decision except one: The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character experience and integrity,” Biden said. “And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court. It’s long overdue in my view. I made that commitment during my campaign for president, and I will keep that commitment.”
Despite his public claim that the next nominated justice will be both black and a woman, reassured the public of his utmost devotion to a thorough selection process. He plans to take advice from both Republican and Democrat senators as well as Vice President Kamala Harris, who he said is an “excellent lawyer” herself.
“Among the women who have been discussed as potential candidates to replace Breyer are Ketanji Brown Jackson, who serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit; California Supreme Court Justice Leondra Kruger; and J. Michelle Childs, a federal district judge in South Carolina who has the support of House Minority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.), Biden ally.”
Don’t Play Hardball with the Uncancellable
If there’s one thing the recent years’ cancel culture wars have taught us, it’s that there are a few personalities who prove impossible to stifle as their grit and will to stand for their beliefs is too powerful for the woke mob. Joe Rogan has been a long-time member of the club, of which Dave Portnoy and J.K. Rowling have also taken part. So when Neil Young demanded Spotfiy remove Joe Rogan for his spreading of “COVID misinformation” or risk him pulling his own music from the app, he should’ve known who he was going up against.
In the form of a letter on his website, Young put up a strong “him or me” ultimatum. The letter, however, has since been taken down. According to the New York Times, this isn’t the first time Young has attempted to withdraw his music from a platform over a complaint only to have it later return.
“Spotify reportedly paid more than $100 million to be the exclusive home of Rogan’s show. Young, meanwhile, stands to lose 60% of his streaming income from his defiant stance, he said in a statement on his website.”
Spotify released a statement siding with Rogan, protecting the profit they receive from the single-most podcast on the market, which the New York Post wrote has an estimated 11 million listeners. Spotify qualified the statement with a meager defense, claiming they have already removed over 20,000 Covid-related podcasts.
“In the past, Young has removed his music from streaming services, only to quietly reinstate it,” Ben Sisario wrote in the New York Times. “In 2015, after making complaints about the quality of sound on streaming, he took his music down from all major audio streaming services, including Spotify and its biggest rival, Apple Music. But it was added back soon after.”
With the strong media attention for his letter, I don’t know if this “Old Man” knew who he was messing with.
Link Round-up
Paul Gottfried put out an excellent analysis of the left’s manipulation of free speech over time this week in The American Mind. You can read it here.
Check out my coverage of the “Defeat the Mandate” protest this past week in Washington, D.C.
Friday Fun
My tip for the best way to spend this chilly January weekend is an oldie but a goodie: binge your favorite movie or series. With the days seeming dark so much of the day, I’ve found the couch very inviting most days after work but don’t have the time during the week to let myself curl up and indulge in some good old-fashioned cinema. Contributing film reviewer for The Federalist, Michael Jerzy, ranked the best 21 films of the twenty-first century in a comprehensive list if you need suggestions, but I’d bet you have a fair number of videos you’ve been meaning to watch saved on Netflix or Hulu. If you need another suggestion, however, I wrote a review of Hulu’s new “How I Met Your Father” in The Federalist, in which I can explain to you exactly why I recommend against the show while giving my proud endorsement of its parent series, “How I Met Your Mother.” But you can decide for yourself.
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Today’s BRIGHT Editor
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Jan 28, 2022 01:00 am
“Danger,” emergency,” and “existential threat” are usually the first clues—and the leftists are applying this tactic to everything, not just COVID. Read More…
Jan 28, 2022 01:00 am
Race-based admissions are not the exception but the rule. And no one but diversity, inclusion, and equity experts conducting so-called cultural audits has profited from this policy. Read More…
Biden inherited a rapidly growing economy
Jan 28, 2022 01:00 am
Biden and most of the media continue to lie when they said Biden inherited a deep recession and then credit his policies including the inflation-inducing $1.9 trillion bill that supposedly helped cause great economic growth. Read more…
Don’t let social movements shame you for pursuing and appreciating beauty. It’s not an ‘unrealistic standard.’ It’s exactly what we were created to be.
Comics legend Mike Baron and his pro-cop comic book “Thin Blue Line” are unwelcome on Facebook or Reddit, despite not breaking any of the rules stated on either platform. Facebook has so far blocked all attempts by Baron and his team to use Facebook ads. The largest comic book social media page, the “r/comics” subreddit, […]
‘How I Met Your Father’ lost the comfortable, relatable, and hysterical characters that made the last show so enjoyable in an effort to include more serious and scandalous content.
Gen. Keith Kellogg’s memoir ‘War by Other Means: A General in the Trump White House,’ provides interesting insight into how Trump’s national security policy challenged the Washington blob.
In 1966, the American Football League and National Football League wanted an anti-trust exemption from Congress allowing them to merge. Sen. Russell Long, chairman of the Finance Committee, and Rep. Hale Boggs, House majority whip, wanted a professional football team for Louisiana. The leagues got their exemption, and NFL Commissioner Pete Rozelle announced New Orleans’ […]
The Transom is a daily email newsletter written by publisher of The Federalist Ben Domenech for political and media insiders, which arrives in your inbox each morning, collecting news, notes, and thoughts from around the web.
