Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
October 6, 2021
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
Doesn’t Anyone in the U.S. Government Like the U.S.? . . . “Woke” seems like too nice a term for people who casually toss around vicious smears against the United States. Particularly galling is when rhetorical attacks on U.S. liberty come from tax-consuming officials at the most dubious arms of the federal government. Did the Federal Reserve recently publish one such attack? The Fed’s recent tolerance of inflation in our nation’s
currency is disturbing enough. But however misguided the Fed’s monetary policies and bank supervision may be, one hopes that Fed officials are at least attempting to preserve our nation and the vibrant free economy that made the U.S. the most prosperous nation on earth.
Now along comes a research paper from a Fed economist that is ostensibly a challenge to conventional views on inflation expectations. The Fed’s Jeremy Rudd writes: Mainstream economics is replete with ideas that “everyone knows” to be true, but that are actually arrant nonsense... No doubt, one reason why this situation arises is because the economy is a complicated system that is inherently difficult to understand... Is this state of affairs ever harmful or dangerous? One natural
source of concern is if dubious but widely held ideas serve as the basis for consequential policy decisions.
The truly remarkable message arrives in a footnote that appears right after the passage quoted above. The footnote reads:
I leave aside the deeper concern that the primary role of mainstream economics in our society is to provide an apologetics for a criminally oppressive, unsustainable, and unjust social order. At a threshold level, is this really economics research or do we have here another case of a Fed official using the institution to advance a political agenda? Wall Street Journal
Bolsheviks have invaded the Fed. Add to this mix Biden't pick for Currency Comptroller commie Saule Omarova -- who seeks to undo US banking as we know it -- and our economic system will be subverted from within. I have submitted an Op-Ed, to a major outlet, about the potential
consequences of having Omarova and her ilk in USG. But it's very tough to get it published. My Op-Eds are usually the "big picture" kind and most pubs are focused on the "bright and shiny objects," the Gabby Petito type. Let's see if I can get it placed in a major pub. Rebekah
Democrats Wrangle Over How to Shrink $3.5 Trillion Proposal . . . Democrats wrestled Tuesday with how to squeeze their wish list of programs and tax changes into a social policy and climate package whose size and scope centrists in the party are willing to support. President Biden acknowledged in a series of meetings with Democrats this week and on Friday that a package once pegged at $3.5 trillion would have to be
smaller, given opposition from centrist Senate Democrats to a bill of that magnitude. Now, they are grappling with the tougher next step: deciding exactly how much narrower—and which of—their proposed child care, education or health programs would have to get trimmed or culled. Wall Street
Journal
Democratic vaccine crackdown gives GOP opening with mandate-wary Black voters . . .The Democratic embrace of vaccine mandates is running into resistance from some prominent Black athletes and activists, an unforeseen political side effect with implications for the party’s grip on a crucial voting bloc ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. A bevy of NBA stars has spoken out against the COVID-19 vaccination requirements. Golden State Warriors
veteran Draymond Green defended vaccine-hesitant teammate Andrew Wiggins by arguing that mandating the shot “goes against everything that America stands for.” “I think you have to honor people’s feelings and their own personal beliefs, and I think that’s been lost when it comes to vaccinated and unvaccinated,” Mr. Green said Friday at a press conference. “You say we live in the land of the free. Well, you’re not giving anyone freedom because you’re making people do something, essentially.”
