Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
September 6, 2021
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
The Real Authoritarians Threatening America . . . Democrats and the media continue to push the narrative that former President Donald Trump is a right-wing authoritarian who’s dragging America down into a dark pit of tyranny and oppression, even with him out of office. Yet, Trump champions free-market enterprise and individual liberty — in other words, freedom, the opposite of authoritarianism. In reality, the true authoritarian
threat to America comes from the left. The mainstream media for years, has slanted its coverage in favor of Democrats and left-wing positions. The journalists now view themselves as the "guardians of democracy," believing that their job is to advocate a cause, not to report the news. The media has published a torrent of misleading if not outright false stories about Republicans and conservatives, deceiving the public in order to paint the right as evil. This
is a classic authoritarian tactic: pushing misinformation to demonize one’s political opponents.
Corporations are now reflecting the whims of the woke mob, adopting causes such as Black Lives Matter and the left’s push to federalize elections. Corporate executives are imposing a far-left ideology not because they believe in critical race theory or universal mail-in voting, but because they’re cowardly and succumbing to the pressure and bullying from the mob. The leftists are overtaking another key institution. This leftist onslaught is compounded by Big Tech, which is clearly waging a
war to silence conservatives and snuff out dissent. Indeed, the oligarchs running the likes of Google, Twitter, and Facebook claim they’re merely targeting misinformation, but this has consistently manifested as a political witch hunt against one side. Gingrich360
FYI: I will be on Newsmax TV, “The Chris Salcedo Show,” today at 5:45 pm Eastern. Topic: Biden's Afghanistan mess and crisis at the border.
A Dishonest Afghanistan Accounting: Biden spins a tragedy for U.S. interests into an antiwar victory . . . President Biden’s defiant, accusatory defense on Tuesday of his Afghanistan withdrawal and its execution was so dishonest, and so lacking in self-reflection or accountability, that it was unworthy of the sacrifices Americans have made in that conflict. The charitable interpretation is that this is what Mr.
Biden really believes about Afghanistan in particular, war in general, and how to defend the U.S. The uncharitable view is that he and his advisers have decided that the only way out of this debacle is to lie about it, blame everyone else, and claim that defeat is really a victory. Neither one is reassuring about Mr. Biden’s character, his judgment, or—most ominously—the long three-and-a-half years left in his Presidency. Editorial. Wall Street Journal
Biden orders declassification review of documents related to FBI's 9/11 investigations . . . President Joe Biden signed an executive order Friday ordering the Justice Department and other federal agencies to pursue a declassification review of documents related to the FBI's investigations of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The order, which comes just days ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 2001 attack that claimed the lives of
nearly 3,000 people, requires Attorney General Merrick Garland to release declassified documents to the public throughout the next six months. The order, which acknowledges some information might merit continued protection in the interest of national security, asks agencies to consider "whether the public interest in disclosure of the information outweighs the damage to the national security that might reasonably be expected from disclosure," according to a readout of the order obtained by
the Washington Examiner.
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‘Turning Into A Hostage Situation’: Texas Rep Says Taliban Is Holding Americans At An Afghanistan Airport . . . The Taliban is preventing a plane carrying Americans from taking off from Mazar-i-Sharif International Airport in Northern Afghanistan, Republican Texas Rep. Michael McCaul said Sunday. “We had six airplanes at Mazar-i-Sharif airport. Six airplanes with American citizens on them as I speak, also with these interpreters, and the
Taliban is holding them hostage for demands right now,” McCaul told Fox News’ Chris Wallace.
McCaul added that “zero” Americans have been able to leave the country since U.S. military forces left on Aug. 30. CBS News’ Eena Ruffini also reported Sunday morning that the State Department had begun notifying members of Congress that Taliban approval was preventing chartered planes from taking off from Mazar-i-Sharif for Doha, Qatar. Daily Caller
As Taliban Grounds Planes Out of Afghanistan, Biden Administration Says There’s Little It Can Do . . . The State Department says there is little it can do to help Americans and at-risk Afghans whose planes are reportedly grounded at an airport as the Taliban prevents them from leaving the country. At least six chartered planes are attempting to evacuate these Americans and others from Mazar-i-Sharif International Airport, but the Taliban
is reportedly preventing them from taking off. Since it evacuated U.S. military forces and diplomatic personnel from the war-torn country, the Biden administration has not had the resources necessary to ensure that flights chartered by nonprofit groups and others can depart Afghanistan. Washington Free Beacon
Biden Working to Secure Border … in Tajikistan . . . The Biden administration is working with the government of Tajikistan to help it better secure its border with its neighbor to the south, the newly chaotic Afghanistan. As the U.S. ambassador to Tajikistan, John Pommersheim, explained, “The United States and Tajikistan enjoy strong security cooperation, and this border detachment project is just another example of our shared commitment to
the security and sovereignty of Tajikistan and Central Asia.” The U.S. government has spent over $300 million helping Tajikistan with security since 2002. Tajikistan is still a member of Russia’s post-Soviet security bloc. Meanwhile, back in the U.S., Joe Biden’s border crisis continues apace. Biden’s unsecured southern border has resulted in more than 65,000 unaccompanied minors caught illegally crossing into the U.S. since he took office (out of well over a million total
migrants).