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Russia sends a less hawkish message on Ukraine, anti-vaccine truckers roll toward Ottawa, and New York City’s mayor can hire his brother – for $1
Today’s biggest stories
Service members of the Ukrainian National Guard attend a ceremony in tribute to fallen defenders of Ukraine at a memorial in Kyiv, January 28, 2022. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
The U.S. and Taiwanese vice presidents had a brief conversation at the inauguration of the new Honduran president, a rare encounter that is highly symbolic and provoking anger in Beijing at a time of simmering tension with Washington.
An inquiry into lockdown-breaking gatherings in Downing Street that might determine the future of British Prime Minister Boris Johnson could be further delayed after the police asked for the report to make only “minimal reference” to those events.
Canadian truck drivers determined to shut down central Ottawa over a federal government vaccine mandate rolled across the country toward the capital, boosted by praise from Tesla Chief Executive Elon Musk.
Six men accused of involvement in a 2019 jewel heist at a museum housing one of Europe’s greatest art collections appeared in court in Germany’s Dresden, with the whereabouts of the treasures still a mystery.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer holds up a copy of the Constitution while President Joe Biden looks on at the White House, January 27, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
Federal agents arrested a Nevada man for threatening a state election worker last year and telling her that she was “going to f—— die” for stealing the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump, the Justice Department said, the second arrest in a week by its election threats task force.
U.S. border officials are preparing for as many as 9,000 border arrests per day by the spring, according to two Department of Homeland Security officials, which would be significantly larger than last year’s peak and could cause a headache for the Democratic administration ahead of midterm elections.
A New York City ethics panel has agreed that Mayor Eric Adams can hire his brother as a senior security adviser, but only at $1 per year and with no power over department personnel. The decision follows an uproar that erupted after Adams sought to hire his younger brother Bernard as a deputy police commissioner at a yearly salary of $240,000.
The Michigan teenager charged with first-degree murder in the deadliest U.S. school shooting of 2021 will assert an insanity defense, his lawyers wrote in a court notice.
BUSINESS
Persistently high inflation will haunt the world economy this year, according to a Reuters poll of economists who trimmed their global growth outlook on worries of slowing demand and the risk interest rates would rise faster than assumed so far.
Hong Kong’s market regulator has fined a Citigroup subsidiary $45 million for misconduct in its cash equities business and is launching disciplinary proceedings against some former senior managers at the bank.
Scientists have detected what appears to be an incredibly dense star behaving unlike anything else ever seen – and suspect it might be a type of exotic astrophysical object whose existence has until now been only hypothesized.
Lockdowns, mask mandates and other restrictions have caused international chaos over the last two years.
But the COVID narrative may be falling apart after yet another nation announced it will be throwing out restrictions and getting back to normal. … Read more…
After Associate Justice Stephen Breyer announced his retirement, Biden confirmed he will fulfill his campaign promise to nominate a black woman to the Supreme Court.
There’s only one little problem with this promise. … Read more…
Dear Dave, My wife and I own a small catering business. We have a few big corporations as clients, and our company has been very successful over the last two…Read more…
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Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has been leading House Democrats for almost 20 years now, having first become caucus leader in 2003. On Tuesday, 81-year-old Pelosi announced that she would once more be running for re-election, potentially scrambling the plans of her possible successors. “I don’t know what Pelosi intends — but when she returns to Washington next January, it can’t be with an eye at retaining the speaker’s gavel,” Hayes Brown writes.
“Pelosi has kept her cards close to her chest, as ever, trying to maximize her influence and minimize the time that she spends as a lame duck,” Brown writes. “But the next few months are crucial for her to shape the caucus after she yields control.”
How do we make sense of this unprecedented moment in world history? Why is this all happening? Chris Hayes asks the big questions that keep him up at night every week on his podcast, aptly titled, “Why Is This Happening?”
Time for our mailbag! Chris and producers Tiffany Champion and Doni Holloway answer your questions and talk about what’s new on the pod. Chris also discusses which interview in 2021 stuck with him the most, and we share an exciting milestone that we need your help to celebrate! Listen now.
Join Ali Velshi tonight for special coverage of the rising tensions between Russia and Ukraine as he seeks to answer the question: What is Putin’s endgame? Plus, Richard Engel reports live from the region with on-the-ground updates. Watch a special edition of The Last Word, tonight at 10 p.m. Eastern.
