Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
October 19, 2021
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
No Clear Contenders In 2024 . . . Opinion. Looking ahead to the presidential election of 2024, it's much easier to compile a list of possible contenders who can't win the grand prize than it is to name those who could. Our most prominent politicians all look like sure losers in the upcoming battle. This anomaly contributes to the sour state of our present politics and offers scant encouragement to followers of either Joe Biden or
Donald Trump.
Age remains the most powerful impediment to a second term for either the 46th or 45th president.
In the unlikely event that Biden receives a renewal on his White House lease, he'd take his second oath of office at 82, while Trump 2.0 would assume power at 78. While recent polling indicates that both Trump and Biden still command overwhelming support within their respective parties, that doesn't hide the weariness of two aging presidents—or the discernible wariness of the public. Neither candidate would win automatic renomination Newsweek
New video from Jan. 6 shows officers allowing people to enter Capitol . . . A pair of lengthy videos showcasing a different perspective of what happened on Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol have finally been released to the public, despite objections from the Biden administration. According to BuzzFeed News, the surveillance videos show Capitol police officers allowing hundreds of people to enter the government, after being vastly outnumbered.
Just the News
Was the January 6 Riot an Armed Insurrection? . . . Commentary. The prevailing narrative of the January 6 riot is that it was an “armed insurrection.” Since that day, congressional Democrats and their media mouthpieces have clung desperately to this description, lest the American people begin to yawn at all the fuss they’re making over it. The FBI, unhelpfully, calls it an act of “domestic terrorism.” Actually, the events of
January 6 are more accurately described as a political protest that got out of hand.
About 670 people have been charged, many of them with misdemeanors such as "Parading, Demonstrating, or Picketing in a Capitol Building.” Yet, the FBI calls it an act of domestic terrorism. Of the cases involving weapons, there are four main charges: “Assaulting, Resisting, or Impeding Certain Officers Using a Dangerous Weapon”; “Entering and Remaining in a Restricted Building with a Deadly or Dangerous Weapon”; “Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building with a Deadly
or Dangerous Weapon”; and “Engaging in Physical Violence in a Restricted Building with a Deadly or Dangerous Weapon.” The “weapon” was that age-old instrument of death and destruction, the flagpole. Patriot Post
Soviet Playbook. If this were happening in Russia or China, the same people who are referring to the Jan. 6 protestors "insurrectionists", would be calling them now political prisoners and denouncing the authoritarians in Moscow and Being for suppressing political opposition.
Biden secretly flying underage migrants into NY in dead of night . . . By Miranda Devine. Planeloads of underage migrants are being flown secretly into suburban New York in an effort by President Biden’s administration to quietly resettle them across the region. The charter flights originate in Texas, where the ongoing border crisis has overwhelmed local immigration officials, and have been underway since at least
August.
Last week, The Post saw two planes land at the Westchester County Airport, where most of the passengers who got off appeared to be children and teens, with a small portion appearing to be men in their 20s. Westchester County cops stood by as the passengers — whose flights arrived at 10:49 p.m. Wednesday and 9:52 p.m. Friday — got off and piled into buses. New York Post
Oh, no! My poor sister and her husband had moved to the Westchester County, away from all the "diversity," so they could raise kids in a crime-free, family-friendly area. But now "diversity" is chasing them there. :-)
Don't worry, they are the epitome of "diversity" themselves - she is Asian looking (we were born in Kazakhstan, after all, close to the Chinese border) and her husband is Colombian American). She jokingly tells me her family alone fulfills the "diversity quota" in their small town and her kids look like they are straight from the cover of the National Geographic. No need to "diversify" the area any further. ;-)
Biden Banking Nominee, a ‘Lenin Scholar,’ Is Fellow at Pro-China Think Tank . . . President Joe Biden’s pick to regulate the nation’s banking system is a fellow at a think tank that one of the Chinese government’s propaganda agencies has touted as helpful to Beijing’s foreign influence efforts. Saule Omarova, who received a Lenin Scholarship at Moscow State University and has refused to turn over a thesis she wrote on Karl Marx in the
