Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
October 29, 2020
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
US economy expands at record 33.1% rate in third quarter . . . The U.S. economy bounced back with a record yet temporary surge of growth in the third quarter as businesses reopened and stimulus cash powered consumer spending, reversing much of the collapse stemming from coronavirus-enforced lockdowns. Just
as the second-quarter plunge in output was the biggest in seven decades of data, so too was the third-quarter rebound: Gross domestic product grew 7.4%, a quarterly gain that equals an annualized pace of 33.1%, the Commerce Department’s initial estimate showed Thursday. The figure topped economists’ estimates for a 32% increase, which was already well above forecasts three months ago for an 18% gain. Personal spending fueled the surge in growth, climbing an annualized 40.7%, also
a record, while business investment and housing also posted strong increases. Bloomberg
US reports record high cases over past week . . .
The United States has reported record-high cases over the past week, while hospitalization rates climbed. The rolling average of new cases confirmed each day hit an all-time high at more than 70,000, according to Johns Hopkins University data To date, the U.S. has confirmed more than 8.8 million cases. The latest surge
has pummeled the Midwest, where test positivity rates have sometimes exceeded 30%. Surges in the Dakotas have been the most acute, with South Dakota’s average test positive rate now at 43.4% and North Dakota’s at 11%. Washington Examiner
No vaccine until January . . . A vaccine to help control the coronavirus outbreak isn’t likely to be available in the U.S. until January, if then, according to Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease doctor. President Donald Trump, pharmaceutical industry leaders and
some public-health officials had said previously that an immunization to prevent Covid-19 could be available before the Nov. 3 election. That date has been consistently pushed back, however, as clinical studies -- which are running at unprecedented speed -- started to hit a few hurdles. Bloomberg
Trump administration to ensure vaccine is free . . . Seniors and people in private health-insurance plans are among those who won’t be charged for getting a coronavirus vaccine under a Trump administration rule designed to ensure that as many people as possible get vaccinated once a shot becomes available. Medicare will cover the cost of administering the vaccine for seniors under a plan released Wednesday. Wall Street Journal
Germany and France impose month-long lockdowns . . . Germany and France will clamp down on movement for at least a month, coming close to the stringent lockdowns in the spring as Europe seeks to regain control of the rapid spread of the coronavirus. The European Union’s two biggest economies will shutter bars, restaurants and non-essential services, while allowing schools and most businesses to operate. Bloomberg
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Former DHS chief of staff Miles Taylor reveals he is "Anonymous" Trump critic . . . The ex-chief of staff to former Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen and Acting Secretary Chad Wolf revealed today that he is the “anonymous” author who boasted of a “resistance” movement inside the administration against President Trump. What's more, he lied repeatedly telling CNN that he was not Anonymous. White House Dossier
How frightening to have the second-ranking person at DHS admit he is part of a "resistance" movement against the elected president. Is there any thought of charging him with treason?
Shipment of "damning" Biden documents vanishes . . . A shipment of "damning" documents linked to Hunter Biden and his father mysteriously disappeared in transit to Los Angeles, Fox News host Tucker Carlson revealed on his show Wednesday night. "There is always a lot going on that we don't have time to get to on the air," the "Tucker Carlson Tonight" host told his audience, "but there is something
specific going on behind the screens that we did feel like we should tell you about. "On Monday of this week, we received from a source a collection of confidential documents related to the Biden family," Carlson went on. "We believe they are authentic, they're real and they're damning." Fox News
Cruz rips Twitter CEO over Hunter Biden stories . . . Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, ripped into Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey during a hearing with tech titans on Wednesday, accusing him and his social media platform of improperly censoring reporting that reflected poorly on Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, asking at point, "Who the hell elected you?" Dorsey said this was due to a policy regarding hacked
materials, because the stories were based on emails from Hunter Biden's purported laptop. Cruz noted that a New York Times article about President Trump's tax returns did not face the same treatment, even though the materials appeared to be leaked illegally. Fox News
Joe Biden says Hunter is the "smartest guy I know" . . . Joe Biden told Oprah Winfrey that his son Hunter 'is the smartest guy I know' during a Zoom event. The Democratic nominee made a surprise appearance Wednesday on a virtual get-out-the-vote event hosted by
Winfrey that focused on voters in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Minnesota and Ohio. Joe Biden's youngest son has spent months under intense scrutiny over his business dealings in foreign countries, and was plunged into yet another scandal last week when photos and emails from his laptop were leaked to the New York Post. Daily Mail
Trump video: Do you remember 1973?
