Good morning! Here is your news briefing for Tuesday November 24, 2020
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NOVEMBER 24, 2020 READ IN BROWSER
  Puritang Green Vegetable Omega-3 is extracted from green plants and does not have the fishy aftertaste of deep-sea fish oil. 100% organic, non-GMO, and gluten-free.  Dear Reader, We need your help. We cannot continue to report the news with truth and tradition without your help. Subscribe to The Epoch Times today for 4 months for just $1: NOTE: This is our lowest priced offer ever, Cancel anytime   “You and I have a rendezvous with destiny.” RONALD REAGAN   “Confucius Institutes subvert important academic principles of autonomy and freedom of inquiry, aim to promote the CCP’s version of historical events, distort the history of China, and omit the CCP’s appalling human rights record.”           Puritang plant based Omega-3,6,7,9 is made from purslane and perilla seeds. It contains over 61% concentration of Omega-3 — the highest possible without chemical additives, not possible to derive naturally from fish or other plants, and this combined with Omega-6,7,9, accounts for more than 90% of product content!Purslane is nature’s gold mine of Omega-3, containing the highest level of any green plant, making pure high concentration possible.0% trans fat and 0% hormones, this product is 100% organic and 100% natural. Made in Korea.   President Trump, Explain to the American People That Survival of the Republic Is at Stake PREMIUM The republic had been failing for nearly half a century. The great capital city was riven by factions. Graft and corruption were rife. Political opponents were subjected to violence… Read more  Trump Isn’t Finished, but Must Make Case With Speed PREMIUM The United States and America-watchers elsewhere are now in the uneasy vortex between the U.S. political establishment’s overwhelming assertion that the presidential election has been decided… Read more   As we are sure you are aware, there is so much misinformation in the world today. You can help correct that right now by sharing this infographic.   Some benefits of playing Sudoku may include reducing anxiety and stress, and improving concentration, problem-solving skills, logical thinking, and memory.  In this episode, we sit down with lawyer and Harvard Law School Professor Emeritus Alan Dershowitz to discuss the 2020 election, the status of President Trump’s challenge, and Dershowitz’ take on calls for Harvard to blacklist people affiliated with the Trump administration.  Advertisement:    Copyright © 2020 The Epoch Times, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in to receive newsletter communications from The Epoch Times. Our mailing address is: The Epoch Times 229 W 28th St, Fl.5
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AXIOS
Axios AM
☕ Happy Tuesday! Today’s Smart Brevity™ count: 1,481 words … 5½ minutes.
🏥 I hope you’ll join Caitlin Owens today at 12:30 p.m. ET for an Axios Virtual Event on the future of health equity. Sign up here.
Photo: “Axios on HBO”
In his first on-camera interview in four years, Charles Koch told “Axios on HBO” that he “screwed up by being partisan,” rather than approaching his network’s big-spending political action in a more nonpartisan way.
- Why it matters: Koch — chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, which Forbes yesterday designated as America’s largest private company — has been the left’s favorite face of big-spending political action.
Koch, 85, told me at his home in Wichita that he’s disillusioned with his political results, but is optimistic about what he believes will be a less divisive strategy.
- Koch said he wants to elect people “who are going to be champions for … policies that empower people so they can realize their potential and succeed by helping others succeed.”
The mea culpa began with the publication last week of a new book, “Believe in People: Bottom-Up Solutions for a Top-Down World,” written by Koch with Brian Hooks, who has worked with Koch for 20 years and is chairman and CEO of Stand Together, founded by Koch as a philanthropic umbrella.
- “Boy, did we screw up. What a mess!” Koch writes. “[P]artisan politics prevented us from achieving the thing that motivated us to get involved in politics in the first place — helping people by removing barriers.”
- Koch admits: “I was slow to react to this fact, letting us head down the wrong road for the better part of a decade.”
I asked Koch: In business, it would never have taken you so long to course-correct, so why the lag in the public square?
- “I have made many mistakes in business,” he said. “But business is a lot easier because the basic nature of it is not conflict. It’s not divisive. … Politics is win/lose.”
Hooks told me the Koch network’s new emphasis is on “social entrepreneurs”:
- “Teachers who are finding new and better ways to help turn their students on” … people in “business who are empowering their employees to find their gifts … “social entrepreneurs in communities.”
And yet, the spending continues. Americans for Prosperity Action, the Koch network’s super PAC, is pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into Georgia, where twin Senate runoffs Jan. 5 will determine control of the U.S. Senate.
- Hooks told me that’s because the network has long been a supporter of one of the candidates, Sen. David Perdue (R-Ga.): “[W]e think that he can actually make a difference if he’s returned to the Senate.”
- Koch said: “The problem with bad speech is not to shut it down, but to have more speech … to have all different kinds so you have a chance to learn.”
Koch said his “popularity contest is for one person: It’s to be popular with me, because I’ve got to believe in myself.” He said he makes no apology: “I’m not big into regrets.”
- “All the divisions today, we didn’t create,” he said. “They were there before, and they are there after.”
A President-elect Biden tweet last night consisted of just the new URL for his transition site: buildbackbetter.gov.
- The news was the .gov.
After last evening’s announcement by GSA administrator Emily Murphy let the formal transition begin, the Biden team has more than just access to money, office space, classified information and secured emails.
- Axios’ Hans Nichols tells me that Biden’s agency review teams will now be able to talk to senior civil servants and look at the books to figure out what the Trump administration has been doing in private.
- Why it matters: It’s the first step for reversing the rule-making and trying to align Biden’s campaign promises with actual government policy.
Between the lines: Sure, there could always be some slow-walking from political appointees. But the departments and agencies are actually run by career civil servants. They will now cooperate.
- And they know the bureaucratic layers, language, litigation of Trump’s policies — and how to undo them.
What’s next: President-elect Biden will announce his national security team (photos in the card above) in Wilmington at 1 p.m.
- The picks are meant to look like America, as Biden seeks to assemble the most diverse Cabinet in American history.
🎧 Go deeper: Hans Nichols goes inside the transition with Niala Boodhoo on “Axios Today.”
A face familiar to Wall Street is back to help steer the country out of a deep economic crisis, Courtenay Brown writes in Axios Markets.
- President-elect Joe Biden plans to nominate the first woman to be Treasury secretary — Obama-era Fed chair Janet Yellen.
Why it matters: The Treasury secretary wields enormous power in policy on regulations, taxes and the broad economy — actions can either reassure and spook financial markets.
- “Investors shouldn’t worry that [Yellen] will make off-the-cuff remarks that will spur volatility,” Ian Katz, a financial policy analyst at Capital Alpha Partners, said in a note. “She’s the ultimate steady hand.”
Six in 10 Americans are dialing back this year’s Thanksgiving plans because of the pandemic — cutting guest lists, canceling travel or scrapping Turkey Day altogether — Margaret Talev writes from the Axios/Ipsos Coronavirus Index.
For the first time in our poll, more than half of Americans (51%) say they’re likely to take a first-generation COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it’s available. College-educated and white Americans and Democrats are driving the trend.
- “They have hope,” said Cliff Young, president of Ipsos U.S. Public Affairs. “It’s not Trump just saying something. It’s credible institutions. It’s more real now.”
House Democrats and Republicans are finding common-ground plans to confront what they argue are tech monopolies, Ashley Gold writes:
- More funding for key antitrust enforcers, chiefly the FTC and the Justice Department.
- Changing the burden of proof for proposed mergers so that companies whose market share passes a certain threshold are assumed to be monopolies.
- Data portability requirements for platforms, so that consumers can move their information from one service to another.
- Prohibitions on platform bias and “self-preferencing” — when information services display their own listings above those of competitors.
The intrigue: President-elect Biden’s win adds to the chances antitrust legislation will be successful next year.
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
The space industry is outgrowing the billionaires who made it famous, writes Miriam Kramer, author of our weekly Axios Space newsletter.
- Why it matters: Billionaires Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson helped put the space industry on the map. But today, a significant amount of growth seen in the industry is propelled by smaller companies.
The narrative that the space industry is a place for the ultra-rich to throw some money around for fun is now being supplanted by the idea that space is a place for a variety of investors and companies to strike it rich.
🛰️ Sign up for Miriam Kramer’s weekly Axios Space.
Photo: “Axios on HBO”
Rep. Tony Cárdenas, who’s running for chair of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, told “Axios on HBO” that the DCCC needs to change “overnight” and his colleagues need to be more “culturally competent” if they want to be successful in the next election.
- “It’s frustrating to me,” Cárdenas told Alexi McCammond about Democrats’ failure to better connect with Latino voters.
- “If we did a better message in Spanish and English to a community that communicates in two languages, we are going to get them to nod their head and say, ‘I like this Democrat. That person’s fighting for me.'”
Photo: “Axios on HBO”
The official guidance of the CDC says that “postponing travel and staying home is the best way to protect yourself and others this year.”
Southwest Airlines CEO Gary Kelly, however, took the opposing position when he was interviewed by “Axios on HBO.”
- “You should fly,” he told Felix Salmon, adding that “we need to have as much commerce and business and movement as is safe to do.”
The New York Times and The Washington Post have very different strategies for building the subscription news company of the future, Axios media trends expert Sara Fischer writes.
Sources tell Sara that The Post is nearing 3 million digital-only subscribers, a 50% year-over-year growth in subscriptions and more than 3x the number of digital-only subscribers in 2016.
- Much of that growth is attributed to back-end technology investments supported by The Post’s owner, Jeff Bezos — including proprietary advertising and publishing software tools called Zeus and Arc, respectively.
The Times, by comparison, has more than 6 million digital-only subscribers —nearly 3x the number it had in 2016.
- The Times has leaned heavily into its Opinion section, recruiting Kara Swisher and Ezra Klein not only to write columns, but to launch podcasts.
📡 Sign up for Sara Fischer’s weekly newsletter, Axios Media Trends, out later this morning.
Illustration: Aïda Amer/Axios
Apple’s new M1 chip — fast, power-smart, and literally cool — will pave the way for new Apple devices that could bridge the divide between Mac and iPhone/iPad computing and transform the devices we use every day, Ina Fried writes.
- The M1’s success is a shot across the bow to Apple’s competitors, and not just to Intel, whose semiconductors Apple is leaving behind after 15 years.
📬 Thanks for starting your day with us. Please invite your friends to sign up for Axios AM/PM.
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ASSOCIATED PRESS
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AP Morning Wire – Nov 24, 2020 View in Browser  AP MORNING WIRE Good morning. In today’s AP Morning Wire:
TAMER FAKAHANY
The Rundown  AP PHOTO/CAROLYN KASTER Biden transition finally gets go-ahead after Trump runs out of options; Biden to formally introduce his national security team
Three weeks after a bitterly contested Election Day, the transition green light finally came.
It’s been an unprecedented period of American political limbo punctuated by the refusal of a sitting U.S. president to concede defeat to the clear victor and the willful undermining of the democratic process.
The federal government recognized President-elect Joe Biden as the “apparent winner” of the Nov. 3 election, formally starting the transition of power after President Donald Trump spent weeks testing the boundaries of American democracy, report Zeke Miller, David Eggert and Colleen Long.
The move came after Trump suffered yet more legal and procedural defeats in his efforts to overturn the election with baseless claims of voting fraud.
Trump still refused to concede and vowed to keep fighting in court after the General Services Administrator gave the go-ahead for Biden to coordinate with federal agencies ahead of his Jan. 20 inauguration. But Trump did tweet that he was directing his team to cooperate on the transition.
The delay denied Biden access to highly classified national security briefings and hindered his team’s ability to begin responding to the raging pandemic. The executive director of the Biden transition said the decision “is a needed step to begin tackling the challenges facing our nation, including getting the pandemic under control and our economy back on track.”
Federal Agencies: The ascertainment process gives the incoming president and his team access to officials at federal agencies and directs the Justice Department to work on security clearances for transition team members and Biden political appointees. It even gives his team access to official government website domains. Zeke Miller and Aamer Madhani explain why the designation is important.
Team Biden: The president-elect is preparing to formally announce his national security team to the nation. Those being introduced today include Obama administration alumni whose new roles signal Biden’s shift away from the Trump administration’s “America First” policies. The picks include former Secretary of State John Kerry to take the lead on combating climate change, Matthew Lee reports.
Biden is also expected to choose former Fed chair Janet Yellen as the first woman to serve as the U.S. Treasury secretary. She’s no stranger to crises, report Christopher Rugaber and Michael Balsamo.
Yellen served on the Federal Reserve’s policymaking committee during the 2008-2009 financial crisis that nearly toppled the banking system and became Fed chair in 2014 when the economy was still recovering from the devastating Great Recession.
In the late 1990s, she was President Bill Clinton’s top economic adviser during the Asian financial crisis.  AP PHOTO/FRANK FRANKLIN II As coronavirus deaths soar, millions in US stick to Thanksgiving travel plans despite warnings
The U.S. is now averaging more than 1,500 new virus deaths per day, the highest level since the initial spring peak. The seven-day rolling average for fatalities was less than 1,000 only two weeks ago. There have been close to 1.4 million confirmed deaths globally and the U.S. has the most by far: more than 257,000.
New daily infections in the U.S. have also rocketed to all-time highs, averaging more than 170,000 per day, bringing the total to over 12.4 million confirmed cases.
Amid these bleak numbers, and despite emphatic warnings from public health authorities to stay home for Thanksgiving, millions of Americans are crowding the nation’s airports, unwilling to miss out on seeing family and convinced they can do it safely, Dee-Ann Durbin and David Koenig report.
More than 3 million people were screened at U.S. airports on Friday and Saturday — the busiest stretch of air travel since mid-March.
The number of travelers at U.S. airports this weekend was down 57% from last year but the crowds are only expected to grow. Sunday is likely to be the busiest day of the holiday period.
Holiday Restrictions: Thanksgiving could be a make-or-break moment in the U.S. battle against the virus. Governors and mayors are ratcheting up mask mandates and imposing restrictions on small indoor gatherings, which have been blamed for accelerating the spread. But such measures are largely unenforceable. Experts say if people disregard the new state and local restrictions and socialize anyway, that could put greater stress on overburdened hospitals and lead to an even bigger spike in sickness and death over the December holidays, Michael Rubinkam reports.
Virus Fallout: Some new restrictions to stop the explosive spread of the virus are throwing people out of work again. About 20 million Americans are now receiving some form of unemployment benefits, Tammy Webber reports.
The Self-Care Surge: The pandemic is encouraging a new approach to self-care, one that isn’t about buying a signature outfit, wearing a trendy shade of lipstick or getting the perfect haircut. It has put the purpose and meaning of life front and center, restacking priorities and needs. It is no longer hypothetical to worry about longevity or face fears of mortality, Anne D’Innocenzio and Sophie Rosenbaum report.
Are dining tents a safe way to eat out during the pandemic? The AP is answering Viral Questions in this series.  AP PHOTO/EMILIO MORENATTI Shops, pubs to reopen in England when lockdown ends next week; Spain’s mortuary workers endure daily march of death
When a four-week lockdown in England ends next week, haircuts, shopping trips and visits to the pub and gym will be back on the agenda for millions of people.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Dec. 2 the government will lift the stay-at-home instruction introduced early this month, Jill Lawless reports from London.
Shops, gyms, personal care businesses and leisure facilities will be allowed to reopen, and collective worship and weddings can resume. The lockdown will be replaced with regional measures under a three-tier scale of restrictions based on the severity of local outbreaks.
A limited number of fans will also be allowed back into sports stadiums for the first time since March. Johnson said “the scientific cavalry is now in sight,” and breakthroughs in mass testing and vaccine research should eliminate the need for lockdowns by the spring.
Spain’s Body Collectors: “We should have learned something,” one mortuary worker says. They form part of the country’s rarely seen frontline in the fight against the virus. Spain successfully brought its daily death count down from over 900 in March to single digits by July. Now a steady uptick this month has brought deaths back to over 200 a day. Mortuary workers have returned to making the rounds of hospitals, nursing homes and other facilities. Like doctors and nurses, they are essential workers who see and touch the daily march of death amid the worst public health crisis in over a century. Emilio Morenatti documented their grim but essential work in Barcelona in this exclusive report.
 AP PHOTO/MARK SCHIEFELBEIN China’s Moon Mission
China has launched an ambitious mission to bring back rocks and debris from the moon’s surface for the first time since a Soviet mission in 1976 — an undertaking that could boost human understanding of the moon and the solar system.
Chang’e 5 — named for the Chinese moon goddess — is the country’s boldest lunar mission yet since it first put a man in space in 2003, becoming only the third nation to do so after the U.S. and Russia, Sam McNeil reports.
VIDEO: China launches mission to bring back moon rocks.