Washington Times
Liberals Are Trying To Save Themselves From The Far Left Ahead Of 2022 . . . Moderates within the Democratic party are seemingly recognizing that their compatriots to the left are going to trigger headaches in the 2022 midterms. After the 2020 election, despite President Joe Biden’s victory at the top of the ticket, center-left Democrats fumed with members of The Squad and their allies for allegedly causing damage down the ballot. They
made accusations that slogans like “Defund the Police” and advocacy for left-wing economic policies scared off independent voters, who were willing to vote for Biden but not to give him a large majority in Congress. Daily Caller
Manchin's 'red line' on abortion splits Democrats . . . Democrats are clashing over whether to include in their sweeping spending plan a decades-old amendment that blocks Medicaid and other federal health programs from being used to cover abortions. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), already a key stumbling block to Democratic unity on the $3.5 trillion reconciliation bill, has drawn a line in the sand around the issue, but others in the party
are split over whether to include the Hyde amendment in a portion of the spending bill that would create a new federal program to provide health care coverage to low-income individuals in GOP-led states that haven’t adopted Medicaid expansions under the Affordable Care Act. In recent days, Manchin has signaled he would not support the package without the amendment, which bans the use of federal funds for abortions in most cases and has been included in annual government funding bills since
it was introduced by then-Rep. Henry Hyde (R-Ill.) in the 1970s. The Hill
Six Key Takeaways From Senate Hearing With Facebook Whistleblower . . . The Senate heard testimony Tuesday from former Facebook employee Frances Haugen, who came before the Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security to raise the alarm about practices in Facebook that she said demanded congressional action. While there was broadly bipartisan consensus that regulations on the social media platform should be
strengthened, Democrats and Republicans emphasized different concerns throughout the course of the hearing. The hearing itself was initially prompted by an expose by The Wall Street Journal that showed Facebook had hidden research data on the harmful effects of its platform. However, the conversation between Haugen and the subcommittee delved deeper into the company’s practices. Here are the six key takeaways from the three-hour-long hearing. Epoch Times
Republicans trying to stop Biden’s IRS from snooping in your checking account . . . Republicans in Congress have introduced legislation aimed at stopping a proposal from the Biden administration that would force banks to report every customer transaction of $600 or more to the Internal Revenue Service. Sen. Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala., introduced the Protecting Financial Privacy Act of 2021 last week, which would “prohibit any Federal agency
from requiring financial institutions to report on the financial transactions of their customers.” Tuberville told FOX Business’ Larry Kudlow that the legislation is aimed at stopping “the Gestapo agency of the IRS” from spying on Americans through their bank accounts. “They want everything,” the Alabama Republican said of the IRS. “They want to know how much money you got in the bank, how much you’re spending if you bought a wedding dress or a gun – they’re going to have a list a mile
long on you. White House Dossier
The more power the state gets through innocent-seeming “programs” designed the “help,” the more it thinks it has a right to do whatever it wants with your life. At least some Republicans are trying to put a stop to the latest plan to catch tax cheats by probing everyone’s checking accounts.
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CIA sounds alarm over capture, killing of dozens of informants . . . The CIA has called on its frontline spies to step up their operational security around the world after dozens of informants have been arrested, killed or otherwise compromised in recent years, the New York Times reported Tuesday. A cable sent last week from top US counterintelligence officials to every agency station and base included the exact number of human sources
arrested or executed by rival services — a detail that is typically a closely guarded secret, the Times reported. The document lays several issues at the feet of case officers responsible for recruiting new informants — including poor tradecraft, underestimating the counterintelligence prowess of foreign agencies, and focusing on recruitment without paying proper attention to potential risks. It goes on to remind officers to focus on those issues in addition to bringing new
sources into the fold. New York Post
Keep sending tall white guys with a buzzcut with no language skills as HUMINTers to Asia. It's written all over their faces who they are, so people they meet with are at risk. I can recognize a KGB person or even an ordinary Russian a mile away. I don't need to hear them speak. Our Green Beret guys, on the other hand, are trained super well. I was once stunned at how well this one Green Beret adopted a Russian persona. But it takes years of training, something
that normally Americans don't have patience or are willing to pay for, as far as our national security. Consuming a $7 Venti Starbucks latte, on the other hand - no problemo!
U.S. senators suggest expelling 300 Russian diplomats amid embassy dispute . . . U.S. Democratic and Republican senators urged President Joe Biden on Tuesday to expel 300 Russian diplomats from the United States if Moscow does not issue more visas for Americans to represent Washington in Russia. The suggestion from the leaders of the Senate foreign relations and intelligence committees would mark a sharp escalation in an ongoing dispute
over embassy staffing amid tension between Washington and Moscow. Russia in August banned the U.S. embassy in Moscow from retaining, hiring or contracting Russian or third-country staff, except for guards, forcing the mission to let go 182 employees and dozens of contractors, the State Department said. That meant there are only about 100 U.S. diplomats in Russia, compared with 400 Russian diplomats across the United States, the senators said. Reuters
You understand what some of the 'diplomats' do, right? This disparity in numbers means that the Russians can accomplish more of their 'mission' here in the US than we can in Russia. There's also a big difference in the mission: US focuses on collection of secrets, Russia - on covert influence, understanding the society and how to manipulate its citizens, plus stealing secrets. Cultural difference, which translates in differences in tradecraft.
