Kavanaugh Could Cast the Swing Vote That Overturns Roe v. Wade . . . Justice Brett Kavanaugh is expected to be the swing vote when the Supreme Court takes up a challenge to Roe v. Wade later this year. A review of the justice's opinions suggests that he is open to overturning the landmark 1973 decision. The Court will hear arguments on Dec. 1 in a case challenging Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban. A clinic in Jackson, Miss., is attacking the law on constitutional grounds, and the state has responded by asking the Court to overrule Roe altogether. Kavanaugh is the most closely watched justice in the case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization. Pro-choice forces need support from two Republican-appointed justices to preserve Roe. Washington Free Beacon

 

Feds pay billions to fraudsters tied to China and Russia in COVID-19 schemes . . . As the coronavirus pandemic raged, Uncle Sam was doing more than putting money in unemployed Americans’ pockets — the federal government was also shipping tens of billions of dollars overseas to fraudsters working with the country’s most prominent adversaries, such as China and Russia. Haywood Talcove, CEO for LexisNexis Risk Solutions’ government division, says 40% of the more than $700 billion spent on unemployment went to fraudsters. Most of that ill-gotten money — $175 billion of it — went to overseas actors. And most of that, perhaps $140 billion, went to organizations that are state-sponsored.

“It allows our adversaries, the Russians, the Chinese, the Nigerians, the Romanians, to use that money to hurt our country,” Mr. Talcove told The Washington Times. He said the money lost to fraud could have provided $160,000 to each individual in the country below the poverty line. Or it could have paid a Harvard University-level tuition for four years for every 18-year-old in the country. Washington Times

 

 

Cuomo still collecting money from New York government, received first pension check last month . . . Former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo is still collecting money from the state government even after resigning earlier this year amid cascading scandals. He received his first pension check last month, Fox News confirmed. Fox News

 

‘They’re all begging me’: Trump’s 2024 veep tryouts get underway . . . The last time Donald Trump picked a running mate, he made a conventional choice in Mike Pence — a relatively safe decision with traditional presidential ticket-balancing in mind. But as Trump gears up for a 2024 bid to recapture the White House, the nascent thinking at Mar-a-Lago surrounding his potential vice president is considerably different. According to conversations with a dozen Trump advisers and close associates, the former president doesn’t feel bound by geographic or ideological considerations — or any standard political rules at all. Politico

 

Biden Enlists Nuclear Disarmament Proponents To Study ICBM Alternatives . . . The Biden administration has enlisted two nuclear-disarmament advocates to present the Defense Department with "alternatives" to the United States' long-standing intercontinental ballistic missiles system. The Defense Department asked the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to study "alternatives as they relate to options for the land-based leg of the U.S. nuclear triad" and in January submit a report to the secretary of defense. Pentagon contract pushes reduction in ICBMs as China, Russia modernize and increase missile capabilities. Washington Free Beacon

 

 

Dozens of Chinese military aircraft breach Taiwan's air defense zone with aerial tanker . . . Taiwan said on Sunday that dozens of Chinese military aircraft intruded into its air defense zone. The island democracy's Ministry of National Defense said it scrambled combat patrol aircraft, issued radio warnings, and deployed air defense missile systems to drive away the intruders.
Among the 27 Chinese aircraft detected was a Xi'an Y-20U aerial tanker, which Taiwan News reported was possibly the first time a Chinese refueling mission was conducted in Taiwan's air defense identification zone. The other aircraft reported by Taiwanese officials were 18 fighters jets and five nuclear-capable H-6 bombers. Washington Examiner

 