Biden honors retiring Justice Breyer, commits to nominate Black woman to replace him on Supreme Court: President Joe Biden and Justice Stephen Breyer appeared together Thursday at the White House to announce Breyer’s retirement from the Supreme Court, clearing the way for Biden to follow through on his campaign promise to nominate the first Black woman to the high court as his historic first pick. Biden praised Breyer’s career in public service, beginning in the United States Army as a teenager before going on to serve in all three branches of government before he turned 40. The president also noted how he presided over Breyer’s confirmation for Supreme Court Justice when Biden was a chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee in 1994. “He has patiently sought common ground and built consensus, seeking to bring the court together,” Biden said. “I think he’s a model public servant in a time of great division in this country.” During their White House appearance, Biden reaffirmed his commitment to nominate the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, which he said is “long overdue.” “I made that commitment during the campaign for president, and I will keep that commitment,” he said. Read Breyer’s retirement letter here.
Alleged Oxford High School shooter, Ethan Crumbley, to claim insanity defense: Ethan Crumbley, the alleged Oxford High School shooter, will plead insanity, his lawyers said in a court filing on Wednesday. “As expected, Ethan Crumbley’s attorney has requested an evaluation of his criminal responsibility,” David Williams, chief assistant prosecutor for Oakland County, told ABC News in a statement Thursday. “The defendant will be evaluated by a doctor from the Center for Forensic Psychiatry.” In November, Crumbley opened fire on students and staff, just hours after meeting with school counselors over disturbing drawings depicting a gun, according to Michigan prosecutor Karen McDonald. Crumbley’s parents were called in for a meeting but left without taking their son with them or asking him if he’d brought a weapon to school, McDonald said. The gun that Crumbley used in the rampage was bought by his father, James Crumbley, just days before, said prosecutors, who say a social media post of Jennifer’s suggests the weapon was purchased for their son. Because the gun was stored in a place to which Ethan had access and because the parents failed to notice warning signs from their son in the months before the shooting, they too face charges. Jennifer and James Crumbley are next due in court on Feb. 8, and their son will appear on Feb. 22.
Moderna launches clinical trial for HIV vaccine that uses mRNA technology: Moderna announced Thursday that it’s launched early-stage clinical trials of an HIV mRNA vaccine. The biotechnology company has teamed up with the nonprofit International AIDS Vaccine Initiative to develop the shot, which uses the same technology as Moderna’s successful COVID-19 vaccine. “We are tremendously excited to be advancing this new direction in HIV vaccine design with Moderna’s mRNA platform,” Dr. Mark Feinberg, president and CEO of IAVI, said in a statement. “Having new tools in terms of immunogens and platforms could be the key to making rapid progress toward an urgently needed, effective HIV vaccine.” Nearly 38 million people worldwide — including about 1.3 million in the U.S. — are living with HIV, or human immunodeficiency virus, which can lead to the potentially fatal disease AIDS. In the mid-1990s — the height of the U.S. AIDS epidemic — being diagnosed with HIV was considered a death sentence, with more than 50,000 deaths happening every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Today, HIV is much more manageable with medications, but a vaccine to protect from it has still not been developed.
Dad’s pandemic poem captures the highs and lows of quarantine scare: A father’s poem about the highs and lows of a quarantine scare is going viral. Last week, Yujin Chung, a 41-year-old father of two from Mountainview, California, wrote a poem describing the roller coaster of emotions he felt when his family was exposed to COVID-19 and forced to quarantine for five days. The poem, which he shared on LinkedIn, touched the nerve of working parents, who are still trying to figure it all out two years into the pandemic. One verse reads, “Instead of planning and work / It’s playgrounds and dirt / Budgets, agendas delayed / ‘Encanto’ soundtrack auto replayed.” Chung’s poem transpired after his 4-year-old son’s preschool notified him and other parents that two COVID-19 cases were found. Chung, his wife, and their two songs — Anders, 7, and Liam, 4 — all quarantined together, which Chung said left him feeling burnt out. “I just wanted to depict a little bit of how it felt,” Chung said. With the popularity of his poem, Chung has continued to write more, which he publishes in his “Yujin’s Raps & Rhymes” newsletter.
GMA Must-Watch
This morning on “GMA,” Lara Spencer talks with Chip and Joanna Gaines about their biggest project yet. Plus, Patrick Wilson, star of “Moonfall,” joins us for a chat about his latest projects. And Iman Shumpert joins us live as he continues to perform alongside his fellow dancers on the “Dancing With the Stars” tour. All this and more only on “GMA.”
Today we look at fears that Russia could hold the upper hand in any economic battle with the West as the United States warned again that an invasion of Ukraine could be imminent. Plus we look at a new Omicron variant of Covid-19, and why your dog is more closely related to wolves than you might think.
The U.S. is threatening painful sanctions against Russia if it launches an attack on Ukraine, but Moscow could hit back at the West by throttling natural gas supplies to Europe or triggering a spike in oil prices, experts and former U.S. officials say.
The Biden administration says it’s holding talks with gas companies and European governments to prepare for possible Russian attempts to disrupt the flow of natural gas to Europe, but it’s not clear whether Washington and its allies will be able to offset a concerted retaliation by Russia, former officials and industry experts said.