late 1980s, joined the Berggruen Institute last year as a senior fellow. The institute promotes progressive causes and has developed close ties to Chinese leaders. Berggruen’s position on China has earned praise from the Cyberspace Administration of China, which touted a relationship with Berggruen as an opportunity to "influence" foreign audiences. This is the latest in a series of controversies for Omarova, whom Biden nominated to lead the Office of the Comptroller of the
Currency. Washington Free Beacon
Jan. 6 Committee Tests Congress’s Waning Power to Command Testimony . . . Congress’s powers to conduct investigations in the face of defiant witnesses have eroded sharply in recent years—a trend once again on display as former President Donald Trump and his associates gear up for a legal battle fighting demands from investigators probing the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol. The congressional committee investigating the attack has
demanded a wide array of Mr. Trump’s presidential records from the National Archives and has subpoenaed the former president’s allies and aides for documents and testimony. Mr. Trump’s lawyers have responded by making untested claims of executive privilege that would bar people outside of government from discussing their conversations with the president. One of those people, Steve Bannon, who was briefly a top White House aide to Mr. Trump but hasn’t had a government job since 2017, has
said he won’t comply with the congressional subpoena, citing guidance from Mr. Trump’s lawyers. Wall Street Journal
Biden CBP Nominee Puts Admin to the Left of Obama on Immigration . . . President Joe Biden’s pick to lead Customs and Border Protection, while working as police chief in Tucson, Ariz., rejected funding for a border security program championed by the Obama administration, the latest example of the White House’s commitment to undo years of immigration policy once thought of as a consensus between Democrats and Republicans. Chris Magnus, a
champion of softer policing tactics, rejected a federal grant in January 2020 that assisted border towns, arguing the program, first implemented by the Bush administration in 2006, was inconsistent with the Tucson Police Department’s priorities "and the expectation of the community we serve." Washington Free Beacon
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‘War Is Real’: Defend Taiwan or Give It the Bomb . . . “The island’s society must be warned that they better not believe the ‘rock solid’ promise of the U.S. because Washington will never fight to the death with the Chinese mainland for the island’s secession,” the Chinese Communist Party’s Global Times proclaimed on Oct. 14, referring to Taiwan. The words, contained in an editorial, reflects the Party’s propaganda
line, and that line almost certainly reflects the thinking of Chinese leaders. There has in recent months been a dangerous erosion in deterrence. U.S. President Joe Biden can reestablish deterrence by offering Taiwan a mutual defense treaty. If he does not want to do that, he should either base American nuclear weapons in Taiwan or transfer such weapons to the island so it can defend itself. It is clear Beijing no longer respects America, something especially evident in March when
China’s top two diplomats traveled to Anchorage to lecture, in derisive tones, America’s secretary of state and national security advisor. Epoch Times
State Department IG to probe Biden admin's chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal . . . The State Department's inspector general is launching a series of investigations into the Biden administration's last diplomatic moves in Afghanistan. The reviews will focus on the State Department's Special Immigrant Visa program, Afghans processed for refugee admission into the U.S., resettlement of refugees and visa recipients, and the emergency evacuation
of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, according to an Oct. 15 memo to Secretary of State Blinken. Diana Shaw, the acting inspector general at State, told Congress that her office was launching "several oversight projects" related to the end of the U.S. military and diplomatic missions in Afghanistan. Fox News
52 terrorists heading toward U.S. blocked by Panama, congressman says . . . Panama has caught 52 people on terrorist watch lists who were en route to the U.S., a Republican congressman said in a new podcast Monday, citing a conversation with Panama’s foreign minister. Rep. Tony Gonzales of Texas was speaking on the Republican National Committee’s “Real America” podcast when he revealed his conversation with the top Panamanian diplomat,
who said there are more than 100,000 migrants in her country headed toward the U.S. right now. Washington Times
Trump's Presidential Website Hacked and Defaced . . . Former President Donald Trump's presidential website, action.donaldjtrump.com, was hacked and defaced on Monday morning. Website visitors were brought to a page that had been taken over by Turkish hacktivist group RootAyyildiz.
"Do not be like those who forgot Allah, so Ally made them forget themselves. Here they really went astray," the site read.
The message was also written in Turkish. Links to the hackers' Instagram and Facebook were also listed on the webpage.
