Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
April 30, 2021
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
Pentagon's 'extremism' blunder could make US military even more political . . . The Pentagon created a policy mess nine years ago by trying to tackle "extremism" in the military, and it’s about to get a lot messier. In 2012, the rule was reasonably clear before – it said active-duty personnel cannot "actively advocate supremacist doctrine, ideology or causes, including those that advance, encourage or advocate illegal discrimination
based on race, creed, color, sex, religion, ethnicity or national origin…" It also said military personnel can’t actively participate in any groups that advocate this discrimination. A few weeks ago, DOD admitted it has no idea what it meant to add the word "extremist" into the rule. On April 9, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin heard "better guidance" was needed regarding "what extremist activity really is."
A DOD definition of "extremism" will be a political definition, one that fits the Biden administration’s political point of view. Once DOD defines "extremism," it will be compelled to decide which groups fit that definition and ban membership in them. Here’s where the real danger begins. This will set up an endless chore for DOD – choosing which groups are so bad that affiliation with them will be seen as incompatible with military service. The Pentagon should be strategizing on how
to insulate us from bad actors who threaten America, instead, it’s being snookered into thinking its real job is to target Americans who dare to even question the woke fascism that is pervading this country. Fox News
This is a big f'ng deal, as Joe Biden would say. (Pardonnez mon Français). Once US military and intelligence services - that already lean heavily Democrat - become fully ideologically homogeneous, by purging conservatives from the ranks and not admitting them in the first place, they will become an instrument of a single party, the Democratic Party, to ensure government control over its citizens.
To envision how this story ends, consider this: the main focus of the KGB in the USSR was to root out "traitors" among Soviet citizens, who disagreed with the totalitarian Soviet socialist rule. President Biden has already stated that the biggest threat to US security is "domestic terrorism" that stems from "white supremacy" . Not foreign threats - Iran, North Korea, China, Russia - but domestic threats. Get the idea? As someone who lived under the
totalitarian Soviet rule, this is terrifying.
Biden speech: No plan to address the crisis at the border . . . Thousands of people, including kids, are suffering because of President Biden’s immigration policy, languishing in camps on the Southern border. Meantime, drugs and probably terrorists surge into the country because Border Patrol agents are overwhelmed by the incoming and distracted trying to care for children. Biden’s “plan” is to get at the “root” of the problem. He
said: “We also have to get at the root of the problem of why people are fleeing to our southern border from Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador. The violence. The corruption. The gangs. The political instability. Hunger. Hurricanes. Earthquakes.” White House Dossier
Joe, are you talking about the “roots” that have existed in Latin America since the Spanish left?
Population shifts favoring blue states under Biden's watch raise alarm . . . Republican-led states made gains in this week’s census count, but one conservative activist says they should have been larger, and he is questioning shifts in the numbers over the past four months coinciding with the Biden administration’s watch. Stephen Moore at the Committee to Unleash Prosperity said the numbers released by the Census Bureau on Monday were
much rosier for blue states than they were for red states when compared with the estimates the bureau produced in December. He and E.J. Antoni, who collaborated on the analysis, called the data “very fishy,” wondering about census count rigging. Blue states ended up with 2.5 million more people than they were projected to have just four months ago, and red states had a half-million people fewer. The result was that red states netted fewer seats in the U.S. House over the next
decade than had been anticipated.” Washington Times
Trump drama divides GOP, muddling message . . . GOP drama is complicating what Republicans view as an opportunity to unite their increasingly fractious party against President Biden’s $4 trillion spending package. Republicans tried to focus their energy this week on attacks on Biden’s plans, which include significant tax hikes on wealthy households, capital gains and corporations, as they look for a foothold heading into 2022. Yet
much of the focus all week was on the battling within the GOP — between House GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy and Rep. Liz Cheney, the third-ranking member of his leadership team, and between former President Trump and Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell. The Hill
Trump to hecklers: “Get ’em outta here.”
Giuliani claims materials seized by FBI are 'exculpatory' evidence . . . Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani said Thursday he "never ever represented any foreign national" after the FBI raided his apartment and seized his electronic devices earlier this week. Giuliani, who served as former President Donald Trump's personal attorney, has reportedly been eyed by federal authorities over whether he illegally lobbied the previous
administration in 2019 on behalf of Ukrainian officials and oligarchs while searching for damaging information on Trump's political rivals, including President Joe Biden, then the leading candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination. Seven FBI agents knocked on Gluon's door at 6 a.m. on Wednesday serving a warrant for electronics. "This is extraordinary because I've offered to give these to the government and talk it over them for two years," Guliani said. He claimed that he
didn't because the evidence is "exculpatory" and proves himself, Trump, and "all of us are innocent." Washington Examiner
‘A Foreign Agent’?: Here’s Why The Feds Raided Rudy Giuliani . . . The FBI warrants served to Giuliani are part of an investigation into “one indication of an alleged incident of failure to register as a foreign agent,” Giuliani’s lawyer, Robert Costello, said in a statement. The Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) was passed in 1938 due to concerns of Nazi activities in the United States. It “requires certain agents of foreign
principals who are engaged in political activities… to make periodic public disclosure of their relationship with the foreign principal . . . ” according to the Justice Department. FARA defines political activities as “any activity that the person engaging in believes will… or… intends to… influence any agency or official of the Government of the United States or any section of the public within the United States with reference to formulating, adopting, or changing the domestic or foreign
policies of the United States.” Daily Caller
Trump would consider DeSantis as 2024 running mate . . .
