Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
August 2, 2021
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
Russians hacked 27 US attorney offices . . . Russian hackers breached the Microsoft email accounts used by 80 percent of the staffers in New York’s four US attorney offices last year, the Justice Department said. Large numbers of staff were hit in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, which handle some of the most high-profile cases in the country, including ongoing probes of former President Trump and his attorney, former Mayor
Rudy Giuliani. The local offices were among 27 US attorney offices nationwide that had at least one email account compromised by the same group that pulled off the massive SolarWinds data breach last year. High profile offices like Los Angeles, Miami, Washington and the Eastern District of Virginia were among those hacked.DOJ said it appears the accounts were compromised from May 7 to Dec. 27, 2020. New York Post
Rebekah Koffler: New attacks on US officials prove Russia is our enemy, not our friend . . . President Biden is on a mission to try yet another “reset” with Russia. He’s reached out to President Vladimir Putin for a summit that took place in Geneva in June, canceled the sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline, and refused to blame the Russian state for the devastating cyberattacks on our food and gasoline reserves, fingering
“Russia-based” criminal hackers instead. Putin is ignoring Biden’s overtures and instead escalating a low-grade warfare against America. He seems to even be inflicting brain damage on some of our fellow Americans. Here is why Russia almost certainly did it. Since Biden assumed office in January, more than twenty US diplomats stationed in Vienna, Austria — the hotbed of spy operational activities — have reported unexplained health issues. The debilitating symptoms, including
dizziness, vertigo, nausea, severe headaches, sudden sensation of heat, cognitive difficulties and even possibly permanent brain damage — are consistent with what has been dubbed “Havana syndrome.” Russia has the capability, doctrine and intent to use nonlethal weapons against US personnel and physical assets. New
York Post
The $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act . . . A bipartisan group of senators on Sunday unveiled the finalized legislative text of a $1.2 trillion, eight-year infrastructure bill. The 2,702-page measure is substantially narrower than the multi trillion-dollar plan envisioned by President Biden earlier this year but includes a wide range of funding for roads, bridges, transit, broadband and water. The Senate worked
through a rare weekend session before announcing that negotiations had been finalized and introduced the bill Sunday evening. Read text of the bill in The Hill
Biden administration sues Texas to block anti-illegal immigration measures . . . The federal Justice Department filed a lawsuit Friday to block Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s latest attempt to fill gaps in border security with a policy that allows state troopers to stop and turn back vehicles carrying illegal immigrants away from the boundary region. Attorney General Merrick Garland said the policy tramples on the federal government’s right to
catch and release illegal immigrants, and he asserted it is unenforceable against federal agencies and contractors anyway. The Justice Department is seeking a temporary restraining order to gain an immediate halt of the policy, which Mr. Abbott said is designed to stop the spread of COVID-19 by illegal immigrants as they disperse into the U.S. White House Dossier
Florida, Texas lead states' rights resistance against Big Tech and Big Government . . . From open borders and COVID-19 to critical race theory and censorship, Florida and Texas have formed a vanguard against the leftward tilting of America by the Biden administration, the Democratic Congress and Big Tech.
Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida and Gov. Greg Abbott and Attorney General Ken Paxton of Texas have created a model for other GOP executives to use the states' rights enshrined in the Constitution's 10th Amendment to confront creeping government and monopolization, rallying conservatives who at times are frustrated that Republicans in Washington have failed to muster much resistance. Just the News
Former ICE Director Tom Homan: Biden “Open borders agenda” is “by design” . . . Some of the hundreds of thousands successfully sneaking across the border are Covid-positive, some are convicted criminals, some are gang members, and some are murderers. “They have no plan, their plan is open borders, and they haven’t done one thing — one single thing — to slow the flow,” said former U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Tom
Homan. White House Dossier
Kinzinger Suggests Subpoenas For McCarthy And Jordan But Not Trump In Jan. 6 Probe . . . Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, who investigates the events of Jan. 6, suggested Sunday that fellow Republicans House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy and Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan may be subpoenaed for testimony. Kinzinger, who is a member of the House Select Committee investigating the Capitol attack, also expressed the opinion that a subpoena
for former President Donald Trump was unlikely. Daily Caller
The Pelosi Dictatorship and the Destruction of American Freedom . . . By Newt Gingrich. As a 20-year member of Congress and four-year Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, let me speak bluntly and directly. Speaker Nancy Pelosi is the greatest threat to constitutional liberty in our lifetime. With the passive support of an apparently cowardly caucus, she is behaving as a dictator more like Fidel Castro, Xi Jinping, Vladimir
Putin, or Nicolás Maduro. Pelosi ordered and kept the fencing around the U.S. Capitol for months – even when members of her own party were calling for it to come down. She stripped a duly elected Republican of all her committee assignments. In recent weeks, she has dictated to the minority party what members it can have on a bipartisan commission. Now, she is threatening to have members of Congress and their staffs arrested if they do not follow the mask mandate which exists by her own
decree. Gingrich 360
Rebekah Koffler: USSR 2.0 -- my adopted US homeland is giving me flashbacks to the Russia I fled . . . Born and raised in a totalitarian state, I am intimately familiar with government spying on ordinary citizens. Recent revelations about possible actions surrounding government surveillance by the NSA took me back 30 years ago to a place that no longer exists, my birth country, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – the USSR. In the course
of daily life in the USSR, we assumed all our communications were monitored by the state. Back then, it was phone calls and snail mail. Speaking in code over the phone was common for ordinary Russians in order not to get in trouble with government authorities. We even had a special phrase, "This is not a phone conversation," to end a discussion veering into dangerous territory. Any criticisms of Soviet leaders, government control, or the socialist system could get you expelled from
school or fired from work. Coming from that background, I was stunned to learn that the same thing could be happening here in the United States. Fox News
We need Trump or someone equally strong and forceful, back in the White House, to fight against socialism, before it's too late.
