Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
May 6, 2021
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Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
Biden issues National Day of Prayer Proclamation that does not include the word 'God' . . . President Biden has issued a National Day of Prayer proclamation in which the word "God" does not appear once. "I invite the citizens of our Nation to give thanks, in accordance with their own faiths and consciences, for our many freedoms and blessings, and I join all people of faith in prayers for spiritual guidance, mercy, and protection," Biden
says in the proclamation. The lone use of the word "Lord" appears only once at the conclusion of the declaration as it pertains to the date: The word appears within the boilerplate phrase "in the year of our Lord two thousand twenty-one."
The phrase "the divine" comes up in a quote that is attributed to the late Rep. John Lewis: "Nothing can stop the power of a committed and determined people to make a difference in our society. Why? Because human beings are the most dynamic link to the divine on this planet." David Brody, host of The Water Cooler inquired, "How do you release a proclamation about prayer and not mention God at all?" Just the News
I suppose the same way that he can proclaim to be Catholic while supporting abortion.
The GOP's war is already over — Trump won . . . The war for the Republican Party’s soul lasted about as long as a season of “The Apprentice.” Former President Trump won. Thursday marks four months to the day since the Jan 6. insurrection Trump incited, for which he was impeached. At the time, top GOP figures including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) at one point hinted at the possibility of a significant GOP vote to
remove the then-president.It’s all changed now. But since then, Trump has re-exerted his control over the party, even from exile on his Florida estate of Mar-a-Lago. The vast majority of the party on Capitol Hill is in his thrall, whether for reasons of sincere conviction or because they are cognizant of his astonishingly tenacious hold on the Republican grassroots. Polls usually put Trump’s approval rating among GOP voters north of 80 percent.The dissenters are on defense
everywhere. The Hill
First Trump, Then Who? Facebook Makes Wrong Call in Censoring Trump . . . Facebook’s Oversight Board decided Wednesday to uphold Facebook’s and Instagram’s suspension of former President Donald Trump from their platforms. This decision is the wrong one, and one that all Americans, regardless of political affiliation, should be concerned about. Letting politically motivated companies police themselves as they manipulate civic discourse is
not a long-term solution consistent with America’s values. Whether it’s the president of the United States or an average American citizen in Des Moines, Big Tech should not have the ability to suppress viewpoints it finds objectionable. Censorship is a threat to our American republic. Commentary. Daily Signal
The leftists are deploying Putin-style Playbook against political opponents. Now, they silence dissent by de-platforming those who commit the crime of "wrong think," just like the Kremlin that started off kicking out Navalny and other Russian dissidents from the internet. After, the apparatchiks deploy federal agents against the political opponent's attorney, as in the case of Rudi Giuliani, just like in case of Putin targeting US-born financier and his Russian
attorney Sergei Magnitski. What's next - Trump will get Novichok-ed by the woke leftists? This has to stop.
