Good morning! Here is your news briefing for Wednesday December 16, 2020
1.) THE DAILY SIGNAL
December 16 2020
Good morning from Washington, where the amount of hand-wringing about our political norms being ignored is off the charts. Steve Groves notes in 2016 that the political elites were singing a different tune. Can D.C. treat churches differently than other businesses on Christmas? Tony Perkins weighs in on a new lawsuit. Plus: Rachel del Guidice and Fred Lucas look back at the Trump impeachment, and Devon Williams pens a beautiful tribute to her dad, economist Walter Williams. This morning, skip the tea order and choose coffee: Today marks 247 years since the Boston Tea Party.
Before and during Trump’s transition period, he and his campaign were under investigation by Obama’s FBI based on the baseless Russia election conspiracy.
The Human Rights Campaign—a large, influential LGBTQ advocacy group—recently released a policy brief with recommendations for a Biden administration, and the suggestions are alarming.
Ours is a nation of checks and balances. Fortunately, Trump used his pardon power to check a judge who was out of control and to deliver long overdue justice to Flynn.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell congratulates “President-elect Joe Biden” in a Senate floor speech, asserting, “the Electoral College has spoken.”
Looking back, what happened “behind the scenes” of the impeachment proceedings? Fred Lucas, author of “Abuse of Power: Inside the Three-Year Campaign to Impeach Donald Trump,” discusses.
The 50-person cap is ridiculous, the diocese argues, when you consider that “retail stores, restaurants, tattoo parlors, nail salons … and many other establishments” are only limited based on their capacity.
My dad taught me that hard work eclipses talent or natural gifts every day of the week. He taught me how to drive like a Philadelphia cabbie. He taught me that opportunities are often masked as disappointments.
Like Larry Krasner in Philadelphia, Kim Foxx in Chicago, and other Soros-backed rogue district attorneys, Descano has no regard for victims or their rights.
You are subscribed to this newsletter as rickbulow1974@gmail.com. If you want to receive other Heritage Foundation newsletters, or opt out of this newsletter, please click here to update your subscription.
2.) THE EPOCH TIMES
DECEMBER 16, 2020 READ IN BROWSER
Red Rock Secured—Help Election—Proof Your Retirement with a Home Delivery Gold IRA. Delivered right to your doorstep.
At this critical moment, Americans need to come together to take a stand against fraud and in favor of truth. To choose freedom over communism, and good over evil.
This is about our right to vote. This is about whether we can still have a free country.
Which is why we are offering a full access subscription to The Epoch Times for 4 months for just $1.
NOTE: This is our lowest priced offer ever, and it is available for a very limited time.
Uncertainty is leading at the polls as our political discourse has become a partisan charade that threatens to send economic growth into an historic tailspin…In 2020, the question is – what will the IRA’s, 401(k)’s, savings, pensions and retirement plans look when the dust settles? Retirement accounts, savings accounts, and financial portfolios are at the mercy of ever-growing global turmoil and dramatic political change. The good news: Gold dramatically outperforms other safe havens in 2020 and has officially become, “the currency of last resort.” Help Election-Proof Your Retirement with a Home Delivery Gold IRA.
“People ignore the fact that social problems are caused by unleashing the evil side of man. As they create more and more laws, ignoring the crux of the matter, a vicious cycle is formed, and society begins its step-by-step march toward totalitarianism.”
You are receiving this email because you opted in to receive newsletter communications from The Epoch Times.
The Epoch Times. 229 W. 28 St. Fl. 5 New York, NY 10001
We have communist China at our gates, ready to take over.
The CCP has carefully studied the U.S. system over the decades and now has successfully taken advantage of our open society and has infiltrated our country. Honest journalism has never been more important than right now.
We hope you enjoy our coverage, of course you can unsubscribe too
3.) DAYBREAK
Your First Look at Today’s Top Stories – Daybreak Insider
Having trouble viewing this email? View the web version.
Rev. Raphael Warnock Comes Under Bright Light of Scrutiny
The Democratic nominee facing Kelly Loeffler for one of the two Senate seats in Georgia made it through the general election on November 3 with relatively little scrutiny. His 15 years of sermons have now become a treasure trove of oppositional research—if Georgians are paying attention. From the Examiner: In some of those sermons, Warnock’s criticized police officers and Israel yet expressed sympathy for Cuban communist dictator Fidel Castro and Marxism. Warnock argues clips of him making claims, such as that it was impossible to “serve God and the military,” have been taken out of context (WashingtonExaminer). Black pastors have published a letter urging him to change his radical pro-abortion stance: “You have publicly expressed your views that abortion is an exercise of ‘human agency and freedom’ that is fully consistent with your role as a shepherd of God’s people,” the letter reads. “We believe these statements represent grave errors of judgment and a lapse in pastoral responsibility, and we entreat you to reconsider them” (AJC). Warnock has also called Jesus a “poor peasant. Jerry Bowyer sets the record straight (TownhallFinance).
2.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib Boasts That Allah Has Given Chance for Muslims to Show Their Power in Georgia
Referring, of course, to two key Senate races. The Michigan Democrat, as reported in the Examiner: “I hope that you realize just the opportunity here that Allah has given us to show the power of Muslims in Georgia,” Tlaib, one of the first two Muslim women to serve in Congress, along with Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, said during an online “vote-a-thon.” “I want people to be like, oh my God, I didn’t even know Muslims are in Georgia. … Exactly! Because we’re going to show them in droves of numbers” (WashingtonExaminer).
Advertisement
3.
Supreme Court Moves Again in Defense of Religious Liberty
From SCOTUS Blog: The Supreme Court on Tuesday tossed out a pair of lower-court rulings that had permitted states to enforce COVID-related restrictions at worship services. The two brief orders from the justices instruct the lower courts to take another look at religious groups’ challenges to restrictions in Colorado and New Jersey—and this time, the justices indicated, the lower courts should decide the challenges in light of the Supreme Court’s Nov. 25 ruling that lifted New York’s COVID-related limits on attendance at worship services. Tuesday’s orders are further evidence of the broader impact of the New York ruling, which the justices have now invoked three times in three weeks to tell lower courts around the country that they should be more solicitous of religious groups seeking to worship without restrictions during the pandemic (SCOTUSBlog).
4.
Elite Media Outlets Should Be Ashamed for Ignoring the Hunter Biden Story
From Mark Hemmingway: Hunter Biden announced Wednesday he is under federal investigation for his financial dealings in foreign countries, including China. The announcement confirms many of the allegations of corruption that were leveled against Hunter Biden in the months leading up to the November elections – allegations the media steadfastly refused to cover. The nation’s largest social media companies went further: They made the shocking decision to actively censor the New York Post’s eye-opening scoop revealing evidence of Joe Biden’s son’s influence peddling that was recovered from an abandoned laptop. Twitter locked the newspaper out of its own account for weeks. Facebook prevented the Post’s story from being widely distributed. Some media figures so quickly descended into condescending arrogance that some apologies appear in order, given what we now know (Real Clear Politics). From NPR: The managing editor of taxpayer-funded NPR declared it a “waste of time” to report on the Hunter Biden allegations (NPR). The Atlantic’s Anne Applebaum wrote: “Those who live outside the Fox News bubble and intend to remain there do not, of course, need to learn any of this stuff [about Hunter Biden]” (The Atlantic).
5.
San Francisco School District to Rename Abraham Lincoln High School
From the story: …because the former president did not demonstrate that ‘black lives mattered to him’. The president, who is often held up as an American hero for abolishing slavery, is just one of 44 historical figures soon to have their names scratched off schools within the San Francisco Unified School District. Other names include George Washington, Herbert Hoover and Senator Dianne Feinstein, whose name will be stripped from the Dianne Feinstein Elementary School for allowing the Confederate flag to fly outside City Hall back in 1984 when she was mayor (DailyMail).
Advertisement
6.
Over 300 Schoolboys Kidnapped by Boko Haram in Nigeria
It could be the largest kidnapping of schoolchildren and serves as a dramatic and terrifying example of the growth of radical Islam in Africa. From the story: Jihadist group Boko Haram said on Tuesday it had seized students from an all-boys boarding school in Katsina, northwest Nigeria, to punish them for “un-Islamic practices.” Local officials said that 333 of the school’s 800 students were missing and assumed captive… (WSJ). Local reports include statements from local leaders that the northern part of the country is “no longer safe for habitation”: our region is now at the mercy of terrorists, bandits, and other criminal elements (AfricanExaminer).
7.
Gallup Poll Shows Church is Needed During Pandemic
From PJ Media: Pandemic-induced depression and suicide is a serious problem that seems to have been overlooked by many of the leaders imposing lockdowns. Meanwhile, religious worship was deemed nonessential by some Democrat leaders during the pandemic. And houses of worship were forced to remain closed, allegedly out of health concerns. (PJ Media). Gallup: American mental health declined in 2020, however churchgoers did not experience a mental health change. In fact, they were the only demographic in the U.S. not to decline. Surprisingly, they saw a slight uptick by 4-points over 2019 (Gallup).
8.
“Unconscious Bias Training” Is Being Scrapped in England
From The BBC: “Unconscious bias training” is being scrapped for civil servants in England, with ministers saying it does not work. The training, intended to tackle patterns of discrimination and prejudice, is used in many workplaces. The government says there is no evidence it changes attitudes—and is urging other public sector employers to end this type of training… The government says there is no proof such training changes behavior—and that it can “backfire” and create a negative response (BBC).
Advertisement
9.
Vice Claims the Pro-Life Movement Hijacked Image of Fetus
From Vice: For most of human history, fetuses weren’t visible. We didn’t know much about how they evolved in the womb, we only had drawings and wax models based on stillborns, or fetuses preserved in jars of formaldehyde. That all changed with Swedish photographer Lennart Nilsson’s book of photography A Child Is Born, which became a global sensation after appearing in Life magazine in 1956. Nilsson captured extreme closeups showing the different stages of human development, from fertilized egg to fully-formed baby.Nilsson was said to have been shocked when he visited London in the 1980s to find his own images plastered on anti-abortion posters. Realizing how the images were being used abroad, he refused to allow them to be published again, until an exhibition shortly before his death (Vice).
This newsletter is never sent unsolicited. It is only sent to people who signed up from one of the Salem Media Group network of websites OR a friend might have forwarded it to you. We respect and value your time and privacy.
Unsubscribe from The Daybreak Insider
OR Send postal mail to:
The Daybreak Insider Unsubscribe
6400 N. Belt Line Rd., Suite 200, Irving, TX 75063
U.S. Rep. Matt Gaetz has started acknowledging that Joe Biden won the presidential election.
Gaetz, one of President Donald Trump’s so-called “warriors” in Congress, hasn’t started referring to Biden as President-elect. But he recognizes that Biden will be President — in fundraising emails, at least.
“With Joe Biden and Kamala Harris headed toward the White House, we don’t have a lot of time before Democrats take power and try to change America into a socialist wonderland,” Gaetz wrote in a Tuesday email to supporters.
Matt Gaetz is starting to recognize Joe Biden and the next President — in fundraising pitches.
A call for contributions quickly follows the surrender — the campaign is apparently not hitting its mid-month goals, and needs “Patriots” to “STAND UP TO THE FAR-LEFT DEMOCRATS.”
The fundraising ask continues: “We are falling behind the power-hungry Democrats as they race our country toward socialism. We don’t have the option of coming up short, as Nancy Pelosi and her far-left caucus are determined to force their radical policies on the American people.”
Gaetz’s email doesn’t mention Trump, nor does it make far-fetched claims of election fraud or theft. Just regular old fearmongering about “socialist” Democrats.
Maybe this is a sign — not that things are getting back to normal, necessarily, but that Republicans have realized it’s hard to fundraise off being a sore loser.
Here a few other notes:
— Even the prediction market knows it’s over: It took betters on the PredictIt market until this weekend, just before electors were slated to cast their votes for President Monday, to finally acknowledge what most did long ago — that Biden indeed would be the next President. Before the weekend, various questions on the election still had shares signaling hope for Trump lingering above 10 cents. By Sunday, they had all plummeted to 6 cents or less.
🦠 — FDA approves over-the-counter COVID-19 tests: The agency granted emergency authorization Tuesday for Ellume’s OTC tests that allow patients to test at home and receive results in about 20 minutes. The company expects the tests to cost $30 or less and plans to produce 3 million tests by January, with 20 million distributed by mid-2020. Currently, OTC tests require a prescription and take several days to receive lab results.
— Keyontae Johnson stable, breathing, and speaking: After collapsing on the court Saturday, the UF men’s basketball forward is now in stable condition and speaking to family members. It’s unclear what caused him to collapse. The medial event caused doctors to place Johnson in a medically induced coma. He was transported Monday to Shands Hospital in Gainesville, where he remained Tuesday. Officials have not said what caused Johnson to collapse.
— Holiday packages cause mail gridlock: As COVID-19 precautions send more Americans to e-commerce for their holiday shopping this year, the United States Postal Service worries the crush of packages could overwhelm its operations. “It’s bad. I’ve never seen it like this before,” one postal worker described to Greenwich time. Worse, the backlog of packages comes as Georgia voters cast ballots by mail for two consequential U.S. Senate races that will decide the balance of power in Congress’ upper chamber.
— Florida is the Grinchiest of all states: Florida ranked dead last in a recent GetCenturyLink.com analysis of holiday spirit in all 50 states. The study looked into Google searches for gingerbread houses and Christmas movies, online shopping for Christmas-related products, Christmas music streaming, charitable giving, tweets about Christmas and the number of Christmas tree farms per capita. The analysis gave Florida a stocking-full-of-coal rating. Bah humbug.
— Best wines of 2020: Bloomberg’s Elin McCoy tested more than 2,000 wines over the course of 2020, a sampling that rivals other wine-filled years. Normally, the wine connoisseur has a tough time narrowing down the Top 10, but not this year. This year’s top vintages elicited memories of better times and ranged from the top champagnes of the world to a $23 bottle of white. Find out which wines made the cut here.
Situational awareness
—@PeteButtigieg: This is a moment of tremendous opportunity—to create jobs, meet the climate challenge and enhance equity for all. I’m honored that the President-elect has asked me to serve our nation as Secretary of Transportation.
—@GovRonDeSantis: I will always protect the right of Floridians to work and provide for their families. I enjoyed meeting with restaurant employees and small-business owners today to discuss the importance of safeguarding the right to earn a living. I’ve got your back!
—@AnnaForFlorida: Says the Governor who only allocated $50M to the emergency small business bridge loan program* while he refunded the top 1% of corporations $543 million! *Which only 1,000 small businesses out of 38,000 even received.
—@ChrisSprowls: The Florida House launched the 1st State-initiated investigation into China’s coordinated effort to access our Universities & research. Next year, we will propose new legislation to make Florida the national leader in protecting our research institutions.
—@ShevrinJones: President-Elect @JoeBiden couldn’t have picked a more qualified individual. Congratulations to you @PeteButtigieg
—@Mdixon55: @GovRonDeSantis says he’s not going to go “negative” on @JoeGruters bid for reelection as chair of the @FloridaGOP, so he says that’s functionally an endorsement. Didn’t praise him, but said he won’t take out knives or back someone else.
—@CaitMcVey: During newser late this afternoon, @GovRonDeSantis said next two weeks of Pfizer vaccines slated for Florida have been put on hold, totaling about 450k doses. “We don’t know whether we will get any or not. And we’re just going to have to wait,” DeSantis said. @BN9 #bn9covid19
—@RT_Dailey: .@GovRonDeSantis says today he anticipates feds could give Moderna vaccine emergency use authorization as early as Friday, giving the vaccine a good shot of getting to the state for distribution next week
—@VolunteerFla: Today, @VolunteerFla was recognized as a recipient of the 2020 @FloridaTaxWatch Productivity Awards for Volunteer Connect, Florida’s official volunteer opportunities platform. Congratulations to all of the winners and we thank @FloridaTaxWatch for this honor!
—@AndrewLearned: Not usually one to brag but … I have a Wikipedia page now and I feel like I’ve officially made it in this world.
Tweet, tweet:
Days until
NBA 2020-21 opening night — 6; “The Midnight Sky” with George Clooney premieres on Netflix — 7; “Wonder Woman 1984” rescheduled premiere — 9; Pixar’s “Soul” premiere (rescheduled for Disney+) — 9; Greyhound racing ends in Florida — 15; Florida Restaurant & Lodging Association human trafficking compliance training deadline — 16; Georgia U.S. Senate runoff elections — 20; WandaVision premieres on Disney+ — 30; the 2021 Inauguration — 35; Super Bowl LV in Tampa — 53; Daytona 500 — 60; “Nomadland” with Frances McDormand — 65; Children’s Gasparilla — 115; “No Time to Die” premieres (rescheduled) — 117; Seminole Hard Rock Gasparilla Pirate Fest — 122; “A Quiet Place Part II” rescheduled premiere — 128; “Black Widow” rescheduled premiere — 142; “Top Gun: Maverick” rescheduled premiere — 197; Disney’s “Shang Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings” premieres — 215; new start date for 2021 Olympics — 219; “Jungle Cruise” premieres — 227; St. Petersburg Primary Election — 251; St. Petersburg Municipal Elections — 321; Disney’s “Eternals” premieres — 325; “Spider-Man Far From Home” sequel premieres — 327; Steven Spielberg’s “West Side Story” premieres — 359; “Thor: Love and Thunder” premieres — 423; “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” premieres — 476; “Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse” sequel premieres — 657.
Dateline Tallahassee
“Pete Antonacci named chief administrative law judge of Florida” via Jim Turner of The News Service of Florida — Receiving praise for his handling of the 2020 election, Antonacci was appointed Tuesday to serve as chief judge of the Florida Division of Administrative Hearings. DeSantis and two state Cabinet members supported appointing Antonacci, who also has held high-level positions such as general counsel for former Gov. Rick Scott. DeSantis and the Cabinet also interviewed five other finalists for the chief judge job. Agriculture Commissioner Nikki Fried, the only Democrat on the Cabinet, voted against Antonacci. Besides being Scott’s general counsel, Antonacci drew appointments to be Broward’s Supervisor of Elections, Palm Beach County State Attorney, South Florida Water Management District executive director and Enterprise Florida executive director.
For his performance in 2020, Broward Elections Supervisor Pete Antonacci is now the state’s chief administrative judge.
“Matt Willhite bill urges Congress to fund suicide prevention for veterans” via Drew Wilson of Florida Politics — Rep. Willhite filed a bill Tuesday urging Congress to recognize the veteran suicide epidemic and to fully fund suicide prevention efforts at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The bill, HM 71, is a memorial bill. If passed, copies of the bill urging action would be delivered to the President, Vice President, the Speaker of the House, and each member of Florida’s congressional delegation. “The time is past due that our country work more aggressively to protect at home the brave men and women in the military that protect and defend our country and our democracy,” said Willhite, a Wellington Democrat. The 2020 National Veteran Suicide Prevention Annual Report from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs found 6,435 veteran suicide deaths in 2018 or 17.6 veteran suicides a day.
Corona Florida
“Florida adds 9,411 coronavirus cases, 94 deaths Tuesday” via Natalie Weber of the Tampa Bay Times — Florida added 9,411 coronavirus cases and 94 deaths Tuesday, bringing the death total to 20,365, according to the Florida Department of Health. There have been more than 1.1 million people infected statewide since March. The state has reported 10,003 cases and 105 deaths per day on average this week. It can take officials up to two weeks to confirm and report a COVID-19 death, meaning the number of deaths added does not necessarily reflect the number of people who died the previous day. According to health department data, the state averaged a positivity rate of 8.36% over the past seven days. Over the past two weeks, daily positivity rates ranged from 7.38% to 9.64%.
“About 1.16 million vaccinations expected in Florida by end of December, Ron DeSantis says” via Wendy Rhodes of The Palm Beach Post — DeSantis on Tuesday said he hopes to have 1.16 million vaccinations against COVID-19 delivered to Florida by the end of December. DeSantis held a news conference at Okeechobee Steak House in West Palm Beach, where he discussed vaccines’ status. He said he expects the Moderna vaccine to receive FDA clearance on Friday and begin to ship either by Saturday or Sunday, and that Florida is expecting 370,000 doses next week and 163,000 doses the following week. DeSantis said he expected 205,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine next week and 267,000 doses the following week, but Pfizer has run into production issues and might not be able to deliver.
Millions of COVID-19 vaccines are heading to Florida, Ron DeSantis says. Image via AP.
“Florida plans to get COVID-19 vaccines to more than 150 hospitals by next week” via Ben Conarck of the Tampa Bay Times — The Florida official in charge of coronavirus vaccine distribution said Tuesday that the news of Moderna’s likely federal authorization puts the state on a timeline to vaccinate front-line healthcare workers at more than 150 hospitals within the next two weeks. By Tuesday morning, about 100,000 doses of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine had been delivered to the five hospitals in the state’s pilot program, according to Jared Moskowitz, the director of the state’s Division of Emergency Management. As those hospitals inoculate their workers and those at 25 additional hospitals this week, the state is preparing plans for next week, when it expects to receive 300,000 to 400,000 doses of the Moderna vaccine, which could be authorized as early as Friday.
“Despite White House Task Force advice, DeSantis says restaurants stay open” via Renzo Downey of Florida Politics — On Sunday, news broke that a White House Coronavirus Task Force report for Florida recommended stricter measures for stopping the virus, including mask-wearing at all times in public, increased physical distancing by reducing capacity or closing indoor spaces at restaurants and bars and limiting gatherings outside of immediate households. States like California are reimposing restrictions in the face of rising cases, but Florida has waitresses, cooks, and family-owned businesses covered, the Governor said. “We just want to send the message, some may want to shut you down, we want to pull you up,” he said Tuesday during a news conference with several restaurant industry workers.
“DeSantis will ‘stand in the way’ if local leaders try to shut down restaurants” via WFLA staff reports — DeSantis stood with restaurant owners and employees at a Florida steakhouse Tuesday, assuring them he will not allow them to be shut down amid the pandemic. The news conference took place at Okeechobee Steakhouse in West Palm Beach. A reporter asked DeSantis what he would say to local leaders who feel they’re “hobbled” by the Governor’s executive order restricting action against businesses that violate mask mandates or other coronavirus safety measures. DeSantis said he hasn’t seen a single business owner or employee acting like the virus isn’t real. Meanwhile, indoor dining restrictions were reinstated indefinitely in New York City, Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced Friday.
“Jimmy Patronis to FEMA: Utility workers need COVID-19 vaccine before hurricane season” via Jason Delgado of Florida Politics — Patronis wants the Federal Emergency Management Agency to ensure that utility workers can access the COVID-19 vaccine before the 2021 hurricane season. Presently, utility workers are classified as “1b essential workers,” meaning they’re ranked second in line to health care professionals and long-term care facility residents. In a letter to FEMA Administrator Pete Gaynor, Patronis encouraged the agency to prioritize utility workers with the White House Coronavirus Task Force and the CDC. Hurricane season begins June 1, leaving health officials roughly five months to vaccinate the nation’s lineworkers.
“The pandemic is hitting Florida families harder than those elsewhere. Food is scarce.” via Yadira Lopez of the Miami Herald — Children in Florida are faring worse than the national average, according to a new report that examined the pandemic’s impact on families in all 50 states. Housing stability, in particular, appears grim for Florida families with children. Nearly a quarter of households — 23% — indicated slight or no confidence to make the next rent or mortgage payment on time, compared to 18% nationally. According to the KIDS COUNT report published by the Annie E. Casey Foundation Monday, Florida families with children also fared worse in food security and healthcare. The report drew data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s Household Pulse Survey. Data for the KIDS COUNT report takes a snapshot for a one-month period between mid-September and mid-October.
The COVID-19 pandemic has hit Florida particularly hard, leaving many families dealing with a lack of food. Image via AP.
“A mysterious gap in COVID-19 deaths appeared in Florida before the presidential election” via Cindy Krischer Goodman and David Fleshler of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — An astonishing pattern has emerged in Florida’s COVID death tally — one that suggests the state manipulated a backlog of unrecorded fatalities, presenting more favorable death counts in the days leading up to the 2020 presidential election. With minor exceptions, Florida quit including long-backlogged deaths in its daily counts on Oct. 24, 10 days before the Nov. 3 election, and resumed consistently including them on Nov. 17, two weeks after the election. The result: The daily death numbers Floridians saw during that time were significantly lower than they otherwise would have been. The change came just three days after the DeSantis administration announced it would conduct an additional review of every suspected COVID death before adding it to Florida’s count.
“Yes, snowbirds will be able to get a COVID-19 vaccine in Florida” via Lois K. Solomon of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — When it comes to the vaccine for COVID-19, snowbirds are equal to the rest of us. Senior visitors spending the winter in Florida, along with seniors who live in the state full-time and those with medical conditions, can get the vaccine here sometime in the coming months, Division of Emergency Management spokesperson Jason Mahon said. They’re scheduled for the next round of inoculations after health care workers and residents of long-term care facilities. The CDC makes it clear in its “Florida Interim COVID-19 Vaccination Plan” that you don’t have to be a full-time Floridian to get your inoculation: “The goal of the Florida COVID-19 Mass Vaccination plan is to immunize all Floridians and visitors who choose to be vaccinated.”
“Florida’s ‘Grim Reaper’ lashes out at DeSantis’ attempt to sanction him over COVID-19 lawsuit” via Steven Lemongello of The Orlando Sentinel — Florida’s beach-roaming “Grim Reaper” said DeSantis is trying to intimidate him by asking a court for sanctions over a coronavirus lawsuit he filed. “They’re trying to hit me where they think they can hurt my livelihood and my reputation,” Santa Rosa Beach attorney Daniel Uhlfelder said in an interview with the Orlando Sentinel. “And I don’t take that lightly. But they’ve been wanting to come after me for a long time.” Uhlfelder sued DeSantis in March to try to force the state to close beaches and impose a statewide shutdown. DeSantis ultimately ordered a 30-day shutdown in April, and while some counties and cities closed beaches, there was never a statewide beach shutdown.
Corona local
“‘Here we finally are.’ First health care workers in Miami-Dade receive COVID-19 vaccine” via Ben Conarck of The Miami Herald — Less than half a year removed from weathering one of the most drastic COVID-19 surges in the country, front-line health care workers at Miami’s public hospital system rolled up the sleeves of their scrubs and welcomed their first doses of a vaccine shown to be capable of keeping the novel coronavirus at bay. The conference room inside Jackson Memorial Hospital, one of the most active South Florida hospitals during the pandemic, erupted in applause after Grace Meatley, a nurse in the intensive care unit, received Jackson’s first dose of the Pfizer BioNTech vaccine. The joyous occasion was a marked departure from recent news conferences at the facility over the last 10 months that often warned of worsening statistics and dire illness.
The COVID-19 vaccine is finally making its way to Miami-Dade.
“Providing 188 vaccines per hour: ‘The faster we do it the better,’ hospital CEO says” via Lisa J. Huriash and Wells Dusenbury of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Hospital workers rejoiced at the arrival of Miami-Dade’s first COVID-19 vaccines on Tuesday, applauding the first doctors and nurses to receive their shots. Jackson Memorial Hospital officials said they’re averaging giving 188 vaccines per hour and will keep it up in the coming days. Jackson CEO Carlos Migoya said the hospital received 19,500 doses packed in dry ice and plans to administer all of them within seven days. “The faster we do it the better,” he said. After Jackson’s front-line workers are vaccinated, “we are quickly moving on to every other hospital throughout Miami-Dade County.”
“AlinaAlonso tries to fill in the blanks on COVID vaccine distribution” via John Pacenti of The Palm Beach Post — The top health official in Palm Beach County tried to assure the public Tuesday that COVID-19 vaccines are safe and that there is a plan in the formative stages to distribute the life-saving shots. Still, Alonso, director for the county Health Department, said there are still some blind spots about how exactly this endeavor will unfold, and she bemoaned the federal government for what she called mixed messaging that is undercutting public confidence in the vaccine. Alonso said it is still unknown when seniors in the general public be will be prioritized. She said she was left to augment what little has been told to her from the state and federal governments with her institutional knowledge of public vaccinations.
“Baptist Health to begin offering COVID-19 vaccine to staff Friday in Jacksonville” via Beth Reese Cravey of The Florida Times-Union — Jacksonville-based Baptist Health will begin administering the COVID-19 vaccine to its health care staff at 7 a.m. Friday. Brett McClung, president and CEO, has offered to roll up his sleeves first, followed by staff who work in “high-risk areas,” said spokeswoman Cindy Hamilton. Staff at all area Baptist campuses will receive the first of two shots at Baptist Medical Center downtown, she said. “Vaccination is voluntary for Baptist Health team members,” Hamilton said. “Team members will still be asked to wear PPE, masks, etc., whether or not they have the vaccine because it takes all the tools in our tool kit to stop the pandemic.”
“Naval Hospital Jacksonville receives COVID-19 vaccine for health care staff” via Beth Reese Cravey of The Florida Times-Union — Naval Hospital Jacksonville received an initial supply of the COVID-19 vaccine Tuesday and will begin administering doses to its staff Wednesday. According to Jeanne Casey, public affairs officer at the hospital, the vaccine will be offered voluntarily, with priority distribution for on-base health care workers, emergency services, and public safety personnel. “We’re vaccinating a small handful of people on our first day,” she said. “It includes some physicians, nurses and hospital corpsmen, some senior physicians and nurses,” Capt. Michael Kaplan, an allergy-immunology physician, will head up the distribution. The vaccine was developed by Pfizer and its German partner, BioNTech, and approved for emergency use Friday by the FDA.
“TCC offering financial assistance to students facing evictions” via Karl Etters of the Tallahassee Democrat — With an untold number of evictions looming at the end of the year, Tallahassee Community College is stepping in to offer assistance to its students. The school is offering $600 a month and as much as $1,800 in emergency assistance for students enrolled in the fall semester and facing housing evictions once a federal moratorium halting it during the coronavirus pandemic sunsets Dec. 31. Students currently enrolled in the fall semester must apply for the college funding by Thursday, Dec. 17. The funds will be disbursed the following day. Florida A&M University Vice President for Student Affairs William E. Hudson Jr. said they continue to support educational expenses through the CARES Act funding.
Tallahassee Community College is reaching out to students facing evictions.
“Leon County long-term care facilities to be part of Moderna COVID-19 vaccine pilot” via CD Davidson-Hiers of the Tallahassee Democrat — Leon County is set to be one of eight counties participating in a pilot program to distribute the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine to long-term care facility residents and staff, once the vaccine is approved. County Administrator Vince Long informed Leon County commissioners of the pilot program in an email Monday afternoon. By Tuesday afternoon, the Leon County office of the Florida Department of Health said it expected to receive 2,500 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine, though logistics of distribution are still being made final. The health department said the first wave is expected to begin next week. “As details are finalized, DOH-Leon will release more information on the vaccination plan,” the department said in the press release.
“COVID-19 positive test rates flirt with 10% in Hillsborough as death toll nears 1,000” via Janelle Irwin Taylor of Florida Politics — As signs of hope emerge in the battle to tame the COVID-19 pandemic with a newly available vaccine, the Tampa Bay area continues to grapple with a slowly increasing outbreak in its two most populous counties. Positive testing rates for new tests in Hillsborough and Pinellas County are still on the rise, with Florida Department of Health data released Tuesday showing Monday’s positivity rate at 9.22% in Hillsborough and 8.79% in Pinellas. Both are single-day increases, up from 8.71% in Hillsborough County on Sunday and 7.23% in Pinellas. It is not uncommon for single-day data to show a temporary uptick. However, longer-term trends are showing a slowly increasing problem.
“Central Florida gets 1st shipments of Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine” via Naseem S. Miller of the Orlando Sentinel — AdventHealth Orlando received the first shipment of the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, containing 20,000 doses, on Tuesday morning. The health system plans to inoculate 9,400 Central Florida employees — including doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists and environmental employees who work in COVID units, ICUs and emergency rooms — at its Orlando and Celebration campuses, starting Wednesday through next Tuesday. In the coming days, AdventHealth is distributing the rest of the doses to its facilities in other counties, including Lake County and Daytona Beach, and other health systems, including Orlando Health, Nemours Children’s Hospital, and HCA hospitals in Central Florida. Orlando Health will begin vaccination on Friday through midweek next week.
“Nearly all of Orange County’s $243 mil federal CARES dollars are spent. Where’d it all go?” via Stephen Hudak of the Orlando Sentinel — Nearly all of the $243 million in federal coronavirus relief aid that Orange County received in April is already spent or committed, officials said Tuesday. County leaders hope to get more money next month from a second round of stimulus funding under discussion in Congress. About $1 million is left in the original pot of money, which must be spent by Dec. 30 or sent back to the federal government, said Kurt Petersen, manager of the Office of Management & Budget, who outlined spending Tuesday for County Commissioners. Petersen said $185.7 million had been paid out, and $56.5 million has been committed but not distributed. Mayor Jerry Demings said the county plans to spend all of its CARES Act funding.
Jerry Demings faces a ‘use it or lose it’ situation with millions in CARES cash.
“Universal Orlando’s Dockside and Disney World hotels are opening” via Gabrielle Russon of the Orlando Sentinel — In the midst of the pandemic recovery, hotels at the major theme parks have opening dates starting with Tuesday’s debut of Universal’s Dockside Inn and Suites. Dockside, which has 2,050 guest rooms, came online as part of the Endless Summer Resort located off International Drive and Universal Boulevard. It’s the eighth hotel in a partnership between Universal and Loews Hotels. Meanwhile, Disney will reopen Disney’s All-Star Movies Resort opens March 22, Disney’s Beach Club Resort May 30, followed by Disney’s Wilderness Lodge on June 6 with Disney’s Polynesian Village Resort set for sometime summer 2021. Neither theme park has revealed how many of the thousands of laid-off or furloughed workers might be called back to work in the hotels.
Corona nation
“Moderna vaccine found safe, effective before key FDA review” via Anna Edney and Robert Langreth of Bloomberg — Moderna Inc.’s vaccine is safe and effective for preventing COVID-19 in people ages 18 and older, U.S. regulators said, clearing the way for a second shot to quickly gain emergency authorization and add to the country’s sprawling immunization effort. In a Tuesday report, the FDA’s staff said that the experimental vaccine is 94.1% effective at preventing symptomatic COVID-19, confirming earlier results released by the company. The report was posted online ahead of a meeting Thursday of agency advisers who will vote whether to recommend authorization before a final FDA decision.
The Moderna vaccine passes a critical hurdle.
“COVID-19 is having a devastating impact on children and the vaccine won’t fix everything” via Erin Einhorn of NBC News — It has been almost 10 months since COVID-19 began putting parents out of work, shrouding their homes in grief and loss, and shutting children out of the schools that taught and cared for them. It’s all taken an unthinkable toll on children, a social, emotional and academic ordeal so extreme that some advocates and experts warn its repercussions could rival those of a hurricane or other disaster. Food banks have been slammed with hungry families as an estimated 17 million children are now in danger of not having enough to eat. The numbers aren’t all bad news: drug and alcohol use among youth, for example, appears to be down, as are juvenile arrest and incarceration rates.
“Proof of vaccination will be very valuable — and easy to abuse” via Nita Farahany of The Washington Post — Since the coronavirus pandemic began, bioethicists have warned about the dangers of so-called immunity passports: Documents that attest that a person has contracted the coronavirus in the past and therefore might carry antibodies that make them immune. The risk is that a passport system would lead employers and others to discriminate against people who lack them and their value would produce perverse incentives. No such formal passport system has yet arisen. But the arrival of coronavirus vaccines under emergency authorization in parts of Europe and the FDA’s emergency approval of the Pfizer vaccine in this country raise the issue anew.
“Washington navigates ethical minefield on getting first COVID-19 shots” via Alice Miranda Ollstein of POLITICO — The first COVID-19 shots will soon be available to top officials and essential staff in the White House, the Pentagon and Congress. But they’re already facing a political and ethical dilemma over who should be at the front of the line. While most of the scarce Pfizer vaccine is now on its way to hospitals and nursing homes across the country, some of the first tranches were reserved for federal leaders to ensure the government can continue to function as U.S. deaths and hospitalizations peak. The situation is particularly awkward at the White House, considering the number of virus outbreaks it’s seen and the fact many senior officials who were infected already have antibodies.
Corona economics
“‘The most lopsided economic event imaginable’: Wave of evictions threatens Black, Latino tenants” via Katy O’Donnell and Janaki Chadha of POLITICO — The expiration of the federal eviction ban at the end of the month will disproportionately hurt Black and Latino tenants, financially hobbling them for years and ensuring that the United States’ staggering racial wealth gap won’t narrow anytime soon. Black and Latinos are twice as likely to rent as white people, so a wave of evictions would hit them hardest. Just as communities of color have seen higher infection and death rates from the virus, they have also been more vulnerable to job and income losses from the ensuing economic crisis.
A wave of pandemic-induced evictions is slamming Balck and Latino communities. Image via AP.
“Critical to vaccines, cold storage is Wall Street’s shiny new thing” via Kate Kelly of The New York Times — Investors were already snapping up shares of vaccine makers like Moderna and Pfizer. FedEx and UPS, whose shares have already risen this year as the pandemic forced millions to rely on online shopping, could benefit further from their roles in vaccine delivery. But in recent months, private equity firms and wealthy individual investors have also been seizing on smaller companies like PCI Pharma, whose cold-storage operations will play a crucial role in delivering COVID vaccines to the public. Until recently, the temperature-controlled storage and shipping of pharmaceutical products, known as the “cold chain,” was a relatively sleepy corner of the health care industry.
“Use it or lose it: Tenant aid effort nears a federal cutoff” via Conor Dougherty of The New York Times — Almost from the moment the pandemic spread across the United States, advocacy groups have warned that the economic fallout could cause mass displacement of low-income tenants. In response, more than 400 state and local governments have used money from the federal CARES Act to set up funds to cover at least $4.3 billion in rental assistance — money that has helped tenants pay their bills and landlords stay current on their mortgages, according to a database set up by the National Low Income Housing Coalition, a policy group. But now, many jurisdictions are reporting trouble spending it, and with barely two weeks left in the year, they are on pace to have more than $300 million left over, according to the coalition’s database. In a pattern that predated the pandemic, the programs have been complicated by bureaucratic hurdles, competing budget demands, and a reluctance among landlords to take part.
More corona
“With first dibs on vaccines, rich countries have ‘cleared the shelves’” via Megan Twohey, Keith Collins and Katie Thomas of The New York Times — As a growing number of coronavirus vaccines advance through clinical trials, wealthy countries are fueling an extraordinary gap in access around the world, laying claim to more than half the doses that could come on the market by the end of next year. While many poor nations may be able to vaccinate at most 20% of their populations in 2021, some of the world’s richest countries have reserved enough doses to immunize their own multiple times over. With no guarantee that any particular vaccine would come through, these countries hedged their bets on several candidates.