President Trump said Thursday he is “100%” considering a run for president in 2024 and that he might put popular Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on the ticket with him. “He is a friend of mine. Certainly, Ron would be considered,” Trump told Maria Bartiromo during an interview on Fox Business. “I endorsed Ron, and after I endorsed him, he took off like a rocket ship,” Trump said. “He’s done a great job as governor. A lot of people like that . . . they love that ticket.” White House Dossier
Republican Group Launched to Chart GOP Foreign Policy . . .
A new organization aims to define the contours of a foreign policy vision for the post-Trump GOP that unites American internationalists across the political spectrum. Named after former senator and cold warrior Arthur Vandenberg (R., Mich.), the Vandenberg Coalition will advocate a platform of conservative internationalism—characterized by a strong military, maintaining alliances, and fair trade, all of which the coalition's leaders believe counter U.S. adversaries . . . "There is a great
tradition of Republican and conservative internationalism that starts with Arthur Vandenberg and goes right on through Eisenhower, Nixon, Ford, Reagan, and right on to today, but it was divided in 2016," said Elliott Abrams, the chairman of the group. "Some of us were ‘Never Trumpers,' and many of us were in the administration. Washington Free Beacon
Rabid 'Never Trumpers' could not possibly put their "expert" egos aside and support The Donald in 2016, at least for the sake of the country and the Republican party. Now they are pimping their "expertise" to get another shot at their return to the Washington ruling class in 2024.
You are fully vaccinated, Joe, remember?
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The War On Police Is In Full Swing . . . Police officers nationwide have quit in droves over the last year while law enforcement agencies have struggled to attract new recruits because of the increasingly “toxic” political environment, police groups said. Major police departments across the country are reeling, reporting officer shortfalls in the hundreds, after a year that saw massive protests, riots and an uptick in anti-police
attitudes, the groups told the Daily Caller News Foundation. The decline of morale and police officers in many major departments in the U.S. has coincided with large upticks in crime — the number of murders committed increased in 51 of the 57 cities with public data, according to data analytics reporter Jeff Asher. National Sheriffs’ Association (NSA) executive director and CEO Jonathan Thompson recently said that there "may well have been the ulterior motive — to just make officers so
uneasy and nervous to just retire and call it quits.” Daily Caller
Energy Dept. warns nuclear waste tank may be leaking in Washington state . . . The Department of Energy on Thursday said that it believes a Spokane, Wash., underground nuclear waste tank dating back to the 1940s is leaking waste produced by plutonium production. Hanford Nuclear Reservation, the location of a decades-long, multibillion-dollar cleanup effort, is the most contaminated site of radioactive waste in the US. The tank
identified by the Energy Department as the source of the leak was constructed during the Manhattan Project, which led to the U.S. development of nuclear weapons during World War II. Waste from the site’s operations were deposited in the tank from 1946 to 1976. The Hill
Navy will fall far below mandated 355 ships as China churns out war vessels . . . Not since the Cold War era has the demand on Navy shipbuilding been so high, but the difference now is a flat defense budget and a decade of lost buying power, a top service official told lawmakers. By law, the Navy must have a 355-ship fleet but presently has just 296 ships, and its latest 30-year shipbuilding plan would not reach the requirement until 2031
to 2033 if it was funded fully. But that plan projects 4.1% budget increases each year. This year’s defense budget is flat (0% growth), making the benchmark to keep pace with China’s rapidly growing navy impossible, service officials and hawkish lawmakers warn. Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Michael Gilday told members of the House Appropriations Committee that “China and Russia are rapidly modernizing their militaries, attempting to undermine the free and the open international order we’ve
worked so hard to sustain.” Washington Examiner
US investigating possible 'Havana syndrome' attack near White House: CNN . . . Officials are investigating two potential “Havana syndrome” attacks on U.S. soil — including one near the White House — following a string of mysterious incidents abroad. The suspected attacks, which first occurred in Havana in 2016, have since surfaced in a number of countries, leaving a number of U.S. diplomats and analysts with neurological symptoms ranging
from vertigo to insomnia. One of the attacks took place near the Ellipse, the grassy oval lawn just south of the White House, harming a National Security Council official. Another U.S.-based incident occurred in a Virginia suburb in 2019 while a White House official was walking her dog. The
Hill
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Fully Vaccinated Older Adults Are Far Less Likely to Be Hospitalized: CDC . . . A new CDC review shows that fully vaccinated adults 65 years and older are 94 percent less likely to develop symptoms from the CCP virus that require them to be hospitalized than people of the same age who are not vaccinated. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) virus, commonly known as the novel coronavirus, causes the disease
COVID-19 “These findings are encouraging and welcome news for the two-thirds of people aged 65 and up who are already fully vaccinated,” said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky. Epoch Times
EU Report Accuses Russia, China of Sowing Mistrust in Western Vaccines . . . Russian and Chinese media are systematically seeking to sow mistrust in Western COVID-19 vaccines in their latest disinformation campaigns aimed at dividing the West, a European report said on Wednesday. From December to April, the two countries’ state media outlets pushed fake news online in multiple languages sensationalizing vaccine safety concerns, making
unfounded links between jabs and deaths in Europe and promoting Russian and Chinese vaccines as superior, the EU study said. “Both Russia and China are using state-controlled media, networks of proxy media outlets and social media, including official diplomatic social media accounts, to achieve these goals,” the report said, citing 100 Russian examples this year. Epoch Times
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China Advances Space Station Ambition With Module Launch . . . China sent a core component of its new space station into orbit, marking a key milestone in the country’s ambitions to establish a permanent presence in space. The 22-ton Tianhe module will eventually serve as the life-support and control center for taikonauts, as Chinese astronauts are called. It was launched Thursday morning from the Wenchang Spacecraft
Launch Site on Hainan, an island off China’s southwestern coast. China is planning a series of other launches into orbit this year and aims for the permanent space base to be operational by next year. It is seen as a rival to the much larger International Space Station, the multinational base involving space agencies including NASA. Wall Street Journal
Both China and Russia have been increasingly modernizing their space capabilities and developing counter-space attack systems, to operationalize their space warfare doctrines. Both countries view US reliance on satellites, in our war fighting doctrine, as a strategic vulnerability to be exploited during a potential conflict.