If successful, it would be a major advance for China’s space program, and some experts say it could pave the way to bring samples back from Mars or even a crewed lunar mission.
The Chang’e 5 lander’s time on the moon will be short and sweet. It can only stay one lunar daytime, or about 14 Earth days, because it lacks the radioisotope heating units needed to withstand the moon’s freezing nights.
China has increasingly engaged with foreign countries on missions and the European Space Agency will be providing important ground station information for Chang’e 5. U.S. law, however, still prevents most collaborations with NASA, excluding China from partnering with the International Space Station.
Space Goals: China’s latest trip to the moon is another milestone in the Asian powerhouse’s slow but steady ascent to the stars. Future ambitions include a permanent space station of its own and putting people back on the moon more than 50 years after the U.S. did with the Apollo missions. Other Top Stories Ethiopia’s government has again warned residents of the besieged capital of the Tigray region as the clock ticks on a 72-hour ultimatum before a military assault, saying “anything can happen.” A senior official said Tigray’s regional leaders are “hiding out in a densely populated city,” and “the slightest strike would end up losing lives.” Human rights groups and others were alarmed when Ethiopia’s military warned civilians in the Tigray capital of Mekele that there would be “no mercy” if they don’t “save themselves” before the offensive to flush out defiant regional leaders. David Dinkins, who broke barriers as New York City’s first African-American mayor, but was doomed to a single term by a soaring murder rate, stubborn unemployment and his mishandling of a racial unrest in Brooklyn, has died at 93. Dinkins, a calm and courtly figure with a penchant for tennis and formal wear, was a dramatic shift from both his predecessor, Ed Koch, and his successor, Rudolph Giuliani _ two combative, abrasive politicians in a city with a world-class reputation for impatience and rudeness. Kuwait, one of the world’s wealthiest countries, is facing a debt crisis. The pandemic has sent the price of oil crashing to all-time lows and pushed Kuwait toward a reckoning with its longtime largesse for its citizens just as a parliamentary election looms in December. The finance minister has warned that the government soon won’t be able to pay salaries. It needs a new parliament to approve raising its debt spending. However, the public remains angry over a series of corruption scandals and fears that the money would be wasted. General Motors is switching sides in the legal fight against California’s right to set its own clean-air standards, abandoning the Trump administration as the president’s term nears its close. CEO Mary Barra said in a letter to environmental groups that GM will no longer support the Trump administration in its efforts to fight California’s clean-air standards. And GM is urging other automakers to do the same.  We’ll leave you with this…
Bruce, the last ‘Jaws’ shark, docks at the Academy Museum of Motion Pictures in Los Angeles
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Naperville mayor criticized for attending Florida wedding amid pandemic
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THE HILL
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ROLL CALL
POLITICO PLAYBOOK
POLITICO Playbook: The revenge of the careerists
Presented by Facebook
DRIVING THE DAY
SEC. OF STATE NOMINEE ANTONY BLINKEN: Harvard, Columbia Law, NSC, State Department, Senate Foreign Relations, VP’s office.
TREASURY NOMINEE JANET YELLEN: Brown, Yale, Fed, White House CEA chair.
DHS NOMINEE ALEJANDRO MAYORKAS: Berkeley, Loyola Marymount Law, U.S. attorney, DHS, CIS, WilmerHale.
COS RON KLAIN: Georgetown, Harvard Law, Supreme Court clerk, House, Senate, W.H. counsel, COS to VP, Ebola czar.
DNI AVRIL HAINES: UChicago, Georgetown Law, CIA, State Department, NSA.
NSA JAKE SULLIVAN: Yale, Yale Law, Oxford, State, White House.
THE BIGGEST SHIFT in Washington in January won’t only be that Democrats are taking the White House. It will be that the BIDEN administration will be — as BRENDAN BUCK pointed out — “delightfully boring.”
JOHN HARRIS calls it “Joe Biden’s Team of Careerists.”
THIS IS AN ADMINISTRATION filled with people who have deep experience in government and in the agencies they will be running. THE POST puts it this way: “By design, they seem meant to project a dutiful competence, as Biden creates a government overseen by those who have run it before.”
THEY BELIEVE IN A LINEAR, plodding, purposeful and standard policy process. Impulsive policymaking and widespread leaks from competing factions in the administration are probably over.
EXPECT INTERVIEWS with JOE BIDEN to be a big deal — meaning, they won’t happen that often, which gives them an extra oomph. We’ll complain, and they won’t care. (His interview with LESTER HOLT on NBC will air tonight.) We can’t imagine he’ll pop into the briefing room with regularity, or tweet his emotions, thoughts or decision-making process. SAPs — statements of administration policy — will, again, be a big deal, because it will be how you know what the administration is thinking on a piece of legislation. You probably won’t get conflicting signals from the White House about whether the president will sign a bill. If he works on it, and is a party to the agreement, he probably won’t veto it at the last minute.
THIS ADMINISTRATION will be of the Georgetown dinner variety. A return to briefing books and policymaking by political professionals who aren’t likely to try to burn down the White House over petty disagreements and jockeying to get in the good graces of the president.
IT IS UNLIKELY TO BE an administration that has aides rushing to get on TV to praise the president. In fact, you probably will rarely see many of these Cabinet officials. THE TIMES has a story about giddy Wall Street denizens who are eager to unfollow the various TRUMP world people who opine on policy and may have the president’s ear, depending on the day and the topic.
IN OTHER WORDS, if the TRUMP White House was like downing a vat of Tabasco sauce over the past four years, the BIDEN White House will be like sipping unflavored almond milk.
BUT, BUT, BUT … IT ISN’T ALL DRAMA-FREE — RYAN LIZZA: “It is still early in the Biden transition. There are thousands of jobs to fill. But a similar sense of dread is starting to bubble up from veterans of the Biden campaign, particularly those who were there with the president-elect from the Philadelphia announcement speech to the Wilmington victory speech. The target of their ire? The Obama establishment, which has eclipsed the Clinton name as shorthand for yesterday’s Democratic Party.
“‘The Obama staffers are now cutting out the people who got Biden elected,’ said a senior Biden official channeling the feelings of the old guard of the Biden campaign, who requested anonymity for the obvious reason. ‘None of these people found the courage to help the VP when he was running and now they are elevating their friends over the Biden people. It’s f—– up.’
“Another Biden adviser who worked on the campaign echoed the point. ‘It is a very valid criticism,’ the adviser said. ‘A lot of people are living in uncertainty.’”
TERRIFIC, from DAVID HERSZENHORN and RYM MUMTAZ: “9 things to know about Antony Blinken, the next U.S. secretary of state: What Europe needs to know about Joe Biden’s pick for secretary of state.”
THE LAME DUCK DEM TERM: BIDEN is 78 and expected by many to serve only one term. Speaker NANCY PELOSI has all but said this is her last term. Senate Minority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER is up for reelection in 2022.
— WHEN YOU’RE ON YOUR WAY OUT, it typically means you have less power. But if everyone’s on their way out …
Happy Tuesday morning, all.
THIS MORNING is our 1,000th Playbook Audio Briefing! We’re thankful — it’s a good week to be thankful! — that you listen.
HAPPENING TODAY … THE PRESIDENT and first lady MELANIA TRUMP will present the National Thanksgiving Turkey at 2 p.m. in the Rose Garden. VP MIKE PENCE has nothing on this schedule. NYT’s Matt Flegenheimer and Maggie Haberman on what Donald Trump liked about being president
FYSA — “Dianne Feinstein to step down as top Democrat on the Senate Judiciary panel,” by Marianne LeVine and Burgess Everett: “Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) is next in line for the job, followed by Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.). Durbin is expected to express interest in the position.”
NEW … POLITICO/MORNING CONSULT POLL … 67% of voters want a new coronavirus relief package in the first 100 days of BIDEN’S presidency. … 53% of Republicans say they would vote for TRUMP in the 2024 GOP primary. 12% say they would vote for PENCE. In third place: DONALD TRUMP JR. with 8%.
THE TRANSITION HAS BEGUN … “Key government agency acknowledges Biden’s win and begins formal transition,” by CNN’s Kristen Holmes and Jeremy Herb: “The General Services Administration has informed President-elect Joe Biden that the Trump administration is ready to begin the formal transition process, according to a letter from Administrator Emily Murphy sent Monday afternoon and obtained by CNN.
“The letter is the first step the administration has taken to acknowledge President Donald Trump’s defeat, more than two weeks after Biden was declared the winner in the election. Murphy said she had not been pressured by the White House to delay the formal transition and did not make a decision ‘out of fear or favoritism.’ …
“Trump tweeted moments after the letter was reported, thanking Murphy for her work and affirming the decision to start the transition. … Two Trump advisers said the President’s tweets are being read by people in his orbit as essentially a concession. … However, late on Monday night Trump attempted to soothe fears among his supporters by tweeting he wasn’t conceding and cited multiple debunked conspiracy theories.” CNN
BLOOMBERG: “Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, said in a memo seen by Bloomberg that the White House would ‘comply with all actions needed to ensure the smooth transfer of power.’ But he warned that ‘unless specifically authorized,’ people who work in the Office of the President ‘are not permitted to speak directly with a member of the Biden transition team or the federal transition coordinator.’”
STOCKS LIKE TRUMP GIVING UP … FT: “Global stocks rallied after Donald Trump said his administration would co-operate with president-elect Joe Biden’s transition team. Europe’s benchmark Stoxx 600 gained 0.5 per cent in early trading, while London’s FTSE 100 and German’s Xetra Dax rose by 0.6 per cent. In the Asia-Pacific region, Japan’s benchmark Topix rose as much as 2.3 per cent to its highest level in two years, after traders returned from a long weekend. Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 climbed 1.3 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi added 0.5 per cent.”
BEN WHITE: “What the Yellen choice means for Biden and the economy”: “In picking former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen to serve as his first Treasury Secretary, Joe Biden is leaning on a well-known figure who is trusted and beloved by most Democrats, respected by many Republicans, acceptable to Wall Street and aligned with the no-surprises approach expected to be a hallmark of the incoming president’s tenure. …
“Perhaps most important, Yellen’s relationships with current Fed officials and knowledge of how the central bank can assist an economy still staggering from the coronavirus pandemic could prove critical to the incoming administration. Tim Geithner’s Fed background before he became Treasury secretary also helped then-President Barack Obama when he took office during the 2008-09 financial crisis and recession.”
— WSJ ED BOARD WITH TWO EDITORIALS ABOUT THE CABINET: Bullish on TONY BLINKEN and bearish on JOHN KERRY … Bullish — but with an eyebrow raise — on JANET YELLEN.
STILL IN FLUX … “Biden’s choice for secretary of Defense still in flux,” by Lara Seligman, Natasha Bertrand and Bryan Bender: “President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team unveiled his picks for top national security positions on Tuesday. But one post was notably absent from the list: secretary of Defense. Biden-watchers and national security veterans saw the omission as a sign that Michèle Flournoy, the woman who has been rumored for months to be a shoo-in for Biden’s Pentagon chief, might not have a lock on the job after all.
“While Flournoy is still a strong contender, six people close to the transition say Biden is not entirely sold on the woman who was widely seen as Hillary Clinton’s pick for Defense secretary if she had won the presidency in 2016.
“Two former Obama White House officials who remain close to Biden said he never developed the kind of strong personal relationship with Flournoy that he has sought in his Cabinet picks, and once the dust settled after the election, Biden began leaning toward exploring other options.
“Another top contender is Jeh Johnson, Obama’s fourth secretary of Homeland Security, the people said. He would be the first black Defense secretary in an administration that has promised a diverse Cabinet.”
SMART STORY by BRYAN BENDER and THEO MEYER on WESTEXEC ADVISORS, the little-known consulting firm that BLINKEN and FLOURNOY founded and at which HAINES is a principal.
JOSH GERSTEIN: “Controversial gun advocate hired by Justice Department last month”
ONTO PALM BEACH … ABC: “Secret Service members asked about protecting soon-to-be-former president Trump full time in Florida: Sources,” by John Santucci, Josh Margolin, Katherine Faulders and Aaron Katersky: “As states begin to certify election results that seal a victory for President-elect Joe Biden, even though Donald Trump hasn’t conceded there is one clear sign his post-presidency life is taking shape: Secret Service agents in the president’s detail are being asked whether they’re interested in transferring to Palm Beach, Florida, sources have told ABC News.
“The Secret Service’s Miami field office also has begun looking at physical reinforcements to Mar-a-Largo, the president’s club to which he refers as ‘the winter White House,’ the sources added. These moves are considered unofficial as Trump has yet to concede to Biden.”
WAPO’S MIKE DEBONIS: “‘We’re in the foxhole together’: House Democrats reckon with a diminished majority”: “Following unexpected Election Day setbacks, Democrats could hold as few as 222 seats when the new Congress convenes. That number, just a handful of seats over the majority threshold of 218, will drop further when Rep. Cedric L. Richmond (D-La.) resigns to join the Biden administration as a senior adviser to the president.
“The governing implications for President-elect Joe Biden, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Democratic congressional leaders are stark: Pushing any sort of partisan measure through the House will require near-unanimity inside their party, forcing careful negotiations with various factions of lawmakers and perhaps fewer aspirational ‘messaging’ bills meant to set out Democratic ideals but not necessarily become law.
“Meanwhile, an emboldened Republican minority will look to wreak havoc and magnify internal disputes ahead of the 2022 midterms. Unchastened by Biden’s victory given the GOP House gains, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and other Republican leaders have already signaled they plan to use various procedural feints to frustrate Democrats and sow internal division.”
LATEST ON THE NDAA — “Dem divide over Confederate bases threatens massive defense bill,” by Heather Caygle, Connor O’Brien and Sarah Ferris: “An internal fight over renaming military bases that honor Confederates has broken out among House Democrats — turning pointed and personal in recent days and threatening to doom the popular bipartisan provision.
“All Democrats — and many Republicans — support scrubbing the names of Confederate leaders from military facilities. But the provision in the annual defense policy bill has caused a splinter within the Democratic Caucus as lawmakers weigh what’s more important — axing the language and ensuring the $740 billion bill is passed on time, or forcing the issue, all but guaranteeing a showdown with Republicans and President Donald Trump, who has threatened to veto the bill if it remains. …
“Some Democrats are privately worried that House Armed Services Chair Adam Smith is more concerned with a timely passage of his bill than eliminating a shameful remnant of the nation’s pro-slavery past at a time when America is undergoing a reckoning over racial justice. Smith vehemently disputed this accusation, calling it ‘absolutely not true.’ The Washington state Democrat also underscored the importance of passing the defense policy legislation before the end of the year.
“‘I have no intention whatsoever of dropping this in order to get a bill passed,’ Smith said in an interview Monday. ‘We’ll have to see what offers are made and what’s out there.’”
PLAYBOOK READS
THE CORONAVIRUS CONTINUES TO RAGE … 12.4 MILLION Americans have tested positive for the coronavirus. … 257,701 Americans have died.
— “Thanksgiving could be make-or-break in U.S. virus response,” by AP’s Michael Rubinkam: “As governors and mayors grapple with an out-of-control pandemic, they are ratcheting up mask mandates and imposing restrictions on small indoor gatherings, which have been blamed for accelerating the spread of the coronavirus. But while such measures carry the weight of law, they are, in practical terms, unenforceable, and officials are banking on voluntary compliance instead.
“Good luck with that. While many are undoubtedly heeding public health advice — downsizing Thanksgiving plans, avoiding get-togethers, wearing masks when they’re around people who don’t live with them — it’s inevitable that a segment of the population will blow off new state and local restrictions and socialize anyway. Experts say that could put greater stress on overburdened hospitals and lead to an even bigger spike in sickness and death over the holidays.”
— WAPO: “Coronavirus vaccines face trust gap in Black and Latino communities, study finds,” by William Wan
BEYOND THE BELTWAY — “Bloomberg backs former Miami mayor to lead Florida Democrats,” by Gary Fineout and Marc Caputo: “Former Miami Mayor Manny Diaz, who earned a reputation as a turnaround artist in his home city, is campaigning for an even tougher job: leading the foundering Florida Democratic Party.
“Diaz, who began making calls Friday to gauge support, has the backing of billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who is ready to open his wallet for the party again if Diaz is chair, even after dropping $100 million into a failed state effort to defeat President Donald Trump. Local billionaire Jorge Pérez, who has good relations with former Presidents Barack Obama and Bill Clinton, also has pledged his support.
“‘The idea for me is to rebuild the party by one precinct, one county at a time, bottom up and from the grassroots,’ Diaz said in an interview. ‘I’m going to roll up my sleeves, put my head down and work my butt off.’ Diaz promised to raise the money needed to hire top talent, upgrade the party’s data operation, and turn it into a constant presence to register, engage and turn out voters in communities across the state.”
