Pete Buttigieg Has Been on Secret Paid Leave Since August as Infrastructure Bill Fizzles, Supply Chain Crisis Escalates . . . Secretary of transportation has been 'mostly offline' as calamity engulfs Biden administration. While U.S. ports faced anchor-to-anchor traffic and Congress nearly melted down over the president's infrastructure bill in recent weeks, the usually omnipresent Transportation secretary was lying low. They didn't previously announce it, but Buttigieg's office told West Wing Playbook that the secretary has actually been on paid leave since mid-August to spend time with his husband, Chasten, and their two newborn babies. Washington Free Beacon

 

As Border Crisis Mounts, First Lady Boosts Group That Helps Illegals Avoid Arrest . . . As the crisis at the southern border becomes a political liability for her husband, first lady Jill Biden promoted a private school run by a Democratic donor that advises illegal immigrants on how to avoid arrest. Biden visited El Centro Academy in Kansas City, Kan., on Tuesday at the request of Rep. Sharice Davids (D., Kan.), according to El Centro president and CEO Irene Caudillo, who has made political contributions to both Davids and the Biden campaign. El Centro's nonprofit arm dabbles in more than reading, writing, and arithmetic. It has published a series of videos that instruct illegal immigrants on how to avoid arrest from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. One video, for example, advises viewers to ignore ICE agents altogether during an interaction and contact "a member of the community who does have status." Caudillo also worked with the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce to create "safe spaces" for immigrants by prohibiting local cooperation with ICE to "protect residents from deportation." Washington Free Beacon

 

 

Manchin Responds to ‘Socialist’ Sanders Over Disparaging Op-ed in West Virginia Newspaper . . . A Democratic Party power struggle intensified last week as two top senators clashed over aspects of the Biden administration’s multitrillion-dollar spending package. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.)—technically an independent, but who ran for the Democratic presidential nomination twice and regularly votes with the party—started the spat with an op-ed in a West Virginia newspaper that was essentially a press release for President Joe Biden’s agenda, promoting what supporters say would be accomplished if Democrats are successful in ramming a $3.5 trillion budget package through Congress. The bill “is an unprecedented effort to finally address the long-neglected crises facing working families,” he wrote. Epoch Times

 

Pompeo accuses China of ‘deep’ subversion of the United States . . . China’s Communist Party is engaged in aggressive influence and intelligence operations inside the United States, targeting federal, state and local governments, according to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. Mr. Pompeo said that during his days as secretary of state under former President Trump, he declassified an intelligence report that revealed how Beijing was targeting state governors in a bid to influence their policies in favor of China. The former secretary of state, who appears readying a run for president in 2024, outlined what he called the successes of the major shift in U.S. policies toward China during the Trump administration, reversing decades of conciliatory polices of successive Republican and Democratic administrations. “When I say it’s not a long way off, it means it’s here inside the United States of America today,” he said in a speech Saturday night to an audience of mostly Chinese-Americans in Livermore, California, near San Francisco. Washington Times

 

Iran’s biggest ever air defense exercise – “ready for any threat” from US or Israel . . . As the answer to “Israel’s threats,” Iran has developed air defense systems “commensurate with any threats,” said Brig. Gen Alireza Sabahifard at the opening on Oct. 13 of “Defenders of the Sky Velayat,” the largest air defense exercise Iran has ever conducted. The general stressed that the systems taking part were produced from top to bottom by Iran’s military industry and capable of “accurately meeting any threat.” Among them are the Khordad air defense batteries for downing aircraft, drones, ballistic and cruise missiles. Other air defense systems undergoing their first trials were the Joshan and Khatam, which are claimed to be effective against low-flying targets. DEBKAfile

 

Nato to expand focus to counter rising China . . . Countering the security threat from the rise of China will be an important part of Nato’s future rationale, the alliance’s chief has said, marking a significant rethink of the western alliance’s objectives that reflects the US’s geostrategic pivot to Asia. In an interview with the Financial Times, Nato secretary-general Jens Stoltenberg said China was already having an impact on European security through its cyber capabilities, new technologies and long-range missiles. How to defend Nato allies from those threats will be “thoroughly” addressed in the alliance’s new doctrine for the coming decade, he said. The military alliance has spent decades focused on countering Russia and, since 2001, terrorism. The new focus on China comes amid a determined shift in the US’s geopolitical orientation away from Europe to a hegemonic conflict with Beijing. Financial Times