Democratic senator says Trump judges can't sit "peaceably" . . . Sen. Chris Coons is calling for sweeping federal court reform following Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s confirmation to the U.S. Supreme Court, saying there are “hundreds” of President Trump-appointed judges in the
lower courts who are too right-leaning to be “allowed to sit peaceably.” Mr. Coons, Delaware Democrat and member of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said Democrats need to have “a wide-open conversation about how we rebalance our courts.” Washington Times
Liberal self-righteousness has finally gotten to the point where societal and political norms can be changed in the name of "social justice." This is the beginning of Leninism in the United States.
Poll: Democrats like Cuba more than Israel . . . A new poll indicates Democrats look more favorably upon Cuba than they do Israel. According to a YouGov poll released Monday, 39 percent of Democratic-leaning respondents have a favorable opinion of Cuba, compared with a 36
percent favorability rating for Israel. Washington Free Beacon
Supreme Court deals blow to Trump by allowing late ballots in PA, NC . . . The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday dealt setbacks to Republicans by allowing extended deadlines for receiving mail-in ballots in next Tuesday’s election in Pennsylvania and North Carolina, states pivotal to
President Donald Trump’s re-election chances.
The action by the justices - with their new colleague Amy Coney Barrett remaining on the sidelines - means a Sept. 17 ruling by Pennsylvania’s top court allowing mail-in ballots that are postmarked by Election Day and received up to three days later to be counted will remain in place for now. Reuters
Trump supporters left in freezing cold after Omaha rally . . . Hundreds of President Donald Trump's supporters were left in the freezing cold for hours after a rally at an airfield in Omaha, Nebraska, on Tuesday night, with some walking around 3 miles to waiting buses and
others being taken away in ambulances. Seven people were taken to hospitals suffering from a variety of conditions, and a total of 30 were "contacted" for medical reasons, the Omaha Police Department said in a statement. Daily Caller
Fighter jets escort plane away from Trump . . . U.S. fighter jets escorted a plane flying in restricted airspace near President Donald Trump's rally in Bullhead City, Arizona, on Wednesday in an overhead event that briefly distracted the president and the crowd. The North
American Aerospace Defense Command tweeted that it sent two F-16s to investigate "a general aviation aircraft that was not in communication" with air-traffic controllers as it neared Bullhead City. "The violating aircraft was non-responsive to initial intercept procedures, but established radio communications after NORAD aircraft deployed signal flares," the agency noted. "The aircraft was escorted out of the restricted area by the NORAD aircraft without further incident." Arizona Republic
Jack Nicklaus voting for Trump . . . Legendary golfer Jack Nicklaus posted a statement to Twitter on Wednesday night urging people to vote and detailing why he cast his ballot for President Donald Trump. In Nicklaus' view, Trump has "delivered on his promises" and "worked for the average person," while being "more diverse than any President I have seen and has tried to help people from all walks of life – equally." Nicklaus also
believes that "Trump's policies will bring the American Dream to many families across the nation." USA Today
Cunningham lead over Tillis in NC shrinks after sex scandal . . . With one week until the election, polling shows North Carolina’s closely watched Senate race tightening. In early October, the RealClearPolitics average of polling in the race showed Democrat Cal Cunningham leading incumbent Sen. Thom Tillis (R) by five to six percentage points. That’s dropped to 1.8 points on average in the final days of the campaign. Cunningham has
admitted to an extramarital affair. CBS 17 Raleigh
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North Korea gained leverage under Trump . . . While Donald Trump boasts of having prevented war and exchanged “beautiful letters” with Kim, the U.S. president has not wrested a single significant commitment from the North to roll back its weapons of mass destruction programme, according to Seoul officials and analysts. Pyongyang embarked on an unprecedented series of weapons tests in 2017, declaring itself a nuclear power after undertaking its
biggest nuclear blast and longest-range intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) launches. After months of tightening sanctions and trading threats, Trump then became the first sitting U.S. president to meet with a North Korean leader at a summit in Singapore in 2018. Reuters
The president's North Korea policy has been an utter failure. You don't kill tyrants with love.
