Cut to the News
Cut through the clutter to today's top news
December 16, 2020
Good morning
Welcome to today's top news.
Leading the News . . .
McConnell recognizes Biden as president . . . Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell Monday recognized Joe Biden as president-elect, congratulating him on his victory after the Electoral College Monday voted to make Biden president. This will no doubt help ease the way for a number of other leading Republicans wary of angering President Trump to go ahead and recognize Biden. “The Electoral College has spoken. So today, I want to congratulate
President-elect Joe Biden,” McConnell said. “The president-elect is no stranger to the Senate. He’s devoted himself to public service for many years. I also want to congratulate the vice president-elect, our colleague from California, Sen. Harris. Beyond our differences, all Americans can take pride that our nation has a female vice president-elect for the very first time.” White House Dossier
FDA authorizes at-home, over-the-counter Covid test . . . The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday authorized the nation's first home COVID-19 test that doesn't need a lab or medical provider's prescription. The test, made by Australia-based Ellume, can deliver results in about 15 minutes and will cost about $30. USA Today
Married teachers die of Covid holding hands . . . A married couple who were both teachers in Texas died of COVID-19 complications while holding hands. Paul Blackwell, 61, and Rose Mary Blackwell, 65, died on Sunday at Harris Methodist Hospital, according to their family. The couple spent several days in intensive care on ventilators as their conditions continued to worsen and their family made the heartbreaking decision to take them off life
support, Paul’s son Christopher Blackwell told CBS 11. “Two of my other brothers are actually in the room there at the hospital and they wheeled my stepmother in there in the room with my father and at the same time, removed them both from the ventilator,” Christopher said.
“They had them holding hands and they were both gone in a couple of minutes." New York Post
|
|
Incoming Biden deputy chief of staff: Republicans a "bunch of fuckers" . . . In an interview with Glamour, Jen O'Malley Dillon, Biden's campaign manager and the next White House deputy chief of staff, defended her boss for pushing
bipartisanship. "In the primary, people would mock him, like, 'You think you can work with Republicans?' I'm not saying they're not a bunch of f---ers. Mitch McConnell is terrible. But this sense that you couldn't wish for that, you couldn't wish for this bipartisan ideal? He rejected that," she said.
Biden won the general election by appealing to the public's sense of unity, according to Dillon. Washington Examiner
I think I prefer that to "deplorables."
Today's Trump Schedule
Video || McEnany goes after the media for not covering Swalwell and Hunter Biden . . . If the media had had any appetite for the Hunter Biden story before the election, it could have changed enough minds to hand this close election to President Trump. It’s always been
incredible to me that Republicans EVER win elections, given the media bias. But the failure to take the Hunter Biden story seriously is so egregious, it amounts to – yes, let’s use the media’s own favorite word – collusion with the Biden campaign. White House Dossier
Ossoff wants to require that illegal immigrants are paid minimum wage . . . Jon Ossoff, a Democratic challenger in one of the two Georgia Senate runoffs next month, suggested Sunday that federal immigration authorities should enforce workplace protections for illegal
immigrants. “In Georgia’s agricultural sector, the campesinos (farm workers) who work in the fields, enduring some of the most brutal conditions of labor anywhere in this country to keep America fed, paid less than the minimum wage, [are] often subject to abuse by employers,” he said. “When federal agents arrive at one of these farms it should be to make sure people are being paid the minimum wage, working in humane conditions.” Fox News
Video || Crowd roars for Trump at Army-Navy game
DeVos urges Education Department staff to "resist" . . . Education Secretary Betsy DeVos pressed staffers at the Education Department to “resist” the incoming Biden administration, according to audio of her remarks. “Let me leave you with this plea: Resist,” DeVos said
at a departmentwide virtual meeting. “Be the resistance against forces that will derail you from doing what’s right for students. In everything you do, please put students first — always.” The Hill
Trump to veto Defense bill despite override threat . . . President Trump still intends to veto the veto-proof $740 billion annual defense spending bill passed by Congress last week, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Tuesday. Trump is unhappy with two
provisions renaming military bases honoring Confederate soldiers and slowing the withdrawal of troop levels in Afghanistan, McEnany told reporters in the White House briefing room. New York Post
Biden taps Buttigieg for transportation secretary . . . President-elect Joe Biden has selected former South Bend, Ind., Mayor Pete Buttigieg, his former Democratic primary rival, to lead the Transportation Department, Mr. Biden said Tuesday. Buttigieg dropped out of the
race in March and endorsed Mr. Biden along with other moderate Democrats. Mr. Buttigieg, a 38-year-old openly gay military veteran who served in Afghanistan, emerged as a surprising next-generation contender for the Democratic presidential nomination against Mr. Biden and notched a narrow victory in the Iowa caucuses. Wall Street Journal
Hunter Biden to hold an art show . . . While the DOJ probes Hunter Biden’s work with Ukrainian energy company Burisma, President-elect Joe Biden’s son is focusing on his first solo art show. Sources tell Page Six that Hunter is inking a deal as an artist to be represented by New York’s Georges Bergès Gallery. An announcement and exhibition of his work is being planned for next year. The 50-year-old revealed earlier this year how his art —
making blown ink abstractions on paper — has helped him battle addiction and cope with media attention. New York Post
Hopefully, he'll start doing poetry readings too.