Rich countries are scooping up vaccines, leaving poorer countries in the dust.
“Fight club busted in NYC moves its petri dish to Florida” via Olivia Messer of The Daily Beast — After an underground fight club was busted and heavily fined in New York for packing hundreds of mostly maskless people into a warehouse under the mantle “Rumble in the Bronx,” the same club appears to have thrown a similar event just three weeks later in Orlando, Florida. Rumble in the Bronx’s Instagram page posted a flier advertising an Orlando event featuring eight “exclusive fights” for the night of Dec. 5. That same flier was also posted to another Instagram account, called @rumble_in_orlando, with a similar logo and list of followers. Images and videos from the posts show about 75 to 100 people packed into a warehouse without masks.
“Dozens of kids possibly exposed to COVID-19 at Santa photoshoot” via CBS News staff reports — Dozens of children may have been exposed to COVID-19 while having their photos taken with “Mr. and Mrs. Santa Claus” at the Long County Chamber of Commerce’s annual Christmas parade Thursday. County Commission Chairman Robert Parker said the two people portraying the jolly couple tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday. Long County said in a statement that roughly 50 kids were involved. Parker said his two were among them. The Long County School System asks parents to keep children who were there or show symptoms home until after the new year, though schools will remain open.
“De Beers raises diamond prices for first time since pandemic” via Thomas Biesheuvel of Bloomberg — De Beers raised diamond prices for the first time since the outbreak of the global pandemic, signaling growing confidence in a rebound for the struggling industry. According to people familiar with the situation who asked not to be identified as the information is private, prices increased by about 2% to 3% at the diamond giant’s final sale of the year last week. That’s the first time De Beers has been able to start reversing steep cuts made earlier this year. The diamond industry’s engine room is dominated by small family-run businesses that cut, polish and trade the stones. They form the invisible link between African mines and jewelry stores in New York, London and Hong Kong.
Presidential
“CNN parent rejects unfounded Donald Trump ads about election fraud” via Gerry Smith of Bloomberg — AT&T Inc.’s WarnerMedia, the parent of CNN and other cable networks, rejected two ads from Trump’s campaign that attacked the election results, according to a person familiar with the matter. The company refused to air the spots because their claims of election fraud couldn’t be substantiated, said the person, who asked not to be identified because the matter is private. The Trump campaign said on Friday it was releasing TV commercials “calling on the American people to help fix our broken election system.” The ads were to begin airing on Dec. 12 “on national cable television,” the campaign said, without specifying which channels would show them.
CNN is rejecting an ad from Donald Trump calling to ‘fix the broken election system.’ Image via AP.
“Inside the right-wing media bubble, where the myth of a Trump win lives on” via Jeremy W. Peters of The New York Times — Inside the sprawling and self-reinforcing network of websites, podcasts and video news that has fed some of the most reckless and unrealistic claims about the election, the myth of Trump’s political survival endures. The lead story on the Gateway Pundit, which researchers have identified as one of the major sources of pro-Trump misinformation online, floated the idea of a “BOMBSHELL” ruling in a case on Monday that the site teased as a possible game-changer: “Will a Small County in Northern Michigan Be the Key to Overturning the Nation’s Election Results?” Six weeks after his defeat, Trump and his media boosters’ aggressive campaign to insist with each new setback that the election is far from settled isn’t letting up.
Transition
“Joe Biden’s inaugural committee urges Americans to stay home for ceremony” via Ursula Perano of Axios — The Presidential Inaugural Committee issued a statement urging the public to “refrain from any travel and participate in the inaugural activities from home” due to COVID-19. Former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner David Kessler will serve as the committee’s chief medical adviser. It plans a “new and innovative program” for participation in inaugural ceremonies, released in the coming weeks. Both President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will perform their swearing-in ceremonies at the Capitol building, and Biden will deliver a speech after.
The Joe Biden transition is asking supporters to stay home for the inauguration.
“Biden team will make an announcement soon on when he will receive vaccine, transition official says” via MJ Lee of CNN — The Biden transition team expects to make an announcement “soon” on when the President-elect and Vice President-elect Harris will receive COVID-19 vaccines. This comes after Dr. Anthony Fauci said in an interview this morning that his “strong recommendation” is that both Biden and Harris be vaccinated as soon as possible, saying of Biden: “You want him fully protected as he enters into the presidency in January.” As to how Biden and Harris might receive the vaccine, Biden told CNN’s Jake Tapper that he would receive it in a public setting to boost the public’s confidence in it.
“Biden to name Pete Buttigieg to lead Department of Transportation” via Alayna Treene and Hans Nichols of Axios — Biden plans to name Buttigieg as his transportation secretary as early as today, tapping a former rival to help rebuild America’s infrastructure, according to three people familiar with the matter. By selecting Buttigieg for transportation, the former Mayor of South Bend, Indiana, Biden will nominate the first openly gay person for a Cabinet position. Biden will also ensure that the 38-year-old Buttigieg, who rocketed to the front of the Democratic Party and won the most delegates in Iowa, plays a central role in his administration, as billions of dollars are expected to run through the Transportation Department if Biden passed his Build Back Better agenda.
“Biden to pick Jennifer Granholm, former Michigan Governor, for Energy Secretary” via Lisa Friedman of The New York Times — Biden will nominate Granholm, a former Governor of Michigan and a longtime champion of renewable energy development, to be the next Secretary of Energy, according to four people close to the President-elect’s transition team. If confirmed, Granholm will be the second woman to lead the vast department, which oversees the United States nuclear weapons complex and 17 national laboratories, and a wide range of energy research and development initiatives. Several people close to the transition said advisers had struggled over whether the Energy Department should be led by someone steeped in its core mission, ensuring the country’s nuclear arsenal’s safety or whether Biden should select someone with a vision for leading a clean-energy transformation.
Jennifer Granholm is Joe Biden’s likely pick for Energy Secretary.
“DeSantis begins to acknowledge Biden win even if he has trouble saying it” via Gary Fineout of POLITICO — DeSantis, a top ally of Trump, all but acknowledged on Tuesday that Biden won the presidential election even if he appeared to have difficulty saying it out loud. DeSantis’ attempt to deflect answering a question about Biden’s win came the same day that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell directly acknowledged Biden as President-elect a day after he officially won 306 Electoral College votes. When asked directly by reporters if he accepted a Biden win, DeSantis said, “It’s not for me to do. But here’s what I would say: Obviously, we did our thing in Florida. The college voted. What’s going to happen is going to happen.”
“Biden will arrive in office amid a pandemic. It will be his biggest challenge — but also an opportunity.” via Amy Goldstein of The Washington Post — As Biden and his team devise a governing strategy to defeat the coronavirus pandemic, they have become centrally focused on instilling broad, bipartisan faith in vaccines. With the first vaccine against the virus, developed by Pfizer and a German biotech firm, now allowed for public use, the President-elect regards it as imperative to “deweaponize” attitudes toward immunization among his political adversaries, as one member of his coronavirus advisory board put it, speaking on the condition of anonymity about internal matters without permission to discuss them openly.
D.C. matters
“White House official recovers from severe COVID-19, friend says” via Jennifer Jacobs of Bloomberg — Crede Bailey, the director of the White House security office, was the most severely ill among dozens of COVID-19 cases known to be connected to the White House. Bailey’s family has asked the White House not to publicize his condition, and Trump has never publicly acknowledged his illness. Bailey’s friends have raised more than $30,000 for his rehabilitation through a GoFundMe account. “Crede beat COVID-19, but it came at a significant cost: his big toe on his left foot as well as his right foot and lower leg had to be amputated,” Dawn McCrobie, who organized the GoFundMe effort for Bailey, wrote Dec. 7.
“Leaders in Congress meet in search of spending and stimulus deals” via Emily Cochrane of The New York Times — The meeting of the top two Republicans and Democrats in the House and Senate were the first in-person spending talks in months for the leaders, with a final deal still elusive on both the dozen must-pass spending bills and hundreds of billions of dollars in economic aid for individuals and businesses struggling amid the pandemic. It took place in the Capitol office of SpeakerPelosi, who hosted Sen. Chuck Schumer and Republican leaders Sen.McConnell and Rep. Kevin McCarthy. The group met for about an hour to discuss how to resolve their differences before government funding is scheduled to lapse at week’s end, agreeing to reconvene later in the evening for a second session, according to a person familiar with the plans.
Nancy Pelosi hosts a meeting with congressional leaders to find some common ground on a stimulus. Image via AP.
“Florida congressional Democrats call for probe into Rebekah Jones case” via Scott Powers of Florida Politics — Eleven members of Florida’s congressional delegation called Monday on Florida’s Chief Inspector General Melinda Miguel to investigate what’s going on with Jones. In a letter led by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz of Weston, the 11 House members raised Jones’s claims that she had been fired last spring to refuse to falsify COVID-19 data reported by the state that her home was raided by state officers last week to seize evidence she possessed. At a minimum, the Democrats are urging the Chief Inspector General to offer reassurances that the state can be trusted to report the truth about COVID-19 “during an exponentially worsening public health crisis by looking into Jones accusations.”
Statewide
“Citizens Insurance urged to raise rates to discourage homeowners from switching” via Ron Hurtibise of The South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Insurance customers who lose access to affordable homeowner coverage could soon see their remaining option become much more expensive. With private market insurance rates skyrocketing across the state, state-run Citizens Property Insurance Corp. is again becoming the “insurer of last resort” for Florida homeowners who cannot find other affordable insurance. But a state lawmaker who doesn’t want Citizens to regrow to levels of a decade ago is proposing raising rates for new customers. Hence, the company becomes a less-affordable last resort. Citizens’ Board of Governors is scheduled Wednesday to discuss a proposal by state Sen. Jeff Brandes to stop selling new customers’ policies at artificially low rates.
“Design for ‘Florida Stands with Israel’ plate revealed” via Renzo Downey of Florida Politics — Following a public design contest, the Israeli-American Council has selected a winning design for the state’s “Florida Stands with Israel” specialty license plate. Boca Raton artist Daniel Ackerman created the design, topping 100 designs ranging from school children’s concepts in crayon to highly technical designs by professional artists. Israeli-American Council CEO Shoham Nicolet and IAC for Action Board Chairman Shawn Evenhaim lauded Florida’s relationship with Israel, including $4.5 billion in exports to Israel since 1996. Exports in 2018 were $400 million. More than 120,000 Israeli Americans call Florida home.
The new ‘Florida Stands with Israel’ specialty plate.
Lobbying regs
New and renewed lobbying registrations:
Sebastian Aleksander, The Aleksander Group: American Technology Corporation
Travis Blanton, Darrick McGhee, Johnson & Blanton: Little Havana Activities & Nutrition Centers of Dade County
Michael Corcoran, Matt Blair, Jacqueline Corcoran, Ralph Criss, Will Rodriguez, Andrea Tovar, Corcoran Partners: The Florida Holocaust Museum
Dean Izzo, Ron LaFace, Capital City Consulting: Adobe, NLP Logix
Local notes
“PBC, Boca fight for rehearing on conversion therapy ruling” via Hannah Morse of The Palm Beach Post — Palm Beach County and the city of Boca Raton are pushing back on a court panel’s decision last month that effectively nullified bans on conversion therapy, arguing that the three judges went beyond their duty when they ruled that such bans violated the First Amendment. Boca Raton and Palm Beach County argue that the panel was supposed to rule only on whether U.S. District Judge Robin Rosenberg correctly rejected a request from two Palm Beach County therapists to temporarily suspend the ban until a final decision could be made.
“Gun-sniffing dog approved for some Broward schools” via Scott Travis of the South Florida Sun-Sentinel — Four Broward County schools will have a new regular visitor next semester: a crime-fighting dog named Taylor who will try to sniff out guns on campus. Despite concerns by some School Board members that police dogs could unfairly target Black students, they agreed 8-1 on Tuesday to a 90-day pilot project in Coconut Creek. The hope is to prevent another tragedy like the 2018 shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland, which killed 17 people, including the daughter of board member Lori Alhadeff and the husband of board member Debbi Hixon. “If K-9 Taylor stops one gun from getting into our school, it will all be worth it,” Alhadeff said.
Broward schools are getting gun-sniffing dogs. Image via the Sun-Sentinel.
“Judge rebukes 3 Hillsborough County Republicans for seeking local election recounts” via Florida Politics staff reports — A Hillsborough County judge rebuked three failed GOP candidates seeking recounts in the November election based on unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud and flawed vote counts. Congressional candidate Christine Quinn, Hillsborough County Commission candidate Scott Levinson and Hillsborough County School Board candidate Sally Harris filed suit Nov. 17, demanding a recount and asking a judge to throw out any ballots received after 7 p.m. on Election Day, which was Nov. 3. The group claimed in the lawsuit that there had been “a possible flawed ballot counting procedure” and that ballots were “sent to dead people.”
Top opinion
“Ashley Moody disgraces Florida and herself in failed bid to overturn presidential election” via Scott Maxwell of The Orlando Sentinel — Every Friday, Moody sends out a “Week in Review” email touting her activities from the past seven days. It’s a weekly exercise in self-promotion where Moody manages to publicize virtually everything she has done, from congratulating newly elected sheriffs to scoring headlines in local newspapers. But last week’s self-promotional cyber-blast somehow overlooked one really big thing Moody had done when she had tried to overturn the United States’ presidential election. Somehow, she forgot to mention that. The lawsuit Moody decided Florida should join was “constitutionally, morally and factually wrong.”
Opinions
“Call out the Florida Republicans who flirted with tyranny” via Randy Schultz of The South Florida Sun-Sentinel — U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart rarely misses a chance to criticize dictators such as Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro. Then why was Diaz-Balart among 11 of Florida’s 14 Republican House members sign onto a lawsuit that would have made Trump this country’s first dictator? Pad Texas’ lawsuit to overturn election results in certain states succeeded, Trump would have been the illegitimate representative of the American people for the next four years. It doesn’t matter if Diaz-Balart and the 10 other anti-democrats signed on just to placate Trump and his delusional cultists.
“Monday’s triumphs tinged by tragedy and treachery” via the South Florida Sun-Sentinel Editorial Board — Monday was a day like no other for the world’s oldest continuous democracy. There were two triumphs for the American people: one for medical science, the other for the Constitution, and the judiciary’s independence. In separate ways, they demonstrated how greatly facts matter. But both were also tinged with tragedy. As the nation counted 306 electoral votes for Biden and Harris, it also surpassed 300,000 deaths from the virus, more than all the nation’s deaths in battle during World War II. It is the world’s worst record since the pandemic began.
“How to avoid COVID public records lawsuit: Follow the law” via the Orlando Sentinel Editorial Board — The DeSantis administration is pushing for sanctions against a North Florida attorney who filed a lawsuit that would have forced the state to close beaches because of the coronavirus outbreak. In a court filing last week, lawyers for the Governor wrote, “The many hours spent by this Court and the attorneys of the Executive Office of the Governor on this appeal could have been spent on innumerable other pressing matters related to the health, welfare, and safety of Floridians.” If DeSantis were truly worried about wasting the time of courts and government lawyers, he would stop stonewalling legitimate news organizations’ requests for public information.
“Who is DeSantis listening to on the virus?” via the Tampa Bay Times Editorial Board — DeSantis might as well come out and say it. No amount of bad news will change his mind on how to handle the coronavirus pandemic. A recent report by the White House Coronavirus Task Force, led by Pence, paints a bleak picture for the Sunshine State. But even as infections surge, DeSantis keeps plowing ahead with his message that everything will be fine. It’s irresponsible, and a vaccine is no magic bullet. The Governor’s office has refused to publicize the task force reports. One reason may be the unvarnished nature of the task force’s warnings. It called for the state and local governments to redouble efforts, encouraging greater use of masks, social distancing, increased testing, and limits on indoor gatherings.
On today’s Sunrise
State officials — including Gov. DeSantis — are positively giddy about the COVID-19 vaccines that a handful of hospitals are now administering.
Also, on today’s Sunrise:
— However, there’s a problem with the Pfizer vaccine: DeSantis says Florida may not get the expected 450,000 doses over the next two weeks.
— Florida’s Department of Health reported 9,400 new cases of coronavirus Tuesday, as well as 94 more fatalities. Florida’s death toll now stands at 20,365. Shortly after announcing those numbers, the Governor held a news conference at Florida’s oldest steakhouse, where he encouraged people to dine out, implying restaurants may be safer than your home.
—The COVID-19 crisis has driven many Florida families to the brink of bankruptcy, eviction or foreclosure … but it’s been a great time for the state retirement fund. They’re making bank during the pandemic.
— On the Sunrise Interview, two South Florida prep schools canceled a basketball game because administrators didn’t want the players wearing shirts that said Black Lives Matter. Rep. Omari Hardy is asking administrators at American Heritage prep schools in Delray Beach and Plantation to confront racism instead of censoring players.
— And finally, two stories of Florida Man and Florida Woman: She tried to escape the law by jumping into a canal after hitting a tree; he was killed while breaking into a house when the window fell on his neck.
“Florida man retrieves golf ball that landed on alligator’s tail” via Ben Hooper of UPI — A Florida golfer was caught on camera retrieving his ball from a particularly dangerous hazard, the tail of an alligator. Kyle Downes said he and his brother were at the Coral Oaks Golf Course in Cape Coral on Sunday when a ball landed on the gator’s tail. Downes shared a video showing his brother sneaking up on the alligator to grab the ball off its tail. The player quickly grabs the ball, and the alligator, apparently startled, darts into the water. The alligator in the video has been spotted before and is known as Charlie to golfers.
Good morning. Today, a massive snowstorm is expected to blanket the East Coast from Virginia to Boston with as much as 2′ of snow in some areas.
Not sure which school principal needs to hear this, but just because you can switch to remote school doesn’t mean you should switch to remote school.
MARKETS
NASDAQ
12,569.54
+ 1.04%
S&P
3,691.73
+ 1.21%
DOW
30,203.49
+ 1.15%
GOLD
1,855.70
+ 1.29%
10-YR
0.920%
+ 2.40 bps
OIL
47.61
+ 1.32%
*As of market close
Fed: The central bank will conclude its final meeting of 2020 today with an updated economic outlook and potential changes to its bond-buying plan. Expect Chair Jerome Powell to explain how the vaccine rollout will (or won’t) influence the central bank’s policies.
Markets: Stocks jumped and the Nasdaq closed at a record high. It helps when Apple, a member of all three major indexes, gains 5%.
In an interview with CNBC yesterday morning, legendary investor Warren Buffett urged Congress to pass legislation to help small businesses stay afloat.
Buffett called the situation facing Mom and Pop an “economic war,” and labeled small businesses “collateral damage in a war that our country needed to fight.” He called on Congress to extend the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) “on a large scale.”
Remember the PPP? We wrote about it often during the worst of the economic crisis in March and April. It’s a $525 billion government program intended to help small businesses keep workers on payroll.
But PPP may have been the economic equivalent of a vodka soda—imperfect but still effective. “Don’t let that turn you away from something where millions of people were being helped,” Buffett argued yesterday.
It’s all about access to credit
Large corporations have several funding options, such as the bond market, to tap into on a rainy day. And 2020, of course, has been particularly stormy: U.S. companies have sold a record $2.4 trillion of bonds so far this year, per Dealogic.
“Small businesses don’t have that access,” Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon told CNBC yesterday. Which is why he, too, supports another round of PPP funding.
A real-world example: This summer, American Airlines was able to raise $2.5 billion from selling bonds even as it was bleeding $58 million/day. Much smaller GNS Foods, which supplies American Airlines with nuts, struggled to refinance a $500,000 mortgage on its warehouse, writes the Financial Times.
Looking ahead…a stimulus bill from a bipartisan group of lawmakers contains $300 billion in aid for small businesses, including devastated restaurants and entertainment venues. Help could be on the way if Congress gets the job done.
Yesterday, print media titan Condé Nast announced that legendary fashion gatekeeper Anna Wintour will be elevated from U.S. Vogue editor/artistic director to reigning Empress Of Stylishness global chief content officer.
The backstory: Wintour became U.S. Vogue editor in 1988, then added the “artistic director” title in 2014. That means she’s been helping steer a ship of the U.S.’ most iconic glossies—including GQ, Vanity Fair, and Bon Appétit—through the slow but steady collapse of print media.
Condé has had its share of setbacks, especially this year (it laid off about 100 people in May as the pandemic hit), but it’s in the midst of a turnaround plan. CEO Roger Lynch plans to lean on 1) digital video and 2) paywalls to reach profitability.
Condé’s also still responding to criticism over its treatment of Black employees, who have said they are marginalized. Wintour apologized for her role in sidelining Black creators in June.
Bottom line: Condé may be changing its ways, but its most influential face is staying put.
For a city whose symbol is a statue of a naked (or occasionally costumed) peeing child, Brussels doesn’t mess around. Yesterday, European Union officials released drafts of two strict new regulations for big tech.
The Digital Markets Act gives companies with extra big reach—45+ million monthly users or 10,000+ business customers—extra attention. These “gatekeepers” would need to disclose planned takeovers, face limits on using data they collect to launch competing products, and avoid favoring their own products on their platforms.
Fines for violations could reach up to 10% of annual global revenue.
The Digital Services Actwould make companies more accountable for illegal content on their platforms, with fines of up to 6% of annual revenue.
The walls are closing in
This week, the FTC ordered top U.S. tech companies to explain their user data practices, China fined its own tech leaders Alibaba and Tencent over antitrust violations, and the UK proposed fines of up to 10% of global revenue if tech giants don’t remove illegal content.
Looking ahead…the EU proposals still need to be ratified, which could take a few years. If they become law, they’ll likely be Europe’s strictest to date.
This holiday season, we aren’t just passing down our famous eggnog recipe, we’re also passing down the secret to building generational wealth—investing in private real estate with .
DiversyFund opens opportunities for the everyday investor (not just the super rich) to access high value private real estate investing through its non-traded REIT (real estate investment trust).
So while investing in doesn’t fit in a stocking or give you an eggnog-induced buzz, it’s a way better gift than only investing in stocks.
That’s because you don’t build generational wealth by just putting everything in the stock market or a savings account, you can do it by diversifying your portfolio into alternatives like
President-elect Joe Biden reportedly made his pick for Transportation Secretary yesterday: former mayor of South Bend, IN, Pete Buttigieg.
Remember, it’s BOOT-edge-edge—and he’s the young one who speaks Norwegian and plays alt-rock on the piano. Thirty-eight-year-old Mayor Pete ran a solid campaign for the Democratic nomination, even scraping out a win in the Iowa caucuses, but eventually dropped out of the race.
Buttigieg endorsed Biden and helped him raise money, despite Biden having run an ad mocking Buttigieg’s relatively paltry experience.
What Buttigieg will be tasked with: It may be the Rhodes Scholar’s toughest assignment yet—bipartisan infrastructure legislation. Biden’s plan for climate change, a central plank of his platform, includes a major effort to overhaul the U.S.’ crumbling industrial backbone.
More broadly, Buttigieg will manage a nearly $90 billion budget, plus oversee the agencies that regulate railroads, trucking, and aviation.
Looking ahead…if his nomination makes it through the Senate, Buttigieg will be the first openly LGBTQ person to become a member of a presidential Cabinet.
We’re not sure watching football could get more fun than Monday night’s Browns-Ravens game, but Nickelodeon is going to try.
On Jan. 10, the network will broadcast an NFL Wild Card game filled with gags aimed at drawing in a younger audience. That means…
A pregame show called “The SpongeBob SportsPants Countdown Special”
Booth commentary from two members of the sketch comedy series All That
Slime superimposed on endzones and googly eyes and other Snapchat-style filters layered over the game
Zoom out: With the all-important TV rights deals for the NFL expiring in 2022, media companies, such as Nickelodeon parent ViacomCBS, are experimenting with new formats to woo the league. NBC, for instance, is tapping khaki influencer and MSNBC journalist Steve Kornacki to evaluate playoff scenarios as he would the electoral college.
Food for thought: Who makes your all-Nickelodeon football roster?
WRs: Drake & Josh
TE: Otto from Rocket Power
RB: Wanda from The Fairly OddParents
Fullback: Invader Zim
Football: Hey Arnold’s head
O-Line: The Rugrats
D-Line: The Wild Thornberrys
QB: Aang from Avatar: the Last Airbender
Backup QB: Danny Phantom
Coaches: Gibby from iCarly, SpongeBob, and Ned from Ned’s Declassified School Survival Guide
Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images
For Christmas market operators, prepping for the holidays is typically a year-long affair. There are spring orders for bespoke glühwein mugs to place, vendor applications to review, city permits to secure, staff to hire. But, as we all know, this wasn’t a typical year.
The Brew spoke with operators of four of the U.S.’ most iconic Christmas markets about their decisions to proceed in-person or move festivities online, and the devastating impact the pandemic is having on your favorite Christmas ornament artisan.
MacKenzie Scott, the billionaire ex-wife of Jeff Bezos, disclosed that she donated $4.2 billion to nonprofits over the past four months.
The FDA said Moderna’s Covid-19 vaccine was effective and safe in a detailed analysis released yesterday. It could be approved later this week.
The FDA also granted emergency approval for the first over-the-counter Covid-19 test that doesn’t need a prescription.
Peter Nygård, the Canadian fashion mogul, was indicted on charges of racketeering and sex trafficking.
Giannis Antetokounmpo signed a supermax extension with the Milwaukee Bucks for $228.2 million. It’s the largest contract in NBA history.
SPONSORED BY DIVERSYFUND
A growing net worth is on everyone’s wish list. With , you can give the gift of future generational wealth. They make it easy and accessible to . This holiday season, diversify from stock markets and invest in high-value private real estate. .
BREW’S BETS
Help us help you: Take this quick survey to help out our brand partnerships team, who make this newsletter possible. Thanks so much.
2020 Playback: So you’ve seen your personalized Spotify Wrapped. Now, check out the most celebrated artists, cultural moments, and tracks on fledgling artists’ go-to platform, SoundCloud.
As you know, all Wikipedia articles are subdivided into sections. We’ll name the particular section titles of a Wikipedia article, and you have to name the article.
1) Publication history 2) Adaptations 3) Guns, vehicles, and gadgets 4) Cultural impact 5) Criticisms
Here’s another.
1) History 2) Customs and traditions 3) Production 4) Environmental issues 5) Religious issues
ANSWER
The first is James Bond, the second is Christmas Tree
Granholm, who served two terms as Michigan’s governor, is experienced in dealing with the auto industry — a potentially big advantage as the new president seeks to speed the rollout of electric vehicles and the network of charging stations needed to power them. Granholm’s ardent support of the auto industry may help Biden’s team strengthen its appeal to blue-collar workers and the manufacturing sector as the incoming administration pitches its climate-centric economic transformation.
…
Most of the Energy Department’s budget is devoted to maintaining the country’s nuclear weapons arsenal, but it also operates the 17 national labs that have helped develop advanced technology used in renewables, nuclear energy and fossil fuel production. Under former President Barack Obama, the Energy Department oversaw tens of billions of dollars in loan guarantees and grants that expanded the adoption of solar and wind power, helping drive a steep drop in the prices of renewable electricity.
…
DOE also will play a key role in reducing emissions from the nation’s building, another target of Biden’s climate plan. DOE has responsibility over setting appliance standards, conducting research on innovations like electric heat pumps and overseeing building and residential energy efficiency programs.
Under the rule changes, the Hungarian constitution will allow only married couples and single people granted special permission by the government to adopt children. Same-sex marriage is not permitted in Hungary, although civil unions are allowed. In the past, gay couples had been able to adopt children by having one partner apply as a single person, but the new law puts an end to this practice.
…
The amendment’s architects, including Justice Minister Judit Varga, have framed it a protection for traditional, Christian institutions of marriage and family. The change states that “the mother is a woman, the father is a man,” Varga wrote in a Facebook post Tuesday. In May, Hungary banned legal gender recognition, meaning transgender and intersex people cannot change how they were designated at birth.
…
Lawmakers also approved new measures to strengthen [Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s] power, due to come into force after Hungary’s next election in 2023. The constitutional amendments will loosen oversight by independent bodies over government spending and make it easier to call a state of emergency, critics said.
The Digital Services Act (DSA) will update the bloc’s long-standing ecommerce rules while widening requirements to define areas of additional responsibility around content. It will apply widely, to different types of services, with additional transparency and accountability obligations for the largest platforms (with ~45M+ monthly users; aka 10% of the EU population) which must conduct risk assessments to guard against misuse of their tools.
…
A second legislative package, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), proposes a system whereby a sub-set of key Internet players are deemed ‘gatekeepers’ and required to abide by specific additional conditions — with the overarching goal of fostering competition in digital markets which can be prone to ‘winner takes all’ dynamics. The DMA is expected to apply to tech giants like Amazon and Google, though the Commission avoided naming any names today.
…
Top-line fines under the proposals laid out today are up to between 6% (in the DSA) and 10% (in the DMA) of global annual turnover — higher than the maximum 4% allowed for under the bloc’s existing General Data Protection Regulation framework (albeit it’s hard to imagine those maximums ever being levied, as GDPR maximums haven’t — but they make for an eye-catching headline).
The test will cost about $30 and be available by January, according to the Australian company that makes it, Ellume. Users add a few drops of liquid to the sample and place it into a small plastic device that looks like a home pregnancy test. Results are wirelessly transmitted to a smartphone app within about 15 minutes.
…
The company, which received about $30 million from the National Institutes of Health to ramp up production capacity, will be able to produce about 100,000 tests a day by January, [Ellume CEO Sean Parsons] says. By June, production should hit 1 million a day. Testing experts welcome the authorization, but some note that the cost and limit on production capacity will restrict the impact the test will have on controlling the spread of the virus.
…
The technology the test uses detects proteins from the virus called antigens. But the FDA and others note that antigen tests tend to be less accurate than [the more common PCR tests, which detect genetic material from the virus] and may miss more infected people, giving false negative results. In announcing the authorization, the FDA acknowledged the test’s potential shortcomings but stressed the advantages of speed and convenience.
The British government on Monday cited a rise in new infections, which it said may be partly linked to the new variant, as it moved its capital city and many other areas into the highest tier of COVID-19 restrictions. But there is currently no evidence that the variant is more likely to cause severe COVID-19 infections, the scientists said, or that it would render vaccines less effective.
…
The mutations include changes to the important “spike” protein that the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus uses to infect human cells, a group of scientists tracking the genetics of the virus said, but it is not yet clear whether these are making it more infectious. “Efforts are under way to confirm whether or not any of these mutations are contributing to increased transmission,” the scientists, from the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium, said in a statement.
…
Mutations, or genetic changes, arise naturally in all viruses, including SARS-CoV-2, as they replicate and circulate in human populations. “As a result of this on-going process, many thousands of mutations have already arisen in the SARS-CoV-2 genome since the virus emerged in 2019,” they said. The majority of the mutations seen so far have had no apparent effect on the virus, and only a minority are likely to change the virus in any significant way.
The FDA has authorized the very first over-the-counter home Coronavirus test kit. The test has been approved under an Emergency Use Authorization, meaning that it can get to the market much faster than normal. While the whole COVID-19 subject remains controversial, news of a rapid test that can be conducted in the privacy of one’s home seems positive news …especially to those who are considered in more “at-risk” groups.
Does Hunter Have a Date with a Special Prosecutor?
The roar of the media silence on the Dominion forensic audit is deafening. Not only was the report released under fire from opposing lawyers, but the CEO of Dominion also answered questions in front of the Michigan Senate to almost zero fanfare. Despite a sturdy opening statement, the litany became one of blaming “human error” again and again. Surely this is newsworthy?
Multiple sources report that President Trump is seeking a special counsel investigation into Hunter Biden’s dealings with China and Ukraine. The media floodgates appear to have opened.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell publicly congratulated Joe Biden on the Senate floor. The president, and others, took to Twitter to express their outrage at this breaking of the ranks.
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo finds himself caught between a rock and a hard place. Politically, he is under fire for his decision to shut down restaurants and other businesses in NYC. On a more personal level, accusations of sexual harassment are starting to take hold.
Something political to ponder as you enjoy your morning coffee.
Senator Mitch McConnell has broken ranks with President Trump and officially recognized Joe Biden as the next president. Swift rebukes from all quarters soon followed. Perhaps the main issue is how the Senate Majority Leader hopes to win two Georgia Senate elections with such a divided party. Both Georgia candidates are relying on Trump voters to push them over the line. Is it possible they will see their votes as a benefit to a politician who won’t back their president?
This email was sent to rickbulownewmedia@protonmail.com Why did I get this? Unsubscribe from this list. Update subsc|ription preferences.
LibertyNation.com is a project of One Generation Away · 1629 K Street NW · Washington, DC 20006 · USA
“U.S. Attorney General William Barr will step down next week, he said on Monday… Trump lashed out at Barr on Twitter over the weekend after the Wall Street Journal reported that Barr knew earlier this year about an investigation into Biden’s son Hunter’s taxes… Barr’s fate in the waning days of the Trump administration had been in question since he said earlier this month that a Justice Department investigation had found no sign of major fraud in the election, contradicting Trump’s claims.” Reuters
From the Right
The right praises Barr.
“Barr was the ideal attorney general for this toxic environment. He is a constitutional scholar with a well-developed conception of unitary executive power (the principle that the president runs and is accountable for the actions of the entire executive branch, including its law-enforcement components), at the same time he’s a staunch defender of Justice Department rules and norms. He steered the department through the Mueller investigation, preventing adventurous prosecutors in Mueller’s shop from pursuing ill-conceived theories of obstruction of justice while, in the interest of transparency, releasing the whole Mueller report to the public…
“At 70, with an accomplished career already, Barr did not need the gig. He consistently maintained that he would not be bullied by press criticism, partisan attacks, or the president’s pressure campaigns. He came back to serve an institution he reveres, and he leaves on his own terms with his head held high.” The Editors, National Review
“The esteemed Rep. Eric Swalwell (D., Calif.) likened Barr to Trump flunky Michael Cohen, ‘an underworld fixer for Donald Trump.’… The New York Times’s Maureen Dowd dubbed Barr ‘minister of information’ [a reference to the book 1984]; at the Washington Post, the liberal columnist Greg Sargent argued that Barr ‘is party to Trump’s scheme to maintain power via illicit means if necessary.’…
“The dishonest criticisms of Barr reflect a pattern, mirroring those levied against Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett during her confirmation hearings, when Democrats from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif.) to secretary of state runner-up Chris Coons (D., Delaware) warned that she would do Trump’s bidding on the Supreme Court by resolving any election-related dispute in his favor…
“Barrett’s rebuke of the Trump team’s efforts to see the Electoral College results overturned gives the lie to the charges, so readily leveled against both her and colleagues Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh. So it is with Barr—despite Democrats’ vague claims of nefarious conspiracy, at the end of the day he was always going to follow the law.” Editors, Washington Free Beacon
“If Barr were really just acting as the president’s personal lawyer, then why would he have released Mueller’s damaging report at all? Why would Barr have recommended a lighter sentence for [Trump associate Roger] Stone, but argued against giving him a pardon? And then there is Barr’s refusal during the campaign to publicly acknowledge the Justice Department’s investigation into the business dealings of Biden’s son, Hunter. And his non-intervention in the investigations or indictments of former Trump strategist Steve Bannon this year. And his hands-off approach to the prosecutions of Ukrainian associates of Trump’s personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani…
“If it were not for [the DOJ’s] review of the [Michael] Flynn prosecution, the public would not have known that the lead FBI agent on that case did not believe there was any evidence that Flynn was a Russian asset or agent as early as December 2016. A separate Justice Department inspector general report found the FBI’s warrant application to snoop on a former Trump campaign adviser was so riddled with errors and omissions that the secret court that approves such warrants forced the bureau to audit all of its surveillance warrants… Barr deserves credit for bringing these abuses to light.” Eli Lake, Bloomberg
“If Barr had let the public know that the DOJ was investigating Hunter Biden [ahead of the election], the prosecution would have been seen as political abuse — the kind of abuse the Obama DOJ committed against then-candidate Donald Trump in 2016 when they leaked the fact that his campaign was under investigation for ‘Russian collusion.’ The Obama DOJ’s abuse is now the subject of an investigation by U.S. Attorney John Durham. If Barr had told Durham to hurry up before the election, he would have committed the same abuse Durham is investigating. In sum, Barr protected these investigations by keeping them free of politics.” Joel Pollak, Breitbart
Finally, “Barr’s insistence that houses of worship be treated fairly during the pandemic gives religious people, and anyone else who takes the free exercise clause seriously, a reason to give Barr a thumbs-up. Under Barr, the Department of Justice boosted legal efforts aimed at protecting religion amid coronavirus restrictions, and the Supreme Court has vindicated those efforts in recent weeks… restricting or, in some cases, functionally outlawing religious exercise while allowing higher levels of participation in secular activities is not how we do things in this country.” Jeremy Beaman, Washington Examiner
From the Left
The left criticizes Barr.