RootAyyildiz has claimed responsibility for a number of other cyberattacks targeting politicians around the world. A declassified report released by the National Intelligence Council in March listed the group's hack on the Biden-Harris presidential campaign website, vote.joebiden.com, which lasted more than a day. Newsweek
Sinclair Broadcast Group hit with ransomware attack . . . Sinclair Broadcast Group has confirmed that the media company was hit over the weekend with a ransomware attack, saying some operations were impacted and data was stolen from its network. Sinclair is one of the largest owners of television stations in the U.S., and several of its stations went down on Sunday, leading reporters to take to social media to explain they were
experiencing "technical issues." Fox Business
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China, Russia navy ships jointly sail through Japan strait . . . - A group of 10 naval vessels from China and Russia sailed through a strait separating Japan's main island and its northern island of Hokkaido on Monday, the Japanese government said, adding that it is closely watching such activities. It was the first time Japan has confirmed the passage of Chinese and Russian naval vessels sailing together through the Tsugaru Strait,
which separates the Sea of Japan from the Pacific. While the strait is regarded as international waters, Japan's ties with China have long been plagued by conflicting claims over a group of tiny East China Sea islets. Tokyo has a territorial dispute with Moscow, as well. "The government is closely watching Chinese and Russian naval vessels' activities around Japan like this one with high interest," Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihiko Isozaki told a regular news conference on
Tuesday. Reuters
Brussels vows to punish Poland for challenging supremacy of EU law . . . The European Commission will take steps to punish Poland for challenging the supremacy of EU law, its head has vowed as she condemned Warsaw for “calling into question the foundations of the European Union”. Ursula von der Leyen, commission president, said on Tuesday that Brussels had three tools to hit back at Poland, ranging from a legal challenge, to a formal
sanction that could withhold tens of billions of euros in EU funds, and a political process that has the power to strip the country of bloc membership rights. “We cannot and we will not allow our common values to be put at risk. The commission will act,” von der Leyen told the European parliament in a strongly critical speech, as Poland’s prime minister listened in the chamber. “This ruling . . . is a direct challenge to the unity of the European legal order.” Financial Times
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Doctors Can Prescribe Ivermectin, Hydroxychloroquine Off-Label for COVID-19: Nebraska AG . . . Nebraska Attorney General Doug Peterson issued a legal opinion saying that his office won’t seek disciplinary action against doctors who prescribe hydroxychloroquine or ivermectin as off-label medicines to treat or prevent COVID-19, as long as they are not engaging in any misconduct. The opinion (pdf), issued on Oct. 15, was in response to a
request from Dannette Smith, CEO of the state’s Department of Health, which licenses and disciplines doctors. The Republican attorney general said in the opinion that his office finds “the available data does not justify filing disciplinary actions against physicians simply because they prescribe ivermectin or hydroxychloroquine to prevent or treat COVID-19.” Epoch Times
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Biden’s IRS Plan Will Crush Normal Americans . . . Analysis. Despite the White House’s claim that it will pay for the Build Back Better Act through taxes on the wealthy, one provision will impact almost every American with a bank account and possibly swamp citizens already living paycheck to paycheck. The provision would allow the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) to require “financial institutions [to] report data on financial
accounts in an information return” when those accounts hold more than $600 or are involved in transactions totaling more than $600 in a calendar year. The provision applies to “all business and personal accounts from financial institutions, including bank, loan, and investment accounts,” according to a Treasury Department fact sheet. Daily Caller
Amazon Seeks to Hire 150,000 Seasonal U.S. Workers . . . Amazon is aiming to hire 150,000 seasonal workers in the U.S., a move to get needed workers for the holidays against a tight labor market. The number of seasonal hires is more than the 100,000 Amazon announced last year and matches the number that rival Walmart Inc. said it would add this year. The additions build on Amazon’s plans, unveiled in September, to increase its ranks
of permanent employees by 125,000. The e-commerce company is also adding 40,000 people to its tech and corporate staff. Wall Street Journal
US has dipped into recession as worried consumers flash warning signs: economists . . . The US economy is careening into another recession, two noted economists warn, as worries about the labor market and the coronavirus have worsened dramatically over the past two months. The alarm bells are ringing as bad news piles up at the economy’s door: Prices on everyday goods are rising sharply as inflation is stuck at 30-year highs. Supply