Diplomatic expulsions diminish Russia’s reach in eastern Europe . . . Built in the 1950s as a monument to the brotherly relations between Moscow and Prague, the vast and imposing Czech embassy in the heart of the Russian capital was designed for scores of staff. Today its five accredited diplomats could each have three floors of the complex to themselves. The embassy’s headcount has been one of the biggest victims of a diplomatic war of
tit-for-tat expulsions between Russia and western countries over the past fortnight in which 152 officials from Russian embassies abroad or foreign embassies in Moscow have lost their accreditation. Financial Times
Religious festival stampede in Israel kills 45, hurts dozens . . .
A stampede at a religious festival attended by tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Jews in northern Israel killed at least 45 people and injured about 150 early Friday, medical officials said. It was one of the country’s deadliest civilian disasters. The stampede began when large numbers of people thronged a narrow tunnel-like passage during the event, according to witnesses and video footage. People began falling on top of each other near the end of the walkway, as they descended slippery
metal stairs, witnesses said. Associated Press
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Apple’s sales and profits surge amid soaring demand for iPhones, Macs . . . Apple on Wednesday posted sales and profits far ahead of Wall Street expectations and announced a $90 billion share buyback as customers continued to upgrade to 5G iPhones and snapped up new Mac models with Apple’s house-designed processor chips. Sales to China nearly doubled and results topped analyst targets in every category, led by $6.5 billion more in iPhone sales
than predicted and Mac sales about a third higher than estimates. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook said the company sees an economic recovery coming. New York Post
Just like we can't live without our Amazon deliveries, we are hooked on our iPhones and Macs, my family including.
Amazon reaps rewards of pandemic shift online . . . Amazon has reported its second straight quarter of $100bn-plus sales, comfortably beating Wall Street’s targets as it continues to reap the rewards of changes in behaviour driven by the pandemic. With people around the world now hooked on online shopping and video streaming, and the shift to homeworking boosting Amazon’s cloud computing business, the company posted net sales of $108.5bn
in the first three months of the year, up 44 per cent on the same period a year ago. Net income more than tripled to $8.1bn, helping push its shares up 3 per cent to a record above $3,590 in after-hours trading. Financial Times
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Twitter stopped 'Uncle Tim' from trending, no word if it will remove tweets . . . Twitter blocked the phrase “Uncle Tim” from appearing in the platform’s trending section but has not answered whether users who used the derogatory phrase against Sen. Tim Scott will be banned until the tweets are deleted. "I can confirm that we are blocking the phrase you referenced from appearing in Trends," a Twitter spokesperson said. Twitter
did not immediately respond to a request for comment if it will ban users who used the derogatory phrase until they delete their tweets. Washington Examiner
Don't expect Twitter to de-platform the users who ranted racist slurs at Tim Scott. Banning them would violate Twitter's "some animals are more equal than others" policy.
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Seattle axe-throwing venue gets approval to begin serving alcohol . . . Capitol Hill axe-throwing venue Blade & Timber announced this week that it now has approval to begin serving alcohol beginning on April 30. Why some restaurants could still struggle with relaxed capacity cap
This makes Blade & Timber the first axe-throwing venue in Washington permitted to serve alcohol, following two years of petitioning the state Cannabis and Liquor Board. The first time the venue applied, it eventually withdrew “in order to compile data and develop 80-pages of safety documents before reapplying to receive the board’s approval.”
“We have three years of experience operating axe throwing venues across the country that have safely hosted more than 100,000 guests while serving alcoholic beverages,” CEO Matt Baysinger said in a written release. This is NOT SATIRE. H/T to Thor. MyNorthwest
What could go wrong?
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Rebekah Koffler
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