Gettr and Parler promote themselves as censorship-free ways to avoid Big Tech, but they’ve found success by embracing moderation and even some of the internet’s plumbing.
More than 70 bills have been filed in 27 states this year seeking to regulate how educators teach about race, history and sexuality in schools, according to nre research.
Anti-abortion legislation forces medical professionals to violate their ethics of practice, which includes a promise to act for the patient’s good, writes Mimi Zieman, an OB-GYN and author.
The Round Rock Black Parents Association mobilized against calls to remove a book on the history of racist ideas in the U.S. from the school reading list.
It may be hard to believe dogs such as fluffy Pomeranians or spritely Chihuahuas really are descended from wolves.
But new research solidifies this relationship, while providing a new explanation for the huge genetic diversity of our four-legged friends.
Domestic dogs come in more sizes than any other mammal species on Earth, partly due to a mutation that emerged in wolves before they were domesticated.
“I think most people don’t realize dogs were domesticated only 20,000 years ago, which evolutionarily is a teeny part of a teeny drop in the bucket,” said Elaine Ostrander, author of a new study.
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One image pulled from a TikTok left a lot of millennials feeling attacked this week. “Older millennials got such a specific way of writing. they have bios like ‘author. sloopy joe enthusiast. world cup watcher. mother.’ and bday captions like ‘this is 35’ or ‘another year around the sun.’ it’s giving blog,” the text overlay on the TikTok reads.
Writer and editor Jenée Desmond-Harris shared the image with a few anxious sweating emoji, and more than 1,700 people quote-tweeted it with reactions—some posting their own bios that mirrored the format.
As a 30-something millennial, I felt the tweet deeply. A few years ago, I became conscious of this exact bio style, and I changed my Twitter one to a very boring, basic bio that simply lists my job. I am positive I had “enthusiast” in my bio at some point, but I don’t remember what it referred to. The tweet also made me realize that I’ve now been on Instagram for a decade; my first post was in 2012. That’s a lot of (likely now cringe-worthy) captions on photos.
As for the last line of text on that TikTok, “it’s giving blog,” that’s a point of pride. Yes, we’re the blog generation, and we own it. Maybe a little too much.
Maybe it’s the world falling to pieces or a work project that’s got you pulling out your hair—either way, we’ve found the perfect remedy. These chewable, plant-based CBD tablets from Liweli. The fan favorite Cherry Stress Melts deliver a calming dose of CBD in a tart-yet-sweet flavor that melts in your mouth.
Sophia Rose Wilson’s Euphoria character, Barbara “BB” Brooks, aka Vape Girl, has once again become a fan favorite since season 2 debuted. BB is just a small recurring role but fans are drawn to her vibe and penchant for saying memeable things. But now, fans are calling her out for her alleged old posts.
Last week, a viral TikTok from @zioraaaa circulated, allegedly showing two 2016 Facebook posts from the now-20-year-old Wilson, one in which she uses a racial slur and another, from Nov. 8, that states, “Trump just won Ohio!!” The TikTok has more than 2.6 million views.
Over on Wilson’s Instagram, a majority of the new comments reference and debate the Facebook posts.
*The Daily Dot may receive a commission in connection with purchases of products or services featured here.
MUSIC
Spotify agrees to remove Neil Young’s music after he spoke out against Joe Rogan
After signing a $100-million exclusive deal with Spotify in 2020, Joe Rogan is the platform’s most popular podcaster. However, he’s also the most controversial, regularly accused of spreading conspiracy theories and giving voice to far-right talking points.
Throughout the pandemic, Rogan has shared anti-mask and anti-vaccine views on his podcast, recently facing backlash for hosting the prominent anti-vaxxer Dr. Robert Malone. Now, he’s attracting criticism from an unexpected but attention-grabbing source: Singer/songwriter Neil Young, who published (and then deleted) an open letter asking Spotify to remove his music in protest.
The demons running the global depopulation campaign just telegraphed their next act
As the truth about the anti-human demonic entities running our world today is revealed in the present, it provides us the opportunity to reevaluate the past and gain new understanding from our own first person witnessing of history as it unfolded.
It now appears they are ready to play the “end game” card against humanity and go for a total civilization takedown. This means disrupting or destroying the food supply chain, the power grid, telecommunications, monetary systems and the rule of law. The goal is absolute chaos resulting in mass death on a global scale, and the more chaos they can unleash in this manner, the more easily they cover up the truth about vaccine deaths.
Today’s feature article lists the almost-certain attack vectors to be unleashed against humanity next.