'Totalitarian tyranny': Parents groups slam AG Garland for turning FBI on their activism . . . Parents who protest public school policies on race, gender and COVID-19 are crying foul after Attorney General Merrick Garland promised to "discourage" and prosecute "harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence" against school boards, administrators, teachers and staff. His "mobilization of [the] FBI against parents is consistent with the
complete weaponization of the federal government against ideological opponents," Rhode Island mother Nicole Solas, who is waging a public records battle with her school district over race-related curriculum, told Just the News.
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NATO head: China is not an enemy . . . Jens Stoltenberg commented on the future of arms agreements with Russia and China. If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em — kind of. ”We have seen the demise of some very important arms control agreements over the last years, mainly because of violations by Russia — something called the INF Treaty, which banned all intermediate range weapon systems or missiles. The good news is that Russia and the
United States actually were able to agree to extend something called the New START agreement, which is the agreement that put limits on the long range nuclear warheads or warheads on long range missiles. This is important because it gives us some time then to try to build on that and to make progress on the arms control agenda...And then, of course, China has to be included because China is a global power and with a global role also comes global responsibilities. And therefore, we are working to
find ways to include China in arms control.” Politico
Seriously?
Biden says he and China's Xi agree to abide by Taiwan agreement . . . President Joe Biden said on Tuesday that he has spoken to Chinese President Xi Jinping about Taiwan and they agreed to abide by the "Taiwan agreement", as tensions have ratcheted up between Taipei and Beijing. "I've spoken with Xi about Taiwan. We agree ... we'll abide by the Taiwan agreement," he said. "We made it clear that I don't think he should be doing anything
other than abiding by the agreement." Biden appeared to be referring to Washington's long-standing policy under which it officially recognizes Beijing rather than Taipei, and the Taiwan Relations Act, which makes clear that the U.S. decision to establish diplomatic ties with Beijing instead of Taiwan rests upon the expectation that the future of Taiwan will be determined by peaceful means. Reuters
Chinese Detective Details Torture Campaign Against Uyghurs . . . A former Chinese police detective on Tuesday told in detail how the Communist Party is carrying out a torture campaign against Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang, China. In an exclusive interview with CNN, the ex-detective, who asked to be called Jiang to protect relatives in China, described the brutal campaign to forcibly detain and torture Uyghurs in the region. Detectives
interrogate and beat Uyghurs, including women and children as young as 14 years old. The police torture detainees who do not comply through waterboarding, starvation, electrocution, or rape, among other methods. None of the detainees have committed any crimes, Jiang said, but torture ceases only when they have confessed to subversion. They are subsequently moved to prisons or internment camps. Washington Free Beacon
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Nothing significant to report today.
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Presidency costs Trump financially as he is bumped off Forbes 400 list . . . Wasn’t Donald Trump accused of running for president to make a profit? Instead, it appears to have cost him. A lot. Hanging on to his assets after becoming president instead of just putting them in a fund cost him $2 billion.
What is clear is that Trump, by taking strong stands, ensured that political views inform decisions about whether to stay at his properties. If he wanted to just make money, he would have tried to please everybody, not just some people. Trump’s fortune dropped to $2.5 bill, according to the Forbes 400 on Tuesday, which is $400 million short of the cutoff needed to make the list.
This is the first time in 25 years Trump has not been on Forbes 400, with him on the top half of the list from 1997 to 2016 until he became president. White House Dossier
Local banks seek to sink IRS personal account snooping plan by rallying customers . . . Local financial institutions have pushed customers in recent days to speak out against a Treasury Department proposal that would require the IRS to track transactions valued at $600 or more, joining Republican lawmakers who have criticized the plan. The local branches have relied on social media to raise awareness regarding their concerns about the
proposal. Backed by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig, the proposal would require banks to report data from accounts with at least $600 in them, or at least $600 worth of transactions.