“In many ways, Barr was unlike any of the other dominant figures of the Trump administration. He previously ran the Justice Department under George H.W. Bush in the early 1990s, giving him an unusual amount of direct experience for a member of Trump’s Cabinet. Barr’s personal and professional affinities were those of a typical establishment Republican in an administration that often elevated right-wing misfits and fringe elements to top roles. And he brought a certain degree of basic competence to the job…
“But Barr was also a perfect fit for Trump in other ways. He is a relentless advocate for expanding the executive branch’s power and dismantling the post-Watergate consensus that kept it in check. ‘The premise is that the greatest danger of government becoming oppressive arises from the prospect of executive excess,’ he told a Federalist Society gala last year. ‘So there is a knee-jerk tendency to see the legislative and judicial branches as the good guys protecting society from a rapacious would-be autocrat. This prejudice is wrong-headed and atavistic.’ Barr’s argument was unpersuasive even before the president spent the last month trying to overturn the November election, only to be stymied by Congress and the courts.” Matt Ford, New Republic
“The puzzle of Barr’s tenure remains. It’s no surprise that Barr would zealously embrace an extreme vision of presidential power. Barr not only brought those views with him, he also laid them out in a memo that served as an application for the job. It’s no surprise he would be a strident voice in the culture and ideological wars — although Barr’s description of pandemic restrictions as ‘the greatest intrusion on civil liberties’ since slavery was jaw-dropping…
“But Barr as Trump’s attorney general went so much further than his conservative convictions would have required. He became not only the defender of the presidency but also the defender of this president. He radically mischaracterized the conclusions of the Mueller report before its public release. He took extraordinary measures, stepping in to overrule career prosecutors, to shield Trump associates such as Stone and former national security adviser Michael Flynn. He ordered the clearing of Lafayette Square during racial justice protests last summer so Trump could stride to his Bible-holding photo op in front of St. John’s Church.” Ruth Marcus, Washington Post
“Barr mindlessly parroted Trump’s most irresponsible claims about the potential for massive voter fraud. The attorney general made wildly exaggerated claims to the media and to Congress about the potential for voter fraud, conspicuously failing to offer up any compelling or reliable evidence. He blamed purported left-wing, so-called Antifa-related extremist groups for widespread violence, but remained conspicuously reluctant to acknowledge the threat of right-wing extremism — consistent with Trump’s stump speech on the campaign trail… Barr continually debased himself and the Justice Department in fealty to Trump.” Elie Honig, CNN
Some argue, “Reporters often described Barr’s views as some kind of principled belief in unified executive power. Nobody has produced an example of Barr defending this principle under a Democratic administration. And his recent move to appoint John Durham as a special counsel, limiting Joe Biden’s ability to appoint a successor who might curtail his sprawling mandate to investigate anybody who looked into Trump’s ties with Russia, confirms that Barr’s belief in executive power ends the moment Biden puts his hand on the Bible.” Jonathan Chait, New York Magazine
“What’s the January surprise Barr wants no part of? One possibility is that Barr wants to create bureaucratic distance between himself and the president so that he can say he resigned rather than serving out his term. But this seems implausible, even for a canny bureaucratic operator like Barr, given how close he has been to the presidency. And it certainly seems at odds with the fawning tone of his resignation letter…
“Another option is that Barr realizes that Trump plans to continue challenging the election outcome. Barr has been willing to tolerate Trump’s arguments thus far, even if he himself has refused to say that Justice has evidence of meaningful fraud. Yet the prospect of increasingly wild claims of conspiracy and an inauguration without Trump in attendance might perhaps be enough for Barr to prefer to be out of town — and out of the administration — for the next few weeks. The most likely possibility, however, involves presidential pardons, and perhaps legally questionable executive orders designed to make more permanent some of Trump’s policies.” Noah Feldman, Bloomberg
A libertarian’s take
“As America went through a summer of anger, protests, and violence about police abuse of minorities, Barr not only habitually took the side of police, but also basically told Americans to just shut up and do what they’re told… In speeches, he embraced the ‘warrior cop’ mentality and complained in a speech at a Fraternal Order of Police conference in 2019 that, ‘Not too long ago influential public voices—whether in the media or among community and civic leaders—stressed the need to comply with police commands, even if one thinks they are unjust.’ He was mad that those days were gone…“Barr opposes legislation that would weaken ‘qualified immunity,’ which in many cases protects police officers from being sued when they knowingly violate citizens’ rights… Finally, Barr should be remembered for his decision to fire up the mechanism of federal executions and putting (so far) 10 men to death over the course of just six months… Every fan of liberty should be thrilled that he’s leaving.” Scott Shackford, Reason
Or, copy/paste your referral link to others: <<RH_REFLINK>>
Our physical address is:
The Flip Side · PO Box 677 · New York, New York 10028 · USA
I don’t want to receive these emails anymore
11.) AEI
AEI’s daily publication of independent research, insightful analysis, and scholarly debate. Donate to AEI in support of defending and promoting freedom, opportunity, and enterprise.
Kenneth M. Pollack and Farhad Alaaldin | Foreign Policy
If the Iraqi government fails to pay state workers’ salaries in January, it could lead to widespread instability and violence. The United States and the international community must shore up Baghdad’s finances before it’s too late.
There is a lot of force behind the Federal Trade Commission’s and state attorneys’ general antitrust cases against Facebook. But antitrust has a tradition of evidence-based decision-making, and the evidence for these cases is weak.
Joseph Antos, Kirsten Axelsen, and Sara Rogers | AEI Economic Perspectives
A more fundamental restructuring of Medicare Part D’s subsidies would provide insurance protection that is now missing from the program, eliminate incentives that promote higher prices for the most expensive drugs, and reinvigorate price competition in the market.
The changing nature of work is providing the fastest job growth and income gains to those with higher levels of skills and education. It’s vital then for governors, mayors, and education leaders to have better, real-time data about their labor markets, including the skills most in demand.
📈 Please join Felix Salmonat 12:30 p.m. ET today for an Axios Virtual Event on businesses making a difference during the pandemic, featuring Cuyana co-founder and CEO Karla Gallardo, Edgewell Personal Care president and CEO Rod Little, and Fanatics founder and executive chairman Michael Rubin. Register here.
1 big thing: Mitch, the muscle
Mitch McConnell walks to the Senate floor in July. Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is muscling out President Trump as the dominant day-to-day Republican powerbroker on Capitol Hill.
Why it matters: Trump’s power persists, and will live on post-presidency. But McConnell — in his cunningly quiet but methodical way — is flexing his authority. It’s a taste of a tension that will help define the next four years.
With President Trump offstage and in denial, McConnell conferred the Republican Party’s validation of Joe Biden as president-elect, declaring on the Senate floor yesterday: “The Electoral College has spoken. So today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden.”
Biden called to thank the Kentucky gentleman for the remarks, and told reporters: “There are things we can work together on. … I’m looking forward to working with him.”
A year-end coronavirus deal is alive — because McConnell says it is. McConnell said Tuesday: “We’re not leaving here without a COVID package.”
In his party’s most consequential turning of the page, McConnell yesterday privately warned GOP senators not to join Trump’s extended assault on the Electoral College results. McConnell said on a caucus call that any shenanigans on Jan. 6, when Congress will confirm the result in a joint session, would yield a “terrible vote” for Republicans. In a real change of tune for the party, McConnell insisted there’s “zero sentiment” for an objection.
What’s next: Whether Republicans keep the Senate majority or not, McConnell will be the party’s last word on what lives and dies from Biden’s Hill agenda.
“He is the obstacle to — and facilitator of — progress,” a longtime McConnell associate told me.
The bottom line: Remember that McConnell called his autobiography “The Long Game.”
He played it, and won. We’re about to see an epic next round.
In less than a year, the pandemic shot us more than a decade ahead in the workplace transformation, writes Erica Pandey, author of the weekly Axios @Work newsletter:
1. We’re rethinking where we work and live.
Around 20 million Americans are planning to leave dense and costly metros like New York and San Francisco and move to cheaper cities.
2. Workplace priorities are changing. After months away from the office, in-person perks like free snacks or stunning city views don’t matter as much.
People increasingly care about company culture and belonging, and that will be a key factor in firms’ abilities to recruit and retain talent.
3. Companies have accelerated adoption of workplace technology.
Besides tech for remote work, firms are also incorporating new forms of surveillance in the name of safety.
4. We have more workplace flexibility.
Getting dressed up seems superfluous now, and people have ditched business formal — and even business casual — for loungewear.
The bottom line: The pandemic will be remembered as the great accelerant.
🎧Hear more as Erica Pandey guest-hosts our “Axios Today.”
📱Sign up for Erica’s weekly newsletter, Axios @Work.
3. Big Tech’s hidden hand in vaccine rollout
Illustration: Annelise Capossela/Axios
Technology companies — including IBM, Oracle and Salesforce — are working with governments and health agencies to manage the massive task of rapidly distributing the COVID-19 vaccines, Ina Fried writes from S.F.
Why it matters: For tech, it’s both a business opportunity and a chance for companies to tie themselves to a critical societal need.
Salesforce isworking with global vaccine alliance Gavi to help with its project to equitably distribute the vaccine in 190 countries. Closer to home, Salesforce is part of a project that consultant MTX built for the city of Chicago to manage its vaccine distribution. The consultant is now looking to sell the program to other local governments.
Oracle donated a national electronic health record database and public health management applications to the federal government.
IBM is offering a blockchain-based approach to record and authenticate the temperature and handling of each vaccine dose.
A number of companies, including IBM and Clear, aim to provide a “digital health pass” to institutions that want to require proof of vaccination, including airlines, workplaces and schools.
5. Can employers force employees to take vaccine to return to work?
Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios
The short answer is that employers can create such requirements, with some wiggle room, Erica Pandey writes.
Federal law lets both public and private organizations require vaccinations, and schools, hospitals and a host of other institutions have long done so.
The bottom line: Companies could play a key role in upping vaccination numbers by asking their employees — or even their customers — to take it.
Go deeper (subscription): The N.Y. Times’ Andrew Ross Sorkin spoke with executives about requiring worker vaccinations.
6. Au revoir, snow days
Hard landing at slope in Prospect Park, Brooklyn. Photo: Andrew Katz/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images
The pandemic may end school snow days forever, the N.Y. Times’ Troy Closson writes (subscription):
“With the season’s first big snowfall expected in New York City today, classes will be held online no matter how bad storms are.”
7. Federal executions top states’ for 1st time
Federal prison in Terre Haute, Ind. Photo: Michael Conroy/AP
For the first time in history, the U.S. government carried out more executions in a year (10) than all states (7), AP writes from an annual report by the Death Penalty Information Center.
Why it matters: President Trump oversaw a full-throttle resumption of federal executions this year after a 17-year pause, carrying out 10 executions even as backing for capital punishment waned.
That’s a higher yearly total than under any presidency since the 1800s, according to the report.
What’s next: The Trump administration has three more executions scheduled ahead of Inauguration Day on Jan. 20 — with the last scheduled for Jan. 15, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.
One of those scheduled is Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row. She’d be the first woman executed by the federal government in some six decades.
8. Times Square will be empty Dec. 31
Times Square, 350 days ago. Photo: Gary Hershorn/Getty Images
Times Square New Year’s Eve celebrations will have no public audience for the first time in the ball drop’s 113-year history, organizers announced.
The ball drop will go ahead, and Gloria Gaynor will perform her 1970s disco hit, “I Will Survive.”
Like the rest of this year, it’ll be livestreamed.
9. Elizabeth Warren plans April book
Cover: Henry Holt & Co.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren will write about “six experiences and perspectives that have influenced her life and advocacy” in “Persist,” out April 20.
“I wrote ‘Persist’ because I remain as committed as ever to fighting for an America that works for everyone,” Warren said. “I’ve written a dozen books, but this one is especially personal.”
Warren was repped by Robert Barnett and Daniel Martin of Williams & Connolly.
Pharmacy students pose with a box of Pfizer vaccines at North Memorial Hospital in Robbinsdale, Minn., yesterday. Photo: Stephen Maturen/Getty Images
The Washington Post Editorial Boardrounds up “20 good things that happened in 2020”:
“A terrible plague struck humankind, but scientists responded with unprecedented speed and common purpose.”
“We learned to appreciate the selfless dedication of nurses, orderlies, doctors and other health workers who risked their lives to save ours.”
“A record number of Americans turned out to vote.”
Black women “helped elect America’s first female vice-president, first Black vice-president and first Asian American vice-president: Sen. Kamala Harris.”
“NASA named its headquarters building in D.C. after Mary W. Jackson, the agency’s first African American female engineer.”
Monday’s Electoral College vote for Joe Biden has not ended the Republican Party’s dilemma over how to deal with President Trump’s election challenges, as he continues to assert an honest vote tally would show he won a second term.
The largest United States oil lobbying group is launching a program encouraging companies to curb flaring, the practice of intentionally burning natural gas, which has become a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.
The anti-parasite drug ivermectin has recently garnered attention as a drug that could prevent the transmission of COVID-19 and perhaps even treat the symptoms.
Current and former U.S. border officials are warning of an impending crisis at the southern border due to the Biden administration’s immigration stances.
The meatpacking, food, and aviation industries, among others, are lobbying governments to prioritize their employees for vaccination, arguing they are essential workers crucial to propping up the economy.
Iowa Republican Sens. Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley spearheaded a letter urging House leaders and top lawmakers on the House Committee on Administration to reject Democratic congressional candidate Rita Hart’s challenge of election results in Iowa’s 2nd Congressional District.
The Netherlands imposed a five-week national lockdown this week, closing schools, nonessential businesses, museums, and gyms until mid-January as cases of the coronavirus continue to rise.
UNICEF, the children’s arm of the United Nations, says about 2.3 million children in Ethiopia have been cut off from humanitarian aid amid reports of continued conflict between the nation and its Tigray region.
Canadian fashion mogul Peter Nygard has been indicted on federal sex trafficking charges after allegations of sexual abuse from dozens of women and minors over a 25-year period.
A former police captain with the Houston Police Department was arrested while trying to conduct an independent investigation to prove voter fraud in the 2020 election.
You received this email because you are subscribed to Examiner Today from The Washington Examiner. Update your email preferences to choose the types of emails you receive.We respect your right to privacy – View our Policy
Unsubscribe
18.) ASSOCIATED PRESS
Dec 16, 2020
View in Browser
AP MORNING WIRE
Good morning,
Throughout 2020, Associated Press journalists around the globe worked ceaselessly and intrepidly to tell the story of COVID-19 — a contagion that enmeshed far more countries than did the World Wars. And at year’s end, they set out to take stock.
The result is the Pandemic Atlas, an array of video, photos and text by the same AP staffers who have covered the story since reports of a new coronavirus emerged from China. They show how the pandemic has played out in countries on all continents — their failures and successes, the heroism of some, the tragedies of others.
Biden spoke with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, who publicly congratulated the Democrat on his victory, Will Weissert reports. And Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, a close ally of President Donald Trump, says he’s spoken with Biden and some of his Cabinet picks.
There’s still one very big holdout: Trump hasn’t conceded.
Trump Voters: For weeks, Trump has been on a mission to convince his loyal base that his victory was stolen and the contest rigged. Polls show he’s had considerable success. But now that the Electoral College has formalized Biden’s win and Republican officials are finally acknowledging him as president-elect, many Trump voters seem to be doing the same. Interviews with voters, along with fresh surveys of Republicans, suggest their unfounded doubts about the integrity of the vote remain. But there is far less consensus on what should be done about it and whether to carry that resentment forward, Jill Colvin and Jonathan Cooper report.
Biden Cabinet: The president-elect is nominating his former rival Pete Buttigieg as secretary of transportation and intends to choose former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm as energy secretary. Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, would be the first openly gay person confirmed by the Senate to a Cabinet post. Granholm served as Michigan’s attorney general and two terms as Michigan governor.
AP PHOTO/SAM JAMES
AP Interview: PM Ardern says flattening virus curve wasn’t enough for New Zealand
“You just have to get on with it. There’s a job to be done.”
New Zealand this year pulled off a moonshot that remains the envy of most other nations: it eliminated the coronavirus.
She says the target grew from an early realization the nation’s health system simply couldn’t cope with a big outbreak, Nick Perry reports from Wellington.
New Zealand’s response to the virus has been among the world’s most successful, with only 25 deaths. But there have been plenty of bumps along the way. When a handful of cases began cropping up in August, Ardern found herself defending wildly exaggerated claims from Donald Trump, who said, “It’s over for New Zealand. Everything’s gone.”
“Was angry the word?” Ardern said, reflecting on Trump’s comments. She said while the new cases were deeply concerning, “to be described in that way was a misrepresentation of New Zealand’s position.”
A pandemic atlas: How COVID-19 took over the world in 2020
Customarily, the last days of the year have been a time to review and analyze the events of the previous 12 months. But after 1.6 million people have died and many more millions are suffering, COVID-19 represents a challenge: How to put this global catastrophe into perspective?
And so Jon Gambrell, news director for the Persian Gulf and Iran, looks at how Iran’s leadership at first denied the threat posed by the virus, unleashing “perhaps Iran’s greatest threat since the turmoil and war that followed its 1979 Islamic Revolution.”
New York-based National Writer Adam Geller deploys statistics to sketch out a portrait of the United States in the year of COVID. “Americans’ spending on groceries, compared to January: down 2.7%. Total sales of alcoholic beverages during the pandemic: $62.5 billion, up 21.8%.”
In Spain, a nation mourns too many elderly victims and harbors doubts about its system.
In China, an authoritarian government marshals its power to crush COVID-19.
In Israel, the disease magnifies rifts between ultra-Orthodox and more secular citizens.
Photographs accompanying these stories reveal a world of people in masks, huddled around coffins, healing the sick, going about their disrupted daily lives.
The houses of worship that were vandalized included two historically Black churches where people ripped down Black Lives Matter banners. Video on social media showed one banner being burned, defacement that police say is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
Critically, it also raised questions among some pastors and members at the churches about why more fellow Christians were not speaking out against the attacks.
“When evangelicals can speak on behalf of unborn babies, can speak on behalf of law and order when it comes to white people and white property, but are silent when it comes to banners that proclaim ‘Black lives matter,’ the moral silence is stupefying,” said a former president of the NAACP and a member of one of the churches, Metropolitan A.M.E.
The tearing down of Black Lives Matter signs came after pro-Trump demonstrations in the capital that attracted a sizable number of Proud Boys, a neo-fascist group prone to violence. The protests were planned to bolster the president’s baseless claims of election fraud.
The Boko Haram extremist group has claimed responsibility for abducting hundreds of boys from a school in Nigeria’s northern Katsina State last week. More than 330 students remain missing from the Government Science Secondary School in Kankara after gunmen attacked the school, although scores of others managed to escape. The government and the attackers are negotiating the fate of the boys. In 2014, the jihadist extremist group abducted over 270 girls from their school in Chibok in northeastern Borno State.
A push by the Iraqi government to close displacement camps by the end of the year threatens to leave tens of thousands of people homeless and without aid in winter during a pandemic. In one village west of Mosul, returnees have erected tents next to the ruins of their former homes, without power or potable water. The displaced were driven from their homes during the war against the Islamic State group. Many say they cannot return because their homes were destroyed or they fear reprisal by tribes and militias. Iraq’s cash-strapped government says it must accelerate closures to revive lagging reconstruction efforts.
A Black man who was sentenced to life behind bars as a teenager has walked out of a Minnesota prison. Myon Burrell’s release came hours after a pardons board commuted his sentence in a high-profile murder case. Burrell took his first steps as a free man to the sound of ringing bells and cheers from supporters. His case, and his age at the time of the killing, raised questions about the integrity of the criminal justice system. The AP and American Public Media uncovered new evidence and serious flaws in the police investigation into the 2002 killing of an 11-year-old girl hit by a stray bullet while at her dining room table.
Chinese ground crews are standing by for the return of a lunar probe bringing back the first fresh samples of rock and debris from the moon in more than 45 years. The robotic Chang’e 5 probe is expected to land in the Siziwang district of the vast Inner Mongolia region late today or early Thursday. The 23-day mission blasted off from a launch base on the southern island province of Hainan on Nov. 23. The China National Space Administration said the spacecraft fired its engines to put it on a course for home before the orbiter separates from the return vehicle, with all systems functioning as expected.
Good morning, Chicago. On Tuesday, state officials announced 7,359 new confirmed and probable cases of COVID-19 and 117 additional fatalities. Illinois medical workers started receiving their initial doses of the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine on Tuesday, and the FDA said that its initial review confirmed the effectiveness and safety of a second vaccine.
Meanwhile, Chicago updated its quarantine list on Tuesday. The city not only moved more than a dozen states to its most severe travel order designation, but officials also announced that people returning from those areas only need to quarantine for 10 days now. Here’s everything you need to know about the order.
Also, Tribune reporter Darcel Rockett will be asking two physicians reader questions about COVID-19 on Facebook Live this afternoon, at 12:30 p.m. Here’s how to tune in.
Here’s more coronavirus news and other top stories you need to know to start your day.
“We haven’t seen something significant to talk about now,” the state’s health director, Dr. Ngozi Ezike, told reporters Monday. “We’ll see for sure in this coming week. … We’ll keep our fingers crossed that maybe we’re not going to see a big bump.”
Democratic Gov. J.B. Pritzker laid out more than $700 million in cuts Tuesday to deal with a projected $3.9 billion budget deficit, contending Republicans need to offer their own plan and blaming them for playing a role in destabilizing state finances even before the pandemic sent tax revenues crashing.
Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg will be nominated by President-elect Joe Biden to serve as secretary of transportation, making him likely to become the first openly LGBTQ Cabinet secretary confirmed by the U.S. Senate.
The historic choice of Buttigieg, however, dealt a blow to former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, whose behind-the-scenes pursuit of the transportation post was met with vocal opposition from top progressives and African Americans within the Democratic Party over his City Hall response to the 2014 police murder of Black teenager Laquan McDonald.
Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s Law Department attempted in court this week to block local news station WBBM-Ch. 2 from airing body camera footage of Chicago police officers raiding an innocent woman’s home and handcuffing her while she was naked.
As the coronavirus began to menace the region in March, most Chicago-area residents took refuge inside their houses to follow the governor’s stay-at-home order. Tribune photographers, as they always do, stayed on the job.
Jijo George emigrated from India 17 years ago and worked hard to make things better for his family. He earned an associate degree in mechanical engineering and landed a job as a mechanic at Envoy Air at O’Hare International Airport about two years ago, his family said.
What’s more, he and his wife had a 2-year-old child and were expecting another within the next month, his cousin Blesson George said: “It took him 17 years to get where he is now — by working hard — and then suddenly it’s all gone.“ David Struett has the story…
No one was injured in the Dec. 1 incident but 40-year-old Shawn Kimbrough’s alleged actions were more than stupid, Judge Mary Marubio suggested Tuesday.
One by one, 19 members of the House have said they will not vote for Madigan — leaving him six votes shy of the 60 votes needed to continue in the leadership role he’s held for nearly four decades, barring any flip-flops in the group.
A “high level” international role for Emanuel could diminish the ardor of his considerable number of critics to spend time and money mounting a campaign against him.
Welcome to The Hill’s Morning Report. It is Wednesday! We get you up to speed on the most important developments in politics and policy, plus trends to watch. Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver are the co-creators, and readers can find us on Twitter @asimendinger and @alweaver22. Please recommend the Morning Report to friends and let us know what you think. CLICK HERE to subscribe!
Total U.S. coronavirus deaths reported each morning this week: Monday, 299,181; Tuesday, 300,482; Wednesday, 303,849.
There have been enough U.S. fatalities from COVID-19 to fill the Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor three times, or decimate an entire city the size of Cincinnati.
Against a welcome backdrop of anticipated U.S. approval of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, congressional leaders on Tuesday vowed to stay in Washington until they enact legislation this month to help constituents scarred by the pandemic.
At the same time, leading Republicans in the nation’s capital reached out to Joe Biden as the 46th president, nudging President Trump and his unfounded histrionics about election fraud further behind them.
Findings that the Moderna vaccine is 94 percent effective set the stage by the end of this week for emergency use authorization by the Food and Drug Administration. Approval of Moderna’s version means Americans could soon have two highly effective drugs that produce immunity, after the first shots of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine were given to health care workers on Monday (NBC News).
Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Biden’s incoming medical adviser for the pandemic, recommended during an ABC News interview that Trump, Vice President Pence, Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris be vaccinated “for security reasons” against the coronavirus as soon as possible.
CNN: Pence is to receive the first dose of a vaccine on Friday.
Biden should be vaccinated right away to build up immunity by the time he takes office, Fauci said. “You want him fully protected as he enters into the presidency in January,” he added.
The physician and immunologist, who will be 80 on Christmas Eve, said he hopes to get vaccinated in public in the coming weeks in order to try to allay Americans’ concerns about safety and effectiveness of the Pfizer vaccine currently distributed to hospitals and nursing homes throughout the country.
Deliberations about which VIPs and officials are at the head of the line to receive inoculations include lawmakers. Members of Congress are grappling with whether they should be prioritized as essential workers when it comes to continuity of government (The Hill).
BBC: A COVID-19 virus “variant” was reported this week in the United Kingdom. It needs more scientific research to determine if it should raise alarm bells.
The Hill’s Marty Johnson reports that the NAACP will hold a town hall meeting this morning focused on the coronavirus, urging that communities get vaccinated despite serious skepticism about vaccinations endorsed by the government.
Testing: The FDA on Tuesday authorized the first coronavirus test that people will be able to buy at a local store without a prescription and use for immediate results at home. The test, made by Australian company Ellume, will cost about $30 and be available by January (NPR).
Workplace: Biden’s challenge will be creating a COVID-19-free White House. His team’s prudence about the virus will be tested by technology and tradition when he arrives at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue on Jan. 20 (The Associated Press).
Trend: Tyson Foods hired its first chief medical officer, highlighting a growing trend among major companies. Businesses that have been in the spotlight throughout the pandemic have hired in-house health care professionals to deal with safety and wellbeing issues (The Hill).
CONGRESS: Leaders of the House and Senate struck an optimistic tone late Tuesday night after hours of negotiations on an expansive COVID-19 relief and government spending package as they race to pass a bill by the end of the year.
Despite not securing a deal or revealing any details of a potential agreement, lawmakers indicated that they were closer to consensus as staff on each side of the aisle exchanged legislative proposals. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) told reporters late Tuesday that he expects a deal “soon.”
“We’re making significant progress and I’m optimistic that we’re going to be able to complete an understanding sometime soon,” McConnell said. “Everybody wants to get a final agreement as soon as possible. We all believe the country needs it. And I think we’re getting closer and closer.”
When asked if he agreed with the House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s (R-Calif.) that a deal was close, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) replied that they were “closer.”
“We’re exchanging paper and ideas back and forth, making progress and hopefully we can come to an agreement soon,” Schumer said. “I think there is a genuine desire to come to an agreement by all four parties.”
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), McConnell, Schumer, and McCarthy met throughout Tuesday afternoon and evening in the Speaker’s office, breaking only for a brief intermission before reconvening at 7:30 p.m.
As The Hill’s Jordain Carney reports, the absence of an agreement and an approaching deadline means there is pressure today to file text for omnibus legislation to keep the federal bureaucracy funded. Leaders are hoping to attach a stimulus package to the massive $1.4 trillion spending measure. The spending package would keep the government’s lights on until Oct. 1. Without an accord, the government could shut down before Christmas.
The Washington Post: Congressional leaders meet, cite progress in spending and stimulus talks.
The Associated Press: Negotiators report progress on long-delayed COVID-19 aid bill.
NBC News: McConnell says Senate won’t leave until COVID-19 aid is passed.
Pelosi and Schumer are under increasing pressure. The effort to get a deal progressives favor has failed since House Democrats passed a $3 trillion measure in May and since talks with Republicans began in earnest in July. As The Hill’s Alexander Bolton and Scott Wong write, moderate Democrats are running out of patience and want to pass a relief measure before next week’s holiday, even though it could mean less leverage next year when Biden is president.
The Hill: Democrats see stimulus checks as winning issue in Georgia runoffs.
POLITICS: McConnell congratulated Biden on Tuesday, calling him the president-elect and declaring that the Electoral College “has spoken” as the president continues to lob unfounded volleys claiming rabid voter fraud across the country.
With the remarks, McConnell became the highest profile Republican to say outright that Biden will become the 46th president, ending weeks of silence from him about the results, having said that Trump had the right to take his case through the court system. McConnell and McCarthy are not on the same page about the presidential election results.
“Many of us had hoped the presidential election would yield a different result. But our system of government has the processes to determine who will be sworn in on Jan. 20. The Electoral College has spoken, so today I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden,” McConnell said. “The president-elect is no stranger to the Senate. He’s devoted himself to public service for many years” (The Hill and The Associated Press).
Shortly after McConnell’s address on the Senate floor, Biden told reporters that the two spoke Tuesday morning. The former VP thanked McConnell, a longtime Senate colleague, for his words as they prepare to work together in the coming years.
“I called him to thank him for the congratulations,” Biden told reporters in Wilmington, Del. “I told him that while we disagree on a lot of things there are things we can work together on. We agreed to get together sooner than later. And I’m looking forward to working with him” (The Hill).
With Biden’s victory in the rearview in McConnell’s mind, he pleaded with Senate Republicans not to object when Congress certifies Monday’s Electoral College vote on Jan. 6. McConnell’s request came during a caucus call on Tuesday, according to two sources, and as House Republicans are eyeing a challenge to the results during the joint session of Congress.
A Republican senator who participated in the call said that McConnell, Sen. John Thune (S.D.), the No. 2 Senate Republican, and Senate Rules Committee Chairman Roy Blunt (Mo.) all urged colleagues not to object to states’ electoral votes when they are received on the House floor next month. The GOP leader argued that any Senate Republican who signs on to an objection by a House Republican would then force the Senate to debate and subsequently vote on the objection, putting fellow GOP senators in a bad spot.
An objection “isn’t in the best interest of everybody,” McConnell said. No Senate Republicans indicated during the call that they are currently planning to object (The Hill).
The Hill: Senate GOP to Trump: The election is over.
Politico: How McConnell and the GOP let Trump down gently.
McConnell was not the only Senate Republican to speak with Biden on Tuesday. Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) revealed that he spoke over the phone with the incoming president, congratulating him for his victory and discussing the “challenging environment” that lays ahead (The Washington Post).
Politico: Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) gambles his political future on Trump.
> Georgia: On Tuesday, Biden made a rare post-election appearance outside of Delaware as he campaigned for Democrats Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock and pleaded with voters to hand him a Democratic majority in the Senate weeks ahead of the crucial Georgia Senate runoffs.
“Send me these two men and we’ll control the Senate and change the lives of the people of Georgia,” Biden said at an outdoor car rally in front of the Pullman Yard in Atlanta.
Victories by Ossoff and Warnock would give Democrats 50 senators, providing them with a majority, with Harris serving as the tiebreaker.
Politico: “Vote like your lives depend on it”: Biden makes urgent plea in Georgia Senate races.
The Hill: Georgia GOP senators dig in on refusal to recognize Biden win.
The Washington Post: Palm Beach neighbors delivered a letter from an attorney on Tuesday to the town and to the U.S. Secret Service asserting that Trump cannot legally use his Mar-a-Lago club as his post-presidency residence because of an agreement he signed in the 1990s.
NEW ADMINISTRATION: Former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, 38, who painted Biden during the Democratic presidential primary as an amiable Washington fossil, is the president-elect’s choice to be secretary of Transportation, Biden said in a statement late on Tuesday. It is Biden’s first LGBTQ Cabinet appointment and the youngest nominee to date (CNN).
The president-elect also plans to select former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) to lead the Energy Department, and former Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Gina McCarthy to serve in a new White House role as a domestic climate policy coordinator (The Associated Press).
“Buttigieg is a barrier-breaking public servant from the industrial Midwest with a track record of trailblazing, forward-thinking executive leadership,” Biden said. “Jobs, infrastructure, equity, and climate all come together at the DOT, the site of some of our most ambitious plans to build back better. I trust Mayor Pete to lead this work with focus, decency, and a bold vision — he will bring people together to get big things done.”
Despite having governed a city of barely 100,000 people, Buttigieg as mayor was credited with transforming traffic with his Smart Streets initiative, a three-year project to convert 8 miles of multilane thoroughfares into two-way routes that enhanced South Bend’s downtown. The project received awards for environmental protection. Though on a far smaller scale than the nation’s transportation systems, the project, as well as Buttigieg’s initiative to convert the city’s sewers to a smart-flow system, demonstrate what supporters praised as Buttigieg’s next-generation infrastructure vision (The Associated Press).
The Washington Post: If confirmed, the first Washington chapter of Buttigieg’s fast rise in national politics will be at a sprawling agency long viewed as a solid, if unflashy, perch that could provide an opportunity to make a lasting mark. The job is currently held by Elaine Chao, McConnell’s wife.
CNN analysis: Why does Buttigieg, a wonk who was a Rhodes scholar and speaks at least half a dozen languages, want to be Transportation secretary? Answer: It offers prominent executive experience on the way to bigger things.
Other ex-mayors were considered for DOT, including former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, who served as White House chief of staff to former President Obama after serving in the House. He helped former President Clinton win the White House in 1992 and advised the former president and Hillary Clinton in the West Wing.
The top candidate to lead the Interior Department, Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), is a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe and one of the first Native American women elected to Congress. She has emerged as Biden’s leading choice — amid intense lobbying by her supporters to get her the job (Reuters).
Inauguration update: Biden and Harris will be sworn into office from the west side of the Capitol, as is traditional, and Biden will deliver his inaugural address surrounded by a small contingent of invited guests, but nearly everything else will change on Jan. 20 (The Washington Post). The president-elect’s transition team and the Inaugural Committee are asking people to celebrate at home and not to travel to Washington for fear that COVID-19 will spread if people congregate (The Hill).
The White House should order production of 1 billion COVID-19 vaccine doses, by Ben Smilowitz, opinion contributor, The Hill. https://bit.ly/2Ko3j4Z
What Trump has done to America, by Jonathan Rauch, contributing writer, The Atlantic. https://bit.ly/37mN7dn
A MESSAGE FROM MASTERCARD
As the pandemic has accelerated the adoption of electronic payments, Mastercard has also been working with businesses and consumers to deliver innovative solutions that extend beyond the card, and we are working tirelessly to ensure our financial system is inclusive. Learn More.
WHERE AND WHEN
The House returns to work at 2 p.m. for legislative business.
The Senate convenes at 10 a.m. and will resume consideration of the nomination of Katherine Crytzer to be United States district judge for the Eastern District of Tennessee.
The president holds a Cabinet meeting at 11:30 a.m.
Vice President Pence participates in a Cabinet meeting at 11:30 a.m. At 2 p.m., he hosts an event in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building. Pence at 4 p.m. will lead a White House coronavirus task force meeting.
Biden and Harris will introduce Buttigieg as Transportation nominee at 11:45 a.m. The event will be livestreamed.
The Federal Reserve will release a policy statement at 2 p.m. at the conclusion of a two-day meeting. Chairman Jerome Powell will speak to the news media at 2:30 p.m. The Hill’s Sylvan Lane reports that Powell is poised for the Biden era in which he’s unlikely to face a barrage of presidential attacks and has an easy rapport with Janet Yellen, chosen to steer the Treasury Department.
Economic indicator: The U.S. Census Bureau reports at 8:30 a.m. on retail sales in November. Analysts are watching for a monthly drop, which would be a first since April.
👉 INVITATION TODAY: The Hill Virtually Live at 1 p.m., “COVID-19, Tech and Economic Resilience,” with Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.); Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.); former Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Zoom board member; former U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk; Commissioner Jessica Rosenworcel of the Federal Communications Commission; and Fred Humphries, vice president of U.S. government affairs for Microsoft. As a new administration prepares to take charge, which technology shifts are here to stay? How can policymaking keep pace to ensure the American economy retains its competitive edge? In the first of three virtual events, The Hill discusses the role of technology in reenergizing the American economy. Information is HERE.
👉 INVITATION: The Hill Virtually Live event on Thursday at 1 p.m., “Meet the New Members,” with Reps.-elect Stephanie Bice (R-Okla.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), Byron Donalds (R-Fla.), Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-N.M.) and Nikema Williams (D-Ga.). The Hill’s Bob Cusack and Steve Clemons talk with some of the new (and new-to-their-districts) members who will shape the next House term. Information HERE.
➔ INTERNATIONAL: The United States on Tuesday condemned “in the strongest terms” the abduction of more than 300 schoolboys from their school in northwestern Nigeria and was investigating Boko Haram’s claim of responsibility. A man identifying himself as the leader of Nigeria’s Boko Haram, whose name means “Western education is forbidden” in the local Hausa language, said the Islamist group was behind the kidnapping, which occurred on Friday at a secondary school in the country (Reuters). … French President Emmanuel Macron has floated the idea of a referendum, which would require approval by the French government, to insert climate goals into France’s constitution (The Hill). … The European Union unveils its plan to rein in big tech (The Washington Post) and Facebook has some counter moves involving U.K. users (Reuters).
➔ SUPREME COURT: Justices on Tuesday again sided with religious groups in Colorado and New Jersey that argued that the states’ COVID-19-related restrictions on worship services violated religious liberty rights, the latest in a string of rulings against pandemic guidelines in recent weeks. In unsigned orders, the justices wiped away lower court opinions in challenges that went in favor of the states: one brought by the Rev. Kevin Robinson and Rabbi Yisrael A. Knopfler in New Jersey and the other brought by a small Colorado church (CNN).
➔STOLEN SECRETS: Could a sophisticated and monthslong attack on U.S. government email and databases believed to have been carried out on behalf of the Russian government have turned up U.S. nuclear secrets? COVID-19 vaccine data? Blueprints for next-generation weapons systems? It will take weeks, maybe years in some cases, for digital sleuths combing through U.S. government and private industry networks to get the answers after the mammoth hack first came to light earlier this month (The Associated Press).
THE CLOSER
And finally … The sports memorabilia business is booming, with big-ticket items going (or set to go for) large sums of dough on the marketplace.
A sale next week by Christie’s and Hunt Auctions in New York is set to feature a Lou Gehrig 1931 jersey that could go for a cool $1.5 million. The auction lot, which features 152 items and could fetch between $4 million and $7 million, includes a Louisville Slugger bat used by Babe Ruth between 1916 and 1918. The bat is expected to sell for between $500,000 and $1 million (Bloomberg News).
Elsewhere, Wayne Gretzky, who holds dozens of hockey records, added another to his résumé: His 1979-80 O-Pee-Chee rookie card sold for nearly $1.3 million at an auction last week. The item was the first hockey card to sell for north of $1 million (the card sold for $465,000 only four years ago). According to Heritage Auctions, the card is only one of two from the set to receive a perfect Gem Mint 10 score from the Professional Sports Authenticator grading service (NBC Sports).
The Morning Report is created by journalists Alexis Simendinger and Al Weaver. We want to hear from you! Email: asimendinger@thehill.com and aweaver@thehill.com. We invite you to share The Hill’s reporting and newsletters, and encourage others to SUBSCRIBE!
TO VIEW PAST EDITIONS OF THE HILL’S MORNING REPORT CLICK HERE
TO RECEIVE THE HILL’S MORNING REPORT IN YOUR INBOX SIGN UP HERE
State electors gathered this week to cast votes for president with little drama, but some Republicans plan to complicate the usually ceremonial process of Congress counting the electoral votes on Jan. 6, and that could put one incoming member in an extraordinary position. Read More…
Speaking at a historic train yard outside Atlanta on Tuesday, President-elect Joe Biden urged voters to cast ballots one more time on Jan. 5 for Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, who are challenging Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in runoff elections. Read More…
OPINION — Republicans like to point to Sen. Bernie Sanders and the “squad” to argue that Democrats have moved so far to the left that their party can’t compete for voters in the political center. But they seem to forget that the GOP includes extremists who’ve shown little regard for compromise or the democratic process. Read More…
Click here to subscribe to Fintech Beat for the latest market and regulatory developmentsin finance and financial technology.
President-elect Biden’s focus on climate-related issues continued to take shape Tuesday with his choice of Jennifer Granholm, a former governor and attorney general of Michigan, to lead the Energy Department amid reports that he would name former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to lead his domestic climate agenda. Read More…
On paper, Pete Buttigieg seems an unlikely pick for President-elect Biden’s secretary of Transportation. But in choosing Buttigieg, Biden has picked one of the few former Democratic presidential rivals to outright endorse a transformative change to how highways are paid for. Read More…
Jay Obernolte won the race for California’s 8th District in the November election. President Donald Trump — as well as retiring Rep. Paul Cook, who vacated the seat — endorsed Obernolte. Watch the video for CQ Roll Call’s conversation with the video game entrepreneur for more. Read More…
At least 330 million people lived in the United States as of April, according to a Census Bureau estimate that will serve as one of the first accuracy checks for forthcoming decennial census results. The agency produces the estimate in parallel to the count each decade. Read More…
CQ Roll Call is a part of FiscalNote, the leading technology innovator at the intersection of global business and government. Copyright 2020 CQ Roll Call. All rights reserved Privacy | Safely unsubscribe now.