PLAYBOOKERS
Send tips to Eli Okun and Garrett Ross at politicoplaybook@politico.com.
IN MEMORIAM — “David N. Dinkins, New York’s First Black Mayor, Dies at 93,” by NYT’s Robert McFadden: “Cautious, deliberate, a Harlem Democrat who climbed to City Hall through relatively minor elective and appointive offices, Mr. Dinkins had none of the flamboyance of Edward I. Koch, who preceded him, or Rudolph W. Giuliani, who succeeded him …
“He was a compromise selection for voters exhausted with racial strife, corruption, crime and fiscal turmoil, historians say, and proved to be an able caretaker rather than an innovator of grand achievements. … But the racial amity that was his fondest hope remained a distant dream, and his lapses in responding to the Crown Heights crisis became an insurmountable legacy. Secure in history as the city’s first Black mayor, Mr. Dinkins became a quiet elder statesman in later years.”
TRANSITIONS — Mara Mellstrom has been named chief of staff for Rep.-elect Nancy Mace (R-S.C.). She most recently was Mace’s campaign manager, and is a Doug Ducey alum. … Kirk Bell has been named chief of staff for Rep.-elect Pete Sessions (R-Texas). He most recently was Sessions’ campaign manager, and is a Trump administration alum. … Hope Beaghley is now an associate director for Glover Park Group’s strategic comms team in the food and ag vertical. She most recently was at Porter Novelli in D.C. as an account supervisor on their food team.
ENGAGED — Varun Anand, GM of employee benefits at Newfront Insurance and a Hillary Clinton 2016 campaign alum, proposed to Hannah Smith, who leads West Coast government relations at Grubhub, on Saturday on the cliffs in Mendocino, their favorite place in California. They met in New York three years ago at a going-away party of a mutual friend who worked with Varun on the Clinton campaign and with Hannah on the Obama 2008 campaign. Pic … Another pic
BIRTHWEEK (was Monday): Elizabeth Taylor of the White House turned 24
BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY: Sally Susman, EVP and chief corporate affairs officer at Pfizer. What she’s been reading: “‘A vial, a vaccine and hopes for slowing a pandemic — how a shot comes to be’ by Carolyn Johnson for The Washington Post. Her reporting on the ‘herculean task’ to produce a vaccine shines a spotlight on our manufacturing colleagues on the front lines.” Playbook Q&A
BIRTHDAYS: Alejandro Mayorkas, Joe Biden’s pick for DHS secretary, is 61 … Tyler Goodspeed, acting chair of the Council of Economic Advisers (h/t Rachael Slobodien) … Jared Cohen (h/t Dina Powell McCormick) … former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman, now at the Aspen Institute and Bipartisan Policy Center, is 76 (h/t Doug Farrar) … Krystal Ball is 39 … POLITICO’s Shia Kapos, Kelsey Miller, Darius Tahir, Katie Davis and Sarah Dickson … Tom LoBianco … Rachel Kriegsman … Meaghan Smith, incoming Biosimilars Forum executive director … Ben Burger … Chris Putala, principal of Putala Strategies (h/t wife Allison Kaminsky Putala) … former Rep. Chet Edwards (D-Texas) is 69 … Frank Ahrens … Nikki Clifton, president of social impact and the UPS Foundation … Mark Steitz … Brooke Jamison … Gordon Fischer … John Kamis (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) …
… HHS’ Gary Beck … Rachel Witkin of “Hardball” … NYT’s Marc Santora … AP’s Nasser Karimi … Caleb Ward … Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the Annenberg Public Policy Center at Penn … Ginger Stanley … former White House press secretary Marlin Fitzwater is 78 … Ted Sorrell … Lepi Jha Fishman … Simcha Lyons … Kavya Balaraman … Matt Chisholm … Jordana Merran … Jeff Ballabon … Sherry Ettleson … Alpex International’s Lee Godown (h/ts Jon Haber) … Robin Lyons … Brent Swander … Benjamin Deitchman … Patrick Burchette is 44 … Hugh Grindstaff … Suzy DeFrancis … Chris Crane … Terry Walsh … Maria Ory … Marceline White … Lindsey Schulte … Susan Lyon … Patrick Reimherr … Jonathan Lang … Jed Link … Amanda Anderson … Jim Landry … Dave Rapallo … Meghan Graf … Jeremy Pevner … Jonathan Black … Paul Tagliabue is 8-0 … Ned McCann
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CAFFEINATED THOUGHTS
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PJ MEDIA
The Morning Briefing: Unfortunately, No Kraken Will Be Served for Thanksgiving
Oh Kraken, We Hardly Knew Ye
Happy short week Tuesday, my dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends.
Our little trip through the November 2020 looking glass is heading into Thanksgiving with some twists and turns, isn’t it?
Here at the Morning Briefing, I’ve been a big fan of letting the lawsuits and the recounts play out. I don’t trust Democrats, ever. Yes, I think they cheated in the presidential election. They always cheat. I do think, however, that they were probably able to use the fog of the pandemic to get away with enough in this election to not have the whole thing overturned.
I haven’t been paying attention to each post-election vote count story, largely because my colleagues were doing all of the good work covering them. My role here is mostly to be the verbal bomb-thrower and occasional skeptic. It’s a role I relish.
Some of the stories caught my eye though. For instance, it was difficult to ignore when attorney Sidney Powell vowed to “release the Kraken” and blow the lid off all of the corruption in this election. I was quite intrigued after that and was looking forward to whatever the heck she meant by that.
One does not promise a Kraken, then proceed in a most un-Krakenlike manner, as Powell soon found out.
Late last week, Tucker Carlson called out Powell, which created a firestorm of internecine fighting among conservatives on social media. That wasn’t what I expected, but I admit it was fun to watch.
Things escalated quickly over the weekend, when Trump’s legal team had a public break-up with Powell.
The whole “this thing isn’t going that well” vibe picked up some legitimacy on Monday when Rush Limbaugh wondered where the promised big news was.
In a letter to Joe Biden, General Services Administrator Emily Murphy informed him that certain post-election resources and services would be made available to assist in the event of a transition.
Murphy reiterated her independence in determining to do this, asserting that she never received any pressure or direction from Executive Branch officials to delay her determination.
Say I’m jaded, but I’m beginning to feel that Thanksgiving is going to be decidedly Kraken-free.
It’s obvious that President Trump and his inner circle want this thing to get to the Supreme Court. I won’t pretend for a moment that I can see that path getting any clearer, but as I’ve been writing since last week, I am rather enjoying this grand political theater, especially since it’s bothering the Democrats so much. They’re miserable on their best days, and the refusal of the hardcore Trump supporters to acknowledge the Masked Groper as Dear Leader has really got them agitated. One of my lefty comedian friends tweeted Monday night that she would be nervous until January 20th.
Good.
Now let’s just hope the post-Powell press conferences keep the promises floating somewhere in reality.
Really would have liked to have seen that Kraken though.
A Light in the Darkness
PJM Linktank
Me: Of Course: Doctors Want Us to Know That the COVID-19 Vaccine Side Effects Could Be Awful
OVERRIDE. Ohio Gov. DeWine Vows to Veto Bill Stripping His ‘Ultimate’ COVID Powers
Treacher: Trump Supporter Charged with Assault for Breathing on Protesters
National Association of REALTORS® Is Policing ‘Hate Speech’ Off the Job
Brutal: Watch a New Jersey Woman Confronting the Governor Eating Out With His Maskless Family
Ayatollah you so…Anticipating Biden Coming in, the Iranian Mullahs Let the Good Times Roll
FLASHBACK: Experts Wanted Hillary to Challenge 2016 Election Results, Alleged Hacking
Trump Campaign Gets Legal Victories in Michigan and Pennsylvania
John MacArthur Makes Sense of COVID-19 Abuses, Abortion, America’s ‘Moral Free-Fall’
VIP
#MeToo: Rethinking My Thanksgiving ‘Protest’
VIP Gold
‘Unredacted with Kurt Schlichter’: The Consequences of COVID and the Legal Fight
From the Mothership and Beyond
Elon Musk Overtakes Bill Gates to Grab World’s Second-Richest Ranking
Americans Across the Nation Are Rising Up Against Draconian Lockdowns
The Absurd Reason the AP Put a Target on a Congresswoman-Elect
Gov. Tom Wolf Delivers a Buzzkill to Pennsylvanian’s Thanksgiving Plans
Your life on Democrats. Los Angeles Reached a Grim Milestone Over the Weekend
Yikes: Hundreds of Bodies Are Sitting in Makeshift Morgues in NYC
NBC News: Here’s Why 2020 was a ‘Huge Catastrophe’ for Democrats
‘Back the Blue’ Activists Harassed By Anti-Cop Agitators Outside Omaha Police Station
China launches ambitious mission to bring back samples from the Moon
Black Rifle Coffee Company Thrust Into Rittenhouse Story
Media Warns Of “Battle” Over Gun Control In Texas
How Many Members Of Congress Are Armed On The Job?
Shooting Looters Isn’t Fascism, But Looting And Rioting Is
Cameroon cardinal says he ‘refused to be tortured psychologically’ during kidnapping
Richard Grenell Calls Out CNN Journalist for Liberal Bias, Her Response Ends up Proving His Point
UT-San Antonio Student Booted From Her Sorority Over Pro-Trump Tik Tok Post
Propaganda, Election Fraud and the Death of Journalism
Black Friday Shopping Is Different This Year, Being “Reinvented”
China Claims It Has Succeeded In Eliminating Extreme Poverty
Bloomberg Editorial: Canceling Student Loan Debt Is A Bad Idea
The First Rule Of Sex Club Is…
In New York The Urge To Party Is Stronger Than COVID Restrictions
David Dinkins: New York City’s first black mayor dies
Adam Housley does some digging into that essential birthday party that Gov. Gavin Newsom attended
Are you on Parler? MSNBC thinks you’re fine with hate speech and racism, then
My Hunt for the Original McDonald’s French-Fry Recipe
Bee Me
The Kruiser Kabana
I don’t know who Melba is or why she has fake toast named for her.
___
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PJ Media Senior Columnist and Associate Editor Stephen Kruiser is the author of “Don’t Let the Hippies Shower” and “Straight Outta Feelings: Political Zen in the Age of Outrage,” both of which address serious subjects in a humorous way. Monday through Friday he edits PJ Media’s “Morning Briefing.” His columns appear twice a week.
WHITE HOUSE DOSSIER
THE DISPATCH
The Morning Dispatch: Getting the Vaccines to the People
Plus: Biden makes some key picks for his national security team.
| The Dispatch Staff | 2 hr ago | 6 |
Happy Tuesday! Today would have been William F. Buckley’s 95th birthday. As good a day as any to read Alvin Felzenberg on the founding editor of National Review’s “crusade against the John Birch Society.”
Quick Hits: Today’s Top Stories
- Emily Murphy, head of the Government Services Administration, sent a letter to President-elect Biden yesterday authorizing him and his team to begin a formal transition process. President Trump accepted the move, saying that—while he still believes he will “prevail”—he is “recommending that Emily and her team do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols.” Several hours later, however, he added that his legal fights are “moving full speed ahead” and he “will never concede.”
- A steady stream of Republicans continued to publicly accept the reality of the election results yesterday. Sen. Rob Portman wrote in an op-ed that “there is no evidence as of now of any widespread fraud or irregularities that would change the result in any state.” Fox News’ Laura Ingraham told viewers, “Unless the legal situation changes in a dramatic and frankly unlikely manner, Joe Biden will be inaugurated on January 20.” Trump’s top backer on Wall Street—Blackstone CEO Steve Schwarzman—told Axios “the outcome is very certain today, and the country should move on.” Sen. Shelley Moore Capito wrote that, “at some point, the 2020 election must end” and “if states certify the results as they currently stand, Vice President Joe Biden will be our next president.” Sen. Lamar Alexander said “it seems apparent that Joe Biden will be the president-elect” and encouraged President Trump to concede: “When you are in public life, people remember the last thing you do.”
- Michigan’s State Board of Canvassers on Monday certified President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the state by a vote of 3-0, with one Republican board member abstaining.
- President-elect Biden has reportedly selected former Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen as his nominee for Treasury Secretary. He also announced on Monday his intent to nominate Alejandro Mayorkas to lead the Department of Homeland Security, Avril Haines as his Director of National Intelligence, Jake Sullivan as National Security Adviser, and John Kerry as his administration’s “international climate envoy,” a new post.
- In a sign the business community is preparing for a Biden presidency, General Motors (GM) announced it is withdrawing its support from the Trump administration’s efforts to prevent California from setting its own—stricter—fuel economy standards. In a letter to environmental leaders, GM CEO Mary Barra encouraged other automakers to follow her company’s lead.
- Hong Kong democracy activists Joshua Wong, Agnes Chow, and Ivan Lam pled guilty on Monday to charges of unlawful assembly stemming from their participation in mass street protests in 2019. Wong said he expected to go to jail for potentially five years, although he and the other activists have avoided the life sentence penalty that Hong Kong’s new security law created because their crimes happened before the law was enacted.
- The Justice Department unsealed an indictment yesterday against 15 individuals connected to the South Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey La Cosa Nostra criminal organization, or mafia. The defendants—including “Tony Meatballs,” “Joey Electric,” and “Louie Sheep”—face charges of racketeering conspiracy, illegal gambling, loansharking, extortion, and drug trafficking. There are no charges expected for bad nicknames.
- The United States confirmed 186,148 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday per the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 Dashboard, with 10.3 percent of the 1,801,682 tests reported coming back positive. An additional 905 deaths were attributed to the virus on Monday, bringing the pandemic’s American death toll to 257,651. According to the COVID Tracking Project, 85,836 Americans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19.
Approval, Prioritization, and Distribution, Oh My!
AstraZeneca and the University of Oxford announced yesterday that data from late-stage clinical trials found their COVID-19 vaccine to be between 62 and 90 percent effective depending on the dosage. The vaccine candidate joins two others—one from Pfizer, and one from Moderna—that have reported even higher efficacy figures. Pfizer has already applied for emergency use authorization with the Food and Drug Administration, and Operation Warp Speed scientific adviser Dr. Moncef Slaoui said over the weekend Americans could begin receiving a COVID-19 vaccine as early as December 11 or 12.
With vaccine approval at this point just weeks away—which, we’ll say again, is nothing short of a medical miracle—it’s time to start talking about logistics: How will the vaccine make its way from a lab somewhere into the fleshy part of our upper arms?
Once a vaccine gets the go-ahead from the FDA, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) will hold a public meeting to determine the appropriate nationwide prioritization scheme for vaccine distribution. Shortly after Dr. Robert Redfield—director of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC)—signs off on the recommendations, the distribution process will begin.
And it will be a process. Slaoui told CNN over the weekend that—given the vaccine candidates’ efficacy—approximately 70 percent of the population will need to be vaccinated to reach something resembling herd immunity. Dr. Anthony Fauci said on CBS News Sunday that “we need to get as many people as possible vaccinated.”
That’s a tall order in a country of 330 million people. The efficacy of Pfizer, Moderna, and AstraZeneca’s candidates all rely on two doses being administered, days or weeks apart. “If they’re two dose vaccines, that’s 660 million doses of vaccines,” said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center. “Nobody’s ever even dreamed of doing something like that before.”
Biden’s National Security Team Starts to Come Into Focus
President-elect Joe Biden announced his picks for several key national security positions yesterday, indicating a desire to return to establishment-driven foreign policy with his list of career public servants. But the lineup also had a handful of firsts. If confirmed, Alejandro Mayorkas would be the first Latino and first immigrant to head the Department of Homeland Security; Avril Haines would be the first woman to serve as Director of National Intelligence.
Among the six candidates put forth, all worked in the Obama administration in some capacity. Antony Blinken, the longtime frontrunner to be Biden’s Secretary of State, previously served as deputy secretary of state and deputy national security adviser under Barack Obama. Many observers view his nomination as a restoration of Obama-Biden era multilateralism: Blinken is, for example, expected to return the United States to the Paris Climate Accord, the World Health Organization, and the Iran nuclear deal.
Biden’s pick for National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, played a key role in crafting the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action—the Iran deal—and is likely to push for its revival. Sullivan advised Biden during his tenure as vice president and during the Biden-Harris campaign, making him a natural choice for the position.
The announcements satisfied some on both the left and the right. “Solid choice. Leaders around the world will assume that when Blinken speaks, he speaks for Biden,” Bernie Sanders’ 2020 campaign manager Faiz Shakir said of the Secretary of State nominee. Conservative columnist and radio host Hugh Hewitt called Blinken, Sullivan, and Biden’s nominee for Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield “smart, mainstream, competent professionals.”
