Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
January 4, 2022
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
Zuckerbucks Shouldn’t Pay for Elections . . . The 2020 pandemic election wasn’t stolen, but it sure was a superspreader of bad precedents. More than a year later, we’re still getting information about the huge private money that underwrote official government voting efforts in 49 states. Much is still unknown, but lawmakers already know enough to ban this practice.
A nonprofit called the Center for Technology and Civic Life, or CTCL, funded by Mark Zuckerberg, says it gave $350 million to nearly 2,500 election departments in the course of the 2020 campaign. Last month it posted its 990 tax form for the period, with 199 pages listing grants to support the “safe administration” of voting amid Covid-19. Some conservatives see this largess of “Zuckerbucks” as a clever plot to help Democrats win.
CTCL “consistently gave bigger grants and more money per capita to counties that voted for Biden, ” says an analysis by the Capital Research Center. Its tally for Georgia, to pick one state, shows average grants of $1.41 per head in Trump areas and $5.33 in Biden ones. A conservative group in Wisconsin suggests that extra voter outreach funded by CTCL could have boosted Mr. Biden’s turnout there by something like 8,000 votes. It isn’t hard to see why they’re concerned. Wall Street Journal
China has a point about sissy men . . . By Cheryl K. Chumley. The Chinese Communist Party has just kicked off a cultural campaign to make sure men are dressing and behaving like men and that the “effeminate” look — dubbed by the government as the “masculinity crisis” — won’t cripple President Xi Jinping’s push to become the leading world power. Yes, the commies are cracking down on “sissy men,” as the communist censors put
it. Dictatorial tactics to the side, America might want to take a memo.
Manly men are becoming hard to find.
America’s boys are being taught to play with dolls, to cry when upset, to wear dresses if they want, to paint their fingernails and pick out their hair bows and put on their pretty as they prepare for school — and to think of their gender selves in any way they wish. Don’t want to be a boy today, Johnny? That’s quite OK. Be Josephine, instead. Washington Times
Democrats hit pause on Biden's climate, social spending package . . . Senate Democrats are putting President Biden’s climate and social spending plan on the back burner as they plan to debate voting rights legislation this month and hold a vote on changing the Senate's filibuster rule.
Democratic aides say the Build Back Better bill won't be ready for floor action anytime soon and predict the wide-ranging legislation that the White House has negotiated with centrist Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) may have to be completely overhauled. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) informed colleagues Monday the Senate will turn immediately to voting rights legislation and would vote to reform the chamber’s filibuster rule by Martin Luther
King Jr. Day on Jan. 17 if Senate Republicans block it. The Hill
Nunes formally resigns from Congress . . . Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) formally resigned from Congress on Monday, as the California Republican departs to run former President Trump's new media and technology company.
Nunes’s resignation letter was read aloud on the House floor during a pro forma session on Monday. The Hill
Bannon and allies bid to expand pro-Trump influence in local US politics . . . Key Donald Trump loyalists Steve Bannon and Michael Flynn are at the forefront of a drive to expand Trumpist influence at the local level of US politics while forging ahead with efforts aimed at promoting baseless claims that Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory was fraudulent. The growing drive by Trump’s hardcore allies has spurred election watchdog groups to
voice alarm about the threat to democracy posed by Flynn and Bannon – and other Trump acolytes – as they combine debunked claims about election fraud and calls for further 2020 election audits with planning conservative takeovers of official positions that run US elections. The Guardian
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The State of the Military . . . For the United States military, the picture looks particularly bleak on many fronts. This comes at a particularly bad time for America, given the fact China and Russia are building up their military forces and fielding new weapons, like hypersonic missiles.The military, particularly those forces needed to fight a war with China, is not up to the level it used to be. Quantity has been an issue for years.
We’ve covered the decline — both deliberate choices from Bill Clinton and Barack Obama as well as the errors of omission by George W. Bush — on multiple occasions and have noted the desperate need not just for modernizing our force, but to build it up as well.