|
|
Iran "very happy" to see Trump leave . . . While Iran is not “excited” by Joe Biden taking over at the White House, it was “very happy” to see the end of Donald Trump’s reign as US president, according to Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani. Addressing a televised meeting of the cabinet on Wednesday, Rouhani called Trump “rogue” and “the most lawbreaking person in the US." Al Jazeera
Of course they're happy. Biden's back. Kerry's back. Iran knows it can get back up to its old tricks.
|
|
UK suspends "unconscious bias" diversity training . . . The British government is abandoning its “unconscious bias” diversity training after a review found that they were ineffective and in some cases, harmful, the Telegraph reported. An assessment of the training was carried out after Tory members of parliament (MPs) criticized them for being part of a “woke agenda” that only sought to enrich the consultants leading
the sessions. The sessions are purported to teach workers about implicit prejudices they may have against others, often based on race or sex, and have cost taxpayers more than £370,000, or nearly $500,000, over five years. Nearly 170,000 government employees went through the trainings. Daily
Caller
NBA ignores Chinese slave labor . . . The National Basketball Association is remaining quiet on the issue of Chinese slave labor, even after new revelations regarding the nature and size of labor camps housing Uighur Muslims. Some 85 percent of China's cotton exports come from Xinjiang, where at least one million Uighurs are currently detained in camps, an action that some Republicans say is tantamount to genocide. The NBA reaped more
than $500 million in Chinese revenue in 2019 and inked a $1 billion deal with Beijing tech giant Tencent to exclusively stream games in China. NBA China, a separate entertainment arm of the league, was valued at more than $5 billion by one sports consulting firm in 2019. Washington Free Beacon
|
|
Investors bracing for higher Treasure yields in 2021 . . . Investors are betting that longer-dated Treasury yields are headed higher in the near term, reflecting expectations that the Federal Reserve is unlikely at its meeting on Wednesday to reconfigure its purchases to tamp down a rise in longer-dated yields. The spread between two- and 10-year Treasury yields, the most common measure of the yield curve, has risen in
recent months and is up more than 10 basis points in December alone. Bearish bets on longer-dated Treasuries are near records in futures markets, while options investors have also piled into positions that would profit if yields rose. Reuters
|
|
Lincoln canceled . . . A San Francisco committee is recommending the removal of former President Abraham Lincoln's name from a high school due to his past treatment of Native Americans. Lincoln High School was one of many that the San Francisco School Names Advisory Committee found to have a problematic title, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Others included George Washington High School, Herbert
Hoover Middle School and Paul Revere K-8. Fox News
Energy Department to allow people to take showers again . . . The Trump Energy Department, on its way out the door, is loosening energy and water conservation requirements for a number of appliances, responding to a concern that has been of particular interest to President Trump. In a final rule Tuesday, the Energy Department changed the regulatory definition for a “showerhead” in a way that loosens decades-old water conservation standards for
the appliance. The move comes after Trump has repeatedly complained about weak water pressure from showers, faucets, and dishwashers.
“You take a shower. The water doesn’t come out. You want to wash your hands. The water doesn’t come out,” Trump said during an event at the White House in July on his administration’s deregulatory efforts. Washington Examiner
We will never have another president brave enough to do a simple thing like make shower faucets usable. Our family uses decades-old shower heads so that we can actually take a normal shower. This was just regulators telling people what to do. Is there honestly a shortage of water?
|
|
Tom Cruise curses out film crew for violating Covid rules . . . Tom Cruise tore into workers who broke Covid rules on the set of Mission: Impossible screaming: “If I see you doing it again, you’re f***ing gone.” The Hollywood megastar has worked tirelessly behind the scenes to enforce tight social-distancing rules during the filming, taking place in Britain. And he flew into a rage after spotting two of the crew
standing within two metres of each other. An audio tape captured Cruise shouting: “If I see you do it again, you’re f***ing gone. And if anyone in this crew does it, that’s it — and you too and you too. And you, don’t you ever f***ing do it again.” The Sun
Cops respond after text autocorrect changes "swabbed" to "stabbed" . . . A Wisconsin woman’s text sparked a full-blown police response after it autocorrected to say she was being “stabbed” — instead of “swabbed” for COVID-19. The unidentified woman’s frantic father called 911 after receiving the alarming message. “He indicated that his daughter was being stabbed, possibly by a live-in boyfriend,” Menasha police officer Nick Oleszak told the
local paper. At least eight cops rushed to the woman’s apartment to check up on her. New York Post
Just imagine if autocorrect changes "killing me" to "kissing me."
|
|
Do you love Cut to the News? Let your family and friends know about it! They'll thank you for it. Spread the word . . .
By Email - use the message that pops up or write your own. On Facebook - On FB, write your own message
Thank you for doing it.
Have a great day.
Keith
Keith Koffler
If you enjoy Cut to the News, please help support it. You can make a single contribution or set up regular payments, like a voluntary subscription. Donate here today. Thank you for your generosity.
Got this from a friend? Subscribe here and get Cut to the News sent to your Inbox every morning.
|
|
|