Facebook’s ‘independent’ board stocked with Trump haters . . . What do you get if you cross a former Danish prime minister, someone who once edited the left-wing Guardian newspaper, a Yemini activist, a bunch of law professors and a Pakistani digital rights advocate? The predictable banning of Donald Trump. Those are just some of the members of the Facebook Oversight Board, a kind of social media Supreme Court, one the left has already
packed. Yesterday, the group extended the banning of Trump from Facebook for six months, urging the company to come up with guidelines that would extend his censoring. Considering how central Facebook can be to political fundraising and outreach, not to mention news, exiling Trump is no small matter. It is meddling with democracy. Facebook suggests this 20-member group is “independent,” but that’s a farce. A cursory glance at the board members show how the fix was in against Trump from
the start. New York Post
Trump Copes With Facebook, Twitter Ban by Relying on Email, Media Interviews . . . Since he was banned from social media earlier this year, e-mail has been Donald Trump's go-to communication tool. Unable since January to tweet, put videos on YouTube or post to Facebook —whose oversight board upheld the ban on Wednesday and gave the company six months to determine whether Mr. Trump should be permanently banned—the former president has
been blast emailing statements to comment on daily news developments, endorse candidates and target critics. But while Mr. Trump once could instantly communicate to tens of millions of people, his email reach is smaller and slower, people familiar with the process say. News outlets that once hung on his every word are being more selective. Lawmakers too say they are relieved not to have to react to the barrage of tweets. A spokesman declined to say how large the email list is. Wall Street Journal
Russiagate the Model . . . Because former Attorney General William Barr failed to hold anyone accountable for the Democratic Party and FBI’s dirty tricks campaign against Donald Trump, Russiagate lives on. It’s become the operational model that the party and its partners in the spy services and media will continue to use against their adversaries. The consequences are certain to be catastrophic, for setting intelligence operatives loose
on one half of America cannot help but further fracture the country’s domestic peace. On May 3, reports surfaced that the Biden administration may use private firms to collect intelligence on its critics, recategorized by the White House as “domestic terrorists.” What makes them dangerous, according to Biden surrogates, is that they believe the 2020 election was compromised. President Joe Biden and his Administration aim to prevent the America First movement from mobilizing. To kill it
before it grows. Commentary. Epoch Times
NJ Police officer fired after a social media post calling BLM protesters “terrorists” resurfaced . . . Officer Sara Erwin, a well-respected police officer with more than 20 years of service, was fired Friday following an investigation by the Mercer County Prosecutor’s office and the police office. The Facebook post, made in June of 2020, read that her kids had begged and cried for her to not to go to work during last Summer’s Black Lives
Matter protests, adding that she didn’t “think [she] ever felt the way [she] did last night.” “I’ve seen so many black lives matter [sic] hashtags in these posts. Just to let you know — they are terrorists. They hate me. They hate my uniform. They don’t care if I die.” Erwin reportedly wrote. Erwin appeared on “Fox & Friends First” on Wednesday, stating that she made the post during an “emotional time” and that she was still “devastated” that she had been fired. Daily Caller
Officer Erwin is correct: Marxists, which the BLM are, were the thought leaders behind the terrorist tactics. (Back in the USSR, Marxism-Leninism was a required college course for us.) Look this up.
Biden’s ICE Nominee Pushed to Release Violent Felons From His Jail . . . President Joe Biden's nominee for director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Texas sheriff Ed Gonzalez, petitioned a court earlier this year to force the mass release of inmates from his county jail. Many of them had been charged with violent crimes and felonies. Gonzalez has served as sheriff of Harris County, Texas, since 2017. Earlier this year, he filed
an emergency request asking a federal court to help negotiate the potential release of 1,500 inmates from the Harris County Jail, which he ran and which had an inmate population of around 9,000 at the time. He cited overcrowding, though the jail had housed nearly 10,000 in 2018. The request came as Harris County and its largest city, Houston, faced a massive spike in crime that many law enforcement advocates have attributed to lenient bond rulings that flooded the streets with criminals. Washington Free Beacon
Pelosi refuses to denounce father's complicity in racism . . . House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refuses to denounce her late father, former Baltimore Mayor Thomas D’Alesandro Jr., for supporting the erection of Confederate monuments in the city and perpetuating systemic racism by not stopping discriminatory practices, including refusing rental housing to Black people in White neighborhoods. Mrs. Pelosi, who has made confronting the country’s
past racism and combating systemic racism a cornerstone of the House Democrats’ agenda, refused repeated requests this week to address her father’s legacy. Washington Times
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff calls for a 'truly inclusive,' more diverse military . . . The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said the military must become more diverse and provide more advancement for black service members. “Opportunity in our military must be reflective of the diverse talent in order for us to remain strong,” Army Gen. Mark Milley said during an ROTC commissioning ceremony. “Our nation is ready to fulfill
the promise of our Constitution to build a more perfect union and to ensure equal justice for all people, and it is your generation that can and will bring the joint force to be truly inclusive of all people.” Washington Examiner
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White House: US-China war over Taiwan 'would broaden quickly' . . . China and the United States face a growing likelihood of conflict over the status of Taiwan, a contest that current and former officials fear could lead to upheaval unseen since World War II.