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PVI — Post vaccine illness is the new pandemic
The pandemic has become endemic, thanks to the Omicron variant, but MSM and the “Demoncrats” in Washington DC want to keep it going for many reasons. Now, the new pandemic has nothing …
Alex Newman of The Sentinel Report joins Brighteon.TV
We are pleased to announce another new addition to the Brighteon.TV lineup: Alex Newman of The Sentinel Report and The Liberty Sentinel. From 4-5pm EST every Friday, Newman’s The Sentinel …
Spice up your life: Use cinnamon to improve your health
Cinnamon is known to have medicinal properties and has been widely used for the treatment and prevention of certain diseases and ailments. This traditional medicine is effective for managing …
NY Supreme Court strikes down Hochul’s statewide mask mandate
New Yorkers no longer have to wear a face mask while indoors thanks to a decision by the NY Supreme Court striking down Gov. Kathy Hochul’s statewide mandate. Congressman Lee Zeldin, a …
New poll shows most voters want Dr. Fauci to resign
If you believe that Dr. Anthony Fauci should resign from his position as the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, you’re not alone as a recent poll shows …
Google sued by 4 AGs for tracking users without permission
Attorneys general (AGs) from four states sued Google for tracking users without their consent. The bipartisan group of AGs accused the tech giant of monitoring user location data for use in …
Fauci claims fourth covid dose is “entirely conceivable”
Top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci has claimed that a fourth dose of the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine is “entirely conceivable.” His assertion of a fourth vaccine …
SHTF tips: How to survive a long-term supply chain crisis
As a prepper, you should always be ready to face something like the Wuhan coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. But even as the pandemic winds down, it will take a long time before things return to …
Gen. Michael Flynn: Americans must get involved in politics
Retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General Michael Flynn told host Alex Newman during the Jan. 21 episode of “The Sentinel Report” that Americans must get involved in politics if they …
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Parts of New England could see between 12 to 24 inches of snow this weekend.
Bomb Cyclone
A “bomb cyclone” is expected to batter the Northeast this weekend with heavy snow, wind and coastal flooding. More than 55 million Americans are currently under winter storm watches and travel advisories. Some forecasts remain uncertain, but most are showing that Eastern Massachusetts, including Boston, and Rhode Island could be hit hard with 12 to 24 inches of snow combined with wind gusts up topping 60 mph. The storm is expected to form off the coast of the Carolinas today, and once it reaches the East Coast, it may dump as many as 14 inches of snow in portions of Connecticut and New York, where wind gusts may reach as high as 55 mph. Portions of northeastern North Carolina and southeastern Virginia could also see up to 3 inches of snow and high winds.
Supreme Court
President Joe Biden yesterday committed to nominating the nation’s first Black female Supreme Court justice following the formal announcement of Justice Stephen Breyer’s retirement. “The person I will nominate will be someone with extraordinary qualifications, character, experience and integrity. And that person will be the first Black woman ever nominated to the United States Supreme Court,” Biden said, adding “it’s long overdue.” GOP senators and Senate candidates are already saying they are not supportive of Biden’s plan after concluding that the unnamed nominee is certain to be far left. Republicans are calling for a slow confirmation process, but Democrats are aiming for the exact opposite — a swift confirmation process that could be complete within a month after Biden makes his pick.
Coronavirus
Millions of Americans are behind on flu, hepatitis, chickenpox and other routine vaccinations as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. Adults and adolescents have missed more than 37 million routine vaccinations, according to an analysis of insurance claims by Avalere, a health care consulting firm. Experts are stressing the importance of getting up to date as soon as possible as such widespread lapses in routine vaccinations could put even more strain on the health care system. In a related development, a new spinoff of the Omicron variant called BA.2 is also being talked about, but experts say there’s no reason to panic as there’s no indication it causes more severe symptoms or spreads more easily than the original strain of Omicron. Some are warning though that BA.2 is a “stealth variant” because it doesn’t cause a certain signature on lab tests and can look like other variants on a first screen.
Ukraine
US and Ukrainian officials are not on the same page regarding the “risk levels” of a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine, a senior Ukrainian official told CNN yesterday. A 20-minute phone call between President Biden and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky yesterday “did not go well,” the official said. Biden warned his Ukrainian counterpart that a Russian invasion may be imminent, saying that it is now virtually certain in the coming months. Zelensky, however, said the threat from Russia remains “dangerous but ambiguous,” emphasizing it is not certain that an invasion will take place. The Biden administration yesterday also called for the first UN Security Council meeting on the situation along the Russia-Ukraine border to discuss Moscow’s recent aggressions. NATO, the defense alliance set up to promote peace and stability, is also rapidly trying to reinforce its presence in the region to help ease tensions.
Honduras
Xiomara Castro was sworn in as Honduras’ first female president yesterday. Castro, a democratic socialist, won a landslide victory in last year’s presidential election after campaigning on a radical agenda to counter years of governance plagued by corruption and scandal. During her campaign, Castro promised to stamp out the systemic problems behind poverty, including economic insecurity, inequality, corruption and violence — some of the root causes of migration to the north. That stance made her not only popular with the electorate, but has made her an attractive ally for the Biden administration. Vice President Kamala Harris, who is overseeing the White House’s efforts to stem the flow of migrants to the US southern border, was among those in attendance for the inauguration.
