Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
February1, 2022
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
What Did Clinton Know and When Did She Know It? . . . As indictments and new court filings indicate that Special Counsel John Durham is investigating Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign for feeding false reports to the FBI to incriminate Donald Trump and his advisers as Kremlin agents, Clinton’s role in the burgeoning scandal remains elusive. What did she know and when did she know it? Top officials involved in her campaign have repeatedly
claimed, some under oath, that they and the candidate were unaware of the foundation of their disinformation campaign: the 35-page collection of now debunked claims of Trump/Russia collusion known as the Steele dossier. Even though her campaign helped pay for the dossier, they claim she only read it after BuzzFeed News published it in 2017.
But court documents, behind-the-scenes video footage and recently surfaced evidence reveal that Clinton and her top campaign advisers were much more involved in the more than $1 million operation to dredge up dirt on Trump and Russia than they have let on. The evidence suggests that the Trump-Russia conspiracy theory sprang from a multi-pronged effort within the Clinton campaign, which manufactured many of the false claims, then fed them to friendly media and law enforcement
officials. Clinton herself was at the center of these efforts, using her personal Twitter account and presidential debates to echo the false claims of Steele and others that Trump was in cahoots with the Russians. Patriot Post
Take that in please.
White House clears news reporters from Biden’s conference with governors . . . The White House on Monday ordered the press out of President Biden‘s meeting with the nation’s governors just before he was about to field questions from the state leaders, underscoring the administration’s turbulent relationship with reporters. At the conclusion of Mr. Biden‘s meeting with U.S. governors at the White House, he announced that
he would field their questions. “They tell me I’m supposed to call on [Utah] Gov. [Spencer] Cox,” Mr. Biden said. White House aides immediately began ushering the press out of the room, even as they shouted out questions about the Ukraine crisis and the president’s forthcoming nomination to the Supreme Court. Some of the aides shouted over the reporters, ordering them to leave the room. Mr. Biden has frequently faced criticism for shutting out the press from events. Washington Times
Biden Chief of Staff Klain leaked Breyer announcement to senators . . . Now where did the White House think the information was going after it got to the Senate. Straight to the press. President Joe Biden’s chief of staff leaked Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer’s plan to retire to “a limited group” on Wednesday, a top Democrat told reporters. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Richard Durbin told reporters he received a
“surprise” call on Wednesday morning from White House chief of staff Ron Klain, who “said that President Biden wanted [Durbin] to know that Stephen Breyer was about to announce his retirement from the court.” Durbin, an Illinois Democrat, said Klain told him to keep the news a secret and that Breyer planned to make an official announcement on Thursday. Breyer, 83, was apparently blindsided Wednesday when the news leaked about his retirement and was widely reported by the media. White House Dossier
Tulsi Gabbard warns Biden making same mistake with SCOTUS choice as with Kamala . . . It seems pretty clear the former Democratic congresswoman from Hawaii and presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbed understands that she no longer has a future in the Democrat party. Because otherwise, why would she be making so much sense? White House Dossier
Tulsi often makes a lot of sense. Why is she a Dem?