Border Patrol scrambles to fill gap in wall left by Biden administration . . . When President Biden took office in January, his administration ordered an immediate halt on the construction of a 30-foot high border fence, leaving a gaping hole at one of the most vulnerable stretches of the US-Mexican border. The 20-foot gap in the frontier wall at Border Monument Three — one of the 276 original markers erected after the
Mexican-American War in 1848 — was allowing thousands of smugglers and migrants to cross into the US with relative ease. “The contractors just stopped,” said Richard Barragan, a Border Patrol agent in the El Paso Sector, pointing to the broken wall and a brace leftover by federal contractors still hanging from the iron fence when they hastily abandoned construction in January. Desperate to stem the migrant flow at the remote, mountainous site at the confluence of the Texas, Mexico and
New Mexico border, Border Patrol agents took it upon themselves to plug the hole — with old truck tires and pieces of stray construction materials that were left behind by the federal contractors. New York Post
Sharing with you my appearance on One America News.
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Taliban Claim to Have Conquered Last Pocket of Resistance in Afghanistan . . . The Taliban claimed Monday to have overcome the last pocket of resistance in Afghanistan, releasing images they said showed the conquest of the provincial capital of Panjshir, a region that has held out against the group’s takeover of the country. The Taliban, who took control of most of the country this summer, culminating with the capital city of Kabul on
Aug. 15, made the declaration as they prepare to announce a new government. On Monday, pro-Taliban social-media accounts posted a video of what they said were their fighters—whom they call mujahedeen or holy warriors—raising the group’s white flag over the governor’s house in the provincial capital of Panjshir. Other pictures and videos showing their presence there were also published. Wall Street Journal
China Forms ‘New Axis of Collaborators’ With Pakistan and Taliban . . . The communist regime in China has created a new alliance to challenge the United States and Western democracy, according to Johnnie Moore, a former U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) commissioner. “They’re creating a new axis of collaborators against the Western democratic order,” Moore said, referring to the alliance of China, Pakistan, and
the Taliban, in a recent interview with The Epoch Times’ “American Thought Leaders” program. He called the alliance a “geopolitical catastrophe.” China has openly backed the Taliban in recent months. Epoch Times
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Why a Covid-19 Vaccine for Children Is Taking So Long . . . The countdown started as soon as researchers removed the Covid-19 vaccine vials from the freezer at Senders Pediatrics. They had just two hours once the vials thawed to prepare the shots and give them to young children in the clinical trial. A lot had to go right first. The containers holding the shot from Pfizer and BioNTech had to travel across town to a pharmacy without
letting the vaccine become too warm. Pharmacists working in a sterile room, free of contamination, needed to assemble the shots in small doses safe enough for children. Finally, the vaccines had to be driven back to Senders for injection in the children as young as six months. A mistake could jeopardize study results, render the vaccine ineffective or delay the trial. “We do studies in babies all of the time, and we’ve never had to do something with this many steps,” said Shelly
Senders, the pediatrician whose practice 10 miles outside Cleveland serves as one of the 162 sites world-wide that parents are counting on to test Covid-19 shots in children. Wall Street Journal
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On Labor Day 2021, the end of enhanced unemployment benefits bring hope to US small businesses . . . This Labor Day, it's small businesses that are celebrating. That's because this Labor Day coincides with the end of enhanced federal unemployment benefits that were paying people not to work. These payouts have contributed to a record labor shortage that prevents small businesses from bringing the economy back. Oxford
Economics estimates that roughly 11.2 million Americans will lose some form of federal unemployment benefits this week. This will help fill the 10.1 million available jobs nationwide. There are still 5.3 million fewer people working than before the pandemic. On Thursday, the Labor Department announced its weekly jobless claims numbers, which suggest that overly generous unemployment benefits are to blame for this labor market slack. They show that about 60 percent more Americans filed
continued unemployment claims in late August than in early 2020. Fox Business
Four-day workweek gains traction despite pushback . . . The long Labor Day weekend could become standard if the four-day workweek catches on. Many U.S. companies are experimenting with a shortened workweek because of pandemic-related concerns, and legislation calling for a 32-hour workweek has been introduced in Congress. August job postings mentioning four-day workweeks climbed about 75% — 1,162 per 1 million compared with 657 per 1
million — from the same month in 2016, according to data from employment website Indeed. The number of jobs with four-day workweeks posted last month was 16% higher than the 1,003 jobs per 1 million a year earlier. In late July, Rep. Mark Takano, California Democrat, introduced legislation that would reduce the standard workweek from 40 hours to 32 hours and allow nonexempt employees to clock in overtime for any hours they work beyond that limit. Washington Times
US workers need better skills and more power . . . US workers have suffered stagnant earnings and great inequality for several decades. Since 1979, median U.S. worker wages have risen only 10-20 percent, while profits have grown dramatically. Inequality between workers has also risen, especially between high school and college-educated workers. Pay for corporate execs or financial managers has skyrocketed. When trying to
explain these outcomes, economists are of two minds.
