Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
December 4, 2020
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
Georgia Gov. Kemp orders signature audit after smoking gun revealed . . . Gov. Brian Kemp, the Georgia Republican who has been fiercely criticized by President Trump over his approach to allegations of voter fraud in his state, said Thursday that new testimony has raised additional questions and a signature audit should be performed. Kemp was referring to surveillance video that allegedly showed poll watchers being led out of a room at
State Farm Arena, the state's largest vote-counting center, after being told that the vote count was complete for the night. Once they left, a woman could be seen pulling out suitcases from underneath a table that allegedly contained ballots. The votes were allegedly counted for hours, with no election supervisors present. Fox News
Fauci accepts Biden offer to be his top health advisor . . . Dr. Anthony Fauci says he “absolutely” accepts President-elect Joe Biden’s offer to serve as the country’s chief medical officer. “Oh, absolutely, I said yes right on the spot,” the nation’s top infectious diseases expert said Friday morning on the “Today” show. Biden said Thursday he’d asked Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases, to stay on in his role in advising the president on national health emergencies — a job he’s done under six presidents. New York Post
L.A. Sheriff will not enforce Newsom stay-at-home order . . . Los Angeles County Sheriff Alex Villanueva will not instruct his deputies to enforce a new statewide stay-at-home order announced Thursday that could force businesses to temporarily shut down as coronavirus cases continue to soar. "I want to stay away from business [sic] that are trying to comply, they bent over backwards to modify their operations to
conform to these orders and then they have the rug yanked out from under them, that's a disservice, I don't want to make them more miserable," he said. Fox News
Biden urges 100 days of mask wearing . . . President-elect Joe Biden plans to call on Americans to wear masks for his first 100 days in office, he announced Thursday. During an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper on Thursday, he put a specific time frame on what his request will be. "Just 100 days to mask, not forever. 100 days. And I think we'll see a significant reduction" in COVID-19 infections, Biden said. The Hill
Pfizer to initially ship half expected number of vaccines . . . Pfizer and Germany-based partner BioNTech SE had hoped to roll out 100 million vaccines world-wide by the end of this year, a plan that has now been reduced to 50 million. The U.K. on Wednesday granted emergency-use authorization for the
vaccine, becoming the first Western country to start administering doses. Wall Street Journal
World War II vet beats Covid, celebrates 104th birthday . . . An Alabama man who spent World War II repairing bomb-damaged trains in France recovered from a fight with COVID-19 in time to mark his 104th birthday on Thursday. Major Wooten was physically drained and a little fuzzy mentally after battling
the new coronavirus but appears to be on the mend, said granddaughter Holley Wooten McDonald. USA Today
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Trump communications director resigns . . . White House communications director Alyssa Farah resigned from her post Thursday after 3½ years in the Trump administration. Farah, 31, began her White House tenure as press secretary under Vice President Pence before joining the Defense Department as press secretary last September, and she returned to the White House as communications director in April. Farah’s
departure, with little over a month remaining in President Trump’s administration, amounts to a tacit acknowledgment that Trump lost the 2020 election, and much of his team is now pondering their post-White House future. Washington Post
Trump raises more than $200M post-election . . .President Donald Trump has been on a relentless, misleading and highly lucrative fundraising drive since losing reelection, telling supporters that they can help overturn the results if they donate while directing the bulk of the cash to his newest political group instead of the entities fighting in court. The Trump campaign announced Thursday evening that the president’s fundraising
operation raised $207.5 million since Election Day, parts of which will be detailed in campaign finance reports to be filed later Thursday night. It’s a remarkable sum for a post-election period, usually the time when campaigns wind down. Politico
Anti-Israel groups mobilize to install allies in Biden admin . . . Anti-Israel organizations have launched a coordinated effort to pressure the incoming Biden administration into selecting people who will champion their causes, a push that reportedly includes opposing mainstream nominees supported by leading Democrats and Republicans. In a bid to agree on strategy and maximize pressure on Joe Biden's transition team, more than 100 far-left
organizations, including Code Pink and Win Without War, held a Wednesday conference call "to try to get on the same page and make a more coherent pitch to the Biden team." Washington Free Beacon
Wikipedia page for new Biden Covid czar scrubbed . . . Jeff Zients, the man President-elect Joe Biden has put in charge of his administration’s response to Covid-19, "fell in love with" the culture at Bain & Co. He later founded his own private equity firm, Portfolio Logic. He joined the board of Facebook after the Cambridge Analytica scandal. One chief executive on Obama’s Jobs Council remarked that he thought Zients, then a top Obama
aide, was a Republican.