Biden Boomerang: Newly released State memos undercut Democrats' Ukraine impeachment story . . . Just months before Joe Biden forced his firing, Ukraine's chief prosecutor was told by U.S. State Department officials that they were "impressed" with his anti-corruption plan and fully supportive of his work, according to newly released memos that cast doubt on a key Democrat impeachment narrative. During former President Donald Trump's first
impeachment trial two years ago, House Democrats alleged that Ukrainian Prosecutor General Viktor Shokin was fired in March 2016 because State officials were widely displeased with his anti-corruption efforts and not because Shokin's office was investigating the Ukrainian gas firm that had given then-Vice President Biden's son Hunter a lucrative job. Just the News
GOP leaders silent on Trump's claims that VP could overturn elections . . . Former President Trump drew howls from critics in both parties for endorsing the notion this weekend that vice presidents should — and do — have the authority to overturn election results. But the response from GOP leaders on Capitol Hill has been something else entirely: silence. Republican leaders remained mute on Monday as the outcry grew louder over
Trump’s bid to empower vice presidents to reject electoral votes certified by the states. In a statement Sunday evening, he hammered Mike Pence’s handling of that process last January, shortly after Joe Biden’s 2020 victory, lamenting that his former vice president “could have overturned the Election" but simply opted not to. The Hill
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Biden administration has records of nearly a billion firearms sales . . . The long-held Democratic dream of a national gun registry is falling into place. The Biden administration is in possession of nearly one billion records detailing American citizens’ firearm purchases, far more than Congress and the public has been aware of, according to new information from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives obtained by the
Washington Free Beacon. The ATF disclosed to lawmakers that it manages a database of 920,664,765 firearm purchase records, including both digital and hard copy versions of these transactions. When a licensed gun store goes out of business, its private records detailing gun transactions become ATF property and are stored at a federal site in West Virginia. The practice has contributed to the fears of gun advocacy groups and Second Amendment champions in Congress that the federal government
is creating a national database of gun owners, which violates longstanding federal statutes. White House Dossier
Crime surging in US with help from bail industry . . . The nation’s surge in violent crime is not only the product of liberal policies but the prospect that bail bondsmen are low-balling payments. The bail bonds industry has reportedly grown more lenient because companies are accepting low payments, allowing lawbreakers to walk free prematurely. Progressive bail allows some people to be released without any bail. Meanwhile, criminals
facing bail in violent cases are connecting with bail bondsmen who will take as little as 2% from their client in order to post their bond and be set free. Since fewer people are requiring bail money as of recent, industry professionals are eager to keep up their clientele. Bondsmen in Texas have even been accused of capitalizing on violent crime and lobbying lawmakers. Fox Business
Psaki mocks coverage of soft on crime policies . . . White House Press Secretay Jen Psaki doesn’t understand the way Rudolph Giuliani caused crime to plummet in New York City. It was by focusing on smaller crimes that lead to worse things. It was about establishing order. Now we have drug stores in Manhattan closing because thieves are simply walking out with merchandise, knowing that they won’t be in much trouble.
White House press secretary Jen Psaki mocked media outlets who focused on the consequences of ‘soft-on-crime’ policies during a surge in violence across the country and said some coverage is from an ‘alternate universe’. Psaki was speaking about a Fox News segment during an appearance on the Pod Save America podcast last week when she questioned what ‘soft-on-crime consequence’ even means and insisted Americans care ‘more about what’s happening in their lives than what’s necessarily
happening in every cable news chyron’. She laughed off concerns despite a 510 percent nationwide spike in carjackings over the last year, 24 police officers being shot in January and widespread criticism of Democratic DAs including New York’s Alvin Bragg who are going softer on criminals. White House Dossier
Government’s growing get-out-of-jail-free card: Qualified immunity . . . By Cheryl K. Chumley. The Institute for Justice found in a new report that only eight of 50 states have laws that specifically grant citizens the right to sue certain government officials for civil offenses, and only three of those eight outright reject the public servant sector’s typical go-to plea when put in positions of judicial defense — qualified
immunity. In layman’s terms, this means that many of today’s public servants, with alarming and increasing frequency, can violate the civil rights of citizens any which way they want, and citizens have very little power to protest in court.
This is a recipe for constitutional disaster. Most states, IJ found, have put in place the standards of immunity set forth by the federal government, and several others have added to that federal standard by creating at the state level additional protections for certain public servants. As if defund-the-police movements and billionaire George Soros’s constant infusion of cash into local prosecutors’ races weren’t enough of a challenge to maintaining law and order in modern
American society. Washington Times
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China plants dozens of shell firms in Israel to prize out military industrial hi-tech . . . Dozens of phony high-tech firms have sprung up across Israel to serve China’s latest campaign to winkle out advanced military knowhow from Israel’s defense industries. Washington recently handed a list of those straw companies to Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security service which is responsible for blocking alien penetration of
Israel’s top secret defense technologies. Beijing has long sought access to those technologies. Its latest stunt for getting around the Shin Bet has been to gain partnerships in Israeli high-tech companies. Having picked up on this stratagem, all local defense firms were issued instructions in recent weeks to notify the Defense Ministry’s Security Department of any offers of investment or partnership coming from foreign quarters. Those offers could then be screened to weed out
Chinese associations. But some did get through, nonetheless, and achieved their goal. On Dec. 21, ten Israeli drone experts and three companies were indicted in an alleged conspiracy for the unlicensed sale of armed drones to China. Their trial opens next month. DEBKAFile
China leans into zero-COVID strategy before Olympics with lockdowns, tight bubble . . . Sudden lockdowns that trap whole neighborhoods in their homes. A testing regimen that requires millions to get swabbed in a single weekend. And a bizarre request for Hong Kong pet lovers to turn in their hamsters after a mini-outbreak at a pet store.