1201 Pennsylvania Ave, NW Suite 600
Washington, DC 20004
24.) POLITICO PLAYBOOK
POLITICO Playbook: Confidence
Presented by
DRIVING THE DAY
HERE’S WHAT WE CAN SAY at this early hour. If you are gambling or setting odds, there’s a damn good chance that there will be a stimulus deal reached. It could be reached today — maybe! Theoretically! — given that: Friday is the government funding deadline, all the leaders agree a Covid relief deal should be paired with government funding, they have said they won’t leave town until a Covid deal is notched and passed, and the nation’s top lawmakers are talking and optimistic. Things would have to get real sideways for this to fall apart.
THE FOUR CORNERS or the Big Four — Speaker NANCY PELOSI, Senate Majority Leader MITCH MCCONNELL, Senate Minority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER and House Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY — met on and off for more than three hours Tuesday night in PELOSI’S conference room in the Capitol to try to strike a relief deal. It was the first time they had all been together to talk about stimulus since the election. (We don’t know if the group has been together in a classified setting, because they are also part of the Gang of Eight, which receives regular intelligence briefings.)
FRANKLY, talks between these four were the obvious endgame — gangs never come up with the final product — and they should’ve begun weeks ago. After just a few hours together, listen to what they were saying:
— MCCARTHY: “I think we’ve built a lot of trust, I think we’re moving in the right direction, I think there’s a possibility of getting it done.”
— MCCONNELL: “We’re making significant progress and I’m optimistic that we’re gonna be able to complete an understanding sometime soon. … I’m not gonna get into details but we’re getting closer. And as I’ve said all week and I’ll say again tonight, you’re tired of hearing it: Everybody wants to finish. Everybody wants to get a final agreement as soon as possible. We all believe the country needs it. And I think we’re getting closer and closer.”
— SCHUMER: “We’re talking, we’re exchanging paper and ideas back and forth, making progress and hopefully we can come to an agreement soon.”
— PELOSI: “Tomorrow, we’ll be back early and we’ll be on schedule to get the job done.”
ALL POSITIVE SIGNS for a deal.
THERE WERE A FEW NOTABLE DYNAMICS Tuesday night worth exploring and keeping in mind.
— MUCH OF THE FIRST MEETING was spent haggling over the topline — the price tag for the bill. It was a tacit agreement that a bill needed to get done.
— THIS QUARTET represents the nucleus of power for the next two years at least, so let’s dwell for a moment on the dynamics between these four. In the first meeting, PELOSI and SCHUMER spent much of the time in the speaker’s conference room making their case for their priorities. MCCONNELL was almost completely silent, leaving MCCARTHY — the youngest and most junior in the room — to spar with the speaker and Senate minority leader.
REMEMBER: After a deal is reached in principle, the two sides have to finalize language — that could take a bit. And we’re up against the clock.
YEP, IT’S POSSIBLE that it takes longer and another stopgap measure is needed.
A BIG THANKS AS ALWAYS to the Hill poolers — on Tuesday night CNN’s KRISTIN WILSON and TED BARRETT, NYT’s EMILY COCHRANE, NBC’s JULIE TSIRKIN, ABC’s TRISH TURNER and MARIANNE LEVINE for organizing and the many more who contribute — who make it possible to share reporting from the Capitol.
GOOD NEWS … WE THINK? … POLITICO/MORNING CONSULT POLL … 52% of people have a lot of or some confidence in newspapers. 40% say they have a lot of or some confidence in Congress.
— FASCINATING … 41% of self-described conservatives say these days it’s getting harder to be a Republican. 39% say it’s easier than ever.
NEW … ALYSSA FARAH — the former W.H. comms director — is now advising the Georgia Republican Party as the pair of Senate runoffs heat up in the Peach State. FARAH emails: “The Senate is the WHOLE game. This is where Republicans’ focus needs to be.”
DAN CONSTON said on JOSH HOLMES’ “Ruthless” podcast that he would do another term atop CLF/AAN. House Republicans are trying to win back the majority — and CLF will be at the center of that. The podcast
HAPPENING THIS MORNING … Sen. BOB CASEY (D-Pa.) will join a POLITICO Live conversation with Transition Playbook at 9:20 a.m. today, moderated by ALEX THOMPSON and MEGAN CASSELLA. Watch here
THE CORONAVIRUS CONTINUES TO RAGE … 16.7 MILLION Americans have tested positive for the coronavirus. 303,849 Americans have died.
“The test could be a vital tool in the country’s fight against the virus — especially in the months before most Americans are vaccinated. Unlike previous home tests, this version does not require samples to be sent to a lab and can be taken without doctor’s orders by anyone older than 2.”
THE RON JOHN REPORT … ANDREW DESIDERIO: “Ron Johnson gambles his political future on Trump”: “Ron Johnson is linking himself to President Donald Trump’s election challenge as tightly as possible as he decides whether to run for reelection to a must-win Senate seat for Republicans.
“Johnson, a steadfast Trump ally who has endeared himself to the president with his various investigative pursuits, is defending his approach, even as he faces a possible reelection campaign in a state that President-elect Joe Biden won in November. And Democrats are taking notice. …
“‘I don’t feel bad about what I’ve done. I think I’m being vindicated right now,’ Johnson said in an interview this week, referring to his myriad investigations. ‘It’s a record I’m proud of. … Time will prove me right. It will vindicate what I’ve tried to do here.’”
ON HUNTER … “Trump asking about special prosecutor for Hunter Biden,”by AP’s Michael Balsamo and Jonathan Lemire: “President Donald Trump is considering pushing to have a special counsel appointed to advance a federal tax investigation into the son of President-elect Joe Biden, setting up a potential showdown with incoming acting attorney general Jeffrey Rosen.
“Trump — angry that out-going Attorney General William Barr didn’t publicly announce the ongoing, two-year investigation into Hunter Biden — has consulted on the matter with White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, White House counsel Pat Cipollone and outside allies. …
“Beyond appointing a special prosecutor to investigate the younger Biden, the sources said Trump is interested in having another special counsel appointed to look into his own baseless claims of election fraud. But if he’s expecting his newly named acting attorney general to go further than Barr on either matter, he could end up quickly disappointed.”
THE TRANSITION LATEST — “Biden to pick former EPA chief McCarthy to lead climate team,”by Alex Guillén and Tyler Pager: “President-elect Joe Biden will name former EPA head Gina McCarthy as his domestic climate policy chief, placing one of the architects of Barack Obama’s climate regulatory efforts at the helm of his strategy to put the country on a path to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions, people familiar with the decision said.”
— “Biden to name Granholm as energy secretary,”by WaPo’s Will Englund, Juliet Eilperin and Dino Grandoni: “President-elect Joe Biden is nominating Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan who has been a strong voice for zero-emissions vehicles, as secretary of energy, two people familiar with the process said Tuesday.
“Granholm, 61 and currently an adjunct professor of law at the University of California at Berkeley, has argued that the United States risks being left behind by other countries if it doesn’t develop alternate energy technologies. Her pick is a clear sign that Biden wants the department to play an important role in combating climate change.
“Arun Majumdar, a materials scientist and engineer who led a new research agency within the Energy Department under the Obama administration, is under consideration as deputy secretary, according to two people who spoke on the condition of anonymity because no decision had been finalized. Majumdar, who has been working for the Biden transition team and was considered a candidate himself for the top Energy post, is an enthusiastic advocate for modernizing the nation’s electricity grid.”
— “Biden Taps Pete Buttigieg for Transportation Secretary,”by NYT’s Reid Epstein and Coral Davenport: “President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. will nominate Pete Buttigieg to be secretary of transportation, Mr. Biden’s transition team announced Tuesday, selecting a former mayor of South Bend, Ind., and former opponent who would bring a younger voice to the cabinet and add to its diversity as its first openly gay member.
“Mr. Buttigieg, 38, a Rhodes scholar and Afghanistan veteran, emerged during the Democratic primaries to wage a fierce battle for the party’s presidential nomination before bowing out and endorsing Mr. Biden. The two men bonded during the general election campaign, and the president-elect made it clear that he wanted to find a place for Mr. Buttigieg in his administration.
“During the campaign, the former mayor proved himself to be among the Democratic Party’s most skilled communicators. Mr. Buttigieg as transportation secretary would be a key player in advancing Mr. Biden’s ambitious agenda on both rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure and on climate change, one of the most important priorities for the new administration.”
TRUMP’S WEDNESDAY — The president will hold a Cabinet meeting at 11:30 a.m. in the Cabinet Room. VP MIKE PENCE will join the Cabinet meeting at 11:30 a.m. He will host a “Life is Winning” event at 2 p.m. in the South Court Auditorium. Pence will lead a White House Coronavirus Task Force meeting at 4 p.m. in the Situation Room.
PRESIDENT-ELECT JOE BIDEN and VP-elect KAMALA HARRIS will make a transition announcement in Wilmington, Del. In the afternoon they will separately receive the President’s Daily Brief. Afterward, they will meet virtually with governors.
PLAYBOOK READS
ON RUSSIA — “Biden to Face a Confrontational Russia in a World Changed From His Time in Office,”by NYT’s Jennifer Steinhauer and Michael Crowley: “The extensive hack of American government computer systems, almost certainly orchestrated by the Kremlin, underscores the daunting foreign policy challenge that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia poses to the incoming Biden administration.
“Until Tuesday, the Russian leader had yet to acknowledge the Biden victory, and for weeks Kremlin-backed news outlets had gleefully amplified President Trump’s groundless claims of election fraud. ‘I am ready for contacts and interactions with you,’ Mr. Putin said in a message of congratulations to President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr., according to a Kremlin statement issued Tuesday. Yet there is little doubt Mr. Putin is unhappy that Mr. Trump’s see-no-evil approach to Russia is coming to an end, suggesting a tense if not hostile relationship with Mr. Biden.”
KNOWING LOUISA TERRELL — “Biden’s Congress Whisperer,”by Nancy Scola: “It was just after Barack Obama took the oath of office in 2009 when Louisa Terrell got on the phone with Shawn Whitman, chief of staff to Senator John Barrasso. It had the potential to be a painfully odd-couple pairing. Barrasso was a new Republican senator from Wyoming eager to make a name as a fierce conservative. Terrell worked in the White House legislative-affairs office, and her job was to win senators over to the new Democratic president. For an Obama aide, getting assigned to Barrasso was ‘drawing the short straw,’ Whitman says with a laugh.
“Terrell took it in stride, wading in like it just had to work. The two aides bonded over their kids and built a working relationship, with Terrell hunting for longshot places where their bosses’ interests might align. ‘She would say things like “Is this a no, or a hell no?,”’ says Whitman. ‘It was, “I get that you don’t agree with us 100%. Do you agree with us 5%?”’ The relationship eventually helped them win confirmation for a Wyoming judge many other Republicans opposed.
“Late last month, president-elect Joe Biden named Terrell director of his White House Office of Legislative Affairs — making her the president’s chief ambassador to Congress at a moment when Washington seems all but ungovernable.”
PLAYBOOK METRO SECTION — “D.C. Passes Bill to Give Young Offenders Chance at Reduced Sentences,”by NYT’s Hailey Fuchs: “The District of Columbia Council passed legislation on Tuesday that would give people who committed crimes as young adults a chance to have their sentences reduced, reflecting a growing national debate over whether offenders in their late teens and early 20s should be treated the same as older people when it comes to sentencing.
“The bill would give broad authority to judges to determine whether offenders who were younger than 25 at the time of their crimes and have served at least 15 years — many if not all of them convicted of violent offenses — deserve early release.
“Opponents of the legislation say it could let hundreds of violent criminals back onto the streets of the nation’s capital. Supporters say the legislation would align the criminal justice system with research that indicates those in their late teens and early 20s lack complete brain maturity and deserve to be treated more leniently than older adults.”
IN MEMORIAM — THE DAILY BEAST: “Ex-Hill Staffer Linked to Veselnitskaya Dies Suddenly After Fall Near His Home,” by Nico Hines: “The longtime aide to ‘Putin’s Congressman’ Dana Rohrabacher died suddenly from a head injury over the weekend. Paul Behrends was found by emergency responders close to his home on Friday night with severe head trauma. He was taken to a local hospital where surgeons fought to save him, but he passed away on Saturday, according to a spokesman for Rohrabacher.
“Behrends was a controversial figure on Capitol Hill who lost his job as staff director for the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee after The Daily Beast reported on his links to Trump Tower lawyer Natalia Veselnitskaya’s operation in the U.S. Rohrabacher’s former congressional spokesman Ken Grubbs told The Daily Beast that Behrends died at the hospital.”
TRANSITIONS — Nancy Juarez has been named COS for Rep.-elect Marie Newman (D-Ill.). She most recently was deputy COS/legislative director for Rep. Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.). … Garrick Delzell will be campaign manager for Jennifer Carroll Foy’s Virginia gubernatorial campaign. He previously was an EMILY’s List staffer and is a Donna Edwards, Annie Kuster and Eric Swalwell alum. … Neil Sroka will be comms director at Paid Leave for the U.S. He previously was comms director at Democracy for America. … Laura Dove will manage Ford’s U.S. federal affairs team. She previously was a director of transportation policy in Ford’s Washington office. …
… Rep.-elect Ashley Hinson (R-Iowa) is adding Sophie Seid as comms director and Brittany Madni as deputy COS. Seid is currently press secretary for the House Foreign Affairs Committee. Madni is currently legislative director for Rep. Troy Balderson (R-Ohio). … Caroline Ponseti is now a director at the Herald Group. She previously led the American Gaming Association’s media relations operations and also served as press secretary for the U.S. House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs. Mary Absom has also joined the Herald Group as an associate.
WEEKEND WEDDING — Flynn Chapman, senior consultant at APCO Worldwide, and Jordan Fashimpaur, former director of scheduling for Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.), got married Saturday in Andrews, N.C. They met getting hot dogs at the Swizzler food truck near Union Station in 2015, when she worked for Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and he interned for Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.). Pic
WELCOME TO THE WORLD — Natalie Pahz, public relations manager at CNN, and Keyvon Pahz, a finance consultant at FactSet, welcomed Paloma Rowe Pahz on Monday in New York City. Pic… Another pic
BIRTHDAY OF THE DAY:Kezia McKeague, director of the Latin America practice at McLarty Associates. A fun fact about her: “My parents hail from two islands on opposite sides of the world (Cuba and New Zealand), but I speak Spanish with an Argentine accent thanks to my abiding love affair with Buenos Aires. I’m also a Francophile and have been doing virtual conversation classes during the pandemic to brush up my French. And to answer the question I hear most often, I owe my first name to a literary character — Katherine Mansfield’s short stories, which are considered classic Kiwi literature.” Playbook Q&A
BIRTHDAYS: Playbook’s ownJake Sherman is 3-5 … CNN correspondent Phil Mattingly is 37 (h/ts Rachel Adler and Mitchell Rivard) … Lesley Stahl … National Journal’s Zach Cohen … CNN’s Liz Turrell and Jason Seher … Melissa Kiedrowicz Ellison … former Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Wash.) is 8-0 … Adam Bromberg … POLITICO’s Rebecca Rainey … Matt Mariani … Allison Herwitt, chief of staff to Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) … Kelsey Knight … Jenni LeCompte, managing director at the Glover Park Group (h/t husband Theo) … John Bailey … Matt Klapper, chief of staff to Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) … Susan Liss … Jano Cabrera, chief comms officer at General Mills (h/ts Jon Haber) … FCC’s Kate Black (h/ts Teresa Vilmain) … Jody Murphy, VP and IE director at End Citizens United, is 4-0 (h/t wife Lauren) … Peter Orszag, CEO of financial advisory at Lazard …
… Amber Smith, president of Beacon Rock Strategies … Tom Joannou … Emilie (Binx) Saunders … Bill Schulz … Jim Kelly … New Hampshire state Rep. Ross Berry … Katie Heaton … Laura Koran … Kendall Breitman … Carol Browner … Gary Le … Heather King … Alexa Damis-Wulff … Judith Giuliani … former Rhode Island Gov. Don Carcieri is 78 … former Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn is 72 … Sony’s Christina Mulvihill … Chris Frech … David Crook … Boston Globe’s Liz Goodwin … Amy Siskind … Mark Sump … Whitney Kuhn Lawson … Joan Lowy … SBA’s Emily Rapp is 31 (h/t Margy Levinson) … Susan Estrich … Jacy Reese … Clay Black … Doug Culver … Caitlin Lupton … Tom Kise … Melissa Wisner … Elisa Beneze … Jodie Steck … Emily Gaumer … Mohammad Reza Noroozpour … Hugh O’Connell
Restrictions enacted throughout the coronavirus pandemic have had a devastating effect on children that will continue to have repercussions, experts warn. “We’re going to almost need a New Deal for an entire generation of kids to give them the opportunity to catch up,” Executive Director of Share Our Strength Billy Shore said, adding, “we don’t even …
Hunter Biden, President-elect Joe Biden’s son, is under federal investigation for his relationship with a prominent Chinese energy firm and has since been subpoenaed for records of his overseas business ventures. The probe into the foreign dealings follows a Dec. 9 announcement from Hunter Biden in which he announced he is being investigated by Delaware …
President Donald Trump will hold a cabinet meeting on Wednesday. Keep up with the president on Our President’s Schedule Page. President Trump’s Itinerary for 12/16/20 – note: this page will be updated during the day if events warrant All Times EST 11:30 AM Hold a Cabinet Meeting – Cabinet Room White House Briefing Schedule None …
Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated President-elect Joe Biden for his election win and said he’s ready to work with him, according to a Tuesday statement from the Kremlin. “In his message, Vladimir Putin wished the President-elect every success and expressed confidence that Russia and the United States, which bear special responsibility for global security and stability, …
The New York City Police Department (NYPD) is set to add hundreds of officers as the law enforcement agency grapples with mass retirements and substantial budget reductions. The NYPD will add 900 new cops to their roster over the next two months beginning toward the end of December, according to Fox News. “The establishment of …
Georgia veterans responded to Democratic Senate candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock’s comments regarding military service in a Turning Point Action video released Tuesday. In a video clip, Warnock, who is running for Senate in Georgia’s special election said, “America, nobody can serve God and the military. America, choose ye this day who you will serve.” “What …
Oompa loompa doompety dee If you are wise you’ll listen to me. What do you get when you hide Hunter’s crimes? A return to the Swamp with all the other slimes. What do you get when your bagpipes you blow? Two years of blowing with nothing to show. Trump doesn’t like the look of that! …
Multiple Republican senators have acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden’s victory since the Electoral College officially certified his win over President Donald Trump Monday afternoon. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Senate Majority Whip John Thune have both acknowledged Biden’s win, echoing comments made by other senior GOP senators. While some staunch Trump allies, like Sen. Lindsey …
A forensic audit of Dominion Voting Systems in Antrim County, Michigan, revealed purposeful, illegal tampering that likely altered the outcome of the 2020 election in the state and perhaps the country. That report is earth-shattering, but it’s not getting any attention and likely won’t. The absolute failure of L. Lin Wood and Sidney Powell to …
White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany holds a briefing Tuesday to update the nation on recent developments. The briefing is scheduled to begin at 1:00 p.m. EST. Content created by Conservative Daily News and some content syndicated through CDN is available for re-publication without charge under the Creative Commons license. Visit our syndication page for details and …
The perspective they have on – well, everything now – begs the question: Are they intentionally misleading folks, or are they really that clueless? There is no third option. If one were to believe the American Left – and unfortunately many people do – one would also have to believe that the ills of America …
Happy Wednesday, dear Kruiser Morning Briefing friends. My go-to core workout involves a keg of beer.
I feel almost conversational at times when leading off here each morning with you fine people. Sure, the conversation is a bit one-sided, but those who have met me in real life will tell you that that’s how it usually goes anyway.
The inspiration for this lead-in today began when I got a travel alert about a really good airfare between my humble desert hometown and San Jose, Costa Rica, which is someplace I’ve always wanted to visit. I quickly checked the Airbnb rates and found that they were ridiculously low. I started to plan a trip for next September in my head.
Then it hit me.
Who can predict how any of the COVID rules will be going then? I’ve been saying for a while now that I can’t envision any of this nonsense getting much better before summer. If I believe myself, a September trip would be wildly optimistic.
This stupid Chinese Bat Flu is ruining everything.
As I write this, my hometown is under curfew from 10 PM to 5 AM. There is no logic or science to back this up as being in any way effective to combat the ‘rona, but many “Listen to scientists” Democrats are fond of the curfews.
I was talking to a friend last week who has been very cautious about the virus and even somewhat supportive of early shutdown efforts to combat it. She’s getting a little weary now though. I said, “It’s like we’re living in a half-a**ed police state now,” and she agreed.
We are all aware that I don’t mind a little hyperbole now and then but I’m close to the mark with this one. Some of us are under curfew. Others are being forced to not go anywhere at all. We’re being told where, when, and with whom we can or cannot enjoy holiday meals. There’s talk of having to produce proof of vaccination papers to travel. Governors and mayors are encouraging citizens to report their neighbors to the authorities for violating COVID rules.
If it walks like a Soviet, talks like a Soviet…
Thankfully, there a signs that some of the good people of America are entirely fed up with the petty tyrants and are beginning to push back.
Various small business owners have been fighting shutdowns for months but things are really heating up now. One of the more inspirational stories has been the New Jersey gym owner who has been telling his governor what he can do with his lockdowns. Megan recently had an update:
But now he’s back with a viral video message he made for Governor Phil Murphy. I don’t think the state’s sanctions on him are working, do you? Filming in a full gym, Smith stands defiant against government interference with his right to work and feed his family. I wish every business owner in America was this courageous. That’s all it would take to end the unfair targeting of small businesses while huge corporations are allowed to turn profits without fines. Resist!
Megan is right — more of this would weaken the tyrants.
Residents of the clear-aired, fir tree-festooned, and sparsely-populated towns of Morton and Mossyrock, Wash., held a Freedom Rally in “peaceful protests” over the weekend to defy the governor’s latest COVID shutdown orders. Hundreds of people swarmed the small town of Mossyrock to spend money, eat inside restaurants, and raise a peaceful middle finger to the governor.
Look for the resistance to grow if any of the tyrannical idiots “follow the science” to cancelling Christmas.
It has been disheartening to see how many Americans have been willing to blindly believe and roll over for politicians who don’t exactly represent the mentally sharpest among us. Heck, look at how many were willing to follow Joe Biden off of the COVID cliff. He ran on nothing but the virus and the lemmings loved it.
Because Grandpa Gropes made COVID scare tactics the centerpiece of his presidential run his media slaves are still working over time to keep the public panicking:
That’s right kids, the homes that they are trying to force you to stay in are COVID-19 hotspots.
Don’t you feel super comforted by all of this science?
Let us all #resist and start to get these freedoms back before they go away forever.
But Democrats and Republicans Will Never Understand Each Other Again
McConnell recognizes Biden as president . . . Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Monday recognized Joe Biden as president-elect, congratulating him on his victory after the Electoral College Monday voted to make Biden president. This will no doubt help ease the way for a number of other leading Republicans wary of angering President Trump to go ahead and recognize Biden. “The Electoral College has spoken. So today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden,” McConnell said. “The president-elect is no stranger to the Senate. He’s devoted himself to public service for many years. I also want to congratulate the vice president-elect, our colleague from California, Sen. Harris. Beyond our differences, all Americans can take pride that our nation has a female vice president-elect for the very first time.” White House Dossier
Coronavirus
FDA authorizes at-home, over-the-counter Covid test . . . The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized the nation’s first home COVID-19 test that doesn’t need a lab or medical provider’s prescription. The test, made by Australia-based Ellume, can deliver results in about 15 minutes and will cost about $30. USA Today
Married teachers die of Covid holding hands . . . A married couple who were both teachers in Texas died of COVID-19 complications while holding hands. Paul Blackwell, 61, and Rose Mary Blackwell, 65, died on Sunday at Harris Methodist Hospital, according to their family. The couple spent several days in intensive care on ventilators as their conditions continued to worsen and their family made the heartbreaking decision to take them off life support, Paul’s son Christopher Blackwell told CBS 11. “Two of my other brothers are actually in the room there at the hospital and they wheeled my stepmother in there in the room with my father and at the same time, removed them both from the ventilator,” Christopher said.
“They had them holding hands and they were both gone in a couple of minutes.” New York Post
Politics
Incoming Biden deputy chief of staff: Republicans a “bunch of fuckers” . . . In an interview with Glamour, Jen O’Malley Dillon, Biden’s campaign manager and the next White House deputy chief of staff, defended her boss for pushing bipartisanship. “In the primary, people would mock him, like, ‘You think you can work with Republicans?’ I’m not saying they’re not a bunch of f—ers. Mitch McConnell is terrible. But this sense that you couldn’t wish for that, you couldn’t wish for this bipartisan ideal? He rejected that,” she said.
Biden won the general election by appealing to the public’s sense of unity, according to Dillon. Washington Examiner
Video || McEnany goes after the media for not covering Swalwell and Hunter Biden . . . If the media had had any appetite for the Hunter Biden story before the election, it could have changed enough minds to hand this close election to President Trump. It’s always been incredible to me that Republicans EVER win elections, given the media bias. But the failure to take the Hunter Biden story seriously is so egregious, it amounts to – yes, let’s use the media’s own favorite word – collusion with the Biden campaign. White House Dossier
Ossoff wants to require that illegal immigrants are paid minimum wage . . . Jon Ossoff, a Democratic challenger in one of the two Georgia Senate runoffs next month, suggested Sunday that federal immigration authorities should enforce workplace protections for illegal immigrants. “In Georgia’s agricultural sector, the campesinos (farm workers) who work in the fields, enduring some of the most brutal conditions of labor anywhere in this country to keep America fed, paid less than the minimum wage, [are] often subject to abuse by employers,” he said. “When federal agents arrive at one of these farms it should be to make sure people are being paid the minimum wage, working in humane conditions.” Fox News
DeVos urges Education Department staff to “resist” . . . Education Secretary Betsy DeVos pressed staffers at the Education Department to “resist” the incoming Biden administration, according to audio of her remarks. “Let me leave you with this plea: Resist,” DeVos said at a departmentwide virtual meeting. “Be the resistance against forces that will derail you from doing what’s right for students. In everything you do, please put students first — always.” The Hill
Trump to veto Defense bill despite override threat . . . President Trump still intends to veto the veto-proof $740 billion annual defense spending bill passed by Congress last week, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Tuesday. Trump is unhappy with two provisions renaming military bases honoring Confederate soldiers and slowing the withdrawal of troop levels in Afghanistan, McEnany told reporters in the White House briefing room. New York Post
Biden taps Buttigieg for transportation secretary . . . President-elect Joe Biden has selected former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, his former Democratic primary rival, to lead the Transportation Department, Mr. Biden said Tuesday. Buttigieg dropped out of the race in March and endorsed Mr. Biden along with other moderate Democrats. Mr. Buttigieg, a 38-year-old openly gay military veteran who served in Afghanistan, emerged as a surprising next-generation contender for the Democratic presidential nomination against Mr. Biden and notched a narrow victory in the Iowa caucuses. Wall Street Journal
Hunter Biden to hold an art show . . . While the DOJ probes Hunter Biden’s work with Ukrainian energy company Burisma, President-elect Joe Biden’s son is focusing on his first solo art show. Sources tell Page Six that Hunter is inking a deal as an artist to be represented by New York’s Georges Bergès Gallery. An announcement and exhibition of his work is being planned for next year. The 50-year-old revealed earlier this year how his art — making blown ink abstractions on paper — has helped him battle addiction and cope with media attention. New York Post
Hopefully, he’ll start doing poetry readings too.
National Security
Iran “very happy” to see Trump leave . . . While Iran is not “excited” by Joe Biden taking over at the White House, it was “very happy” to see the end of Donald Trump’s reign as US president, according to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani. Addressing a televised meeting of the cabinet on Wednesday, Rouhani called Trump “rogue” and “the most lawbreaking person in the US.” Al Jazeera
Of course they’re happy. Biden’s back. Kerry’s back. Iran knows it can get back up to its old tricks.
International
UK suspends “unconscious bias” diversity training . . . The British government is abandoning its “unconscious bias” diversity training after a review found that they were ineffective and in some cases, harmful, the Telegraph reported. An assessment of the training was carried out after Tory members of parliament (MPs) criticized them for being part of a “woke agenda” that only sought to enrich the consultants leading the sessions. The sessions are purported to teach workers about implicit prejudices they may have against others, often based on race or sex, and have cost taxpayers more than £370,000, or nearly $500,000, over five years. Nearly 170,000 government employees went through the trainings. Daily Caller
NBA ignores Chinese slave labor . . . The National Basketball Association is remaining quiet on the issue of Chinese slave labor, even after new revelations regarding the nature and size of labor camps housing Uighur Muslims. Some 85 percent of China’s cotton exports come from Xinjiang, where at least one million Uighurs are currently detained in camps, an action that some Republicans say is tantamount to genocide. The NBA reaped more than $500 million in Chinese revenue in 2019 and inked a $1 billion deal with Beijing tech giant Tencent to exclusively stream games in China. NBA China, a separate entertainment arm of the league, was valued at more than $5 billion by one sports consulting firm in 2019. Washington Free Beacon
Money
Investors bracing for higher Treasure yields in 2021 . . . Investors are betting that longer-dated Treasury yields are headed higher in the near term, reflecting expectations that the Federal Reserve is unlikely at its meeting on Wednesday to reconfigure its purchases to tamp down a rise in longer-dated yields. The spread between two- and 10-year Treasury yields, the most common measure of the yield curve, has risen in recent months and is up more than 10 basis points in December alone. Bearish bets on longer-dated Treasuries are near records in futures markets, while options investors have also piled into positions that would profit if yields rose. Reuters
You should also know
Lincoln canceled . . . A San Francisco committee is recommending the removal of former President Abraham Lincoln’s name from a high school due to his past treatment of Native Americans. Lincoln High School was one of many that the San Francisco School Names Advisory Committee found to have a problematic title, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Others included George Washington High School, Herbert Hoover Middle School and Paul Revere K-8. Fox News
Energy Department to allow people to take showers again . . . The Trump Energy Department, on its way out the door, is loosening energy and water conservation requirements for a number of appliances, responding to a concern that has been of particular interest to President Trump. In a final rule Tuesday, the Energy Department changed the regulatory definition for a “showerhead” in a way that loosens decades-old water conservation standards for the appliance. The move comes after Trump has repeatedly complained about weak water pressure from showers, faucets, and dishwashers.
“You take a shower. The water doesn’t come out. You want to wash your hands. The water doesn’t come out,” Trump said during an event at the White House in July on his administration’s deregulatory efforts. Washington Examiner
We will never have another president brave enough to do a simple thing like make shower faucets usable. Our family uses decades-old shower heads so that we can actually take a normal shower. This was just regulators telling people what to do. Is there honestly a shortage of water?
Guilty Pleasures
Tom Cruise curses out film crew for violating Covid rules . . . Tom Cruise tore into workers who broke Covid rules on the set of Mission: Impossible screaming: “If I see you doing it again, you’re f***ing gone.” The Hollywood megastar has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to enforce tight social-distancing rules during the filming, taking place in Britain. And he flew into a rage after spotting two of the crew standing within two metres of each other. An audio tape captured Cruise shouting: “If I see you do it again, you’re f***ing gone. And if anyone in this crew does it, that’s it — and you too and you too. And you, don’t you ever f***ing do it again.” The Sun
Cops respond after text autocorrect changes “swabbed” to “stabbed” . . . A Wisconsin woman’s text sparked a full-blown police response after it autocorrected to say she was being “stabbed” — instead of “swabbed” for COVID-19. The unidentified woman’s frantic father called 911 after receiving the alarming message. “He indicated that his daughter was being stabbed, possibly by a live-in boyfriend,” Menasha police officer Nick Oleszak told the local paper. At least eight cops rushed to the woman’s apartment to check up on her. New York Post
Just imagine if autocorrect changes “killing me” to “kissing me.”
Do you love Cut to the News? Let your family and friends know about it! They’ll thank you for it. Spread the word . . .
By Email – use the message that pops up or write your own.
If you enjoy Cut to the News, please help support it. You can make a single contribution or set up regular payments, like a voluntary subscription.Donate here today.Thank you for your generosity.
Got this from a friend? Subscribe here and get Cut to the News sent to your Inbox every morning.
Editor
White House Dossier
http://www.whitehousedossier.com
P.O. Box 27211,
Washington, DC 20038
Unsubscribe Change subscriber options
30.) THE DISPATCH
The Morning Dispatch: What’s Behind the FTC Suit Against Facebook
Plus: Was it Boko Haram or local bandits who kidnapped 300 schoolboys in Nigeria?
(Photo by Lionel Bonaventure/AFP via Getty Images.)
Happy Wednesday! A new Marist poll found for the twelfth consecutive year that Americans consider “whatever” to be the most annoying word or phrase used in conversation. Everybody talks about whatever, but nobody does anything about it.
The FDA issued an emergency use authorization on Tuesday for the Ellume COVID-19 Home Test, the first over-the-counter diagnostic test for COVID-19 that can be conducted entirely at home. Ellume expects to produce 3 million of the tests—which the FDA says boast greater than 90 percent accuracy and deliver results in about 20 minutes—in January.
President-elect Joe Biden is expected to formally announce several more selections for his Cabinet in the coming days. Former South Bend Mayor Pete Buttigieg will be nominated for transportation secretary, former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm is Biden’s pick to run the Department of Energy, and Gina McCarthy—who led the Environmental Protection Agency in the Obama administration—will serve as Biden’s climate czar.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday officially recognized President-elect Joe Biden as such for the first time, telling his colleagues on the Senate floor that “the Electoral College has spoken.” On a call with Senate Republicans, McConnell also urged his colleagues not to object to the results when Congress counts the electoral votes on January 6.
A handful of foreign leaders—Russian President Vladimir Putin, Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador—also formally congratulated Biden yesterday, having waited until the Electoral College affirmed his victory to do so.
The United States confirmed 199,058 new cases of COVID-19 yesterday per the Johns Hopkins University COVID-19 Dashboard, with 12.6 percent of the 1,582,642 tests reported coming back positive. An additional 3,023 deaths were attributed to the virus on Tuesday, bringing the pandemic’s American death toll to 303,500. According to the COVID Tracking Project, 112,816 Americans are currently hospitalized with COVID-19.
Why Did the FTC Sue Facebook?
Last Wednesday, the Federal Trade Commission—along with attorneys general in 46 states, the District of Columbia, and Guam—announced a lawsuit against Facebook on the grounds that “the company is illegally maintaining its personal social networking monopoly through a years-long course of anticompetitive conduct.” The lawsuit—which was filed just weeks after the Justice Department brought a similar one against Google—was generally welcomed by Democrats and Republicans alike, as Big Tech has become in recent years a favored punching bag for both sides of the political aisle.
The FTC’s lawsuit is bipartisan—can you think of any other policy issue that would receive support from nearly every state?—but Democratic and Republican attorneys general signed onto it for very different reasons. (Full disclosure: The Dispatch is a participant in Facebook’s fact-checking program.)
Progressives tend to criticize Facebook for the unprecedented amount of user data it gobbles up and the platform’s history of allowing disinformation to run rampant. “In the absence of competition and accountability, Facebook has harmed people’s privacy and allowed disinformation to flourish on its platform, threatening our democracy,” said Rep. David Cicilline, a Democrat from Rhode Island. Cicilline chairs the House Judiciary Committee’s Antitrust Subcommittee and has been holding hearings to investigate tech companies’ alleged anti-competitive practices for years.
Republican lawmakers—Sens. Josh Hawley, Ted Cruz, Marsha Blackburn, and Mike Lee chief among them—are concerned about Facebook’s size because they believe the company is biased against conservatives. “If Facebook faced greater competition, it might be more reticent to engage in the draconian censorship it has become fond of,” Lee—who chairs the Senate Judiciary Comitttee’s Antitrust Subcommittee—said last week.
Kidnapping in Nigeria
Months of escalating violence by criminal gangs and jihadist groups in Nigeria’s northwestern region came to a head Friday, when armed gunmen entered a school and kidnapped more than 300 boys. On Tuesday, a man claiming to be Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau declared his group’s responsibility for the attack. “I am Abubakar Shekau and our brothers are behind the kidnapping in Katsina,” the voice said during a four-minute recording. “We carried out the Katsina attack for the religion of Allah to be supreme and to debase unbelief.”
Although local authorities and media outlets had initially attributed the attack to one of the state’s many opportunist “bandit” groups—anticipating that the students would eventually be held for ransom—many observers connected the dots to Boko Haram’s mass kidnapping of more than 276 schoolgirls in Chibok six years ago. The terrorist group—also known as the Islamic State in West Africa (ISWA)—has killed more than 36,000 people over the course of the decade in its efforts to “purify” Islam.
If this latest incident were indeed carried out by Boko Haram, it would indicate that the group has successfully expanded its terrorist cells westward—exerting influence outside of its stronghold in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno state. The move could be an effort by Boko Haram to fill the ranks of Shekau’s army with child soldiers, punish the region for instituting secular education, draw international attention to the group’s terrorist activities, or some combination of the three.
But there are also reasons to believe that the initial response blaming local gangs rather than Boko Haram—by media outlets, local government, and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari, who condemned “the cowardly bandits’ attack on innocent children” Saturday—was in fact the correct one.
Worth Your Time
Hundreds of thousands of Uighurs are being forced to pick cotton by hand, according to a BBC investigation by John Sudworth. “China is forcing hundreds of thousands of Uighurs and other minorities into hard, manual labour in the vast cotton fields of its western region of Xinjiang,” Sudworth reports. Newly discovered online documents provide “the first clear picture of the potential scale of forced labour in the picking of a crop that accounts for a fifth of the world’s cotton supply and is used widely throughout the global fashion industry.”
We wrote to you yesterday about the staggering series of cyberattacks levied against the United States in recent months. In a piece for the Washington Post, Craig Timberg and Ellen Nakashima, who have been all over this story, detail how it happened. “When computer networks at the State Department and other federal agencies started signaling to Russian servers, [why] did nobody in the U.S. government notice that something odd was afoot?” the pair write. “The Russians, whose operation was discovered this month by a cybersecurity firm that they hacked, were good. After initiating the hacks by corrupting patches of widely used network monitoring software, the hackers hid well, wiped away their tracks and communicated through IP addresses in the United States rather than ones in, say, Moscow to minimize suspicions.”