For all the difficulties that come with a neglected infrastructure, the physical buildup, though, is the easy part. Here is one very cold, hard, truth: Wars are not won by tanks, planes, and ships. Wars are won by the Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, and now Space Force guardians who use the weapons. And right now, there’s a good question about whether they’re up to the fight. Then we have the dishonorable debacle caused by Joe Biden’s betrayal of Afghanistan. Let’s make
it clear, Donald Trump had no good options between the mistakes of his predecessors and the reality of China’s emergence. Patriot Post
History As It Happens: From Taiwan to Ukraine, new conflicts test Biden’s foreign policy . . . President Biden is beginning his second year in office facing many of the same foreign policy problems that awaited his arrival in the White House, some with the potential to explode into full-blown conflict despite his efforts to restore calm and confidence among U.S. allies and partners in Europe and the Indo-Pacific. From China’s apparent
preparations to attack Taiwan, to Russia’s troop buildup on the Ukrainian border, a number of simmering conflicts are testing the strength of the United States’ extensive overseas commitments after 20 years of fighting a global war on terrorism to little positive effect. In this episode of History As It Happens podcast, The Washington Times national security correspondent Ben Wolfgang discusses the president’s approach to these foreign policy dilemmas as his second year unfolds. Washington Times
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Global Imams Council Bans Muslims From Attending Beijing Winter Olympics . . . The Global Imams Council (GIC) of Muslim faith leaders on Dec. 30 banned followers of Islam from participating in and attending the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing, citing the oppression of Uyghurs in China’s northwestern Xinjiang region. The GIC is the world’s first and largest transnational non-governmental body of Muslim religious
leaders from all Islamic denominations and schools of thought, with over 1,300 members worldwide, according to its website. In a statement on Thursday titled “GIC statement on the 2022 Winter Olympics,” GIC President Imam Mohammad Baqir al-Budairi said that the Beijing Games “directly serves the interests of a tyrannical and oppressive regime that’s responsible for the genocide and ethnic cleansing of Uyghurs.” “The Global Imams Council rules that participation and attendance in
Beijing 2022 are prohibited,” he wrote. Epoch Times
China must be held accountable for the Wuhan virus pandemic.
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Federal Court Grants Navy SEALS Preliminary Injunction in Lawsuit Over COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate . . . A federal court has granted a preliminary injunction to a group of 35 Navy Special Warfare servicemembers—among them 26 Navy SEALs—who sued the Biden administration for denying them religious exemptions to the COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The preliminary injunction, issued by the United States District Court for the
Northern District of Texas, stops the Department of Defense from taking any actions against the group for refusing the jab while litigation plays out. Non-profit law firm First Liberty Institute had filed the lawsuit and motion for preliminary injunction on behalf of the Navy servicemembers on Nov. 9, 2021. “The Navy servicemembers in this case seek to vindicate the very freedoms they have sacrificed so much to protect,” Judge Reed O’Connor said in his order on Monday Epoch Times
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Biden aims to reduce meat prices with more regulations, federal spending . . . President Joe Biden on Monday unveiled his administration's plans aimed at bringing down surging meat prices, with a major focus on stepping up regulations on meat packers and offering up more federal dollars in an effort to increase competition in the market. The White House vowed to issue "new, stronger rules under the Packers and Stockyards Act" targeted at
major beef, pork and poultry packing firms along with a dual initiative between the DOJ and USDA to launch a portal for "reporting concerns about potential violations of the competitions laws," arguing that the spike in prices was due to the companies paying less to producers and charging more to grocers. The administration also dedicated $1 billion of American Rescue Plan funds in the way of grants, loans, and worker training to help small meat processors on top of the $500 million the USDA
made available in July for "expanded meat and poultry processing capacity as part of efforts to increase competition. Fox Business
Apple becomes first $3tn company after boost from pandemic demand . . . Apple has become the first company to hit a market capitalisation of $3tn, after its value rose by $1tn in less than 16 months as the coronavirus pandemic turbocharged Big Tech. The iPhone maker became a $1tn company in August 2018 and two years later became the first company to be valued at $2tn. On Monday, shares in the company rose by 3 per cent to $182.86, taking
it past the latest milestone, before easing back to close at $182.01. Financial Times
OPEC+ expected to stick to planned oil output hike as omicron Covid cases soar . . . An influential group of some of the world's largest oil producers will meet on Tuesday to discuss the next phase of output policy as energy investors weigh the potential impact of soaring omicron Covid cases.
OPEC and its non-OPEC allies, known collectively as OPEC+, are scheduled to hold a videoconference from 1 p.m. London time. OPEC+ has raised its output target each month since August by 400,00 barrels per day and energy analysts broadly expect the group to stick to this policy for February, citing U.S. pressure to boost supply and no major new Covid restrictions.