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Bitter cold weather conditions caused mysterious ice formations to show up along Chicago’s Lake Michigan shoreline. What do the ice figures resemble, which also lends them their unique name?
That’s how much the Australian government has pledged to protect the Great Barrier Reef. The funding announcement comes months after the world’s largest coral reef narrowly avoided being placed on the UN’s “danger” list due to the threat of climate change.
It is extremely risky to do what they did. The only way that these things happen is if the robbers have got really good inside information.
— Security consultant Roy Ramm, on the Dresden jewelry heist that stunned the world. A total of 21 diamond-studded artifacts worth an estimated $128 million were stolen from Germany’s historic Dresden Castle in 2019. The six men accused of carrying out one of the biggest jewel thefts in history are expected to go on trial in Germany today.
Brought to you by CNN Underscored
Allbirds is making way for new shoes by marking down a top style
Allbirds announced that it’s lowering the price of its Tree Dashers, the brand’s top-rated running shoe in men’s and women’s fits, from $125 to $99. Snag this clearance price on these cult-favorite — and sustainable — shoes.
Footloose Friday
Here’s a Grease-themed flash mob to kick off your weekend. (Click to view)
Good morning, Daily Briefing readers! President Joe Biden will head to Pennsylvania to discuss “building a better America” – but some of the state’s leading Democrats won’t be there. The funeral will be held for NYPD officer Jason Rivera, who was shot and killed with his partner while on duty a week ago. And “Tiger King” star Joe Exotic is set to be re-sentenced in Oklahoma for trying to hire hitmen to kill animal welfare activist Carole Baskin.
⚖️ President Joe Biden announced the retirement of Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Biden, who pledged to name a Black woman to the high court, said he planned to name his nominee by the end of February.
🚨Four more bodies were found after a suspected human smuggling boat capsized off the Florida coast, leaving 34 people missing, authorities said. “I have made the very difficult decision … that at sunset this evening we will suspend active searching,” said Coast Guard Capt. Jo-Ann Burdian Thursday.
🏀 A pair of 76ers fans were seemingly ejected from their seats at Philadelphia’s Wells Fargo Center after they were verbally confronted by the Los Angeles Lakers’ Carmelo Anthony.
Los Angeles Lakers forward Carmelo Anthony confronts a fan during the fourth quarter of the game against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Bill Streicher, USA TODAY Sports
🗣“Ant-Man and the Wasp” star Evangeline Lilly is speaking out against COVID-19 vaccine mandates, revealing that she attended a protest “to support bodily sovereignty.” For the latest COVID-19 updates, tap here.
🏈The biggest commercials. The biggest stage. And you can be part of the pop-culture conversation. Register now for the 34th USA TODAY Ad Meter ratings and let your 2022 Super Bowl commercial opinions be heard!
President Joe Biden will travel to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to discuss matters including “building a better America, including through the bipartisan infrastructure law,” according to the White House. But several outlets note two of the three leading Democrats on Pennsylvania’s statewide ballot this spring who were invited to appear with Biden will not attend. Lt. Gov. John Fetterman, a leading Senate candidate, and state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, the likely Democratic nominee in the race for governor, have scheduling conflicts. Another top Senate candidate, Rep. Conor Lamb, a longtime Biden supporter based in Pittsburgh, will attend, his office confirmed. The absences come as Democrats in other states have begun taking modest steps to distance themselves from Biden, whose approval ratings have fallen sharply in recent months.
Funeral to be held for NYPD officer Jason Rivera
New York police officers will give a final salute Friday to Jason Rivera, a rookie colleague who was shot and killed with his partner a week ago . A morning funeral Mass is planned at St. Patrick’s Cathedral for Rivera, 22, who was recently married and barely into his second year of service on the force. Roman Catholic Cardinal Timothy Dolan will preside over the service and many of the city’s top leaders are expected to attend. Rivera and his partner, 27-year-old Officer Wilbert Mora , were fatally shot Jan. 21 by a gunman who ambushed them in a hallway as they responded to a family dispute. Mora’s funeral is being held next week, also at St. Patrick’s. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said flags at state buildings would fly at half-staff from sunrise of the day of Rivera’s funeral until sunset the day of Mora’s funeral, Feb. 2.
This photo combo of images provided by the New York City Police Department shows NYPD Officers Wilbert Mora, left, and Jason Rivera. The two officers were shot while answering a call about an argument between a woman and her adult son in the Harlem neighborhood of New York, Friday, Jan. 21, 2022.
Jury selection begins in trial of ex-cop charged in Breonna Taylor shooting
Jury selection in the trial of former Louisville Metro Police detective Brett Hankison begins Friday. Hankison faces three counts of first-degree wanton endangerment, a class D felony, for the shooting at Breonna Taylor’s apartment early on March 13, 2020 . However, the charges aren’t for endangering Taylor but rather three of her neighbors in an adjacent unit pierced by some of his 10 rounds. The ex-detective has pleaded not guilty. In a notable development Thursday, Hankison’s effort to keep the public and news media from watching juror questioning in his criminal case was denied. Circuit Judge Ann Bailey Smith ordered that individual jury questioning will remain open, but no one watching proceedings can take photos or videos inside the courtroom. Taylor, a 26-year-old Black woman, was fatally shot by Louisville officers as they attempted to execute a search warrant looking for drugs and cash at her apartment.