Facebook may or may not be a monopoly, but—in a scathing piece for The Atlantic—Adrienne LaFrance argues that it is a Doomsday Machine. “The social web is doing exactly what it was built for. Facebook does not exist to seek truth and report it, or to improve civic health, or to hold the powerful to account, or to represent the interests of its users, though these phenomena may be occasional by-products of its existence,” she writes. “The rise of QAnon, for example, is one of the social web’s logical conclusions. That’s because Facebook—along with Google and YouTube—is perfect for amplifying and spreading disinformation at lightning speed to global audiences. Facebook is an agent of government propaganda, targeted harassment, terrorist recruitment, emotional manipulation, and genocide.”
In yesterday’s edition of The Sweep, Sarah previewed the off-year elections coming in 2021, including gubernatorial races in Virginia and New Jersey, and mayoral races in big cities like New York. “Odd-year elections are, well, just that: odd,” she writes. “Turnout tends to be lower, of course, because only the highest propensity voters who aren’t motivated by national issues turn out for non-federal races. This tends to favor incumbents who come in with a sizable advantage on name identification and fundraising and tend to have the support of the most hardcore party faithful.”
Scott Lincicome’s Capitolism newsletter (🔒) this week focused on the American industry that has attracted more taxpayer subsidies than any other: agribusiness. “This year, farmers (on net) will derive almost 40 percent of their income directly from the U.S. government,” he writes. “Once the subsidy train gets rolling, it’s often difficult—if not impossible—to stop it, regardless of the overwhelming merits of doing so.”
Jonah had Scott Winship—director of poverty studies at the American Enterprise Institute—on The Remnant yesterday to discuss persistence of poverty in American society, and what progress has been made both recently and over the long term.
Up on the site today, Declan has a piece looking at how the post-election period has turned into a circular firing squad for Republicans in Arizona and Georgia. “In the weeks since November 3,” he writes, “a handful of state parties across the country [are] … attacking the highest-ranking Republicans in their states, with a ferocity that will leave lasting political damage.”
William Jacobson: “Trump’s 54th appointment to a Court of Appeals, a legacy to last a generation.“
Kemberlee Kaye: “It’s year-end fundraising time again. We run an incredibly lean operation and work to keep costs lost so that we can put as much as possible right back into programming, investigations, and research. Every $5 makes a big difference. You can donate here.”
Mary Chastain: “We all know the government is dumb. Let’s go ahead and be stingy when it comes to encryption and cybersecurity. One of these days Russia or another enemy will make officials really regret their laziness. Russian hackers penetrated our Treasury, Commerce, and other federal agencies and spied on emails among staffers. Thing is, this hacking group has done this before.”
Leslie Eastman: “I really appreciated Professor Jacobson’s analysis, ” Where Things Stand at This Hour. I have been struggling to deal with stories about election fraud, and no seemingly effective legal remedy to Election Night 2020. Organizing with the rest of the Legal Insurrection team has been a real harbor in this emotional storm.”
Stacey Matthews: “Glad to see that even though there hasn’t been much good news for the Trump campaign lately that White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany is still kicking bootie and taking names.”
Vijeta Uniyal: “The Trump administration has formally named two Iranian regime officials responsible for the abduction and death of former FBI agent Robert Levinson. The U.S. State Department identified Mohammad Baseri and Ahmad Khazai of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence for their role in the 2007 disappearance of the retired FBI agent.”
David Gerstman: “Kamala Harris and her Jewish husband, Douglas Emhoff, produced a saccharine video celebrating Hanukka last week. The problem with it was that it was devoid of any religious message and simply associated the ongoing Jewish holiday as an occasion for Tikkun Olam – literally “fixing the world.” But Tikkun Olam in the Left’s lexicon isn’t religious, it’s pursuing those causes that the Left deems important.Jake Donnelly asked politicians to stop pandering and wrote, “if you asked somebody to say something about Hannukah without them actually knowing the first thing about the holiday or Judaism, the above video is exactly what you would get. Hannukah is not about ‘the light, and bringing light’ or some such nonsense. Hannukah is about war. ‘The Festival of Lights’ is all about Jewish self-determination in their ancestral homeland and the fight to throw off the yoke of secularism. In modern terms, Hannukah is about Zionism.”Or as David Hazony put it, “Would have been more accurate to call it a holiday of national liberation of indigenous people.”Jake also noted that no one in the video said the traditional blessing over lighting the candles. It was just lighting a candle, it had no religious significance.”
Legal Insurrection Foundation is a Rhode Island tax-exempt corporation established exclusively for charitable purposes within the meaning of Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code to educate and inform the public on legal, historical, economic, academic, and cultural issues related to the Constitution, liberty, and world events.
For more information about the Foundation, CLICK HERE.
“This week, as Los Angeles County announced it would lock down all outdoor dining, a video went viral. That video featured restaurant owner Angela Marsden…”
Trump Produces Vaccine Miracle Media Proclaimed Impossible
Just several weeks back in October, media outlets were panning the President for indicating that the first COVID vaccinations would be administered “within weeks.”
Amber Athey chronicles some of the media responses over at The Spectator:
“‘Fact check: Coronavirus vaccine could come this year, Trump says. Experts say he needs a “miracle” to be right,’ NBC News wrote in May.
‘Trump says COVID-19 vaccine is coming “within weeks.” Experts say that’s not possible,’ said the Miami Herald.
‘Contradicting the CDC, Trump says COVID-19 vaccine could be ready by end of year,’ NPR wrote.
‘President Trump says COVID-19 vaccine will be coming by the end of the year, despite contrary evidence,’ CNBC scoffed…
It turns out that Trump’s timeline was far more accurate than that of the CDC or any of the ‘experts’ cited in the reports above. Just a couple of weeks after that final presidential debate, Pfizer announced that it had completed its third phase of vaccine trials successfully. The FDA issued its first emergency use authorization for a COVID-19 vaccine last week, nearly a month ahead of the end of the year. Distribution and inoculations began on Monday.
It’s no wonder that the media wanted to undermine Trump’s successful vaccination fast track program, Operation Warp Speed, ahead of the election. Many Americans cited the handling of the pandemic as a key voting issue. It would have hurt Biden immensely if Americans were made to be optimistic about Trump delivering a vaccine so quickly.”
It’s important to realize, by the way, that this incredible speed was not achieved by safety shortcuts. Instead, steps that usually are undertaken sequentially to preserve resources, should a vaccine not work out, were taken simultaneously. But still, the largest trials combined gave vaccines to well over 100,000 volunteers.
My colleague over at IWF, Julie Gunlock, published a key explainer on this subject:
“Steps were not skipped in the development of the COVID-19 vaccine but many of the steps were completed concurrently with other steps instead of being done sequentially. According to the Department of Health and Human Services (emphasis added):
‘Protocols for the demonstration of safety and efficacy are being aligned, which will allow the trials to proceed more quickly, and the protocols for the trials will be overseen by the federal government, as opposed to traditional public-private partnerships, in which pharmaceutical companies decide on their own protocols. Rather than eliminating steps from traditional development timelines, steps will proceed simultaneously, such as starting manufacturing of the vaccine at industrial scale well before the demonstration of vaccine efficacy and safety as happens normally. This increases the financial risk, but not the product risk.’
One way to think of this is to imagine two different kinds of races on a track. The typical vaccine protocol is a relay race with stacked runners each waiting to have the baton passed to them before running the race. Now imagine the a-typical COVID-19 vaccine process, which is more like a 50-yard sprint with several runners each running the race at the same time in their own lane. All of the runners—both relay racers and sprinters–complete the race on the same track. They just complete the distance in a slightly different way.”
Making Sense of Texas v. Pennsylvania
Electors in the states voted yesterday to make Joe Biden the next president of the United States. However, this does not mean Trump’s legal challenges to the outcome of the election are at an end, although they are dwindling and running out of time.
The Supreme Court recently rejected a case on the basis of standing. Here’s a bit on what the reasoning was there and why that matters.
“This was the right result for the right reason, and originalists should support it. Standing doctrine is not just a technicality or an excuse to punt difficult cases—it’s at the core of the judiciary’s defined and limited role…
But the Supreme Court has rightly held many times that the “case or controversy” requirement demands more than just a party who believes the law has been violated and is willing to press that argument in court. As the Supreme Court put it in Hollingsworth v. Perry (2013), ‘it is not enough that the party invoking the power of the court have a keen interest in the issue.’
Why has the court imposed this limitation? Because if a keen interest were all that is necessary, the courts would soon turn into courts of de facto advisory opinions. As then-D.C. Circuit Judge Antonin Scalia explained in a 1983 essay, expanding standing doctrine to allow anyone to sue if he believes the law is being violated would give courts the ‘ability to address both new and old issues promptly at the behest of almost anyone who has an interest in the outcome.’
We would not be far off, at that point, from the advisory opinions that the Supreme Court disclaimed in 1793. Anyone would be able to put an abstract legal question before the courts, even if he had no special and particular interest in the outcome…
It’s doubtful whether conservatives would appreciate such a doctrine quite so much if, for example, California brings a future challenge to Florida’s felon disenfranchisement rules or New York brings a challenge to Texas’s absentee ballot rules…
Federal courts’ limitation to cases and controversies is an important safeguard limiting the judiciary from becoming an even more powerful and uncabined branch than it already is. That’s a limitation that, in the long run, conservatives, libertarians, and originalists should be grateful for.”
Further notes from Margot Cleveland on the significance of the Alito-Thomas separate statement, as well as her thoughts on why one of the claims Texas raised should have gone on to be addressed.
While we’re on the subject of election lawsuits, here’s an explainer on that Wisconsin Supreme Court ruling on absentee ballots and voter ID laws.
Fashion Moment of the Week
Back in the early days of the pandemic, I sent you all a thoughtful piece by Peggy Noonan wondering whether the experience would leave fashion more minimalistic and humbled, or whether all that pent-up energy would explode into a maximalist cacophony post-COVID.
Well, the jury is still out on fashion more generally, but Oscar de la Renta has just placed a large marker on a new and bright Roaring Twenties. His pre-fall 2021 collection, likely set for the initial months after many have been vaccinated, is aglow with color. Island tropical, statement sleeves, and even foot-long fringe are the order of the post-COVID world (at least according to Oscar).
Ben Domenech calls out John Brennan and intel officials for blatantly lying. (The Federalist)
Biden taps Buttigieg for transportation secretary. (SFist)
Rachel Bovard argues that Section 230 doles out special favors to undeserving tech companies. For some reason, Many People lost their minds over this piece, which is well-argued and perfectly sane, as far as I can tell. (USA Today)
Do not, under any circumstances, joke about Jill Biden not being a real doctor. (RealClearPolitics)
What we know about the Barr resignation. (The Federalist)
Nightmares before Christmas from the ever-relevant and touching Peachy Keenan. (The American Mind)
The strange (and sad) world of ultimate e-girl Belle Delphine. (The Spectator)
Inez Feltscher Stepman is a senior policy analyst at the Independent Women’s Forum and a senior contributor to The Federalist. She is a San Francisco Bay Area native with a BA in Philosophy from UCSD and a JD from the University of Virginia. She lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband, Jarrett Stepman, her puggle Thor, and her cat Thaddeus Kosciuszko. You can follow her on Twitter at @inezfeltscher and on Instagram (for #ootd, obvi) under the same handle. Opinions expressed on this website are her own and not those of her employers. Or her husband.
Want to change how you receive these emails?
You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list
Note: By using some of the links above, Bright may be compensated through the Amazon Affiliate program and Magic Links. However, none of this content is sponsored and all opinions are our own.
Dec 16, 2020 01:00 am
The good news is it’s still entirely possible for Donald Trump to be reelected. The bad news is that it is likely to come down to the RINOs. Read More…
Dec 16, 2020 01:00 am
Whether hospitalizations, case counts, or deaths, there’s nothing in the Wuhan virus numbers that should give America at large any reason for widespread alarm, nor is there any reason for new or continued lockdowns. Read More…
Dec 16, 2020 01:00 am
The Puritans were the first to establish socialism in North America, but realized and corrected their mistake rather quickly, in a few years, unlike other social experiments that lasted for decades Read More…
Don’t buy the ‘no evidence’ dodge
Dec 16, 2020 01:00 am
Democrats are making an absurdly empty claim that “no evidence” exists for a crime that has yet to be investigated. Read more…
American Thinker is a daily internet publication devoted to the thoughtful exploration of issues of importance to Americans.
This email was sent to <<Email Address>> why did I get this? unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences
AmericanThinker · 3060 El Cerrito Plaza, #306 · El Cerrito, CA 94530 · USA
Newly released body-camera footage shows Chicago Police Department officers raiding the wrong home and handcuffing an innocent woman for 20 minutes while she was nude — before realizing their mistake. The police had the wrong address from an informant.City officials are under fire for making a last-ditch effort to block a local television station f … Read more
Despite larger populations, currently freer peoples, and a media narrative that screams otherwise, there are far, far fewer deaths in Texas and in Florida than in New York.
William Barr’s resignation letter demonstrates the attorney general ended his service to our country with the same dedication and integrity he showcased over the last year.
A new documentary takes an unforgiving look at the steady decay of ‘the best city in America,’ exposing how Seattle’s misguided politicians have accelerated crime, addiction, and homelessness under the guise of compassion.
While new music is a welcome surprise, many have been praising Taylor Swift for magically fixing 2020. She didn’t — and no other pop culture trend can.
‘What is so disconcerting about this particular situation is that the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence really should have been spending a lot of time on this threat.’
‘That is how far fact-checking has fallen from Snopes and ‘Don’t worry, grandma, there’s no hoof bandit on the side of the road.’ We’re now fact-checking political ideas and American dreams.’
The Transom is a daily email newsletter written by publisher of The Federalist Ben Domenech for political and media insiders, which arrives in your inbox each morning, collecting news, notes, and thoughts from around the web.
“You must read The Transom. With brilliant political analysis and insight into the news that matters most, it is essential to understanding this incredible moment in history. I read it every day!” – Newt Gingrich
Sent to: rickbulownewmedia@protonmail.com
Unsubscribe
The Federalist, 611 Pennsylvania Ave SE, #247, Washington, DC 20003, United States
39.) REUTERS
Share
DECEMBER 16, 2020
Reuters News Now
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS TODAY
Italy’s deaths head for wartime levels An adviser to Italy’s health ministry has called for restrictions to be drastically tightened to avoid a “national tragedy” after the national statistics bureau said deaths this year would be the highest since World War Two.“We are in a war situation, people don’t realize it but the last time we had this many deaths, bombs were dropping on our cities during the war,” public health professor Walter Ricciardi told the television channel la7 on Tuesday evening.Ricciardi, the adviser to Health Minister Roberto Speranza, said the government, which is considering tightening restrictions over the Christmas and New Year holidays, should lock down the main cities completely.
U.S. immunization rollout expands
The United States expanded its rollout of the newly approved COVID-19 vaccine to hundreds of additional distribution centers, inoculating thousands more healthcare workers in a mass immunization expected to reach the general public in the coming months.Distribution of the vaccine developed by Pfizer and German partner BioNTech began on Monday, three days after it won U.S. emergency-use authorization.Political leaders and medical authorities have launched a two-pronged media blitz avowing the safety of the vaccines while urging Americans to remain diligent about social distancing and mask-wearing until inoculations become widely available.Seoul runs out of critical care beds
South Korea reported a record daily rise in cases and the prime minister issued an urgent call for more hospital beds to cope with the country’s worst outbreak since the start of the pandemic.Hospitals were at breaking point with only three critical care beds available in greater Seoul, an area with a population of almost 26 million people, officials said.
“The top priority is securing more hospital beds,” Prime Minister Chung Sye-kyun told a government meeting.
Japan PM under fire over year-end dinners
Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has drawn criticism for joining year-end get-togethers after begging the public to avoid parties as the country grapples with record numbers of cases.
Suga became prime minister in September but he has not enjoyed much of a honeymoon as public frustration grows with rising infections.
“How much do they want to bring members of their broader family together at Christmas or whether they think on this occasion let’s just keep it small and we can meet up in the Spring – Easter can be the new Christmas for some people,” Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick told Sky.
After imposing the most onerous restrictions in British peacetime history, Johnson is keen to avoid becoming the prime minister who canceled Christmas, even though the UK has the sixth worst official COVID-19 death toll in the world.
We need your help to tell these stories. Our news organization wants to capture the full scope of what’s happening and how we got here by drawing on a wide variety of sources.
Are you a government employee or contractor involved in coronavirus testing or the wider public health response? Are you a doctor, nurse or health worker caring for patients? Have you worked on similar outbreaks in the past? Has the disease known as COVID-19 personally affected you or your family? Are you aware of new problems that are about to emerge, such as critical supply shortages?
We need your tips, firsthand accounts, relevant documents or expert knowledge. Please contact us at coronavirus@reuters.com.
We prefer tips from named sources, but if you’d rather remain anonymous, you can submit a confidential news tip. Here’s how.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is urging GOP Senators to accept Joe Biden as their next President. Newsmax has taken to calling Joe Biden the “President-Elect.” Many “conservative” news outlets have failed to expose blatant voter fraud while trying to salvage their credibility by ripping on Joe Biden’s fictional cabinet picks.
And it is fiction, folks. Joe Biden is not the President-Elect. His so-called “appointees” and “nominees” are nothing more then hypothetical bureaucrats in the event that they can maintain the illusion of an election victory until January 20th.
It’s unfortunate that we have to continue to hammer home the reality that this election is far from settled, that there are multiple avenues through which a righteous outcome can be realized before it truly is too late. It’s hard enough fighting mainstream media, Big Tech, and Democrat lies. It’s a whole different can of worms when conservatives tuck tail and start going along to get along.
Some say they fear a constitutional crisis. To those people, I say, “Look around.” THIS is a constitutional crisis. The very foundation of our republic is under attack from forces foreign and domestic. They have usurped the rule of law and our sovereignty as a nation by interfering in the proper and fair process through which we determine not just our president, but also our other representatives at every level. Any patriot who allows this travesty to reach its diabolical conclusion without giving every single ounce of effort imaginable to stop it is complicit. They have sworn an oath to defend the Constitution and they have failed.
Others will say they believe there was voter fraud but the fraudsters have already won. For patriotic, hard-working, patriotic Average Joes to think this is understandable when we see so many of our supposed “allies” in government and media echoing this sentiment. But those allies, namely Republican leaders and conservative journalists who are strategizing about how to move forward under a Joe Biden administration, lack the understanding of what’s happening now. We are still fighting, and we still have promising opportunities. The most conspicuous is Dominion Voting Systems. There is enough smoke coming from that company to be seen from Iceland. Now, we just have to locate the fire in time, and I firmly believe that we will.
That brings us to the final batch of Republican naysayers, the worst of them all in my opinion. There are those who are either willfully ignorant or outright lying when they say they have not seen enough evidence to make them think there was widespread voter fraud. It’s understandable for leftists to feel this way as there is strong confirmation bias in a Joe Biden victory that can blind them. I’m not giving them a pass, but I am less concerned about ignorant but otherwise innocent Democrats who simply want to believe they won because the media tells them they did.
Republicans who accept this fraudulent election so easily do not get the same quarter. Either they’re not truly Republicans in the ideological sense of the word or they’re self-serving frauds in their own right. I’d put Mitch McConnell in the latter category. He is a moderate Republican, but a Republican nonetheless. As Senate Majority Leader and de facto head of the GOP on Capitol Hill, he should be leading the charge to expose voter fraud. Instead, he’s doing everything within his vast powers to pull back on every Republican lawmaker’s reins. He has always been a squish and a liar, but I’m not prepared to believe he’s a traitor. I think he’s a weak man who evades any fight where he might get a bloody nose.
There is a silver lining in all of this. By the time this fraud is fully exposed and President Trump is reelected, we will know who had the passion, fortitude, and patriotism to fight the good fight. And that means we will also know who did not. This is so very important as the time has come for us to truly purge the party and the conservative movement of those who do not deserve our support. That’s not to say we need to start kicking out members of the tribe, but it does mean there are those who deserve more influence and many who do not.
Congressman Mo Brooks has committed to fight. Congresswoman-Elect Marjorie Taylor Greene and Congressman Jody Hice have consistently called for action against voter fraud in their state of Georgia and beyond. Senator Ted Cruz and Congressman Louie Gohmert have spoken out about fraud, but we haven’t heard anything from them since the SCOTUS ruling last week. There are others, and we will remember them all.
@tedcruz are you going to listen to Mitch or will you continue to fight these fraudulent election results?
You’ve been quiet on the issue for the past five days. Can we count on you?
Democrats with no reason to doubt the 2016 election results kept fighting it for four years. Many Republicans have thrown in the towel after six weeks. Those who have not MUST be the future of the GOP or our nation is doomed.
COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.
We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 8000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
After election officials identified “glitches” that switched 6,000 Trump votes to Biden, the courts in Antrim County Michigan ordered an audit of Dominion voting machines. The forensic audit was carried out by the Allied Security Operations Group (ASOG). This group conducted a forensic duplication on the county’s election management server. They investigated compact flash cards used by local precincts in their Dominion ImageCast system, and they audited the memory sticks used by Dominion Voter Assist Terminals and the memory sticks used for the poll book.
This forensic audit found blatant evidence of a coordinated attack on the 2020 Presidential election. The Federal Election Commission allows an error rate of .0008 percent for all voting machines used in US elections. The Dominion machines in Antrim county had an error rate of 68.05 percent! Even more shocking: The ballot-adjudication logs and the security logs for the November 3 general election were removed. All log files for previous elections were still contained on the machines, but someone on the inside was able to erase the all-important log files for the 2020 election.
There was a coordinated attempt to coverup security logs that show wide scale vote switching
“The adjudication process is the simplest way to manually manipulate votes,” wrote Russell Ramsland, who prepared the forensic report. “The lack of records prevents any form of audit accountability, and their conspicuous absence is extremely suspicious since the files exist for previous years using the same software. We must conclude that the 2020 election cycle records have been manually removed.”
This bombshell report was released to the public on Dec 14 after it was approved by Kevin Elsenheimer, the chief judge of Michigan’s 13th Circuit Court.
“Because the intentional high error rate generates large numbers of ballots to be adjudicated by election personnel, we must deduce that bulk adjudication occurred,” Ramsland warned. “However, because files and adjudication logs are missing, we have not yet determined where the bulk adjudication occurred or who was responsible for it.” In other words, Democrats premeditated and coordinated their attack on the US election system, tampering with the security logs to cover up their fraud.
In Antrim County, the voting machines rejected an outrageous number of ballots for adjudication. In the adjudication process, election workers are allowed to determine the ultimate outcome for each ballot. The Dominion voting machines were apparently programmed to reject a large number of ballots so the corrupt Democrat election workers could ultimately decide the destiny for these ballots. This coordinated fraud will be hard to trace because the traitors deleted all the security logs prior to 11 p.m. on Nov. 4 and deleted adjudication logs.
Dominion voting system rejected an astronomical number of ballots so they could be manually switched
The security logs are the only way to conduct an audit trail and to detect for more advanced outside attacks on the system files. Ramsland warned that there “is not reasonable explanation for the security logs to be missing.” The logs contain all the authentication failures, domain controls, and error codes. They also contain information on the network connections to the file servers, which includes the times, date transfers, internet connections, and file accesses.
The Dominion ImageCast Precinct system was reviewed by the ASOG cybersecurity team in the Central Lake Township – home to 1,500 voters. During a second tabulation of election results, the ASOG team found that nearly all (1,474 votes) in the precinct were altered. Votes for one candidate vanished, and votes added back to another.
This forensic audit of Dominion voting machines is monumental. The elections in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin cannot be certified under the law because there is evidence of systemic election fraud throughout.
COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.
We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 8000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
In recent years, theologian Albert Mohler has taken criticism for the way he has been leading the church as president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Adherence to social justice issues and misinterpretations of the Bible have been common for the world renowned religious figure. Now, we can add bad science and medical advice to the list of things he’s doing wrong.
According to Christian Headlines, he’s promoting the upcoming COVID-19 vaccines to anyone who will listen:
Seminary president and theologian Albert Mohler on Monday said he will take the COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it is available to him and that he will do so not only for his health but also for the health of others.
The president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., made the comments in a column on his website in which he listed seven moral principles for Christians to consider when studying the usage of vaccines.
Mohler was referencing the Pfizer vaccine – which began shipping this week – and the Moderna vaccine, which is expected to be approved by the FDA in the coming days.
“Reasonable Christians and Christian parents will differ over whether or not to take the vaccine,” Mohler wrote. “But, speaking personally, I will take this vaccine as soon as it is available to me. I will take it not only for what I hope will be the good of my own health, but for others as well. I will seek to encourage others to take the vaccine.”
Christians should consider taking the vaccine, Mohler wrote, for the “common good” of society.
Some may argue that promoting healthy choices is Biblical. Others will point out that getting vaccinated for a disease with questionable numbers surrounding it and a very high recovery rate even with these questionable numbers is bad science. But more importantly, as a church leader, he should be more concerned with spreading Biblical understanding than promoting the “common good” of society by following the mandates of government.
That’s not to say religious leaders should not get involved in the secular world. They absolutely should. But they must make their choices and teach others based on Biblical principles, and it’s a stretch to associate a vaccine for a mild, albeit widespread disease when there are treatments available. The American Medical Association finally backtracked on their political choice to condemn Hydroxychloroquine in an effort to hurt President Trump’s reelection chances.
Some may say it’s not with Al Mohler’s purview to be giving medical advice. Others may say it’s better for him to discuss secular issues instead of talking about Biblical matters in which he clearly has limited understanding.
COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.
We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 8000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
Swampscott, MA – A Black Lives Matter activist who was honored by the Boston Red Sox in August was arrested on Saturday after he hit an 80-year-old female Trump supporter at a rally.
Ernst Jean-Jacques Jr. was honored on the big screen at Fenway Park on Aug. 28 as part of the Boston Red Sox’s “Hats Off to Heroes” program, according to a post he put on his Facebook page on Aug. 30.
He posted a copy of the letter he received from the Red Sox telling him that he had been selected to be honored during the program that usually recognizes military members during baseball games.
“This year, with everything that has been going on, we got permission from the presenting sponsor John Hancock to expand the breadth of the program… On Aug. 28 we are going to recognize an activist and pillar of their community, and I would absolutely love it if we could highlight you, for all that you do for the city and in the fight against social injustice,” the letter read.
Jean-Jacques also posted a video of the game that showed him waving from the big screen while the announcer sang his praises. On Dec. 12, the pillar of the community was arrested for attacking an elderly woman at a Trump rally, The Daily Item reported. The incident occurred at about 11 a.m. during a demonstration by supporters of President Donald Trump at Monument Square in Swampscott.
Trump rallies have been held on Thursdays in that location for 35 weeks in a row but recently made the switch to Saturday, The Daily Item reported.
“It was a powder keg,” Swampscott Police Sergeant Jay Locke told The Daily Item. “Just the way people were interacting with one another. This was definitely more aggressive action than in previous weeks. It felt like it was going to be violent at any moment.”
Counter-protesters at Monument Square on Saturday were mostly from out-of-town and led by 33-year-old Joseph Castro Del Rio, The Daily Item reported. Del Rio was arrested for assault with a dangerous weapon in November after he struck a man wearing a pro-Israel hat with a whip during a Black Lives Matter protest, the Boston Herald reported.
He was also involved in a violent protest in Saugus in October, The Daily Item reported. Former conservative radio host Dianna Ploss was filming a video at the rally in Swampscott when Jean-Jacques approached a group of pro-Trump women who were dancing to “It’s Raining Men” that was blasting from loudspeakers nearby.
“It’s raining Trumps,” Jean-Jacques sang through a black facemask in the video as he danced at the women in an antagonizing manner, the video showed.
In the video, 80-year-old Linda Greenberg approached the barricade where the activist was dancing. The camera is briefly blocked by another dancing woman with an American flag but when she moved, Jean-Jacques punched the elderly woman in front of him. Greenberg may have splashed water on Jean-Jacques but that couldn’t be seen in the video, The Daily Item reported.
The video showed Greenberg doubled over in pain and holding a water bottle as other rally-goers tried to help her. Several women in the video screamed for the police and Jean-Jacques was quickly apprehended and escorted away in handcuffs by officers, The Daily Item reported.
Greenberg refused medical attention at the scene. Jean-Jacques was arrested and charged with assault and battery on a person 60 years or older for his attack on Greenberg, The Daily Item reported. He was released on $550 bail.
COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.
We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 8000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
Sightings of Unidentified Flying Objects (UFO) in New York City have increased 31% this year over 2019 – 46, compared with 35. Compared with 2018 figures (of around a dozen), 2020 sightings are astronomically higher, so far jumping by more than 283%, according to NYPost, citing data from the National UFO Reporting Center.
The borough with the most UFO sightings was Brooklyn this year, coming in at 12. The second was Manhattan with 11, and Queens with 10. Staten Island had eight, and the Bronx saw five. NYPost said the most “memorable intergalactic incidents” occurred in the summer months, on Staten Island and in the Bronx.
The first incident occurred on Jun. 8. A Bronxite said 30 objects “flew in a perfect line, in perfect synchronicity” that “looked like a bunch of moving stars.”
The observer claimed: “I don’t drink, or take any drugs whatsoever. I’m not a UFO conspiracy theorist.”
Then on July 21, a Staten Islander spotted an “oval” craft that “looked and sounded like a helicopter. Then, the mysterious flying machine “sent a surge of heat/radiation through my body!”
The Islander “honestly thought it was the government putting something into the air with everything going on during these times and I thought I would wake up and find it all over the news or on Instagram.”
On Sept. 15, a Brooklynite looked “out the bathroom window of his home” and saw “orange/metallic” orbs “standing still over the Canarsie/Jamaica Bay area.”
They said: “By the time I called my son, they were gone. I could not believe my eyes.”
Earlier in the year, a Manhattanite reported UFOs swirling around the Statue of Liberty. Even though these were first-hand accounts – there was no physical evidence such as a picture or video to back up their claims, well, as far as we know.
Last week, Haim Eshed, former head of Israel’s Defense Ministry’s space directorate, told Israel’s Yediot Aharonot newspaper that aliens exist and have been waiting to show themselves but added they remain secret because “humanity isn’t ready” for the reveal.
With the world certainly a strange place in 2020, it was noted earlier this month that “alien monoliths” were appearing in the US and even in Europe.
COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.
We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 8000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
Republican electors in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Arizona, Nevada, and New Mexico cast alternative slates of votes for President Donald Trump on Dec. 14, as the certified Democrat electors in the same states cast votes for former Vice President Joe Biden.
While there’s precedent for dueling sets of electors casting votes in a presidential election, the number of states involved in the action sent the 2020 election into uncharted territory. Democrats successfully executed the same gambit in Hawaii in 1960 by casting an alternative set of votes for John F. Kennedy after the state’s governor certified the electors for Richard Nixon.
Congress ultimately counted the Kennedy electors even though he wasn’t declared the winner in the election until 11 days after Nixon’s electors were certified. President Donald Trump and allied third parties are pursuing legal challenges to the election in all of the states involved, including a lawsuit filed in New Mexico on the same day as the Electoral College vote.
“Sending more than one slate of electors is not unheard of,” said Meshawn Maddock, Michigan Republican at-large national elector, in an emailed release. “It’s our duty to the people of Michigan and to the U.S. Constitution to send another slate of electors if the election is in controversy or dispute—and clearly it is.”
The Republicans in other states explained their rationale in similar terms, underlining that casting their votes would preserve Trump’s legal claim for the election as the president pursues legal challenges to the outcome.
Kelli Ward, one of Arizona’s 11 Republican electors, said she believes Republican electors in all the states in question share her perspective—that they represent the legitimately cast votes in the November election, which she said was marred by irregularities and allegations of fraud.
“It was required as part of our duties so that, on Jan. 6, the correct electors can be recognized whenever Congress gets back together,” Ward told NTD’s “The Nation Speaks” on Dec. 14. “If the true electors were not sent, then that would also create more chaos than we already have.”
The formal vote by the electors on Dec. 14 involved the signing of several copies of a certificate of vote, which are then sent to the U.S. archivist, the secretary of state, the president of the Senate, and the chief justice for the district court in the district where the electors met. The Democratic electors also send copies of a certificate of ascertainment signed by the governor of each state.
Jesse Law, the lead elector for the Nevada electors pledged to President Donald Trump, told The Epoch Times that the electors would each fill out several copies of the certificate of vote and send them to the required parties via certified mail.
The office of the Nevada secretary of state told The Epoch Times in an email that it received the certificates of vote from the Democratic electors, but not the ones from the GOP. The same is the case for the office of the secretary of state of Pennsylvania.
“We have only the set from the Electoral College meeting organized by the Department of State for the slate of electors that won that race,” Wanda Murren, a spokeswoman for the Pennsylvania Department of State, told The Epoch Times in an email.
The Pennsylvania Republican Party didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mark Jefferson, executive director of the Wisconsin Republican Party, said in an email to The Epoch Times that the electors haven’t yet sent the certificates.
“We’re going over with attorneys the best route to take on the certificates, and we expect they will be sent,” Jefferson said.
The Office of the Federal Register and the National Archives (OFR), which receives copies of each certificate of vote and posts them on a designated webpage, declined to comment on how the dueling certificates would be handled. None of the certificates appeared on the webpage as of 5 p.m. on Dec. 15.
“Under the Privacy Act, OFR does not disclose information about communication with private individuals. As such, we cannot comment on what, if any, communication we’ve received except for the Certificates that are prepared and sent as part of an official state action,” Katerina Horska, director of legal affairs and policy, said in an email to The Epoch Times.
Since Election Day, Trump and third-party groups have pursued legal challenges to the outcome of the election in six states. None of the efforts have so far borne fruit, including an interstate Supreme Court challenge brought by Texas and backed by 19 Republican attorneys general.
Some of the lawsuits alleged widespread fraud, including through the manipulation of voting machines by Dominion Voting Systems. On Dec. 14, a judge approved the release of a forensic audit of the Dominion machines from Antrim County, Michigan. The author of the report concluded that the machines were designed to produce an extraordinary number of errors as a means for altering election outcomes. The machines were missing crucial security and ballot adjudication logs for the 2020 general election despite having the logs for prior years. Dominion denied the allegations.
“WOW. This report shows massive fraud. Election changing result!” Trump wrote on Twitter on Dec. 14 in response to the report.
“Tremendous problems being found with voting machines. They are so far off it is ridiculous. Able to take a landslide victory and reduce it to a tight loss. This is not what the USA is all about. Law enforcement shielding machines. DO NOT TAMPER, a crime. Much more to come!” the president wrote on Dec. 15. “Tremendous evidence pouring in on voter fraud. There has never been anything like this in our Country!”
In a speech on Dec. 14, Biden again declared victory, disputed claims about election fraud, and called on Trump to concede. The former vice president and Delaware senator said election officials and volunteers, Republicans and Democrats alike, “knew the elections they oversaw were honest and free and fair.”
“They saw it with their own eyes. And they wouldn’t be bullied into saying anything different,” Biden said.
“In America, when questions are raised about the legitimacy of any election, those questions are resolved through a legal process. And that is precisely what happened here. The Trump campaign brought dozens and dozens and dozens of legal challenges to test the results. They were heard. And they were found to be without merit.”
Most of the post-election lawsuits have been dismissed for reasons other than the merits of the evidence. The Texas Supreme Court case was dropped because the Lone Star state couldn’t establish adequate legal standing to bring the case. The court didn’t proceed to hear the evidence.
The dueling sets will likely trigger a contested electoral vote count in Congress. Each slate of electors can be challenged with the approval of one member of the House and one senator. Both chambers of Congress would then retire to debate and vote on the slate.
Depending on the outcome of the Senate runoffs in Georgia, Trump would require near-unanimous support in the Senate to block the approval of Biden’s electors.
COVID-19 lockdowns are taking down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the resurgence of lockdowns that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $17,300 to stay afloat through March when we hope the economy will be more open, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. In November, 2020, we hit 1.2 million visitors.
We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 8000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
The majority of Electoral College voted yesterday for Joe Biden to be President. Does that mean it’s over? I’m not an attorney, but it appears that the answer is No.
Yes, that would be another check-off part of the normal election process — but the verdict is No as the current election situation is anything but normal. For example:
Analyses have been done by independent statistical experts of 2020 Presidential election results in some swing states. Their conclusions are that hundreds of thousands of votes in those key states are highly suspect (e.g. see here and here).
Multiple sworn affidavits from cyber security experts have been filed asserting computer manipulations of the 2020 Presidential election. These adjustments could also be affecting hundreds of thousands of votes (e.g. see here and here).
Many hundreds of sworn affidavits from citizens have been filed testifying to 2020 Presidential election irregularities, likewise possibly affecting hundreds of thousands of votes (e.g. see here and here).
Only a few US counties have done a basic recount (e.g. here). It’s important to understand that a basic recount is little more than a rudimentary check of the math. For counties that have been identified as statistically suspect (e.g. see #1 above), a basic recount is a start, but it’s not sufficient, as a forensic recount is warranted.
ZERO counties in the US have done a forensic (or audited) recount of the 2020 presidential election. That type of recount verifies that every vote came from a legitimate citizen — and that there was only one vote counted per citizen. (Independent studies like this give an indication of widespread inaccuracies. One small Michigan precinct is doing a partial forensic audit, but result are withheld.)
Certification of voting results by state legislatures is based on the assumptions that: a) the math is right, plus b) the results from all precincts are only votes cast by legitimate citizens, and only one vote per citizen. The critically important “b” assumption has not been verified (via even a sample forensic audit) in ANY state.
There is a difference between what citizens consider as evidence and what courts will consider as legal evidence. Here is an extensive crowd-sourced list of citizen submitted evidence of 2020 election malfeasance. Here’s another.
To my knowledge, all the 2020 election court cases to date been have been dismissed on legal technicalities (e.g. whether the petitioner has legal standing, whether evidence is admissible, whether filing time constraints have been met, etc.). Despite incessant media claims that judges have rejected claims of fraud, etc, the courts have not yet ruled on the merits of any of the 2020 election cases.
There are ZERO 2020 election court cases where a judge has mandated even an investigation into any type of fraud (voting machine algorithms, duplicate votes from the same person, votes from deceased parties, illegally corrected votes, etc.).
In an extremely rare case where a judge actually did look at some 2020 election results for a single district, he ruled that election officials violated the law in nine (9) different ways! And that was in a run-of-the-mill district not known to have been compromised. (He also did not mandate any fraud investigation.)
So, if audited recounts are ever done, and if those end up proving that the results are materially different from what’s been reported (and “certified” by state legislatures), then there might be legal grounds for: a) state legislatures to un-certify their prior results, and/or b) Congress to over-rule certain states Electoral College submissions.