“I am sure that we are going to be in a kinetic conflict with China in five years,” retired Army Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges, the Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies at the Center for European Policy Analysis, said Wednesday. “I hope I'm wrong, but I believe within the next five years there's going to be a kinetic conflict — missiles, submarines, aircraft; not so much land operations. … It’s just about inevitable.” Washington Examiner
Russian Forces Near Ukraine Are Still a Threat, US Says . . . Russia has kept a heightened military presence near the Ukrainian border despite announcing the withdrawal of the troops it deployed last month, the U.S. and its NATO allies said, leading to concerns in Washington about Moscow’s intentions.
Russia’s military buildup, which it says was for defensive exercises, sparked concerns of a repeat of Moscow’s invasions of Ukraine in 2014. Moscow announced a pullback late last month but has since withdrawn only some troops and equipment, a U.S. official said.
The continued heavy Russia military presence near Ukraine’s borders and in Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014, maintains pressure on an ex-Soviet neighbor that Moscow considers part of its sphere of influence. It also raises the stakes for Western efforts to bring Ukraine closer to NATO and EU. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken was set to arrive in Ukraine on Wednesday in a show of support. Wall Street Journal
Troubling trends in Russian nukes . . . In the new great power competition, in recent years, Russia has unveiled the hypersonic vehicle-carrying Sarmat ICBM, the Avangard hypersonic boost-glide vehicle, the Tsirkon sea-launched hypersonic cruise missile, and the Kinzhal air-launched hypersonic ballistic missile. It also has revealed the Burvestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile and the Poseidon nuclear-powered underwater drone — all
posing new security challenges for the United States and its NATO allies. These nontraditional, novel weapons are especially troubling considering Moscow‘s bad behavior, from its actions in Ukraine to its use of chemical weapons in assassination attempts at home and abroad. Indeed, the Heritage Foundation‘s 2021 Index of U.S. Military Strength concludes that “Russia remains the primary threat to American interests in Europe and is the most pressing threat to the United States.” Washington Times
Pompeo on CIA recruitment: We can't risk national security to appease 'liberal, woke agenda' . . . Former CIA Director Mike Pompeo criticized a video recently released by the agency, saying the country "can’t afford to risk our national security to appease some liberal, woke agenda." "When I was Director of the CIA, we valued individuals based on their talent and skill, not their race or sexuality," Pompeo said in a tweet on Tuesday.
"I’ll never forget what one female analyst said to me: 'Thank you for valuing me for my work. I want my abilities and achievements to define me, not my sexuality.'” "We must continue to recruit the best and brightest," he added. The Hill
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Open Letter on Fully Investigating the Origins of COVID-19 . . . I have been calling since early 2020 for a full and unrestricted international forensic investigation into the origins of the pandemic, with full access to all necessary data, records, and personnel in China and elsewhere. Whatever the origin, we must also thoroughly examine our many failures across the board that allowed the initial outbreak to grow into such
a massive global catastrophe. As you may have seen in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and newspapers around the world, our international group of experts on March 4, 2021 released this open letter (also included below in English, Chinese, French, and Spanish) asserting that current international investigative efforts are not sufficient and outlining a better process which could be.
The pandemic was, in my view, a totally preventable event. If we don’t ask tough questions about what went wrong and address our greatest shortcomings, we’ll be setting ourselves up for an even worse disaster in the future. See the open letter on the author's website Jamie Metzl
This is a credible source.