 

British Police Question Alleged Attacker in Killing of Conservative Lawmaker David Amess . . . British police Sunday were questioning a 25-year-old man they say stabbed to death a Conservative member of parliament as authorities sought to determine whether he was motivated by Islamic extremism. The suspect in the killing of Tory lawmaker David Amess on Friday was identified as Ali Harbi Ali, a U.K. citizen of Somali descent. He was being held at a London police station under the Terror Act. Friday’s attack appears to be the latest in a string of lone-wolf stabbings by radicalized individuals who have gone under British counterterrorism officials’ radar. Wall Street Journal

 

 

China Faces Slower Growth Path as It Pursues Longer-Term Reforms . . . With its pandemic recovery in the rear-view mirror, China now faces a prolonged period of slower growth with increasing policy uncertainties as Beijing attempts to carry out ambitious long-term reforms. China’s economy recorded a steeper-than-expected economic slowdown in the third quarter of the year, expanding 4.9% from a year earlier. The disappointing growth rate reflected a host of headwinds: Tighter rules on the property market that have chilled activity in the sector, widespread power shortages and continued concerns about Covid-19 that have weighed on consumer spending. Wall Street Journal

 

Who Are These COVID-19 Vaccine Skeptics and What Do They Believe? . . . Vaccine skeptics, vaccine refusers, vaccine deniers—these anti-vaxxers are scourges whose ignorance and misinformation are responsible for countless COVID-19 deaths, our public health authorities attest. Stamping their message out is so important that those with the biggest megaphones are being outed, threatened, and fired from their academic and medical posts, and wherever else they might be found. The ranks of the so-called vaccine skeptics include a Who’s Who of the world’s leading scientists. Few in the public know of them because they’ve been silenced, censored, and sidelined. Public health authorities may brand them as unscientific COVID kooks. But most of these public health officials, who offer instant cures to anyone willing to chance their medicine have far fewer scientific accomplishments, and are far less knowledgeable, than the vaccine skeptics they cavalierly dismiss. Epoch Times

 

Pentagon Faces Class-Action Lawsuit Over Vaccine Mandates on Military, Federal Employees and Contractors . . . Service members from all five branches of the U.S. military, federal employees, and federal civilian contractors have joined in a class-action lawsuit against the Department of Defense over its COVID-19 vaccine mandates. The 24 plaintiffs “face a deadline under the Federal COVID-19 Vaccine Mandate to receive a COVID-19 vaccine that violates their sincerely held religious beliefs, and have been refused any religious exemption or accommodation,” according to Liberty Counsel, the Christian legal firm that filed the lawsuit. The lawsuit (pdf), filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, lists President Joe Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas as defendants. The plaintiffs are asking the court to issue a temporary restraining order (pdf) to prevent the COVID-19 vaccine mandates from taking effect, and ultimately issue an injunction to prevent the Pentagon from enforcing the Biden administration’s COVID-19 vaccine mandates. Epoch Times

 

Soros Drops $1 Million on Anti-Police Effort in Austin . . . Left-wing billionaire George Soros is throwing at least a million dollars behind an effort to stop the hiring of hundreds of new police officers in Austin, Texas, according to campaign finance documents reviewed by the Washington Free Beacon.
The Hungarian-born political activist gave $500,000 through the Soros-backed Open Society Policy Center to a political action committee in opposition to a ballot initiative that forces the city to employ two police officers per 1,000 residents. Soros’s donation, made on Oct. 12, is his second of the month and comes as Austin experiences a decades-high spike in violent crime. The city has seen at least 67 homicides this year, the highest since at least 1981. Aggravated assaults are also up at least 10 percent, following a 26 percent spike in 2020. Washington Free Beacon

 