Hopefully some audited recounts — or even statistically sampled audited recounts — will be done between now and January 6th (another key point in the process).
If these aren’t conducted until after that time — and the Electoral College majority vote turns out to be wrong — than that will open a Pandora’s Box of complications.
This is NOT a partisan issue, as Americans of ALL political persuasions should want to ensure the integrity of our election process. If the voting results are honest and accurate, then prove that there is no fire where there’s smoke.
Let’s all do what we can to get this right the first time, so that the pleasingly pinguid lady can sing prior to Inauguration Day.
COVID-19 may take down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the so-called “surge” or “2nd-wave” that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $11,500 to stay afloat for the rest of 2020, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
Election year or not, coronavirus lockdowns or not, anarchic riots or not, the need for truthful journalism endures. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 8000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
The American Medical Association has amended their recommendations regarding Hydroxychloroquine, reversing their previous warning that a drug in common use for seven decades was somehow now dangerous. This comes after the 2020 election, of course. If they admitted the truth about HCQ before the election, it would have benefitted President Trump who has been recommending it for months.
The AMA is an organization of political hacks. Those in charge of the recommendation made a decision to disregard clear science showing the efficacy of HCQ as a treatment, prompting most news organizations and Big Tech companies to suppress calls for its widespread use. Real doctors had their opinions quashed. Those who discussed how HCQ could benefit us were often suspended or banned from their platforms. And worst of all, people likely died because the AMA wanted to help get their guy into the White House. According to Len Bilén:
The American Medical Association (AMA), in a surprising move, has officially rescinded a previous statement against the use of Hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) in the treatment of COVID-19 patients, giving physicians the okay to return to utilizing the medication at their discretion.
Previously, the AMA had issued a statement in March that was highly critical of HCQ in regards to its use as a proposed treatment by some physicians in the early stages of COVID-19. In addition to discouraging doctors from ordering the medication in bulk for “off-label” use – HCQ is typically used to treat diseases such as malaria – they also claimed that there was no proof that it was effective in treating COVID, and that its use could be harmful in some instances.
However, on page 18 of a recent AMA memo, issued on October 30, (resolution 509, page 3) the organization officially reversed its stance on HCQ, stating that its potential for good currently may supersede the threat of any potentially harmful side effects.
So, there we have it. HCQ could not be approved before the election, because President Trump had recommended it. Meanwhile, with an 8o +% reduced risk of having to be admitted to the hospital if administered with Azithromycine and Zinc as soon as testing positive or symptoms occurred, many (70000+) lives could have been saved.
Many in conservative media have been touting HCQ based on the word of actual doctors and scientists who attest to its usefulness as both a treatment and even as a preventative measure. President Trump took the drug as part for prevention and was reported on by many in the media as causing harm. Fox News host Neil Cavuto went so far as to say based on the President’s recommendations, “people will literally die.”
At NOQ Report, we’ve had our stories about COVID-19 and HCQ censored by Big Tech on multiple occasions. We’ve had articles and videos removed from Facebook and YouTube. And we’re not alone. According to The Gateway Pundit:
For months The Gateway Pundit has been reporting factually on the evidence and studies that proved Hydroxychloroquine was effecting in the treatment of COVID-19. Of course, we were hounded by the left and attacked by fake “fact-checkers” labeling our reports as disputed.
Despite its effectiveness the American Medical Association (AMA) back in March, at the height of the pandemic in the US criticized hydroxychloroquine and its use. Dr. Fauci led the jihad against this effective drug.
Mainstream media and Big Tech warned for months that listening to President Trump and taking HCQ would harm this nation. As it turns out, they were the ones causing harm, and many Americans likely died as a result.
COVID-19 may take down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the so-called “surge” or “2nd-wave” that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $11,500 to stay afloat for the rest of 2020, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
Election year or not, coronavirus lockdowns or not, anarchic riots or not, the need for truthful journalism endures. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 8000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
Joe Biden has “a lot of explaining to do” regarding his role in his son’s business deal with a Communist Party-linked Chinese energy firm and other profiting in foreign nations from the former vice president’s status, charged Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, on the Senate floor Tuesday.
Grassley, the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, joined with Senate Governmental Affairs Chairman Ron Johnson, R-Wis., in an investigation that concluded Hunter and and Joe Biden’s brother James Biden “essentially served as agents of the communist government.”
“Based on all the facts known to date, Joe Biden has a lot of explaining to do,” Grassley said, addressing his colleagues.
Considerable evidence has emerged that the “Hunter Biden scandal” is really about Joe Biden and whether or not he is beholden to America’s No. 1 enemy. Former Hunter Biden business partner Tony Bobulinski, who has been interviewed by the FBI, claims he met twice with Joe Biden amid the crafting of the deal with CEFC China Energy. And an email to Bobulinski from a partner indicated Joe Biden was to receive a cut.
A newly leaked email reported Monday indicates Hunter Biden asked for a key to be made for his “office mate” father at a work space he planned to share with a Chinese partner in his CEFC deal. Emails from an abandoned Hunter Biden laptop reported in October by the New York Post indicated Joe Biden not only knew about his son’s lucrative deals, contrary to repeated claims, but also profited from them.
For the second time since his transition team announced his son is the target of a Justice Department investigation, Biden dodged a question from reporters about the issue.
On Monday night, after Biden declared victory in an address to the nation, a reporter shouted, “When did you find out your son was being investigated?”
Biden said: “Thanks for the congratulations. I appreciate it.”
Last week, to a similar question, he said, “I’m proud of my son.”
Hunter Biden acknowledged last Wednesday in a statement that he had learned from his lawyers the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Delaware was probing his “tax affairs.”
‘This is not going away’
Johnson said in an interview Sunday with Fox Business anchor Maria Bartiromo that Hunter Biden and associates Devon Archer, James Gilliar and Rob Walker are not cooperating with the committees’ investigation.
He noted that President Trump’s children and his associates “voluntary submitted to literally hundreds of hours of interviews and turned over thousands of documents” in Russia-related investigations.
“This is not going away. It’s a big mess, and it’s going to be a bigger mess in a Biden presidency,” Johnson said.
Biden claimed during an election-campaign debate that his son didn’t make any money from China, citing 50 former national security officials who insisted the claims about Hunter Biden had the hallmarks of a Russian disinformation campaign. However, the officials admitted they had no evidence to back their claim.
Emails show that Hunter Biden was to receive $10 million annually for three years from CEFC Energy for “introductions alone,” presumably meaning to his father and other influential U.S. officials.
In another development Monday, Fox News reported it obtained an email from an attorney indicating Hunter Biden did not report “approximately $400,000” in income he collected from his position on the board of Ukrainian natural gas firm Burisma Holdings when he joined in 2014.
COVID-19 may take down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the so-called “surge” or “2nd-wave” that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $11,500 to stay afloat for the rest of 2020, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
Election year or not, coronavirus lockdowns or not, anarchic riots or not, the need for truthful journalism endures. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 8000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
PRESIDENT TRUMP DID ***NOT*** LOSE WHEN THE ELECTORAL COLLEGE VOTED ON DECEMBER 14TH
This was just one stage of the entire constitutional electoral process. But it is by no means the final or irrevocable step. We have not reached the point of no return in preventing the Chinese Communist Party from installing Joe Biden as our next president, no matter how much Xi Jinping is salivating to make you and me his vassals.
OTHER ON-GOING ACTIONS BY PRESIDENT TRUMP AND HIS LEGAL TEAM
There are still a number of cases that may soon make it to the United States Supreme Court for final adjudication and remedy. That process is far from being exhausted. As Attorney General William Barr has just resigned and Acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen soon takes over, we are still eagerly anticipating potential criminal cases against those who fraudulently certified election results. Charges of treason against some should be seriously considered.
Also, this coming Friday, December 18th, is a very important date when Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe must submit a report pursuant to President Trump’s “Executive Order on Imposing Certain Sanctions in the Event of Foreign Interference in a United States Election” issued on September 12th, 2018. It will undoubtedly identify and document China as primary perpetrator and Iran as secondary for having committed covert acts to change election results against Trump in favor of Biden. What action the President and Commander-in-Chief will take is something we must await. But you can rest assured that assertive action is forthcoming in the very near future!
CONGRESS PLAYS A CONSTITUTIONAL ROLE IN THIS PROCESS
You can easily find on the internet a PDF version of this entire document. What follows are pertinent excerpts that outline what will transpire January 6th on Capitol Hill.
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
Counting Electoral Votes: An Overview of Procedures at the Joint Session, Including
Objections by Members of Congress
Updated December 8, 2020
When the certificate or equivalent paper from each state or the District of Columbia is read, “the President of the Senate shall call for objections, if any.” Any such objection must be presented in writing and must be signed by at least one Senator and one Representative. The objection “shall state clearly and concisely, and without argument, the ground thereof.”
When an objection, properly made in writing and endorsed by at least one Senator and one Representative, is received, each house is to meet and consider it separately.
The statute states, “No votes or papers from any other State shall be acted upon until the objections previously made to the votes or papers from any State shall have been finally disposed of.”
The joint session does not act on any objections that are made. Instead, the joint session is suspended, the Senate withdraws from the House chamber, and each house meets separately to debate the objection and vote whether, based on the objection, to count the vote or votes in question.
Both houses must vote separately to agree to the objection by simple majority. Otherwise, the objection fails and the vote or votes are counted. (3 U.S.C. §15 provides that “the two Houses concurrently may reject the vote or votes.”)
Both houses used roll call votes to decide the question.
Section 17 lays out procedures for each house to follow when debating and voting on an objection. These procedures limit debate on the objection to not more than two hours, during which each Member may speak only once and for not more than five minutes. Then “it shall be the duty of the presiding officer of each House to put the main question without further debate.”
Congress thought it might, as grounds for an objection, question and look into the lawfulness of the certification under state law.
The question of which state authority is “the lawful tribunal of such State” to make the decision (and thus the acceptance of those electors’ votes) shall be decided only upon the concurrent agreement of both houses “supported by the decision of such State so authorized by its law.”
If there is no determination by a state authority of the question of which slate was lawfully appointed, then the two chambers must agree concurrently to accept the votes of one set of electors; but the two chambers may also concurrently agree not to accept the votes of electors from that state.
When the two houses disagree, then the statute states that the votes of the electors whose appointment was certified by the governor of the state shall be counted.
* When there is only ONE determination by the state made in a TIMELY fashion under the state’s election contest law and procedures (even when there are two or more lists or slates of electors presented before Congress), then Congress shall accept that state determination.
[* This is why it is crucially important that the contested states filed alternate slates of electors pledged to Donald Trump by the “Safe Harbor” deadline of December 8th.]
* There appears only to have been one example, in 1961, when the governor of the state of Hawaii first certified the electors of Vice President Richard M. Nixon as having been appointed, and then, due to a subsequent recount which determined that Senator John F. Kennedy had won the Hawaii vote, certified Senator Kennedy as the winner. Both slates of electors had met on the prescribed day in
December, cast their votes for President and Vice President, and transmitted them according to the federal statute. This was the case even though the recount was apparently not completed until a later date, that is, not until December 28. The presiding officer, that is, the President of the Senate, Vice President Nixon, suggested “without the intent of establishing a precedent” that the latter and more recent certification of Senator Kennedy be accepted so as “not to delay the further count of electoral votes.” This was agreed to by unanimous consent.
[* Our Hawaii GOP ought to seriously look at this significant retrospective which occurred barely one year after Hawaii statehood. So should other states doing signature comparison and forensic audits. This precedent, endorsed by then losing candidate Richard Nixon in 1961, indicates that an amended certification that changed the outcome of an election in a particular state was accepted as late as December 28th. Every member of Congress should also be fully aware of this!]
In the event that no candidate has received a majority of the electoral votes for President, the election is ultimately to be decided by the House of Representatives in which the names of the three candidates receiving the most electoral votes for President are considered by the House, with each state having one vote. In the event that no candidate receives a majority of the electoral votes for Vice President, the names of the two candidates receiving the highest number of electoral votes for that post are submitted to the Senate, which elects the Vice President by majority vote of the Senators.
☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆☆
WE HAVE JUST BEGUN TO FIGHT!
For all the mainstream media slobbering all over Joe Biden, for those Republicans defecting by recognizing a thief as the owner of the house whose window he climbed through, this may come back to haunt you during Donald Trump’s second term. For our friends as well as our enemies around the world, just be reassured or forewarned that evil acts perpetrated upon the United States during our recent presidential election are not a fait accompli!
All it takes is one member of the House of Representatives and one Senator to submit a written challenge to the electoral votes of any particular state, which does not have to be their own state. So, your homework in the immediate future is to contact your Representative and your two Senators demanding that they set this constitutional process in motion on January 6th. For us here in Hawaii, we know that our entire Democrat Congressional Delegation is a waste of time. But, you can certainly make your views known to any and every member of Congress! Which is precisely what I’m trying to do right now!
COVID-19 may take down an independent news outlet
Nobody said running a media site would be easy. We could use some help keeping this site afloat.
Colleagues have called me the worst fundraiser ever. My skills are squarely rooted on the journalistic side of running a news outlet. Paying the bills has never been my forte, but we’ve survived. We have ads on the site that help, but since the site’s inception this has been a labor of love that otherwise doesn’t bring in the level of revenue necessary to justify it.
When I left a nice, corporate career in 2017, I did so knowing I wouldn’t make nearly as much money. But what we do at NOQ Report to deliver the truth and fight the progressive mainstream media narrative that has plagued this nation is too important for me to sacrifice it for the sake of wealth. We know we’ll never make a ton of money this way, and we’re okay with that.
Things have become harder with the coronavirus lockdowns. Both ad money and donations that have kept us afloat for a while have dropped dramatically. We thought we could weather the storm, but the so-called “surge” or “2nd-wave” that mainstream media and Democrats are pushing has put our prospects in jeopardy. In short, we are now in desperate need of financial assistance.
The best way NOQ Report readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We need approximately $11,500 to stay afloat for the rest of 2020, but more would be wonderful and any amount that brings us closer to our goal is greatly appreciated.
The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. This shouldn’t be the case as our traffic the last year has been going up dramatically. June, 2018, we had 11,678 visitors. A year later in June, 2019, we were up to 116,194. In June, 2020, we had 614,192. We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.
Election year or not, coronavirus lockdowns or not, anarchic riots or not, the need for truthful journalism endures. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.
Join fellow patriots as we form a grassroots movement to advance the cause of conservatism. The coronavirus crisis has prompted many, even some conservatives, to promote authoritarianism. It’s understandable to some extent now, but it must not be allowed to embed itself in American life. We currently have 8000+ patriots with us in a very short time. If you are interested, please join us to receive updates.
by Seton Motley: DC is outstanding at writing really good names for really bad bills.
“The Affordable Care Act” – made health insurance exponentially less affordable.
“The America Invents Act” – made it exponentially more difficult for America to invent.
And now behold the House of Representatives’ “No Surprises Act.” Which is filled to overflowing with really awful surprises.
Let us begin with it being put forward during a lame duck session of Congress. Lame duck sessions s have long been notorious for bouts of legislative heinousness.
Speaking of lame duck cronyism – that’s precisely what the “No Surprises Act” delivers. Which, unfortunately, actually isn’t a surprise.
Big (Health) Insurance is yet again attempting to dictate its terms be mandated by government. And government is happy to be yet again bribed into submission.
“‘Surprise medical bill’ is a term commonly used to describe charges arising when an insured individual inadvertently receives care from an out-of-network provider.
“This situation could arise in an emergency when the patient has no ability to select the emergency room, treating physicians, or ambulance providers.
“Surprise medical bills might also arise when a patient receives planned care from an in-network provider (often, a hospital or ambulatory care facility), but other treating providers brought in to participate in the patient’s care are not in the same network.”
“‘An independent dispute resolution process, or IDR…solves the problem of surprise medical bills related to out-of-network care without disrupting the broader market, and without having to involve patients at all.
“‘IDR is a proven market-based approach that brings everyone to the table, making it an efficient and easy way for insurers and physicians to negotiate fairly and quickly, without added bureaucracy or costs.’
“But what’s wrong with this bill? It’s a sham IDR process. The bill is written to make it look like it creates an IDR process – but it does not. It’s sham presence – is a Congressional con.
“The sham IDR process only allows the IDR judge – to arrive at insurance company benchmark in-network prices.
“Which means the books are cooked.
“The sham IDR process – inexorably leads to rulings for the insurance companies. Over and over and over again….”
This isn’t just Congress price-fixing medical care. Which is a terrible idea.
This is Congress crony price-fixing medical care – for crony Big Insurance. Which is an even terrible-er idea.
And this terrible-er idea – isn’t even a new terrible-er idea. Surprise, surprise – Congress has attempted this Big Insurance crony socialism several times before.
We the People have repeatedly said “No” to this crony socialism.
But Big Insurance won’t let their bought-and-paid-for Congressmen take our repeated “No”s for an answer.
Having already failed as a stand-alone bill and as a secret China Virus bill rider, Congress is now trying to lamely slip this awfulness through during a lame duck session.
This terrible-er idea would likely be the coup de grace to medical care providers everywhere. Who says so? Medical care providers everywhere.
“On behalf of our nearly 5,000 member hospitals, health systems and other health care organizations, our clinician partners – including more than 270,000 affiliated physicians, 2 million nurses and other caregivers – and the 43,000 health care leaders who belong to our professional membership groups, the American Hospital Association (AHA) thanks you for your efforts to protect patients from surprise medical bills. We appreciate that this issue is a priority for you, as it is for our field and our patients….
“However, we urge you to consider several modifications to the dispute resolution process to reduce burden on all parties and ensure fair consideration of offers….”
“Let’s be clear. The new House-Senate committees’ surprise billing legislative agreement is a flat-out giveaway to already enormously profitable insurance companies at the expense of community physicians on the front lines during the pandemic.
“If this proposal were to be enacted, it will reduce patient choice in New York by compelling even more private practice physicians into forced employment arrangements.”
“Anytime Congress claims it is protecting patients, the alarm bells should start sounding….
“(T)he ‘No Surprises Act’ released late Friday night and poised to be rushed through in the final days of the lame duck Congress, is a surprise attack on patients’ access to independent physicians.
“Proponents claim the bill (which does not yet have a bill number) is needed to protect patients from so-called surprise bills. Unfortunately, this problem caused in large part by past policy failures like ACA, is not going to be fixed by 357 new pages of federal regulation.
“In fact the legislation is full of bad surprises that will result in decreased patient choice and the closure of more independent medical practices. Not to mention the fact that many provisions are likely unconstitutional.
“The last thing we need during the current crisis when patient freedoms and the Constitution are already under attack are more restrictions and unconstitutional actions.
“PLEASE CALL YOUR SENATORS AND HOUSE MEMBER ASAP.”
Did you get that? Congress is in such a hurry – this legislative monstrosity doesn’t even yet have a bill number.
The rush to crony socialism has no time for such details.
This awful bill hasn’t really changed since its pre-China Virus initial iteration. But post-China Virus – medical care certainly has.
Yet there have been for this bill no hearings – and no debate. Congress needs to hear from patients, hospitals, and physicians before fundamentally transforming their multi-trillion-dollar life-saving sector.
Allow me to again quote the AAPS:
“PLEASE CALL YOUR SENATORS AND HOUSE MEMBER ASAP.”
Thankfully, Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has thus far been firm in his opposition to this awfulness.
Let’s make sure he remains so. And that as many of his Congressional colleagues as possible join him in his correctness.
——————— Seton Motley is the President of Less Government and he to ARRA News Service.
Tags:Seton Motley, Less Government, House’s Lame Duck, ‘No Surprises Act’, Is Overflowing, Awful SurprisesTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Mary Szoch: Yesterday, after nine long months of praying for an end to the COVID-19 pandemic, Sarah Lindsey — a critical-care nurse at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in Queens — received the first coronavirus vaccination. While the distribution of this vaccine is a sign of hope for many, the hyper-political climate in which it was created has caused moral, ethical, and medical concerns surrounding the vaccine. Chief among these concerns are: was the vaccine ethically created, or was it derived from an abortion-derived cell line? Is the vaccine effective? And finally, will taking the vaccine be mandatory?
The Pfizer vaccine made its mark as the first vaccine distributed in the United States. In phase three testing, Pfizer reported the vaccine demonstrated 95 percent efficacy against COVID-19. While this is promising, as Dr. Michelle Cretella pointed out in her interview on “Washington Watch,” “we do not have any long-term studies” showing the effectiveness of the vaccine or its potential side-effects. Though abortion-derived cell lines were used during some of the animal phase testing of this vaccine, thankfully, there were no abortion-derived cell lines used in its production, leading the Charlotte Lozier Institute to declare the Pfizer vaccine as ethically uncontroversial.
The Moderna vaccine, currently under review by the FDA, has reported a 94.1 percent efficacy rate and could be available for distribution as early as this weekend. Dr. Cretella explained that — similar to the Pfizer vaccine — this vaccine uses new technology to fight the virus: “These vaccines contain a messenger, a genetic messenger within them that will enter our cells and cause our cells to create a particle that resembles the virus. Protein resembles the COVID virus protein. And that is what is going to trigger our immune system to make antibodies.” While the Moderna vaccine also used abortion-derived cell lines in its animal testing phase, abortion-derived cell lines were not used in the creation of the vaccine itself. As such, this vaccine also made Charlotte Lozier’s ethically uncontroversial list.
A third vaccine from AstraZeneca has been touted as a promising vaccine candidate because it is cheaper and easier to store than both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines; however, this vaccine has had much more moderate success than the other two. More distressingly, this vaccine is derived from aborted baby cell-lines, causing serious ethical concerns for pro-lifers across the country.
Though the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines are reasons for optimism, hesitancy caused by conscience concerns and the lack of long-term testing cannot be ignored. Over the last nine months, our health care workers and people on the front lines have certainly proven that America is the home of the brave, but many of our government officials seem to have forgotten that this is also the land of the free. Across the country, governors and local governments — often against the urging of the White House — have restricted worship, shut down schools — even religious ones — and even tried to cancel Christmas. Basic freedoms have been limited, and so, many are wondering whether the U.S. government will make the COVID-19 vaccination mandatory.
While the White House and Dr. Anthony Fauci have assured the public that mandatory vaccination of the general population will not happen, Dr. Fauci did not rule out a mandate for health care workers, and private businesses can legally mandate the vaccine. Given the ethical and medical concerns surrounding the vaccine, let’s hope that both government officials and private employers remember that America was founded so Americans could be free — free to practice their religion (especially at Christmas), free to assemble (especially in their own homes), and free to decide whether or not to get a vaccine.
——————————— Mary Szoch writes for the Family Research Council
Tags:Mary Szoch, Family Research Council, COVID Vaccine, A Promising Start, But Freedom Must Be ParamountTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
The attorney general will depart on December 23. Here’s to a job well done. by Nate Jackson: Attorney General William Barr resigned on Monday, effective December 23. Barr was one of the two smartest and most effective Trump administration employees (the other being Secretary of State Mike Pompeo), and he was one of the best AGs in recent memory. As we have written on occasions too numerous to list, he served his country well, and every Patriot should thank Mr. Barr for doing his job with integrity and tenaciousness.It’s admittedly unusual that he’d depart a month before the end of President Donald Trump’s term, but perhaps the Electoral College vote was sufficient. Barr’s resignation letter was certainly gracious to the president, who undoubtedly at times made Barr’s job more difficult. “I am greatly honored that you called on me to serve your Administration and the American people once again as Attorney General,” Barr wrote. “I am proud to have played a role in the many successes and unprecedented achievements you have delivered for the American people. Your record is all the more historic because you accomplished it in the face of relentless, implacable resistance.”Specifically, Barr wrote, “You built the strongest and most resilient economy in American history — one that has brought unprecedented progress to those previously left out. You have restored American military strength. By brokering historic peace deals in the Mideast you have achieved what most thought impossible. You have curbed illegal immigration and enhanced the security of our nation’s borders. You have advanced the rule of law by appointing a record number of judges committed to constitutional principles. With Operation Warp Speed, you delivered a vaccine for coronavirus on a schedule no one thought conceivable — a feat that will undoubtedly save millions of lives.”Trump was likewise gracious, tweeting, “Our relationship has been a very good one, he has done an outstanding job!”Yet their very public disagreements of late were likely the real reason Barr decided to take an early retirement from his second stint as attorney general. There was the lack of a full report from U.S. Attorney John Durham on Obama’s malfeasance, the quiet way in which the DOJ conducted its probe of Hunter Biden, and Barr’s statement last month that Justice had “not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election.” All three led to disparaging remarks from Trump toward his AG.
As for the job Barr did, consider the cleanup he faced upon taking the job. Barack Obama had turned the Justice Department into a political weapon not just against Trump but against conservatives all over the nation. Barr was tasked with returning the department to upholding Rule of Law, and in the deep-state swamp, that’s a tall order.
In particular, take note of how Barr handled the aforementioned ongoing investigation into Hunter Biden — he did what he was supposed to do and kept it under wraps while it proceeded. That may not have helped Trump politically and, again, Trump certainly complained that Barr didn’t help him, but that’s not the attorney general’s job. To that point, and by contrast, Loretta Lynch secretly met with Bill Clinton on the Phoenix tarmac in July 2016. No, they did not merely talk about grandchildren as they claimed; anyone who says they didn’t discuss the “matter” of the DOJ’s investigation into Hillary Clinton’s illegal email server is lying.
Lynch and Eric Holder before her viewed the AG post as primarily serving as Obama’s political wingman. Barr is nobody’s wingman, and that’s why he didn’t politically leak details of the Biden investigation or push Durham for faster results just to benefit Trump. And yet some folks, including the president, will unfortunately always resent Barr for not giving Democrats a sufficient “dose of their own medicine.”
Just remember that the Left will always denounce Barr for supposedly having been Trump’s political stooge, fixer, and hitman.
However, one of Barr’s final acts was giving “special counsel” status to Durham so he can continue conducting his newly expanding probe into the Obama-Biden administration’s criminal actions regarding Trump’s 2016 campaign and the ensuing coup attempts. That status at a minimum makes it politically difficult for Biden to fire Durham or interfere in any way.
In his resignation letter, Barr noted of the Russia-collusion hoax that Trump’s presidency was “immediately met by a partisan onslaught against you in which no tactic, no matter how abusive and deceitful, was out of bounds” and that “the nadir of this campaign was the effort to cripple, if not oust, your Administration with frenzied and baseless accusations of collusion with Russia.”
Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham, one of Trump’s greatest defenders, praised Barr. He was, Graham said in a statement, “the right man at the right time in overseeing highly political investigations, and stood in the breach at times against both the left and the right.” Barr stood for the Constitution. While Biden has not chosen his own AG yet, we don’t hold any hope that the same will be said of him or her.
——————————– Nate Jackson reports for The Patriot Post.
Tags:Nate Jackson, The Patriot Post, Attorney General, William Barr, resigned on MondayTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Kerby Anderson: One of the stories that keeps surfacing is how politicians who set down stringent rules for dealing with the coronavirus end up breaking their own rules. This has been standard fare for various conservative hosts.
But even CNN hosts have been criticizing political leaders who cannot seem to comply with mandated guidelines. Brianna Kellar, for example, came down upon Democratic leaders like California governor Gavin Newsome, New York governor Andrew Cuomo, San Francisco mayor London Breed, and Denver Mayor Michal Hancock.
After listing the politicians’ offenses, she reminded her audience that, “trust is built slowly, but it evaporates faster than reservations at a fancy restaurant.” She said that instead of criticizing a few Republicans who aren’t always wearing masks, perhaps they should “look in the mirror.”
On more than one occasion, I have posted articles and discussed the harsh reality that many Americans are not taking the current pandemic seriously and are all too willing to violate mandates imposed by governors and mayors. One possible reason for that can be found in the obvious fact that many political leaders have been caught breaking their own rules.
Gavin Newsome and London Breed tell us to wear masks and to maintain social distance from others. Then we see them shoveling down very expensive food at The French Laundry in Napa, California with no masks and sitting elbow to elbow. The mayor of Austin, Texas sends a message that we should stay home and try to keep the numbers down. He sends that message while he is staying in Cabo, Mexico.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senator Dianne Feinstein are both over 80 years of age. They’re in the target demographic group that should wear masks and be especially careful. Then we see them without masks in a number of photos.
If these politicians want us to follow their rules, perhaps they should stop breaking the rules they impose on us.
—————- Kerby Anderson (@KerbyAnderson) is an author, lecturer, visiting professor and radio host and contributor on nationally syndicated Point of View and the “Probe” radio programs.
Tags:Kerby Anderson, Viewpoints, Point of View, Breaking Their Own RulesTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
The Bill of Rights was inspired by three remarkable documents: John Locke’s 1689 thesis, “Two Treatises of Government,” regarding the protection of “property” (in the Latin context, proprius, or one’s own “life, liberty and estate“); in part from the Virginia Declaration of Rights authored by George Mason in 1776 as part of that state’s Constitution; and, of course, in part from our Declaration of Independence authored by Thomas Jefferson.
Though the Bill of Rights is commonly referred to as “the first ten amendments” to our Constitution, it is important to distinguish these ten articles from amendments — the former being an integral part of our Constitution, while the latter, over the course of our nation’s history, having modified it.
Because of that distinction, the addition of the Bill of Rights was hotly debated among our Founders, many of whom argued that the mere reiteration of these innate and unalienable Rights of Man within the Constitution might imply that they are somehow subject to amendment, as if granted by the state.
Alexander Hamilton argued in Federalist No. 84, “Bills of rights, in the sense and in the extent in which they are contended for, are not only unnecessary in the proposed constitution, but would even be dangerous. They would contain various exceptions to powers which are not granted; and on this very account, would afford a colorable pretext to claim more than were granted. For why declare that things shall not be done which there is no power to do?”
On the other hand, George Mason was among 16 of the 55 Constitutional Convention delegates who refused to sign because the document did not adequately address limitations on what the central government had “no power to do.” Indeed, he worked with Patrick Henry and Samuel Adams against its ratification for that very reason.
As a result of Mason’s insistence, the first session of Congress incorporated those 10 additional limitations upon the federal government for the reasons outlined by the Preamble to the Bill of Rights: “The Conventions of a number of the States having at the time of their adopting the Constitution, expressed a desire, in order to prevent misconstruction or abuse of its powers, that further declaratory and restrictive clauses should be added: And as extending the ground of public confidence in the Government, will best insure the beneficent ends of its institution.”
Read in context, the Bill of Rights is both an affirmation of innate “unalienable rights” of man, and a clear proscription upon any central government infringement of those rights. As oft trampled and abused as the Bill of Rights is by those who’ve sworn an oath “to Support and Defend” our Constitution, most notably “judicial supremacists,” or the “despotic branch” as Jefferson called the judiciary, Patriots must remain ever vigilant in order to sustain our rights.
————————- Shared by the Editors of The Patriot Post
Tags:editors, The Patriot Post, The Bill of Rights, December 15, 1791To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by I & I Editorial Board: What is the United States of America? A society of elitists vs. the rest? A culture that’s given up on itself? A land of censorship? A nation in which policies and orientation are not merely matters of disagreement but causes of internal and irreconcilable turmoil? It was supposed to be none of these. But today it seems a foreign place, with more in common with the many dystopias of literature than anything the founders of a free nation ever imagined.
Just a single quick scan through the blogs and aggregators of the Internet makes us wonder who and where we are as a nation:
Many of those who hold political, economic, and cultural power favor the system of China, where a single-party autocracy “led by a reasonably enlightened group of people” who live privileged lives plan and execute a top-down national plan the entire country is expected to follow without objection.
At the same time, this class believes it is its job to oversee the decline of America.
Voter fraud and election theft have become normalized nationally rather than confined to big cities run by Democrat political machines.
Voters have put prosecutors who refuse to prosecute into office all over the country. It seems to be one man’s objective to foul our communities so completely that we’ll eventually go begging for tyrants to save us.
The Constitution is being tread upon by sort of tyrants we’ll be asking for in the name of keeping us healthy.
Voters have also put a team in the White House that will be beholden not to the country and Constitution it will swear to protect but to China.
Most of both the media and academia have become naked propagandists for one party rather than objective dispensers of news and even-handed educators.
Corporate America is becoming increasingly captured by woke forces and climate zealots, which makes life harder on the middle and lower classes.
Identity politics and a “social justice” are splitting the nation into warring tribes.
Our freedoms to speak and worship freely are being diminished almost daily.
Dissent from hard-left orthodoxy is punished by job loss, ostracization, and on occasion violence.
Rioters, looters and domestic terrorists are being coddled and even encouraged by the media, academia, and rotten-to-the core politicians.
As Pat Buchanan wrote last week, “we are two nations, two peoples seemingly separated indefinitely. Can a nation so divided as ours, racially, ideologically, religiously, still do great things together, as did the America of days gone by, to the amazement of the world?”
We’ve been hearing and reading that despite the election’s outcome, Trumpism will continue, and that the American spirit hasn’t fully wilted. We hope this is true, and the down-ballot results seem to confirm it. But it’s undeniable that much of the country is pulling in the other direction. Regarding that, we offer only one suggestion: Resist.
———————————— Written by the I&I Editorial Board
by Stephen Moore: When import tariffs are under discussion in Washington, D.C., they typically revolve around rates of 5% to 25% on foreign goods.
But what about duties on imported household items that can reach 300%, 500% or even 900%?
Those are the tariff rates that some in Congress and the Trump administration propose on imported bedding products and mattresses. Rates that high could drive some mattress prices from the $100 or $200 range to above $1,000. Talk about sticker shock.
There is a classic clash in Washington between big-name domestic mattress producers, such as Missouri-based Leggett & Platt and Georgia-based Elite Comfort Solutions against the importers. This group includes Utah-based bedding company Malouf and retail home goods giant Ashley HomeStore. These tariffs would not be imposed on adversaries, such as China, Iran or Russia, but on allies, including Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Serbia.
It isn’t small potatoes. The bedding industry is roughly $10 billion of annual revenue, with upward of 30 million mattresses sold every year.
With these new tariffs, a standard twin mattress imported from Turkey that sells at $129 could see its retail price quadruple to more than $600. A $99 mattress from Thailand could rise in price to $900, a punitive tariff rate of more than 900%. Those are price increases that would cause millions of people to literally lose sleep by not having the means to afford a new mattress.
The claim is these Mount Everest tariffs are justified because Asian countries are “dumping” mattresses into the United States market below cost.
These claims seem flimsy. The domestic producers contend that it costs a Cambodian factory $528 to make a 12-inch queen mattress that now sells in the U.S. for as little as $100. Such logic assumes that Cambodians are losing more than $400 for every mattress they sell in the U.S. If every Cambodian mattress costs $400 to make, almost all Cambodians, who earn on average less than $20 a day, would be sleeping on the floor.
The domestic mattress industry isn’t flat on its back, so to speak. It is flourishing in the age of COVID-19 because of high demand from hospitals, nursing homes and shelters. In some areas, there are bedding shortages. Sales are up for everyone, from domestic producers to importers.
Tempur Sealy, one of the “aggrieved” petitioners for import duties, had a banner year in 2019 as sales expanded to $3.1 billion, and 2020’s final numbers are looking better still.
Even President Donald Trump’s Justice Department antitrust division, in a rare rebuke to other voices in the White House, has warned in a filing that tariffs of 48% to 1,000% “could significantly increase mattress prices for consumers in the United States” while risking shortages in “hospitals and other healthcare facilities” during the era of COVID-19.
Some in the White House and Congress believe that high tariffs will protect thousands of domestic jobs. Perhaps so. But the U.S. companies that import mattresses at low prices also employ thousands of Americans. The losers here would be millions of consumers who could come to grips with seeing mattress prices double or even triple. Special-interest politics, such as protective tariffs, almost always favor the few at the expense of the many.
————————- Stephen Moore, (@StephenMoore) is a senior fellow at the Heritage Foundation and an economic consultant with Freedom Works. He is the co-author of “Fueling Freedom: Exposing the Mad War on Energy.” Moore encouraged the ARRA News Service editor at SamSphere Chicago 2008 to blog his articles. His article was in Rasmussen Reports
Tags:Stephen Moore, Steve Moore, Rasmussen Reports, Potential 900% Tariffs on, Mattresses, Could Wallop ConsumersTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Patrick Buchanan: Can a nation so distracted, so divided, so at war with itself continue to meet all of the duties, obligations and commitments that are ours as the self-proclaimed “leader of the free world”?
2020 will surely qualify as an “annus horribilis” in the history of the Republic.
By New Year’s, one in every 1,000 Americans, 330,000, will be dead from the worst pandemic in 100 years. The U.S. economy will have sustained a blow to rival the worst year of the Great Depression.
And by the end of December, much of the nation will be back in lockdown, with Joe Biden repeatedly predicting a “dark winter” ahead.
Only at the apex of World War II has the U.S. deficit and debt been so large a share of our economy.
In the wake of George Floyd’s death in Minneapolis, the summer of 2020 produced riots the extent of which rivaled the week after the murder of Martin Luther King in 1968.
Also revealed by the BLM uprising of 2020 was an unknown depth of hatred many U.S. citizens have for their country’s history, as they pulled down and smashed statues of men once revered as the greatest leaders — Washington, Jefferson, Jackson, Lee, Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson.
By year’s end, tens of millions were denying the legitimacy of the designated president-elect, who was to take office on Jan. 20. Both parties were charging the other with trying to “steal” the presidency.
Can a nation so distracted, so divided, so at war with itself continue to meet all of the duties, obligations and commitments that are ours as the self-proclaimed “leader of the free world”? Are we still the people and country we used to be?
While we tear ourselves apart, we remain obligated to defend nearly 30 nations of Europe from Russia. We are committed to ostracizing and isolating Iran and going to war if she should seek to build nuclear weapons like those held by her neighbors Israel, Pakistan, India, Russia and China.
Why is this our duty?
We are strategically “pivoting” to Asia to contain a China that is the rising power of the new century and whose economy and armed forces rival our own, while its population is four times larger.
If South Korea is attacked by the North, or Japan or the Philippines find themselves fighting China over rocks in the South and East China seas, we are obligated to treat any Chinese attack as an attack upon us.
Three decades ago, historian Paul Kennedy used the term “imperial overstretch” to describe what happens to great powers when their global commitments become too extensive to sustain.
This happened to the British at the end of World War II when, bled, broken and bankrupted by the six-year war with Germany, she began to shed her colonies. In the fall of 1956, Prime Minister Anthony Eden, Churchill’s foreign secretary, was ordered by President Eisenhower to get his troops out of Suez under an American threat to sink the British pound.
The British Empire was finished.
The imperial overstretch of the Soviet Empire was exposed from 1989 to 1991, with the withdrawal of its forces from Afghanistan, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Iron Curtain. The captive nations of Eastern Europe broke free. The USSR then disintegrated along ethnic and tribal lines into 15 nations.