Worth Your Time
- Scott Keller—the former solicitor general of Texas (and Sarah’s husband!)—argues in The Wall Street Journal that federal judges should be able to issue nationwide injunctions blocking actions by the executive branch. Courts issued “three times as many nationwide injunctions against the Trump administration in four years as they did throughout all eight years of the Obama administration,” he notes. “Courts should issue nationwide injunctions sparingly,” Keller continues. “When an agency’s action is lawful in some circumstances but not others, courts shouldn’t block the policy categorically across the country. But a court should have the power to enter a nationwide injunction against a federal agency’s action when it is categorically unlawful in all circumstances.”
- Erstwhile Remnant guest Amy Walter’s latest analysis for The Cook Political Report argues that those decrying the recent failure of pollsters are “missing the bigger picture: Trump’s all-base-all-the-time strategy was a failure.” While the Trump campaign succeeded in its goal of turning out just about every Trump supporter possible, it wasn’t enough to get him over the 50 percent line in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin, or Arizona. In the absence of a significant third party candidate this time around, Biden’s improvements on Hillary Clinton’s performance was enough to carry the former vice president—in those states and in the Electoral College. “Yes, the battleground states were close,” Walter concludes. “But, the bottom line was that Trump’s approach turned off more voters than it attracted. And, even improving margins among Latinos in the border counties of Texas didn’t make much of an improvement in Trump’s overall showing in the state.”
- In a piece for Slate, Dan Kois grapples with the very dilemma many of you were discussing in the comments yesterday: How families should think about the holiday season this year. We’re all “weighing risks and emotions at the same time and struggling with how they interact,” he writes, “trying to cope with the inability of our institutions to keep us safe while still attempting to live a life that seems non-terrible.” Visiting relatives for Thanksgiving or Christmas is “a hard decision, no matter how many people try to tell you it’s easy, and the conversations we have to initiate in order to make it are hard, too.”
Presented Without Comment
Toeing the Company Line
- Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue are heavily favored to win their Senate runoffs in early January, which would cement Republicans’ Senate majority under a Biden administration. Before then, however, the two senators have to walk a difficult messaging line: Selling themselves as a last line of defense against Biden to voters who would rather see them fighting to prevent Biden from taking office in the first place. Andrew spent a few days in Georgia reporting on this bizarre phenomenon, and you can read his piece over at the site today.
- Sarah and David were originally slated to be off this week for the holiday, but there was just too much legal news! On Monday’s emergency episode of Advisory Opinions, they bring us up to speed on the Trump legal team’s latest election litigation, which can fairly objectively be referred to as a clown show. Plus, Scott Keller joins the show to spar with David about nationwide injunctions.
Reporting by Declan Garvey (@declanpgarvey), Andrew Egger (@EggerDC), Audrey Fahlberg (@FahlOutBerg), Charlotte Lawson (@charlotteUVA), James P. Sutton (@jamespsuttonsf), and Steve Hayes (@stephenfhayes).
Photograph by Paul Hennessy/NurPhoto/Getty Images.
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LARRY J. SABATO’S CRYSTAL BALL
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ARRA News Service (in this message: 17 new items) |
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- Sixth Circuit: Down Law Is Not Out
- Where Is The Church, A Historic Visit, The Democrat Divide
- Millions in Africa Being Sacrificed to Extreme Poverty, Premature Death on Altar of ‘Green Energy’
- A Time Of Chaos Upon Chaos Atop Chaos
- A Vaccine Miracle — If Democrats & Media Don’t Screw Things Up
- Lockdowns: What’s Performed Better? Government – Or Internet?
- On Coronavirus, We Must Not Allow Politics to Dictate Science
- Broken-hearted
- No Thanksgiving
- Fighting Words – It’s a War.
- Gun Grabbers Demand Unprecedented “Executive Actions”
- When a Business Dies, a Dream Dies With It
- Disparate Outcomes, Desperate Logic
- Justice Alito’s Important Warning
- The Slippery Slope: How the Left Slowly Lulled America to Destruction
- The Election Debacle – Part 2
- Will House Democrats Lose 54 or 63 Seats in 2022?
| Sixth Circuit: Down Law Is Not Out
Posted: 23 Nov 2020 11:16 PM PST
When the ruling came down that Tennessee’s law could take effect, Governor Bill Lee (R) celebrated. “Every life is precious and every child has inherent human dignity,” he tweeted Friday night. “Protecting our most vulnerable Tennesseans is worth the fight.” The law, which he signed into law last June, is one of the strongest in the country. It also puts a stop to people using Down syndrome diagnoses as an excuse to abort a child. The idea that parents can’t destroy a baby for any reason is “deeply upsetting,” Planned Parenthood tweeted. The group’s president, Alexis McGill Johnson, took it a step farther, calling it a “disgrace” that anyone would “waste their time” protecting these babies. Planned Parenthood never met a form of abortion it didn’t want to expand (or force you to pay for), including sex-selection abortion, race-based abortion, birth day abortion, pain-capable abortion, late-term abortion, underage abortion, unsanitary abortion, chemical abortion, and now, disability-based abortion. Anything that rakes in more money is okay by them. And, as they know, Down syndrome tests have been particularly good for business, especially in places like Britain, where 90 percent of all diagnoses lead to abortion. Of course, as most rational people know, this is about more than Down syndrome. It’s about what makes a life valuable and worthy of protection. Moving down this utilitarian road, where people are only as valuable as they are useful, there are no stop signs — and no limits. Today, it’s children with Down syndrome — tomorrow, it’s seniors with dementia. Once you lose the moral foundation that says people have meaning because they’re created in the image of God, anything’s possible. Look at Iceland. Close to 100 percent of the country’s women are choosing to end these pregnancies, because of pressure from the government and doctors to “eradicate” Down syndrome births. “Is it okay to abort a pregnancy,” Fox News’s Tucker Carlson wondered, “if you thought your child was going to grow up to be short? Or prematurely bald? Is there any abortion under any circumstances that’s ever bad? Or even a little bad? Are they all morally neutral — no matter what the cause or stage of pregnancy?” Some people have been led to believe that Down syndrome children and their parents have a poor quality of life. But actually, if you talk to families who’ve been through it, it’s one of the most unexpected blessings of their life. A lot of these moms and dads say their outlook on life was more positive because of their child with Down Syndrome. During Down Syndrome Awareness month in October, Bernie Bradley posted a picture of her daughter, Jinny, on Twitter. “Very frequently when she was born, on the day and afterwards, we heard lots of ‘I’m sorry’ and not ‘Congratulations!’ At the time it didn’t really [hit me] because there was so much else going on — but since then, it’s just become something I’ve discovered has happened to a lot of parents.” Her message to everyone is that these are beautiful, healthy children, so congratulate these families, “Don’t say sorry!” Because as far as she’s concerned, there are no special needs — only special gifts. Family Research Friends Address Rights During Down Syndrome Awareness Month. Tags: Family Research, friends, address rights, Down Syndrome, Awareness month To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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| Where Is The Church, A Historic Visit, The Democrat Divide
Posted: 23 Nov 2020 10:51 PM PST
by Gary Bauer: Where Is The Church? It must also be noted that Newsom and other California politicians are not abiding by the restrictions that they are imposing on the people. So, it’s no surprise that these weekend demonstrations took place. But why is there not an outpouring of Christians seeking to protect their First Amendment rights? How can Walmarts and casinos have more rights than churches and synagogues to be open? The radical secular left is watching, and they are licking their chops. If there is so little fight left in the church, their work is going to be very easy in the years ahead. Meanwhile, there is growing evidence that the past eight months have been a disaster for mental health. From a spike in suicides to higher rates of depression and anxiety, many Americans are suffering from these lockdowns. And while large churches were able to seamlessly switch to Zoom and other online platforms, we may never know how many small churches permanently closed. We may never know how many Christians, deprived of the love and support they derived from their church, are now part of these sad statistics. And what are our children and grandchildren supposed to think when they see patrons of bars and gyms expressing more passion about keeping those establishments open than Christians are about keeping their churches open? Please take a moment in the days ahead to check on someone in your church community or perhaps your own family who you have not heard from in a while. Ask how they are getting along and let them know you are thinking about them. You never know just how much it might mean to them and what a difference it could make in their life. And please encourage your pastor to be bold and unapologetic about the essential services that our houses of worship provide, especially in such trying times. A Historic Visit The Washington Post describes the meeting as a “watershed visit” given the “historically hostile relations” between Israel and Saudi Arabia, and it would represent the first time an Israeli leader has visited the Saudi kingdom. While the Trump Administration has been trying to persuade Saudi Arabia to join Bahrain, Sudan and the United Arab Emirates in the Abraham Accords, Iran was undoubtedly a key topic of discussion at Neom. Whatever differences Israel and Saudi Arabia have, they are united in their efforts to keep Iran’s belligerence in check and ensure that its nuclear program is contained. Joe Biden, however, is unnerving the region. Both Biden and Kamala Harris have been clear about their desire to rejoin the Obama/Biden nuclear deal with Iran. That would give the ayatollah’s rogue regime access to billions of dollars to fund its military and terrorist proxies, which routinely threaten Israel and Saudi Arabia. Further unsettling the situation are reports that Biden has tapped Jake Sullivan to be his national security advisor. It was Sullivan who initiated secret negotiations with Iran in 2012 on behalf of then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. His potential return to government in such a high pro-file position clearly signals that a Biden/Harris Administration will likely make appeasing Iran a centerpiece of its foreign policy strategy. By the way, Sullivan was one of the architects of the Russia collusion hoax. More Radical Appointments Biden announced that he intends to nominate Tony Blinken to be secretary of state, Alejandro Mayorkas to be secretary of homeland security and Avril Haines to be director of national intelligence. Not surprisingly, they are all retreads from the Obama era and can be expected to pursue similar left-wing policies. Blinken’s future appointment does not bode well for a muscular, pro-America foreign policy. He was one of the Biden campaign aides who apologized to Linda Sarsour! If the Biden campaign could not stand up to an anti-Semite like her, how can we expect it to stand up against the world’s thugs and dictators? Biden is also bringing John Kerry back as a special presidential envoy for climate and giving him a seat on the National Security Council. You may recall that John Kerry believes climate change is a more serious threat to our country than terrorism. Do you think climate change is a more serious threat than Iran or Al Qaeda? I guess Biden does because he also named Jeff Prescott and Kelly Magsamen to restructure the National Security Council. Last year, Prescott wrote that climate change was putting “the entire planet on the brink of a meltdown.” And Magsamen condemned President Trump for taking out Iranian terror mastermind Gen. Qassem Soleimani. The Biden team has tapped Richard Stengel to reorganize the Agency for Global Media, which includes Voice of America. But Stengel has a disturbing history of advocating censorship and “hate speech laws.” Ur Jaddou, an aggressive advocate of mass amnesty, is leading the reorganization of the Department of Homeland Security, and is expected to receive a top position there. Patrice Simms has been charged with staffing the Environmental Protection Agency. Simms ran a radical group that filed 110 lawsuits against the Trump Administration and is committed to eliminating fossil fuels. The Democrat Divide Bernie Sanders raised eyebrows last week for suggesting that Biden was insulting the progressive movement with some of his appointments. His remarks stoked another round of media chatter about the divide within the Democrat Party. Let’s be clear about this: There is no serious ideological split in the Democrat Party between the socialists, globalists and the old FDR, JFK party. The whole party is now a globalist, socialist, open borders party. The split we keep hearing about is really just a divide over tactics and strategy. Younger Democrats like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are proud of socialism and believe there’s no reason to hide it. The older Democrats believe the country is still divided about socialism and want to camouflage their radical efforts. We’re going to see in short order how far left the Democrat Party is, and its lurch to the left will accelerate even more if we lose the Georgia runoffs in 43 days. Tags: Gary Bauer, Campaign for Working Families, Where Is The Church, A Historic Visit, The Democrat DivideTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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| Millions in Africa Being Sacrificed to Extreme Poverty, Premature Death on Altar of ‘Green Energy’
Posted: 23 Nov 2020 10:09 PM PST
by Gregory Wrightstone: Obama-era policies that favor so-called green energy over coal-fired electricity are dooming millions of Africans to lives of extreme poverty, environmental degradation, and increased risk of early death, according to a new analysis by the CO2 Coalition. The study by the Arlington, Virginia-based coalition of 60 climate scientists and energy engineers contends that inadequate access to electricity is one of the key reasons for Africa’s grinding poverty. Economic growth in a competitive, global market requires reliable, universal electrification. Without sufficient electricity for heating and cooking, Africans are exposed to high levels of indoor pollution from dirty fuels, the world’s greatest environmental health risk, according to the World Health Organization. The poisons and particulate matter from burning solid fuels kill almost 4 million people a year from pneumonia, heart disease, pulmonary disease, stroke, lung cancer, and a variety of impaired immunities. Half of pneumonia deaths in children under age 5 are from soot in the house. UNICEF estimates that the African share of those 4 million untimely deaths is 400,000. Dangerous levels of indoor air pollution are almost guaranteed for families without access to electricity. They also report that 352 million African children live in homes with solid-fuel cooking. Millions of women and children continue to walk many miles a day to gather not just water, but also wood for indoor burning, adding to deforestation. The illnesses, deaths, and misery that are the result of energy poverty in Africa are improving only slowly compared with the rest of the world. In 1960, those living in China and sub-Saharan Africa had a nearly equal life expectancy, 44 years. Today, China is at 77, which is only slightly less than the U.S. figure of 79. Regrettably, the African average is 61, better than it was 60 years ago, but still lagging behind much of the rest of the world. According to the new research, that means that the 1 billion sub-Saharan Africans have a combined loss of 16 billion years of life compared with the Chinese. Extreme generational poverty in sub-Saharan Africa is endemic, with 41% of the population living in absolute poverty, defined by the World Bank as an income of less than $1.40 per day. A lack of access to reliable electricity is one of the primary reasons for this lack of economic growth. Even in electrified areas of Africa, access is not reliable, since the grid is often down, sometimes on a daily basis. That has led to a “dieselization” of the continent in recent decades. Soot-spewing diesel-fueled backup generators are in place for homes of the wealthy, factories, and government buildings. The reliance on this dirty source of power is so great that it’s estimated that many African nations spend more on diesel generation than on the electricity grid itself. Is the answer to this energy poverty a complete reliance on wind and solar power? Not at all, as the unreliability of renewables would mean even more blackouts and brownouts, leading to even more “dieselization.” The solution for providing dependable, affordable electricity may lie beneath the Africans’ feet in the form of cheap, abundant coal reserves that could be developed using American clean coal technology. South Africa controls nearly 70% of the continent’s reserves, but substantial coal deposits are also found in East Africa and in the Sahel of West Africa. More than 100 new coal-fired plants are on the drawing board in 11 African nations, and almost half of those are being financed and built by China. In spite of Africa’s deadly health crisis, the World Bank now bars lending to maintain or build new coal-fired power plants. Instead, it is lending to countries to assist them in closing mines and replacing the existing power plants with renewables. According to Akinwumi Adesina, the African Development Bank’s president, “Coal is the past, and renewable energy is the future.” He added: “There’s a reason God gave Africa sunlight.” But that’s exactly the wrong formula. No matter who sits in the Oval Office after Jan. 20, the president should consider rolling back the restrictions on African energy development to improve the lives of millions of our African brothers and sisters. Tags: Gregory Wrightstone, Millions in Africa, Being Sacrificed, to Extreme Poverty, Premature Death, on Altar of ‘Green Energy’ To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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| A Time Of Chaos Upon Chaos Atop Chaos
Posted: 23 Nov 2020 09:36 PM PST There is a series of battles to come in January 2021, in 2022, and in 2024 that will be definitive, if the chaos of 2020 does not become even more chaotic.
by Dr. Victor Davis Hanson: America will weather its current hysterias.