Led by OPEC kingpin Saudi Arabia and non-OPEC leader Russia, the energy alliance is in the process of unwinding record supply cuts of roughly 10 million barrels per day. The historic production cut was put in place in April 2020 to help the energy market after the coronavirus pandemic cratered demand for crude. CNBC
Amazon and Google deploy their armies to thwart antitrust bills . . . The antitrust bills’ supporters accuse the tech giants of spreading baseless fears and stoking small businesses’ anxieties to blunt the growing anti-monopoly momentum in Congress. But the effort shows that the companies’ networks of data centers, warehouses, business partnerships and legions of users have given Amazon and Google a huge number of potential allies in their
showdown with Washington. “I’m glad in this case Amazon is deploying people like me,” said Kristin Rae, the founder of Inspire Travel Luggage, a vendor that sells its wares mostly on Amazon. “Because maybe we are the ones who can get through to lawmakers and say, ‘Wow, my job or position or brand could be in danger.’” Politico
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Washington DC area hit with widespread power outages . . . Washington, D.C., and areas surrounding the nation's capital city were hit with widespread power outages Monday due to a winter storm that brought several inches of snow to the region. Fox
Business
How a Liberal Foundation Bankrolled Abortion Pills in the Name of Population Control . . . Roughly a decade before his death in 1996, tech titan David Packard issued a controversial directive to his children. Skyrocketing birth rates, the Hewlett-Packard cofounder wrote, could one day cause "utter chaos for humanity." As a result, Packard asserted, his multibillion-dollar foundation must hold one priority above all others: population
control. Packard—a Republican who served as deputy secretary of defense under President Richard Nixon—did not see eye to eye politically with his three daughters, one of whom succeeded him as chair of his foundation following his death. His liberal offspring took the billionaire's desire to curb population growth as a jumping off point. While the foundation is unbound legally to honor Packard's policy wishes, they found a way to embrace his views and pursue their own liberal
activism—through expanded abortion access, a mission toward which they devoted nearly $350 million in the last five years alone, according to a review of the foundation's financial disclosures. Washington Free Beacon
Dr. Robert Malone to Rogan: US in ‘Mass Formation Psychosis’ Over COVID-19 . . . Key mRNA contributor Dr. Robert Malone, a prominent skeptic of mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations, suggested to popular podcaster Joe Rogan—days after Malone was suspended from Twitter—during an interview that the United States is in the midst of a “mass formation psychosis.” “Our government is out of control on this,” Malone said about vaccine mandates in the
interview, which was released over the weekend. “And they are lawless. They completely disregard bioethics. They completely disregard the federal common rule. They have broken all the rules that I know of, that I’ve been trained [in] for years and years and years.”
Malone, an expert in mRNA vaccine technologies who received training at the University of California–Davis, UC–San Diego, and the Salk Institute, was banned by Twitter last week. Malone told The Epoch Times last week that Twitter offered no explanation for why his account, which had amassed 500,000 followers, was suspended. Epoch Times
Joe Rogan leads move to GETTR after Twitter bans Dr. Robert Malone, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene . . . Podcast titan Joe Rogan opened a GETTR account Sunday and encouraged 7.8 million Twitter followers to join him on the alternative social media app. "Just in case sh-t over at Twitter gets even dumber, I’m here now as well," Rogan wrote on GETTR. "Rejoice!" "GETTR" trended on Twitter throughout Sunday afternoon as users reacted to
Rogan's tweet about GETTR, with many apparently taking his advice and opening an account. Rogan's move to GETTR came on the same day that Twitter permanently banned the personal account of Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., for spreading what the social media company deemed COVID-19 "misinformation." Fox Business
I am establishing my GETTR today. Let's do it, folks.
Worst jail break in US history – and Americans pay the price with skyrocketing crime rates . . . In 2020, our nation’s state and federal prison populations plummeted 15% to the lowest levels since 1992 – at the same time, murders skyrocketed nearly 30% to the highest level since 1998. By the middle of last year, local jail populations similarly shrank by an astonishing 25%. In raw numbers, state and federal authorities reduced their
prison populations by 214,000 in 2020 and local authorities reduced their jail populations by 185,000 compared to 2019. This is the worst jailbreak in American history and was committed in broad daylight. Our nation has paid the price. So-called "coronavirus protocols" caused most of these reductions. Last year, the federal government sent thousands of inmates home in response to the pandemic. Rikers Island in New York City released 1,500 criminals, and Chicago’s largest prison released a
quarter of its inmates. Fox News
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Top Predictions For 2022 . . . January 6 - Second insurrection attempt canceled
January 20 - Pfizer unveils booster shots 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8
January 21 - Men break every record ever held by women
January 22 - Harvard gender studies professor discovers five new pronouns
January 23 - The Babylon Bee discovers a 3rd conservative joke
January 25 - Obama releases another memoir
January 27 - Mark Zuckerberg finally learns how to smile with his eyes
February 1 - WHO runs out of Greek letters for variants and starts naming them after the Muppets
February 2 - Jan 6th committee finally catches your Grandma
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