One group stresses competitive market forces — like technical change and globalization — and the fact that college-educated workers are more likely to work with new technology or imports rather than be replaced by them. Indeed, both technology and international trade are responsible for the disappearance of millions of good-paying jobs, in manufacturing and other sectors, for those with high school or less education. As “artificial intelligence” performs a widening range of tasks
traditionally done by workers, they will need “lifelong learning” to gain new skills and perform new tasks that the machines still can’t do.
But another group of economists stresses institutional changes, like lower federal minimum wages and reduced power of unions. They also emphasize the growing power of employers in labor markets — as industries become less competitive, firms push noncompete clauses, and employers outsource labor functions to other companies. The
Hill
Here's how to squeeze an extra 24% out of Social Security . . . The great thing about Social Security is that it's guaranteed to pay you a monthly benefit for life. And the higher that benefit, the more financial freedom you'll enjoy in retirement. Many seniors are routinely disappointed when they find that their benefits can't cover all of their bills. To be fair, Social Security was never designed to replace workers' paychecks in full.
But a lot of people run into trouble when they realize what limited buying power their benefits give them. It's for this reason that it pays to do whatever you can to eke more money out of Social Security. And one simple move on your part could result in a benefit that's 24% higher -- for life. Fox
Business
UN Will Continue Sending Aid to Afghans, Taliban Says After Meeting . . . The United Nations has promised continued “humanitarian assistance” to Afghanistan after meeting with the Taliban, a spokesperson for the terrorist group said on Sunday.
“The U.N. delegation promised continuation of humanitarian assistance to the Afghan people, saying he would call for further assistance to Afghanistan during the coming meeting of donor countries,” Taliban spokesman Suhail Shaheen said on Twitter following a meeting with the U.N. Under-Secretary-General for humanitarian affairs. “The IEA [Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan] delegation thanked the U.N. delegation, assuring them of cooperation and provision of needed facilities,” he added. Epoch Times
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Labor Day: No justice for whistleblowers . . .
Another Labor Day. Another day when there is no justice for thousands of whistleblowers. Over the past four years, numerous bills have been languishing in Congress designed to close loopholes and end delays faced by whistleblowers who report frauds or life-threatening safety violations. Despite numerous bipartisan bills being introduced, Congress has yet to act on any major whistleblower fix. Cynicism towards whistleblowers is wide spread in the government bureaucracy, including Congress.
Thousands of federal employees cannot obtain any justice, literally because there are no officials able to rule on their cases. President Biden has now nominated all three members, but the Homeland Security Committee (which must initially approve the nominations) has yet to schedule a hearing. Consequently, thousands of federal employee whistleblowers continue to be denied their rights. The Hill
Recommend you read the entire article. It will explain, in part, why the government bureaucracy is impossible to fix. It's because the whistleblower process in the federal government is practically non-existent. Most government workers keep silent even when they witness fraud, abuse, and incompetence. Those who speak up typically lose their jobs because the corrupt bureaucrats have weaponized every legitimate federal process -- security clearance, whistleblower
protections, you name it -- to target and neutralize their opponents, in order to preserve their lifetime employment, rather than to make the government function efficiently.
One attorney told me this, when the intelligence bureaucracy retaliated at me for challenging the "experts' " incompetent approach to dealing with the Russian threat. "The government knows that it has unlimited funds (courtesy of US taxpayer) and that you do not. The government apparatchiks drag on administrative or legal cases, until an employee runs out of money. The feds believe they can do whatever they want and would likely get away
with it. Remember, after it has been exposed that the upper echelons of the Intelligence Community spread Russian-fed disinformation about the "Russia-Trump collusion," through a false "intelligence assessment" (ICA) no one lost their jobs. I've written about this in my book.
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I am having trouble choosing something for this section today. So, here's something that's not funny but important. Rebekah
Sky News Boss Lambasts YouTube for Suspension, ‘Opaque’ Guidelines . . . Claims that Sky News Australia is spreading COVID-19 misinformation are “frankly ridiculous,” according to CEO Paul Whittaker, who issued a stinging criticism of video-sharing giant YouTube, at a parliamentary inquiry on Monday.
Fronting the Standing Committee on Environment and Communications, Whittaker questioned why the Google-owned tech giant could be an arbiter of content. “There is no expectation that our viewers agree with every opinion expressed by every host, guest, or panellist,” he said. “But it now appears commonplace to discredit any debate on contentious issues as ‘misinformation’.” “YouTube’s actions make clear that it is not a neutral platform, but a publisher selectively broadcasting content
and censoring certain views, while allowing videos that are patently false, misogynistic, and racist to proliferate,” Whittaker said. Epoch Times
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Rebekah
Rebekah Koffler
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