But the tensions and furor are reminiscent of the last generations of the Roman Republic. In its last century, Romans began to adjudicate politics by obsequious partisan town criers (their version of our media), mass demonstrations, and freelance street gangs. Looters, arsonists, and demonstrators did pretty much as they pleased in the streets of Rome without fear of legal consequences. In our time, the media has now vanished—kaput, no more, ended. Within a few hours, it goes from a Ministry-of-Truth love session with Joe Biden to a steaming verbal assault on the president’s press secretary—without a shred of awareness how ridiculous they appear in their passive-aggressive schizophrenia. The only constant is that reporters unapologetically seem to jettison their principles and professionalism to calibrate what they say and do by whose politics they support. They would prefer to be entirely discredited under a Biden presidency than be real journalists during a Trump Administration. The current unspoken subtext of the media-progressive party fusion line is the following: It would be a felonious crime should conservatives now dare to disrupt a transition in the manner that the Left did in 2016. They should not dare to sue about voting machines in key states as did the Clinton surrogate Jill Stein. They would never attempt, in 2016 fashion, to sabotage the Electoral College voting by appealing to constitutionally appointed electors, or surveille top Biden campaign and transition officials and coordinate such monitoring inside the Trump Oval Office. The point of the Steele dossier, the Russian collusion hoax, the calls for future impeachment even during the Trump transition, the abuse of the foreign intelligence surveillance courts and the weaponization of the FBI, CIA, and Justice Department was to weaken the Trump campaign, to disrupt the Trump transition, and to wound fatally the Trump presidency. For the architects, abettors, and enablers of those past efforts now to accuse Trump officials of adhering to what they created on a massive scale is comic. Even more importantly, the media poorly prepared the nation for their envisioned Biden presidency. To foster that agenda, journalists have done enormous damage to the country. The bias inherent in Silicon Valley’s monopoly of the internet and social media communications was poorly disguised in efforts to aid the progressive effort. It is a matter now of only when, not if, these trusts and monopolies will be regulated and broken up. There will still be half-hearted defenses of episodic accurate polling at the national or state level. But these pleas will be in vain, given that by and large, pollsters, as in 2016, did not just get the critical state voting wrong but predictably wrong in a predictable direction for predictable purposes. In pursuit of short-term gain, pollsters irrevocably ruined their reputations. A frail Joe Biden was never fully vetted. Rather, he was protected and sheltered by the media. Now 330 million Americans will see whether cognitively he is up to impromptu press conferences, 18-hour days, tough negotiations with opportunistic foreign leaders, and the demands of traversing the country to rally both the country and his party adherents. A media that fed 25th Amendment hysterias during the Trump administration will have to pivot, and now declare any such talk absurd—lest Biden be subjected to the same sort of Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test that Trump aced. The disturbing revelations about the Bidens and Burisma in October were never covered. As a result, for the duration of the Biden Administration, Hunter Biden will remain an object of scrutiny and investigation, along with many of his now angry associates who feel betrayed and are ready either to talk of their misplaced loyalty or broker ways out of their complicity. Who knows how long the media, without their ratings propped up by the Trump bogeyman, will ignore the buzz of a Biden familial syndicate—with a Kamala Harris always waiting in the wings. So no one knows to what degree further revelations will emerge about Biden family corruption—only that all these allegations have heretofore not just been ignored but deliberately smothered by the media. And that is not a sustainable effort. The smell of scandal will linger throughout the Biden presidency. After the 2017 machinations to lever Robert Mueller and his dream team into power, few on the Left can ever credibly decry a possible appointment of a disinterested special prosecutor to look into Hunter Biden and familial associates. If Trump were to follow in the spirit of his enemies’ own protocols, what should he do—appoint a special counsel to look into the Bidens, with a Trumpian twist of pardoning the incoming president in advance for any crimes that emerge? But most importantly, Americans have no idea of what the latest incarnation of Joe Biden will bring. Biden gave only scripted and teleprompted bromides from his basement. The media never pressed him to be clear on issues like the China reset, the Middle-East recalibration, fracking, the Green New Deal, reparations, the wall and open borders, proposed tax increases, and on and on. So the country has little warning whether the Biden Administration will be guided by the hard Left agenda of Kamala Harris, “the squad,” or Senators Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—or stung by the rejection of progressive extremism in the congressional elections and the close presidential race enough to move to the center. Will Biden pursue or give up notions of ending the Electoral College, packing the court, admitting in new states, ending the Senate filibuster, neutering the Second Amendment, and other assorted radical promises? Whatever he decides will disappoint his leftwing BLM/socialist base, swing-state terrified congressional Democrats—and likely the bewildered American people. What About the GOP? First, the good news is that they picked up a dozen or so House seats—when they were forecast to lose at least five more. They are in position, with luck and work, to hold the Senate. Conservatives saw Trump come within a few thousand strategically placed votes of winning the Electoral College on election night. Add all that up—along with the MAGA inclusion of a new middle-class Republican constituency that seeks to transcend race, and the quiet but growing public disgust at the lawlessness, violence, and racism of Antifa and BLM—and 2022 could see a repeat of the prairie-fire shake up of 2010. And this time the House Republicans would have better chances of institutionalized rather than transitory advantage. But there are fissures in the party. The NeverTrumpers feel their efforts to sabotage Trump changed minds among white males with college degrees—the one key constituency that Trump seems to have done less well with than in 2016. And emboldened by this tiny supposed triumph, they are trying to recapture the Republican Party for an ossified McCain-Romney-Bush establishment. As they gyrate from snark to whine, they never have had any self-awareness that their case for significance would always be as polarizing to conservatives as their prior pitying admissions of irrelevance. Meanwhile Trump’s once-solid ranks may be in danger of fracturing. Half believe that not just his long-term legacy, but also his short-term utility in winning Georgia are endangered by unsubstantiated claims of a stolen “landslide” victory of a 70 percent majority and 400-some Electoral College votes. Of course, Trump supporters are furious over the weaponization of polling, and the violations of the voting laws of state legislatures that led to irregularities, controversies, and suspicious data, endemic with massive mail-in voting. But they are not assured that either episodic or systematic skullduggery automatically translates into a provable case that Trump won the election, much less won by historical proportions involving fraud of the sort never witnessed in past elections. The other half is convinced of just such a “landslide” victory taken from Trump by computerized trickery and engineered through a vast coverup and conspiracy, again the greatest political scandal in American history. The challenge is not only that many of the advocates of this vast corruption of computer voting—well beyond what was needed to overturn small Biden margins in the swing states—have so far not produced evidence at all commensurate with their astounding claims. Rather, the rub is also that to do so requires implicit trust that their allegations will eventually be proven accurate over weeks if not months of litigation and media frenzy—a bridge too far for most Trump supporters. But in the world of politics and perceptions, if the Kraken is really not to be birthed as a canary, overwhelming data should be produced immediately, given the arena is not just electoral and legal but now political. Then there remains the rendezvous with reality on January 5 in Georgia. The Republicans, despite likely being outspent, so often censored on social media, on the receiving end of traditional media and polling biases, and suspicions about the integrity of Georgia’s glitchy computerized voting systems and recent mass new registrations, can still win the two Senate races and hold the Senate, the last redoubt against the resurgence of neo-socialism. But that hardscrabble effort will require party unity. It will be achieved, first, by the base’s support for Trump’s three weeks of initial legitimate complaints about the will of legislatures being unconstitutionally overturned that might have had ramifications in close-call states. Yet, second, the people will also harbor simultaneous reluctance to join the current furor of his self-appointed legal team, without overwhelming evidence that a conspiracy robbed Trump of a gigantic victory, supposedly due to computer hackers, coders, leftists, foreign meddlers, corporate renegades, corrupt bureaucrats, and progressive operators acting in close concert. Trump the Kingmaker? If Trump can do that, hold the Senate, reunite the MAGA ranks, and abort crazy ideas about packing the court and ending the Electoral College, then he will be a virtual kingmaker for the foreseeable future. It will be his call alone whether he wants to pursue a Grover Cleveland-like second term, or institutionalize his recalibration of the Republican Party throughout future Senate, House, and local elections—or both. But again, all that is jeopardized, if Trump’s ad hoc legal team does not produce overwhelming evidence early within a day or two of fraud unmatched in U.S. history, and instead seeks to win through elector reselection and congressional intervention—and thereby loses the people. That is not a partisan, but an empirical observation and assessment—and I accept that it will not please many fellow Trump supporters. Nonetheless, the American people are trending toward the Trump agenda that is winning despite the overwhelming odds against it. Even the combined efforts of Wall Street, academia, the media, Silicon Valley, the corporate boardrooms, the Washington government establishment, entertainment, and professional sports cannot beat an angry and mistreated people–if they are united. The Trump base has won without all of the above, and will win without emulating the Left’s tactics of street brawling, mass violence, looting, and arson. Nor has it sought to undermine the federal courts, abuse the intelligence services, warp the Justice Department, or welcome the help of the retired officer corps or anonymous sleeper opponents within the bureaucracy. It was the self-righteous Obama, not the much pilloried Trump, who sought extra-legal means to monitor his opponents, weaponize the government, and likely violate the law. There is a series of battles to come in January 2021, in 2022, and in 2024. And they can be won and will be definitive, if the chaos of 2020 does not become even more chaotic. Tags: Victor Davis Hanson, A Time Of, Chaos Upon Chaos, Atop Chaos, American GreatnessTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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| A Vaccine Miracle — If Democrats & Media Don’t Screw Things Up
Posted: 23 Nov 2020 09:05 PM PST
On the Sunday shows, Slaoui consistently said 70 percent of Americans should be vaccinated within six months. And that, he explained, means that transmission of the virus would fall through the floor, even as everyone resumes their normal lives. That assumes that the two “finished” vaccines get OKs by the Food and Drug Administration this month, and that production and distribution don’t somehow get screwed up. And, sigh, that irresponsible politicization doesn’t interfere. As Slaoui noted, all the Warp Speed work to set up vaccine distribution has been “isolated from the administration, from the political environment and the political context. We work very hard to make sure that’s the case. And, therefore, all the decisions are made, the train is running.” He didn’t single out naysayers like Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who’s been irresponsibly attacking the distribution plans, pretending they’re somehow tainted by the mere existence of President Trump and ignoring the fact that state health departments have a huge say in who gets the vaccine when. Then again, anti-Trump prejudice has been a factor from the start. All the way back in May, after Trump announced that a vaccine by year’s end was a real possibility, the usual media suspects dumped cold water on the idea. One NBC story that month, for example, insisted, “Experts say that the development, testing and production of a vaccine for the public is still at least 12 to 18 months off, and that anything less would be a medical miracle.” In fact, the president pushed relentlessly for results — getting unprecedented funding for the effort, and kicking bureaucrats who normally would’ve stood in the way. Oh, and bringing in nonpolitical experts such as Slaoui, the former vaccine chief for pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline, and four-star US Army Gen. Gustave Perna, a logistics specialist, to lead the effort. There’s your miracle, media and the Democrats. Don’t stand in the way now. Tags: Coronavirus, NY Post editorial, vaccineTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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| Lockdowns: What’s Performed Better? Government – Or Internet?
Posted: 23 Nov 2020 08:47 PM PST
Big Government forcing us to hide from a virus – under our beds at home, wearing completely ineffective masks, etc – doesn’t make the virus go away. It will still be here when we decide to stop being idiots and return to regularity. Democrats are doing to the China Virus – what they did to the Great Depression. Elongating and deepening the national suffering with mass, senseless, spasmodic government actions. The only way to get through these respective problems – was/is straight through these respective problems. With the China Virus – with any virus – that means herd immunity: “Herd immunity, or community immunity, is when a large part of the population of an area is immune to a specific disease. If enough people are resistant to the cause of a disease, such as a virus or bacteria, it has nowhere to go. “While not every single individual may be immune, the group as a whole has protection. This is because there are fewer high-risk people overall. The infection rates drop, and the disease peters out. “Herd immunity protects at-risk populations. These include babies and those whose immune systems are weak and can’t get resistance on their own.” At-risk populations? CDC Data Shows High Virus Survival Rate: 99%-Plus for Ages 69 and Younger, 94.6% for Older Governments have spent the last eight months murdering what was likely the best economy in US history – in the name of a disease from which almost everyone recovers. Here’s a thought – that’s actually Constitutional: If you’re at-risk – you can, if you wish, stay home and/or wear a mask. While the rest of us go out and kill the virus for you. In fact, the more hyperactive a government has been in the name of the virus – the worse that part of the country has done with the virus. Cuomo’s COVID-19 Panic Killed Thousands In Nursing Homes NYC Dead Stay in Freezer Trucks Set Up During Spring Covid-19 Surge Andrew Cuomo: ‘This Virus Came From Europe’ Not China That’s NY Governor Andrew Cuomo. Who will win an Emmy for being so good at this China Virus thing. Big Entertainment – excellent at telling tale tales – insists on defending Big Government when doing the same. COVID-19 Death Rates Reveal the States that Failed the Test: New York and New Jersey Here’s some more morbid bemusement. Big Media has throughout also attempted to defend Big Government. Coronavirus: California’s COVID-19 Deaths Continue to Plummet – October 14, 2020 Except…oops. Coronavirus: Deaths Rise as California Records Another Near-Record for New Cases of COVID-19 – November 20, 2020 Do Big Government Lockdown figures lock down themselves – as they do us? Heavens no. Photos Show Unmasked Gavin Newsom Attending French Laundry Dinner Pelosi Used Shuttered San Francisco Hair Salon for Blow-Out, Owner Calls It ‘Slap in the Face’ Chicago Mayor’s Lockdown Orders Criticized After She Joined Biden Celebration Crowd If you hadn’t taken the time necessary (about three minutes) to get up to speed on virology to know that what Big Government is doing about the virus is inordinately stupid? You can with moral certitude know it is inordinately stupid – because the Big Government people doing it to us aren’t doing it themselves. Remember this from the flick Erin Brockovich – where she is helping sue a power company for poisoning the town of Hinkley, California? While meeting with opposing counsel….: “We had that water brought in special for you folks. Came from a well in Hinkley.” In the movie, no opposing counsel drank a drop. In what now passes for real life, Big Government China Virus Lockdown clowns are guzzling theirs like its Acqua di Cristallo Tributo a Modigliani ($60,000 per 750 ml). Oh: And, of course, all these Big Government Lockdown types – want to lock down the Internet exactly as they have We the Sheeple. For the exact same reason: We the Sheeple aren’t supposed to be free to say and do what we wish. Biden COVID-19 Adviser: Bring On the Lockdowns Biden Calls for National Mask Mandate And…. Biden’s Grand Plan for the Internet: Restore Net Neutrality, Create Municipal Broadband But has been proven for…ten thousand years of human history – government “grand plans” always turn out to be TERRIBLE. Five-Year Plans for the National Economy of the Soviet Union: “(A) series of nationwide centralized economic plans in the Soviet Union, beginning in the late 1920s. The Soviet state planning committee Gosplan developed these plans based on the theory of the productive forces that formed part of the ideology of the Communist Party for development of the Soviet economy. Fulfilling the current plan became the watchword of Soviet bureaucracy.” Meanwhile, during the lockdowns – how has our pretty-much-government-free private sector Internet performed? Big Media was setting the table – to assault the private Internet were it to fail even a little. The Coronavirus Is Creating an ‘Enormous Stress Test’ of America’s Internet – March 17, 2020 Some of us weren’t worried. Coronavirus: Nation’s Internet Providers Have Made #SelfDistancing Telework a Piece of Cake – March 17, 2020 And almost immediately, we were proven correct. China Virus Lockdown Proves US Internet is Better, Stronger and Faster Than Europe’s – March 24, 2020 And why were we correct? China Virus Breaks Europe’s Internet – Not the US’s. Why? Uber-Regs Like Net Neutrality – March 31, 2020 Our Internet is far less afflicted with Big Government. The exact sort of Big Government the Big Government Lockdown clowns are looking to impose. Oh: And “municipal broadband” – is government-run broadband. And this idiotically incorrect headline to the contrary – there’s already been a whole lot of it…attempted. And how has that been going? “For decades, local governments have made promises of faster and cheaper broadband networks. Unfortunately, these municipal networks often don’t deliver or fail, leaving taxpayers to foot the bill. Explore the map to learn about the massive debt, waste and broken promises left behind by these failed government networks.” Shutdowns Yet Again Demonstrate: Our Internet Works – and States’ Big Government Doesn’t So in conclusion, since the China Virus arrived upon our shores: Big Government has murdered a $22 trillion economy. By forcing everyone to stay at home. In direct opposition to everything we know from science. Which forced everyone to use our private sector Internet orders-of-magnitude more than ever before. And our private sector Internet has responded brilliantly. Seamlessly allowing all of us to do…everything we have attempted to do online. And Big Government’s response to all of this? They want to make the Internet – look MUCH more like Big Government. Which – like with the China Virus – is exactly the opposite of what should happen. Tags: Seton Motley, Less Government, Lockdowns, What’s Performed Better, Government, Or InternetTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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| On Coronavirus, We Must Not Allow Politics to Dictate Science
Posted: 23 Nov 2020 07:56 PM PST
by Ron Paul: In these past couple of weeks, two important studies have been published that could dramatically increase our understanding of the Covid-19 disease. Adding to the science of how we understand and treat this disease is something that should be welcomed, because properly understood it can save lives. The only problem is that because the results from these two studies challenge what the media has established as conventional wisdom about the disease, the reports are at best being ignored and at worst being openly distorted by the mainstream media. This is in my view a dangerous and foolish subjugation of science to politics and it may well end up causing many more unnecessary deaths. First is the Danish mask study, which was completed several months ago but was only recently published in a peer-reviewed journal. The study took two groups and gave the first group masks to wear with instruction on how they should be used. The other group was the mask-free control group. The study found that coronavirus spread within the statistical margin of error in each group. In other words, wearing the mask did little if anything to control the spread of the virus. As the wearing of masks is still being mandated across the country and the globe, this study should be reported as an important piece of counter-evidence. At the very least it might be expected to invite a rush of similar studies to refute or confirm the results. However, while mostly ignored by the media, when it was covered the spin on the study was so strange that the conclusion presented was opposite to the findings. For example, the Los Angeles Times published an article with the headline, “Face mask trial didn’t stop coronavirus spread, but it shows why more mask-wearing is needed.” Similarly, a massive new study conducted in Wuhan, China, and published in the respected scientific journal Nature, reports that asymptomatic persons who have tested positive for Covid-19 do not pass on the infection to others. Considering that mask mandates and lockdowns are all based on the theory that asymptomatic “positive cases” can still pass on the sickness, this is potentially an important piece of information to help plan a more effective response to the virus. At the least, again, it should stimulate additional, far-reaching studies to either confirm or deny the Wuhan study. We do know, based on information from widely-accepted sources as the CDC and World Health Organization, that lockdowns can have a very serious negative effect on society. On July 14th, CDC Director Robert Redfield told a seminar that lockdowns are causing more deaths than Covid. So if there is a way to continue fighting Covid and protecting those most at risk while drastically reducing deaths related to lockdowns, isn’t this worth some consideration? Isn’t this worth at least some further research? Well, not according to the mainstream media. They have established their narrative and they are not about to budge. The two studies are fatally flawed, they report. Of course that might be the case, but isn’t that an argument to attempt to replicate the studies to prove it? That would be the scientific approach. Sadly, “trust the science” has come to mean “trust the narrative I support.” That is a very dangerous way of thinking and can prove to be deadly. Tags: Ron Paul, On Coronavirus, We Must Not Allow Politics, to Dictate ScienceTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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| Broken-hearted
Posted: 23 Nov 2020 07:00 PM PST . . . Blue State Governors appear eager to kill off small businesses with the use of COVID shutdowns.