chains snarled during the pandemic mean some store shelves are bare. A labor shortage in some industries has left jobs undone. And the ultra-contagious Delta variant has put a damper on the rush back to the office. “We are entering a recession — we are on the precipice of a recession,” one of the study’s authors, David Blanchflower, told The Post. New York Post
RV Capital of America Tops WSJ/Realtor.com Housing Index in Third Quarter . . . Small U.S. cities dominated The Wall Street Journal/Realtor.com Emerging Housing Markets Index in the third quarter, as high housing costs and remote-work opportunities drive many home buyers to seek out more living and outdoor space. Many smaller metro areas around the U.S. benefited in the past year from inward migration, as residents of bigger cities took
advantage of remote work to seek cheaper housing and a different lifestyle. Vacation destinations also boomed. Elkhart, Ind., which bills itself as the RV capital of the world because its region is the country’s leading manufacturer of recreational vehicles, topped the housing index this quarter, followed by Rapid City, S.D., Topeka, Kan., Raleigh, N.C., and Jefferson City, Mo. Wall Street Journal
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Bible shortage may leave holiday buyers without a prayer . . . Sky Cline, who sells high-end Bibles via the internet, is staring down serious supply chain issues with less than six weeks to the “Black Friday” kickoff of Christmas shopping. “We’ve tried to buy up … all the Bibles we can get” from European suppliers, Mr. Cline, owner of EvangelicalBible.com and Schuyler Publishers, said from his office in Richmond,
Virginia. The Bibles that Mr. Cline sells, bound in luxury hides and printed with wide margins for note-taking or in specialized formats, can cost $230 or more. He was so concerned about supply last week that his company emailed would-be buyers a photo of cargo ships awaiting port space and urgent advice to shop early. Washington Times
Back in the USSR, Bible was illegal. My American friends from Alabama smuggled a tiny Authorized King James Version, Collins Publishers Bible which I smuggled back out of the Soviet Union to America and still cherish.
Steele's defense of dossier collides with an avalanche of evidence to the contrary . . .
Christopher Steele, the former British spy whose dossier fed both a media and law enforcement frenzy over now-discredited allegations that Donald Trump colluded with Russia, has resurfaced in a media documentary to argue his work for Hillary Clinton's campaign law firm was professional and well-sourced. "I stand by the work we did, the sources that we had, and the professionalism which we applied to it," Steele told ABC in an interview that was part of a larger documentary
released Monday on Hulu. Steele's defense, however, flies in the face of an avalanche evidence that he had not corroborated much of the intelligence he gave to the FBI during the 2016 election and that he suffered from strong anti-Trump biases.
Fox News Digital dominates CNN, WaPo, NYT in multiplatform views, minutes during news-packed third quarter . . . Fox News Digital wrapped up the third quarter of 2021 ahead of all major U.S. news organizations in both multiplatform views and multiplatform minutes, according to Comscore. Fox News Digital accumulated over 5.2 billion multiplatform views and 10.6 billion multiplatform total minutes, while CNN finished with 4.4 billion views and
7.3 billion minutes during the news-heavy quarter. It was the second straight quarter that Fox News Digital topped all other news brands in the news competitive set. Fox News
That's great, but can we please stop chasing 'bright and shiny objects,' like the Gaby Petito story, and start focusing on real news? It's an insult to the victim and to the rest of us.
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16 Common Phrases In The News And What They Actually Mean . . . As everyone knows, the news media knows what's best for us and they always tell the truth. The only problem is that they use really big and complicated words that we simple folk just don't understand. Here's special translation guide:
1) "Debunked conspiracy theory" = a completely factual event that is 100% true and we don't like it
3) "Farm animal bacterial infection treatment" = penicillin
2) "This is dangerous misinformation" = we don't really agree with it but people are still sharing it
4) "Conservative panelist" = guy who once voted for Ronald Reagan, possibly by mistake
5) "Super-spreader event" = gatherings of people we don't like
6) "This is the end of democracy" = Trump said a thing
7) "Settled science" = a non-reviewed study by a possibly fictitious organization that just came out this morning
8) "Widespread outrage" = 3 people on Twitter got mad
9) "Racist statements" = literally means nothing
10) "Informal gathering of like-minded people that fosters a sense of camaraderie and community among friends and neighbors" = bread lines
11) "Zero" = anywhere from zero to several trillion
12) "Republicans pounce" = uh oh... a Democrat raped someone
13) "Mostly peaceful" = it was hyper-violent but we agree with it
14) "Racist dog whistle" = a super-secret whistle that only racists can hear and only we heard it
15) "Anonymous sources" = we totally made this up
16) "This is an apple" = this is a banana
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Rebekah
Rebekah Koffler
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