Trump plans to ‘move forward’ after meeting with ‘cabinet’: Mark Meadows . . . Former President Donald Trump has been huddling with “cabinet members” at his New Jersey golf resort and is planning to “move forward in a real way,” former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said. “We met with several of our cabinet members tonight, we actually had a follow-up meeting with some of our cabinet members, and as we were looking at that, we
were looking at what does come next,” Meadows said Friday night on Newsmax’s “Cortes & Pellegrino” show. He wouldn’t elaborate on whether Trump was getting close to announcing running for president in 2024. New York Post
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The Taliban Kidnapped a Navy Vet in Afghanistan . . . The Biden administration's full withdrawal from Afghanistan could leave behind a U.S. Navy veteran kidnapped by the Taliban. Haqqani network operatives backed by the Taliban abducted Mark Frerichs, a civilian contractor in Afghanistan for the U.S. government, in January 2020. The government has made little progress in retrieving the Navy veteran. U.S. authorities have been able to
establish that Frerichs is alive, but have yet to disclose his whereabouts. The Biden administration's opacity has hindered the urgent recovery operation . . . Washington Free Beacon
Adding women to the draft . . . The Senate Armed Services Committee included in its version of the annual defense policy bill a provision that would require women to register with the Selective Service System, the agency in charge of administering the draft if the United States ever imposes one again. Conservative senators are vowing a fight when the bill moves to the floor and through negotiations with the House, but even the top
Republican on the committee concedes it is likely a losing battle since Republicans are split on the issue. The Hill
Failed Kidnapping Plot Sheds Light on Iran’s Efforts to Silence American Journalists . . . In the fall of 2019, Voice of America reporter Ali Javanmardi was on assignment in Iraqi Kurdistan when he received a call from a young female source who said she had information to give him about Iran's military operations in the region. She asked him to meet at her hotel room in Erbil at 9 p.m. The invitation was a ruse. The woman, Samira
Moradpour, was later convicted by a Kurdistan regional court as part of an Iranian attempt to kidnap and extradite Javanmardi, a critic of the Iranian government. The plot was foiled when Javanmardi became suspicious and contacted Kurdish law enforcement and the U.S. consulate. Washington Free
Beacon
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Taliban push closer to front lines of two major Afghanistan cities . . . The Taliban has started to make inroads in two of Afghanistan’s major cities after they launched attacks at several airports on Saturday. Airports in the the second and fourth largest cities in the country, Kandahar and Herat, were struck by rockets launched by the insurgent group on Saturday. It is the first time that the Taliban has advanced in those two cities in
almost 20 years. A Taliban spokesperson told Reuters on Saturday that at least three rockets struck an airport in Kandahar overnight. The Hill
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It Took Less Than 24 Hours For DC Mayor Bowser To Be Caught Violating Her New Mask Mandate: Report . . . Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser was photographed not wearing a mask while reportedly officiating an indoor wedding Saturday — not even 24 hours after re-imposing an indoor mask mandate for the district. The event occurred at The Line DC, a four-star hotel in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of the city, and was reportedly attended
by hundreds of unmasked guests. The mayor was approached by a reporter for the Washington Examiner but was reportedly escorted away by security detail before she could be questioned about being maskless in spite of her new order. The Examiner also obtained a photo of Bowser maskless at the wedding. Daily Caller
Yep, just like in my birth country, the USSR, the government makes rules for the lesser mortals, whom love to rule.