 Tags: AF Branco, editorial cartoon, Broken-hearted, Blue State Governors, appear eager, to kill off, small businesses, COVID shutdownsTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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| No Thanksgiving
Posted: 23 Nov 2020 06:45 PM PST . . . Governor Walz is very popular among life-loving turkeys this year as he tries to shutdown thanksgiving.
Tags: AF Branco, editorial cartoon, No Thanksgiving, Governor Walz, very popular among life-loving turkeys, tries to shutdown, thanksgivingTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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| Fighting Words – It’s a War.
Posted: 23 Nov 2020 06:29 PM PST
Democrat radicals know what they want and where they are going. As a result, they are tactically and organizationally years ahead of patriotic Americans who are only beginning to realize they are in a war. The Democrats’ plan to steal the 2020 election was hatched many years ago when Democrats launched their first attacks on Voter I.D.s, and then every effort to secure the integrity of the electoral system. Those attacks metastasized into an all-out assault on Election Day itself with early- and late-voting grace periods, and a flood of 92 million mail-in ballots, hundreds of thousands of which were delivered in the middle of the night to be counted behind the backs of Republican observers after Election Day had passed. The result of these efforts is that Election Day no longer really exists as a day when the votes are cast and counted. This is a fact that offers generous opportunities for the election saboteurs to do their work. Those saboteurs’ opportunities were greatly enhanced this year with the installation in battle ground states of voting machines specifically designed to calculate how many votes were required to steal an election and then to switch ballots already cast and deliver them to the chosen party. Mail-in ballots were indispensable to the realization of this plan. I will not dwell at length on the years it took the Republican Party, and American patriots, to recognize what the Democrat Party had become or the threat it posed to our country as an enemy within. Suffice it to say that Republicans can still be heard referring to Democrats as “liberals” when it is obvious even to them that there is nothing liberal about their principles or methods. They are vindictive bigots who are actively destroying the First Amendment in our universities, on the Internet and in our once but no longer free press. Suffice it to note that while Democrats accuse Republicans including the President of being racists and traitors, the response of Republican leaders is this: “Oh, the Democrats are just playing politics.” This is not “playing” people. It is war. They are trying to kill us politically, and we need to respond accordingly, to fight fire with fire. Today’s Democrat Party is a party of character assassins and racists. Republicans know this but are reluctant to say it. That is how a pathological liar and corrupt political whore like Joe Biden can accuse the choice of 73 million Americans of being a white supremacist and also murdering 220,000 corona virus patients. That’s why Biden and his gunslingers can do so with no consequences – without so much as a wrist slap – from “moderates” and independents, who know better. The Democrats’ ability to intimidate well-meaning Americans is that great. Is this too blanket a condemnation? Where, then, is the Democrat who was outraged by the four-year Russia collusion hoax and the failed coup and impeachment attempts – all of which accused the president, without a shred of evidence, of treason? Where was the Democrat who dissented from the public lynching of an exemplary public servant, Justice Brett Kavanaugh, over an incident that never happened 37 years ago at a time when he was a high school kid? Where is the Democrat who has condemned the violent street criminals of Antifa and Black Lives Matter who got away with conducting the most destructive civic insurrection in American history, orchestrating mayhem and disrespect for the law that led to the murders of scores of people who happen to have been mainly black? What follows is a basic vocabulary for understanding the political war that has engulfed us. When it is used by enough Americans who love their country, it will cancel the surreal universe that Democrats’ lies have imposed on us, and the war will be on its way to being won. Democrats are not democrats; they are totalitarians. They have declared war on the First Amendment, the Second Amendment, the Electoral College, the Senate, the Supreme Court, the election system, and the idea of civil order. They have called for the Republican President of the United States to be de-platformed and jailed. Their obvious goal is a one-party state that criminalizes dissent. To them, support for such basic necessities as borders and law enforcement are racist. If you oppose their efforts to legalize infanticide, they will condemn you as enemies of women, and if you make videos of their confessions to selling body parts of murdered infants, they will – like Kamala Harris – throw you in jail. Progressives are not progressive; they are reactionaries. They are out to abolish liberal value systems and create a status hierarchy where race, gender, and sexual orientation define and confine you to an unalterable place in their new social order. If you are white or male or heterosexual or religious – Justice Kavanaugh was all four – you are guilty before the fact. But if you are a member of a designated (but increasingly imaginary) “victim” group you are innocent even when the facts show you are guilty – like the reprehensible female who lied to Congress in a calculated attempt to destroy Kavanaugh’s life and career. If you are a member of a “victim” group you have an unlimited license to persecute others. Thus, the LGBTQ lobby is currently behind a nation-wide crusade to strip Christians of their First Amendment rights and criminalize their religion. They use their victim status to leverage their hate of people who don’t embrace their agendas, and deploy it to crush them – and only Republicans seem to care. Identity politics is a pure form of racism, yet Trump is the only Republican I’m aware of who has had the political spine to call a Democrat a racist. Identity “wokism” is a totalitarian politics because it encompasses every aspect of life, down to the pronouns one is ordered to use. The progressive police state will leave no space free. Racists and aspiring totalitarians are what Democrats have become. The only moral principle they are guided by is the old Bolshevik saw, “the ends justify the means.” They will say anything however false and condone anything, however criminal, which advances their goal of maximum power. Since race is the principal weapon wielded by Democrats, this is most evident in their claim that there is “systemic racism” in America, which needs to be rooted out even if it means destroying the very foundations of law and order. When two Republican canvassers refused to certify the election result in Detroit – a city once the richest in America but now mainly black and poor thanks to fifty-nine years of misrule by Democrats – they were accused of “systemic racism.” This charge and the accompanying threats by the Democrat mob were so intimidating the two withdrew their objections. But if there was in fact election fraud in Detroit, to object to it is not by any stretch of the imagination “systemic racism.” To believe otherwise is to believe that black people, due to their skin color, are incapable of committing election fraud. How racist is that? “Systemic racism” is an assertion made reflexively by Democrats that is never accompanied by evidence. For good reason. Systemic racism has been outlawed in America since the Civil Rights Act of 1964. If there were actual instances of systemic racism in 2020, there would be lawsuits – plenty of them. Even making the racist assumption, which the Identity Politics crowd does make, that all white people are white supremacists by dint of their skin color, there are tens of thousands of black lawyers, prosecutors, district attorneys, attorneys general, and elected officials who would be filing lawsuits over a practice that is illegal. You never hear of massive lawsuits over systemic racism, because “systemic racism” is a myth. The myth lives because it is an indispensable weapon wielded by Democrats to advance their anti-democratic agendas and quests for power. But the only reason Democrats are able to do this so successfully – even going so far as to justify the arson, looting and general destruction in more than 600 American cities this summer – is because Republicans, and conservatives generally, are too cowardly to confront them. This war will continue until patriotic Americans summon the courage to call Democrats the racists, liars, character assassins and aspiring totalitarians that they actually are. And to do so in so many words. Blowback works. Tags: David Horowitz. Fighting Words, It’s a WarTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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| Gun Grabbers Demand Unprecedented “Executive Actions”
Posted: 23 Nov 2020 06:10 PM PST
A recent article in Michael Bloomberg’s gun control propaganda arm, The Trace, detailed what it called “7 Ways Biden Could Go It Alone on Gun Violence Prevention.” The article noted that the would-be president’s own website states, “Joe Biden … knows how to make progress on reducing gun violence using executive action.” “Executive action” in this case means legally-binding steps the president asserts he can take without the Congress actually enacting or amending specific laws. Of course, it’s the constitutional duty of the president to “take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.” But that merely begs the question of what is a legitimately “faithful” interpretation of the law. One possible clue that an interpretation of the law is not faithful is when the executive branch suddenly finds a completely novel, and notably expansive, reach to a law that has been on the books for many years. This clue is even stronger when the impacts of this reinterpretation would be felt mainly by the executive’s political opposition. Judged by these standards, the gun grabbers are clearly goading Biden to act as a monarch instituting decrees out of whole cloth, and not merely as an administrator of existing rules. After all, then Vice-President Biden was supposedly the point man for the gun control push Barack Obama launched during his second term. Obama has made a point of repeatedly emphasizing how lack of “progress” on gun control was the most frustrating and anger-inducing aspect of his presidency. The Obama-Biden administration spent years searching for ways to unilaterally clamp down on Americans’ access to firearms. Now, however, gun controllers are suggesting that even more, and more dramatic, executive actions against firearms and their owners were somehow left on the table as lawful options. The Trace article linked to a letter from a coalition of gun control groups suggesting various ways the “Biden-Harris Transition Team” could supposedly use executive authority to diminish the right to keep and bear arms. Among the dozens of proposals were some that are largely symbolic and unlikely to do much of anything. But others would effectively change longstanding principles of law and even criminalize the possession of firearms that law-abiding Americans currently obtain and own legally. Obama, for example, was heavily pressured to pursue “universal background checks” by making casual, infrequent sales of firearms subject to a federal firearms dealer’s license. Yet that was a bridge too far even for the Obama ATF. The agency instead released “guidance” on the issue that did not establish the specific numerical trigger for licensing gun controllers had demanded, instead focusing on the “specific facts and circumstances of [the seller’s] activities.” The gun control coalition, however, hopes Biden will be more aggressive, urging him to “[f]urther clarify which gun sellers must obtain a federal firearms license from ATF.” Their letter additionally calls for an outright ban on “ghost guns.” While it doesn’t explain or define this term, it is frequently used by the media and other gun control advocates to describe unserialized firearms, including those that Americans make for their own lawful use. Any attempt to ban such homemade firearms, which have been a lawful aspect of American gun culture since before the nation’s founding, would be clear overreach. The Trace article goes even further, urging Biden to instruct ATF to reclassify popular firearms currently owned by millions of Americans as regulated under the National Firearms Act, which requires special government permission and taxation for making, transfer, and possession. This suggestion was based, in turn, on a proposal by the leftist Center for American Progress. The guns mentioned include braced pistols and shotguns with bird’s head-style grips like the Mossberg Shockwave or the Remington TAC-14. Should such reclassification occur, these millions of gun owners would suddenly be in felony possession of firearms they had previously obtained legally and in good faith. While it’s possible an “amnesty” could be declared – perhaps allowing the owners to register and obtain tax stamps for their guns or even just to surrender them without prosecution – there’s no guarantee this would be the case. Yet even the best-case scenario would still have the gun owners declaring themselves as such to a hostile and disapproving federal government and paying a $200 tax for each newly-classified firearm. Should any of these scenarios come to pass, persecuted gun owners would have nowhere to turn but the courts. Fortunately, as the NRA has noted repeatedly, one of President Trump’s most enduring legacies has been his progress in reshaping the federal judiciary with appointees who are dedicated to the rule of law and the original meaning of the U.S. Constitution. Whether this backstop will curb the gun-grabbing ambitions of a possible Biden-Harris administration remains to be seen. But as The Trace article makes clear, their supporters and funders in the gun-ban lobby remain as insistent and unhinged as ever. Tags: NRA-ILA, Gun Grabbers, Demand Unprecedented, “Executive Actions”To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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| When a Business Dies, a Dream Dies With It
Posted: 23 Nov 2020 05:48 PM PST
by Frank McCaffrey: It was November of 2016 and I had just been flown down to the Rio Grande Valley on the southern tip of Texas. I had been working in Upstate New York at WICZ-TV. A local TV station, KRGV, brought me down to “The Lone Star State” to anchor the 2016 election and then cover the news on the border. Life in south Texas was different from life in Upstate New York. I have to admit, it would be an understatement to say I was experiencing some culture shock. I was in a place that was 85 percent Hispanic and a long way away from my home in the northeast. I spoke some Spanish, but not enough to have a good conversation. As a 6’3”, 250 pound, blonde-haired, blue-eyed white male, I stood out like a sore thumb and figured I would never really fit in in my new home. In order to make me feel happy and comfortable in this part of the nation, a cameraman I was working with decided to take me to lunch at a local small business, “Mi Taco! Ponchos.” It was a popular authentic Mexican restaurant in McAllen, Texas. It was known for its bright colored buildings and customers practically hanging from the rafters. My experience there was amazing. The food was incredible, the service was friendly and the ambience was lively. After this stop at the restaurant, I was feeling a little more happy and comfortable in my new home. It is a fond memory for me. Last week, I drove by the location and saw that its signs were gone, the insides were empty and someone had written “closed” on the windows with what looked like a bar of soap. That lively ambience I spoke of had turned into ghosts of the past. “Mi Taco! Ponchos” was now one of the many casualties of the pandemic lockdown. From what I saw, it was not something that appeared likely to come back any time soon. If we end up with a Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi, possibly Charles Schumer-era, this will be more common. These leaders will have a hesitance to re-open and small businesses will suffer even more, for a longer period of time. Add to that, Biden’s talk of forcing these restaurants to install plexiglass inside makes matters worse. Had Biden ever run a business, he would realize the cost of installing plexiglass is something that comes out of the profit jar. A floor standing sneeze guard is priced at $99, according to joydisplays.com. A small business owner who is forced to install about twenty of those will probably not be accepting their paycheck for the next two or three weeks, as if they haven’t struggled enough already. Then there’s something that always happens when a liberal regime takes power in Washington, taxes go up and regulations rise. So look at the equation here, a restaurant that has been crushed financially in 2020 wants to reopen with limited funds. They are being told they have to install costly plexiglass, they know well their taxes are going to go up and they will have to adhere to liberal policy ideas put into place by people who have never run a successful business in their lives! They can’t do it. It will mean the loss of a lot of places like “Mi Taco! Ponchos.”. In fact, in September, Yelp projected 61 percent of restaurants that closed during the pandemic will close permanently. Losing restaurants is more than losing great food and ambience. It’s losing the dreams of the owners and their staff. It’s a loss for those who work there, often younger people learning the tricks of the trade. They may dream of opening their own restaurant or maybe another type of small business. Their jobs at places such as a local restaurant teach them lessons that are better for them than anything they could possibly learn in a classroom. Losing restaurants also hurts the community surrounding them. People have their favorite places to go after a local high school game, after church or for lunch while on the job. They see the same sign and same building every day when driving home or going out on errands. By the way, the more money a restaurant makes, the more money the staff has in their pockets to go out and spend elsewhere. It makes no sense for a political power play to take that from the day-to-day lives of average Americans. Now, we cannot forget that the system is set up where a business leases a building with the hopes of doing well. If the business fails, then a new one signs the lease and tries to do well itself. Of course, the deal on the lease will probably be pretty good for the new business. It’s a thing of beauty in many ways. But it won’t be so beautiful any time soon. Why? Where will the new business be found? After what restaurants have been through since March, who would want to lease one of these old facilities? Is there anyone who would dare try going into business in food service with a liberal administration in power? It would be nice if our politicians thought about it like this. But if we end up with leaders like Biden, Harris, Pelosi and Schumer, we cannot expect that anytime soon. Tags: Frank McCaffrey, Americans for Limited Government, When a Business Dies, a Dream Dies With ItTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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| Disparate Outcomes, Desperate Logic
Posted: 23 Nov 2020 05:29 PM PST