Taliban Covert Operatives Seized Kabul, Other Afghan Cities From Within . . . Undercover Taliban agents—often clean-shaven, dressed in jeans and sporting sunglasses—spent years infiltrating Afghan government ministries, universities, businesses and aid organizations. Then, as U.S. forces were completing their withdrawal in August, these operatives stepped out of the shadows in Kabul and other big cities across Afghanistan, surprising their neighbors and colleagues. Pulling their weapons from hiding, they helped the Taliban rapidly seize control from the inside. The pivotal role played by these clandestine cells is becoming apparent only now, three months after the U.S. pullout. At the time, Afghan cities fell one after another like dominoes with little resistance from the American-backed government’s troops. Kabul collapsed in a matter of hours, with hardly a shot fired. Wall Street Journal

 

Talks to waive patents on Covid vaccines are ‘stuck’, WTO head warns . . . The World Trade Organization’s head has warned that highly-charged talks on an intellectual property waiver for Covid vaccines are “stuck” and need governments to compromise at the WTO’s main ministerial meeting next week.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala told reporters on Thursday: “If we take an all-or-nothing attitude, then it means potentially we all walk away with nothing.” More progress was likely on other issues including a deal to reduce fisheries subsidies, work on using trade to combat Covid and launching a discussion on reforming the WTO itself, she said. Financial Times

 

Some Hospitals Prepare to Lose Staff Over Covid-19 Vaccination Mandate . . . Some hospitals, nursing homes and other healthcare providers are preparing to operate without up to a third of their staff at the start of next year, if those workers don’t comply with a federal mandate to get vaccinated against Covid-19. The Biden administration is requiring facilities that receive funding from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to have workers vaccinated by Jan. 4. Two dozen states are challenging the requirement in court. Many healthcare providers in those states and beyond are reviewing requests for religious and medical exemptions from the rule or firing workers who won’t get the shots. Wall Street Journal

 

Biden To Meet With CEOs Of Retailers As Inflation, Supply Chain Issues Hit Country During Holiday-Shopping Season . . . President Joe Biden is meeting with a slew of CEOs of big-name companies on Monday as inflation and supply chain issues hit the country during the holiday shopping period. The president, Director of the National Economic Council Brian Des and Biden’s senior advisor Cedric Richmond will host a roundtable featuring the CEOs of Best Buy, Samsung, Qurate Retail Group, Todds Supermarket, Etsy, Mattel and Kroger, the White House noted Monday morning. The president of Food Lion will also attend the roundtable in person, and the CEOs of Walmart and CVS Health plan to attend the meeting virtually. Daily Caller

 

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey steps down, replaced by CTO Parag Agrawal . . . Twitter announced Monday that its CEO Jack Dorsey is stepping down from his executive role and will be replaced by the company’s chief technology officer Parag Agrawal. Dorsey will remain on Twitter’s board of directors until his term expires at the 2022 annual meeting, the company said in a statement. Bret Taylor, who’s been a member of the Twitter Board since 2016, will take over as chairman of the board. New York Post

 

Biden’s ‘Infrastructure’ Bill Contains Backdoor ‘Kill Switch’ For Cars . . . Buried deep within the massive infrastructure legislation recently signed by President Joe Biden is a little-noticed “safety” measure that will take effect in five years. Marketed to Congress as a benign tool to help prevent drunk driving, the measure will mandate that automobile manufacturers build into every car what amounts to a “vehicle kill switch.” As has become standard for legislative mandates passed by Congress, this measure is disturbingly short on details. What we do know is that the “safety” device must “passively monitor the performance of a driver of a motor vehicle to accurately identify whether that driver may be impaired.” Everything about this mandatory measure should set off red flares. Daily Caller

 

Jewish leaders worry about rising antisemitism from the left . . . Jewish leaders say they are on edge about a rise in antisemitism from the political left in the U.S. The recent spate of hate directed at Jewish people includes people asked to leave public events for looking “visibly Jewish,” sharp anti-Israel stances in Congress and descendants of the Holocaust being accused of supporting genocide. There has been “a slow but steady, unmistakable rise of antisemitism among progressive groups,” Jonathan A. Greenblatt, CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith, recently wrote in an op-ed in The Washington Post. Washington Times

 

 

Bear closes front door of New Jersey home