NIH director says wearing masks in schools is 'sacrifice worth making' . . . Requiring students under the age of 12 to wear masks is a "sacrifice worth making," Francis Collins, director of the National Institute of Health (NIH), on Fox News Sunday. "I know people are frustrated and it's gotten very political and people are looking for someone to blame, just put all that aside and look at the facts," Collins said. "If delta is
as contagious as we now know it is, and we want to try to put an end to what is a very significant uptick right now, wearing masks, if you're under 12 and can't be vaccinated when you're in school, is a really smart thing to do". The Hill
Top Teachers’ Unions Refuse Vaccination Requirement . . . Two of the country’s largest teachers’ unions refuse to mandate COVID-19 vaccinations for their members, even as public schools require vaccinations for their students. The National Education Association (NEA) and American Federation of Teachers (AFT) are pushing against mandatory teacher vaccinations as the 2021-22 school year approaches, instead asking for weekly testing and
other alternatives. But public universities such as the University of Indiana and California state schools are already forcing students to vaccinate before returning to campus for instruction. The move contradicts remarks made in September 2020 by AFT president Randi Weingarten. At the time, she said she supported mandating COVID-19 vaccines for teachers once they were approved and made readily available. Washington Free Beacon
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Trump’s Treasure Chest: Former President Raises $82 Million In Six Months . . . Former President Donald J. Trump said Sunday that his various political committees raised close to $82 Million during the first half of 2021 from 3.2 million contributions. Additionally, Trump’s committees have close to $102 Million cash on hand, Trump added. The totals are based on filings with the Federal Election Commission that Trump made public on
Saturday evening, Fox News reported. Trump’s message from his Save America PAC touted that these fundraising totals demonstrate immense support for his America First agenda and finding what Trump deemed as ‘the truth’ behind the 2020 elections. Daily Caller
Heavyweight Companies Enjoy Outsize Rewards as Economy Rebounds . . . Big companies raced ahead during the Covid-19 pandemic, leveraging the changes driven by the deepest business disruption in decades to grab a larger slice of the economic pie. Now, as the rich world bounces back from the shock, the heavyweights are extending that lead, spending more on investments and acquisitions, snapping up talent, employing big data and leveraging
new technologies. Their success could set up a clash with antitrust regulators.
The Biden administration is pushing new policies aimed at promoting competition in the U.S. economy, warning that fewer large players are controlling more of the market.Traditionally, innovations spread from company to company, helping the broader economy. But in recent years, big companies have accrued the outsize rewards of scale and large swaths of small companies have struggled to keep up. Wall Street Journal
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‘Communism Taking Root in America,’ Critical Race Theory Foe Warns . . . About 350 concerned residents crowded into a church in Georgetown, Delaware, on Thursday evening to hear from a panel of experts about critical race theory—one of whom likened its spread throughout American culture to Mao Zedong’s communist Cultural Revolution in China. “Today, communism is taking root in America,” speaker Xi Van Fleet said. Critical race theory
has become a flashpoint as parents discover that their children’s teachers are indoctrinating them with the divisive and racist ideology at the behest of teachers unions. “The goal of critical race theory was making the issue of race and ethnicity the primary driver for public policy and social change,” Jonathan Butcher, an education fellow at The Heritage Foundation, said at the event in Delaware. “The essence of the idea is that everything must be considered in terms of race.” Daily Signal
Alex Vindman’s sad appeal to get ‘word out’ on his new book blows up in his face . . .
Retired U.S. Army Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman received his proverbial 15 minutes of fame, or thereabouts, as the star witness in Trump impeachment 1.0. Vindman, then of the National Security Council, was the individual who testified against President Trump. Despite efforts by unhinged Democrats and their corporate media allies, impeachment was just political theater that turned out to be much ado about nothing, as it were.
"Help get the word out an retweet this far and wide!,” Vindman wrote about the book oddly called Here, Right Matters: An American Story. A track record exists for liberals getting rewarded with book deals from the big publishing houses after a grandstand play. Most of these destined-to-be-unread, self-serving memoirs wind up in the physical or digital sale remainder bin, however, and seldom cover the author’s advance, unless, in some instances, a special interest group makes a
sketchy bulk purchase. Business & Politics Review
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January 6 Witnesses Given Emmy Awards For Outstanding Performances . . . All the witnesses who have testified before the January 6 Committee were given honorary Emmy awards this week for their outstanding performances pretending to cry for dramatic effect.
"Look at the way they are able to cry on command -- so realistic!" said one member of the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences upon reviewing the tearful performances. "These folks have a bright career ahead of them. The Hallmark Channel is always looking for new talent, as they have about 6,000 Christmas movies to make before November." "Keep an eye on these actors -- they're hot, hot, hot!"
While most praised the awards, others criticized the move, saying that Senator Cory Booker and Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are "far more deserving" of the recognition. Trump was also given an Emmy Award for his excellent work still pretending that he won the election. Babylon Bee
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Rebekah
Rebekah Koffler
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