The proposed change is one of many tax-reporting proposals that could be included in President Biden’s $3.5 trillion spending bill. Fox Business
Soviet Playbook.
Facebook fires back after whistleblower claims . . . Following former Facebook product manager-turned-whistleblower Frances Haugen's shocking testimony to the Senate Commerce Committee, Science, and Transportation Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Data Security on Tuesday, the social media giant is firing back. Facebook Director of Policy Communications Lena Pietsch blasted Haugen, noting she "worked for the company
for less than two years, had no direct reports, never attended a decision-point meeting with C-level executives – and testified more than six times to not working on the subject matter in question." Fox Business
It was clear even for those of us who never worked for FB, even for 2 years, what it was doing to our children and our society.
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Angelo Codevilla, Whose Writings Anticipated Trumpism, Dies at 78 . . . Angelo M. Codevilla, a conservative political theorist whose writings in the 1980s helped define the hawkish wing of the Republican Party and over the last decade both predicted and gave intellectual shape to the populist revolt against the party’s establishment that coalesced behind Donald J. Trump, died on Sept. 20 in Tracy, Calif. He was 78. His
son David said the cause was a car accident, which occurred while Dr. Codevilla was returning to his vineyard near Sacramento after a medical appointment on the campus of Stanford University. Dr. Codevilla (pronounced co-deh-VILLA) came to prominence in the early 1980s when, as an aide to Senator Malcolm Wallop, a Wyoming Republican, he was a leading advocate of a space-based antimissile system, a sharp critic of the Cold War arms control regime and a sworn enemy of the C.I.A., which he
said should be broken up. New York Times
Please consider reading the whole thing, especially if you don't know who Angelo was. Big loss. My mentor sent this to me with a note that NYT didn't do a bad job on this obituary, considering Angelo's views.
The Racial Hoax That’s Killing America . . . David Horowitz in his latest book, I Can’t Breathe: How a Racial Hoax is Killing America, he digs into the myth and truth of Black Lives Matter and “systemic racism.” Here are some excerpts:
For the Black Lives Matter campaign to be able to launch its destructive attacks on American cities, raise hundreds of millions of dollars in the process, and gain the support of a major political party for its actions, is a remarkable — even unthinkable — achievement. It was possible only because the campaign was driven by a moral argument so powerful that it touched the hearts of all Americans and intimidated critics from stepping forward to challenge it. That moral argument was framed by a
series of capital crimes allegedly committed by a justice system that was “systemically racist,” regularly targeting black Americans because of their skin color. The litany of victims from minority communities outraged a majority of Americans who had believed — or wanted to believe — that America had overcome its racial past and had put such legal lynchings behind it. Patriot Post
And Jews Will Still Vote Democrat . . . There is almost nothing Democrats can do to damage America or Israel that would change most American Jews’ political leanings. The latest example took place just last week. A college student speaking to Vice President Kamala Harris, a Democrat, condemned America for supporting Israel, and charged Israel with committing “ethnic genocide” against Palestinians. Harris’ said, “Your voice, your
perspective, your experience, your truth cannot be suppressed, and it must be heard.” It was indeed the student’s truth, which means it was a lie. “Your truth” always means “a lie.” When a person says something that is true, people don’t say, “that is your truth.” They say, “that’s true.” And indeed, what the girl said to Harris was a complete lie. Not a partial lie, a complete lie.
As a rule—except on the left with regard to Israel—groups that are victims of genocide decrease in number. See explanation in Daily Signal
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New species of killer whale discovered, hunts large sea mammals . . . Canadian researchers said they identified a new, mysterious kind of killer whale that hunts large mammals — like grey whale calves — and prefers the Pacific's deep-water canyons for hunting than along the coast, according to reports. Josh McInnes, a researcher from the University of British Columbia, said these "outer coast transient whales" are
believed to be a subset of transient orcas known as Bigg’s killer whales. But he said these whales have a distinct vocal dialect from their cousins and spend most of their time cruising the continental shelf off California. Their calls tend to have a higher pitch. Hakai Magazine reported that scientists have long assumed that killer whales found from "southeast Alaska to Southern California belonged to a single west coast population." The report said researchers observed 100,000 images and
identified 150 members of the new group. Fox News
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Rebekah
Rebekah Koffler
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