Newsmakers in their own words: Minnie Mouse’s new look
Minnie Mouse will dawn a blue tuxedo during Disneyland Paris’ 30th anniversary celebration in March 2022.
The new outfit, designed by Stella McCartney, will feature Minnie Mouse in a dark blue tuxedo with black polka dots, Disneyland Paris announced in a statement this week.
The fresh ensemble is responsibly sourced and will be worn in honor of Women’s History Month in March, which coincides with the start of Disneyland Paris’ anniversary.
‘Tiger King’ star Joe Exotic set to appear in court
“Tiger King” star Joe Exotic is set to be re-sentenced Friday in Oklahoma City federal court in his murder-for-hire case . A federal appeals court in July ruled that Joe Exotic, whose real name is Joseph Maldonado-Passage, should get a shorter sentence. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit in Denver determined the trial court wrongly treated two murder-for-hire convictions separately in calculating his prison term. The judge originally sentenced Joe Exotic to 22 years in federal prison for hiring hitmen to kill Carole Baskin. The “Tiger King” star also was sentenced for killing five tigers, selling tiger cubs and falsifying wildlife records.
The Tiger King Joseph “Joe Exotic” Maldonado-Passage with one of his tigers.
Sean Payton (Kevin James, left) signs on to help Coach Troy (Taylor Lautner) and the lowly Warriors in the Netflix sports comedy “Home Team.”
SCOTT YAMANO/NETFLIX
New ‘Janet Jackson’ documentary gives insight into the enigmatic singer’s life
Nearly 50 years into her career, Janet Jackson is still exhibiting the “Control” that turned her into a cultural icon. Viewers will get an insight into the famously private and enigmatic singer’s life in the two-night, four-part documentary, “Janet Jackson,” which premieres Friday and continues Saturday (8 p.m. EST/PST, Lifetime and A&E). The grabby headlines are tackled early, says USA TODAY music writer Melissa Ruggieri: the stern guidance of family patriarch Joseph; Jackson’s elopement with R&B singer James DeBarge and their alleged secret child. The second part of the series will dip into child molestation allegations against brother Michael; the scandalous Super Bowl halftime show in 2004 with Justin Timberlake; her late-in-life motherhood; and Michael’s death.
📸 World remembers victims on International Holocaust Remembrance Day 📸
Roses are placed in the hand of one of the statues part of the “Trains to Life – Trains to Death” bronze sculpture at Berlin’s Friedrichstrasse street on Jan. 27, 2022, the International Holocaust Remembrance Day. The sculpture is dedicated to Jewish children saved by so-called “Kindertransporte” which brought them to the United Kingdom and other countries, as well as to children brought by trains to the Nazi death camps. Israeli architect and sculptor Frank Meisler, who made the sculpture, was himself evacuated with a children’s transport and survived the Holocaust, whereas his parents were killed in Auschwitz.
JOHN MACDOUGALL, AFP via Getty Images
People gathered around the world to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Thursday, as survivors recalled their agony and politicians warned of a resurgence of antisemitism.
The day falls on the anniversary of the liberation by Soviet troops of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the notorious death camp run by Nazi Germany. About 6 million European Jews and millions of other people were killed by the Nazis and their collaborators. Some 1.5 million were children.
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Infectious disease expert at Fauci’s NIAID undercuts the boss by challenging school mask mandates
Scientist Margery Smelkinson discloses her NIAID affiliation on Twitter but not her writing. Continued masking is “unnecessary, even in schools and among the unvaccinated” in Maryland where NIH is based, she says.
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On Thursday’s Mark Levin Show, three more cops were shot, this time in Houston. The number of police shot is breaking records and some incidents involve illegal aliens. Cops are under attack and getting sued for simply doing their jobs. The southern border is not secure, gangs and drugs are getting into the country and innocent lives are paying the price. The Marxist movement is creating this violence. The media hates whatever gets in their way and that’s why they provide cover for the anti-police crowd that they promote on their platforms. Democrats will support rioters, but they won’t support the police. Who is going to hold the media and the Democrat party to account? This program will lead an effort to impeach Joe Biden, the Secretary of Homeland Security and the Attorney General of the United States over this open border. Then, the question of whether the Vice President can serve as a tie-breaker on a Supreme Court nominee has been asked. This likely won’t happen or even be necessary as the RINO republicans will probably support President Biden’s nomination. A tie-breaker vote is highly questionable in the confirmation of a jurist with a lifetime appointment that the VP’s boss had nominated. Any justice confirmed by the VP’s tie-breaker would likely always be viewed as illegitimate. Later, BLM leaders are nowhere to be found? Critics suggest that this is highly irregular for a non-profit with $60M in its coffers. Co-founder Patrisse Cullors named two successors, but they said they never accepted the job. Only two board members remain and refuse to respond to the media. Afterward, in a bombshell video, a federal contractor is caught on tape saying that the government is betraying its citizens by transporting illegal aliens into NY in the middle of the night.