Bucking the approach in much of the rest of the world, China is deploying a “zero-COVID” approach to the pandemic that reflects Beijing’s authoritarian instincts but may be unsustainable.
Ordinary citizens — and entire megacities — suffer from the hardships of constant virus surveillance and quarantining. At the same time, scientists wonder whether the Chinese will have enough natural immunity and antibodies from domestic vaccines to keep up with variants that have repeatedly spun off from the coronavirus discovered in Wuhan two years ago. Washington Times
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SPECIAL: US-Russia Standoff Over Ukraine
Biden weighing war-weary US public in response to Russia . . . The White House is grappling with a U.S. population weary of foreign wars as it weighs a response to a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine. The commander in chief must account for domestic politics characterized
by rare bipartisan support for a free Ukraine as well as a public hesitant to be caught up in another overseas conflict following the disastrous end to the 20-year war in Afghanistan. That hesitancy could significantly factor into what decisions Biden ultimately makes as he seeks to manage the unfolding crisis, according to experts. For example, only 31 percent of likely American voters said that they think U.S. forces should be sent to help if Russia attacks Ukraine, according to a
poll from the conservative Rasmussen Reports released on Wednesday. The Hill
Biden Administration’s Flawed Stance On Russia . . . Opinion/Analysis. By Michael Averko. Hyping a Russia-Kiev regime conflict draws some attention away from Biden’s low poll numbers, having to do with US domestic issues. Increased Russia-Kiev regime tension benefits the US military industrial complex, as well as the flat out anti-Russian advocates, who’ve influenced the US body politic. As quoted from the longtime
Democratic Party politico Leon Panetta: “But I think this comes down still to a military issue because I think what will persuade Putin is whether or not, if he engages in war, he could get a black eye. And one thing bullies don’t like to do is to get a black eye,” Panetta explained. “And I think that’s where our strongest leverage is.” When it comes Russia and some other topics, projection is something American political elites like Panetta typically exhibit.
Within US establishment circles, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, continues to get flack for being critical of the overly confrontational stance towards Russia and softer position accorded to the Kiev regime. Ukrainian-American activist Alexandra Chalupa tweeted that Carlson should be prosecuted for not being a registered foreign agent. Coming from Chalupa, this is pretty rich, seeing her involvement with some Ukrainian government connected folks for the purpose of doing
“opposition research” (finding dirt) on Donald Trump during the 2016 US presidential campaign. Is Chaulpa a registered foreign agent?
Carlson’s Russia-Ukraine observation refers to the Kiev regime not being threatened with sanctions for its military buildup near the Donbass rebel area, while evading the UN approved Minsk Protocol, advocating a negotiated autonomy settlement between the two conflicting sides in the former Ukrainian SSR. Similarly, no sanctions were put in place against those who violated the internationally brokered power sharing arrangement between Ukraine’s democratically elected president Viktor Yanukovych
and his main opposition. Eurasia Review . . .
US, Russia clash over Ukraine at UN Security Council debate . . . In a public showdown Monday at the United Nations Security Council, the U.S. accused Russia of undermining international peace and security by massing troops on the Ukrainian border. But Russia slapped back, arguing Washington was fear-mongering and forcing an unnecessary debate — allegations China later echoed. The heated, at times angry, rhetoric at U.N. headquarters
in New York came as some 100,000 Russian troops are positioned along Ukraine’s eastern border with Russia as well as its northern border with Belarus. The U.S. called the Security Council meeting to confront Russia over fears that an invasion is imminent. Politico EU
NATO Leaders Flock to Ukraine, Showing Support as Russia Masses Troops . . . Several Western leaders and foreign ministers are scheduled to visit Kyiv in the coming days in a flurry of diplomatic activity that aims to deter a possible Russian invasion of Ukraine and find a peaceful way out of the crisis.