Falsely. On Friday, Attorney General Mark Herring — another blackface-wearing state government leader — issued a 61-page report, saying “the Office of Attorney General Division of Human Rights finds there is reasonable cause to believe that Loudoun County Public Schools’ administration of the Academies of Loudoun program resulted in a discriminatory disparate impact on Black/African-American and Latinx/Hispanic students.” Though the investigation found the admission process to be “facially-neutral,” The Post informs that the program “in fact barred from admission qualified Black and Hispanic students who applied during the fall 2018 cycle.” Yet blacks and Latinos were not barred. This year, 7 percent of black applicants were accepted and 11 percent of Hispanics. True, the acceptance rate for Asians was 13 percent and 15 percent for whites. But this gets tricky. Given their percentage of the overall student body, Asians were 42 percent overrepresented in the applicant pool, while blacks were 4 percent underrepresented, Latinos 6 percent, and whites underrepresented by a whopping 23 percent. “We request that Loudoun County Public Schools eliminate its discriminatory practices,” the report concludes. But . . . it did not stipulate any specific form of discrimination. Rather, it instructed the school district to work with the Loudoun County NAACP “to begin developing revised policies within 60 days.” What sort of revisions are likely? Lower the entry requirements, reduce testing and “take into consideration the principle of geography/socio-economic equity.” You see, the problem they’re trying to fix isn’t racism, but the lack thereof. This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob. Tags: Paul Jacob, Common Sense, Disparate Outcomes, Desperate LogicTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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| Justice Alito’s Important Warning
Posted: 23 Nov 2020 03:11 PM PST
by Cal Thomas: Everywhere one looks there are warning signs, from labels on cigarette packs warning that smoking causes cancer to ridiculous labels on thermometers that read, “Once used rectally, the thermometer should not be used orally.” Justice Samuel Alito has delivered some serious warnings that too often are ignored by many who believe the freedoms we enjoy are inviolable. In an address earlier this month to the Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention, Alito touched on several subjects, including COVID-19, religious liberty, the Second Amendment, free speech, and “bullying” of the Supreme Court by U.S. senators. Alito made a case for how each issue contains elements that contribute to a slow erosion of our liberties. On tolerance, preached but not often practiced by the left, Alito said: While acknowledging the deaths, hospitalizations, and unemployment caused by COVID-19, Alito warned: On the erosion of religious liberty, he said: “It pains me to say this, but in certain quarters, religious liberty is fast becoming a disfavored right.” As evidence he mentioned how we have moved from the Religious Freedom Restoration Act passed by Congress in 1993 to the recent persecution by the Obama administration of the Little Sisters of the Poor for their refusal to include contraceptives in their health insurance. The Catholic nuns prevailed in a 7-2 court ruling, but Alito believes the threat to the free exercise of religion remains all too real. There is much more in his address that should be read in its entirety. Alito’s warnings ring true, but are we listening? Tags: Cal Thomas, The Daily Signal, Justice Alito, Important WarningTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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| The Slippery Slope: How the Left Slowly Lulled America to Destruction
Posted: 23 Nov 2020 02:31 PM PST  by Emery Jones: “This time is different.” For millions of Americans, there has been a sense of dread and angst associated with the 2020 election. For years conservatives and independents have felt a gnawing sensation that the core values of country have been changing. Politics was once relegated to the disagreements of a few percentages of the marginal tax rate or the size of social welfare programs. Despite differences, there was always a common foundation among Americans about the basics of civil liberties, free expression, and rule of law. For at least a decade, that common foundation has come under attack. Small fissures in the bedrock of our pillars of liberty have suddenly become deep ravines of civil invasions. It has been coming for some time. Like the proverbial frog in the cooking pot, we have been lulled into a sense of complacency by the slowly increased heat of tyranny. Only now are we sensing that we may be doomed. For the past decade or so, the left has been creating an authoritarian roadmap. Democratic party operatives, like an effective sieging army, have been testing the defenses of our constitution, rule of law, and cultural institutions to see what violations they could get away with. The process is the same every time: The attack on our liberties starts small and is tested in a place or at a level meant not to raise alarms. If no consequences arise from the violation, then each new violation became more bold and aggressive. Aided by an election and COVID, the process accelerated in in 2020 culminating in events not thought to be possible in the US: locking us in our homes, burning down our cities, brazenly rigging our elections, and shutting down even our expression of dissent. Even more shocking, despite executing on a laundry list of tyranny that would bring a tear of pride to Mao’s eye, they have faced no consequences. Only now is society realizing the kind of heat it is in. We can now see the tyrannical road map that has weaponized the administrative state, suppressed our freedom of expression, removed our civil rights, and destroyed our democracy. It is important to review how we got here. The following are examples of how left broke down our pillars of liberty and constitution: Weaponization of the administrative state: Emboldened by the lack of consequence, the liberal administrative state concocted the Russiagate scandal. It swayed the 2018 election and decreased support for Trump’s measures. More importantly, the key figures have not only not been prosecuted, they have become wealthy celebrities of the press. Liberals now know that they can fully weaponize the administrative state and be rewarded for it. Suppression of our freedom of speech: Liberals had to tread gingerly at first to destroy it. They introduced the concept of hate speech was created and confined it to only the most heinous racial insults that were universally rejected by civilized society. We have been aware of its gradual expansion to include anything college professors and their woke minions disagree with, but it seemed confined to college campuses. Recently those college grads have come into positions of power, especially in the youthful management suites of tech companies. They began to enforce speech and opinion laws on their own employees, like the Google engineer who circulated an unapproved opinion. In the past year, the gatekeepers of modern speech – those same tech titans – have cracked down on everyone using their universal information utilities. Liberal politicians have taken the baton and run with it. Recent hearings meant to address their brazen modern book burning practices showed senators like Chris Coons asking for more limitation of speech on their platforms. The left will not be out-Stalined by industry… While our free expression of conservative views has been under assault by fascist politicians and their corporatist allies, the free speech rights of the left have been expanded to include violent riots and property damage. If you had told anyone that roving bands of socialist activists would be allowed to burn down cities without any consequence like in Venezuela or 1930’s Germany, no one would have believed it. But it was actually worse, because those who defend themselves against the violence are the ones who face prosecution. There have been no consequences for this unprecedented trampling of our freedom of expression or the left’s Brownshirt version of political expression. Removal of our civil rights: We are 10 months into understanding the disease and for a variety of reasons the mortality has declined by 85% to and is less than that of the flu in a large part of the population. Most of the scientific community has now come out against lockdowns, including the WHO. A week after the election, a top journal reported a study that lockdowns may actually increase the spread of the disease. What has been the reaction? Much more draconian lockdowns. Liberal governors are putting forward laws that would make Stalin embarrassed – going so far as to tell people the volume of discourse and how many family members they can invite over for dinner. For an extra dose humiliation and dominance posturing, they openly disregard their own rules and call their whims “essential”. The roadmap is clear, any declaration of emergency, no matter how thin, allows them to rule without limitation. The Reichtag Fire part of the roadmap works like a charm: In the “safe space” of liberal overreach that is California, the democratic machine perfected the art of ballot harvesting. During the election of 2018, in the reliably Republican territory of orange county, voters saw their republican candidates win expected victories for Congress… and then slowly watched their victories drain away after election day. Votes kept coming in that overwhelmingly went for the democratic candidate until the gap was closed and the victory effectively reversed. Harvesting occurs when democratic operatives canvass neighborhoods and collect votes for their preferred candidate. COVID gave them the opportunity to roll the practice out on a national scale. Republicans saw it happen in orange county. They knew it was coming. Trump said it was going to happen… and no one did anything. As predicted, the harvest was good this year for the democrats and spectacular voting leads on election night were surgically closed by ballot harvesting operations in liberal districts. For the past ten years, each consequence-free tyrannical step, irrespective of the immediate impact of that act, was a victory for the left. It created a new path forward on an authoritarian road map. We had a fleeting hope of stopping the progression when Trump promised to lock up Hilary for her crimes, but it never came to pass. When the reigns of power are passed to Biden & Harris, nothing will be there to stop them. It is highly likely that there will never be a Republican voted in for president again. Tyranny is on the verge of reaching a boiling point in our nation. We all sense it. Let’s hope it isn’t too late. Tags: Emery Jones, American Thinker, The Slippery Slope, How the Left, Slowly Lulled, America to DestructionTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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| The Election Debacle – Part 2
Posted: 23 Nov 2020 02:04 PM PST
by John Velisek: Our general election was a fraud. The methods and manners of election fraud are numerous. The talking heads and progressive socialists continue to blather that there is no evidence of voter fraud. They expect the American people to nod and go along with the pronouncements they make. They keep claiming that the lawsuits the President has filed and will continue to file are without merit. The media has not investigated any of these lawsuits, which were mostly filed by individual groups of citizens, and were rejected by the respective states’ sycophantic justices. The mainstream media, who spent almost four years on the Russian collusion hoax, see no reason to contest this election, even though they never conceded to President Trump. The hypocrisy is astounding. The progressive socialists and Never Trumpers continue to lie about having no evidence of voter fraud. In the next breath, demand that President Trump’s lawyers turn over all evidence without going to court. I am trying to decide if this is because they are unaware that the evidence will be shown in court shortly or just want the opportunity to spew forth the lies. In “The Election Debacle Part 1”, (https://www.intellectualconservative.com/articles/the-election-debacle-part-1 I discussed the evidence that is already a fact that has been shown in the past two weeks. In part 2, I will continue to deliver the facts as they are, ask questions about the media coverage, or lack thereof. In Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and Georgia, the input of ballots snuck in in the middle of the night has been found to be true. These fraudulent ballots were inputted to decrease the lead that President Trump held. These vote dumps all followed the same process. In Michigan and Wisconsin, these unchecked, unverified ballots showed 138,339 voted for Biden and zero for Trump. Does this seem viable to anybody? The MSM neglect to mention anything about these ballots and refuse to let anyone else discuss it. Put it on Twitter or Facebook, and you can expect it to be censored. In Michigan, these ballots overcame an almost 800,000 vote lead for Trump, and in Wisconsin, these ballots were used to overcome a 4 point lead for Trump. It should be noted that these fake ballots were delivered when the voting count was supposedly stopped. The two Republicans on the canvassing board in Wayne county have been ridiculed, their children threatened and doxxed to the unruly mobs in Progressive socialist control to intimidate them into certifying the result after they had already voted no. Because of the intimidation into changing their votes, the officials claim they can no longer change the votes back to no. Another anomaly that has yet to be explained is that Detroit Democrat officials claimed that the machines could not read the military ballots they received and proceeded to fill out new ballots without any Republican poll watchers present, this is a felony according to federal and State law, and those filling out the ballots need to be held responsible. Is this the reason that they locked the doors and boarded up the windows, refusing to let the Republican pool watchers into the office? In Wisconsin, the recounts, again without any verification of the ballots in Dane and Milwaukee counties, were paid by the Trump campaign committee because the State refused to do an audit. Perhaps that is because they do not have to explain why seven districts in Milwaukee reported more votes than registered voters by a wide margin. They are claiming that the city of Milwaukee had a record turnout of 84%. Perhaps if they include dead voters, voters who have moved, and illegal votes, they can claim that number. The voter turnout in 2016 was 67%. Seven districts in Milwaukee have reported voting higher than 100% of voters, and one had a count of 202%. Again, silence from the mainstream media and social media. Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Robin Vos has asked the Assembly Committee on Campaigns and Election to review how the election was administered. Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman Andrew Hitt called out the process and administration of the vote as well. Surprisingly, the MSM and social media have not covered this, and once again, if mentioned, the discussion is censored. The Wisconsin Elections commission let the door open when it refused to clean up the voter rolls, allowing those who had moved and dead people to be a ready database for voter fraud. A circuit court judge ruled that these purges from the database must be completed. The elections commission ignored this ruling and was found in contempt of court. The names remain, allowing the fraud to continue. Because of a lawsuit by the Wisconsin Institute for Law and Liberty, the Wisconsin Supreme Court has agreed to take up the case but has put off a decision until after the Presidential election. The Wisconsin Election Commission also allowed local county election clerks to “cure” spoiled ballots by filling in addresses even though those spoiled ballots should have been invalidated. Also used was the “indefinitely confined” premise to be used on over 200,000 votes that were not verified. “Indefinitely confined” voters were not required to show any type of identification. After Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman had ruled that Wisconsin Statute 6.86 ruled that if an absentee ballot does not have a witness or address on it, it is not valid. The Wisconsin Elections Commission was found to have actually instructed clerks to illegally fill in these sections so that the votes would count. The Wisconsin Elections Commission affirmed Wisconsin 6.87 (6D) in a memo sent out in August that an incomplete mail-in ballot would not be counted, and in Mid October issued a directive giving clerks authority against the state law to fix incomplete ballots. In both Wisconsin and Michigan, Democrat officials refused to explain Biden’s sudden rise in the vote tally but felt the need to demand that misinformation would not be condoned. They have yet to explain how votes were received at 6 am, or how these votes were 100% for Biden. Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson, a progressive socialist Democrat, asked everyone to stop spreading misinformation that was true. She didn’t want the information to spread and refused to explain or give any indication that there was a problem. In the same vein, Michigan Department of State spokesperson Aneta Kiersnowski, another far-left Democrat, declared that pairs of election workers, one from each political party, work to tabulate ballots to ensure fairness. This is a total lie when one looks at Detroit. In Georgia, the Secretary of State intends to certify the count soon. A recount that was done is invalid. The mainstream media will call the recount an audit. They feel that this will placate the residents of the State, counting on their assumption that the citizens are too stupid to understand the difference between a recount an audit. In the recount, no ballots were verified, and no signatures were matched. They just counted the invalid votes that they had already certified. Republicans were not allowed to have the watchers required to prevent any illegal votes or question the vote in any way. There were ballots coming in the morning after the election. Georgia officials told the poll watchers that they had concluded the counting until the next morning, and after the poll watchers had left, continued counting the newly received ballots. Democratic operatives have already started a campaign to doxx lawyers who are fighting for electoral integrity. The media, mainstream and social will continue to demonize whistleblowers, legitimate journalists, and political officials that do not bow to the agenda of the progressive socialist New World Order. One Trump attorney Linda Kerns, who is working on voter fraud, has been placed under the protection of US Marshalls because of threats of harm by a lawyer from the firm representing Pennsylvania Secretary of State Kathy Boockvar. She has also received abusive emails, phone calls, physical and economic threats, and accusations of treason. In Pennsylvania, Republican ballot inspectors were denied access to an area where they would have the opportunity to be a part of the process. In six, deeply blue counties, officials allowed voters to “cure” or make changes to their ballots that would have been disqualified if the officials in charge actually followed the law. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled last month that mail-in ballots were not to be provided the same “curing” that in-person voting allowed. The Secretary of State, Kathy Boockvar, violated this election decision by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court and allowed Democrat mail-in ballots for Biden to be verified and counted. Local election boards gave the information on these invalid ballots to Progressive socialist party activists so they could be corrected in violation of the Supreme Court ruling, but only if they were votes for Biden. In a suit filed by Thomas Breth, it was made clear that it was illegal for the counties that were Democratic strongholds to create their own standards, their own procedures in the area of disqualified ballots. The state election code forbids reaching out to voters to have their votes changed. This process was widespread and never sanctioned by the state assembly. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court was complicit in allowing the counting of ballots with late or no postmarks. Going by the name “The Great Reset” is just another attempt to steal the election in order to subjugate the American people. Threats, violence, and doxing for the mobs have now become a way of life for the progressive socialist Democrats and their minions. This nationwide voter fraud will not be allowed to stand. Patriots in this country will rise up if this election continues to be stolen. No amount of violence or threats will force the American people to submit to the John Kerry wing of socialist globalism. George Soros will not be able to walk away without being damaged. There are repercussions to what they are attempting. They talk of a civil war. The civil war will turn into more than they have bargained for. Tags: John C. Velisek, The Election Debacle, Part 2To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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| Will House Democrats Lose 54 or 63 Seats in 2022?