That was the Jeff Zients people read about on Wikipedia. At least, until a few months ago. Politico
Video || Giuliani rips apart Michigan lawmaker who accuses him of seeking a pardon
Video || Biden aides: No questions, get out now! . . . The White House press corps is soon going to be reciting the old phrase, “Be careful what you wish for.” President Trump completely spoiled them with his accessibility. And listen to how rudely they are shoved out of this event. Obama officials actually treated the press like dirt. But they loved him so much — and were so scared or getting screamed at by his aides and of losing the
little access they had — that they put up with it. White House Dossier
AOC is selling $58 "Tax the Rich" sweatshirts on campaign website . . . Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D., N.Y.), a prominent critic of capitalism, is selling sweatshirts on her campaign website that feature the socialist mantra “tax the rich.” The sweatshirt can be yours for a steep $58 (not including tax). The union-printed navy sweatshirt is gender-neutral and features white lettering with an “AOC” banner logo. Though the sweatshirt was
sold out as of Thursday morning, those willing to drop $60 could preorder it while it was being restocked. Washington Free Beacon
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DNI director says China running influence op targeting Congress . . . John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, said Thursday that the Chinese government is targeting multiple members of Congress as part of a “massive” foreign influence campaign. In an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal, Ratcliffe said that Beijing is targeting lawmakers with six times the frequency of Russia and 12 times more than the
government of Iran. “This year China engaged in a massive influence campaign that included targeting several dozen members of Congress and congressional aides,” Ratcliffe wrote in the op-ed, entitled “China Is National Security Threat No. 1.” Daily Caller
Xi Jinping is going to walk all over Biden and his team.
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Thousands killed in Ethiopian conflict . . . Several thousand combatants have been killed in Ethiopia’s embattled Tigray region, an official with the fugitive regional government is asserting, although claims remain difficult to verify a month after the fighting erupted between Ethiopian and regional forces. Getachew Reda, a senior adviser to the Tigray leader, in an interview with Tigray TV aired Thursday urged young people
and others in the region to “rise and deploy to battle in tens of thousands” days after Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed over the weekend declared victory. Associated Press
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US job growth slows sharply . . . The U.S. economy added the fewest workers in six months in November, hindered by a resurgence in new COVID-19 cases that, together with a lack of more government relief money, threatens to reverse the recovery from the pandemic recession. The closely watched employment report also showed a surge in people experiencing long periods of joblessness, putting pressure on Congress to come up with
another rescue package. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 245,000 jobs last month after rising by 610,000 in October, the Labor Department said on Friday. Reuters
Lefties push "Make Amazon Pay" campaign . . . More than 400 lawmakers from 34 countries have signed a letter to Amazon.com Inc boss Jeff Bezos backing a campaign that claims the tech giant has “dodged and dismissed … debts to workers, societies, and the planet,” organisers said. The “Make Amazon Pay” campaign was launched on Nov. 27 - the annual Black Friday shopping bonanza - by a coalition of over 50 organisations, with demands including
improvements to working conditions and full tax transparency. Reuters
Great to see when someone like Bezos gets a taste of nonsensical lefty outrage.
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Rare "Christmas star" to be seen as Jupiter and Saturn align . . . This year's winter solstice will bring a rare sight to our night skies — just in time for the holidays. For Earth viewers, Jupiter and Saturn will appear closer to one another on Dec. 21 than they have been since the Middle Ages. If you can gaze into the southwestern horizon at the right time, the two gas giants will look
like neighboring points of light. USA Today
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Adolf Hitler wins election in Namibia . . . Adolf Hitler Uunona was elected last week as councillor for the Ompundja constituency. In an interview with German newspaper Bild, he insisted he had "nothing to do" with Nazi ideology. Adolf, like other Germanic first names, is not uncommon in the country,
which was once a German colony. He was elected for the ruling Swapo party, which led the campaign against colonial and white-minority rule. BBC
Says he has no plans for world domination. At least, not at this point.
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Have a great weekend.
Keith
Keith Koffler
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