This show of presence, coupled with weapons deliveries by some of these countries, intends to demonstrate solidarity with Kyiv just as Russian President Vladimir Putin massed more than 100,000 troops around Ukraine, in what Washington says could be an imminent invasion. Moscow denies it seeks war but says it won’t tolerate Ukraine, which isn’t a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, falling into the Western alliance’s orbit. Foreign leaders scheduled to visit Ukraine this
week include the prime ministers of the U.K., the Netherlands and Poland, and the president of Turkey. Several foreign ministers, including of Germany and France, are also slated to arrive this and next week. Wall Street Journal
How could the west punish Russia if it invades Ukraine? . . . The US and European allies are preparing what is being described on both sides of the Atlantic as the most aggressive package of economic and financial sanctions ever assembled to punish Russian president Vladimir Putin if he approves an invasion of Ukraine. The hope in western capitals is that the mere threat of these measures will be enough to deter Putin from attacking
Ukraine in the first place — and if that fails, to pound Moscow with so many economic weapons that it will weaken the Kremlin’s resolve. So what measures specifically are the US and the EU prepared to impose? Oligarchs: In recent days, the US and the UK have escalated plans to punish Putin’s inner circle by taking aim at Russia’s economic elite and the money it has parked in the west. Financial Times
Going After the Kremlin Mafia . . . One difficulty with crafting sanctions against Russia is finding ways to maximize pain for corrupt elites while minimizing damage to ordinary Russians, who suffer enough under Vladimir Putin’s rule. But there are ways to hit the wallets of Mr. Putin’s mafia—if Western governments have the political will to act. “What I’ll be announcing later this week is improved legislation on sanctions so we can
target more Russian interests that are of direct relevance to the Kremlin,” U.K. Foreign Secretary Liz Truss toldSky News on the weekend. “There would be nowhere to hide for Putin’s oligarchs or Russian companies involved in propping up the Russian state.” Asked if this meant seizing Russian oligarchs’ property in London, she said “nothing is off the table.” The British capital, sometimes known as “Londongrad,” remains a favorite for wealthy Russians to store ill-gotten gains abroad.
Sanctions imposed after Russia’s annexation of Crimea and aggression against Eastern Ukraine in 2014 also targeted key Russian officials, institutions and businessmen. But there are still too many Kremlin-linked elites who park money and educate their children outside Russia. Wall Street Journal
Chinese-Made COVID-19 Test Kits Are Coming to Millions of American Households via White House Initiative . . . As the White House’s free at-home COVID-19 test kits are reaching millions of American households’ mailboxes, the “made in China” label on some of those kits is stirring concerns. The distribution, which began earlier this month, is part of a Biden administration initiative to give away 1 billion self-test kits
to Americans for free. A sizable portion of these kits will be sourced from iHealth Labs, a California subsidiary of Chinese medical gear manufacturer Andon Health. Since December, the company has won contracts worth over $2.1 billion with the U.S. federal government and some states, according to Andon’s filings and federal contract records. Roughly $1.8 billion of the amount came from the Department of Defense (DOD) for the White House rollout. The department awarded two contracts to
the lab on Jan. 13 and Jan. 26 respectively, which would bring over 354 million Chinese-made kits—or about a third of the total—to American homes. Epoch Times
Can't make this up. Probably decided by the same bureaucratic morons who let Kaspersky "anti-virus" software run on US government computers.