Its diversity tore the Soviet Union apart.
On Dec. 2, at Brookings Institution, joint chiefs chair Gen. Mark Milley said: “There’s a considerable amount that the United States expends on overseas deployments, on overseas bases and locations, etc. Is every one of those absolutely, positively necessary for the defense of the United States?” The Defense Department, Milley added, must “take a hard look at what we do, where we do it.”
In a separate talk at the United States Naval Institute, the chairman added that U.S. permanent basing arrangements are “derivative of where World War II ended.”
Indeed, NATO was formed and its war guarantees were issued to Western Europe in 1949, seven decades ago. War guarantees to South Korea, Japan, the Philippines and Australia were all issued from 1950 to 1960.
These commitments to go to war for other nations were issued when Stalin was in the Kremlin, a 400,000-man Red Army sat on the Elbe in Germany, and Mao and his madness had just come to power in Peking.
How long must we sustain all these alliances and soldier on in the “forever wars” of the Middle East? Do we Americans still have the national unity, sense of purpose, and disposition to sacrifice for the cause of Western civilization we had in the early days of the Cold War?
Or has our own Suez moment arrived?
President Trump did not extricate us from the “forever wars,” but he did draw down our troop levels in Afghanistan and Iraq. And he did raise the question of how many more decades must we defend a rich Europe from a declining Russia that has a fourth of its population and a tenth of its wealth.
—————————— Patrick Buchanan (@PatrickBuchanan) is currently a blogger, conservative columnist, political analyst, chairman of The American Cause foundation and an editor of The American Conservative. He has been a senior adviser to three Presidents, a two-time candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, and was the presidential nominee of the Reform Party in 2000.
Tags:Patrick Buchanan, conservative, commentary, Has America’s Suez Moment Come?To share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
Tags:AF Branco, editorial cartoon, D.C. Curmudgeon, Fraudulent Election, MS Media, High Tech, converging, against Trump Biden, returns to the swampTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
During a press conference Thursday, Gov. Ralph Northam, D-Va.,
took it upon himself to tell the faithful not only how they should worship,
but also shamed them for wanting to worship with fellow believers.
by Rachel del Guidice: During a press conference Thursday, Gov. Ralph Northam, D-Va., took it upon himself to tell the faithful not only how they should worship, but also shamed them for wanting to worship with fellow believers.
“The holidays are typically times of joy and community. We gather together, we celebrate our faith, and we celebrate with family,” Northam said during the press conference.
The Democrat governor of Virginia went on to say that people of faith don’t need to be in a church to worship God.
“But this year we need to think about what is truly the most important thing. Is it the worship or the building? For me, God is wherever you are. You don’t have to sit in the church pew for God to hear your prayers. Worship with a mask on is still worship,” he said. “Worship outside or worship online is still worship.”
Here’s the thing—it’s more than OK for Northam to share how he chooses to worship.
But, the governor of Virginia, or any other politician for that matter, has no business telling others how to worship.
If he wants to share how he chooses to worship, that is his right. But telling Christians how to worship—and then essentially shaming them from attending church—is wildly inappropriate.
Actually, one reason why the United States of America is even in existence is due to the very fact that people preferred not to be told how to worship.
One of the basic tenets of Christianity is worshiping in community—so stripping the ability of the faithful to do so essentially deprives Christians of the ability to practice their faith.
It’s ironic that the left, which bills itself as on the side of tolerance and acceptance, is now at a place where it is unabashedly telling Christians not to go to church, with politicians like Northam essentially having an executive fiat to say that people of faith “don’t have to sit in the church pew for God to hear your prayers.”
We’ve now come to a time in our nation’s history where we are told to be accepting of any race or sexual orientation people believe themselves to be, to be supportive and understanding and inclusive, but now it’s not OK to be accepting of the faithful who want to safely gather as a body and worship God?
As a reminder, this isn’t the first assault we have seen on churches in the time of the coronavirus.
In California, Godspeak Calvary Chapel Pastor Rob McCoy reportedly turned his church into a strip club so that it could stay open, engaging in a clean version of a striptease before taking off his tie—to which congregants reportedly held up $1 bills.
In New York, Gov. Andrew Cuomo tried to put 10- and 25-person restrictions on churches in various areas of the city.
These are just two examples of countless other situations around the country where churches are being treated less fairly than the likes of strip clubs.
It’s abundantly obvious that in the name of “staying safe,” there’s an underlying agenda that is decidedly anti-religion. What else are we to make of policies that preserve the rights and ability to operate for places like strip clubs, but churchgoers are told they can pray anywhere, and therefore don’t have to go to a church?
Gov. Northam, people of faith see through this. Take every opportunity to share how you worship, but please, don’t impose your perspective on how people should worship on the rest of the country.
————————- Rachel del Guidice is reporter for The Daily Signal.
Tags:Rachel del Guidice, The Daily Signal, Gov. Northam, It’s Not Up to You, to Tell People of Faith, How They Can WorshipTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Paul Jacob: Ah, the Law of Unintended Consequences!
It doesn’t apply just to government programs. It also applies to journalistic crusades.
What am I talking about?
Well, by now, it is pretty clear that the mask mandates, social distancing efforts, and lockdown policies have not worked very well, if at all. But that hasn’t stopped corporate news media.
From what?
From inducing panic by playing up the negative aspects of the COVID epidemic, and downplaying — even suppressing — information that would mitigate . . . their propagation of panic.
And policies of an extreme nature.
Jacob Sullum, writing at Reason, calls our attention to recent research: “Based on an analysis of news stories about COVID-19 that appeared from January 1 through July 31, Dartmouth economist Bruce Sacerdote and two other researchers found that 91 percent of the coverage by major U.S. media outlets was ‘negative in tone.’ The rate was substantially lower in leading scientific journals (65 percent) and foreign news sources (54 percent).”
It has consequences: “This unrelenting, indiscriminate negativity fosters suspicion and resistance. Journalists and politicians who repeatedly cry wolf should not be surprised at the lack of cooperation when the beast actually appears.”
Which suggests that corporate media’s approach to the disease and our responses to it has had effects quite the opposite of what leftist Yellow Journalists aim: total government control of the populace in the cause of fighting a disease.
By overstating their case, and even flagrantly fibbing, they may be inoculating us from the very disease they promote.
That disease being not COVID, of course, but Therapeutic Totalitarianism.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
———————– Paul Jacob (@Common_Sense_PJ) is author of Common Sense which provides daily commentary about the issues impacting America and about the citizens who are doing something about them. He is also President of the Liberty Initiative Fund (LIFe) as well as Citizens in Charge Foundation. Jacob is a contributing author on the ARRA News Service.
Tags:Paul Jacob, Common Sense, Prognosis NegativeTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by NRA-ILA: According to the December 10 report from the New York Times, Michael Bloomberg’s anti-gun organization Everytown for Gun Safety is pushing Joe Biden to enact a raft of gun control by executive fiat. As much as Everytown and their would-be autocrat benefactor might wish, the U.S. Presidency is not a dictatorship.
The executive actions Everytown contemplates implicate the Second Amendment rights of law-abiding gun owners and are not moored in a credible reading of federal statute.
The article noted that the group has targeted three areas for executive action. Everytown is urging Biden to further restrict the private transfer of firearms between non-dealers, force Federal Firearms Licensees (gun dealers or FFLs) to notify the FBI whenever they complete a firearms transfer following the FBI’s failure to complete a background check within three days, and further regulate unfinished firearm frames and receivers – sometimes referred to as 80 percent frames or receivers.
Federal law (18 U.S.C. § 922(a)) provides,(a) It shall be unlawful–
(1) for any person–
(A) except a licensed importer, licensed manufacturer, or
licensed dealer, to engage in the business of
importing, manufacturing, or dealing in firearms, or in the course of such business to ship, transport, or
receive any firearm in interstate or foreign commerce; or …Therefore, a person may not “engage in the business” of dealing firearms without a Federal Firearms License. FFLs, of course, are required to consult the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System before transferring a firearm to a non-dealer.
The term “engaged in the business,” as it pertains to firearms dealers, is defined by statute (18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(21)) as,
a person who devotes time, attention, and labor to dealing in firearms as a regular course of trade or business with the principal objective of livelihood and profit through the repetitive purchase and resale of firearms, but such term shall not include a person who makes occasional sales, exchanges, or purchases of firearms for the enhancement of a personal collection or for a hobby, or who sells all or part of his personal collection of firearms;
Notice that the language does not contain a specific number of firearm sales or transfers that triggers the definition of “engaged in the business.” The language in the definition was carefully crafted to exempt individuals selling and trading firearms in and out of their private collections, no matter the frequency or volume. Rather, it is when a person sells firearms “as a regular course of trade or business with the principal objective of livelihood and profit” that a person must obtain Federal Firearms License.
Under this language, an individual who sells 20 firearms in a year with “the principal objective of livelihood and profit” would be required to become an FFL. However, an individual who sells 50 firearms in a year with the principle objective of enhancing their collection would not be required to become an FFL. The definition creates a distinction between commercial and private conduct, rather than various volumes of transactions.
Enacting this statutory definition of “engaged in the business” was a key component of the Firearms Owners’ Protection Act of 1986. Prior to FOPA, BATFE had targeted private individuals at gun shows who sold a few firearms out of their private collections on multiple occasions.
Despite the clear language and legislative history of 18 U.S.C. § 921(a)(21), Everytown is reportedly pushing Biden to place an arbitrary five firearm per year cap on private sales. Everytown’s proposal is particularly egregious given the recent history surrounding this issue.
President Barack Obama’s administration acknowledged that they had gone as far as unilateral executive action would permit on firearms. In late 2015, White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Shultz told reporters that Obama “has asked his team to scrub existing legal authorities to see if there’s any additional action we can take administratively.”
The Obama administration looked into further restricting the private transfer of firearms by executive fiat. Understanding that they did not have the authority to place a cap on the number of private transfers a person may engage in, the administration issued a 15-page guidance document that explained the relevant federal statutes and regulations concerning firearms dealing and summarizing its view of the controlling case law. Given the nature of the issue, one would expect there to be a plethora of Obama-era documents available through the Freedom of Information Act on this topic that would make a policy U-turn politically unpalatable and provide compelling evidence for any potential litigation.
In fact, the statutory language and legislative history is so clear that Biden would not have the authority to enact Everytown’s proposal that Bloomberg anti-gun mouthpiece The Trace has admitted as much. In June 2018, the Bloomberg organ whined, “Under the Gun Control Act, the ATF had wide latitude to pursue illegal dealing charges against unlicensed sellers. FOPA protected private dealers by narrowing the definition of just who qualified as being ‘engaged in the business’ of selling guns.
At present, federal law (18 U.S.C. § 922(t)) provides that an FFL may transfer a firearm to a prospective buyer after “3 business days (meaning a day on which State offices are open) have elapsed since the licensee contacted the [National Instant Criminal Background Check System], and the system has not notified the licensee that the receipt of a firearm by such other person would violate federal law.” This provision ensures that the FBI is not empowered to indefinitely delay a gun sale, either for an inability to conduct a background check or out of malevolence. As NRA-ILA has explained, this three-day safety-valve provision is vital and its elimination would turn the right to keep and bear arms into a privilege.
The Bloomberg proposal to force FFLs to notify the FBI whenever they complete a firearms transfer following the FBI’s failure to complete a background check within three days is an obvious attempt to intimidate FFLs into not transferring a firearm to individuals burdened by FBI’s inability to perform what is supposed to be an “instant” background check. This would curtail the ability of many individuals who routinely experience a lengthy NICS to access firearms at all.
There is no statutory language authorizing this requirement. Further, the proposal is unnecessary given current federal law enforcement practice. In the rare instance where a firearm is transferred to an individual following the three-day period and the FBI subsequently determines that the individual is prohibited from possessing firearms, ATF will then retrieve the firearm.
Concerning unfinished frames and receivers, the current federal statute and regulations are clear. Federal law defines a “firearm” to include “any weapon (including a starter gun) which will or is designed to or may readily be converted to expel a projectile by the action of an explosive” and “the frame or receiver of any such weapon.” In the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR), “firearm frame or receiver” is further defined as “That part of a firearm which provides housing for the hammer, bolt or breechblock, and firing mechanism, and which is usually threaded at its forward portion to receive the barrel.”
In order to treat unfinished frames and receivers as firearms, ATF would be required to broaden the definition of “firearm frame or receiver” in the CFR. Such a change is inadvisable and should at the very least require a formal rulemaking under the Administrative Procedure Act.
By targeting the materials Americans use to make their own firearms, Everytown and Biden would be striking at the core of the Second Amendment right in a manner that has no basis in the text, history, and tradition of the right. Since long before the founding, Americans have enjoyed the right to make their own firearms for personal use without government interference.
NRA-ILA will continue to monitor any attempts to enact unlawful gun control through executive action and stands ready to challenge such measures should they arise.
—————————– NRA-ILA
Tags:Everytown For Gun Safety, Executive Orders, NRA-ILATo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Cliff Kincaid: For President Trump to leave office at this critical time, a time of national emergency and constitutional crisis, would turn the country over to Communist China, a course that would guarantee national suicide, or submergence to a New World Order dominated by America’s enemies.
Another reason the president should stay in power is that the “election” that gave China Joe Biden the “victory” was fraudulent and thus illegitimate. Everybody knows it, and most people will admit it.
Plus, China Joe is in no condition to be president, as most people realize, and he would not in any real sense be a chief executive. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is already plotting to dump and replace him with Kamala Harris, under the cover of the 25th Amendment.
The fact that the Supreme Court, with three Trump nominees, decided not to grant a hearing in the Texas case on the evidence of massive vote fraud is of no consequence. The Court can’t enforce its rulings or non-rulings. If the Court won’t act, Trump must. But will he?
The Supreme Court ruling, however, must have been another wake-up call for Trump. As one of my readers commented, “Trump is surely looking at whoever advised him to pick those three judges! He seems to have nothing but traitors surrounding him!”
On Sunday’s “Fox & Friends,” Trump said he’s not planning to accept the result of the Electoral College and that “we’re going to continue to go forward.”
What does that mean? It likely means that, since Trump has been adamant that he won the election, based on legal votes, he has the right to exhaust all lawful remedies before surrendering the Oval Office to Mr. Biden.
There is nothing in the Constitution dictating that what the Supreme Court says or does is superior to other more-pressing considerations, such as national security concerns that could require the president to use emergency powers.
This means that Trump can cite massive evidence of fraud in a presidential declaration to nullify the November 3rd presidential election and order a new election limited to legal votes from actual people who can show valid ID. Otherwise, not only would China Joe take power and act as a puppet for his masters in Beijing, subverting American sovereignty in the process, but all future elections will be stolen, causing people to take up arms in revolt and sparking an actual civil war.
I do not want this to happen, but millions of Americans will not willingly become slaves to a China-dominated New World Order.
At this point, Trump can still stop this unfortunate state of affairs by exercising his own executive authority to preserve the rule of law and the Constitution.
“Courts do not decide who the next president of the United States will be,” said former national security adviser Michael Flynn at the MAGA rally in Washington, D.C. on Saturday. “There are paths that are still in play.”
Legal expert Mark Adams says, “President Trump could declare an insurrection under the Insurrection Act because the theft of the election is a rebellion against our country that poses a significant and permanent threat to our government. While this isn’t an armed invasion or uprising, the rebels are government officials engaged in stealing the election and covering up the theft in order to take over the country like any outside invader or armed rebels.”
In this case, Adams told me during an episode of America’s Survival TV, Trump would use the act to investigate the “insiders” behind the coup, authorizing the military to seize the evidence of election fraud, including the electronic voting machines, and analyze it. A report from the military would then be produced to justify the holding of a new election.
Defying the Court has been done in the past by Presidents Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Jackson. They ignored rulings, decisions, and orders made by the Supreme Court because they realized the court was not the dominant branch of government. In short, the president and the courts can agree to disagree, being co-equal. And since the Court cannot enforce its own rulings, that leaves the president with a distinct advantage, for he is the top cop and runs the Department of Justice, an executive agency that enforces laws and presidential orders.
Trump’s problem is his Attorney General Bill Barr, a former CIA operative who has downplayed evidence of massive election fraud and concealed criminal investigations into the China ties of the Biden family while the election campaign was underway. This was revealed by the Wall Street Journal, which noted that “an international financial investigation” into the alleged criminal activities of the Bidens has been going on for at least a year. Barr kept this secret from his boss, the president.
Before Trump nullifies the fraudulent election, either through a proclamation or invoking the Insurrection Act, he should fire Barr because Barr will undoubtedly resign “in protest” anyway. It’s better to show Barr the door and quickly appoint an acting Attorney General who will investigate Barr’s malfeasance in office.
In the case of China Joe, assuming he is not replaced on medical grounds, it’s more insidious than many seem to realize, since the backers of Kamala Harris will obviously use the revelations about the Bidens’ China business to prepare his ouster from the presidency. He’s just too corrupt to survive in office.
China Joe, assuming he has any cognitive ability left, should realize the predicament he’s in, and divulge the truth about the electoral fraud committed in his name. He should admit the fraud and concede President Trump’s right to remain in office. In this manner, he might put a damper on the ability of left-wing BLM and Antifa forces to stage violent protests in revolt against another four years for Trump.
From a purely personal standpoint, Biden should drop his pretensions to the presidency. He should take care of his family. His son Hunter is in enormous legal trouble, not to mention the years of drug abuse and sexual promiscuity that have plagued his life and career. He desperately needs compassionate help.
But it’s Jill Biden who wants Joe in the White House, as she desires the power to promote the Cultural Marxist agenda as she did when Joe was vice-president under Barack Hussein Obama. One of her pet projects was transgenderism for kids, a cause embraced by Joe himself during a presidential townhall when he talked about 8-year-olds being given the right to change genders. Jill probably told him what to say.
It is Jill Biden who may turn out to be the real power behind the throne in a Biden administration, in competition with “future” vice-president Kamala Harris, a clever radical in love with the marijuana subculture and dedicated to getting as many kids as stoned as possible once the Great Reset gets underway (marijuana being the Soma of our Brave New World).
Is this what you want for your children? It will only serve to numb them to the reality of a one-party dictatorship.
———————– Cliff Kincaid is a veteran journalist and media critic, and is the president of America’s Survival, Inc.
Tags:Cliff Kincaid, Renew America, Fate of America, in Trump’s HandsTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
Hint: it’s not because we’re misogynists. by Catherine Mortensen: Over the weekend, the Twitter world was buzzing with angry women (and some men) claiming a guest column in the Wall Street Journal mocked Jill Biden over her insistence that she be referred to as Dr. Jill Biden. Biden earned an Ed.D., a doctor of education, from the University of Delaware.Twitter haters accused essayist Joseph Epstein of having “misogynistic views” for suggesting soon-to-be first lady Jill Biden stop using the title “doctor.”By Sunday night, the paper’s editorial page editor, Paul A. Gigot, fired back, “These pages aren’t going to stop publishing provocative essays merely because they offend the new administration or the political censors in the media and academe. And since it’s a time to heal, we’ll give the Biden crowd a mulligan for their attacks on us.”Nearly every major news outlet ran a story over the weekend on the backlash from Epstein’s Friday column, which also referred to the 69-year-old educator as “kiddo.” Among the critics: Doug Emhoff, husband to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Northwestern University, where Epstein says he taught for 30 years, and Biden herself.Biden’s Sunday night tweet seemed to sum up much of the criticism of the WSJ column, by suggesting that Epstein diminished her accomplishments, “Together, we will build a world where the accomplishments of our daughters will be celebrated, rather than diminished.”
Together, we will build a world where the accomplishments of our daughters will be celebrated, rather than diminished.
So then why are reliably Lefty news outlets such as CNN and USA Today not calling her Dr. Jill Biden?
USA Today said it’s because, “Many publications including USA TODAY and the [Wall Street] Journal follow AP style, which dictates that “Dr.” should not be used for academic credentials in news articles.”
If you are not familiar with the AP Stylebook, it refers to the Associated Press style guide used by professional communicators since 1953. According to the Columbia Journalism Review, it grew out of a 1951 AP publication, “The Writing Handbook,” whose “simple goal,” the foreword said, “is to make Associated Press writers better writers. News writing has the highest degree of readability when it informs the reader clearly and quickly, completely and interestingly.”
If mention of degrees is necessary to establish someone’s credentials, the preferred form is to avoid an abbreviation and use instead a phrase such as: John Jones, who has a doctorate in psychology.
Use Dr. in first reference as a formal title before the name of an individual who holds a doctor of dental surgery, doctor of medicine, doctor of optometry, doctor of osteopathic medicine, doctor of podiatric medicine, or doctor of veterinary medicine: Dr. Jonas Salk.
If appropriate in the context, Dr. also may be used on first reference before the names of individuals who hold other types of doctoral degrees. However, because the public frequently identifies Dr. only with physicians, care should be taken to ensure that the individual’s specialty is stated in first or second reference.
Do not use Dr. before the names of individuals who hold only honorary doctorates.
Do not continue the use of Dr. in subsequent references.
Those AP style guidelines were still being taught in journalism school when I was an undergrad in the late 1980s. I was taught to write with the goal of being clear, complete, accurate, and interesting.
Back to the question of Jill Biden. For purposes of clarity and consistency, we will follow the AP Stylebook and refer to her simply as Jill Biden. If a story is about her professional work and adding details about her educational degree would add clarity, then we would include that information.
Biden’s demand to be called doctor has already confused many people, including celebrity-turned-political analyst Whoopi Goldberg, who mistakenly identified Mrs. Biden as a physician, suggesting she should become the next surgeon general because she was such a great doctor.
However, we wouldn’t be surprised if the Associated Press bowed to political correctness and changed its style guide to accommodate those on the Left who are losing their minds over anyone who refuses to call Jill Biden doctor. I better get this posted before that happens!
———————- Catherine Mortensen is Vice President of Communications at Americans for Limited Government.
Tags:Catherine Mortensen, The Real Reason, We Won’t Be Calling, Jill Biden, DoctorTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by Judd Garrett: I was re-watching the movie, Darkest Hour, the other day, about the weeks leading up to Great Britain’s entrance into World War II, and I was struck by the similarities between the political dynamics of their country during that time to the to the United States, today. England was facing an existential threat from an evil totalitarian regime of Nazi Germany, and England’s Prime Minister was a loud, outspoken, rude, politically incorrect man named Winston Churchill.
Churchill believed the best course of action was to stand up to the evil Nazi regime, and if they were to negotiate, they could then do so from a position of strength. He understood that the most dangerous course of action for the country would be not to fight.
Churchill was not well received by the elites or the political class of England. He was brash and outspoken, saying unpopular things. The King told Churchill once, “you scare people. One never knows what’s going to come out of your mouth next. Something that will flatter. Something that will wound.”
One does not have to be perfect to be a great leader, in fact, many times, their flaws are what makes them great. Churchill’s wife told him, “you are strong because you are imperfect. You are wise because you have doubts.”
A contingent of career politicians worked behind the scenes, colluding together to oust Churchill because they believed their positions and their special interests were best served not to fight. They were willing to achieve a peace treaty with the Nazis at-all-cost even if it meant negotiating from a position of weakness. It was highly unlikely that Germany would have abided by the terms of the agreement forged under those circumstances. The treaty would only have been used by Germany to exploit England’s weaker position.
What the peace-at-all-cost contingent in England did not realize was that Germany was at war with them, as they were with the rest of Europe, and simply saying “I do not want war”, does not make the war go away. In fact, it makes the war inevitable, and the results more devastating.
Today in the United States, we have an existential threat in the form of Communist Chinese. And for the last four years, we have had a President who is a loud, outspoken, rude, flawed man named Donald Trump. Trump has not been well received by the elites or the political class of the United States. He is politically incorrect. No one knows what’s will come out of his mouth.
Like Churchill facing the Nazis, Trump believes the best course of action is to stand up and confront the evil Communist Chinese, and by doing we will negotiate trade deals and other agreements with them from a position of strength. He understands that the most dangerous course of action for our country would be not to confront the Chinese, and pursue a peace-at-all-cost approach.
Throughout Trump’s term in office, there has been a contingent of career politicians, tech billionaires, and the media working behind the scenes, colluding together to oust him. These people believe their positions and their special interests will be best served to acquiesce to the Chinese, pursue peace-at-all-cost thus giving away our power at the negotiating table. But these trade deals negotiated from a position of weakness makes it highly unlikely that the Chinese would abide by the terms of the agreement, merely using the treaty to further exploit our weaker position.
China is at war with the United States, pretending they are not, does not make their unfair trade practices, their currency manipulation, their stealing of intellectual property magically go away. It merely emboldens them, making all of their unfair, illegal, unethical practices get worse.
Both Churchill and Trump understood the premiere importance of individual and national sovereignty, and the utmost necessity it is to defend it against anyone or anything set to take it from us.
For those who reject the “America First” approach to international relations that Trump has promoted, answer this, does China put China first? Yes. Does Russia put Russia first? Yes. Does Germany put Germany first? Yes. Does (fill in the blank) country put their country’s interests first? Yes. Why is it only evil when America puts American interests first?
And since America, the greatest force of good in the world, a strong America, America as the world’s superpower, is unequivocally what’s in the best interest of the world. China’s ascendency to the world’s superpower would be bad for all of the world except China and a few rogue nations. How philanthropic and caring for human rights will China be to the rest of the world when they systematically oppress, enslave, and kill their own people?
When Churchill was pushed to rush into some one-sided treaty for the appearance of peace, Churchill shouted, “When will the lesson be learned? How many more dictators must be wooed, appeased until we learn the lesson, you cannot reason with a lion when your head is in his mouth.” China is the lion and they are slowly but surely inserting our head into their mouth. And by the time we realize their jaws clamping down on us, it will be too late to negotiate ourselves out of it.
Despite his lack of decorum and political statesmanship, Churchill will go down as a great leader because of his strength and his fearlessness. He once said, “Success is not final. Failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts.”
73 million Americans voted for Trump, not because of his statesmanship and his rhetoric skills but because of his strength and his fearlessness. Trump has shown the courage to fight for America and for each of us until the end against enemies both foreign and domestic. It is far better to go down fighting for America than to surrender to globalism where our interests will be subjugated to the interests of other nations.
This is what scares me most going forward, we will have a President who is not strong enough and is too embedded with the Chinese to stand up against the existential threat they pose to our country. He will acquiesce to them in the name of political expediency and to appease his special interest at the expense of America’s strength and sovereignty.
When the threat of the Nazis was the most-dire, and his war cabinet was advising him to surrender, Churchill said, “Nations that go down fighting rise up again, those who surrender tamely, perish.” China is at war with us. We have two choices, stand up and fight, or surrender and perish.
——————————- Judd Garrett writes for Objectivity is the Objective. His most recent non-writing job was as Director of Advanced Scouting with the Dallas Cowboys. He is a frequent contributor on the topics of sports and politics to Real Clear Politics.
Tags:Judd Garrett, Darkest HourTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
by NRA-ILA: Anti-gun activists have polluted a dizzying range of human endeavors with their personal politics. Over the years, we have seen education, entertainment, medicine, media, law, banking, technology, religion, sports, game shows, even shoe sales – to name but a few – explicitly leveraged to promote the gun control agenda.
But last week may have been a new low, as the classic tradition of the department store Santa became the latest platform for a joyless scold to pontificate against guns. Even worse, the unfortunate soul on the receiving end of the propaganda was a young child reduced to tears by the bizarre encounter.
In the footage, the boy sits on a bench across from a man in a Santa suit situated at a table behind a partition of wrapped boxes and Plexiglass. The lad is obviously nervous, as is common in these encounters.
When the man asks the boy what he wants, the child’s voice is barely audible, and he has to repeat his request.
The man’s response is immediate. “No, I … Nope, no guns,” he tells the boy.
“Nerf guns,” a voice offscreen clarifies.
The bearded man is unmoved. “Nope, not even a Nerf gun,” he says flatly.
Shocked, the child pivots toward his mom in obvious confusion.
Meanwhile, the not-so-jolly elf continues his lecture. “Nope, if your dad wants to get it for you, that’s fine, but I can’t bring it to you.” He then suggests some other options for what he himself considers acceptable toys.
The boy, however, realizes something is terribly wrong. There is no allegation he’s on the Naughty List, and yet “Santa” is flatly denying a reasonable, common, and lawful request, obviously endorsed by the child’s own parents.
Distraught, the boy bursts into tears.
“Don’t cry,” the man orders, as the child’s mother attempts to console him. “You’ll still get it,” she reassures him quietly. The boy, however, is devastated that the gift he most wants won’t come from Santa and dissolves even further into tears.
It’s a painful and awkward encounter, but for the gun control crowd, it’s mission accomplished: more fun ruined, another would-be “gun” owner shamed and marginalized.
His mother, however, posted the video on social media, and it quickly went viral. According to a follow-up post, viewers had offered to ensure the boy got his Christmas wish.
To its credit, the mall where the incident occurred quickly realized the obvious distress the boy had suffered and the brewing public relations fiasco it was facing. The next day, it dispatched a Santa surrogate more in tune with his duties and the spirit of the season to visit the boy at his home and bring him a special gift. Video of the scene shows the boy thrilled to receive Nerf’s top-of-the line Ultra Pharaoh Blaster, replete with enhanced optics, detachable magazine, muzzle brake, and special edition gold foam “Ultra darts” with extended range.
The mall also noted in a public statement that the imposter Santa had resigned. “The Santa company,” the mall emphasized, “will continue to remind all Santa’s how important it is to not impose personal opinions during visits with the children.”
“We thought it was very kind and we’re grateful for their quick response to restore my son’s faith in Santa,” the boy’s mom wrote in an edited version of her original social media post. A friend noted in a follow-up post that the boy’s family would be glad to pass along to children in need any Nerf guns or other toys sent in response to the incident.
Thus, in true Christmas form, it seems what started as a bad situation is resolving into a positive example of goodwill and generosity. Yes, Michael, there is a Santa Claus!
And, for the record, the real Santa and his helpers have a long track record of fulfilling the wishes of good boys and girls without bias or political discrimination. Countless Americans will fondly remember receiving that special toy gun, air rifle, or .22 under the Christmas tree.
Watch how the NRA responded to the incident below:
Tags:NRA-ILA, Imposter Santa, Denies Toy Gun Request, Gets the SackTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
My wife and I no longer have any confidence in our election system due to the BLATANT, DESPICABLE theft of the 2020 Presidential Election by operatives of the democrat party, USPS, SmartMatic and Dominion System and you at the DOJ and FBI (Friends of Biden) who could care less! When thousands of DEAD people show as having voted, others who came to vote are told “You already voted by Mail In ballot” in blue states of Pennyslvania, Wisconsin, Michigan and Georgia, something stinks like a rotting corpse with our election system.
Kamala Harris’s “personal photographer” mysteriously becomes a Software Technician in charge of Dominion Systems vote machines in Georgia. Retired USCG Admiral Peter Neffenger, President of SmartMatic resigns to be on the Joe Biden Transition team. And several hundred citizens swear under oath on Affidavits of thousands of “missing” ballots, pre-printed ballots, Post dated ballots, ballots with only one block checked, and Vote counts in the blue states ALL CLOSE DOWN at the same time 10:00pm on November 3rd, YOU tell us “there’s NO EVIDENCE of Voting Fraud?” C’mon Man.
The Department of Jokes (DOJ) and FBI must think we are naïve or stupid enough to believe your BS. Joe Biden who couldn’t draw flies if he was covered in camel dung during his basement bunker campaign. We do not believe that you or the DOJ bothered to conduct a single investigation of any voter’s complaint, missing ballots, or Illicit early morning ballot dumps. Just like your laughable John Durham DNC “Russian Dossier” six month NOTHING INVESTIGATION. The best that can be said about the DOJ and FBI is in MacBeth Act 5, Scene 5: “It is a tale told by Idiots, full of sound and fury signifying NOTHING!”
Law abiding, Veterans and Americans like us, have been disenfranchised. Neither YOU, Director Wray, AG Barr, or the News Media gives a damn! You win, America loses. We will NOT vote in any future elections, but we will FIGHT for our rights like it’s 1776 all over again……Believe it!
———————– Norman Beznoska, aka Navyman Norm, is a business owner, veteran & patriot. He authorized ARRA News Service to release of his comments.
Tags:Norman Beznoska, open letter to, To Attorney General Barr, FBI Director WrayTo share or post to your site, click on “Post Link”. Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service and “Like” Facebook Page – Thanks!
You are subscribed to email updates from ARRA News Service.
To stop receiving these emails, you may unsubscribe now.
Email delivery powered by Google
Google, 1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, United States
This newsletter is never sent unsolicited. It was sent to you because you signed up to receive this newsletter on the RedState.com network OR a friend forwarded it to you. We respect and value your time and privacy. If this newsletter no longer meets your needs we will be happy to remove your address immediately.
Visit the Townhall Media Preference Center to manage your subscriptions
You can unsubscribe by clicking here.
Or Send postal mail to:
RedState Unsubscribe
1735 N. Lynn St – Suite 510, Arlington, VA 22209
* Copyright RedState and its Content Providers.
All rights reserved.
43.) AMERICAN SPECTATOR
44.) BIZPAC REVIEW
View this email in your browser
NOT GETTING OUR MAIL, YET?SIGN UP HERE FOR BPR DAILY EMAILS
Your input is critical to us and to the future of conservatism in America. We refuse to be silenced, and we hope you do too. Sign up for daily emails and never miss a story.
For the latest BPR videos subscribe to our Rumble page.
You may unsubscribe or change your contact details at any time.
45.) ABC
December 16, 2020 – Having trouble viewing this email? Open it in your browser.
Morning Rundown
Vice President-elect Harris applauds McConnell for accepting Biden’s victory: In an exclusive interview Tuesday with “Good Morning America” co-anchor Robin Roberts, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris applauded Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for accepting her and President-elect Joe Biden’s victory in the election. She also implored all leaders to support a peaceful transfer of power. “I think it’s critically important that the leaders of our government … dedicate ourselves to a peaceful transition of power, and to an adherence to, and a respect for, the Constitution of the United States and our electoral system,” Harris said. While she said she wished the conversation between the Senate’s top Republican and Biden had happened earlier, Harris added that the focus now should be on coming together to help Americans struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic. “Let’s move forward. And where we can find common purpose and common ground, let’s do that,” she said. “Let that be our priority as opposed to finding out where we disagree, let’s actually focus on where we might agree and then get some work done.” Watch Robin Roberts’ exclusive interview with Vice President-elect Kamala Harris on “GMA” this morning at 7 a.m. ET.
FDA says Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine is safe and effective: The U.S. Food and Drug Administration appeared on track Tuesday to authorize Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine this week. FDA scientists and experts said there was strong evidence the Moderna vaccine is 94.5% effective at preventing COVID-19 cases at least 14 days after vaccination and that there were no significant safety concerns. Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine, which was developed in collaboration with the National Institutes of Health and the lab led by Dr. Anthony Fauci at the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, uses similar technology as Pfizer’s vaccine, which was approved by the FDA last week, and will also require two doses. If the vaccine is authorized, about 6 million doses could start being distributed as soon as next week. It will be prioritized for health care workers. Meanwhile, across the country on Tuesday, health care workers received their first dose of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious disease expert, called the rollout of the vaccine “bittersweet” in an interview on “Good Morning America” Tuesday morning and talked about the importance of getting people vaccinated “as quickly and as expeditiously as we possibly can.” Fauci told Vox later on Tuesday that he hasn’t been vaccinated yet, but hopes to in the “next few days,” and that he doesn’t have a preference between Pfizer or Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine. “The one that gets available to us as soon as we possibly can,” he said.
Prince Harry, Meghan to host holiday podcast special: Prince Harry and Meghan, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, are adding another title to their ever-expanding list of roles since stepping down from Britain’s royal family: podcast hosts. The couple has signed a multi-year partnership with Spotify that will see them both hosting and producing podcasts. The podcast will fall under their new production company, Archewell Audio. “What we love about podcasting is that it reminds all of us to take a moment and really listen, to connect to one another without distraction,” Prince Harry and Meghan said in a statement. “With the challenges of 2020, there has never been a more important time to do so, because when we hear each other, and hear each other’s stories, we are reminded of how interconnected we all are.” The first podcast from Harry and Meghan’s Archewell Audio brand will be a holiday special that will debut later this month.
Friendship between ‘fairy’ and 4-year-old blooms in garden: The story of a 4-year-old’s friendship with a real-life “fairy” is going viral on social media. Kelly Kenney, a photographer based in Los Angeles, explained in a series of tweets over the weekend that for the past nine months, she has assumed the role of a fairy named Sapphire to raise the spirits of a girl named Eliana. “I was walking down my street and noticed that someone had set up a few little objects in a tree planter,” Kenney tweeted. “Upon closer inspection I realized it was a fairy garden with a little note about the 4-year-old girl who felt lonely in quarantine and wanted to spread some cheer.” Kenney, pretending to be Sapphire, responded, and she and Eliana became friends through letters. (Kenney wrote a letter to Eliana’s parents, too.) Earlier this month, Eliana finally met Sapphire in person. “She asked me a million questions about what life is like as a fairy,” Kenney wrote. “It was incredible and one of the most important and impactful afternoons of my life thus far.” Kenney said she and Eliana, whose family is moving away, plan to stay in touch by writing letters to each other.
GMA Must-Watch
This morning on “GMA,” the Deck the Hallmark guys are back to share their top picks of holiday movies to binge and best snacks to enjoy, and how to make a festive ugly Christmas sweater. Also, Deborah Roberts sits down with Sophie Cousens, the author of our December Book Club pick, “This Time Next Year.” Plus, Daveed Diggs joins us to talk about his role in the new Pixar film, “Soul.” And don’t miss Chef David Rose sharing his recipe for Cinnamon Eggnog Toffee Crunch cookies. All this and more only on “GMA.”
Another Covid-19 vaccine is on the horizon, the top Senate Republican finally acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden’s victory and a major winter storm is headed straight for the East Coast.
Here is what we’re watching this Wednesday morning.
Americans could have 2 Covid-19 vaccines soon, but still in grips of the deadly pandemic
There was more good news from the frontlines in the battle against Covid-19 Tuesday.
That means Americans could soon have two highly effective Covid-19 vaccines, after the first shots of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine were given to health care workers on Monday.
The positive developments can’t come soon enough. The Centers for Disease Control and Protection predicted that up to60,000 more Americans could die by the start of January.
And while the recent vaccine rollouts are good news for places like the United States, some advocates fear the life-saving drugs are being hoarded by rich countries, while the world’s poorest will have to wait months and possibly years to see any doses at all.
Follow our live blog for all the latest Covid-19 developments.
“The Electoral College has spoken. So today, I want to congratulate President-elect Joe Biden,” McConnell said Tuesday on the Senate floor in a speech that heralded President Donald Trump’s achievements.