Trump border wall forces smugglers to dig expensive tunnels and launch drones . . . Top U.S. border officials expect cartels to build more tunnels from Mexico to the United States and increasingly rely on drones for surveillance operations as the 400 miles of new border wall makes it harder to smuggle people and drugs into the country. Transnational criminal organizations have long used tunnels and drones at the southwest border, but
senior Border Patrol officials across the country are bracing for more activity as new 30-foot-tall barrier wall goes up in areas that have long been easy for criminals to cross. Washington Examiner
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Three dead as woman beheaded in France . . . A knife-wielding attacker shouting “Allahu Akbar” beheaded a woman and killed two other people in a suspected terrorist act at a church in the French city of Nice on Thursday, while a gunman was shot dead by police in a separate incident. Within hours of the Nice attack, police killed a man who had threatened passersby with a handgun in Montfavet, near the southern French city of
Avignon. He was also shouting “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest. Reuters
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Pelosi lists areas of disagreement on stimulus . . . U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a letter Thursday that she’s still awaiting the administration’s response on a raft of outstanding issues blocking a deal on a fiscal-stimulus package. In a letter Thursday posted on her official website, Pelosi listed seven major areas of disagreement: a national virus testing-and-tracing
program; funding for state and local governments; school safety measures; child-care funding; tax credits for working families; unemployment insurance; and workplace protections and liability issues. Bloomberg
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Rioters hurl fireworks at police in second might of DC protests . . . Rioters on Wednesday night hurled fireworks at police in Washington DC and smashed shop windows during a second night of protests over death of black man who died fleeing officers. Karon Hylton, 20, died Monday after crashing into a car while being chased on a Revel scooter by police in DC. Police there say Hylton died after they saw him riding without a
helmet last Friday. But the dad-of-one's friend said: 'They hit him in the back of his scooter and pushed him into the oncoming car.' Footage from the city Wednesday also appeared to show some looters stealing an ATM machine from a Walgreens. Daily Mail
Girl Scouts delete tweet congratulating Amy Coney Barrett . . .
The official Twitter account of the Girl Scouts of America deleted posts Wednesday on Twitter and Facebook that congratulated Justice Amy Coney Barrett for becoming the 5th woman to sit on the United States Supreme Court. Barrett was confirmed by the U.S. Senate in a 52-48 vote Monday night, and she took her seat Tuesday after
being sworn in by Chief Justice John Roberts. “Congratulations Amy Coney Barrett on becoming the 5th woman appointed to to the Supreme Court since its inception in 1789,” the organization wrote Wednesday in a since-deleted tweet that include an image of all five women who have served on the court. Daily Caller
Personally, I think their cookies are overpriced.
Brain chip allows paralyzed men to use computer with their minds . . . It may be the size of a paperclip, but this tiny brain implant has brought life back to men suffering with upper limb paralysis. California-based Synchron, a neurovascular bioelectronics medicine company, announced its Stentrode brain computer interface (BCI) has allowed patients to carry out tasks on a computer just by using their mind. Using the implant, patients achieved
an average click accuracy of 92 percent and 93 percent and typing speeds of 14 and 20 characters per minute - without lifting a finger. Daily Mail
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Carma: Man kills Las Vegas biker from car and then dies after falling our the window . . . About 7:20 a.m., Michelle Weissman was pedaling down a bike lane on Hollywood Boulevard, near Sahara Avenue, greeting a pair of pedestrians she’d encountered, according to Metro Police. Rodrigo Cruz, 22, and his passenger
— identified in reports as Giovanni Medina Barajas, 20 — were heading home when the younger man hit Weissman off her bike, police said. Weissman, 55, died at the scene, as did Medina Barajas, who had fallen out of the van with the momentum of the strike, police said. Las Vegas Sun
Nice to see some immediate divine justice.
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Keith Koffler
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