Stephen Miller’s Dark Prediction On Biden’s Spending Bill: It Might Upend ‘All Of American Society’ . . . Former senior advisor to President Donald Trump Stephen Miller said Saturday that President Joe Biden  Democrats’ $3.5 trillion spending package isn’t only about the inflated price tag but the policies behind it. “This isn’t like a stimulus bill where you’re plowing money into existing programs,” Miller told Fox News’ “Watters’ World.”  “You are fundamentally reordering all of American society,” he added. “This bill is the most radical piece of legislation in our lifetimes. It’s basically the Green New Deal, combined with Critical Race Theory, combined with massive amnesty and open borders, combined with the complete destruction of the American economy. Daily Caller

 

Marxists try to take Federal Reserve as Biden weighs whether to reappoint Powell: Devine . . . Opinion. President Biden is coming unstuck so badly that even CNN has noticed he’s not great at his job. Biden’s problem is deeper than just being a bumbler. Voters who swallowed the self-created myth that he is honest and humble are starting to realize that he is the opposite, and that his entire career has been marked by fantastical boasting, outright lies, spite and snobbish disdain for the little guy, masked by a veneer of phony self-deprecation. 
The arrogance and duplicity of his administration simply reflects his character and is driving the Great Disillusionment with his presidency. New York Post

 

 

Amazon may have lied to Congress, five U.S. lawmakers say . . . Five members of the U.S. House Judiciary committee wrote to Amazon.com Inc's chief executive Sunday, and accused the company's top executives, including founder Jeff Bezos, of either misleading Congress or possibly lying to it about Amazon's business practices. The letter also states that the committee is considering "whether a referral of this matter to the Department of Justice for criminal investigation is appropriate." The letter followed a Reuters investigation last week that showed that the company had conducted a systematic campaign of copying products and rigging search results in India to boost sales of its own brands - practices Amazon has denied engaging in. Reuters

 

NYC Fentanyl Deaths Up 55 Percent During Pandemic . . . New York City residents have increasingly succumbed to overdoses on synthetic opioids such as fentanyl. These deaths have soared by more than 55 percent in the 12 months ending March, compared to the same period the year before. That means 1,778 died of this cause in the city by March 2021, compared with 1,145 by March 2020, based on estimates from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that account for missing data.The period aligns with the months of severe measures imposed by the city and state to curb the spread of the CCP virus. Deaths involving synthetic opioids accounted for nearly 80 percent of fatal drug overdoses in the city. Epoch Times

 

Why Is The Left Waging A War On ‘Gifted’ Children? . . . Public schools across the country are eliminating gifted and talented programs, removing advanced courses and overhauling admissions processes to achieve equity across racial categories.
Removing gifted and advanced courses is a no-cost way to cover up the racial achievement gap while ignoring its root causes, according to Harry Jackson, president of the Thomas Jefferson High School Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA). “Gifted programs and advanced courses provide a mechanism for low-income households to achieve a stellar education for their children and serve as a ‘great equalizer’ to those families that opt for private education,” Jackson told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “By eliminating gifted programs and advanced courses in the name of equity, they will create greater inequities,” he said. Daily Caller

 

Due To Supply Shortages, Husbands May Need To Begin Shopping For Christmas Presents Prior To December 24 This Year . . . Supply shortages all across the country are spelling out potential disaster for husbands this year, as they will now need to begin shopping for their wives before December 24. Traditionally, men have been able to rely on the strong supply of consumer goods in this country. They take for granted the fact that they can just pop over to the store on the way home from work on Christmas Eve and grab a bunch of stuff, hoping it appeases their wife. But no longer, experts say.

"We're advising all men to start their Christmas shopping sometime before late December this year," said one economist. "You might not be able to frantically run into a big-box store an hour before closing on Christmas Eve and just throw stuff in your cart willy-nilly, because, well, there may not be anything left."
"You won't be able to count on there being shelves and shelves full of candles, lotions, and gift cards you don't even know if she would like you can grab at random this year." In response to the urging of officials, the nation's husbands have begrudgingly agreed to begin shopping on December 23. Babylon Bee