Posted: 23 Nov 2020 01:29 PM PST
In 1994, I led the House GOP as we won a majority for the first time in 40 years. At the ballot boxes, the American people repudiated the Democrats’ leftwing policies, including tax increases, a huge health care proposal (Hillarycare), and efforts at gun control. Their vote was also a statement against President Bill Clinton’s dramatic shift to the left after he had campaigned as a moderate but went along with the leftwing of Congress as president. In 1994, Republicans gained 6.4 percent to earn 51.5 percent of the total vote, while the Democrats dropped 5.4 percent to end up with a total of 44.7 percent of the vote. I went from minority whip to Speaker of the House while Democratic Speaker Tom Foley was defeated for re-election. While the Republicans had not been re-elected as a majority since 1930 (64 Years) we established a reputation for keeping our word with the Contract with America. Reforming welfare, passing the largest capital gains tax cut in history, reforming the US Food and Drug Administration, overhauling federal communication laws, and balancing the budget for four straight years gave House Republicans enough support from the American people to hold the majority for 12 years. In the second midterm of President George W Bush, the House Republicans collapsed. With an aggressive campaign led by then-Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, House Democrats earned 52.3 percent of the vote and gained 31 seats. However, the House Democratic victory lasted only four years. Two years after President Barack Obama was elected, the leftwing policies on taxes, social issues, and health care led to a sharp return for the House Republicans. In 2010, Republicans gained 9.1 percent of the vote to a total of 51.7 percent while the Democrats were down 8.3 percent to 44.9 percent of the vote. Speaker Pelosi again became Minority Leader Pelosi, and Minority Leader John Boehner became Speaker Boehner. After Obama’s second election in 2012, House Republicans only gained 13 seats overall – but that created the largest Republican majority since 1928. The 2020 House elections may prove to be a harbinger of things to come. The Democrats and their leftwing media allies had been cheerfully predicting that they would gain 15 seats or more because of President Donald Trump’s unpopularity. Instead, the brilliant recruiting by Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy and his team (including Whip Steve Scalise, Conference Chair Liz Cheney, National Republican Congressional Committee Chair Tom Emmer, and Congresswoman Elise Stefanik) – and the resources they amassed to offset the Democrats – led to a House Republican gain of eight seats, so far – and potentially more. Speaker Pelosi is now being forced to try to lead the House with (currently) a 220-204 lead – and Republicans appear to be leading in eight of the 11 undecided races in California, Iowa, New York, and Louisiana. If these races go as expected, it will be a 223-212 Democratic majority. That means losing six Democratic seats in 2022 will give Kevin McCarthy control of the floor. In a similar circumstance in 1998, when we expected to gain 15 seats during the impeachment of President Bill Clinton and instead lost five seats, I resigned because the House GOP conference was deeply disappointed in the outcome. They were afraid of sliding into the minority (four years of being chairpersons rather than ranking members had taught them the value of majority status). Now, Speaker Pelosi must face a Democratic Caucus whose members have not yet absorbed that they control far fewer seats than they had expected the day before the election. The Democrats who care about being in the majority must ask themselves what they need to do to survive as a majority when the historic precedents indicate they will have a disastrous 2022. As a sign of the remarkable House Republican dominance at the polls, the Charlie Cook Political Report had listed 27 House races as “toss-ups” because they were too close to predict. Of those 27 House races, Republicans won every single one. They also won every GOP-leaning race. Even more exciting for long term House Republican supporters like me, these victories came with a much broader and more competitive set of candidates. As Henry Olsen wrote in The Washington Post: “At least 33 House Republicans will be either women or non-White when the new body sits in January. This includes 27 women, six Hispanics, and two Black men, Burgess Owens of Utah and Byron Donalds of Florida. They come from all regions of the country and represent urban, suburban and rural seats. “In fact, every seat Republicans have flipped from blue to red has been captured by a woman or a minority. This wasn’t an accident. Aided by efforts by the National Republican Congressional Committee and Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.), GOP officials strenuously tried to recruit capable female and non-White candidates for as many pickup opportunities as possible. These efforts could bear even more fruit, as two other women and one Hispanic — Mariannette Miller-Meeks in Iowa, Claudia Tenney in New York and Mike Garcia in California — might still win the seats they are contesting.” The story of a positive, inclusive, idea- and solution-oriented House Republican Party is going to make both candidate recruitment and fundraising much easier. As donors and supporters realize how close we are to a Speaker McCarthy era, his ability to recruit candidates and to fund those candidates is going to go up dramatically. Conversely, Speaker Pelosi will increasingly be seen as embattled in a House she presides over but cannot lead. She will be hamstrung by her narrow partisan margin – and by the deep and increasingly angry split between the radical wing and the moderates (who know that socialism and the Green New Deal are going to defeat Democrats if these principles define them). Finally, just as President Trump drove Democrats together and gave them a common focus of their energy, the Biden-Harris administration and its radical appointees (most of them politically unaware of how destructive their views are outside their own circles) will make it much easier for House Republicans to hang together. I don’t know if the House Democratic losses in 2022 will be as big as 1994 or 2010, but I am convinced they will be big enough to make McCarthy the next Speaker of the House. Tags: Newt Gingrich, commentary, Will House Democrats, Lose 54 or 63 Seatsin 2022To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks! |
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NBC MORNING RUNDOWN
 Tuesday, November 24, 2020
Good morning, NBC News readers.
President-elect Joe Biden’s transition officially begins, surging Covid-19 infections leave nurses in high demand and a special thank you to frontline workers this holiday season.
Here is what we’re watching this Tuesday morning.
Trump administration finally signs off on Biden transition After weeks of delay, the head of the General Services Administration informed President-elect Joe Biden on Monday that the official governmental transition process has been approved.
It means that Biden is now able to get access to millions of dollars in federal funds and other resources to begin his transition to power. In her letter to Biden, GSA Administrator Emily Murphy denied that she had been under pressure from the White House to delay the process.
President Donald Trump vowed to continue his legal fight to contest the election results in a pair of tweets but said that he was recommending that Murphy and her team “do what needs to be done with regard to initial protocols, and have told my team to do the same.”
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said it was “probably the closest thing to a concession that President Trump could issue.”
Trump and other Republicans have filed over 30 lawsuits across six swing states in an attempt to contest the election results.
Most of them have been shot down or withdrawn, and no court has found even a single instance of fraud.
Behind the scenes, Trump has privately expressed frustration with the slapdash nature of his election defense fight, according to several people familiar with the discussions.
Biden picks John Kerry as climate czar, Janet Yellen as treasury secretary President-elect Biden made official his picks for a number of high-level administration and Cabinet positions Monday, including former Secretary of State John Kerry to be his special presidential envoy for climate and Antony Blinken as secretary of state.
Kerry’s selection marks the first time that the National Security Council will include an official dedicated to climate change.
Biden also plans to nominate Janet Yellen to be treasury secretary, NBC News confirmed. Yellen, a former chair of the Federal Reserve, would be the first woman to hold the job. If she is confirmed by the Senate, Yellen would lead the administration’s effort to get the economy back on its feet after the devastation caused by Covid-19.
Biden announced Alejandro Mayorkas as his pick for homeland security secretary, the first Latino and the first immigrant chosen for the role. The department is expected to drastically overhaul President Trump’s hard-line immigration policies.
He also tapped Linda Thomas-Greenfield as ambassador to the United Nations and Avril Haines as director of national intelligence, among other picks.
Biden is scheduled to deliver remarks about his leadership picks Tuesday afternoon. A Biden transition official said all Cabinet nominees will join Biden at the announcement in Wilmington, Delaware. 
Spike in Covid-19 leads to bidding war for nurses Early in the pandemic, hospitals were competing for ventilators, Covid-19 tests and personal protective equipment. Now, sites across the country are competing for nurses.
The surge in Covid-19 cases has turned hospital staffing into a sort of national bidding war, with hospitals willing to pay exorbitant wages of up to $10,000 a week to secure the nurses they need.
“We all thought, ‘Well, when it’s Colorado’s turn, we’ll draw on the same resources. We’ll call our surrounding states, and they’ll send help,'” said Julie Lonborg, a spokesperson for the Colorado Hospital Association. “Now it’s a national outbreak. It’s not just one or two spots, as it was in the spring. It’s really significant across the country, which means everybody is looking for those resources.”
Several potential Covid-19 vaccines are on the horizon, but rolling out shots to even a fraction of the world’s 7.8 billion people will require conquering an epic supply-chain challenge at a scale that dwarfs any other in history.
“It’s going to be an extraordinary logistic challenge,” David Salisbury, the British government’s former director of immunization, told NBC News. “I just hope it works.”
Meanwhile, in New York, the rise in cases of coronavirus forced the re-opening of a field hospital in Staten Island not used since the early days of the pandemic.
Covid-19 hasn’t been the only catastrophe sweeping the country this year. Health experts say Americans are experiencing symptoms of anxiety and depression made worse by pandemic-related stressors, including job loss, remote learning, and limits on gathering.
“This is a different disaster, because everyone is affected by it,” said Christian Burgess, director of the Disaster Distress Helpline.
Follow our live blog for all the latest coronavirus developments. 
Want to receive the Morning Rundown in your inbox? Sign up here.
Plus
THINK about it How much damage did Trump’s transition delay do to vaccine efforts? It’s time to find out, writes Sen. Chris Murphy in an opinion piece.
Live BETTER To reach a big health or fitness goal, start small, experts say. Incremental changes can help keep you motivated, especially in the early stages.  “It is really important to do the work by breaking it into smaller things that you can actually do each day,” said one expert. ( Today Illustration/ Getty Images)
Shopping What to know about new and notable product launches, including new Beats earbuds, Studs holiday-inspired earrings, aprons from Hedley & Bennett and more.
One touching thing It’s the season to give thanks and this year essential workers are getting some very special shout outs.
Across the country, holiday displays are going up to honor those saving lives and helping others during the pandemic.
A 45-foot Christmas tree on Boston Common will be dedicated to local health care heroes, while in Mississippi, the state’s first lady is asking artisans to create ornaments to honor frontline workers and first responders.
And in New York, Macy’s iconic holiday window display is dedicated to those who served the city during the dark days of the pandemic in the spring.
“It’s really a heartfelt thank you letter to all first responders,” said Manuel Urquizo, the national window director at Macy’s department store. 
Thanks for reading the Morning Rundown.
I’m filling in for Petra this morning. If you have any comments — likes, dislikes — send me an email at: rachel.elbaum@nbcuni.com.
Thanks, Rachel
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NBC FIRST READ
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From NBC’s Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Carrie Dann and Melissa Holzberg
FIRST READ: The democracy hangs on – by just enough
The presidential transition is now underway, and the 2020 election is – finally – in the rearview mirror.
But it wasn’t easy.
Photo by JEFF KOWALSKY / AFP
Yes, the General Services Administration’s Emily Murphy ascertained Joe Biden’s apparent victory, opening up resources for the transition, but it took more than two weeks to get there.
Yes, Michigan certified its vote totals, but one Republican member of the state canvassing board still abstained, despite Biden winning the state by more than 150,000 votes.
Yes, Pennsylvania is on its way to certification, too, but a few Republicans from key counties voted against certification (see here and here).
And, yes, just enough Republicans spoke up against President Trump’s attempts to overturn the election results or prevent the transition, but others stayed silent – or even supported the president’s efforts.
“GOP Sens/Reps were allowed to stay silent on the GSA thanks to the local GOP officials (GA Sec/State, Maricopa Cty Board Chair etc.) & the fed/state judges who provided the necessary legal guardrails to prevent things from getting to a constitutional crisis level,” the Cook Political Report’s Amy Walter tweeted.
The U.S. democracy hung on – by just enough.
And it all raises the question: What could have happened if the 2020 presidential outcome was actually closer than it turned out to be?
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This is what a third Obama administration would have looked like
Last winter and spring, most Democratic primary voters chose restoration over revolution and big structural change, and that’s what they’re getting with Joe Biden’s cabinet picks – folks who could/would have been members of a potential third Obama term.
Tony Blinken, Biden’s selection for secretary of state, just happened to be deputy secretary of state during the Obama administration.
Alejandro Mayorkas, the pick to head the Department of Homeland Security, was Obama’s deputy DHS secretary.
You have Janet Yellen (Obama’s Fed chair) at Treasury, and John Kerry (Obama’s second-term secretary of state) as Biden’s selection to be climate envoy.
Of course, all of these selections have Biden’s imprint on them.
And the picks make some history. If confirmed, Mayorkas would be the first Latino to head DHS; Yellen would be the first woman to lead the Treasury Department; and Haines would be the first woman to serve as DNI.
Biden is expected to appear with his cabinet nominees and appointees today in Wilmington, Del.
BIDEN CABINET/TRANSITION WATCH LIST
STATE: Tony Blinken (announced)
TREASURY: Janet Yellen (confirmed)
HOMELAND SECURITY: Alejandro Mayorkas (announced)
UN AMBASSADOR: Linda Thomas-Greenfield (announced)
DIRECTOR OF NATIONAL INTELLIGENCE: Avril Haines (announced)
DEFENSE: Michèle Flournoy, Jeh Johnson, Illinois Sen. Tammy Duckworth
HHS: New Mexico Gov, Michelle Lujan Grisham, Calif. Rep. Raul Ruiz, Calif. Rep. Karen Bass, Dr. Vivek Murthy
INTERIOR: Deb Haaland
AGRICULTURE: Heidi Heitkamp
LABOR: Andy Levin, Bernie Sanders, Marty Walsh
EDUCATION: Lily Eskelsen Garcia, Randi Weingarten
CHIEF OF STAFF: Ron Klain (announced)
NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: Jake Sullivan (announced)
CLIMATE ENVOY: John Kerry (announced)
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Data Download: The numbers you need to know today
6,030,835: Joe Biden’s lead in the popular vote at the time of publication
9: The number of America’s 100 largest counties by population that Trump won in 2020, according to the Wall Street Journal.
68 percent: The amount of US job growth between 2016-2019 fueled by counties Biden won, per a new study from the Economic Innovation Group.
More than 550: The number of tweets posted by the president since Election Day, most of which questioned the election results.
12,494,669: The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States, per the most recent data from NBC News and health officials. (That’s 188,646 more than yesterday morning.)
258,846: The number of deaths in the United States from the virus so far. (That’s 1,154 more than yesterday morning.)
181.14 million: The number of coronavirus tests that have been administered in the United States so far, according to researchers at The COVID Tracking Project.
85,838: The number of people currently hospitalized with coronavirus
42: The number of days until the Jan. 5 Senate runoffs.
57: The number of days until Inauguration Day.
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TWEET OF THE DAY: RIP David Dinkins
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Georgia Runoff Watch by Ben Kamisar
Today’s Runoff Watch highlights the difficulty of moving on when you’re still fighting the last battle.
Yesterday on the campaign trail in Georgia, Republican Sen. David Perdue tried to lay out the stakes of the runoff elections to his supporters, warning that a 50-50 Senate would give Democrats the tie-breaking vote.
That (correct) read of the situation relies on acknowledging Democrats won the White House and that Vice President-elect Kamala Harris would break ties in the Senate, something many Republicans have been hesitant to do amid President Trump’s continued push for recounts and legal challenges.
Shortly after, Perdue was asked by a voter what he’s doing to support Trump’s repeated challenges, proof of the difficulty of the tightrope-walk.
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THE LID: Objects in mirror may be less close than they appear
Don’t miss the pod from yesterday, when we looked at how Biden’s overall 2020 lead looks now that Election Day is three weeks in the rear view mirror.
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Happy Thanksgiving
This is the final First Read for the week; we’ll be back on Monday. Have a wonderful – and safe – Thanksgiving.
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ICYMI: What ELSE is happening in the world?
Biden’s pick for DHS shows a lot about how he’ll approach immigration policy.
And Janet Yellen, if confirmed, would be the first woman to serve as a Cabinet-level Secretary of the Treasury.
Biden is also poised to pick Michele Flournoy for the Defense Department.
And Biden has tapped John Kerry to serve as a top leader on climate change.
The president-elect will hold an event with his foreign policy and national security teams today.
Legal experts are weighing in on the Giuliani team’s work for Trump. It’s not pretty.
Jaime Harrison is starting a PAC.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein is stepping down as the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee.
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MANHATTAN INSTITUTE
LOUDER WITH CROWDER
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Andrew Cuomo is a detestable human being. This is a guy who won an Emmy for his “televised leadership” during the pandemic. He threw his 89-year-old mother under the bus when she became a political li … MORE 
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November 24 2020
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Episode 88: Steve Singiser / Living… 
Joe Biden Nominates John… 
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