Evil does not prosper.January 27, 2022 / JNS) The multinational firm Unilever, which owns Ben & Jerry’s, announced on Tuesday that in the wake of severe losses, it will fire 1,500 workers around the world and split off its ice-cream division …
This while Biden and the Democrats make access to effective treatment inaccessible. It’s a crime against humanity.Doctor’s Organization Has Treated Over 150,000 COVID-19 Patients With 99.99 Percent Survival
Having been the target of multiple Islamic State assassination attempts, I can state unequivocally, President Trump vanquished this genocidal army. We were on the precipice with Obama – think of it – San Bernardino Christmas party, Pulse …
The Biden Administration is going to make a horrific deal with Iran, that will enable the terror state to go nuclear. Such a deal will cause a massive war in the Middle East, or perhaps even WW3. Biden’s Iran envoy Robert Malley is giving Iran’s …
For the last several years, Nazi collaborater and radical left billionaire George Soros has been quietly financing a revolution, doling out tens of millions of dollars to progressive candidates in district attorney races throughout the country amid …
This at a Westchester airport – a lovely, suburban area of New York.Gov’t contractor talking about the secret midnight flights from southern border into Westchester (NY) Airport:
“If it gets out… the government is betraying the …
America’s trade deficit with China is soaring, but 60 RINO Republicans want to ease the Trump-era China tariffs. This is insane. Any Republican who supports easing or ending the Trump-era China tariffs must be primaried.Trump advisers hit …
Soldiers from the 82nd and 101st airborne divisions along with troops from other units are among the roughly 8,500 service members who have been placed on heightened alert for possible deployment to Eastern Europe should NATO request help deterring Russia from invading Ukraine, the Pentagon said Thursday.
North Korea is believed to have fired two short-range ballistic missiles off its eastern coast at around 8 a.m., according to a text message from South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff. The communist regime last fired a pair of cruise missiles on Tuesday.
The Army did not provide details on the circumstances or location of the accident, which is being investigated by the Army Criminal Investigation Division and U.S. Army Combat Readiness Center.
Stephen Shedd, who once commanded the USS Milius, admitted in Southern District Court of California that he and eight other indicted officers from the Navy’s 7th Fleet received bribes from “Fat Leonard” worth more than $250,000, the Department of Justice said in a news release Wednesday.
Japan has already scrambled more fighter jets to intercept approaching Chinese aircraft in the past nine months than it did during all of fiscal year 2020.
A U.S. Army tweet featuring a quote credited to baroque pop singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey caught the attention of about 10 times more people than the service’s usual social media posts.
Department of Defense Education Activity fourth graders and eighth graders excelled in reading and math in 2019, and improved significantly compared to students tested earlier in the decade.
The U.S. military population looked forward to Monday and an end to three weeks of being confined mostly to their installations or their off-base homes.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Thursday ordered his staff to quickly develop an “action plan” for improving how the Pentagon limits and responds to civilian casualties caused by American airstrikes. He called protection of civilians vital to U.S. military success and a “moral imperative.”
If you’re planning to, or are already taking probiotics and dealing with bloating, constipation, weight gain, or even brain fog, then read this immediately!Probiotics add good bacteria to your stomach, however they may only help temporarily because they do not get to the root cause of the problem.Most Americans have more bad bacteria than good bacteria, which can cause weight gain, junk food cravings, and even an extended belly.There is one food that feeds good bacteria and makes them take over bad bacteria, so click here to find out this one food.P.S. If you are currently averaging 1 or less bowel movement per day, then you need to watch this shocking video right now!
The goal of United Voice is to share common sense ideas, useful info, and different perspectives while at the same time promoting a value we hold dear when it comes to important issues – independent thinking.Each of our pieces keeps our core values in mind. We’re focused on freedom, common-sense ideals, self-reliance, independence, and the promotion of American family values. We believe that as Americans we should take responsibility for our lives and that doing so will only serve to promote family safety and strengthen our country.United Voice exists to give its readers the information they need to make the best decisions possible – especially in uncertain times.Our mission each day, and each week, is to share the stories that matter so that reading anything we share is nothing but time well spent.
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Of the four restaurants Rick McQuaide owns across several counties in Western Pennsylvania, one is barely making a profit, two are losing money and the…
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Service members of the Ukrainian National Guard attend a ceremony in tribute to fallen defenders of Ukraine at a memorial in Kyiv, January 28, 2022. REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer holds up a copy of the Constitution while President Joe Biden looks on at the White House, January 27, 2022. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque
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