Biden waives patent protections for US Covid vaccines . . . It’s not clear whether the patents can easily be utilized by others. This could, however, chill research by drug companies, although they’ve certainly made plenty of money on the vaccines they successfully produced. Covid-19 could be an ongoing struggle. The question here is whether this is a bad long-term strategy that will have only minimal short-term benefits. According
to the WSJ, the U.S. said Wednesday it would support the temporary waiver of intellectual property provisions to allow developing nations to produce Covid-19 vaccines created by pharmaceutical companies, citing an urgent need to stem the pandemic. Overriding objections from the pharmaceutical industry, U.S. Trade Representative Katherine Tai said the U.S. would support a proposal working its way through the World Trade Organization. White House Dossier
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25 dead after eight days of protests in Colombia . . . Twenty-five people are dead after eight days of protests in Colombia over a tax overhaul plan meant to cover a gap in spending related to COVID-19. Among the dead are police and protesters who have been clashing for days as public anger grows over rising poverty, unemployment and inequality. The unrest was born partially out of mass unemployment triggered by pandemic lockdowns as the
country experiences its third surge in coronavirus cases, The Wall Street Journal reported. The Hill
American tourists sentenced to life for killing Italian police officer . . . Two Americans were convicted on Wednesday for killing an Italian police officer in 2019 — and both received a life sentence in prison. A jury in Rome found Finnegan Lee Elder, 21, and Gabriel Natale-Hjorth, 20, guilty of homicide, attempted extortion and other offenses in the stabbing death of Vice Brigadier Mario Cerciello Rega. Elder stabbed Cerciello Rega
11 times after a botched drug sting, and Natale-Hjorth helped hide the murder weapon, the jury found. Under Italian law, an accomplice can also be charged with murder. New York Post
What the heck !?
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Inflation nation heats up as CEOs to White House talk prices . . . Inflation talk, after years of being dead in the water, is gaining momentum on Main and Wall Street as reports of higher prices at the grocery store and the pump, with gas averaging $2.91 a gallon per AAA, are fueling the conversation. "Mentions of "inflation" are now up nearly 800%" compared to the year-ago first-quarter earnings season, noted the team at
Bank of America led by Savita Subramanian. The Federal Reserve seeks to anchor inflation around 2%. Fox Business
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Alan Dershowitz: Chauvin verdict should be vacated over juror lie . . . Harvard Law professor emeritus Alan Dershowitz, a famed legal scholar who’s been involved in the cases of everybody from O.J. Simpson to former President Donald Trump, believes former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin’s convictions should and will be vacated. Dershowitz recently said that, coupled with all the threats of violence that were made during the
trial, the bombshell findings this week about one of Chauvin’s “jurors” make it clear that the entire trial was illegitimate. “This was an advocate," Dershowitz said about the juror #52, Brandon Mitchell, who is a Black Lives Matter activist. Mitchell had been spouting BLM rhetoric and attending George Floyd “protests” long before he was even picked to be on Chauvin’s jury. Business & Politics Review
Teacher Sounds Off On ‘Ridiculous’ Gender Identity Lessons At School Board Meeting . . . Jonathan Koeppel, a Louisiana high school teacher that went viral last month after objecting to his school’s gender theory curriculum, spoke about his experience protesting the radical lessons. Koeppel criticized an application used in school by students called “Brain Pop” for teaching about gender identity and personal pronouns. “Who gave
permission to talk about this? There’s two genders,” said Koeppel during the meeting.“I was really shocked when I found out that a children’s program was promoting this idea that there are infinite genders to children,” Koeppel told the Daily Caller
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Interpreter Zhe ‘Shelly’ Wang denies splitting up Bill and Melinda Gates . . . A translator who works for the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has denied wild rumors on social media that she was involved in their divorce. Zhe "Shelly" Wang, who has worked as an interpreter for the foundation since March 2015, took to social media to deny speculation that she had more than a professional relationship with Bill or
Melinda. Wang, 36, purportedly wrote on Chinese social media site Weibo, "I thought that the rumors would go away by themselves, but I did not expect the rumors to become more and more crazily spread." She ended her message with a link to a story titled "#Gates divorce, some vicious people rumor to vilify an innocent Chinese girl." Fox Business
Did Bill and Melinda Gates just get "Fang-fanged"?
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Rebekah Koffler
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