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Former Reagan economist's dire warning on inflation, US economy: 'Tipping into a slowdown' . . . Former Reagan economist Art Laffer issued a dire warning for the U.S. economy, arguing on Monday that it is "tipping into a slowdown" and that a recession in 2023 is plausible. Laffer also argued that inflation is "not under control yet" and noted that he is "quite concerned about the next 12 months for the U.S.
economy." Laffer made the comments on "Mornings with Maria" on Monday, three days after it was revealed that a key measure of annual inflation that is closely watched by the Federal Reserve is running at the hottest pace in nearly four decades as widespread supply disruptions, extraordinarily high consumer demand and worker shortages fuel rapidly rising prices. Prices soared by 5.8% in the year through December, according to the personal consumption expenditures price index data
released Friday morning, beating out the previous month's increase of 5.7% to become the fastest inflation pace since 1982. Fox Business
BLM co-founder Patrisse Cullors tied to other groups with spending ‘red flags’: report . . . Black Lives Matter co-founder Patrisse Cullors — who resigned in the wake of a Post expose of her spending spree on lavish homes — is tied to several other fundraising organizations whose finances raise “potential red flags,” according to a new report. One of the groups, Reform LA Jails, in 2019 collected more than $1.4 million, of which $205,000
went to a consulting company owned by Cullors and her spouse Janaya Khan, New York magazine said. Another $211,000 was paid to Cullors’ pal Asha Bandele, who co-wrote her memoir, and about $86,000 was paid to an entertainment, clothing and consulting company called Trap Heals, which was started by Damon Turner, the father of Cullors’ child, according to the report. Reform LA Jails also reportedly paid $270,000 to a consulting company run by its treasurer, Christman Bowers, who’s also
known as Shalomya Bowers and has signed tax documents as the deputy executive director of the Black Lives Matter Global Network Foundation, which reportedly has $60 million its coffers but no leader since Cullors quit under fire in May. New York Post
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Joe Rogan Apologizes, Spotify Publishes Content Policy in Response to Neil Young Outcry . . . Joe Rogan, responding to Neil Young’s objections to his podcast and host Spotify, said his show has grown “out of control” and pledged to be more balanced and informed about controversial topics and guests.
In a late Sunday evening 10-minute Instagram video post, Mr. Rogan said, “If I pissed you off, I’m sorry,” referring to growing backlash against him and Spotify Technology SA stemming from the folk rocker’s accusations that they spread false information about Covid-19 vaccines through the popular podcast. “It’s a strange responsibility to have this many viewers and listeners,” said Mr. Rogan. “It’s nothing that I’ve prepared for. I’m going to do my best to balance things out.” Wall Street Journal
Australian Scientists Put Superbugs On Notice . . . Superbugs, one of the top 10 threats to global public health according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), may soon be a thing of the past after Australian researchers developed a new way to eradicate antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Researchers from Monash University in Victoria have discovered a new method that could potentially destroy the superbugs, prevent antibiotic resistance
and reduce antibiotic intake to limit any non-targeted bacteria from coming into contact with the medicine and developing resistance. “This is a stunning finding in how we deliver medicine and how the medicine we take impacts us in the future,” said the project’s lead researcher, Dr Hsin-Hui Shen of Monash University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering. The researcher’s new treatment kills superbugs using antibiotics that superbugs have not yet developed a high resistance
to in combination with nanoparticles. Epoch Times
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BAD LOVE MEDICINE . . . From Russian spies to Nazi plots, to alien planets, to true love, Kevin L. Schewe is back on Book Spectrum with another action-packed romp in his critically acclaimed Bad Love series that will have you wishing for more.
Bad Love Medicine takes readers from the deep-space beauty of Planet Azur back to a WWII Europe riddled with danger and espionage, bringing the Bad Love Gang face-to-face with one of history’s greatest villains—Adolf Hitler himself. In this 4th book of the Bad Love Series, The Gang (based on his own friends in high school) once again set out to save history—this time, by stopping the Nazis from efforts to create a time machine of their own.
Kevin L. Schewe, MD, FACRO, is a board-certified cancer specialist who has been in the private practice of radiation oncology for over 34 years. He is an entrepreneur, having founded Elite Therapeutics and Bad Love Cosmetics Company, LLC. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of a small, publicly traded, renewable energy and animal feed company called VIASPACE, Inc. Book Spectrum
You will love this podcast hosted by my friend, talk show radio and podcast host, as well and producer extraordinaire, Chris Cordani! Check out his podcast Book Spectrum
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