It was the sharpest break McConnell has made yet from President Donald Trump, who has still refused to publicly admit defeat.
Trump and his allies have filed more than 50 lawsuits in an attempt to contest the election results, but they have faced one rejection after another, including at the Supreme Court.
In other news, Biden went to Georgia on Tuesday to campaign on behalf of Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock in the critical runoff elections there that will determine control of the Senate.
Biden also announced that he will nominate his onetime political rival former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg to lead the Transportation Department and former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm to lead the Department of Energy.
Adult performers fear “war on porn” after Visa, Mastercard and Discover block use on Pornhub.
Christmas came early for some aid organizations: MacKenzie Scott, Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife, announced that she has given away $4.1 billion in a pandemic charity spree.
THINK about it
Trump’s “America First” presidency was terrible for America — and a gift to China and Russia, former U.S. ambassador to Russia Michael McFaul writes in an opinion piece.
You can do it! Shingle the roof of your gingerbread house with cereal or strips of candy. (Photo: Carrie Parente/ TODAY)
Quote of the day
“There is light at the end of the tunnel, but we’re still in the tunnel. And that means we’re going through perhaps the most intense and urgent moment since the beginning of this pandemic.”
From NBC’s Chuck Todd, Mark Murray, Carrie Dann and Melissa Holzberg
FIRST READ: As other GOP lawmakers move on, Georgia’s senators are stuck fighting the last war
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell finally recognized Joe Biden as the president-elect, and so did GOP Sen. Ron Johnson (who nevertheless is going ahead with his hearing today on election “irregularities”).
But there are still two big Republican exceptions when it comes to next month’s Georgia runoffs: Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler still haven’t recognized Biden – and thus are stuck fighting the last war of 2020.
Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP
“I will never stop fighting for @realDonaldTrump because he has never stopped fighting for us!” Loeffler tweeted yesterday.
President Trump has conditioned Republicans to always keep up the fight and never concede.
But what happens when GOP Senate leaders and other rank-and-file senators do just that?
And what happens to the Republican senators who are still fighting the last fight?
Meanwhile, campaigning in Georgia on Tuesday, Biden went after Perdue and Loeffler for trying to overturn the 2020 election results in Georgia.
“You know who did nothing while Trump, Texas and others were trying to wipe out every single one almost 5 million votes you had cast here in Georgia in November? Your two Republican senators,” Biden said yesterday.
“They stood by, in fact, your two Republican senators fully embraced what Texas was telling the Supreme Court. They fully embraced nullifying nearly 5 million Georgia votes. You might want to remember that come Jan. 5. I will try to be generous here in the spirit of the season. Maybe your senators were just confused. Maybe they think they represent Texas.”
TWEET OF THE DAY: Words have consequences
The Roads Scholar
At 11:45 am ET today, President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris will announce their pick for Transportation secretary – fellow 2020 presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg.
NBC’s Biden team learned of additional Cabinet movements yesterday: former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm for Energy secretary, as well as former Obama EPA head Gina McCarthy to be Biden’s domestic climate coordinator.
Filled Cabinet positions
State: Tony Blinken (announced)
Treasury: Janet Yellen (announced)
Defense: Ret. Gen. Lloyd Austin (announced)
Homeland Security: Alejandro Mayorkas (announced)
HHS: Xavier Becerra (announced)
Agriculture: Tom Vilsack (announced)
Transportation: Pete Buttigieg (announced)
Energy: Jennifer Granholm (confirmed)
HUD: Marcia Fudge (announced)
Veterans Affairs: Denis McDonough (announced)
UN Ambassador: Linda Thomas-Greenfield (announced)
Director of National Intelligence: Avril Haines (announced)
OMB Director: Neera Tanden (announced)
US Trade Representative: Katherine Tai (announced)
16,793,406: The number of confirmed cases of coronavirus in the United States, per the most recent data from NBC News and health officials. (That’s 195,677 more than yesterday morning.)
304,683: The number of deaths in the United States from the virus so far. (That’s 3,245 more than yesterday morning.)
222.70 million: The number of coronavirus tests that have been administered in the United States so far, according to researchers at The COVID Tracking Project.
112,816: The number of people currently hospitalized with coronavirus
20: The number of days until the Jan. 5 Senate runoffs.
35: The number of days until Inauguration Day.
Georgia Runoff Watch by Ben Kamisar
We’ve told you all about the massive TV and radio ad spending in the Georgia Senate runoffs in other Runoff Watches, but today’s, we want to talk about the reopening of another frontier.
As Politico first reported, social media giant Facebook lifted its political ad ban for Georgia, noting the “importance of expressing voice and using our tools to reach voters ahead of Georgia’s runoff elections.”
The decision comes days after Google ended its own ban—both companies paused political ads in the hopes of fighting disinformation surrounding the results of the November elections (that disinformation fomented furiously nonetheless, fueled by the president’s repeated and unfounded claims of widespread fraud).
Now, campaigns and interest groups will be able to go back to advertise on key digital platforms (but in the case of Facebook, only in Georgia) with less than one month to go, giving them a key arrow in their messaging and fundraising quiver.
THE LID: 2 legit 2 quit
Don’t miss a deep dive yesterday into why the share of Americans doubting the election’s legitimacy could have long-lasting effects.
Plus: Trump slashes showerhead regulations, Ross Ulbricht might get a pardon, Tom Cruise is the latest COVID scold, and more…
President-elect Joe Biden is continuing his business-as-usual approach to filling out senior posts in his administration by selecting Pete Buttigieg—former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, and presidential contender—for his secretary of transportation.
Mayor @PeteButtigieg is a leader, patriot, and problem-solver. He speaks to the best of who we are as a nation.
I am nominating him for Secretary of Transportation because he’s equipped to take on the challenges at the intersection of jobs, infrastructure, equity, and climate.
Innovation in transportation helped build my hometown, and it propels our country.
Now is the time to build back better through modern and sustainable infrastructure that creates millions of good-paying union jobs, revitalizes communities, and empowers all Americans to thrive.
As a former mayor of a midsized Midwestern town and a consultant before that, Buttigieg is hardly a career transportation wonk. His selection comes as a surprise to some observers who had expected or hoped Biden would pick either a public transportation veteran or a large city mayor well-versed in urban transportation issues.
Buttigieg’s resume, however, isn’t too out of step with past officials.
President Barak Obama’s picks to lead the Department of Transportation (DOT) included a former mayor (Anthony Foxx) and a former state legislator (Ray LaHood). Elaine Chao, Trump’s transportation secretary, is probably the most experienced of recent DOT heads, having served as a deputy secretary of transportation in the George H.W. Bush administration.
Obviously, politics is playing a role in Buttigieg’s selection. The New York Times reports that Biden and Buttigieg bonded on the campaign trail and that Biden was set on finding some role for the former mayor in his administration.
As to his actual record, Buttigieg’s transportation legacy seems to rest on his $25 million “Smart Streets” program that added bike lanes and trees to South Bend’s downtown.
Streetsblogreports that Buttigieg’s transportation plank for his 2020 presidential bid would massively boost spending on highways, public transportation, and intercity rail, none of which is great from a small government perspective.
On the positive side, he endorsed the idea of replacing the federal gas tax with a mileage tax, which would charge motorists for every mile they drive as opposed to how much gas they buy. That idea, which has been endorsed by Trump’s Council of Economic Advisers, would shore up highway funding and get it closer to a user-fee model beloved by free marketers.
Josh Barro over at Business Insidersuggests that Buttigieg’s interest in foreign affairs might be valuable in his coming role as transportation secretary as he’ll be able to ask other countries how they manage to complete transportation projects for way less money.
Elsewhere, Biden plans to nominate former Michigan Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm—who was apparently helpful in taking money from taxpayers and giving it to automakers—as his secretary of energy. She’s since become an evangelist for renewable energy.
The New York Times reports that Biden’s decision on who he’ll pick to head the Environmental Protection Agency is being held up after “environmental justice” groups issued a letter condemning his initial choice—career environmental regulator Mary D. Nichols—over her record on “environmental racism.” Biden is now reportedly searching for a more diverse candidate like Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.
FREE MARKETS
Ongoing challenges to the results of the 2020 presidential election have not stopped outgoing President Donald Trump from adding to his deregulatory legacy. On Tuesday, Trump’s Department of Energy issued a new rule that loosens restrictions on how much water showerheads can emit.
The Washington Examiner has the details:
The Energy Department’s move doesn’t change the level of the water conservation standards set back in 1992, but it alters a definition set by the Obama administration requiring the entire showerhead fixture to meet a limit of 2.5 gallons of water per minute. The Trump administration’s definition will allow each showerhead nozzle, even if there are several in a single fixture, to meet the 2.5 gallons per minute standard.
Though this is just a small win, it’s also a reminder of just how intrusive federal regulations have become over the years.
FREE MINDS
Trump is reportedly weighing a pardon for Ross Ulbricht, who received two life sentences for his role in founding the Silk Road, an online drug marketplace.
Reports the Daily Beast:
According to three people familiar with the matter, the White House counsel’s office has had documents related to Ulbricht’s case under review, and Trump was recently made aware of the situation and the pleas of the Silk Road founder’s allies. Two of these sources say the president has at times privately expressed some sympathy for Ulbricht’s situation and has been considering his name, among others, for his next round of commutations and pardons before the Jan. 20 inauguration of his 2020 Democratic opponent.
QUICK HITS
• The United Nations has issued a new report finding that people are the cause of most of the world’s problems. Thanks, guys.
• Trump is reportedly considering the appointment of a special prosecutor to investigate Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
• Showerheads aside, a new essay from the Cato Institute argues Trump will leave little lasting effect on federal regulatory policy.
• Los Angeles is suing the operators of an underground night club for throwing some bitchin’ parties during coronavirus times.
• Politicians in Washington, D.C., have passed a bill requiring bars and restaurants to offer to hire back the staff they were forced to let go because of lockdowns imposed by D.C. politicians.
Christian Britschgi is an associate editor at Reason. After graduating from Portland State University with a degree in political science, Christian worked in public relations before moving into journalism by way of an internship at Reason’s D.C. office.
He has since written for a number of news outlets, including The College Fix, The Lens,Watchdog.org, The Orange County Register, The New York Daily News, and Jacobite. You can follow him on Twitter @christianbrits.
Reason is the magazine of “free minds and free markets,” offering a refreshing alternative to the left-wing and right-wing echo chambers for independent-minded readers who love liberty.
‘Tis the season! No, not for the holidays or the birth of our Savior. That too! But ’tis the season for people freaking the f*ck out over social distancing guidelines. Lately, we’ve seen it as … MORE
This newsletter is never sent unsolicited. It was sent to you because you signed up to receive this newsletter on the Townhall.com network OR a friend forwarded it to you. We respect and value your time and privacy. If this newsletter no longer meets your needs we will be happy to remove your address immediately.
Visit the Townhall Media Preference Center to manage your subscriptions
You can unsubscribe by clicking here.
Or Send postal mail to:
Townhall Daily Unsubscribe
P.O. Box 9660, Arlington, VA 22219
* Copyright Townhall and its Content Providers.
All rights reserved.
53.) REALCLEARPOLITICS MORNING NOTE
12/16/2020
Share:
Carl Cannon’s Morning Note
Pence’s Choice; Dr. Jill Biden and Dr. Margaret Mead
By Carl M. Cannon on Dec 16, 2020 09:19 am
Good morning, it’s Wednesday, Dec. 16, 2020. Six years ago today, members of the 113th Congress awoke to the news that their year-end job approval rating in a new Gallup poll was a paltry 15%. This was not quite as embarrassing as the 14% figure — an all-time annual low — racked up the year before. That year, 2013, had featured a 17-day government shutdown, which resulted in the single lowest job approval figure in congressional history: a November rating of 9%.
But in the spirit of the season, let’s focus on a happier event that took place on this date.
On Dec. 16, 1901, Edward and Emily Mead of Philadelphia welcomed a baby girl into their lives. From an early age, their daughter was smart and spunky. Her father, who taught economics at Penn, wasn’t quite sure what to make of a girl so intellectually precocious. “It’s a pity you aren’t a boy,” he once told her. “You’d have gone far.”
Edward Mead meant this as a compliment. He was making a rueful observation about the pervasive sexism of his age, not any preference for a son. But no matter. Margaret Mead did go far, and when you thought she could go no farther, she kept going still.
In a moment, I’ll have more on the world famous anthropologist and culture critic, whom I wrote about six years ago. First, I’d direct you to RealClearPolitics’ front page where we aggregate polls, videos, and news stories — as well as commentary spanning the political spectrum. We also offer an array of original material from our own reporters and contributors, including the following:
* * *
Pence Should Risk His Political Future and Do the Right Thing. A.B. Stoddard considers the dilemma the vice president faces as the Jan. 6 certification of the Electoral College vote approaches.
Poll: Perdue, Loeffler Could Score in Opposing Braves Name Change. Phil Wegmann reports on a survey showing strong opposition to changing the team’s identity, which the GOP candidates in next month’s Georgia Senate runoffs have turned into a campaign issue.
Democrats: Let’s Play Hardball! Les Francis argues that GOP House members who joined the legal effort to overturn the election should be held to account.
On Patriotic Empathy. John Wood Jr. offers this take on American polarization and what it will take to close the divide.
“Dr.” Jill Biden? Critics of Op-Ed Often Omitted the Title. Kalev Leetaru examines data on news outlets’ past usage of the courtesy title.
A Simple Policy Fix to Encourage Two-Parent Homes. Lawmakers need to remove federal marriage penalties that incentivize people to stay single, Willis Krumholz asserts.
The Lost Art of Association. In the latest 1776 Series essay at RealClear’s American Civics portal, Luke Sheahan discusses the principle that lies at the heart of republican self-government.
In the Giving Season, Consider the Poor’s Energy Predicament. David Holt advocates policies that will achieve our environmental goals without harming our most vulnerable citizens.
Can New Congress Find Common Ground on Gun Safety? At RealClearPolicy, Julia Baumel has suggestions that lawmakers on both sides of the aisle might agree on amid a spike in homicides across the U.S.
A Once-in-a-Generation Chance to Fix Puerto Rico. At RealClearMarkets, Sean Duffy urges the president to reconstitute the island’s financial oversight board with members willing and able to restructure more than $70 billion in public debt.
Decommissioning the Bonhomme Richard. At RealClearDefense, Brent Sadler spells out troubling implications of the Navy’s decision.
* * *
Margaret Mead’s academic journey began at DePauw University and continued at Barnard College, where she got her bachelor’s degree in 1923. It was at Barnard that she met charismatic anthropologist Franz Boas, whom she followed to Columbia University, where she earned her master’s and doctoral degrees.
By the time she obtained her PhD in 1929, Mead had already published “Coming of Age in Samoa,” an examination of adolescent sexual behavior in Samoan society. This book, in nearly equal parts a work of anthropology, psychology, sociology, journalism, and cultural criticism, informed subsequent writing about sexual theory for many decades to come.
Mead said that the scientific riddle at the heart of “Coming of Age in Samoa” was whether “the disturbances which vex our adolescents [are] due to the nature of adolescence itself or the civilization.” In Mead’s telling, the answer was the latter. Mostly guilt-free Samoan culture, she concluded, minimized the shock of the teenage years.
For the next half-century, much of her work delved into what she viewed as the deleterious effects of sexual repression on women — and on marriage. It can be said that Dr. Mead practiced what she preached. When she set sail for the South Pacific for the first time in 1926, she was married to young seminarian Luther Cressman, who, the New York Times noted in its Margaret Mead obituary, “often joked unhumorously of having to make an appointment to see his wife.”
She enjoyed a shipboard love affair with a New Zealand anthropologist who sported the Dickensian name Reo F. Fortune. Following a brief reconciliation with Cressman, she married Fortune. That marriage ended, too, and here I may as well just quote from the Times’ marvelous 1978 obit:
“Dr. Mead and her husband Dr. Fortune met Gregory Bateson, a British anthropologist, in New Guinea. There was a personal crisis among the three, as a result of which there was a divorce, and Dr. Mead and Dr. Bateson were married. They had a daughter, Catherine. They were divorced after about fifteen years.”
In time, she became the most famous anthropologist in the world, the top curator in the department of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History, a best-selling author, prolific lecturer, and widely quoted social critic. She was a polymath and a dynamo who worked tirelessly at about five different professions until the very end. Diagnosed with cancer, she still went to the museum each day in her mid-70s, before checking herself into the hospital on Oct. 3, 1978.
Two months after her mid-November death, when Jimmy Carter posthumously awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the White House issued the following statement:
“Margaret Mead was both a student of civilization and an exemplar of it. To a public of millions, she brought the central insight of cultural anthropology: that varying cultural patterns express an underlying human unity. She mastered her discipline, but she also transcended it. Intrepid, independent, plain-spoken, fearless, she remains a model for the young and a teacher from whom all may learn.”
On December 14, the Heritage Foundation hosted an important webinar “Deal or No Deal: The Iran Nuclear Challenge” on how a Biden administration will handle the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran — specifically the danger of Biden’s reported plan to quickly rejoin the nuclear deal. Three leading experts on Iran’s nuclear program spoke at the webinar: Heritage Foundation Senior Research Fellow James Philips; David Albright, a physicist and founder and President of the Institute for Science and International Security; and Center for Security Policy President Fred Fleitz.
Lacking such tools as a specific RICO statute (directed against “racketeer influenced and corrupt organizations”), prohibitions on wiretapping and – until recently – plea-bargaining, Japanese law enforcement is often said to be hamstrung in dealing with the yakuza.
But the truth is, even if yakuza organizations themselves are not on their face illegal, the country has always had plenty of laws available to take on gangsters and their activities.The fundamental problem is that there has been and is now little or no political support for a concerted, serious move against organized crime.
Joe Biden is a man who surely would qualify as a “old friend” of Communist China. Even if he were not deeply compromised by his and son Hunter’s business dealings with Beijing, his commitment to the PRC’s “rise” is longstanding and ominous.
That’s also true of most of his selections for senior national security and foreign policy positions in a Biden-Harris administration. His proposed Secretary of Defense, Gen. Lloyd Austin, doesn’t have much of a record on China, but virtually all of the other choices do. And many manifest wishful thinking, strategic ineptitude and/or serial appeasement concerning the Chinese Communist Party.
One of the Trump presidency’s most vital accomplishments to date is its recognition that the CCP is our mortal enemy. We cannot afford to indulge in a so-called “Great Reset” that imperils our country and people by pretending otherwise.
This is Frank Gaffney.
SUZANNE SCHOLTE, President, Defense Forum Foundation, Chairwoman, North Korea Freedom Coalition:
History of how information “flows” into North Korea since the Korean War
Why is South Korean’s left-wing Moon government restricting the flow of information to the people of North Korea?
Tara O argues that South Korea’s “activist” government seeks to ultimately control the political narrative in the country by clamping down on civil liberties
Prior to South Korea’s April election, an agreement was allegedly signed between the current ruling Democratic Party and the Chinese Communist Party
Elements of voter fraud in South Korea’s 2020 election now coming to light
GORDON CHANG, Contributor, Daily Beast, Author, “The Coming Collapse of China,” “Nuclear Showdown: North Korea Takes the World” and “Losing South Korea:”
Gordon Chang: Some 13% of Chinese nationals studying in the US, out of a student population of 400,000, are engaged in espionage on behalf of the Chinese government
Chang’s policy recommendations: close the four remaining Chinese “bases of operations” in the US, their consulates
KEVIN FREEMAN, Senior Fellow at the Center for Security Policy, Host of Economic War Room on TheBlaze TV, Author of “Game Plan” and “Secret Weapon”:
Is US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin trading our national security for Wall Street’s interests?
Even after the Electoral College formally casted their votes, Every Legal Vote still pursues the truth
This email is never sent unsolicited. It was sent to you because you signed up to receive this email on the Twitchy.com network OR a friend forwarded it to you. We respect and value your time and privacy. If this newsletter no longer meets your needs we will be happy to remove your address immediately.
Visit the Townhall Media Preference Center to manage your subscriptions
You can unsubscribe by clicking here.
Or Send postal mail to:
Twitchy Unsubscribe
P.O. Box 9660, Arlington, VA 22219
* Copyright Twitchy and its Content Providers.
All rights reserved.
WERE YOU FORWARDED THIS EDITION OF THE HOT AIR DAILY?
You can get your own free subscription to the #1 blog delivered to your email inbox early each morning by visiting: http://www.hotair.com
This newsletter is never sent unsolicited. It was sent to you because you signed up to receive this newsletter on Hot Air OR a friend forwarded it to you. We respect and value your time and privacy. If this newsletter no longer meets your needs we will be happy to remove your address immediately.
Visit the Townhall Media Preference Center to manage your subscriptions
You can unsubscribe by clicking here..
Or Send postal mail to:
Hot Air Daily Unsubscribe
P.O Box 9660, Arlington, VA 22219
* Copyright Hot Air and its Content Providers.
All rights reserved.
60.) AMERICAN INSTITUTE FOR ECONOMIC RESEARCH
SHARE:
Join Our Email List
View as Webpage
December 16, 2020
The Work of AIER and Its Future
By Edward Peter Stringham | “We are called upon again to exercise creativity and moral courage in defense of the ideals of freedom. The power of that courage is often underestimated. The road back to sanity and liberty is treacherous and twisted,…
Retail Spending Fell in November on Broad Weakness
By Robert Hughes | Retail sales and food-services spending posted a second consecutive decline in November, falling 1.1 percent from the prior month following a revised 0.1 percent drop in October. The back-to-back decreases follow five…
By Charles L. Hooper & David R. Henderson | “Any discussion of the lives saved by the FDA must include estimates of the lives lost due to that very same agency. Two thousand Americans are dying each and every day while there’s a savior in a…
By Robert E. Wright | “A smart, strong, John Marshall-type chief justice, as opposed to a weasley Taney-like one, would have used the Texas case to clarify the problem of state negative externalities vis-a-vis presidential elections. How many…
By James Bovard | “The Covid pandemic is fueling many politicians’ passion for destroying Americans’ freedom based on the flimsiest pretexts. Thus far, politicians have paid no price for their constitutional demolitions. The only certainty is that…
By Robert Hughes | Industrial production rose 0.4 percent in November following a gain of 0.9 percent in October. Industrial output has risen in six of the last seven months. However, the gains were not enough to overcome the back-to-back declines…
This work should be in the hands (or the ereaders) of an entire generation, so that we can relearn what we once knew and get back to making the world a better place, rather than tearing down what it took centuries to build. There is no such thing as shutting down an economy or ignoring economic principles. Galles has proven that. ~Jeffrey Tucker
On the menu today: looking ahead to the early days of the Biden administration, the likely first changes under the new president, and the decisions Republicans will face on what they will stand for in the years to come.
Republicans Have Some Decisions to Make
At some point next month, Joe Biden will take the oath of office. Pandemic concerns will make Biden’s inauguration look different from what we’re used to seeing. President Trump may or may not attend, and then he will be a private citizen again.
A former Houston Police Department Captain was arrested and charged for running a man off the road and pointing a gun at his head in an attempt to prove claims of a massive voter fraud scheme, KTRK reports.
Evangelist Franklin Graham wrote on Facebook that he thinks Donald Trump will go down “as one of the great presidents.”
Said Graham: “People have asked if I am disappointed about the election. When I think about my answer, I have to say honestly, that I am grateful — grateful to God that for the last four years He gave us a president who protected our religious liberties; grateful for a president who defended the lives of the unborn, standing publicly against abortion and the bloody smear it has made on our nation; grateful for a president who nominated conservative judges to the Supreme Court and to our federal court.”
Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA), one of two Republican incumbents in the Georgia Senate runoffs, refused to acknowledge Joe Biden’s victory in the presidential election when speaking to reporters.
Said Loeffler: “There’ll be a time for that if that becomes true, but the president has a right to every legal recourse and we’re letting that play out right now.”
“It appears that Bob Iger might have a future in public service after all. The Disney executive chairman, who once toyed with the idea of a 2020 presidential run, is at the top of President-elect Joe Biden’s wish list for a key ambassador post, namely China or the U.K.,” sources tell The Hollywood Reporter.
An annual membership to Political Wire is the perfect gift for just $60.
Here’s how it works:
Click here and you will be asked for the recipient’s name, email address and the day you wish the gift to be emailed. You’ll have a chance to add a personalized message.
You will then be asked for your name, email address, and payment information.
On the day you selected, the recipient will be sent an email with your message and a link to activate their membership. If the recipient is already a Political Wire subscriber, their current membership will be extended.
Or, if you haven’t subscribed yet yourself, you can choose an annual or monthly plan.
Thanks for spreading the word about Political Wire!
Former President Barack Obama told the Daily Show that the Republican Party is “the minority party in this country.”
Said Obama: “They have certain built-in advantages around power given their population distribution and how our government works. But the truth of the matter is that 60 percent of the people are occupying what I would consider a more reality-based universe, and those are the constituents we’re speaking to and that is a more diverse group.”
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is quarantining after coming into contact with someone who tested positive for coronavirus, but he himself “has been tested and is negative,” CNN reports.
President-elect Joe Biden’s incoming deputy chief of staff Jen O’Malley Dillon called Republicans lawmakers “a bunch of fuckers” in a new Glamour interview but insisted bipartisan cooperation was still possible.
Said O’Malley Dillon: “The president-elect was able to connect with people over this sense of unity. In the primary, people would mock him, like, ‘You think you can work with Republicans?’ I’m not saying they’re not a bunch of fuckers. Mitch McConnell is terrible.”
She added: “But this sense that you couldn’t wish for that, you couldn’t wish for this bipartisan ideal? He rejected that. From start to finish, he set out with this idea that unity was possible, that together we are stronger, that we, as a country, need healing, and our politics needs that too.”
Rep. Joseph Kennedy III (D-MA) told the Boston Herald that he’s having “conversations” with people in Joe Biden’s orbit as he mulls life after losing a U.S. Senate primary.
But he doesn’t want to run for governor in 2022: “I cannot imagine a reality where I am a candidate for office again anytime soon. Having just done that for a year, taking a breather from that and refocusing my time and space I think is what I’m looking forward to doing over the course of the immediate timeline.”
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told The Intercept that Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer should no longer lead Democrats in Congress, and complained that the party had failed at grooming a “next generation” of younger lawmakers to succeed them.
Said Ocasio-Cortez: “I do think that we need new leadership in the Democratic Party.”
North Carolina State Sen. Bob Steinburg (R) called for President Trump to invoke the Insurrection Act and declare the results of the 2020 election invalid, The Hill reports.
Said Steinburg: “If that’s what needs to be done, if there are people who have been identified as folks who are suspected of high crimes and misdemeanors, who are threatening the very security and foundation of our nation…for whatever period of time it takes to round them up, then yes.”
“Sidney Powell, a lawyer who was part of President Trump’s legal team, spread a conspiracy theory last month about election fraud. For days, she claimed that she would ‘release the Kraken’ by showing voluminous evidence that Mr. Trump had won the election by a landslide,” the New York Times reports.
“But after her assertions were widely derided and failed to gain legal traction, Ms. Powell started talking about a new topic. On Dec. 4, she posted a link on Twitter with misinformation that said that the population would be split into the vaccinated and the unvaccinated and that ‘big government’ could surveil those who were unvaccinated.”
“Ms. Powell’s changing tune was part of a broader shift in online misinformation. As Mr. Trump’s challenges to the election’s results have been knocked down and the Electoral College has affirmed President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s win, voter fraud misinformation has subsided. Instead, peddlers of online falsehoods are ramping up lies about the Covid-19 vaccines, which were administered to Americans for the first time this week.”
“Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is muscling out President Trump as the dominant day-to-day Republican powerbroker on Capitol Hill,” Axios reports.
“Trump’s power persists, and will live on post-presidency. But McConnell — in his cunningly quiet but methodical way — is flexing his authority. It’s a taste of a tension that will help define the next four years.”
President Trump told Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in a tweet that it was too soon to “give up” after the Kentucky Republican conceded that President-elect Joe Biden won November’s election.
Said Trump: “Republican Party must finally learn to fight. People are angry!”
However, CNN reports a Trump fundraising email asks supporters if he should run again in 2024, which is essentially a concession.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren has a book coming out this spring “about six key experiences and perspectives,” the AP reports.
“Warren became associated with the word ‘Persist’ after a 2017 confrontation with McConnell, the Kentucky Republican and Senate majority leader. Warren was giving a speech on the Senate floor, denouncing then-attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions, when Republicans invoked an obscure rule to silence her.”
Said McConnell: “Sen. Warren was giving a lengthy speech. She had appeared to violate the rule. She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”
The incoming Biden administration is reportedly flirting with the idea of joining the so-called Great Reset, an international effort to radically change world economies with much bigger government and far greater regulation. Democrats and younger voters welcome the international involvement in U.S. policymaking; other voters are not so sure.
After the disease, the debt. After the plague, the pile of IOUs. It is a veritable mountain — a reminder that the original public debt in medieval Venice went by the name monte.
Dec. 13 marks my turning 100 years young. I’ve learned much over that time, but looking back, I’m struck that there is one lesson I learned early and then relearned over and over: Trust is the coin of the realm.
It’s our last show of 2020, and we decided to do something a little different: assemble a few of our favorite guests and take a look back at the year that was. Our panel: the Wall Street Journal’s Kim Strassel, author and columnist Douglas Murray, and Commentary Magazine editor and New York Post columnist John Podhoretz.
The Hoover Institution hosted a virtual online series featuring fellows’ analysis of the foreign policy challenges facing the incoming presidential administration.
Bouts of extreme leftism are frequent in history. Plato’s Apology, Edmund Burke’s Reflections on the Revolution in France, and Vladimir Lenin’s What Is to Be Done? — all offer us insight into the mind and methods of the hard Left.
If “conservatism” is a political noun, it is always in the company of varied adjectives. There are national security conservatives, fiscal conservatives, neoconservatives, social conservatives, reform conservatives, and on we could go. George W. Bush, apparently thinking it was not enough to be just a conservative, campaigned as a “compassionate conservative.” John McCain was a “maverick conservative.”
Over the last four years, many national security experts, both outside and within the Trump administration, have warned that the return of ideological competition between autocratic China and Russia and the democratic United States is the defining feature of international relations today. (They’re wrong; it’s climate change, although “great power competition” is the next most important global dynamic.)
Four years ago, in this same space and at a time when many Americans were on the horns of a dilemma that was the choice between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, I offered an alternative: former Secretary of State George Shultz.
interview with John H. Cochrane via Hold These Truths with Dan Crenshaw
Hoover Institution fellow John Cochrane discusses the tradeoffs, incentives, and unintended consequences which result from the progressive economic policies championed by Democrat leaders like AOC and Bernie.
Hoover Institution fellow Victor Davis Hanson discusses the root causes of the new mad Left, the “Hydroxy Effect” facing Joe Biden, the Hoover Institution’s Strategika journal and its new discussion on the pandemic’s impact on Red China, and the immigration/amnesty threat that a Biden administration may unleash on the American people and economy.
interview with Niall Ferguson via Bitcoin Magazine – A Bitcoin Podcast
Hoover Institution fellow Niall Ferguson discusses his recent Bloomberg article “Bitcoin Is Winning the Covid-19 Monetary Revolution” and discuss the history of financial evolution, including how the current iteration of that evolution is playing out between China and the US and how he views Bitcoin in that context. He also discusses the qualities that make Bitcoin a significant advance and the broader importance of decentralization and sovereignty.
While the globalization of capitalism has been responsible for lifting millions of people out of poverty, in an age of rising inequality, many are rightfully questioning the system as a whole. Rajan’s The Third Pillar offers an excellent framework to understand the problems associated with market-based economic systems and help us think about solutions.
“Some have argued that Brexit may actually help the EU because, liberated from the Anglo-Saxon awkward customer, the other member states can smoothly move ahead to further integration. This is an illusion,” writes Timothy Garton Ash, a historian, political writer and columnist, in his latest opinion.
The opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the Hoover Institution or Stanford University.
@DaybreakInsider
Daniel Zuchnik/WireImage via Getty Images
Giphy
Giphy
ViacomCBS
Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images
Tweet 
Share
State electors gathered this week to cast votes for president with little drama, but some Republicans plan to complicate the usually ceremonial process of Congress counting the electoral votes on Jan. 6, and that could put one incoming member in an extraordinary position. Read More…
Speaking at a historic train yard outside Atlanta on Tuesday, President-elect Joe Biden urged voters to cast ballots one more time on Jan. 5 for Democrats Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, who are challenging Republican Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue in runoff elections. Read More…
OPINION — Republicans like to point to Sen. Bernie Sanders and the “squad” to argue that Democrats have moved so far to the left that their party can’t compete for voters in the political center. But they seem to forget that the GOP includes extremists who’ve shown little regard for compromise or the democratic process. Read More…
President-elect Biden’s focus on climate-related issues continued to take shape Tuesday with his choice of Jennifer Granholm, a former governor and attorney general of Michigan, to lead the Energy Department amid reports that he would name former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy to lead his domestic climate agenda. Read More…
On paper, Pete Buttigieg seems an unlikely pick for President-elect Biden’s secretary of Transportation. But in choosing Buttigieg, Biden has picked one of the few former Democratic presidential rivals to outright endorse a transformative change to how highways are paid for. Read More…
Jay Obernolte won the race for California’s 8th District in the November election. President Donald Trump — as well as retiring Rep. Paul Cook, who vacated the seat — endorsed Obernolte. Watch the video for CQ Roll Call’s conversation with the video game entrepreneur for more. Read More…
At least 330 million people lived in the United States as of April, according to a Census Bureau estimate that will serve as one of the first accuracy checks for forthcoming decennial census results. The agency produces the estimate in parallel to the count each decade. Read More…
by Nate Jackson: Attorney General William Barr resigned on Monday, effective December 23. Barr was one of the two smartest and most effective Trump administration employees (the other being Secretary of State Mike Pompeo), and he was one of the best AGs in recent memory. As we have written on occasions too numerous to list, he served his country well, and every Patriot should thank Mr. Barr for doing his job with integrity and tenaciousness.It’s admittedly unusual that he’d depart a month before the end of President Donald Trump’s term, but perhaps the Electoral College vote was sufficient. Barr’s resignation letter was certainly gracious to the president, who undoubtedly at times made Barr’s job more difficult. “I am greatly honored that you called on me to serve your Administration and the American people once again as Attorney General,” Barr wrote. “I am proud to have played a role in the many successes and unprecedented achievements you have delivered for the American people. Your record is all the more historic because you accomplished it in the face of relentless, implacable resistance.”Specifically, Barr wrote, “You built the strongest and most resilient economy in American history — one that has brought unprecedented progress to those previously left out. You have restored American military strength. By brokering historic peace deals in the Mideast you have achieved what most thought impossible. You have curbed illegal immigration and enhanced the security of our nation’s borders. You have advanced the rule of law by appointing a record number of judges committed to constitutional principles. With Operation Warp Speed, you delivered a vaccine for coronavirus on a schedule no one thought conceivable — a feat that will undoubtedly save millions of lives.”Trump was likewise gracious, tweeting, “Our relationship has been a very good one, he has done an outstanding job!”Yet their very public disagreements of late were likely the real reason Barr decided to take an early retirement from his second stint as attorney general. There was the lack of a full report from U.S. Attorney John Durham on Obama’s malfeasance, the quiet way in which the DOJ conducted its probe of Hunter Biden, and Barr’s statement last month that Justice had “not seen fraud on a scale that could have affected a different outcome in the election.” All three led to disparaging remarks from Trump toward his AG.
by Catherine Mortensen: Over the weekend, the Twitter world was buzzing with angry women (and some men) claiming a guest column in the Wall Street Journal mocked Jill Biden over her insistence that she be referred to as Dr. Jill Biden. Biden earned an Ed.D., a doctor of education, from the University of Delaware.Twitter haters accused essayist Joseph Epstein of having “misogynistic views” for suggesting soon-to-be first lady Jill Biden stop using the title “doctor.”By Sunday night, the paper’s editorial page editor, Paul A. Gigot, fired back, “These pages aren’t going to stop publishing provocative essays merely because they offend the new administration or the political censors in the media and academe. And since it’s a time to heal, we’ll give the Biden crowd a mulligan for their attacks on us.”Nearly every major news outlet ran a story over the weekend on the backlash from Epstein’s Friday column, which also referred to the 69-year-old educator as “kiddo.” Among the critics: Doug Emhoff, husband to Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Northwestern University, where Epstein says he taught for 30 years, and Biden herself.Biden’s Sunday night tweet seemed to sum up much of the criticism of the WSJ column, by suggesting that Epstein diminished her accomplishments, “Together, we will build a world where the accomplishments of our daughters will be celebrated, rather than diminished.”
![[PHOTO: Winter Footwear Sale.]](https://i0.wp.com/s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/WinterFootwear_121520_v01_BV_1608064208909_hpMain_1x1_384.jpg?resize=125%2C125&ssl=1)
![[PHOTO: Shop fun face masks that are perfect for the holidays.]](https://i0.wp.com/s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/old-navy-masks-2-ht-rc-201207_1607370530517_hpMain_1x1_384.jpg?resize=125%2C125&ssl=1)
![[PHOTO: Shop the best gifts to show yourself or someone else self-care this season.]](https://i0.wp.com/s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/SelfCareShop_121020_v02_BV_1607627690911_hpMain_1x1_384.jpg?resize=125%2C125&ssl=1)
![[PHOTO: Illustration]](https://i0.wp.com/s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/GMA_bookMontage_1207_v01_ly_1607381928823_hpMain_1x1_384.jpg?resize=125%2C125&ssl=1)
![[PHOTO: Best sleep upgrades.]](https://i0.wp.com/s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/GMATopSleep_121120_v01_BV_1607721589265_hpMain_1x1_384.jpg?resize=125%2C125&ssl=1)
![[VIDEO: The COVID-19 vaccine was delivered. Now, we dance]](https://i0.wp.com/s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/201215_gma_digital_vaccine_hpMain_1x1_384.jpg?resize=125%2C125&ssl=1)
![[PHOTO: Kylie Jenner attends the 2020 Vanity Fair Oscar Party at Wallis Annenberg Center for the Performing Arts on Feb. 09, 2020, in Beverly Hills, Calif.]](https://i0.wp.com/s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/kylie-jenner-gty-jc-201215_1608065156926_hpMain_1x1_384.jpg?resize=125%2C125&ssl=1)
![[VIDEO: These Christmas lights displays will blow your mind]](https://i0.wp.com/s.abcnews.com/images/GMA/191219_gma_digital_lightsmashup_hpMain_1x1_384.jpg?resize=125%2C125&ssl=1)
December 16 2020
Episode 46: It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad… 
Fauci Recommends Biden… 
19 West 44th Street, Suite 1701, New York, NY, 10036, USA
